(A/N: Character death warning.)

Chapter 7: Careless

"Evanie," breathed Aletha, leaning down to embrace the wolf, but gently. Her Healer's instincts were clamoring that something wasn't right, but she brushed them aside in the sheer joy of seeing her friend again after two years of thinking her dead.

Sirius thought Evanie might be alive, whispered an inner voice. He thought Peter might have betrayed the Potters to get her back...

She banished the voice firmly. The dream had been wonderful, everything she wanted, and that was exactly why she was skeptical of it. Proof or disproof of it would have to wait.

But Evanie's here, alive...

"What's been happening to you?" she said finally, sitting back on her heels. "Where have you been? And why are you the wolf? It's not full moon out, and even if it were, you wouldn't have your mind – and why can you talk to me?"

In order, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know... you get the idea. Evanie gave a tired little laugh. But I know what Madam Pomfrey told me.

"What?"

It isn't good. You won't like it.

"Just tell me. Please."

I'm dying, Letha.

No. Please, no... not when I'd just gotten someone back, not when everyone else is gone, please no... Irrelevantly, she noticed Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey conversing in whispers in the aisle, casting glances toward the screened bed.

I've been under a sleeping potion for two years. The Draught of Living Death, Madam Pomfrey says. But the antidote was made wrong, probably on purpose, and it poisoned me. Evanie's tone was angry, but it was a tired anger, as if she had no energy left to fuel it. Why couldn't they just have killed me while I was asleep? Do they like seeing people suffer? Don't answer that, I know they do, she added quickly. I'd hate them for it, but I don't think I have time. There's so much I have to tell you.

Aletha summoned her control once again, forcing all her whirlwind of emotions – joy, grief, anger, hope, everything – into the back of her mind, leaving the front clear for thinking. "I'm listening."

Letha, I know about James and Lily. And it wasn't Sirius who betrayed them. It was Peter.

She should have been happy to have her dream confirmed, Aletha knew. She should have been ecstatic that her husband, the father of her child, was everything she'd thought he was, that her life was not over. But all she could feel was sorrow and pity. What would it be like to be in Evanie's place, to be dying slowly, possibly in pain, and have to admit that her love had been the one who'd sold out his friends?

And he did it, or so he claims, for me. To get me back. Aletha jumped as Evanie's mental voice rose to a shout. What an idiot! He should have known, he should have seen, there's always a trick to these things... they swore to give me back alive and unhurt, and they did. They let him wake me up himself, gave him the antidote to give to me – he never thought...

An audible growl, a mental sob, then the voice continued. We left together. I was confused, I didn't understand why they'd let us go, or why he looked so different. We went out into the woods, found a stream, had a drink. I was horrified when I saw one of his fingers was gone. I made him let me bandage it for him.

Aletha had one hand wrapped around Evanie's front paw and the other stroking her side near her spine, offering as much comfort as she could. She wished she could wave her wand and say an incantation and make all the troubles go away forever, for all of them.

But magic didn't work like that.

Then he started to tell me what he'd done. Letha, he was proud! He made it out like he'd done something wonderful and grand to rescue me – and what he did was ruin everyone's lives!

"Maybe he was hiding from it," suggested Aletha, speaking the first thing that came into her head. "Hiding from the truth of it, because he couldn't face it himself."

Maybe. He asked me before he started to hear him out, so I did. The first thing he told me was that it had been two years since he'd seen me last. I couldn't believe it, I didn't remember anything – but of course I wouldn't, since I was asleep. But then he got to what had happened to him when we were captured, and how they'd showed me to him, asleep, and told him I was safe for now. As long as he'd tell them a few little things.

"And then little things turned into big things. And always with the same refrain – 'Well, she's safe for now, but she won't be unless...'" Aletha felt rather as if she'd bitten into an orange when she'd expected an apple. An unpleasant, greasy bitterness seemed to coat her tongue. "And then finally they wanted James and Lily, and Harry."

