A/N: Here's Bonus Two for the week! Everybody thank Noahtheowl, whose reviews today popped us over the count for a second bonus! We're on the home stretch for this part now.

-C

Now you tell me that I'm crazy. It's nothing I don't know. Trying to survive… - I Don't Want to Know, Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks)

Rabastan's mood was sour when he saw Catherine's eyes widen, feeling someone at the wards.

"I should see who it is," she said hazily, blinking with confusion. "It could be important. It might be about Cynthia."

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right, but he said he would check in, see who it was.

Cedric Diggory was waiting at the gate, patiently, confidently, clearly not believing he would be turned away, and as he was part of the search, Rabastan didn't need to hear the younger man say he was there on behalf of Severus to know it was true.

"How is she?" Cedric asked, following a very annoyed Rabastan back to the Manor.

"Catherine is tired," Rabastan said tightly. "She is not sleeping well, but I expect this is true of many people involved in this. How is my nephew?"

"Very poor," Cedric said softly as Rabastan opened the door. He looked around at the entryway, obviously stunned at the opulence of the house. For a man who was very high in the Ministry structure, Rabastan found it amusing how easily impressed he was. "But we believe we're getting closer. She is…?"

"Right here."

They looked up the spiral staircase, where Catherine was descending, her hands shaking slightly on the rail. Perhaps seeing this, perhaps impatient, Cedric hurried up to meet her on them, kissing her hand and starting as she pulled her hand away and wrapped him in a hug. Rabastan's neck stiffened the way Cedric's back did, but the man relaxed into the embrace, hugging her to his chest. She was shaking like a leaf.

"We don't know," Cedric said gently. "We haven't found her yet, but we believe she's alive and healthy. We're getting close."

"You're sure?"

Catherine's voice was small, child-like, and Rabastan was reminded of her as a teenager, immature and spoiled, very much her father's darling girl.

"We're as sure as we can be without seeing her with our own eyes," Cedric said, and Catherine leaned out of the hug again, looking over Cedric's shoulder at Rabastan.

"Tea for our guest," she said, lady of the manor once more. "Come, we'll go to the sitting room. I want to know as much as Severus has cleared you to tell me."

Rabastan watched them go up the staircase, delaying a moment before crossing to the kitchen, taking deep breaths and putting on the kettle. He knew she'd never had any sexual regard for Cedric, not even when he was a handsome, successful, renowned teenager. But to see her touch someone else, even in an innocent way, was abhorrent to Rabastan in a way it had never been before. He wondered what it would be like, to see her embrace her father, to watch her kiss her husband, now that he'd tasted her, touched her, held her…

He quickly put together a tray, not comfortable leaving her alone with Cedric, not knowing what she might say, even on accident. He'd not renewed her spell regimen for the day, and the hold on her psyche was much looser than he usually had it when she spoke with Harry through her mirror.

As soon as he had the tea ready, he joined them in the sitting room, laying out the tea and sitting across the table from them. Cedric was explaining, in very vague terms, how they believed Cynthia was not acting entirely on her own accord, but they did believe she was not under bodily harm and might not be under any kind of emotional duress.

"It's complicated," Cedric said, "and I am not the best person to explain, I'm afraid. I just had to deliver the report to the Minister, but it was written by Scorpius."

"He's a very intelligent young man," Catherine said, smiling sadly. "Daddy always said he would be brilliant at whatever he wanted to do. You have enough material to test her, when you find her? For the retrovirus."

Rabastan started. How did she know?

Cedric raised his eyebrows and said, "How…?"

"Simple enough to tell what the tests were for," Catherine said coolly. "Uncle Rabastan left them out in my lab while they were developing."

His throat tightened as he heard her call him that, but Rabastan could have kicked himself for leaving the tests somewhere she would see. He should have known she would have figured it out.

"Yes, we have what we need," Cedric assured her softly. "Severus is prepared to test her, and if, for some reason, he is not present or capable, Scorpius has been trained, as well. Not that it takes any remarkable skill, but he is sleeping better than the rest of us, and it lessens the margin of error."

"Oh, Cedric, you haven't met the dogs!" Catherine said suddenly, brightening. "Oh, come, the tea can wait. I want you to meet our dogs."

Rabastan almost protested, but it seemed important to her, and he watched her drag Diggory downstairs to the garage. He tried to decide whether to follow, and he swallowed his nausea as best he could.

