It had been a long time since Evey had been plagued with nightmares, but she'd woken up in the middle of the night after reliving her brother's final moments. What an odd moment to dream about this, just after Walden and she had decided to get married, just when she was finally allowing herself to be happy again.

She had disentangled herself from Walden and left the room as quietly as she could, then she'd joined Tony in the dining room. He looked uncharacteristically mopey. There was cup of coffee in front of him, but it was full. He claimed that he missed the smell almost as much as the taste, and since everybody drank tea, he sometimes made himself a cup and sniffed it, which had caused Sirius to give him odd looks.

There was no way that no member of the Order had yet realised that Tony was different from regular vampires. He wasn't even trying to appear as one.

"Hey," she said as she approached him, "are you alright?"

Tony grumbled something inaudible in reply.

"I don't remember ever seeing you like that," Evey went on as she pulled up a chair and sat down beside him. "Did something happen during your little…jaunt outside?" He hadn't talked about it at all, which was rather surprising. Walden said that Tony used to tell him everything – in almost painful detail – about his personal life. Which was mostly his sex life.

"It was fine," he mumbled.

"I take it your dream day didn't go on as planned?" she prodded him. "No voluptuous blonde would have you? Or did she refuse to share you with others?" Evey couldn't understand why people would want more than one lover at a time, but to each their own, she supposed.

Tony sighed heavily. "It was only nine o'clock when I left, so I figured it was a little early for that sort of activities. I went over to the estate to check on the house elf and make sure everything was in order. Caraid was still alive and seemed to be doing alright without us, so I didn't stay long."

"Afterward I went to your place, like I said," he went on, "and that creepy old lady held me there for almost an hour, until she said she had to meet a friend for lunch. I went shopping after that. I never imagined how much shopping centres could change in fifteen years. I visited every boutique I saw and I cursed myself for not waiting long enough to ask for some Muggle money before I left in the morning. I assumed you'd be in trouble if I visited Gringotts, so I didn't."

"You could have just come back here to grab some money," Evey pointed out. "Sirius wouldn't have minded, and I never said you were forbidden to return until the next day."

Tony shrugged. "I know, I know. I just didn't want to lose any time outside." He passed a hand through his hair – it seemed he'd been doing that a lot that night; it was quite tousled. "I lost track of time, I guess. Before I knew what was happening they were announcing that the stores would be closing in a few minutes. I thought it was about time I started looking for potential candidates with whom to spend the night." Potential candidates. Classy, Evey thought amusedly.

"I went to a pub," Tony went on obliviously. "A fancy one. I sat facing the entrance so I could watch people come and go discreetly, but then I spotted that girl across the bar from me. She looked annoyed, so I assumed she'd been stood up. I sent her a drink, and she smiled, but the bartender said she'd declined, because she was expecting someone. So I waited. I don't know why I didn't look for someone else or just go to another place. She was… Hell, I don't know." He shook his head. "An hour later, she was still there, alone, so I offered to buy her another drink, and this time she accepted it and came to sit with me. We talked for a long time, then she asked me if I'd already eaten. The bloke she was supposed to meet had promised her dinner, so we went to the Italian restaurant."

"You said you didn't have any money," Evey said with a frown. "How did you even pay for the drinks? And I thought you couldn't drink or eat, by the way."

"I can't. I just ordered a couple of cheap beers and slowly emptied the glasses with a nonverbal spell. And I…well, I didn't pay," he admitted sheepishly. "Before we left the pub, I patted myself and pretended to have forgotten my wallet." He glanced at Evey. "I know, it's terrible. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn't just steal the money from someone else. That would have been worse, right? Anyway, she just laughed, and she paid for all the drinks, and then she even bought me dinner. She said she was damned if she was going to spend the evening alone. We really hit it off, you know?"

"What's her name?" Evey asked curiously.

"Natalie," he replied with a genuine smile. Damn, he looked smitten. What had the woman done to him? "She's a nurse. Works the night shifts. It was her week off." He paused and glanced at her again, as if wondering how much he should tell her. "See, the thing is, I had to come up with a story. She was a Muggle, so I couldn't tell her that I was an outlawed vampire who lives in a world of magic," he went on with a smirk.

"Even if she'd been a witch, you couldn't have told her that," Evey said. "In fact, if she'd been a witch, you shouldn't have talked to her at all."

"Exactly. Anyway. I needed a plausible backstory for myself. So I told her I'd just spent a few years working in a research station in Antarctica."

