Hey all!!! Thanks again for reading this. I'm glad you're liking it.

I would address all of your love but I'm really slow at the multi-quote thing and I have no patience today. Anyway, here is chapter...6? Oh, no chapter 7. Please, enjoy!!

OH! And there is a bit of a shocker in this one. But surprisingly, it's not a going to be a major plot in Raven's life. I wanted to give you that head's up.
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Chapter 7

Raven left before Snape could say another word. Walking back to the Gryffindor common room, she had a lot of time to think about all of the events that happened that day. Between Draco kissing her and her nearly killing him, then facing the fact that she was about to drop a bombshell on Harry, she was trying to find something to cheer her up. It didn’t take long for her thoughts to drift to George. Thoughts of the snowman and their wonderful day together, flooded her mind and a much needed smile overwhelmed her once sad and angry face. Her mind escaped to a wonderful daydream, a dream that she never wanted to wake from.

Raven was unable to find Harry either alone or not tied up in anything. The longer she sat with this news for him, the more the knots twisted in her stomach. Finally, at breakfast one morning, Raven asked Harry if they could meet later in the day to have a talk. Harry agreed that he would find her in the Great Hall after lunch.

When Raven arrived at the Great Hall, she found a spot clear from anyone else and looked at all of the Christmas décor. It took her back to all of the Christmas’s she spent with her father. None as elaborate as this, but she did have some wonderful memories. This was going to be her first Christmas without him, and all of a sudden she felt lonely.

“Raven?”

She was startled out of memory lane by none other than Draco. If she wasn’t already upset with him enough, he broke her chain of thought, which upset her more. “Go away, Draco. I am not in the mood today,” she said turning back around to look at the Christmas tree.

“I told father about our little incident the other day, he was extremely upset,” he said sitting in front of her, blocking her view of the tree.

“That’s good to hear Draco, now really. Go away!” she said again turning around to face the back of the hall.

“He’s furious, but only with me,” he said getting up and sitting back down in front of her. “He is angry with me for approaching you the way I did. He doesn’t want us to fight, and frankly, I don’t either. I am willing to do what I can to make this arrangement work.”

“Well, it’s good to know that you will do what you can for lost causes,” she said. “However since you are so willing to do what you can, why don’t you start by leaving me alone? Better yet, go find your girlfriend. I can‘t see Pansy as the sharing type.”

“We can’t avoid each other forever. And don‘t worry about Pansy.”

“We can‘t avoid each other forever. But won’t the time that we spend not talking to each other be absolutely wonderful? I have an idea…let’s start now,” she said with a broad smile, thinking to herself how wonderful it would be to never speak to Draco Malfoy again. “And I’m not worried about Pansy. I could take care of her with a sneeze.”

“Oh, dear Raven, how on earth are we going to stop avoiding each other?” he asked. “We go to the same school and have some of the same classes. It’s impossible.”

“I can make it possible for us to never speak again, want me to give it a shot?” she asked once again smiling.

“How would you do that?” he asked looking confused.

“Try me,” she said turning her smile into a glare.

Draco seemed upset about her threat and decided it would be in his best interest to leave. As he left, Harry walked to him and the two shared glares at each other. “Is Draco bothering you again?” he asked sitting down next to Raven.

“Yes, but at least he didn’t touch me, or it would be a different situation right now,” she said smiling.

Draco made his unthreatening, “you’re-gonna-die” face and finally left the Great Hall.

“You wanted to talk?” he asked. Raven could clearly tell that he was still in an unpleasant mood about the information he found out while in Hogsmeade, she wondered if she could set him straight about some things.

“Yes, I do. But let’s not talk here. Let’s take a walk, shall we?” she asked. Harry nodded and the two set off outside the castle and walked down to the lake.

The air was crisp but not completely uncomfortable. They never spoke a word since leaving the Great Hall. Raven was hesitant as to exactly how she was going to start this conversation. For her this was going to be a huge secret to come out and hoped Harry wouldn’t get upset. She almost dreaded saying what she was about to say out loud. The closer they got to the lake, her stomach began to do flips and she felt her throat began to feel tight and scratchy.

“It’s a little cold out here once you get to the lake,” said Harry putting on his gloves.

“Yeah, it is,” she said putting on her gloves as well. “I’ll try to make this go as quick as I can. As you know, Ron and Hermione told me what happened in Hogsmeade.”

“Did they tell you everything?” he asked. “Do they want you to tell me that it is going to be alright? Because they way I see it, it’s not!” he snapped.

“Harry, I didn’t ask to speak to you for you to treat me like I’m clueless as to how you feel, because I’m not as clueless as what you might think,” Raven snapped back. Her words were just enough to stop Harry from saying anything else. “I know what it’s like to be betrayed by someone you trust and I know more about Sirius Black than you or anyone in this school."

“Do you know what he did to my parents?” he asked angrily. “Were you there?

“Oh yeah, Harry,” she said in her sarcastic tone, “I was there and saw everything. I was only two years old and living halfway around the world. Everything was real tiny but considering the distance everything was pretty clear. What kind of question is that, really?”

Harry didn’t seem too happy about Raven’s sarcasm. This wasn’t going quite like she had hoped. “Well, how would you know anything about Sirius Black?” he asked in a combative tone.

Raven took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She was starting to feel her blood boil and needed to relax if this conversation was to go anywhere. “Harry, first, please calm down,” she said in a quiet, composed tone. “We can’t have a conversation like this and you know it. We aren’t going to get anywhere if we keep this up.”

There was a slight pause long enough for the two to collect themselves, and catch their breath.

