A/N: Here's your regular weekly update! Just so we're clear, the next chapter is the LAST chapter, and when I post it, whether as a bonus or a regular update, I will also start posting Part 0 and Part 4! Eager for that? Review, review, review!

-C

Women, they will come and they will go. When the rain washes you clean, you'll know. – Dreams, Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks)

Harry greeted Catherine, Aunt Cara, and Columbine Peakes at the gate Wednesday morning. As soon as he opened the gate, he pulled his wife into a firm hug, feeling how thin she'd grown since he left England. He wished he brought her along, but he knew it wouldn't have been the right thing. But how he'd missed her.

"I love you," he whispered as her mother and Columbine started toward the villa. "Oh, I love you, Cat."

"I love you, too," she said, looking up with glistening eyes. "How is she, darling?"

"Better," he said, kissing her cheek. "She's better. Healthy and just about ready to come home. In fact, Severus thinks we might just all take the Portkey together. If the visit goes well."

He was excited to go home, to spend the night with his wife and hold her.

"So, what exactly happened?" she asked, taking his hand and walking him back to the villa. "I mean, was she travelling alone all that time?"

"That's something we need to discuss with her," Harry said darkly. "And with Severus. They've already explained to her about Jason's condition. Jason thought it prudent, because she was worried about him. He's looking better now, but he hardly slept the whole time, so when we found her he was looking pretty ragged. He's doing better now. He's been sleeping, and well from the look of him."

Catherine hummed, walking into the foyer and smiling as Cynthia launched herself at her mother, hugging her tightly, allowing Catherine to kiss the top of her head. Cynthia let out a spluttered stream of apologies as Harry took a step back, smiling weakly at his mother-in-law, who watched with a mild expression.

"Jason's still sleeping," Severus said, checking his pocket watch. "We'll wake him with time to spare before you go, but he does need his rest."

Aunt Cara nodded, and then she softly suggested she show Columbine around the house while mother and daughter bonded, and Columbine mutely agreed, following off down the corridor toward the music room. Harry sat on the stairs, watching Catherine soothe Cynthia.

It was still so strange to him, that his daughter was of age. Even with how mature she looked, and how mature she typically acted, he'd never really considered her as an adult. And now, hugging her mother, trembling, she looked more like a child than ever.

"Shall we go to the sitting room?" Severus said softly, and Catherine nodded, gently nudging Cynthia along the way. When they were settled, Cynthia trembling as she curled up against Harry, Severus cleared his throat. "Cynthia, would you like to tell us your version of what happened?"

Harry listened, feeling his stomach turn as she explained why she'd gone to the club, how she'd met the being she knew as Rhiannon, and how Rhiannon coaxed her across Europe, from place to place, pushing her comfort zone with substances and sexuality, eventually abandoning Cynthia in Rome without a word and with five tablets of the drug she'd been given along the way. Catherine was pale by the end of the story, and looked as though she might become physically ill.

"It was Jason's reactions that caused us to think she was not travelling alone," Severus told Catherine gently. "He would touch wherever she'd been staying, first the walls of this building, and so on, and he would feel grief, pain, depression, all the emotions he was able to determine were Cynthia's. The magical signature was unfamiliar, and well above Cynthia's abilities to do. It took us some time to determine what was happening."

He looked at Harry, who nodded, and Severus calmly shared the findings of Scorpius about this Rhiannon, explaining what she was, what she was after, and how she'd used Cynthia, drawn in by her mourning emotions and then living off them, feeding off her feelings as they travelled Europe together.

Cynthia went pale as the explanation continued, and she nodded numbly at the end, as though this made sense to her, as though this were something that could be expected – although Harry knew perfectly well that no one could expect such things.

"Now," Severus said firmly, "I think it's about time you two explain to your daughter why you have chosen not to drink or take medication without regular and frequent supervision."

Harry and Catherine exchanged a glance, but they'd always known this day would come. Especially given everything Cynthia had undergone, it seemed only prudent, but Harry knew this was painful for Catherine.

