Oliver Kent had, at some point, become the hot-shot at Hogwarts. He'd had what his friend Declan called a "glow-up" (whatever that meant) and sometime between his gangly, uneven-tooth days of first and second year and now he'd become windswept and dreamy. Girls giggled when he walked by, tossing his hair out of his face as it flopped forward over his forehead, and they giggled when he rolled his shoulders in that way that he did. Vivian had taken to gazing at him and making comments about how blue his eyes were and she wasn't alone - girls in other houses were always asking Vivian and Macy how they got anything done being in classes with Oliver Kent.

Macy invariably raised an eyebrow at this, "Who knows, he's such a bother it's a wonder we get anything done with any of the D.W.O. around."

But Vivian always cooed, "I haven't the faintest," as she smirked and flushed about the nose.

Oliver had started out mortified and confused by all the attention, but after the summer he'd had - leaving the group home he'd been living in and moving in with the Odairs with his brothers, going to the World Cup, meeting Jack Scout, and seeing other people taking seriously a dream he had of becoming a pro Quidditch player, he started to become more accustomed to the attention. Started enjoying it a bit. Started soaking it up and grinning when he saw the girls looking at him dreamily, started saying "hullo" at them in a low voice that always got them swooning, and started strutting about a bit. The more he trained, the more defined his muscles started to become and he started to feel... confident.

Wally stared at Oliver now the way Oliver once stared at him. And funny enough that was how they met and became friends with Declan Alectric.

Declan was a Ravenclaw and seemed to come out of no where. They didn't remember him from prior years, but that wasn't particularly strange - after all, the Gryffindors had been grouped with Slytherin for Potions and Hufflepuff for Herbology but they didn't really have a class with the Ravenclaws before and it was only in fourth that they started mingling the classes together as some of the classes had become optional and it was very much possible that Declan had simply not really crossed their path in a meaningful way before.

It wasn't even really odd that Declan knew Dexter, Wally and Oliver so well. Everyone at Hogwarts knew the D.W.O. - just as everyone had known the Marauders. They'd really built up a reputation for themselves by then and they were either adored or despised by everyone, depending on one's humor. Consequently there were a great deal of people at Hogwarts that knew them that they didn't know.

But the first time they'd really met Declan had been at the start of term, the second morning on the way down to breakfast. He had been standing in the Entrance Hall looking rather out of place and confused, wide eyes scanning the crowded hall. He had really stood out because he had bright blue hair that matched his robes, and when he saw the D.W.O. coming down the stairs, he'd actually gasped and stared at Oliver with awe.

Dexter had snickered and elbowed Wally and Wally looked and saw Declan staring at Oliver and a grin crossed his face. "Lookie there, Ollie, you've an admirer," he'd whispered.

Oliver had turned around and spotted Declan himself and laughed.

"Like you haven't been staring at him exactly the same," Dexter teased Wally and Oliver blushed at that.

Wally said, "Yeah well that's different."

Dexter laughed, "Yeah. You don't look as cool as he does doing it. Look at that hair. I love it."

Wally paused, sizing the blue-haired lad up. He turned to Oliver. "What if I colored my hair like that?"

Oliver snorted. "You'd look foolish is what."

"I wouldn't," Wally argued, but he knew he would.

When they'd walked by the boy, however, he'd shocked them all by boldly rushing over and saying, breathlessly, "You're Oliver Kent."

Ollie had paused and glanced at Wally and Dexter. Dexter laughed and Wally answered the boy, "Yeah and what's it to you if he is?"

"He's only the greatest Seeker who ever lived is all," the boy answered, staring at awe at Oliver.

And that's how it had all begun. Declan had introduced himself and started hanging about with them and they discovered that he had quite a few classes with them - nearly every one with mixed houses.

But Zimmerman and the other Gryffindors were right about Declan - he did tell a lot of jokes that didn't make a lot of sense and he hummed tunes that weren't anything like they'd heard before. But it was alright, they reckoned... after all, they were awkward once, too, and if Declan needed friends then who were any one of the D.W.O. to push him aside? Besides - Oliver really did enjoy the adoration.

But Declan's funny turns was why it wasn't surprising to any one of the three when he had no recollection whatsoever of running into them on the stairs that morning.

"This morning," Wally whispered, stealing glances in McGonagall's direction as she organized the students into groups to try at transfiguring flamingos into standing lamps. "When James Potter was here? Dexter did that cool thing with the birds?"

