When James walked into their cottage with slumped shoulders and dull eyes, Lily knew that the news had to be bad news. When his parents took ill, she felt that the news couldn't be good. After all, they were both so old and fragile, and although Euphemia and Fleamont were still so vibrant, they were old for wizards.

"What did the Healers say?" she asked softly.

"Dragon pox," James said after a sniff. "He wasn't doom and gloom, but my mum knows enough to know that they won't be long now."

She wanted to give him words of comfort, but Lily knew that nothing she could say would possibly make things better. Instead, she just nodded slightly, placing her hand on his forearm. James's fingers slid over her hand, cool from the night air. They would have to tell Sirius, and then the rest of the Order.

"They've already planned the funerals," James said, rubbing his eyes. "All I have to do is make a couple of visits to the people they've arranged things with, when the time comes, to pay for things."

His voice was weak and his fingers were trembling, and Lily could feel tears stinging at her eyes. James's parents were such lovely, positive people. They had been so welcoming to her, so pleased with everything to do with James, and that included Lily and the Marauders, everything. When Peter's death was in the papers, Euphemia mourned him like a son.

"We'll tell Sirius tomorrow," James said, turning to bury his face in Lily's hair. "He…. In the morning. I'll go round in the morning."

"Do you want me there?"

He shook his head. Perhaps this was one of those things the boys felt they needed to do alone. Lily didn't feel slighted or unwanted. James and Sirius were a special kind of soulmates, something she could never be a part of, but something powerful and important in its way. Losing Fleamont and Euphemia would mean just as much to Sirius as it would to James.

"I'll run some errands in the morning then, love. Let me know if you need anything before you go to London."

/-/

For weeks, Catherine felt helpless as Sirius came back paler and paler from every visit to Godric's Hollow. When Mr. Potter passed away, she thought he'd go into a depression too deep to come out of, and two days later when Mrs. Potter passed, she poured the firewhiskey down the drain before he woke up because she wasn't sure he'd manage if he had any more.

James and Lily were holding the funeral for both at once, saying that it was Mrs. Potter's dying wish. Although Lily didn't have time to pick up something for Catherine to wear, they did want her there, and Albus said it would be alright.

The need for Catherine to have something to wear seemed to pull Sirius out of bed, and give him a reason for functioning. The idea that he was needed was like medicine for him, and he showered, dressed, and told her they were going to Diagon Alley for some robes.

"What do I wear to a funeral?" she asked. "I don't think I've ever been to one before."

"Black, I suppose," Sirius said, rubbing his cheek absently while he watched her dress to go out. She got a rush when he watched her dress, and it was a silly thing, but she enjoyed even the small excitements.

"Come on, then," she said, kissing him, surprised when he pulled her closer, kissing her deeper.

"Cat, without you," he said heavily when she pulled away from the kiss, "I don't think…."

His voice faded to nothing and she kissed his nose and pulled him to his feet. She was afraid to hear him say such things, because in the back of her mind she could still hear Mr. Moody saying what if she was a spy.

/-/

Sirius felt like a different man, walking through Diagon Alley with Catherine on his arm. He told himself he didn't want to be separated from her in case of crowds, but actually he just liked the closeness required with having her on his arm. She didn't seem to mind, and the wonder with which she looked at all the shops was like a Muggleborn first seeing the wizarding world.

That seemed a bit odd to Sirius, but he supposed it was like she'd never seen it before, given her loss of memory, so he took her into Madam Malkin's without any serious weight on his mind.

"Hello, Mr. Black," the proprietress said kindly. "What can I do for you?"

"We have a funeral to go to," Sirius said solemnly.

"Yes, I heard about the Potters," she said sadly. "What a loss to the wizarding world. Fleamont was such a giving man."

Sirius nodded, feeling gloomy again, until Catherine gave his arm a gentle squeeze. He smiled at her and said to Madam Malkin, "My friend will be going with me and the others to the funeral, but she hasn't really got anything appropriate for the occasion, you see."

"We'll get her all settled," Madam Malkin said cheerfully, looking Catherine up and down quickly before summoning her measuring tape and taking Catherine's measurements.

"Mr. Black, why don't you look at the black dress robes on the back left rack and see if there is anything she might like."

Sirius nodded and went to the rack in question. He really didn't know anything about this kind of thing, except he knew that he had loved the look of the blue dress she'd worn at the wedding. He tried to find something similar on the rack, but there wasn't much choice that would be technically appropriate for a funeral. Sirius pulled a few things off the rack and held them up for the two women, only one of which pleased them both. It was one with long, thin sleeves, and skirts that would probably come down to her mid-calf. Sirius waited anxiously in the front of the shop while the two women went into the back to fit the dress appropriately to Catherine's measurements.