They wouldn't talk about the details of how they freed themselves. They would not lay out all their dirtiest secrets, but at least they could explain how rebellion turned into self-destruction.

"When we were teenagers," Catherine said softly, "we made some mistakes. And those mistakes got bigger, and a bit out of control. It started with drinking."

Yes, Harry thought, frowning. Drinking, and cigarettes. Even thinking of the word, he felt that magnetic sensation he'd always felt when Catherine smoked, the desperation to breathe in her exhaled smoke, to give in to the sensual haze.

As Catherine told the story, Harry felt Cynthia relax, and he knew this was helping her, as much as it hurt them to tell her.

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Severus walked with Cara on the beach as Catherine spoke to her brother and Cynthia had some time alone with her best friend.

"I had a moment with Mad-Eye," Cara said with a small smile. "It was good, to be able to thank him for what he's done for my granddaughter. Things were such a mess during the war, and I don't know that he and I would have ever met again in any positive way if not for this. He so distrusted me."

Severus hummed, not sure what to say to her. The things he'd learned of her childhood, things she would never know, were still not fully digested in his mind. If he tried to count the people he had killed to protect her, protect her family, he would not ever be wholly certain what to count. But now he had to count Rabastan, and only Delia would ever know even a fraction of what he did.

"I don't know why," Cara said softly, pausing to gaze out at the sea. Severus raised his eyebrows and thought of how she reminded him of Catherine like this, the way Catherine was while she was recovering from her own foray into drugs. He felt a small shiver on his spine. "I don't know how or why or anything, but I know, as I know I love my granddaughter…. I know Rabastan is dead." Severus said nothing, and carefully levelled his breathing. "Just as I know Sirius will retire soon. I expect when we return to England, he will lay out the plans he's been making. It is the only possible answer for all the strange things he's been up to lately. Will you fight him?"

"Depends on his proposal," Severus said dryly, but he had no doubt Sirius had everything well planned. And it might do some good to allow him to leave, spend more time with his family. It might be good for the lot of them, actually.

"He hurt her, didn't he?" Cara asked, looking up at Severus's face. "Rabastan hurt my daughter." Severus said nothing, staring back levelly, but he knew how she would read his lack of response, and she nodded slowly, glancing back out at the sea. Perhaps she recalled more than she realized.

"What would make you think that?" he asked, his mind recalling perfectly the things Rabastan had done to a young Cara Selwyn, believing it hurt nothing because she had no future to ruin. Did she remember, even just a small sensation, or a tickle in the back of her thoughts? It didn't seem possible, but with mental magic, so much was still unknown.

"I don't know," she said with a heavy sigh. "But I do know he must have, just as I know he's dead and she's going to be alright. Because you'd never let anyone get away with hurting her."

"No," he said, frowning. "I certainly wouldn't."

They continued their walk, this time turning back toward the villa, and neither of them said a word. He felt better, somehow, knowing Cara did not seem to blame him for what he'd done to Rabastan, although he would never tell her the details. She would never ask, and she knew everything he'd done, he'd done to protect Catherine.

As he held open the door to the ballroom, he said, "I believe Catherine will be ready to return to work within a week or so, if we can sort out Cynthia's education. Harry and I have been discussing it. I believe she can finish her schoolwork from home, perhaps even finishing early, taking her NEWTs at the Ministry."

"I'm sure you know what's best," she said with a small smile, following him inside.

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Cara hesitated by the door to the bedroom, smiling as she realized they put her in Catherine's room – the room where Catherine detoxed, years ago – instead of Cynthia's usual room. Cynthia was still with Columbine, and while she wanted to have a word with her granddaughter, she didn't want to interrupt an important conversation between friends.

"The thing is," Columbine said anxiously, "I know you've done all sorts of things now, and seen all kinds of places, been with all kinds of people, but…. Well, I should have told you ages ago, and now it's probably too late, but I love you."

"I love you, too."

