Almost immediately, without speaking, Sasha and I came to the agreement that we needed to speak to Mum. While we'd been struggling this term, a band of misfits, to prove Dad's innocence, we couldn't sit on this. A possible traitor and murderer running around the castle as a rat—this was big.

"I hope she believes us." I said breathlessly to Sasha as we hurried to Mum's office. "This is a lot."

"She will." Sasha said confidently. "She knows us—we only agree on the important things: The Ruby series, pineapple on pizza is wrong, and that we've found damning evidence to prove Dad is innocent."

It was the first time in a long time that Sasha had referred to him as Dad.

Mum's office door was open, so we barrelled in. "Mum—"

We both stopped. Mum's small office was crowded: Remus, Snape and Harry were all crowded around her desk staring at one item: the map.

Harry shared a panicked look with us. He'd obviously been caught going to Hogsmeade—it was way too early for him to have had a lovely day out. Sasha licked her lips nervously and grasped onto my arm. We knew how much trouble Fred and George would be in if the teachers knew they stole the map.

"Daughters, what a pleasant surprise." Mum said drily. "I don't suppose either of you could explain this?"

Stepping forward I saw a message on the map: Messrs Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Progs kindly ask Professor Snape keeps his abnormally large nose out of others business.

"I'm not sure why you ask your children, Professor Rees." Snape said quietly, though venom hinted at his tone. "Lyra may be above average at potions, and Sasha adequate at Defence—but neither of them could recognise dark magic when they see it."

Sasha said calmly, "I believe it's a from Zonko's, Sir. A piece of parchment to insult anybody who tries to steal it from the owner."

Snape narrowed his eyes at my sister. "So, you don't believe Mr Potter got it directly from the manufactures?"

Mum narrowed her eyes, and slowly reached for her wand. "I'm not sure what you're implying of my Godson, Severus, but I suggest you leave it now or else—"

Snape snorted. "Or else what? You'll sent your husband on me? Oh wait, you can't—"

"That's enough." Remus said quietly, as Mum's face turned a deep shade of scarlet. "Harry—do you know any of these messrs."

"No."

Remus clapped his hands together. "Well there we are then—"

He was interrupted as Ron skidded into the office, breathless and holding onto his knees. "That parchment—that parchment—I got it for Harry, from Hogsmeade—"

"Yay!" Mum exclaimed in an overly-chipper tone. "Glad that settles it! Now, Severus, don't you have some students to needlessly terrorise?"

Snape narrowed his eyes at Mum but didn't say a word. He turned on his heel and left the office, slamming the door a bit too hard behind him. The remaining occupants of the office stared at each other, all unsure what to do or say.

Remus acted first and grabbed the map from the table and pointed it at Harry like a sword. "I'm not sure how this map fell into your possession—and yes, I know it's a map." Remus said warily at Harry and Ron's expressions of wonder. "I am surprised you didn't hand it in. Especially with what happened the last time somebody left information lying around. I can't let you have it back, Harry."

"Remus—" Mum began, but Remus carried on talking.

"These map makers would have wanted to lure you out of the castle, an unwise thing to do considering the current climate. I think it's foolish Harry, to gamble away your life—the one your parents sacrificed themselves for—on a foolish treasure map—"

"Remus, that's enough." Mum said sharply, her brown eyes full of fire. She turned to Harry and Ron. "I understand how trapped you feel Harry, but you can't resort to secret passages. Not because of my husband on the loose, but because of the dementors. They are the true villains. Now—will you promise not to leave the castle grounds before the summer?"

Harry looked sheepish. "I won't Auntie Cara—I promise. I—I didn't think there was any harm in the map."

Mum's face softened, and she exchanged a look with Remus, who looked guilty for his outburst. "You and Ron head back to Gryffindor tower—I need to speak with Sasha and Lyra."

Harry and Ron scuttled out, Remus following with his tail between his legs. Mum shut the door behind him and shook her head.

"Bloody hell..." she trailed off, flopping into her chair. "He's just like his Father... James could never do what he was told..." she shook her head.

"Is it only you and Remus know he left the castle?" I asked Mum, and she nodded. "Good—I'm glad he's not in trouble."

"He will be if he carries on." Mum said darkly and poured herself a massive cup of tea. "Now, girls—what can I do for you? Have you finally kissed and made up?"

