---

Grace stood absolutely still in the dark shadow of the castle. The phoenix's lament seemed to echo the horror in her mind, as if it was taking her thoughts and turning them into a song which was both heart wrenchingly beautiful and immeasurably tragic.

Why hadn't she known? The question repeated itself over and over in her head. Apart from perhaps Dumbledore, she had spent the most amount of time with him, but it had never seemed like he had rejoined Voldemort, not ever. Yes, there had been some weekends where Severus hadn't been around, but it had been perfectly believable that he'd been leaving the school to stock up on supplies for his lessons.

Eventually, Grace decided she would have to go inside. It wasn't getting any warmer, and staring at the place where Severus had Disapparated from wasn't going to change anything. She turned and walked back to the castle, slowly, cursing herself for not having spotted what Severus had been up to those past months.

It had all happened so fast: patrolling the corridors and seeing members of the Order unexpectedly, hearing other voices she hadn't recognised, the sudden battle in the Entrance Hall as the Death Eaters had appeared from seemingly nowhere, Severus being chased by Harry out the tower, her following them, the duel between Severus and Harry, and Severus vanishing through the school gates. Grace had frozen as the scene had sunk in as she realised exactly what Harry had meant, that Dumbledore was dead. He and Hagrid had walked past her in the dark, not seeing anything other than the damaged castle.

---

The hall was full of people, some in shock, some sobbing, and yet others swearing that they had known Snape was the one to do it. It seemed like the whole school knew. First years clumped together, their wands trembling in their hands, knowing that if anyone else attacked, they wouldn't be able to do anything. All the bodies had been moved; Grace must have been standing still longer than she had suspected. Professors Sprout, Flitwick, Slughorn and Sinistra, who seemed to be standing in for Professor McGonagall, were watching over the students, and brought them to their respective common rooms, although some were missing; some people must have been injured, Malfoy was gone, and maybe others...others might be dead.

Grace continued up to the Hospital Wing, where she thought it was most likely she would find Harry. Taking the stairs two at a time, Grace passed multiple students who didn't seem to have realised exactly what had just happened, or didn't believe it yet. But the news was spreading fast, and the wails followed Grace up the stairs, adding to the Phoenix's lament, tying knots in Grace's stomach. Finally, she opened the doors into the dimly lit Hospital wing and spotted Harry. As quietly as she could, trying not to disturb a soul, she walked over to him, and embraced him. "Thank Merlin you're alright," she whispered, before turning to hug Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Luna in turn. She would have hugged Remus too, had it not been for the fact that he was sitting on a chair, cradling his head in his hands with despair. Instead, she looked at the body they were surrounding, only to realise that it was Bill, who looked terrible. His face was covered in deep gashes, almost as if a dog had decided that he would make perfect chew toy.

Grace remained silent for a large part of the following conversation, but smiled half heartedly when Tonks began to argue with Remus. Despite the betrayal they had endured that night by Snape, she felt that her godfather deserved happiness, and it was obvious that both the young Auror and the Werewolf had strong feelings for one another. Eventually, Harry and Professor McGonagall left, and Grace slumped down next to Neville's bed.

'I was so stupid, trusting him,' she said quietly, speaking more to herself than the prone body, 'And now he knows everything, absolutely everything about me. I told him when I found out about my parents, I told him all about Harry, because I trusted him. And he just sat there and listened, and reported it back to Voldemort. What have I done?'

'It wasn't your fault. He managed to trick all of us into trusting him too," Remus replied to her rhetorical question, lifting his head to look at her intently.

"Remus, I trusted him like a father! Everything I knew I told to him! I -"

"Did Harry tell you what he and Dumbledore were doing tonight?" Hermione interrupted, suddenly looking very worried. Ron wore an identical expression on his face.

Grace was thrown by the question. "No, sorry, he didn't," she said. Surprisingly, Hermione relaxed.

Neville stirred. He looked pretty terrible. Madam Pomfrey walked over to him, tear tracks still coating her face. As she began applying ointments, Grace looked down at her own golden bracelet. It was a marvellous thing, it was enchanted to stay fitted on her wrist even when she grew and it had her date of birth and her name "Grace Snave" written on it. However, the most impressive thing was that it was also enchanted to hide her true identity if needed.

Remus had told her this in her third year. He'd also taught her the words which revealed her identity. He'd said the phrase had been chosen by her father.

