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Remus


Three days after Snape's visit Minerva McGonagall brings Blaise Zabini, Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Patil twins. Sirius and I welcome them and lead them inside the house as it is raining.

"Hello everyone! Come in, we'll get some tea ready. Two more, eh?" Sirius asks.

"Unfortunately. It looks like the Death Eaters want to rot out our fifth years. Do you remember Shannah and Vaidyanathan Patil?"

"Yes, of course. Vaidyanathan was about three or four years ahead of us in Gryffindor and Shannah was in our year in Ravenclaw..." I say.

"That's the ones. Well, they've been attacked, too, but they were able to get away. They decided it would be better to get their daughters out of the way..."

"That's okay. It's going to be a bit crowded until we get the back part of the house renovated, but that won't matter, will it? Ginny and Hermione can move together and you two can have one of their rooms," I offer.

"Thank you, Professor Lupin," says Padma.

All four teens stare at Sirius though. Of course he looks much nicer than on the photos which have been published of him, but they know who he is. Minerva looks at them and says:

"You will hear all about Professor Black's plights and adventures, rest assured that we have not handed you over to a murderer! Do you all have your luggage?"

The teens produce their minimised belongings and Minerva enlarges everything. Then she brings another package forth which contains all the school books for Parvati and Padma.

"We're going to be a regular dependence of Hogwarts, it seems," I say and smile benignly.

"It does look like it."

"Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, would you kindly show your schoolmates up to their rooms? I'm sure, Professor McGonagall still wants to talk to us about some school matters," I say.

"Yes, Remus."



Harry


We help each other to bring Justin's and Blaise's things into their rooms. I help Blaise, Ron helps Justin, then we show them Ron's room which we have cleared for them.

"Here, that's the room you can use until you get the new ones. It will take about two or three months until they're finished though. The bathroom is down next to the kitchen, the one up here is the girls'," I explain.

"Thanks. Sorry to push you out of your room, Ron," says Blaise.

"Oh, that's just for a while! I don't mind. I hope you like it here, so far this summer has been brilliant, hasn't it, Harry?"

"Absolutely! We've had nothing but fun."

"Really? I was shocked to see Black!" Blaise admits.

"No need to be! He's a great chap... you'll all hear the story tonight, either he'll tell you or we will. Just make yourselves comfortable, okay? Is it alright at all, to put you two together?" I ask.

"Yes, that's okay with me... hope you don't mind, Finch-Fletchley..."

"Don't worry, I'll survive."

"I'll leave you then, just come down when you're ready!" I say and leave the room with Ron.


Ginny


Hermione and I help Padma and Parvati bring their luggage into their room. We clear mine, I move in with Hermione. Padma and Parvati help me empty the wardrobe and chest of drawers, then I take everything to the other room, while the twins organise their things. Hermione looks back into their room to tell them to come down when they are ready, but Padma holds her back for a moment.

"Hermione, I was frightened to death seeing that man! And you live with him as if he hadn't killed all those Muggles..."

"He hasn't, Padma. It just looked like he did, but he was framed. You'll hear the full story tonight, I'm sure we'll go through it all. Sirius is the kindest and one of the funniest persons you'll ever meet in your life and I can promise you to learn a LOT with him and Remus as teachers."

"I did like Professor Lupin. He's always been calm and also fair. Is it true he's a werewolf?"

"Yes, it's true. Just a little patience, we'll discuss all that, we won't get around it now that you four are here. You don't know any of the story at all..."

"Okay, see you later then. This place looks really lovely!"

"It's nice here."



Remus


An hour later everyone is back in the kitchen, where Sirius and I are cooking the dinner. We have quickly duplicated all the dishes, so that there will always be enough, now that there will be ten persons in the house. Then I order the teens to lay the table. Once we have eaten the food, I sit back in my chair and look around.

"Well, I suppose it's time to discuss everything that's going to happen in this household in the next few months. We will keep the same rules that are in place at Hogwarts, okay? As we have to do all our work here ourselves, we will have to set up schedules for the chores. Sirius and I will do that tomorrow. You are allowed to use magic even during the holidays."

Here they interrupt with an applause, mainly from the four newcomers. I grin.

"So that should make your chores more bearable, don't you think? Whatever homework assignments you have received you'll do and hand in to me and Sirius, we'll grade them. Sirius will be teaching you Potions, Transfiguration and Arithmancy, I'll teach you Charms, Defence, Ancient Runes and History. Both of us will take care of your Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures, only theory, Astronomy and all of you will do Muggle Studies, but the latter we won't do in dry lessons, you'll just live mostly like Muggles here. So it will come automatically, believe me, and it's a chance for you to get one more OWL."

I make a short break. Then:

"Now. I can see that you aren't too uncomfortable around Sirius anymore, mostly because you've probably already noticed that he's a very nice person. I don't know what you know at all about the sad story in which he was involved, but I'm ready to tell it to you if you want me to..."

"Yes, please, Professor Lupin, do tell us," says Padma. She's definitely the more level-headed of the twins. I notice that Parvati rarely speaks up when her sister is around.

"That's the next point, by the way: officially, Sirius and I are Hogwarts teachers now, but honestly, we're living like a family here and I don't want to be called Professor all the time, so please call me Remus or Moony and Sirius is Sirius or Padfoot. Okay?"

That seems to make everyone happy and they all nod.

"Okay. And I'd like you to call each other by your first names, please. Now then. It all started when Sirius, Harry's Dad James, Peter Pettigrew and I came to Hogwarts and were sorted into Gryffindor. The four of us became friends, for me something very new, since I've lived a very secluded life before I came to school. You see, I didn't ever expect to even be allowed an education, let alone one at Hogwarts. Because, when I was just a little more than four years old, I was bitten by a werewolf. I survived, but it meant I was one myself. I tried to keep this a secret, just as my parents and Professor Dumbledore had asked me to, but it wasn't easy inside my own dormitory. No one else really watched me, but my new friends of course noticed that I was often ill or absent and while I kept them at bay with lies like I had to go and see my ill Mum or some relative had died or other things, they soon noticed something odd. In those days my transformations were - very unpleasant. Professor Dumbledore had let me into the school, but during the full moon nights, Madam Pomfrey would bring me to the Whomping Willow, which we stilled and then I would go through a passage underneath to the Shrieking Shack...."

I tell them the whole story up to the time Harry was born. I don't even leave out that Sirius and I had become boyfriends in our sixth year and that we lived together after school. And then I come to the months before the Potters' death.

"No one could trust anyone. But we were the four Marauders, we had been friends through thick and thin and now we were made aware that one of us was turning to the Dark Side and handing Voldemort information about us. It couldn't be James, he was the target. I knew it wasn't me, so it had to be Sirius or Peter. Peter didn't account to much, so I automatically suspected Sirius. Not really for sure, but I had the gut feeling it had to be him. There were times when he went away without telling me where and why. None of our friends had seen him then. All things like that. At the same time, Sirius thought the same thing about me, only he didn't tell me just like I never talked of my suspicion to him. Then came the day when Harry's parents and Harry were covered with the Fidelius Charm. Sirius was to be their Secret Keeper. That's all I knew about it. Barely a week later the Potters were killed and Voldemort almost killed from the curse that rebounded off of Harry. That same evening, Sirius had been very restless and all of a sudden said he needed to go for an errand and he'd be back. He never came back and the next I heard was that the Potters were dead and Sirius was responsible. And then he went after Pettigrew or, as we thought at the time, Pettigrew went after Sirius and was killed in the process. Only that wasn't what had happened. In the last moment, Sirius had decided he would be too obvious as Secret Keeper and Peter would be the better man for it. Peter would not be suspected of standing in for something like that. So that errand was actually to go and check on Peter. Only when Sirius got to Peter's flat, Peter wasn't there and there was no sign of a fight or struggle, so he all but flew to Godric's Hollow, to the house of Harry's parents. He was too late. Hagrid was already there and after arguing for a while he let Hagrid take Harry to Dumbledore. And that's when Sirius made the single greatest mistake in his life. He went after Peter. He tracked him down, but Peter was prepared. You remember that his Animagus form is the rat, do you? So, the moment Peter noticed Sirius he shouted that famous sentence about Sirius betraying Lily and James. He had his wand in his back, blew up the street, cut off a finger from his right hand and transformed into a rat."

The teens hold their breaths and don't interrupt one single time. I continue:

"Anyone would have been out of their mind. Sirius, stressed out and completely out of his mind, snapped and broke down with hysterical laughter. He had just successfully been framed and contrary to whatever Fudge says about him in that state, he would have followed any child. He was thrown straight to Azkaban and he was declared to be Voldemort's first Lieutenant, a Dark Wizard who would stop at nothing. Not one single thought about the many Death Eaters Sirius had helped catch in the two years before. They didn't even give him a trial. He wasn't allowed to speak up for himself and maybe he wasn't even able to."

"Oh my god! That does sound slightly different than what Fudge says," remarks Parvati.

"Yes, Parvati, I'd say so, too," I confirm.

