January 1979

Freya awoke to the sensation of her ears being scratched. Letting out something of a purring howl, Freya yawned and realized that she was still in fox form, having slept on Regulus's chest in the Slytherin dormitory. She opened her eyes, meeting Regulus's gaze, seeing his big smile. Freya smiled back as best she could as a fox, and Regulus murmured gently, "Hello, little girl. I hate to make you move, but I have to get ready for my potions class."

Freya stood up on his chest and stretched lazily, then made a playful, guttural little chattering noise before licking Regulus's face. Regulus and another seventh year boy laughed. Freya turned her head at the laughter and saw Zane Travers chuckling at her fox antics. Zane ribbed, "Regulus, I think that little vixen there likes you quite a bit."

Regulus smiled and scratched Freya's head again. Freya leaned into his hand as Regulus mused, "She does, doesn't she? If she's going to be sticking around here, I might just keep her as a pet."

Zane shook his head with a grin. "Up to you, mate," Zane said with a short laugh as he towel dried his wet, dark hair.

Freya jumped off Regulus, landing on the floor. She glanced around the room a few minutes, then smiled up at Regulus as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. A moment later, she darted out of the dormitories to the emerald green common room under the lake. Freya followed a pair of third year Slytherin girls out into the dungeons. Dashing up to the seventh floor, Freya made sure she was completely alone before returning to human form. Freya gave the Fat Lady the password and stepped into Gryffindor, running up the stairs to her dorm room for clean clothes before trying to make it to breakfast in the Great Hall with time to eat before Potions class. Grabbing her red and gold school uniform from her trunk, Freya changed clothes as Charlotte returned to the bedroom from doing her makeup in the bathroom. Charlotte frowned at Freya. "Where were you? You never came back to bed after our fight last night."

Freya said shortly, "Common room."

Looking confused, Charlotte said, "But Diana checked the common room for you early this morning and said you weren't down there…"

"I went out, ok? I don't have to stay in Gryffindor tower all the bloody time, you know," Freya snapped.

Charlotte slammed a book into her bag, then picked the bag up and tossed it carelessly over her shoulder. "Fine. I'm just trying to show you that I care about you even when we fight, that I'm concerned about your well-being, but if you are going to just be a snooty little pureblood bitch about the whole thing, then that's just bloody fine with me," Charlotte retorted.

Freya gaped open-mouthed at Charlotte as the Muggle-born stormed out of the room. After a few minutes of sitting on her bed with an angry look on her face, Freya sighed, throwing her Gryffindor jumper over her dress shirt and rushing out of the tower with her bag. Running down to the Great Hall and taking every shortcut she knew, Freya slid into the seat beside Regulus at the Slytherin table with ten minutes to spare before her Potions class. Freya felt acutely aware of the stares directed at her from every table — even the professors where eyeing her curiously, though trying to be more discreet about it than the students were. Dumbledore's knowing gaze settled on her, and his fathomless blue eyes made her stomach twist. Suddenly, breakfast didn't seem quite so appetizing to Freya anymore. Regulus wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side, his brow furrowing in confusion as he asked, "Hey, baby, are you all right?"

Freya nodded as she grabbed piece of toast, slathering it with butter. "Yeah, just fine," she mumbled as she pressed on the toast too hard with the butter knife, nearly ripping the piece of toast in half.

Alecto Carrow gave Freya a sarcastic smile as she asked, her voice sickly-sweet, "What's the matter, Freya? Your precious little Gryffindors won't let you sit with them?"

The knife officially pushed through to the other side of the piece of toast, cutting a hole in the piece of bread. Freya took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then said, strangely calm, "Perhaps, Alecto, I'd simply prefer to eat my breakfast with my loving husband than a bunch of ridiculous blood traitors and mudbloods."

Alecto raised her eyebrows in surprise as the Slytherin boys surrounding the two girls snickered around them. Regulus kissed the top of Freya's head and said proudly, "I knew you'd make a perfect pureblood wife. You'd have made a perfect Slytherin. I'm so proud of my little lion; look at you roar."

Freya dropped the destroyed piece of toast in favor of a new slice. Ignoring the praise from the Slytherins for her quick retort, Freya buttered the second piece of toast more gently, standing up to take it with her to eat as she walked to the Potions classroom. She nudged Regulus's shoulder and muttered, "Come on; we're going to be late for Potions."

