When Love and Hate Collide: Chapter 3

It was only two days after that when I read the article in the Daily Prophet.

‘Another Azkaban Escapee?’

Very early this morning, the Ministry of Magic was informed that a prisoner had ‘disappeared’ from the island of Azkaban. Taintar Lestrange, 46, vanished without a trace sometime between last night and this morning. Lestrange is best known for conspiring with You-Know-Who in his years of power, torturing and murdering countless numbers of Muggles, Hit

Wizards and Aurors and attempting to blow up the Ministry of Magic. He and his wife, Emalia Lestrange, 42, who was also tried and convicted of being in league with You-Know-Who, have been imprisoned for nearly fifteen years-

I dropped the paper on the table. "Moody! Moody, where are you?"

I heard the familiar thud of his wooden leg, as he hurried into the kitchen. "What is it, Lassie?" He looked tired but his eyes were alert. For just a second, he reminded me of Remus.

"Here," I said, tossing the paper at him.

He smoothed it out and I watched his magical eye slide all the way down the page. He read the whole thing before letting out a huge breath of air. "This today’s?"

I nodded affirmatively.

He muttered a few choice curses before grabbing a piece of parchment from the counter-top and a quill from the pocket of his teal-coloured robes. "Dumbledore’ll know about this already, no doubt," he said to no one in particular as he folded up the parchment and started over to his owl’s cage. He watched her fly out the window before shutting it and turning back to me. "I have a bad feeling about this, Lassie. A very bad feeling indeed."

I stared at him, slightly confused. "Why? If Sirius Black could do it, I’m sure Taintar Lestrange could as well."

Moody looked like he was about to reveal something important but suddenly snapped his mouth shut with an audible crack. "Black and Lestrange are two different people."

This didn’t seem to leave room for discussion so I didn’t say a word. There was a slightly uncomfortable silence.

"Now, I think I’ve got some leads on those disappearances up in the north of England. All people that were kidnapped were, at one time, very outspoken against the Dark Arts."

"Yeah, all three of them," I muttered to myself.

He shot me a sharp look but didn’t say anything. "At each crime scene, a symbol was left."

I took a sip of water. "So?"

"So," he said, grinding his teeth at my incompetence, "our assignment is to figure out what they mean and to find out who’s going to disappear next."

"What do they look like?" I asked, finishing my apple and following him into the study where he tapped on the wall to reveal the platform once again. This time, he went first. I stared at it distastefully. I had already decided that I didn’t like this way of disappearing underneath the ground. Sighing heavily, I stepped onto it and felt that horrible feeling in my stomach, like I’d just jumped off a cliff.

"Took you long enough, Lassie. Now…I’ve got some books down here already that should help us in finding out what the symbols mean."

Some? More like thousands. "What do they look like?" I asked again.

He tossed some parchments at me, as I took a seat in front of a huge pile of books. The first symbol was shaped like the letter Z. I frowned at it. Didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. I set it aside and picked up the next piece of parchment. A five point star. Well, that could mean anything! Again, I set it aside and picked up the last piece of parchment. The symbol covered the entire sheet and had obviously been drawn in a hurry. I had absolutely no idea what it was, or even how to describe it. I turned my head sideways and looked at from all angles. I’d never seen anything like it before in my entire life.

My thoughts were interrupted by a faint pecking noise. Moody got up and crossed the room, standing in front of an empty picture frame.

"What are you-" He tapped it with his wand and the space where there should have been a picture swung open. "-doing?" I finished weakly. I shouldn’t really have been surprised that an owl was flapping its wings in the space that was supposed to be earth but it did.

Moody untied the message, dropped some Knuts into the tiny money bag attached to the owl’s other leg and shooed it away. The picture frame closed with a soft creak.

"I’ve never quite understood why owls would need money," I said without thinking.

He grunted. "I doubt you’ve cared either, Lassie."

I smirked. "So? Who’s it from?"

He didn’t answer straight away. "Dumbledore," he said finally.

I didn’t question him, but I had the strangest feeling he was lying.

*****

The day passed by uneventfully, as I spent most of it sitting underground and straining my eyes at symbols in three-inch thick books. I growled in frustration as I made some more notes.

