Even the most beautiful, wonderful things weren't meant to last, or at least not to go on as they were forever. Beauty itself was a perfect concept, but it could only be achieved in the real world for temporary windows of time. Reality could only take so much perfection at once, and Morrighan's lovely little life with Sirius, playing games and drinking more than she'd done in a long time could only last so long.

On the fifth of October, Hogwarts students had their first trip to Hogsmeade, and that night Mundungus Fletcher reported of a secret meeting with about two dozen students at the Hog's Head, rallying around Harry as their leader in a new Defense group.

"Excellent!" Sirius said with a smile planted across his face, and Morrighan couldn't help but smile with him, though she struggled to remain as neutral as possible. Smiling with Sirius had become such a habit, though…

"But it's rather dangerous," Molly argued. "Don't you dare encourage them! Even if you have the right to encourage Harry, you know Ron will follow him, and he really ought not to."

"Molly," Morrighan said softly, "this is a decision Ron seems to be making without any help outside of Hermione and Harry. I'd let him go. He won't be a child much longer, you know."

Molly looked ready to explode at Morrighan, but Arthur put his hand gently on her arm and she restrained herself.

In truth, Morrighan was slightly terrified of the Weasley matriarch. She was far more imposing in real life than Morrighan had ever expected or pictured while reading the books, and despite the descriptions that Molly Weasley was not a woman to cross, somehow Morrighan had trusted her own bravery to negate such truths. Somehow, she'd managed to hold her ground up to that point, but not without inwardly quaking in fear.

The implications were discussed thoroughly and well, and Morrighan found herself having to remind herself less and less that she was supposed to keep her mouth shut, and she simply enjoyed watching the people at the table around her. For instance, she noticed that Remus and Tonks were already playing a subtle round of the looking game across the kitchen, and Sirius liked to make silly faces for her to try to get Morrighan to laugh when Albus was talking about very serious things. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful, but she had to truly struggle several times not to burst out with laughter.

Despite her burning desire to stop him, Morrighan allowed Sirius to send Harry a reply by Hedwig, one she knew Umbridge was going to intercept, and two days later they found that all student organizations had been disbanded at Hogwarts, which meant that Umbridge knew of the meeting in Hogsmeade, somehow or another. She did, after all, have a plan to ensure his safety, whether he liked it or not.

"Sirius," she said that night as he and Remus were settling down to dinner, "I have something to say and you're not going to like it, but I need you to do something for me."

He raised an eyebrow and slowly asked, "And what exactly is it that you think I'm not going to like, love?"

She bit her lip, working up her resolve before saying, "I need you to let me be the one to talk to Harry tonight. Please."

Morrighan was right, not liking the request was written all over Sirius's face. She was sure that the first words out of his mouth would be outright refusal, but instead he demanded explanation.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because Umbridge read your letter to him," she said calmly. "In the book, it was a very near miss, her catching you. I don't want to take that chance with your life, Sirius. She doesn't know who I am. She'll be confused. It should buy us more time and keep your whereabouts in further question. Please, don't make Harry's life any harder, at the very least. Let me talk to them. I know everything you're going to say, anyway."

He looked as though he was struggling deeply with the idea, both knowing it was a good plan and wanting desperately to be a part of the action, have some role in the adventure. She decided to press him just a little more.

"Please?" she said softly, looking up at him with the look that she had used to bring down many a proud person in their day, her father in particular. Sirius bit the inside of his cheek, attempting like a fool to take the look on directly, and he fell quickly as a result. With a heavy sigh, he gave a sharp nod.

"If it means that much to you, I guess, just…just tell them–"

"I know," she said with a smile. "I know what I need to say."

Sirius seemed rather anxious all day, and Morrighan wondered if he was regretting his decision to let her take his place without a fight. She knew he wanted to talk with Harry, but it was safer this way, better if Umbridge didn't see him or even get a chance to try and catch him. She knelt by the fireplace later that night, shivering a little. Remus had gone over the mechanics of the type of call she would be doing, but the idea of sticking her head in a fireplace was still a bit disconcerting.

Taking a deep breath, she looked down at the fire.

"You'll be fine," said Sirius's voice kindly from behind her. "It's only scary for a minute."

She gave him a grateful smile and tossed the Floo Powder into the flames, saying, "Gryffindor Common Room!" as she stuck her head into the now-emerald fire.

She looked around the nearly empty room for the trio, and heard Ron's voice call, "Morrighan!"

