“No, it’s a marriage proposal to Hermione” she shot back, laughing as Ron’s face turned so red that his freckles were no longer visible.

“Shut up, Ginny” Ron said softly as Fred and George meandered over to see what had gotten Ron so red. Clearing his throat and calming himself, Ron asked again. “No, really, who are you writing?”

“Cash.” Ginny replied matter-of-factly, “I want to see what he thinks we should do about Mum.”

The boys looked at each other and then back at Ginny, each of them scrambled for a chair and pulled up next to her, eager to discuss her plan. “So, what are you saying? Do you think he can convince her?”

“I think Cash will know exactly what to say to Mum.” Ginny replied confidently as she re-read the letter. “If he had her offering him tea within minutes of finding out he nearly got one of us killed, he’ll know how to calm her down about Miss MacLeod.”

Fred and George grinned at each other. “Looks like she got the brains in the family.” George tease. “Hey, no fair” Fred retorted, “she got the brawn too, you’ve seen the way she beats up on little rony wony over here.” to which Ron replied by throwing a skein of yarn.

“Ron, where is Pig?” Ginny asked as she tied the parchment with a bright pink ribbon. “He’s the fastest owl we have.”

“He’s the only owl we have.” Ron said flatly as he left to get Pig……..

Harry paced nervously, staring at the shadowy door as Remus leaned against the wall, humming softly and looking at his watch occasionally. “How can you be so calm?” Harry groaned as he ran his hands through his already unkempt hair. “I mean, what if he doesn’t tell her? Or worse, what if he does and she’s upset, or doesn’t care, or..or….”

“Harry, please, calm down.” Remus soothed. “Trust me, I know the two of them, they just needed a little push is all. By the time the spell on the door wears off, I have the feeling we will find them laughing and talking, and more than likely kissing” he added, raising his eyebrows and winking, “just like they did when we were in school.”

“I hope you’re right Remus” Harry replied, still keeping a nervous eye on the quickly appearing door. “But are you sure you’re alright? I can’t believe you were so weak you couldn’t even cast a spell.” he asked, a look of relief shining on his face when Remus smiled brightly at him.

“Don’t worry Potter” he winked once more. “And may I add you did an excellent job with that spell, worthy workmanship from the son of a marauder.” Remus grinned back as he saw the proud smile on Harry’s face. “And I must admit, it lasted a lot longer than mine usually do. However, it does seem to be fading fast now that its done.” he added as he walked toward the door. “Shall we see what chaos we have wrought?” Remus asked dramatically as Harry rolled his eyes.

“Just open it” Harry sighed, then immediately thought better, “No, Wait!! What if they’re still talking or something?”

Silently opening the door a crack, Remus peered in and smiled widely “I think it would fall under the ‘or something’ category Harry.” he whispered as he watched Sirius and Cat wrapped in one another’s arms, kissing tenderly as tears shone on their cheeks.

“Do you think he’s told her?” Harry whispered back, a nervous edge to his voice. Remus hesitated a moment, staring at the couple, before nodding, “Yes, Harry, I think he’s finally come to his senses and told her“….

“So Cat, are we okay? Are you angry with me?” Sirius asked softly as he gazed into her eyes.

“We’re good Siri” Cat replied, “although I wish you would have told me all of this sooner.”

“I know, I should have, I honestly tried a few times, but I just couldn’t do it.” Siri admitted as he pressed Cat against his chest, hugging her fiercely. “Now, last question…what are we?”

Cat knitted her brow “What do you mean, what are we?”

“I mean are we together? Or just friends? Or nothing at all?” he asked weakly.

Cat sighed as she unwrapped herself from his arms. “I can’t call you my boyfriend if that’s what you mean” Cat explained gently as she rubbed the back of her fingers across his damp cheeks. “Let’s be what we’ve always been, friends.” she suggested as she tilted her head to kiss his lips.

Sirius winced as Cat told him she didn’t consider him her boyfriend, but the pain was short lived when she immediately followed that statement with a kiss, one which he deepened as he pulled her closer “Do you kiss all of your friends this way Miss MacLeod?” he asked as he finally released her lips.

