One Thing After Another
"Harry, my dear boy, come in." Dumbledore's welcoming smile faded slightly when he saw the stern expressions on the faces of the four third years. Solemnly they trouped into his study after him as the Headmaster went to sit behind his desk resting his chin on arched fingers as he watched them all carefully. It was the first time Alice had been into his study and she was slightly distracted looking around at all the portraits - which rather disconcertingly were all staring back with avid fascination. Harry, on the other hand, was much more focused.
"Professor I want to talk to you."
"I had surmised as much," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled through his half-moon spectacles as he surveyed him. "What can I help you with?"
"This." Harry tossed the journal onto the Headmaster's desk where it fell open at the page Alice had folded back. She watched as Dumbledore slowly picked it up and scanned the lines of neat handwriting quickly. After a while he put the book down with a sigh.
"Why don't you all sit down?" He conjured some extra chairs for them with a brisk wave of his wand. All of a sudden Alice thought he looked rather old and care-worn.
"I'll stand thanks." Harry bit the words out, he seemed to be only just managing to keep his temper in check. They watched as Dumbledore continued to gaze at the book in front of him before finally straightening his shoulders. "I suppose you would like some sort of explanation?"
"We can go -"
"No." Harry cut Hermione off mid-sentence. "Stay. I want you to hear this too." He looked back at Dumbledore with expectancy and rage mingling in his eyes. Alice didn't think she had ever seen such controlled anger from him; it seemed to be rippling slowly outwards in waves and filling the room with an unbearable energy and tension. "Is it true?" He asked.
In his brief hesitation Alice thought she saw the Headmaster's eyes flicker shut in momentary resignation, but they seemed to snap back open so quickly again that she wasn't sure. "Yes, it is." The response was so quiet that she almost missed it.
Harry's hands curled slowly into fists at his side before he suddenly seemed to become aware of what he was doing and had to force his fingers to flex one by one. "Why…" He was fighting to keep his voice level. "Why was I never told, why does no one know about her?"
"Harry," the Headmaster fixed him with his piercing blue gaze, "what you have to remember is that your parents went into hiding before you were even born. Very few people even knew of your existence before your parents were murdered, it is understandable that they knew as little of your sister." He said the word with a calmness that belied the anguish of the situation. The word casually tacked onto the end of the sentence as though they were discussing some other sibling, one that Harry had always known about, not a sister that he had only just discovered was torn brutally away from him.
It seemed as though Harry was letting these words slowly sink in as he stood in the middle of Dumbledore's study, glaring at one of the legs of the desk. Ranged across the room behind him, Ron, Hermione and Alice looked at each other as they shifted awkwardly. As she caught her friends' eyes she could see the anger on Harry's behalf beginning to bubble in the pit of her own stomach reflected in them. How could Dumbledore have done this to him?
"What happened to her?" Harry's voice, suddenly low and quiet, cut through the room like a knife. From the corner of her eye Alice could see that the portraits of past Headmasters and mistresses were as still as though they had been painted by muggles. Each pair of eyes fixed on the exchange going on between the two extraordinary wizards.
"Harry," Dumbledore removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes as though they pained him, and then replaced them, "what you have to understand is that -"
"NO!" Harry voices jumped several decibels in a single syllable and Alice flinched at the anguish in his voice. "I don't have to understand anything! I don't want to understand whatever excuse it is you've got lined up this time. I had a sister and I never got told about her; twelve years and no one saw fit to mention her for Merlin's sake!"
"There are reasons, important reasons, why you haven't been told certain things - now I know that it isn't fair to you, believe me if I could tell you everything right now I would, but there are some things that you just aren't ready for."
For a moment the insane thought occurred to Alice that Harry might be about to jump across the desk and throttle Dumbledore where he sat. Fortunately the moment passed and he opted for setting his jaw mulishly, with an audible growl instead. It was probably just as well because Alice didn't know how she would have reacted if he had done something to Dumbledore. The enraged part of her that wanted to throw one of those stupid silver contraptions that littered the room at him might have just let Harry do what he wanted.
"Professor?" Every eye in the room, including those on the walls, swivelled to fix on Hermione. "Surely Harry has a right to know, even if you can't tell him everything," her tone indicated her scepticism about this, "then surely there must be some things that you can tell him?"
