Somehow Hermione managed to drag us away from the courtyard, and we all sprinted up to the hospital wing just as Dumbledore was locking the doors.

"Well?" Dumbledore said expectantly, looking at the four of us.

"We did it!" I exclaimed, feeling giddy now that I knew for certain Dad was safe. "We saved them both—Professor it was amazing!"

"I'm sure it was." Dumbledore said, a smile playing on his face under his beard. "Now go on—all of you—before people ask questions."

We hurried into the hospital wing, Sasha shutting the door behind her. Ron let out a yelp as he saw us. "But—I just—you were all just—"

"We'll explain later, mate." Harry said with a satisfied grin, as he laid down on his bed. "It's a long story."

Sinking down underneath the bed covers, with soft pillows behind my head, the adrenaline of the night was finally wearing off. So much had happened, so much had been revealed... We'd had hope dangled then snatched right from in front of us.

While I had a million different thoughts and emotions all trying to sprint to the front of my mind, I silenced them for now. Now was time to sleep.

**

When I awoke the next morning, the first thing I could see was Cassie. She was curled up on a chair next to my bed, reading a letter. Her pale blonde hair was a curtain over her face, and I couldn't tell her expression.

"Cassie?" I sounded groggy even to my own ears as I sat up. "What are you doing here?"

Cassie rolled her eyes at me, folding the letter up. "To check you're okay of course. Sasha found me earlier—explained what happened. Sounds like I missed a lot."

Looking around the hospital wing, I could see that my sister and friends were gone. Looking at my watch, it was just after lunchtime. After all, I used another Phoenix ability: to transport into flames. Hopefully this wouldn't drain me as much as healing.

"You could say that..."

Cassie inched closer to me, looking nervous. "I heard about Remus. I hadn't realised what he was... I would have used my stupid trust fund to buy Wolfsbane for him if I'd known..."

Understanding immediately, I smiled at my kind friend. "That's very sweet of you, Cassie. But Remus is okay." Then something dawned on me. "Did Sasha tell you about Remus being a werewolf?"

Cassie hesitated, before shaking her head. "Well... I thought it'd be better you heard this from me. Before breakfast, this morning, Snape made an announcement in the Slytherin common room. Well really, it was a rant about how dangerous werewolves were and how we should inform our parents we were being taught by one." She paused. "It's all over the school now."

Anger flared through me, like hundreds of tiny fires. Was Snape so bitter about last night, that he wanted to ruin the best job Remus had ever had? Then I remembered about the Defence job being jinxed...

"He's been sacked by Dumbledore, hasn't he?" I said sadly. "So, the parents don't complain."

Cassie reached out for my hand and squeezed. "No... Lyra, he resigned. Hagrid told us earlier... Harry and Sasha went off to see him, they were upset." She looked sad. "It's horrible, really horrible he had to quit. But I'm sure Dumbledore will give him a good reference—he'll find something else."

"Yeah..." I wiggled over on the bed and patted the covers. "Come up here."

Like when we were little, Cassie hopped onto the bed next to me. We leaned on each other, heads brushing against each other. Smelling Cassie's delicate flowery perfume and feeling her cashmere jumper against my bare arms was comforting, taking me back to simpler days.

"I'm sorry your friend ended up being a sociopath." I said to Cassie glumly. "I know you liked Daphne."

But to my surprise, Cassie laughed. "She wasn't as clever as she thought though, Lyra."

My head perked up, and I stared at Cassie's smug expression. "What did she do?"

"Well Pansy's birthday is in August, and she said she wanted every Slytherin from our year to go to the party—even me, though I think Draco convinced her to invite me. Anyway—that's not important. Daphne kept saying she was busy all summer, which I thought was weird." Cassie began. "So, Pansy wrote to her parents, asking them to nag the Greengrass family."

"And?" Cassie had paused for dramatic effect, something she liked to do.

"Pansy's parents wrote back this morning—saying that Astoria Greengrass was in Ilverharmony in America and had terrible Dragon-pox until she was twelve, and couldn't attend Hogwarts, so they had no idea what Pansy was on about."

I almost hit my head on the bed frame. "So—so—there is no Daphne Greengrass?"

Cassie grinned. "Daphne is Astoria's middle name. Evelyn obviously thought she was being smart—but Pansy must have spooked her with her persistence. That's why she was going to escape yesterday with her Dad: she knew her time was almost up."

