disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the song sang in the story.

Hello! How you guys have all finished your exams (if you had any). I still have two more to do, but they're not that bad. I've been working on this chapter for a while and just finished it, so I hope you all really like it!

But first: Holy Cheesecakes! Seventh book! I really didn't think it would come this far. After this book is done, I'm going to be moving on to the last, and final book of the 'Potter and Black' series and... wow! I can't believe this! I'm in actual awe that I've come this far. Thank you all for just reading this book. I'm just shocked that you all like it.

Just a small heads up, this chapter might be a little descriptive with certain things that you might or might not like. You'll probably find out as you go along, so... yeah...

Hope you like it!

The Parting Glass

Arabella looked around her room. It was messy, that was for certain. Her clothes were all scattered all over the bed and the floor while her blue bridesmaids dress was hung against the closet.

Remus had announced that he and Nymph were getting married in a couple days' time and Nymph wanted Arabella to be a bridesmaid, though it was a small wedding. It was going to be held at the Tonks' with the Weasleys, Mad-Eye, and Kingsley Shacklebolt as guests, if they were able to come. It was going to be quick and small, but they both seemed to want it.

But the thought of a wedding didn't shock her. The new protection in her house didn't shock her, though it almost made her crap her pants. She doubts she could find anything in the world that can shock her anymore.

Both Mad-Eye and Remus knew Arabella, Harry, Ron and Hermione were going on some mission for Dumbledore. They asked questions, a lot of questions, but Arabella barely told them anything. She just told them that she, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were doing something based on Dumbledore's orders. Once the two of them had heard it was on Dumbledore's orders, they didn't ask that many questions.

Arabella glances at her watch, the one that used to belong to Kassandra, but was given by Remus. It was almost six in the afternoon and Mad-Eye was cutting it close. He said that she should get ready by then because he wanted to show her something. She had no idea what it was, but just went with it. It was Mad-Eye, it's bound to be something good.

'Severus Snape?'

Arabella wanted to gag at the name and the effects of the protective spell.

'I did not kill you, Dumbledore!'

She waited a couple seconds before opening the door and drew out her wand. She walked with confidence downstairs, making sure to keep her wand out in front of her, just in case. In the entrance of the house stood the large figure of Mad-Eye with his wooden leg and walking stick.

'Verify yourself,' Arabella said, pointing her wand directly at his face. He had his wand out, but didn't point it at her.

'Alastor Gleeson Moody,' he said with a small smirk, as though happy that Arabella was using her head. 'I poured beer on top of you a year ago from today and showed you the room that contained the names of the people that sacrificed their lives for the First Wizarding War and the one against Grindelwald.'

Arabella put her wand down tentatively, saying, 'Just checking.'

'That's good,' said Mad-Eye, nodding. 'Now, go get changed. Wear something comfortable. I'm going to show you something you need to know.'

Arabella didn't argue when she went upstairs. She quickly changed into some sweatpants and grabbed two other things as well. She grabbed her jacket that used to belong to Sirius and the knife Sirius got her for Christmas. She started carrying the knife around wherever she went. Arabella and Nymph were trying out dresses over at her house and altering them, and Arabella had the knife strapped to her thighs the whole time.

Once she made sure she got everything, she made her way downstairs where Mad-Eye was waiting for her next to the door.

'Hold on to my arm,' he said as he opened the door and they stepped outside of the house.

Arabella grabbed his left arm and was immediately Apparated.

When she opened her eyes, they were standing just a couple feet away from Mad-Eye's house. It was a small little house that was just necessary for one person. The curtains were drawn and the whole house looked dark. Just behind the house was a forest that ran for miles and miles. She's never been inside the forest, and only visited Mad-Eye's house once in her life.

'Come around here,' Mad-Eye said gruffly, elbowing her to move.

She hastily followed after him. He took her around back and walked closer to the forest. She stopped just in front of the tree shadows while Mad-Eye continued to walk forward and took something out from a nearby scrub. It was a cage and inside was two white rabbits.