The door was slightly open, and Cara felt intrusive, but she looked in at the two girls, sitting on the bed together, holding each other's hands. Columbine was tearful, Cynthia confident and almost radiant. For a moment, Cara thought she was looking at a young Catherine.

"No, you don't understand," Columbine said mournfully. "I love you."

Cynthia snorted and said, "You silly, silly thing." Cara was hardly surprised to see Cynthia lean forward and kiss the other girl, who was stunned, but then relaxed into the kiss, even moaning with disappointment when Cynthia pulled away from the kiss. "I love you, too. I think I always did, I just didn't…realize. D'you know?"

Columbine nodded, blinking rapidly before she leaned forward, kissing Cynthia again. Cara watched the two girls figure out where they were going to put their hands as Cynthia moved to straddle Columbine's lap, and Cara carefully, quietly, closed the door properly. No sense in them not having a properly private moment.

The one thing that could be said for Columbine and Cynthia was they might actually be able to have a properly happy, mature relationship, given they'd waited and lived a bit before they began. Sirius might be a bit unhappy there wouldn't be great-grandchildren right away, but perhaps the girls would adopt, in their own time. And Gareth and Coreen were likely to start down that road sooner rather than later. Plenty of time to worry about all that at some other time.

For now, they just needed to normalize.

She went downstairs, grateful things seemed to be righting themselves, in their own way. Cecilia would never be back, but Cara could almost feel her presence, and she supposed she always would. She had no doubt Cecilia would have been pleased with how everything was turning out, would have been pleased her sister was happy and healthy and coming home, that her parents were going to be alright, and that her grandfather was going to retire properly, as Cara was quite certain he planned to do.

If only Narcissa and Severus could work out their ridiculousness, and a cure for the retrovirus could be found. But Cara supposed there was never a point in life where all the loose ends were tied. Else the story would have an end, and life did not work that way.

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Laura was just home from work when she realized there was already a light on in the house, in the sitting room. She frowned, pulling out her wand, ready to attack the intruder, but when she saw her husband having a cup of tea by the fireplace, she relaxed and hurried over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing his face.

"I'm fine," he insisted, laughing. God, it was good to hear him laugh, to feel his body as she sat on his lap. "I'm really, really fine. Cynthia was doing so well, we've all come home. Kitty said I can take you to see her tomorrow, for dinner. If you'd like. Right now, I'm sure Dad is showering her with his undying affection and relief. She's going to be so spoiled, she won't know what hit her."

"And you're sleeping?" Laura asked. "Without a potion or anything? You're eating right? You feel fine?"

"I promise," Jason said, lifting her hands to his lips. "I'm really, really fine. Everything's going to be alright now. I'll probably start working again, next week. I don't want to work until I've had a few normal days under my belt, but I hate sitting around."

"What will you do with your days?" she asked, caressing his hair, smiling as he kissed the inside of her wrist.

"Oh, visiting my sister," he said with a shrug. "Caro, obviously. I've had enough of the Potters for a while. Might do some reading I've been putting off. And some time with my mum, when she's got the time. D'you want to do something next week, with everyone?"

"Who's everyone?"

"Oh, you know. Jimmy and Cora. Nat and Kevin. Dennis." Laura laughed and nodded. "Good, I'll try to arrange that, then. It'll be good to see them. I saw Colly. They brought her along to see Cyn. I think they might be…. You know."

Laura told him she certainly did not know, and he rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you know, love. I think they might be together, now. If they weren't before."

Laura could have laughed, but she didn't. She'd known for years that Catherine was bisexual, and it surprised her not one jot that Cynthia might be at least bisexual, if not lesbian. Gareth had as much as hinted this some time ago, at least on Columbine's part. She just told her husband this was very interesting news, and explained to him about Gareth and Coreen Peakes, which he took quite well.

Perhaps it was because Jason was such an even-tempered man, or perhaps because Gareth was so responsible, but Laura had a feeling it was because these things were always harder on the parents of the daughter. A silly thing, but her father had a much harder time letting her get married than Jason's family had with his getting married. But perhaps they'd just spent all their energy of worry on Catherine, with none left for Caroline and Jason by then.