"As always Miss Granger," Dumbledore nodded sagely, "you are correct. What would you like to know Harry? I promise to tell you everything I can."
Harry looked as though he was about to argue, but after glancing across at Hermione who shrugged to indicate that it was probably as good an offer as he was going to get, he snapped his mouth shut again. As he considered what to ask Alice watched him run his fingers distractedly through his hair so that he looked even more frazzled and harassed than usual. She was surprised he hadn't burst a vein by now. There was a hot anger fizzing away inside her just waiting to spill over - and only being kept in check by her timidity and the fact that it wasn't her place to say anything - and it wasn't even her family under discussion.
"Did she die?" he asked eventually.
"Lord Voldemort murdered everyone in that house apart from you that night. I have never lied to you about that." The words fell from Dumbledore's lips like stones, sending ripples across the silence of the room. Harry seemed to sag slightly where he stood and Alice saw Hermione make a motion to go to him before she checked herself.
"Right…" Harry's shuddering breath seemed to suck in all the air in the room. "Why did no one ever tell me?"
"I have no idea why your aunt and uncle never mentioned your sister to you, that is a question which you will have to put to them I'm afraid. As for myself… well, when you arrived at Hogwarts I saw how much the recent knowledge of your parents murder had affected you and… I did not want to add to your burden. I will admit Harry that it may not have been the right thing to do, but I was only trying to do my best for you, as has always been my intention." He looked earnestly at Harry with those remarkable blue eyes as though willing the boy to believe him. Alice glanced across at her friend to see if his remarks had had the desired effect, she herself remained sceptical, not of Dumbledore's claim to care for Harry, just of his explanation as to his actions. There was just something that didn't quite add up, but she couldn't work out what it was.
"Shouldn't that have been my decision?" Harry challenged. "I mean, it wasn't as though you forgot to tell me that my parents had a goldfish or that my Mum's favourite colour was blue; this was my sister we're talking about. And I can understand how no one else knew about her at the time but what about now? I mean I've never read every history book that I'm mentioned in but I know there's definitely nothing in any of them about me having a sister." He glanced quickly across at Hermione as he said this who, having definitely read every book there was about Harry, nodded in confirmation. "Surely someone else would have known about her?"
Dumbledore was silent for a long moment and Alice could almost see the cogs in his astute and aged brain ticking over as he pondered how to answer the question that had been put to him by the thirteen year old. Eventually he sighed and looked down at the papers on his desk. "I'm afraid that was my decision again - and," he raised a finger to halt Harry's irate hiss, "and it was for the same reason as before, I did not want to hurt you further. We deliberately kept your sister's existence from anyone who asked questions about your childhood to protect you."
"You had no right to do that!" Harry couldn't keep silent any longer as his anger boiled over again. "You might as well have killed her yourself, because that was what you did; by… by… smothering," he spat the word as he began to pace agitatedly, "her memory you've made sure she was murdered twice, once by Voldemort and once by ensuring that everyone that should have remembered her didn't!"
Alice didn't think she had ever seen Dumbledore look so old. "Harry, please try to understand. I acted with the best of intentions, I'm not saying it was my finest hour but I was only thinking of you. I understand that you are angry with me, and probably rightly so, but try to understand. Harry?" Harry continued to pace, a thunderous look on his face as though he wanted to hit something badly and was just trying to decide what it would be. "Harry." The Headmaster's tone was sharper now and caused him to finally pause and look at him. "Harry, just out of curiosity, where did you get this book from?" He held up the battered journal. As he did so Alice saw Ron and Hermione's eyes slide towards her and then quickly dart away again. Harry's eyes remained fixed with mulish stoicism on the Headmaster, clearly he didn't want to get her into trouble.
"Does it matter sir?" In bottling down his temper Harry's tone was now devoid of all emotion.
"I found it Professor." The words were out of Alice's mouth before she had a chance to reconsider them. She didn't want her role in the situation to be another source of friction between the two; besides, Harry was right, did it really matter? The look in Dumbledore's eyes told her that for some reason it did. She couldn't work out why though; as his eyes moved from Harry's face to hers the expression in them was unfathomable. It was part surprise, part concern, possibly some satisfaction thrown in as well for good measure and a hint of some other emotion which she couldn't quite pinpoint. Without a word however he broke the contact and switched his gaze back to Harry.
