A/N: Little note before reading - this chapter acts as sort of an intruduction to something happening much later in the story (really much later). Kind of darker than usual, acording to my sister.

17 November 1996

Over two and a half months into the new school year at Hogwarts, the Death Eater attacks kept increasing. If a few months before they'd happened once every two weeks, now not they could happen once or twice the same week… and not always the Order was able to arrive on time. Muggle villages, because of their larger vulnerability and the Death Eater's hatred for non-magical people, kept on being the most frequent targets, though witches and wizards disappeared all over the country.

Things at Hogwarts, however, went as smoothly as they could possibly go, even if Harry kept getting detentions with Snape every other week. The school was probably one of the most well-protected places in the Wizarding World due to all the wards around it and knowing Izzy and Harry were constantly there, as well as being able to see them every day, gave both Sirius and Mia a feeling of safety in what came to their kids. As for home, that feeling generally remained, being broken occasionally during the tense moments whenever Sirius was called to fight for the Order.

The seventeenth of November dawned as a miserable rainy day that completely reflected both Sirius and Mia's mood as they woke up. Having been called to protect a Muggle village near Glasgow around nine in the previous night, Sirius hadn't made it back home until two in the morning. That and Mia fighting back sleep at home until he arrived, just getting the few and short moments of snoozing that her seven-and-a-half-month pregnant body wouldn't resist, had cause them both to be sleepy and moody in the morning.

"Someone shut that stupid alarm clock up," Sirius mumbled, his voice muffled by the fact that his face was buried in his pillow as the clock loudly announced that it was seven in the morning.

"It's on your side of the bed – you shut it up," Mia responded dryly, stealing the pillow from under his head and using it to cover her ear and muffle the sound as she lay on her side.

"Hey!" he complained. "I've got to turn off the alarm clock and you get to steal my pillow?"

She uncovered her face slightly to give him a glare. "Well, I'm sleeping for two, aren't I? I get to have two pillows, then. Now turn off that thing – it's annoying the baby."

He mumbled something about her weird moods under his breath as he forcefully reached for the alarm clock, trying to move as little as was possible. Not a good idea, he concluded. The wretched object ended up falling on the floor and blaring even louder than before. Stupid magical alarm clocks, he thought. If it was a muggle one, it certainly would have broken to pieces on the fall and just shut up – that one only got louder to get back at him. He ended up having to summon it back with his wand in order to finally turn it off.

With the annoying sound gone, Mia gave him back the pillow as a peace offering and he tentatively tried to circle her largely expanded waist with one of his arms, hoping to get a little cuddle out of it – a seven and a half month pregnant belly was certainly no small bump. He took her lack of complaining about his gesture as a sign that her mood had gotten slightly milder in the absence of a blaring alarm clock and decided that maybe they should just start that morning over. Gently, his lips reached for hers in a quick kiss. "Good morning," he whispered just as he felt a very soft kick coming from inside Mia's belly hitting his arm. He raised his eyebrows. "Hum, you weren't kidding – the little one really is annoyed."

She couldn't keep a straight face and ended up chuckling at his words. "It's probably just stretching out a little – I bet it's getting kind of cramped in there," Mia said as his knuckles started to brush on her abdomen soothingly.

"Hum… I don't know. This sounds more like a tantrum to me," Sirius pointed out, smiling. "I'm starting to think this baby is a girl. You women with your tempers…"

She slapped him on the arm. "We do not have a temper – not unless we are provoked. Besides, I believe the one in this couple who acted out the most in his childhood was you, Mr. Black, not me. It could just as easily be another boy if we follow that line of thought."

"Fifty-fifty chance, isn't it?" he stated, though his money was still on the baby being a girl. "I guess we'll find out soon enough – just one more month and half, hum?"

"It's getting pretty close," she said, feeling herself in a much better mood than she had before – she couldn't wait to be able to hold her baby. "Have you come up with any first names already?"

"Yeah, a couple of them. I need to look the little one in the face to be sure, though. Wouldn't want it to hold a bad name against me like Tonks holds hers against Andromeda," he said with a chuckle.

"I think the baby would have a slight problem with expressing its opinion on the name yet," she informed him with a sceptical look on her face. "Lack of ability to speak and all…"

He shrugged. "Well, if it doesn't cry bloody murder at the name, I can always say there were no protests from his or her part." Sirius gave her belly one last pat when the baby stopped moving, likely having gone back to sleep. He sighed. "Am I the only one who feels like staying here in bed until dinner time at least?"

