For Anne, because she's been wonderful.

Chapter Thirteen: Half Moon

"Well, is she dead yet?"

The thin, shivering man winced at the low throaty voice. "No, my lord, she's not."

There was a brief pause. "Is there a reason for this incompetence?"

The man blinked. Lord Voldemort had never asked for reasons, which was one of the main problems many of the old Death Eaters had a problem with this new leader. They wanted to go back to the old ways. They didn't understand that there simply weren't enough of them left to kill off those devoted to the cause in the name of discipline.

"Yes, my lord. She's too well protected."

"Well protected? I thought we had this issue covered."

"I, that is to say, we, can't break through the Ministry defenses. It seems Granger and Potter passed the resolution to upgrade the security in the main office."

The Dark Lord stepped into the light, and as always, the man was a little disgusted by the appearance of the head of the Death Eaters.

"Don't sneer at me in that fashion," Bellatrix Lestrange snapped. "Show some respect!"

Immediately, the man fell to his knees, but he couldn't help but notice that years of dracus root abuse had worn what was once at least passable to something from a Muggle freak show. Clumps of dark hair had fallen out in scattered areas, her nose was red, chapped, and swollen from the bridge to the tip. Her eyes were wild, and her hands never rested. The one time mistress to the Dark Lord had fallen to a pit of graceless indignity.

Damn Cassandra for what she's done to us, the man thought.

"There is no reason why Raina O'Reilly should still be alive. I want her dead, and I want her dead quickly! She's the only hope my dear cousin has of surviving. Luckily, the woman's denser than lead. If she's not dead by morning, someone else will be. In her place."

There was quiet in the room, and nobody moved.

Slowly, the man nodded. "Yes, my lord."

Bellatrix grinned, and the man nearly recoiled from the scent of her breath. "That's what I like to hear."

Once again, the man deferred, "Yes, my lord," but he couldn't help but think of the time when others would call him Lord of all Dark magic. The day was approaching quickly, and Bellatrix, the current "Dark Lord", didn't know what was coming.

**

Harry grinned at Ron, who was lounging in his quarters in Hogwarts, nursing a glass of good Odgen's Firewhiskey.

"So, how do you like teaching, then?" Harry asked, swirling the clear liquid around in his own glass absentmindedly.

"Kids today are a lot more inventive than you or I ever were," Ron said, and closed his eyes. "The places they think to pull pranks… I've never seen the like. With the exception of Fred and George, perhaps."

"Fred and George were… unique," Harry agreed. "The question to ask is, has anyone got away with anything yet?"

Ron smiled proudly. "Please, mate. You don't think I've gone soft in my week away from the job, do you? Of course nobody's got away with a prank on my watch. They've come close, the little buggers, but nothing too serious."

The door opened, and in walked a very distraught Jessica and a somewhat frazzled Hermione, who blinked when she saw Harry.

"Oh, hello. I didn't know you were here."

"What's going on?" Harry rose to his feet immediately.

Hermione sighed, and whispered to Jessica, "Love, the bathroom's round the corner. Why don't you go wash your face?"

Harry was startled to see Jessica actually obey Hermione. Normally she didn't allow adults to treat her like a child.

"Hermione?"

"She overheard a conversation that she probably shouldn't have," Hermione said, by way of explanation, and settled herself on the arm of Ron's lounging chair.

"About what?" Harry demanded.

"Orion and Severus were having a… confrontation. She won't tell me much about it." Hermione took a deep breath. "Apparently there was talk about her natural parents. Something was said about her illegitimacy, and Draco's illness…"

"If you can call that an illness," Ron muttered.

"I suppose she thinks that Severus assumes that she's also that way," Hermione concluded.

Harry gritted his teeth. "I would get angry about her being out of bounds in the middle of the night, but we never followed that rule ourselves." Fisting his hands, he fought the urge to punch something. "Why can't Orion and Severus have their little tiffs in private, for Merlin's sake?"

Ron raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't aware there was any tension between Severus and Orion to begin with."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "For someone who's paid to observe danger, sometimes you can be a little bit clueless, darling."

Ron shrugged helplessly. "I can't help it. I never really paid much attention to Orion to begin with anyway. We haven't had time to socialize with the Lupins in a long time."

"There's definitely something going on there," Hermione said. "I'm not sure what it is though."

Harry rose to his feet quickly. "Hush. Here comes Jessica."

Sure enough, they heard the distinctive sound of shoe bottoms hitting the stone floor. "Dad?"

