A/N: La La La. Another chapter. And yes I missed Draco and Harry (though mainly Draco...) so I for no real reason whatsoever had them go there. Though I think I managed to pull out actual important things in the process :)

Enjoy.

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Chapter 39

"What are you two doing here?"

Sirius and I had surprised Draco by appearing on his doorstep with no warning, just two large grins to present ourselves with.

"Who is it?" Harry's voice sounded from behind the blonde Slytherin who was looking more then a little put out by our visit. I don't doubt that he had a few plans for his day with Harry that would be more then slightly put off by our presence. Well that just happened to amuse the hell out of me, and judging by the size of Sirius's smile, it only added to the positive reasons why we should visit the two.

Harry's dark haired head popped up over Draco's shoulder, the hair still looking as messed up as the last time I saw him, glasses propped precariously on his nose. His green eyes glowed happily behind the glass. At leas the looked happy to see us.

"Sirius! Aine!" Not helping Draco's twitching, Harry basically pushed him out of the way and threw himself at his godfather, giving him a large hug. I was presented with the same thing only moments later, almost getting bowled over by the energy of the greeting. Apparently he had missed us a bit...

The mood though changed in just an instant.

"Shouldn't you be at the school?" Green eyes narrowed behind glass at the two of us, and without even thinking about it we both started to shuffle a little nervously. Almost like two children who had been caught creeping to the kitchen in the middle of the night for some ice cream. My live or die reflex, okay in this situation is was more of a live or guilt reflex, kicked in quick enough though.

"Well.. I just thought you might want to spend the holiday with your godfather. You know with him having been dead for so long..." A dramatic sigh, scuffing the ground with my shoe innocently. Next to me Sirius seemed to have understood what I was doing since he was giving his best impression of an abandoned puppy.

A snort showed that Draco was having none of it, easily seeing through the facade. His dearly beloved Gryffindor lover though was rather susceptible to the guilt and was at that moment trying rather hard to apologize to his recently resurrected godfather.

"I didn't mean it like that Sirius! Of course I'm glad to see you. Just come in. You can have dinner with us."

The best way to get out of a bad situation; guilt. At least a situation for which you are at fault. Not that it's particularly a nice thing to do, after all one shouldn't make someone you care about feel guilty, but I am after all rather terrible at times. And I didn't want to get sent back to the school just yet, wasn't in the mood to deal with all those rather serious issues again right now.

"That was... rather sly." Draco walked next to me, all of us on our way to the kitchen. Sirius was in front with Harry, who it appeared was still trying rather hard to make up for any perceived slights.

"Rather Slytherin wasn't it?" I nudged Draco in the side. "I'm sorry if we're ruining any special plans you had with poor innocent Harry. Going to corrupt him for Christmas?"

My answer from the aristocratic blonde was a knowing smirk.

"My dear muggle, Harry was corrupted a very long time ago."

There was no real reason to follow up on that one. After all some things are just generally best left up to the imagination, or in this case left to be ignored and never thought of again.

As I've always thought with this house, the kitchen is the most liveable room in it. Really it's the only place within the horrid walls that I really would want to spend anytime. Actually other then the time I had spent unconscious in Sirius's old bed, it pretty much was the only place I had spent time in. The two didn't seem to worry about the rest of the house, though I was sure that the two would have probably done something with their room. As for the appearance of the rest of the place... it was in disrepair, dusty, antiquated and just plain... terrible. It was as if the lives of the former owners permeated it, causing one to feel really rather at unease in the place. As I always felt being here, I was amazed that anyone could live here and feel anywhere near comfortable.

"How was your Christmas?" Harry had us sit down at the table, going to prepare the tea.

"Ah, well..."

That was going to be an interesting and long question to answer. Sure the short answer was that we were celebrating Christmas a day late, but then that opened the door for the next question. The reason why Christmas had been missed.

"Is something wrong?" Harry's face was anxious as he poured the tea.

Now I can't say that I am a big fan of tea, but when in Rome...

"She came here to get away from all of that." Sirius said calmly, sipping his tea. "So let's not talk about that right now."

