28

Obliviously unaware that the Morning Killer was heading straight towards their table outside the café that Tonks had led Renee to, Renee stared across the table at her friend, looking absolutely mortified beyond belief at the way the young witch stared at her.

"Oh, Mrs. Lupin, please don't look at me like that," she begged, taking note of the concerned way the pink-haired young witch was apprehensively eyeing her, absentmindedly stirring her hot tea with her spoon, not really thirsty at all. Tonks shrugged her shoulders by way of response, not really sure what to say to the young woman who she had started to consider a friend.

But even Renee could not argue that she was troubled. Thin, not eating much, wasting away. And Tonks was utterly unconvinced. After a few moments spent in an awkward silence, the young witch and Auror spoke up, sounding hesitant, as though she did not want to broach the subject at all, and yet, it felt imperative that she had to do it.

"I hope I'm not stepping out of bounds here, Renee, but…did something…happen between you and—" Tonks started to ask, but she was cut off.

"Nothing happened," Renee responded, perhaps a little too quickly and curtly than she would have liked, almost choking on her tea as she reluctantly took a sip. "The—the others haven't been saying anything inappropriate, have they, Tonks?"

Tonks blinked owlishly at the young blonde across from the café table, though she quickly recovered, forcing her expression to one of neutrality, though she knew she looked more than a little shocked by Renee's desperate reaction.

"No. At least, nothing like that which you seem to be referring to," Tonks was careful to answer in a gentle, non-judgmental tone. "But…earlier this morning, when Sirius went up to your room to check on you, did something happen to you?"

Tonks fell silent and pretended to absentmindedly pick at the cuticles of her nails to save the Muggle the embarrassment of her looking at her while Renee searched for her words, all the while cautiously studying the young blonde out of the corner of her eye. She took in notice how her face was flushed, her cheeks almost a rosy pink.

Something unspoken had definitely transpired between this girl and Sirius, Tonks was sure of it. But she did not want to pressure Renee too much for an answer. Doing so in her current emotionally vulnerable state, with her grieving the loss of her six-year-old brother, might just be the one thing that would send her over the edge.

Nevertheless, Tonks knew she wanted to help her new friend, and as a consequence, she was going to have to know more, but there was, unfortunately, no delicate way to broach the issue.

Renee opened her mouth to reply, but upon seeing the concern flitting its way across Mrs. Lupin's pale features, and she realized that if her friend, and at this point, Renee very much considered Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin a friend, had opened up and confided in her, then Renee supposed it was only right she return that trust.

If she was being completely honest with herself, Renee had tried her hardest over the last several hours to put the fact that Black had kissed her from her mind. Leading up to the wake, she'd not seen Black at all, for which she was secretly glad.

Renee hardly knew what she would say to him by way of response anyway. Not now, at least.

"Ah, well," she began, sounding more vulnerable than any other time in her life, "something did happen earlier. It—it wasn't supposed to happen. He'd shouted at me, sort of," she grumbled, furrowing her brows in a frown as she recognized how angry Sirius had been upon learning how she was refusing to eat anything.

Tonks sat patiently across the table, not giving anything away and instead waited for Renee to speak, giving the young blonde woman ample time to collect her thoughts. Somehow, the young witch knew the young Muggle needed a moment or two to gather her thoughts about what had happened.

Renee paused, finding herself unable to speak and her breaths caught in her throat, and she saw for the fourth or fifth time in the span of the last three hours what had been circling in her mind ever since Sirius had crossed that invisible threshold. She could still feel his searing hot touch, smell how he smelled strangely of pinewood, and the intense way Black had looked at her, then.

"He kissed you, didn't he," Tonks answered after a moment, taking pity on Renee, saving her friend from having to state the painfully obvious fact that was all over the young woman's face by way of rosy pink blush on her cheeks.

Renee quickly nodded her head and glanced down at her hands, resting in her lap, and fidgeting with the skirts of her black lace dress skittishly.

"I'm sorry," Tonks replied, not giving her new friend a chance to respond, sounding saddened and yet at the same time, her tone sounded clipped, as if she were trying to suppress anger. "If I had known my cousin was going to do that to you, maybe I could have done something to stop it. Clearly, he overstepped, and it was way too soon."