"Nope. Five hours of sleep either on a pregnant body or after coming back from a battle don't quite seem enough, do they?"

"You could have gone to bed while I was out," he pointed out, giving her a slightly accusatory look.

She shook her head. "I wouldn't have been able to sleep decently without knowing you were okay. Don't tell me it wouldn't be the same if the roles were reversed."

"I know but…" Her eyes shot daggers at him and he sighed, defeated. "Well, I guess I should be glad you don't follow me into the battles at least."

She would in the future, Mia thought. She wouldn't risk the baby now but later, if she was needed, she'd go. She kept quiet about it as both of them knew it already – no need for a reminder that might make a fight emerge. "You still haven't told me how last night was," she said, shifting so she was sitting up on the bed.

He shrugged as he sat up as well, resting his back against the headboard. "It was a mess, as always, but at least nobody died this time – a few injured Muggles, nothing major. It was almost like the Death Eaters were playing a game with us last night, you know? Apparating from one place to another like it was hide and seek. Only a few were actually causing real havoc, the others were just… goofing around."

"I wonder if that's their idea of a night out with their mates," Mia said, sickened. "Nothing but good fun."

He nodded. "Who knows? They're all a bunch of sick bastards. Probably just wanted to show they could do whatever the hell they wished. We caught one, though – Flint Junior."

"Marcus Flint?" Mia asked in surprise. "Flint was a student of mine – he used to be the Quidditch Captain for Slytherin, I think, and had to repeat his last year at school because he failed every single one of his NEWTs."

Sirius scoffed. "Well, his intelligence didn't improve much ever since – Tonks managed to stun him with practically no fuss five minutes into the battle because he'd stopped to go take a leak in some alley." He rolled his eyes. "That brainless moron had better gather the few active brain cells he has to cooperate or he's looking at life in Azkaban – not that I think the other Death Eaters would give an airhead like him plenty of important information."

"Any information can help now, though," Mia pointed out. "Since the order barely has anything palpable."

Sirius nodded, huffing. "Yeah, I guess that's true. Anyway, I don't feel like talking about the Order, Death Eaters and battles – I'd rather not sour my day before breakfast-time," he said, leaning closer to Mia's cheek in order to kiss it. "Well, guess it's time I took a shower. Care to join me?"

She gave him a sceptical look. "I don't think so – somehow shower shagging and seven-month pregnant me don't seem to be a great blend. We'd probably end up killing ourselves at some point."

"Who said anything about shagging?" he asked, faking innocence.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, like I don't know you and your plots long enough, Sirius Orion Black."

"Well," he reached to kiss her lips before getting up, "maybe afterwards, then."

Mia chuckled. "Maybe."

By lunch time, while Sirius and Mia's moods had increased immensely for a long list of reasons, including their early morning activities, the weather was still as miserable as before, if not even worse in the whole territory that included and surrounded Hogwarts.

After her last class of the day, Mia sat in her own office hearing the pouring rain outside while she finished grading a stack of essays from the third years, hoping she wouldn't need to take any work home that day. The words seemed to all blend together and her eyes were simply struggling to remain open. The lack of enough sleep was starting to catch up with her now – it wasn't that she found the essays particularly boring. Maybe she could just take a minute or two to rest them a little. Sirius would be busy for at least the next half hour, since he had a flying class with a bunch or eager first years that had refused to have their lesson cancelled because of the rain.

She put her quill down and soon her eyes were dropping closed. Leaning against the wooden back of her chair wasn't very comfortable but at least she knew she wouldn't be able to actually fall asleep there. Just rest her eyes for a few moments and then get back to grading essays…

Before her plan was able to backfire with her actually falling asleep, a small knock made Mia's eyes snap back open and turn her attention to the office's door. "Yes?" she asked.

A second year boy shyly made his way in. She practically knew all her students by their names and faces – she liked to know them – and it was easy to identify him. "Yes, Mr. Wick?"

"P… Professor McGonagall asked me to summon you to the headmaster's office. She asked form you to drop by as soon as you had time, Madam," the young boy said, slightly nervously. "It is important," he added.

The word 'important' immediately had her feeling uneasy, fearful even. One could never guess when bad news were coming during war time… Despite that, Mia found the strength to give the boy a calming smile while gripping the arms of her chair. "Thank you. I'm going right away. You can go back to your friends, Mr. Wick." And, as soon as the boy was out, she inhaled deeply.

