CHAPTER ONE:
TRUTHS UNTOLD

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          Amandla enjoyed board games. She liked the simplicity of them, how everyone knew how to play them and that there were many different ones. No explanation of how to play was needed as her and Cevira held their cards as they played Clue.

         It seemed that all they had done during summer was play games and do chores, ignoring the fact that adults were having meetings for the Order of the Phoenix just downstairs. Cevira's mother was very strict on the fact that her children could not attend the meetings – even Amandla, who wasn't technically her child.

         "Your turn," Cevira spoke softly in the silence, knowing that there shouldn't be much noise. The two of them could hear all of the yelling that came from downstairs.

         Amandla rolled the dice, getting a seven, before moving the red piece to the living room. "I think it was Peacock with the gun in the living room."

         Cevira showed her the card with the label: LIVING ROOM. The girl sighed, checking the blank with the words before putting her list down, waiting for Cevira to roll.

         "You know," Cevira spoke, "I heard something while I was getting a drink."

         Amandla raised her eyebrows, looking at her friend in curiosity. "Come on, you have to tell me."

         The Asian girl shifted her eyes before leaning close, "Apparently Harry Potter was attacked by dementors."

         "Can't be," Amandla shook her head, "The Order has people watching his every move, he couldn't be attacked!"

         Cevira gave her a smile, "Mundungus...he thought that smuggling a few items was worth more than watching over Harry."

         "Of course," the girl muttered. "He always looks after himself before even thinking of another human."

         "Yeah," Cevira nodded, looking at her playing cards. "It was White with the gun in the dining room."

         Amandla smiled, showing her the card saying WHITE. Cevira huffed, scribbling it down before looking up. "Mum says that he'll be kicked out of the Order for what he did," Cevira spoke quietly.

         "They wouldn't do that," Amandla shook her head, "Would they? I mean, they are about second chances and forgiving people."

         "Yeah," Cevira agreed, "but he almost let the poor kid die. And he means a lot to wizards."

         She rolled the dice, scoring a five, before using a secret passage to end up in the kitchen. Amandla looked at her cards, letting the simplicity of playing the game take over. So much had happened in her lifetime, so many things full of stress and grief, and it was nice to just talk and play a game. That was much easier than facing the drama that waited outside of the door.

         Amandla and Cevira were used to sharing a room, so it didn't come as surprise when they were asked to share the room with each other. Caesar, Cevira's twin, roomed with Ron Weasley. The twins of the redheaded family stayed together, but it didn't come as a surprise since they were known to be joined to the hip. And Hermione Granger stayed with the youngest of the Weasley family, Ginny.

         While Amandla sometimes wished she was the one room with Hermione, she knew that it would never happen. Hermione and Ginny knew each other well, and Amandla had known the Stature family since she was six. So of course the two families would stick together.

         They continued playing the game. Making accusations before admitting defeat, moving to different rooms before switching their suspects and it wasn't long before Amandla's red piece ended up in the board room.

         "Scarlett with the rope in the board room," she guessed, looking at Cevira. To her surprise, the Asian girl sighed, laying down her cards, her way of admitting defeat and letting Amandla open the envelope which would have the cards of the crime.

         The snatched the orange envelope with the word CLUE on it, opening it before smiling, laying down the cards.

         "You've got to be kidding me!" Cevira exclaimed in a whiny voice, "That's the third time you've won this game in a row! You have to be cheating."

         Amandla scoffed, "I'm not cheating, I'm just better at this game than you are."

         Cevira just rolled her eyes, picking up the cards before shuffling them again, "Well, this time I'm going to beat you."

         "Good luck," Amandla smiled, hearing the record come to an end. The got off the bed that the two were sharing, pulling her shirt down as she walked to the record player, replacing the Bon Jovi record with Queen.

         Amandla walked back to the bed, lying down as she looked at Cevira shuffle, no noise except for the rock record. She hummed the lyrics of "We Are the Champion", lightly moving her head from side to side.

         "Filth! Scum! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers?" they heard a screaming from downstairs.

