The second half of the year had flown by. The investigation to know what was really going on with Rena had come to a slight halt, but Jane nor Sierra had put it to rest until they had an answer.  Sierra held tightly to Jane as they boarded the train to the platform. There was that hug of reassurance that she needed everytime she had to step foot in her home. Rena had already gone home, after all, they all had seen that her mother was in fact very ill and they didn't know how long they had before she would pass. The four girls hoped it was longer than what the doctors had told her. 

"Spend the summer with me," Jane whispered as Petra sat across them, spread on the bench. "We can hang out, I know Mum would love to see you again." 

"My mother would kill me."

"I'll make my mother ask her. Besides, they know each other." Sierra shuddered at the idea of her evil spawn of a mother meeting the most gentle and compassionate woman that Euphemia Potter was. 

"Jane, my mother doesn't like your mum."

"And my mum doesn't like her back." Sierra chuckled. "I hate how you try to hide how you're feeling. It's obvious." 

"Well I can't do anything about it, okay? I'm underage. Way underage, and if anything were to happen. My mother will target your parents first." 

"They can go suck on a troll's toe." 

_

The following week, Walburga had received the letter, Orion fought with his wife, Regan had gotten her Hogwarts letter and Sierra was cursed until she could not feel her legs. Just like that, she silently cured herself with the help of Kreacher, much to his dislike, and got her bags to spend the last days at the Potter household. It didn't matter at the end of the day what her mother did. It was not going to stop her from going. When she walked up to the front, Sierra knocked loudly. The door opened just to be received with open arms by Euphemia. She stood stiffly, wondering if she was going to punish her for even stepping out of her house without the full permission of Walburga.

"I was just about to drag you out of that home myself." Sierra hugged her tightly and smiled. "Go ahead, dear. Your bed is all ready for you." There was something about Euphemia that Sierra liked. It wasn't just the fact that the woman was gentle and kind to a friend of her daughter, but that she was not like her parents, obviously. Sierra knew that the Potters were part of the Scared Twenty Eight, but just like the Weasley family, they did not care who was who. It was the ideal family that Sierra had wanted and found it, even if it wasn't blood.  Jane was already waiting for her in the guest room while holding two brooms, one on each hand.

"What are you doing, Potter?" Sierra put down her bags and put her hair down, ready for whatever Jane had planned.

"Quidditch try-outs. We need practice." 

"You? We? Quidditch? Are you barking bad?" Jane shrugged and tossed the broom right at her. It was an instant reflex that Sierra already had her hand out, ready to grab the broom by its stick. "Okay, let's do it." 

_ 

Never had she been so conflicted. Sierra gripped onto her robes as Regan entered the Great Hall with the rest of the first years, ready to be sorted. The nervousness she was feeling right now had by far passed the nervousness she felt when it was her sorting. Deep down, Sierra wanted her sister to follow her footsteps. Maybe it would be the straw to actually have their parents change their views on others. It was all she wished for.

-

Regan looked around, trying to find her sister. Wanting to feel some type of reassurance. When they made eye contact, Sierra only gave her a smile and a thumbs up before looking like she was a ticking time bomb. 

- 

"Regan Black" Sierra grabbed onto Petra's hand, who was staring right at the young Black sister as she walked to the stool and slowly sat down. Once the hat was rested on top of her head, Sierra was almost standing up. Jane had placed her hand on her leg, trying to quit them from bouncing. When the sorting hat yelled out the house that her sister was sorted, Sierra wanted to cry of happiness.  Regan looked at her once more before walking to the table where her housemates had received her with very open arms. 

"I'm sorry, Siri," Jane whispered as the sorting continued.Petra nodded and held onto her hand. 

"Don't be. I'm happy."  Rena, Petra and Jane looked at her as if she had grown another head. 

"Happy?"

"Of course. Little Reggie is a Slytherin. She is exactly what she needed to be." It was a sense of protection that had come over Sierra. Deep down, she never wanted Regan to be sorted into a house that wasn't Slytherin. There was no way that she would be able to endure to watch her little sister pass through the same torture she was going through. Regan had saved herself from the wrath of their mother. Regan was exactly who she needed to be, something that she could never be. "I have a snake as a sister. How does the food chain work?" Rena fixed her headband before answering. 

"Let's just say that you better wish that Regan has no venom." 

"Little Reggie?" SIerra looked at her sister once again, laughing and making conversation with the other Slytherin girls. "I don't think so." 

Arriving at the dormitory, Sierra made it possible for one last letter to arrive at her sister's hands. She ripped a piece of paper and grabbed her quill. writing a few words, she called an elf to deliver the letter.

Congratulations Reggie. 

-

From that day, the Black sisters' relationship began to die as a flower with no water. While they both knew that they had to be reunited when they were demanded to be at home, in school grounds, they were strangers. Regan and Sierra Black were no longer the girls that grew up close or the girls who got their clean white sock dirty together. The laughter and all-nighters in each other's bedrooms were a tale in the past. On Regan's first year and Sierra's third year at Hogwarts, the bracelet on their wrist was the only object that kept them together.