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THE REST OF CHRISTMAS BREAK PASSED BY rather uneventfully, and soon enough, January had arrived and it was time for the start of the next term. Fred, George, Flynn, Lee, and Lisa all returned from their Christmas holidays, thankful for their Christmas gifts and not at all ready to start classes again. The night before classes resumed, the group gathered in the Gryffindor common room, clustered in the corner next to the fireplace.

In the circle, Robyn sat on the floor, leaning her head against Fred's leg, who was sitting in the chair beside her. George sat in the seat next to him, followed by Lee, Rose, Lisa, and Flynn, who completed the circle in various seated positions on the floor of the common room.

"How was your Christmas, Lee?" Lisa asked.

"Not too eventful, my parents wanted to stay home this year, what with all this..." Lee trailed off, eyes flashing over to look momentarily at Flynn, "...business."

Flynn took a deep breath and sighed. "Makes sense," she said darkly, as though she was trying to pass off that she was entirely okay with Lee's comment. "Fred, George? What about you?"

"It was just us, Perce, and Ginny this year," George replied.

"Yeah, Bill and Charlie had already taken part of the summer off when we went to Egypt, so they couldn't come back for Christmas," Fred added. He reached down and gave Robyn's head a pat. "What'd you get up to, Robbie?"

"Wait!" Lisa exclaimed. "Is it true Harry got a Firebolt for Christmas? Did you see it?"

Robyn and Rose grinned and nodded, and Fred, George, and Flynn let out a collective gasp of excitement. At that moment, however, a bushy-haired, brown-eyed third year strode past. Hermione Granger gave the group a deathly gaze as she walked by.

"The broom is going to Professor McGonagall," the group heard Hermione say over her shoulder. "Might've been jinxed by Sirius Black, you know."

Rose looked back at the third-year Gryffindor with a sour look on her face. "Did you already give it to McGonagall, or were you planning on actually telling Harry first?"

Hermione scoffed. "It was obviously from Sirius Black, which means this is a matter of life and death, Rosaline."

Flynn scowled, glaring over at the bushy-haired girl who stood at the bottom of the stairs. "Doubtful it came from him, Hermione," she called back. "Rotten bastard didn't get me anything, why would he get Harry something?"

Lisa's face fell. "Actually, about that..."

Flynn's head whipped back around to stare at Lisa, her brown eyes flashing. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," she snapped. Lisa shook her head silently and reached into her bookbag, pulling out a small box wrapped in red and green paper. The tag, which was looped around a bow and hanging off the side of the package, read with a scrawled, urgent script:

Flynn Yaneva Black.

Robyn lifted an eyebrow in suspicion. "It doesn't say who it's from?"

Lisa shook her head again. "Other than Flynn's name, it's unlabeled. I went down early Christmas morning before you woke up, Flynn, just to take a look at everything. I saw it and assumed it was from your dad and...I hid it. I didn't want to ruin your Christmas, but I shouldn't have kept it as long as I have. I'm sorry." Lisa looked down to avoid making eye contact with Flynn's enraged gaze, but there was no need. Flynn's gaze softened, and she held her hand out to take the gift.

"Thanks for looking out for me, Lise," Flynn said. "I mean, yeah, it probably would've ruined my Christmas, but I've got no issues opening it now." She began to tear open the paper on the package, leaving strips of red and green across the hardwood floor.

"Don't you think we should make sure Black didn't curse it or something?" George asked cautiously.

"I'm aware he's a murderous raving lunatic, George, but what kind of psychopath curses his own daughter?" Flynn replied.

"The same kind of psychopath who'd curse his own godson," Robyn muttered. At that, Flynn abruptly stopped unwrapping the gift and set the box on the floor, carefully lifting her hands up and away from the package. Robyn looked over at Flynn, whose uneasy gaze met her own.

Flynn set her arms down. "You're probably right," she said quietly. "McGonagall should take a look at this before we do anything else. FUCK!" Flynn clenched her hands into fists and slammed them onto the floor. Across the room, a second-year Gryffindor jumped with a frightened squeak.

