A/N: Well, I sort of had planned to post this chapter earlier... but then again, when I planned that, this was supposed to be a 4k-word chapter at the most with a nice little out-take to complement it. Now, here we are with a 9k-word chapter and an out-take being devoloped on the side... these things just seem to get a life of their own. Well, anyway, I hope you like the chapter - it sure is one of my favourites so far...

1 September 1997

"… and, above all, never let your guard down around them. I mean it. Never. The Carrows are some of the nastiest people you'll ever run into in your whole life."

Mia sighed upon hearing the same sermon for the umpteenth time since having decided to accompany Izzy back to Hogwarts. Admittedly, she was starting to get how her daughter had felt like upon hearing her own share of sermons. "I know that, Gabe," she murmured tiredly, not bothering to face him as she was too busy finishing checking if she had everything she needed to take along with her to Hogwarts in her trunk.

"And don't ever leave your wand behind. Not even if you're just going somewhere around the corner – that's a basic mistake. You need to see that school as enemy territory," he continued in the same concerned tone.

She could hear the floor creaking under his feet as he paced. It was, to put it simple, a very annoying sound, especially to a pair of sleep-deprived ears such as her own. Ears that had already had enough that day (which was, unbelievably, not even ten hours old yet) thanks to little Mary having thrown the mother of all fits the previous night over a bad case of teething. Truth to be said, it wasn't like she or Sirius had been bound to get much sleep, anyway, given how jumpy they'd been feeling already, but dealing with a baby crying until after dawn had given a whole other notion of misery to that night.

"Merlin, Gabriel, do you think I raised that girl to be a moron? And stop pacing, will you? You're making me dizzy," she suddenly – and thankfully, as it successfully stopped Gabriel's pacing – heard her mother saying from where she stood. "Look, Mia is not even what you'd generally call a 'girl' anymore. She's a woman with children of her own, who's been in and out of battles in the past without much trouble."

"That's not what I recall when I think back to that battle at the ministry last ye…"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, she's fine now, isn't she?" Lulu pointed out just as Mia turned around to face her parents. While Gabriel could easily pass for the poster-guy of all worry, her mother simply stood against the doorway of her bedroom rolling her eyes at him every once in a while. One might think she was discussing something remarkably trivial. "If we just cling to what might or might not have happened wrong over every risky thing we did in the past, we may as well kiss our sanity goodbye. Mia knows how to take care of herself. What's left for us to do is to trust her not to put her brains to waste."

"Which I don't plan to do," Mia agreed, for once feeling thankful for her mother's far-from-overbearing parenting techniques.

Gabriel huffed and paced some more, that time not saying anything in return. Of course he knew Mia was an adult and that she could take care of herself. But she was his only child and he'd already lost her once… at least in his head. He didn't want to go through that again. "I don't like this," he simply stated.

"No one does, not even me, but Lulu's right," Mia informed him as she closed her trunk. She understood, more than anyone, how he must feel about sending child over to a potentially dangerous situation. And she understood that, although reassurance didn't take the feeling away, it wasn't all that bad to hear. "I'll be careful and I'll be fine. I'm not going there to pick a fight with Snape and the Carrows – I'm going to protect my daughter and my students."

"With people like that around, that might not be easy. Or safe," he told her, not particularly trying to discourage her rather than just warn her.

"It's what needs to be done. Wouldn't you do the same if you were in my position?"

He huffed, frustrated that she'd asked that question. He had no choice but to agree and, therefore, completely lose his point. "I guess I would. But I still don't like it," he mumbled before walking off, finding himself defeated. The only thing he could do at the moment was cursing those 'blasted Death Eaters' under his breath as he walked out of the room.

"Don't mind him," Lulu told Mia when they were left alone. "He's got an auror complex – doesn't think any civilian can handle themselves as well as he does."

Mia sighed. "You know it's not just that. I feel exactly the same way about sending Izzy back and Merlin knows it was the same with Harry. Gabe is like me or… I'm like him. Overprotective – I guess that's what we are." She sat down and took a breath. "I wish I could be more like you in this department. You're just so… practical with this kind of thing."

"Yeah, well," the other woman mumbled, "don't you dare make me swallow my own words later on." Or, in translation, 'don't you dare get killed or even harmed over there and make me sorry I didn't bug you enough'.

"I hope I won't," Mia simply replied. "I can't make any promises, Lu. This is dangerous stuff. This…" she paused and looked up. "Am I doing the right thing?"

"About what?"

"Everything. Letting Izzy go back, going with her, aband… leaving Alex and Mary here with Sirius… Should we just have picked another path? Keeping her home even if she didn't want that, go into hiding or…"

"Run away for the rest of your life?" Lulu inquired. "That's no way to live, Mia. And Izzy is not a child – she has a right to choose her fate and you have to understand it if she chooses not to become a fugitive or to fight for the people she loves. As for leaving the little ones with Sirius, 'abandoning' is the farthest thing from what you're doing."

