Disclaimer: I don't own any of it.

Chapter 12: A New Engagement

Elizabeth sprinted up the stairs, her heels clicking on the marble stairs. She was doing her best to run without tripping and breaking her own neck, which was proving to be harder said then done because of her heels. But she was late. She finally made it to her floor, fixing her suit jacket and hair she pushed through the doors of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She walked through the office to the receptionist's desk with her head held high.

"Hello, my name is Elizabeth Dolohov." Elizabeth said when the receptionist looked up at her (Elizabeth could tell she was vampire by her silvery-jewel like eyes), "I have a job interview with Mr. Garrett." The receptionist opened a folder, running her finger down the list.

"I'll let him know you're here." She said, "Have a seat over there" Elizabeth nodded and made her way to the plush purple chairs.

A buzz caused Elizabeth to look up from her un-riveting examination of her fingernails, "Mr. Garrett will see you." The receptionist said; the buzz obviously coming from the intercom. Elizabeth nodded a thank you; fixing her suit jacket, she entered the office to be greeted by Mr. Garrett. He was about her height with a full head of brown hair and a slim build.

"Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Garrett." Elizabeth said shaking the man's hand over his desk; Elizabeth hated to suck up but a job interview was all about brown nosing and she wanted this job.

"Angus, please." He said taking his seat and picking up piece of parchment on his desk and scanning it quickly, "You're fresh out of Hogwarts?"

Elizabeth nodded, "Yes, sir. I graduated a month ago."

"Near the top of your class, Dumbledore made an important not of that." He said pointing to a line on the parchment he was reading. Elizabeth smiled; silently thanking Dumbledore for his letter of recommendation and making a mental note to send him a large box of lemon drops, "Well…" He said laying the parchment down on his desk and folding his hands over it, "You do come highly recommended; I can't imagine not highering someone who has a personal letter of recommendation from Albus Dumbledore." Elizabeth beamed, "You are applying for a job in our Werewolf department; now I must ask, what are your goals? It's such a minimal sub department of a minimal department in the ministry, why would someone of your caliber bother with such a low department?"

"I'm not here for the glory of politics, if I wanted that I would have become an auror with my friends." Elizabeth laughed, "I'm a revolutionist Mr. Garrett, there are something's that need changing and I plan on changing them." Mr. Garrett smiled broadly.

"I think you will go far here, Miss Dolohov and I'm sure Conan Drake will enjoy having you working under him." Mr. Garrett told her, "Congratulations, Miss Dolohov."

"Thank you." Elizabeth said, reaching over his desk to shack his hand again.

"I plan on hearing many things about you." He told her. She smiled, "Be back here tomorrow for a meeting with Conan and he will explain everything with you."

Elizabeth took the lifts to the next floor up, the Department of International Magical Cooperation. She found the offices to the ambassadors to the magical governments of other countries and located the door labeled:

Travis Sarcona

Joseph Bianchi

Travis wasn't full Italian but spent much time in Italy with his relatives and learned Italian at an early age. She gently knocked before pocking her head inside. Travis was hunched over paper work while Joseph was on the phone rattling off sentences in Italian. Joseph waved high to her and threw his pen at Travis to get his attention then nodded in Elizabeth's direction.

"Hey, how did the interview go?" He asked as he made his way around his desk.

"I got it." She cried jumping into his arms and giving him long kiss until Joseph loudly cleared his throat, "Sorry." She muttered.

"That's wonderful darling." Travis said.

----

Sirius Black and James Potter were two of the first aurors at the scene; both of whom are two of the handful of aurors-in-training that have been put out in the field. The increase in the number of attacks over the last month has called for more law enforcement and aurors. Thankfully, Black and Potter were able to save the muggles with no one getting injured but the Death Eaters did get away…

'Blah, blah, blah.' Elizabeth thought as she scanned the rest of the article on the front page. There were two big pictures of James and Sirius along with the article; it was the first time she had seen either of them in three months. Life had gotten hectic since school.

"Growing up sucked." Elizabeth said as she abandoned her paper and made her way to the empty bedroom. Travis had left the night before on business in Italy; Elizabeth wished she could have gone with him.

Elizabeth was walking through the corridor of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with a manila folder in her arms. Normally she would just send a memo but since her promotion to Junior Department Head under Conan Drake, she started delivering her memos personally, especially now more then ever because she was pushing for very controversial Werewolf legislation that she needed the support of.

She finished picking up the paper work she had gone to retrieve from the Department's archives, when Sirius stepped out of one of the offices.

"Elizabeth." He said shocked.

"Oh, hey." She said giving him a hug.

"We work in the same building but I haven't seen you in months." He said.

"Yeah, I know." Elizabeth said sadly, "I heard about you and James and read about you guys in the Prophet today."

Sirius shrugged, "Thanks. So how's work going for you?"

"Pretty good. I'm junior Department Head under Conan Drake." Elizabeth said.

"Pretty good? That's amazing." He hugged her again and left his arm around her shoulders; she didn't remove it, "I was just off to get some lunch, would you like to join me?" He asked as he slowly lead them towards the lifts.

"I would love to, just let…."

A loud explosion sounded from behind them and the force of it sent them flying down the corridor, skidding to a stop against the lift doors. Smoke was filling the hall and the doors that managed to stay on their hinges during the explosion hung loosely and pieces of the ceiling crumbled to the floor. Desks, chairs and other office furniture lay scattered in the hall.

Sirius coughed, swatting away the smoke, "Elizabeth." He called; coughing and coughing, "Elizabeth."

Elizabeth coughed and pushed off the pieces of wood from the doors, "Sirius." She called panicked.

"I'm here." He said appearing next to her and helping her to her feet.

"What happened?" She asked as the dark smoke began to thin.