"And how did you get out of Azkaban, Sirius?" asks Padma.

"Do you know how Dementors work?" Sirius asks her back.

Padma shakes her head and says:

"No, not really, I only remember them searching the train when we started our third year. It was an awful feeling, everything went dark and all of a sudden I remembered the day I got lost in the forest when I was four and not even Parvati had been with me anymore. And I felt the same despair again I had felt then."

"Exactly. That is because Dementors feed on the happy memories of people they meet. They leave you with nothing but your worst memories, your pain, your ghosts. In Azkaban you get to experience this every day. I was put into the high security part of the prison, so there was at least one of those monsters in front of my cell day and night. My only way to escape them was the last bit of magic that had remained with me, my Animagus form. Dementors can't see, you know, they feel for the emotions of the people and by that they find their way, and when I was in my dog form they couldn't feel anything from me, because they can't grasp animal emotions. When it all got too horrible I transformed. Padfoot saved me, kept me sane enough to never forget who I was. I didn't go mad, but I was very close and I was very weak. And of course I couldn't keep the Dementors away without a wand. Then one day Fudge came for one of his usual inspections and he talked to me and when I asked him to, he gave me his Daily Prophet. When I looked at it I almost doubled over, because on the front page was a photo of the Weasley family and in the middle of the photo stood Ron with his pet rat Scabbers. Only that this rat wasn't a rat - it was Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form."

Sirius tells them the story of his escape, of his attempts to get to the rat and finally of his meeting Ron, Hermione and Harry in the Shrieking Shack. And then his escape from Hogwarts.

"What a story! That's worth writing down for a novel," says Justin.

"Sounds more fantastic than any novel, Justin," says Parvati.

"Remus, how come we never noticed that you are a werewolf when you were teaching at Hogwarts?" Blaise asks.

"Due to the Wolfsbane potion. That's a fairly recent invention and it helps me to keep my own mind during my transformation. So I'm no danger. I also have Padfoot, who spends the full moon nights with me. Though the last time he wasn't only Padfoot, and I met Ginny in the morning still in my wolf form. She's unharmed, so you can rest quite at ease that I'm not harming you. Only next month I'll be more careful, because it's the first time it's going to be Sirius who brews the potion. Until we can be sure it's working properly, I'm going to lock myself into the cellar."

After the explanations they start to scatter. Harry suggests:

"The rain has stopped, let's go outside and fly... if you have brooms with you, that is."

"I have mine!" says Parvati.

Justin and Padma have one as well, Blaise doesn't fly. So he stays behind with Hermione and they get to talk in the front room while she checks her e-mails. Sirius and I sit in the study and work on preparing lessons. Sirius doesn't have too much to do for Potions, as Snape has given him very detailed information about the Potions he would be doing with the fifth years. Sirius studies them and does each one in the next days to be sure he knows what he will be talking about. I'm amazed at his determination to do this thoroughly. He's still restless sometimes, but he needs to focus on a job to do and that has always helped to tie him down. He needs to have a real task then he is really effective and focused.

At eleven I get up and call the flyers inside. I send them all off to bed and wish them a good night.

"Good night, Remus, Sirius!" they call.

"Good night, kids!"



Padma


Parvati and I get up the next morning and look out of our window. Wow, what a view. After the rain yesterday the morning is now crisp and clear, the sky an almost dark blue, just a few dots of clouds. It's almost quiet, only the men working on the construction are already busy. The garden is so colourful, with many different kinds of summer flowers blooming. This place is amazing.

"Wow, this is beautiful!" I whisper.

"It is. If we had to go into such an exile, this looks to be a lovely one," my sister confirms.

"Let's get up. How about a shower?" I ask.

"Good idea!"



Sirius


Everyone turns up in the kitchen between eight and nine and we help each other preparing the breakfast. Anana is waiting with a letter for Remus and I. I come in first, take the letter and watch Anana join Racer and Hedwig on the owl perch which we have set up in the kitchen. I feed her an owl treat and thank her.

Then I sit down to read the letter from Albus. I look up and tell the kids who are there already:

"Rejoice, kids, you won't be doing household chores after all, Professor Dumbledore will send Dobby and Winky, two house-elves, to our aid! That's rather fair, I think, after all, we're now a ten person household. That will rectify the help even in Hermione's eyes, I hope..."

"What's that about me, Siri?" Hermione asks, coming in from the outside.

"We'll get Dobby and Winky to help us around with the household! So: no cooking and cleaning for you guys. You can spend more time with your homework!" I say and grin. "No excuses for missed deadlines either, I'm afraid."

"Oh, that's nice, he chose Dobby and Winky!"

Hermione sounds pleased.

"Do you know them?" I ask her.

"Well, yes, don't you remember? Winky was Crouch's house-elf, the one he sacked last year after the world cup..." she tells me.

"Oh, that's why the name was familiar..."

"Dobby used to be the Malfoys' house-elf. Until Harry tricked Lucius into giving him a sock. He's a free elf and gets paid."

"Oh..." Now there's going to be some fun, I'm sure. The little fellow sounds quite delightful.

Once we have cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast, the kids happily doing it using magic, I ask:

"Well, time to go and get the ingredients for another Polyglot potion and we'll buy what we need for the Wolfsbane potion, too. Who's coming along?"

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny let the others go along, so they could see a little bit of Bern. Remus does the driving. We go back to the apothecary and get everything on our lists. I ask the owner if they do owl deliveries and then discuss the procedure and payment method, so I can get my fresh ingredients delivered through owl order whenever I need them. It can be arranged to my satisfaction. We pay for our purchases and then Remus asks the kids:

"Do you want to do some sightseeing?"

"Sure!" Justin says.

The others are interested, too, so Remus shows us back to the main street and then across the bridge over the Aare river to the bear pit.

"That's Bern's bears. Ever since there was the first bear pit further up in the town at what is now called the bear square, Bern has kept bears. I think the first one was mentioned in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The name is supposed to be derived from bear, too. According to the legend the founder of the town was going to name the town after the first wild animal he would be killing on a hunt set up for the occasion. And it was said to be a bear. Hence the name Bern. In any case the only time when there were no bears here was during the Napoleonic wars. The French had taken practically everything away which was not a house. Even the bears and we're still wondering what they wanted with them. And the legend is probably just that - a legend. Quite the fitting coincidence to catch such a big, strong animal, don't you think. We used to joke about it say, imagine what the name would be had the first animal been a rabbit."

After a hearty round of giggles we walk back to the other side of the bridge. Remus tells us a lot about the town, its history and we look into all the shop windows. The twins admire the arcades. Parvati remarks:

"What are the red flowers we see everywhere here? There seem to be the same on our window sill, too..."

"They're geraniums mostly. Some also mix petunias inside or other such flowers. But the geranium has found its way here in the early 19th century and is one of the most popular flowers for window sills and balconies since then. There's even a huge geranium market held on the square in front of the cathedral every year."

"They're amazing..."

"They need a bit of care though, Hermione will show you what you have to do. Take off the withered flowers and leaves every other day and sometimes water them," Remus says.

Since it's a beautiful August day there are lots of people around and many tourists. Blaise takes some pictures. Around noon we eat something quickly and then Remus wants to return home.

I sort all the ingredients we have bought and put them aside to start the Polyglot potion the next day. For the classes we have set up a potions ingredients storage room in one of the cellar rooms, which seems dry enough and is kept dry with some spells. I brew the Polyglot potion together with Hermione and Ginny again. When the potion is done the four newcomers get to drink it and from then on no one speaks English with them for a while. Within two days they understand everything and within a week they speak the language themselves. I have been amazed at how the potion worked the first time I had taken it so many years ago, and now I have noticed so much was still there inside of me after all the time. I have kept some of the potion to give it to Barb and Housi, so they will be able to learn English with it once the kids are all fluent.

The construction works have moved swiftly. At first the whole middle part of the house has been shelled out, then the floor was done. The pipes for the floor heating were embedded in a layer of cement. Once this had all dried the carpenters built the frames for the big windows and the doors on each side. Then the construction workers built the floors of the two upper levels, which would be more like large open galleries. The next job was done by the carpenters again, the staircases and rails as well as bookshelves. The dormer windows are fitted at the same time. There were two on each side on each floor. Finally the glass windows were put in and everything was isolated. The final time the carpenters turned up was to panel some of the walls and the inside of the roof with wood, which made for a slanted ceiling on the top floor. Then there were two doors to the stable area, which had been cleaned while the construction of the middle part was going on. I really like what has been done! It's going to be a great room for the purpose it has and I hope the students will feel as much at home in it as I already do before it's even finished completely.

And as soon as the classroom and study area will be finished the construction on the back part of the house will start. The ground floor receives a large bathroom, which will have doors from the class room and from the residential part. The former stable has already been stripped of everything, then it was isolated at the same time as the classroom, library and common room. The rooms will be panelled and there will be lovely new windows for all the rooms. The walls will be made entirely of wood. As Remus has suggested there were now five rooms on the first and second floor and three more on the third. Each floor will have a bathroom. There is a fairly wide corridor between the front and inner rooms with the staircases built in.