Lying back on the bed, I couldn't help feeling a twinge of relief. I'd been so worried that Evelyn had murdered the girl she was portraying—not to mention, it was good to see Evelyn wasn't as all-powerful as she made herself out to be.

"I can't believe this." I shook my head. "So, the Greengrass family live in America?"

Cassie nodded eagerly. "Pansy and I were in the library earlier—turns out the Greengrass family home was really close to a muggle orphanage. Evelyn could have very easily broken in and stolen the Hogwarts letter."

This made a lot of sense, but one thing didn't. "I thought you and Pansy hated each other?"

Cassie shrugged. "She's alright. Her and Millicent had a falling out, so I think she'd talk to anyone... But... It's nice having company in Slytherin."

"Good." I smiled.

Cassie and I talked for the next couple of hours (Madam Pomfrey was insisting I stay in the wing to regain my energy) about Buckbeak, Dad, school, and any subject that came to mind. It was good to have a catch up with her, especially when I learned she would be accompanying Sasha to Romania to the dragon reserve: to see if she truly wanted to work with magical creatures.

But I couldn't help but notice there was one subject she was avoiding...

"So, how's Kat?" I asked. "I was surprised she didn't come up here with you."

Cassie paused for a minute, glancing at the letter she'd received from the reserve in Romania. "Oh. Well, um, Katherine and I broke up."

Suddenly, the sense of normality that had been slowly building back up in my mind was shattered. My mouth dropped open, and I stared openly at Cassie.

"What?!"

Cassie nodded once. "We thought it was for the best. There were too many complications. We can still be friends. It was only six months. It's—it's not as if we were in love."

But the tears forming in her eyes said everything I needed to know. On instinct, I wrapped my arms around her and held her to my chest. Cassie cried onto my chest but didn't once make a sound.

Even when her heart was breaking, Cassie didn't say a word.

**

Cassie left soon after, saying she wanted to meet her brother and Pansy for dinner. Even though I was confused as to why Cassie and Kat had ended things, I was glad to see Cassie had friends in her own house now.

Just before dinner, Madam Pomfrey said I was free to go. This was a relief, as I wanted to find Mum. Cassie had informed me she'd managed to keep her job: the Ministry couldn't pin Dad's escape on her, which was a relief.

But while I was struggling on the cusp of being okay, I knew things would be worse for Mum—especially with Remus resigning. I wanted to make things a little easier for her.

As I left the hospital wing, I was both surprised and not to see Fred sat outside the double doors. He scrambled to his feet when he saw me. It was the first time he'd approached me since our argument.

"Lyra—"

"Wait." I said, and I thrust my notebook into his hand. "Cassie and I worked on this all afternoon. It's a plan. Of how you and George can budget your money—where's the cheapest to get supplies, and how you can make the money last. You can really make this joke shop reality, Fred—and if you don't want a boring job, good. Just use these last two years to market your stuff to people, get them to remember your names—"

"Lyra!"

Feeling myself blushing, I looked down. "I'm sorry. I just—I really do believe in you. I was just thinking about the negatives, like always."

"I know. I was being stupid." Fred said, taking a step towards me. "It's just—Mum's been on our back about exams, and Percy's already got a job waiting for him outside Hogwarts... I'm just afraid that nobody will care about our products. I took it out on you, and I feel like an idiot."

Gingerly, I reached out and grabbed his hand, rubbing my thumb over his knuckles. "It's okay. We're going to disagree about things, and that's okay. We just have to be a team."

"We're a good team—not as good as me and George, but still good." He grinned. He clutched the notebook tight in his hand. "This is so thoughtful Lyra, thank you."

"It's no big deal. It's a starting point." I nudged him. "Give it a few years, you'll be putting Zonko's out of business."

The smile that had been plastered on Fred's face fell and he said quietly, "I'm sorry about your Dad. Sasha told me and George everything—I'm so sorry it didn't work out how you wanted."

Closing my eyes, I thought of Dad on Buckbeak's back. I wondered if he was far away by now—if he was flying high over foreign waters, with sunshine on his skin and wind in his hair. Unlike when I thought of him in Azkaban, I knew some things for definite now.

Sirius Black, my father, was innocent. I would see him again, if it was in days, or weeks, or months. He was out there, waiting patiently for when he could step from the shadows and back into our lives.

He was thinking about us, he loved us.

I smiled. "I'll see him again, I know I will." I squeezed Fred's fingers. "Evelyn's just a kid—she's the same age as Ginny. She's made mistakes already, and she'll realise she's wrong. She'll tell her story one day, and free Dad."