She was nearly sure it was bad news. Who could it be? Lulu? Gabe? She closed her eyes. Alex? No, not her little boy. He was safe at home, wasn't he? Grimmauld Place was safe and Lulu was with him. Get yourself together, woman, Mia ordered herself. She was freaking out. Nobody had said it was bad news – she couldn't just jump into that conclusion.

Steadier, she got up from the chair and took another breath before making her way to Dumbledore's office. Granted, after walking as fast as her large pregnant frame allowed her to, soon she was standing in front of the gargoyle protecting the secret passage that led up to the office. That was when she recalled nobody had given her the password. Dang! Knowing the headmaster's habits of using names of popular magical and Muggle sweets as a password, she started throwing their names to the air, hoping one would work. Cauldron Cakes seemed to do the trick as the gargoyle moved away and allowed her to step in.

As she reached the badly lit antechamber of the office, she found it empty and the door that led to the headmaster's office closed. Even if she really wanted to just burst in and get done with it, she had the good sense to knock first. Not more than ten seconds passed before the door clicked in front of her and a sober-looking McGonagall came out to meet her. Before the deputy headmistress could close the door, Mia heard sobbing coming from inside, followed by an agonized voice of a woman wallowing for 'her Margo, her baby'.

No, that wasn't anyone she knew, was it? Maybe she wasn't the one receiving the bad news that time around. Yet, that thought didn't make her feel much better. She'd heard that sort of grief before, back when she worked as a healer. They couldn't always save everyone and bad news had to be given, so her gut told her that the sob she'd just heard from inside the office was the one of a mother crying for the loss of a child. The simple thought made her clutch her own stomach.

"What happened?" Mia asked McGonagall.

"I'm afraid there's too little time for me to explain it fully to you, Mia," the deputy headmistress said, her face very pale. "There was another attack less than an hour ago but it had nothing to do with your family. That I can assure you. It happened in an Irish village."

An attack in broad daylight and less than a day before the previous one? she thought, alarmed. It was getting worse. She barely knew what to say. "Do… do you need help or anything? I can aid with the healing…"

McGonagall shook her head. "It's not that. In any case, your friend Elizabeth is already in the Hospital Wing with Poppy. What we need, actually, is your parents' house."

Mia was confused. "My parents' house? You mean the Davis house in Wales?"

The older teacher nodded. "Because of the attack, the whole village was reduced to shambles, Mia. The people in Albus's office, Joanne and Thomas O'Dell, are old friends of ours – they've just lost their only daughter and son-in-law in the attack and now have two underage grandchildren, one is a student here in this school, to take care of with their home completely destroyed. If you let them use the house for the time being, you'd be doing us a great favour."

She nodded immediately. Mia knew what it was like to lose some of the people she loved the most and suddenly see herself with two kids to raise. The same had happened to her years before and, if she recalled it well, McGonagall had been an enormous help by bringing Lulu to her – somehow, she had a feeling Dumbledore hadn't been the one to come up with that idea. She owed her that much and her heart wouldn't allow her to give any other answer. "Of course – they can use the house as long as they need. Just floo Kreacher, have him taking you there. I haven't been to the house in a long time, though, so I can't really tell if it's habitable right now…"

"Don't worry about that. I'll ask Albus to send in a few house-elves to clean it up," McGonagall said, hurriedly. "I'm so sorry, Mia, I feel like you had a right to know more about the attack since you're being such a good help but…" she glanced at the office's door.

"You need to be there for your friends," Mia finished, feeling sympathetic for that couple that had just lost their daughter – she wished with every fibber of her body never to know what it felt like being in their shoes. "I understand."

McGonagall nodded. "Thank you, Mia. On their behalf and ours. Hopefully this will make things just a little easier for them."

But it wouldn't matter much to their suffering, Mia thought. She couldn't just picture how deep it would go and wouldn't dare herself to try imagining it. It felt so wrong parents having to bury their own children… She excused herself to leave moments later, unable to hear the sobbing coming from inside the headmaster's office, which seemed to be increasing its volume, and made her way back down the stairs, exiting through the gargoyle-protected doorway, only to crash with someone that was getting ready to go up.

"Oh, sorry, Professor. Didn't see you there," Seamus Finnigan said, giving her a nervous apologetic look.

She shook her head dismissively. "No harm done." It occurred to her that it probably wasn't the best time for a student to pop into Dumbledore's now. "Can I ask you why you're heading to the headmaster's office, Mr. Finnigan?"