"Is it?" Mia asked. "Because it doesn't feel that way. They're still so little…"

"Yes, they're little and I'm sure leaving them feels like pulling teeth but the right thing to do isn't always easy. You've got another kid to take care of, one's who's heading to a much stickier situation than hopefully her brother and sister will ever find themselves in. And you and Sirius… you are a team. A great team that wouldn't trust the things they love most with anyone more than they do with each other. So maybe when you're at Hogwarts and he's over here you'll miss each other and the kids but there's one thing you'll always know – that they couldn't be safer or better cared than with who they are. Am I wrong about this?"

Her daughter sighed and looked down for a moment before sadly shaking her head. "No."

"Good. Then hold on to that," Lulu told her. "Trust him… trust us to hold this side fort. You need to worry about your own side now… and about putting yourself together. Put your best brave face on and don't let them see you're scared too – least of all Izzy. She's already bummed enough as it is with you going with her."

"Is that what you're doing?" she found herself asking her mother. "Putting on a brave face for me?"

The other woman raised her eyebrows at the question. "You should know by now that I'll never tell."

Mia sighed. "You'll keep an eye on them for me, won't you? Sirius and the kids. I know what's like to handle two kids that age. They're only going to turn into more of a handful."

Lulu gave her an annoyed look. "Just the fact that you need to ask is insulting. You know what? Go find someone else to ask unnecessary questions to. I'm going to find Gabe," she declared, unceremoniously making her way out.

Left alone in the room, Mia got up and took a moment to walk around her room before going out herself. She'd miss home. It was a silly thing to think, among all other things she'd miss. But Lulu was right – she had to trust Sirius to hold that side of the fort as she'd have her own to handle in the shape of Hogwarts. It still disturbed her to think of it as something now they needed to protect their children from when, only a few months before, it had been the safest place for anyone to be.

As soon as she stepped into the hallway, her husband's voice reached her ears, coming from Alex's room, where he seemed to be talking to the little boy. Inside, she found him crouching by their son's side, apparently helping him building a tower of blocks about the same height as the two-and-a-half-year-old boy. Alex had, she couldn't help noticing, been unusually quiet ever since she and Sirius had tried to explain to him that she was going to be away for a while.

From his spot, her husband looked up as soon as he heard her stepping in. "Ready to go?" he asked.

She nodded. "I've just finished checking if I had everything. The trunk's in our bedroom. Mary?"

"Still sleeping like a rock last time I checked," he told her, sighing tiredly as he motioned to stand up. "Could've used her that way a few hours ago."

Mia's lips curled a little when he made his way to her and paused for just a moment to place a little kiss on her lips, which she eagerly returned. But, just as she realized their separation meant they wouldn't be able to share little moments like those in a daily basis, she felt herself being hit by a wave of sadness, which she promptly fought back. Brave face, she reminded herself.

"I'll go take the trunk downstairs for you, okay?" he said.

She nodded and watched as her husband made his way along the corridor and disappeared into their room before walking towards their little son. He kneeled on the floor by the tower he'd built with his Dad, focusing on building a second one since he could reach the top of the first. When she sat by his side and ran her hand through his soft black hair, her little boy turned to her with the most heartbreakingly sad grey eyes she'd ever seen. It took all the self-control she had for her to keep a straight face, let alone willing herself to offer him an 'everything is going to be fine' sort of smile.

"Why so sad, my little prince?" she asked.

He shrugged at first, apparently unwilling to share but, as she sat quietly with him, handing him the building blocks for the second tower, he finally spoke. "You goin' away, Mama," he said in a little voice.

She pursed her lips together. "Mummy has to, baby," she whispered, her hand caressing his cheek softly. They'd been through all that before but he was just too little to fully understand it.

"But I wan'you here," he mumbled, looking down.

She could have just burst into tears right then and there. "I wish I could. But I have to go. Izzy needs me now. You don't want her to be all alone, do you? She'd get sad."

He shook his head. His older sister was one of his favourite people in the world. "When you gonna come back, Mama?"

"I don't know. As soon as Mama can, baby. But I've already promised that I'll speak to you every night in Daddy's mirror. You can tell me all about your day then. How does that sound?" It terrified her that he might throw a tantrum. That he might put his little foot down and demand that she stayed. Merlin knew it would break her heart even more to go, then.

Alex wasn't fully satisfied with the whole arrangement, even though he'd found himself altogether enchanted by the mirror itself ever since his parents had shown him how it worked a few days before. Even though it wasn't even close to the same as having his mummy around, using the mirror (even if his daddy was always the one actually handling it) was, in his toddler-sized mind, the most fascinating thing in the world, mostly because it was sort of a mystery. He liked mysteries. Of course, he liked Mummy much more. But he liked Izzy too, so he didn't want her sad and alone when she was away. Plus, he'd stay with Daddy, who'd always make really funny games with him. And Kreacher, who'd secretly give him cookies every once in a while. But he'd still miss Mummy, who told him the best stories at night. It was all too much of a dilemma (although he was still years away from knowing what that meant) in his young mind. So, instead of answering, he reached over for a cuddle since it always seemed to solve everything for him.

Mia sighed and enveloped the little boy with her arms, motioning to stand up with him. He rested his head against her shoulder and she rubbed his back in response, just walking around with him for a few moments. The smell of his hair, the warmth of his little body… it always seemed to calm her down. It broke her heart knowing that one day he'd be too big for that. That she wouldn't be able to soothe him and herself with little things like cuddles.