Declan stared at Wally with confusion. "James Potter was here?"

"Yes!" said Wally with exasperation. "You met him, talked to him, practically ran him down!"

"I didn't --"

"You're crazy," teased Dexter, shaking his head.

"I'm not crazy," Declan said, "My mother had me tested." This made him laugh for some reason - they weren't sure why, because Declan had said that he didn't have a mum - he lived with his grandparents.

Oliver said, "Well something of James's got stuck in with your stuff. Do you have it?"

Declan shook his head, "No. I didn't even see the guy, how was I supposed to get his stuff?"

Wally rolled his eyes, "Because I'm telling you, you DID see him Deccy," he said with a sigh, "Will you just check your stuff? He says it's real important. It's some drawing and he needs it back."

"And I'm telling you I haven't got it," Declan said and he shoved his bag into Wally's arms, "Here, look for yourself."

The bag was a backpack with straps that went over the shoulders in a bright lime green color with a monogram (with initials that weren't even his own) embroidered on a pocket on the back. The bag had a bunch of random keychains hanging from the strap - there was a colorful cube that twisted and a rubber pig whose eyes popped out when he was squeezed and a round toy that beeped and had little buttons that Declan pushed. He talked about that one like it was alive rather than just a keychain - "Oh, George Michael is hungry," he would say and start furiously pushing buttons. All those keychains jangled as he pushed the bag into Wally's hand.

Wally opened the backpack, glancing at Dexter with a raised eyebrow and a bit of uncertainty as he unzipped the bag. Oliver was watching McGonagall's progress from the corner of his eye as he leaned against the desk in front of the boys, blocking what they were doing from her keen eye. He glanced over his shoulder as the bag opened up and Dexter leaned over to look. Inside, nestled safely among Declan's books and rolls of parchment was a picture frame, and when Wally pulled it out, Declan's face dropped with surprise. "I - I dunno where that came from!" he said.

Wally turned it over and Dexter said, "Whoa, that's Regulus Black."

Oliver looked.

"I dunno how that got in there, it's not mine," Declan said, looking to Oliver.

"It's famed, how do you just randomly get a framed portrait in your backpack without knowing it, huh?" Wally asked.

Declan shook his head, "I - I dunno - I --"

"Hey, it's alright," Oliver said, cutting in at the panicked look on Declan's face. "Back off you lot, I'm sure there's a perfectly normal explanation for it. Don't be mean at Deccy." Declan's face looked too much like how Oliver remembered feeling when he would be in trouble at the group home and he didn't want Declan - or anyone else for that matter - to feel that sort of anxiety, ever.

Wally shrugged, "Anyways, it's James's." He thrust Declan's backpack back into his hand and handed the portrait to Oliver, who turned and opened his own bag for safe keeping until they saw James out on the pitch.

Declan still looked confused.

"We're just glad James is getting his stuff back, right, you lot?" Oliver asked, looking at Dexter and Wally.

Dexter's voice broke through, "Whoaaa wait! Look! It's a magical portrait."

Oliver, who had been in the middle of pushing the portrait in between his books, drew it back out and turned it to look at it. Sure enough, Regulus Black was blinking up at him.

They all watched the little twitches and movements in the portrait's face.

"I bet it's a gift for Sirius and that's why it's so important," Wally suggested.

"Whoa yeah! He's going to be so excited!" Dexter exclaimed.

Oliver shoved it into his bag as McGonagall came around, assigning Oliver and Dexter to a flamingo and Wally and Declan to another, eyeing them as she passed onto the next group.

Declan and Wally beckoned their flamingo a ways apart from the others and started working on transfiguring it. Declan hesitated, holding his wand and watching Wally work at it. "So you lot know Sirius Black then?" Declan asked.

"Know him? Sure, he's our mate!" Wally said. "Learned everything we know from him, marauding-wise. He's awesome. It's only been a year since they've been here, you must remember him larking about the castle for yourself."

"Sure, I just didn't really get t know him. Being a Ravenclaw and all." Declan smiled, then hesitated and asked, "He's the - the one who was best friends with Remus Lupin?"

Wally snorted, "Best friends, right, yeah. No Sirius was best friends with James Potter," he corrected, "Him and Remus were way, way more than that... They're married now, you know."

"Married?" Declan asked.