Really I had to stare at Sirius. After all he was being almost sensitive. And it appeared that for the moment at least Harry was letting the matter slide, Draco too even managed to keep his mouth shut though his expression said volumes about reopening the matter. And he was basically going to get that. After all what had happened could prove to be important.

"The long and the short is that we're celebrating Christmas today. So where are our presents?" Sirius was grinning at Harry and Draco. One looked amused by his joking comment, the other's eye was starting to tick.

"No presents but you can have dinner here. Might not really be Christmas, but at the least it is Boxing day, so still a holiday."

"So we might be able to give you presents... if you are our servants." Draco was smirking as he drank his tea. Really it's rather a talent to be able to do that...

I ignored the glaring contest that was now occurring between the two cousins and instead focused my attention on Harry who it appeared was doing the same as me.

"So those robes...?"

"Ah those. Well Hermione had told me you weren't wearing the standard clothing... I thought it was rather amusing. They were nice too, just in case you ever feel like wearing them."

"I was just worried you might be hinting to me to actually wear them.."

Really there should have been a warning going off in my head at that moment when I saw a smirk inch it's way up Harry's face.

"Well you could always wear it to your wedding."

"You think a black witches's robe would be suitable for that?" I laughed but my face froze. "What... wait...why are we discussing my marriage? What marriage?"

Suddenly an arm draped itself across my shoulders, Sirius's face suddenly in close to me.

"He's suggesting that since you've besmirched my pure reputation that you must do the honourable thing. You're going to have to make an honest man out of me." Next to me he was busy fluttering his eyes at me.

The idea of Sirius as a virgin who needed to be made an honest man of was enough to make me laugh. After all when asked what word you would equate with the man, anything remotely similar to pure and innocent were immediately thrown out. If anyone it should have been me who was being made an honest woman.

"There is going to be no wedding." I said it firmly, just in case anyone actually thought there was a chance. More importantly incase Sirius got any ideas from this. A flash of disappointment crossed Harry's face, I didn't miss that. His feelings were the same as Hermione's. Both wanted the best for this man that they cared so much about. It just happened that they both seemed to equate his happiness with me.

"Well we're working on that." Sirius shrugged, seemingly uncaring about my statement.

"So dinner?" I changed the subject deliberately.

"Yes, yes. You can both stay. I think I even have some Wizard's crackers left..."

Until it was time for dinner, all of us decided to spend some time playing cards. Even Draco was prevailed upon to play, those this could have been due to Harry's rather sly comment that perhaps his lover was afraid of losing to Sirius.

I rather shamefully lost every single round of cards that we played. Not that I'm a bad player, but apparently these boys were just better at it. Or more correctly Harry's comment had started up a world war-like confrontation between Sirius and Draco that left no room for anyone else to win.

As Harry suggested, he did in fact have some wizard's crackers left. Now being that my parents came from Scotland I am fully versified in the art of crackers. Every Christmas we had them, and every Christmas we had a picture taken with the rather silly looking paper crowns of varied colours on our heads. But that experience did not prepare me for what someone with magic would make of such a simple thing.

They looked normal enough... but then with so many things I was finding in this new universe, looking normal didn't necessarily translate. First off instead of a normal popping sound when they were pulled, instead they left of harmless small sets of fireworks. That alone would have made my day, but the stuff that piled out of the little objects was enough to make me wonder once again in awe at magic.

Instead of dinky little paper hats instead out popped normal hats one would wear to a fancy dress party. Harry had a jester's hat, Sirius was rather proud of his cowboy hat, mine was a policeman's, and much to Draco's dismay he had a rather ostentatious girl's bonnet. Since it was a tradition to wear the hat you got, you could see Draco's predicament. Feeling the smallest amount of pity for the man I traded hats with him. Pity... not to mention being able to use this against him in the future.

And then of course there was the 'prizes' that came out. Normal crackers would have had a bottle opener, or a set of pencils but these took that idea and multiplied it by a hundred. Mine for example had six pack of butterbeer with a bottle opener.

"I want to have these every Christmas." I passed out the butterbeers to everyone. "Do you think anyone would notice if I stole some?"

"Not so much of an issue as what muggles would think of it." Harry was doling out the food to everyone's plate. My mind immediately associated this image with that of my mother doing the same on Christmas. It was a thought that was best left in my head. No guy really likes to be called feminine. Even if meant in the best possible way.