Regulus grabbed his things and followed after Freya as she quickly left the Great Hall, munching on her toast and ignoring the stares and whispers that followed after the two of them. Regulus caught up with his wife as she entered the dungeons and grabbed her elbow, slowing her down enough that he could whisper in her ear, "Are you sure you're ok? I mean, I'm proud of your response to Alecto back there, but it didn't really sound like something you'd say."

Freya sighed as they approached the Potions classroom. "Charlotte and I had a big fight last night, and I guess it's still going on this morning," she replied faintly.

Regulus frowned, pulling her to a stop just outside the classroom and giving her a comforting hug. "I'm sorry, Freya," he mumbled in her ear. "Let me know if there's any way I can make it better for you, ok?" Freya nodded quickly against his chest, the sound of Regulus's steady heartbeat slowly calming her frayed nerves. "That reminds me," Regulus added softly as he guided her to their shared Potions table. "Just ignore Alecto and her stupid comments. Alecto's just upset because she's been vying for my attentions, trying to get me to propose to her since first year, then she found out that all of a sudden the pureblood man she had her cap set for is married and off the market, and to a Gryffindor no less. Just don't let her make you feel unworthy or anything like that. You're perfect."

Freya and Regulus sat down as the class began, and Freya whispered back softly, "Ok."

Regulus and Freya walked hand in hand around the Black Lake through the snow that afternoon. Freya stood as close to Regulus as she could as they walked, her eyes downcast as she related the details of her fight with Charlotte to Regulus. Regulus frowned at the turn of events, then said thoughtfully, "Well, it's probably for the best. I mean, being so close to a mudblood wasn't very good for your reputation in the first place."

Freya rolled her eyes. "I don't care about my bloody reputation right now, Regulus. I care much more about the fact that I suddenly don't have one of my best friends in the whole world to turn to anymore."

Regulus shrugged. "You'll have new best friends to turn to soon enough. More appropriate ones who will better understand what your life is like."

Freya sneered, "You mean pureblood friends, right? Like that matters to me right now."

Regulus said snippily, "It should mean a lot to you right now, actually." He sighed, then continued, "The night before we returned to Hogwarts, I slipped away in the middle of the night for a meeting with the Death Eaters. The Dark Lord was there, and…"

"Wait a minute," Freya said, not taking another step, forcing Regulus to stop in his own tracks and turn to face her. "What do you mean you had a meeting with the Dark Lord that night? We made love for hours that night; how could you have possibly had time to sneak off for that without me noticing?"

Regulus pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes tightly, then said impatiently, "You fell asleep between rounds, remember? It might not have felt like it to you, but it was three hours between when you fell asleep and I left for the meeting."

"That doesn't make sense though," Freya insisted. "One minute I wasn't the least bit sleepy, and the next I was waking up to the feeling of you kissing me…" Freya trailed off for a moment, then gasped, pulling her hand out of Regulus's grasp. "Did you drug me?" she demanded angrily. "You did, didn't you? You put sleeping draught in my pumpkin juice; that's the only thing that makes sense! What were you thinking? Why did you do that?"

Regulus groaned. "Freya, please, don't do this. Don't question my every decision. If I do something, it's to protect you, to keep you safe."

"How would I have been in any danger just from knowing that you were going to go meet those stupid Death Eaters?" Freya snapped.

"Hey!" Regulus said, struggling not to shout. "Have you forgotten that I am one of those 'stupid Death Eaters'? I know you don't agree with everything we stand for, but is a little respect too much to ask for?"

Freya's hazel eyes met Regulus's angry gray ones, and she looked away, down at the snow, suddenly feeling very low and foolish. "You're right; I'm sorry," Freya mumbled.

Regulus's face softened, and he pulled her in for a tight hug. "It's ok, darling," Regulus murmured against her auburn hair. "I'm sorry for getting so angry, and for putting you under a sleeping potion. I should've just trusted you with the truth. I just didn't want you to sit up all night worrying about me and not get any sleep before we headed back to school."

Freya said softly, "It's ok. I trust you, Regulus."

"Thank you," Regulus said faintly, and a couple moments later, Freya felt wetness in her hair from Regulus's silent tears. "Umm, the Dark Lord obviously heard about our wedding. He wasn't too pleased that I didn't confirm our engagement with him, but seeing as you're a true pureblood from one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, he decided to forgive my oversight and blessed our marriage anyway. He isn't concerned about the fact that you are a Gryffindor, but he is concerned about your ties to so many mudbloods and blood traitors. He thinks you may not be loyal to the cause when put to the test." Freya shuddered at the thought of what sort of terrors Voldemort might be about to put the two of them through. "He's even heard rumors that you're planning on becoming an Auror. Is that true?"

