May 1993

Venus awoke with a start as if from a bad dream. She was disoriented for a moment before the face of Madam Pomfrey came into view.

"Good evening Miss Black, do you feel well?" The Matron asked.

"What?" Venus blinked, "What happened?"

"The date today is May 30th," said the Matron. "You were petrified Miss Black."

"It's November," Venus frowned, pushing herself up on her elbows.

"No, it is May," said the Matron, "do you remember what happened?"

"I was in the bathroom on the second floor," Venus rubbed her head. "I saw- shit it's a snake!"

"Watch your language please Miss Black," Pomfrey sniffed. "And yes, it was a snake. A Basilisk in fact. Fortunately it has now been dealt with and I was able to restore all of those who were harmed."

Venus looked around and saw that there were at least six other people in beds slowly coming to their senses. She recognised Colin Creevy from her year and Hermione Granger too. At one end of the hospital wing there were two beds with separate partitions around them, offering the occupants some privacy.

Once she was satisfied that Venus was well, the Matron straightened up and addressed the rest of the room.

"You're all free to go. The rest of the school is gathered in the Great Hall."

Their strange procession made their way down to the Great Hall, and whilst she was confused, Venus was pleased to see Mali who charged her with such force that Venus felt the wind knocked out of her when she was enveloped in a hug from her friend.

As they ate, Mali explained everything that had happened whilst Venus was gone and how Harry had defeated the monster.

"Where's Ginny?" Venus asked, looking around for the redhead girl.

"Oh," Mali said in a hushed tone, "she was taken down to the chamber of secrets last night. That's why Harry and Ron went down after her. The rumour is that she was the one opening the chamber all along. Someone said that she was being manipulated by some dark magic or something. It makes sense, she's been weird all year. Very hot and cold."

Whilst Venus was upset that she had missed out on most of the school year, she was delighted to discover that exams had been cancelled as she would surely have failed them all if she had been forced to sit them.

At one point during the feast, her family owl arrived and delivered a letter to her from Ted and Andromeda.

Venus,

We are so relieved to have heard from Professor McGonagall that you are okay. You have no idea how worried we've been. Now please, if this has taught you anything it should be to not sneak around after dark. We don't want to hear of it again.

Love

Aunt 'Dromeda and Uncle Ted

"It's from my Aunt and Uncle, they're glad I'm okay," Venus said to Mali who was peering over her shoulder to read the note.

"I'm glad you're okay too," said Mali, "the dorm was far too clean without you there. So are you going to listen to them? Stop sneaking around after dark?"

"No chance," Venus grinned. "How else will I discover every secret that Hogwarts has to offer. Where did you say the entrance to the Chamber was again? I wonder if we can get in. I'd love to see a dead Basalisk."

"You're impossible."

"I try."

*

June 1993

Once Ginny was given a clean bill of health, she returned back to the dorm and explained everything that had happened to her friends.

"I'm glad you're okay Venus," Ginny said when she had finished. "Really, I'm sorry."

"Nah don't worry about it," said Venus, "sounds worse for you than it was for me. I just got to take a really long nap. Plus, I was fairly sure you hated us the way you kept disappearing, so at least that's not true hey."

"Hopefully we can all have a nice normal year at Hogwarts next year," Mali mused, "No getting petrified for Venus, no getting possessed for Ginny. That'd be ideal wouldn't it."

Tentatively, Ginny laughed. Venus hoped that the girl was okay, but outwardly she was projecting a happy appearance so Venus intended to keep her mind on happy things.

Ginny proved to be an excellent accomplice at pranking, having grown up with the Weasley Twins as brothers. Venus found that she didn't get caught as much anymore with Ginny at her side, despite the quite vicious prank war that ended up starting between herself, Ginny and the twins who were determined not to let their little sister show them up.

The end of term went too quickly for Venus' liking and in no time they found themselves boarding the Hogwarts Express and heading home.

"Doesn't feel fair, I missed out on almost the whole year," Venus complained, "d'you think they'll hold me back a year, will I have to retake first year?"

"I think you'll be fine," Mali said, "if you put as much energy into lessons as you did pranking you'd be top of the year easy."

"That's just not who I am though Mali," Venus shook her head, causing her two friends to laugh.

When the train pulled into the platform, Venus was not ready to say goodbye to her two friends. They bade goodbye to each other with promises to write or visit each other over the summer. It wasn't until Venus saw a grinning Dora waiting for her on the platform that Venus finally pulled herself away from her friends and charged over to where her sister and parents were waiting.

"You've grown half a foot!" Dora exclaimed as she hugged her sister.

"Well I had all of that extra time on my hands whilst I was lying in a hospital bed, I thought I'd better make the most of it by growing," said Venus.

"Ha ha," Ted Tonks said, "Not too cool to hug your old Uncle anymore are you?"

Venus laughed and let Ted pull her into his chest. She turned and hugged Andromeda too.

"It's lovely to see you Venus," Andromeda smiled. "I had hoped that being petrified may have sorted out that attitude of yours."