/-/

Sirius clapped his hands together to startle his sixth year students out of their sleepiness, which always set in toward the end of the hour when he gave them a full class to work on their projects. Kenrick Whitby blinked, stunned, and Coreen Prewett's head jerked off her desk, her hand rapidly wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"Use your afternoons wisely," Sirius said as they packed up their books. "If you need to check the appointment schedule before you go, do so, but don't miss your weekly appointment to discuss your projects. By now, you should have nailed down your proposal and your planning, maybe even begun the meat of your research. Be prepared with questions for me!"

They were slipping out of the room, gossiping and checking the schedules on the back wall as they left, but Gareth was still sitting in his chair. Sirius waited for the room to empty and checked his watch.

"If you need to speak, Gareth, you've got about ten minutes before my fourth years start showing up."

"Nowell and Nigella?" Gareth asked, smiling what looked more a grimace than anything else.

"Yeah," Sirius said, sitting on the desk beside Gareth's, frowning at his grandson, who looked…expressionless. "What's on your mind?"

He'd assumed it was about Cecilia or Cynthia, perhaps his father's role in the search, or the weight of secrets in their family.

"How did you…. There's things I can't ask my mum, you know?" Sirius nodded, nervous. "I'm not even sure if I could ask my dad. I don't know if we're quite there yet, but…how did you know you were ready for sex?"

Sirius didn't know what to say, but he was almost relieved his grandson was asking about sex instead of about the greatest worries of the adults in his life.

"Two things," Sirius said sternly, "and then you'll have to go. First, see me in my office during dinner. We'll Floo to the cottage and have this chat with your grandmother. You'll want both perspectives."

"The second thing?" Gareth asked, his smile much more relaxed now, his gray eyes like looking in a mirror, except they were so serene and smooth compared with how Sirius had been at that age.

"Never, ever do drugs."

"I know."

"No, Gareth, promise me," Sirius said, sighing. "We don't tell you these things because we want to spoil your fun. I'm telling you because I wasn't a very good parent, and I want to be a good grandparent."

"I promise," Gareth said earnestly, packing up his books. "What's Nana making for dinner?"

Sirius grinned and shrugged. When he told her Gareth was coming over, she'd probably make a Sunday roast, just to spoil their eldest grandson. He reminded Gareth, as he was leaving, to check the appointment schedule, and then he cleared the board, preparing his notes quickly for the fourth year students.

/-/

Penny sniffed the hands of the newcomer with interest, as Mistress pointed out each dog. He was softer, kinder than the Grave One, and he seemed keenly interested in the dogs. When the Newcomer knelt beside Penny to become better acquainted, she tasted his face, curious.

Mistress smiled, but she did not laugh as she should have done, and Penny saw a thoughtfulness in the Newcomer's eyes, smelling his concern. This man could see what Penny saw, that something was terribly wrong with Mistress. Penny whined, trying to tell him what he needed to know – that the Grave One had to go, that Master had to come home, that he had to find a way to help Penny fix things.

"They're beautiful," the Newcomer said, patting Penny's head sympathetically.

He seemed to know, Penny decided, watching them leave with some regret. He seemed to know, but could he make things right?

/-/

As they walked the grounds, Rabastan making lunch, Catherine found she didn't want Cedric Diggory to leave. Not him, exactly, but the bodily manifestation of another person, not just Harry's disembodied face in a mirror.

"This is real, right?" she asked, although she thought it was supposed to be the dream. Long as he'd been here, she wasn't sure, and she couldn't keep track. Had she woken up, or fallen asleep? Where did Cedric fit in, either way?

"What?" he asked, bemused, pausing.

"I mean, you're not a dream, are you?" she asked. Catherine rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them. "I…can't tell."

Cedric's eyes flashed, concerned, and he pursed his lips for a moment before he reached out and grabbed her earlobe.

"What are you doing?" she asked, forcing a nervous laugh. "Cedric?"

He yanked on the lobe, digging his nails into the flesh to cause two kinds of discomfort – even pain. Catherine yelped, swatting his arm away, astonished he'd do such a thing.

"Not a dream," he said, raising his eyebrows, narrowing his eyes. "Sorry for the pain, but it'll fade. I won't. I'm physically here, and when I leave I'll be physically gone. But I'm not a dream, Catherine. Have you been having a hard time keeping track?"

She didn't know what to say. She'd only just felt she understood where the lines were, but between the roleplay and the echoes of dream in reality, reality in dream, and now Cedric showing up…in the dream?

But it wasn't a dream, was it? He'd just attempted to show her it was real, and she couldn't imagine having this conversation in a dream.

"Tell me about…me," she said, smiling nervously.

His eyes were concerned, but to his credit, he said nothing about the concerns. He simply obliged.

