A/N: Sorry for the delay, Dears. apparently wasn't accepting submissions last week.
Not my fault.
Anyway,
As always,
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Phhhfffftttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE E: SETTING FREE
It was near sunrise when Orion finally arrived home.
The whole of the night had been a whirlwind of activity at the Ministry. Reports had been coming in since the morning before that activity at the Deatheaters lair had sharply increased. People were coming and going all day almost non-stop.
Bale had sent out half the Department that night to scout about and get what information they could. If a Deatheater left the lair, Bale almost certainly had someone tailing them.
But Orion already knew what his superior was expecting. What he was planning for.
Bale was expecting an all out attack.
He was planning for war.
The most telling point for Orion in Bale's actions was that his superior had not sent him out with the others. In fact, Bale never let Orion out of his sight that whole night. He had instead been ordered to tail Bale like he was on a leash. If Bale turned around, he had told his top agent, he wanted to be looking into his eyes.
Orion had only been able to get a few hours off due to utter exhaustion. Bale had seen the fatigue gripping him earlier and had sent him home with orders to get a few hours sleep.
But sleep was the last thing on Orion's mind as he apparated into the foyer.
He had to see Katlin. There were no promised outcomes now. If the war came as he suspected, he would be on one side and she on the other. He tried desperately not to think of the possibilities, but there was no hiding from them now. One or both of them might not come back from this battle.
He had to see his wife one last time.
He had to talk to her.
He had to tell her the truth.
He had tried to plan this better. Had tried to find the right time to tell her the truth.
But time had just run out.
His earlier exhaustion forgotten, Orion hurried up the stairs.
"Katlin!"
Looking up, he suddenly came to an abrupt halt. In his haste he hadn't even seen her coming down the stairs herself.
"Orion?" her expression was utter confusion as she met his. "What is it? What's wrong?"
He wanted to ask questions. Find out what she knew about what was going on at the lair. What Voldemort was up to. Why the lair was suddenly so active.
But as he met her eyes, none of it seemed to matter to him anymore.
His eyes were captured by her's as reality again grabbed hold of him. This wasn't just his lover any longer. This wasn't just the woman he loved. The woman he slept with. Who he held in his arms at night. Who he wanted with his whole soul to protect.
She wasn't just that anymore.
She was his wife.
The thought caused his heart to tighten in his chest. How long would she stay so once she learned the truth?
Stopped where he was on the stairs, Orion slowly sank down to the steps until he was sitting on them.
A hand gently rested on his shoulder.
"Orion?"
Orion reached up and took her hand in his, guiding her to sit next to him.
"Love," he said softly as he caressed his thumb over her fingers, "we need to talk."
Katlin sat herself on the step just below him. Her two violet eyes stared up at him with concern. "There's trouble, isn't there?" she ask. "At the lair everyone is running about, coming and going. Voldemort is still gone. Johnathan is shouting orders at everyone. He won't tell me a thing of what is going on. He refuses to even speak to me. He's up to something, Orion. If he ever does look at me, he does so like I'm something that's simply gotten in his way. I don't like this. Something....."
Orion quickly placed his hand over her mouth. "Katlin, I could not care less right now if Treaks lit himself on fire and invited the whole Department over for a weenie roast. Right now, the only thing that concerns me, is you."
Katlin smiled slightly. This man had two very definite sides to him. When he was sweet, he was very, very sweet. But when he was irritating, he was very, VERY irritating. The problem was she couldn't decide for herself which he was being at the moment. His words were gentle, and she could practically feel the love wrapped around each one.
But he wasn't telling her anything.
"Orion, what's going on?" she asked.
Orion managed a small smile, unable to hide the hint of sadness in it as he looked down at her. Gently he reached down and touched her cheek.
"I can't believe you're my wife." he said gently. "It's like a wonderful dream that I absolutely never want to wake up from."
Katlin didn't back off from the sentiment in the least as she rested her hand over his and leaned into his touch. "Why should you ever have to?" she asked.
Orion's expression shifted at her words. His smile faded as he dropped his head. Because sometimes we do things....." his vice slowly trailed off.
Katlin's hand came to rest on his arm. "What things?" she ask him. "Orion, what has happened? Please tell me."
Orion slowly lifted his head. "I have to tell you something, Katlin." he said quietly, each word being forced out. "And what you do afterwards I leave solely with you."
"Tell me what?" she whispered, fear seizing her heart.
