Her trip to Hogwarts had been mostly uneventful. Felicity didn’t have to ride the train, since she lived in Hogsmeade, so she only met the others at the station and rode to the castle in the carriages. Once she’d gotten there, it had been a quick feast, reconnecting with old friends and welcoming the new students to her house, before the blonde made her way to her dorm and went to bed, calling it an early night. She wasn’t quite up for much chatter just yet. She had a lot on her mind.

This first real day in the castle found her searching for a certain black-haired boy. She wasn’t going to get anywhere with her friends or her schoolwork until she had some answers. The only one she knew of to give her those answers was the one and only Harry Potter. Trouble was, she didn’t know how to find the boy. Sure, he was in the Great Hall for meals, but she couldn’t very well go walking up to the Gryffindor table yapping about being his godfather’s kid, now could she? That was what her mum had told her at least. Potter was her dad’s godson, which almost made them like family.

It was the only thing like family Felicity had other than her mum, so she was a bit excited about the prospect. She was also extremely nervous. What would she do if the boy rejected her? What if he refused to tell her anything about the man who gave her half of her DNA? The medical student inside her would never get over not knowing everything about her own genes.

Felicity twisted a long strand of hair in her left hand while she played with her wand with her right. It was after breakfast and most students had a bit of time before they needed to get to any classes, so she hoped she might find the boy in one of the common areas. She didn’t think the boy usually went to the library in his spare time, and she was pretty sure no one had wandered outside so early, so she headed for the fourth floor study area. A lot of students gathered there between classes when they didn’t want to wander back to their dorms. All she could do was hope Potter was like her in that regard.

She sat in a comfortable chair while she spun her hair around her finger, wincing a bit as it tangled. No one else was in the room with her and she sighed, trying to figure out just what she would say to the renowned wizard. “Oh, hello Harry, I’m Felicity. I didn’t know it before, but my mum finally told me who my dad is. Guess what? It’s Sirius! You know, your godfather. The one who died? Yeah. That should totally go over well.”

The girl was so wrapped up in her own musings that she hadn’t noticed the Gryffindor stumble in the door.

Harry's head was entirely too full, and it was only the first morning of term. He had managed to get through the feast and the way up to the common room last night without incident, but it was a good thing he had finally gotten some decent sleep on the train, because it had ended up being another nearly sleepless night. Every time he drifted off the deaths of Sirius and Cedric, the calm look on Dumbledore's face at the end of term last year in his office, and potential shouting matches with Ron and Hermione chased each other through his dreams and he jolted back awake.

He was awake before the sun and halfway through yet another letter to Sirius seeking help with his problems before the realization yet again hit him like a brick that his godfather would never write to him. He angrily restoked the fire with his wand, balled up the roll of parchment, and hurled it into the flames where it would die. Not even breakfast time and he had succeeded in ruining his day.

This had been followed, while actually at breakfast, by the knowledge that Snape had finally changed subjects. That meant that Harry's favorite subject would now be in the hands of his second or third least favorite human being in the universe. On the other hand it also meant that his dream of becoming an Auror had been brought back to life. Did he really want to be an Auror anymore though, considering the current state of the Ministry? He had thought so because of the Prophecy, but who was to say if that was even legitimate? He hadn't heard it himself and he certainly didn't trust the Headmaster anymore. He needed to talk to someone who could tell him more about memories and sort this out.

He had a little bit of a morning break before the start of classes, especially since he hadn't strictly speaking decided which classes he was going to go to yet. He didn't want to go to the courtyard outside or the common room, he was too likely to run into people that would want to help him decide there. Instead he headed for a rumored student hangout that he had never seen in his five full years in this crazy castle.

As he made it into the room, the one inhabitant was muttering to herself, ABOUT HIS DEAD GODFATHER. He didn't know what exactly she was saying, but he knew he didn't need this right now. Before he knew what he was doing, he had drawn his wand, pressing it none too gently into the back of the unfamiliar witch's neck. "And just why are we babbling about my dead godfather at this ungainly hour of the morning?" he snarled at her, voice full of a menace he had only managed a few times in his life. For the unknown witch's sake, this better be a really good answer.

The feeling of a wand pressed against the back of her neck was enough to get Felicity’s heart racing. This was so not the way she wanted to introduce herself to this boy. She took a few deep breathes, closing her eyes and willing herself to calm down and put on a friendly face. She wanted the boy to like her, befriend her even. This could not end in him storming off and her having no answers. She’d waited too long to find out about her absent father!