"It looks like they blew up the main office." He said, taking a couple of wary steps forward; Elizabeth latched onto his arm when he started to step away from her, "We have to get out of here."

"No, there could still be people in there." She said taking her wand out.

Sirius agreed and they carefully made their way into the exploded main offices of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. They had to climb over the piles of blown up desks, file cabinets, chairs and put out the small fires that littered the room.

"Oh, god." Elizabeth gagged, cupping her hand over mouth as she looked down at the ruminants of a person. Sirius turned her away, snuggling her face into his chest.

"I don't think there is anyone in here." Sirius said and she nodded against his chest, "Let's get out of here; they'll send people up to search."

Elizabeth sat off to the side while the Aurors and the Magical Law Enforcement Squad bustled around her. There were people holding each other crying and everyone looked scared and shocked. Four people died in the explosion, which turned out to be good news as well as bad. Elizabeth just stared at her hands in her lap, listening to the cries and the barking orders that filled the room around her. A warm hand rested on top of hers and she looked up into his grey eyes.

"We can leave." He said, standing up and taking her hand in his. He apparated to his flat, "Go ahead and make yourself comfortable." Sirius said motioning to the couch while he went to his room to change. Elizabeth plopped down on the couch with a long breath, "Did you want to change out of those clothes?" He asked from his bedroom doorway, holding up a pair of sweats.

"That would be great." She said grabbing the sweats and walking passed him into his room.

"Since we missed lunch; I guess I'll make us some dinner." Sirius called as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Good, I'm starving."

Sirius placed the dinners, which he quickly cooked with his wand, on the coffee table along with two beers and began to flip through the channels on the muggle television.

"That's what you made." Elizabeth laughed as she took up the seat next to him on the couch, eyeing the two TV dinner's on the coffee table.

"Well, since it's normally just me, I don't have much food." He laughed, leaving the TV on The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

"That was appetizing." Elizabeth joked and stretched before relaxing into the couch and resting her head on Sirius's shoulder.

Sirius wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "I want you to stay here tonight." She didn't disagree but nodded. Sirius's head rested on hers, "I've miss you." He whispered; he wasn't sure if she heard him or not when she didn't answer.

"I think I'm going to go to bed." Elizabeth yawned after the movie finished. Sirius nodded, pulling her off the couch and to her feet to lead her to his bedroom. He stripped off his shirt and she climbed into bed before he laid down next her.

Elizabeth felt the warm sun on her face the next morning. She opened her eyes to seeing Sirius's sleeping face and a lopsided smile began to form on her lips. She rested her head on her arm while she lay on her side to stare at his sleeping form before gently running her fingers through his dark locks. His eyes fluttered open and the same smile that over took Elizabeth began to creep over his lips.

"Morning." She said, they were laying so close that their noses were inches apart.

"Morning." He responded and planting a kiss on her nose before their lips met for a brief kiss. Elizabeth snuggled up to his body and fell back asleep.

----

Travis was coming home in twenty minutes and Elizabeth was running around Sirius's flat trying to find all her clothes and stuff that she had brought over the last two weeks. She haphazardly threw her last shirt in her bag before scribbling Sirius a note telling him she was sorry for rushing out a while he was gone then apparated to her own flat, to desperately put all her stuff away. Elizabeth was just able to shove her bag under her bed and close her last drawer before she heard Travis apparate behind her and wrap his arms around her waist.

"I missed you so much." He said kissing her neck; Elizabeth pressed her body against his.

"I missed you too." Elizabeth said, thankful that her back was to him; it made it easier to lie. He turned her in his arms and kissed her long and passionately.

"How was your two weeks?" Travis asked as he heaved his suitcase on the bed, "You weren't in that explosion, were you?" Elizabeth diverted her eyes to the floor and shook her head no, "What did you do?"

Elizabeth pictured her two weeks with Sirius; making love till all hours of the night and sleeping in late, forgetting about work, "Nothing." Elizabeth said quickly.

When Elizabeth got to work the next morning, she had a large stack of paper work on her desk and a memo.

I get off at five. Meet me in the lobby.

-S.B

The memo said. Elizabeth bit her lip, looking over the large stack of papers on her desk. She scribbled a memo to Travis, explaining that she was going to be home late because she had too much work. Elizabeth watched it fly out her office, she plopped into her chair with a glance at her clock; seven hours she noted.

Elizabeth hurried down to the main floor of the Ministry of Magic for the fifth time in two weeks; his back was to her as she approached but he turned around as she got near, he always seemed to know it was her. His grey eyes were full of some much passion as he looked at here. He didn't say anything to her but apparated out with out a word and she followed suit. His arms engulfed her when she appeared in his flat and his lips found hers as he awkwardly walked them towards his bedroom door.

----

The rain was coming down in sheets, Sirius sat alone in his flat; she had cancelled on him…again. It was the third day in a row that she abandoned Sirius for him. He had asked her numerous times when they laid in his bed naked and out of breath to leave Travis for him but she always turned her back to him and mumbled that she couldn't, that she did love him. Sirius growled and gulped down the last mouth full of his beer. He was on his way to his kitchen when someone knocked at his door. He pulled it opened and Elizabeth stood in his doorway, soaking wet.

"Travis asked me to marry me and I said yes." She said quickly still standing in his doorway.

------

Elizabeth ran through the deserted main street Hogsmeade; she had ran all the way to the Three Broom Sticks with no sign of slowing down. She had started back towards her house, out of breath but still jogging and her eyes scanning the area around her. She saw the grey glow of an animal's eyes ahead of her and slowed down to a quick walk. She pulled her wand out of her back pocket and light up the whole street; a large black dog sat in the middle of the street. Elizabeth stormed towards it with her wand pointed at it.

A/n: Please review; I know there are more people reading this then are reviewing and I would love to hear from everyone.