"I see."
There seemed to be nothing else to say to that, and indeed nothing else to say at all for the silence in the room began to stretch out excruciatingly. Dumbledore continued to gaze at Harry, who stared dejectedly at a table leg all the fight suddenly drained out of him, whilst his friends watched the two of them and struggled not to interfere.
Eventually it was Dumbledore who spoke up. "Harry you do know I wish it could have been different don't you?" The third year nodded, but continued to say nothing. Finally he let out an exhausted sigh and raised heartbroken eyes brimming with tears that were barely contained.
"Right… I -" Harry cleared his throat and blinked several times to regain his composure. "Right, well I - I think I might just… go and…" He turned and made his way towards the door, motioning for his friends to follow, which they immediately did, crowding round in silent support. Dumbledore watched them go without saying a word. As they were about to leave the room, Harry glanced back over his shoulder. "Professor?" His voice was dull and robotic sounding.
"Yes Harry?"
"My sister, what was her name?"
There was a beat of silence before the Headmaster smiled sadly at him. "Clover, Clover Potter."
After that Harry didn't say a word for the rest of the day he just sat, staring blankly out of the window at the swirling snow. They all tried to engage him in conversation a few times, but no one really knew what to say. After a while Harry excused himself and disappeared up to the dormitory.
"Well," Ron remarked after the three of them had watched him go. "Today has been… unexpected."
"How long have you known?" Hermione asked Alice.
Alice fiddled awkwardly with her shoelace. "A few weeks. I did try to tell you, but… you know…"
"We weren't speaking." Hermione finished for her.
"Yeah… Sorry."
"It's not your fault. How could Dumbledore keep that from him?!" Hermione returned to her state of righteous indignation.
"Never mind that - well obviously Harry is our top priority," Ron amended as Hermione glared at him furiously, "what I mean is, Harry is only one person; how did he manage to keep it from the entire world?"
"And why? I know what he said," Alice frowned thoughtfully, "but it still doesn't make sense."
"I don't know how Harry managed to stop himself from cursing Dumbledore into next week."
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "I imagine the fact that he's the most powerful wizard on the planet probably had something to do with it."
"Don't start fighting," Alice warned them.
"We're just going to have to make sure that we're there for Harry over the next few weeks; he's going to need our support."
The next day Harry was talking again, he certainly wasn't his usual self, but at least he wasn't brooding in silence anymore. It was a mark of how concerned Hermione was about him - as were they all - that she didn't protest when he said that he was going to sneak back to Hogsmeade during the visit the following day.
"Well I couldn't exactly say no, could I?" She hissed to Alice later.
So the next morning the three of them set off, nerves on edge, knowing full well that Harry would be waiting for them in the village. Sure enough as they passed the Shrieking Shack they heard the sound of footsteps falling in behind them. Making sure that they kept far enough away from other students that Harry wasn't likely to bash into someone they made straight for the Three Broomsticks. Again learning from their past mistakes when they entered the pub and found a table they made sure that the `empty' seat that Harry was sitting in was firmly in the corner and completely inaccessible to annoying Slytherins or anyone else who fancied sitting down.
"It's almost like a Christmas card isn't it?" Hermione commented gazing outside once they had all settled down with their butterbeers. Alice had to agree with her, the holly and mistletoe that wrapped around almost every available surface coupled with the warm, cosy atmosphere and glimpses of falling snow through the windows did tend to make for a rather festive picture.
"Christmas cards don't get quite so cold though," Ron shook his head to remove the melting snow that clung to his hair in clumps as he removed his scarf.
"Being really cold and then getting nice and toasty inside with a warm drink is half the fun of winter though," Alice informed him with a smile. "I always love having a really good snowball fight and then going inside to heat up by the fire. It makes me feel all festive."
"I never used to have snowball fights as a kid," Harry's disembodied voice mused. "Dudley always just used to shove my face in a snow drift or put ice down my back instead." They heard him snort in amusement. "I got my own back on him though. One year I spent an entire afternoon sitting on top of the shed roof just waiting for him to walk past it and then I knocked all the snow off on top of him. He was practically buried under it."
Alice, after having had her encounter with Dudley over the summer, found this image very amusing. "What did your uncle say?"
