“No? Well it certainly didn’t stop you from doing anything.” Cat replied as she turned her face away from his, more to hide her tears than out of anger. “Sirius, I’d really rather not discuss this right now, I’ve been through a lot today, and I’m very tired.”

“I know you are gra” he said as he gently turned her fact towards him “that’s one of the reasons I need to talk to you. Either of us could have died today, and I couldn’t bear the thought of you not knowing the truth. Please, I know you need to rest, so do I, but I’ve been putting this off for weeks.” He could feel the tears rising in his own eyes as hers spilled down her cheeks.

“Cat, please” he whispered as he wiped away her tears, “I know I hurt you, but I swear I never meant to. Please, you have to believe me.”

“Then why did you do it? I thought you loved me, I thought we would be together forever.” Cat asked, she could feel the wound in her heart tearing open, threatening to swallow her with the pain and the grief she thought she had put to rest years ago. “I thought you just did it because you were angry, but when I came back from a weekend at home…. She threw the pictures of your wedding in my face, she was waiting for me, gloating that you chose a witch over a - a….” Cat pulled her hands away and stood up, intending to walk away from Sirius. But she didn’t get more than a step or two before Sirius leapt up and quickly wrapped her in his arms.

“What are you talking about? What wedding? Who would I ever chose over you?” Sirius asked as he held her arms, refusing to let her go until he told her everything. “ I never married anyone Catrianna, I never chose anyone over you….. I never would.” he added softly as he saw the tormented look on her face. Softening his hold on her, Sirius guided Cat back to the couch once more. “What are you talking about Cat? The last thing I remember was you being ill and going home for a few days, I thought it was just an excuse to get away from me. And then when you came back…. Kitty, you wouldn’t even look at me, much less speak to me.”

“Esmeralda, …“ she whispered “when I came back… she was waiting for me outside of our first class, gushing over the pictures of your wedding.” Cat gulped as she remembered the pain. “She flaunted them in my face, reminding me over and over how someone of your social standing would never take a creature like me as a wife….”

“She WHAT?!” Sirius yelled, startling Cat and frightening a few of the toddlers. Hearing the unsure whimpers of the children, Sirius immediately softened his voice as he hugged Cat tightly “Is that why you kept running away from me? Because you thought I married someone else?”

“Because you married her, and not me.” Cat barely whispered as her tears cascaded down her cheeks. She had kept it inside of her for so long, ignoring or denying she ever had such feelings of hate , jealously, or betrayal towards Sirius.

“I married ‘her’?!” Sirius pushed Cat away from him, just far enough so he could see her face. One look told him she wasn’t teasing or lying to him “You thought I married her?” he asked meekly as all his questions suddenly seemed to fall into place. It was no wonder she had avoided him, refused to speak to him. To be honest, knowing what he did now, it was no wonder she ran to Snape’s arms. “Cat, how can you even have thought that? You know I would never, ever …” he didn’t finish his sentence, he already knew what her reply would be. She would remind him she never thought he would ever betray her at all, so if he could do that, why wouldn’t he be capable of worse. “Oh Cat” he sighed as he pressed her head against his chest, his robes becoming damp with her tears.

“Why didn’t you say something sooner? Why didn’t you scream at me, or smack me or.. .or anything? If we could have gotten this sorted out back in school.” his voice faltered as he heard her sobbing quietly into his robes. Resting his cheek against her hair, he gently rubbed her back, allowing her to finally shed all the tears she had been holding in for seventeen years. He wanted to do something to make her pain disappear along with his own. This wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair….

Severus walked numbly down the corridor, he had no idea what to make of everything he had been through over the past twenty-four hours. He felt a deep seated relief, boarding on arrogance over the fact that Catri had forced Cash to not harm him, but that simply opened up a whole new set of questions. After all, if that vampire was actually bound by his word to her, perhaps they weren’t brainwashing her after all, perhaps, just perhaps there was some sort of bond between them. But if so, what? She certainly could not be related to them, unless of course it was that irrational ‘clan law’ of hers.

Sev sat down at his desk, setting his books and parchments in front of him as he held his head in his hands. “Oh Catri, what am I to believe about you. I know you too well to believe you could ever kill in cold blood, but I cannot ignore the looks on their faces. Some of them seemed absolutely terrified by the amount of carnage.” he sighed as he rubbed his temples. “Catri, where are you? I wish you would have waited for me…..” he paused as something caught the corner of his eye.

