A/N: OMG, I forgot to dedicate that last chapter to stellinator, but I guess I can dedicate this one to stellinator instead, for getting me off my lazy ass and motivating me to finish off the second chapter by adding this story to favorites. Hope you enjoyed it, stellinator! Obviously, there's a lot of familiar material right now, but I promise it won't ALL be like this. Obviously, she's not following them to school. Soon enough, my dears, soon enough.
-C
It wasn't too awfully long when Harry returned from the Ministry to find everyone in the kitchen, which was essentially the hangout because it was always the cleanest room, on the orders of Molly Weasley. Morrighan didn't have to wait to hear how the hearing went because she knew he got off. She was watching Sirius, concerned for how he would take the news, because she knew he had been bouncing around the idea of Harry becoming a fugitive of the law and living with them in Grimmauld Place. She knew he had become attached to the notion.
So when Harry announced that he'd gotten off, Morrighan sat down beside Sirius, gently taking his hand under the table and gently massaging it with her thumb, knowing that behind his pleased expression, he was less than pleased. He proved it by clutching her hand aggressively, to the point where she was sure he had white knuckles, but she wasn't going to give away his pain and look to find out.
"I knew it!" Ron yelled. "You always get away with stuff!"
"They were bound to clear you," Hermione stated, her shaky demeanor completely contradicting her words. "There was no case against you, none at all…"
"Everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering they all knew I'd get off," Harry pointed out, grinning.
"That's enough, settle down!" Arthur shouted, also grinning like an idiot, waving his hand at his war-chanting trio. "Listen, Sirius, Lucius Malfoy was at the Ministry–"
"What?" Sirius snapped, his hand gripping Morrighan's even tighter.
"Be quiet, you three! Yes, we saw him talking to Fudge on level nine, and then they went up to Fudge's office together. Dumbledore ought to know."
"Absolutely. We'll tell him, don't worry."
"Well, I'd better get going, there's a vomiting toilet in Bethnal Green waiting for me. Molly, I'll be late, I'm covering for Tonks, but Kingsley might be dropping in for dinner–"
"That's enough –Fred – George – Ginny!" Molly cried as Arthur took his leave. "Harry dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast…."
" 'Course, once Dumbledore turned up on your side, there was no way they were going to convict you," Ron said, dishing up mashed potatoes.
"Yeah, he swung it for me," Harry said. Suddenly, he clapped his hand to his scar.
"What's up?" Hermione said, worried.
"Scar," Harry mumbled. "But it's nothing…. It happens all the time now…."
Morrighan bit her lip but didn't turn to say anything to them, didn't even acknowledge she had overheard. Voldemort was experiencing a great fluctuation of emotion, and thus his unknowing Horcrux was experiencing random shoots of pain to his scar as Voldemort grew stronger.
Ron said cheerily, "I bet Dumbledore turns up this evening to celebrate with us, you know."
"I don't think he'll be able to," Molly said, setting down some roast chicken. "He's really very busy at the moment. SHUT UP!"
And that was what it took to finally silence the war chants and almost enough to make Fred, George, and Ginny a bit sheepish.
Days went by in a has for a little while, Sirius getting just a bit moody, Fred getting ever more demanding of Morrighan's time, and Harry growing increasingly sullen about his lot in life. She knew he was moody and self-centered this year, but she hadn't realized it would be so bad so soon, although Sirius's obvious desire for Harry never to leave the house was plainly not making matters any better.
And then that day came when booklists arrived and Morrighan braced herself for the pain of dealing with it all. After all, they'd be leaving in the morning. Leaving, and Morrighan and Sirius would be all alone in no time at all.
That morning, Morrighan and Sirius were sitting in Buckbeak's room, as they had taken to calling it, Sirius feeding Buckbeak and Morrighan hiding from Fred, who had been trying to worm out of her who their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be through kisses.
"So," Sirius said, sitting down on the bed beside her, "you and Fred."
She tensed.
"It's nothing very serious," she said with a shrug. "We're just fooling around. We're young, you know? And he's very sweet, in his way, and I'm very much alone here."
"You're not alone," he muttered. "You've got me."
Morrighan smiled at him, feeling very cheesy as she took his hand and said, "No, we've got each other."
For the first time in days, she saw him smile, just a little bit.
"You know," he admitted, "I felt like Harry getting off meant I was doomed to a long go of suffering in this house by myself, but I had forgotten that we'll be here together. I have to say, I've gotten very used to you being around."
"I suppose that's a good thing?" she laughed.
"Yeah," he snorted. "Yeah, it's good. Anyway, promise me something, Morrighan," he whispered, brushing a bit of hair out of her eyes.
"Anything."
His gray eyes swirled with some dark, prophetic something and she wanted to move closer, to fall into them, to know what secret thoughts lay behind those swirling, intense eyes.
"Don't you ever leave me," he whispered huskily.
"Never," she sighed, hugging him, "but you have to promise me something."
What she was about to say, what she was about to ask of him, was going to change everything. She was going to change the course of the story, and part of her was worried it would make everything turn out wrong, but somehow, it didn't feel wrong to say what she was about to say. It wasn't like telling Harry about Horcruxes before he was ready. It was different somehow.