And as if just telling it weren't enough, he bragged about it to me. Evanie's tone shared the bitterness Aletha could taste. Saying he'd known all along that Voldemort wouldn't last past going to the Potters'. And about how he'd been so clever, setting up that street scene so that everyone would think it had been Sirius. Do you know what he did?

"Yes, actually I think I do. I was there, I saw it."

You were? He didn't tell me that, I'm so sorry, it must have been awful for you.

"Don't worry about me, what about you – what did you do?"

I lost my temper. I screamed so loud I think everyone heard me for ten miles around.

"You screamed? How?"

Oh – I was still in human form then. I didn't change into this until later. But I'll get to that.

"All right."

I told him I could never love him again. That I never wanted to see him again, or think about him. That our marriage was over, and that I was going to find the authorities right away and turn him in, and if he was smart he wouldn't try to stop me.

"What did he do?"

Nothing. He just sat there and stared at me. Letha, do you really think it's possible he didn't know what I would do when I found out?

"He may have been deluding himself. Living in a dream." Men can be very good at that.

But then again, so can women.

I don't remember much after that. I know I ran away from there, and kept running for what seemed like a long time. I fell a few times, and hurt myself – I was still stiff from sleeping so long, my muscles wouldn't work quite right, and the poison was starting to work – and I had no idea where I was, or where I was going, or anything. After a while I think I fainted. I kept trying to get back up, though. Evanie's body was tense, as though she were reliving those nightmare hours, betrayed by her husband, exhausted and hurt, and utterly lost. And then the sun set.

"The sun set?" What does that have to do with anything?

That was when I changed. Evanie motioned to herself with the front paw Aletha wasn't holding. From human, to this. I was scared at first – thought it must be full moon and I hadn't noticed – but the change finished, and I was still thinking like a person. It was easier to walk on four legs than on two, so I could get back up. But I was still exhausted, I still had no idea where I was, and by then the poison was really working on me. So I didn't get very far before I fell again.

"How did you get here?"

Truthfully, I don't know. I know what I remember, but it's so strange I think I must have been dreaming.

"Will you tell me anyway?"

Two women. They held me like you're doing, and stroked me a few times, and I felt stronger. Then one of them touched my forehead and whispered something, but I didn't hear it. The other one touched my feet and said something like "May you find the road to the safest place." But when I looked around again, they were gone. I got up and started walking, and in just a few minutes I was coming out of the Forbidden Forest. I made it to the front steps of the castle, but I couldn't go any farther. I lay down there and waited, and Professor Dumbledore found me not too long after that, and brought me up here.

"Where, I have no doubt, Madam Pomfrey was delighted to have to entertain a wolf." Aletha made her tone as light as she could, and rejoiced to hear Evanie laugh a little in return. Her friend might be dying, but there was no reason not to celebrate her return for a moment or two before she had to grieve yet again.

She was a little shocked at first, but when she touched me I could talk to her, and she didn't fuss any more after that.

"So you don't know why you can talk like this?"

No. Not at all.

"Nor any idea why you changed at sunset?"

None. Unless... Evanie's breath caught, and she began to cough hoarsely. The sound brought Madam Pomfrey in a rush. Aletha moved back to make room, her throat beginning to close. She'd heard coughing like that before, and it was never good.

After a moment, Madam Pomfrey stood up from her crouch and motioned Aletha closer. "She's sinking," she said bluntly, but quietly. "May not last more than a few minutes now..."

At that moment, the doors of the hospital wing burst open, and Larry and Patty Mead sprinted in, Dumbledore close behind them. Aletha and Madam Pomfrey quickly got out of the way as the Meads pressed between the screens and embraced their daughter, one from each side, both crying unashamedly. "Dumbledore told us," said Larry through tears. "Oh, little love, I'm so sorry..."

Aletha slipped out of the enclosure after Madam Pomfrey, to give the family time alone together.

Dumbledore was waiting for her, his face grave. "You have heard her story?" he asked.

"Yes." Aletha did not add that she'd already heard it once that night, from a pair of ghosts and the dream-figure of her husband. Even the unflappable Headmaster might have a hard time believing that one.

