Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter...JKRowling does.

Authors Notes: I don't know if this chapter is going to be any good. I feel kind of like I'm forcing myself to write so if it feels like that I'm sorry.

Grimmauld Place was completely silent as Sirius Black sat in the kitchen. It was dark and the lack of a burning fire made the stone room chilly in winter, even with the warming charms in place. He had been down there for about an hour now, just thinking about how badly he had messed up. He had pushed her away and he didn't know how to fix it. Sure he still had Harry, but Harry was happy and healthy. Rhin was still weak, even if she didn't let it show very often. He was supposed to look after her, he felt like the father of these two. Both were orfans, parents murdered by Voldemort, and he was supposed to protect them, be an example for them. And he couldn't even put aside petty rivalries with Snape. But, no matter how hard he tried he could still remember the day he found out what happened to Evangeline.

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Albus had called an emergency meeting of the Order and many including Sirius Black were curious as to why. Everyone was weary, wondering who was missing from the folds today, who was 'lost to the cause' as Albus would state it. But, no matter how hard he tried to reassure himself Sirius felt the foreboding feeling tugging at his mind. Where was she? She would have contacted him by now. Something had happened to her. Albus Dumbledore appeared on the podium and the meeting started.

"My friends I have brought you here with some very saddening news. One of our own has been taken hostage by Voldemort and killed. Evangeline Snape was discovered by her father while on assignment in Voldemort's ranks. She was a very talented witch and a valuable informant from within the Dark Lord's circle and she will be sorely missed by many. However, in this dark time comes some light. We have gained a new member from this tragedy, Evangeline's brother Severus Snape will be spying in her place for us. I must tell you all to put old prejudices aside and welcome him appropriately..."

Sirius didn't hear the rest of the speech, Evangeline had been gone for over a month on assignment and he had known that something was wrong. He couldn't wrap his mind around this though...dead. His wife was dead. They were married in secret of course, her being who she was it was very important. Dumbledore had performed the ceremony and James and Samantha were the only two there. Sirius looked over at Samantha, she was sobbing, her husband was holding her upright and James was looking worriedly between the two of us. His angel was gone. It was like he had been stabbed in the chest and the knife was stuck there.

He never got over the loss. Sirius Black was never the same after that day, few noticed though, with a war going on it is hard to pay attention to those kinds of things. James knew and Moony suspected but no one else paid any mind to his sudden reclusive behavior.

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Looking back on it, it really wasn't Snape's fault was it? He had tried to save her. He did love her, that much was obvious. Her death destroyed him as well and being blamed by everyone probably didn't help matters very much. Sirius felt ashamed of his behavior, both now and then. Remus was right, Evangeline would have punched him by now for his utter stupidity. These kids (well they weren't really kids anymore) were his life, they were the reason he was alive, literally. He needed to do right by them.

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Severus and Rinoa simply stared at eachother for awhile, enjoying the darkened room and the silence it brought. However, there were things that needed to be said.

'Are we ever going to talk about what happened?' said Severus breaking the silence (in their minds anyway).

'I suppose it would be better now than later.'

'Why didn't you leave me there, Rhin? You died! You died and it was my fault. I sat in that dungeon knowing that you had died and it was because of me.'

'What would you have done? Would you have let me die, let me suffer like that?' he let out a small sigh. 'No. I would die for you Rhin, but just promise me you won't jump into anymore dangerous situations without consulting someone first.'

'I promise,' he kissed her nose and soon was back in a healing sleep. But, Rinoa could not sleep. She was worried, something was going on with Voldemort and she needed to find out what. She had an intuition like no one else where Voldemort was concerned (except maybe Harry). Sev had told her once that she inherited it from her mother, and that had always made her feel nice. It's comforting to know that you did inherit something from your parents, even if you can't remember them very well.

As Rinoa made her way toward the stairway she noticed a small figure sitting quietly at the top.

"Harry?" she questioned softly.

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Sirius is sitting in the kitchen and I'm waiting for him to go to his room before I go downstairs. I don't want to listen to him rant about Snape again." He suddenly realized the affect his previous statement might have had on Rhin and looked up appoligetically. She waved his guilt off with her left hand and kept her eyes on the dark figure moving across the floor to the master bedroom, and when the two heard the 'click' of the door they finally went softly down the stairs.

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Molly Weasley walked into the kitchen early on Christmas morning to find two figures slumped over on the table asleep. Rinoa and Harry, two of the most troubled children she had ever seen were so peaceful looking in their sleep. There was no Voldemort right now, only sleep. It was nice to see them with out any cares or worries.

"Harry," Molly said as she gently shook him awake. "You need to wake up, it's Christmas morning."

Harry slowly opened his eyes, along with Rhin and both promised to wake the others in the house while she made breakfast.

Christmas morning was a reserved affair compared to years past, everyone seemed to have something on their minds. But, no matter how distracted they were everyone was grateful to be alive that Christmas morning, especially Severus.

All of the inhabitants of Grimmauld Place gathered around the enormous tree in the sitting room and opened the piles of preasents at it's base. Some obviously had more than others but there was an overwealming sense of joy in the room that no one could overlook.

The great surprise was that even Severus had a present waiting for him under the tree, when he looked to Rinoa for an explanation she simply gave him a smirk that reminded him way to much of Draco Malfoy.

In short the day was great, no one fought and the overwealming darkness that was Lord Voldemort was forgotten for other things.

It wasn't until a few days till the new year that the house experienced it's next crisis. December 30th was reaching an end and almost everyone was asleep for the night, with the exception of Harry and Rinoa who were sitting at the kitchen waiting for Severus to get back from where ever he had gone in such a hurry.

"Why isn't he back yet, Harry? This isn't right."

"I'm sure he's fine, Rinoa. If he wasn't wouldn't you have felt something?"

"I should, but he's gotten so bloody good at cloaking his emotions there's no telling what I would feel."

"What did he say when he left?"

"We were sitting in the library and he got an owl. He deliberately didn't let me know what it said and ran off."

"But he must have said something."

"He said 'i'm sorry, Rhin but I have to go.' He said he would be back as soon as possible."

"This has to be the weirdest situation in a while. I mean it's got to be pretty bad if he got Sirius and Remus to go with him, with only minimum arguing. I didn't even hear any yelling."

It was at this moment that the door to number 12 Grimmauld Place burst open to reveal a pale Remus Lupin with Severus Snape leaning heavily on him. However, this was not what got Harry's attention, in his godfather's arms was one badly beaten Draco Malfoy.

A/N: ok well cliff hanger. And I don't know what I'm gunna do now...I have lost the will to write...someone inspire me!