Summary: Sirius pays a visit to Dumbledore and demands some answers.

When Evie woke she discovered that someone had moved her to her bed. To her consternation, she saw that bright sunlight streamed through a crack in the curtains. How was that possible? The last time she looked the sky had been grey and the sun was nowhere in sight. An image came into focus in her mind's eye: Professor Snape's furious face close to hers as they argued. Slowly, the entire memory came back to her. The effort of controlling her power and its escape from her grasp must have knocked her into unconsciousness. If the sun was already up then she must have slept for at least twelve hours.

What of Professor Snape? How badly had he been wounded when he crashed into the wall? An awful thought sprang up and swallowed her whole: could she have killed him? With what seemed like an enormous effort, she pulled herself up into a sitting position. She remained upright for only a few seconds before a wave of dizziness forced her back down again. She tried to call for Sirius only to find that her voice barely existed. It was little more than a croak, and the effort of it made her throat throb.

Evie was all too aware that she only had moments left before she fell asleep again. Although she had pulled herself up for mere seconds, it had cost her dearly. She needed to find out what had happened to the Professor before she succumbed to unconsciousness again. For the second time she called for Sirius, and for the second time she received no reply. With a sinking feeling she realised that the Hogwarts students were due to return to school today – perhaps Sirius had decided to ignore Professor Dumbledore's cautions and see them off. After all, only a week ago he had complained about not being able to leave the house.

Fatigue was a thick blanket wrapping around her mind, making her thoughts broken and incoherent. Before she fell asleep, one last idea came through clearly. Perhaps, her treacherous mind whispered, Sirius is here and heard you perfectly well. Perhaps he has come to his senses. He's had doubts about the two of you ever since your trip to Hogsmeade, and you've confirmed them by blasting a man into a wall. With that last thought to chase her through her dreams – or nightmares – she gave in to sleep.

Sirius tried not to imagine the look on Harry's face if he knew that his godfather had just apparated to the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. It would probably be nothing compared to the horror on Molly's or Hermione's. Although he had been resentful of Harry's cautious attitude to Sirius venturing outside of Grimmauld Place, he knew that there was a good reason for it and he didn't want to worry the boy. Wouldn't he feel the same if his parents had died and his godfather risked dying every time he set foot out of the house? Perhaps that was a bad example – never having to see his parents again was one of the few good things about his life.

He had promised himself that he wouldn't leave the house again unless it was absolutely necessary. Being imprisoned inside the miserable place for an indefinite period of time wasn't a thought that he relished, but if it brought Harry and Evie some peace of mind then it would be worth it. However, the accident between Evie and Snape yesterday meant that a visit to Dumbledore was in order. Snape hadn't been seriously injured and, to Sirius's intense discomfort, he had even agreed to continue teaching Evie control of the power that could have killed him. During his sleepless night at Evie's side, Sirius had thought of a hundred reasons why Snape would agree to continue the lessons, and none of them pleased him.

As well as Snape's suspicious generosity, Sirius got the distinct impression that the headmaster of Hogwarts was keeping something from him. Ever since Evie's kidnapping and the emergence of her new power he had hardly visited Grimmauld Place. He hadn't even visited after Arthur's attack, and he would have had ample opportunity to slip away without arousing suspicion as it was the Christmas holidays. Sirius couldn't help but think that Dumbledore was avoiding Evie, which meant that he wasn't telling her the entire truth about the deadly power she had inherited from her aunt.

The journey through the Forbidden Forest was long, and Sirius wore his dog form for both secrecy and speed. He had apparated immediately after Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys had left for the Hogwarts Express so he knew he had hours before the students arrived on the grounds, but he wanted to have to sneak past as few people as possible. After months of being stuck inside he had become unaccustomed to long journeys, and by the time he cleared the trees his paws were throbbing from repeated jabbings by sticks and rocks.

To his surprise, Dumbledore was waiting for him outside the castle. Without a word the headmaster turned and disappeared into Hagrid's cabin, leaving the door open for Sirius to follow. Sirius trotted inside, noting that the half giant occupant of the cabin was absent. A large copper kettle boiled over a fire flickering in the hearth, and Dumbledore asked casually, "Tea, Sirius?"

"I'm not here for lunch," grumbled Sirius as he took his human shape.

"I had guessed as much," said Dumbledore, and seated himself with a sigh in one of Hagrid's enormous, rickety chairs.

Remus knocked on Evie's door, and pushed it open when he received no answer. The hinges creaked, an ear splitting shriek in the silent room. In the early afternoon light he could see that Evie still slept, although her rest was far from sound. Beads of sweat gathered on her pallid forehead, and even her rosy lips were drained of colour. As her breathing became increasingly shallow, her eyes darted frantically beneath their closed lids.