Renee startled so badly she almost dropped her spoon as she looked up, confused, only to find Tonks staring fiercely at her, a horrible look of anger and contempt that turned her pale grey orbs into narrowed slits, flashing, steely, and quite cold. The young woman, for a moment, mistook the look of shock and anger on Tonks's face to be directed towards her, and it scared Renee. Badly.

"N—no, why… I—I didn't dislike it, Tonks," Renee quickly stammered faintly, watching in relief as Tonks's anger rapidly melted away, and let out a sigh. "I…liked it," she admitted in a sheepish tone.

"You…you liked it?" Tonks asked cautiously.

Renee's light little ghost of a smile flitted across her face as she heard the slight lilt in Tonks's voice.

As embarrassing as it was to revisit the memory that was fresh in her mind, as she spoke of it, Renee could already feel a little weight begin to be lifted off her shoulders, and she could think of no one better than Tonks to confide in for this kind of thing, given she was more experienced in these matters. Renee had only ever known abuse at John Newell's hand.

Never affection…or…love. Wait. Love? Renee's blue eyes widened as her face drained of color as she swallowed thickly past the lump in her throat, forcing thoughts of the foreign emotion to the back of her mind for now, thinking there was no way in hell he felt…that for her, if anything.

"Well, he was…gentle at first, but then I sort of…felt myself moving of my own accord. It felt like someone else was in control of my movements, like I was…watching myself from the ceiling or something. It's weird to speak of it in this way, but it's what I felt at the moment," Renee whispered.

Tonks felt her eyebrows shoot so far up onto her forehead as she regarded Renee. It sounded almost like she was describing the Imperius Curse. But not even Sirius would stoop that low…

Tonks nodded her head as she listened to Renee, and despite the grim mood of the funeral the two had just attended, shot a soft smile the young Muggle's way, hoping it brought her some small measure of comfort in the dark times ahead.

"Well…whatever happened up there, I'm happy for you, Renee," Tonks murmured quietly under her breath, and she really did genuinely sound as though she was. "And I'm sure my cousin is happy as well…"

At the utterance of her friend's words, Renee looked sharply towards Tonks across the table and all traces of the faint ghost of a smile on her face promptly disappeared, making the young witch immediately think that she'd said the wrong thing.

"I don't know about that," Renee whispered, causing Tonks to become even more alarmed by her friend's words, and Tonks found herself leaning forward in her seat, resting her head in her hands as her elbows propped up against the table.

"What do you mean?" Tonks asked, hoping her tone didn't come across as prying, though she felt it was already too late. That ship had long sailed.

The young blonde fell silent and stared into her full mug of tea, unsure of how exactly to respond.

"H—he left me standing there alone in the bedroom, a—as soon as he realized his mistake."

Tonks blinked owlishly at Renee, feeling certain she had misheard.

"Mistake?" she repeated in a faint voice, wishing that Renee would lift her chin and look her in the eyes. "What happened between you two to make you think Sirius thought what he was doing was a mistake?" Tonks questioned.

Renee didn't immediately reply, but it was the sole thing alongside her brother's death that soured her mood, and knowing Everett was still out there, somewhere, four days after finding… She swallowed hard, shoving thoughts of her brother to the back of her mind for now, not wanting her mind to dwell on that horrible image.

"H—he seemed…shocked. Like…frustrated…" Renee whispered, suddenly sounding ashamed to admit it. "He kissed me and then he…he left me alone, Tonks."

Tonks nodded her head slowly at all of the information as her mind processed her friend's words.

"If I could, perhaps he left because he realized it was a mistake, but because he…he knew that if he stayed with you, then he wouldn't be able to…to control himself," she finished lamely, inwardly cringing at the look of dawning shock and outrage on Renee's face as her already pale face became even more pallid as what little color was left in her cheeks drained upon hearing Tonks's words, realizing why Sirius had left.

Renee spluttered and stammered, trying to think of a retort, before finally, she seemed to have found her words at last. "W—well, i—if that's the case then he's—"

"Beastly? Barbaric? A brute?" Tonks offered dryly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes as she threw out suggestions for names for the girl to call her cousin.

But Renee shook her head, anger still present and quite evident upon her features. Her lips parted open slightly to speak, though a man's deep baritone voice split the otherwise silent air around the pair of women and interrupted whatever Tonks had been about to say next.

