"Help me Ellie, Padfoot and Remmy are winning!"

Eleanor looked up from her English homework. She was in the middle of writing an essay for her favourite book that would count towards a quarter of her coursework grade. She had decided to do the essay on The Song of Achilles. It was a modern remake of a classic, so Eleanor thought that would help her gain bonus points as her English teacher, Mrs. Finch was quite smitten with any type of classic literature.

Currently Josh, Remus and Sirius were engrossed in a game of Wizards chess. Sirius had gone digging around in the attic and pulled the game out a few weeks ago. After being tested for anything sinister (after all, you couldn't trust anything in the house of Black) Mad-Eye deemed it safe and therefore Sirius has been trying and failing to teach Josh how to play chess.

Eleanor examined the game. Sirius and Remus were in fact winning (by a lot) and Josh was loosing so badly, Eleanor didn't think she could save it for him.

"Move your Pawn right diagonally. You'll be able to take one of the Rooks." Eleanor explained.

Eleanor was just about to look back down at her essay when she saw Josh move. "No, not that piece. That's the wrong Pawn! - No that's a Knight!"

"Well which piece do you mean?! You're no help." Josh whined.

Eleanor sighed. "I am, you're just not listening. The Pawn thats next to your Knight. Yes! Now tell that to move diagonally to the right. See, now you can take the Rook."

Josh cheered as his pawn violently knocked the white piece off the board.

"You know, that is classed as cheating. We shouldn't have to put up with such foal play." Sirius said as he effortlessly removed a black Pawn from the board and watched as the white Knight showed no remorse for the Pawn.

"Oh, please," Eleanor said. "You're playing two against one. I would hardly call that fair."

"Yes," Sirius said with a smile, though he didn't take his eyes off the board. "But someone was meant to join Josh and play with him but they decided to ditch us at the last minute to do their boring homework."

"Be quiet, both of you. I'm trying to concentrate." Remus muttered.

"Relax- Remmy," Sirius teased, using Josh's nickname for the werewolf. "We're going to win."

"No, you're not!" Josh declared.

"We are." Sirius said. "There is no way you can bring the game back to your favor now, we've crushed you!"

"Honestly Sirius, there is no need to be so competitive. It's just a game and Josh is a kid after all." Remus said with an eye roll.

"I was just saying, we're going to win. The odds are with us. Josh, there is no way you can win. I'm just saying it how it is, kiddo."

Josh huffed. "Well, I'll beat you in the next game. You watch!"

Sirius smirked. "You can't beat the Chess Master."

Remus sat up straight and stretched. "Need I remind you who taught you how to play chess. You were abysmal when I first met you and you only started to get the hang of it in your third year, chess master."

Sirius turned to Remus. "Well hang on just a minute-"

But Eleanor didn't get to hear the rest for she saw movement in the corner of her eye and turned to the fireplace. She was sure it had just sparked angrily but when she looked properly, the fire was crackling merrily.

Then suddenly, as if she had wished it there, Harry's face appeared in the flames. Eleanor yelped and knocked over her Ink bottle on to the dining table.

She blinked in surprise but when she looked again, Harry's face was still there.

Remus was the quickest to get over his shock. "Harry!" He said. "What are you - what's happened, is everything all right?"

"Yeah." said Harry. Eleanor could not get over the fact that Harry's face was in the fire, his features distorting every now and then as the fire crackled merrily on. "I just wondered - I mean, I just fancied a - a chat with Sirius."

Eleanor immediately knew what was going on and relaxed. Just then, Josh seemed to get over his shock and he leaped from his chair, racing around the table and kneeling by the fire.

"Woah!" He exclaimed as he took in Harry's face. "That's so awesome. How are you doing that?!"

"Hi, Josh." Harry gave him a weak smile. "I'm using Floo Powder. Get Ellie to explain it too you later, I'm in kind of a rush at the moment."

Josh didn't look put off, he just nodded. It seemed that even Josh had come to learn that Harry's life was very messy. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Harry looked taken aback. "Yes, of course. I didn't mean to worry you Josh, I've just only got a limited amount of time."

"Oh, okay." Josh said. "I'll let you speak to Padfoot then. I can't wait to see you next summer though! Can you teach me how to ride a broom? And how Quidditch works?"

Harry smiled genuinely this time. "If it's alright with your parents then of course, I'd love too."

"Wicked. I'll ask dad later."

"I'll look forward to it." Harry said.

"Can you still teach me even if dad says no?" Josh asked hopefully.

