Amaryllis placed the letter down on table in front of her. Timothy had sent it a few hours ago. Regulus, of course, had read it instantly, but she had been too busy looking after Carina. Well that and she stopped caring about what both Timothy and Corbin had to say long ago.
But now that Carina was in bed and Amaryllis had eaten a proper meal she had read the letter. And regardless of their present relationship, she was heartbroken.
"How can you not even care?" Amaryllis asked Regulus her eyes full of tears from the contents of the letter. "He was our friend. How can you be so nonchalant about this? You didn't even react. You didn't think to take Carina for a short while so I could read the letter."
"He messed up." Regulus stated coldly. "I didn't need to worry you about it. Carina needs you more now."
"Corbin was there for me when you weren't." She told him. "The least you could do is watch our daughter while I mourn our friend."
A small cry came from the next room. Amaryllis ran off to see to Carina. It seemed that the baby was the only light in her life.
Regulus just stood there stunned. He hadn't realised she still cared about Corbin. Sure he had been her friend but they'd barely spoken after their break up. He had been nothing but dreadful to her since their sixth year yet she still cared that he was dead.
"Don't tell me you still loved him?" Regulus said as he stood in the doorway of Carina's nursery having felt like he needed to find out the truth. "Not after the way he treated you."
"I loved him only as a friend." She said as she rocked her child in her arms. "Even when we were together. Now please, I don't want to talk about death around her."
"Look at the world we live in Amy, death is all around us." He told her. "Everything is falling apart. You know we'll be dead the moment He finds out what we did."
"I thought we agreed never to mention it again." She snapped as she lay the once again sleeping baby back down in her cot.
"We can't hide from what we did." He said as he ushered her out of the room shutting the door behind him. "If He finds out you know we're both dead. And someone like Bella will raise Carina."
"Don't say that." She muttered as she sat back down at the table. "Don't you dare say that. My daughter is not going to be raised by your psycho cousin."
"Like you could think of anyone better." He said.
They sat in silence for a moment. Amaryllis went over Timothy's letter again. She knew what she wanted. But it wasn't going to easy. Nothing in her life easy though.
"I don't want her to be a part of this." Amaryllis said after a short silence. "I don't any of this darkness to affect her."
"You know we can't get out." Regulus told her.
"What if we went home?" She asked. "My home."
"Australia." He whispered. "We can't take Carina unless we travel the muggle way. And we can't travel the muggle way without putting all those around us in danger."
"Then we leave her behind." She said earning a shocked look from Regulus. "I don't like it either. But she's safer if she isn't with us. Think about it. She'll be safer without any ties to Him."
Regulus stared for a moment. He knew exactly what she was talking about. As long as their allegiances still lay with the Dark Lord they couldn't ensure Carina's safety. She was the child He had wanted, not them.
"What do with do with her?" Regulus asked. "Mother will only hand her straight over."
"Who's the one family member with no ties to him what so ever?" Amaryllis asked.
They both knew who she was talking about. But it would be dangerous. There was no doubt about placed the letter down on table in front of her. Timothy had sent it a few hours ago. Regulus, of course, had read it instantly, but she had been too busy looking after Carina. Well that and she stopped caring about what both Timothy and Corbin had to say long ago.
But now that Carina was in bed and Amaryllis had eaten a proper meal she had read the letter. And regardless of their present relationship, she was heartbroken.
"How can you not even care?" Amaryllis asked Regulus her eyes full of tears from the contents of the letter. "He was our friend. How can you be so nonchalant about this? You didn't even react. You didn't think to take Carina for a short while so I could read the letter."
"He messed up." Regulus stated coldly. "I didn't need to worry you about it. Carina needs you more now."
"Corbin was there for me when you weren't." She told him. "The least you could do is watch our daughter while I mourn our friend."
A small cry came from the next room. Amaryllis ran off to see to Carina. It seemed that the baby was the only light in her life.
Regulus just stood there stunned. He hadn't realised she still cared about Corbin. Sure he had been her friend but they'd barely spoken after their break up. He had been nothing but dreadful to her since their sixth year yet she still cared that he was dead.
"Don't tell me you still loved him?" Regulus said as he stood in the doorway of Carina's nursery having felt like he needed to find out the truth. "Not after the way he treated you."
"I loved him only as a friend." She said as she rocked her child in her arms. "Even when we were together. Now please, I don't want to talk about death around her."
"Look at the world we live in Amy, death is all around us." He told her. "Everything is falling apart. You know we'll be dead the moment He finds out what we did."
