A/N: You might note (though little care), that this chapter has a subtitle.

There's a reason for that.

You see, the last chapter was mis-named. This chapter was suppose to be titled Mirror Illusions, for obvious reasons, but I had already put that as the title of the last chapter, and holding to my idiosyncrasy of never renaming chapters, I was stuck. Plus, this one was already given a name long before I thought to rename it. So, stuck again.

As I said, you might not care, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

And as always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Do you have any idea just how hard it is to come up with 49 reasons why this isn't mine? Why you shouldn't sue me? Why these characters, except for the original ones, aren't mine? Why the plot is mine? Why the setting isn't? Why is the sun yellow? Why does Winter follow Fall? Why are trees green? Why is my computer gray? Why did Bush win? Why, after all these chapters, are you still reading these things?

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE C: TICKING OFF TREAKS

(aka MIRROR ILLUSIONS-PART TWO)

Katlin arrived at Orion's house to an enthusiastic welcome.

"Well, I didn't expect to have you come by the house so soon, Love." he exclaimed happily. "How were things at the lair?"

Katlin paused as she considered what to tell him. She hated seeing how happy he was. Knowing she was about to destroy it once and for all.

"Things were not as well as I had hoped for, Orion." she stated plainly.

"Meaning?"

"There was.....some trouble."

"Trouble? What sort of trouble?"

Katlin sighed softly as she turned to face him. "Johnathan."

Orion met the declaration with a slight huff. "And here I thought it was something important." he replied. Reaching out he took her hands in his. "Johnathan Treaks isn't 'trouble', Love. He's a nuisance. Nothing more."

"You treat him far too lightly, Orion." Katlin warned, coming to stand before him, her arms crossed over her chest. "You don't know him like I do. You've seen what he can do. How vengeful he can be. Why can't you just leave him alone and let me deal with him?"

"Because if he's as dangerous as you say, then what is to stop him from one day doing you real harm? Worse than he's already done."

"Voldemort." Came the short, resolute answer.

"And from what I've seen, Voldemort not only doesn't control Treaks very well, he encourages a lot of that man's actions."

"Voldemort would never let Johnathan harm me."

"Never?" Orion replied, pulling her into his lap. "He's a bit late for that, Love. For the things that man has done to you, I would kill him."

"And if he ever did me serious harm, Voldemort would."

"That man nearly killed you. What more 'serious harm' does daddy want?"

"You think Johnathan told Voldemort about anything he's done?"

"I would have thought you would."

Katlin shook her head. "It would have caused more problems than it solved, Orion. It would have been his word against mine, and I would have had to answer too many questions to prove my claim. Besides, he's hardly likely to try that again, is he?"

"Not here. What's to stop him from cornering you in the lair one day?"

"I told you that already."

"Fine. Maybe not at the lair then. What about somewhere else? Somewhere I'm not there, or Voldemort. Then what?"

"He won't hurt me, Orion. You just have to believe that. He would have too much to lose. Too much he's worked for."

Orion stared up at her. "I can't believe you can just stand there and treat this man so casually. Katlin, he has tried to kill you once. He will try again. You don't have some.....some magic charm that protects you from him."

Katlin stared at him for a moment. "Yes, I do." She finally said softly.

Orion continued to look up at her, his stare becoming even more disbelieving at her statement. "What? Voldemort again? He can't be everywhere, Katlin. Nor can I. One day, someone's luck in this circle is going to run out. I would rather personally it was Treaks more than yours, mine, or Voldemort's."

"Maybe it will." She replied.

"Katlin," Orion stated, getting up to face her, "I have known men like Treaks before. I know what they are like. They try to possess women. And that's all you are to Treaks. A possession. The way the man treats you, he acts like he thinks he owns you."

Katlin turned her eyes from Orion's. "He does." She whispered, refusing to look at him as the words left her lips.

Orion leaned down to her, trying to capture her stare again. "Pardon?" He asked.

Katlin turned just her eyes back to the man before her. "He does." She replied in the same whisper of a voice.

Orion gave her a hard, questioning stare. "What do you mean 'he does'. Treaks doesn't own you, Katlin."

"But he does."

"How?"

Katlin closed her eyes, still refusing to look at him. "Orion, please leave this alone."

But Orion turned her back to him. "Katlin, what is going on? What is Treaks up to?"

"Nothing you can do anything about, Orion. So just leave it alone."

"Katlin, the only reason I can't help you is that you're not telling me what's wrong. Now if he's done something......"

"Orion," Katlin cut him off abruptly, "Johnathan and I are going to be married."

Orion sat stone still under her. "Married?" he asked finally.

Katlin nodded. "At the end of the week."

"That's barely three days away!"

Katlin nodded again.

"Tell him to blow!"

"I can't do that."

"It's really very simple, Love."

"Not this time."

"Why not?"

