Something wasn't right, Holly could feel it. She was sitting at home trying to read her book. She looked out the window for the millionth time that night. Remus was gone, the full moon was back. She had no idea where Sirius was, and she had gotten back from Lily and James' a few hours ago, so there was no need to bother them again. They were a happy family now. James and Lily were so cute with little Harry. Despite her long track record of making kids cry, unintentionally, she did rather well with Harry. He was such a good baby.

It was amazing to see what one tiny infant could do to her friends. James was suddenly super-dad, and Lily, well, Lily was the mother that everyone expected her to be. Caring, over protective, and wonderful. However, it didn't stop Lily from writing to Holly in the dead of night, asking for help the first few weeks.

Holly was anxious. Just waiting for something to happen. She could feel it. Her Bounty Hunter instinct was taking over. But the problem was, there was nothing to hunt. So she got up and went into the kitchen. She opened the fridge, she needed to go grocery shopping. She picked up several things, but nothing looked good. So she made tea. She poured it into her favorite mug and sat down at the table, not drinking it. Everything around her seemed to have this energy and she couldn't help but catch it.

"Holly, your losing your grip." she moved her hands through her hair. She looked around the room. A few candles burned, only partly illuminating the room. She liked it this way. Remus said that if she didn't use more light when she read, her eyesight would go. She looked at the clock on the wall.

"1 am. What the hell am I doing up at 1 am?" she looked down at her untouched mug and put it in the sink.

Holly walked over to her room, and changed into her favorite pajamas. Dark blue cotton pants, a green tank top, and Sirius' old Quidditch jacket. It had been an unusually cold fall. She sat on her bed. Still couldn't sleep. She got an idea. She walked over to the kitchen and opened one of the cupboards. She began looking, until she found what she was looking for. Sleeping pills. She had gotten them prescribed during all those months when she had trouble getting a sleep schedule. She hadn't taken them in two months. She got a glass of water and was about to open the bottle when her door flew open.

"Sirius! What the hell!" he shut the door and came right over to her and just hugged her. "What's wrong?" he didn't say anything, just held her closer. He was freaked out, but was trying to hide it.

"I love you Holly." was all he said. He swooped down and kissed her hard.

"Sirius, what's going on?" she broke away and looked at him. His hair was messed up and his eyes were red and puffy, like he had been crying. "What's going on?" He didn't say anything, just began to kiss her again. He had a way of over sweeping her emotions, like tornado. She just got swept up in the moment and the next thing she knew they're cloths were off and they were in her bed breathing heavy.

They moved perfectly together, it was like they didn't need to think. They just did it. It wasn't going through the motions. It was going through Sirius emotions. And tonight, he was intense, and desperate. It was amazing.

"Sirius." she breathed under him after it was over, wiping his damp hair out of his face.

"God I love you." he whispered in a hoarse voice and kissed her neck and put his head under her chin.

"I love you too Siri." she played with her hair. He seemed calmer, but still on the edge. But he was always like that afterwards. They stayed silent for a moment.

"Holly." he looked at her. "You have to promise me something."

"Anything." he moved up and supported himself on his elbows, so he was right over her.

"You have to promise me, no matter what you hear, that you'll never hunt me." She sat up, so now they were sitting up, he took her hand and held it. "Holly please. This is really important to me." he looked desperate.

"Alright. I promise never to hunt you. I don't understand…" he broke her sentence off by kissing her. He broke away, his eyes were closed as if savoring the moment. "I have to go." he said, choking out the words.

"What. You can't just leave."

"I have to." he didn't look at her, just got on his clothes in a hurry.

"What you have me all freaked out for nothing but a quick shag?" she stood up wrapping the sheet around her.

"No. No. Lovely, that's not it at all." He wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, but I have to go."

"I love you too." the way he hugged her, she knew he was right. But for no reason understood why.

"Just remember, all of your promises."

"I will." he gave her a weak smile, kissed her once on the lips, and once on the forehead. And he left in a hurry.

Holly went to bed that night, not knowing what she'd have to face in the morning.

"Holly! Open this door right now!" Avrik yelled from outside her apartment.

"What's going on? What's wrong?" she said letting him in.

"We need your help. It's an emergency."

