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Chapter 2 - The Fiancée
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Sirius sat back in his chair in the top suspect room, crossing his arms in front of his chest firmly to stop himself from doing anything rash. He still hadn't overcome the shock; he needed some time to think thoroughly. But he couldn't tear his eyes off her.

Hugging her arms protectively, Rainzzi Delanuit stood in front of the window gazing up and paid no attention to the interrogation taking place behind her. She seemed to be very interested in the night sky. But as far as Sirius could see, it wasn't a particularly attractive night; the sky was merely a dull, dusty black. Sirius had got the impression that she just doing it to occupy her thoughts and delay the moment when she had to lay eyes on him again.

Although the chamber was completely breezeless, her silky hair was budging smoothly as though in its accord. Sirius' eyes carefully travelled from the delicate jawline to every part of her face, it was a miracle how everything on it could be so exquisite. A mixture of ocean blue and turquoise, her eyes stood out remarkably from her creamy complexion. He had almost forgotten how gorgeous her eyes looked. Almost.

With a start, Rainzzi eventually became conscious of the pair of laden eyes staring at her on the window's reflection. She shifted uncomfortably but Sirius' eyes followed her. With a hint of annoyance visible between her furrowed brows, she looked back for a moment and their eyes met. All at once, a flood of mingled affection and longing threatened Sirius with suffocation. But a second later, Rainzzi reached out to open the window.

He could still remember promising her that he would never make her cry ever again when he slipped the sapphire ring on her slender finger, while he had surreptitiously thought it impossible. What he didn't expect was that her tears of anguish and desperation about him would come so soon.

It was in Azkaban when she cried for the first time after the promise had been made.

"Sirius…" she kept whispering in between sobs. "Please, tell me it wasn't what they told me." But he was sitting on the floor at a corner, staring fixedly out of the window at the dust. He couldn't look at her in the face. It would be irresponsible…when he didn't have a damn future.

Exhausted by crying and beginning to suffer under the Dementors' influence, she backed against the wall and slid down onto the floor. "Sirius…" she said again, staring at him as if he was the only thing in the world. "Can you look at me?"

Sirius was way too interested at the sky to tear his eyes away from it.

She approached his side on bended knees; she didn't even have the strength to stand up on her own and live through the disaster. How could he burden her with yet more unsolvable paradox?

"Please, Sirius, look at me," she pleaded, bringing her face so close but yet not touching him. She shook him vigorously and rocked him forth and back but still she got nothing in response. "Please, Sirius." Overwhelmed with agitation, she finally lost her nerves. She slapped him across the cheek and hit him like mad. His face bruising, Sirius didn't falter from his determination.

Upon the noise of the hitting and slapping, the jailor rushed over to them in alarm. "Miss Delanuit, keep your calm now!"

Rainzzi bumped back on the floor in frustration and swallowed hard, fighting back a huge sob. She grabbed his left hand, the middle finger of which bore a silver ring identical to the one she was wearing. "Sirius, we're engaged. No matter what happened, nothing could change this fact unless you don't love me anymore."

"Black, are you 100 percent sure that you had seen Peter Pettigrew in his human form 2 years ago in the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade?" the investigator was asking in the background, enunciating the words 100 percent like there was a chance that the Peter Sirius claimed to have seen was just an illusion.

Sirius threw his arm up in exasperation, "I told you! I've told you again and again for like –"

"Kurt," Rainzzi chimed in peacefully, without turning to them, "I think we can get this finished with much earlier if you could stop asking for unnecessary vindication."

"Sorry, I just forgot this has been asked before," Kurt apologised. But everyone in their right sense could see it was not true, since the investigator had been bombarding Sirius with negligible questions repeatedly ever since the interrogation began some hours ago, as if eager to catch Sirius offhanded. He picked up the clipboard and examined the content with a thoughtful frown, evidently still trying to seek possible loopholes. He thumped it back on the table when he failed to find any.

"Miss Delanuit? I think that's it," Kurt said at last.

"Let the suspect sign it if he has no objection to the content," Rainzzi whirled around and talked to him directly, it was like Sirius had turned invisible.

Kurt nodded politely; he was clearly very junior to Rainzzi. The despising look returned as he turned to Sirius, "If there's nothing you wish to be amended in the statement, Black, sign it."

Too contemptuous to spare any second to glimpse through the document, Sirius signed the document and thrust the quill and statement back down on the table violently.