"The red lily," she whispered to it.

The script on the gold bracelet changed, glowing faintly red in the dim room.

"Grace Lily Potter"

---

Grace sat up in her bed and glanced around the room. It was scattered with clothes, paper, magazines and art utensils. Lydia, who was sleeping on the other side of the room, was snoring gently, her hand loosely holding the book on Raphael's works she'd been reading the night before. Hanging in the wardrobe was a simple, yet elegant ink green dress. Grace allowed herself a smile as she admired the dress, glad that despite recent events, there would still be this lovely glimmer of happiness when Remus and Tonks got married. Getting dressed quietly, so that she wouldn't wake her friend, Grace snuck out to get a bit of flying in before anyone would be awake to see her. At this hour, only the cook was awake, and she always let Grace out into the fields through the back door.

As soon as her feet left the ground, all of the events from the last few weeks faded away. Her broom wasn't as flashy or as fast as her brother's, but it was sturdy and almost seemed to be able to read Grace's mind. She flew further into the countryside, just to make doubly sure she wouldn't be seen, then began swishing around, rocketing towards the sky then plummeting to the ground. No, she wasn't as good as her brother, but she had inherited some of her father's talent, and would have made a good addition to the school team...that is, if Slytherin allowed people they believed were Mudbloods to join the team.

When Grace decided that she should probably return to the orphanage, she landed, and began heading back, enjoying the early morning sun.

Davis' orphanage was a fairly pleasant place, as far as orphanages went. It had been built about twenty years ago, so the building wasn't too shoddy. Admittedly, not all the matrons were all that friendly, and neither were a lot of the kids, but Grace admitted that apart from Hogwarts, this place was like home. A very dysfunctional home, but a home nonetheless.

As Grace didn't intend on returning to the orphanage until Christmas, she began packing away her Hogwarts things, tucking her wand into her pocket for good measure. As she reached up to the top of the wardrobe to grab her owl cage, Lydia woke up. "What are you doing?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"Getting Fauna's cage. And, I was going to ask, can I borrow some of your make up? I doubt the Bride owns very much, and she'll be even more reluctant to tell me where it is."

Lydia chuckled and nodded. "My bag's over there, take what you want."

"Thanks," Grace replied as she grabbed the bag. "When I'm done I'll send it back by Fauna, alright?"

"As long as she doesn't give me a half eaten rat too." Lydia grimaced at a particular memory.

Glancing around the room once more, Grace said, "I think I've got everything. I'm off. If Fauna comes back, just tell her I'm at Tonks'. She'll know the place."

"Now I'm a messenger for a bird? Gee thanks."

Laughing, Grace checked once again she had everything, then, holding her broom and birdcage in one hand and her trunk in the other, she said her goodbyes and threw Floo Powder into the downstairs fireplace, which Arthur had had linked up to the Floo Network by the Ministry.

It took less than a second for Grace to recover from the rapid change of scene. She smiled at the slightly bewildered look on Tonks' mother's face.

"Hi, I'm Grace, we exchanged owls a couple of times," Grace explained.

"Right. Remus is in the kitchen, and Dora's upstairs. Molly will be here in a few minutes," Mrs Tonks said in answer. Grace, knowing her Godfather wouldn't be very happy with her, decided to head upstairs.

Tonks wasn't happy with her either, as it turned out. "You've been planning behind my back. I agreed to the dress, but not to what you did to the lounge!"

"You are not having a sign-the-contract wedding. You are having one with music and a dress and flowers. Your mum agrees. Now, do I get to see which dress you chose?"

Tonks rolled her eyes, unable to stay angry for long. She picked up the cream dress that was resting on the chair, and held it up against her body. Grace examined the dress for several moments, before speaking "Its very nice... What do you think?"

Tonks looked down, a small hint of dissatisfaction on her face. "Remus will like it."

Grace sighed impatiently. "But it's not you. Now, if you don't change it, I will."

"You can't, you still have the Trace."

"Which can only detect magic near an underaged witch. They won't know whether it was me or you who did it." Surrendering, Tonks pulled out her wand and aimed it at the cream dress. Part of the skirt dropped off, so it was knee length. Then, the dress turned bubblegum pink.