By the beginning of September the middle part of the house is finished. Just in time Remus and I have suggested the addition of a nice big fireplace. It is set to the wall of the old front part of the house, which is a stone wall. A chimney has been added without much difficulty as that part of the house is open up to the roof. The roof is a bit of a patchwork now, but it will be done in the next summer, Remus and I decide. Then we look at each other and he mumbles:

"Do you think we'll still be here next year?"

I shrug and reply: "I don't know, but this house is a home already, so I wouldn't mind. Would you?"

"Not really. It looks wonderful. And we are fast becoming a large family, don't you think?"

"I think so, too, but sometimes I'm a bit afraid of the responsibility that has been laid on your shoulder, love. You have to carry it, I'm still the fugitive murderer, don't forget."

"Not for the people here you aren't, love. And definitely not for me. You help me carry the load very nicely, thank you very much. You're doing a great job so far, I've never seen you so focused and sincere, Siri."

Have I really settled down? I ask myself, rather than my mate. I know that I'm at ease when I have something to work on that is interesting and keeps my mind occupied. I don't have time to dwell on the past right now and I don't even have time to be scared of the future. All I know is that he makes me incredibly happy. Never before in my life have I been really happy, never this much at ease, so maybe I've settled down a bit. We're all prisoners of this house and I'm well aware of it, but if it is a kind of a prison, it's a good one and it's not tainted by any bad memories, so I think I can live with this exile. After all I do have to be a model for the students now, don't I?

The teens are all very happy with their new school room. I take them through it, when no workmen are there to see how I furnish the whole area. I have another lot of little pebbles again and ask:

"Okay, any special wishes for the floor? What do we want, hardwood? Wall to wall carpet? Flagstones? Ceramic tiles?"

"I think, it should be carpet, Sirius, we want something warm..." says Ginny.

"Okay. Carpet then. Now to the colour. What do you think will fit best? Nothing too dark, the roof coming down so far already makes for quite a bit of darkness..."

"Cream, or a bit darker beige..." says Padma.

"Yes, I think so, too. That would look great," Justin agrees.

I wave my wand and mutter the incantations. Seconds later we stand on a wonderfully soft woollen wall to wall carpet. I only spare the area where we want to set up the brewing stations for Potions and a bit around the fireplace. I do this part in ceramic tiles, which go in colour with the carpet. Then I transfigure some of the pebbles into tables with a polished granite top for the brewing stations. The electrician has already passed and we have lots of plugs and lots of lovely little halogen lamps spread over the ceiling for good light. The next part are two rows of tables for the regular classes and a teacher's table, some cupboards along one side of the wall to the old stable and another one under the staircase to the upper floor. Finally I make all the chairs we will need and a few extra. We also have a large sink with the water supplied from the bathroom which would be built in the stable area.

"I think we'll leave the decoration of the walls to you guys. Have some ideas and tell me and we'll do it together, okay? - Now, let's move up to the library."

The "library" is still packed in several, now large boxes. Inside the boxes are the copies of the thousands of books out of the Hogwarts library, which Albus has made for us. We have instructions on how to retrieve books with spells. We all know how to minimise and re-enlarge things.

"We might get those tiny things out of there and put them in the drawers. I'm going to make a lot of drawers now and then we can put the things inside. Once you have enlarged some of the books, you're free to just sort them into the shelves as long as we use them," I suggest.

The shelves would take quite a lot of the books. I also make a carpet on this floor, transfigure some of my pebbles into tables and chairs. I put another cupboard under the stairs to the top floor. This I furnish with another carpet and several nice squashy sofas and armchairs and some coffee tables.



Remus


Blaise, Justin, Parvati and Padma watch Sirius with open mouths.

"Wow! You're good!" Parvati remarks.

"Thank you, Parvati. You've just seen some practical uses of transfiguration. Be able to transfigure things and you'll save a lot of money when it comes to furnishing apartments," Sirius grins, obviously pleased with the compliment.

"Looks like it! This looks great! I'm sure we'll be able to learn a lot here! And this common room is very nice!"

"I would agree with you, Miss Patil!" comes a voice from the entrance.

It belongs to Minerva McGonagall who pays us another visit - with three more newcomers and the two house-elves. Sirius looks rather shocked. As do I. This brings the class up to eleven students. From all four houses.

"Hello, Minerva!" I say.

"Hello everyone. - You all know Mandy Brocklehurst, Morag MacDougal and Ernie McMillan?" Minerva asks straight out.

"Pleased to meet you..." says Sirius and I greet my former and seemingly new students.

"Well, they are some of our students we thought might be better out of the way as well. There were several more attacks. No more casualties at the moment, but we are spreading the children of those families to places where they should be safe. You've been declared the keepers of our endangered fifth years."

Minerva smiles. I want to tell her that we can't take them all under our wings, but we're just getting thirteen more bedrooms, only seven of which will be occupied, the new students already included.

"Okay, that means, that until the back part of the house is finished, you guys will need to bunk up in the gallery common room. I'd say it would be big enough for some bunk beds, some of you boys can take up residence there until we have your rooms finished. Okay?"

"Fine with me. We'll clear ours, okay, Blaise?" Justin offers at once.

"That's okay. Shouldn't be more than a few weeks now... and if Sirius furnishes these rooms the way he just did this thing here..." Blaise agrees.

Justin, Ernie and Blaise get beds on the top floor, while the living room furniture is set aside for a while. Minerva admires Sirius' work.

"You're great at this, Sirius! That looks like one wonderful, big classroom!"

"Doesn't it? And it still leaves us some free space. I'll just add another row of tables and chairs..."

Sirius does that, so everyone will find enough space during classes. He even enlarges the brewing stations.

"We'll see if we all fit on the long table in the kitchen. It seats ten very comfortably, maybe it will be good for thirteen, too."

"Oh, please don't tell Professor Trelawney, she'll have kittens, we'll be thirteen people at the table!" says Hermione and everyone laughs. And Minerva declares:

"I think, I'll have to tell her that! Just to see the kittens she gets!"

That makes us all laugh again. Then we all welcome Dobby and Winky and I show them around. They start to work in the kitchen right away and soon we are served a nice lunch. We all go outside to eat on the long terrace. Sirius prolongs the table and the benches, so that all of us find enough space. The three newcomers are welcomed warmly. They learn all about Sirius and are warned not to write anything about him in their letters until his name can be cleared.

The three teens get their dose of Polyglot potion. Outside of classes they are only permitted to speak the local language now.

Then comes September 1st, which is a Friday, so classes will only start on Monday. We have our own little welcoming feast courtesy of Dobby and Winky. The weather forces us to eat on the inside, but I conjure up flags of the four houses to decorate the back wall of the kitchen above the bench. When the students arrive for dinner they all take note of this and seem to be very pleased.

"Well, it's not the Great Hall, but at least it will remind you of your houses," I say with a smile.

On Sunday I write down the schedule on a whiteboard on one of the walls of the classroom. I'm taking the first class and once all eleven teens have settled down at the tables, I start by explaining some of the rules.

"Good morning, everybody. I can see, you're all eager to start working. Let me explain a few things. You can see the schedule on the whiteboard over there. We'll follow it mostly, but we'll be flexible and it will be possible to change things around if needed and/or wanted. Wednesday is going to be our freelance day, we'll decide what we do with it on short notice - it will be used for all sorts of things like Care of Magical Creatures theory, Muggle Studies and things like that. We won't do Divination as neither Sirius nor I are very adept in it and as far as I know most of you aren't too interested anyway.

You are coming from all four houses. We will award house points and they will be reported to Hogwarts. So remember that you help your house on the way to the House Cup. We will deduct points if we see fit. But having lived together with you for a while now I can say that this will probably not be needed.

We can discuss our 'working hours' - that is, we are flexible as to the beginning of classes in the morning. If we start at nine, as we do today, we'll finish at about half past three, if we start earlier we are through earlier. You will have enough time to do your homework and study and you'll still have some spare time. However, once we have agreed on a modus I want us to stick to it.

The following is to give you a clear view on the responsibilities - I'm the representative of Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore in this house, I solely have to report to them so I'm the one who decides if a final decision for something is needed. Anything you need permission I'm the person you ask.

We'll live together in a family and over short or long this will lead to a feeling of being imprisoned, in spite of the space we'll have, once your rooms will be done. Sirius and I will take you to outings, you'll see a bit of the area and we might do that not with all of you together, but with some of you each time. Our ears are open for suggestions what you'd like to visit.

And now let's start right away, we have quite a lot to cover this year, as we will prepare you to sit your OWLS at the end. Ginny has worked very hard and has passed the fourth year exams in her main subjects, therefore she'll join you all in your fifth year. Any questions?"

There are no questions, so I tell them to get their books out and talk with them about magical shields. They are paired off to start using them once they have learned the incantation for them. Since there is an uneven number of students, I work with one of them. I make them change partners in the course of the lesson, so each would be paired with all the others for a while.