"You're gonna be a good boy for Daddy, aren't you?" she asked her son at some point.

"'m a good boy," he mumbled in return, not really getting (or, more likely, not wanting to get) why anyone would imply otherwise.

His mother smiled a little. "Well, try to be an even better one while Mummy's away. And try not to smuggle too many cookies out of Kreacher – they'll give you a tummy ache."

"I wike cookies," he simply replied, clearly not making any promises.

Mia let out a chuckle and kissed his brow. Her sweet, mischievous boy. Harry, she thought with a pang in her heart, had been like that once. Sweet, mischievous and constantly bickering with an equally mischievous Izzy. It seemed like such a big jump from the careless, happy little boy to the young man forced to be on the run that he was today. She could only hope the still small little boy she was holding wouldn't have to go through even half of what Harry had so far.

"Mistress," she suddenly heard Kreacher's familiar voice saying from behind her. She turned around and saw him standing at the door, looking a bit down. "Master Sirius and Young Mistress all ready downstairs. Does Mistress want Kreacher to tell them to wait?"

She shook her head. "No, that's okay. I'll be right down," she said as she put Alex down and kneeled in front of him. "It's time, honey. Mummy has to go, okay?"

He frowned a little but nodded anyway, to Mia's relief. She placed one last kiss on the top of his head and was a little surprised when he reached over to give her a sloppy one in return on her face.

She smiled at him, brushing a strand of dark hair away from her eyes. "Alright," she whispered. "You'd better go back to building your tower. Kreacher will help, won't he?" she asked, turning around to see the house-elf still at the door.

Kreacher nodded, approaching the little boy. "Kreacher help Young Master Alex. Young Master be great builder."

Mia's lips curled. "Then I expect this tower will be as tall as Daddy when I come back," she said.

The little boy shook his head. "Bigga!" he announced, quite determinedly putting himself to work with Kreacher.

Walking away was the hardest part as she kept wanting to come back to hold her boy some more and potentially never let go.

Thankfully, the farewell with Mary was easier as, when paused by the nursery to check on the infant she was still asleep. To be honest, she didn't think she had it in her to let go of Mary too if she gave her one of those luminous smile, completely oblivious to what was going on and just wanting everyone to smile back at her. A kiss on the top of the baby's head and a wish of sweet dreams had to do the job, although part of her yearned for so much more.

She exited the room just barely managing the brave face Lulu had instructed her to keep in place and made her way down the stairs holding on to it. As she finally reached the ground floor, she found Izzy sitting on the last steps beside her trunk as her mother and Gabe spoke quietly nearby and Sirius stood in silence by the front door.

As soon as she spotted her mother, though, Izzy got to her feet and decided to go for her last shot at trying to convince her to change her mind about going back to Hogwarts. Before she could even open her mouth, though, Mia was already shutting her down.

"Don't even try, Izzy," she warned.

"But Mum…" Izzy moaned.

"I'm not changing my mind," Mia assured her.

Defeated, Izzy huffed and sunk onto her trunk, on top of which she sat in silence while Mia turned to her husband and gave him a look that was clearly the signal for them to go.

"You sure you don't want to wait a little longer?" he asked, checking his watch. "There's still plenty of time before the train leaves."

Mia shook her head. "It's best if we get there with time to spare." And make it quick before I change my mind, she added in her head. "It will give us time to deal with anything unexpected."

He sighed. "Alright, then."

"Got everything you need, Izzy?" Mia asked her daughter, who grumbled something unintelligible in return before making her way to her grandparents for the last-minute goodbyes. Taking that as a 'yes', Mia made her way to her husband who gave her a really bad reassuring look. He was trying, she thought. It couldn't be easy for him either.

"So, this is it?" he asked.

"This is it."

It was the oddest thing.

Of all the things Izzy expected to bother her that day, the thought of walking into King's Cross for the first time without Harry by her side hadn't been one of them. It wasn't particularly for the reason why he wasn't there, rather than the fact that he simply wasn't there. It felt alien, even upsetting when in all honesty it had always been an inevitability, war or no war. He was one year ahead of her – eventually there would come a time when he'd graduate and she'd still have a year to finish at school.

She guessed it was about the routine, about it being one of the most normal things they'd always been able to do, regardless of him being a target, the boy-who-lived or simply Harry. When they boarded the train, they were simply a family, in all their confusion, all the havoc of packing and arriving on the station on time.

One of the things that hit her the most was the lack of her mother's check-list. Harry was a mess when it came to cleaning, putting anything away or even packing. He always forgot something. It was chronic, no matter how much her mother lectured him to check his trunk. So, every time it was going-back-to-school day, she would have to grill him endlessly on whether he'd brought everything that time, going through every item he was supposed to bring, from his books to his toothbrush or even his socks. Izzy, of course, would tease him endlessly for his forgetfulness and Harry, obviously, would bark back at her for being annoying.

Little moments that were completely independent from how screwed up the world might be. She missed those moment. And she missed him. A lot. She hadn't really given herself much of chance to think of it with everything that had been happening lately, her mother deciding to join her at Hogwarts being the last of them.