"I just can't, Orion. Now please, I have accepted it. And it won't be that bad. All he wants is the power he will gain as my husband. He likely won't even care who I see or what I do."

Orion gave her a thoughtful look. "He has tried this before, Katlin, and we had a sure-fire way of stopping him. Do you remember that?"

Katlin paused as she searched her still spotty memory, then slowly shook her head.

Orion gave her a pleased smile. "We decided, Love, that he couldn't marry you........if you were already married."

"Already married!?"

"We were going to be married if you'll recall....well, as best you can, anyway. Damn spell. But we were planning to be married. And to be perfectly honest with you, I don't relish the idea of Johnathan Treaks stealing my bride away...again. So what do you say?"

Katlin gave him a confused stare. "To what?"

"Getting married, Love. We'll beat Treaks by beating him to the altar."

Katlin was out of his arms within seconds, pacing about the room as she wrapped her arms about herself. All of Johnathan's words coming back to her in a flood. "No, Orion." she said firmly. "We can't get married."

Orion remained in the chair, watching her pace back and forth. "Is there a reason for that?"

Katlin turned an exacerbated stare back to him. "Orion, I....I hardly know you."

Orion quickly held a finger up. "Just a minute." he stated. "You hardly know me well enough to marry me, but enough to sleep with me? Love, that makes no sense!"

"Orion, what difference does it make who I'm married to? I told you. Johnathan only wants what power he can get through my position in the lair. He doesn't want me. And he won't care what I do or who with once he has that. This will change nothing between us."

"Except that you will be married to him." Orion stated flatly.

"It won't matter."

"It will to me."

"Why?"

"Because you'll be his wife."

"And you'll have lost to him, is that it?"

Orion pulled himself out of the chair. "I don't sleep with other men's wives, Katlin." he stated resolutely.

"How very noble."

"I do happen to have some scruples."

"So if I marry Johnathan, that's the end of us?"

"Not exactly the one I've been planning on, that's for sure."

"Planning on?"

"What, you think I didn't plan anything?" Orion asked. Stepping over to the sofa, Orion beckoned Katlin over to him. With a skeptical stare, she at first held her ground then finally slowly walked over to him.

"And?" she asked.

Orion patted the space next to him, which Katlin slowly lowered herself into.

"Now you see," Orion explained, "my whole plan was to get you down here, and," he added leaning her back against the cushions as he wrapped an arm abut her shoulders, "get you all nice and comfortable," he went on fishing about in the cushions on his other side, "and in a very elegant manner, that has nothing whatsoever to do with this one," he said, pulling out a small black box, which he presented to her as he opened it, "ask you to marry me."

Katlin's mouth fell open at the sight of the ring nestled in its velvet bed, happily winking at her in the reflected light of the small fire. But she just as quickly shut it again as reality closed in on her thoughts once more.

Slowly she shook her head as a small tear rolled down her cheek, staring at all she was being forced to refuse, looking hopefully up at her from the small bed of velvet.

"I can't." she whispered.

"Why not?" came the equally soft question.

Katlin quickly pulled herself to her feet. "I just can't." she replied. "I...I can't tell you why. I'm just asking for you to understand and accept that. I just....can't."

"Well, as that I don't do either, I'm afraid I can't give you that, Katlin. You love me. I know you do. Now if Treaks is holding you by something........"

But Katlin slowly shook her head. "He isn't holding me by anything. Only by what you are giving him, because you can't just leave this alone as I ask. And because you have to have your answers, you would destroy what little we have left." Katlin abruptly turned back about to face him. "Very well, Mr. Black." she stated firmly. "You want your answers, you'll have them. But you just remember one thing. You are the one who ask for them."

Before Orion could say a word, Katlin raised her arms and spoke a quick, short spell.

The result was a stream of light that shot above her, then fell back on her as it wound its way about her body. Slowly it glowed about her, then faded as it followed its path to the floor as it continued to circle her.

In the aftermath a young woman stood who Orion at first didn't even recognize, so drastic was the transformation from the spell.

Two violet eyes stared out at him from behind a face so badly scarred hardly a single place on it wasn't touched in some way. The body no longer stood erect and proud. It now stooped slightly, as though just holding itself up was a concentrated effort. Most of the body itself was covered in the robe she still wore. But her hands showed what lay beneath. Two gnarled, misshapen bits of flesh with mismatched fingers were held close to the body, one clutching tightly at the robe.

"Are you satisfied?" A rasping voice ask past a mouth that had considerable trouble even shaping the words.

Orion stood staring back at her, saying nothing.

"Now you see." she stated in the same, grating voice. "You see the lie I lived every day I was with you. What I fought so hard for. What I tried to keep you from ever seeing."

Orion only continued to stare at her.