"A monster, Miss Barreau, is what Black is. You'd do well to stay away from him," came the cold, listless voice of Everett, the man's towering silhouette casting a lengthy shadow over Renee as the Morning Killer moved to stand directly behind the young blonde Muggle girl.

Tonks immediately bolted from her chair, her wand pointed squarely at the man's chest, though before she could part her lips to utter even a single hex the man's way, her wand was flown from her hands and into Everett's outstretched waiting palm, without the man even having to utter a single incantation verbally.

"Hello, Auror Tonks," the man answered plainly by way of response, not bothering to wait before one of his strong, calloused hands came to grip onto Renee's shoulder and Renee felt herself being pulled roughly up out of her chair and propelled backward as he yanked her to follow and match his movements. "I do apologize for greeting you under such dreadful circumstances," he said in a voice that did not sound sorry at all. "The girl and I are leaving. Don't follow us or attempt to try anything or I'll kill every last person in this vicinity, starting with you, and then your husband, and your abomination of a little whelp you dare to call your son."

Renee's shoulders tensed. What little color she had left in her face drained, and she dared not turn around. He must have been a mind reader or something, for his next words sent a chill of cold down Renee's spine.

"Don't turn around, sweetheart," he advised in a calm, collected voice. "That's it," he murmured, leaning down to whisper it into the shell of Barreau's right ear. "If you want your stupid friends alive for a few more precious moments, you'll do what I say and come quietly. Don't speak at all. Come. Now…"

"Please don't do this," Renee managed to croak out in a hoarse whisper. "Everett?" she begged, hoping showing the man even an ounce of kindness as she had the other day when she'd given the man the cup of water at the visitors' lobby of that strange wizard prison, not to mention the countless times she'd served him black coffee and his favorite muffin at the Broken Spoon Café, would placate him from whatever it was that he was about to do to her and to Tonks and Lupin.

To Sirius. Against her better judgment, she looked up, and Renee immediately wished she hadn't.

Pain shot through her right arm as Renee felt the man twist her arm behind her back in a tight vice grip, and she felt the warmth of blood pouring down her neck.

She wondered what the bloody hell was going on. And then she felt the tip of his knife before she saw it. Felt the tip of his silver gleaming blade dig into the skin of her neck, the column of her throat held hostage.

Renee looked up and her fear was so overwhelming and powerful, she couldn't even scream for Sirius or Remus to come, and Tonks was standing right in front.

"Let her go," Tonks warned in a slightly warbling voice. "Don't touch her," she continued in a low voice that Renee could only describe as almost a low growl.

"No, I don't think I will. I'll kill her if you take one more step, bitch, test me again. I dare you. Go on, do it, witch," Everett snarled, having sensed the warbling note in the Auror's voice. He stepped towards Tonks and she lashed out, but he wasn't close enough, and Renee let out a pitiful mewl of fear as she felt the point of the knife dig deep.

"Don't do this, Tonks. It's…it's okay, it's…it's going to be okay," Renee begged, sensing Tonks about to open her mouth to argue with the man to attempt to reason with him. Renee did not think she could take it if another person died. For her. Because of her.

If going with Everett meant that Tonks and the others would be safe, then she could live with such a death. She flinched as Everett's grip tightened.

The pain of her arm being twisted forced her to move her body around until she was practically pressed up against Everett's strong, firm body. He stood there, tall, looming, powerful, handsome, dressed totally in black.

His piercing eyes almost seemed to glow green and he tilted his head to the side as he looked upon Renee.

Tears began to come to her lids as she felt his hand come to rest on her shoulder and start to bear down, hard. Renee grunted and struggled with the effort to break free of Everett's grip, but he was too strong.

She was no match for this man.

His free hand went to squeeze the back of her neck and she felt his hips press against the back of her thighs. Renee blew out a shaking breath of cold air, steeling herself for the worst. But it never came. Instead, Everett's hand left the back of her neck and softly ran through her hair.

"Shh…." He whispered in an almost tender voice.

"Please," she wept. "Please don't kill me," she begged, biting down on her bottom lip hard enough to crack the skin and cause it to bleed, and her fears were worsened and intensified when she could hear Sirius and Lupin's voices in not-so-distant-background now.