"That's too much," Grace laughed, aiming her wand at the dress. It returned to its original cream colour, but the embroidery changed to a lovely purple colour. Tonks smiled and conjured a bright pink sash. Another swish of Grace's wand took off the sleeves, and finally, Tonks turned her pumps into the same colour as the embroidery.

"Now, put it on!" Grace ordered, and Tonks complied. As she did so, she made her hair longer and changed it to her favourite colour. "It looks much better now, but..." Grace thought for a moment and then nodded to herself. With a quick incantation, she turned the material on the floor into several strips of purple and pink ribbon.

"Those are going in your hair. You look amazing, Dora." Tonks glared at her. "Stay here," She ordered, before leaving the room. She dug through her bag, pulling out the dress she was going to wear. It was very plain compared to Tonks', admittedly, but it did look nice, emphasising her dark red hair.

As Grace was returning to Tonks, she ran into Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Tonks, who were both holding jewellery boxes. "Oh, thanks! Let's go to the bride!"

Tonks' eyes opened in surprise as the three walked in.

"There's a Muggle wedding tradition," Grace expained, "it comes from the saying 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' the dress, or, what remains of it, is new. Something old is usually a family heirloom..."

Mrs. Tonks stepped forward and opened her jewellery box. Inside was a silver necklace with a rose pendant. Eyes wide, Tonks took it out and fastened it to her neck.

Grace continued her narrative, "Something borrowed is borrowed from a happily married lady..."

Molly stepped forward, opening her box. In it was a silver bracelet with different charms. It looked old, but that added to its charisma. She fastened it onto Tonks' wrist.

"And finally, something blue," Grace concluded, opened the small bag she was carrying, and pulled out of it a blue garter with embroidered letters which read "congrats". The letters kept changing colours. Tonks was amused by this, but now that the ceremony was so close, she seemed a bit nervous.

---

Finally, it was time. All ten guests had arrived. Tonks stood next to her father, waiting for her cue. "Do not let me fall!" she hissed at her dad, and Grace chuckled. Finally, the walk down the aisle began.

All in all, the ceremony wasn't too bad. When they got to the front, Remus shot her a look before turning to gaze at Tonks, but that was really the only hiccup. It was sad, Grace reflected, that the wedding was so small, that it even needed to happen in secret. Damn Voldemort. Remus was as human as most people, and a lot more than some. And they were in love, as was obvious by the way they kissed in front of their small audience.

It took a couple of minutes for the chairs and table to be rearranged for the meal. Grace sat in between Molly and one of Tonks' Auror friends while a lasagne was served. There were many congratulations to the now wedded couple.

Something was clearly bugging Tonks. "Where did the music come from? I couldn't see any instruments at all." She looked at her husband, who shrugged, then they both turned to look at Grace. "Exactly how much illegal magic have you been doing?" Tonks asked suspiciously.
A sheepish smile spread across Grace's face. "None for the music, but, er, I might have used a piece of Muggle technology."

Tonks looked surprised, Remus was unsuccessfully hiding a smile, Molly rolled her eyes, Arthur looked positively gleeful, and the other guests were wearing different looks of surprise and a little bit of disapproval.

"What did you use? How did you power it?" Arthur asked, a childish expression lighting his face.

"A CD player and a battery pack. You can look at it later," Grace replied, smiling at the exasperated look on Molly's face. She turned her attention back to her lasagne as the conversation began around her again.
The desert was a cherry tart and vanilla ice cream. The table fell almost silent as they enjoyed Mrs. Tonks' lovely cooking. In due course, that too vanished.

One by one, the guests started leaving, saying goodbye to the happy couple. Grace stood up and walked to the CD player, her actions hidden by the others moving around. Smiling, she turned on the music before slipping out of the room to gather her things.

As expected, when she returned downstairs, Tonks had dragged her husband to the dancing space and began pulling him into an energetic dance. As the scene ended in its logical conclusion - Tonks having fallen and pulled poor Remus with her - the remaining few burst into laughter and applause.

Molly, having insisted on assisting in the tidying up, was the last guest to go. Grace clutched her things in one hand, and took Molly's in her other. The sensation of being squished into a tube wasn't as unpleasant as it used to be. The next thing Grace saw was the Burrow, looking odd in the countryside. It radiated a warm feeling of home, and Grace grinned at the idea of seeing Ginny and Ron and the twins and Hermione, after such a long time.