//------------------------------//
// Chapter 31 
// Story: The Girl who Didn't Just Live 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

“Do you need something?” Professor Lupin asked, looking up from his briefcase.  He’d just finished his last class for September, and was packing his things again- but there was one student left.  One student, and one non-student that always sat with her at the same table.  “Ahh, Hailey,” he muttered.
She nodded, slinging her bag over her shoulder and walking up to his desk, one arm draped around Sadarina’s shoulders; the girl still acted very much like a baby, always clutching at Hailey’s side- though by now, there were occasional flashes of more complicated emotions on her face.  “How is it?” Hailey asked- gesturing slightly towards his chest.
He glanced down, and let out a soft sigh; he was wearing the amethyst necklace she’d given him, though he’d tucked it down the front of his robes.  Even though he’d tried it on a few times throughout the month, the chain still felt heavy against his neck- and when the full moon had appeared that night, he hadn’t transformed, so had been able to cancel the arrangements he’d made for Snape to cover for him.  However, the necklace had started to glow gently when the full moon appeared, so he was a little afraid to take it off.  “Why does it glow?”
“That means it’s working,” she answered.  “If you take it off while it’s glowing, you can expect potentially dramatic results.  Once it stops, though, it's perfectly safe.”
He nodded slowly.  “Ahh.  Alright.”  He paused.  “Thank you.”





“You’re…  Sirius Black, right?”
Sirius Black froze on his way through the castle, then turned.  Who had snuck up behind him?  Why weren’t they enjoying the Halloween Feast downstairs?  Why did they seem so nonchalant as they spoke to a ‘convicted’ mass murderer that was armed with a large knife?
The girl had gleaming red and gold hair flowing down her back like a bonfire, and did not have her wand out.  Instead, she was carrying a book in her hands- which made sense, as he recognized the Ravenclaw patch on her chest.  Her nameplate indicated her name was Morning Sun, and she had a badge underneath that, which identified her as…  He couldn’t read the text from twenty feet away, but there was a lot of it.
“Yes,” he asserted, showing her the knife.  “Who are you?”
She smiled.  “Someone that is not afraid of you,” she said simply.
He scowled.  “That much is obvious,” he grumbled.  “Why?”
She calmly reached into her robes to draw out a rolled-up newspaper and glanced at it, before walking forward to hand it to him.  “This is why.”  She paused.  “Mind, it’s a month and a half old, but…”
He accepted the newspaper, only briefly considering brandishing the knife now that she was actually in knife range.  Her badge read ‘Lead Student Instructor of Defense Against the Dark Arts for Third-Year Ravenclaws, with the ‘of’ and ‘for’ printed very small and dividing the rest into three lines.
He shook the newspaper out, and glanced at the headline- ‘man spends thirteen years in Azkaban without trial for a crime he did not commit’.  He also immediately recognized himself on the front page- and actually, the scene in which Peter had faked his death.  He found himself staring at it.
She chuckled.  “The Ministry hasn’t apologized, reinvestigated, or otherwise responded at all just yet, so Rita’s been getting increasingly vicious towards them ever since.  On the other hand, nobody’s afraid any more.”  She paused.  “If you’re looking for Peter Pettigrew, the Fat Lady won’t let you in without the password, no matter what you do.”
He looked up at her.  “You know where he-!?”  He cut himself off.  “You say that like you know the password,” he observed.
She laughed.  “Nah, I’m neither a Gryffindor nor part of the Management Team.  I haven’t a clue what that password is.”  She turned away and shrugged as she walked away.  “Not that it’s that hard to steal, mind.”
He scowled, evaluating the new information.  “Why aren’t you at the Halloween Feast?” he asked.
She glanced back and grinned.  “I don’t like feasts- they’re too noisy.  Now, I know Ravenclaw Tower is the easiest one to get into with no prior knowledge, but if you try and attack me in my sleep…  I’ll warn you now, I can get pretty deadly when I want to, even without my wand.”  She turned a corner and jogged away, in the direction of the library.
Sirius looked back down at the newspaper, sighed, and resumed his path to Gryffindor Tower.  He wouldn’t be able to get to Peter- that wasn’t a very nice pill to swallow, but he’d already kinda expected that.  On the other hand, her suggestion about the password being easy to steal was almost too good to be true, so he wanted to investigate the area around the Portrait Hole, and see exactly how easy it was going to be to steal the password before he headed back to the forest.  He was going to need to do some planning before he actually stole the password and entered to catch Peter.