Holding out his arms wide, Harry tried to smile and found that he couldn't. They both knew it was time they really talked about where Jessica came from.

Jessica's relief at seeing her father, her real father, she told herself firmly, was so great that she took a running leap to reach his embrace. "Dad," she whispered when she got there, as if convincing herself that it was the truth.

"Let's go for a walk, hmm?" As usual, Harry's deep and calm voice brought her back to the edge of sanity.

"All right," she whispered, and grasped his hand firmly. Together, they walked out of the Weasleys' chambers.

"I miss that blind faith," Hermione murmured. "You know, the time when you just knew that Mum and Dad could make it all wonderful again?"

Ron smiled. "I kind of like being the bloke who gets to make it wonderful, myself," he admitted, gesturing towards the rooms where their children peacefully slept, at least for tonight.

"Somebody's got to have a word with Minerva about Severus and Orion," Hermione said swiftly before her heart melted too much.

Ron finished off his glass with a flourish. "It's got to be stressful," he said and headed towards the kitchen.

"What?" Hermione asked, wanting him to finish his thought.

"Being a sixteen or seventeen year old professor when your dad's dying and mum's not that far behind."

Hermione gasped and then chided him, "Ron, they're not that bad off."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "They're not? Hermione, sometimes I think that for someone who gets paid to observe, you don't see very much."

"Touché," Hermione mumbled. "Still that doesn't excuse him picking a fight with Severus…"

"I think the blame lies more with Severus for letting him, don't you think?"

Hermione let out a frustrated sigh. "Ron, sometimes you surprise me."

Grinning, Ron made a broad gesture with his hands. "Shall we retire, madam?" His voice lowered suggestively. "I'm sure I could surprise you in our bedchamber."

Hermione blushed, but recovered quickly enough. "You could, eh? Lead me there then!"

**

Raina moved quietly down the hallway in St. Mungo's Hospital. She was going to visit Sirius Black, whom she had become quite attached to, in spite of herself. Now she found herself asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions that she didn't particularly want to answer. Questions that she had had since her parents' death.

She took a deep breath and inhaled the sterile scent and feeling of the hospital. How anyone could survive while they were here was beyond her. Just stepping inside made her feel cramped, uncomfortable.

What would your Aurors think if they knew you were deathly afraid of something? The annoying voice in the back of her head berated her. Pull yourself together.

"I'm trying to," she whispered fiercely. "I hate hospitals."

"I do too."

Raina looked up, startled. "Oh, Sirius, thank Merlin. You scared me half to death."

He was leaning against his doorway, and his face was pale, ashen, much worse than it had been just yesterday when she'd been here. It took her by surprise, and though she tried to hide it, Sirius could see that she had noticed.

"The state I'm in would scare anyone," he admitted gruffly.

"Don't say that!" Raina found her voice rising in a near panic, and fought it back. "You're going to get better. I just know it."

Sirius grinned. "I survived hell for twelve years. I think I can tackle an illness."

Raina nodded, not saying what was running through her mind. Those had been external threats. She could fight back external threats with him, for him. He could fight those off on his own. He had a remarkable ability to shut down emotionally, she noticed.

This illness, however, was internal. It was literally eating him from within. Just yesterday the doctors had told her what was happening. Sirius's blood was slowly clotting; his organs were slowly suffocating.

He couldn't eat enough because his metabolism burned the calories so fast, and he had no appetite because his stomach was full of mucus.  He was coughing blood, and if the doctors couldn't work out what was happening…

Abruptly, she shut down that line of thought. That wouldn't help Sirius.

"You need to be in bed, mister. You've got to save your energy."

Shrugging, Sirius tried to act nonchalant. "I've always said I wanted to die quickly."

Raina's eyes narrowed. "If you want to die quickly, I can do the job for you. Now, get into bed."

Startled, Sirius's eyes widened, and then he grinned, and the effect was, even in his illness, devastating. "Yes, mother."

Raina chuckled. "Very funny, but I wasn't joking. Move."

"All right." Sirius nearly stamped as he entered the room, but the childishness of the action prevented him from doing so. "You didn't have to be so pushy."

"I didn't?" Raina raised an eyebrow. "That's news to me."

Sirius nearly didn't hear her, because he almost collapsed on the bed.

"Do you need help?"

Sirius closed his eyes and swallowed his pride. "I can't lift my legs onto the bed."

Raina nodded, then moved over to the bed. His upper half lay on the bed, his chest heaving. "Right then. On the count of three. One. Two. Three!" With some amount of effort, she lifted his legs onto the bed.