"You think so?"

"I know so." I hadn't been this confident about anything in a while. Some might find it surprising, but there had been so many impossible things happen this year... Sometimes, good things happened with the bad. "Come on, let's go to dinner."

Fred grinned, and with our hands intertwined, we headed down the sunlit corridor.

**

The last week of term flew by in the blink of an eye. Things had quietened down and was as normal as it could be in Hogwarts. Harry had been quite withdrawn about Dad having to go on the run, but he was going to stay with us for a couple weeks of the holidays, which was good.

There had been a sighting of Dad in Barry Island, which amused Mum to no end as that was where she had been brought up. I'd never been to Wales—it was where our magic hating Grandmother lived—but I liked to imagine Dad strolling along soft sandy beaches with soft rain drizzling and making Buckbeak's feathers fluffy.

He was leading the dementors away from the castle, which was good.

There was one thing that was bothering me though: Elijah. He'd avoided all of us since the night Evelyn and her Father escaped, and I wasn't sure why.

So as the last day of term dawned, busy as ever, Kat and I sought to seek him out. Whether Elijah liked it or not, the three of us were in this together. Our fates were intertwined with these powers—and we needed to stick together.

"So, how are you doing?" I asked Kat as we waited outside the Ravenclaw common room for Elijah.

Her and Cassie had been perfectly civil to each other after the break-up, it was almost as if they'd never dated in the first place. I'd heard of exes being friends, but it was all a bit peculiar.

"Fine." Kat said, too quickly. She scowled at the floor, picking at her nails. "I'm always fine, you know that."

Dropping it, I nodded. Ravenclaws were milling past, until at long last, Elijah appeared. He was with his friend, Luna. I'd never spoken to her, but she seemed sweet enough.

"Hello!" she said brightly, noticing us. She had a necklace of corks around her neck, and her trainers didn't match, but her eyes were open and friendly. "You must be Katherine and Lyra—Elijah always speaks highly of you."

Elijah looked embarrassed, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Sometimes, I do. They're mostly annoying." He glanced to Luna. "I'll see you on the train, okay?"

Luna hopped up and ruffled Elijah's hair, before she skipped off. I stared after her. What a strange, delightful girl.

"We need to talk." I said to Elijah. "You can't avoid us forever."

Elijah scowled at me. "Alright."

The three of us slipped into a dis-used classroom, and sat around a table. The three of us were silent for a minute, before Kat spoke.

"You know, when I was younger I thought I was the only one with freaky powers." She began. "Then I met Lyra, and thought yeah, sure: they'd experiment on more than one woman. But now there's four of us with powers. This is turning into an X-Men comic."

My ears perked up. "You like X-Men?"

Kat rolled her eyes. "Of course, I do, Lyra: I'm not a monster. When you grow up with a deadly power, superheroes become strangely relatable."

"We need to discuss Marvel comic later on, but we have more important things to discuss." I turned on Elijah. "Why are you avoiding us?"

Elijah shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I don't want any part of this, okay? My abilities came in when my magic did: when I was seven. Only in the last year I've tamed them: I can be normal. I—I just want to investigate things, be a detective, like we did this year. I don't want to be a pawn in some stupid game we didn't ask to play."

Slowly, I reached out and put my hand over Elijah's. He didn't pull away. "None of us wanted this." I said quietly. "But we have to live with it. Whether we like it or not: we're connected. We're in this together."

Elijah groaned. "Fine, fine. No more speeches." He narrowed his eyes. "I feel like you both want to question me about stuff."

Kat laughed once, harshly. "Ten points to Ravenclaw." She said quietly. "Lyra and I were thinking: our mothers were obviously kidnapped and experimented on, but... well, you were brought up by Alecto Carrow: where are your parents?"

It was something Kat and I had discussed for the last week. Elijah was a mystery, finding his parents might shed more light on everything our mothers had been through.

Elijah withdrew his hand from under mine. Suddenly he looked uncomfortable, hanging his head down. Then when he lifted his head up, he whispered a name under his lips.

"What?" Kat and I asked.

"Jacob Novak is my Father." He said, looking directly at Kat. "Alecto told me one night after she'd been drinking. Katherine—I'm your brother. I—I wasn't sure how to bring it up."

Kat pushed her chair back abruptly, the legs screeching harshly against the wood. She began pacing, taking her cross necklace from under her shirt, something she rarely took out.

