By the time I was done telling Harry everything, I started crying again. "I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to use that spell. I honestly didn't. You shouldn't forgive me. I'm such a horrible sister."

He shook his head in disbelief. "No, Max. You don't have to be sorry about anything. It's me who has to apologize. I didn't mean anything I said to you. I did it all out of anger." He was crying as well. "The last few weeks have been miserable for me. I missed you trying to cheer me up."

"I know how you feel," I sniffled. "I just don't know how you can forgive me for doing such a horrible thing to you."

"You're my sister, Max. I'm here by your side. I'll never leave you, I promise." I pulled him in for a hug and he obliged, hugging me back. "I missed these, too."

I chuckled. "Me, too." After I pulled away, we went back to talking. "So is there anything else I don't know about?"

"Well..." Oh, snap. He was blushing. "I kissed Cho Chang."

"What?"

"Okay, I know you don't like her--"

"Was that your first kiss?" I didn't even care about Cho anymore.

"Maybe," he replied, blushing.

"My brother got his first kiss!" I squealed. Harry was trying to make me be quiet while laughing at the same time. "Right. Sorry."

"Now that we're talking about kissing, why did you kiss Ron?"

My smile turned into a frown. I sighed and looked into the fire. "Honestly, I have no idea. I mean, we were talking and there were mistletoe all of a sudden and I just...had this urge to kiss him. It just happened, really."

He nodded. "Well, things do happen in unexpected ways." it was silent for a moment. Then Harry spoke up again. "You know, you're a really good teacher. Neville's come a long way."

"I know. I'm proud of him."

Suddenly, our eyes finally gave out on us and we fell asleep on the couch.

*******

The next night was torture. I had another nightmare. And it was the worst dream I could ever imagine. It looked as though I was a snake, slithering on the floor. I was at the Ministry of Magic.

"Voldemort may be after something," I heard Sirius' voice. "Something he didn't have last time."

I was now in a room full of little balls. There was a man in there. When he turned around, I saw his face. It was Mr. Weasley.

"No. Don't kill him," I begged.

But the snake, or me, started attacking him. I was yelling in my sleep, grunting, gasping. Mr. Weasley was all bloody by the time the attack was done.

"Max! Max, wake up!" I shot up and saw it was Ginny this time. "What is it?"

"Ginny...your dad..." I said in between pants. "He's been attacked."

*******

"In the dream, were you standing next to the victim or looking down at the scene?" Dumbledore asked. Harry had the same dream as well.

"Neither," we replied.

"Will you please tell us what's happening?" Harry asked him.

But Dumbledore was ignoring us and we were still trying to get his attention. "Next we need to--"

"LOOK AT US!" I yelled. Dumbledore looked at me with shock. "What's happening to us?"

"Miss Potter, calm down," he said calmly.

"No! No, I won't calm down!" I picked up a vase and threw it right at Dumbledore.

"Max!" Harry was holding me back before I did anything else. "Max. Calm down, it's okay."

"You wished to see me, Headmaster?" Snape was here.

"Oh, Severus. I'm afraid we can't wait. Not even till the morning. Otherwise, we'll all be vulnerable," Dumbledore told him.

*******

"It appears there's a connection between the Dark Lord's mind and you two. Whether he is aware of this connection, it is, for the moment, unclear. Pray he remains ignorant." Snape dragged us to his office and sat us in two chairs.

"You mean, if he knows about it, then he'll be able to read our minds?" I asked him.

"Read it, control it, unhinge it." Snape turned around sharply, his wand in hand. "The Dark Lord has always found it interesting to invade the minds of his victims. He tortured them into madness. They would finally beg for him just to finish them off.

"The power of Occlumency will help you shield you two from access or influence. I will attempt to penetrate your minds. You two will attempt to resist. Prepare yourself, Miss Potter." I took a deep breath as he pointed his wand at me. "Legilimens!"

I screamed in pain as my mind was pouring out to him. Cedric. Malfoy Manor. Lucius torturing me. Everything. I wanted him to stop.

"Professor, stop it!" Harry yelled.

"Concentrate, Potter. Focus," Snape told me.

I heard Harry scream beside me. Snape finally stopped and looked at us. "Well, then. It seems like your minds are...formed into one. Answer this for me, do you two always have the same dreams?"

