This is part 4 in the Doppelgänger series. If you're a new reader popping in, you might not need to read the first 3 parts to get the gist on everything. For returning readers, I don't think a recap will be necessary.

Black Halo runs 48 chapters long and has 286,000 words. I'll be posting a chapter a day until the end of May.

Enjoy! I'd like to know what you think if you feel like leaving a comment. :)

Chapter 1: Fantomøy, 1983

Magnus laid wide awake. He wanted to blame the bright full moon for his inability to drift off, but he knew it ran a lot deeper than that.

His thoughts hushed as he heard something down the hallway. Bjorn had stirred and was on the verge of a fuss that would require attention. A sigh sounded beside Magnus on the bed. Hildegard's shoulder rose and fell.

"I was getting up," Magnus whispered.

"Oh." Hildegard lifted her head enough for the profile of her face to appear in the moonlight. "Okay."

She reached over to touch Magnus, but he was already too far away. For the sake of not heaping on to the tension between them, Magnus just pretended he didn't notice. He heard Hildegard sigh again.

Magnus quickened his step at the bedroom door since Bjorn was ramping up. By the time Magnus scurried halfway down the landing, crying came from inside his room. Magnus slipped in and lit the room's torches. As he expected, Bjorn stood at the edge of his crib. His bottom lip poked out. His big, brown eyes shone with tears.

All the anxiety Magnus had been dealing with lately hushed. He smoothed Bjorn's dark hair down before kissing the top of his head. "What's wrong, huh? Come sit?"

"Uh huh." Bjorn held his arms up.

Bjorn wrapped his arms around Magnus' neck as he was carried over to the chair by the window. Magnus' heart squeezed with it. He almost wished that Bjorn didn't calm down. Without a distraction, Magnus had a hard time suppressing a lump in his throat.

Were it not for Bjorn and Dagmar, Magnus would've already left Hildegard. Maybe it was a little ironic that if Hildegard didn't have children, she and Magnus wouldn't have had the problem at hand in the first place. Magnus still couldn't really process what all Hildegard had dropped on him. He'd known her and her kids for almost a year now. Not very long ago, it'd been hard to imagine himself as anything less than a permanent fixture.

Magnus didn't want to leave the kids regardless of how he felt about their mother. Was it inevitable? Should Magnus stop putting it off? Magnus wasn't sure he had it in him to hurt them like that. On the other hand, would it really matter? Hildegard had already doomed both. Their fates were tied to Voldemort.

Well. . .Bjorn could still be all right. Magnus mindlessly rubbed the boy's back, listening to his breath even out as his head grew heavier on Magnus' shoulder.

Magnus' heart picked up as something he'd been considering returned to mind. Why not leave tonight and be done with it? As soon as Magnus shifted to stand, Bjorn stirred again. His little fists tightened on Magnus' clothes, and he groaned grumpily.

"I know," Magnus whispered in what he hoped was a soothing enough tone. "I know, it's tough. Just hold on."

All Bjorn seemed to take from the situation was Magnus putting him back into his crib. He remained standing, curious perhaps as to why Magnus was picking things up around the room to put into a bag. Bjorn protested with a whine when Magnus put his favourite stuffy in it as well.

Magnus shushed Bjorn as he started to dress him, hands shaking. The door creaked behind him. Magnus gasped, his stomach running cold with ice. How would he explain what he was doing?

It wasn't Hildegard, though. Dagmar stood in the doorway, her eyes heavy with fatigue. She rubbed one with her fist, her other arm dead weight as she held the door knob.

"What doin', Pappa?" she asked in that high, cute voice that never failed to melt Magnus.

It blurred his vision too this time. The biggest obstacle Magnus fathomed in his half-baked plan to protect Bjorn was Dagmar. He would be leaving her alone here with Hildegard. While Bjorn was the child intended for Voldemort's purposes, Dagmar was the one that ended up stuck with a part of his soul inside of her.