Knitting his brown, he focused on the spare robes hanging from the back of his door, he saw what appeared to be a single white rose. Standing up quickly he walked towards the rose with a scowl on his face, “A Weasley prank no doubt” he gnashed. His scowl quickly turned into a confused frown when he realized the rose was wrapped in a piece of parchment. Gritting his teeth and expecting the worse, he held his wand in one hand, ready to deflect any explosions, or charms designed to enlarge his nose, or turn him into a pin head.

Gingerly he plucked the rose from his robe, wand carefully aimed at it. Sev could feel the anticipation of disaster in every nerve, but the longer he waited, the less likely it seemed that anything would happen. Finally deciding it was safe, Sev carefully unwrapped the parchment from around the thorn less rose.

Sev stared at the note for several seconds before he realized what it was and who it was from. His hands trembled slightly as he finally recognized the handwriting, it was a bit shaky, but it was hers without a doubt, she had the strangest way of making her ‘L’s.

Sev. I’m sorry I couldn’t wait for you, Harry was so near death, then Gustavas the Tremere came back for him. I have to leave now, or neither of us will live to see tomorrow. We need our clan, I need to heal. Severus sat back down on his chair, deep in thought over the strange and wondrous turns his life had made recently. He absent-mindedly reached into his desk drawer for his notepad, only to mutter softly when he remembered it had gone missing the night his office had been ransacked. He accio’d a new book from the shelf and opened the leather bound book to a fresh page. Taking a charcoal pencil in his left hand, he began to sketch an outline of Catri sleeping in his bed, a soft, dreamy smile on her face.

Sev smiled softly as he shaded and blended the sketch with his fingertips, trying to perfectly capture the emotions he felt when he remembered watching her sleeping in his arms. He never though he would able be able to feel so much love for anyone, except of course for his daughter, but that was a completely different sort of feeling. This was more passionate, yet strangely comforting, it left him feeling content and warm in the depth of his heart, a place which until recently had been cold and barren.

Finally satisfied with the picture, Severus picked up the parchment one more time and studied it carefully, he re-read it over and over, noticing how unsteady her hand had been, and the way the ink seemed smeared in some areas. Holding the parchment up to the candle light, he realized quickly the smears were where her tears had fallen on the parchment. “Catri” he sighed as he shook his head “I wish you would have waited. I have serious doubts as to whether you were capable of apparating so many with you, especially in your condition.” He shook his head as he pictured her faltering mid way through the spell, and the obvious outcome of such a horrible accident. “You are forever telling me to have faith Catri, I suppose this would be the time to start.”

Folding the note neatly, Sev tucked it inside his chest pocket as he twirled the rose in his fingers. Wondering if there was anyway to modify the spells he had just found to not only locate and view her, but to transport him to her as well……

As Cat’s sobbing finally quieted down, she listened closely to the beating of Sirius’s heart, it had always given her such comfort in the past. He would tease her constantly about the way she would always cuddle against him, her ear over his heart, smiling softly as she felt his heart pounding in his chest. She sighed and closed her eyes as she remembered the way his hands would wander to her waist or hair, caressing her as he smiled tenderly down at her.

“Why didn’t you ever marry Sirius? You always said you wanted to settle down and have a large family” Cat asked not sure if she wanted to know the answer. “What stopped you from marrying, you’ve certainly had time to get over us.” she added weakly.

“A big family, I remember. One just like this, full of love and warmth” he said wistfully “It’s a long and painful story. I want to tell you,.... I just don‘t know how.” he grimaced as he closed his eyes against the painful memories of James and Lily’s death and his years at Azkaban. “I’ve tried running it over in my head time after time, but it never sounds right, not even to me. And what makes you think I could ever get over us? Or that I would even want to for that matter.” he added as he kissed the crown of her head, smiling as his mind drifted back to the way she used to cuddle against him just like this when they were together.

“So you’ve just ‘hung out’ for the past decade or so?” Cat asked softly “From what I understand, they wouldn’t let you take Harry either, so where were you? What happened? Why did your mother refuse to speak about you when she visited me in New York?”