After these first two periods of physical activity and a short break they sit down again for their History of Magic class. Those who expected me to just drone on similar to Professor Binns are very quickly taught a lesson though, as I do take the book to guide me, but I don't just talk. I start them on a more systematic work through magical history often with looks sideways to the Muggle history. I teach them mainly about the last hundred years and that is getting much closer to them than Binns' endless tales of Goblin rebellions. I talk about the development of several international wizarding organisations, ask them questions and launch discussions among the students. They all have to take a lot of notes and I remind them to keep the notes well, as there will be several assignments for which they will need them. The last lesson in the morning is Ancient Runes. Only Hermione, Blaise, Padma, Mandy and Justin have done Ancient Runes so far. I have to separate the class into those five who have started two years before and those who only start now. So each lesson will consist of a written assignment for either of the groups, one day I take care of the more advanced group and the next it's the turn of the beginners. Those who have the written assignment go up to the library and work there, undisturbed through silencing charms.



Hermione


Boy, classes have started off so well! Shame that we only have real lectures in Ancient Runes every second time, but I can see it can't be done otherwise. I suppose it's going to be the same for Arithmancy, but that doesn't really matter for me, I'm so far gone already in that subject, that I can learn from the books alone if it has to be. The afternoon is fun. Charms is something we all like to learn and Remus plans to teach us way beyond the curriculum, though he of course also revises with us as the OWLS will be a revision of all we have learned since year one.

We're all waiting quite eagerly for our first lesson with Sirius. He starts on Thursday morning, beginning with Transfiguration. Like from Professor Snape he's been given a lot of information from Professor McGonagall about what she was doing with the fifth years. He can follow her lesson plans, too. But we soon notice that his teaching style is more than different. He is laid back, makes us laugh and still teaches us a lot of the theory. He also watches out that nothing bad happens and he spots problems quickly. He drones a lot less than Professor McGonagall though and asks a lot more questions. He's quite generous with house points, too. Blaise and Morag are the two Slytherins on board and they get their share of points, he does not hand them out with preference of us Gryffindors, even though we're five of them here. I have expected him to be quite biased actually. But every correct answer he gets, results in house points depending on the difficulty of the question not the house of the student who replies to it. I think I really like Sirius even more!



Sirius


The three boys who have to sleep in the common room are relieved, they are allowed to move into their own rooms at the beginning of October. The workmen have finished and leave the house memory charmed as they have seen a lot of mysterious things, the house-elves have cleaned up and I move on to furnish the rooms while Remus goes for another round of shopping to get everything they needed for the bathrooms and the bedding. I take the seven students who are to move over to the new part of the house together and ask them where they want their rooms.

"Would it be okay if I'd say you boys get the rooms down here and you girls get yours up on the first floor?" I ask them.

"That's fine with me..." says Padma. That girl is definitely comfortable with decisions.

"Yes, that's okay. This way we girls have our bathroom for ourselves," Mandy confirms. This one is probably the most practically thinking Ravenclaw I've ever met.

"Okay, so let's start furnishing these rooms. Who wants to go first?" I ask.

Ernie, Justin and Blaise look at each other, then Justin decides:

"Blaise?"

"Okay, thanks. I'll take the room over there..."

"Good. Floor?"

"I'd like hardwood..."

"Hardwood it is!" I say cheerfully and magic the floor to a nicely patterned hardwood floor. I make a four poster for Blaise, a wardrobe, a desk, a chair and a small sideboard. Then I add two longish rugs.

"That floor will be fairly cool in winter, even though we have a central heating now... this is the northern end of the house," I explain my actions, "Now on to the bed curtains. What would you like?"

I finish the bed curtains in a warm tone of green and add curtains to the two windows in the same colour.

Blaise looks perfectly happy with the room. He stays back to put all his stuff in and starts decorating it. Justin takes the next room, which I furnish as well and finally Ernie gets the remaining room to the outside. The two rooms on the inside remain empty for the time being. I move up one floor with the girls and they spread over the three outer and one inner room on their floor.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny happily take possession of their original rooms again. Remus returns with a car load full of mattresses and more duvets and pillows and all the linen that was needed. He has also bought a series of bath towels and things for the three bathrooms in the new part of the house.

Several days before Halloween we receive a visit from the headmaster who comes to check on us. He knocks on the door to the classroom during a Potions lesson on Friday. I open the door with a spell, watch him coming in and smile.

"Hello Albus!" I greet him.

"Hello everyone! You certainly have it very nice here! I see that Minerva hasn't exaggerated when she was praising your work to the skies, Sirius."

I blush, but the students confirm that.

"You have to see our rooms, sir! We're so pleased with them," says Mandy.

"Is that so? Very well then. So you are all feeling well here?" Albus asks them.

"Oh yes! Learning is really fun now!" says Padma.

"That's wonderful to hear, Miss Patil. I'm pleased to hear it, too. - Where would I find Remus, Sirius?"

"Just go through that door and then through the kitchen - I would think he's in the study. You remember... the last room over there..."

"Ah yes, I do remember. Thank you very much, Sirius, I don't want to interrupt your lesson and will join Remus!"

"That's okay, they're all busy, I'm just supervising. But you'll find your way."

"Yes, thank you, Sirius."

I watch Dumbledore leaving through the door and vanish in the kitchen



Remus


I hear someone knocking on the open door. I look up from my work and smile.

"Albus! How nice to see you! Come sit in the living room, then I'm sure you'll be in for a cup of tea."

"Yes, thank you, that would be nice. It's quite fresh here!"

"Yes, it is. May I take your cloak?"

"Thank you, Remus."

I take Albus' cloak and hang it carefully over the back of a chair. Winky shows up and I ask her to bring tea and cake. Albus sits down on one side of the sofa, while I take the other.

"What brings you here, sir?"

"First of all it's a social call, Remus. I think I do have to throw a glance at this little Hogwarts branch office. I would like to see how you are doing. From what I glimpsed in the classroom you're doing very well... your reports sound so cheerful..."

"With reason. Will you stay for dinner? Then you'll know what I mean. The students work together well. There's really no house rivalry here, though there are students from all four houses. It's great fun to teach them. They are all working hard and since they're all bright we're progressing quite fast, too."

"That's good to hear. So you are enjoying your work again?"

"Very much, Albus! Once again I have you to thank for the opportunity. I love my work and I'm quite sure I do it well. It's very rewarding, too, to be able to work with such a nice group of teens."

"And how do you cope with the full moon? Which reminds me that Severus has given me three more months supply of Wolfsbane potion."

"Thank you. I'm doing well, like in Hogwarts. Sirius, Hermione and Ginny have brewed the potion for the first time, I'm going to lock myself in the cellar this time since we don't know if they have been successful. They seem to have been, though, at least according to the recipe. I'm taking the potion now and it's just a tiny bit less vile than Severus'. So I'll put Severus' batch away for reserve. Mandy's parents have probably written you a letter, too, that they are not happy with the situation at all though..."

"Yes, they have. I've had a conversation with them though and they should not bother you. They not only accepted my assurance of your safety, they also know that you have enough people to remind you of the potion if need be. Which I know is not."

I can't but sigh a little. It's frustrating, but I'm used to it by now. I'll have to defend myself for the rest of my life and still there will be too many people who only see the beast inside of me and overlook my person.

"I'm glad they were the only ones who complained at all. Could have been much worse. But Mandy told me she wrote them and I think her letters are not only sounding happy, they must be happy, because she's feeling happy here."

"You say they get along?"

"Yes, but I think they mainly get along because our resident Slytherins are Blaise and Morag. They've always been the quiet ones. And they're from decent families, so they were naturally targets."

"Sadly enough."

Winky brings the tea and I pour cups for both of us. Albus is able to inform me about the goings-on at home.

"The attacks have started for good, Remus. You get the Daily Prophet, so I suppose you know about that."

"Yes, but we've also read the excuses Fudge and his Ministry puppets give. It's disgusting. I'm glad that Harry is out of the way, so they can't discredit him even more. Though I'm expecting to read sooner or later that they think he's being locked up in St. Mungo's. Wouldn't surprise me at all."

"No, it wouldn't surprise me either. Actually I have already had enquiries from Fudge about Harry's whereabouts, I've given him the snub answer. But he didn't like that one bit, of course. On the other hand I have been able to communicate that any reports about Death Eater activities are welcome at Hogwarts and so I've already gathered several reports of people who think they've seen Pettigrew. That's promising, Remus, because sooner or later they will be sure they've seen him, and there will be more and more of them, so there will be no denying anymore. But it may take some time."

"We'll keep our eyes open and our wards checked. So far I think there has not been one Death Eater in the vicinity at all. When we had just arrived we had spotted Lucius Malfoy in Bern, but he didn't see us and we left the wizarding area immediately. If he had seen us I'm sure we'd have had some unwanted visitors by now. And our wards will give a specific alarm if a rat tries to trespass. Not just any rat, but a rat with a silver paw. It was easy to set the ward to react to silver. I've warned Barb and Housi about it."

