All the way IIII: Change

Sirius and Eileen sat on a bench by the beach.

Sirius couldn't believe that he had actually found her. He had looked every where for her, but of course, he had soon realized she wasn't abroad. He had tried tracing magic, but every lead he had left him with a strange witch or wizard living alone in a muggle town. He had never expected her to be living as a muggle, with a muggle. In the end, he had used his mothers’ friends at the Ministry to find Eileen.

This Sam person seemed to be a bit full of himself. Granted, he was a muggle and no mind reader, but if a lady said no enough times... well, it took a pretty stupid man not to take the hint. No matter what the reasons.

When Eileen had opened the door, Sirius was stunned. She had grown up, yet she was so small. At first he had just thought that she had inherited her mothers’ height and was wearing baggy clothes but, when he looked closely, he could see that she was obviously not taking care of herself.

And now he knew why.

Well, he had suspected that something else had happened when she had been kidnapped, ever since his dad hinted at it when she had fainted fighting a Boggart. For the rest of their time at Hogwarts, Eileen had stayed away from people, hiding in the library or her dormitory. She had said that she wanted to do well in her O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T's, but every one knew she would get the best marks without studying as hard as she was - and she did. Her personality had changed, too. She stopped snapping at people and didn't talk to any one she didn't know well, unless it was absolutely necessary.

Sirius had heard their parents talking about her; saying that there was definitely something wrong, but nobody could work out what. He had heard Hermione blaming herself for not being a good enough mother.

But he wasn't blind. Sirius, just like every other boy in their year realized how pretty Eileen was, with her long dark hair and her glassy black eyes. But, unfortunately, some of them had also realized that she changed, from their fourth year onwards. She seemed younger and some how more innocent. And that was very appealing to young guys. Some of them wanted to look after her in a very libido led manner, while some of them had twisted vision of being the one to 'have Snapes daughter.'

Eileen seemed to notice this and it only made her worse.

But, Sirius was glad he had found her now, because, to be honest, she wasn't in a very good way from his point of view and he wasn't sure how much longer she could have gone on pretending that everything was alright.

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Eileen didn't realize it was dark until she started shivering; She was only wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, and the weak sun had been keeping her relatively warm.

Sirius seemed to notice she was cold, as he put his arm around her, sharing his body heat.

"I should probably be going." She sighed quietly in the darkness.

"Come and stay with me," Sirius said.

"I can't just leave Sam like that..." Eileen paused and smiled a bit, feeling more comfortable than she had in a long time, "I do have a conscience, you know!"

Sirius shook his head, laughing quietly, "I never said anything."

"But I could tell what you were thinking. Probably something about Slytherins... You're so stereotypical when it comes to us!"

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Sirius smiled; it seemed that telling him her problems had helped Eileen more than she thought.

"Just come and stay with me for a while," he pressed, "We can go and get your stuff now and you can tell Sam," Sirius made a funny face and Eileen giggled, "that you've had enough and you're moving out. How does that sound?"

"I guess," She said in defeat, "Come on, let's go before I prove the reason I was never put it the oh-so-brave Gryffindor and I bottle it."

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Hermione felt a bit strange. This was the first Sorting where Severus was absent and she felt a bit lonely.

Although, all through the start of the feast, Trelawney kept dropping hints to the other teachers that Hermione had murdered her husband and all the other staff were laughing at the Divination Professor. Then halfway through the feast, Trelawney had wrote on one of her small white scarves in red lipstick, stuffed it into the middle of one of her roast potatoes and proceeded to stand up and proclaim that Hermione would choke on a pea, before she stumbled from the hall.

Hermione had nearly finished her dinner, when a fork came from her right and speared the last pea on her plate. A bit startled, Hermione looked around.

"Couldn't let you choke now, could I?" Grinned the new Charms Professor.

Hermione laughed, "At one time I thought she did that stuff to get attention, but now I think she real believes she can predict stuff like that."

"But didn't she make a prophecy about Harry Potter?" He asked.

She nodded, sipping some pumpkin juice, "She made two, actually, but it's impossible to make a prophecy consciously or when you want to, so therefore, it doesn't count."

Gary nodded, "Minerva told me to steer clear of her... Can I ask you something?"

Hermione looked up, slightly surprised, "Go ahead."

"Would you just check over my lesson plans for me?"

She smiled, "Of course, when ever you like."

"Would you mind coming now? I've got my first class first thing tomorrow morning and Minerva told me you were very clever, so I want to see if she was right." Gary smirked.

Hermione stood up, "Come on then."

They went down to the Charms office. Gary pulled out a chair for Hermione in front of his desk and then sat himself behind the wooden table. He pushed some parchment forwards.

"There you go," He smiled.

Hermione nodded and started to read, knowing there was more to this meeting than there seemed.