Seamus shrugged. "Dunno, ma'am. McGonagall had Peterson, the head boy, calling me there urgently. I reckon I may be getting detention for some reason…"

Mia didn't even listen to his last sentence as her mind started putting the pieces together: the attack had occurred in Ireland and Seamus Finnigan was Irish… There was no way McGonagall was calling him for a trivial scolding when there was a couple grieving upstairs. He had to be the boy whose parents had been killed.

"… didn't happen to mention to you what I did, did she?" Seamus continued, oblivious to her spacing out. "Professor Davis?"

She snapped out of it and looked at him suddenly. "I… I think you should probably go talk to Professor McGonagall right now, Seamus," she told him, letting his first name slip. She couldn't just bring herself to bother with formalities while talking to a boy who was about to get his world turned upside down.

He seemed to sense something was wrong as his face shifted. Maybe it was something on her face or the way she'd said it – fact was that, as soon as she'd moved out of the way, Seamus sped up the secret passage without another word or looking back. Mia just stood there, unmoving and finally taking in the meaning of her realization.

She remembered seeing the Finnigans at Platform 9 ¾ just a few months before in the first of September – they'd seemed like a happy family, having their little farewell moment before one of their children was to board the train to Hogwarts. She'd felt… proud for them, for seeing someone else fighting for normalcy as she and Sirius were. And now they were dead, just like that. And the little girl, she thought. The father had been holding a little girl, Seamus's baby sister. She was alive, Mia knew that much – McGonagall had mentioned the grandparents had two grandchildren to watch now, which would make both Seamus and his sister alive. But had she gotten hurt? The mother in her just couldn't bear the idea of a child getting hurt in that greedy, pointless war. As if it wasn't bad enough the little girl whose name she didn't even know was parentless now, at such a tender age. Even if Mia had never really met the Finnigans, she was deep down was grieving for them, for the broken family that could have so easily been her own…

When she started walking, Mia headed towards the Hospital Wing. Elizabeth was helping there, she recalled. It wouldn't be the first time they used that space it to take care of some of the wounded from the largest Death Eater attacks. And if they needed any more help up there taking care of them, she wouldn't just stay back and walk away. Her back protested against her rush all the way to the infirmary but she didn't rest – she might not fight but at least she'd help. One way or the other, she'd help.

When she reached the large doors of the Hospital Wing, she immediately heard a child's cry coming from the inside just as a loud thunder sounded outside – she hadn't even noticed the thunderstorm beginning. Her head had clearly been too full of thoughts. When she got in, her eyes landed on her best friend carrying the wailing toddler, who was unmistakably Seamus Finnigan's younger sister, and pacing along the aisle that was formed between the rows of curtain-covered beds. Her eyes met with Elizabeth's when the little girl shouted for her 'Ma' and 'Pa' and both of them knew that they wouldn't come.

"How is she?" Mia asked, approaching the blonde healer while Madam Pomfrey sniffed against a paper tissue as she sat by her desk in a corner, crying – Mia guessed she'd lost someone in the attack as well.

"Terrified, confused… She's not harmed physically, though," Elizabeth said, rocking the little girl as she sobbed and called for her parents. "Her name is Darcy. Darcy Finnigan. Her parents were…"

"Killed. I know," Mia whispered. She tentatively reached to rub the toddler's back soothingly for a moment, though it didn't seem to have any effect in her. She just looked so small and helpless… "Have her grandparents been here to see her?"

She nodded. "Yes, they stayed with her for a few minutes. Long enough to calm her down and put her down to sleep. But then the thunders started and she just woke up and freaked out. It was thundering during the attack, I think. It must remind her of it."

"You sure she didn't get hurt at all? Sometimes people just don't show signs until later. Maybe she's crying because she's in pain too."

Elizabeth shook her head as little Darcy's cries subsided slightly at the same time the thunderstorm was showing signs of disappearing. "Kingsley Shacklebolt and I were the ones who found her – I couldn't help yesterday night with the attack because I had an emergency at the hospital, so I went on this one instead. Darcy was as safe as anyone could be in the middle of that mess. I examined her from top to bottom there, used every diagnosis charm I remembered. I barely found any bruise on her. She's just traumatized, I guess. Hopefully, she'll get better."

Mia seemed to be more satisfied with that answer and gave her friend a nod. "What about the other wounded? Do you need help with them? I can do that."

"Mia…"

"I know I don't practice anymore but that doesn't mean I don't still remember how to do the healing charms," she insisted.

Elizabeth shook her head. "It's not that, Mia. There are no wounded." There was a silent pause during which Mia tried to make sense of the meaning of her words. "She was the only survivor of the attack."