"He locked me in the cupboard for a week," Harry replied matter-of-factly. "Which was probably just as well really, because it gave Dudders time to calm down; he would have beaten me to a pulp otherwise. You should have seen his face when he dug himself out of the snow," he chuckled, "he was absolutely livid!"
They all began discussing various other pranks which Harry could pull on his horrid cousin and were halfway through a particularly detailed plan as to how Harry could utilise an Ever-Bashing Boomerang to greatest effect when Hermione stood up. "I'm just going to pop to the loo." She had barely been gone a minute however when she was suddenly back, looking very anxious and flustered. "Harry," she hissed at the empty air next to Ron, "I think you had better go. McGonagall is here again - she's up at the bar talking to Professor Lupin, but she's heading this way."
Alice peered round the enormous Christmas tree that was partially blocking them from view to check and sure enough their head of house was walking straight towards them.
"Does she have special powers or something?" Bemoaned Ron in frustration. "It's almost as though she knows that you're here."
"Don't be daft," Harry asserted, "it's just bad luck. Come on, wait till she's sat down and then we can sneak out." His chair creaked as it slid backwards seemingly of its own accord. After a moment there was a rustle of branches and Alice assumed that he was looking round the tree itself. "Okay," he whispered. "Come on."
Quickly, quietly and as unobtrusively as they could manage the three of them rose from the table and shuffled round the tree and past the table where McGonagall was now sitting with Professor Lupin. As they passed they caught a snippet of conversation.
"It's been years since I was last in here," the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor was saying. "I used to come in here all the time with James and Lily and…" Alice momentarily froze as his words registered; she was desperate to hear more but didn't want to be spotted by the teachers. She took a step forward to keep moving and felt Harry's solid presence motionless in front of her. She gave him a little shove to encourage him to keep walking. "Just leave it Harry," she hissed where she thought his ear might be. When she didn't feel him shift in response she laid her hand flat against his invisible back and shoved hard to get him walking again. He seemed to reluctantly comply.
Once she had reached the door Alice paused and glanced worriedly back over her shoulder at the teachers, they didn't seem to have noticed the students scurrying past them. Thankfully. As she stepped through the door after Ron and Hermione she felt the icy cold hit her like a wall, but she only had a moment to pull her coat more tightly around her as suddenly her friends took off after the rapidly retreating footsteps that could only belong to Harry. Bowing her head against the snow that stung her face Alice scurried after them around the side of the Three Broomsticks and found them clustered around a now revealed Harry in a narrow alleyway next to several empty butterbeer crates.
"He knew my parents," Harry was staring blankly at the frozen ground. "All term and he never mentioned it."
"It might not have been them," Ron reasoned as he shuffled from one foot to the other in an effort to keep warm.
"How many other James and Lily's do you reckon there are? They would have been about the same age as him I suppose - it must have been them." He looked up at Alice and the others questioningly. "Do you think he knew her too… Clover?"
"He might have…" Hermione looked torn. "Harry look I know what you're thinking -"
"What?"
"You want to go and ask him about your sister."
"What's wrong with that?"
"I -" She looked to Alice and Ron for support, "I just don't know if that's a good idea or not… Not that I'm saying it's a bad idea as such… just… I'm not sure what I'm trying to say." She threw up her hands in defeat, though whether at herself or the situation Alice couldn't tell.
"I think what she's trying to say Harry is have a think about it," Alice advised, "don't act rashly."
"Yeah," Ron went to stand next to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Work out what you want to say to him first. You don't want to get a reputation for shouting at all the teachers." Harry cracked a smile at that.
As the next day was the last day of term the bulk of the school disappeared for the holidays. With Sirius Black still on the loose, most people felt they would be safer at home; a view which Alice found silly as surely there was no place safer than Hogwarts? The upside of the whole situation however was that they virtually had the run of the school. "Harry," she called across the common room that night to where he was sat hunched in a chair by the window, "come and join us - this popcorn is amazing!" She popped a piece in her mouth to prove her point.
"Yeah, where did you two find it?" Hermione asked the twins, who were also staying for the holidays, as she helped herself to a handful which was still warm after being toasted over the fire.
George tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially, but the effect was ruined somewhat by his little sister. "They snuck into the kitchens."