Each symbol had at least twelve different meanings, and I hadn’t even gone through all the books yet!

"How are those symbols coming along?" came a growling voice in my ear.

I must have jumped at least a foot. "Moody!" I gasped out, my heart racing. "Don’t do that!"

He looked at me reprovingly. "Constant vigilance," he said, shaking his head. "It does not do well to have your back to a Death-Eater."

I paused, mulling this over. "You’re not a Death-Eater," I pointed out.

He tapped his distorted nose with one finger. "Ah, but you don’t know that, do you, Lassie? I could easily have been Taintar Lestrange or Marcus Travers."

"Or Sirius Black," I muttered bitterly. I immediately bit my tongue. Where had that come from?

Moody pursed his lips. "Or him," he agreed. "Although I doubt Mr. Black would hurt you."

I felt a concerned and yet horrified expression cross my face. "What?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Moody regarded me carefully for a second. "No more talk of such things," he said briskly. "Get up and get to bed. It’s late." He turned around and left the room, his robes billowing behind him.

I sat, frozen, contemplating what he’d said. What the hell had that meant? Perhaps at one time I had thought Sirius would never hurt me (not physically, anyway) but now, I really wasn’t sure. Furthermore, why would he say such a thing? Sirius Black was an escaped convict, for crying out loud!

"Lass!"

I jumped again. "What?!?" I asked, calming down when I realized it wasn’t someone out to get me.

"I thought I told you to go to sleep!"

I stared at him. "Moody…I’m a big girl now. I can even read a book all on my own!"

I saw his mouth twitch at my sarcasm but he merely shrugged. "I don’t care. We have a lot to do tomorrow and I’d rather not have you falling asleep on my books. They’re rather old and most are falling apart."

"Fine, fine," I grumbled, getting to my feet and brushing the dust off my clothes. "Why are you so anxious to get rid of me?" I suddenly asked suspiciously.

He rolled his eye (the magical one) toward the ceiling and exhaled heavily. "Would you just go?"

"All right!"

As I passed him, he whipped out his wand at me. I sighed heavily, staring at it.

"Let me guess…constant vigilance, right?"

He slipped it back up his sleeve. "Correct. Now, go."

I travelled back up on the platform and slid out of the office. The house seemed oddly quiet at night. I shivered despite myself. It was really dark…now…if I could just find the lightswi-

nevermind. "Lumos," I muttered softly. The light from my wand cast a soft glow on the room I was in, which now happened to be the living room. Making a face, I retreated and found the stairs. I was about to start climbing when something made me stop. A movement at the window.

‘Don’t be so incredibly stupid,’ I told myself fiercely. ‘You’re in the middle of nowhere…there’s no one there. It’s just a tree.’

Something moved again and this time, I was completely positive that it wasn’t a tree swaying in the breeze, or anything like that. I stepped towards the window and peered outside. There was nothing.

Against my better judgement, I slowly opened the window and stared into the night. Another movement caught my eye. "Moody?" I called. "Is that you?"

The rustling immediately stopped and with a sinking feeling, I realized that it was not Moody. There was more rustling and then a dog appeared. I heaved a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, for

Heaven’s sake," I muttered, giggling. I really was getting very paranoid. I stared at the dog, suddenly getting that uneasy feeling again. It was standing completely still and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said it was staring at me. But that’s ridiculous because dogs don’t stare. I moved slowly to another window and then back again and each time, the dog’s gleaming eyes seemed to follow me, as if considering what I was doing there. "Go away," I whispered. "Just go."

The dog set it’s head at an angle and then I could have sworn it winked at me before turning and trotting away into the trees. I closed the window and continued to stare out of it. Had I bitten off more than I could chew in coming back to England? One thing’s for certain though…I had never thought a dog was looking at me when I lived in New York.

Chapter 4

I slept well until three in the morning, at which time I was woken up the closing of a door. My eyes snapped open and I peered into the darkness. ‘Oh, calm down…it’s Moody getting a drink of-’ My thought immediately vanished when I remembered that Moody only drank from his own hip flask and insisted on ‘purifying’ everything before drinking it.

Slowly, I pushed the covers off me, nearly falling out of the bed when I found that my legs were entangled in them. Growling softly, I fixed myself and padded quietly towards the door.