Orion took a long, stabling breath. "When you first left," he began, "when you first had the Memory Charm placed on you......Katlin, I thought I would lose my mind." He gave a soft, hurt laugh. "I think I did, actually. Charly tried to warn me. To tell me I was losing control." He sighed as he turned to the ceiling. "All I knew then was this terrible, frightening loneliness. And a pain that held my heart and felt like it was never going to let go. I tried to tell myself that what you did was right. Over and over I repeated that phrase." He shook his head. "But it didn't help. Nothing did. Not telling myself how right it was. Or all the nights I sat in this house, drinking myself into oblivion. Nothing helped....because nothing mattered to me anymore. And at some point...I just let go. I let go of hope, of belief, of anything that let me think that you would ever be a part of my life again. And with that final acceptance....I thought I could let go of the pain as well. But I didn't." He said quietly. "I just gave it a new name."
"A new name?" Katlin ask.
"Anger." He replied with a touch of bitterness in his voice now. "I wanted someone to blame that you had left, and I couldn't bring myself to look in the mirror. So, I looked around me instead. I looked for someone who I could easily blame. Who I could easily lay all of my pain, and hurt, and anger at their feet and blame it all on them. And I found a most convenient target."
Katlin's eyes carefully swept his face. "Who?"
Orion slowly turned his eyes to her. "The Deatheaters." he said. "I looked at them and I saw them as solely responsible for all that had happened. They were the ones who had come between us. They were the ones responsible for why you left. They were responsible for taking you from me. And the more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself, and the angrier I became. Until I felt I had to do something about it or it would eat me alive finally."
Katlin's eyes now anxiously searched his face. "And what did you do?" she ask quietly.
Orion bowed his head again. He wanted to stop here. He desperately wanted to lie. To tell her anything rather than what he had actually done.
But he shook off the idea.
She was his wife.
His friend, his lover, his very life.
She deserved the truth.
"One night I went to the lair." he told her. "The old lair." He was unable to look at her now as he studied the steps below him instead. "I took Bo with me......and...." his voice trailed off.
Katlin's grip on his arm tightened slightly. "What did you do?" she ask, her voice edged with her growing anxiety as she stared up at him. "Orion," she repeated when he didn't answer her. "Tell me. What did you do?"
The answer was barely a whisper on a shaking breath. "I destroyed it."
Katlin's eyes flew wide in disbelief. "You what!?"
"I destroyed it." Orion repeated. "Down to the last stone. That was my hatred. My anger. My rage. My grief." he added quietly. "I used all of it to bring down the lair."
Orion sat as still as stone on the steps. He didn't think he even remembered to breathe as he waited for her reaction. Now she knew him completely. She now knew what kind of man he was. What kind of monster he could be.
And so he waited for her pass judgment on what he had confessed.
The weight of her hand on his arm didn't lessen at all. It did not, in fact, move at all.
Very slowly he lifted his head. At first he only continued to stare down the stairs before him. But finally he slowly turned his face to look at her.
Her face was absolutely unreadable to him. Whatever she was feeling, she had locked it tightly away underneath a mask of calm composure.
Orion turned back to once more studying the stairs, waiting to see if she would say anything. But finally the silence stretched too long for him.
"I just wanted you to know the truth." he said finally.
Katlin sighed quietly. "I don't condone what you did, Orion. I never shall. It was wrong, no matter the reasons. But....we both made mistakes. Terrible, awful mistakes. And all that our actions bought for us was to bring us right back where we were. I guess if one good thing can be said, then at least no one suffered for our actions but ourselves."
"And a whole lair of Deatheaters."
Katlin turned to him. "What do you mean?"
"Katlin, I destroyed your lair. A whole mountain."
"The lair, yes." Katlin corrected. "But Orion, no one died when the lair collapsed."
Orion stared at her for a full minute. "No one?"
Katlin shook her head. "After the lair collapsed Voldemort summoned everyone to another lair in the south. When we took a census, everyone was accounted for."
"But that's not possible. Bo........." Orion suddenly stopped as he stared into the darkness of the foyer. "Bo." he echoed.
"Bo?" Katlin ask.
"Bo must have made sure everyone was out before he destroyed the lair."
"But why would he do that? He only does what you tell him to do."
"Not exclusively." Orion replied. "Bo can think for himself very well when he wants to. But sometimes he doesn't quite understand what I'm asking him to do, so he improvises. He must have thought I was angry at the lair itself, not the people in it. So he thought I didn't want any thing 'living' in the lair destroyed. Just the lair itself."
Katlin sighed to herself as she followed his stare. "Sometimes I think your boggart makes more sense than anyone."
