The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black and how he could possibly have entered the school to try and gain access through the Fat Lady's portrait. He picked a good day, Halloween, while the students had been in the Great Hall.

Although Fred loved hearing all of the talk as it had been rather exciting to him, he wondered about Beth, wondered how she was taking it and if people were bothering her about it. He almost chuckled to himself as he imagined what her face would look like and how she would retaliate to all the talk.

"Invisibility cloak, definitely," said George , as Lee and Fred sat with him in the Great Hall. "There's no way he can turn into a flowering shrub. Harry's got one and it's . . . well, you know."

"Or he's like Dumbledore, which I'm not going to bother doubting the possibility because Beth Black is clearly incredibly smart, probably runs in the family you know, and he probably has, like, really advanced magic. All this knowledge only someone Dumbledore's age can know," said Lee, very quickly. He turned to Fred, right as the redhead was reaching over for a piece of toast. "You all right there, Fred? You've been oddly quiet. No theories for us today?"

Fred opened his mouth to speak, but his twin beat him to it. "Oh, he's just thinking about his lady."

Fred felt his ears turn red. "I was not. And she's not my lady, thank you very much. She's proven time and again that she is an independent woman who doesn't need or want anyone around her."

George and Lee both laughed, but it slowly died out at the sight of Beth Black entering the room, not walking with her head high as usual, not having her typical braid all neat and tidy. She looked grumpier than usual, which only confirmed that people had provoked her about the Sirius Black situation, and she looked paler.

She walked in looking like she was reluctantly preparing herself for more hate thrown her way, questions she had no answers to, glares and snickers, perhaps. Fred thought of all this as he stared at her clumsily making her way toward the Slytherin table.

Everybody was staring at her. Conversations died out. But then they started again, but only in tiny whispers. Fred heard her name mentioned more than once, and so did she, because she moved her icy stare all across the room. Before she got the chance to sit down, a boy from Ravenclaw, probably in his seventh year, spoke up.

"Having some daddy issues, Black? Clearly he couldn't find his way to the right common room and had to take it out on the Fat Lady when he realised you weren't there," he snickered, looking around to see if anyone would laugh. A boy next to him only laughed when nobody else made a sound. Beth's pale complexity paled even further. "After fifteen years he finally wants to be in your life then, huh? Well, judging by the look and attitude I can understand why."

This, a few people snickered at. Others looked too frightened of Beth (the fear had surely come from knowing who she was) and kept their heads down.

"You know nothing, you imbecile," Beth growled, her bag strap sliding down her shoulder but she clearly didn't care. "And I'll have you know, Sirius Black is not —"

"Yes he is, we all know it," the boy from Ravenclaw scoffed again, a look of contempt on his face. "Your mother has been alone for a really long time, the same amount of time that Sirius Black —"

"Would you just shut up!" Beth shouted. Malfoy and his friends were the only ones brave enough to have snickered at her. Soon the commotion would attract the attention of teachers, and that Fred did not want. "Just shut up. You don't know anything. What makes you think you know anything about my family? All you know is what you read, idiot boy, and they're all lies."

Fred looked at Lee and George, who gave him a rather curious look.

"Whatever. We all know why he's here now," the boy grumbled, before sitting back down in his seat and gobbling down his food.

Beth stood there for a long minute, even as the students slowly started going back to eating their meals and chattering away, before she snatched up her bag and stormed out of the Great Hall.

When she was gone, Fred finally found his voice.

"There must be articles about her now that Black's been the talk."

Hermione, who was sitting nearby, said, "oh there is, poor girl. She can't get away from any of it. Article after article, and people are writing books about her and her mother, none of which I believe. She's just lucky she isn't in the daily prophet, that would be a nightmare. But I doubt they're going to hold back now that Black's come to the castle. They're going to think what the rest of the school thinks – that he's after her."

"What exactly is being written about her?" asked George curiously.

Ron, with his mouth full of food, said, "Isn't it obvious?" But it sounded more like, "ibit obivivus."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him before turning back to the three boys. "Everyone thinks she's Sirius Black's daughter because her father has never been in the picture. The books and articles say he's escaped to come after her. The authors all had different reasons as to why he's after her. Some say for a friendly reunion. Others say to . . . you know . . . harm her. And, believe it or not, some even say that she may be plotting with him."

