Rosalyn scrambled to her feet on shaking, tired legs. She wiped some dirt off her face, feeling a scratch on her head forming, and then she ran for it. She heard the snarls of Lupin the werewolf behind her, and it just pushed her to keep going. She had to find Harry and Hermione.

She ran on, trying to see where they were until she ran headlong into someone. It was Harry. The twins crashed together as Harry said. "Rosie, are you okay, what happened?"

"I tripped over a tree root," Rosalyn explained as they ran behind a tree, pressing their backs to it.

"Your face is bleeding again!" Hermione said scaredly.

"It's fine," Rosalyn said, as she felt the blood start to trickle. "Let's go."

Lupin came through the woods and started to look for them. He looked around a tree and the trio had to shuffle round to avoid him seeing them.

Rosalyn heard sniffing and realised the werewolf was trying to smell them out. Rosalyn could barely breathe.

However, they were extremely lucky because Lupin soon lost interest and went the other way. Rosalyn was slightly surprised at this but she didn't really care, all that mattered was that they were safe.

However she soon came to care. As the three of them backed up and came out from the tree, they heard a low snarl. Harry, Hermione and Rosalyn slowly turned round, and the werewolf was there.

It stood up, and Harry sheltered the girls as they winced. It howled louder than ever and if you were watching you would be able to see every single fang, every single instrument that could inflict pain.

The three of them thought this was the end, they knew it was. Lupin didn't know who they were. Who he was. He didn't know who he was killing and Rosalyn felt sorry for him having to live with it. She didn't want this to be over, but who could help them now...?

Buckbeak. Buckbeak could help them. They had left him in the forest to run because they figured, confronted with the werewolf, he could hold his own.

And he could, they saw it now. The werewolf was instantly afraid of this bigger, more dangerous (if not treated right) creature. He backed away, and when Buckbeak came forwards to properly fight, he retreated completely.

Hermione was still wincing, saying. "That was so scary," over and over.

"It's okay," Harry said.

"I think Professor Lupin's night is going much rougher than ours," Rosalyn said to try and lighten the mood. It kind of worked.

But the mood was suddenly tugged back to the worse side of the spectrum. The leaves at the trio's feet were scattered towards them, the mist started swirling in the direction of the lake and the previously warm night turned cold. Rosalyn looked up, even though she she knew what she was going to see, and saw several black cloaked dementors flying towards-

"Sirius, Izzy," Rosalyn breathed, and then she turned round, heading for the lake. "Come on!"

They got down to the trees beside the lake and they saw the scene. Rosalyn kneeling beside her godfather and her aunt, the dementors swirling in, her patronus, Sirius' soul...

"This is horrible," Hermione commented as Sirius shouted.

"Don't worry," Rosalyn assured Hermione and Harry. "He'll be here. Any moment, our dad will come... he'll conjure the patronus."

But he didn't. Sirius continued to yell and Hermione and Harry to be hopeful, but James Potter didn't come.

"Any moment now..." Rosalyn said, but she was trying to convince herself as well by now.

"Up there," Rosalyn pointed to where she had seen the stag.

"Rosie, listen to me," Hermione desperately said. "No one's coming."

"But he will!" Rosalyn yelled, trying to convince herself more than them. "He will come! He has to!"

But as the dementors closed in, she realised he wasn't.

"Rosie, you're dying," Hermione said quickly but sadly. "You and Sirius and Isabelle... someone needs to stop this..."

And in that moment Rosalyn realised who it was. It wasn't her father, nor any other dead person. Rosalyn knew what she had to do, she just hoped she was doing the right thing.

She drew her wand and ran out into the mist and down beside the lake.

"Rosie!" Harry and Hermione shouted after her, but it didn't work, nothing would. Rosalyn knew what she needed to do.

She pointed her wand at the dementors in the sky, swallowed hard and then she cast it.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The effect was instantaneous. A bright light appeared from her wand and grew in a circle, but a much bigger one than before. It grew into a force field and extended past the lake, past Rosalyn and Sirius.

The spell seemed to last for ages until all the dementors had been driven away, but they were.

After all the light had cleared, Rosalyn was out of breath. But she saw something too, something on the lake.

It was an animal, and that animal was a stag.

But was it?

Rosalyn soon realised that she'd been mistaken about the animal. She had thought the antlers not being lit up was a fluke in the fact that the animal was about to disappear, but that wasn't right.

