A/N: I have no idea why so many people like this story. I really don't. But with my hits perched at 1,000 for this story, I am awed and amazed and very grateful.
Although you know me as a writer of fanfiction, I do write original work. And this is about as close as I can come under these circumstances. It's always nice to have the ego stroked a little, and to know people still like what you write and are willing to give up some of their time to read it.
So again, thank you all, whether you review or not. I appreciate your time and I will strive to continue to make this an enjoyable story for you.
Oh! And Happy Birthday, Sweets!!!!!! Hope you're having a good one!
Also, as a side note, except for chapter sixteen A (which, by the way, was written totally separate from chapters 16, 17, and 18), I was on a roll when I wrote chapters 16, 17, an 18 and was just having fun.
So, once again, just for fun, folks. Sit back, kick back, and as always....,
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Totally original story. Totally plagiarized setting concept in general. Everything related to the Harry Potter series is the work of JK 'What will I do with myself this weekend? Oh! I know, I'll write a book and make a few million. (Oh, wait. That takes me about three years.) Rowling and her 'We don't care how long she takes. Anticipation just drives up the sales. Nuts to the people waiting on the next book.' Publishers.
Chapter Eighteen: Names On The Mailbox
Orion had driven along in silence for the past fifteen minutes. An unusually long stretch for him to be so silent.
In the seat next to him of the little roadster, Katlin watched him out of the corner of her eye. They were returning to her apartment after having had dinner at a restaurant in London, and then on to Orion's family estate. But even through dinner Orion had hardly said one full sentence to her that she hadn't either initiated or practically dragged out of him.
Her first thoughts were that something had happened that had made him start to rethink things about their relationship. Or even more so, about the baby. Which, while for the past week was his favorite topic of conversation, he hadn't so much as mentioned once all evening.
Maybe he had changed his mind about wanting the child. Maybe he had changed his mind about wanting to stay with her. Maybe the idea of a family with her was starting to settle in.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Finally her curiosity got the better of her.
"Was it something I said?" She asked.
Orion nearly jumped. "What?"
"You've hardly said two words all night, Orion." Katlin observed. "Was it something I said?"
Orion gave a small laugh. "No, Love. It's nothing. Really. Just tired, I guess."
But Katlin could hear the nervousness in the laugh. "Well, something's wrong." She replied, turning back around in her seat. "You're as nervous as a cat tonight."
Orion fell back into his silence, remaining there for another good five minutes.
"Well?" Katlin asked finally again.
"Well what?"
"Are you going to tell me what's got you so distracted? Because if you're not planning on it, I have at least thirty more minutes of guessing ahead of me and I fully intend to use every last one of them, just so you know."
"Love, there's nothing......."
"And you tell me there's nothing wrong one more time and you can bloody well go home alone tonight, Mr. Black." Katlin snapped at him angrily. "I thought part of this whole 'relationship' thing was that we do not lie to each other."
Orion visibly flinched under her anger.
"So what's going on?" Katlin asked in a calmer, but nonetheless demanding tone.
Orion sighed as he slowed the roadster down, finally maneuvering it off to the side of the road as another car went driving past them.
Katlin sat with her arms folded over her chest, staring at the man next to her. Whatever it was, it had to be something important if he wasn't even trusting himself to drive while they discussed it. Katlin tried to brace herself for whatever was coming. The truth was, Orion had seemed a bit distracted for several days now, and she had already read nothing less then several hundred things into his mood. Everything from problems at work, to the baby, to his wanting to end their relationship. The latter of which she dreaded even thinking about. She had tried to tell herself that even if he did, that she didn't care. She had tried telling herself she was imagining his emotional distancing from her over the past few days. And maybe she was. Or maybe not. Either way, what she wasn't imagining was his nervousness. And now that she had backed him to the wall about it, she was obligated to hear him out, for good or bad.
"Well?" She asked when he didn't say anything after a few minutes. He was in fact, she noted, not even looking at her.
"This is going to be a lot easier for me if you're not mad at me when I tell you, Katlin."
Oh! That was not a good start.
"I'm not angry." She said in a flat, emotionless tone. "I'm waiting for you to explain to me what's going on."
"You promise?"
"Out with it."
"All right." Orion said, taking a deep breath. "Katlin...." But his voice suddenly faltered and he didn't get much further.
"Louder." Katlin stated when he didn't continue.
Orion cleared his throat and started again. "Ummm, it's just.....that I wanted to ask you something."
"Well, I've gotten you this far. Don't stop now." All she could feel from him at that point was that his nerves were about to snap he was so on edge.
