part thirteen (unlucky number for some- unlucky chapter it is for some characters also)

*************

Sirius didn't move, it had started raining and he was drenched to the bone. But he didn't move, he sat in the quickly flooding grass just watching darkness creep up on him.

****


"Have you seen Sirius?" Edea was running through the corridors, asking various students if they'd seen him. SHe hadn't seen him since earlier that morning.

"Sorry Professor." A small second year shook his head,

Edea kept on running, checking various classrooms, curfew had started about an hour ago, the firey lights on the corridor walls had dimmed down completely and nothing could be heard but the steady rumble of thunder and the smattering of rain on the stone.
****


Severus Snape was sitting in front of a fire in his Dungeon classroom busy making wolfsbane potion for Remus when a voice came from the doorway. "Okay, tell me, who is he?"

Snape turned to face the voice. "You wouldn't want to know."

Sirius stepped into the room, dripping wet. "No?"

Snape stood up, no taking chances this time. "COme near me again Black and Dumbledore is going to know about this."

"I would have thought." Sirius squeezed the water out of a corner of his robe, "That he knew already... Being omniscient and all."

"You wouldn't want to know." Snape said again, almost silently. "You'd kill her."

"And you care?" Sirius almost let out a laugh, but stopped, his jaw fell. "Unless..."

Snape didn't even look at Sirius, but kept on stirring his cauldronful of potion.

"She wouldn't... you... you wouldn't..." Sirius was shaking his head, looking disgusted. "That's... that's just... not possible."

"Sirius!" Edea slid oen the door, "Thank god.. i was getting worried."

Sirius turned to look at her. The look on his face said everything.

"What... what the hell have you Done to yourself?" Edea pointed at his jaw.

"its nothing." He mumbled. "Nothing."

"I should probably leave." Snape said silkily,

"You're not going anywhere." Sirius growled, pointing his wand at Snape. "Eds, lets go."

"What..."

"LETS go." Sirius said pointedly, pulling her out of the door. "WHere is he?"

"Who?" Edea asked, followig Sirius' fast pace back up to her office.

"Your boy... Snape's boy.."

"Oh." Edea looked down as Sirius flumped down onto her desk, still sopping wet. "At his home."

"How old?"

"Ten," Edea said quietly, "Coming to Hogwarts in September."

"Oh, really?" Sirius asked, once again almost laughing. "I should have guessed."

"Guessed what."

"You do this on purpose?"

"NO!" Edea shouted at him. "All a mistake, everything."

"MISTAKE?" Sirius matched her volume... "How can you say that?" He stood up, "You calling that poor kid a mistake?"

"No! i'm calling what i had with Severus was a mistake."

"How long the hell did that last for?" Sirius was pacing the room now, leaving wet footprints on the floor.

"A year, maybe just over." Edea muttered. "Its not like i thought you'd ever come out of that place... and no one was talking to me afterwards, they all thought i'd failed the auror business. Severus listened to me... he was nice about it all..."

"So you decided to drop your robes?" Sirius stopped the moment he said that, and lowered his voice instantly.. "Gods Ed, i didn't mean to say that... i..."

Edea had already slammed the door behind her.

"That went well." Sirius told himself.
****

***FLASHBACK***

"You're leaving?" Severus asked incredulously, "After all this? You're leaving?"

"I dont really have much of a choice."

"You do. You're just going to walk away from Lucifer, you're going to walk away from what you have here?"

"I dont belong here." Edea said simply. "Your mother made that clear, and its obvious neither of you want me to have anything to do with my own child, so i'm leaving him in your dear mother's capable hands."

"What utter nonsense." Snape said, shocked. "You belong here, in this house, with me, with our child, where do you think you're going to go to?"

"Somewhere not here." Edea bewitched her bags which became miniature sized and she placed them in her pockets. "I thought i could love you, and i've found out that i can't so i'm sorry about that, and its better if i leave."

"Still after the traitor then?"

"I'm after nobody. I'm a lone wolf. Sole survivor. Single star in a constellation. Solitary leaf on a tree full of flowers, whatever you want to call it." Edea stepped out of the door. "You can tell Little Lucifer that Daddy drove Mummy away when he was tiny, and Mummy didn't have a choice."

"You're a coldhearted little swine." Severus shouted after her retreating form.

"No Severus," Edea called back. "I'm a shining star."
**END**


"She mean something by saying that, didn't she." Severus asked Remus, who had heard the whole thing earlier with Sirius and Edea.

