Author's Note

Hey guys!

Here's chapter 26. Hope you like it. Developing some relationships in this one. Tell me what you think! :)

Read, enjoy, PLEASE review! :)

26. Requirement

It was 11 o' clock at night the next day, and I sat with Sirius in the Gryffindor common room, alone. Classes and-in his case-Quidditch practice, had kept us mostly apart the whole day and distracted, but now, as we sat on one of the couches in front of the fireplace and waited until I was to meet Regulus and agree to be a Death Eater, things seemed all too real.

My head was laying on Sirius's shoulder, his arm wrapped comfortingly around me. And for whatever reason I couldn't get one awful thought out of my brain.

"Sirius?" I said, raising my head and looking at him. He was staring pensively at the fire, his eyes so empty and sad that I felt my heart sink just looking at him. He turned his head, staring at me questionably. I went on, the words I said literally painful to speak. "You can leave. If you want. If this was more than you bargained for, if you think that it's too dangerous to be around me. I wouldn't blame you… I…" I couldn't look at him, instead turning my gaze to the fire, fighting back tears. "You can leave and never look back. I'd understand." I whispered.

It was a long, scary moment before he finally spoke. The sincerity in his voice was enough for me to turn my head and look at him. His eyes were full of life again, and fire. "Adeline Randall Villori," he said, pronouncing each word slowly as he looked right at me, "I am never leaving you. I don't care what happens, what kind of mark they put on your arm, who you take orders from. I. Am. Never. Leaving. You."

We watched each other for a while. Finally, I couldn't contain my emotions anymore. Sirius's words had lifted some huge weight off of my shoulders. And even though I was scared out of my wits, and about to become a death eater, and everything else, I knew that somehow I'd make it out okay, because I would have Sirius.

And so suddenly I was laughing and smiling in spite of my future, and pressing my lips to his again and again and again. "Thank you," I whispered against his skin, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

He responded enthusiastically at first, but pulled away as I climbed into his lap, practically straddling him, kissing his neck. "Addy," he said, leaning his forehead against mine, apparently surprised with my forwardness. "Not that I'm not enjoying myself thoroughly, but in less than an hour you—"

"I know." I said, still breathing hard, kissing his lips gently, my eyes closing. "In an hour I sell my soul to the Dark Lord. But can we just forget about that right now? Please? Just for a while?"

Sirius looked at me for a moment, his blue eyes boring holes into my green ones. Then he smiled, his hands finding my hips, and flipping us so that it was now me pinned to the couch, him hovering over me, his lips kissing down my neck. "Your soul can never be taken. Or sold. It's not Voldemort's, and it never will be." he whispered against my skin. His lips found mine again and I smiled, so in love.

"My soul is yours." I whispered.

The journey up the stairs of the astronomy tower felt endless, but at the same time, way too short. Like with each step I was sealing my fate just a little more definitely. Adeline Villori, sworn death eater.

Sworn, yes. But in my heart I was determined to remain unchanged. I still believed in goodness, equality, love, everything my family seemed to so fervently fight against.

I sighed, as the door to the tower and the end of these winding stairs came into my view. My family. No doubt my mother and perhaps my brothers had something to do with my second chance with the dark lord. My father I'm sure was furiously against it. I hadn't even for a second forgotten the look in his eyes as he'd ordered a roomful of people to kill me.

But as my father believed so fanatically, blood and family were the most important things in life. Maybe that was why I'd been offered this second chance. Just killing me would tarnish the Villori family name.

I reached the top of the stairs and stood there for a minute, trying to just prepare myself for what was about to come. I found my thoughts flickering back to two months ago, when I'd been ready to die instead of becoming a death eater.

The situation was drastically different now, wasn't it? Someone else's life was at stake, first and foremost. I had to do this for Jeanette. I would do it for anyone. But I couldn't help but think—with sweaty palms and an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach—that becoming a death eater might mean I had to kill people.

Could I do that? I didn't think so. Maybe, in self-defense, but cold blood murder? The very thought made me sick to my stomach.