Dinner was delicious, even disregarding Sirius and Draco's frequent comments comparing Harry's cooking to my own. I didn't see what they meant when they said that this meal at least was edible. My cooking was nothing if not spectacular. My thought on the matter just got me two amused looks and the response that it was spectacularly unedible. I let it slide, mainly due to the fact that it was one of the only times I ever witnessed the two of them agreeing about something.

"So now... what happened?"

We were all still in the kitchen, at the table which had been cleaned off of the plates. The men all had a glass of firewhiskey, but I just kept my butterbeer.

I didn't pretend that I had no idea what Harry was asking.

"Christmas Eve someone attacked little Kerstan Faust. He denies that it happened, but his face says differently. And the prime suspect is Cain Montgomery. I just don't believe that it was him."

Harry and Draco were paying diligent attention, while Sirius was frowning and fingering his glass. At the least he was at least staying quiet as I explained everything that had happened. Likely best for his welfare really, he knew my feelings on the matter. Hence why we had run away to this house today.

"Well the interesting aspect of this is that their memories are both so well ordered to be what they wanted to be seen. It's not something a first year should be able to do."

"Yes according to Sevvie..." I blinked as I said the name. I don't think the man would have been too pleased with me using that nickname in this company. Draco looked like he was filing that away, likely going to use it on his older head of house at a laer date. "According to Severus, you didn't get a handle on it until your seventh year."

My slip of the tongue got me a very odd look from Harry who looked really less then pleased with my familiarity with his hated old Professor. For a change Draco seemed to be rather pleased with the idea of me being close to the man. And yes, he was definately filing all of this away for later... I on the other hand was annoyed with myself for having brought him up at all.

"Yes well... I'm sure Professor Snape rarely has anything nice to say about me." Harry bit back a growl from his voice, though it was easily recognized. "He happens to make the correct point though. It's suspicious for both."

"Kerstan probably just has a knack for it." Sirius finally voiced his opinion, standing up for his favourite student.

"And then the same could be said for Cain." I narrowed my eyes at him. Once again we were starting to have this same argument. It would have gone on all night if Harry hadn't stepped in.

"Stop. It's suspicious for both. Or it could be nothing..." There was a strain to his voice suggesting that this last idea he wasn't really believing. When the dark lord is gaining power, people have been killed and a horcrux is missing, then you don't really ever believe in coincidences. Especially when dealing with something like this.

"Just keep an eye on the two of them." Draco started to speak but Sirius cut him off.

"Don't worry cousin. I'll keep a firm eye on the two."

"I was talking to Aine." Draco sneered, completely disregarding his older cousin. The blonde was taking the same approach as the Headmistress had, entrusting me with this. It was rather pressuring...

Once again Harry and I blocked out the battle of wills going on the other side of the table.

"I'm sorry that I'm putting more upon you then I intended. Really when all this started I just meant for you to teach since you can't leave Sirius's side... But..." His green eyes darted to his godfather and he had a whimsical smile. "His prejudices are a bit hard to get over. The same for all of us really. You on the other hand really went in with a pretty much clean slate. At the very least you liked Slytherin as well as Gryffindor."

"Though I do have a rather unhealthy disdain for Hufflepuff..." I shrugged, trying to joke with the situation.

"Well... They have their good points. Even if the hat's songs never really convey that too well..."

"You're not kidding. 'And Hufflepuff said she'd take the rest'? Makes them sound like the real picks of the litter doesn't it?"

Harry just laughed.

"This attack... It's worrisome, but for now it doesn't seem to be connected to our problem. Just keep an eye on the students, those two in particular." His eyes darted once again to his disreputable godfather who was at that moment threatening Draco with a fork. "Try looking after that kid as well."

My fingers started to tap over the table.

"Harry..." My voice dipped low, wanting to make sure Sirius didn't hear what I was going to say. "About me and Sirius... I know you all seem to want something..."

"Don't." Harry cut me off, raising his hand to accentuate his point. "I won't lie about wanting it... but that's your business."

"I like him..." I didn't need to continue but I wanted to get this off my chest with him. "I like someone else as well..."

