I don't think I'd ever gotten out of bed so quickly.

Fred and I dashed hand-in-hand after my sister down the cool hotel room corridor, who was practically crushing the Daily Prophet in her hand. We burst into the dining area of the hotel room, where the Weasley's were having breakfast.

Everybody looked quite grim, most especially George who rose to his feet when the three of us appeared. He had been the one to have the paper delivered, Fred had told me, to keep up on Quidditch scores—so was the first one to see the news.

"When did it happen?" I asked the room, hoping for a response, my voice breaking. Sasha hadn't said a word since showing us the paper headline, so I knew literally nothing.

Molly Weasley rose to her feet with a motherly expression on her face. If she was surprised about Fred and I holding hands, she didn't show it. Of course, there were more important things to be discussed.

"He escaped the early hours of this morning," Mrs Weasley was trying to sound calm, but instead it was as if talking to a wounded animal. "There's a muggle phone set up in the room—Cara said she'd ring as soon as she knew anything—"

"We're speaking to her NOW." Sasha said firmly.

She looked frazzled, her hair extra curly from the humidity and in her hurry was only wearing a strappy vest top and shorts. While I had other things on my mind, I was glad to see the scars on her left arm were red—but clearly healing.

"Molly," Arthur got to his feet and placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. "The girls are concerned—they need some reassurance."

Sasha and I nodded in sync, like bobble heads. "The muggle phone is in our room," Ginny piped up, the timid-ness in her voice from the Chamber of Secrets evaporated. "Ron tried to ring Harry the other day... He spoke too loud, but he knows how to use the buttons."

Deciding not to tell Ginny that because of our muggle-born mother we knew how to use a phone, I managed a grateful smile. "Thank you, Ginny."

Ginny and Ron offered to take us to their room to use the phone, which I suspected was half being-kind and half being-nosy. Fred gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and an encouraging squeeze of the hand.

"I thought nobody had escaped Azkaban?" I asked Sasha quietly as Ron and Ginny were oddly silent as we went back into the stretching corridor.

Sasha shrugged. She looked on edge. "Guess he managed somehow."

Ron and Ginny's bedroom were messy as to be expected, and they dutifully waited in the corridor as Sasha dialled Remus' home number. I was grateful that he was hooked up to muggle television and phone lines.

We huddled on the floor by the telephone cord, Sasha holding the head-set between the two of us so we could both speak to Mum. It rang only twice before Mum answered.

"Girls?" Mum sounded worried.

"Mummy!" Sasha cried, and burst into tears. Suddenly I felt like I was the older sister—I'd yet to cry, I was so worried about the circumstances of Dad's escape, and where he was heading.

"It's alright, it's alright girls..." Mum's voice sounded heavy, as if she'd been crying. "I told Molly I'd ring you when I heard anything... I want you to enjoy your holiday."

"We wanted to speak to you!" I managed to say over Sasha's noisy tears, wrapping my arm around her as if I could hold her together. "This is important! What exactly happened?"

Mum sniffed loudly down the phone, which indicated that she was probably crying too. "He escaped about two in the morning, they think... Dementors patrol between quarter past and half past the hour.... He was there at half past one. Cell was empty, door locked... They don't know how he did it."

"Where is he?" I asked. "Do you think he's trying to prove his innocence."

Mum swore loudly down the phone, very unlike her. "Well at this point, it doesn't matter whether he killed those muggles and Peter or not! He escaped from Azkaban, Lyra—do you understand what that means?" It means when they find him they'll give him the Dementors Kiss—"

"Mum," Sasha's voice was sharp, back to older-sister mode, as I took a deep breath, tears finally starting to pool in my eyes. The Dementor's Kiss? That was the worst thing they could do to you. "She's only thirteen, stop it."

Mum was silent for a few moments and sniffed again. "I'm sorry Lyra."

"It's okay." My voice was thick with the effort of trying not to cry. "It's probably going to happen..."

"The Ministry have been questioning me since half past two in the morning..." Mum sounded irritated now. "They only let me go at half five, and that's only because they didn't want people to see me in the Ministry after the Prophet was published... They think I helped him escape."

"What?" We both cried. "That's ridiculous!"

"I know." Mum's voice was grim. "But I am still his wife... But girls, I don't want you to worry. The Ministry don't think he's coming for the both of you."