"How come you're awake?" Magnus closed the bedroom door when Dagmar ambled in.

"Hurts," Dagmar said.

"Still?"

Dagmar nodded, rubbing her jaw. Her molars had been coming in, and it wasn't going very easy for her.

Magnus ran his hand over her head when she leaned against his side. "Do you want to go back to bed?"

"Nei."

That was her favourite word lately. Magnus let her stay in Bjorn's room while he kept packing. He kept his back to her. It would've been easier to go without having to say goodbye. Magnus definitely didn't want Dagmar to think anything was wrong.

The chair Magnus had been sitting in earlier creaked. Magnus glanced over his shoulder at Dagmar pulling herself up onto it.

"What you doin'?" she asked again after she settled.

"Just picking things up."

"Oh. You okay?"

Damn it. She was always so smart like that. "Nei, I'm sad."

"How come?"

"I'm tired, jenta mi."

"Me too."

Magnus looked back again. Dagmar had curled up and turned her face into the back of the chair. Magnus' throat ached with the effort of holding everything back. He finished dressing Bjorn, mind racing. Maybe. . .

"Dagmar," Magnus whispered. "Psst."

Dagmar's eyes cracked open again. She whispered back, "What?"

"Do you want to go somewhere?" Magnus ignored how gross he felt to ask.

Dagmar studied Magnus with a mix of shrewdness and curiosity. "Go where?"

"To see where I live when I'm not here."

Her eyes lit up. Dagmar asked a lot of questions about what Trondheim was like. Because the only people she ever encountered were Hildegard, Magnus, and then Lys and Vann, Dagmar couldn't wrap her mind around the idea of a city. Even with visual aids, like if Magnus drew her a picture or they made a small town out of crafts, Dagmar was dumbfounded when Magnus started populating it with makeshift people.

"I wanna go," Dagmar said, her voice rising in volume. She clapped a hand over her mouth when Magnus put a finger against his lips.

"We have to be quiet so Mamma doesn't wake up," Magnus told her.

"Mamma's not coming?" Dagmar whispered.

Magnus shook his head. "She doesn't want to."

"Okay." Dagmar nodded. "See her later."

Magnus avoided answering. As the moments crawled, this felt more and more wrong. Dagmar was under the impression that she would return. Of course—Magnus always did when he left. He wondered how Dagmar would cope when she realized she was never coming back, or that she wouldn't see her mother again. Magnus had no parental rights to either of these children, but he couldn't help but think he saw more reason than Hildegard about their well being. She was in over her head. Either that, or she still had some lingering fondness for Voldemort and was complacent in the entire thing. There had to be someone that could undo what Hildegard did. Dagmar shouldn't have to be stuck like this just because her mother said so.

"Come." Magnus led Dagmar out to the landing. "Wait here."

Magnus snuck back into Bjorn's room. He'd laid back down in his crib, but was awake. Magnus slung the bag of Bjorn's things over his shoulder and gestured at Bjorn to stand up. Bjorn latched himself again around Magnus' neck to hold himself, turning so that he could see where they were going. Magnus took Dagmar's hand and helped her down the stairs.

Dagmar needed extra help in coordination to keep her feet quiet. It slowed their descent. Magnus had his hearing craned as much as was possible for any sign of stirring in Hildegard's bedroom.

They reached the foyer. Magnus let Dagmar go so that he could help Bjorn get his shoes on. Dagmar struggled with it in the dark, so Magnus helped her after Bjorn was ready.

Magnus very carefully let them out the front door. He wanted to say the bright moonlight was to his benefit as he headed for the path, but Hildegard would see them if she looked out the window. Magnus glanced back a couple times to make sure she wasn't taking chase.