Freya felt herself shrink slightly in Regulus's arms, and she said, her mouth dry, "Yes, that's the plan."

Regulus sighed. "I was afraid of that," he lamented. "Listen, the Dark Lord is willing to allow you to become an Auror." Freya pulled back, staring Regulus in the face as she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "Of course, there is a catch."

"Of course there is."

"The Dark Lord says that if you're going to be an Auror, you're going to have to be of a little more use to him than as a simple wife to one of his Death Eaters. You still wouldn't have to take the Dark Mark, because that would give you away as one of us, but you would most definitely have no choice but to be a spy for the Dark Lord inside the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Freya's eyes grew large and round, disbelief written all over her face. "I'd have to what?" she exclaimed loudly. "How could anyone possibly believe that I would be a spy for anybody on anything? It's all I can do to keep a surprise birthday party a secret! The fact that our relationship stayed a secret as long as it did was a bloody miracle. How the hell could the Dark Lord ask me to be a freaking spy?"

Regulus suddenly covered her mouth with his hand and hissed, "Shut up, Freya! You're being far too loud; what, are you trying to expose our connection to the Dark Lord to the whole bloody world?"

Freya glared at her husband angrily. After she was silent for a moment, he removed his hand from her mouth, and she said venomously, "I'm not going to be anybody's bloody spy, and that's all there is to it. I'm not a Death Eater, so there's no way in hell I'm going to do any sort of work for the damn Dark Lord, no matter what he says."

Freya yanked away from Regulus and stomped off back in the direction of the castle. Regulus sighed and called after her, "If you don't do, you can't become an Auror at all. I won't allow you to put yourself or me in the kind of danger you'd be placing us in by becoming an Auror without doing it."

Freya turned around and shouted back, "Well, that's just bloody fine, then! I'm sure the whole bloody wizarding Britain is better off without me if I have to do that!"

Freya stormed off to the castle, racing up to Gryffindor tower, where she changed into drier, warmer clothes, including Regulus's Slytherin seeker jumper from the previous school year, the silver letters spelling "Black" standing out from the back of the emerald green jumper. As furious as she was with Regulus, her last name was Black now instead of Potter, and since she was no longer on the Quidditch team this year, wearing her old Gryffindor jumper with "Potter" scrawled across the back somehow felt wrong. She grabbed her Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts textbooks and rushed down to grab a seat by the fireplace in the nearly abandoned common room and began to study. Several hours later, the common room had been occupied by quite a few more people, and before long curfew arrived and Freya found herself surrounded by Charlotte and Diana. Diana said softly, "Hey, Freya. How are you?" as the two girls sat down on the couch on either side of her, making room for themselves by rearranging her books and parchments.

Freya sighed, then dragged a hand over her face. "I'm ok," she said softly as she tightened her helplessly messy ponytail. "Just studying for exams."

Charlotte looked at her curiously. "The N.E.W.T.s are nearly six months away, and you've never been particularly studious. Everything just comes naturally to you."

Freya snipped, "Well, maybe my mind is just a little too frazzled these days to retain all of this academic bullshit as easily as it usually does."

Diana placed a hand on Freya's shoulder, watching her carefully with a mix of pity and concern that made Freya's stomach turn. "Freya, is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Why would there be something I wanted to talk about? You lot are all the same; all you bloody Gryffindors act like I've got some terminal disease or something these days. You two, James, Remus, Lily…"

"Sirius?" Diana offered the name easily enough, but the name caused every muscle in Freya's body to tense.

Charlotte sighed and threw an arm around Freya's shoulders. "Look, I know you're married to Regulus now, although we're both still confused why you went and married some Slytherin git, but that's not the point. All of us 'bloody Gryffindors' as you so elegantly put it are worried about you. You seem withdrawn, depressed. You're such an outgoing, fun-loving girl. You were the highlight of every Gryffindor party, the star keeper of our Quidditch team, and now you don't come to the parties or play on our Quidditch team at all and wear your husband's Slytherin Quidditch jumper. You're constantly on edge and you scream bloody murder at us every time we try to talk to you about what's been going on with you and how you're doing."

"Freya," Diana said quietly. "We're worried that Regulus is hurting you. Don't try to deny it. That makeup job you did to your face yesterday did a pretty decent job of covering that fading bruise on your face, but that doesn't mean that neither of us noticed it today after all that makeup had smudged." Freya unconsciously touched the spot on her cheek where the fading yellow remainders of the bruise resided on her skin. "Listen to me," Diana demanded, and Freya finally met her gaze. "I know you don't want to hear this, but you can still get out of this. You can leave Regulus. Just get a divorce, plain and simple. Leave him and move back home with James and Lily and your parents. They'll take care of you. And with Sirius head over heels in love with you, you can be damn well sure too that he won't let anyone touch you either."