The house was quiet again and I was starting to wonder if I’d imagined the whole thing. ‘Well, I must have done,’ I decided. ‘Doors don’t just close!’ I didn’t think…

Sighing, I opened my bedroom door and glanced out into the hall. This confirmed what I’d already known. There was no one out there. Rolling my eyes at my paranoia, I shut the door and ambled back to bed, yawning and falling face-first onto my pillow.

The rest of the night, I dreamed about fierce black dogs slamming doors in my face.

*****

Moody was already ‘in’ the wall by the time I got up. He was sitting at one of the big desks, two books open in front of him and a third hovering in mid-air. He looked up at me as I landed on the huge cushion. "Good, you’re awake."

I yawned, trying to hide it. "Uh huh…what are you doing?"

"Sorting out who our suspects are."

"The symbols again?" I asked, feeling even more tired just thinking about it.

He coughed. "No…suspects for who we’re going to kidnap and imprison."

"It sounds so much less illegal when you put it like that," I muttered.

Moody ignored me. "I need you to go and pick up some books for me."

I resisted the urge to tell him I wasn’t his puppy dog. "Sure…from where?"

"Flourish and Botts," he said promptly.

"In Diagon Alley?"

"Obviously."

I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm. "Right. What’re they called?"

He tossed me a piece of parchment, much like a Muggle grocery list. I unrolled it and it extended onto the floor. My mouth dropped open. "They're all…books?" I asked incredulously.

"No, no…I just figured that since you were going to be there already, you might as well pick up some other supplies for me." Was it my imagination or was Moody not quite meeting my eyes? I shook it off and counted it down to the fact that his eye was constantly revolving around, looking for potential…well…looking for people that were about to hex him or something. I nearly laughed. He was probably the reason I was getting so paranoid.

"Yeah…I don’t suppose I can get all this stuff in Diagon Alley, can I?"

He shrugged. "If you know where to look. You might have to venture into Knockturn for the last couple of items and if so, forget about them. I don’t want you getting into any trouble."

"Oh, really!" I exclaimed, exasperated.

He looked at me, his eyes narrowed. "I’m serious. Don’t go into there. Especially now. It’s not safe."

"Whatever you say, Dad," I muttered. "I’ll see you later then?"

"I mean it, Lass. Don’t go doing anything stupid, ya hear?"

"Bye, Moody."

"I’m not kidding, Lass! You be careful going down there and I mean it!"

"Goodbye, Moody," I said pointedly, getting onto the platform and ‘flying’ through the air. I pulled a cloak out of the hall closet and slipped it on. It was slightly breezier than I’d imagined, once I’d stepped outside and I was somewhat glad I’d taken the cloak with me. I walked off the property and apparated, praying that I wouldn’t end up on top of some Muggle in the meat section of the super-market.

*****

I made it to The Leaky Cauldron in one piece, a fact for which I was madly thankful. I was probably the only person in the entire history of Hogwarts to fail the Apparation Test seven times. Embarrassing, isn’t it? But the first three times weren’t my fault! How was I supposed to know you shouldn’t apparate into places with high voltages? Exactly…you wouldn’t have known either.

I glanced around. It was fairly empty inside. I would be able to walk straight through and out to the back. I would have made it too, if someone hadn’t crashed into me, nearly throwing me over.

"Watch where you’re going!" A deep voice snapped.

"Póg mo thón!" I shot back. It was ‘supposedly’ an Irish Gaelic term that meant ‘kiss my ass’. Who knows though…I mean, I learnt it from James one summer when we were fourteen.

He could have been lying.

An expression of complete disbelief crossed the man’s sallow features as I picked myself up and stomped off.

"Walsh? That you, Aria?"

Slowly, painfully slowly, I turned around. And came face to face with Severus Snape. He looked much the same as he had done fourteen years ago. Hooked nose, greasy hair, black eyes

and all. "Severus," I greeted.

He was gaping at me. "You’re…you’re alive!" He spluttered and immediately blushed, knowing it was a stupid thing to say.

"As are you," I replied evenly. Severus and I had never been ‘best pals’, but we’d never had the animosity between us that he had with James and Sirius. And probably Remus and Peter too. He’d even saved my life once.