"Did you also tell them that you're a werewolf?"

"Yes, I did. And they took that rather easy. Actually on the next day Barb came and visited to tell me that she had put everything silver away and locked it into her cellar. They are such sweet people, so understanding and accommodating. And they're of course very curious and want to know everything about us. We've grown aconite all summer and harvested it for the potion. It's safely put away in a room outside of the house, so I don't get in contact with it accidentally."

"That's sweet, Remus. They seem such nice people."

"They're wonderful, Albus! Barb in particular is a very spirited lady for a farmer! She has taken to come and listen to classes sometimes, just to hear about all that magic and when she got to see the library books she was totally fascinated. She loves the History classes and turns up regularly for those. And she's doing Ancient Runes with the beginners of my class - it's something she can learn, even as a Muggle and it fascinates her. Housi and Barb both also get along splendidly with the kids, show them lots of things and both parties learn from each other. It's a good experience for the kids. Justin and Hermione are the only Muggle-born students. The others marvel at everything here. They do like to watch some TV occasionally though and they enjoy the Muggle music we have. And as you can see our shelves are already quite stuffed with all sorts of Muggle games. They enjoy many of these as well."

Albus nods while he listens. That is what he wishes for all of his students to experience. He remarks:

"A rather happy exile then, isn't it?"

"Absolutely."

Sirius joins us a few minutes later. He sits down and summons another cup. I pour him the tea. Sirius takes a deep breath.

"I would never have thought that teaching could be this tiring! Two full days and I'm usually knackered..."

Albus laughs and admits:

"Yes, it is quite exhausting, I agree with you. But you look both very fine. Is everything well between you?"

"Yes, Albus, it's fine. More than that, it's brilliant right now. We have our usual little quarrels about things, but they're so unimportant and part of the relationship. We've found together again. We have the blessing of our godson, which is very important to us and we're enjoying each other," I reply and blush.

"That's wonderful. Speaking of Harry... how is he doing?"

"Oh, he's doing as well as the others. He's caught in a bit of a love dilemma but he seems to sort this out now."

"Is he now? Interesting. So who's the lucky young lady? Miss Granger or Miss Weasley?"

"The pendulum seems to swing to Miss Granger..." Sirius says with a laugh.

"Aha. Not another redhead in the Potter family then."

"Well, they're nowhere there, believe me. I think, she fancies him, though," Sirius says with a smile.

"Would you like to see the newly renovated parts of the house, Albus? I think, it's really a fine looking house now. We should do the roof, but that will have to wait, we can't very well have that done during the winter," I ask.

"Yes, I'd love to see that."

We get up again and I lead the way back to the classroom. We can hear some of the students talking up in the library and the common room above. I walk up the stairs and say:

"We've put the 'library' up here and of course it's in Hermione's very able hands. They do their homework here for the most part."

Albus follows me and smiles when he sees five of the students working at some of the tables. They look up, but he tells them:

"Don't let us disturb you in your work, dears. I'm just looking at the renovation work that's been done..."

He follows me up to the top floor, while Ginny calls Sirius over to ask him something regarding her Transfiguration homework. Ron and Ernie sit reading in the common room. They greet us politely.

"Well, and this is their common room now. We've used as much space as was available in here and it's quite large as you can see. We've had it isolated well, so it shouldn't be too difficult to keep warm in winter and we have the fireplace downstairs, so the heat rises up here as well with the floors having been built like galleries. That leaves the front rooms pretty much to Siri and myself now. We get some privacy, which we enjoy a lot. Not that we shut them out of there, but they mostly prefer to spend their time together. Here or in the kitchen, which is one of our favourite places in the house. It's so cosy and warm."

"This looks very nice indeed. Good work, Sirius! You've done a great job with the furnishing and decoration."

"Thank you, Albus."

Sirius has followed us and looks fairly smug. He has done all the work and he certainly loved to do it, but he also likes to be complimented on it. I lead the way back down and through the door into the narrow passage between the bathroom and one of the two inner rooms of the back part of the house.

"Well, here's the bedrooms we have for the students. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny still have their rooms on the front side, but the other seven are all here. The boys have the front rooms down here and the girls have their rooms on the next floor."

The door to Justin's room opens and he looks out.

"Would you like to have a look, Professor Dumbledore?" he invites the headmaster.

"Yes, if I may..."

"Certainly. Do come inside!"

Albus steps into the room and looks around. It is not too big, but offers enough room to be comfortable. Justin is doing some homework at his desk. Albus nods and asks:

"Are all the rooms like this?"

"Almost. There are some preferences for some kinds of furniture, which I've of course followed, but they're basically all like this," Sirius confirms.

"This is very nice. Very nice indeed!"

Albus stays for the dinner and is pleased to see the children all well behaved. They treat each other with respect and friendship and Albus' careful questions about the beginning of their classes with Sirius and myself give him only a few rather shy answers. Albus chuckles and admits:

"It's not fair to ask this in front of them, is it?"

"We'll find something to do, if you want to talk behind our backs, we don't mind it at all," I say, grinning.

Sirius gets up and makes two cups of coffee in the espresso machine, watched by a very suspicious Dobby who still doesn't trust this Muggle contraption. I follow Sirius over to the study, where we close the door and let Albus gather his information from the students without our presence.



Albus


Once Remus and Sirius have left the kitchen, the teens open up pretty quickly.

"Now that we're among us, I'd be interested what your view of your situation is," I say gently.

"They do great, sir," says Ernie.

"Learning is really fun and both are very fair," says Padma.

"I always thought that apart from his mean ways Professor Snape was an excellent Potions teacher, that if one was able to keep a low profile one learned a lot, but I have to say that in those two months with Sirius I've learned a lot more!" says Blaise. Now that's high praise indeed! And from a Slytherin, hear, hear.

"That's true. Between the curriculum potions he lets us do more complex things and he helps us with them. He doesn't only go through the class and criticise, he walks through to lend a hand where needed and he shows us where we should be more careful," adds Ginny. Usually I do not hear students blatantly criticise Severus, but both Blaise and Ginny have spoken up for once. I think I will have to have his classes supervised for a while after all.

"And who ever thought that history could be interesting," says Ron. Now there's an interesting remark. But I would expect Remus to make this particular subject much more lively and interesting than poor old Binns would ever be able to.

"Do you think it's something useful, then?" I ask.

"When taught the way Remus teaches, yes, I think so. With him it's more like we'd be discussing wizarding politics than history. Even though it's mostly still historical events we discuss. But we actually talk about it and he doesn't just drone on and on..." Ron explains. Coming from this boy this is an amazing statement. Ron is not usually the kind who is interested in something as clinical as history.

"I think so, too. Professor Binns may know an awful lot, but he isn't exactly someone who can make the subject interesting. Remus brings history to life," Padma agrees.

"I remember in our second year, when I actually asked Professor Binns about the Chamber of Secrets, that was about twenty minutes of activity in class," Hermione says.

I chuckle. Yes, I know about that lesson. You should do that more often, Hermione, maybe he'd give up teaching by himself then. Because Merlin knows I've tried to replace him many times and have been very unsuccessful.

"If I knew a way to get him to finally retire I would do it in an instant, I'm sorry to say that I've found none so far. And I'm not exactly willing to exorcise a perfectly peaceful ghost," I explain, expressing my regrets.

"We probably learned more history in two months than we've learned in the four previous years," Morag says and the others agree.

"Even the homework assignments are interesting. And then we discuss them," says Harry. Another one who doesn't strike me as very interested in the important subject of History. Well, they will certainly profit from Remus' able teaching then.

"You children are very kind with your teachers. Is there nothing you have to criticise?"

"They're snogging too often?" says Justin and grins. Obviously he doesn't find it all too disturbing.

"Well, they've been separated for a very long time through no fault of their own, I think we can allow them some tenderness," I remark.

"Well, it wasn't really meant to criticise. Remus has been my favourite Professor so far, he's always so fair and his methods are great. I learn a lot with him. We're allowed to do a lot of things. We practice our spells in the everyday life and it's fun to use all those spells that make life easy," Justin explains.

"So you're really all happy. That's most satisfying to hear. It seems then that I have made the right decision to bring you all here after all. Originally only Harry was to go with Remus and Sirius, to protect Harry and Sirius. Now it seems I have given you all a bit of a safe haven."

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore, you have. They are so kind and the group is very nice. I still miss my parents very much and it's hard sometimes, but I always find someone here who will listen. Barb and Housi are great, too," says Blaise.

"I was going to ask you some questions regarding that, Blaise, but I think we should talk in private about that. If you would like to tell me where we could do that?"

"Either in my room or outside..." Blaise says.

"Outside is a bit cold at the moment, so I would gladly follow you to your room, Mr. Zabini," I say with a smile.

"Fine. Right now?"

"If you would be so kind..."

"Okay. It's this way, please, Professor."

We go through the kitchen and the class room over to the student's tract of the house. Blaise leads me to his room and offers me the chair while he sits down on his bed.