"Ginny!" Fred rolled his eyes. "Here Harry," he held out the plate as their raven-haired friend joined them, "Ginny shouldn't be allowed any more." His sister stuck out her tongue at him before snatching some more with a wicked grin. Placing a thick leather bound book on the table, Harry obliged.
"What's that Harry?" Alice nodded towards the book.
"A photo album; there are some photos of my parents in it - and you three. Hagrid gave it to me in first year."
"Oh, do you mind if I take a look?" Harry had never shown them the album before, but she was curious to see what his parents had looked like. Scooping up the album, she ran her fingers across the embossed red leather before deftly flicking it open. She smiled as she saw the first picture: it was one of the four of them taken by Colin Creevey the previous year; she didn't know when Harry had acquired it. Their enchanted images were all waving happily out of the page at her and she resisted the daft impulse to wave back.
"Can I see?" Hermione scooted over on the sofa next to her. "Oh that's a really good photograph!" She reached across to turn the page over. The next image was older, tattier around the edges; it was of Harry's parents. As she looked at them she realised that people weren't exaggerating when they said Harry looked like his father, if someone hadn't told her who was in the photograph she would have said it was Harry himself. James Potter was sitting on an old stool with his arm around the waist of the woman standing next to him; a woman with long, flowing, dark red hair. So that was Harry's mother. Alice frowned as she looked at the picture, there was something…
"Wow Harry," Hermione's voice broke through her thoughts, "your Mum was really beautiful."
"Yeah," he looked back across at her with a sad smile. "Yeah, she was… thanks."
Alice didn't have a chance to work out what it was that was wrong about the photo before Hermione turned the page again to show a photo of Harry at the Burrow in first year. Well, not wrong exactly, just… disconcerting.
"Hey Ron, come and have a look at this one, you were both so tiny then!" Hermione giggled as she showed him the album. As her friends all began laughing and exclaiming over the pictures of themselves and expressing interest and curiosity over the ones of Harry's family Alice tried to apply her brain to the problem of the photo of his parents. There was something about it nagging at her brain, but every time she thought that she had almost worked it out the answer escaped her, everything just seemed to become woolly and unclear. It was bizarre and it was giving her a headache so eventually she gave up and joined in the fun with her friends.
Two days before Christmas Harry announced his decision to confront Lupin about going to school with his parents.
"Do you want us to come with you?" Ron asked looking up from an enormous book that Hermione had given him to read for Hagrid's case. He started to rise from the table.
"No it's alright," Harry shuffled his feet awkwardly, "I need to do this myself."
"Of course," Hermione was obviously trying to conceal her disappointment and concern, "we understand… And we'll be here when you get back."
"Thanks." He smiled before walking quickly from the common room.
A worried Hermione gazed after him. "Do you think he'll be alright?" Neither of them answered. They tried to turn back to their research but every so often Alice would catch Hermione's eyes straying towards the portrait hole.
"Have you told him yet?" She asked the thirtieth time this happened.
"What?" Hermione went red almost instantly. "Told him what?" Her eyes slid worriedly to Ron and then back to Alice trying to signal that she didn't want her to say anything in front of him.
"Don't worry Ron knows that you like Harry."
"Alice!" Her friend exclaimed as Ron guffawed loudly.
She threw her hands in the air in a motion somewhere between a mock apology and amusement. "Oh come on, it's not my fault; I didn't tell him, you're just both really obvious!"
Hermione flushed an even deeper scarlet and hid her face in her hands with a stifled groan. "Really?" She peeped at them between her fingers.
"Really."
"Oh, Merlin." They could practically see her toes curling in her shoes as her whole body cringed. "Who else knows?"
"No one," Alice asserted at exactly the same moment as Ron answered.
"Fred and George."
"Ron!" She exclaimed rolling her eyes at her friend's tactlessness whilst Hermione buried her face in a cushion.
"What?" He seemed dumbfounded as to what he had done wrong as Alice glared at him with one eyebrow raised reproachfully. "She asked!"
Turning away from him and his male logic Alice addressed the top of Hermione's head. "Look it's fine they won't say anything, especially not to you or Harry, I'll make sure of it." She took the muffled grunt that emerged from the depths of the cushion to be an affirmative. After waiting for a moment to see if she would get any other response Alice gave and turned back to the Transfiguration essay that she had been writing. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ron covering his mouth and shaking slightly as he tried to contain his laughter. She grinned.