No, she thought wildly, her eyes flinging wide open. No, no, no, no, Black was supposed to stay away!

Her heart dropped to the pit of her churning stomach and her head jerked upright, just in time to see Sirius's pale face glowering at Everett with a look that Barreau could only describe as unbridled hatred.

"Oh, good, more surprise visitors," Everett drolled in a bored-sounding voice. "Look, Barreau. Black has decided to grace us all with the pleasure of his exquisite company." But he fell silent and watched as Sirius took a moment to wordlessly assess the situation for himself.

Renee squared her shoulders as Sirius cautiously approached, his chin raised, but fear present in his eyes. "If I go with you, will you promise not to hurt anyone else?" Renee whispered, speaking solely to him.

Judging by the way she saw Sirius give a start at her words, and the way his face drained of colors as his head whiplashed sharply upward to regard Renee, he had not considered that Renee would sacrifice herself.

"What are you doing, Barreau?" Sirius shouted, balling his hands into fists, and plunging into the interior pocket of his maroon velvet coat for his wand.

Everett paused, bowing his head in a gesture of faux humility. "By Merlin and His Light, I swear it," Everett swore in a voice dripping with false sympathy. "I can see how hard this choice is on all of you. Particularly you, Black," he taunted in a voice that gave away the sadistic man was truly enjoying watching this.

A tense moment where no one spoke. Lupin and Tonks exchanged horrified glances with Sirius and Renee, their gazes nervously flitting towards Everett.

Sirius watched with mounting horror as Renee nervously glanced over at him, her blue eyes wide and eerily glassy.

For a moment, he wished he were a Legilimens, like Tonks's best mate alongside Charlie Weasley's was. He wished he knew where Ollie lived, he'd find the bastard and make him teach him how.

"Will you let me say goodbye?" she asked Everett. The man shrugged and waved his hand as he made no move to relinquish his grip on her arm, as if to say yes.

"I'll allow it. But you have one minute. That's it." His words escaped from deep within his chest as a low, threatening growl, and Everett did not release Renee's arm from his ironclad grip, though he stepped forward with her, his movements careful and precise as he allowed Renee a moment to say goodbye to her friends.

He stopped so that Renee's pallid face was only inches away from Sirius's face, so close that she could see a muscle in his jaw twitch. "I don't want either of you to worry about me," she whispered breathlessly. "Everything will be just fine," Renee managed to speak.

"What the bloody Merlin-damned hell are you doing, Renee?" Sirius shouted, fighting to control his voice. "You can't be serious, Barreau! Tell me you aren't thinking of doing this, going with him?!" he demanded angrily, his gaze nervously flitting from Renee to him.

But Renee sniffed and shook her head as she reached up a trembling hand and brushed Black's dark bangs from his eyes.

"I can't do that, Black," she offered up a weak smile that did not reach her crystalline blue eyes. "If I don't go, he'll hunt you and the rest of you," she said, glancing towards Lupin and Tonks for confirmation.

Tonks shot her husband a pained look. Remus looked as though he wanted to say something but closed his mouth and thought better of it when the young Muggle woman shot him a warning.

The mask of calm she had perfected had begun to crumble, tears spilling onto her cheeks and her lips pressing tightly shut to suppress the sob that threatened to escape. Words failed Sirius.

No one, no woman had ever done something of this magnitude for him before him. Confronted by Barreau's terrified eyes and seeing the bleeding wound on her neck, Sirius was taken back to a time when he'd watched the consequences as someone else he cared for had chosen death over the alternative.

How James and Lily had sacrificed themselves to protect the life of their son.

And now Renee was doing the same…for him. He did not think he could handle it.

"No, please," he moaned, hardly aware of Lupin and Tonks standing beside him, not even feeling Moony's hand on his arm.

Renee bit down on her lip as the sob escaped, and she reached for the man's shoulders and steadied him.

Her gaze lingered on Sirius though she forced herself to look at Lupin and Tonks as well, though eventually, her eyes settled and remained fixated on Sirius.

"Thank you. For…for everything. You've changed my life in more ways than I can admit. This is for the best, Black. I was…I was never even supposed to be here, to know that…that any of this even bloody exists."

She let out a soft, albeit saddened chuckle as she swallowed and turned her gaze back toward Sirius.