"It's about your guardian, Blaise. Your parents left no information as to who should take care of you in such a case as they would not be in the position to do so anymore. Do you have some relative you'd like us to contact?" I ask him gently.

Blaise shakes his head and says sadly:

"I only have an aunt and an uncle, but they are both rather close to the Death Eaters. I don't think I want them for my guardians. I hope they haven't asked to do the job."

"No, they haven't. The Department of Youth is part of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Justice. If you don't suggest anyone they will assign you a guardian, but if you have a suggestion and that person accepts it, then you'd have someone you know and trust as your legal representative. And you have a fair chance that your wish will be granted. If I would inform them that you have chosen Remus Lupin and that he accepts the position, would that help you?"

"Do you think Remus would do that?"

"We have but ask him. It's not too great a job. It would mean that you have someone you could stay with during your vacations once you're back at Hogwarts. And he'd be the one to listen to in all matters that need the guardian's approval, but I would think he's a kind and fair person... and here you're already living under his wing."

"Yes, he is all that."

"Well, then I'd like you to write a short note that you wish the Department of Youth to appoint Professor Remus Lupin to be your legal guardian. You and Remus need to sign it and I'll hand it over to the Head of said department. I've already been contacted twice in the matter, so I should finally hand in the suggestion before they do anything of their own."

I get up, so that Blaise can get a piece of parchment and a quill and write his short letter. He hands it to me and we return to the kitchen. Remus and Sirius have come back and I ask to speak to Remus again.

"Yes, certainly, Albus, why don't we go to the study for that?"

Once there, I sit down and Remus takes a seat on the other armchair. I ask:

"Young Blaise Zabini needs a guardian, Remus. He has no one reliable in his family or in the circle of friends of his parents. We thought you might be a good choice, since he knows no one who he would trust more. Would you be willing to watch over him until he will be seventeen?"

"Do you think that I'll be accepted? If it's accepted that I look after him, then yes, I would do it."

"We'll find out soon enough. Here, this is the letter he wrote, all you have to do is add your signature. If they should deny it we will have to look for someone else, I'm sure, Severus or Minerva would do it as well."

"Fine, I'll sign it. It might be better for him, that it's me than someone far away."

"You know that it means you'll have the boy through vacations?"

"Yes, no problem. He won't have much, but I have enough for that.. and for the moment we're quite well off..."

"That's the spirit, Remus. Who knows, if it continues this way you might become responsible for more children."

Remus sighs audibly.

"That's a sad way of becoming a parent, Albus," he says.

"A very sad way. But these children need all the protection we can give them and whatever happens, their safety is my first priority."

"You have a heavy burden there. I'll gladly take my part of it," Remus assures me.

"Thank you, Remus, I always knew I could count on you. You have always been one of the best!"

Remus turns to his desk to sign the letter and hands it back to me, then both of us go back to the kitchen. I put my hand on Blaise's shoulder and say with a smile:

"If the Department of Youth accepts your proposition you have got yourself a guardian, Mr. Zabini."

"Thank you, sir!" Blaise says and his face lights up. "And thank you, Remus!"

"You're welcome, Blaise," Remus says and smiles, too.

I gladly accept an espresso and a small Grappa which Sirius offers me while he, Remus and I go back to the study to discuss some Order matters. I tell them, that their spotting Lucius Malfoy must have been coincidental.

"He must have been there privately, because so far none of the intelligence we were able to gather proved that the Death Eaters had branched outside of the British Isles. Which is just as well, you're to keep a low profile and go on with your teaching the children. I've been travelling quite a bit because we have other children placed elsewhere with trustworthy people, also abroad, but that will only serve to tell them I'm on the road a lot. I'm checking myself for any kind of tracking spells or talismans each time before I travel. So far it has always been negative, but you should be very careful in the next days and maybe even weeks."

"I've invented a ward that reacts on the Dark Mark on anyone. If Severus needs to come here we should be warned beforehand, so we can tell it's him, not some Death Eater. We will not take the ward down. And once he's with us it's not a problem, it's just an acoustic signal in here," says Remus.

"Oh, that sounds very creative, may I know what kind of an acoustic signal?"

"The grandfather clock in the kitchen gives a different chime. It doesn't stop until we deactivate it. So far I haven't been able to test it, but I'm sure it will work."

"Oh, I'll send Severus over then, he'll be able to help you there," I say and smile. He can do with some easy assignment for once.

"But warn him, please. And tell him to send an owl before he gets here," Sirius says. Oh, so he does care for Severus after all...

"I will certainly do that. Now it's time for me to return home. I'll see you again soon."

"You'll always be welcome here, Albus. We have made ourselves a home here with the children and we look forward to having guests anytime. Unless they're Death Eaters of course," Remus says.

I leave them and go outside where I make myself invisible, then I walk as far as I need to be outside of the anti-apparition wards. I disapparate to the Shrieking Shack.



Remus


Sirius and I remain in the study and all of a sudden Sirius says:

"We should still make something like the Marauder's Map for this place here."

"You're right. Do you remember where we found the spells for it? We start drawing it immediately, that's a very good idea."

"I'm sure I find the book in the library. I'll go and look for it immediately. Somehow I think it would help us a lot. We can enlarge it and keep it in the classroom, there is enough wall space free."

"And we can make a small copy to move around. It's been too quiet for too long, we need to have some device to track them..."

Sirius picks up four pieces of parchment and fixes them together. We start sketching the plan of the house, all three stories and the cellar, the Stöckli next door, the big barn a bit further away and then define the area as far as the wards stretch. Sirius goes to find the book in the library and comes back half an hour later with a grin on his face.

"Got the book!"

"Oh, good! I'm so glad that Albus just made a copy of the entire library! That makes life so much easier!" I say, grinning too.

"It does! - Now let me see... here it is. What do we want to depict here? We don't need the thing that gives passwords and so on as we have none of that here. But we might make a difference between the people who are welcome and those who are not."

"Same way we were able to set the ward on Dark Marks. We can use that distinction on the map, too, and show all Death Eaters with red dots and labels. All else should be shown black, animals with names blue, others yellow."

"What do we do with Animagi?"

"Same as we did back then, show the real name, but maybe show the name in blue, like the animals, so we know that the person is an Animagus?"

"Good idea! But that will probably only work if the person is in his or her Animagus form when they show up on the map."

"Seems to be fine, don't you think?" I ask. This is actually fun.

Harry knocks on the open door. He wants to say goodnight and then sees our grinning faces.

"What are you two up to?" he asks.

"Come in and we show you!" I invite him.

"You can watch the Mapmakers, Harry, we've just decided to make a map of the house here and the warded area, so we'd be warned in time..." Sirius adds and grins. He has no idea how I have missed this particular grin and the glint in the eyes that accompanies it. I adore him!

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Harry exclaims.

Sirius checks the book for the spells. We enchant the map for the regular people first and in no time there are the dots for all of us. I check. The map shows myself, Sirius and Harry in the study, Hermione on the way to it, Blaise and Justin in the boy's bathroom and Ernie in his room, Parvati and Padma in the girl's bathroom, Mandy and Morag on the way to their rooms and Ginny in the library. Barb and Housi are in their house.

Hermione joins us. She says:

"Just wanted to say goodnight... oh, what's that?" Her curiosity is clearly waking up.

"Another map. For the house and warded area here," Harry says.

"Now there's a good idea..."

"We've already charmed the map to show anyone human. On to the animals, those are the easy bits," I say.

I cast the spell to show animals and then there are the dots for the cats around the house, the dog, Racer, Hedwig and Anana, who is coming up to the house at that moment. Harry opens the window to let her in. Sirius takes the letter and unrolls it.

"Expect me tomorrow evening at six. Severus Snape," it reads.

"Well, no one could say he loses time for something unnecessary," Sirius grins.

"It's all we need to know. Now watch out for the Death Eater alarm tomorrow. We need to tell the kids. Well, let me find out the thing about Animagi."

I flick through the pages of the book and then say:

"We can just add an additional spell to the animals spell, there's nothing specifically for Animagi. So when they're in their human form they come up as either regular people or Death Eaters, but if they come here in their Animagus form they will show on the map as animals with a full human name."

"Should work fine. Won't tell us that someone IS an Animagus though if they approach as humans. And if we don't already know like with Wormtail, it would be very useful information..."

"I'll have to think about that, maybe I have an idea to reform the spell. Now about that Dark Mark, we need to alter the spell for regular people, then we could test it tomorrow as well..."

I take out the notes I've made to build the ward and make several tests, Hermione looks over my shoulder and adds some suggestions, which I'm using, then I enchant several bits of parchment with several spells, each noted in words on the slips and say:

"Well, I've got some solutions and tomorrow we'll find out which one works if any. An ex-Death Eater can be quite useful for defence purposes once in a while..."

"Looks like Snape is useful for once..." Sirius says with a fairly malicious smile.

"Time to go to bed, folks, we'll test the map thoroughly tomorrow and then we'll make a large copy for the classroom," I tell them.