"Miss Delanuit, it's your turn to sign."

Rainzzi took a seat finally; she scribbled besides Sirius' signature and shoved the parchment back to Kurt. "Make one more copy and send them separately to Madam Bones and Fudge."

"What about Dumbledore? He has just been reinstated as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot."

"One more copy for Dumbledore, then," Rainzzi forced a smile, "Thank you, Kurt."

Kurt nodded and left the room to send out the statements.

Rainzzi didn't return to her former position as Sirius expected. Instead she remained seated, glancing down at her lap lazily and did a performance of smoothing some wrinkles of her robes. Sirius' existence was totally ignored.

He stared at her longingly, opening and closing his mouth for several times. He was desperate to talk to her, but she apparently didn't want to as she was still determinedly evading his glance. They sat in an excruciating silence for a few minutes.

Sirius waited until she could find no more wrinkle to occupy her attention before he took the initiative to break the ice. "So…" For a moment he thought she didn't hear him. But she jerked up her head gradually with an unreadable expression.

"So," echoed Rainzzi uncomfortably, digging her hands into the pockets and staring at a spot beyond Sirius. "We finally meet, Mr. Black."

Sirius frowned at the title and nodded hesitantly, "I missed you."

"Uh-huh," she shrugged coldly, "But I don't reckon I can even recognise you if not for the photos."

"Do you really…not remember me at all?" said Sirius, his face darkening with dread.

Rainzzi sat back and shook her head casually with a little smile, as if answering a question which she was unconcerned about.

"But I bet no one mentions me in front of you?" asked Sirius miserably.

"No one but Remus," said Rainzzi, chewing her lower lip and stared at her lap again. "Then again I ask him not to; the knowledge of our engagement has been far depressing enough."

Sirius stared at her, a muscle under his left eye flinching slightly. "So you know I'm your fiancé then?"

"I know you're my fiancé," she paused, calming down with resolution. "But I don't know you. I can't remember you. I just know you're Sirius Black, a convicted murderer of thirteen people and second-commander of the Death Eaters. An Auror that sold his best friends to You-know-who and godfather of The-Boy-Who-Lived. That's all I know about you."

Sirius stared at her, he should have known, she didn't know the truth, she must be apt to believe everything the others said about him. "I think you should know by now," he said heavily, "I neither murdered that thirteen people nor did I betray Lily and James. Don't you believe what I said to your fellow?"

"Supposing I believe what you said, that only proves I know even less about you than I thought," Rainzzi said coolly with a repressed-to-be-constant volume.

"Rainzzi…" Sirius leaned forward leadenly. "Remus told me what happened after I was arrested."

"Great," Rainzzi said in mock delight, "Then I think you should understand why I wish you never existed."

"I won't blame you for that," said Sirius quietly, tearing his eyes off her for the first time.

"Blame me?" Rainzzi swallowed and magnified her eyes incredulously, "If you've ever thought of blaming me, I think you haven't got the whole picture of what's happened." She half banged her fists on the table and stood up, towering over him.

"You've got me wrong. Of course I have never thought of blaming you for anything," said Sirius immediately. He followed suit, standing up, and intended to place a hand on her arm which he missed it.

Rainzzi shot him a dirty look before glaring down at the table. She suddenly had a mad desire to vent out a decade and a half's worth of frustration. "I didn't know how we were like before you were arrested. All I know is that right after you were sentenced to a life-time imprisonment in Azkaban, Mr. Black, the Lestranges came and ambushed me, just like what they had done to the Longbottoms. They forced me to tell them where You-know-who was, which I had absolutely no idea. When I failed to give them a satisfactory answer, they tried to take the matters into their own hands. They extracted the memory from me; I was left there with nothing but a cell!"

Of course, Sirius knew what had happened to her, that's why he never contacted her after he had escaped. But hearing it directly from her seemed much worse than he could bear. For every word she breathed out, Sirius was getting a pound weightier at the heart.

"Having my memory modified by the Lestranges I swore to revenge. I wanted to make them pay, that's why I immediately joined the Auror training. But it took a year or so of consideration before they let me into the Auror Department, although I passed all the tests with distinction. And even though I worked harder than anyone, I was always rewarded with nothing but doubt and forever regarded as a second-class one. If not for the family name, I would have never been promoted as a Senior Auror. But that's fine! That should have been fine if only you consented to stay still in your goddamn prison!