Fred was wide eyed. "Could be she is his daughter. It's what I've been thinking anyway. It makes sense, this father never being around. Could be he was too busy rotting away in Azkaban." He then thought about the Unbreakable Vow and turned to Lee quickly. "Lee!"

"Sorry, mate," he grumbled back.

"You know, instead of arguing about who she is, how about you do what girls like and go after her since she's clearly upset," George said in an obvious voice. "She'll be vulnerable at this point. Go and give her a hug. Go."

"Are you mental? Want her to rip my head off? She's crazy angry right now. I think I'm going to stay away for the next few days until all the talk dies out," Fred shuddered just thinking about how Beth would react to seeing him. She already hated his guts.

"Fred," George said seriously. "Just go and do it. Comfort her."

Fred was reluctant to do as he was told, but George and Lee promised to stay away while he attempted to console Beth. He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of them anymore than he'd make a fool of himself in front of her.

He found her down by the lake, just standing there with her back to him, her arms crossed, and her braid so loose she had a bunch of hair flying around in the wind. Her bag was down by her feet, and she was standing so still he thought she might not even be real.

She turned her head slightly to the sound of his footsteps, then turned away back to the lake.

"Ask me one question about it and I'll rip your legs off, Weasley," she said in a voice so careless he wasn't sure it was her at all. She usually sounded angry and like she meant her threats.

"I was going to ask you a question but not about Sirius Black," Fred said slowly.

"Ask about Hogsmeade and I'll rip your arms off."

Fred sighed and said, "I wasn't going to ask about Hogsmeade either, although I would like for you to come with me, that isn't what I was thinking about."

Beth looked down for a moment and then turned around to face him. She looked like she hadn't slept in days, her icy grey eyes looked so tired and upset, and her eyebrows weren't shaped with anger like they usually were. They were knitted upwards instead.

Even though he hardly knew this girl and she'd done nothing but insult him and cause him to lose hope in fulfilling this stupid vow, all he wanted to do was reach out and hug her, because she looked like she needed it more than anything in the world. People must have been so horrible to her, assuming things that weren't true, teasing her. It had been two days since Sirius Black attempted to break into Gryffindor, and yesterday she hadn't even bothered to show up in the Great Hall to eat anything all day.

Beth looked uncomfortable for a moment, shifting around before awkwardly folding her arms. "Why do you keep doing this?"

"Doing what?"

Beth gave him a look. "Following me around, acting like I put a curse on you or something." Oh love, if only you knew. "Why do you want me to go to Hogsmeade with you so bad?"

Fred frowned for a moment, thinking of how to put it, thinking of words she may want to hear, whether they were true or not. "Because you seem like you could use a friend. And I think you're kind of . . . pretty."

Beth shook her head in disappointment, like she was expecting it. She seemed quite hopeful for a moment, but that may not have been the case.

"Listen, I know you get this a lot, looking like you do. I know a lot of boys have asked you these sorts of things, and you get asked all the time, but it's different now," Fred rambled on, his mouth moving but his mind not thinking clearly at all. "I know you're asked all these stupid things about Black by the people who have done their research over the years, but I don't care about any of it. I don't care who you are."

Fred couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

Beth was quiet for a moment, staring at a patch of dirt by Fred's shoes, looking deep in thought. Fred thought he almost had her, until she look up at him and all she said was, "What was your question then?"

Fred exhaled slowly. "Are you OK?"

Beth looked up into his eyes and said, "Do I look OK to you, Fred Weasley?"

"You look the complete opposite if I do say so myself," Fred said honestly. Beth frowned at him. He quickly added, "still beautiful of course. Which, since you don't look at all OK, leads me to another question."

Beth was looking sceptical. "And what's that?"

"Do you . . . need a hug or something?" The redhead said stupidly, feeling his ears turn red from how weird a question it was.

"Nice try," she said, reaching down to pick up her bag. Fred felt hopeless, realising she was leaving. Fred had his chance to say something meaningful to her, but all he did was ramble on and make himself look and sound stupid. He caught her eye again, but this time she looked different. "I'll go to Hogsmeade with you, Weasley."