"It explains a great deal."

"It does."

"Unfortunately, Evanie will not live to tell her story to anyone in a position of authority, nor can she write anything in her current form. And being known friends of Sirius', we are unlikely to be believed."

"But – couldn't we at least cast some doubt? Have an inquiry made, something?" She knew she was grasping at straws, but the look on Sirius' face when he had seen her in the dream kept displaying itself in her mind. Hopeful, she might have called it, or wistful, but there had been other elements too, including one that could only be called hunger. In just that one day, she could tell, he had missed her enough for at least a year.

Just about as much as she had missed him.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. But we must not give up hope." Dumbledore laid a hand gently on her arm. "The truth is known now. It will become known more generally in time. How much time remains to be seen." His eyes were speculative. "I believe that I shall be careless today."

Before Aletha could figure out what he meant by this, Patty Mead appeared at the join in the screens. "Letha," she said, her voice roughened by tears. "She's going. She wants you."

Aletha hurried past the older witch and knelt once more by the bed, next to Larry, who was stroking Evanie's head with one hand while holding her paw with the other. She laid a hand on Evanie's flank, heaving with the effort of each breath. "Here I am," she said quietly.

Letha. Evanie's voice sounded odd, as if she were fighting to articulate the words properly, or even think of them at all. The child – Danger's sister – her name, what is it?

"Hermione? But you never knew her, she was born after you were taken – how did you–"

She's happy, Evanie interrupted, speaking more quickly now. She's happy – with Danger – Remus too – the little one – be patient – AAH!

A wordless cry, mental and vocal, struck everyone's ears and minds as Evanie convulsed. Aletha pressed her hands down against her friend's side, feeling phantom pain course through her own body in response, wishing only that this agony would end –

And it did. Evanie went limp under her hands, with the finality that meant only one thing.

It's over now. She can't be hurt again, ever.

"At least now we know," said Larry, still stroking the soft fur. "Now we know what happened to her. She didn't suffer, except for just today."

"And she can't hurt any more," said Patty, in an uncanny echo of Aletha's own thoughts. "The pain's all over with." She laid her cheek against Evanie's back, then buried her face in the wolf's pelt and began to sob harshly.

Aletha got to her feet, supporting herself on the edge of the bed –

And the world went away.

Sirius opened his eyes to darkness, and quickly tried to get his mind organized as he felt the chill strike him.

"You'll start forgetting this," Remus warned, "probably almost as soon as you wake up. Unless these don't count as good memories."

Sirius simply laughed, for once not rising to the bait.

"I'd tell you to think of happy things, except that it won't do any good," said Danger. "But if you can find something that doesn't count as happy, but won't drive you mad to think about all the time..."

"I'm innocent," said Sirius. "Not that it's doing me a rat's arse worth of good."

They all laughed at that. "That might well do," said Remus. "If you can concentrate on that, instead of everything else, I think you have a chance."

"A chance." Danger scoffed. "He has more than a chance. Sirius can beat anything." She reached up and pulled his face down to hers to kiss him on the cheek. "Just don't forget all about us when you get out of there."

"I won't." Sirius looked around the room once more, at the corner where little voices babbled and little hands built towers tall enough to reach the sky, then at his friends' faces, marked by sorrow but also by joy. "I won't."

But even as he thought of it, the memories began to shred and fade away, leaching from his mind until he was left with only the pallid recollection that he'd had a dream, that it had been a nice dream, that he'd seen Remus and Danger again in it...

The horror of the moment he'd heard they were gone crashed in on him again, he could almost hear Moody's gravelly voice telling him the identities of the captives...

"It wasn't my fault," he whispered. "There was nothing I could have done, I did everything I could to help them, they don't blame me for it, it wasn't my fault..."

The litany helped keep the grief and pain at bay, at least to the point where he could breathe.

He hoped it would keep working. It was all he had.

Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was less than pleased to receive a visit from Albus Dumbledore that morning.

He was even less pleased to hear what Dumbledore wanted.