He could finally breathe with some relief once they passed the tree line. Hildegard wouldn't be able to see them now, but that didn't mean they were in the clear. She could wake up anytime, wonder why she was alone, and then see the kids missing from their beds. Hildegard would also be able to move a lot faster than Magnus, since he carried a twenty-five pound toddler and then was restricted anyway by how fast Dagmar could walk. Dagmar slowed further down when they started going uphill.

Something white and silvery in the moonlight appeared ahead. Magnus stiffened, his anxiety swelling again as he met Lys' curious gaze. She peered out from behind a tree, her mouth rounded into a circle as she regarded the three of them.

Magnus averted his eyes. "Don't look at her."

"Why not?" Dagmar asked.

"Just don't. It's a game," he hastily added.

Magnus' heart pounded painfully against the inside of his chest. He'd never quite warmed up to Lys after she lured him to Vann's pond to be drowned almost a year ago. She'd never tried anything after Hildegard invited Magnus properly to the island, but Magnus remained to feel as though his presence was merely tolerated. He had no doubt Lys would do her part in making sure Magnus never reached the house again, should Hildegard turn on him.

Dagmar was pulling back a little on Magnus' hand, lagging. Magnus was just about to urge her on when she gasped and hissed something in Parseltongue.

Magnus glanced back over his shoulder in time to see another flash of white right behind him. A slim arm slipped between his waist and elbow. Pain erupted in his chest as claws dug into his skin like tissue paper. Magnus gasped, jolting from the shock of it. Dagmar slipped out of his hand as well as Bjorn from his other arm. Lys' claws dug in deeper when Magnus tried to grab Bjorn. She got him on the other side as well.

Both kids were screaming. The stop on Magnus' breath ended when teeth sunk next into his shoulder. He let out a cry of his own, adrenaline kicking in as he tried to loosen himself from Lys' various grasps. Magnus grabbed her by her hair, wrapping it tighter and tighter around his hand until that too hurt. He could feel his flesh separating from itself as he pried Lys off him.

Magnus kept a hold on Lys' hair, forcing her head down so that she couldn't get him again with her claws. She still swung for him. Magnus kneed her face before pushing her away. She stumbled and fell, quickly scrambling back up. Blood stained her from her head to where it had dripped as far as her waist down the front. Her hands were similarly black with it.

She turned her back when Magnus reached for the pocket he usually carried his wand in. Just as Magnus realized it was back at the house, the underbrush crunched and rustled with Lys' retreat.

Magnus had no doubt Lys would return. Whether alone or with Vann, Hildegard, or both, any and all would spell his end.

He plucked Bjorn back up off the ground. Magnus nearly dropped him again since blood slicked his hands. He could feel it dripping down his chest, stomach, and back. He needed to get out of here before he lost too much or succumbed to shock.

"Shh," he tried with Bjorn, who was more concerned about having hit his elbow on the ground.

Magnus looked around for Dagmar. She was a little ways back up the trail, staring at Magnus with wide, unblinking eyes. Her face was as white as fresh snow.

"Come on." Magnus held a hand out to her. Dagmar just continued to stare, her gaze not breaking from Magnus' chest. "Dagmar, hurry up. We need to go."

She just stood there.

"Dagmar," Magnus' tone sharpened. "Let's go."

Her eyes widened even further as Magnus took a few steps toward her. Magnus exhaled through his nose when Dagmar turned and started running back toward the house. She wasn't very fast, but neither was Magnus with Bjorn fussing in his bloodied arms.

The underbrush rustled to Magnus' right. He caught a glimpse of white as the mass crossing the path beelined for Dagmar. She was plucked off the path with a cry of surprise that quickly vanished into the trees along with her as Lys carried her off.

As Magnus stared into the dark woods, Bjorn screaming in his ear and his own body aching inside and out, he tried to fathom that that was the last time he'd see Dagmar.

Or so he thought.

After fifteen years of paying for what Magnus had hoped would amount to a good deed, Dagmar stood in front of him like that again. This time, in the Paris Catacombs. Even though she'd grown up—eighteen now—it broke Magnus' heart to still see in her the little girl he'd unintentionally terrified. Dagmar stared at him the same way as she had back then, seemingly deaf to Bellatrix Lestrange snapping at her.