"Please, Freya," Charlotte begged, her voice betraying unnoticed, unshed tears in her eyes. "We love you. None of us want to see you get hurt or end up in Azkaban for being married to a supporter of You-Know-Who. Please, please, leave Regulus and all his stupid Slytherin friends behind and just come home."

Freya banished her schoolbooks away to her bed in her dormitory with a wave of her wand, then sighed. "It's not that easy, girls," she muttered. "For starters, I'd have to actually want to leave Regulus, and I don't. I refuse to believe that Sirius is in love with me; he probably just wants me around for casual sex again, and as a married woman, I'm obliged to deny him that privilege. I'm not going to end up in Azkaban, and the bruise on my face isn't from Regulus, it's from his bloody house elf accidentally whacking me in the face with a pan while he was cooking." Freya swallowed hard at the end of telling such a bold-faced lie to her best friends, but she refused to back down now. "I love Regulus very very much, and that is enough for me to never want to leave him. Good night."

Freya stood and quickly began crossing the room to the portrait hole. Diana called after her, "Where are you going? It's after curfew."

Freya answered simply, "Out."

Once again, Freya found herself inside Slytherin house in fox form. Regulus had officially named her fox alter ego "Vixen," and she found that she was surprisingly the most content when she was curled up in her husband's lap as a fox. Currently, her front half was better situated on his legs and her rump sat on the couch beside him. She read along with him as he studied for Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and Regulus seemed to not notice that the fox he had adopted was studying every bit as hard as he was. Barty Crouch, Jr. sat in the armchair beside Regulus's couch lazily, flicking through his potions book without any purpose. Finally, the younger Slytherin sighed loudly and flung the book down in his lap, exclaiming, "Regulus, I want to get out of here! All these stupid classes and theoretical mumbo jumbo, I want to do something real. I want to join the Dark Lord's inner circle."

Regulus hushed Barty quickly and harshly. "What are you trying to do, Barty? Expose us? If Dumbledore or one of the professors catches wind of Death Eater talk inside the castle we'll be expelled and sent to Azkaban for sure."

Barty nodded apologetically, and Regulus sat back and resumed reading his textbook. After another moment of shifting her eyes back and forth between the two boys, Freya continued to study as well. Freya jumped when Barty suddenly jumped over to the couch and sat down hard on her bushy red and white tail. Freya let out a howl that sounded more like some small creature being strangled than a dog's howl, then turned and bared her teeth at Barty. "All right, all right, Vixen," Barty said, lifting his rear off her tail enough to free Freya, who quickly scrambled over Regulus's lap to lay curled up on Regulus's right leg instead, pressed against the couch's armrest. "How is your wife dealing with the whole pureblood/Death Eater issue? I mean, she handled herself pretty well against Carrow this morning, but that doesn't mean she's doing as well behind closed doors."

Regulus sighed, shutting the textbook and giving up all hopes of getting any studying done that night. "Freya is a strong, beautiful pureblood woman, and my mother has managed to explain most of her duties as the soon-to-be matriarch of the House of Black fairly well. Freya didn't grow up in a proper pureblood lifestyle though, so she's struggling to remember that she can't even be so much as friendly with the mudbloods and blood traitors she grew up with," Regulus said tiredly. "I'm doing my best to help her remember how stupid she's being when she's still friends with those dumb Gryffindor mudbloods, but she's stubborn and doesn't like to be told that she's wrong."

Barty nodded. "Do you think she'll make it? I mean, if the Dark Lord is wanting her to funnel information to us from inside the Ministry, she's going to be a lot smarter and a lot tougher than that."

Regulus shook his head. "Actually, she'd have to become even better friends with the mudbloods and scumsuckers if she became a spy. It's if she decides not to become an Auror and a spy, that's when she'll have to get smart and look out for herself for once in her life and cut those Muggle-loving scum out of her life for good. I don't know what she'll do, but I hope she becomes a spy, for all of our sakes," Regulus whispered softly.

Freya yawned in Regulus's lap, but as his words sank in, she realized how true it was that she was treading dangerous ground. Soon, one day all too soon, she would have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, and Freya couldn't imagine any of her options being pleasant.

Reviews are fantastic! Please leave tons!

Lots of love,

WildestDreams72394