"Question Black? What's to question? More than fifty eyewitnesses, including Black's own wife – whom we can't find at the moment, but will soon enough..."

"When did you try to contact her?" asked Dumbledore politely.

"One of our people firecalled her home around noon yesterday, but there was no answer."

"Had it occurred to you that Mrs. Black might be in some distress, and either unable or unwilling to answer her Floo?"

"Perhaps, perhaps, but that's why we were going to try again later... besides, it doesn't matter, really, does it? Not now that the war's over. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gone, we're rounding up his followers without too much trouble – some of the higher-ranked ones may give some difficulty, of course, at least Black came quietly."

"Still, Bartemius, I should like a few words with Sirius. If that can be arranged."

Crouch heaved a sigh. "Well, seeing that it's you, Dumbledore..."

Aletha came awake with a small start. She was in the hospital wing at Hogwarts, still dressed in the robes she'd put on when she'd gotten home from work on Halloween night – or would it be the next morning, she wondered, since she hadn't reached home till after midnight? It didn't matter – in either case, she'd been wearing these same robes for (a glance at her watch confirmed her feeling that she'd been asleep for a while) more than a day and a half, and she hadn't showered in the same amount of time.

And it had been an eventful time, she had to admit.

She sincerely hoped she'd never have quite so frantic a day again.

Madam Pomfrey let her use the bathroom in the hospital wing to clean up, and the Hogwarts house-elves were quite efficient, so her clothes were clean and dry by the time she was. With that and a good dinner under her belt, since she'd missed breakfast and lunch, she was feeling far more like herself by the time the door opened and Professor Dumbledore walked into the hospital wing, to invite her to his office.

"The war has been more or less declared over," he said as they ascended the spiral staircase. "Some of the Death Eaters are surrendering. Others are claiming they were put under Imperius. Still others have fled, and may be hard to find. However, since there seems to be no more likelihood of mass attacks at the moment, I am disbanding the Order of the Phoenix until and unless reestablishing it seems necessary."

"Because you don't think he's dead."

"Precisely. You realize, of course, Aletha, that this ends any power I might have had over you. I am no longer in any position to give you orders."

Aletha looked sidewise at Dumbledore as he seated himself behind his desk. "But there's something you want me to do," she said. "Isn't there?"

"Astute as ever. And I believe this task may not be altogether distasteful to you. I hesitate to bring up what may be a painful topic, but you were designated the sole heir of David and Rose Granger, were you not, since Sirius has no Muggle identity and therefore could not legally inherit from them?"

"That's right."

"They left you everything they owned. Including their house, number seventeen, Privet Drive, in Little Whinging in Surrey."

Aletha nodded.

"I mentioned to you that I was returning to the castle when I discovered Evanie on the front steps. What I did not tell you is where I had been. I was making certain that Harry Potter arrived safely at the home of his aunt and uncle, which he did. Nor did I tell you their direction. Vernon and Petunia Dursley live at number four, Privet Drive."

Aletha smiled, suddenly seeing where this was going. "In Little Whinging, in Surrey?"

"Indeed."

"And you feel it might be prudent to have someone nearby. Someone to keep an eye on things, just to make sure that nothing gets out of hand."

"Precisely. A young widow, left pregnant by her recently deceased husband, would fit the bill nicely, I think. But suburban life can be dangerous. So I would advise this young widow to acquire some form of protection. Perhaps a dog."

Aletha's eyebrows felt as if they were in danger of merging with her hair. She had been under the impression that Dumbledore was unaware of the Marauders' Animagus abilities.

"Evanie explained to me," said Dumbledore, seeing her confusion. "By way of telling me how Peter escaped from Sirius. I am quite impressed, not only that they managed such transformations, but that they kept it secret from me."

"I think they thought your legendary tolerance of rule-breaking wouldn't extend to actual laws." Aletha chuckled, then frowned. "But wait – how..." She couldn't think of how to phrase it.