Harry laughed. "We'll see."

Remus and Sirius followed pursuit to Josh and knelt down by the fire, Eleanor following after. Harry's gaze lingered on hers for a moment before he turned to Sirius.

"I wanted to talk about my dad." Harry said, looking slightly scared. Eleanor understood why. He was scared of what answers he was about to receive.

Sirius and Remus exchanged a look of great surprise, it was obvious neither was expecting this. Harry didn't wait for an answer and plunged straight into the story of what he had seen in the Pensieve.

Everyone remained quiet while Harry told his story, Eleanor was even surprised to see that Josh remained silent and didn't fidget once. In fact he stared at Harry, looking a lot older than he was with his eyebrows furrowed. Eleanor knew what Josh must be thinking. He, like Eleanor resonated with Harry's story.

Josh, like Eleanor, was adopted. And Josh, like Eleanor, came from a family that didn't exactly treat him right, so for Harry to share his concerns about his father not being a good person, resonated with Josh because Josh knew how it was to hear about his fathers actions and not understand how anyone could be so cruel.

Eleanor shuffled so she was sitting behind Josh and enveloped him in a hug. She rested her head on top of his as he leaned back into her.

When Harry finished his story, neither Sirius or Remus spoke for a moment. Then Remus said quietly. "I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only fifteen-"

"I'm fifteen-" Harry said heatedly, repeating the argument he had made multiple times in his letters to Eleanor.

"Look, Harry," said Sirius placatingly. "James and Snape hated eachother from the moment they set eyes on eachother, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be - he was popular, he was good at Quidditch - good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts, and James - whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry - always hated the Dark Arts."

"Yeah," said Harry. "But he just attacked Snape for no good reason just because - well, just because you said you were bored." He finished with a slightly apologetic note in his voice.

Josh turned quickly to Sirius at this, and Eleanor had the sudden thought that maybe she should have told Josh to leave. Humans were complicated and she knew how Josh looked up to both Sirius and Remus and she didn't want that tarnished over something stupid they both had done when they were younger. She may have never done what they did, nor did she agree with it but any idiot could see that they were good people who did something wrong when they were younger. She only hoped Josh could see the same thing.

Sirius noticed Josh's look. "I'm not proud of it." He said quickly.

Remus looked sideways at Sirius, then said. "Look, what you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did - everyone thought they were the height of cool - if they sometimes got a bit carried away -"

"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean." Interjected Sirius. Remus smiled, and Eleanor felt Josh relax more against her.

"He kept messing up his hair." said Harry in a pained voice.

Sirius and Remus laughed. "I'd forgotten he used to do that." Sirius said affectionately.

Eleanor felt a spasm of pain in her chest. She couldn't comprehend what it would be like to loose your best friend, let alone for time to go by and you slowly start to forget the little things about them.

"Was he playing with the Snitch?" asked Lupin eagerly.

"Yeah," said Harry, watching uncomprehendingly as Sirius and Remus beamed reminiscently. "Well...I thought he was a bit of an idiot."

Eleanor snorted.

"Of course he was a bit of an idiot!" said Sirius bracingly. "We were all idiots - well not Moony so much." He said fairly, looking at Remus.

But Lupin shook his head. "Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?" He said. "Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?"

"Yeah, well," Sirius said. "You made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes...that was something..."

"And," said Harry doggedly, determined to say everything that was on his mind now that he was there. "He kept looking over at the girls by the lake, hoping they were watching him!"

"Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around." said Sirius, shrugging. "He couldn't stop himself showing off whenever he got near her."

"How come she married him?" Harry asked miserably. "She hated him!"

"Nah, she didn't." Sirius said.

"She started going out with him in seventh year." Lupin said.

"Once James had deflated his head a bit." imputed Sirius.

"And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it." added Remus.

"And Snape?" asked Harry.

"Well," said Remus slowly and Eleanor knew what the answer was going to be. "Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James so you couldn't really expect James to take that lying down, could you?"

"And my mum was okay with that?"

"She didn't know too much about it, to tell you the truth." said Sirius. "I mean James didn't take Snape on dates with her and jinx him in front of her, did he?"

"That's a one way ticket to getting dumped." Eleanor muttered and Sirius grinned.

"See." He said to Harry.

Sirius' grin turned into a frown when he saw that Harry still looked unconvinced.

"Look," he said. "Your father was the best friend I ever had and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it."

"Yeah, okay." said Harry heavily. "I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape."