When she walked back out again, Sirius caught his breath. The sleeves hugged her arms with translucent black fabric, and the neckline showed off just her collarbone, but Sirius could feel his heartbeat as he thought about pressing kisses to that collarbone. The dress fitted to her torso, and flared out gently from her waist, falling just a little bit higher than Sirius had anticipated, within the top half off her calf. Demure, and yet somehow sexy.

"Perfect," Sirius said, finding his voice after Madam Malkin cleared her throat. The woman ushered Catherine back to change into her other clothes, and Sirius said, "Charge it to my vault, will you?"

She nodded, putting it into her account book. Sirius hadn't even looked at the price tag, he realized. An old habit from his youth of not having to worry about what things cost. Still, he wouldn't have changed his mind no matter what it cost. He wanted Catherine to have the best, whatever he paid for it.

Madam Malkin wrapped the robes for them and they thanked her. Sirius took Catherine's arm again, feeling a small surge of pride at her wrapping her arm easily around his. Was this how James had felt when Lily agreed to that first date?

They stepped back out onto the street, and they'd only gone a few feet when someone ran right into Catherine, before taking a step back. Sirius immediately recognized his cousin's brother-in-law, Rabastan Lestrange, with his dark hair and gray eyes. He could have been Sirius's brother, like so many purebloods. They were certainly related somehow, but Sirius never bothered to memorize the family tree out too many generations. He had only ever memorized the more questionable relations, like where the Weasleys or the Potters or the Prewetts crossed the Black branches.

Rabastan's initial body language signified that he was about to explode at Catherine, but when he saw her, and when he saw Sirius with her, a small smirk formed at his lips and he said, "Well, well, Sirius. How very interesting."

Catherine was suddenly gripping Sirius's arm very tightly, and although her eyes didn't show recognition, she was certainly afraid of Rabastan. Granted, the man had always had that impact on people, particularly small children. It was a trait he inherited from his father, something of a hardness of the eyes and the way he sneered at almost everything that moved.

"You should probably pay better attention to where you're going, Lestrange," Sirius said coldly. "Wouldn't want you to hurt somebody."

Rabastan was amused, damn him, and he glanced at Catherine, who shrank away from his gaze slightly, like he had raised a fist at her.

"No, we wouldn't want that, now, would we?" Rabastan said softly. "I find, Black, that if I want my precious things to remain unharmed or untouched, it's best I keep them in a safe place and I don't drag them out where just anyone can touch them."

Catherine's nails dug into Sirius's wrist, but her face hadn't changed. Sirius frowned, recalling the bruises on Catherine's wrists when she was first discovered. Whether or not Catherine could recall it, he was beginning to think that Rabastan either had something to do with her state, or he knew something about it.

"C'mon, Cat," he muttered. "Let's not waste our time with him."

"How sweet," Rabastan said as they turned the other way. "A dog and his cat. Don't leave her lying around, Black. Someone else might…snatch her up."

Sirius gripped Catherine's arm more tightly as they walked away, and he Disapparated back to his flat as quickly as possible. Catherine was trembling when they got back to his kitchen, but she wouldn't answer questions. She hurried into the bedroom, locked the door, and he heard the shower running moments later. Sirius collapsed on the sofa, tossing the package onto the side table, and he rubbed eyes, trying to figure out what it was about that exchange that felt so familiar, like he'd seen it before. Not the whole thing, something at the beginning.

But it wasn't coming to him. And Catherine was clearly disturbed, and Sirius felt like the was something he should do, but he didn't know what. Sirius was afraid that when she came out of the shower she would tell him that she was starting to remember how she got to the forest, that it involved kidnapping, perhaps being a prisoner of the Lestranges, maybe even rape or torture. The scenario started to unfold before him before he could stop it, and he picked up an empty glass he'd forgotten to clean that morning. In a fit of rage and helplessness, he threw it against the wall, but the shattering didn't make him feel any more secure, any less nauseous.

When Catherine got out of the shower, though, she said nothing. She didn't want to talk. She didn't seem to want to be touched. She stared down at her knees, or her food, or whatever Sirius put in front of her, but when he tried to take her hand she would shrink away. To Sirius, this seemed to confirm all of his fears, and when she cried in her sleep that night, he didn't know what to do. He was almost looking forward to the funeral just to get her out of the house, out of her head, into a comforting, loving environment, even if everyone was in mourning.

/-/

Remus and Lily took a moment to pull Sirius aside after the funeral, before Sirius took Catherine back to his flat. Remus had mentioned to Lily that Catherine was looking even paler than usual, and Lily had agreed wholeheartedly.

"Is she well, Sirius?" Lily asked nervously, glancing over to where Catherine was listening to the Prewett brothers telling a joke, forcing a weak smile. "She almost looks ill."