The words sent a shiver up my spine. There was a deeper meaning to that. "Who do they think he's coming for then?"

Mum was silent for so long that I thought the line had disconnected. "Tell us, Mum. We'll find out one way or another." Sasha said.

Mum took a deep breath. "Well, after we left the prison he was muttering in his sleep, the human guards said. He's at Hogwarts, He's at Hogwarts."

"I don't get it." I frowned. "Who's at Hogwarts?"

"Harry. They think Sirius escaped to kill Harry."

**

We spoke to Mum until our voices were hoarse. She didn't say outright that she agreed with the Ministry, but she told us she agreed with extra security they were going to have at Hogwarts (if Dad hadn't been caught by then) which said otherwise.

Mum also forbade us from coming home. She told us it'd be safe, since the Ministry was sniffing around her and our house. Still, I felt bad enjoying myself when Mum was being interrogated and harassed without us there.

"Do you think Dad would want to hurt Harry?" I asked Sasha that night in bed. We'd squished into one of the beds together, so close our knees knocked.

Sasha was quiet for so long I thought she'd dozed off. "I don't know. I mean... he got angry at the prison."

"That doesn't mean he'd hurt Harry!" my temper flared up again, as it had been all day. I'd snapped at Ron when he hadn't passed me the salt, and I'd felt terrible about it. "Harry's family!"

Sasha grabbed my face so tight that my cheeks squished against my nose. "Harry's our family, not Dad's. He's been away for twelve years. He doesn't know Harry, he doesn't know us. For all we know, he could just be looking for Harry... I know he kept asking Mum about him when she visited last year..."

Feeling a bit calmer, I shook Sasha's grip off me. "Maybe that crazy Novak guy wound Dad up... said Harry was going to be hurt! Maybe that's it!"

Sasha had a thoughtful look on her face. "Maybe... But surely he could have just written to Mum?"

Annoyed, I wriggled out of Sasha's grip and rolled over. "Whatever... You just want Dad to be a bad person, don't you? It'd make things easier."

Sasha kicked me in the leg. "Well you want him to be good. That would just make things complicated. Not to mention fucked up."

"I can literally heal people from the brink of death... I think I can handle a bit more fucked up... Especially if it brings Dad back to us."

Sasha climbed out of my bed and went into hers without a word.

**

The next month passed as time does: slowly when you want it to speed up, and fast when you want it to slow down. While I was eager to return home to Mum and Remus, see how they were doing, I was quite enjoying the bubble of Egypt.

The Weasley's treated Sasha and I like our own children, which made us both content. Sasha and I had ignored each other after our fight for a couple of days, before agreeing to just stop discussing Dad. This made things easier.

He was still at large, which Mum told us on the phone was infuriating the Ministry to no end. I couldn't decide if this was good or bad. It was good because Dad was clearly far away from the Dementor's and their kiss, and yet... why hadn't he gone to visit Mum yet?

"Stop worrying about things that are out of your control," Fred told me after I confessed my anxieties to him for about a week solid. "I know that's hard because you're you, but I'm sure your Dad has some sort of plan."

Fred and I were closer than ever, one reason I was going to be sad to leave Egypt. We swam and had water fights in the hotel pool, we wandered into ancient Pyramids together, and most often than not curled up together like cats at night: Sasha and George being our number one supporters.

But soon time was whirring on—whoosh, went Harry's birthday (I sent him a box of Egyptian sweets and new Quidditch boots), whoosh went Ginny's birthday (Sasha and I baked her a birthday cake) and whoosh came our final day in the hotel.

Sasha and I hugged each of the Weasley's in turn, though Percy was a bit reluctant. I'd joined in with the twins, Sasha and Ron when they'd tried to lock him inside a Pyramid and he still wasn't too happy about it.

"You'll both have to visit us next summer," Mrs Weasley said as she squished my sister and I into a bone-crushing hug.

Looking through her arm I saw Fred talking to George with a laugh. A year seemed very far away.

Mrs Weasley seemed to feel my look towards her son, as she whispered in my ear, "Don't worry, dear. I have a good feeling you'll both still be together. Fred dotes on you."

Beaming, I pulled away from the hug. "Well then I'll definitely come and visit!"