Deciding that she was in no fit state to eat, Remus set down the tray he had prepared for her. The food was plain, but he doubted that her stomach would be able to handle that simple meal, even if he managed to wake her up. There was no chair in sight and he knew without trying that he lacked the concentration to transfigure one, so he perched on the edge of the bed, careful not to sit on any lumps in the blankets that might be an arm or a leg.

He laid a hand on her forehead, hoping that it would feel cooler than it looked. It burned beneath his touch. There was nothing he could do for her until Sirius returned from visiting Dumbledore. Remus hoped that Sirius would return quickly, but he doubted it; he couldn't imagine Sirius passing up an opportunity to vent some of the frustration that had been brewing over the past few months on the man who kept him at Grimmauld Place.

As a member of the Order who risked his life on perilous missions, Remus had made it his business to learn at least rudimentary first aid. If this was a normal fever he would have been able to cure it in an instant, but this was no normal fever. Once he had recovered from his knock, Severus had told them to expect some weakness in Evie after such a display of power. But she had been unconscious for almost a full day now, and she wouldn't find any healing in such a restless sleep.

He hadn't quite realised how much Evie had come to mean to him. Like Sirius, he had been thrilled to have her back after the initial shock of discovering that she still lived. She was a link to his long dead friends and a chance for Harry to have a family who loved him, not to mention bright company in the grim house. When he'd first discovered her secret relationship with Sirius, he had, of course, had his doubts, but after seeing how happy it made them both he'd decided that it couldn't be a bad thing.

Although Sirius didn't know it, Remus had also been unable to sleep after Evie's collapse of the previous night. The long, sleepless night had given him many hours in which to think. He loved and cared for Harry deeply, but it was always Sirius who Harry saw as a brother or father. Evie's deadly power had given her a deeper understanding of the isolation caused by Remus's affliction, and had fostered a closer relationship between the two. Remus was coming to regard her as the daughter he never thought he would have, and he had been given a glimpse into what their relationship would have been had Lily and James never been murdered. That he had no idea of how to help her when she needed him the most was torment.

Remus took her small hand in his and gently squeezed her limp fingers. He resisted the urge to pull the watch from his pocket; staring at its face wouldn't make Sirius return any sooner.

"There's something you're not telling us," Sirius growled, fighting to keep his voice quiet. He gripped the back of the chair he had been invited to sit on, his knuckles white.

"What do you think I am keeping from you, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked calmly. When he received no response he continued, "If you think I am not being entirely truthful with you, you must have some idea."

Sirius had a very good idea, but he hesitated to voice it. He knew little about the power that Evie had inherited from her aunt, but what he did know was that it was very different from the magic he and every witch and wizard he knew possessed. His magic was as much a part of him as whatever made him think and feel. It was in his blood, immovable. Even if a wizard lost his magic, after a great shock or tragedy, it wasn't really gone. It was still inside of him, just hidden so clouded by grief that he couldn't find it.

But Evie's power was something entirely different. It wasn't a part of her at all. Perhaps it had belonged to Mae, or perhaps she had inherited it in much the same way as her adopted daughter. It was almost like a parasite, leeching on Evie's strongest emotions to fuel itself. While he could no more remove her natural magic than he could snuff out the sun, perhaps the new power could be stripped away, or at the very least pushed to a place inside of her where it couldn't break free.

Perhaps Dumbledore saw the question in his eyes, or perhaps he had just been expecting Sirius to ask him about it for a long time. Either way, he said, "What you believe is possible."

Sirius blinked, stunned. "Then why didn't you mention this before?" he demanded after he had recovered.

Dumbledore sighed. "I feared that Evie would rid herself of the power before thinking the situation through properly."

"So you let her think she was stuck with a power that could kill anyone at any time?" Sirius said hotly. "You let her think she was a danger to the people she loved, and made her relive her worst memories in the lessons with Snape!"

"You fail to understand that this power was passed to her for a reason," said Dumbledore, his voice sharp. "Do you think Mae would have forced it upon her if its' only potential was for harm? Of course not! Mae loved her like her own daughter."

"It doesn't matter why she has this power – you're making a decision that should be hers! You need to tell her that you can get rid of it if that's what she wants."

"No," Dumbledore said gravely, rising to his feet. "If I offer her this option now, so soon after what happened to Severus, she will snatch it without thinking."

Sirius fixed him with a steady gaze, refusing to quail under the headmaster's piercing stare. "If you don't tell her, I will."