Morrighan turned her head to find Harry whipping around to look at her.

"Hi," she said with a sigh of relief.

"Hi," chorused the trio, clearly confused. They came and knelt down in front of her, Crookshanks coming over to investigate the curiosity.

"Snuffles is fine," Morrighan said quickly. "I just happen to know that at some point in this conversation, it will better that he isn't the one with his head in the fireplace, but you'll see what I mean when we get there and I'd rather not disrupt things more than I have to. Anyway, how are things?"

"Not very good," Harry said, "but you already know that the Ministry's forced through another decree, which means no Quidditch–"

"–Or secret defense groups," Morrighan added with a knowing smile.

They blinked at her.

"Do they know?" Harry said quietly, and Morrighan took 'they' to mean 'Sirius and Remus'.

"The whole Order knows," Morrighan said with a chuckle. "And I didn't even tell them. You didn't choose the best of meeting places…"

"Well, it's better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione said indignantly. "That's always packed with people–"

"Which makes it far more difficult for a careful listener to overhear," Morrighan said gently. "And a lot less conspicuous to have a couple dozen students suddenly gathered."

"Who overheard us?" Harry demanded.

"Mundungus," Morrighan admitted. "He was the witch under the veil."

"That was Mundungus?" Harry mused, stunned. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"

"Keeping an eye on you," Morrighan sighed. "But you could have figured that yourself."

"I'm still being followed?" Harry asked angrily.

"Of course you are," Morrighan laughed. "And at this point, Sirius would have said 'and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group', but he says it in a proud sort of way."

"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron. "We'd've liked to've seen him."

"Ah, well, he was banned from the Hog's Head a very long time ago," Morrighan explained. "And Ab's got a long memory. The spare Invisibility Cloak was lost when Sturgis got arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch quite a bit…. Anyway…Ron – Sirius and I have sworn to pass on a message from your mother."

"Oh yeah?" Ron said nervously.

"She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Arts group. She says you'll be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worried about that right now. She also" – Morrighan looked at the other two – "advises Harry and Hermione not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and she can't say it herself because she's on duty tonight."

"On duty doing what?" said Ron quickly.

"Nice try, Ron. Order business, I'm not about to spill the beans before they ought to be spilled," Morrighan responded with a smirk. "So I've become your messenger and you need to make sure to tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts Sirius and me as far as she can throw the pair of us."

There was an awkward sort of pause while Ron fingered a hole in the hearthrug.

"So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?" he muttered.

"Absolutely not!" Morrighan cried. "It's a great idea, and Sirius agrees!"

"You do?" said Harry eagerly.

"Of course!" Morrighan cried. "You can't just let Umbridge win, Harry!"

"But – last term all anyone did was tell me to be careful and not take risks–"

"Last year someone inside the castle was trying to kill you, but right now the real threat is outside those walls, and none of us are safe. Actually, ironically there's no one safer than Sirius and me right now. But honestly, your mum doesn't realize this, Ron, but you'll all need to know how to really defend yourselves a lot sooner than any of you think."

"And what if we do get expelled?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" Harry said incredulously.

"I know it was…I just wondered what Morrighan has to say," Hermione said with a shrug.

"Well, Sirius says better to be expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue, but don't worry too much about it, Hermione."

"Hear, hear," Harry and Ron said eagerly.

"So, have you thought about meeting places much yet?"

"Well, that's a bit of a problem we're having at the moment," Harry admitted.

Morrighan bit her lip, and then gave them an apologetic smile.

"Well, to be honest, I know where you'll be meeting, but it's better if you get it from the original source, because I'm not sure you'd be able to find it off my limited knowledge. Just know you'll come up with something soon."

"Well, that's good to know," Hermione said with a smile. "How are things on your end, Morrighan?"

"Oh, well, they've been teaching me loads. I was just reading the other day about the Goblin Rebellion of–"

She froze, hearing the sound of something foreign breaking in on their conversation. It was time.

"It's time," she said, turning to look at the brick, fear filling her heart as she saw the stubby little hand making its way toward her.

Before they could ask what she meant, Morrighan retreated from the fireplace, panting, her heart racing, shaking with adrenaline and fear.

"Are you all right, love?" Sirius said, leaping up from his seat, rushing to her side and wrapping her up in a gentle hug. "What happened?"

"Umbridge," she sighed, burying her face in his chest. "Almost got me, but I got away. Better me than you, anyway."