She hated that. She hated that so much. It was like the whole plan to go back, fight for their side was backfiring right on her face. Part of her actually wished she'd just stayed quiet and accepted her parents' initial plan to keep her home. Of course, that part was easily crushed when she connected staying home to a potential future in Azkaban…

She sighed and shook her head, realizing as she walked after her parents across the crowds of people still in the Muggle part of the station that she might as well be crying over spilled milk. It was useless. Yet, before she actually had the chance to shift her attention back to where she was going, her trolley hit her father's legs as her mother crashed into a heavily cloaked, slightly familiar dark-skinned man that gave her mother an odd look, blurted an apology and walked away.

What was that?

"Mum, what…?" she started to ask.

Her mother turned back to her and shook her head. "It's nothing, honey. Let's just keep walking," she said hurriedly before turning her face away and starting to fiddle with something that had suddenly found its way into her hands.

Obviously, 'nothing' wasn't really nothing, as her parents immediately started whispering amongst each other. How clueless did they think she was? Because, unless her eyes had been fooling her, she was sure the 'stranger' they'd crashed into just then had been Kingsley Shacklebolt, although why he'd been impersonating a Muggle was a mystery to her.

She ended up having to let the mystery slide, though, as they quickly reached the passage to platform 9 ¾ and she, as well as her secretive parents, needed to concentrate on finding a way to pass through it without all the Muggles noticing, which was rather hard because the place was packed.

By the time they did manage to cross the passage, several minutes later, they found the platform rather full even though the train wasn't supposed leave for little more than half hour.

Just as her mother greeted Professor Flitwick – who, along with several other teachers such as Sprout, Vector and even Trelawney, seemed to be planning to ride on the Hogwarts Express rather than apparating to the school as they'd always done, for all she knew – she spotted the Weasleys arriving as well. Not just Ginny and her parents, as she'd imagined it would be.

Fred and (much more importantly at least in her ridiculously crush-infected mind) George had come along. Not just them, really, she'd end up noticing a few seconds later, as Bill and Fleur quickly followed the party, promptly tailed by Charlie. All of the Weasleys (at least those not on the run while pretending to be inflicted with some infectious disease) were there and, while it was sweet in a protective sort of way that they were all sticking together to have each other's backs, Ginny didn't look all that happy about the fact that she'd been assigned some sort of extended security detail. Izzy could relate – it occurred to her that it really was a relief to have her around again… finally she'd have someone other than her parents and her barely-out-of diapers younger siblings to talk to.

While Molly and Arthur quickly joined her parents and Bill and Charlie soon saw themselves distracted by an old acquaintance, to whom they seemed to be introducing Fleur, Izzy took the chance to excuse herself from her parents and join her best friend and the twins a little further away from the train.

"Well, well, Gin-Gin, look who's here, Miss Izzy Black," Fred said loudly just as he spotted her approaching before anyone else did, prompting Ginny and George to turn to her, the first simply huffing in annoyance at the use of the nickname and the second offering her a quick smile just as he saw her. "How lovely to see you, as always, of course for some more than others," Fred continued, his statement followed by a mysterious yelp that she suspected might be connected to the sudden look of annoyance on George's face.

"So," Ginny observed, her lips curling slightly as she ignored her brothers' antics, "I see you did make it here today."

Although she'd had close to no contact to her best friend in the past month, it didn't come unnoticed to Izzy how there was something off with her general demeanour. She couldn't quite point a finger at what it was in specific that gave it away but it was certainly there – the inevitable layer of sadness and concern.

To be honest, Izzy had to admit, it was a pretty convincing casual look for anyone who didn't know Ginny as well as she did – certainly a very impressive achievement for someone was faced with the impossible situation of having her boyfriend on the run while at the same time needing to pretend she didn't really care about that fact since, as far as everyone knew, they'd bitterly ended their relationship months before. But, as much as she tried to hide those feelings, they were still there. Ginny might still try to act as the forceful, independent and lively Ginny they all knew and loved – no doubt she'd use every last shred of her energy to keep it up… but something was missing. Under the shadow of Harry's absence, the spark was gone. For anyone who knew Ginny well, that made all the difference.

"What? Don't' tell me you thought I'd cave," Izzy said in reply, raising an eyebrow as she tried to mimic her friend's forced casualness.

"I thought your parents might," the redhead pointed out. "I mean, Mum did. Twice today alone – I won't even get to how many times she did it this week… I stopped counting by the time it passed the dozen and that was, like, last Thursday."

Izzy sighed, looking down. "Yeah, well, believe it or not, while my parents didn't change their minds a million times – at least not openly – they did worse."

"Worse?" George asked, raising an eyebrow. "How exactly does that work? Did they try to lock you in the basement or something? Chain you to wall?" He frowned. "I really can't picture them doing that…"

"Well, they didn't. Once again, they did even worse – my Mum is going along. To Hogwarts. In a full-time basis," she declared.

Ginny gave her a blank look. "Really? Snape didn't fire her? Wait, are they making her go back?"

"No," Izzy said, balling her hands into fists. "This one's actually all on me."

"Don't be ridiculous, Isabelle," George told her. "Your Mum has a mind of her own – if she's going back, it's because she wants to."

"And she wants to because I'm going too," she pointed out, giving him an angry look.

