Complicated

By Neurotica

Five

Sirius Black held grudges against people who harmed his friends and loved ones. If he had something against you, even if he just had an idea that you had hurt his family, he would hunt for you until your dying day. So it wasn't surprising that when he spotted Lucius Malfoy at a Muggle carnival – the man who he'd watched drag his godson down a flight of stairs not nine months ago – he abandoned his family in favor of an attempt to catch the runaway Death Eater.

The Head Auror slipped around the back of the game booths, looking around corners to be sure Malfoy hadn't gotten away, and finally got close enough to hear what was happening in one of the booths. Malfoy and the man inside – presumably a wizard by what they were discussing – were talking about some sort of potion. The blond wizard seemed to want it very badly, but the wizard in the booth claimed he couldn't get it until the next day.

"What if one of dem Ministry Aurors comes by?" the wizard asked in a heavy accent. "I already gots charges against me; I can't afford more, mate."

Malfoy sighed impatiently. "I could make it very worth your while," he said quietly and smoothly.

"I told you. I ain't got that potion here wit me. Now, I can give ya the business card of me associate here in London – he can get it for ya."

"I don't have time to go gallivanting around Muggle London. As you've said, there are Ministry Aurors all over, and I'm sure they would be very unhappy to see me. I am not in town for long – I've other, ah, business to attend to, and I would very much appreciate a little more cooperation," Malfoy said. "I know for a fact that you do have this potion, or at least its ingredients, and if they are not on this counter in the next thirty seconds, you will regret it."

Sirius reached under his shirt where his wand was in the back pocket of his jeans and grasped the handle, pulling it out slowly. He edged his way between the narrow alley of the booths, trying to remain quiet. He performed a Disillusionment Charm on himself as he got closer to the front, listening closely to every little sound Malfoy and the other wizard made, every mutter or indrawn breath, until a long moment when nothing happened, a moment which stretched and stretched...

The length of the silence between the two wizards was getting suspicious, and Sirius was growing impatient. If he didn't catch Malfoy soon, there was a large chance the Death Eater would get away again, and the search for him would continue for God knows how long.

Moving carefully across the dirt, Sirius left the shade of the booth and stood directly beside Malfoy, tempted to curse the other wizard right then and there. I can't. Muggles are crawling all over this place, I can't cause a scene, he thought, surprised at the responsibility he seemed to have absorbed from Remus.

But this is the bastard that caused Harry so much pain, and helped Wormtail try to bring Voldemort back to power. These Muggles don't know the horrors Malfoy could cause them, said another voice, the irresponsible one he was so used to. Take him down quickly, avoid a scene by saying he just passed out or something, but don't waste any more bloody time.

While the voices in Sirius' mind were arguing, Malfoy and the other wizard had made some sort of a deal, one that satisfied the Death Eater. Sirius took a quick look at the sign above the booth – Real Magical Items! Magical wands that turn into rubber ducks; Love Potions that really work; Flying Broomsticks. Vaguely, Sirius thought that the wizard running the booth was facing felony charges with the Ministry for selling potentially dangerous items to Muggles – he'd have to let Arthur Weasley know what was happening at work on Monday.

Malfoy nodded his thanks to the wizard, dropped a jingling leather pouch of gold onto the counter and began to walk away. Sirius noted with some satisfaction that Malfoy seemed to be limping. Well, when I get finished with him, he'll be lucky if he can walk…

The Head Auror started to follow Malfoy, but before he could mutter a Stunning Curse, the Death Eater stopped in his tracks and looked down at the ground, his eyes tracing the outline of Sirius' shadow – Disillusioned or not, he still cast a shadow. Sirius mentally cursed and raised his wand as Malfoy looked over his shoulder, narrowing his cold gray eyes at the Auror. He seemed to shrug off the feeling of being followed, and continued on his way – Sirius sighed in relief.

But the relief was short lived; at the fairground's exit gates, Malfoy quickly turned on his heel, shouting his own Stunning spell which narrowly missed the Head Auror. Sirius ducked out of the way and attempted his own spell, but he was half a second too late – Malfoy'd used the time that it'd taken Sirius to fire his curse to Disapparate.

"DAMMIT!" Sirius yelled, startling a few Muggles who'd seen the strange blond man use a wooden stick to shoot a red jet of light at nothing.