"Tell me what's going on first. You know I don't rush into these things." Holly looked at her watch, it was only six in the morning. Unable to sleep for very long after Sirius left she had gotten up, dressed, and had been working out all morning to cope with the stress.

"We've traced this mad man down, and he's already killed thirteen people, with a single curse. And that's not the worst
part."

"What could be worse."

"He lead you-know-who to the Potters last night."

"Like, James and Lily Potter?" Holly felt like throwing up.

"Yes. Their dead."

"No." This wasn't happening. No. Holly would go over their
later tonight, and Lily would be fussing over Remus after his transformation, and James would be in the living room playing with little Harry, and Harry would be giggling in his sweet way. Holly shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I know they were your friends."

"What about Harry?"

"He's fine. When you-know-who turned to kill Harry, somehow you-know-who died instead. Someone told me that he's with other family, so he's safe. So you should come with me, and take down the bastard who did this."

"Ok." she didn't even need to think about it. All she wanted to do was destroy the person who destroyed her family.

"I love it when you get fired up." Avrik added as a side comment. "So are you going to help us?"

"Yes." She began to follow him. Avrik opened the door, and said:

"Alright, let's go get Black."

"Black?" she stood frozen. Her eyes got really big and she was having a hard time breathing.

"Yes. Sirius Black."

"No. I-I can't ." Suddenly a vision of Sirius telling her to remember her promise came back to haunt her.

"What! You have to! You just said…"

"I know what I said." she yelled.

"He's going after Pettigrew and they need help."

"Peter? This isn't happening." she felt faint. Everything was spinning out of control.

"Come on Holly, we need to get him! They can't hold him too much longer!"

"Go with out me then if your so bloody concerned!" she screamed. Avrik didn't need to be told twice. He left with a loud crack.

All her breath seemed to get caught in her throat. She swallowed hard, then everything went black.

Remus walked up to the door of the apartment with hesitance. He kept telling himself, that Holly would have to know by now. In the best case scenario, she'd be sitting on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket staring into the fireplace, and when he walked in, he'd just sit with her, and they'd be ok, together.

"Well, two out of three isn't bad." he muttered, when he found her sitting on the couch, staring at the fire, with a nearly drained bottle of vodka in her hand. "I take it you heard the news." she looked at him with watery eyes. She hadn't been crying, but she was about to. Remus knew to approach with caution. He sat down next to her, not touching her.

"Did they get the bastard?" she said a labored voice, she was still looking at the fire.

"Yeah." Remus said solemnly. He was still having a hard time believing all of this. No amount of analyzing this could ever make this make sense. "He got Pete first though. Nothing but a finger."

Holly scrunched up her face, stood up and threw her bottle of vodka into the fireplace. It exploded, the flames burst out of the fireplace, Remus was afraid that something would catch fire, he let out a sigh of relief when everything calmed down. Holly leaned up against the fireplace on one arm, nobody said anything for a long time.

After an eternity, Holly went over to the cupboard and got out a bottle of mead for herself and one for Remus. He put up no argument and drank almost all of it at once.

"How much have you had to drink?" he asked.

"I don't know." her speech was labored, and he could tell it had been enough to get her buzzed.

"How long have you been drinking?"

"Seven." Remus looked at his watch, it was 6:45pm.

"When was the last time you had some water?"

"Like it matters Remus!" she finished her bottle and through it to the ground, it smashed into a million pieces. "There gone. Every last one!"

"What about me?"

"What about you? You here, seem to be in fine health. So? Don't you see, it doesn't matter anymore. Because I had to keep my fucking promise. I didn't fucking chase him down!" Remus stared at her.

This was more than James, Lily, and Pete's death. This was more than Sirius betrayal. He waited. Remus prided himself on being a patient man.

"He made me promise last night, that I wouldn't hunt him down." she choked on her words, she was fighting the tears. "And because I kept my promise, and didn't hunt him down, fourteen people are dead. Sixteen if you count James and…" she collapsed to her knees and began to cry. Without thinking

Remus sat next to her and rubbed her back. Remus' own depression, that he had been fighting sense he learned of all this, began to sink in. They sat there for along time. Crying, and slowly realizing that all they had left, was each other, and neither one knew how long that was going to last.