'I know you, Potter, Weasley and Granger are going on a mission for Dumbledore and that you won't tell me anything else,' he said, holding the cage and turning to face her. 'But I'm going to teach you something you need to learn just before you go for that mission. You need to learn how to survive.'

'What are you talking about?' Arabella asked.

She didn't get a verbal response from him. Instead, he set the cage down and opened the little door. The two white rabbits immediately bounded from the cage and ran towards the woods as fast as they're legs could go.

Arabella still didn't understand what was going on, but it immediately clicked when Mad-Eye turned to her with a grim smile.

'No,' Arabella said definitely, shaking her head. 'No, no, nope, not going to happen, no.'

'Yes,' snapped Mad-Eye, reaching out and grabbing her by the collars of her shirt and nearly shaking her. 'You are going to change into your Animagus form and catch those rabbits.'

'No,' Arabella said loudly. 'I'm not going to hunt down rabbits. I'm inhuman and horrible and cruel to those rabbits.'

'No, you want to know what's cruel?' asked Mad-Eye. 'You-Know-Who coming back from the dead and Death Eaters flying about and Severus Snape murdering Dumbledore. Your father dying, your mother dying, my friends dying, you getting tortured while all those sick bastards are still running about. That's cruel. That's horrible. That's inhuman. What I'm going to show you right now is going to help you survive. I doubt any of you are going to go to five start restaurants for dinner. You need to know how to hunt to survive. I don't want to read a newspaper article saying that Potter died because he starved to death. Or you for that matter.'

Arabella's eyes flickered towards the woods, where there was a faint sound of rustling leaves. The bunnies were still running away from them.

'I don't like it,' she said in a hushed voice.

'We all have to do things we don't like,' said Mad-Eye in a gruff voice. 'But those things are necessary.'

Arabella nodded, agreeing with him. She took off her jacket and placed in on the ground before closing her eyes for a moment and swiftly turning into her Animagus form, a coyote. Though she did love her animal form, she doubt she was going to enjoy what she was about to do.

Alala was the name Remus, Sirius and Arabella came up with during the summer just before her fifth year. A coyote with dark brown furs mixed with light brown covering her body. She stood guard on her canine legs and her ears shot up, listening. Her hearing increased as she could hear things from miles away.

There was a lot more rustling towards the right as four little legs kept running in rapid speed. Alala sniffed the air once and bounded towards the forest, ready to catch some rabbits.

The first catch was the easier one. It was a small little thing that tried to hide behind a bush, but Alala sniffed it out and caught it within five minutes.

The second was harder, but the animalistic part of Arabella, Alala, enjoyed the hunt. The rabbit was the bigger one of the two and it was tricky. Fast little thing that was. It used its speed and tried to hide in different areas of the forest to avoid Alala. As it tried to jump over a fallen down tree, Alala sunk her teeth into him.

Moody looked satisfied when Alala brought the dead rabbits back to him. He was sitting next to a built campfire with two steel rods next to it and gave her a bottle of water. She washed the stench from her mouth before turning back into her human form. Arabella leaned against a tree as she took in deep breaths and looked at Moody inspecting the rabbits.

'You got this one, didn't yea?' said Moody, looking at the tricky rabbit. 'Really sunk your teeth in there.'

'Yeah,' mumbled Arabella.

There were two big wooden log chairs next to the campfire; one had her jacket on it. Arabella took her seat and waited to see what Moody was going to do.

'Here, you take this one,' said Moody. He tossed over the smaller rabbit to her and took out his knife from the inside of his boots. Arabella did the same, taking out Sirius's knife from her jacket.

'Now, watch closely,' warned Moody, pointing the knife at her. 'We only have these two and it's got to be right, got it?'

Arabella gave a small nod and turned the head of her rabbit the other way.

'Now, cut a ring around each leg of the rabbit, just above the joint. Only cut enough to get past the hide. Don't cut deeply into the skin, it's unnecessary.'