"Well, given the most recent laws, you wouldn't really have much of a choice not to," he pointed out. "Between Hogwarts and Azkaban, I'd risk saying the choice is pretty obvious."

He had a point. Again. He always seemed to do lately… or maybe the stupid crush had just hard-wired her mind to instinctively agree with him. It was hard to keep up with it, really. In any case, she wasn't happy about it, so she looked away from him without saying a word, not wanting to go on with that talk…

Ginny crossed her arms, sighing. "Well, it's pretty clear this year's going to suck for everyone and I'm pretty sure we're not even the ones at the worst end of this bargain. Have you heard the new laws they've been putting up since Umbridge got on charge? Prison for Muggle-borns, more and more limitations for 'half-breeds'… it's disgusting."

"We get new penalty fees every week now for having Remus working for us," Fred mumbled. "He's been making noises about us needing to let him go because of that. Like we don't make enough profits to pay at least ten of those penalties a day…"

George nodded in agreement, rolling his eyes. "Obviously we've been telling him to shut up and go get his head ch…" He was interrupted by a loud, dramatic sob coming from a woman standing nearby, hugging the life out of a scrawny kid around thirteen or fourteen. "Merlin," he mumbled as the woman kept sobbing.

"I guess we'd better move to somewhere else," Fred said, looking around. "Look, there," he indicated, pointing at an empty area only a few yards away that provided access to some out-of-order toilets, mostly covered by the presence of a wide column between it and the widely crowded area right by the train.

They all nodded in agreement at the choice of location, relieved to step away from the loud and awkward situation going on where they stood, not to mention the growing crowd in general.

"So," George said, just as they reached the new location. "Where was I?"

"Something about Remus," Ginny provided.

"Ah, yes, Remus. Yeah, he's nuts if he thinks we'll ever sack him – he should know better than anyone that we'd rather shove something sharp into our ears than make our own accounting or handle the legal stuff when it comes to putting new stuff in the market. Who else would we find that has at the same time a freakishly organized mind and a perfect understanding of our line of work as a former Marauder?"

"Plus, we kind of need him to keep us from starving when we're too busy designing some new product to even think of fetching anything to eat or drink for that matter," Fred added, earning looks of disbelief from both Izzy and Ginny. "What? We're creative minds – we don't have time to think of mundane things when we're inspired."

"Mundane things like eating?" Izzy asked in disbelief

"There's something wrong with you," Ginny stated, looking at her brothers like they were insane. "Are you Weasleys or what?"

"It's not like it happens every week," George said, rolling his eyes. "And, besides, we're not discussing our eating habits or working methods, are we? You're starting to sound suspiciously like Mum."

Before Ginny could even reply, though, she heard her name being called.

"Ginny?" Someone's voice – Molly, coincidence or not – called. "Ginny, where are you?"

The redhead huffed, turning to glare at George like her being called away was his entire fault.

"What? Don't look at me like that," he stammered. "It's not like mentioning Mum makes her show up out of thin air!"

"Oh, if she changed her mind again…" Ginny said under her breath as Fred put his hands on her shoulders.

"Come on, Gin-Gin, I'll go along for moral support," her brother said, turning to his twin trying to keep a grin away from his face – that was simply the perfect opportunity to make a convenient exit. "You go ahead and keep Izzy here some company. I'll call out for you if I need reinforcements to handle Mum," he said, already carting his little sister away.

"Fred! Stop pushing me!" she complained.

"Move along, then. Before Mum sends a search party after you," he said, suspiciously grinning back at puzzled George and Izzy before he disappeared behind the wide column, dragging Ginny along.

The look George shot at the spot where his brother had been standing just a second before clearly said 'I am going to kill you'. Not, he added in his mind, that he was particularly horrified by the prospect of spending time alone with Izzy. Knowing Fred would tease him endlessly for it later, however, was just something he did not like even a little. The guy was simply insufferable when he was trying to prove something and that something, at the moment, was that he had a thing for Izzy. Which, as much as he hated to admit it, wasn't really that far-fetched a theory.

While part of him wanted to just walk away in order to prove Fred's attempt to get him and Izzy cosy a failure, the other was too deeply aware of that being the last time he'd see her for months to even consider wasting that opportunity to be with her. And the latter, turned out, weighed far much more than the first, he realized as his eyes landed on her quiet shape right in front of him.

"For Merlin's sake," George said, slightly annoyed by the long look that seemed to be plastered all over her face as she stared aimlessly at the floor, "please tell me you're not actually sulking because your Mum is going back to Hogwarts too."

"I'm not sulking, I'm frustrated," she muttered before looking up at him. "This is not how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to stay home, not to go back because of me."

"Hum, hum," George mumbled before clearing his throat like he was about to change the subject. "Completely unrelated – remember what I said about us all being a big, happy bunch of hypocrites? Welcome to the family, Isabelle."

Izzy shot him an annoyed look. "That not fair," she said, leaning against the column behind her.

"Isn't it? Let's see… your mum and your dad tried to keep you home for your own safety and instead you fought kicking and screaming until they agreed to let you go under the condition that your Mum's going along. And now what do you do? You don't want her to go because think it's safer for her to stay."

