Disclaimer: I don't own it if you can trace it to the Harry Potter world, the Guiding Light world, or any other world save the one I made up in my head.

Chapter Ten: New Beginnings

James got to Towers before Dinah and wondered if he should have. In Wizarding England, that was considered polite, to show that you respected her. Over here, it might well mean you were desperate. He laughed at himself when he realized that he was thinking like some Hufflepuff kid on his first date with a Ravenclaw. Dinah was so unconventional herself that she didn't have a millimeter of room to talk about anyone else. She'd probably think it was funny.

She walked through the doors like a queen into her Great Hall. She returned the hard looks of a few Lewises with a cool, masklike smile that defied them to say anything. A trace of sincerity entered it when she saw him, the one friendly person in a rather hostile crowd of Springfielders, but there was a little nervousness there too, unexpected but not altogether unsurprising under the circumstances. It had surprised him to realize that Dinah was more vulnerable than he was in this situation. She had never been part of a relationship that didn't involve manipulation, not even with her parents. He did have some idea of how proper relationships worked, even if it was by British standards.

" You look marvellous," he complimented her, standing to hold out her chair for her. She laughed.

" Such a gentlemen. Are they all like that where you come from?"

" No-I just had a very strict nurse."

" That's not me at all," she said with a grin. " My mother gave me to a circus to be raised!"

He couldn't help but laugh at that one. " A circus?"

" Mm-hm. She didn't want anyone to know that she'd had Ross Marler the upright lawyer's baby until she got ready to blackmail him with it. What was your dear mother's excuse?"

" It's family tradition for the mother not to have anything to do with her children until they're old enough to be used for some practical purposes." He saw Dinah's eyes widen. " Not like that," he said quickly, and she dissolved into giggles.

" I didn't say anything," she managed.

" You didn't have to," he returned smartly. She tossed her hair in a coquettish gesture.

" Let's order while I'm still ahead," she said.

" You aren't," he told her as he flagged down a waiter.

They made small talk until the waiter, a fellow sporting what he must have thought was a French moustache, returned with the wine. Dinah took one of the glasses and raised it. " I propose a toast," she said brightly. " To new beginnings."

They drank the toast, and then looked at each other for a long moment. He knew that for that one crazy minute Dinah saw Hart again, the lover she herself had accidentally killed. He knew because in that moment he allowed himself to see Morgan one last time, her dark eyes alight with mischief and tucking her long hair back behind one ear in a quick hallmark gesture. Then the mirages of lost loves faded, and they were left looking at each other.

" They're gone," she said softly. " Hart and Morgan." He blanked out for a moment, then remembered telling her a little about Morgan, not much but enough.

" Yes," he said with a sigh. " They're gone, and there's only us left here, isn't there? Us two ex-fiance's who loved them till they died."

Dinah drained her glass and poured herself another. " I'm letting Hart Jessup go!" she announced with an extravagant gesture. " He's dead and he was married to Cassandra Layne anyway, and I'm free of him!" She smiled, though her eyes sparkled a little more than normal for a moment. He didn't say anything; she'd just say it was the wine going to her head. " That felt good."

" I know," he said. " I did the same thing with Morgan last night."

" Shall we have our dinner now that we're both free of our ghosts?" She half-joked.

" That's the best idea I've heard yet, Dinah. This French food-my sister loves it, but I never did have a taste for the odder varieties like she did. I mean, snails?"

" Fish eggs?" Dinah said with a grimace.

" Mold?"

" You realize we sound like a pair of two year olds, don't you?" she asked.

" And?" he retorted.

" You're a nut," she said teasingly, her eyes dancing.

" Correction," he said. " I am a certified nut."

" Is there a difference?"

" But of course."

" What is it?"

" How am I supposed to know?" Dinah rolled her eyes dramatically at that brilliant display of knowledge and sampled the bouillabaisse. " Not half bad," she said after a moment's consideration.


It didn't take long for Springfield to realize that the town's newest foreigner and the town's only psychopathical murdering madwoman were a couple. Cassie Winslow told him quite bluntly that he was just asking to get himself killed because Dinah put the 'fatal' in femme fatale. Unfortunately for Cassie, Dinah had overheard her, leading to a literal knock-down drag-out in front of Company that ended with Frank Cooper arresting them both for assault. He and Edmund had managed between them to call in some favors and get them bailed out, and both had refrained from pressing charges because they didn't want to take the chance that the other woman would sue back.

Dinah couldn't have been more different than either Morgan or Lily or even Mary Bradley. She was the most like Mary, but she didn't have that glitter that had characterized Mary. Mary had been warmer, too, almost as if she wanted to give up her profession of being first one then another rich man's mistress and become a poor man's wife but no one would have her. Dinah was too intense, too driven, too prone to obsessions-but who was he to talk? What had drawn him to Dinah was the fact that she was like him. They worked together. They thought the same way and would fall to about the same level-which meant whatever it took. Dinah did, however, still have one quality that he was trying to regain, more for her sake than his own. Dinah remembered how to laugh, how to believe that some good might come out of it all. She was maddeningly complex, but she suited him and he supposed he suited her.

They had put the past behind them on Christmas night, and the future was theirs for the taking. They would make it what they wanted it to be, andto hellanyone who got in their way. Springfield would disapprove, and who cared? They had both known disapproval from far greater forces than their hometown. In the end, Springfield would take them back, because they were Springfielders. Springfield was loyal to its own, no matter what their transgressions.

Then, in February, a sickening blow fell.

It was nearly midnight when Anne pushed her way into his mind and literally forced him to wake up. Dear God, dear God, help me, he heard her saying, and her 'voice' was shaking and wild.

What is it? he demanded, alarmed. What's happened?

I didn't think he'd actually do it-I didn't think it would go this far-oh God, oh God. James, I can't stand it, I can't, they're driving me insane-

What the hell's going on, Anne?

I'm in Azkaban.

Author's Note: Left you on a cliffhanger, eh? Don't worry, next chapter up same day as this one. Anne is stuck in a very bad position very similar to her namesake, Anne Boleyn. Dinah sympathsizes.

Augusta