"Yeah."

"Remus Lupin is MARRIED to Sirius Black? Isn't that illegal still?"

Wally said, "Well. I mean, as married as two blokes can be," he added in a murmur, "But they had a wedding and everything." He gave Declan a look, "Why - you have something against gays?"

Declan shook his head, "No! Not at all."

"Good," Wally said firmly, and he glanced at Oliver, then back at Declan, "Cuz I'd have to mess you up if you did."

Declan's eyes followed Wally's to Oliver's back and he looked back at Wally. "No, I understand completely," he said, "That's not what was surprising to me. I just -- never mind, it doesn't matter."

Wally shrugged, then aimed his wand, "Lumos phoenicopteri!"

There was a dull hum and the Flamingo started to glow but didn't transform.

"It's phoenicopterai," Declan murmured and he flicked his wand and, silently, cast the spell turning the flamingo into a perfect lamp.

"Whoa," said Wally, sounding an awful lot like Dexter, looking impressed.

James was wrapping up flying lessons and feeling rather distracted because he couldn't stop thinking about the missing portrait. The firsties had done brilliantly, especially Sarah, whose flying had become the most impressive of all the first years in the class.

"You're very talented," James said, trying his best to sign letters to spell words he didn't know, which he'd been studying very hard to learn letters to do. But Sarah's goggles were working so well now that Macy hadn't even had to come down to the pitch that day, and had gone to paint her nails by the lake with Vivian and their friends during her free period. "I'm really proud of you overcoming your adversity."

Sarah smiled and hugged James and signed some things in reply that James didn't know the signs for.

"She says it isn't an adversity but a gift really, because sometimes when you can't hear you're able to listen better," Dexter said, translating.

Sarah smiled and nodded before she ran off across the grounds to where Macy sat, waving bye as she went.

James laughed, "That's brilliant. She's really the best flier in the year, though, that's for certain."

"Macy will love to hear that!" Dexter flushed proudly.

Wally and Oliver caught up then, Dexter having outrun them to the pitch on account of Ollie being stopped by a couple girls who wanted to wish him luck at the next quidditch match. "We got it! We got it!" Wally cried as he ran across the grass.

James felt a wash of relief. "YOU DID? Oh thank Godric!!"

Oliver and Wally skid to a stop before him and Wally opened his bag and ceremoniously pulled the portrait out, holding the frame up to James. "Here you are!"

James blinked in surprise as he reached for it, "It's framed?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah, Declan acted like he had no idea he had it," Wally said. "Yet there it was in his bag framed and all!"

"But that's not right, the one I misplaced was just a rolled parchment." He turned it over and his jaw dropped.

Regulus's portrait stared back up at him - but it wasn't exactly the same as what he'd lost. That is to say that it was, but it also wasn't. It was restored. It was the same features, as perfect and clear as Remus had drawn them, but also... softer and more... right. More Regulus than even before. Where there had been lines of resentment and misunderstanding in the portrait, there was now love and a gentle touch that emanated in the portrait's eyes. He stared up at James, and James felt his heart stop for a moment because it was the sweet kid that he had felt so bad for and so protective over in the last couple years. "Reg," he whispered, and the portrait smiled, a glimmer catching in the eyes, though he didn't speak.

The tear that had rent his face in two was completely gone.

James looked up, "I - how -?"

"How what?" Oliver asked.

"This was torn," James explained. "I was taking it to Filch to be restored but... I didn't have much hope. It was in awful shape. And now -- it's already been done? And more marvelously than I ever expected it to be?" He looked between the boys.

Dexter looked at the other two, but Wally shook his head and Oliver shrugged. "Dunno, James," Oliver said, "We only got it back from Deccy."

"Maybe he did it?" Wally said.

"That kid's so weird, I wouldn't even be shocked," Dexter said. "If he'd even admit he had it at all."

"No but really he's really smart," Wally said. "He can do silent magic."

James stared into the eyes of the portrait.

"Well, I mean, this is -- amazing," James said.

"It can't have been Deccy, that's not his handwriting," Oliver said, reaching to point at the corner of the portrait.

James follower Oliver's pointing and he ran his thumb over the edge of the frame, where the artist had forgone signing their own name but had instead written out Regulus Arcturus Black.

He wondered who'd done it and he wished he could thank them, for they'd done justice to Regulus that even Remus's work had not done.