"He has his moments." Orin echoed her sigh in the dim light. "Katlin, you know our marriage isn't finalized. I haven't sent off to the registry, so we're not legally married yet."
Katlin turned quickly to him. "What are you saying!?" she ask, her voice taking on a slightly higher pitch then usual.
Orion continued staring ahead. "I'm saying that now you know the kind of man you married. You know what I'm capable of. You know what I can do. You know what I am. And.....if you......" Orion paused as he fought to keep his voice steady. "If you would rather I didn't finalize the marriage, I will understand why." He gave a small, humorless laugh. "I'm not exactly what you bargained for."
A pair of arms quickly found their way around his neck. "Orion Black, you are exactly what I bargained for. I married you. And I did that with the intention of being your wife. Not just through the good times, but through all of our lives. And as for the kind of man you are, I have always known that. You are kind, and sensitive, and loving."
"A man who lovingly destroyed you lair?"
"You weren't agonizing over a bunch of crumpled stones, Orion. You thought people had died. People who were important to me. Some of them bad. Some of them, like Kristin, who were just innocents caught up in a very dangerous game. But you cared. How many others wouldn't have?"
Orion managed a small smile. "So, you're going to keep me?"
Katlin leaned forward and gently brushed her lips against his. "You get those papers finalized and registered, Mr. Black. Or I'll do it myself."
Orion wrapped an arm about her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.
Katlin snuggled under his arm, pressing her face against the side of his chest as she wrapped her arms about his waist.
"I can't believe we are actually married." he sighed happily.
Katlin giggled slightly.
"Being married to me is funny, Love?" he ask, glancing down at her.
Katlin shook her head. "Oh, I'm sure it'll have it's moments." She replied. "Like last night."
"Last night?"
"You can't believe we're married." she answered. "And I can't believe I spent my wedding night with Johnathan Treaks."
Orion's smile grew at bit wider at the thought. "Well, I hope he enjoyed it. It's the last chance he'll ever get."
Katlin snuggled up closer to him. All that interested her now was a few precious hours in the arms of her husband.
Q&A
Silverfox:
Well, currently Voldemort, along with everyone else, knows nothing about it.
Had not thought about that. But you're probably right. Katlin probably knows a few more shady characters than most.
Orion and Katlin are legally married..., sort of. First off, as you noted in this chapter, Orion married her without finalizing any of the papers, or registering the marriage license.
Katlin could still back out of the marriage is she wanted to. But she appears to be perfectly happy to be Mrs. Orion Black from now on.
True, the fact that the Justice of the Peace never said her name could bring the marriage into question. But that was more the author's oversight than the Justice of the Peace.
As to Katlin's name? She would not use 'Griss', since that is not her legal name. Her name legally is Katlin Hekren. She is now Katlin Hekren-Black. That is the name that will go on the marriage license.
Is Voldemort a Deatheater? I kind of look at that along the same line of 'Is the Pope Catholic?' However, before Voldemort there were no Deatheaters, so............?
In this story Voldemort is still fairly sane. I think I have mentioned this before. Although I hesitate to use that word, since even in Rowlings' books, I would not call him insane. A bit fanatical, maybe, but not insane.
I'm afraid there are no plans in the near future to torture Treaks. Sorry.
I agree with you totally, Dear. In order for a boggart to frighten you, he has to know what frightens you. And in order to know that he would have to take it out of your mind. Hence, telepathy. However, when that is all the creature does, is it telepathy, or just a natural instinctive knowing? That was my point. And the ball is in your court, Dear.
Yes, sudden movements and loud noises tend to frighten animals. But I have news for you. They scare me too. But whereas a ghost would frighten me, it would not likely frighten my cat if it came with a large piece of steak in its hand. It would, in fact, be my cats new best friend at that point.
I always thought of Dementors as pretty basic. Sort of like dogs, as you said. Emotions to them are food. So they simply 'sniff out' where the food is and go to it.
Well, Bo meeting Dementors isn't something he would look forward to, Dear, that's for sure. Bo already has a history with Dementors, and it isn't a pleasant one. In fact, the result of that encounter was Hershal Bennett.
Well, based on that most everything on television is c--p, I find I like fanfiction much better. And since my agent suggested I try writing a romance story, I've sort of gotten into those as well. They are such fun mind candy. But it's all in the way of research, you understand.
Kayette:
Thank you, Dear.
All reviews are as of 11/27/2004.
And remember;
A man was reported in serious condition at the hospital after he robbed a local bank and then swallowed the entire $250,000 to destroy the evidence.
No change is expected.