"Anything."
She looked back into his eyes, brushing her thumb gently along his hot, bristly cheek.
"If I ask you to stay, no matter what your reasons for going, stay."
He frowned. He searched her face for meaning, for explanation, but she didn't want to explain. She didn't want him to understand.
"What aren't you telling me?"
"It will change things," she said softly, "but if you don't, it will absolutely break my heart. You need to trust me when I ask you to do things."
After a moment, he nodded, and they hugged each other tightly. It would have been a sweet moment, if not for the massive hippogriff chomping down on dead squirrels in the corner. Morrighan inhaled deeply, smelling Sirius's enticing, spicy scent. He was so different from Fred, so much older, so much more practiced and sure of himself with every motion. He had lived more than any person ought to live by the time he was locked up and twenty-one years old, so even though he was almost frozen as a twenty-one year old, he wasn't quite as immature as most twenty-one year old men would be. He had seen death, seen pain, seen war. He wasn't really a man, not like Remus or Arthur, but he certainly wasn't a boy like Fred or George or Harry.
That night, they found themselves at the party for Ron and Hermione being named prefects. Harry looked a little sullen, and Sirius looked more sullen for it, but overall people were behaving themselves. Surprisingly, Fred had completely ignored Morrighan all night, probably trying to wrap his brain around Ron being named prefect. Arthur toasted the new prefects and the discussion commenced.
"I was never a prefect myself," Tonks said good-naturedly, moving in for some food. "My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary qualities."
"Like what?" Ginny asked from across the table.
"Like the ability to behave myself," Tonks said casually. Morrighan and Ginny laughed.
"What about you, Sirius?" Ginny inquired, thumping a choking Hermione on the back.
"No one would have made me a prefect, I spent too much time in detention with James. Lupin was the good boy, he got the badge."
"He couldn't have been too good, if he was such good friends with you lot," Morrighan joked. "And he certainly didn't rein you in like he ought to have done, so he can't have been a decent prefect."
Remus nodded and flushed a little, but she just laughed and said she was joking, but Harry seemed to take heart in the knowledge that his father hadn't been a prefect.
Morrighan wandered the party with Sirius, catching snippets of conversation, watching Harry wander around emptily. Remus and Kingsley discussed the possible reasons Harry, the obvious choice, hadn't been chosen, Tonks listened to Ron go on and on about his new broom, Hermione went on a rant about house-elves, and Molly was getting on Bill about his hair again. Then Morrighan saw Moody pull a photograph out of his pocket and show it to Harry.
The Order of the Phoenix, the original group. The names Harry was hearing Morrighan knew by heart, the deaths she could almost list in sequence… Marlene McKinnon, Edgar Bones, Dorcas Meadowes, Benjy Fenwick, Caradoc Dearborn, the Prewett Twins, the Potters… so many people, many of them quite young, and they would be gone within a year or two of the picture in Moody's hand.
Sirius asked to see the photo and Harry took off upstairs. Morrighan knew that he was about to find Molly, struggling with a boggart, and when they heard Harry shouting, Sirius, Remus, Moody and Morrighan rushed upstairs to investigate the noise.
Morrighan saw realization dawn on Remus's face, but before he could act she took out her wand, took a deep breath and said, "Riddikulus."
The dead Harry vanished from the floor and Remus gave Morrighan an impressed look before turning back to the matter at hand. There was, instead a large chasm in the floor… Morrighan was afraid of heights. She waved her wand and it disappeared.
Molly Weasley was still an epic wreak, sobbing and weeping, and Remus walked toward her.
"Molly…Molly, don't…"
And she collapsed against him, sobbing into his shoulder.
"Molly, it was just a boggart. Just a stupid boggart…."
"I see them d-d-dead all the time! All the t-t-time! I d-d-dream about it…. D-d-don't tell Arthur. I d-d-don't want him to know…being silly…. Harry, I'm so sorry, what you must think of me? Not even able to get rid of a boggart…."
"Don't be stupid," Harry winced.
"I'm just s-s-so worried. Half the f-f-family's in the Order, it'll b-b-be a miracle if we all come through this…and P-P-Percy's not talking to us…. What if something d-d-dreadful happens and we had never m-m-made up? And what's going to happen if Arthur and I get killed, who's g-g-going to look after Ron and Ginny?"
"Molly, that's enough," Remus said firmly. "This isn't like last time. The order is better prepared, we've got a head start, we know what Voldemort's up to–"
Molly squeaked from terror at the name and Morrighan sighed.
"You're going to have to get used to hearing that for a while, Molly," she said gently. "And I can't promise things will be pretty, and people will get hurt and some will die, but things aren't going to be like last time, and it's nothing like the slaughter you're afraid of right now. I promise."
"Don't worry about Percy," Sirius said suddenly. "He'll come round. It's a matter of time before Voldemort moves out into the open; once he does, the whole Ministry's going to be begging us to forgive them. And I'm not sure I'll be accepting their apology."
"And as for who's going to look after Ron and Ginny if you and Arthur died," Remus added wryly, "what do you think we'd do, let them starve?"