He grabbed my arm firmly and dragged me outside. "Where have you been?" he hissed and I could see the cold anger rising in his eyes. "Do you know how worried we all were when you disappeared? We thought you’d been killed!"

"I left a note."

"A note?!? A bloody note?!?" He sounded dangerously close to exploding.

"Severus, calm down!" I hissed, afraid someone would hear our conversation. Not that it would matter if they did. To them, Aria Walsh did not exist anymore. She was simply a second-rate Auror who had disappeared months after Voldemort. If people even remember what Aurors were anymore.

"I most certainly will not! You disappeared for years and now you’re back and you expect me to just accept that?!?"

"Oh, shut up!" I snapped.

He complied immediately. "Sorry," he muttered, not sounding sorry in the least. "But, if you don’t mind, I’d like an explanation."

I paused. "I needed a change of scenery."

He sighed heavily, raising his eyes heavenward. "After what Black did, I’m not sur-"

"It had nothing to do with Sirius!" I lied vehemently. Why oh why oh why did he have to bring him into it?!?

Severus looked like he was about to laugh. "Of course it didn’t."

I glared at him. "Oh, just shut up."

The smile disappeared from his lips and he looked at me seriously. "How come you never answered my letters?"

I stared at the sky, feeling more tired than I’d ever imagined. "I didn’t answer any letters," I said, my voice sounding hollow, even to my ears. "I wanted to disappear, Severus. There was nothing left for me in England." I didn’t bother telling him that I’d never even read the letters he’d written. I’d sent the owls back and burned the letters without even reading the return addresses.

He snorted disbelievingly. "I never thought you’d be the sort to just run away. How could you just quit?!? After all we fought for!"

"I didn’t quit," I said evenly. "I just…did what I had to do."

He didn’t say a word then slowly tapped the brick that opened up Diagon Alley. "I just thought you’d trust me enough to tell me where you were going, that’s all."

Something inside of me snapped and I found myself pointing my wand at him, glaring hatefully. "You weren’t exactly trustworthy, were you?" I growled, not sounding like me at all.

"You betrayed everyone, Severus. And even if you did switch sides at the end, it doesn’t change what you did at all! Don’t you dare think I should owe you something for saving my life. I repaid my debt a long time ago."

He looked surprised. "I never expected a reward," he said, for once, sounding human. "You were the only one in your little ‘gang’ that ever bothered to think of me as a person. I felt like I owed you something."

I rolled my eyes, stepping through the archway. He followed me. "Well, you didn’t. I didn’t want anything. I didn’t need anything."

He remained silent as he followed me into Flourish and Botts. I pulled out Moody’s list and started tossing books onto the counter. The assistant looked a little upset at the manner in which I was treating her precious books but I really couldn’t have cared less at that moment in time.

Severus watched me pay for my books and haul the four over-flowing bags outside. "I never liked your little boyfriend, you know."

I turned to stare at him. What a conversationalist! "Yeah, no kidding."

He ignored me and continued. "But that didn’t mean that I hated you as well."

"Oh, for goodness sake," I muttered. I handed him two of the bags and we started walking up the street at a slow pace and I could see that there was something he wanted to say. Probably something he’d wanted to say for years.

"I hated Potter. Hated Black. Hated Lupin. Hated Pettigrew. Hated that Lily girl too," he said, nodding absent-mindedly. I knew he hadn’t really hated Lily. But she was less civil to him

than I was, although she was never outright rude. Not like Sirius. Or James for that matter.

I stopped walking. "Those are my friends!" I snapped hotly. Or should that have been were?

He waved me off. "My point," he said, "is that I never hated you."

"I’m honoured, truly," I said sarcastically.

"And I never approved of the way Black treated you."

Well, that shut me up, I can tell you. "What?" I was stunned.

"You heard me."

I shook my head slightly. "Severus, are you purposely trying to get me mad? Because if you’re not, you’re doing a remarkably bad job."

He sighed heavily. "Were you the only that didn’t see it?"

"Severus, stop it."

"You must have noticed," he protested. "You must have thought…"

"Severus, stop it," I said again, my head pounding.

"Black never appreciated you, Aria. He just used you."

I whirled on him, dropping my bags on the ground. This was an old disagreement between us but why was he bringing it up now? "That," I snarled between clenched teeth, "is not true.