Fred was the last one I said goodbye to. He pulled me into an air-tight hug to his chest, and I breathed in his scent the sound of his heart comforting somehow.

"I'll miss you, golden girl." He mumbled into my hair.

"Don't be silly, we'll see each other in a few days." It was a full moon the night before Hogwarts, so Mum had arranged with the Weasley's for us to stay in the Leaky Cauldron with them. It was also an opportunity to get our school books.

"But that's agessssss away," Fred pouted. "I've got used to having you around."

"I know, it's sickening," George grumbled, and I smiled into Fred's chest. "I need a girlfriend."

Fred and I both laughed, and he gave me a quick kiss, mostly for the benefit of his entire family and my sister watching. "Don't get into magical comas before I see you again. Otherwise, I will be slightly annoyed at your tactic to skip school."

Rolling my eyes, I hitched my backpack up my shoulders. "I'll try my hardest... but all my friends seem to almost die."

"That's morbid," Sasha made a little tsk noise of annoyance. "C'mon, Lyra. We need to go."

With one last wave, Sasha stepped into the lobby fire and disappeared. Taking one last look back, I stepped into the fire, letting flames engulf me, and the bubble or normality popped.

When we arrived at the Ministry Floo Network, Mum and Remus were waiting for us. While they both looked exhausted, something seemed different. Remus' robes looked less shabby, and Mum was wearing her fancier day robes.

"Girls!" she squealed as Sasha and I appeared out of our respective fires. She opened her arms, and the both of us ran into them.

I'd missed her so much the last few months, I allowed myself to rub my nose against the soft material of her robe and breathe in her perfume. But as soon as the embrace began, it ended.

"Cara, we need to go, now." Remus said, and he looked worried. It was then I noticed at the end of the Floo Network entrance a bunch of journalists and wizard photographers.

My stomach dropped. They'd come here to try and interview us, see how we were reacting to our father's escape. Feeling cold all over, I pulled my thin jacket closer around me as Remus led the way though the journalists.

"Sasha! Lyra! Cara!" our names were repeated over and over as Remus pushed through the throng of the crowd. Flashes of bulbs exploded around us like ammunition, and anxiety began to gnaw my throat open.

"Girls, how do you feel that your father has escaped?"

"Did your mother help him escape? Does she know where he is?"

"Do you think he'll kill again?"

These questions and hundreds other jumbled together into a broth of gossip and sensationalism, but Mum had told us to keep quiet, so that's what we did.

Eventually we got into the Atrium of the Ministry and we safely apparated home. Nobody spoke until the four of us were sat around the shabby kitchen table with freshly made cups of tea and cookies, Sooty lapping his milk by my feet.

"I didn't realise it was this crazy around here," Sasha spoke first, playing with the ends of her curls. She'd reverted to them during the summer, and I much preferred it. "Has there been a lot of shit about Dad?"

Mum shrugged. "The Ministry have finally stopped questioning me, so that's something..."

Remus cleared his throat. "But enough about that... Girls, your mother and I have some good news for you."

Narrowing my eyes, I looked between them. "Have you gotten together or something?"

Remus and Mum looked at each other and both burst into laughter. "Gods, no!" Remus smiled. "We've both found jobs!"

Sasha and I automatically chorused into congratulations, but they were mostly aimed at Remus. He hadn't had a job since my first year at Hogwarts when he'd been in a boring Ministry office position for a while.

"Where is it?" Sasha asked, practically buzzing with excitement. "Where are both of the jobs?"

Mum and Remus exchanged a look, before turning back to us looking perfectly smug. "Hogwarts."

Sasha and I burst into noisy questions, and we were given answers. Remus had been approached by Dumbledore to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Mum had been approached to be the History of Magic teacher.

"Binns was getting sick of teaching," Mum explained. "He wants to move on—well, in the ghostly way. Dumbledore offered it to me last year but obviously... well there were other things going on. I think now is the right time."

Anxiety crept into my brain like a slug, leaving a trail of panicky questions. Was Mum only taking this job to keep an eye on us because Dad had escaped Azkaban—did she want the job? And Remus, what about him? The job was said to be cursed—what if he got hurt? What if people discovered about his condition and drove him out of the school?

But my worries were drowned out, and I was dragged into reality as Mum said, "Oh Sasha, I'm so proud of you darling!"

