Rosalyn had arranged her first anti-dementor class with Lupin and she was going to it now.

She was partly scared to do this, but she kept reminding herself that is she wanted to fight Black, she would have to be more experienced than she was at the moment.

She steeled herself to face whatever happened in this meeting, and opened the door to see Professor Lupin, leaning over the gold railing that made up his cool office, ready to teach her. She had been in this office before, but Lupin had made it cooler than Professors Quirrel or Lockhart had.

There was gold orbs floating around, and the candles were made from the spine of some creature. There were cabinets around the walls, filled with sculptures and instruments that probably did stuff Rosalyn could never imagine.

"Hello, Rosalyn. Now, are you ready to do this?" Lupin asked her as she looked around the room.

"Yes, Professor, I... think so," Rosalyn said, trying to convince herself as much as him.

"Now, are you sure about this, Rosalyn? You know this is very advanced magic well beyond some fully grown wizards and certainly beyond the abilities of a third year," Lupin checked. This made Rosalyn teeter on the edge of leaving, saying no, and turning her back on this whole thing.

But she didn't, and she simply uttered. "Sure."

"Well, everything is prepared," Lupin raised his hand towards a trunk, and Rosalyn had a shrewd idea of what was in it.

Lupin began to walk down the stairs towards Rosalyn, and she let continue on without complaint. "Now the spell I'm about to teach you is called the patronus charm, have you ever of heard it?"

Rosalyn shook her head.

"No? Well, patronus is a kind of positive force and for the wizard or witch who can conjure one. It acts as a sort of sheild where the dementor feeds on it, rather than them." He sat down on the trunk. "But in order for it to work, you have to think of a memory. It has to be a very happy memory, a very powerful memory, can you do that?"

Rosalyn, again, nodded, although she wasn't sure if she could do that. Did she have any memories that were strong enough?

"Close you eyes," Lupin said, raising two fingers in the direction of them, she obeyed and now could only listen. "Concentrate. Explore your past... find a memory. Allow it to fill you up, lose yourself in it, then speak the incantation... Expecto Patronum."

"Expecto Patronum," Rosalyn repeated. She had a memory, but she also had a good idea of what was going to happen.

Lupin, who had walked behind her, was now near the trunk again and he asked, "Shall we?" To Rosalyn. She nodded.

"Wand at the ready," Lupin instructed, and Rosalyn took her wand out her pocket, pointing it at the trunk.

Lupin unlocked the trunk, and nodded to her, asking if she was ready. Rosalyn kept her eyes locked on the trunk, and as Lupin pulled it open, she steeled herself to do it.

A dementor rose out of the trunk, and Rosalyn looked at it for a second before it towered above her, sucking the happiness out of her.

"Expecto Patronum- Exp- expecto-" but the candles in the room were going out, the dementor was winning...

"Expecto- expecto..."

"Rosalyn!"

She was light headed, falling, hitting the hard stone floor, and ending out cold.

☆☆☆

"Come on, come on, get up."

Lupin helped her up off the ground, and when she had sat up, he was quick with reassuring her. "It's alright, I didn't expect you to do it first time, that would've been remarkable. Here, take this, it'll make you feel better," he handed her three blocks of chocolate which she ate quickly.

"That was a bloody bad dementor," Rosalyn said. "Or was it-"

"Yes," Lupin answered as he relit the candles. "That was a boggart, Rosalyn, the real thing would've been worse. Much, much worse," he turned round. "As a matter of interest, what were you thinking of?"

"First time I rode a broom," Rosalyn said, remembering the first time Ginny and her stole Fred and George's brooms, riding them over the paddock near the burrow. It was a feeling of true happiness.

Lupin chucked the match away and looked at her. "Well that's not good enough, not nearly good enough."

Rosalyn turned round, looking at the candles. She didn't know what to do, but she said. "There is another, it's not happy, exactly," she touched the small, flickering flame on the candle. "Well it is. It's the happiest I've ever felt- but it's complicated."