“Harry, before I say anything, you have to promise not to tell a soul what I am about to tell you,” beginning to get nervous again. “Trust me that what I am about to say will come out eventually, but it cannot come out now. Do I have your word?”

There was another pause and Harry, now much calmer, agreed not to tell anyone, not even his best friends Ron and Hermione.

“Also,” Raven continued, “what I am about to tell you will come as a shock. I need you to not overreact to the point that you violate your previously made promise.”

Harry nodded once again, only this time with an apprehensive look on his face. Raven gave Harry a deep stare to see if he was genuine or not. After seeing that he would not tell or overreact, she looked back toward the lake, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

“Sirius Black,” she said quietly, looking back at Harry, “is my uncle.”

Harry stared at her a moment with his mouth wide open. He tried to speak but didn’t know exactly what to say. “How…? What…? Did I hear you right?”

“Well, he’s more of a half-uncle. My mother was his half-sister,” she began to tell the story of her family with dread. She was worried that Harry would change his feelings about her, but she felt that she owed him this information. “She was one of the many unknown Blacks. You will never see her on the Black Family Tree. Mrs. Black made very sure of that. Sirius and my mother actually grew up thinking they were cousins.”

Harry stood in disbelief. “How’d that happen?” asked Harry strangely curious how all of this plays out.

“Sirius’ father was married briefly before he married Sirius’ mother. During that first marriage, his wife gave birth to a child but died shortly after the delivery. This child was my mother, Persephone,” Raven began her story unsure if Harry needed to hear it at all. But she knew that one day she was going to have to tell this story about her life, she might as well start now.

“After the death of his wife, he realized how hard it was going to be to raise a child alone. Soon he married Sirius’ mom, I don’t know her name at all. Anyway, Mrs. Black resented my mother from the beginning. When my mother was three, she was showing no sign of magical ability. Thinking of the embarrassment on the Black name to have a non-wizarding child in the house, Mrs. Black asked her in-laws to take my mother in and raise her as their own.”

“Did she ever get her powers?” asked Harry.

“Eventually,” she answered. “She was a late bloomer. But even after it was discovered that she was a witch; Mrs. Black didn’t want her back. She would have to further explain herself and possibly cause more embarrassment.”

Raven could tell that Harry was processing this information fairly well. She could sense that this was not bringing up further animosity for him.

“For most of their childhood,” she continued, “Sirius and my mother knew each other as cousins, and told her that she was adopted into the family. All of the Black family members, including those she thought was her biological family, gave her a sob story about a poor widowed mother who wanted her child to have a better life.”

“So I’m guessing at one point she found out the truth,” said Harry.

“Andromeda told her,” she said. “Where Sirius was the better of the two siblings in his family, Andromeda was the better of the three in hers.”

“Sirius? Better?” Harry asked. Raven could see his anger building again.

“Hang on Harry. I’m getting to that,” she added trying to calm him down again. “Once the news was out, my mother cut off all ties with the Black family; which was fine considering there is no link to her or my grandmother on the tree at all. Since she was still underage, though, a friend of hers at school had nice enough parents to take her in and they reached an agreement with the Blacks to be her guardian until she became of age.”

“Okay so how does this relate to Sirius being better or good?” he asked quite frustrated at this point.

“My mother started a journal her first day at Hogwarts,” she said. “In this journal, she talked about Sirius and Andromeda, and how good they always were to her. As she got older and saw Sirius at Hogwarts, she was so happy for him that he found such good, faithful friends, your dad being one of them. She described James as the brother Sirius should have had. Although Sirius had a brother, he wasn’t close to him like he was to James. Sirius loved your father, and when he was around your father he was a much different person, fun and full of life. Harry, I’m saying all of this because after reading my mother’s journal a million times, I do not believe for a split second that he betrayed your parents to Voldemort, nor do I believe he’s a murderer. He hated the evil that his family stood by. He would never cower to their level by doing something so heinous.”

“You don’t even know him; you don’t even know your mom! So how can you form an opinion from someone who is dead?” asked Harry. “You don’t know what happened!”

“The way I see it, Harry, you don’t know either. You only know what you heard!” she said shouting back at him.

“So why are you even telling me this?” he asked jumping up, still shouting.

“I just thought you would like to hear someone else’s opinion. My mother may be dead, but I have her words and thoughts to guide me. She wrote in her journal to not always trust what is directly in front of you because there is usually something on the other side waiting to make you look foolish. She says you have to know your roads and your choices or you could get lost. Sirius may have betrayed your parents; he may have killed those people. But it doesn’t hurt to look at the flipside of the coin. There is a chance he didn’t do it,” Raven was completely frustrated at this point. She was hoping to stay calm and to keep Harry calm, but Harry bringing up the death of her mother in such a way, bothered her.

Raven stopped and took a long look at the lake. She shook her head slightly, “Think what you want Harry. I just pegged you to be more rational that this.”

Raven didn’t say another word and didn’t want to hear anything that Harry had to say. Before Harry could respond, she turned, walked away and headed back up toward the castle. She knew that this would be a lot to soak in for Harry and decided to give him time to make what ever decision he wanted to make on the Black issue. There was so much to her story that she failed to get out. However, she realized that what she said would be hard for anyone to digest.

Telling Harry the truth was a slight relief. She felt, though, that it would be better to wait a while to tell everyone else. There is, still, so much left to be told and wondered if getting that out would be as much of a problem for them as it was for Harry. As Raven walked into the common room, she thought to herself how nice it would be if she could fix things with Harry, keep Draco off her back, and enjoy every moment with George, life would be great.

Chapter 8