"Sirius!" called a voice from behind him. The Auror turned to find Remus running to catch up to him. "Where'd he go?"

"I don't know," Sirius growled. He looked around at the Muggles, a few of whom looked terrified by the man who had started talking to thin air, and the voice that was answering him. "C'mon, I gotta get this charm off…" Remus led him to the restroom and Sirius entered one of the stalls, still muttering curses under his breath, and exited a few seconds later completely visible. "Where're the kids?"

"Aletha took them and Danger to the other end of the grounds," Remus said.

"Did Danger see anything?"

Remus hesitated. "I think she saw Malfoy shoot the stunning spell at you…"

Sirius looked at him apologetically. "We're going to have to wipe her memory when the Obliviators arrive, you do know that, right?"

Remus sighed and nodded. "I know," he said quietly. "Let's go find them."

The two best friends exited the restroom and saw that a group of Ministry wizards had already arrived – the wizard selling the magical items was being taken into custody by two of Sirius' Aurors, while the Obliviators gathered the Muggles who'd seen everything to get statements and wipe their memories.

Aletha, Danger, Harry, Meghan, and Neenie weren't hard to find. They were standing by the bumper cars, waiting. Aletha spotted Sirius and ran to him. After hugging him, thankful that he was unhurt, she slapped him hard in the shoulder. "That's for running off by yourself," she said to him. "He could have killed you."

"Well, he didn't," Sirius said bitterly. "He Disapparated before I could even try to stun him." He looked over Aletha's shoulder where Danger looked on apprehensively, the children right beside her. "Er, maybe we should all go somewhere more quiet to talk…"

"You don't have to Obliviate her, do you?" Aletha asked Sirius in a whisper as Remus led the others out of the fair grounds.

"Yes, we do," Sirius said regretfully. "She's still a Muggle, no matter how close you were in school."

"But I trust her," Aletha said. "We can tell her what we are, and she won't go blabbing about it in a supermarket."

"I don't think she would, either, but it's required procedure, Letha. Look, I'll talk to Remus, see what he thinks, but if we don't Obliviate her, we have to tell her everything…"

The group silently walked a few blocks to a restaurant where they could talk and not be overheard. To be safe, Sirius cast a privacy spell around their table, and a silencing charm between the kids and adults – the kids didn't need to worry about what was going to be discussed, and Sirius didn't want to have to Obliviate Neenie as well if he decided to wipe Danger's memory of the day.

After ordering glasses of water and nothing more, Danger finally broke the tense silence. "Will one of you please tell me what's going on? Who was that man at the fair? And what did he try to do to Sirius?"

Remus sighed and looked down at the table. Sirius knew he'd prefer to tell Danger the truth about himself on his own terms, and not after what she'd just seen, but as of right now there was no other choice if they didn't want to Obliviate her.

Remus looked back up and met Danger's eyes. "That man was Lucius Malfoy. He's been on the run from Sirius for about six months – we told you he's like a police officer." Danger nodded. "Malfoy was a part of a group who did horrendous things to people, and in September, he did something to Harry that has Sirius hunting him down."

"What did he do?"

Remus looked at Sirius and Aletha. "Harry was kidnapped," Sirius said quietly, "by a man we thought to be dead. This man took Harry and tried to use him in a… well, a sort of ceremony, but we stopped him."

Danger's eyes had a faraway look in them as she took in what she was being told. "What did he look like?" she whispered.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his wife and best friend. "Sorry?"

"This man… What did he look like?"

"Er," Remus said a bit hesitantly. "Well, he was short with brown hair and blue eyes…"

"Did he have a long scar on his chest?"

Remus' and Sirius' eyes widened. "What did you say?"

"From his left shoulder down to his navel," Danger said slowly, drawing her hand down her own body there. Her eyes were still faraway, as though she was getting the information as she spoke. "Some sort of animal attacked him when he was young…"

"How did you know that?" Remus whispered.

Danger looked at them. "The same way I know that you're all magical," she said bluntly. "I've known since the day I met you, Remus, and before that actually."

Aletha stared at her. "Who told you?"