         Amandla rolled eyes, "Mrs. Black's at it again. She gives me headaches with all the screaming, doesn't she know about peaceful protests?"

         Cevira laughed slightly. "I think she wants to get under our skin, if she stays quiet, we'll all be a million times happier than before."

         "Shut up, you miserable old hag! Quiet!" they heard Sirius Black yell back at her.

         "Merlin, I can't imagine what it was like growing up with that freak show," Cevira shuttered, and Amandla could feel all the playfulness drain from the conversation.

         The girl shifted slightly, glad that her friend didn't notice, because the topic was very uncomfortable for her. But Cevira didn't know that, and she didn't need to – no one needed to know. It was a secret that would remain with herself and her family, no one else needed to know the truth. It would only get them killed.

         "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!" Mrs. Black roared at her son from downstairs.

         "Yes, yes, do shut up!" they heard Sirius scream back. Then it became quiet.

         "Wonder who's here now," Amandla commented.

         "Probably Tonks...at least, I hope it's Tonks," Cevira said, "She's cool. More childish than the others."

         Amandla nodded. Tonks was more childish than the others, and sometimes let some things slip about what was happening their meetings.

         They started another round of Clue, passing out cards before rolling the dice to see who would go first. Cevira won with an eight while Amandla rolled a two.

         It was silent for a while more. Just more Queen and making accusations as they waited to hear more yelling or anything to tell them what was happening the Order meeting. Then, they heard footsteps going down the hallway, passing their door and heading to another room.

         "Harry!" Amandla could faintly Hermione exclaim, and the two friends freeze momentarily.

         "Harry? Harry is here?" Cevira started, "But he's supposed to be at his house – safe!"

         "Well, he was just attacked, Cev. Probably thought it best if they brought him here, where the Order could watch him directly," Amandla suggested.

         "Hermione!" they heard Ron scold. The two friends chuckled at that.

         "That's your girl," Cevira smirked, "Talking up a storm and scaring people."

         Amandla flushed at the sentence. "She's not my girl. She doesn't even know I exist."

         "You still got to be here!" they heard Harry yelling, and the two friends glanced at the wall. They had never heard Harry Potter yell before.

         The noise quieted down, and the two friends couldn't hear any conversations from the trio or the meeting downstairs. Nevertheless, the friends didn't worry all too much because they had the voice of Freddie Mercury calming them and an intense game of Clue.

         They continued to play until there was a knock at the door, and popped Mrs. Weasley's head. "Meeting's done, you can come down now."

         The girls nodded, watching as the woman closed the door. Putting the game away, they walked down the hallway quietly before reaching the stairs. They walked down into the dining room, seeing many members of the Order there already along with Cevira's brother, Caesar.

         They took a seat next to each other, not speaking a word as they did. Amandla watched as the Weasley twins along with Harry, Hermione, and Ron come into the room, taking a seat at the table.

         "Well, the Ministry is furious with you," Sirius spoke to Harry with a proud smirk.

         "Why?" he asked, oblivious to the whole situation that had caused such an uproar.

         "You did magic in front of your muggle cousin," Sirius explained, "You'll have to go to a disciplinary meeting tomorrow."

         "Okay," Harry then stood up, "I'm not really hungry. I think I'll go to bed."

         "You surprise me, Harry," Sirius complimented the boy, "I figured the first thing you'd do is start asking about Voldemort."

         The room went still with that as Harry paused and Mrs. Weasley glared at Sirius. "I wanted to," Harry started, "but I didn't think you'd tell me anything."

         "And that was quite right, Harry! You're much to young –" Mrs. Weasley started.

         "He has a right to know, Molly," Sirius broke in.

         "It's not your decision!" Mrs. Weasley retold him, looking at him with fury.

         "I know what Dumbledore said," Sirius took a sip from his glass, "but he needs to know something."

         "Yeah," Harry grinned, happy that someone was on his side, fighting for him with the adults.

         "He's not a child, Molly," Sirius told her sternly.

         "He's not an adult either!" Molly paused, looking for the right words that would sting Sirius, "He's not James."