Harry


Hermione and I wish them a good night and walk out of the room. I take Hermione's hand and she leans in for a quick kiss. We have gradually admitted our feelings to each other and now we spend a lot of time together. She looks up to me and asks:

"Want to come up to my room for a while?"

"I'd love to."

That's a first! We've been alone a number of times, but so far we haven't taken it further than a few kisses. We go through the kitchen and up the stairs to the top floor, where I follow Hermione to her room. She charms a little warning note for Ginny on the outside of the door, then locks it and the two of us sit down on the bed taking the opportunity for a bit of snogging. It turns out to become a bit more than that. Hermione starts to slowly undress me, which gives me quite a fright. She grins and says:

"Just want to feel your skin, Harry!"

And with that she pulls the jumper she wears over her blouse over her head and guides my hands to the buttons on her blouse. Oh I can't believe she's doing that! I'm feeling the blood in my brain rushing elsewhere. No, she doesn't want to go that far, or does she? I'm not ready for that yet! But she cools me down with her soft voice.

"Come on, Harry, it's just skin! And it feels so much better than through fabric..."

"That's certainly true..." I mumble, while she lets her hands roam over my now bare shoulders and arms.

I shiver, but it's not from the cold and I can hardly get my fingers to open the tiny buttons. But I get it done one by one until I get to where she has the blouse tucked into her jeans. I look at her and when she nods, I pull the blouse out and open the remaining two buttons. I push the fabric over her shoulders and down her arms until it is out of the way. She wears a bustier I think this thing is called, and quickly pulls it over her head. I stop breathing for a moment. Oh, but she is beautiful. Her breasts are perfect, a few freckles strewn over her shoulders and arms, her hair is hanging down to her chest. For a moment I just stare. And then I shake my head, blush and apologise:

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm just gaping at you..."

"But that's perfectly alright, Harry, I want you to look," she says.

What? She wants me to stare at her? Well, she's certainly worth staring at...



Hermione


I'm having a good few minutes of looking at him myself. We've been outside a lot during the summer, have gone walking and even running sometimes, so we're both fit now. He looks it, has grown quite a bit and is now several inches taller than myself.



Sirius


We clear up our desks, close and lock the door to the study and go to the bathroom for a quick shower. We both shave and brush our teeth and dry our hair. All the while we touch each other briefly, blow quick kisses on each other's shoulder or neck, and while Remus finishes by quickly spell cleaning the bath, I stand behind him, lift his hair and kiss him on the neck, snake my arms around my lover's chest and pull the smaller man close to me. Remus turns his head, so I can reach him for a kiss. When I let go, Remus draws a deep breath and says:

"Up to our room, love! I want you so badly!"

"Why, it so happens that what you have in your mind is precisely what I have in mine!"

Remus grins. Both of us put a bathrobe on and I turn off the light in the bathroom, then we hurry up to our bedroom. I spell lock the door and set up silencing charms to all walls, the floor and the ceiling. Remus drops his robe and peels me out of mine, before he sinks down on his knees to give my already half hard cock a few teasing licks. I put my wand down on the nightstand, pluck Remus' out of my sweetheart's hand and lay it next to my own. I pull Remus up for more kisses and lift him up to carry him to the bed. Remus grins and stretches out his hand to pull the duvets away, then I let him down.

"Oh my love, come on, I can't wait anymore!" Remus beckons.

"I'm coming, sweetheart..."I lay down and we join our lips for another long kiss.

Both of us let our hands wander on the other's skin. Remus turns around and gets up to his knees then pushes me on my back and starts to tenderly suck on my nipples, moves from one to the other, back and forth, sucking on one, pinching the other with his nimble fingers. I'm unable to do anything, I just hold Remus close and moan. By the time Remus turns around to attend to my lower body parts, I'm already far away up in the clouds. Remus is pleased to hear me whisper his name over and over. He returns to my now fully stiff cock, licks and nips it, takes it in his mouth and sucks on the tip. I hiss in bliss. Remus' tongue swirls around the tip, touching the sensitive underside, then sucks again. Finally he swallows almost all of my length and moves up and down a bit faster. He throws a quick glance and notices my eyes are half closed. My hands hold and steer Remus' head. Remus continues and almost lets me come. With a smack he lets go of the penis, holds it with his right hand, looks up and says a short spell to lubricate his hands, smears the lube on my penis and then goes to the cleft of his own arse, quickly sticks a finger inside and prepares himself. He straddles me and lowers himself on my hard cock. He pushes down on it all the way and impales himself. With a moan he comes down to kiss me again. I pull him down and open my eyes. Remus smiles.

"Your eyes are like molten silver right now, love, goddess, you're beautiful!" he murmurs. Oh how I love him!

"This is so good, Moony, come on, move a little!" I beg him.

Remus claims my lips once more. Then he starts to pull away from me, up until he almost lets the cock slip out again, but just before that happens he pushes down again. I can't hold back and cry out. Once more, slowly, slowly away and with one swift movement back down. Remus lifts himself up and looks down on me. His movements become faster now, and I watch him for a moment, look at Remus' cock bopping up and down with his dance on my cock, then I grab it to stroke it with one hand, while I let the other run over Remus' side and then fondle his balls. Finally he lets me reach my completion. I cry out again and with one last thrust of Remus' body I let myself go. My seed spurts into Remus and he sighs audibly but continues his movements for another minute or two, until I press his balls together and give his cock a few more hard squeezes. Remus comes, releasing his seed over my belly and hand. I'll never get enough of the sight of my lover reaching his orgasm. He is utterly beautiful and the way his eyes open up wide in the moment of highest bliss is a sight that only I get to see. Luckily. He collapses on me and I pull him into my arms. Then I pull my hand away and lick some of the semen away. Remus, his head on my shoulder, watches me and whispers:

"You look unbelievably sexy when you do that..."

I smile and hold Remus tightly. He nuzzles my neck and returns the hug. We cuddle for a while and then allow ourselves a second round. At the end Remus falls asleep right away and leaves it to me to cover him up with his duvet. I do that with a big smile on my face and then cuddle into my own duvet, but as close to Remus as I can get without waking my lover again.

I need a few minutes to fall asleep. I look out of the window. The flower pots have been stored away into one of the cellar rooms as the geraniums would not survive the winter otherwise. I can't actually see much, as the night is really dark and there is no moon. We're far away from the next village and no artificial light disturbs the blackness of the night. We don't need to close our shutters. But I can gaze at the sky and see the stars above when it's clear.

At breakfast the next morning I ask around:

"Do you want us to decorate for Halloween? For me this is always a very sad day actually, personally I'd rather crawl into bed and forget about it..."

"We could decorate with just the pumpkins and stuff," Hermione suggests, "I don't need a special celebration at all."

Great girl that she is; of course she remembers why this is a bad day for me. Harry looks at me and remembers that the night his parents have been killed was Halloween. So he quite accepts the decorations only suggestion. The others don't seem to mind and so we set up a lovely decoration of tiny pumpkins with little lights inside in the kitchen and the classroom.

The children pass this rather dreary day mostly in their common room and the library and either do some homework or study or they play games. Remus and I join them mostly, only shortly before six we go downstairs and wait for the alarm. At six sharp we hear it. The grandfather clock chimes in a different way than it does to tell us the hours.

"That worked, now let's check the map and the parchment strips..."

While Snape approaches the house, we check which spell works to tell us a Death Eater is on the grounds. It turns out that three of the spells work and show Severus Snape as a red dot and label. We set them aside and wait for Snape to come to the door. It only takes him about fifteen minutes to walk to the house from the anti-apparition ward border. Remus and I both grin widely and say:

"That's it! We've got an additional method of finding out if any of them are around!"

Severus

I step inside. They greet me so cheerfully that I groan. Oh, I really detest happy Gryffindors! I take off my cloak and Black gets hold of it to hang it on a peg of the rack right next to the door.

"Did your alarm work?" I ask.

"It certainly did, Severus! Good evening and thank you. Something else worked, too! We've made another map yesterday and we were able to use the same distinction for the enchantment and look here - you show up in red, while all of us show up in black and Sirius, when he transforms would show up in blue, like all the other animals, but with his real name... shall I give you the spells? I know that Albus has the Marauder's Map and maybe he wants to use it. He could find out if any of the students has the Dark Mark..." Lupin explains.

"Sounds like a good idea actually. Can you note it down quickly? The spell for the alarm, too... we could set it up to go off in the headmaster's office and maybe in mine and Minerva's..."

"But then it would go off each time you move away from and back to Hogwarts..."

"True. Write it down anyway, we'll see if Flitwick can charm it in a way that I'm excluded..."

"Good idea. Here's the spell formulas. And here's the build of the spell, give that to Filius. Oh, and here's the addition for the colouring of the dots. We didn't have that in the original maps. See, the dots show black for basically every human. If that human has a Dark Mark it shows in red, if the human is an Animagus and currently in his Animagus form, then it shows in blue. Animals show in blue as well."

"Fine, I'll get that to Albus."

"Stay for dinner? We'll eat in ten minutes," Black invites me.

