"Number one: I need you to keep an especially close eye on Harry while I’m gone. Cash will be staying here, and I know he will do the same. But I have a very bad feeling about his safety lately" he watched as Cat nodded, he had no doubt of course "Number two: I need to borrow the wand Albus gave you. I’ll return it to you the moment I return, that is if you can find something else to hold up all that hair of yours." he joked.

"Always the comic...." Cat said as she smiled at him "You know I’ll do anything I can to help you Sirius. Take whatever you need." she gave his hand a gentle squeeze "Where are you going? Can you tell me?" she asked, her voice full of concern.

Cat bent her head so Sirius could pull out the wand. Sirius sighed softly as he felt her long, soft hair cascading over his hands. It was all he could do not to cry, he missed being close to her, physically and emotionally. He let his fingers comb through her hair as they talked.

"Albus is sending me to the Carpathian Mountains to give a message to a group called the Roma. Cash is sending Dimitri with me." Sirius paused as he saw the look in Cat’s eyes. He dropped his eyes as he removed his hands from her hair. He must have crossed some barrier, she looked upset with him. Perhaps it was too late to reclaim what they had had.

"What do you mean *you are going* to Magda." she said angrily "Albus refused to let *me* go, he said it was too dangerous for me. He was afraid I would come to harm....."

Relieve that is was Albus she was upset with and not himself, Sirius placed his fingers over Cat’s lips "He is right Cat, you need to stay here" He could see by the look in her eyes, this was not going to be over quite so easily. As aggravating as her temper could be, he relished it, some of his best memories had started out as disagreements between them. Neither one of them gave up without a fight, it always made for interesting conversation.

"No arguing with me Catri MacLeod." He watched as she cocked her eyebrow.... this was going to be one of those discussions, he could just tell.

"If you go, I go" Cat replied shortly "Dimitri doesn’t have enough experience to handle this, he’s much to young. Julian told me all about him before he sent him." Cat could feel herself beginning to lose her temper "and I don’t believe for one minute Cash decided he should go. He would have gone with you himself, he doesn’t send childer to do his..."

Sirius had to put his fingers over her lips again "Cat,...Kitty.... calm down, alright?.... Please?..." he couldn’t help but chuckle as she glared at him. "Some things never change." he said as he smiled deeply at her "your temper is just as bad as it ever was."

"MY temper?!" Cat replied as she grabbed his hand in hers "look who’s talking about having a temper, Mr. Black. I seem to recall quite a few instances of *you* being the one to........" she stopped mid-sentence as she looked at him, and began to laugh.

"Your right Sirius" Cat said as she laughed "I guess we really haven’t changed all that much after all" she watched as he laughed a long with her "I’m still the temperamental redhead, and your still stubborn."

"Hey... wait a minute" Sirius responded as he realized what she had just said "Since when am I stubborn, ... I’m just very determined" he said, acting wounded.

Cat laughed even more as she placed her hand on his chest "oh yes, very, very, very determined" Sirius placed his hand on top of hers as his eyes began to glimmer softly, he had needed this so badly. He needed to hear her laugh with him and feel her soft touch on his body. "But it still doesn’t change the fact that I am going with you." Cat finished.

Sirius sighed dramatically "Now Kitty, how many times do I have to tell you." he said as he shook his head, doing his best Pomfrey imitation, "you will only get yourself hurt, or worse if you continue to carry on like this, Please have the decency to refrain from any further...."

"NO ... Sirius.. Stop. That’s just too frightening" Cat laughed "its like your channelling Poppy or something."

Turning serious, Sirius placed his strong hands on Cat’s shoulders. "No more joking Kitty. You have to stay here, if you don’t who will protect Harry, we can’t both go." he explained gently. "I know how strong you are, and believe me, I would like nothing better than to spend several uninterrupted days with you. But we have to think about the students and the school." he said as he pulled her closer to himself.

"But Sirius..." Cat began

"No buts." he replies

"But...."