Molly brightened considerably and remarked herself as silly once more, but as Morrighan and Sirius sat up in the kitchen downing firewhiskey later that night, she couldn't help but think that Molly was anything but silly. This man, this man sitting across the table from her, was likely to be dead in a matter of months. She liked the idea of saving him, of making him stay out of the battle, but this was Sirius Black. When Harry's life was in danger, was Morrighan Capilla really going to have the power to keep Sirius from risking his own life, losing his own life, for the good of his godson? Who was she to ask him to stay?
"Boggarts are third year," Sirius slurred at her after a couple of hours. "You did well. Scared of heights?"
"Terrified," she admitted. "Fell out of a tree when I was ten, haven't been able to handle heights since."
"When we get out of this place," he said, "when my name is cleared and Dumbledore gets you listed as a real person, I'm going to cure your fear of heights. I'm going to take you on my motorbike and fly you all over the world, wherever you want to go, and you're going to bloody love it."
Morrighan giggled a little, but he frowned at her, thinking she was taking him lightly.
"I will, you know," he growled. "And then I'll buy you a broom, any broom you like, and you and me, we can zoom across the countryside like the Ballycastle Bats or something." He frowned deeper. "No, no, not Ballycastle, I'm thinking of the Wanderers. Wigtown Wanderers."
"The butchers?" Morrighan asked. "You want us to fly around with meat cleavers?"
"Absolutely," he said, nodding fervently. "And then we can zoom around the countryside with our meat cleavers and take out Death Eaters by swooping low and beheading them. But we'd do it right, none of this nearly headless nonsense. And then we'd go find Voldy and dice him with our meat cleavers and save Harry and things would be happy again."
"Right," Morrighan said. "That sounds lovely. Bit violent, I suppose, but lovely."
"Damn straight," Sirius growled. "What sort of broom would you like? I mean, I could get you a Firebolt, but if you're timid I'm not sure it would suit you. Maybe we ought to start you on something tamer. Cleansweep like Ron's got or a Nimbus or something. I might have an old broom around here somewhere, one of mine. We could start you of on my broomstick, I guess."
Morrighan snorted into her firewhiskey.
"Dirty mind you've got there, missy," Sirius said with a smirk, but she knew he had made the joke on purpose. "I suppose that's what Mr. Fred Weasley likes about you. Please tell me you haven't shagged in any places I come in contact with."
"We haven't shagged at all," Morrighan admitted, "so you're safe."
"Not at all?" Sirius said, confused. "What's wrong with him? Can't get it up?"
"No, nothing like that," she said with a sigh. "I've been turning him down. I'm not exactly big on physical intimacy."
"Why not?" he said, watching her intently, obviously ready for a story.
"Promise you won't tell?" she said softly, well aware that they would not be having this conversation if either one of them were sober, but he crossed his heart and took another drink, still watching and waiting for the story. "I'm not very good at picking boys," she admitted. "I liked guys who were strong enough to handle me, but they usually were looking for ways to tear me down. My latest boyfriend emotionally abused me, and the last guy I was casually seeing, I found, used me to cheat on his girlfriend. I tried pushing him away after I learned, but he pushed me when he was really drunk. I haven't really been near a guy since. I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that I'll end up alone. And that's fine."
"No it's not," Sirius said, almost snarling. "There's nothing fine about any of that. You are a beautiful, wonderful, beautiful girl and you deserve happiness and flowers and love and whatnot. And if Freddie so much as lays a hand on you, you let me know and I'll chop his balls off myself, understood?"
Morrighan giggled and said, "Yes, sir."
"Good," Sirius said with a sigh. "Moony's got it in his head that he's going to end up alone, too. That he has to. But you two wouldn't be good together, as much as the thought crossed my mind. The lack of self-esteem in that relationship is like a doomed failure. You need a guy with enough self-esteem to go after what he wants, but who loves you enough to give you what you need, even when it's not what he wants."
"Profound," Morrighan said dryly.
"Don't you mock me, missy," he said, shaking his finger at some invisible something off to the left of her. "I'm being helpful and philosolophical."
"Philosophical."
"That's what I said. Let me work my magic. I'll find you a man. Just wait and see. And then we'll get you a broomstick. Those are the two things every girl needs. And – and then you and me and your man, we'll zoom around like the Ballytown Wanderers."
"Wigtown."
"That's what I said. And we'll take our meat cleavers and I'll chop him into little pieces and you'll be free!"
Morrighan frowned, tilting her head thoughtfully.
"I don't think that's what we agreed on earlier."
"No?" he muttered, turning it over in his mind. "I could have sworn we had. Ah, well, we'll negotiate this further when we're allowed out of this bloody house, then. Or maybe the next time we get pissed together. Next time, we should write it down so we don't have any more misunderstandings, because I'm telling you that is what we agreed on."
"Whatever you say, Sirius," Morrighan said with a sigh, leading him up to his room, tucking him in, and wandering to her own room. She stared at the ceiling, knowing that if she fell asleep she would have nightmares, and she didn't want to admit her weakness to these wonderful, strong, brave people.