"Okay," I accept, "May I speak to Miss MacDougal and Mr. Zabini?"

"Yes, of course, they must be over at the student's common room. Come along..." Black says and leads the way.

I haven't been at the house since my visit in summer. I look at the class room, where some brilliant lights are on and spread their light. The same kind of suspended little lamps are lighting the staircase and the library, where we meet MacDougal, Granger and the Patil twins bent over one of their homework assignments. This light is quite amazing and far surpasses any amount of candles. I feel a pang of envy.

"Hey there! Professor Snape is here and he'd like to talk to you, Morag," I hear Black call.

The girls look up and MacDougal gets up. She's still quite small. She smiles at Black! How pathetic! But then she greets me politely:

"Good evening, sir. We can go to my room if you'd like to speak in private..."

"I'd rather suggest the study, Morag," Black says softly. Must he be the one to talk of propriety? Honestly, if I remember how he and Lupin used to carouse all over Hogwarts it turns my stomach.

"Oh! Yes, of course, that would be better."

"Yes, that seems to be a better place. Just for a few minutes, Miss MacDougal. Would you lead the way?"

"Yes, certainly."

MacDougal leaves her work on the table and I ask Black to send Zabini down as well.

"I'll call him," Black promises pleasantly and watches me follow MacDougal down the stairs. Leaving, I hear him turn to Granger:

"Both spells worked, Hermione! We have an alarm that tells us when some Death Eater tries to get through our wards, we are able to show them on the map as a red dot. And we have the alarm that announces the breach of the wards by a rat or a person with a silver paw or hand!"

"That's great, Sirius. Did Remus build the spells?"

"He did! He's very nifty with things like that isn't he?"

A few seconds later I close the door to the study and talk with MacDougal. Then I talk to Zabini.



Sirius


Blaise sits down to wait in the living room and I return back to the kitchen. Dobby and Winky are busy finishing the dinner and the students assemble around the table. We all have our fixed places by now. Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ernie and Justin sit on the bench. Mandy has the place on the bench just below the window and holds the head of the table. The rest of us sit on the chairs. Dobby lays one place more on the other end of the table for Snape. Remus and I sit in the middle, with Parvati and Padma between Mandy and myself and Morag and Blaise next to Remus. We wait for Snape to return with Blaise after Morag joins us again.



Severus


I don't take long with the students from my house. I question them quickly about their classes and their teachers, but much to my dismay both credit Black and Lupin with excellent marks. MacDougal leaves the study and sends Zabini in, and after five minutes we both come out of the study again and join the others at the table. I'm shown to a place at one end of the table. The house-elf sends the food over. I observe the students and their interactions with Lupin and Black and feel a pang of jealousy at the familiar and easy way they discuss the events of the day and some topics they have treated in a class. I remain mostly silent and only speak when someone addresses me. There is harmony in the group and they laugh together. They are totally at ease with Black it seems. Weasley jokes a lot with him and they both enjoy their playful banter about many topics. Miss Weasley takes part in that banter, too and Remus grins, as much of it must remind him of the way Black had fooled around with Potter. The meal ends with a dessert, then Black gets up to start one of the Muggle contraptions in the kitchen, whatever it is. He offers a cup to the others, but only Lupin, Potter, Granger and the Patil twins want some. The scent of freshly brewed coffee of some sort fills the kitchen and Black hands the sugar to Lupin and the cream jar to Parvati Patil. He seems to know exactly who likes what.

I notice that no one is in a hurry to leave the table after the dishes have been cleared away by the house-elves. The students talk among themselves and with Black and Lupin for another while, before the first group gets up and goes off to watch something on television as they say.

"We're up in the common room, there's Star Wars on television tonight," Weasley says, as he follows Zabini, Brocklehurst and Potter out of the kitchen.

"Okay. - Anyone for a game of chess?" Lupin asks.

"Me!" Miss Weasley replies and goes to get a chess set. They move to the end of the table, where Brocklehurst and Weasley sat earlier and set up the board. Granger finds some participants for a Muggle game, which she fetches from the front room and sets up with the Patil twins, McMillan, Finch-Fletchley and MacDougal. Black promises to join later. He makes himself another coffee and sits down next to me. Oh no, please don't start to small talk with me.

"They're all great kids, Severus," he says, "They work hard, study and then they enjoy their free time mostly together. Rarely do I see one of them all alone. And if they're alone then they just want some solitude. They have discovered the fun of TV of course, and we got them a set for their common room on the top floor over the class room, but they have to share that and they have to organise themselves to take turns in deciding what they want to watch. At the moment they all love a series about a teenage witch and her two aunts, who are witches, too. It's quite funny, as it's of course a Muggle thing and they laugh themselves silly about the antics in the show and the film tricks. But just as often they just sit down for a game. It's really like we're a big family."

"Zabini and MacDougal praised you to the skies before dinner, Black. You seem to be up to the job..."

"Thanks. I never thought I would be able to teach something I know, but I find it easy, actually. I don't like long lectures, so we go through the texts together and I add more information where it's needed or we check the sources together if I don't know or am not sure myself. Works very well. If you quiz them in Potions you'll soon find they're going to be ready to take their OWLS in summer. It's kind of fun, really..."

The man thinks teaching is FUN? He must be out of his mind, completely and utterly. Or he's the kind of nutter like Flitwick. Gosh, to see this cheerfulness is definitely pathetic. I get up and decide it's time for me to return to my dungeons. Fast! I wish them all a good night, take down my cloak and let myself out.



Sirius


I would never have thought that the easiest way to get Snape out of the way is to be kind to him. He must be allergic to anything friendly, kind and positive. Oh well, I think I better join the kids with their game, that will do me a lot better than to dwell on some unpleasant character like Snape!

"I feel sorry for Professor Snape," Morag says out of the blue.

"You're probably right, Morag," I agree, "He's a very sorry character."

"I've watched him all through dinner. He's one troubled person, he doesn't seem to be able to even fathom anything nice or fun. Can't do more than feel sorry for him," she repeats.

She's right of course. He had always been the kind who stood behind and watched. But his arrogance hasn't ever allowed him to like anyone really. He negates anything that doesn't meet with his standards and his standards are generally incomprehensible for the general public. He must have practiced his derisive sneer from earliest age because I can't remember him without it. Oh, shit, now I'm back dwelling on the git. I rather concentrate on the game. I'm rather watching Remus between turns and enjoy the look of concentration on his face. He likes to play chess with Ginny and they are a good match for each other.

We enjoy a very nice evening. As it's Saturday nobody tells the kids when to go to bed. Most of them are finding their way up to their common room and by about eleven o'clock Remus and I are on our own. I make another espresso for both of us and we go to sit in the living room to cuddle for a while before heading up to bed. He's sparkling tonight, looking at his very best, as if it wasn't the full moon tomorrow night. I pull him into my lap and I feel my arousal beginning already. Just to feel him gives me goose bumps. I think that will never change. Remus turns and straddles me, then I watch his face coming closer. He takes possession of my lips, very soft and very determined at the same time and my head starts to spin. He's just the most intoxicating creature. His clever fingers start opening my robes and I'm really pulling myself together to manage:

"Don't you think we'd better move upstairs for that?"

He sighs and pulls back. Then he admits:

"Yes, you are probably right. Let's go..."



Mandy


We are all a bit nervous on this Sunday evening and try to hide it. We all know that this is the first full moon night on Sirius' Wolfsbane potion. Actually we are sure it's been done right, at least Hermione says she has no doubt about that, but some tension is tangible throughout the afternoon. Remus is the one who's the most nervous of all. We know that the moon rises at several minutes before eight o'clock. Remus has taken his last dose of the potion in the morning, now we have dinner and right after dinner he descends to the cellar with Sirius. We look at each other and I know we all silently wish him an easy transformation.

I'm amazed that I'm not scared of him at all. My parents have ranted in their letters, several times, but I have constantly told them that I'm comfortable in the care of this man. He's always kind and I'm amazed that he has been a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, when he's so much more coming through as a Ravenclaw. I notice that my classmates stay sitting at the kitchen table, not moving away, in spite of the fact that a few steps down a staircase, right underneath of our kitchen, a man struggles with his terrible illness and transforms painfully into a wolf. Remus and Sirius have cast the strongest silencing charms over the cellar room. Remus doesn't want us to hear anything of his cries.



Hermione


I look over at Ginny and she gives me a very small smile. We both hope that the potion we have created together with Sirius has been brewed correctly. If Remus should suffer a night with a failed Wolfsbane potion I shall feel guilty for the rest of my life. We have already planned the first aid scenario should it be necessary. A letter to Madam Pomfrey has been prepared and we have made sure that Anana is in the house.

Remus has gone down the stairs with an encouraging smile for Ginny and myself. He's confident we've done the right thing, but his sense of duty doesn't allow him to simply rely on our ability as potion brewers. He doesn't take chances and I think that has convinced all of us in the house about his sincerity. Have an easy night, Remus! I don't want you to suffer more than just the inevitable.