“Only the good ones Mr. Black” Cat replied breathlessly, “only the good ones.”……

“Hey, Caaaaaaaash” Hamish sing-songed as he held a letter tied with a bright pink bow. “I think someone’s got a girlfriend.” he continued teasing as he waved the parchment in front of Cash’s face, baiting the Methuselah into a little fun and games.

“Not today, Hamish,” Cash replied, trying to sound stern, but smiling mischievously all the same. His eyes followed the parchment as Hamish waiving it tantalizingly close to him, “You realize you are going to regret it if you make me chase after you, right?”

“Me? Regrets?” Hamish gave Cash the most sincere look before cracking a huge grin “Never. But you’ll regret not catching me, old man.” He said as he heard Cash growl, turning on his heels, Hamish tore out of the haven listening to the sound of his cheering clan and the howling Garou as he did his best to out manoeuvre Cash.

“Give it up childer” Cash taunted “I’m closing fast and you’re running out of ….” he chuckled as Hamish bounced off of one of the ever moving staircases. Saunter over to a half dazed Hash, Cash shook his head “I did try to warn you.” he told him as he took the letter from his childer and offered him a helping hand.

“Dangitall,” Hash fumed, “and I would have gotten away this time. There’s a secret passage on the other side of the landing, it takes you to the dungeon on the right and the astronomy tower on the left.”

Tussling Hamish’s hair, Cash nodded “Better luck next time kiddo. And is this real?” he smirked, holding up the letter, “I mean, really, a ‘pink’ ribbon? You can do better than that, at least put some perfume on it or something.”

“Uhm, Cash” Hamish replied “the letter is actually for real, Albus saw me in the hall and asked me to deliver to you. Seems some miniature owl was giving Fawkes grief and bouncing itself off of walls. Made quiet a mess I’m told.”

“Albus? Miniature owl?” Cash repeated, raising an eyebrow “Well you’ve got me curious if nothing else. Let’s see who it is and what they want.” Unwrapping the letter, Cash handed the ribbon to Hamish as he quickly read over the letter. “Hey, its from little Ginny” Cash grinned.

“The twins are alright, aren’t they?” Hamish asked, immediately concerned.

“Fine, fine, they are all fine. However it looks like Angel sent them some presents, and Molly is ‘not’ happy about some of the things she’s heard.” Cash explained as he continued reading “Hey, look at this, apparently in the wizarding world, Fernglennis is nothing more than a myth. Her father compared it to Avalon and Tir na n’Og.”

“Cash, those places exist too. We’ve both been there. Vivian’s invited us to Avalon on several occasions.” Hamish reminded his sire.

“I know, believe me, I remember those parties…..well, I kinda remember those parties.” he grinned devilishly. “But the point is, in ‘this’ world, our world is little more than a fairytale. And it seems Molly is rather protective of our Harry, apparently she’s afraid Angel is not who she says she is and is concerned for our boy’s safety.”

“So, Cash, Methuselah of Clan Gangrel. What do you intend to do about this?” Hamish asked, a knowing look on his face.

“First, I’m going to write Ginny back, so don’t lose that ribbon, I’m betting that’s some sort of signal, she’s a bright girl, bright enough to think ahead. Second, I’m contacting Angel, a short trip home will do us all a world of good. I have a feeling she’ll be able to sort it all out quickly enough.” Cash explained. “Do you think you can handle things here while I’m off? I’d normally check with Raul, but considering he’s rather ticked with me at the moment, I’m trusting you to keep the MacLeod portion of the clan in order in my absence.”

“No worries there, Cash” Hamish replied, smiling proudly at the fact that Cash would even think to ask him to do anything so important.

“Good. And just so you don’t have to worry about it, I’ll check in on Rick and Snape before I go.” Cash added, knowing Hamish hadn’t really gotten over his anger with the professor yet.

“Yeah….about that.” Hamish said softly, not wanting to anger Cash but feeling he was at least owed an explanation. He expected Cash to lecture him again, but instead saw him smiling knowingly at him.

“I was wondering how long you could hold out on that one.” Cash smirked as he wrapped his arm about Hamish, pretending to put him in a headlock as he drug him along the hall with him. After a few minutes of laughing and rough housing, Cash explained about Rick and Severus as best he could. “Do you remember when Rick came to us? The way the women nursed him back to health, both physically and spiritually?”