"I thought we agreed never to mention it again." She snapped as she lay the once again sleeping baby back down in her cot.
"We can't hide from what we did." He said as he ushered her out of the room shutting the door behind him. "If He finds out you know we're both dead. And someone like Bella will raise Carina."
"Don't say that." She muttered as she sat back down at the table. "Don't you dare say that. My daughter is not going to be raised by your psycho cousin."
"Like you could think of anyone better." He said.
They sat in silence for a moment. Amaryllis went over Timothy's letter again. She knew what she wanted. But it wasn't going to easy. Nothing in her life easy though.
"I don't want her to be a part of this." Amaryllis said after a short silence. "I don't any of this darkness to affect her."
"You know we can't get out." Regulus told her.
"What if we went home?" She asked. "My home."
"Australia." He whispered. "We can't take Carina unless we travel the muggle way. And we can't travel the muggle way without putting all those around us in danger."
"Then we leave her behind." She said earning a shocked look from Regulus. "I don't like it either. But she's safer if she isn't with us. Think about it. She'll be safer without any ties to Him."
Regulus stared for a moment. He knew exactly what she was talking about. As long as their allegiances still lay with the Dark Lord they couldn't ensure Carina's safety. She was the child He had wanted, not them.
"What do with do with her?" Regulus asked. "Mother will only hand her straight over."
"Who's the one family member with no ties to him what so ever?" Amaryllis asked.
They both knew who she was talking about. But it would be dangerous. There was no doubt about that.
Sirius Black was in his flat. It was small but he liked it. The flat was his space. It wasn't his family's and it wasn't the Potter's. It was his.
He had just finished cleaning up after dinner one night when he heard a knock at the door. It was strange. No one knocked. Remus and Peter would always come in through the floo. He picked up his wand and made his way to the door, hiding his wand behind his back in case it was one of his muggle neighbours.
However, when he opened the door his was surprised by the person on the door step.
"I'm so sorry to bother you, but could I please come in?" Amaryllis asked him.
She was there alone. No Regulus. It was strange for the two of them to be apart. And the way she held herself under her cloak made him think she was hiding something.
Sirius just nodded and stepped aside. She stepped into the room and headed over to one of the couches. As she sat down her cloak fell backwards from her shoulders revealing a small bundle in her arms.
"Again, I'm really sorry to bother you, but it all getting too much." She explained. "Regulus and I, we're planning something."
"Something?" He asked rather confused.
"We're leaving." She admitted.
"You know I can't let you do that." He told her. "I have to report it to Dumbledore. You're both known Death Eaters."
"We also have a six month old child." She retorted. "A child who we can't take with us."
"What?" He asked after a moments silence.
He was shocked. He hadn't known any of this. He couldn't have expected any of this.
"We did something." Amaryllis said. "Something that would have us both killed is the Dark Lord found out. So we have to leave. It's been over a year but we couldn't leave before we finished school and then we had Carina and now we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. No matter what we choose we lose."
"What did you do?" Sirius asked.
"I can't tell you." She said. "We promised each other we wouldn't speak about what we'd done. If Reg was here he might say we could but he's gone to visit Walburga and lay a spell on the family tree. On our section anyway."
Sirius was shocked again. He couldn't work out what had happened with these two to put them in this position.
"Sirius, we need you to take Carina." Amaryllis told him.
"Liz, I'm not like you." Sirius tried to say. "I'm not one of you."
"And that's why we want your help." She explained. "It's horrible and no child should grow up so close to Him. Even surrounded by love."
"What does You-Know-Who want with a baby on his side?" He asked.
"Well you remember how I didn't have a dark mark at the wedding?" She asked receiving a nod in response. "It was because I made a deal, with Him. He covered it long enough so I could get married, in the dress we'd picked out, without any trouble if someone burst in. Because I knew someone from your little group would crash our wedding."
"Well we couldn't exactly let a suspected Death Eater wedding go ahead, could we?" He joked earning a smile from Amaryllis.
"The deal was that within a year we'd have an heir to Noble and Most Ancient House of Black or at least have one on the way." She explained. "If we didn't, I don't know what he would have done, but there was no way I was finding out. Reg was furious when he found out. The thing was, I waited until I was pregnant to tell him. I didn't want him trying to find a way around it."
Sirius was shocked by her actions. He'd known she was manipulative. That much had always been obvious. But there was no way he would have ever suspected it was this bad.
"So you two are just going to leave?" Sirius asked her.
"Corbin died." Amaryllis said. "Corbin Wilkes. One of our best friends. Sure he disliked me after we broke up but it made me realise how dangerous this is. We could be killed at any minute. Then where would that leave Carina. At least this way we can come back to her one day."