"Nah," Venus said, "spent six months not talking didn't I? Been trying to make up for it ever since!"

Before they could leave, Venus insisted that Ted and Andromeda talk to Ginny's parents so that they could make plans to meet up during the summer. Then she allowed Ted to take her by the shoulder and pull her in to the twisting darkness of apparition and back to their home.

*

"What do you mean you've moved out!" Venus complained over dinner that night.

"I mean exactly that Ve, I've moved out," Dora replied in between mouthfuls of mashed potatoes.

"But you can't leave me here all alone with no one but them for company! I'll go mental!" Venus was scandalised at the idea that Dora would no longer be sleeping in the bedroom next to her.

"I can't stay here forever," said Dora. "Besides, I've finished my training now, I'm a fully fledged auror. I wanted my own place."

"And we miss you every day," said Ted, "I really hate not having to repair something in the house every day."

"Love you too dad," Dora rolled her eyes.

"Well then you have to let me have Mali or Ginny to stay!" said Venus. "I can't be alone all summer, I'll go crazy!"

"You're going to go and stay at Ginny's for the last week of the holidays," sighed Andromeda.

"But that's ages away!" complained Venus.

"Well perhaps you can use all of this time you appear to have to catch up with your old school friends, or even catch up on all of the work you missed? Professor McGonagall sent me a list."

Venus snorted, "fat chance."

*

August 1993

The first few weeks of summer passed easily. Venus spent days trundling around the local countryside, planning all of the mischief she would cause in the upcoming school year and writing letters to Ginny and Mali.

Mali was visiting some of her extended family for the summer in Jamaica. The owls that she sent were full of descriptions of beaches and all of the fun things she had been doing with her cousins. Ginny and her family were visiting her brother Bill in Egypt as her dad had won a daily prophet lotto draw which meant they could pay for the holiday. She too sounded like she was having a great time and Ted showed Venus the picture of the Weasleys that appeared in the Daily Prophet, in which Ginny appeared to have a bad sunburn.

But just a few days after that newspaper clipping appeared in the prophet another news article turned Venus' world upside down.

The family were sat around the breakfast table when the owl arrived and Venus hastened to untie the paper from the owl's leg and pay it as a loud crack sounded outside alerting them to someone's arrival.

"Wonder if that's Dora," frowned Andromeda as Venus unfolded the prophet. Andromeda left to greet the visitor as Venus' eyes raked the front page.

TURMOIL AT AZKABAN: BLACK ESCAPED

Beneath the headline was a picture of a scraggly looking man who held a half crazed glint in his eyes. But there was no mistaking who he was. Even if Venus hadn't seen that many pictures of her birth father before, she saw her own face looking up at her.

Sirius Black, the prolific Death Eater and right-hand-man of You Know Who who was being held at Azkaban for life after the brutal murder of twelve muggles in the aftermath of You Know Who's downfall has reportedly escaped from Azkaban prison.

"It's unheard of," said a ministry insider in the early hours of this morning after the discovery was made. "No one has ever done it before. We encourage all of the wizarding population to act with extreme caution as it is clear Black has used some extremely dark magic to be able to pull this off."

The Ministry has assured this prophet that all security measures at the prison have been tightened and that they are making capturing Black a top priority. Dementors have been dispatched to search for Black. Please be advised that an increase in dementour presence will be noticeable in most exclusively magical locations.

The Muggle police have been notified and Muggles are being told that Black is carrying a gun- a metal wand contraption that Muggles use to kill each other.

If you have any information that may help lead to Black's capture the ministry encourages you to come forward and is offering a 5,000 galleon reward.

"Have you heard?" It was indeed Dora who had come by, she hurried in to the kitchen where Venus and Ted were still sitting at the table, "don't let- oh shit." Dora had noticed Venus sat there staring down at the prophet.

"Language!" Complained Andromeda, following her daughter in. "What on earth could warrant such-"

"Venus, give me the prophet," Dora demanded.

"I'm reading it!" Venus snapped back.

"Since when do you care about the news?" Ted raised an eyebrow.

"I'd imagine since Sirius Black was on the front page," said Dora.

"What?" Demanded Andromeda, "Accio prophet!" The paper zoomed out of Venus' hands and into Andromeda's. Her eyes raked over the front page in panic and her eyes widened when she saw the headline.

"Dora, go and set up extra protection spells," Andromeda commanded immediately. Ted got to his feet and hastened over to read the paper over his wife's shoulder.

Dora didn't need telling twice, she hurried from the room and out of the front door.

"This feels like a bit of an over-reaction," Venus said. "He's not going to show up here."

"We don't know that for certain," Andromeda snapped back. "Venus, you are not to leave the house. Do you understand me?"

Venus said nothing.

"Venus Black, this is not a request. You are not to leave the house, do you understand me?" Andromeda repeated forcefully.

"Sure, I understand." Venus almost rolled her eyes, but decided that it might be a bit too far. It appeared that Andromeda's nerves were frayed when it came to this subject. Venus didn't want to push her otherwise she worried she may find herself locked in her room with no hope of escape.