         The room went quiet for a moment. Everyone was shocked by what she said, and Amandla could feel herself sinking. She knew that her parents were already in the loop around her age, and she was trying to swim through the sea and find the answers.

         Sirius stiffed from the comment, his attitude to the woman turning cold. "I'm fully aware of who he is, Molly."

         "I only have Harry's best interests at heart," Mrs. Weasley told him.

         "I believe that Harry's interest lies in learning the truth," Amandla broke in, surprising everyone. "But please, continue and try to decide his life without even asking him. It's not like it affects me."

         Harry smiled at her, and Cevira stared at her in shock. Amandla was never one to speak her mind – a trait she shared with her parents.

         "Yes, Molly, see?" Sirius motioned to the girl, but the woman ignored her and Sirius sighed, "He's not your son."

         "Who else does he have, then?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked at him, the words going straight to her heart.

         Sirius stood, glaring at the woman with anger, "He's got me. He's like a son to me."

         Mrs. Weasley huffed. "Children, upstairs. Now!"

         The Weasley children didn't move, and neither did Amandla and the Statures. "Come on, mum," Ron said, "Harry'll just tell us everything once he goes upstairs. Right?"

         Ron and Hermione stared at Harry, who sighed. She could understand, being kept in the dark and feeling betrayed. "Yeah...yeah, I would."

         "Fine," Mrs. Weasley said, "But everyone else upstairs."

         No one argued more, not wanting another argument to break out. Amandla and Cevira were near the stairs when they heard Sirius, "Amandla – you can stay as well."

         The girl froze. He knew...he knew. Merlin, he knew and that wasn't good. Amandla snapped out of her trance, nodding at Cevira before sitting back down.

         "Sirius, what are you doing?" Lupin asked his friend.

         "I have my reasons," Sirius said, "Dumbledore never said anything about anyone else – just that Harry couldn't know everything."

         Harry glanced at Amandla, but she ignored it, looking at Sirius. "Don't worry, talk to me after this is over," he smiled at her.

         Sirius then turned to the boy that was sitting next to her, "What do you want to know, Harry?"

         "Where's Voldemort? What's he doing?" Harry fired, and Amandla felt herself growing sick. That name – he shouldn't say that name!

         "He's hiding for the moment, because the Ministry is ignoring his return and he doesn't want that to change," Sirius told them.

         The Malfoy Manor, if they check there, they'll see. Everyone will see.

         Remus smiled gently at him, "You really messed things up for him last year, Harry."

         "How?" Harry asked, being oblivious as ever.

         "The last person You-Know-Who wanted to alert was Dumbledore," Sirius told him solemnly.

         "And what's his plan?"

         "He's building up his army again, just like before," Sirius answered.

         "And you're stopping him from gaining followers?" Harry asked.

         "We're doing our best," Lupin answered that time, "but it's proving to be...difficult."

         "You see, when the Ministry of Magic insists that Voldemort isn't back," Sirius helped explain the situation.

         "But...why?"

         "Fudge likes being Minister of Magic," Lupin started, "If it turns out that Voldemort came back under his watch, he'll be sacked."

         "But you're telling people, right?" Harry asked, with the same hyperactive behavior as before.

         Sirius laughed, "Well, they think I'm a mass-murderer, Lupin is a werewolf, Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Minsitry..."

         "But Dumbledore is doing all he can," Lupin finished, hoping to lighten the mood a little.

         "If he keeps it up, he might end up in Azkaban. And that would give You-Know-How a clear field to –" Mr. Weasley stopped him, looking as if he had said too much.

         "What?" Harry asked, watching as the demeanor of adults change right in front of them.

         "You-Know-Who wants something. Something he didn't have last time," he paused for a moment, "A weapon."

         "What kind of weapon?" Harry asked, but Amandla didn't want to know. She didn't want to know anything about what he was up to or what he wanted.

         Remus and Sirius exchanged looks before Lupin turned back to the boy, "I'm sorry, Harry, we can't say anything."

         And then, Harry left the room, going up to bed after some persuasion from Mrs. Weasley. Amandla stayed, though, wanting to talk to Sirius. The adults looked at her in confusion.