"You don't think she'll be angry at you for leaving?" He asked her.
"I knew you would be the best person to leave her with." She said ignoring his question. "You're on the right side of this war. You'll make sure she's safe until we can come back."
Amaryllis stood up and handed Carina over to Sirius.
"Carina Electra Black. Mummy loves you. Daddy loves you. This all for the greater good. Your life will be better this way." She said as she kissed her daughter on the head tears welling up in her eyes before she looked up at Sirius again. "Take care of her Sirius."
With that Amaryllis left out the door before Sirius could say anything else. He saw that she'd left a bag on the couch. Going over to it he realised it was all Carina's stuff. He placed the baby on the couch and began to unpack her cot, enlarging it to it's proper size.
There was no extra space in the flat so he placed it on the side in his room before going to get Carina to place the sleeping baby in her bed. This was all just a little too strange.
When Amaryllis returned home she managed to wipe all the tears from her face and calm herself down before she entered the house. She put on a brave face as she entered the dining room and sat down at the table picking up the newspaper that lay there.
Shortly after she'd sat down Regulus arrived to join her.
"How did it go?" He asked as he dropped into the seat across from her.
"As well as one can expect." She said putting the paper down and taking his hand.
Her attempts to cover up the fact that she'd been crying didn't work so well. There were two reasons Regulus could tell. The first being her puffy eyes and forced smile. The second being the look in her eyes. He knew her too well. It was clear to him that she was hurting.
"Come here." He told her standing up and pulling her into a hug resting his chin on her head. "Carina will be fine, I promise. Sirius will take care of her."
"We'll miss everything." She said. "Her first words, her first steps. Accidental magic. Even Hogwarts."
"But she'll be safe." He told his wife. "She'll be happy. She might even be friends with the Potter's kid."
"Oh no, imagine if she marries the Potter's kid." She said as pulled back and stared at Regulus.
"Now that won't happen." He told her and he pulled her back in. "Carina will have better standards than that."
Amaryllis just laughed.
"We can have another." Regulus told her. "Once we're safe. That one won't end up with a Potter."
"I can't do that." Amaryllis said. "It will feel like we're betraying her. We abandoned her and had another child."
"She'll understand." He told her. "When she's older."
Regulus let her go and she sat back down. He began preparing dinner for the two of them. They needed to eat now so they could get some rest before they left in the morning.
"I fixed the tree." He told her. "Carina's there. It won't show up if we die. Neither will any more kids."
"You're giving her hope if she ever goes to Grimmauld Place." Amaryllis told him. "What if we're long dead but she thinks we're still alive?"
"Someone will explain." He said vaguely.
The next morning when they got up they packed all their stuff quickly and shrunk it down to fit in their pockets. They couldn't be seen carrying anything if they wanted to make a quick escape.
As they took one final look around the now empty house the smiled at one another however neither's smile reached the eyes of person. They didn't want to leave, but they had no choice.
No one knew where they were going. It would be better that way. Only Sirius knew they were leaving. At least this way no one would be able to tell Him what happened to them. No one would find them. After all, who would travel to Australia to look them. They weren't that important.
They walked out of their house and looked at the front of it. The place had been so perfect. Everything was so perfect. They didn't want to leave but they knew they had to.
"I don't know if I can do this." Amaryllis told Regulus.
"You can." He told her.
They were walking down the street trying to get to a spot they could apparate from. Amaryllis was focusing all her energy on remembering the forest out the back of her old house. She thought it would be best to apparate there as it wouldn't have changed apart from new growth. The native trees wouldn't have been cut down. And it would secluded enough for them to not draw attention by appearing.
"This might be worse than normal apparition." Amaryllis said. "Considering the distance."
"I know." Regulus said. "We don't have any other choice though do we."
"Stop saying that." She said no longer wanting to hear about their lack of options in their situation. "I know we don't have another choice but that doesn't mean I can't worry."
"I'm sorry." He said. "I'm just trying to be realistic."
"No, I'm sorry, this is hard on both of us." She said.
They stopped talking knowing it could only lead to more fighting. Both of them regretted everything they'd done. Neither of them had ever wanted it to come to this. They had just gone with what they thought was right.
As they reached the apparition point they looked back on the area they lived. Neither wanted to leave but it had to be done.
"Are you ready?" Amaryllis asked.
"As I'll ever be." Regulus responded.
He wrapped his arm around his wife pulling her close as she spun on her heel taking them far, far away from England, London and the Dark Lord.