"I met you at school," he said, resuming the walk, glancing up at the house with a frown. "You were beautiful and wild, charming and superior, talented and exceedingly cruel. I thought I loved you."

"We were children," she said, smiling nervously, recalling with easy clarity all the things he said, the way he would ask her out so politely and she would refuse him with such coldness.

"I think it had more to do with your closeness with Harry," Cedric continued, shrugging. "I didn't understand it then. I doubt either of you did, either, but seeing you together…. Well, I've long since decided we would have been terrible together. I don't understand your relationship, and that's probably for the best, but I admire and envy the way you love each other. Especially because I doubt I'll ever find something like it."

"You'll find someone."

"That's not what I want," Cedric said. "I want to find someone…I adore as much as Harry adores you, who needs me the way you need him. That's the ideal."

"Don't," Catherine said, feeling her pulse racing, feeling a horrible wave of guilt rush through her body, blending with confusion and a strange sensation crawling on her skin that she couldn't quite place. "Cedric, whatever you do, don't envy me anything. I think…"

She choked on the words and shook her head to dismiss his unspoken questions.

I think I'm going mad.

/-/

Rabastan couldn't walk Cedric Diggory off the premises soon enough. He hated how Catherine had so much time alone with the man, saying Merlin knows what. And surely Diggory would take it back to her husband, or maybe worse, to Severus.

"I hope you understand why I've been so delicate with her," Rabastan said as they walked. "It's taken its toll on all the family, of course, but while Catherine seems to manage it well, she has not been sleeping, and I can only conclude it is the stress of the search. Harry said something about a week or so?"

"Yes, I believe we're quite close," Cedric said, his face closed and diplomatic. Part of his job, certainly, but not aiding Rabastan's curiosity at all. "I suppose she's not allowed to take anything for her sleep?"

"No," Rabastan said, frowning. "I've done what I can with herbal teas and some low-grade charms, but I am increasingly of the opinion that only the reunification of her family will truly soothe her troubles."

Diggory hummed and then said, lingering at the gates, "Of course, it will never truly be reunified."

Rabastan's stomach turned and he asked what Diggory meant. He wondered whether someone had become curious about the sudden disappearance – excused or otherwise – of Miss Cotton. He thought it all been rather forgotten, that the woman wouldn't be missed…. But perhaps he was wrong.

"Her youngest," Diggory said, his eyebrows twitching slightly. "Cecilia. I was unable to attend the funeral. I heard she was cremated?"

"Ah, yes," Rabastan said, relaxing slightly, feeling his shoulders unknit. "A very stubborn girl with very particular wishes. She knew quite young she wanted to take such…unorthodox measures. And even in death, her mother and father indulged her, although I believe neither was quite pleased about it. They spread the ashes into Black Lake. It was a lovely ceremony. A pity you were unable to attend."

"Yes, I was caught up in Germany at the time," Diggory said, frowning back up at the house. Rabastan was curious to see if he could spot the small figure of Catherine in a window, watching, but he didn't want to turn his back on Diggory for any reason. "It was good to see her, to talk to her. We haven't had a proper conversation, beyond pleasantries, in many years. I believe the last time was her making some rather…crude and harsh comments about what she'd do to my privates if I didn't stop pestering her. I did, but…reluctantly. She was always a remarkable woman."

"Yes, always," Rabastan said, irked further by the reminder that Cedric had attempted to pay court to Catherine. "I expect you are returning to the continent shortly?"

"Yes, just a few short errands before my portkey," Diggory said, glancing at his pocket watch. "A pleasure, sir, as always." Rabastan echoed the sentiment and would have gone back to the house with very little concern had Diggory not then said, "Most illuminating."

Rabastan's spine tingled and stiffened, but Diggory had already stepped outside the boundary of the gates and Disapparated, leaving a stunned and uncomfortable Rabastan Lestrange standing alone at the end of the drive.

"Damn," he muttered, rubbing at the inside of his left forearm absently, thinking of what Severus might make of what Catherine and Rabastan had certainly said in front of Diggory. "Damn it all."

He didn't think there was anything too troublesome, and being so close to finding Cynthia, surely Severus would not leave the search to trouble them. But he might…he might send Narcissa, in the middle of her false remission. Or perhaps Catherine's in-laws. Or worse….

Cara. Cara who shouldn't remember, but might. With memories, there were always traces, even when an expert did the work. And Rabastan was never an expert on the human mind, even now. Certainly not all those years ago.