She turned around, looking at the boy who was about the same height as her. Their eyes locked and she saw a kindness deep within those green orbs despite the anger and hurt that was clear on the surface. With a sort of gift, the girl found she could read people with a simple glance. It was one of the things she was sure would help her in the medical field. Her lips parted slightly and she looked at the boy with sadness in her own gaze. He must be hurting so badly. Her father had clearly meant a lot to him. A pang of jealousy coursed through her veins before she stifled it and reached out a hand, tentatively reaching for his shoulder.

“Harry? Um… my name is Felicity. This wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to talk to you about this, but I guess it has to be done…” she had dropped her wand at her feet when the boy put his against her neck, not wanting to seem a threat to him. She didn’t care that she was unarmed. She trusted that the boy wouldn’t hurt her. It was something of an instinct, but she thought this boy much above attacking an innocent and unarmed girl.

“Your godfather, Sirius Black? Well, nobody knew it, nobody except my mum I guess,” she spoke softly and her eyes twitched a bit in her skull, nerves telling her to spit it out already or run away from the situation. The girl refused to run. She stood a bit taller and took a deep breathe, determined to tell the boy what he needed to know. “Listen, Harry, Sirius was my dad. I just found out this summer. Mum told me when he… well, when she found out that he…”

It was too hard for her to say the words and she felt unshed tears clinging to her lashes. People wouldn’t understand how she could feel so much pain for someone who she never knew, but she’d just had any chance of ever meeting the man who fathered her ripped away. She’d never even had a chance. It just wasn’t fair. “I… I was hoping you could tell me a bit about him.” Her voice was a whisper, barely audible as she willed herself to keep it together. Merlin did it hurt though! Here stood her only tie to her father, and he could easily tell her to shove off and that would be the end. No pressure.

She actually had the gall to move and face him when he had his wand out like this! The witch was lucky that Harry had relaxed his wand a little bit when he heard her wand clatter to the floor, or she would have probably received a measure of pain for that move itself, not even thinking about the curse that Harry still longed to send her way. It was a form of torture hearing her out, but he figured after what he saw of his father in the Pensive last year, he needed to hear her out. He didn't want to be the kind of guy who cursed first and then asked the questions after.

Then she got to her point and Harry's face, along with his wand, dropped. Was there any way that this could be true? He knew Sirius had a reputation as a serious playboy, but he had never even seen him look at a witch in that manner while he had known him. Besides, shouldn't wizards have some way to keep track of parentage automatically, or to prevent kids that they aren't ready to have? One more thing had jumped in to make Harry's head spin and he needed to sit down.

He did so, stumbling forward and practically falling into the chair that the girl had been in when he entered the room. It was probably rude, but it was the closest one, and Harry had the feeling that he needed it more than the witch did at the moment. His head was lowered to the ground and a slow line of tears was running down his cheeks.

After a minute that felt like an eternity he raised his now cleared head to the witch. "Not to sound like a prick, but people have been trying to trade on my fame and the fame or those around me since I got to this castle," he began with a heavy sigh. "Can you prove that you're his daughter so I don't have just this moment to go on?" He couldn't bear to say Sirius's name just now, not with the morning he was having, and what he was asking of the girl might not be strictly fair, but it was what Harry needed to do. He couldn't go on simply trusting people blindly anymore. That way lie madness.

Felicity was taken aback by the boy’s sudden movement to her previously occupied chair. She was even more shocked by the apparent trail of tears on his face when he looked up at her. His question led her to gasp a bit, however, since she wasn’t sure how she could prove anything to the boy. Her mother had just told her all of this, and she had accepted it at face value. She hadn’t asked the woman for any proof. Wasn’t it proof enough to know who Sirius was?

She decided to use that argument. “I don’t have any scientific proof, if that’s what you want,” she started, thinking of DNA tests and things that she might use someday as a nurse in a muggle hospital. “What I do have is knowledge. Who else even knows about him?” She tried to stop herself from saying his name, sensing that the boy before her had avoided it for a reason. “Mum never thought he was guilty, but she didn’t want to burden me with the knowledge that my dad was convicted of murder. She always hoped he’d get out someday, be forgiven…”

Felicity sat on the floor in front of Harry, looking up at those sad green eyes. “She told me about you. I don’t know how she knew about you though. I didn’t ask. I didn’t ask about much. You have to understand! It was a lot to take in. How was I supposed to react to finding out who my dad was and that he was gone forever before I even knew about him?”

A sort of desperation was setting in and the blonde girl hoped this boy wouldn’t dismiss her for lack of concrete evidence. It was getting near time for classes and she just had to know that the boy would answer her questions at some point. If he wouldn’t, Felicity didn’t know what she would do. This was a major roadblock for the girl, and she didn’t really know how she could get past it if she never knew more about her father.

“Is there anything I can do for you to trust me? Anything at all?”