"Quit saying that," he snapped. "You're not allowed to say stuff like that."

"Why not?" she sighed. "It's the truth. Without me, things will go on as they were, but if something were to happen to you…. Harry wouldn't be able to stand it, and Remus would truly be alone."

"But if something were to happen to you," Sirius whispered softly, sadly, "what would happen to me?"

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, if he somehow knew she was doing whatever she could to keep him from the fate coming his way, or if there was some other meaning behind his words.

"You've kept me sane," he sighed after a minute. "If you weren't here, giving me something to do with my days, I'd go absolutely mad in this place, locked up all the time. I mean, it's still a prison, but sometimes it feels a bit less like a prison because I share it with you."

Morrighan didn't know how to respond to that, or even if it was wise to, knowing she might accidentally give away some future event when she was overcome with emotion and not thinking logically.

Because the truth of the matter was, if it saved Sirius, Morrighan would absolutely sacrifice her life in whatever world she had to. It was hard enough to read his death, or watch it on a film, but after becoming so close to him, she knew that for the first time in her life, she had met someone whose death would truly cut her to the core.

"You make me think a bit of Lily," he said softly, "but different. I mean, the hair and the eyes, obviously…but you're smart and caring and…I don't know, I guess I'm starting to realize how James so quickly fell for someone. I already can't imagine my life without you."

Morrighan froze, eyes wide, glad he couldn't see her face. Did he mean what she thought he meant?

For a split second, Morrighan thought about trying to come up with some clever way of coaxing his meaning out of him, but she wasn't clever. Well, she was intelligent, but not really when it came to interpersonal wit and cleverness and the like. If she were, she wouldn't have had such horrible results from her relationships, even friendships. So despite her burning desire to know what he meant, she decided it was better to let him explain himself in his own time, in his own way than to try to divine his meaning then and there, probably wrongly.

That night, she had another nightmare, but she woke herself very quickly into it. Looking around the dark of her room, she was sure that there was something in the darkness, watching her, looking sinisterly at her in her vulnerable loneliness, aware of how terrified she was in that moment of everything she couldn't see and understand. In spite of her attempts to calm herself, she shivered and felt tears beginning to pool in her eyes, and they would have blurred her vision if she could have seen anything in the first place.

On instinct, she did the only thing that seemed right at that time. Morrighan lit her wand, which did nothing to remedy the situation, merely casting eerie shadows on the cold, lonely room. She shivered once more and leapt out of bed, rushing down the hall as swiftly and quietly as she could manage, her feet barely touching the carpeted hall as she went.

As softly and gently as she could manage, Morrighan inched open Sirius's door. Her body instantly relaxed as she watched him sleeping peacefully in his bed, like some sort of angel. She felt suddenly safe just at the sight of him, like nothing could touch her if he was there. Morrighan teetered there at the doorway of his room for several minutes, on the edge of entering the room, but feeling as though she ought not. Still, she absolutely couldn't leave. She couldn't go back to the empty, lonely, angry darkness of her own room. So she simply lingered there, not quite sure what to do.

Finally, she heard his voice, soft and amused, ringing out over the semi-darkness.

"Come on in, love, but don't just stand there shining that thing at me or neither of us is getting any sleep tonight."

A little sheepishly, Morrighan crept forward toward his bed, where she could see him open one eye and grin sleepily at her.

"Another nightmare, darling?"

Even more embarrassed, Morrighan simply nodded, and sat down after he patted the bed beside him.

"Light off and come 'ere," he groaned, taking her then unlit wand from her hand, tossing it beside his on his bedside table, and pulling her against him so that they were curled up together. "It's okay, love," he sighed into her ear. "I've got you. You're going to be just fine."

For several long minutes that Morrighan wished would have been longer, she lay awake, drinking in the delicious scent of both Sirius and his bed, which was like a more concentrated version of his scent. The incredible calm that scent gave her was addictive, and she began to wonder what Sirius would say if she were to simply just start sleeping in his bed, just to be closer to that scent.

She slowly drifted toward peaceful sleep in his arms, easier and deeper than that which she had achieved before her nightmare that night, but before she did, an already-sleeping Sirius muttered something into her neck.

It sounded an awful lot like, "I love you," but one can never be sure about these things.

And after all, he was already asleep. He could have thought she was anyone, anyone in the world, living or dead.

Still, it made her dreams just that much better thinking for a brief moment before falling into them that he might be talking to her.