He stalked back up to the house, feeling a dizzy disassociation from his body as he greeted Catherine in the sitting room.

"Shall we go to bed?" he asked her, not thinking about dinner. She frowned at him, puzzled, and asked if he was alright. He wasn't sure for a moment whether she was supposed to be in her dream state or reality, whether she thought she was awake or dreaming. At the moment, he didn't care. He wanted to bury his face in her neck and press his skin on hers and leave off thinking about how he was going to manage their little…situation until morning. Until he could at least charm her into a proper, restful, dreamless sleep so he could have some time to think and not worry about whether she was progressing as she ought, in any reality.

"Fine, darling, fine," he said absently. "Only I'm a bit tired, and I'm sure you're tired, and a lie-in sounds nice, doesn't it? For a while."

Catherine blinked, glancing at the stairwell in the rotunda, obviously thinking about Cedric, touching her pocket where she thought her mirror ought to be before saying alright, that sounded nice.

His stomach turned. Was she only agreeing to be in bed with him because she couldn't think where the mirror was? Would she rather be talking to Harry?

He wished once, just once, she would tell him she loved him without extreme coaxing and severe sleepiness influencing the words. He wanted her to believe in the possibility of their love the way he saw it now, unfolding before him. Anything would be possible if she believed in this future, but if he couldn't convince her, he was afraid he would not have enough time to realize his dreams. They were too close to finding her daughter, and then his world would come crashing down around him.

A/N: So, Cynthia struggles with reality all over again, Gareth has important life questions, and Cedric has a lot to say to Severus.

Review Prompt: How do you think Severus is going to react to Cedric's account of the visit?

Q&A:

Q: Are Rabastan and Catherine using protection? (Joe-wizard)

A: I shouldn't laugh, but I did laugh a bit when I read this. Rabastan is absolutely using protection. One thing he knows from Cara's life history is that the last thing he wants to mess with is trying to explain away that Catherine is somehow pregnant while Harry's been away and no one else but Rabastan has seen her in ages. He's being quite careful.

Q: Won't people notice if Catherine gets cut off from everybody else? (Noahtheowl)

A: If you mean where she doesn't leave Potter Manor for anything while they're searching for Cynthia, this is what is expected. It's so they can keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't do anything self-damaging like Sirius tried to do when he went out and bought more cigarettes. If you mean after, yes. Catherine's odd behavior would absolutely be noticed. That's part of why Rabastan so wants her to be a willing participant, so she could be clever about the subterfuge and less likely to be caught.

Q: Is there one thing Rabastan wants that he hasn't got Catherine to do yet? (Noahtheowl)

A: I sort of covered it here, but the one thing Rabastan really wasn't that Catherine hasn't given him is a sense that she could love him. He wants to be as important for her as she is for him.

Q: Would Cynthia ever leave Rhiannon, or does she love her too much? (Th3Gingerwizard)

A: Speaking hypothetically, she probably would, if things became too distant from what she decides she wants. Cynthia is still very young, has plenty of time to grow and change, and under her behavior she is a very level-headed girl. She would take some difficulty to leave, but once she decided it was important, she would do it and really think it through.

Q: Will Rabastan be able to stop? (Joe-wizard)

A: I think Rabastan's reached a point in this where he can't see life without a sexual relationship with Catherine. Even if he thought it was prudent and essential to stop, I don't think he could.

Q: When will Rabastan stop using the dream world and start seducing her in the real world? (Th3Gingerwizard)

A: Two things. First, he really wanted her to seduce him in the real world, which she sort of did, with a bit of extra magic to coax her. Second, the only time he would stop using the dream world, in theory, is weaning her off it when Harry returns, so she doesn't feel like it's missing. The plan is to have her so involved in the affair that she would meet him in London without any difficulty, where he would sometimes put her in the dream world, slowly weaning her off until she doesn't need it anymore. At least, that's his plan.

Q: Would Rabastan kill Cedric to keep what he has been doing to Catherine a secret? (Th3Gingerwizard)

A: I won't say the thought didn't cross his mind for a flash when Cedric first appeared, and before Cedric left. The trouble is, he knows Cedric is too important to just go missing, and he didn't have time to do it discretely. Catherine might have been watching, and he certainly didn't have a plan for disposing of the body. Would he like to? Yes. But Rabastan is practical enough to know that unlike with Rhiannon, it would raise more questions than it answered. Sort of why he doesn't kill the dogs. If all those dogs suddenly went missing, it would be a void impossible to explain away. If Cedric just didn't return to the hunt for Cynthia, it was another void that couldn't be explained.

Cheers!

C