He did as he said and brought the rabbit closer to Arabella, making her look at the bloody rabbit's legs. There was blood on his hands and on the knife. He washed it off with the water that was left in Arabella's bottle.

'Then, on each leg, make a single slice going up from the ring to the backside of the animal. This will make skinning easier in the end.'

There was less blood now.

'Now, you have to start pulling away some of the skin, working from the ring cut at the foot joint down to the backside. The skin should come off easily.'

He started to pull away the skin from the legs and stopped at the tail.

'Cut your way through the bone of the tail. Make sure not to puncture the bladder. The tailbone is easy to locate. Once you do that, pull the skin from the body with both of your hands. It should peel off like a banana.'

Moody discarded the tailbone, rolled up his sleeves and did as he said, stopping at the arms.

'The tricky part's here. You've got to work your fingers into the sleeve of the skins and really dig in there. This part might take a while for you.'

It didn't take him that long to pull the skin from the arms. He stopped at the head.

'Cut the head from the spine. The skin should separate from the remaining meat then.'

He tossed the head to the side, as though it wasn't important.

'Then you break the bones at the arm and leg joints with your hands. Then cut the skin at the joints using your knife.'

He tossed the skin to where the head was.

'And then clean your rabbit.'

He took out his bottled water and cleaned the rabbit, washing off some of the fur, before presenting it to Arabella in both his hands.

She just stared at him in a stony expression, blinking a couple times.

'You want me to do that?'

'Yes,' said Moody, taking a steel rod and putting his rabbit through it from the head through to the tail and placing it above the fire.

'Remember, ring, slice, pull, tail, pull, arm, head, joints, wash,' he said, ticking off each part with his fingers.

'I don't want to bloody well remember that,' snapped Arabella, but turned to her rabbit nonetheless.

She flicked the switch on the knife and made rings around each leg of the rabbit, just above the joint, and then made a single slice going from the ring to the backside of the animal. Once that was done, Arabella started to pull the skin of from the ring, but found that to be a little difficult. With the help from her knife, the skin started to pull off a bit easier. She stopped just above the tailbone and cut it off, before pushing up her sleeves and taking the skin off the body. That was relatively easier to do with both hands. The arms were tricky. She dug her fingers into the flesh and used her knife as well to help remove the skin and was successful after a long time. Arabella continued to take off the skin and stopped just above the base of the skull and cut it from the spine. Once that was done, she broke the bones at the arm and leg joints and took off the skin from them with her knife. She took Moody's offered water bottle and washed the rabbit before taking a metal rod and sticking the rabbit through it, placing it next to the fire.

'That was good for a first time,' Moody commented.

Arabella said nothing as she stared into the fireplace. She just skinned an animal without hesitation and she didn't throw up her stomach when she did it. Sure, the smell was horrible, but she was alright.

'While we wait for our dinner, there's something else I need to show you,' Mad-Eye said, cleaning his knife with a cloth.

'What is it now?' groaned Arabella.

Moody took out some sort of small kit from his jacket and laid everything out in front of them.

'Sewing needle, disinfectant liquid, cloth, lighter, probes and cleaning tools, and bandage,' he said, pointing to each instrument in the kit.

'I don't understand –'

Without warning, Mad-Eye took his knife and made a cut on Arabella's lower thigh, a bit closer to the joint. She screamed, pushed him away, took out her wand from her pocket and pointed it at his face.

'What the hell is wrong with you?!' Arabella roared into the dead night as she placed her free hand on the burning cut. 'Are you out of your fucking mind?!'

Mad-Eye regained composure and straightened up, unfazed by the wand pointed at his face. He took one long hard look at her before saying, 'Do you know how I produce the best Aurors? I trained your mother, I trained your father, I trained Potter, the two Longbottoms, and the Prewett twins. They're all fine Aurors, best of the best. Do you why that it?'

'What does this have to do with you slicing my leg open?!' shouted Arabella.