Blinking a couple of times to focus I realised that Remus had put our Hogwarts letters in front of us—they had arrived when we were away. Glancing at Sasha I realised that she had opened hers and sat in her hand was a tiny badge with the word:

"Prefect?" I cried. "Oh wow, Sasha! That's brilliant!"

Sasha shrunk away from our congratulations, looking confused. "But I always play up in school... I'm always pranking and being a nuisance!"

"You're a good role model," Remus said gently, putting his hand onto Sasha's. "I know stories your Mum has told me... For every idea you have, your friends have twice as more. I'm sure you rein them in most of the time."

"I guess..." Sasha said sheepishly. "I mean, I guess I never thought... I was good enough to be a Prefect. Prefects are people like Percy who are bossy and suited to leadership..."

Wrapping my arm around Sasha, I kissed the side of her head. "You're more than good enough, Sasha! You always protect me and my friends... and anyway Prefects aren't all the same. You can be a cool Prefect!"

Sasha's face worked itself into a smile. I could tell that deep down, she was pleased with herself. She pinned the small yellow badge onto her t-shirt, and lightly stroked its face.

"Correction, Lyra. I'll be the coolest Prefect."

While Sasha was determined to be a cool Prefect, this also meant acting like one around the house for the next few days. She would reprimand me for running up the stairs, and 'confiscate' the sneakascope Ron bought me as practice.

She even wore the badge on her clothes, and lovingly put it in a box on her dresser for bed. I couldn't really complain though. Sasha was radiating happiness, especially since Cedric had told her he was Hufflepuff's boy Prefect.

The day before Hogwarts we kissed Mum and Remus goodbye, but quickly. We knew we'd see them the very next day at Hogwarts—if not a bit tired from Remus's transformation.

A quick (and nauseating) ride on the Knight Bus with Sooty and our school trunks, and we were dropped outside the Leaky Cauldron.

"Hey, hey, hey!" George cried as Sasha and I dragged our heavy trunks through the door. He was sat with his feet up on a table, Fred next to him faithfully reading the Ruby series.

"Hey!" Sasha said brightly, giving George a fist-bump. "Guess what?"

"You're Hufflepuff Prefect?" Fred quirked an eyebrow at my sister, shooting me a warm smile.

Sasha whirled on me. "You told Fred?"

"Lyra said you were modelling our older brother, wearing your badge and telling her what to do," Fred was still grinning as he got to his feet and slung an arm around my shoulder. "Does that mean you're getting all prim and proper on us, Black?"

Sasha scowled at Fred and snatched the fifth Ruby book ('The Ruby of Destruction' out of his hand. She opened it at the last chapter and cleared her throat. "Hollie dies at the end."

Fred grabbed his chest as if the killing curse had hit it. "Hollie? But—but she's the one pure of heart! She overcame the poison—" then he gasped. "It was a slow acting poison the whole time?" dramatically Fred grabbed me by the shoulders. "Tell me she's lying, Lyra!"

Sadly, I patted my boyfriend on the head. "Sadly, she's not lying. Well, I mean she could be alive. But the sixth book doesn't have a release date yet..."

Fred scowled at my sister and she scowled back. George and I stared wearily between them. Then before I could finish blinking, Fred grabbed Sasha's Prefect badge off her jacket, and ran off with it.

Sasha headed after him in hot pursuit, swearing furiously. George and I exchanged a look, and both sighed. I couldn't help smiling though. Things were getting back to normal, my year absence becoming less obvious.

**

My happiness at the return to normality was shattered when I met with Ron and Hermione (who was also staying the night at the Cauldron). Hermione hugged me so tight I thought I'd have to use my powers just to regain oxygen.

She talked for ten minutes about all the research she'd done on magical comas—even going into the restricted section on more than one occasion. The passion in her voice made me cry, and Ron alarmed.

After our tearful reunion was done with, we headed off to get our course books for the year chattering about my holiday in Egypt with the Weasley's and Hermione's holiday in France.

Third year introduced choosing extra subjects, which I was excited for—I had chosen Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies.

"Your mum is literally a muggle-born Lyra!" Ron exclaimed as Hermione and I picked up our texts books. "And you—Hermione, you grew up with them! What could you both possibly need to know?"