"No buts" Sirius said as he looked deeply into her eyes. Seeing she was about to begin to argue again, he did the first thing that popped into his mind. He took her face in his hands and he kissed her. He felt her body stiffen at first, but then, very quickly relax into his. Sirius felt himself melt as he realized she wasn’t going to push him away. He gently wrapped his free arm around her waist as the other caressed her cheek. It seemed like an eternity, a wonderfully sweet and blissful eternity. As Sirius finally pulled away, he watched as Cat’s eyelids fluttered open. She seemed almost shocked by what he had done. Trying to recover quickly, Sirius told her firmly, "someone needs to protect the children. I know you can do that, I’ve seen you. I promise, I will be back soon. Before the holidays. .... Save me a dance?" His eyes were brimming with emotion, he had to leave before he started crying in front of her. "I love you Cat MacLeod, keep our little boy safe." he said as he kissed her gently on the cheek and left. He never saw the single tear running down Cat’s cheek..........

A very emotional and happy Sirius Black quickly ran outside to where Cash and Dimitri were waiting for him. Sirius laughed as Dimitri’s eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw Sirius turning into Padfoot. Apparently Cash had never told the young Ventrue about that particular skill. He and Dimitri ran for most of the night, only pausing to catch their breath, or to eat. Luckily Cash had impressed upon Dimitri the importance of taking only the evildoer, and there certainly seemed to be plenty of them about. The last one had been carrying a large sack of food with him, making their lives much easier. While Dimitri finished feeding and disposing of the body, Sirius greedily tore into the food, all the while remembering Cat and Cash’s comments about him being too thin. He laughed to himself, was it any wonder, life on the road he told himself. Maybe if he was lucky, he would be able to get Cat to cook for him again. She was a wonderful cook, Sirius closed his eyes and thought about how good one of her soups would taste on a cold night like this......

"What’s her name?" Dimitri asked as he sat down next to Sirius, who immediately became embarrassed to be caught daydreaming. "Well.... what is her name? I may be young, but even I recognize the look of a man in love."

"That obvious huh?" Sirius sighed as he leaned back smiling softly "Her name is Cat, Cash’s niece."

"Is that who you ran off to see before we left?" Dimitri asked, he couldn’t help but smile when he saw Sirius blush. "I thought so." he laughed "Sooooo, I assume she’s beautiful?"

Sirius smiled widely "Doesn’t even come close" he replied "she is absolutely stunning. Silky long red hair, milky skin, and the deepest, greenest eyes you have ever seen in your life. She’s enough to take your breath away." He said dreamily as he remembered holding her in his arms.

"Was she your *first*?" Dimitri questioned

"Depends on what you mean by first. If you mean the first girl I ever became...uhm...physical with... no" Sirius replied "If you mean the first person I ever lost my heart to ... yes. The first and only."

"The only.....I don’t know if that’s corny or just too sweet" Dimitri laughed as sat down next to Sirius, curiously nudging at the dried meat and bread that were in the sack. He both listened and watched closely as Sirius went on to talk about his girlfriend *Cat*, he loved the way Sirius’s eyes went soft and dreamy as he spoke about their past together. "Your very lucky to have a second chance my friend. Most of us never get that opportunity." Dimitri said sadly "I know I never will."

"Want to talk about it" Sirius asked gently, not wanting to push or seem thoughtless.

"Doesn’t do any good" Sighed Dimitri "it doesn’t change what happened.... I should have listened to Luna, my sister. She kept telling me nothing good would ever come from crossing father." he said as he closed his eyes tightly, as if recalling a nightmare. "I just loved Becky so much, I thought we could be together forever, be happy forever. But my father refused to even consider it, he hated her." Dimitri sighed as he felt the rush of old emotions weighing on him. "He refused to allow us to be together, he hated her just because our skin wasn’t the same colour."