         "Sirius wanted to talk to me, and I want to talk to him," she answered them, just by seeing their faces.

         The Black nodded, leading her to another room – his old bedroom. "You look a lot like your mother, you know."

         He paused for a second after that, taking a look at the girl, "You look so much like her...you act more like your father, though. Whenever he spoke, he had to explain himself. Unlike your mother, who could just say something."

         "Why are you telling me this?" Amandla asked in a shaky voice, "I don't want to know – I already know what they were, and I know how they ended."

         Sirius nodded, looking at a photograph. He handed it to her, and she could see her mother and Sirius laughing together at a party.

         "We met at the parties our parents would throw. Pureblooded Slytherin parties," he put the picture down, "She would stand by herself, brightening up whenever she thought a boy was going to ask her to dance."

         He laughed, "It was quite funny, actually, but after a while it became sad. So, one day, I asked her to dance."

         Sirius' happy expression turned sad as he continued to reminisce, "That was when we were young – before Hogwarts. Everything changed once she was sorted into Slytherin and I went to Gryffindor.

         "Suddenly, she never wanted to dance with me at parties. When we were fifteen, your parents met. At another party that my aunt had thrown. She found me later that night, a little tipsy, saying that she believed in love at first sight – that she fell in love. Gwendolyn told me that she was sorry, just trying to please her parents, I understood. The only way to earn love or praise in a household like ours was to do everything like your parents."

         He moved to a tapestry that was on the wall, "We continued our friendship in private – in the Room of Requirement since it was the only safe place at Hogwarts. She told me everything about her and Samuel, I listened."

         Amandla looked at him with sorrow, "I'm sorry...did you know when they died."

         "Yes," he nodded, "I had already lost my best friends to people like your mother, and I began to resent her – that was until I heard that she had been murdered by the killing curse. It made sense, our last meeting, when she said that nothing was going to be the same once you turned two.

         "She ran away. They all ran away, and it got then killed. I'm sorry for that, you had parents that cared for you...we never had that," he finished.

         Amandla took a step forward to the picture again, seeing her mother – only about seven or eight – smiling and happy. She could agree, they did look a lot alike, and that made everything worse.

         Instead of replying to Sirius, or trying to keep the conversation, she found herself walking away and up the stairs. The others her age were around the hallway, crowding around and waiting.

         "What did you want to tell you?" Harry asked her, but she passed him without a second thought.

         "Are you alright?" it was Hermione, but she couldn't stop. Amandla couldn't stop and give Hermione a smile because then she knew that she would tell Hermione everything. It was how the girl was. She just wanted the Granger girl's attention.

         He knew he knew he knew he knew he knew he knew he knew.

         She went right to her room, going to the desk as she tried to gather her thoughts. Thankfully, Cevira was with Caesar and the others – not in the room. She had to think, had to think, of what to say, to tell them. Amandla had so many secrets and not enough truths.

         She took the quill to the piece of parchment, letting the words flow onto the paper without thinking about them. Sirius wouldn't tell, he wouldn't. The man was friends with her mother, liked her, and wouldn't betray her by telling everyone. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing.

         She opened put the parchment into an envelope, sighing the name that it would go to before heading out of the room and down the hall.

         "Amandla?" Cevira asked, but the girl had to send the letter without the others noticing, or else they wouldn't let it through.

         Down, she went to the office where the window and the birds were. She took the Stature bird – just a barn owl – and gave the envelope to it.

         "Draco Malfoy," she whispered, not wanting the others to hear anything, "Don't let anyone else get the letter besides him."

         Then, Amandla sighed, seeing the owl fly out the window and soar through the night. She still remembered the words that she wrote in the letter:

         Draco,

         I know that you said that we shouldn't send letters to each other anymore since he is staying at your home, but the matter of this letter is very important. Don't let anyone else see it, please.

         Sirius Black knows about me and my heritage. My parents knew him when they were younger, and I knew that I couldn't hide the fact that I look like my mother. He has agreed to not tell anyone, though I know it won't be long until other teachers figure out the truth as well.

         Tell your parents if you wish, but make sure not to let anyone else hear.

With love,
your favorite cousin