"When Voldemort found me," Katlin went on, "I had already been burned in the fire. I told you I was in pain. Horrible, unbearable pain." She gestured to herself. "This was the cause. But even then I didn't know the extent of my injuries myself. I didn't realize how bad it really was until I saw myself for the first time in a mirror. One that hung in my room." Katlin turned slowly back to the floor. "All I wanted, all I begged for...prayed for, was to die. I wasn't extraordinarily pretty before the fire. But this! How could I be ask to live looking like this. Voldemort tried to make me see it didn't matter what I looked like. At least not to him. But it did matter. It mattered very much to a fifteen-year-old girl.

At first I fought him. I did everything I could to refuse his help and let myself just die. And over several days, Voldemort became very frightened for me. He knew if things continued as they were, if I didn't try to survive...., that I wouldn't. And so he devised a way to rekindle my interest in living. With his magic, he fashioned for me the illusion you see. Although, as you know, it is a great deal more than a simple illusion. When the spell is in place, it is what I physically become. The scars are healed. My body is free of pain. People look at me without fear and disgust. Men look at me with desire. All the things I would be denied if not for the gift he gave me." Katlin turned back to face him. "Even Treaks would likely think twice if he ever actually saw the truth."

Orion stared back at her for a few moments in silence. "Then Treaks is an even bigger fool than I ever thought him." he answered finally.

Katlin looked up sharply. "What?!"

"I said the man is an even bigger fool than I ever thought him if he would turn away from a chance to be with you because of this."

Katlin paused as she studied the man before her carefully. "You're not surprised at all." she said slowly, noting his expression never once had changed. Suddenly understanding dawned over her. "You knew!"

Orion stood in silence for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"How?"

"Bo."

"Bo?"

"When you first went down into the cellar, after I had sent you back up the stairs, Bo told me he had sensed some type of a concealment charm. Well, I knew that you could alter your appearance, and I thought that that was all Bo was tapping into, so I tried later to explain that to him. But Bo was adamant about his discovery. He stated that what he sensed was a 'foreign magic', which for him meant that the instigator of the spell wasn't the person it was on. And whatever it was, I knew you weren't using it to purposely deceive me. I knew who you were, so what would be the point there? So there had to be some other reason. Something very serious to you. Then, when you told me the story of what happened in your village, I couldn't understand how you could have been in that fire and gotten out without a mark. Not the way you described it and how you were trapped in it. You had to have been burnt, which explained the concealment charm Bo said he first sensed around you."

Katlin stared back at the ring still held in her hands. "And this is to keep me safe from Johnathan." she stated in a low whispered voice.

"You think that is the only reason I am doing this?"

Katlin turned her eyes slowly to him. "Is it?" she ask in a tone that tried t mask her fear of the answer.

Orion gently took both of her hands in his. "Katlin, I am asking you to marry me because I have never in my life felt about a woman the way I feel about you, Love." He gently tilted her head up towards his, careful in each movement not to hurt her. "From the day I first laid my eyes on you, I have never known this kind of love could even exist. The kind that invades your every thought during the day and won't let you sleep at night. That can drive a sane man to madness. That you would do anything ask of you just to hold onto it. You brought into my life a peace and contentment I have never known before. Every moment I spend with you is pure peace. Every second you are not there is utter torture.

Katlin, I need you in my life. I need you to make me complete now. I can never go back to what I was, and I never want to. The only life I will ever have now is the one with you in it. I want you as my lover, as my friend, but mostly as my wife." Orion stared down at her with more longing than he had ever felt for anything in his life. "Now," he asked, his breath gently caressing her cheek, "what is your answer?"

Q&A

Silverfox:

I hope that Deatheater you are alluding to is Treaks and not Katlin.

Once again, allow me to point out, Bo does not punish people. It isn't in his nature. Although it is a very fine line sometimes.

Aside from that, again, what he did, he did to Hershal because Hershal asked him to. And once more let me remind you of the Memory Charm and how wrong that went.

We had a Spamblocker at work that, when initiated, did not come through on many of the computers that it was suppose to be loaded onto. We reasoned that this was due to the program, thinking itself was spam, eliminated itself from the download of the computer.

OK, credit time here, because you latched not something I had not thought f. How would a boggart appear to a Dementor? What do Dementors fear? A Patronus. So what would Bo naturally appear as to a Dementor? Although it was not what I originally was getting at in my answer, I like the concept and would, with your permission, of course, like to use it in the future.

Skahducky:

Well, Katlin will eventually recover all of her memory, actually. But just how long that will take is uncertain.

OK, for the next part it depends on what you think Orion has to tell her. If you think what he's keeping from her is what he told her about Voldemort, you're wrong. He told her that. What he hasn't told her has far more reaching consequences than even Orion has yet realized.

I appreciate your patience, Dear, and yes, it is already Fall, 2004. Darned near Winter 2004. But when I made that prediction for a posting date for Family Relations, Florida had not yet been hit by four hurricanes.

Our new posting date is early 2005.

Reviews are as of 11/07/2004.

And remember;

Change is for people who aren't already perfect.