Each morning for the next week, James woke before the others and prepared breakfast. He packed a lunch for them each, just like his mum did for him as a kid, and he cleaned the floo of ashes. He even swept the landing outside the door and went down stairs to help the kind curry shop owner take his rubbish out to the dumpster 'round back of the flat.

One by one - always Remus, then Lily, and finally Sirius, always in that order - the other three would rise and come out. Remus would read the paper and Lily would be chattering. Sirius would be there physically but still asleep mentally. Then Lily and Remus would leave together by floo and Sirius would wake up more, turn on the radio and dance his way into getting dressed in his jumpsuit uniform. He would return with his hair tugged up into a knot and his leather jacket and boots on, make a grand deal of checking the Days-Until-Freddie countdown on the fridge, and head out the door, pulling his motorbike from his pocket.

"BYE HONEY I WILL MISS YOU!"

"Bye Padfoot."

The door would slam shut and James would go pick up the kitchen, set the dishes to doing themselves, and then...

He sighed, chucking himself down on the couch, and leaning back into the cushion.

It had been a week of this, and James was already getting tired of it. Luckily, it was the last day of classes before the holiday for Lily and Remus, so soon they would be home until the start of term, at least, and in between was the wedding and the honeymoon to think of. But James knew that after that he would be needing something to fill his time.

He set himself to considering some of the options that might work for him, and he remembered helping Sirius with a similar list not so long ago. He decided he would check some of the shops on Diagon Alley, like he had told Sirius to do, but he wasn't sure if any of them other than Quality Quidditch Supplies would be a good fit. He thought rather not.

Luckily, he had loads of freedom to make choices out of desire and not necessity. That was something that he was very lucky for, and he was determined not to take it for granted. Whatever he found to do, he told himself, it would need to make a difference - to matter to somebody. That was what he had left the Ministry for, at least partially - because he didn't agree with their politics. He couldn't very well be a hero in his own story if he wasn't doing things he considered a hero to be, he decided, and he leaned back, thinking about what he might be able to do to make a difference...

Underhill had said it was better to change things from the inside out, but James reckoned it only worked if you could stand being on the inside long enough without them changing you first. He couldn't stand without fighting and the fighting did no good. So maybe there was something that fought without fighting and made real change... but what?

As one does when one is alone with their thoughts, James fell asleep.

It had been a week since Oni had seen Regulus Black.

At first, she thought he just had more detentions, but then she saw McGonagall in the Great Hall and knew he wasn't being detained in the Transfiguration professor's office.

Then she thought maybe he was avoiding her, though she wasn't sure why, except perhaps that one of the last times she'd seen him she had kissed him and she worried that maybe he didn't like it that she had done... He had been so high-strung and anxious lately, it seemed ever since that week it had been worse than ever... and there had been that incident of passing out in the water that he had half told her about, a cryptic story he didn't go into details about. He'd accidentally mentioned nightmares.

In her Care of Magical Creatures class, Oni asked Professor Kettleburn if Regulus had gotten by to see the Kelpie eggs yet. "Not yet," Kettleburn answered, "But next time you see him, tell him he'd better hurry down - they'll be hatched by the time you all return from the holiday!"

Oni stood outside several of the classes that she knew he ought to be in, hoping to catch him on the way out. She figured he would want to know about the kelpie eggs hatching soon, and also maybe she could sneak in an apology for the kiss, promise it wouldn't happen again, that she would restrain her whims in the future... but he didn't come out with the others in his class... and when she peeked inside, he hadn't hung back to talk with Flitwick, either.

In the Great Hall at dinne, she snuck over to the Slytherin table, looking for him, only to be confronted by Barty Crouch. "What're you doing over here?" he demanded, sneering at her with disgust. "You're not welcome here. Go back to your own house table - or did they kick you out on account of how ugly your face is?"

Oni flushed. "Where's Regulus?"

"What do I look like? His keeper?" Barty snapped.

"No but, aren't you friends?" she asked. "You're always talking to him anyway."

"That doesn't mean we're friends."

"It does to most people." Oni shrugged, "Now - tell me where he's at, please? I need to find him.

Barty Crouch laughed, looking at the other boys that flanked him. "She wants to know where Regulus Black is."

"Please, just - just tell me, did he get expelled or something?"

A cruel look came into his eyes as he leaned forward and whispered, "Don't go getting too attached to him, you ugly yylittle piglet - if he ever dares to show his face any place the Dark Lord or any of his followers sees it, he'll be sorry." Barty paused, then added, "At least you'd narrow down the places to look for him to cemeteries and mortuaries... right next to your family. May they rest in pieces."

He kept on laughing uproariously as though he were the funniest thing on the planet until she landed a punch square into the center of his face.

That was how Oni had ended up sitting in the Potions classroom in the dungeon, staring at a beaker being filled with a globby blue sludge, heated by a strange black fire that gave off a wave of cool air.

Slughorn bumbled around the equipment, his glasses on the end of his nose. He hummed and muttered as he worked.

She suddenly realized - perhaps he knew where Regulus was? As head of Slytherin house - if anything administrative had been done, he would know that at least.

"Professor Slughorn?"

He turned around suddenly, a puff of orange smoke and a small explosion happened, and his eyes got wide as the beaker in his hand fizzed. He dropped it and stepped back, and when it hit the floor a hole burned through and Oni couldn't see the bottom from where she sat.

"Oh I'm sorry!" she said, "I didn't mean to startle you."

Slughorn bent to peer into the hole and made a face, then took up a cauldron lid and covered it carefully. "Just gonna let that simmer... my goodness." He grabbed a towel and wiped his hands, then turned to her. "Well my year fives will NOT be trying at this potion if that happens so easily." He shook his head, "Especially with DWO in that year..." The hole on the group made the cauldron lid pop and it looked like it burped, and he paled. "Perhaps we won't teach this one at all."