"It's not just that," she said. "She's got kids to take care of at home – Alex and Mary need her much more than I do. They're little, they…"

"They have your dad to look after them. And your grandparents, I bet. I'm sure if my Mum can, she'll lend a hand too," George replied. "Plus, they're not bound to be regularly around Death Eaters at home. If your Mum thought she'd be more needed at home than with you, she'd stay. So, maybe you don't need to be spoon-fed or tucked in at night anymore – doesn't mean you couldn't use a parent around. Merlin, mine and Fred's place would be a complete dump if Mum didn't show up every once in a while to guilt us into cleaning a little."

Izzy huffed, although his words made her feel just a little better. Not that, deep down, she didn't know all of that. The thing was, when he said it, it made so much more sense. "I still could've handled myself."

"Probably," he agreed. "Personally, I find it a good thing that you don't have to find out."

She frowned. "Which side are you on?"

At the moment, he had to admit, it was pretty hard to tell. He couldn't really say he was fully on Izzy's side or on her parents'– personally, he found himself in a category of his own. "Let's call it the 'concerned friend's side'," he decided for arguments' sake. "As in friends stick with other friends but they also worry about them, as any sane person would. You're not exactly headed for a holiday on the beach, you know?"

She mumbled something under her breath that he took as a stubborn 'I know' and looked down at the floor, awarding her shoes with her undivided attention. It had happened again: she's known, or at least she had some idea of what she was headed to at Hogwarts, she'd know it wasn't pretty; yet only when he actually said it did it really hit her. It was confusing how his words could garner reactions out of her that her own thoughts would not. And, that one time, also unpleasant, as her nerves started to catch up with her.

At some point, as she felt his eyes on her but refused to meet them, Izzy found herself absently tapping her foot on the floor as a nervous twitch to channel her anxiety. "What time is it?" she asked out of the blue.

George checked his watch. "Twenty minutes until the train leaves," he said.

"Right," Izzy mumbled, peaking over her shoulder at the train with a strange sensation of emptiness in her stomach as she did so. Fifteen minutes. Somehow knowing she'd be on her way to a Death Eater-run school in a matter of minutes made it all so much more real… she could see herself starting to panic.

"Hey," she heard George saying, his hand brushing against her arm. By that time, he'd had enough of watching her slowly simmering in her own worries in silence.

The touch made her feel slightly giddy as she turned around in a flash, her eyes meeting his in the process. Butterflies were at a civil war in her stomach, making her swallow hard. Had he been that close just a few seconds ago? Because she felt like he was standing impossibly close – she ought to have noticed it before.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I…" She couldn't seem to find her voice. What the hell? Speak! Do it like the rational being you are – if your two-year-old brother can, so can you! She swallowed hard and took a breath. "I'm… I'm scared," she said, barely whispering, unable to keep the truth from slipping out. "I know it's stupid – I fought and fought so I could go back to Hogwarts and now…" She laughed nervously. "Doesn't even make sense, I know. But it just seems so… real now. It's stupid."

"No, it isn't," he told her in a strangely serious tone that caused her all the more to feel… gooey. Later she'd think the reaction was utterly embarrassing. "Honestly, I'd think you were a bit loopy if you weren't even slightly scared of what you're about to walk into. Merlin knows I'd be too, although you wouldn't catch me dead admitting it to just anyone. It doesn't make you a coward or anything. But listen: if you really feel like this is too much for you, like you're biting much more than you can chew, just say the word and we're out of here. There's still time and no one would blame you, least of all me."

She'd barely even registered the words and she was already shaking her head. Izzy took that as a sign. "No. Just… no. I'm not changing my mind at the last minute. It's just cold feet. I can get over it. But thanks, anyway."

"You're more than welcome," he replied. "And look, if you ever… need someone and… well… that someone just happens to be no one you have around, just ask Ginny for the 'secret item' Fred and I gave her. She'll fill you in the rest."

Izzy raised her eyebrows. "'Secret item'? Should I be scared?"

George looked thoughtful for a moment. "Not really… provided you wear some sort of protective suit when you use it because it tends to spew acid all over you – really nasty business," he said, trying to keep his face as straight as he could, although she could see him nearly failing once or twice. "But, yeah, if you take precautions, you should be mostly safe. I mean, what's a fifty per cent chance of it eating you whole, anyway?"

She couldn't help letting out a loud laugh before she even had a chance to cover her mouth. She hadn't felt like laughing that way in a very long time – he could lift her spirits like nobody else. "I kind of wish you were going too," she heard herself saying before realizing she'd spoken at all. What? Shut up! she yelled in her mind. But she didn't. "Er… I mean, because we could always use an extra pair of hands if things end up getting too sticky," she said, trying to cover after her apparent lack of ability to keep her mouth shut.

George shrugged. "I'd probably go too if, you know, Fred and I hadn't already made such a monumental exit." If not for anything else, he thought, he'd do so to keep an eye on her. She was going – there was nothing he could do about it. But that didn't mean it didn't make him nervous, although he simply refused to let it show. He didn't think he had a right to. "Hogwarts was always fun… if you take out the schooling part, of course. And, anyway, just the chance of being near enough to the Carrows to give them grief on a daily basis is enough of a prospect…" he said, trying to sound excited about it, even though the thought of her sharing a roof with those people made him want to punch something really hard. "Not that I find it a smart idea for you to regularly pick on a bunch of sadistic Death Eaters, let me add."