"Is it strong?" Lupin asked, and again, Rosalyn had to think, but she knew the answer.

"Strongest I have," she said.

Lupin nodded, then said. "Let's give it a try, if you're ready?"

"Just do it," Rosalyn nodded, trying to prepare for the feeling of all happiness getting sucked out of her.

Lupin unlocked the trunk and the dementor came out of it again. It swooped down upon her, and she felt horrible, but she kept thinking of her memory. She kept thinking of it...

"Expecto Patronum!" Rosalyn tried, and she felt oddly protected, even though her charm hadn't conjured anything.

So she tried again.

"Expecto Patronum!"

And, magnificently, a bright light came from her wand. It, as Lupin had said, formed a sort of shield between her and the dementor. She was willing herself to keep thinking of the memory, so that the patronus charm would stay.

Lupin started laughing with joy as Rosalyn lowered the dementor into the trunk. He was happy that she had had the strength to conjure one, let alone drive a dementor away with it.

She lowered it far enough and Lupin shut the trunk, smiling to the brim.

"Well done, Rosalyn! Well done!"

Rosalyn, who was slightly out of breath, suddenly said. "I think I've had enough, for today," she needed a break for now, dementors sucked energy out of you as well as happiness.

"Yes, sit down, eat this, it helps, it really helps." Rosalyn sat down on the stone steps in his office and accepted the chocolate Lupin was, yet again, offering her.

He sat down beside her, sensing that even though she didn't want to fight the dementor anymore, she didn't want to leave. He told her. "Just so you know, Rosalyn, I think you would've given your father a run for his money, and that's saying something."

Rosalyn smiled, deciding to risk a question. "Erm... and the girl you... told me about?"

Lupin smiled. "Her too. And your mother, as well. You're a really, really good witch, Rosalyn."

"No, I'm not," Rosalyn shook her head. "People always say that stuff about Hermione, not me."

Lupin smiled. "Well... they're not wrong. Your friend Miss Granger-"

"Best friend," Rosalyn smiled.

"Okay, okay," Lupin grinned knowingly. "Your best friend Miss Granger is an extraordinary witch, but so are you, Rosalyn. You really are."

Rosalyn smiled. "Thank you very much, Professor Lupin."

He smiled. "You're very welcome Rosalyn."

Rosalyn kept her eyes focused on a point in the distance, her eyes going blurry. She wanted to ask Lupin more, to question him. To ask him how she knew that her father had conjured a great patronus. She wanted to know what her father, and mother, had been like, if Lupin had known them.

But she had already known that Lupin had known her parents, he had already told her. She just didn't know how well.

For a second, she linked two things together, and she almost, foolishly, opened her mouth to speak about Sirius Black, and about how Dumbledore had said he was with a woman that night. To ask if she was the same person as the girl her professor had told her about. To tell Lupin what she knew, to say how angry she was at the escaped convict, but she didn't.

She kept her silence, and just said. "I was thinking about him, and mum. Seeing their faces... they were talking to me, just talking... that's the memory I chose," she swallowed. Then she said. "I don't even know if it's real... but it's the best I've got," she turned to Lupin, who nodded.

She still wondered how Lupin knew her parents, she still wanted to know more about Sirius Black and his betrayal, but at that moment, she felt a huge surge of understanding. She didn't know why, or how she felt that way, but she did, so she went with that for now.

☆☆☆

That night, Rosalyn, Harry, Hermione and Ron were staying up watching a heated game of exploding snap between Fred and George. Lee Jordan was keeping score, and at the moment it was a tie.

At twelve o'clock, Percy came down the stairs and told them off very pompously, telling them that they were making too much noise and the first years would be scared.

"Are the first years complaining, Perce?" George asked sarcastically. "No! It's you being the big HB-"

"Which means humongous bighead," Fred said, and everyone present except Percy snorted.