Sirius’s eyes all but popped open “My mother? When? What did she tell you? What was she doing in America? What were ’you’ doing in America?”

“I was working for a ….” she shook her head, it was too much to try and explain right now. “Let’s just say it was a family obligation I had to fulfil. Wanda ran up a debt and someone had to pay it to preserve the clans honour.”

“What did that have to do with my mother?” Sirius asked anxiously, wondering how much Cat actually knew.

“She hunted me out and came to me, about ten years ago I think.” She said, wondering why Sirius seemed suddenly very upset. “She wanted me to buy some things from her, I kept bringing your name up, but she would change the subject immediately. I ‘thought’ it was because she was upset with you marrying Esmeralda. I couldn’t understand why else she would want me to have what should have been yours.”

Sirius sat quietly, stunned beyond words, his mother had searched Cat out. She had done what he had failed to do, she had found the woman he had wanted and expected to be his wife, the mother of his children. “What did she say?” he whispered as he held Cat tighter, rubbing his cheek against her soft hair, catching the silky strands in his straggly beard. “I hadn’t been able to see or talk to her for years. Please, tell me everything, no matter what, I ‘need’ to know.”

Cat felt Sirius’s heart beating at a very fast, but unsteady rhythm, “I will if you promise to calm down” she insisted as she sat up, pushing herself out of his grasp. “You almost died today Sirius, you’re not nearly as strong as you think you are.” she added as she cupped his face in her hand.

“I’m much stronger now that you’re here with me Cat.” he replied as he placed his hand over hers, turning his face, he kissed her palm seductively as he wrapped his free arm around her waist. He saw the way her eyes lit up and her lips parted slightly as he kissed her palm, almost as if she wanted him to kiss her lips like he used to. As tempted as he was to try, he needed to know about his mother more than he needed to feel Cat comforting him. “Please gra, tell me what she said.” he asked as he easily pulled her along side of him as he reclined on the sofa.

Cat nodded as she got comfortable again, she knew that look all too well, he was hiding something from her. But she had to admit, it was so nice to curl up with him on the sofa in front of the fireplace as the children played quietly behind them. She could almost forget everything that had happened, pretend that they lived happily ever after. “She called me out of the blue, told me she was in the city and was hoping I could make time to see her, as soon as possible. Of course I told her to come to my office as soon as she wished, she must have apparated to the lobby, because she was stepping out of the lift two minutes after I hung up the phone. She asked me to close the doors, as she needed to speak to me privately. She looked so tired, so stressed, or maybe frightened would be a better word.” Cat said as she shook her head. “I’ve never seen her look like that ever, I called for some tea to be brought immediately and insisted she sit down and rest. As soon as they left the tea and I closed the doors, she pulled me to sit next to her and asked me what I was currently doing and were my investments as successful as everyone said they were.”

“Your investments?” Sirius interrupted, needing to think of something besides his beautiful mother looking so haggard.

“Yes, turns out I have quite the knack for the stock market and figuring out which businesses I can buy for a song and turn around into huge profit makers.” Cat replied, smiling bashfully, “It was one of the reasons David agreed to allow me to pay off Wanda’s debt to him, he knew I could make him oodles of money.”

“So my mother found you and asked you about investing? Or did she come to you for money?” Sirius asked, barely able to get the words out. Of all the things he had thought of, it never once occurred to him that the MoM would go after his mother, she was as harmless and sweet as they came.

“Both actually. She wanted me to buy all of Angus’s investments, and I think she wanted to make sure I would be able to preserve them, just as he did.” Cat explained “Actually, we spent a great deal of time discussing your father. I could tell she still missed him, and I assume she never remarried, although I never asked her. When I asked her why she came to me and not a family member…..” Cat hesitated, she couldn’t bring herself to repeat Rebekah’s words.

She had informed Cat that as far as she was concerned, she ‘was’ family, she and Sirius should have wed, should have had the chance to give her grandchildren. She even had gone so far as to call Cat her daughter-in-law when David and burst into the office, livid that she was making private deals. Rebekah had rounded on him, telling him that if that was the way he treated her daughter-in-law, she would take her home this instant rather than allow some junk bond millionaire to treat her in such a manner.