You never knew a damn thing about any of us! It wasn’t like that, Severus! God…we should have let Remus tear you to bits when we had the chance!"

Severus regarded me closely for a second. "I could never quite figure out why you were friends with them, you know," he said quietly, handing all my bags back to me and giving me a sad look, "when you were so much different than they were. I can’t believe I never saw it before. Even now…all of you…so damn loyal. It made me sick, you know."

I was silent. "Well, thank you for sharing your true thoughts with me, Severus. I’m sure they’ve really contributed to the sort of person you’ve turned into and I’m sure it has helped you

in your quest for a fulfilling life."

"Why did you come back?" he asked suddenly, his voice strained.

I smirked nastily. "Believe me, it wasn’t something I’d have paid for."

"Black’s free and wandering around."

Why was he trying to get me angry? "So what?"

"Aren’t you scared he’ll come after you? Came after Harry, after all."

I stared at him. "Severus," I said softly, "you are a cold-hearted, bitter man. I have never believed that someone could be completely empty but you…you’ve got nothing. And I might have made some bad choices. I might have been in love with someone who turned out to be a traitor. Someone who murdered his best friend. But at least I’ve been in love! You live to make the

lives of others miserable."

A sad smile flittered across his lips, not quite reaching his eyes. "There’s a reason why I always liked you the best," he murmured. "You were never rude."

For a split second, he looked exactly like the second year Slytherin who had helped me in Potions so many years ago. "Goodbye, Severus," I said curtly, turning away.

His hand darted out and latched onto my shoulder. "I’m…sorry, you know. For what happened. I never pinpointed him as the traitor."

I could hear the remorse in his voice and knew, for once, that he was telling the truth. "It’s always the ones you least expect," I whispered, knowing that he heard me. I stayed facing away from him until I heard the familiar pop of apparation.

Taking a deep breath, I walked into the Apothecary. This was getting ridiculous. First the Headmaster and then Severus? Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? And what had he meant by saying Sirius had used me? Why did he think that? I guess it might have appeared that way to some people. But what those people didn’t know was that I had grown up with Sirius Black and I knew exactly what he was thinking. Most of the time.

"Can I help you?"

Wordlessly, I picked up three jars full to the brim with liquids I couldn’t identify and slammed them down on the counter. "What are these?"

The young man standing behind the counter flinched. "Powdered bat’s wings with arrowroot and essence of silver," he said, looking bored.

I had no idea what that was but I couldn’t read Moody’s handwriting so I just assumed that’s what he wanted. "I need some unicorn hair too."

He snagged a packet from underneath the desk and placed it next to the jars.

"And um…some Echinacea roots."

"Anything else?"

I could see he was just dying for me to leave so I said no, despite the fact that I hadn’t gotten half the things on the list. Oh, who cared, right? What the hell did Moody need crushed peppermint leaves for anyway?

Stuffing the supplies into my already bulging bags, I stepped out of the store and back onto the road. I cast a quick spell to make the bags ‘condense’ into one and another to make them feather-light. Hey, what was magic if you couldn’t use it, right?

I glanced around at the people walking by, smiles on their faces and laughter in their voices. I guess that was the function of the Aurors. To hide the truth so that people could go on living their happy lives without worrying that their first breath in the morning could be their last.

Contrary to everyone’s belief, there were thousands of Aurors all over the place. Some (like Moody and Fletcher) were better known than others (like Sirius and me). Naturally, they were targeted before us and were often in more danger than we were. No Auror who had faced Voldemort had ever lived.

I had managed to walk right into Knockturn Alley. Oh, I’d been down here before, when I’d gone to school at Hogwarts (yes, it was forbidden but…rules were made to be broken) but it was much different seeing it now. It was dark and very very quiet. Almost unnaturally so. ‘Just turn around…just turn around and leave.’

But I didn’t. Surely, it couldn’t hurt to just wander into one of these stores and see what they had…could it?

Shrugging to myself (which was actually really dumb, considering), I randomly selected a store and opened the door and stepped inside.

It was even darker in here and there was a strange smell that was making my eyes water. Mustiness and incense and, I realized dimly, the smell of death.

"Do you need some help?" came a rough voice from a doorway at the back of the shop.