Merlin's Beard! The thought suddenly struck her! What where men nervous about when they wanted to asked their girlfriends something?
Katlin inadvertently snapped her head about to look at him. Her expression was now a mask of worry. Surely he wasn't going to ask her.....he wasn't going to ask her to marry him!? He couldn't do that to her! He wouldn't!
Orion took another deep breath. "Look," he started again, "it's just.....I want to ask you how you might feel about, maybe living....." But he faltered again and stopped.
"I'm for it." Katlin put in quickly, her own nerves causing her voice to shake slightly.
"No, no." Orion corrected. "I meant to say.....about, maybe.......living somewhere else?"
Katlin practically felt his emotions release like a rush of wind.
That was what he was so nervous about? He wanted her to move? Well, this certainly didn't rate all that tension, she sighed to herself as she felt her own nerves quickly melt back into a lovely feeling of calm.
This was, in fact, old territory. Orion had often voiced concern over where she lived. Stating that he didn't think the neighborhood was safe, and that he was more than willing to rent her an apartment in a more upscale area. The fact that she was now pregnant had probably brought the old subject back to the forefront of his worries with a renewed force.
"Orion, we've discussed this before." She reminded him. "Where I live isn't the best place in the world, but it's mine. And I don't owe anyone for it. Now I know you have offered before to get me a better place, and I apprec......."
"No, Love." Orion abruptly cut her off. "You don't understand. I'm not suggesting getting you a better apartment in a nicer part of town."
Katlin suddenly shifted to a confused look. "You're not?"
"No. I was suggesting...." His voice faltered again. He cleared his throat once more, and then went on. "What I meant was, what if you were.......that is, what if you could...., well, really if you would......, you know........maybe.......................live with me."
The last three words were said so quickly Katlin wasn't sure she had heard him right. "Live with you?" She questioned.
Orion stared back up at her, looking very much like a puppy someone had just kicked.
Katlin had to do everything she could think of not to suddenly start laughing. The great Auror Orion Black, who faced Deatheaters, criminals, hexes, and unforgivable curses, was sitting there absolutely terrified of asking his lover to live with him.
And sadly, she regretted, she wasn't going to make things any better for him.
"Orion," She said, softening her tone as well as her expression, "I can't move in with you. How exactly were you planning on my explaining my new address to Voldemort? We agreed to keep the relationship a secret. Adding my name to your mailbox hardly qualifies."
"Well, I've thought about that." Orion put in quickly. "And actually, when you think about it, it would make perfect sense."
Katlin gave him a skeptical stare. "Really?"
"Look, you're suppose to be with me to get information for Voldemort, right?"
"Yes." Katlin answered, drawing the answer out a bit as she thought about it.
"And if anyone asks, I'm seeing you for the same reason. And that's supposedly the whole point of our being together as far as anyone is concerned."
Katlin agreed again.
"Well," Orion pointed out with a pleased smile, "as far as Voldemort goes, what's a better way to do your job as well than living with me? You could have free access to the entire house of one of the Department's top agents. Where I go. What I do when I get there. Voldemort should be thrilled with the idea. The cover is perfect, Sweetheart."
Katlin sat staring back at him, her expression anything but enthusiastic.
"What?" Orion asked her.
"I don't know." Katlin answered. "The whole thing just seems a bit........risky to me."
Orion immediately went back to looking like a kicked puppy.
"Maybe you're right." He lamented sadly. "It was just......we're practically living together as it is it seems. I spend nearly every night with you. And still I miss the nights you're not with me due to the meetings or whatever. It was just.....I'm tired of coming home and wondering if you'll be there. If I'll see you that night at all. I like the idea a lot more of coming home and always knowing you'll be there. I like the idea of coming home to you.
And I hate waking up in the morning and you're already gone because you had an early meeting and you had to get home first to change. I want to have that extra hour in the morning together. I want to cuddle up to you the morning and just hold you in my arms. I want to remember how good that feels. I just want....I want every spare moment I can eek out of each day with you. And when I go off to work each day, I want to know that when I came home you'd be there.
And now with the baby on the way, that just makes me want to have this that much more. I want to be there for every part of this time with you. I want to take you shopping for those 'horrible clothes', as you call them. I want to go shopping with you for baby things. To furnish a nursery for him....or her. I want to be there to watch this child grow. To know that it's coming. I want to be there to hear it's heart beating for the first time. Feel the first time it moves. And I absolutely want to be there when it's born. My first child. That would be heaven to me. Not to miss a moment of that.
And Tets....Tets would absolutely go crazy having you there! He loves you. He would pamper the socks off of you. I'd probably loose his services altogether, he'd spend so much time fussing over you.
