A/N: Not much to say except sorry about missing so many weekends.

Also, I have to comment on one question that came up this time about who the people attacking Hershel were actually trying to get away from. I have to say you guys amazed me this time. I thought it was fairly obvious who the attackers were afraid of. But since I once again seem to have been too clever for my own good, let me run this little hint by you. Let's look at who was there. You all named nearly everybody as a possible suspect but ONE. Who was the person you ignored, folks?

Think about that for me.

Other than that, just Happy Easter, Passover, or whatever suits,

And as always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: All characters of the Harry Potter series (hereafter known as 'legal property') are the sole ownership of J.K. Rowling (hereafter known as 'owner of said legal property'). No infringement on any copyright of owner of said legal property of the legal property is knowing intended. Published by author (hereafter known as 'other') for entertainment purposes only. No monetary or personal gain was knowingly made by other with the publication of this story, which was based on ideas and characters created by owner of said legal property as they pertain to legal property. No plagiarism of legal property or of any ideas of the owner of said legal property was knowingly intended by other. This statement is fully transferable and is legally held binding for all chapters of the story Family Relations as they are presented under different chapter headings and titles for individual chapters.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: AMBUSH

Arabella was just passing through the main hallway late in the evening when she caught sight of Orion heading out the front doors of the castle.

"Orion." She called, heading over to where he now stood. "Where are you going at this hour?"

"Hagrid told Dumbledore he thought he saw a couple of dark robes lurking about the lake." He replied. "I'm just off to have a look."

"By yourself? Is that safe?"

Orion favored her with one of his more charming smiles. "I'll tell you what," he answered, "if I find any, I'll wait about until they go round up a few of their mates, just so it's even, all right?"

Arabella gave him a worried smile. "Orion, I'm serious. I could come with you."

"No. You stay here. If there is trouble and they get by me, I want to know there's a second line waiting for them."

"Just be careful."

Orion gave her a wink. "I always am."

Orion quickly slipped out the doors and headed out to the lake, keeping as much under cover as he could as he made his way to the other side furthest from the castle. But halfway there he saw a dark shape move off to his right. Not wanting to give an opponent even a first chance at him, Orion fired off a shot.

"Blast it, Black!" A low voice hissed at him out of the darkness. "Put that thing away!"

Orion instantly recognized the voice of his superior. "Orin!" He whispered back. "What are you doing out here?"

"Trying to be inconspicuous." The other man replied, stepping out of the shadows. "Unlike someone else who obviously prefers to announce his presence to half the forest. Did you miss class the day they were teaching covert surveillance, Black?"

"I prefer not to wait until I can see their name tags, 'sir'."

Bale was about to answer his agent when a streak of light cut between them and erupted into sparks against a tree a few feet from them.

"Did you happen to get that one's name?" Bale asked calmly.

Orion barely pulled them both out of the way of the next shot. "I'll be sure to ask."

The two men instantly separated, each taking a different direction to cover. Bale wasn't his partner, but Orion could work with the man almost as well. It took a bit more concentration, and a little more vigilance, but Orion was grateful for the man's presence just the same.

Bale had likely already put the call out for assistance. But it would take a while to assemble a team and apparate them to the area. So for the time being, the castle would have to rely on he and Bale for its protection.

Orion had watched the direction Bale had headed off in, so he had a fairly good idea what area his superior was covering. He would take the other and make as much of a clean sweep of it as he could before meeting up with Bale again on the other side of the lake.

Several hundred feet and three Deatheaters later, Orion found what he was looking for. A lone Deatheater behind a tree, watching the area in front of him while stealing occasional glances behind.

Orion watched the man for a few seconds. It was all the time he had to make his assessment of the situation. But it was also all he needed. The man was focusing most of his attention in front of him. He was looking for a target. But the occasional glace he kept giving his back stated all too clearly to Orion that that front wasn't being covered. The Deatheater had to protect it himself. That meant there couldn't be too many of them.