We'd been working on our research so hard the last few weeks that we hadn't had time to talk to Mum outside of lessons. Sasha wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "Yeah! You can't keep these sisters down in a crisis!"

Mum narrowed her eyes. "What crisis?"

We explained everything we discovered and handed her a copy of Elijah's notes. She read them three times and looked up at us with an unreadable expression.

"Ever since your Father broke into Gryffindor tower, I've been thinking... It's always Gryffindor, and he's always speaking of a rat... Peter's animagus was a rat, so that wasn't much of a stretch, but... This might sound crazy girls, but—"

"What is it?" Sasha said eagerly, leaning forward in her chair.

But I had already realised what Mum was going to say. Why hadn't we thought of this sooner? "You think Scabbers the rat is Pettigrew—that he's been hiding with the Weasley's all these years."

Mum nodded grimly. "But I hear gossip—I know Ron thinks Hermione's cat ate the rat. But... if that rat is Peter, he would know you're all getting closer to the truth... and that he escaped the castle, faking his death again."

My heart sank, and everything felt close. "We—we were so close."

Mum reached out and grabbed each of our hands. "Listen, girls. I used to be friends with Peter. If all these horrible things about him are true, then he wouldn't have left the grounds—he always liked protection. And especially if his child is here...."

Sasha let out an irritated groan and stamped her foot. "Well what do we do now? Capture every rat in the school?"

Mum smiled at us, and it held some of her fire. "We wait. If I know Peter, he'll come crawling back when he thinks it's safe. Then we capture him and take him to the Ministry."

"We wait?" Sasha and I exclaimed.

Mum lifted a photo from her desk, and I realised with a jolt it was her wedding photo, the one she always hid in cupboards and drawers. She smiled at it, touching the persevered memory. I grabbed onto Sasha's hand and she didn't let go.

"We wait."

**

And waited, we did. We couldn't tell any of the others what we'd discussed with Mum—that would only keep Peter away. So, Sasha and I waited (impatiently) to see if any developments happened on their own.

But April sprang into May, which turned into June, without any sign of suspicious rats. Sasha and I had been communicating with Dad, with tiny notes attached to Sooty's collar. I wasn't sure how our silly little cat found him: but I'm sure Dad was grateful for the notes.

Time was running out to try and find Peter before the school year was up. Exams were in full swing, and both Sasha and I had a new job: motivate Fred and George to do their exams.

"But OWLS are pointless." Fred told me, shaking out his History of Magic revision notes, which were sparse at best. We were curled up together in a comfy chair in the library before his next exam, as I tried to teach him. "George and I have perfected the Ton-Toffees: it's the start of our joke shop empire!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Fred, you know I support your dreams, but school is important too. You need to get OWLS in case this joke shop thing doesn't work out."

Fred stiffened. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I reached out and grabbed his hand, which was as limp as a fish. "I mean, Fred—let's be realistic. You and George used all your savings creating the toffees and the fake wands---you can't create anything else for a while. And you need more than two products, and money, and a shop location—"

Fred stood up so abruptly that I folded backwards into the chair. "Stop pretending to believe in me, Lyra. You clearly don't think George and I can make anything of this—"

I stood up, my heart beating fast in my chest. "I didn't say that, I just don't want you to be left with nothing if this doesn't work out—"

Fred crumpled his revision notes in his hand. "So, what, I can get a boring Ministry job like Percy wants to? That's not me, Lyra."

I reached out for him, but for the first time, he avoided my touch. "Fred don't turn this into more than it is—"

Fred shook his head. "You're the one who's bloody examining every rat in the school in the stupid hope you can prove your Father's innocence—

I could feel myself turning red. "That's important—"

"And what, my hopes and dreams aren't?" Fred threw his revision notes on the floor. "Whatever, Lyra. Find me when you actually want to take me seriously."

"Fred—"

But he had already stormed off. I was left with a tight feeling in my chest. Fred and I had never had a serious argument before, and somehow it felt like a massive canyon had been carved between us.

Letting out a strangled noise of irritation, I forced myself to head to my Care of Magical Creatures exam. I knew Fred and I would work things out—we'd dealt with worse things already than arguing over his future.

All my classmates were already huddled around Hagrid's hut when I got there. I stood next to Hermione, who was revising for our Muggle Studies exam. My lips twitched into a smile, trust her to revise for another exam before sitting one.

"Are you prepared for the exam tomorrow morning?" I asked her, nodded at the text book. "I'm just worried about the history of electricity---I always get confused with Franklin and Edison."