"Now that you mention it," said Remus, a faint crease between his eyebrows. "How did Snape react when he found you'd seen all this?"

Harry glanced towards Eleanor, who already knew everything. Eleanor nodded encouragingly at him and smiled.

"He told me he'd never teach me Occlumency again." said Harry in a would be indifferent voice after a second glance at Eleanor. "Like that's a big dissapoint-"

"He WHAT?" shouted Sirius, making everyone jump.

"Are you serious, Harry?" said Remus quickly. "He stopped giving you lessons?"

"Yeah," said Harry and Eleanor could see he was surprised by their reactions. "But it's okay, I don't care, it's a bit of a relief to tell you the-"

"I'm coming up there to have a word with Snape!" said Sirius forcefully, and he actually made to stand up, but Remus wrenched him back down.

"You can't," Eleanor said logically. "To everyone at Hogwarts, you're a convicted murderer and I daresay Umbridge is just going to let you waltz about the castle to harass a Professor, especially when she finds out it's about Harry. She hates him."

"Thanks El." muttered Harry.

"Just saying it how it is, Hazza." Eleanor smiled and watched as he too gave a small smile which he tried to conceal.

Remus still looked serious. "Eleanor's right. Besides, if anyones going to tell Snape it will be me!" He said firmly.

Eleanor wanted to point out again, that Umbridge wouldn't let Remus ten feet near the castle because he was a Werewolf and she was the one who had created the law in which it made it so hard for Remus to find a job. She didn't say this though, because she didn't think Remus would need reminding of it and also Remus was more level headed than Sirius, so she guessed he already knew this.

Remus continued. "But Harry, first of all, you're to go back to Snape and tell him that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons - when Dumbledore hears-"

"I can't tell him that, he'd kill me!" Harry said, outraged. "You didn't see him when we got out of the Pensieve."

"Harry, there is nothing so important as you learning Occlumency!" Remus said sternly and Eleanor was shocked. She had never seen Remus so worked up. "Do you understand me? Nothing!"

"OK, OK." Harry said, looking thoroughly discomposed, not to mention annoyed. "I'll...I'll try and say something to him...but it won't be..."

Suddenly Harry fell silent, and even in the flames, Harry's face drained of colour. Eleanor tensed.

"Is that Kreacher coming downstairs?"

Eleanor felt a kind of eerie feeling overcome her. The house was silent and she knew the noise must be coming from where Harry was.

"No," Eleanor said quickly. "It must be someone from your end. Go, quickly!"

"Okay, I'm going. I'll try and talk to you-"

But Harry's head dissapeared. The house fell silent but it's inhabitants stayed sat by the fire for a while, which continued to blaze as though Harry's head hadn't appeared in it moments before.

"Do you think he's alright?" Eleanor asked after a while of silence.

"Yeah," Sirius muttered. "He has his dads cloak...Well I should hope he does anyway."

"He will have," Remus said. "It's not the first time he's snuck around when he shouldn't be. He'll have the sense to take Prongs' cloak and he should have the Map too. He'll be fine."

A moment of silence passed. "Yeah, you're right. He will be. I'll have a letter off him within a day or two saying how it was a close call but he didn't get caught. Harry's always lucky like that." Eleanor smiled faintly, trying to hide the persistant worry gnawing at her. If Harry was caught by Umbridge she hated to imagine what the wicked women would do to him.

"I wish I could go to Hogwarts." Josh said suddenly.

"Trust me," Eleanor said as she began to stand. "You really don't."

"We'd better send an owl to Dumbledore." Remus said, worry also still etched on his features.

"Do you even know where he is?" Eleanor asked after recalling that Dumbledore was no longer at Hogwarts.

"Us Order members know, besides the owl would find him even if we didn't know where he was." Remus explained. "Padfoot, where do you keep your parchment and quills?"

"I have some here, Moony. I'll have to get some ink though, I doubt Kreacher would get it for me." Sirius said and with that the two adults rushed out of the room.

Josh got glumly back to his feet and stared at the chessboard which now lay abandoned.

"On the brightside," Eleanor said to her brother. "At least you'll never loose the game now."

Josh smiled.

(Wow, we have a long chapter here. I hope you enjoy. I used the book to help me write some scenes but yeah, I really enjoyed writing this. I know Eleanor and Harry didn't have much interaction but I wanted this to be more about Harry, Remus and Sirius and Harry trying to get the answers he wants. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Until next time.)

Also just a little disclaimer, I know absolutely nothing about chess. I've never played it, so what I've written about it is most definitely wrong.