"How shall you acquire the type of dog you wish?" Dumbledore finished for her, sighing dramatically. "Aletha, I am afraid I was terribly careless today. I shall be roundly castigated for it, I'm sure, but such is the price of carelessness. The Daily Prophet, of course, was delighted to hear of it." He slid a copy of the Evening Prophet across his desk to her. "Only because I am sure you will not laugh at an old man's folly."

Aletha thought her eyebrows ought to be paying her hair rent as she scrutinized the front page.

SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES!

Overpowers Albus Dumbledore, Aurors

Public urged to be on their guard

"Sirius did not overpower you," she said surely, lowering the paper. "I don't think anyone could."

"Ah, but he did," lamented Dumbledore, in such a serious tone that anyone who couldn't see his eyes, twinkling more than usual, would have thought he meant it. "I looked into his eyes, scrutinized his thoughts most carefully, and discovered the awful truth about his wickedness. Unfortunately, use of Legilimency weakened me momentarily, and Sirius took advantage of this, and of the fact that I had brought his wand with me to our session together, in order to break through his lies by demonstrating that he had cast the curses, you see. He knocked me to the floor, Stunned me with my own wand, took his from my possession, and left the room, Stunning both Aurors who were guarding us."

Aletha's expression might have been interpreted by that same oblivious observer as pained, but that was only because she was trying so very hard not to laugh. "And you have no idea where he went, of course," she was able to say after a few moments.

"None whatsoever." Dumbledore's expression was nicely bland. "However, if the young widow we were speaking of a few moments ago will present herself at the Little Whinging chapter of Animal Control in a day or two, which time will likely be needed for her to move into her new home, I believe she will find quite what she is looking for there."

"So how was your day, dear?" asked Vernon Dursley over the dinner table the next Monday.

"Fine, just fine – oh, be quiet," snapped Petunia to her nephew, who was whimpering and reaching towards the table. "You've had a helping of everything, that's quite enough. Would my ickle Duddykins like some more potatoes? Would he? Would he? Yes, he would!" She cooed nonsense at Dudley while dropping a large spoonful of mashed potatoes onto his high chair tray.

Vernon nodded in satisfaction as his son tucked in with a will. "Got a good appetite, this one. He'll grow up strong, mark my words."

"Oh, yes, Vernon, I meant to tell you – we have a new neighbor, in the Grangers' old place. Young black woman, seems to live alone. I watched her moving in, there was a couple helping her, man and woman, but they left together afterwards."

Vernon snorted. "Divorced, probably. It's a scandal, all these women thinking they can go it alone, without a man to help them. Disgraceful."

"We must have her over for dinner, though, before the Harrisons do... we wouldn't want to seem unfriendly to her."

"If you think so, Petunia, darling..."

Petunia screamed as the bowl of baby carrots skidded across the table towards Harry, who was reaching for them, and fell off the edge, shattering on the floor.

"Let me handle it," said Vernon, standing up. "You just deal with the mess and Dudders." Dudley and Harry were both crying, Dudley because he'd been startled by the noise, Harry because the food he wanted had smashed on the ground.

"I'll do that." Petunia bent down, starting to gather the pieces of ceramic together, so that she didn't have to watch her husband carry her screaming nephew (at arm's length, as if he might be contaminated) down the hallway and plop him in the crib in the cupboard under the stairs, shut the door, and come back to the table as if nothing had happened.

Still, Petunia had not forgotten what she had been talking about. And so, a few days later, Aletha Black came to dinner at number four, Privet Drive.

She'd been a friend of the Grangers' grown daughter, she explained, and the closest thing the Grangers had left to family in the world when said daughter had died, so she'd inherited the house in August, and come there now to escape unhappy memories.

"I was married until just recently," she said. "My husband was a police officer, he was killed in the line of duty a few weeks ago." She smiled bravely. "But he left me with a remembrance. I'm due in June."

Petunia exclaimed and congratulated her, Vernon raised his glass politely. Dudley ignored the adults in favor of eating. Harry was looking at the woman with a puzzled frown on his face.

"Your little boys are darling," Mrs. Black said, looking at them. "Are they twins? They're so different..."