The group fell silent for several moments as they watched Flynn hesitantly. Robyn hated that she felt like she had to be so careful around one of her best friends, but this situation with Flynn's father had changed her this year, and Robyn was growing more uncertain of what to do. Robyn met Rose and Lisa's concerned gazes, and the three seemed to pass a silent conversation between each other, unsure of how to help their friend. Robyn could tell Lisa regretted telling Flynn about the gift, but Robyn disagreed. It was better for her to know and be upset than leave her in the dark, blissfully but dangerously ignorant.

With that thought, however, Robyn felt a sharp pain rush through her body as she realized her own hypocrisy. The circumstances are completely different, she reasoned with herself. Harry going to Hogsmeade is entirely harmless, but Flynn needs to be concerned about her father–

"So... changing the subject, here, what did you two do while you were here for Christmas?" Fred spoke up, interrupting Robyn's thoughts. She turned to him, grateful to move past the uncomfortable feeling of not quite being able to justify her own deceit.

"Rose and I spent a lot of time together," Robyn replied with a small smile, giving Rose a knowing look as she watched Flynn take a sip of water. "I think she missed Oliver, though. Kept going on and on about his broomsti–"

Lisa shrieked and nearly fell out of her chair. Flynn spat her water out all over the floor, and Fred, George, and Lee all gave each other amused glances as they laughed. Even Rose began to laugh, shaking so hard that Anastasia leapt from her lap and strutted across the room in annoyance.

"Please," said Lee between laughs, "we all know Rose is the only one who can raise Oliver's 'Wood'!"

Rose cackled, stomping her feet against the floor as she tried to take a breath. "He really has the most unfortunate name!" Lisa let out another shriek and nearly fell into Flynn, who had to wipe tears from her face from laughing so hard.

In between the smiles and jokes, Robyn felt a swell of gratitude that she was still able to distract Flynn from everything being thrown her way. For now, the horrors of reality could be abated. She was safe from Sirius Black.

That could wait for tomorrow.

◆◆◆

WITH THE O.W.L.s ONLY A FEW MONTHS AWAY, Robyn began to feel the stress of the workload placed on her by her professors. Though it was only January and the examinations were not until June, Snape had already begun assigning lengthy review essays over the effectiveness of various psychedelic potions, Professor Sprout required three extra hours of time working in the greenhouses each week, and Professor McGonagall sent home seven different items to Transfigure into different types of clockwork. Only Professor Lupin seemed to understand the heavy demands placed on his students and had only assigned optional weekly review practicals for students to take if they pleased.

Naturally, Robyn took every single one.

After just the first week of classes, Robyn couldn't bear to stare at the library walls any longer. She'd sat and studied every day in there, memorizing the names of the books that lined the shelves and the unique sound of different students' footsteps across the wood floors. The smell of aged parchment lingered for hours after Robyn would leave the library, and she was almost certain she'd started to hear Madame Pince shushing people in her dreams. Desperate to get that horrifying noise out of her nightmares, Robyn opted to join her friends in the Gryffindor common room after classes one evening. She didn't particularly enjoy group studying, but it was better than the library at that point.

In their usual circle around the fireplace, Robyn, Flynn, Lisa, Fred, George, and Lee compiled all their materials in the middle of the circle and sorted them by class. Each took a different class, and every half hour, they switched. It turned out to be surprisingly efficient, until Lisa erupted into tears over her Potions essay.

"I-I just don't understand it! Oh, Merlin, I'm gonna get a Troll in this exam, aren't I? Robyn, can you help me?" Lisa slammed her stack of parchment down on the floor and threw her quill across the room. Robyn watched as it soared right past George's ear and straight into the fireplace behind him.

"Again with asking Robyn for help? You have a perfectly good boyfriend here who's entirely willing to ignore his own work for you," George said before waving his wand and muttering, "Wingardium leviosa." George lifted the quill, which was now on fire, out of the fireplace and onto the marble floor. "Aguamenti. Reparo."

He picked up the drenched – albeit not burned anymore – quill and handed it back to Lisa, who took it meekly. She began to wipe the water off of it with her sweater sleeve and muttered a quiet and embarrassed, "Thank you."