"I'm glad you're home," she told Jason, and she pressed her lips to his.

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After work, Cora Peakes went by Potter Manor to get her daughter and take her back to Hogwarts. She was greeted by Harry at the gate, and he smiled, hugging her.

"So, Cynthia's alright?"

"I should bloody well hope so," Harry said with a bit of a snort. He took off his glasses in the foyer and cleaned them on his shirt. "They've been locked up in Cyn's room for ages. I'm hoping they're just snogging, but…" He shrugged.

Cora shrugged back and smiled. She'd had a feeling this would be the result, and she did not mind. Cynthia was, like her mother, a force of personality, a wall of charm and grace and intelligence. Unlike her mother, though, she had always been a warm, open, caring sort of person, and the girls had been friends from the train. But once Columbine began discovering her own sexuality, Cora knew it was only a matter of time before she realized she was quite in love with her best friend, and the way the girls had been with each other, Cora suspected it would be mutual.

"We'll just keep an eye out," Cora said softly. "And maybe knock before we enter."

Harry just laughed.

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Sadie the Irish Wolfhound bounded up the stairs to where Miss Cynthia was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling. Master was bringing Miss Cynthia a tray with warm brown liquid and warm, stiff bread, and so the bedroom door was open. Miss Cynthia welcomed Sadie with open arms and a kiss on the snout.

"It's not ideal," Master was saying, "and you'll have to work very hard, but you may even finish early this way. Of course, I'll do my best on weekdays, and your mum can do evenings. But weekends, you'll have to work quite hard indeed."

"I know, Daddy," Miss Cynthia said, tracing her fingers lazily through Sadie's fur as Sadie pressed her snout at Miss Cynthia's neck, making certain she was real and warm and not vanishing again. "I'll do my very best. Could Colly stay over at Easter holiday?"

Master laughed.

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Catherine was staring out the window at the pool when Harry came to bed, and she did not look up when he entered. She had many things weighing on her mind since her last conversation with her father, many important things. Next week, when she went back to work, she would have a meeting to arrange. She saw no reason to put it off any longer, now she knew her own mind.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

She smiled, closing her eyes. Nothing in the world was wrong, except Cecilia was still gone.

Catherine did not answer the question, simply turning to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he approached her. He whispered how much he loved her, but Catherine didn't care about the words. They'd had only words for ages now, and she wanted to feel him. She pulled him into a kiss, and the energy pulsing between their bodies, even all these years on, was as desperate and as violent as that night in Brighton, when she'd first felt him inside her, first seen him lose control with how much he loved her.

How had she ever wanted more than this?

A/N: So, Cynthia knows her parents' drug history, Cara knows Rabastan is dead, Columbine and Cynthia are a couple, and Catherine has something she needs to do.

Review Prompt: What do you think Catherine's big task is going to be? What's she up to?

Q&A:

Q: Will Jason have any lasting effects of what happened to him? (Noahtheowl)

A: Will Jason have to live with the natal bonds? Absolutely. Will there be lasting side effects of this particular incident? Not really, no. And his sister and niece will be far more cautious in future. That's not to say he's not going to have problems with it—and he will sometimes have nightmares. But the physical impact is largely over when he's fully rested.

Q: How long has Rabastan been planning to have a relationship with Catherine? (Noahtheowl)

A: Kind of an older question…. How long has he wanted a relationship with Catherine? He's been thinking about it since Karkaroff attacked her. But he didn't have any plans to do anything until he was appointed as her caretaker while they searched for Cynthia. It was more taking advantage of an opportunity than a plot he hatched.

Q: Does Harry have a favorite dog? (Noahtheowl)

A: Harry doesn't think he has a favorite, but much like when parents have favorite children, he leans toward one or another anyway. He used to have a particular bond with Paddy, but especially now Cecilia's died, Shadow has become his favorite dog.

-C