Completely exhausted, Sirius just lay there on the bed, not moving.

"What were you doing out of bed, anyway?"

"I was looking for you," he responded without opening his eyes. "You were later than usual."

Raina smiled. "I'm terribly sorry about that. I got held up at work and…"

"Damn it, I don't want you to feel obligated to come here!"

"I don't feel obligated. If I felt obligated, I wouldn't stay as long as I do. I wouldn't come here willingly. I'd call you with odd excuses of why I couldn't make it. I'm terrible at making up stories."

"I can tell you don't like being here, so…"

"I don't like being here because it means that you're too sick to live on your own! I know how much your freedom means to you, Sirius, and…"

"Why did you come here the first time?" Sirius interrupted her.

"I came here because I needed to speak with Harry and Ron."

"You didn't come here because you wanted to get a look at me? The ex-convict your father spent all of his last years trying to catch?" Sirius's voice was cold, hard, and demanding. Raina had known this side of him existed, it just caught her off guard to be on the receiving end of it. In fact, his interrogating skills were legendary, but that didn't mean she had to stand for it.

"No. If I'd wanted to do that, I would have spoken to Harry about it."

"Why do you keep coming, then?"

"Because you need someone to love you, damn it!" Raina cursed herself for opening her mouth and saying the first thing that came to mind.

"No, I don't," Sirius said with a degree of finality that made Raina want to cry, but she wasn't going to back down.

"Like hell you don't. You're like some little lost puppy, hanging around Harry and Ginny because you exist off the glow that they exude because they're so much in love. I'll bet you did the same thing with James and Lily.

"You're always talking about how much Remus didn't think he deserved love, but I think you've got the same problem, Mr. Black. I can't say that I disagree with you. You don't deserve for me to love you, but there isn't a blasted thing I can do about it, so you're just going to have to deal with it."

Sirius blinked, then charged on ahead. "I never said anything…"

"You never said anything because you never say anything that might give away that you can still feel pain," Raina shot back with a degree of venom in her voice that Sirius had never encountered before.

"Sometimes I don't think that I can." Sirius's voice had gone from being so strong to immediately being so weak that Raina was startled. "You don't know what happened."

"I don't know because you haven't told me," Raina reminded him, more gently this time. "Why don't you? Why don't you make it so that I can understand?"

"It starts with my mother," Sirius said, and began to tell his story. "She was very narrow-minded, very Malfoy-like in her obsession with pure bloodlines and Muggle hatred. My father was never really around, so I was raised around that atmosphere.

"Things changed in nursery school. I met James Potter, and we clicked. He was also a child of a pureblooded wizarding family, but his views were so different from mine. He, for instance, was thrilled when the Wizarding Wireless Network started up, rather than appalled that we were starting something so Muggle-like.

"Then he took me to his home, and I met his parents… and there was love in that household. There'd never been love in mine. We all tolerated each other because of family loyalty. I began to think that maybe my parents were wrong about some things.

"Hogwarts changed my mind forever. Suddenly, we were all on an even playing field. All of us knew nothing about magic, or how to work it. James was immediately brilliant, and I lagged on his heels.

"We grew up there, and we began to like girls. James knew straight away that Lily Evans was the girl for him, and though he took his time letting her know that he was right, no one doubted it by the time they were engaged.

"As for me, I struggled with liking just one girl. My good looks kept the girls coming, at least at first.

"Then I met Elizabeth Scardon.

"She was everything I'd promised myself I would never get involved with. Slytherin, and very, very much like my mother. The attraction was undeniable, however, and we rarely spent time just talking. I thought that she was changing.

"Then the war began. That's where things get complicated. She ran off with a reporter from the Daily Prophet the night before I was going to ask her to be my wife."

Raina blinked. "Sirius, I…"

He continued on as though he had not heard her. "Like you said, I got very attached to Lily and James. The five of spent a lot of time together, and I was thrilled when James told me that I was going to be the best man at his wedding. He told me I was the brother he'd never had.

"At first they were going to wait until after the war, but then things didn't look so good. They came to us one evening, told us that they'd set a date a month in the future. Voldemort was after them, and they at least wanted a chance to start a life. Before something happened.

"Of course, no one knew how soon something would happen that would change everything."

Blindly, Sirius reached for a glass of water to calm himself. He found himself struggling to breath. Nothing came easy anymore.

Seeing his distress, Raina held out a hand, and grasped his firmly. "Sirius… rest. I'll be here when you wake up."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes."

**

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