"Three years ago when you broke out from Azkaban, I was temporarily suspended and they interrogated me for God knew how many times. They asked me all sorts of questions. Where would Sirius Black be most likely hiding at; what weapons had Sirius Black got from the dark lord that made his escape possible, did Sirius Black plan to help the Dark Lord to resurrect; they interrogated me like a criminal about YOU. Do you know how humiliating that was? I am a fellow Auror for crying out loud! Why should they question me about a man that I could hardly remember? They said it's because I'm your fiancée." Sirius saw that the hands that she used to support herself from the table were trembling furiously.

"I was relegated into a few departments as a junior staff in the two years that followed. Some of them even suggested stationing a Dementor right in front of my house. Nominally it's for my own sake, it's for my protection. But who didn't know they just wanted to keep an eye on me and catch you if you chanced to find me?

"It was not until Barty Crouch Sr. died that I was finally recalled for from the Department of International Magical Co-operation. When news of you helping the criminals break out from Azkaban hit the headline, they didn't think of degrading me, but I have to endure all those gossips and rumours my colleagues spread behind my back!" She finally glared up at him, with one hand clutching the robes in front of her chest, gasping for air.

"It's all because of you! Every time you did something, I was inevitably brought under the limelight too. I appear as a permanently unreliable figure, even though I have done more than any other Auror to catch as much Death Eaters as I can. And you know what? When I did my job too brightly for the Department, they thought I was over-enthusiastic, they suspected that I had hidden motives! I was excluded from every important project, let alone the confidential ones."

"It's all because of you! Sirius Black, do you know how much I hate you? I hope you'd just disappear!" Rainzzi shouted, finally losing control over her emotions. Her voice echoed in the small room.

Sirius' knees went weak and he descended to the chair powerlessly. It seemed that she wasn't the only one being ignorant, he had been ignorant too. He had been completely unaware of the many mishaps that occurred to her; since Remus had left out too many details in his account.

All the while he thought he was the one who suffered the most; he did not realise Rainzzi was suffering as much. He had first learnt that her memory was modified when the Lestranges came to Azkaban. Having been affected by the Dementors slightly, he had pessimistically come to the conclusion that it was perhaps advantageous for her to not remember anything about him.

And now it was the foremost time he discovered how naïve he had been, to think that it was for the better. Surely she wouldn't have been better off if she remembered him, as he knew it himself that a haunting memory could do tremendous harm. However, if she remembered him and all those time they had spent together, she would have known what she was being treated so unfairly for, and she would at least recognise him now.

Glaring at Sirius with every ounce of hatred, Rainzzi bumped down on her chair too. Her cheek was red with fury and she was on the checked brink of tears. And then she looked away in embarrassment and hid her face behind her hands, still trembling involuntarily.

Rainzzi cursed herself inwardly. She hated herself for being so agitated. She had never let loose of her temper like that before. Even when her senior told her she was to be transferred to the Wizarding Education Department, her response was just a careless "OK." But she really couldn't restrain herself from bursting out the discontentment that she had kept to herself in the past fifteen years.

She almost felt thwarted and infuriated. In the previous three years, she had been hoping against hope to catch Sirius Black personally, to prove to the wizarding community that she had not been in contact with him. To prove to the world that she was not linked with him. She wanted to officially void their engagement; she wanted to get rid of everything that's related to him. However, her dream was shattered now.

She knew her dream was shattered the instant when Dumbledore remained calm at Sirius' existence in the Death Room. She just knew Sirius Black would walk out of the Ministry undisturbed and free.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes. It was difficult to tell who's more laden.

"Rainzzi," Sirius murmured at last, in a consoling voice. "Hands on heart, I am just as sympathetic about all those years as you're." Seeing her tears threaten to roll down, he wanted nothing more than to hug her, like the million times he had.

Rainzzi gave a sigh, and then said mildly, "Perhaps you are." She swept her bloodshot eyes briefly with the sleeves before she stared ahead at the spot beyond Sirius again.

"Rainzzi…" Sirius began, his hand gesturing to hers, but he was cut short by a soft knock on the door. Rainzzi quickly leaned back and composed her face, wearing an expression of nonchalance and boredom. Sirius leaned back too, but he couldn't tear his eyes off her.

Williamson walked into the room with a pile of official-looking parchments in his arms, looking from Rainzzi to Sirius with amusement.