"I thought it would be an interesting perspective," Hermione said defensively, hugging the book to her chest.

"Yeah!" I joined in. "You should have taken it Ron—I had to explain to you what a rubber duck was used for the other week!"

Ron glowered at us both as Hermione giggled. We ended up getting books without much complaint—thought our Care of Magical Creatures text book did have teeth and needed to be restrained with belts.

To end our shopping expedition, we decided to have some ice-creams in Fortescue's before returning to the inn to see if Sasha and Fred had killed each other by now. I was thoroughly enjoying my ice-cream, even if I did have to stare at a wanted poster of my father on the shop opposite me.

"Harry!" Hermione suddenly cried, looking over my shoulder. I almost dropped my ice-cream in my haste. "Harry—over here!"

Harry appeared, looking thrilled to see us. After quickly buying himself an ice-cream he joined us, grinning from ear-to-ear.

I'd known I would have seen him at some point. Mr Weasley had informed us that Harry had managed to inflate his Aunt with magic over the summer and had run away to Diagon Alley and had been here the rest of the summer.

"Was it funny?" I asked him as we hugged. "Did she look like a balloon?"

Harry laughed. We'd written back-and-forth before his birthday, and he'd told me all about his horrid Aunt Marge who was coming to stay. "Yeah! The world's most horrible looking balloon though!"

Ron giggled, but Hermione rolled her eyes. "You could have been in serious trouble, Harry!"

Harry played with the spoon of his sundae. "I didn't mean to... I just lost control. She was saying horrible things about my parents."

My ice-cream flipped in my stomach, eyes locking with the wanted poster of my father. There were so many around Diagon Alley. I wondered how many horrible comments Sasha and I would get this year.

"You could have been expelled," I pointed out to Harry. "As cool as it might have been."

"Forget that, I'm surprised I wasn't arrested," Harry shuddered. "Hey, Ron—does your Dad have any idea why Fudge let me off?"

As Harry and Ron discussed Harry's escape from the law, I kept staring at the poster of my father. Why had he escaped so soon after he visited? Was he thinking of us?

A horrible thought crawled out of my brain, sitting in my stomach like a huge boulder. Innocent men don't run. What if he had been manipulating me, like Sasha said? What if I'd given him the idea to escape? Was I just holding onto the fantasy Father I'd dreamt of as a child?

"Lyra?" Hermione said quietly, and I jumped, dropping my ice-cream down my skirt. Staring at the strawberry stain, I felt tears begin to pool in my eyes. "Lyra, are you alright?"

I shook my head, not feeling capable of speaking. Suddenly the reality of the situation was hitting. My father had escaped from prison. Innocent or not, he had the whole country looking for him—and at least a hundred dementors.

Hermione wrapped her arm around me, and Ron leapt up to buy me another ice-cream. Tears began spilling as I knew Ron had spent nearly all of his money on his own ice-cream. As Harry pulled his chair closer, I opened my mouth and a tiny squeak came out.

"I'm sorry about your dad," Hermione said quietly. "It must be really hard for you and Sasha."

I nodded. Harry gave me a little smile. "You don't need to worry, Lyra. Remember what you told me in your letter?"

I shook my head. I'd written so many letters to Harry that they'd all blurred into one. "You sent me a quick one, right before you went to visit him," Harry said calmly. "You said that he sounded normal in the letters your mum showed you—and that you believed he could be innocent. I'm sure it'll be sorted soon."

Finally, I looked up into Harry's wide green eyes. He was so blissfully unaware of the fears my mother had, blindly listening to me that my father was a good man. Had I really been naive to believe he was innocent?

Did innocent men escape prison after muttering about their godson being at Hogwarts? Did they ask their thirteen-year-old daughter to do a legal investigation, and not ask their daughters how their lives were?

"Harry?" my voice was hoarse as I spoke. "I think—I think he might have escaped to come after you."

-----

A/N Sorry this was a while! My glasses broke, so I've been writing in short bursts so I don't strain my eyes while they get repaired!

A bit of a dis-jointed chapter, but I feel like we get an insight into Lyra beginning to grow up and thinking Sirius might not be innocent (well he is, but she doesn't know that!)

Any thoughts about the chapter? Next chapter we'll see Kat and Cassie again, and the dementors!!