Mia wanted to say something but her mouth couldn't bring itself to move. No other survivors, she thought. None. They'd just wiped out the whole town? What for? Fun? How was that possible? "But… her grandparents…"

"They were spending a few days with an ill cousin here in Britain when this happened. It was small village, mostly Muggles, though there were a few Wizards and Squibs too. Of the forty-two people in the village during the attack, only Darcy lived. When the Order got a wind of it, it was too late – the Death Eaters were already gone when we arrived and everyone was… dead. We thought nobody had lived until we heard the crying coming from the middle of a house's shambles and found her in the basement, hidden inside a wardrobe. It had to be her mother hiding her there – her father was a Muggle, so he couldn't have cast all the protective charms that were around the basement. Only Dumbledore was able to break them all. She protected her daughter with all she had."

Mia covered her mouth in disbelief, feeling a chill shooting through her body. The simple thought of it, the destruction, the death, the mother doing all she could to save her child's life as Lily had… "Dear Merlin," she whispered.

"She was one year behind us at school. Her mother, I mean," Elizabeth mumbled. "I recognized her. Her name was Margaret O'Dell back then – she became head girl the year after we graduated. People usually called her Margo."

Hearing her mother's name seemed to have calmed the last of Darcy's cries, maybe by giving her a false hope that Margo was coming, and they were reduced to soft sniffing. Elizabeth made her way to a bed to put the little girl down again, hoping she'd fall asleep. Darcy's dark blonde hair was all tangled in knots instead of pristinely brushed as it had been back in king's Cross and her eyes, a blue-green shade that reminded Mia of the ocean, were rimed with red from the tears. Poor baby, she thought, brushing the child's hair. She really was no older than her Alex.

She sat there with Elizabeth for several more minutes while young Darcy Finnigan finally fell asleep in the bed. By the time her grandparents, a grief-stricken couple in their mid-sixties, arrived with a numb Seamus, Mia decided it was time to leave quietly and give them some privacy. She felt like she'd be intruding if she stayed.

Sirius was waiting in her office when she arrived, standing up from her sofa as soon as she stepped in. She didn't say a word at first and just walked closer to him, wrapping her arms around his form – with difficulty due to her large belly – and held on to him, surprising herself by not crying like part of her had been craving to do for the past hour. Suddenly, she realised that those bastards – Voldemort and his Death Eaters – didn't deserve her fear or her tears. All she wanted was for them to pay for everything they'd done: threatening her godson's life over and over, killing harmless Muggles and Wizards that were brave enough to stand up to them, destroying happy families like the Finnigans…

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked in a worried whisper after holding her for nearly a full minute.

Was she? That was a good question. Physically, she felt fine. Still a little tired, though, and her back did hurt a little. As for her mind, she really wasn't sure. "I don't know," she confessed, pulling away slightly. "I'm angry, though. I'm just so angry."

"This is about the attack to that Irish village, isn't it?" he asked her quietly. "I've just ran into Dumbledore – he was leaving for Flint's trial and told me a about it." Holding her hand, Sirius had them both sitting down on the sofa. "Those sons of a bitch had to be planning it all along. They'd never attacked twice in the same day – they were just baiting us last night so we'd have the guard down today. That's why they were acting so stupid. It was part of the bigger plan."

Her hand gripped one of the sofa's cushions. That realization only made her angrier than she already was… "Sirius."

He turned to her immediately. "Yeah?"

"Tell me we'll win this war," she requested, looking down. "I don't care if we don't know that for sure. Just… tell me what I need to hear. It will be enough for now."

"We'll win this war," he said as his hand reached to lift her chin up. "And I'm not telling you this because that's what you want to hear, I'm telling you because we will win this war, Mia. I don't need to lie to you about that. I trust Harry to win this thing. Don't you?"

"You know I do – it just feels so unbelievable sometimes…"

He shook his head. "Many years from now, when we're old and grey, our kids have kids and Lulu is still around and kicking – because we all know that one is going to out-live every one of us with that wit of hers, we'll look back and think of how we enjoyed making those bastards pay for every miserable moment they made us go through."

She sighed. "You really think that, don't you?"

"Of course I do," he said, trying to give her a smile. "A storm is always followed by the good weather, isn't it?"

A/N2: Sorry for posting this late. Field trips, studying, annoying teachers... take your pick. I really hate this semester at college. Anyway, I know there was lots of narrative this chapter but it really was about the feelings more tha the dialogues this time. Now, I'm going to bed because I'm deadbeat. Feedback is so very welcome. Review!