Oni looked down at the desk.

"Oh don't be sorry, it was an important lesson for me. I didn't realize that reaction happened with the wrong amount of grapeseed concentrate. I suppose I should have..." he took off the glasses and rubbed his eyes. "It's a shame getting old and tired, you start making mistakes... One day, I shall retire and do nothing else but read by comfortable fires, if my eyes hold out long enough to do the reading that is!"

Oni still stared at the desk without looking up, even as Slughorn chuckled to himself. Finally, she looked up. "What happened to Regulus Black?" Tears were in her eyes.

Slughorn was wiping his glasses. "What do you mean?"

"He's been gone all week."

"You mean that you haven't seen him," Slughorn corrected. "You're only in a couple classes together, aren't you? You're not one of mine..." he squinted at her, as though to make sure she wasn't a Slytherin, then shook his head.

"No I mean he hasn't been here. At all. At Hogwarts!" she said. "I've asked around. He's skivved off all his classes, and he hasn't gone to see the kelpie eggs, and he - he was going to take me to Hogsmeade, we said we would go together, and its the end of term, and - and I have his Christmas present, but - I'm worried - I - he might be --" she started to cry.

Slughorn looked bewildered. "Not at Hogwarts?"

Oni shook her head. She thought of how her aunt and uncle had gone missing, too, how they simply vanished and nobody knew where they'd gone. Defiance to the Dark Lord resulted in disappearance. The last thing someone like that wanted was for it to get out that their followers were leaving them... that leaving was allowed...

And Regulus has been so exhausted, so nervous recently...

She had seen his dark mark. He didn't know she saw it, but they'd been working in the green houses together and he'd reached across as they talked and worked, and his guard had been down for just a second - so unlike him to let his guard down at all - and his sleeve had ridden up.

But he was too good to be a death eater. Too gentle. She knew he couldn't be one, and knowing his family... knowing the things he had said about not fitting in with them and being an outcast and being alone in the world... Oni had lived that life, she knew all about the delicacies and the secrets and the double meanings.

She knew he was a defector.

And now she was afraid Voldemort might know, too.

Slughorn looked concerned, too, but Oni knew he didn't know just how concerned he ought to look. It only solidified her fear, though. If Slughorn didn't know he was gone, then then his absence hadn't anything to do with being expelled or anything like that.

Which could only mean one thing.

Her shoulders shuddered and she leaned over the desk, wailing.

Horace Slughorn burst into Dumbledore's office without knocking. He had seen his student out and to Flitwick's office, where he had deposited her on the way to the Headmaster's office. His face was red, and he was shaking with fury.

"YOU SAID THAT I WOULD BE ALLOWED TO OVER SEE THE BOY AND BE IN CHARGE OF ANY FURTHER DISCIPLINARY ACTION, DUMBLEDORE!" Slughorn shouted as he stepped in.

Dumbledore looked up. Alastor Moody and another Auror that Slughorn recognized from the papers, though not by name, sat opposite his desk, and both turned to look at him, too. Dumbledore didn't let it fluster him. "Horace, how are you?"

Slughorn tapered now that he saw the two Ministry Officials - he didn't want them to think he was hotheaded and foolish. Old men tended to be thought of as a bit off when they were too loud or passionate like that, and he didn't think it necessary to tarnish his own reputation with them, though he did want Dumbledore to get the point he couldn't be stamped on and ignored when it came to protocol.

"Now see here Albus," Slughorn said sternly, deciding this was the best approach - speak to Dumbledore as he would a student who had stepped out of line, that was the ticket - authority! "You've gone and broken the rules again, and not just the rules but a personal promise to me... I insist on knowing why you've done it!"

Dumbledore asked, "What are you referring to, Professor?"

The second auror was looking at Slughorn carefully, studying him with interest. Suddenly Slughorn remembered teaching him - though it must have been ages ago, he reckoned... The boy hadn't been in the Slug Club and though he may have been a Slytherin... well, things like names slip one's mind so easily when you see so many children...

"Regulus Black! You've expelled Regulus Black!"

The auror looked at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's face flickered concern. "I have not expelled Regulus Black... the boy has completely slipped my mind this week... with so much else going on." He gestured at Alastor Moody.

"You must have done, Albus! He hasn't been in any of his classes this week, and I have students who have been looking for him. I've just confirmed it that he hasn't been seen all week - even his best friend, Bartimeus Crouch hasn't seen hide not hair of the boy! And I tell you - if any would know where Regulus Black was, it would be Barty Crouch! Inseparable!"

"I most certainly have not expelled him," Dumbledore said, and he stood up and went to a huge book where the school's attendance logs magically kept records of the students' classwork and attendance at meals in the Great Hall.

"Then he is missing!" Slughorn said, now with more concern than upset.

A voice came from the wall, "Regulus Black is missing?"

Both aurors, the professor and the headmaster turned to look.

"Ah, Cadmus. You've decided to bless us with your visage at last," Dumbledore said to the portrait.

Cadmus Peverell had his arms crossed. He didn't like showing his face to Dumbledore. He had been vacant since the headmaster had mounted his painting to the wall in the office. "Am I hearing this right? He's gone missing?"

Dumbledore hesitated, but Slughorn said, "Missing!"

Cadmus Peverell looked very grave indeed. "But he didn't know everything yet... he can't have --" the portrait stopped muttering, remembering the company he was in, and then he turned resolutely and walked away, leaving an empty frame.

Slughorn turned to Dumbledore, who stared at the frame with a darkened expression. Slughorn turned to Moody and the other Auror. "You must open a case immediately and find the boy!"