The things she had taken for antlers were actually low hanging tree branches that looked very much like antlers. In fact, the animal wasn't a stag, it wasn't even a doe.

Rosalyn Potter's patronus was a fox.

She was so amazed by the animal she wanted to watch it forever. It was the same animal that her aunt turned into...

It was amazing. So amazing, in fact, that Rosalyn felt a dull annoyance as Hermione pulled her away.

But she knew why her friend had to do that.

Sirius and Izzy awaited.

☆☆☆

Rosalyn, Harry and Hermione flew through the air on Buckbeak. Rosalyn explained what she had seen on the way as the hippogriff ducked and cut through the dark night air.

"You were right Hermione!" She bellowed behind her. "It wasn't my dad I saw. It was me! I saw myself conjuring the patronus before, that's how I knew I could do it there, because- well, I'd already done it! Does that make sense?"

"No!" Harry and Hermione told her

They saw Hogwarts up ahead and they knew that Buckbeak had to swoop down to reach it.

Hermione said. "Oh no I don't like this- oh no- AAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

She screamed as they dived down to Hogwarts. When Buckbeak eventually dropped them off, Rosalyn said. "Topmost tower... topmost tower... where is that exactly?"

"Come on," Hermione said with a tone of annoyance in her voice. They ran along the stone floor of an outdoor corridor until they reached a cell. It had a silver barred door, and a complicated padlock.

Before Rosalyn could ask how to open it, Hermione raised her wand and yelled. "Bombarda!"

The cell door exploded and bits of rubble went flying everywhere.

They got Sirius and Izzy out and ran back to where they had left Buckbeak. It was a nice place with a stone bench and a running fountain.

"I'll be forever grateful for this," Sirius declared as the three of them hopped off Buckbeak and went to the bench.

"So will I," Izzy smiled at them.

"I want to go with you," Rosalyn said to her as she faced her aunt.

Izzy sighed. "Rosie, listen-"

"One day, perhaps," Sirius stepped in sadly. "But I'm afraid our lives will be too unpredictable at the moment, and besides," He put his hands on her shoulders. "Your place is here."

"So... you're going with Sirius?" Rosalyn asked Izzy.

She nodded. "Don't worry. I'm not in any sort of trouble, I'll just... disappear. If you need me, or either of us, we won't hesitate to come to you side."

Rosalyn sat on the bench, them both kneeling in front of her. "But you're innocent."

"And you know it," Sirius smiled at her. "And for now that'll do. I expect you'll be sick of hearing this, but you look so like your mother, and Harry too, he looks like your father. But he has Lily's eyes, and you have James'. And Bells'."

Rosalyn sighed. "He was your best friend, wasn't he?"

Sirius nodded, his lips pressed together. "It's cruel that I got to spend so much time with James and Lily, and you and Harry so little, but know this. The ones that love us never really leave us. And you can always find them, in here." He touched Rosalyn's shirt where her heart was.

Sirius walked on, and Rosalyn smiled and he turned to Harry. "And you too, Harry, James and Lily are inside you as much as they are in your sister."

Izzy smiled at them two, then looked to Hermione. "You two remind me so much of Lils and I," she said to Rosalyn and Hermione. "Best friends through everything; one really smart, one really brave."

Rosalyn and Hermione smiled at each other  as Sirius got on to Buckbeak, then held out a hand and pulled Izzy up with him. Hermione said. "He respects you now, see, so you'll be able to ride him..."

"Thanks," Sirius said to Hermione. "You really are the brightest witch of your age."

All three children were smiling now, and both Izzy and Sirius thought that, all in all, this was a nice view to have before he left them.

He kicked Buckbeak lightly and the hippogriff bucked before running and then taking off. Rosalyn watched him disappear into the full moon and then-

"We have to go," Hermione said.

They ran (yet again) along the corridors and finally they reached the corridor the hospital wing was on. They heard Dumbledore speaking to them.

"When in doubt, I find retracing my steps a wise way to begin."

He then exited the wing, and saw Harry, Rosalyn and Hermione there.

"We did it," Rosalyn said. "Sirius, Izzy and Buckbeak escaped, they're free, we did it."

"Did what?" Dumbledore asked blankly.

Rosalyn's mouth twitched and she wondered if he really didn't know or if he was kidding them on.