"Of course I'll help you, Lise, just give me one second," said Robyn, scribbling down the remainder of a sentence about hex-deflection for a Defense Against the Dark Arts practical. Setting her parchment and quill down, Robyn slid over to sit next to Lisa and picked up the essay she had been writing. Skimming over it, she noticed that while the paper on the various uses of a bezoar was decently written, Lisa had failed to cite any of her textbooks as sources within the essay, an infraction worthy of a Troll grade in Snape's Potions class.

George slunk back into his seat next to the fireplace and shook his head, a tiny smirk growing across his face. "Miss Potter," he said as the smirk sprouted into a devilish grin, "you will regret this."

Robyn didn't remove her gaze from the essay, but watched out of the corner of her eye as Lisa laughed and threw her quill back at George, who managed to catch it this time. "Get back to your own work," she said. "Last I recall, you still had an entire Divination essay to write?"

"Lise, as long as I put words on the parchment, I'll be fine. They don't even have to make sense. Nothing in that class does." George lifted Lisa's quill and dramatically began to scribble words on his roll of parchment; however, Robyn doubted he was actually writing nonsense in his essay. Had it been Fred, then perhaps, but George's bark was much worse than his bite.

Nonsense or not, Robyn chose instead to devote her attention to her friend's essay rather than indulge in George's distracting antics. O.W.L. season was upon them. It was time to take things seriously.

◆◆◆

LATE NIGHTS DESPISE EARLY MORNINGS, and though the O.W.L.s demanded long hours of studying that kept Robyn and the others awake until after midnight, their professors still required attendance to their morning classes. Though Robyn found this entirely hypocritical and unfair, she couldn't bring herself to skip class, even if she really did need the extra sleep.

After getting ready for the day, donning her usual red jumper over her robes, Robyn joined Flynn and Lisa as they went downstairs to the common room to meet up with the boys for breakfast. Waiting next to the fireplace stood Fred, George, and Lee, quietly bickering among themselves.

"It's only seven in the morning, what could you possibly be fighting about?" Robyn asked incredulously.

Fred stopped mid-sentence and turned to face her, giving her a wide grin. "If you must know, Miss Robbie, while you were writing essays and being a 'good student' last night, Lee and I were working on a new idea for the Ton-Tongue Toffee prototype. George doesn't think it'll work, but we've just about convinced him to try it anyway."

Robyn ignored the use of her most hated nickname, then looked at George, ready to ask them to elaborate, but Lisa cut her off before she could. Lisa walked up to George to give her boyfriend a good-morning kiss; however, instead of receiving the kiss she anticipated, George gently pushed Lisa back with the palm of his hand. Robyn's confused gaze shot between the couple as she watched a stunned pout form across her friend's face.

"No, absolutely not," George said defiantly, folding his arms and smirking. "No kisses for Lisa Potter, not after that act of pure betrayal last night." He looked almost triumphant, as though he was proud of himself for actually following through on his threat from the night before.

Lisa scoffed and folded her arms in return. "It wasn't anything against you, we all know Robyn's the best in Potions in our year. If I need help in Charms, I'll come to you, okay, babe?"

George raised an eyebrow. "But you're good at Charms."

"Don't ruin my efforts here."

With Lisa's final retort, George cracked and began to laugh, leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead. "Alright, you win. This time."

From beside Robyn, Flynn let out a dry laugh. "Okay, lovebirds, can we eat? I'm starving, and we have Potions in less than an hour."

The group nodded in agreement and began their descent through the corridors to the Great Hall for breakfast. As they walked, Robyn couldn't help but think about how happy George and Lisa were. Their relationship was so carefree, so full of joy and laughter. She felt a sharp pang in her chest as she tried to envision a life like that for herself and realized she just couldn't bring herself to do it. What she'd give to be in George and Lisa's shoes and just...know, already, who she was meant to be with.