"I… I'm never gonna find anyone like you. There's only one like you, Black, but…don't let it go to your head," Renee whispered hoarsely, blinking back her tears to no avail, and before she could lose her resolve, she leaned forward and planted a soft, sincere kiss on his lips. "Don't forget me, Black, ever," she pleaded.

She flinched the moment she heard a low growl come from behind her, Everett's voice, and she knew her moment was up.

"All right, that's enough," he growled. "You're making me sick, you little Muggle bitch. Move." And in an instant, Everett had Renee by the shoulders. He hauled her backward away from Sirius, and her hands, her lips, her warmth left Sirius again, along with his last shred of self-control and his sanity.

"RENEE!" Every breath felt like his last, every breath made him ache for it to be his last. His screams echoed in his head filling the silence with burning flames of self-loathing. He did this to himself, he was the one who danced with the devil bidding on his heart.

It was all his fault, what was he thinking about playing with fire? Didn't he know he was going to burn, and now Renee too? Didn't he know gasoline ran in his veins?

All he needed was a flame, a touch of fire, and it ignited the spark within his veins, and he couldn't control his magic anymore. He held out his hands in shock. Pulsing from his fingertips was a strange, bright light that surged through his veins like electricity.

He watched it flicker, changing colors from amber to ruby and then back to gold as it crackled and snapped. Sirius clenched his fists, his nails digging into the skin of his palms. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Not like this, but it was too late to stop it from happening. It felt like fire was rushing his veins, and Sirius was unable to stop the moan from escaping his lips as his vision shifted and the world around erupted into violent colors, colors not even on the human spectrum. At first, it hurt, but then he was filled with raw, unbridled rage, a surge of confidence and power.

Renee. Save Renee. That was his goal now. Kill Everett, prevent the man from killing and hurting her.

Renee's eyes widened at the awe-inspiring and horrifying sight before her as Sirius's magic literally coursed through his veins, and she wondered if the streets were safe, if he couldn't control it, if he could very likely explode if they couldn't get the man somewhere safe.

But she did not have time to ponder this as Everett in a surprising show of calm, dragged his fingertips over her cheekbones before his hand slid to the back of her hair.

Renee did not have time to register the pain that engulfed her as he tugged on a tuft of her short blonde hair, pulling her head back.

In a swift movement, he shoved her head back towards the same café table Everett had forcefully removed her from, and her forehead slammed onto the hard surface with a loud, sickening thud.

Renee immediately saw spots blotting her vision and a little cry of pain left her lips. Her eardrums were filled with a horrible, fatigued ringing. She heard Sirius shouting.

"Shh," Everett whispered again to Renee, and her head was slammed down again a second time, harder than the first. This time, the young Muggle woman felt no pain and heard no thud, but she saw only blackness.

Renee was not awake when Everett hefted her into his arms, carrying her bridal style as though she weighed little more than a sack of potatoes, her head lolling back and resting against the crook of his elbow.

She was already unconscious when the man Disapparated with her, and as a result, did not see Sirius's hand outstretched, his fingers groping for her hand, nor did she feel the pads of his fingertips ghost along the edges of the top of her palm as Sirius desperately reached for Renee, and he was too late.

Everett's hold tightened on Renee, and the bastard Disapparated with a loud, resounding crack! leaving Tonks, Lupin, and Sirius now standing alone on the sidewalk just outside of the Muggle café in London.

No, no, no! He throttled his urge to roar like an enraged Hungarian Horntail, shaking his head wildly and shutting his eyes as he embraced his thrusting shoulders.

Sirius wasn't sure he'd ever felt such shivering, such revolt and disgust inside of him before at what he'd done to Renee. He felt his body go limp as his remaining strength dragged on his throat.

He slowly dropped himself to the sidewalk, to his knees.

His mind rioted with desperation, wanting to know why Merlin had forsaken him to the seven layers of hell, why life seemed to hate him so much, and now, Fate, that cruel bastard, had taken Renee from him, the one thing he had sworn to Dumbledore to protect.

Sirius began to scream.

End of Part II. I've always wanted to have Sirius lose his control and go nuts, lol. This seemed like the perfect excuse. Coming up, Renee learns how to deal with the likes of a madman.