Katherine rarely spoke of her faith, but now she was muttering something under her breath. Elijah and I looked at each other, confused.

"Are you trying to exorcise me?" Elijah said dryly. "Surely I'm not that bad of a half-brother."

"No!" Kat shouted, whirling around. Tears were in her eyes. "You aren't my half-brother."

"Kat—"

"You're my mother's son." Kat said quietly. "We have the same parents."

She sank into a chair next to Elijah. They were both eying each other up, like they'd never seen each other before. Looking at them, knowing they were siblings, I could see similarities: the same slightly bumped noses and wide eyes.

Even the puzzled looks on their faces were a mirror image: how hadn't any of us thought about this possibility before?

"How do you know that?" Elijah said stubbornly.

Kat huffed. "My mother's favourite Bible passage was from Matthew: Elijah does come, and he will restore all things." She paused. "As long as I knew her she would recite that every Halloween, and light candles in her bedroom."

Elijah sounded choked as he said, "My birthday is Halloween—Halloween 1978."

Something sprang to mind. "You said your Father gave you to Alecto—to keep you safe. Your mother couldn't have known you were alive."

Elijah nodded once, woodenly. He still wouldn't look away from Katherine. "I've always wondered who she was and now—she's still missing, isn't she?"

"Yes." There was no emotion in her voice. "No doubt Evelyn knows where she is, but she's long gone."

Elijah slowly reached out and put a hand on Katherine's shoulder. "We'll find her. Our little, demented sociopathic sister will have to tell us." He smiled. "You got lucky, Kat."

"How?"

"You got one sibling that isn't crazy."

"I wouldn't go that far." Kat said, though a smile played on her lips. "You're okay."

I lent back in my chair. Who knew more secrets would be revealed before we left Hogwarts? Things were getting more and more complicated every day.

**

Elijah ended up sitting with us, as him and Kat wouldn't stop talking the entire journey down to the Hogwarts Express. Kat was talking about their mother for the most part, Elijah listening with a wistful expression.

An hour into our journey and they were still talking quietly. I heard snatches of Kat inviting Elijah to meet their Auntie over the summer, which was nice.

Everybody was equally stunned about Elijah and Kat being siblings, so I was glad to see I wasn't the only one who missed it.

"So... I dropped muggle studies!" Hermione announced after we'd all finished discussing Elijah and Kat. "I spoke to McGonagall this morning!"

"Why?" my heart sank. I loved having muggle studies with Hermione. "Professor Burbage said she was going to try and get us a Playstation as our investigation of muggle technology!" then I remembered. "You had a hundred and twenty percent on the exam as well!"

Hermione smiled. "I enjoyed having the time-turner, but I can't have another year like that. My hair was starting to fall out from stress! But without that and Divination: I'll have a normal timetable!

"I can't believe you didn't tell us!" Ron exclaimed. "We're meant to be your friends."

"Hermione time-travelled without any of us knowing for the whole year, and that's your concern?" Cassie snorted. She was re-reading her Newt Scamander books, her nose touching the spine, being so engrossed. "I think it was pretty bad-ass!"

"Thank you." Hermione said, practically glowing from praise.

"When do you go to Romania?" Harry asked Cassie curiously. I couldn't help but notice Kat's eyes flicker towards Cassie's sadly. By the looks of things, Cassie hadn't told her about it.

"Next week." Cassie replied, diving back into her book. "I'm glad I'm going with Sasha though—I'd be so nervous if I was by myself. We'll be back before the Quidditch World Cup though."

I'd almost forgotten about the World Cup being this summer. Fred had spoken of nothing else for the last week, excited at the possibility of going. I had my fingers crossed that Mum could get tickets: it would be a nice distraction from everything.

We soon began a thrilling game of exploding snap (Hermione and Kat hadn't played before, which was shocking) which was made more exciting by how good Elijah was at it (though he did cheat occasionally, setting other people's cards on fire).

Half-way through the third game, the compartment door whizzed open. Turning my head, I saw my sister, who looked breathless. A torn piece of parchment was clutched in her hands, and a tiny owl that resembled a fluffy snitch sat on her shoulder.

Just from the look on her face, I could tell what it was about. "Sirius?" Harry said expectantly, sitting up straighter.

"Yes!" Sasha exclaimed happily, squishing next to Elijah and shutting the door tightly. "It just arrived!"

"Well read it out!" I was practically buzzing with excitement, leaning forward and tapping my foot impatiently. "Go on, Sasha!"