Harry shook his head. "Not always."

Snape studied us for a moment. "Well, this is still the Dark Lord's useful way of torturing both of you at the same time." Snape paused for a moment and then continued. "Let's see if your brother can do better. Get ready, Mr. Potter."

This was going to be a long night.

*******

We spent Christmas at Grimmauld Place. Mr. Weasley was okay and he came back from the hospital that day. His wounds were bad, and if it weren't for us, he'd be dead right now.

"Daddy's back!" Mrs. Weasley announced. She was passing out presents as we entered the kitchen. "Merry Christmas, you two." She gave us a tight hug then handed us our presents.

"A Christmas toast!" Mr. Weasley said. "To Mr. Harry Potter and to Miss Max Potter. Without them, I would not be here."

We just looked at them with sadness as they toasted to us then went back to talking. I opened my gift Mrs. Weasley gave me and it was something she knitted. I got a scarf and some gloves like Harry did. His was red with his initials and mine was red also but with my initials.

"Max." I turned around to see Sirius standing there with a tiny box. "For you. And for you, Harry." He handed Harry a box as well.

"Sirius--"

"I know. I know, I shouldn't have. But I owe you two."

"Were the brooms not enough?" I asked.

Sirius chuckled and watched as we opened our gifts. Harry got a ring with a dog engraved on the top. I got a necklace with the dog as a charm.

"Wow," Harry said.

"It's beautiful, Sirius," I told him.

"I knew you would like it. Now you have another necklace you can wear." He clipped on the necklace and smiled at me. "A beautiful necklace for a beautiful girl."

"Thank you, Sirius. I love it." I gave him a hug.

"So you two have made up?" he asked.

"We have," Harry replied, putting his arm around me.

The whole night, we all celebrated by eating, laughing, and opening more presents. But it seemed as if everyone was having fun except for Harry and I.

It was almost time for us to go back to Hogwarts. As we walked down the stairs, Sirius was in an empty room, waiting for us. "You two ready to go back to school?"

"No," we replied.

"What's bothering you two?"

Harry spoke first. "Well...it's about the night Mr. Weasley was attacked. Neither of us were looking down at him, nor standing next to him. We were the snake. Something is wrong with us, Sirius."

"Harry, I doubt anything is wrong with you two."

"I attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry," I told him.

"What? Max, what were you thinking? He's your brother!"

"She wasn't thinking. It was Voldemort. There's a connection between the three of us. Our minds work as one. And we always feel so angry all the time. What if we're becoming bad? Are we bad people?" Harry was about to cry.

Sirius looked at us with pity and held our faces with one hand on each cheek. "You two are not bad people. It's just that bad things happen to you. The world isn't split up into good people and Death Eaters. There's both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on."

Harry and I sniffled and nodded. He talked about how Grimmauld Place was his house when he was a boy. His family tree was painted on the wall around the room. His picture was burned by this mother after he ran away. Once he was done, Hermione came in, telling us that it was time to go. We gave Sirius a hug and then headed out with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins.

*******

I didn't sit with Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the way back. I sat with Ginny, who wanted to talk to me in private about her love life. Even though Ginny was a year younger than me, she really was easy to talk to. Once we got done talking about her relationship troubles, I ended up telling her about my fight with Harry, my encounter with Cedric the other night, and my encounters with Malfoy.

"Malfoy actually comforted you? But he's a git!" Ginny said.

"I know. But I think there's some good in him somewhere. He just doesn't like to show it."

"Got that right. I still couldn't believe you and Cedric were a couple. You two were cute together. Does Harry really care who you date?"

I shook my head. "Not really. He said that as long I was happy then that's all that mattered."

Suddenly, a blond boy opened our door. "Potterette. We need to talk."

I got up and left the compartment with Malfoy. "What do you want, Malfoy?"

"I heard about your little nightmare that you and your brother had," he said.

"So?"

"Do you realize how messed up you and your brother are?"

"Is that the only reason why you dragged me out here? So you can tell me how fucked up me and Harry are?"

He smirked. "You guessed right."

I stormed away from him, going back to the compartment with Ginny. It took all of my might not to punch him and break his nose. But this was all about control. I couldn't do what I did last time, and I certainly didn't want Malfoy to find out about that.