“Do I?” Hamish replied passionately “The poor guy was two breadths from dead, they had beaten and stabbed him….I had never seen anyone treated so badly by their own clan, never.” he shivered as he remembered the dull, glazed look in Rick’s lovely blue eyes. They had all been mortal then, he, Rick, Angus, they understood the fear of dying, or worse, dying alone, without the comfort of clan, without the sound of kinfolk keening over you, or at least your corpse.

“Well, I know you and Rick have talked a lot over the centuries, and you probably know how his ‘clan’, if you can even call them that, raised him. Discipline and abuse was all he ever knew, add to that the cruelty of his masters, and his own innate intelligence, and you have the makings of a monster. Luckily Rick had enough heart and soul to balance out all the evil and harm that had been done to him. And when he risked his life to protect our children, I knew we could save him.” Cash explained, sounding uncharacteristically sombre. “We took him in, healed his body first, that was the easy part. I’m not sure how much you remember after that, since you were embraced right around that time.”

“Yeah, I remember. That brute that beat the daylights out of Rick on a nearly daily basis got me.” Hamish shivered as he recalled the feeling of his mortal life slipping from him and spilling on the ground along with his blood. “It was the first time I ever saw you frenzy, ‘really’ frenzy too. Scared me near to death you did.”

Cash grinned, “Yeah well, murder my clan, I cop an attitude, ya know?” he winked as Hamish grinned sheepishly. “Getting back to Rick and greasy…Rick had a hard time adjusting to our clan life, he was afraid we were going to kill him, constantly afraid. And worse, he couldn’t bare to be touched, it took a few weeks until I realized why. And even then it took little Onora to explain it to me, even though she had no idea what she was seeing. All she knew was the man who saved her life had been ‘hurt’ by other men, she had seen his tears and the horror in his memories whenever she touched him. Thank the goddess she wasn’t old enough to realize what they had been doing to the poor kid.”

“Kid, I keep forgetting, he was only a little older than Harry when we took him in, wasn’t he?” Hamish interrupted. “I sometimes forget he wasn’t born to us, I can’t imagine him not being around.”

Cash nodded. “That’s why I’m letting him do this Hamish. I know ‘we’ sometimes forget he wasn’t a MacLeod by blood, but ‘he’s’ never forgotten. No matter what we say or do, he still has a piece of his heart that holds all the pain and hurt.” Cash looked down at the floor “I think he sees a lot of himself in Severus Snape, or at the very least, a shadow of himself. And once he talked to me about it, I could see it too. The way they both distanced themselves from anyone, refusing to trust or love because it would leave them vulnerable. And they both had the same problem with touching, Brigid knows Snape has a fit if anyone even stands too close to him.”

“Except Angel” Hamish grimaced, “he certainly doesn’t seem to have any problem with ‘her’ touching him.”

Cash paused, placing his hand on Hamish’s arm “I have one word for you. Fiona….Do you remember her? She’s the only one Rick trusted, he loved her in a way I have ‘never’ seen one person love another. He was obsessive, protective, insanely in love with her.”

“Oh wow, now I remember,” Hamish said softly “She was asked to tend to him when we realized Onora’s powers were manifesting and letting her near Rick and all his pain was what was causing her fevers. But we all thought Fiona was going to kill him, she was so impatient, she hated the fact that he always flinched when she went to touch him. I remember hearing her yell at him so often.”

“More out of frustration than anger it would appear” Cash winked “she had her eye on him from the first. And lets face it, Rick’s a good looking guy. Although I thought she may have been pushing it with the ropes, but it did work. He opened right up when he realized that when a person touched you it didn’t mean a beating was going to follow. I honestly don’t think he’d every ‘really’ been kissed before that either.”

“Hard to believe that our ‘touchy feely’ Rick was once as cold as Snapey boy is now.” Hamish agreed as long forgotten memories surfaced. “So what? He’s trying to save him? Not using Fiona’s methods I hope.” Hamish added, shuddering visibly as the visual went through his mind.

“Good gods, I sincerely hope not.” Cash agreed, laughing deeply “But he has his ways, and I think they both need this. Rick has this need to save Snape, I won’t deny him this, and I don’t want you to either.” he said firmly