I looked up automatically. A figure swathed in black robes stared back at me.

"You don’t belong here," the unidentifiable figure spoke softly, so I had to strain my ears to hear.

I nodded mutely.

It stepped forward and I was suddenly face to face with a very old woman. Older than the ring on my finger. Older than the fading wall hangings. Older than time. She studied me for a second. "You are afraid," she noted, reaching out with a match and lighting more candles. "Don’t be. I’m not the one you should fear."

"Who are you?" I whispered, the smoke flooding my lungs and making it harder than ever to breathe.

She turned her head to the side. "We are who we think we are. You are…searching," she said crossing the room and taking a seat in an elaborately velvet royal-blue chair. "You want answers, hmm?"

I didn’t dare ask her how she knew all of this. Divinators had always scared me. And I was sure that’s what she was now. "Don’t we all?"

She laughed, a horrible, cold, laugh. "Indeed we do…indeed we do. But your questions are…different. Strange…"

"What is?" I whispered again.

She didn’t answer for a moment and then motioned to the arm chair in front of her. I stared at the crimson velvet idly for a second before taking a seat opposite her. She took my hands turning them over and over as if looking for something. Suddenly, she sucked her breath in. "What is this?" she asked, her voice jarring my ears.

I was confused before I realized she was talking about the ring on my left hand.

She didn’t wait for an answer before continuing. "Pain…so much pain…loss…fear…" her violet-coloured eyes bore into mine, "death…" My eyes widened and I snatched my hands away from her. She swayed for a second before relaxing into her chair, her eyes closed. "Secrets…horrible, deathly secrets…and for a child so young…"

I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Child? I know I looked young for my age, but I was hardly twelve years old anymore!

"Why have you come here?" she questioned, her eyes opening slightly. "This is not where you belong."

"How do you know?" I retorted, my knees shaking.

"Because I can see!" she suddenly shouted. "I can see what is going on inside you! I know! I can feel it! This is not the place for you! You must leave! You are not welcome in this place."

Still shaking, I got to my feet and started for the door. Her voice stopped me.

"Things aren’t always what they seem, are they…Zoetic?"

I turned around and stared at her, even though everything inside me was screaming to leave.

"Pertaining to life…it fits, doesn’t it, Zoetic? It fits…like life does. Everything…fits." And then she started to laugh. A terrifying, wicked cackle that caused a prickling sensation at the back of my neck. On and on it went until I was sure I was going to scream. I wrenched open the door and ran as fast as I could, pulling my wand out of my pocket and muttering the words to the apparation spell.

I landed on the grass on the edge of Moody’s property. Although I guess it was partly mine too. Slowly, I sank to my knees. What had she meant? And how had she known…?

Slowly, I made my way back to the house, the whole time wondering how she’d known.

When I first moved away, I had wanted to be anonymous. Completely unknown. So I chose an alias. Zoetic. It means pertaining to life…just like she’d said. I’d thought it was fitting at the time. Now, I wasn’t so sure.

The woman reminded me of my mother. Was she still alive? Was she happy? Did she miss me? I hadn’t seen her since my father had told me that I was no longer welcome under his roof.

"Married?!? To that…that…to HIM?!?" My father bellowed.

"Dad, I-"

"You just be quiet! I can’t believe this! Claire, can you believe this?"

"Trevor, maybe-"

"Claire, don’t you dare tell me you want her running off with that good-for-nothing boy!"

My mum fell quiet. "Of course not, Trevor…I’m just saying that-"

Dad cut her off. "Aria, I forbid you to marry him! What are you thinking?!?"

"It’s not like I’m marrying a stranger!" I shouted back, even though I shouldn’t have. "You’ve known him for years! I’ve known him for years!"

"Yes, and I’ve never liked the sorry little prat!"

That was a lie…he had to be lying. He’d always liked Sirius…"Dad, I’m not-"

"You’re not marrying him! You’ve just graduated! You don’t need to be marrying anyone!"

"Dad-"

"No, I forbid it! You won’t marry him!" He was starting to sound slightly hysterical.

"Dad, would you just listen to me?!? I want to do this! I love him-"

"Love? Pah!" he scoffed. "You’re seventeen years old! You don’t know anything about love!"