I wasn't cut out for this. No sane person was. But what choice did I have? As of now, I was saving a life. And risking my own in more ways than one, but I could handle that.

I think.

I pushed open the heavy oak door, stepping out onto the balcony of the Astronomy Tower, feeling my lungs fill with cold, fresh February air. My reason for being here temporarily slipped my mind and as I took in the beautiful starry sky surrounding me, and remembered with fondness the last time I'd been up here, with Sirius, and how happy I had been in those moments.

The sound of Regulus's voice from behind me cut through my memories like a knife. "So, Adeline, what's your answer?"

I practically fell out of the vanishing cabinet, back into the Room of Requirement, back from that wretched place. I sank to the ground next to a huge stack of stolen library books, surrounded by what seemed like mountains of random items that had been hidden and forgotten in the room over the years. I was sweating and shivering and, in the nick of time, grabbed an old rubbish bin and retched into it violently.

I felt rough hands pulling my hair away from my face, reminding me of the fact that I wasn't alone. I was thankful for that. After thoroughly emptying my stomach of all contents, I pushed the trash can away and sat back, closing my eyes. I felt and heard Regulus sit down next to me.

"That…" I started, but faded away, not having the energy nor desire to finish my sentence.

"… could have been much, much worse." Regulus said, and I peeked open one eye to look at him, a little accusingly. "Trust me," he said, looking back at me. "It could have been."

I nodded, my eyes closing again, breathing deeply. Trying to keep my sanity, nausea, and emotions all in check. "The vanishing cabinet." I said, wanting to distract myself, "how does that work?"

"Lots of very complicated enchantments," Regulus said, sighing. I opened my eyes to see him staring at it with an expression so close to dislike it was almost comical. He turned to see me watching him, almost amused, and shrugged. "It took me all of first term to get it working with its sister in Borgin and Burkes. Damn thing."

"You did that yourself?" I asked, impressed. "That's some pretty advanced magic."

"I've got my talents." He said with a grim smile and another shrug. "We both do."

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking at him curiously.

"I mean that I'm good at enchantments, fixing things, and designing a way to get in and out of the most secure place in Britain, besides maybe Gringotts." He said this with a tone that was cocky and the same time self-deprecating. It was almost charming. "And you have some of the highest marks in this whole school. You're also great at potions I hear. As well as healing spells."

"What are you saying, Reg?" I asked, giving him a grim smile of my own. "That I'll have a bright future as a healer if this whole death eater thing doesn't work out?"

He rolled his eyes at me, chuckling all the same, while I thought about just how weird it was that we were sitting here, talking, when less than 10 minutes ago we had been in the presence of the most murderous wizard in history. "I'm saying that even death eaters need to be healed every once in a while. I—" he stopped abruptly, fixing me with an appraising look. "I think I'm right in assuming that you'd rather not…" he bit his lip. "Harm anyone?"

"Harm?" I gave a cynical laugh at his attempt at a euphemism. "You're right, Regulus. I'd rather not kill anyone."

There was silence for a second, during which my words seemed to resonate, filling all the nooks and crevices of this huge room of abandoned and forgotten possessions. The casualness with which I had spoken about death and dying and murder seemed suddenly so unbearably awful. The newly present mark on my left forearm that I was trying desperately to ignore seemed to suddenly throb.

"I don't want to kill anyone either." Regulus said into the silence, and he looked at me, his dark blue eyes full of sadness. Then he glanced away, sighing heavily and standing up. "But my point is," he said as he held his hands out for me, offering me help in standing. I took them gratefully, suddenly exhausted once again. We started making our way to the door leading out of the room. "Our side could use a healer. It's not enough for the Dark Lord to have numbers on his side, he needs witches and wizards with skill as well. I'm saying you need to prove that you'd be most useful as a healer. Healers tend to do a lot less killing."

We both looked at each other as we reached the door of the Room of Requirement and prepared to venture out into the dim corridors of Hogwarts and go our separate ways. I realized then that talking about death and destruction as if they were as insignificant as the weather or weekend plans was just part of the job. How else were we going to get through this?

"Guess I better start learning some more healing spells then."