'They're the best because I push them to be,' said Mad-Eye, irritated. 'I pushed them to the limit; I pushed them to be the best. I demanded nothing more than excellence and that's what I got. My methods might be a bit unconventional, but this is not a goody-two shoes little world we're living in. We have to be prepared for everything. Constant Vigilance! If you want to be the best, you have to push yourself to the point where you know you can do no more. Now, you may be able to heal that wound with a flick of your wand, but magic has its limits and we all know that. I'm going to show you how to clean that wound and stitch it up. Come on.'

Arabella did move from her spot for a while. She continued to glare at Mad-Eye for a few moments before moving an inch closer and a couple more after that. She wanted the cut to stop burning. Mad-Eye wanted her to be the best.

'Good,' said Mad-Eye in a gruff voice. 'Now, let's see the cut.'

Arabella lifted her hand from her leg. The right leg of her sweatpants was drenched in blood around the wound. She tried to move her leg to a comfortable position, but there were none.

'Not that bad of a cut,' Mad-Eye muttered to himself, seemingly impressed with his own work. 'Some blood, but not enough to restrict the site. Let's begin. Now, take the cloth and the disinfectant liquid. Put the liquid on the cloth and apply it to the wound. Carefully.'

Arabella did as she was told, and tried her hardest not to wince at the sting of the added pressure. She took a deep breath before continuing on.

'Good, good. Now check to make sure that there aren't any dirt or anything in your wound or around it.'

Arabella looked at the cut closely and saw some chipped wooden pieces soaked in blood close to the wound.

'Yeah, there're some,' she said quietly.

'Take this and take them out, carefully.'

He gave her a pair of tweezers and Arabella carefully took out the small particles of dirt and wood near her burning cut. This took a long time as Mad-Eye started to eat his rabbit while Arabella kept cleaning the wound.

'Done? 'Bout time. Now we start the stitching. Put the thread through the needle; make sure it's on and that it won't fall off. Light the end of the needle, make sure it's hot.'

Once Arabella secured the thread, she flicked the lighter and made sure it was hot enough.

'Good, now, listen carefully to everything I'm saying. Start with the edge of the wound to your face and sew away from yourself. Start to the left of the wound with an initial holding stitch. Once you've got that, then go back to the left and repeat. Make sure you keep as close to the edge as possible without releasing the skin through a tear.'

Arabella hissed when the burning needle went through her skin and tried to blink back some tears before continuing on in a slow pace. She never really noticed how long the cut was until she stitched it up. It ran from the middle to her thighs to the edge of her joints. As she continued to stitch, the burning feeling was replaced with a numbing one. And when she was finished, there was a zigzag on top of the wound.

'Good. Now, clean up the rest of the excess blood and wrap the cut with the bandages.'

Arabella took the cloth again and wiped the dried up blood and carefully wrapped her leg multiple times, securing her leg. Once she was done, she leaned against her chair, still sitting on the ground, while gazing into the fire.

'Now, was that so hard?' Moody asked with a smug smile.

Arabella shot him a look. 'You're a pain in the ass and I hope you lose your other eye.'

There was silence following her statement.

'Fair enough,' said Mad-Eye, shrugging. 'I did cut your leg without warning.'

'Bloody well could have told me what you were about to do,' said Arabella harshly, before turning back to the fire.

Mad-Eye looked at her for a moment before standing up and walking to his house. He opened the back door and grabbed something quickly before walking back to where Arabella was sitting. In his right hand were two mugs and in the other was a tall glass of firewhisky. He sat back on his wooden chair, poured himself a glass and poured Arabella one.

'Cheers,' Moody said in a gruff voice, clunking his mug with Arabella's.

'Cheers,' Arabella mumbled, drowning the drink in one gulp. It burned her throat, but the sensation was very familiar.

'You okay there kid?' Mad-Eye asked, after finishing his drink. 'You've been quiet today. I thought you were going to put up more of a fight with me and be a pain, as usual.'

'Yeah, I'm fine,' said Arabella, holding her mug up as he refilled it.