Harry sat, growing slowly calmer the more she talked. What she said was essentially true. No one around the school said the name Sirius, as far as he could tell, and unless some of the Order leaning professors talked about him behind closed doors only the people in his own inner circle discussed his late Godfather, even when he was still alive. Padfoot had faded mostly into the background of wizarding life for the previous two years or so, making it a weird way to get at him for anyone other than Voldemort, who likely knew he had done all the damage he could through that channel.

Plus, she was a Hufflepuff, and while they might tend to be empty headed blowhards in Harry's experience, he had never known one to be a liar, or indeed to be capable of deceit. Probably she was telling him the truth, and based on her face she wanted desperately to be his ally, whatever that might entail. She might not be a very useful ally, but that could be determined later. If he was going to ignore Dumbledore and still stay alive Harry was going to need all the help he could get, even if it was in the form of errand runners and cannon fodder.

Still, he didn't want to discuss details of Sirius's life right now, and he needed to be sure that he was letting someone in who could handle what it meant to run with Harry Potter in any sense. That meant that he needed a test of some sort. Something with a little bit of rule breaking, but no real risk.

"I'll tell you what," he said slowly, still thinking his plan through even as he spoke it aloud. "Meet me in the library at 11:30 on Friday night. If you can manage that, we'll start talking about him, and go from there." If she couldn't even manage that, well, he didn't really have the time or patience to deal with her, though he would probably point her to someone like McGonagall, who at least knew Sirius a little bit, just so he didn't feel guilty. "Oh, and don't bring a candle with you. That kind of kid stuff leads to getting caught on what should be easy nighttime strolls."

He fell silent, wondering if such an innocent looking girl had ever even done this kind of rule breaking before, never mind the stuff he usually got up to. This could be fun. Of course, it could also go terribly wrong and end with him in Dumbledore's office a week into term, the absolute last place that he wanted to be. "Any questions?"

A challenge was set and Felicity found herself smiling at the younger boy. He obviously had his own ideas about her house, since that was the only thing he had to judge her by so far, and he was clearly judging her. She tilted her head at him, clearing away the overwhelming sadness and worry so that she could focus on the task at hand. “Just one. What section shall we meet in? I prefer the medical section myself, but I’m sure it isn’t your, well, cup of tea.”

She got to her feet and pushed her long hair over her shoulders, adjusting her bag on her hip and readying herself to take her leave of the boy. They obviously weren’t going to speak of her dad anymore today and she needed to clear her head of the subject so that she might attend her private study with Madame Pomfrey before the mediwitch regretted agreeing to such a task. It wouldn’t do for Felicity to sabotage all her hard work just because of family issues throwing her for a loop.

“I’d peg you more for the sports section, yeah? So shall we meet there?” She was already planning a stop at the kitchens along the way. Most of the Hufflepuffs ended up figuring out the location of the kitchens, since they were so close to them all the time. By the time they were in their seventh year, at least eighty percent of the house knew how to tickle the pear just right. Felicity had a special elf she’d befriended back in fifth year when she was studying extra hard for her OWLs. That was when she’d gotten good at sneaking into the library, too.

Figuring Harry was probably a bit confused by her gung-ho attitude, the blonde girl headed for the door with a bounce in her step. It might take a bit more time than she was hoping for, but she was going to find out about her father. Felicity hadn’t felt so happy since she’d found out the school nurse was willing to teach her a bit of her trade. “I’ll see you Friday, Harry,” she said, turning to look at the boy one more time before she would leave him alone for the week. “Don’t be late. And please, try not to underestimate me so much. Remember who my dad was, after all.”

Wait, was this the easy acceptance of a challenge that came from having an actual spine and a sense of fun? Either he knew entirely the wrong kind of Hufflepuff's, or she really was his long hidden godsister. Thinking of the other Hufflepuff he knew that had a connection to Padfoot made him seriously stop and wonder. It also caused him a sense of dread that he really didn't want to think about. He seriously needed to make contact with Tonks, Lupin, and a few others, but he wasn't sure that would be a good idea, at least until he had figured out exactly where he stood with the Headmaster.

That was yet another line of thought that Harry simply didn't want to contend with this early in the term. "I'll see you there," he said simply, rising from the chair and grabbing his own bag where it had fallen. His attitude was fairly defiant, still showing some of the tone generally aimed at Hermione when he was daring her to tell him how his latest scheme was a bad idea and they shouldn't do it.

He needed to go now, though. Felicity had left right after he spoke, and he had things that needed done today. For one thing, he really needed to go see McGonagall and figure out what his class schedule was going to look like. He wasn't even really sure when N.E.W.T. Potions met, after all.