And.....and I wouldn't have to spend so much time worrying about you. Even more so now with the baby coming. If both of you are safe. If you were hurt, was someone there to take care of you? Did you have some place safe to go to? To know if you just made it home safe each day. I could just come home and all my worries would be answered just by apparating into the foyer. And nothing....nothing could make me happier in this world....than simply coming home to you each day."
Katlin sighed to herself as she stared at her lap. Orion had never voiced his feelings about their relationship so strongly to her before. Told her the things he thought about each day. His worries and his fears for her. But her's were much the same, and that made keeping her head clear all the harder. It was simply making his arguments all that easier to listen to.
"Orion, I just don't think....."
"No!" Orion stated quickly. "Don't think. Just......just think.......ummmm, O.K., maybe do think. Think about how nice it would be." He scooted over in the seat and wrapped her in his arms as he directed her attention to the stars as they sat in their black velvet nest in the sky. "Think about how nice it would be to have a lie-in once in a while in the morning. Think about how nice it would be to know I'd be coming home soon each night. Think about how nice it would be to have dinner at home each night. About sitting on the sofa afterwards, watching television. Or we could go out. Or go for a stroll around the grounds. Or just sit in front of the fire. Drift off in each others arms. There would never be anymore having to plan things around making sure you had enough time to get home to change to make it in time to a meeting the next morning. It just makes perfect sense. Think about how wonderfully blissful it could be."
Katlin did think about it. And it sounded as wonderful as Orion painted it to be.
"Unless......" Orion suddenly broke into her peaceful, happy thoughts, "unless, of course....., you know...., you'd rather not." All the nervousness was suddenly back in his voice. "I mean, I'm not trying to be overbearing. Or force you into anything. Or tell you how to live your life. I mean, if you don't like the idea....just say so. I just... I thought it would be.....I mean, it could be.....nice. Having you there. Very nice. But if you don't like the idea, just say so and I'll never bring it up again."
Katlin paused for a few moments as she continued staring at the stars above them. "I haven't lived with anyone in a very long time." She said finally,
"You can have a whole wing to yourself." Orion quickly offered. "Scores of rooms. You could go for days without even seeing me if you wanted."
Katlin gave a small laugh despite herself. "Wouldn't that sort of defeat the whole reason you so eloquently stated you want to do this? So we could be together as much as possible?"
"I don't care." Orion sighed happily. "I'll give in to whatever conditions are needed to get you to say 'yes'. I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy."
Katlin sighed again. It did sound absolutely like heaven. To live with him. To be with him every day. Every night. She never thought she could love anyone as much as she loved the man she was sitting next to right now. He was everything she wanted. Everything she had ever dreamed of. Someone who loved her no matter what. No matter who she was or what she had done, he still loved her. He overlooked the faults and praised her virtues constantly. With a simple look he could make her forget the worst things of her life.
But still.......living together?
"Orion, I just don't know....."
"You could keep the apartment." He added quickly.
"What?"
"You could keep the apartment. If this doesn't work out, you can simply go back. Everything will be just as it was before."
"That's very 'non' committal."
"No. It has nothing to do with commitment. It's a comfort zone for you. You always have somewhere to go to that you feel comfortable."
"And for you?"
Orion gently placed his fingers under her chin and turned her back to face him. "It makes you happy." He said with a soft smile. "That's all I care about."
And that was all Katlin needed to hear. Suddenly she no longer cared about the lies she would have to tell to make the occurrence seem just a part of her work. Part of the game she was supposedly playing with him. About the change it would be for her, from living alone in a small, one bedroom apartment to living with someone in a home that likely had more rooms than she would ever even use once. To giving up part of her independence to someone else for the first time in a very long time.
All that mattered was that he honestly cared if she were happy. And he was willing and ready to accept her decision based on that.
Katlin turned to him, a small smile creeping over her lips. She reached her lips up to his and gently kissed him.
"All right then." She whispered against his lips. "Let's go home."
Orion returned her smile as he settled back in his seat. Restarting the car, he put the little roadster into gear and, checking for cars, finally pulled back onto the road and headed for home.
Q&A
Silverfox: As I said last week, Dear, save yourself the aggravation of a malfunctioning author alert system. I usually post on two days only. Sundays and Wednesdays. This story goes up on Sundays only currently. Usually after 6PM (my time, which is EST).
And as for the things that go wrong on Fanfiction.net. trust me, they are still miles ahead of FictionAlley, on whom I am still waiting to see my third and fourth chapters posted after a seven week wait.