Evey burst out laughing. "And she bought it?" Well, to be fair, Tony's skin tone matched that of someone who'd spent plenty of time in the southernmost continent. All in all, it was a good enough explanation, except for the fact that it was perhaps a bit…far-fetched.

"I thought she did. She asked tons of questions, and I always came up with something perfectly coherent in reply. After dinner, she said that we should have a last drink at her place. That was clear enough," he said matter-of-factly, "but all of a sudden I felt bad about lying to her. She was so nice, you know, and she'd just paid for an entire meal that I hadn't even touched. So I came clean – partially, anyway," he added quickly when Evey narrowed her eyes at him. "I told her I'd been in prison." He let out a small laugh. "And she said 'Yeah, I figured, but I liked the Antarctica story better. Sounds like you put a lot of work into it. That deserves some reward.' And next thing I know she was kissing me. So we ended up in her tiny flat, but I'll spare you the details. Unless you want to hear them?" Tony asked Evey with an exaggerated leer.

Evey shook her head vigorously. "Nope." She leaned forward. "I just don't get why you look so dejected, if you had such an amazing day – and night," she added slyly.

Tony sobered up at that. "I don't know exactly."

"You can see Natalie again when we're out of here, if that's what's bothering you," Evey said.

"But that's the thing. I can't," he said miserably.

"Why not?" she asked with a frown. "You didn't drain her, right? Tony-"

"Come on, give me some credit. I feed more often than most Ancients. If I don't watch it, I might actually put on some weight. Seriously, V, I wasn't even tempted to bite her. Even in the middle of-"

Evey raised a hand. "Alright, alright. I trust you. But why can't you see her again, then? Is there a rule against Ancients dating Muggles?"

"There are no rules about dating. But we're not supposed to tell anyone who we are, remember? How can I engage in any sort of lasting relationship, knowing that I'm lying to their face every moment of every day? Knowing that they will die and I won't?"

Oh, that was what was bothering him. Being immortal. How ironic, considering that immortality was precisely what Voldemort sought to achieve. "Tony," Evey told him gently, "we're all going to die eventually. You'll just have to get used to it. You can't live your everlasting life without getting attached to anyone for fear of losing them in the end. If you do that, the loneliness will kill you inside. You have to accept that most people you know are mortal. But I'm sure losing them – us – will get easier, with time," she added reasonably.

"But how would I explain to them that I don't age, if I can't tell them what I am? And even if I did tell them," he went on, "how can I expect them to be with me, knowing that I can't have children, can't have any sort of normal life?"

The Ancients can't have children? Evey hadn't known that. "That's something you'll have to figure out as it comes, I suspect. Why don't you just ask Jeanne or the others how they handle these things? It must have been difficult for them, too, especially considering that they were Muggles, originally."

"I guess you're right," Tony said reluctantly. "Although I doubt most of them had trouble adjusting. They're a peculiar lot, you know. Some are seriously deranged. I wonder why they were even turned. Jeanne herself is quite crazy. She's not the type to fret over mere mortals – and yes, that's what she calls you people. What most of them call you."

"Well, that's what we are," Evey conceded pragmatically. "Maybe you should focus on those who still see us as humans, not as cattle," she added wryly.

"The older ones tend to be more compassionate. Yeah, I should talk to them, I suppose. It's just… They're a bit intimidating, if I'm being honest. They're so fucking old. Thousands of years old. They're like living fragments of history, and I'm just…me."

That was precisely why Walden and Evey were trying to puzzle out who the Ancients were. Should she try to trick Tony into revealing more information, while he was distracted? No. Bad idea. He wasn't simply distracted; he was genuinely perturbed. "I can imagine. But you're one of them, aren't you? They ought to be nice to you. And at least a few of them share your blood. They're almost…family."

Tony eyed her doubtfully. "Clearly, you haven't met them," he muttered. Indeed, but Merlin, she wished she could. "But I don't have much choice, do I? Immortals don't exactly grow on trees. There's no one else I can go to." He stood up abruptly. "If you're not going back to sleep, can we duel for a while? You can certainly use all the practise you can get," he said teasingly.

Evey glared at him. She wasn't that bad! He seemed to forget that they were all experienced duellists, while she had never been in an actual fight before in her life. And, unfortunately, while she had inherited Tony's ability to turn invisible, her reflexes weren't enhanced, as his were.

At least she hadn't inherited anything bad from Greyback. Just the thought that she shared some of the werewolf's traits made her shudder in disgust, but she entertained a faint hope that it would go away when she killed the bloody beast – and kill him she would.