Orion timed himself by how long the man watched his front before glancing behind him. After a few times, seeming fairly consistent, Orion made his move, coming at the Deatheater from behind while the man watched his front.

The Deatheater was just turning his head to check behind him when an arm wrapped itself tightly about his neck and a wand tip dug into his neck.

"One move!" Orion hissed at him. "Just one, and you're dead."

The man struggled as much as he could in the iron grip the Auror had on him. "You'll kill me anyway." He stated.

"Maybe." Orion agreed. "Maybe not. Keep struggling and it's a guarantee."

The man seemed to consider his options, then stopped struggling.

"How many?" Orion demanded.

"Thirty." Came the answer without hesitation.

The wand tip dug deeper.

"You're lying. You wouldn't have been so interested in protecting your arse if there were that many. Now once more. How! Many?"

The man tried to evade the pain of the wooden shaft pressing ever deeper into his neck, but the more he tried, the harder Orion pressed it.

"Ea...eight.' He finally croaked out.

Orion pressed harder. "Keep going."

"Four here. F...four on the other side."

Orion released his hold a bit. That felt more like the truth.

"Eight?" He questioned. "You can with eight Deatheaters to attack the castle?" That didn't make any sense to him at all.

The man shook his head. "Not for an attack." He barely managed to get out.

Orion jabbed the tip of his wand back into the man's neck. "Then what?"

Orion barely had time to react to the voice behind him.

"An ambush."

Orion dropped his hold on his victim and dodged to the side as he saw the flash of metal behind him. But not quickly enough to avoid the blade entirely as it cut into the upper arm of his robe. Grabbing the arm of the man with the knife as he swiftly moved behind him, and turning the knife about, he used his whole body weight to shove the man forward, the knife being driven directly into the Deatheater. Yanking the man back, Orion threw the body to the side and quickly turned his attention to the man still leaning against the tree.

Caught between the impact of the body from behind and the trunk of the tree, the second Deatheater had had the wind knocked out of him, giving Orion a few precious seconds to grab the disoriented man and lay him out with one solid blow to the face.

Dropping the man to the ground, Orion pulled back. That made five Deatheaters, leaving three going after Bale.

But Bale hadn't been the target. It had been him. And they had failed.

Orion was about to continue on to the rendezvous point when a soft 'pop' next to him caught his attention. A few feet away a man in black robes appeared in the darkness. His stance was set for an attack until he saw Orion.

"Oy! You taking all the fun tonight?" The man complained as he walked over to where Orion stood over the two Deatheaters.

"Wasn't much fun." Orion told him. "Ambush. But as usual," he added, glancing down at the two Deatheaters, "they missed."

"Had dinner with me missus interrupted for this?" The Auror stated in disgust. "Right waste of my time."

"Not entirely, Rich." Orion stated, giving the first body a slight kick, causing it to moan softly. "That one's still alive. And he's just full of information tonight."

"Right talker, is he?" The other stated, reaching down and pulling the man up. "Well, that's good, mate." He told the Deatheater. "We got a whole department full of people who just can't wait to listen to what you have to say. And some of them will even help you with the hard parts. Here," the man stated, glancing over at Orion and indicating his torn sleeve, "you all right, One?"

Orion glanced up at the man. "I'm fine. Take him on back. I want to find Bale and then we'll head on back."

"Right'o." The man called back, then quickly disapparated.

Orion shook his head with a small smile, then headed towards where he was suppose to meet Bale. The evening was getting entirely too warm for him, and he wanted nothing more than to get back to the castle and slip into bed.

Several minutes later a voice called out of the darkness. "Black!"

Orion had heard the group long before he saw them. And from the sounds, there wasn't much left to do. As he approached, an Auror was heading off with a Deatheater shoved in front of him towards another group of men waiting to disapparate.

"Report." Came the voice of his superior.

"It was an ambush." Orion replied in a suddenly very tired voice. "This whole thing was a decoy. The attack was set up for the southern front. One distracted while the other attacked. Rich took the distracter in already."