"Professor Snape, right?" Harry looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth, showing exactly what he thought about anyone liking his most hated professor. "I can't stand that man, it's true. But... it's your deal. He can't be too bad if you like him." Now his eyes slid to Draco, warming as they did. "Not to mention he loves the man, even if he will never admit it. Just be careful as you go. You might just end up hurting both men."

My lips pursed as I thought about this all. Really all too pressuring.

"Harry." Sirius called out to his godson, seeming done with his little war with Draco, who was examining his nails. "Aine thinks someone else broke into the school. It obviously wasn't Voldemort himself. Are there other death eaters around?"

"Termites." There was a distinct sneer on the young man's face as he answered. "They never go away. Some escaped capture. Probably a lot we just didn't know about either."

It looked at that moment that there was something else that the young man wanted to say. His mouth opened to say it but nothing came out. His eyes darkened considerably, a hooded look to them now. I wasn't the only one who noticed...

"Harry. Tell me." Sirius's voice was gentle, but still firm.

"The main one that got away... I looked for her for years, but never got anywhere." Immediately with Harry's pained look, Draco was out of his chair and by his lover's side, whispering in his ear. Likely telling him he didn't have to tell this, but the Gryffindor was adamant to finish. "Sirius. Bellatrix is still out there."

My eyes flashed to Sirius immediately. His jaw had tightened with just the mention of his cousin's name. Undoubtedly the pained look on his face was due to memories flashing in front of his mind's eye. Memories of his death, by her hand. Never having met the woman I still wanted to rip her throat out. Nothing too horrible...

"I think it's about time we got back to the school." Sirius got up from his chair. I thought stayed still staring up at him, my heart on my sleeve as they say. Really I was worried how this news was going to affect him. He just shrugged and pulled me up out of the chair. "Pleased to see you worried about me, but it's fine."

Seeing as how there was really nothing to argue, and the fact that the man is singularly one of the most stubborn men I know (pretty much all the men I know are like that), I just quietly agreed with him. We both said our goodbyes to the two, but Harry's eyes didn't lose that worried look. Even as he closed the door behind us, I could feel his worry for his godfather.

"Sirius..."

He had apparated the two of us back to Hogsmeade and we were making our way back to the school. Normally I am perfectly fine with quiet, but now it was just rather oppressive, and my mind was thinking back to when I had read those books. About Sirius's death, about the horrible woman who had done the deed. I couldn't think why this piece of information had slipped my mind, fallen through the cracks as it were. I had read the books, I knew that she had escaped at the end of the last one... but since it hadn't been brought up before I had not remembered it.

"I said not to worry."

"Well... I worry about you." I huffed quietly. "Is that a problem?"

He stopped, and before I had a chance to so much as glare at him, he had pulled me into his arms, holding me tightly. It was rather surprising really, there was no heated kiss, no sly movement of his hands to inappropriate areas. This was really rather a desperate gesture that had an effect on me. Right then and there he was like a lost child. One that no matter what I had to protect.

"Everything will be all right." My hands stroked his back even as I said the empty words. Telling someone that everything is okay, fine, is useless. It's never true, and it almost never actually makes the person feel better. But I had nothing else to say, so falling back on old cliches was my best option.

While we were in this silent position, him desperately clinging to me while I whispered meaningless but reassuring words to him, a thought strayed through my mind. A rather disturbing little nugget of information that if proved correct would certainly not help matters at all, instead only making things much, much worse.

"Sirius..." I pulled away from him gently, keeping my hands on him though, knowing that he needed to feel me to be sure I was still here.

"I'm fine." He took a deep breath, wavering though it was, and stepped out of the reach of my hands, looking firm on his feet and not the broken child he had just been.

"I had a rather... disturbing thought." I took a deep breath, wondering if this was really best to mention to him, but deeming it ultimately necessary. "That visit we had to Hogsmeade, you... I mean we both felt something odd. A presence. It was the same one we had felt in London before coming to Hogwart's wasn't it?"

Sirius looked perplexed for a moment before nodding, his dark locks shaking.

"You had said it had felt familiar..." I left this sentence hanging, not really wanting to finish it, but the man was more astute the most people, myself included, gave him credit for. Once I had said this immediately he understood my meaning, his forehead bunched up in thought, like he was trying to remember something.