After what seemed like an age Hermione eventually shifted, but only so far as it took her to pick up the nearest book and conceal her face behind it again. "Don't talk to me," her voice emerged from behind the pages, "I'm being humiliated." Over the top of the cover Alice could see that her forehead was still an impressive, flame red.
The three of them had just settled back down to work again when Harry abruptly burst back into the common room.
"How did it go with Prof -" Hermione was forcefully cut off as Harry let out a furious yell and kicked a chair halfway across the common room. "Harry! What's wrong?" She looked with startled eyes, and not a little fear, from the shattered wreckage of the spindly wooden chair to Harry. "What on earth did he say?"
"Oh well nothing much," Harry was breathing hard, his nostrils white with anger. "Just that he not only went to school at the same time as my parents he was one of my Dad's best friends since first year. Yeah apparently him, my Dad - and Sirius Black were all really cosy!"
"S… Sirius Black?" Alice had to check she had heard him properly.
"But how…? Black's… well he's…"
"Evil incarnate?" Ron helpfully supplied as Hermione struggled for words.
"Well according to Lupin the three of them were the best of friends - and Black was - is my godfather. But that's not the best part," he was practically spitting by now, "the reason why everyone has been so paranoid about me all year and why I got all those cryptic clues from Mr Weasley and Malfoy was because when Voldemort went after my parents the person who told him where they were was -"
"Sirius Black." Alice was thunderstruck. Could there possibly be any more dramatic revelations about Harry's past?
"Merlin," Ron whispered. They all stared at Harry in silence for a few moments as he struggled to get his temper back under control. "Did he say anything else about it?" Ron eventually asked.
"That after I… Once Voldemort was gone Black revealed his true colours for the first time; that was when he killed all those people. He said that Black had been a Secret Keeper for my parents because the house was under a Filius Charm…Fildus…"
"Fidelius Charm," Hermione supplied softly.
"Yeah, that was it." Harry seemed to be calming down slightly, at least his breathing had returned to normal and he slowly sat down on the sofa next to Hermione and Alice. "Anyway he said that he was the only one who knew where they were hiding and that he… well, he told Voldemort." Ron and Hermione flinched as he said the name again.
They all sat in silence as Harry's news slowly sank in. It seemed utterly impossible, but then so many impossible things had happened this year already that this latest was… well… Alice didn't know what to think anymore. After several more moments of standing in the middle of the floor all the fight seemed to drain out of Harry and without warning he slumped dispiritedly into a chair and let out a groan of frustration.
They all watched him tentatively before Hermione cautiously brought up the original reason for Harry's visit to Lupin in the fist place. "Did you ask him about your sister?"
Harry nodded miserably. "He didn't seem surprised, so Dumbledore must have told him I knew already. He knew her…"He took a deep breath and blinked back tears. "He said that she was a really happy baby, apparently I used to tease her all the time and… steal her toys and things."
None of them really knew what to say. Hermione reached out and took his hand.
"I think I might go to bed, if you don't mind." Harry squeezed her hand before standing up. "It's been a long day." And so, not for the first time in the space of a few weeks, the three of them watched in sympathetic understanding and worry as Harry trooped off to his bed with the weight of the world on his skinny shoulders.
"Well this will make a Merry Christmas," Ron gloomily shut his book which was still lying open on the desk.
"Poor Harry," Hermione added looking close to tears herself. "First Dementors, then Hagrid's enquiry, then his sister, now this. We need to do something to cheer him up."
"Well, it's Christmas the day after tomorrow so it would seem logical to do something then."
Hermione grinned. "Ron, talking about logic; are my ears deceiving me?"
"Ha ha," Ron laughed sarcastically. "I didn't hear you coming up with any better suggestions."
"Oh no, I think it's a good idea." Hermione smiled brightly.
Alice rolled her eyes at the two of them. Honestly, they were unfathomable; one minute they were at each others throats and then the next they were the best of friends. "Okay then," she threw her plait back over her shoulder and rolled up her sleeves, "so what are we going to do then?"
A/N: Another day of drama for Harry - I'm starting to feel a little sorry for persecuting him so much! Hope you enjoyed it. I'll try to get back into regularly updating. Please R&R!
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