"What? You're telling me to behave too? Because I'm not an idiot or anything – I won't go looking for trouble if I don't have to," she pointed out.

"The troublemaker in me insists that I point out that behaving is overrated," he told her, glad that, at least, her words let it show she wasn't planning to do something terribly idiotic. "As long as you're smart about what you do and have a certain… item that requires you to be up to no good at hand's reach, you can get away with a lot," he told her. "I assume you have said item on you."

She did and patted her jeans' pocket as confirmation she currently had the Marauders' Map in it. "I'm not completely green in this whole 'being sneaky' thing, you know? And neither is Ginny," she replied before they heard a new wave of loud voices joining the platform – likely people who'd chosen not to come until the last minute. She looked over her shoulder, trying to spot the nearest clock in the platform.

"Fifteen minutes," George informed her, guessing her thought.

She turned back to him, sighing, her eyes on the floor. "Right… I guess I should probably start thinking of going, shouldn't I?"

George nodded, though he didn't really say anything. In her turn, Izzy just stood there, as if she was waiting for him to have the last word. The farewell somehow didn't seem complete without him doing so – maybe she just needed a little final joke for the trip…

But, as seconds passed, he still didn't say anything. It made her feel uneasy and she found herself looking up, only to find him looking straight at her. As grey met blue, she found herself, once again, painfully aware of how close he was standing to her – she was, essentially, trapped between him and a hard place, the latter being the uncomfortably cold pillar against her back. Neither George nor Fred were ever the tallest of the Weasleys but he still managed to tower over her by several inches – inches she simply refused to convert to feet –, which made her feel even more awkward standing there… She could only imagine what sort of image anyone would run into if they spotted them – she should count herself lucky that the particular spot they were standing on was out of virtually everyone'd sights.

She gulped, rather uncomfortable. "George, what…?"

He shook his head and she went silent. What did that mean? Was he telling her to be quiet?

"I think I'm about to do something really stupid," he suddenly confessed, his face so close to hers she could actually feel his breath on her face. Good grief, what the hell was going on? She could feel herself moments away from going limp. "Do us both a favour and blame it on the whole farewell situation later on."

She raised her eyebrows. "Blame what on…?" She was cut midsentence by his lips landing straight on hers.

Wait, what? Her mind went blank for a few fractions of a second just before starting questioning itself if what she thought was happening was actually happening. He was kissing her. On the lips. And she was pretty sure it was on purpose.

She practically had to force herself to snap out of the shock in order to actually enjoy the event in question. It wasn't like she could afford to assume that was something that would happen often – better enjoy it while it lasted, then.

He was good. Very good, although, she'd later admit to herself, her perception of his performance might have been fairly increased by her own excitement. She could positively say she'd never been so thrilled by a kiss in her whole life and she'd done it quite a lot in the past, although lately she'd been going to a sort of dry spell…

"Izzy? Izzybel?" she suddenly heard her father's voice asking in the distance, making them all but jump away from each other. "Where did that girl go? She was just standing over there a few minutes ago…"

And, just as their lips parted, the shock returned, making her just stand there, looking wide-eyed at anything but his face. She would have taken one, two steps back if it wasn't for the stupid column she was leaning against. If only it could… absorb her. Allow her to hide in it to have her freak-out moment out of everyone's sight, specifically George's…

"I think that was your dad," he said, a bit lamely as he took quite a large step back.

She nodded. "Yeah. So…" She paused, gulped. Say something. "See you at Christmas?" The question was made extra awkward by the fact that she simply couldn't bring herself to look at his face. I must look like a lunatic, she thought in the back of her mind. A lunatic experiencing a mild panic attack. What was wrong with her?

"Christmas," he replied with a nod, seeming quite tongue-tied himself. "Well…"

"I'd better go," she declared more loudly than she'd intended, slipping away from the column. "Before Dad loses it. So… er… bye." And, with that, she turned on her heel and started to walk away, positively mortified.

"Wait, Isabelle," George called only after a few steps, making her turn back around. That time, with the distance between them, she had absolutely no excuse to avert his eyes. He hesitated for a few seconds before saying something else, like he hadn't really planned that part when he'd called her back. "Don't… don't forget the golden rule, okay? Whatever you do, don't get caught," he stammered, uncharacteristically nervous.

She found herself giving him an odd look. "I don't plan to," she replied before going quiet for a few moments… and then hearing her father calling again, hurrying her to go. Her eyes burned into George's one last time because somehow it was the only thing that kept hers from obsessively focusing on his lips. Part of her really wanted to kiss him again because it has felt so good before. Silly girl. "Goodbye, George," she finally said.

He shook his head for some reason, and then offered her a partial smile. "See you later, Isabelle."

His tone made the butterflies in her stomach impossibly active again as she turned around and walked away a final time.