He stomped back up the stairs, huffing. But eventually the game had to stop. At one, Professor McGonagall showed up and told them all to get to bed, when the score was Fred - eleven, George - twelve.

Fred sighed and uttered. "I'll beat ya next time," to his twin before they all dispersed and went up the stairs.

Rosalyn and Hermione laughed as they got ready for bed, and finally, at around half one, they fell silent and went to sleep.

But not for long.

About two hours later, a yell filled the silence, waking up everyone in Gryffindor Tower.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Rosalyn, Hermione, Lavender and Parvati sat bolt upright. They got our of bed immediately, quickly picked up their dressing gowns and put them on. Hermione grabbed Crookshanks before they left and then they rushed downstairs.

When they got there, the air was thick with questions.

"What's going on?"

"Everybody- everyone get back to bed!"

"Professor McGonagall told us to-"

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" That was Fred.

But Ron's shouts were the loudest, and they held the answers.

"Black! Sirius Black! Here, with a knife! He slashed the curtains- then he yelled- then I did- and then he ran for it!"

Then there was more yelling.

"Ridiculous!"

"Lies!"

"You just had a nightmare-"

"No!" Ron yelled back.

Professor McGonagall suddenly stormed through the portrait hole with her hair down and her tartan dressing gown on.

"What on earth is going on? I told you all-"

"Sorry Professor," Percy stepped forward, as if he was above everyone else and this was none of his doing. "My brother Ron here had a nightmare-"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron bellowed, tired of people ignoring him. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, MY CURTAINS WERE SLASHED, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS THERE, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

The shocked silence that followed held only Ron's heavy breaths and McGonagall saying, "That is preposterous Weasley, how on earth could he have gotten through the portrait hole?"

"I don't know! I was too busy dodging the knife!" Ron protested.

"Percy? Have you seen Sir Cadogan?"

Percy looked round and quickly pointed at the knight. "He's up there, Professor."

McGonagall walked towards the portrait. "Sir Cadogan? Sir Cadogan?"

He stopped fighting with his pony and went into a low bow. "How can I help you ma'am?"

"Excuse me, is it possible that you let a mysterious man into Gryffindor Tower tonight?" She asked as he moved pictures at a quick pace.

"Certainly, good lady, he, and a woman as well, they had the password," he said as he knocked over loads of chess pieces. "They had the whole week's as well written down, on a bit of paper."

Rosalyn gasped. Black was with the same woman as the night he tried to get into Gryffindor tower.

McGonagall, meanwhile, chose to ignore this news, and spun round, looking icy. "Which person- which abysmally foolish person wrote down the passwords for this week, then left them lying around?"

Neville raised his quivering hand into the air.

McGonagall sighed. "Is it always going to be you Longbottom?"

Rosalyn said, "no it isn't," under her breath. Snape bullied Neville enough, she didn't need McGonagall to start.

"Now," McGonagall said, walking back. "I speak for the entire staff when I say that while we take every precaution to keep you safe, it is a responsibility placed upon yourselves that you choose to act responsibly, understood?"

Everyone said that they did, but Rosalyn thought that Fred and George would have to work hard to stick to McGonagall's rules. And they didn't stick to rules.

Once the crowd had cleared somewhat Ron rounded on Hermione. "And I couldn't find Scabbers tonight either, because your bloody cat ate him!"

"That's a lie!"

"It is not and you bloody well know it!"

Ron stormed off and Rosalyn yelled after him. "You got some proof, Ron? No? Well, come back to us when you do!"

Ron didn't turn back but Hermione said, "Thanks Rosie," in a low voice.

As she walked back up the stairs, she thought about Sirius Black. How close he had been. She was set on killing him, and she was going to.

Well, she actually didn't know who she was more angry at these days.

Black...

Or the woman that, she presumed, had called her mother a 'sister'.

And who was now running along with the person who had killed her.