Okay, so it took me longer than I planned and it is also shorter than I had planned… but at least it is finally here :D

TriGemini: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it!

Tiarwen: Camille and Adrian? Which version do you want to hear? Camille's wishful thinking version or the truth? (The truth would be: Nothing happened and nothing would ever happen unless Camille drugged Adrian…)

Rupert's honey: Thank you!

Wayweird: Oh yes, her ex will definitely be revealed later in the story!

Eruphadriel: Aww, thank you soo much! Seems it was good then, that I reread some old poems we had to analyze in school the day I wrote the last part… :D

Silver Scribes: Angelina dreams some more of her ex in here… and he will be revealed… later…

Mistyqueen: Thank you!

Mercurian Orchid: I don't think I could make Angelina have a relationship with Montague and then have them break up! Slytherins deserve a happy ending after all! So, no, not Montague.

Chapter 9

Fishes and Birds

"Angelina? Are you alright?" Alicia asked her friend worriedly. Angelina was sitting at the window and shrugged.

"It feels like he's leaving me, not only the school." She admitted sadly.

"Oh Angie, don't talk like that! You can see him again, anytime you want." Alicia tried to reassure the other girl. When she looked at Angelina's face she saw the tears running over the dark skin and did the only thing she could think of in this situation. She pulled Angelina into a hug and let her cry against her shoulder.

"Oh Angel, I wish I knew what to say to make it better." Leila Johnson was sitting on the edge of her daughter's bed, her hand stroking over the shaking back of the crying young woman.

"There's nothing to make it better!" Angelina cried.

"I thought he loved me, mama!"

Leila leaned over her child and kissed her head.

"One day you will find someone who really loves you Angel." She whispered.

"I don't care! There is no love! It doesn't exist! I won't believe in it anymore!" Angelina sobbed and buried her head deeper in the pillow. Leila Johnson sighed and continued to stroke her daughter's back.

A lonely tear rolled down Angelina's cheek while the memories haunted her dreams. She didn't want to cry over him anymore. But it seemed as though her subconscious had different plans.

"Don't talk about things you don't know anything about!" Sophia told Marjory during dinner after Adrian's mother had said what she wanted to have served at the reception.

"I won't let you tell me to be quiet in my house!" Marjory replied, her knuckles turned white as she held tightly onto the knife and the fork.

"This is not your house! It is Adrian's. And I really can't understand how he can stand you living here!" Sophia said calmly and took a sip of her red wine. Marjory gaped at this, arose from her seat and left the room in a hurry.

"Nonna." Adrian said to his grandmother in a pleading voice.

"What?" Sophia asked him, feigning innocence. She knew Adrian only called her the Italian word for grandma when he wanted something from her. She sighed and patted his hand.

"I know, I know. I shouldn't provoke her. After all it is you who has to live with her every day. But this woman is just so dannato irritare – so damn irritating!"

Adrian was about to reply but at the very same moment his left arm started to burn.

"I have to go." He simply said and arose from his seat. He went to leave the house so he could apparate. Before he closed the door to the dining room he could hear his grandmother saying 'the dark lord' to Angelina as an explanation as to where he was going.

"Will you answer me a question?"

Angelina looked questioning at Adrian while she brought her arms through the beige dress she was going to wear this day.

"I was wondering why you haven't said anything yet about me being a death eater. Not even yesterday evening."

Angelina sighed and looked out of the window. It wasn't raining – yet – but the sky looked grey and was full of clouds. Big dark clouds which were gathering together and seemed to swallow the few rays of the sun in their darkness.

"It's not as though I hadn't known when we married." She said and looked back at her husband. His eyebrows were raised and it was obvious that he expected more of an answer from her.

"I want this marriage to work. I have to. If I would ask you too much I might end up hearing things I don't want to hear. Things which would cause me to hate and despise you so much that the only way for me to get pregnant with your child would be that you rape me, because I would never let you touch me again."

"I wouldn't rape you. Ever." Adrian told her and came to her. He stepped behind her and stroke Angelina's hair away from her back. He started to close the back of the dress when Angelina responded.

"I know. And that is why I don't say anything about it. If I'd come to hear whom you killed… that friends of me might be among them. That my parents might be…"

"I didn't kill your parents." Adrian interrupted her.

"How can you be so sure of that?"

"They didn't fight. So there is no way I could have killed them." He said and continued to pull on the strings that closed the dress.

"The Golden Swan." Angelina said and felt how the strings loosened for a moment before Adrian took them in his hands again.

"Had I been part of this attack I wouldn't be alive today. My grandmother would have killed me herself."

Angelina turned her head slightly to look at him. Adrian lifted his gaze from his work on her dress and met her eyes.

"My grandfather was always meeting business partners in The Golden Swan. He was about to contract a new quidditch player when the restaurant was attacked." He closed the strings and stroke again through her hair.

Angelina turned around to face him and frowned at what he had said.

"He wasn't a …"

"Death eater? It didn't matter who was in the restaurant. The attacks were made by some people who didn't want to satisfy themselves with fighting armed opponents. They wanted simply to bring out as much terror as possible. No matter whom they would hurt or kill in the end."

Angelina didn't know what to respond and before she could think of something Adrian had already left the room.

Angelina was sitting on a small couch in the library. Julia was in front of her, her back leaned against Angelina's chest and her legs were outstretched on the couch and covered with a thin blanket. It was a nice change to all the stress in the last days. The reception was only two days away and Marjory and Sophia still fought about every single detail. Angelina had been avoiding the fights as good as she could. And Julia had always stayed away from Marjory anyway.

She now sat and listened while Angelina read a fairytale to her. She listened while the beautiful little bird made itself at home on a tree near a river. She listened when the bird met a fish who lived in said river and became friends with him. And she listened when the bird and the fish fell in love and lived happily ever after.

"Angie, do you think I will one day find such a love? Like in a fairy tale?"

Angelina smiled and stroke through her sister's hair. She didn't know about the person standing in the door, listening to what she said.

"Why not. We just have to find a prince for you." She replied and turned the page of the fairy tale book to read the second story to Julia.

"And a love like a bird and a fish?" Julia asked hopefully. Angelina sighed and thought about saying yes for a moment. But only for a moment.

"Julia, it is only a fairy tale. The story of the fish and the bird is not believable. Especially not the end of it."

"Why not?" Julia asked and turned her head back to look at her older sister.

"A fish and a bird might fall in love…but where shall they live?"

Julia thought about this for a moment than nodded.

"Read me another story?" she asked and looked pleadingly to her sister.

"Of course." Angelina smiled back. Still neither of them noticed the person standing in the door who was now walking away.

About an hour later, Adrian walked past the open library door and saw the sisters lying on the couch, both sound asleep. He walked towards the couch and lifted Julia into his arms. She mumbled softly in her sleep while he carried her to her bed.

When he came back down he kneed next to the couch and looked at his wife. She was lying on her back and a strand of her black hair was falling over her neck. Adrian stroke the hair away from her skin, but let his hand rest on her cheek.

"Don't fly away from me Angelina." He whispered before he carried her into their bedroom. He laid her down on the bed and took the dress off of her body. Then he laid down beside her and pulled the blanket over them both.