"Dearest Sasha, Harry and Lyra," Sasha began reading. "I just wanted you all to know that Buckbeak and I are safe. You wouldn't believe where I was even if I told you. I just needed to say: Harry, I never got chance to mention, but it was I who sent you the Firebolt—"

"I knew it!" Hermione interrupted, pumping her fist in the air.

Harry pulled a sheepish expression. "Sorry."

Sasha glared at them both and cleared her throat loudly. "—Consider it thirteen missed birthday presents from me. I hope I'll be free soon, but you'll see me sooner than you expect. I love you all. Love, Sirius (Dad)." Sasha frowned. "There's something attached to the back of the letter—"

She yanked off a small piece of parchment, and grinned, holding it up in the air. In cursive writing it said: I, Sirius Black give my Godson Harry Potter permission to visit Hogsmeade village.

"Brilliant!" Harry exclaimed, taking the note from Sasha. "That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!"

"Wait! There's a PS at the bottom of the letter..." Sasha scanned her eyes over the paper and grinned. "Ron—Dad wants you to have the owl. He feels bad you don't have a pet anymore."

"Keep him?" Ron gasped.

At the sound of his voice, the tiny owl flew over to Ron. He wandered up Ron's lap, and hopped into his out-stretched hands. He chirped happily as Ron stroked his feathers.

Ron held out the owl towards Crookshanks, who was curled up on Hermione's lap. "Is it an owl?" Ron asked the cat. Crookshanks opened his amber eyes and leant forward. He sniffed the owl once and began purring. "Brilliant!"

"Well you don't make the same mistake twice there..." I trailed off and everybody laughed.

The rest of the journey was enjoyable, though my heart was aching as the train pulled into King's Cross station. It had been a crazy year: had its highs and lows, but I was going to miss spending every day with my friends.

We crowded onto the platform, saying goodbye to everybody. Fred hurried over to give me a quick kiss, promising to write. Hermione gave me a hug, Sasha dashed off to find Cedric, and Cassie promised she would write lots of letters while she was in Romania.

Her and Kat hugged, though I couldn't help noticing they held each other a bit too long. "So, have a good summer!" Cassie said, a bit too brightly.

"I will." Kat said stiffly. "I've got a new brother to occupy myself with."

Cassie gave her a weak smile, before hurrying off in the direction of Draco and her parents. Was it me, or was there a skip in her step?

Now it was just Harry, Kat, Elijah and I. We stood awkwardly together, unsure what to say. "Well, um, I was thinking." Elijah said awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. "You're my sister now, Kat—"

"Technically I've always been your sister."

Elijah scowled at her. "Yes, yes, forced adoption, Father in Azkaban, mother missing, powerful sister, blah blah... But I was thinking, Alecto is my family... And until earlier today, she was all I had, and well she doesn't usually pick me up from the station. Would you like to meet her?"

For the first time in a while, Kat smiled, and nodded. "Yeah, why not—I'll give Aunt Helen a warning before I tell her about you."

"Maybe that's the best." I said. "So, Elijah, where is Alecto?"

I'd heard both good and bad things about Alecto Carrow, and I was interested in seeing her. The fact Harry hadn't hurried off to find Mum told me that he was interested as well.

"She's over there." Elijah pointed towards a woman leaning against a pillar near the wall that led back to muggle King's Cross.

We all followed his finger, to see Alecto Carrow. She was a tall and willowy black woman, with high cheekbones and poker straight hair that tumbled into a long cream trench coat.

"No." Kat said, and she sounded strange.

Turning away from Alecto Carrow, I could see that Kat had started to shake, her hands clenching in and out of fists, a sign she was struggling to conceal her deadly powers. But tears were budding in her eyes.

"What?" Elijah turned to his sister frowning. Alecto was beginning to walk over to us, hands deep in her pockets. "What do you mean, no? That's Alecto—the one walking over to us. What's the matter, Kat?"

"That's not Alecto Carrow." Kat sounded like somebody was choking her. "That is Katherine Moran. Our Mother."

-------

A/N    So..... yeah, I kinda dropped a few twists this chapter..... whoops

As you can see, that was the last chapter! (with a cliffhanger sorry)  I'll post the epilogue in a few days time, and I'll also post the Q&A form thingy (where you comment your questions) and I'll post them all after giving you all chance to ask them! 

Then we'll begin the second book: Drops of Jupiter! :)