"Trevor," Mum said warningly. "Let’s just hear her out."

He glowered but said nothing.

"I love him," I said softly. "We’re not going to get married straight away…but-"

"Well, that just makes it all better then, doesn’t it?!?" Dad spat. "That boy is nothing but trouble! He has no house, no financial income, no job…"

None of that was true. "He has a flat in London," I said quietly. "Dad, please…he’s going to be an Auror-"

"An AUROR?!?" Dad was outraged. I bit my lip. "A bloody Auror?!? He’s going to die and leave you all on your own with your kids, just like his idiot father!"

My jaw fell open. I had never thought my own flesh and blood would ever say anything so cruel. But Dad wasn’t done.

"He’s a stupid, selfish little shit. He’s got nothing! He isn’t the one for you and you won’t be happy if you run off with him, Aria. Mark my words. He’ll break your heart and mess you up and what’ll you do then? Come running back here, no doubt!"

"Trevor," Mum said again, trying to subdue him. "Calm down."

Breathing hard through his anger, he forced himself to sit down in an armchair, still looking like he wanted to go out and murder Sirius with his bare hands.

"Now, Aria, honey…what brought this on? Do you think your father and I don’t pay enough attention to you? Is that it? Sweetheart, we love you very much. You don’t have to-"

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. "Mum, it has nothing to do with you! I love him and he loves me! Why is that so difficult to understand? Don’t you want me to be happy?"

"Of course we do," Mum said in her dreamy voice. "But, darling…this isn’t the way to-"

"Mum, he’s my best friend and…and I’m happy with him! I-"

"That’s another thing," Dad interrupted, glaring at me as if I were the scum of the universe. "Your ‘best’ friend…don’t you think something’s wrong with you if you’re marrying your best friend?"

I stared at him, aghast. "N-no," I stammered. "Dad, why can’t you just-"

"Don’t tell me what to do!" he positively roared. "I set the rules in this house, not you!"

I turned away from him, knowing that he wasn’t listening to a word I was saying. "Mum, please," I whispered, shooting her a pleading look. "Just…please…"

She shook her head sadly. "No, darling. I…I don’t think it’s a good idea."

I stared at the two of them, my anger ebbing away. "Why can’t you just be happy for me?"

"You’re seventeen!" Dad shouted again. "You can’t get married now! It’s insane!"

"Why?"

"Because you’re just a child! It’s absolutely ludicrous! What will everyone say?"

Slowly, I looked him in the eyes. "That’s what you’re worried about?!? Your reputation? You’re goddamned reputation?!? Well, fine! You can take your reputation and shove it up your ass for all I care!" I got to my feet and started for the door.

Dad stood up too. "You sit back down! We’re not finished yet."

"Yes, we are," I said coldly. The look on his face was one of pure rage.

"Walk out of this house…marry that…that scum and I swear to you…you will never set foot under my roof again," he said, his voice dangerously low.

I stared at him, unable to move. "Mum?"

She shook her head sadly.

"Fine," I whispered softly. "Goodbye then."

I pulled open the door and walked out and not once did I dare look back.

My mother and I wrote to each other everyday for six months. Then her letters slowed to every other week. Then every fortnight. And then they stopped coming altogether. I strongly suspected that my father had found out about our correspondence and had ‘forbidden’ her to write to me. I had sworn back then, that I would never ever let a man control my life the way she let her husband control hers. I would never put my husband before my children and I would never, ever, ever let them think they weren’t wanted.

I never told Sirius what happened at my parents’ house that day. He must have guessed when they stopped asking me to visit them though. But I did okay. I did. Sirius and I got a house on our own, we both had jobs and we were happy. For a while, anyway. But Fate seems to absolutely despise me. I guess that’s another reason I miss him so much. He was all I had and more than that…all that I needed.

‘Damn you, Sirius…what the bloody hell were you thinking?’ I had tried to put myself in his shoes countless times since that night. Wondered what he’d been thinking, what he’d been feeling. Had it been my fault? Should I have stopped him? Had I done something to make him angry? Should I have told him I loved him more often? Should I have done something that I didn’t?

But what hurt the most was that I couldn’t help but remember my father’s words. How could he have known? How did he guess that it would turn out like this?