Of course, soon enough her brain was plagued with questions about the meaning of the kiss. Could it mean her crush might not be so ridiculous after all? Could he possibly li… She stopped herself before finishing that thought. What was she doing? Don't read into it, she told herself sternly. Don't read into any of it. He called it 'something stupid'. He said to blame it on the farewell. So don't even dare reading into it. Just count yourself lucky it happened. From now on there's no risk of you dying without having kissed him at least once. That was a stupid thing to think, yet strangely comforting at the same time. It wasn't like she was headed to certain death or anything. Still, she could certainly scratch that out of her bucket list, not that she actually had one.

"Where have you been?" her father asked just as she reached him.

She gulped. "Er… the loo," she mumbled, which wasn't particularly a lie. She'd been near a loo… the thing was, it was out of order. If there was anything in the world that could keep her mind from obsessively darting back to the kiss, it had to be her father's presence. Just thinking of it around him made her helplessly embarrassed.

Sirius sighed. "Right, well, give me a little warning next time, will you?"

"Sorry," she mumbled with a nod. "I suppose it's almost time, isn't it?"

Her father nodded. "Any last words?"

How about last requests instead? she thought as she looked up at her father with pleading eyes. "Daddy, can you do something for me?"

He raised his eyebrows. He knew that look – it was the 'kindly wrap yourself around my little finger' look. "Depends on what it is," he offered.

"Get Mum, scoop her off the floor and take her away from here. Don't let her do this – she's supposed to stay."

Sirius sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, Izzybel. She made me promise I'd either take both of you or none. She's not the only one who's supposed to stay."

To be honest, Izzy thought, pursing her lips together, she hadn't been all that hopeful that he'd do what she asked. So, in theory, the disappointment shouldn't have been that crushing. Shouldn't being the key word.

Taking a long breath, Izzy took a step forward and wrapped her arms around her father's form, her head resting on his shoulder as he held her back. "I'm sorry. I never meant for her to go back because of me."

She felt him shaking his head. "Don't be sorry. Be careful. And keep in mind that we'll always do anything to protect you – that's something we'll never regret.

Izzy closed her eyes and felt herself tightening her hold on him as he just kept rubbing her back in silence. They didn't really do anything else for what to be two or three minutes. Only when an extra hand found its way to her shoulder did Izzy open her eyes to find her mum standing there.

"It's almost time, honey," Mia said. "Ginny's already gone in."

Izzy nodded and pulled away from her father a little, instead looking up at him. "Try not to lose your mind without us."

He smiled. "It's always a holiday when you're not around, Izzybel," he assured her, before leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead, getting one on his cheek in return. Then, as Mia stood by them, pretending not to hear their little farewell, he spoke to his daughter in all seriousness. "Remember what I told you. Don't be me. Don't make me the guy who loses a kid."

Her eyes opened wide at the notion itself and she had to bite her lip to keep herself together. "Don't make me the girl who loses a Dad," she replied. And, with that, she took a step back and made her way into the entrance of the train. When she stepped in, she joined Ginny and countless other students at the window looking out to spot their parents.

From where he stood, Sirius waved at her once, then turned his attention to his wife, whose eyes seemed moist at the moment as she tried to hide them by looking down at the floor.

He reached for her face with his hand, tilting it up until her reddening eyes met his, and then, uncaring of audience, his lips met hers in a slow, sweet kiss that lasted for what seemed minutes to them, mere seconds to the rest of the world.

When they broke apart, her eyes, although still marred by tears, didn't avert his. "Take care of our babies, okay?"

He nodded. "Take care of our girl. And yourself. I'd rather have a well-kept wife to come back to me."

She nodded, biting her lip before letting out a sigh. "I hate this. I hate it so much."

"Me too," he told her. "But it won't be like last time." And thinking of last time, all those years apart, still made him go cold inside. "I won't let it. We'll talk every day. Do you have the mirror on you?"

She nodded. "I've got it in my pocket. Sirius, promise you won't let yourself do something really reckless without me around. Promise you won't go running on your own after the Death Eaters or You-Know-Who himself."

He sighed. "I'm not insane."

"You are. A little," she said, her lips curling slightly. "That's one of the reasons why I love you so much."

He smiled and reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips. "I love you too. Insanely," he added, making her chuckle softly. "I'll do whatever I can to be alive and in one piece when you come back to me."

She hit his shoulder softly. "You'd better," she warned him just as the train let out a loud whistle, urging the last passengers that were still on the platform to board the train. And, as everyone started to move towards it, Sirius pulled her into yet another kiss, the last they'd share for some time.

They let themselves afford a last moment holding each other before a cloud of steam covered the platform, informing them their time had run out. They couldn't steal any more moments.

When Mia pulled away, her lips thinly pursed to keep herself from falling apart, he already felt at loss. When she stepped into the train, it was like a limb had been ripped apart from his body. And so, as the train gained speed on its way out of the platform, for the second time in his life, he felt the loneliest person in the world.

A/N2 - Well, I hope you liked this pretty eventful chapter and that it was worth the wait. I'll admit the kiss even caught me by surprised because I wasn't planning to have it happen until after the Battle of Hogwarts... as I said, these things just seem to get a life of their own. Feedback is so very welcome. Review!

P.S: You can expect the next outtake to this fic to come out sometime soon, this one from Fred and George's POV, as part of Outtakes: The Companion to the Brave New... Series. So far, writing this one has been a racket,