To their surprise, Danger smiled, albeit a bit nervously. "If I tell you, you've got to promise to hear me out. What I've got to say will sound completely mental, but I swear it's all true…"

Sirius and Remus looked at each other. "Excuse us one second," said Sirius, and cast another privacy spell closing him and Remus off from the women. "Moony?"

"I don't know," said Remus. "We have no real reason to trust her, but no reason to mistrust her either. And what harm could it do to hear her out?"

"She could be a Death Eater trying to get close to Harry."

Remus shook his head. "Why wouldn't she have done something before this? She lived on the same street with him for five years, babysat for him – she could have done anything she wanted, his relatives would never have known, or cared."

"That's if she is who she says she is. She could be a Death Eater in disguise – the real Danger could be dead, or captured somewhere. Can we risk it?"

Remus nodded slowly. Sirius was making sense, but there was just something about Danger that he knew in his heart he could trust. The fact that he'd only spent a few hours with her didn't matter one bit. He felt as though he should have had much more time with her than just that day. He remembered the dreams he had about her, and an odd but familiar sensation filled him. "Sirius, trust me on this. Danger would no more harm Harry than any of us would. And just listening to someone can't hurt us."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You didn't know my mum very well, did you?"

"To my everlasting relief, no."

"All right. But you get to clean up the mess if things go pear-shaped."

"Fine with me."

Sirius dispelled the Privacy Spell. Danger and Aletha broke off their own conversation to look at the men. "We'll listen," Remus said quietly. "Go ahead."

Danger sighed, glancing at Neenie, Harry, and Meghan before turning back to her patiently waiting audience. "I told you my parents died some years ago, and that's why I'm taking care of Neenie," she began quietly. "That is true, but they didn't just… die… They were murdered. I'd come home from school one day – Neenie was only about a year old, she was at day care – and I found my parents dead in the living room. They didn't have any visible injuries; in fact, they seemed completely untouched. The only things really out of the ordinary were their faces – they looked as though they'd died in terrible pain."

Aletha pressed her friend's hand. Sirius and Remus exchanged a look, silently agreeing on how Danger's parents had been killed. The Killing Curse, probably with Cruciatus cast beforehand.

"After the funeral, I started having these dreams. I didn't think anything of them at first – I didn't know any of the people in them, I just thought I was having random dreams because of what I'd seen that day. One day, Neenie and I were at the park in our neighborhood, and Petunia Dursley brought her son and another boy to play.

"I recognized the other boy straight off as the boy named Harry from my dreams. His parents had been murdered the same way as mine, and he had nowhere else to go except to his aunt and uncle's. I offered to baby-sit him on a whim; Petunia's son had plenty of friends, but Harry was just sitting in the sandbox staring around – it was the saddest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

"After I started watching him often, my dreams came more predictably – every night, actually. I was getting more details about Harry's life: His father had three best friends in school; one was his godfather, who'd been accused of having some part in Harry's parents' deaths and sent to prison; another was a portly man with brown hair, he was the one who actually betrayed them, but nobody knew; the last man I'd always see looking very depressed, as though he just wanted to end everything because he'd lost his entire world.

"I looked forward to the dreams; they were like a television show that I wanted to see the end of, as horrible as that may sound. And then, four years later, back in June, you and Sirius showed up, Remus, and went to the Dursleys' to take Harry away with you. I thought that would be the end of the dreams, that the show finally had a happy ending, and I'd never see any of you again. But then I met you and Harry in that park a few weeks ago. And here we are…" she ended a bit lamely, watching the faces of Sirius, Remus, and Aletha very closely.

Remus' mind was reeling as she finished her explanation. He could tell Danger was leaving some bits and pieces out, but he'd figure all that out later. What mattered right now was the fact that she'd dreamed all of this. Vaguely, he recalled something he'd once read about latent magic and how it sometimes appeared after tragedy struck, transforming an apparent Muggle into a witch or wizard. Could Danger have latent magic?

There was one sure way to find out, but Remus wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to hand Danger a wand in the middle of a Muggle restaurant. Latent magic was unpredictable at best…

He looked at his best friend who was staring at Danger with slightly narrowed eyes. Sirius was always the suspicious type, but he didn't look as though he thought Danger was lying. Actually, he looked like he was trying to figure something out on his own. "You lived on Privet Drive when the Dursleys were murdered, right? Why didn't you come out when we were there investigating? You could have told us all of this…"

"I knew what really happened to the Dursleys. All of my neighbors thought something completely different after trying to spy into the house while those policemen – they're not really called policemen, right? – were doing their investigations."