"I'll be fine..." Hermione trailed off, and I noticed she looked more frazzled than normal. "Fine, fine, fine..."

Ron frowned. They'd finally made up after connecting over the up-coming demise of Buckbeak. "But your Ancient Runes exam is tomorrow morning."

Hermione glowered at him. "I can do both exams."

"Not unless you time-travelled." Harry joked, but then looked thoughtful. "Is there time travel in the wizarding world?"

"That'd be useful." Kat muttered, as she slid into place next to me. "I'd win a lot more arguments then."

I noticed Cassie trailing behind her, pulling anxiously at her sleeves. Cassie stood next to Kat, but a bigger distance than usual. They'd been arguing recently—Cassie wanted to try and transfer to Hufflepuff, but Kat was adamant that she shouldn't, that she'd been sorted into Slytherin for a reason.

Soon enough, the Slytherins of our class—Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Daphne—appeared, just before the exam began. Daphne whispered something in Pansy's ear and laughed, both looking at Cassie.

Cassie turned pink but didn't say a word.

Hagrid appeared, looking teary. Buckbeak's execution was only a week away now, and he seemed sadder every time I saw him. He was clutching a rag in his hands and mumbled something about setting the exam up.

Draco laughed. "How pathetic is he? He's meant to be our teacher for God's Sake! All because of a stupid bloody chicken that tried to kill me!"

All his Slytherin friends laughed. Cassie hurried towards him, ignoring Kat who was calling at her to not rise to him.

"It's all your fault!" Cassie said loudly. "Just because you didn't want me being good at something!"

Draco looked taken aback. "It attacked me Cassie. Surely you didn't want me hurt—"

"It was a scratch for pity's sake—not very much when you remember what I've been through. Or are you so self-absorbed that you forgot?"

Draco looked at his sister with a hard stare, and for a second I saw Draco's bullying act fade away. He was just the boy who played pirates and mermaids with us as children.

"Of course, I didn't forget." He said steadily. His eyes flickered over to Kat. "Did you forget that as much as Mother and Father like to baby you, they will never accept you being a lesbian. I mean, I'm cool with it—date a thousand girls if you want---but just remember, sister, they won't accept you, no matter how much you try to run away—"

WHACK! Cassie hit her brother around the face, and he staggered backwards, stumbling into a tree. He clutched his cheek, and shock blossomed across his face.

"Cassie—"

"Oh, just fuck off." She hissed, venom laced in her tone. She wrapped her bag around her tightly and fled the clearing, all of us staring helplessly after her.

**

The next couple of days I didn't see Cassie around school. She stayed instead with Hermione in Gryffindor tower, and Hermione reported back to us that she hadn't been speaking much. All Hermione could get out of her was that she was scared at going home for Summer and had a lot to think about.

Kat was withdrawn the next few days, and I was worried they had split up. Kat assured me that they were still together, but she didn't sound very sure of herself. This left me feeling worried: about Kat putting her walls back up, and Cassie being stuck in a home with people who didn't accept her.

Meanwhile, I hadn't spoken to Fred since our argument: I wanted to let him have his space, decide for himself if he wanted to flunk his exams for his joke shop dream. It's not that I didn't believe he could do it: I just worried.

But exams were ending, and I was determined to try and fix everything—Fred, Cassie, Kat, finding Peter the rat and solving Dad's case—before we boarded the Hogwarts express for the summer.

Our second-to-last exam was our Defence Against the Dark Arts. Remus made it the most interesting practical exam I'd ever sat. We had to wade in a waist high pool with a Grindylow, cross a series of pot holes laced with Red Caps, ignore wrong directions from a Hinkypunk in a small forest Remus had conjured, before climbing into a large cupboard and fight a boggart.

My patronus had come along slowly, and as I climbed into the trunk, I was face-to-face with my Father and a dementor leering over. Taking a deep breath, I stared at the unconscious figure of my Father. This would never happen. We were going to free him.

"Expecto Patronum!" I said confidently, and I laughed as a pure white phoenix flew from the end of my wand for the first time. It had dozens of snow white feathers, which shone their bright light at the dementor. The boggart shrivelled up and disappeared.

Satisfied, I climbed out of the cupboard, where Remus was waiting with a smile. "Well done, Lyra." He beamed. He lowered his voice. "I know I shouldn't say—but you had full marks on the last part. I'd had a feeling a phoenix would be your patronus."