He was wrong about one thing though. I never crawled back to them, although the thought crossed my mind many times. I never went back. At least I was proud of that fact. I’d managed on my own.

Sighing, almost in relief, as I reached the front door, I took a deep breath and blinked back tears that weren’t there. I pasted a huge, fake smile on my face and opened the door. "Moody?"

There was a moment’s pause. "In here, Lassie!"

I heaved my bags into the kitchen and dropped them on the table. I was about to sit down when I saw a huge, black dog sitting on the floor. I yelped. Moody jumped, pulling out his wand.

"What? What?"

"Why is there a dog in here?"

He looked at me as if it should have been obvious. "He’s uh…Hagrid’s."

I stared at the dog on the floor in distaste. I wasn’t particularly fond of animals, I must admit. They scared me. "Why do you have him, then?"

I swear, I thought Moody glanced at the dog out of the corner of his eye before answering, "He brought me a note. From…uh, Dumbledore. About the…uh…you know…" he trailed off feebly.

I raised my eyebrows. "Uh yeah, and I can turn into a tree. Seriously…why is there a dog in the kitchen?"

He opened and closed his mouth for a second before shooting me an annoyed look. "Look, Lass…it’s a dog, all right? And…uh…it’s just going back to Dumbledore right now, aren’t you?"

I looked at the dog dubiously. "It doesn’t look too bright…are you sure it knows where it’s going?"

The dog barked and I jumped. "Stupid git," I mumbled. The dog bared its teeth at me. I stuck my tongue out at it and turned back to Moody who was staring at me as if I’d just grown another head.

"It’s a dog, Lassie…just a dog."

"I hate dogs," I muttered under my breath. "Idiotic, dumb animals…no brains…" Oh, really. What was I thinking? It was a ruddy dog! "Mrs Norris was an animal too," I muttered again, thinking of Argus Filch's cat at Hogwarts, and glaring at the dog. My eyes widened. "Moody?"

"WHAT, Lass?"

"Is it my imagination…or is that dog smiling at me?"

Moody jerked around with a start. "Of course not!" he snapped. "It’s a dog, for Land’s sake! Go on now…get out of here!" he said, opening the front door and shooing the dog right into Albus Dumbledore.

"Ah, Moody!" he said good-naturedly. "I see you’ve found Snuffles…I thought I’d lost him!"

"I thought he was delivering a letter," I cut in, shooting Moody a suspicious look which he shrugged off.

Dumbledore smiled cheerfully. "Yes, he ran off just as I was finishing instructing him on where to find the house. I wasn’t too sure he — uh — knew where to find it. So, we’ll be off now."

This conversation was getting more and more ridiculous by the second. "All right, whatever," I said irritably, watching him lead the dog down the path. "I need to go and lie down. I’ll see you later."

Moody walked in front of me as I tried to leave the kitchen. "What’s the matter?"

I batted away his out-stretched wand in annoyance. "Moody, I’m tired. So, I’m going to sleep it off. Is that all right with you?"

"Temper, temper!" he taunted. "Be back down in time for dinner…we’re going out."

"Wheeerrrrreeee?" I whined, not feeling like setting foot outside the house ever again.

"Dumbledore thinks he’s found out first potential Death-Eater. We’re going to investigate it."

"What about the symbols?"

Moody snorted. "Who cares about the bloody symbols? I certainly don’t. Bloody, stupid things…anyway, Arabella said she’d cover those so…we’re free to work on the fun stuff."

"I can barely contain my excitement," I said in a dead-pan voice.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Good. Now, be ready by 7. We have to familiarize ourselves with our subject’s habits and routines."

I sighed heavily. "Yeah, yeah."

"It’s just after noon…do you want something to eat before you sleep?"

I shook my head, yawning as I started up the stairs. "No, it’s ok."

"All right, Lassie. Sweet dreams."

Too preoccupied with the fact that Moody would have made an excellent grandfather, I didn’t notice a huge black dog standing next to a weeping-willow tree, as I passed the window on the way to my room. Although, it was probably better that I didn’t. I would have gone very Moody-like and whipped out my wand, shouting a multitude of hexes. He really was a very paranoid person.

I glared at the door in exasperation. Where was he always disappearing to?