"Yeah?" Rainzzi looked up expectantly.

"Percy Weasley has a message for you from the Minister."

"What is it?"

"No idea," Williamson shrugged, "He's waiting for you outside. I'll stay here until you come back." He sat down on the chair once occupied by Kurt.

Rainzzi gave the older Auror a respectful nod before she strode towards the door. She drew a surreptitious breath to compose herself before she stepped into the dark corridor.

"Yes, Weasley," she said, assuming an air of superiority.

"Miss Delanuit, the Minister wants you in his office right now," said Percy Weasley, flinging out his hand and gesturing to lead the way.

"Has a retrial been arranged for Sirius Black yet?" asked Rainzzi conversationally.

Percy gave her a hard look, "The Minister is not planning to hold a public retrial for Black."

"Nice move," commented Rainzzi absent-mindedly. "He won't want to draw the public's attention to a nonsensical imprisonment, will he?"

"Miss Delanuit," Percy said sternly, "I think you are of not a position to criticise the Minister's policies."

"Neither are you to criticise the comment of a superior," said Rainzzi coldly, raising her eyebrows. She gave him a daring look as they entered the lift, pressing the button down. To be truthful, she had never quite liked Percy Weasley; he was famous as a brownnoser when he worked under Barty Crouch. And after his promotion as Junior Secretary to the Minister, he had turned even more so.

Rainzzi watched it nonchalantly as Percy flushed with embarrassment. And then all of a sudden, he met her glance with his own ratty one. "It's funny, isn't it? What Black claims," Percy said carefully, "It's totally ridiculous."

"I don't find it so."

He looked thoughtful for a while, "Did Black mention any of his old friends?"

Rainzzi scrutinized him with a suspicious look, "I am afraid the exact content in his statement is one very confidential and not to be discussed."

"Oh, right. Here we're," he said disappointedly as they walked out of the lift. He knocked on the door of the Minister's Office and said loudly, "Mr. Fudge, Rainzzi Delanuit is here."

"Come in," came Fudge's exhausted voice.

Percy held the door open to Rainzzi and receded to stay in the back after closing the door.

To her surprise, Albus Dumbledore was seated in front of the marble table across Cornelius Fudge, each holding a statement Kurt had just sent them. Dumbledore turned and raised his lids in acknowledgement.

"Ah, Rainzzi," Fudge began distractedly, rubbing his cheek roughly. "You were supervising when this Kurt guy took Black's statement, right?"

"I was, Minister," said Rainzzi with courtesy.

"Did you check the Secrecy Sensor before the interrogation began?"

"Yes, I –"

"And it didn't vibrate during the whole thing?" Fudge prompted eagerly, "Not even once?"

"It didn't," said Rainzzi seriously.

Fudge rubbed his cheek more roughly. He stood up and walked back and forth behind his table, grasping the parchment murderously like he wanted to tear it into million pieces and mumbling to himself in frustration.

Suddenly, as though a virtual light bulb was lit up, his face brightened up and addressed Dumbledore directly. "But there's no denying he had brought about the death of Bellatrix Lestrange by forcing her through the veil."

"That was a course of defence, Cornelius," Dumbledore replied calmly. "I witnessed it; Bellatrix Lestrange was attacking Sirius Black. They struggled for a moment and then Bellatrix fell through the veil. It was hardly Sirius' fault I must say. According to the International Wizarding Law article 724 clause B, it says a –"

"Spare me with the law, Dumbledore," Fudge interrupted with a note of irritation in his tone, the ancient man shrugged. He bumped back down on his leather chair and drew an involuntary breath, looking defeat. "Weasley, give a very brief account of the investigation, draft a declaration of Black's release on my behalf and send it to the Daily Prophet."

He turned to face Rainzzi and forced a fatherly smile, "Rainzzi, you can have a night off early; it's been a dreadful day. I would have Williamson taken care of Black's case."

She nodded quietly, and was about to walk out of the office when Dumbledore's voice stopped her.

"Cornelius, I must return to Hogwarts right now," said Dumbledore, looking at his wrist watch. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." Fudge looked all too pleased to see him gone.

Dumbledore turned to Rainzzi, and although it was gone as fast as it had come, she thought she had caught a glimpse of suggestiveness in the old man's eyes. "Miss Delanuit, could you offer me the pleasure of seeing me to the entrance?"

A/N: Hey, what do you think of it? I revised it just now. X)