"No, only the blond one is ours," said Petunia quickly. "The other is my sister's boy, she's recently died, we've taken him in."

"Very decent of you. If you ever need a babysitter, I love children, and I wouldn't charge you anything – call it a favor for a neighbor..."

If there was anything the Dursleys couldn't resist, it was getting something for free.

Although getting the contaminating magical child out of their house, even temporarily, ran a close second.

Mrs. Black had just endeared herself to them forever.

Even if she did have a dog.

"He's very well trained," she promised. "He'll stay in my yard, and he won't bother you if you have to come over for some reason. He's a good boy, my Padfoot."

"Pa-fuh?" said Harry. Everyone looked at him.

"Did he just say your dog's name?" asked Vernon, brow furrowed in suspicion.

"I'm not sure." Mrs. Black, looking flustered, was fumbling in her purse beneath the table.

"Pa-fuh!" Harry repeated, louder.

"He did," said Petunia. "I'm sure he did – what's going on here?"

Harry was pounding on his high chair tray now, looking like he was about to cry. "PA-FUH, PA-FUH!"

Mrs. Black found what she was looking for and muttered something. Harry abruptly stopped what he was doing, looking confused.

"Children this age often repeat what they hear," she said, looking up. "I recall a friend of mine had difficulty when her little one started repeating things she shouldn't have been – only she heard them wrongly. The one that tipped the mother off was 'Damage'."

"Damage?" repeated Petunia blankly. "Damage?"

Vernon suddenly guffawed. "Of course! 'Damage'! I like that!"

The visit, which had been in danger of foundering, prospered from that point on, and culminated with Mrs. Black asking if she could take Harry over to her house for a little while, just so he could see it and start getting to know it, meet her dog and so on.

The Dursleys granted permission gladly.

Aletha shut the front door behind her and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm home," she called. "Plus one."

Sirius came bounding down the hall and changed in mid-leap, making Harry stare. Sirius stared back. "What's wrong with him? He's seen me change before."

"Not right now, he hasn't." Aletha was fumbling in her purse again, handicapped by having Harry in her arms. "Here, take him."

She handed Harry over. Harry began to cry. Sirius looked at his godson in alarm. "What's the matter?" he shouted over Harry's wails.

"I had to charm him!" Aletha shouted back. "So he wouldn't yell out my name and ruin everything! Here–" She had found her wand, and pointed it at Harry, muttering a few words.

The difference was dramatic. Harry stopped mid-sob, blinked, looked at the man holding him, and broke into a huge smile. "Pa-fuh!"

"Yeah, yeah, glad to see you too," muttered Sirius, hugging his godson back. "Don't kill me, here, Greeneyes, strangleholds are illegal." Aletha could hear a choke in his voice, and doubted that all of it was from the death grip Harry had around his neck. "Look who's here too." He peeled Harry off him and turned him around.

"Letha!" Harry held out his arms to her, and Aletha took him from Sirius, suppressing a sniffle.

He should have been ours outright, not just whatever times his aunt and uncle decide they don't want him around. Or no, he should have been James and Lily's, and we just visitors...

But life goes on, and we make the best of it that we can. And this is so much better than a lot of alternatives I can think of.

Far away, a mother and father sang a lullaby to their little ones, in two-part harmony, telling them in no uncertain terms that they were loved, and loved dearly. They had many opportunities to tell them so during the day, of course, and took full advantage.

But it was somehow better at night.

(A/N: After this, time starts speeding up... just a warning. Most of the rest of the action of this story takes place in Harry's first year at Hogwarts. And portions will be slightly HBP-spoilerish, but none of the hot-button stuff like who the Half-Blood Prince is (if you haven't gotten there yet, you'd probably never guess it, by the way). I'll try not to make it too obvious... and please review!

I know, I know. I said I wouldn't post for two days after HBP. :sounds defensive: Well, it's been almost two days since I got it! And if you don't want to read this, you didn't have to – nobody made you... I sure didn't...

I would just like to state, for the record, that I have never used an Unforgivable Curse. Ever. You know who you are. :P)