Robyn glanced up from staring at her shoes and met Fred's curious gaze. He smiled. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Nothing," Robyn replied quickly. A single ginger eyebrow shot up on Fred's suspicious face, and Robyn felt her heartbeat increase as she tried to come up with an excuse for zoning out. "I–I couldn't stop thinking about what you mentioned earlier about the Ton-Tongue Toffee. All this O.W.L. shit going on, I don't think we've worked on it since before Christmas."

Robyn watched as Fred's face lit up with excitement. Oh, thank Merlin, Robyn thought, grateful she'd been able to divert his attention. Though, honestly, it wasn't usually that hard.

"Well, if you'd like, allow me to enlighten you on mine and Lee's idea, and please, please try to like it more than George does." As they rounded the corner and entered the Great Hall, Fred launched into a long, almost presentation-like explanation of the recipe he and Lee had formulated. This description lasted half the duration of breakfast, all the while Robyn made mental notes of various ingredients they would need to gather and adjustments they would need to make to the measurements, struggling to remember how Fred and Lee's new idea compared to their original recipe and wondering how Fred already had it all memorized. Once he finished, Fred stared at Robyn expectantly with large brown eyes, waiting impatiently for her feedback.

Taking a moment to finish her bite of sausage, Robyn pretended to think very carefully about his proposal. In truth, she was fairly certain she had identified one glaringly large problem with their proposed new recipe:

"I think removing the boomslang skin is a mistake."

Fred's jaw dropped. "Are you serious? All of that and that's what you focus on?" He looked over at Lee, and the two briefly shared a dejected look before Fred turned back to Robyn. "Okay, fine. Why?"

Robyn sighed and set her fork down, resigned to the fact that she would not be finishing her breakfast this morning. "It's one of the basic properties of boomslang skin and the basic functionality of the product. If we want the human body to be able to stretch and change, and I'm pretty sure the tongue counts in that, we are going to need the reagent with that property. And that would be boomslang skin."

"But, no, we accounted for that!" Lee argued back. Fred nodded in agreement, and the two began to bicker with Robyn about combinations of ingredients that could substitute for the boomslang skin, and their conversation carried them back out of the Great Hall and through the corridors towards their first class of the day.

As the group maneuvered the hallways towards the dungeons, they passed by Rose and Oliver, who were walking towards them from the kitchens holding hands. Robyn sent Rose a subtle wink, and her Hufflepuff friend shot her a friendly glare in return.

The day seemed to crawl by at an agonizingly slow pace, as Potions dragged on far longer than usual, History of Magic fulfilled its duty as the only class at Hogwarts to feel like it made time literally slow down, and even Care of Magical Creatures felt dull, as Hagrid was still nervous to show them any interesting animals since he sent Draco Malfoy to the Hospital Wing on the first day. But finally, the day grinded to an end, and the only thing Robyn had left to do that day was drop off her completed Defense Against the Dark Arts review practical.

Robyn parted from her friends as they reentered the Main Hall after class and made her way down the corridors to Professor Lupin's office. Once she approached, she peeked her head in the room and knocked on the open door, redirecting her professor's attention away from the stack of papers on his desk.

"Good afternoon, Robyn," Lupin said, adjusting the stack of papers and setting it to the side. "Come on in."

Robyn stepped inside the doorframe, but didn't make a move towards the desk. Without warning, an overwhelming feeling swept over her, as though a very heavy weight had been suddenly draped across her shoulders. She lifted her assignment weakly, for even the parchment now felt impossibly heavy. Robyn took several deep breaths, desperately trying to shove down the desire, the urge, the need to inquire about her mother. The questions had stewed over the duration of Christmas break, and this was the first opportunity she'd had since the start of term to ask any of them. The pressure building inside her chest was near unbearable.

"I'm just here to turn this in," she said, holding out the parchment for Lupin to take. He eyed her skeptically, but took the assignment and set it on his desk.

"Thank you," Lupin replied shortly.

The two stood in awkward silence for several moments. Robyn could feel the pressure climbing up to her ears, pushing against her eardrums, and though she didn't want to pry at a potentially sensitive topic for him, she just had to know.

"Professor Lupin?" Robyn blurted out suddenly.

"Yes?"

She took a deep breath. "Did my father kill Amber...my mother? Was he supposed to have killed me, too?"