Dimitri gave another shaky sigh as he continued "I ran away to the city, I thought things would be better there. Instead I was beaten, robbed and forced to work as a virtual slave in a brothel. By that point thought anything would be better than enduring the constant assaults, even death..." Dimitri began to shed blood tears as Sirius squeezed his shoulder. "That is where I met my sire, Ryan Blaze, he had used me worse than anyone else ever had. And then he embraced me against my will (after raping him physically, he raped his soul and his life’s blood). After the novelty of my creation wore off, I was abandoned by my sire and my clan. They shunned me as if I were diseased. I couldn’t bear it. I began to roamed from city to city, living on the fringes, looking for a clan that would accept me. Until I came to Prince Julian’s city, he was the first Ventrue to open his arms to me, he protected me, taught me. It is he who sent me here, to assist Albus Dumbledore against his enemies. Prince Julian was the only one... who.... who..." Dimitri was sobbing now as Sirius hugged him, trying to comfort him as best he could. "I miss my family" Dimitri sobbed into Sirius’s shoulder "I miss my mother"...........

"Alright little girl" Tris said snarkily, "time to fess up.... what exactly is going on here? I saw you with that Snape guy earlier and not 1 hour ago, I am positive I saw Sirius Black leaving your room. So which one is it?" Tris stood in front of Cat, refusing to move until she was answered.

"Oh honestly Tris" Cat sighed as she threw her hands in the air "What does it matter to you? Maybe I finally decided to play the field....or maybe I’ve decided to become a wanton woman." Cat winked as she side stepped Tris and opened her wardrobe door.

"Hate to break it to you sweetheart, but you have *always* been a wanton..... it just took you a while to figure it out." She laughed as Cat stuck out her tongue. "Don’t be getting cheeky with me.... I’ll whoop your bum." Tris laughed as Cat mocked terror at the thought.

"Listen you Nosferatu wannabe" Cat replied "If you would stop lurking in the shadows and actually show yourself once in a while, maybe, just maybe.”…..

"Don’t start with me Angel....." Tris warned her playfully "I don’t care if you do watch Xena, I can still take you on?"

"Xena?!!!" Cat started giggling hysterically "Tris, you are just too much sometimes." she said as she threw a pillow at her cousins head.

"OH... is that how this is going to go?" Tris laughed as she flung the pillow back at Cat, hitting her squarely in her face. The girls continued their pillow fight until they both fell exhausted and laughing on Cat’s bed....

"So.. Are you gonna answer my question?" Tris said as she listened to Cat’s breathing "Which one is it? And let me tell ya right now, I’m not exactly thrilled with either of them."

Cat sat bolt up in as she looked at Tris "You don’t like either of them? I always thought you liked Sirius?" Cat replied.

"I did Angel, I did. Up to the day he broke your heart" Tris replied "And the other fellow. He’s not exactly the friendly sort, is he?"

"Severus is a bit slow to warm up to people" Cat said diplomatically "He has had a rough life, he is not exactly trusting."

"Well now there’s an understatement" Tris quipped "Have you seen Minerva lately? Raul wanted to speak with her about Dimitri."

"What do you know about Dimitri? I understand he went with Sirius to Magda’s camp." Cat asked "I sincerely hope Fallon can talk Magda into leaving as soon as possible. I don’t like the idea of having them out there, its just too exposed. Too easy for Voldemort to attach them."

"You know as much about him as I do... maybe more. It seems Prince Julian is quite taken with you." Tris said slyly waiting for a response.

"Don’t you start..." Cat said quickly "Julian and I are very good friends, he has me calling him uncle for heaven’s sake. He’s almost as protective of me as Shane is" Cat rolled her eyes dramatically "and besides, it his friend that’s sweet on me, not him."

"Oh really! And this friend of his would be......" Tris egged on, trying to get as much information as possible before Cat wised up to her game.

"Don’t get your hopes up Tris. His friend is Primogen of Clan Nosferatu" Cat replied, she smiled as she saw Tris’s face fall at the idea of her and a Nosferatu.

"Yuck" Tris said as screwed her face "Can’t even picture that" she was silent for a moment before suddenly laughing hysterically... "No.... Wait... yes I can...." she fell back on the bed in a fit of laughter as Cat pounced on her, pillow in hand..........