"They're called Aurors," Aletha said quietly. "That's what Sirius is; he's an Auror, a dark wizard catcher."

"So it's all true then?" Danger asked eagerly. "Magic and flying broomsticks and magic wands really exist?"

Remus nodded. "They do. You were right; Sirius, Aletha, and I are magical. We have been since we were born. We all met at a school that teaches witchcraft and wizardry, Hogwarts, it's called. Lily and James, Harry's parents, were murdered by the darkest of all dark wizards – he was called Lord Voldemort, and he disappeared the night of the murders. Do you know what role Harry played in that, by any chance?"

Danger slowly nodded, looking at Harry, then back at the other adults. "He's got a scar on his forehead from where some… spell or enchantment, or whatever you call it, hit him. It's the same thing that killed his parents and mine, but it didn't kill him. It hit this Lord… Voldemort, was it? It hit him instead."

"This is creepy," Sirius muttered. "You're a Muggle, you shouldn't know any of this."

"Muggle?" Danger repeated.

"Non-magical," Remus explained automatically. "And I'm not so sure that she is, Sirius. I think she might have latent magic, some sort of Seer power, maybe."

"We can test that," Aletha said. "All she has to do is wave a wand around a bit and we'll know."

"Not in a Muggle restaurant, we can't," Remus said. "You're a Healer, you know how latent magic can backfire. She could accidentally burn this whole place down."

Sirius finally tore his eyes from Danger and looked at Remus. "But we've got to find out. We can't just let her go home without testing it."

"And you're an Auror," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "You should know better. Even showing a wand to Muggles is illegal unless it's a special circumstance."

"This is a special circumstance," Sirius said. "We're trying to find out the truth about a new friend."

Remus bit his lip and looked at Danger. She was waiting patiently for the three of them to decide what to do, even though she probably didn't know half of what they were talking about.

Come on, Moony, said that voice that'd been bugging him for a few days. What harm could it do? It's not as if she's going to be able to cast any real spells. The most she'll be able to do is shoot a few sparks. And that's only if she has latent magic. Chances are, she's just a Muggle, but with some sort of Seer magic. There are some Squibs who have Seer powers, you know…

Remus rolled his eyes at the voice, knowing that an argument with it was a losing battle. He reached under his shirt and pulled his wand from his belt loop. Glancing at Sirius and Aletha who were still debating on what to do, he passed his wand over the table to Danger, who held it uncertainly. "Give it a wave," he said quietly with a smile.

She smiled a little and moved the wand in a slow arc. A rainbow of sparks shot from the tip. Her mouth dropped open a little as she looked from the wand back to Remus. "Did I do that?" she asked.

Remus smiled widely. "Indeed you did. Congratulations, Danger, you are a witch."

She looked at them all uncertainly. "Does that mean I have to wear a pointy black hat and cackle a lot?"

Sirius cracked up. "Hats are optional," he said between guffaws. "But I think you ought to learn to cackle."

Aletha smacked him on the head. "You don't have to learn anything," she said to Danger. "Not unless you want to."

Danger smiled. "I think I want to."

"Then I will be happy to teach you," Remus heard himself say, and was promptly horrified. What did I just do?

Sounds to me like an excuse to spend time with her, said the voice in his head smugly. But you'll have a nice platonic teacher-student relationship, I'm sure...

"That would be lovely." Danger turned her smile to him, and Remus couldn't help but respond in kind.

I suppose it won't be so bad.

He ignored the mental snickering.

AN: A humoungous thanks to Anne (whydoyouneedtoknow) for her additions to this chapter, and as always, for looking it over. As I've said, these are your characters for the most part, and I'm just a clueless bystander.

Let's see... Update on Altercations tomorrow. And I lied, by the way; the drama doesn't start until Chapter Twenty-Three. My plan is to have Altercations finished by the New Year, and then I want to take a break from that before I start posting the sequel to work on this and Unforeseen - and with any luck, finish them. So until tomorrow night! Please review!