Lupin froze. He stared at her in shock, green eyes wide and jaw slightly dropped open. He remained like that for a few moments, before he finally broke the silence. "How do you know that?"

Robyn hesitated for a moment, but quickly realized there was really no going back now. "I overheard some people talking about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre at the Three Broomsticks before Christmas. And some of those things they were talking about, it can't all be a coincidence. It was in Cokeworth, where I'm from. Then there's Abraham, that's where my last name comes from. Amber, which you said was my mom's name. The baby, who wasn't more than a few days old? I was born 2 days before St. Valentine's Day of 1978. Professor Lupin, is that about me? What is going on? If it is about me, then why the hell am I alive?" Robyn spoke so fast she didn't even realize she'd sworn at a professor until a few moments later. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she muttered a quick "sorry," abruptly ending her interrogation.

Lupin took a deep breath and nodded, gesturing his hand to the chair in front of his desk. Slowly, Robyn approached the desk and took a seat, though she could feel herself shaking slightly with every movement. She didn't meet his eyes, instead choosing to stare at her assignment on the table.

"Honestly, Robyn, I didn't believe it for a while. It makes no sense how you would be alive. It raises more questions than it does answers. But, yes, that is you. That I have no question of. You are the spitting image of your mother." Robyn finally looked up from the desk to see that Lupin's eyes had filled with tears. "I don't know how you survived, but for fifteen years I thought my niece had been murdered before I'd even had the chance to meet her."

Robyn paused. "Niece?"

Lupin nodded, smiling slightly. "Your mother was my older sister. That makes you my niece, Robyn."

Robyn's jaw dropped. Her stomach lurched violently, and she abruptly stood up, unsure if she regretted asking those questions or if she just wasn't ready to confront the answer, and she didn't really know which one she'd rather it be. All she knew is that she needed out.

Now.

"I have to think about this for a minute," Robyn said hurriedly, making a lunge for the doorway. She stumbled out of the stuffy office room and into the open corridor, desperate to catch her breath. Robyn ran for a distance, navigating through the empty hallways until she was sure she'd lost Lupin. She dropped to the floor and rocked backwards into the wall with a slight thud, her heart racing so fast she could feel it pounding against the side of her head. The pressure that had built up in her chest felt disjointed and uneven, as though the news was both relieving and unbelievably burdensome. She tried to focus on breathing, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't manage to take a deep breath, and so she instead resorted to rapid, shallow breaths. Regardless, there was no chance she was moving from her position on the floor, leaning up against the wall like her life depended on it.

A soft meow and the jingle of bells echoed from the other end of the corridor, followed by a set of familiar heavy footsteps. The footsteps briefly slowed, then began to hurry as they grew louder and louder.

"Robyn?" A calm but concerned voice filled the space around her, overlapping with the sounds of her own breathing. "Robyn, are you okay?"

The cat meowed again, nuzzling her head into Robyn's side. The feeling of the soft fur grounded her for a moment, and Robyn looked up to see a very concerned Rose kneeling over her, one hand on her shoulder and the other on the floor next to her.

Anastasia clambered up onto Robyn's lap, curling up and purring softly. Robyn felt her breaths begin to slow back down as she watched the cat, reaching a hand up to scratch behind her ears.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked again. Robyn looked back over to her friend and gave a slight nod. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk about what had happened just yet, and she'd rather focus on her breathing instead.

Rose turned and sat down on the floor next to her. She grabbed Robyn's hand, and Robyn held it firmly back. The two sat in silence for a minute as Robyn worked to regulate her breathing, one hand clasped in Rose's, the other petting the purring cat.

After a few more moments, Rose asked gently, "What can I do for you right now?"

Robyn took a deep breath, then sighed. "Can you help me back to Gryffindor Tower?"

Rose nodded and Robyn let go of her hand. She climbed to her feet and extended an arm to help Robyn up. Anastasia jumped off Robyn's lap and padded her way a few feet down the corridor, already waiting on them to catch up. Robyn stood up and the two walked to Gryffindor Tower in silence, guided by the guardian cat Anastasia the whole way there.