They didn't spend much time dwelling on it however, because they pushed the doors open to reveal Ron.

"How'd you get there?" He whimpered. "I was just talking to you over there- and then you went over there-"

"What's he talking about Rosie?" Hermione asked her friend.

"I don't know," Rosalyn said. "Honestly, Ron how can someone be in two places at once?"

They walked towards his bed and sat down on it, smiling. "You explain," Rosalyn said to Harry and Hermione as she tucked in to a pumpkin pasty that was beside Ron's bed.

☆☆☆

After a much needed long night's sleep, Rosalyn heard something that made her devastated during the day. Apparently, Lupin had resigned after Professor Snape (who Rosalyn was fuming at) had let slip to the school that he was a werewolf. Naturally, Rosalyn went to visit him before her left.

She was climbing the staircase, and as she entered, Lupin said. "I saw you coming," pointing at the map.

His robes were ripped, his face was wrinkled, he looked older than ever. But as Rosalyn studied this, he said. "I've looked worse."

She sighed and said. "Why are you leaving? I know Dumbledore didn't fire you but..."

Lupin said. "I won't be accepted. This time tomorrow the owls will start to come in and parents will not want someone like me teaching their children."

"But that's not fai-"

"I know. I know, but it is life. And let's just say that I am used to it."

He waved his wand at his trunk and it packed itself promptly. It broke Rosalyn's heart to see the best teacher she had ever had leaving.

"Why do you look so miserable, Rosalyn?" Lupin asked.

Rosalyn heaved a heavy sigh. "It's just- none of it made any difference, Pettigrew still escaped, nothing changed. It didn't make any difference."

Lupin bent low over his desk. "Didn't make any difference? Rosalyn, it made all the difference in the world! You uncovered the truth, you save an innocent man from a terrible fate! It made a great deal of difference." He chuckled before picking up his bag.

He walked round his desk and said. "If I am proud of anything, it is of how you have improved this year, Rosalyn. And, since I am no longer your teacher, I feel no guilt whatsoever in giving you this back." He held out the folded marauders map.

She took it and smiled slightly whilst he said, "and now I say goodbye." He breathed a deep sigh. "But I have no doubt, and I feel, that we will meet again sometime. But until then, goodbye, Rosalyn Potter."

"Goodbye Professor Lupin."

And with that, he walked out the door, but Rosalyn stared after him, as if she expected him to come back. She realised just then how much she really, really didn't want him to go. He had become her confidant, her saviour.

Now she just wanted to make him proud.

☆☆☆

There was a lot of commotion when Rosie got downstairs into the great hall. There were a huge crowd of people around the Gryffindor table and Ron's voice rang through everyone else's.

"Stand back! Or I'll take it upstairs and just give it to Rosie myself-"

Rosalyn suddenly got stampeded down by people.

"Rosalyn!" Neville was slightly pink in the face as he came up to her. "Wherever did you get it?"

"Can I have a go? Please?" Seamus said, and Neville decided to elbow him so that Rosalyn would look at him again.

But she didn't, she looked at Ron and said. "What are they talking about?"

"But Rosie-"

"Where-"

"Quiet!" Harry suddenly yelled. "Let her speak!"

"I-I- I didn't mean to open it Rosie, I mean it was badly wrapped and they made me do it!" Ron pointed at Fred and George.

"Did not!" They said in unison.

But Rosalyn's eyes had lain on the broomstick on the table. She recognised it as a firebolt, the fastest broom in the world. She looked up, and saw Harry shouldering his at the table in front of her.

"For me?" Rosalyn asked. "But who sent it?"

"Dunno, it sorta just showed up," Ron shrugged.

"This came with it," Hermione handed her an hippogriff feather quill. She looked at it in awe, and suddenly understood.

Thanks very much, Sirius and Izzy.

Next thing she knew, she was running out of the Great hall, loads of students following her and Harry who had their brooms over their shoulders.

"Come on, you two!"

"Yeah! Let's see it!"

"It'll be so cool!"

Rosalyn and Harry swung a leg over their brooms, and pushed up. They instantly shot up and away, loads of students cheering them.

The broom was going so fast that Rosalyn could hardly see anything, but she could see her brother's face. And as the Potter twins looked at each other, they knew how happy the other was, and even though they couldn't predict the future, they knew right now that whatever came flying at them, they would be able to fight it.

However long it took.