I beamed under his praise, and lightly touched the bracelet around my wrist. "Thank you, Remus."

Remus and I stood together as the rest of the class did their exam. He then turned to me, with a sympathetic look on his face. "I gave Cassie a written examination to do instead of all this. I didn't think it suitable for her to face the boggart."

"No..." I trailed off. "No, it wouldn't be good."

The rest of my friends finished their exam without issue, apart from Hermione who appeared from the cupboard in tears.

"What's the matter?" Kat asked, though more conversationally. She kept looking around to see if Cassie would appear. "What did you see?"

Hermione rubbed at her eyes miserably. "McGonagall told me I'd failed everything!"

It took a lot of convincing and the trade of a chocolate frog card, so Ron and Harry wouldn't laugh. We all began our way up to the castle, to find an odd conversation taking place: Sasha and Cedric, the former of whom was arguing with the Minster of Magic.

"I have evidence---you need to believe me, Minister!" Sasha was waving the un-mistakable letter we'd drafted to the Ministry. "Please---just reach out to my Father in the media, give him a fair trial with this new evidence!"

"Sasha, I'm sure the Minister is very busy—" Cedric said sharply, trying to drag her away, but Sasha was prickling with confidence and she brushed her boyfriend away.

"Busy executing Hippogriffs and withholding human rights!" Sasha shouted. Shooting a look at my friends, I hurried to her side. "Lyra—he won't listen to me—"

Fudge gave a kindly smile, but I could tell that he was hoping we'd disappear. "I am very sorry about your Father, Miss Black---but this the research of children living in a fantastical hope. Find tangible proof Pettigrew fathered a child after he ah—'faked his death' as you say, and come back to me."

I stared up at Fudge. He really was a spineless man like Mum had always said. "We will find proof." I said calmly. "Then my parents will sue the Ministry for defamation and false imprisonment."

Sasha held out her hand and I high-fived her, and I was proud of my quick comeback. "You tell this old fart, Lyra—"

Cedric looked faintly embarrassed, trying to pull Sasha away. But then Fudge noticed Harry, and his barely concealed loathing towards us faded into politeness.

"Ah, Harry!" he exclaimed. "Almost finished your exams?"

"Yes." Harry said stiffly.

"Lovely day... it's a pity to execute a mad Hippogriff with such sunshine in the air..." he sighed. "I am one of the witnesses, I was visiting Dumbledore about the Black situation anyways..."

"He has a name: it's Sirius Black." Katherine said sharply. "And while you're here, I'd like to discuss my Father Jacob Novak with you: I'd like to visit him."

Fudge's face paled. "You—You're Novak's daughter?" Kat nodded. "I ah... I'd contact Azkaban directly, he's never been allowed visitors... Always shouting and screaming..."

Kat's face hardened. I knew how important it was for her to visit Novak and try and discover more about the Genesis Experiments, and exactly what had happened to our Mothers.

"But... But Buckbeak's meant to have an appeal!" Hermione interjected, putting an arm around Kat, to distract her from spiralling at the thought of her Father.

Fudge narrowed his eyes. "Yes, it's this afternoon."

"You might not have to witness an execution then!" Ron said triumphantly. "He might get off!"

Fudge made a general 'hmmm' noise. But then behind him, a man appeared from the castle. He was dressed all in black and adjusting a very sharp axe on his belt. Sasha went to open her mouth, but Cedric shoved her into the castle.

We hurried after them, before Ron opened his mouth and used the last of Fudge's patience up.

"Let go of me, Cedric—"

"Stop fighting everybody, Sasha, for God's sake—"

"I'm fighting for what's right!" Sasha shouted, and the five of us watched nervously as she shook Cedric off her. "And I'll do that, with or without you!"

She hurried off towards her next exam, Cedric in fast pursuit. The five us exchanged a glance, and with a sigh headed towards our final exam: Divination.

As we huddled with a silent Cassie outside Trelawney's room, I felt an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Buckbeak being executed seemed to me like a thread stitching together on the tapestry of strange things that had happened this year.

While I was absolutely rubbish at Divination, I felt like I could predict one thing right: one way or another, tonight would change everything. 

--------

A/N  Lots of relationship drama this chapter, but hey, it happens...

The next few chapters are going to be action packed, and plenty of secrets to be revealed, so keep your eye out... Any predictions before we set forward?