Dagmar jarred back to herself when Bellatrix pushed her shoulder. Magnus didn't speak English well enough to follow her translation. Along with her eerie physical resemblance of Hildegard, Dagmar even sounded like her.

Bellatrix said something in response to the last bit of the story, which Dagmar had to translate back into Norwegian. "She wants you to think harder about where you took him."

"I don't remember, jenta mi." After being hit with a couple Cruciatus Curses, Magnus hardly had any power left to project his voice.

"Is he dead?" Dagmar was about as quiet.

"I don't know."

Dagmar and Bellatrix spoke again, Bellatrix becoming even more forceful and impatient.

"She says keep looking at me." Dagmar's voice trembled. "She said if you can't remember—if you're no use. . ."

Magnus raised his head again, not necessarily to obey but because even now he still felt some kind of parental twinge toward Dagmar. His heart hurt more than his nerves to see Dagmar's shoulders shaking, her eyes closed, and tears gathered under her lashes. If only he'd gotten to her before Lys snatched her back up. Just what had Hildegard gotten this poor girl into?

"I don't remember," Magnus repeated. "I had thoughts about what to do, but I don't know if I followed through. I took Bjorn back to Trondheim. Packed some things at my flat. Cleaned us both up. Flooed to Bergen. Spent the night at the inn there. Figured I'd floo as far away as I possibly could, but it all gets fuzzy after that."

Given that Dagmar cried with her chin down, she didn't give much of an impression that she was listening. She replied, regardless. "She's going to kill you if you don't tell her."

"I think she will anyway." Magnus' gaze darted to Bellatrix's sneering face.

"She said she won't." Dagmar sniffled. "She'll modify your memory like she's going to do mine."

Magnus nodded, but he honestly didn't even really care. This was a long time coming. He'd had his memory wiped as a precaution and hid as a Parisian vagrant that slipped through the cracks of wizarding society. Even though the British Ministry tried to suppress Voldemort's return, Magnus knew it was true. He even had a feeling it would be Bellatrix Lestrange who came on Voldemort's behalf to try and wrest this information out of him.

"I don't remember," was all Magnus could say either way. "It's not coming back to me."

"Please," Dagmar said in a whisper. "You have to give her something."

"I've got nothing." Magnus shrugged. "It's okay, jenta mi. My only regret is that I couldn't help you. At least so long as his soul is in you, you'll never see any harm from them."

"But how am I going to get it out of me if Voldemort doesn't get Bjorn—?"

Dagmar cut off with a gasp as Bellatrix slapped her hard enough to make her stumble sideways. Magnus was halfway to standing when he was back to writhing on the floor. Bellatrix had been conservative with her Cruciatus Curses thus far. Magnus could withstand a decent amount of suffering, but it went on—and on—and on. . .

Even when Bellatrix laid off, Magnus' nerves remained on fire. They twitched, and his brain felt like it had pried itself away from his body in attempt to escape. He tried to breathe, each inhale drawing in lungfuls of dust from the floor his cheek was pressed against.

"Stop," Dagmar pleaded with Bellatrix, her voice hitching. "Stop."

Bellatrix started shrieking as she yelled. Magnus wasn't sure if it was toward him or Dagmar. Given how hard Dagmar cried, he wagered a guess. He tried to push himself up, his instinct to get between the two of them, but he just couldn't.

It was when Bellatrix calmed down that Magnus felt certain the other foot had dropped. Dagmar started pleading again, and all Magnus could do was crack his eyes open. Dagmar's attention was solely on Bellatrix. Bellatrix trained her wand yet again on Magnus, but he only looked at Dagmar. If this was the end, then all he wanted to see—regardless of circumstance—was the child he once considered like a daughter. He only wished it was a little happier than this.