They sat in silence for a while as they gazed into the fire that kept them warm. There were no other movements besides the crackling of the fire. Arabella ate her rabbit and kept checking her wound, but it didn't hurt that much sitting down.

'Here,' said Mad-Eye, after a while. He packed up his stitching kit, placed his knife inside and handed it to Arabella. 'Take it. It'll help you on your mission with Potter and the other two. Take it – I don't need it anymore.'

Arabella took the kit, giving him a tight smile. 'Thanks.'

He nodded and they both drank another glass of firewhisky, staring into the fire as they did so.

'We should sing,' Arabella said quietly after a while. 'We should sing some sort of campfire some or some drinking song. It's the perfect setting. Two people sitting around a fire and drinking. We should sing The Parting Glass.'

Arabella doesn't know exactly when the next time she'll see Mad-Eye after the mission begins. In a way, she'll miss him. She's known him since she was a toddler. He saved her life. Without Alastor Moody, Arabella Black would be dead. So, with The Parting Glass, this will be their farewell for now.

Mad-Eye looked as her as though she grew another head from her neck. 'I'm not singing. You can sing all you want, but I'm not singing. Drinking song or not.'

'Fine, then,' said Arabella, mock offended. 'I'll sing by myself.'

She finished her rabbit first and threw the bones to where the skins of the rabbit were. She then poured another glass for herself and took a deep breath.

'Of all the money that e'er I had, I've spent it in good company.'

Arabella nudge him, but he ignored her.

'And all the harm that e'er I've done, alas it was to none but me. And all I've done for what of wit, to memory now I can't recall.'

She clunk her mug with Mad-Eye's.

'So fill to me the parting glass, good night and joy be with you all.'

Arabella stared determinedly at Moody, who closed his eyes, took a deep breath and a big cup of firewhisky, before saying, not singing, never singing, 'Of all the comrades that e'er I had, they are sorry for my going away.'

'And all the sweethearts that e'er I had, they would wish me one more day to stay,' sung Arabella with a smirk.

'But since it falls unto my lot, that I should rise and you should not, I'll… gently rise,' he took another agonizing, deep breath, 'and I'll softly call, good night and joy be with you all.'

'A man may drink and not be drunk.'

'A man may fight and not be slain. A man may court a pretty girl, and perhaps be welcomed back again,' there was a small smile on Mad-Eye's face. 'But since it has so ought to be, by a time to rise and a time to fall. Come fill to me the parting glass. Good night and hoy be with you all.'

'Good night and joy be with you all.'

There was a small silence as Mad-Eye raised his mug towards the sky before drowning the contents. Arabella glanced up at the sky. He was probably raising a glass for Isaak Anastas, her grandfather and Moody's friend.

'I used to sing that song with Isaak,' he said quietly, pouring another glass for himself. 'I sang that to Kassandra once, when she was wailing her head off once. It was the only thing I did that shut her up.'

Arabella nodded, her fingers circling the rim of the mug.

'I trained with Isaak and I trained Kassandra and I trained you,' Mad-Eye said, chuckling. 'At least, I did for a day. Hopefully you don't lose your head in the next couple months. I'll seriously come and kill you myself if you do.'

Arabella didn't bother correcting Moody's logic, but nodded again with a smile.

'Alright then, let's get you back.'

He held out his hand for Arabella to take. She put on her jacket, took her knife and the kit before limping her way towards the front of the house.

Mad-Eye looked ahead towards the sky with a frown on his face as Arabella grabbed hold of his arm.

'Zip your jacket up. There's a storm coming.'

Thank you for reading! Tell me what you think!

With the whole skinning the rabbit and stitching up her wounds, I used a couple websites to make sure it was alright and easy enough to follow. I hope they're all right. So if you're a expert in rabbit skinning or wound stitching, let's just go with it...

And I know Mad-Eye saying the lyrics to 'The Parting Glass' is a little out of character, but I hope I explained a little of it and if not, it would be really explained in CAT, with his friendship with Isaak and Hekabe, mostly Isaak.