Sirius glanced over to her and then turned back to them, leaning in close.

"Don't mention this to anyone yet," he said softly, "but we ran into the younger Lestrange the other day in Diagon Alley. She had a pretty instinctive reaction to him. I don't know if it's a memory or just an impression, but she's pretty shaken." He licked his lips, his hand twitching toward his pocket, the surest sign that he wanted a cigarette. "I think he might have something to do with whatever happened to her. But whatever she's thinking, she's definitely not ready to talk about it yet."

Lily nodded, eyes wide, and Remus felt an instinctive brutality, the need to find Rabastan Lestrange and rip him limb from limb, even if all he had done was frighten Catherine. He had a feeling Sirius felt something similar, a more human version of the primal reaction to protecting a pack member. Sirius had much of the same canine instinct, really had always had it, and his dog form simply made it all the more obvious.

"What are you going to do?" Lily asked softly.

"Kill him," the boys chorused, and she frowned at them. They exchanged a weak smile before Sirius shrugged.

"I'm going to give it a couple of days, see if she starts eating more regularly, sleeping better. If she doesn't speak to me by the end of the week, I'm going to sit her down, maybe with you there, Lily, if that's okay. We'll have to get her to talk then. Maybe it's just an impression and she isn't sure how to manage it, but if it's a memory she doesn't know what to do with…."

The words seemed to die somewhere in Sirius's throat, but Remus knew what he meant. If they were memories she did know what to do with and was still afraid of, they didn't want Mad-Eye getting wind of it before they were sure. Mad-Eye was almost certain to suspect that she was a spy, that seeing Lestrange had triggered some kind of programming, but that didn't seem right to Remus. If that was the case, why was she dejected? Why wasn't she even more confident, even more charming, trying to get people to talk to her? All they did now was worry and wonder.

"Let me know if there's anything I can do, Sirius," Remus said, glancing over at Catherine again. "Do you guys have food for a while?"

"Could stand with some more potatoes," Sirius said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Dunno where they all go. She hardly eats any, and I feel like I don't eat that many, but they just seem to vanish."

Lily smirked and Remus tried not to laugh. Sirius didn't seem to have a concept of how much he ate over the course of a regular week. Remus assured Sirius that he would pick up some more potatoes and maybe some tea and drop them off in the morning. Perhaps, when he did, he could try to cheer up Catherine, try to get her to talk, or at least to laugh.

/-/

Sirius spent two days thinking that any minute Catherine would tell him what was wrong, and on the second night he was sure, when she called him into the bedroom after dinner, that she was going to tell him everything. He lingered at her side by the window, where they had first kissed, and watched a very nervous look in her eyes as she let them dark around from streetlight to streetlight below.

"Cat," he said softly, but she didn't look at him right away. Sirius pressed a kiss to her head, right on the hairline. She smelled of the shampoo Lily had been getting her, a strawberry scent. He closed his eyes and thought of a place far away, without a war or mysterious circumstances or bigots or pain, where he and Catherine could have a pleasant day at some kind of picnic in the woods somewhere. He could run his fingers through her hair and make her laugh and kiss her until his lips were too tired for one more kiss.

"You won't make me leave, will you?" she asked softly.

"Why on earth would I ever make you leave?" he asked, frowning, a bit afraid.

She looked up at him finally, her eyes wide, confused.

"I don't know," she said softly. "I just have this horrible feeling that I'm going to have to leave, and I don't want to leave you, Sirius. I'm happy here. I'm happy with you. I don't want to leave you. Please don't make me leave."

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a firm, warm hug, tucking her head beneath his chin as she curled against him.

"Even if there's something better out there," he said softly, "something that could make you happier than I ever could, I wouldn't let you leave me." He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her in his arms. "I'm a terribly selfish person, Cat. Just ask Lily and James. I want you to be happy, but I want you to be happy with me. And I'm not sure I could stand the thought of you being happy without me."

She gave a watery laugh and said, "I don't think I could be." Catherine pulled back slightly from the hug and frowned slightly again, a dark, fearful expression for the briefest of moments before she said, "I don't want to hurt you, Sirius. But I don't want to leave you. There's just no…."

She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head firmly, and Sirius gently pulled her into bed. In the morning, he would press her, but for the night he just wanted to let her cling to him, and to pet her until she calmed. He wanted one night without her crying, like before she saw Rabastan Lestrange. One last night of relative happiness before they figured out what this all was about.

A/N: Shit's about to get very real. If you're anxious to know what's up with Catherine, now would be a fabulous time to pelt me with reviews to get an early update. Remember, ten in a week span and I update early!

Review Prompt: Last chance for your theories! Some of you have gotten really, really, close, and you now have nearly all the clues you need to get really, really closer. ;) I'm eager to see your thoughts before the reveal!

-C