Vengeance was a possible reaction from the department over the three men's deaths. They were, after all, Aurors. However, 'we kill some of yours, you kill some of ours' has been the long standing relationship between the two groups for some time. So to some degree it has always been vengeance.
A scarier thing is I can almost see myself writing that!
But no, Orion would strive to keep the baby a secret as long as he could. Now mind you, the way nature works, that wouldn't be for long. And soon Orion and Katlin may have to start thinking up what they are going to tell people. Not the least of which is what Katlin may have to tell Voldemort. Naturally he would want to know who the father is.
But there's no doubt, a baby would most definitely complicate things for them. And in ways poor Katlin isn't even aware of yet, since she has no idea what it means to have a child born a Black.
But I get ahead of myself.
Shy, quiet, and tend to be a little depressed? Heavens, now you sound like Lupin.
Actually, depression isn't all that bad. Take it from someone in the biz. (Or I use to be.) It's the people who are happy all the time that worried me. If you're always depressed, or always happy, then you have a problem. Otherwise? Pffffffft! Welcome to the real world.
Sailor Sol: I thought I threw in enough hints before the announcement to show where this was leading.
Some lines are better than others. But even I liked that one.
The comments at the end are sort of my trademark (unless pre-empted). The Disclaimer names are just for fun to see how many different things I can come up with.
nessie: Nessie, nessie, nessie. What to say? Ah! Dear, you think too much for my liking. And you have way too good of a memory.
Yes. Orion has five children, but not until after Family Relations (Possibly. Still working on the time line for that one. So you can't hold me to that.).
He had a kid with Katlin? Can't answer that. Part of the story line.
Katlin gets killed? See above answer.
Orion marries someone else and has kids with her. See the answer above the one above that.
You doubt Katlin is Orion's wife in Family Relations. See the answer above the answer above the answer above.
Miscarriage? I hate 'miscarriage' stories for several reasons. So..., nope.
You're looking for clues or hints about Sirius here? Why? Dear, there's no reason for Sirius to be mentioned here. On this time line, (and just slightly AU), Sirius is just doing his own little Auror thing.
Keep in mind, this is before Voldemort's downfall. Therefore, no Peter, no murder, no Harry.
Actually, I would put this having started about a year or two before Harry's birth.
If I promised you Sirius in this, there is a reason. He was at one time. He had a whole chapter of reference just to himself in a very touching little chapter called From The Depths Of My Soul. What happened to it? Guess.
That's right! Edited out. (But likely to be added later.)
Why? Time line conflict. I had to re-edit the story.
So, as for 'knowing they're coming'? Sorry, Dear. If I promised it, bad PAR.
Skahducky: Glad if I cleared up some confusion for you, Dear.
Family Relations? Well, I have a few things that have to come out first. Stories should run in this order:
Enemies (Where you currently are.).
Runaway (A cute little Katlin-Harry story.).
Gentle Persuasion (Ever wonder what makes Arabella such a good Auror?).
Family Relations (What you are waiting for.).
Barring my imagination going into overdrive, that is the order the stories should run.
This should keep you amused right up until The Green Flame Torch comes out. But after Rowling's family elimination bout, who much cares?
And she said there would be more deaths. And WHO has a great big bulls-eye painted right on their back? *Lupin's head suddenly snaps up. Looks around. Goes back to reading Order of the Phoenix.* "Man, this blows."
And explain something to me, folks. Why does everyone seem so keen on pairing Lupin and Tonks? Did I miss something in the book?
Glad you liked the chapter, Dear.
Sweets 25: Birthdays. Pffffft!
Dear, I'm still 25. I haven't, in fact, had a birthday SINCE I was 25. (Had a lot of anniversaries of my 25th birthday though.)
I'm glad to be done with school. Being a professional student is not all it's cracked up to be.
So, another costumed character got attacked?
Why would Orion not be happy about Katlin being pregnant? In Family Relations he has a very good reason for being the way he is with Harry. Harry isn't his. He's just temporary guardian and essentially, bodyguard. It's a job to him. If not an obligation.
I submitted to FictionAlley (again) August 31st. Still nothing. I seriously think Heidi is researching 'Freedom of Speech' legislation right now.
You couldn't be more right. Conventions are not back-patting events. They are for the fans, not the presenters. If you are giving a convention so you can stand up and say 'Look at me!', you will have a bad convention.
FictionAlley's convention could have seriously used the help of a few experienced convention planners.
Reviews are as of 09272003.
I should like for you to remember please Joseph Costanzo, a very dear man and the father of one of my friends, who recently past away.
Those who knew you will miss you greatly, Joe. May you be at peace.