"Her... That's what it was!" He had found that missing link in his memories. I would have said he was happy if it wasn't the material we were dealing with. "That presence that felt familiar. Was it Bellatrix? It felt like her..."

He said this last quietly, mostly speaking to himself, trying to figure it all out. Likely there was a sense of anger with himself for not having realized this earlier.

"She was in Hogsmeade. She could have gotten into the castle on Christmas Eve..."

I had merely suggested this to finally stop the suspicion for the attack from lying on Cain, but it had a unwarranted result aside from that.

The silver eyes opened wide, he looked like he had been hit by a ton of bricks. In his mind the guilt was striking him over, and over again. If this was right, if she had been the one to attack Kerstan, then it was his fault. If he had made the connection earlier...

"Sirius!" I reached out, desperate to break this before it got worse then I could handle. Depressed the man was almost impossible to handle, and impossible to be around. I always found myself doing everything for him when that happened. "You didn't even know she was still alive. How could you have made the connection then? It's certainly not your fault." I almost bit my tongue for what I said next. "I could be wrong as well. It might not have been anyone on the outside."

This was just to allay his guilt, but I was basically suggesting that he had been right and that Cain had been responsible. It was something that I didn't feel at all.

"No. This brings doubt on all that."

I could tell it took a lot for him to admit a mistake, even if his words were careful to say that it was a possibility. He certainly hadn't accepted for a fact that Cain was innocent. That would be impossible. He was a Slytherin after all. They are always up to no good. Which granted had a slight ring of truth to it. Up to no good though didn't mean attacking anyone.

"Let's get back to the school." I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Grabbing his hand, together we walked the rest of the way to the school.

Our entry though was met with a Potions master that looked like he was practically going to set fire to the building, and upon seeing our linked hands, the likelihood turned to us being the ones set on fire. Next to him was a less then pleased Headmistress. At least she though didn't look like she was going to turn our insides out on to the floor. Her eyes merely flickered to our entwined fingers before staying hard on our faces.

"You abandoned your positions for most of the day without telling anyone."

For some reason when McGonagall said it, it sounded far worse then it looked in my head.

"We went to see Harry. I wanted to visit my godson. And Aine of course had to go." Sirius's normal smooth smile way on his face, and when he said my name he squeezed my hand, his smile becoming almost predatory. My own expression was slightly annoyed, since I had seen his eyes flicker to Severus before the statement. As usual this was part of his little show for the man. Though for my own part I still had memories of Severus being so enthused about that present from Sinistra, so I was fine going along this time. The result was that I smiled up at Sirius rather adoringly, which I think rather threw him for a loop.

"That was fine. But you need to tell me." McGonagall I don't think would ever admit that she was affected by Sirius's smile, but she certainly turned from being angry to acceptance rather fast.

"Headmistress! Is that all you're going to do? They left the students and went off on their own to... to have a little lover's tryst!" Severus's eye was seriously ticking as he practically yelled this. I say practically since the man didn't really yell, but for him it was damn near close.

"Professor Snape. The matter is in my hands. They have been warned, and that's that." She ignored any further admonishments from Severus. "I hope Harry is all right."

"He's great Headmistress." Sirius's smile broadened.

"Good, good." With no other word, she walked back into the Great Hall.

Left alone with two competing males was not a fun circumstance. Luckily or not though, Severus spared one more disgusted look for me, an angry glare for Sirius and hurriedly walked off to the Dungeons. It brought to mind a child stomping off after not getting what he wanted. Certainly amusing enough to file away for a later date, just in case Severus needed to be reminded of the time he stomped off sulking.

"Time for bed." I started to pull away from the dark haired Gryffindor, but his grip tightened on my hand.

He pulled my hand up to his mouth, kissing my fingers softly. Such a simple gesture and it was still managing to send shots of electricity up my arm with each touch of his lips.

"Stay the night with me."

And there was that look again. That broken look that really is impossible to deny, the one that had gotten me in trouble in the first place. That need to stay and protect the man was bringing me forward, was pushing me up on my tiptoes, was brushing my lips over his.

For better or worse, my touch seemed the only thing to be able to heal him.

I spent the night putting back the missing pieces.

Among other things of course...