"I'm guessing she did." Remus nodded, drinking a goblet of wolfsbane. "Cryptic, but very clear if you can untangle it all."

"Do you know where she went? i didn't hear from her until she came back here."

"yes actually." Remus nodded. "She came to me."

"She did?" Severus frowned, "How so?"

"Well, i'm not sure if you knew, but me, Sirius, Edea, and Anna- we house shared not that far from Godric's Hollow. I was taking a walk, and found her sitting by the ruins." Remus placed the empty goblet on Snape's desk. "That's where she stayed. Its nice to have your friends round you."

"She never told you?"

"She told me that she had been with you, but not about your son. Then, about a year later, she disappeared into the realms of the Muggles. Up until when i saw her here when she took up the job, i have no idea what she was doing after she left."

"I hope Sirius isn't going to do anyhing he might regret..."

"He wont, he's all talk. They've been arguing ever since they first met. Believe me, he'll open his mouth, say something ridiculously stupid, enrage Edea and finally apologise when he realises what he's done. He can't be angry with her for long. He loves her too much." Remus walked towards the door. "I know we dont get on well, but i think you should listen to this from me, don't beat yourself up about this, he doesnt like you, thats true. But its his way of saying he's confused with the situation, if this goes as it normally does, its going to be over by tomorrow morning. He wont talk to you for the rest of your life, but i'm guessing you wont lose sleep over that."

"No." Severus agreed, "I dont need to beat myself up, Sirius has already catered for that."

Remus shook his head, closing the door softly behind him, just in time to see a tearful Edea streaking past the corridor towards the One eyed witch.

"Oh Sirius." Remus muttered to no one in particular, "Well done, idiot."
****


"Spill it Padfoot." Remus walked into the DADA office. "What did you say?"

"Nothing." Sirius's reply was muffled by the pillow.

"Well NOTHING seems to have really upset that wife of yours." Remus sat down in a chair.

"I said some stupid stuff." Sirius looked up at his friend, "Got carried away."

"Dont you think that maybe you should apologise to her?"

"No." Sirius answered.

Remus's eyebrows rose at this, "You dont?"

"No." Sirius repeated, "I cant believe this, maybe i'll wake up and it wont be real."

"Sirius. Look at this from her perspective."

"Dont particularly want to right now." Sirius rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling. "Why does he have to get her, AND the child too? Remus, am i just cursed?"

"You wouldn't have wanted to, not at that time, you saw the troubles Lils and James had with bringing up Harry during Voldemort's reign. Can you imagine you and Edea doing that at the same time? Chaos... Plus, you were in Azkaban afterwards. Not like you had much of a say in it. I'm betting she never thought she'd see you again."

"Next time, can you tell me all this before i go and explode at her?" Sirius asked

"I can try, not promising anything, you're like a volcano, i have no idea when you'll blow."

"Volcanologists... they know when they're gonna blow."

"They can predict, but arent always accurate." Remus corrected, "Siriusologists have even less of a chance."

"Where'd she go?"

"Hogsmeade most probably, went in the one-eyed-witch direction." Remus watched as his friend dragged on his soggy boots and pulled a fesh cloak over his shoulders. "Sirius, try to make this work, okay?"

"Course. Moony. 'Course." Sirius smiled weakly before walking out of the door towards the one eyed witch.
****


"Whos' this?" MacNair asked as a figure climbed out of the Honeydukes window.

"Score." Knott grinned. "DuCruet."

"Doesnt look too happy does she."

"Not our problem, i tell you, she definitely wont be a happy bunny when we're through."

"Where's she headed?" MacNair pulled out his wand. "We should stun her before she has the chance to disapparate,"

"No. We must take out time, if she suddenly moves and sees us then our plan will be a lost cause and our master wont be pleased."

"Wait wait... who's the other one?"

"What other one?"

"Someone else... climbed out after her."

"They together?"

"Nope. Looks like DuCruet's disappeared off up the road. He hasn't seen her." MacNair smiled, "We have two... This, my dear friend, is Sirius Black."

"You're kidding... he dont look like the guy in the paper."

"Filled out a bit hasn't he." MacNair silenced Knott with a look. "We get the guy, then we double back and get the girl too."

"STUPEFY!" MacNair pointed his wand at Sirius, who slumped to the floor, stunned.

TBC-

uh-oh!!!!! poor sirius!