"All right. We're done here." Bale called over his shoulder to the others. "Return to the Department an assemble for debrief."

"You want me as well?" Orion asked.

Bale turned back to his agent an gave him a hard look over. "You head back to the castle." Bale stated. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Just tired." Orion replied.

"You're more than tired. You're white as a sheet. Martin!" Bale shouted.

A short medi-wizard quickly hurried over to Bale's side.

"Sir?"

"Check him out, Martin."

That was the last thing Orion remembered hearing before he collapsed.

Q&A

FEVER

Angelfire:

NICE! I know there's still plenty of this fic left but my fingers were itching to type out a review to you now. I'm SO loving how this is going, how you've got the characters within their own personalities and interracting-the Snape memory between him and Lupin before Lupin became a Marauder was clever! I would've never thought of something like that! Hehe, and I had a sneaky feeling that it was those cookies that Harry got earlier in the summer...it'll be very interesting to see what happens to that 'baker' once Sirius, Remus, and Snape get ahold of him...clicks on next chapter

Ha! I knew it was those evil sugar cookies! Evil...I think that after this, I'll never eat another sugar cookie again in my life...;p or, at least not without eyeing it suspiciously...LOL! - I would've never thought I'd say this before, but I actually really do like the Snape/Lupin friendship deal that you've got going on here...it...fits...I think that's thet best way to describe it really. And bad Dursley's for shooting Remus...though, I have the feeling that they'll eventually get what's coming to them...ponders as to what their punishment could be hehe, I always love reading fics that have the Dursley's getting their due for how badly they've treated Harry...-v ish off to read more

I'm glad you enjoyed the relationship between Snape and Lupin. I always thought those two had it in them to have a very good friendship. A little un-canon, but what-the-hey. I am glad you are enjoying the story overall and I hope it lives up to your expectations. Fever remains one of my reader favorites.

FAMILY RELATIONS

Skahducky:

I wonder if the wizards who attacked Hershel knew it was Katlin and Orion. Perhaps they just set up a barrier to let them know when anybody came near, and since it's Hershel, they probably figured it was Dementors.

If that's not the case, though, then Orion's in an odd position, not that he or Katlin know it. Voldemort wants him dead but the wizard in the north doesn't want his people anywhere near him.

When will Harry come back into the story? His role as a major character ended as soon as the whole adoption issue ended. Will Sirius ever get his body back? If he doesn't, Sirius probably wouldn't agree to adopting Harry just out of fear of Voldemort taking over and hurting Harry. It's obvious his motive at the moment isn't for Harry to be killed, but that may change.

Anyway, this is a great chapter. Please update soon!

Ummm..., in regards to your first question as to who the attackers were trying to get away from, see 'Author's Notes'. You guys missed big time here.

Who said the wizard in the north doesn't want his people near Orion? I don't think I ever said that. Especially since Orion is tied up in the wizard's plans (indirectly).

Harry will be back in the story soon. I just need to establish a few things first. Look for him in another chapter or so. Once he's back, he's back to stay. I don't think he takes much of a 'story break' after this one.

Now how can I answer that? Whether or not Sirius gets his body back is a large part of the story, Dear. So I can't say much. However, if he does or doesn't, since the story arc has another story to go (Family Ties), I would guess it's safe to say this story does end all nice and neat.

Absolutely! The last thing Voldemort wants right now is for Harry to be hurt in any way. Harry is, after all, Voldemort's only key to finding the wizard in the north.

CelticHeiressFiona:

I do try to update about once a week. But its been a tough couple of weeks for me time-wise.

MasterLupin:

hmm... Well I can't make a prediction persay... but I belive that the reason the attackers left was because they did not want to risk one of them being caught and potentaly giving up information that might give away thier mistery aspect which works in thier favor. However Voldermort most defently suspects somthing about Katlin and Orion now.

Weeelllllllllllllllllllll, sort of. They were most definitely worried about being caught. You just have 'by who' wrong.

Ummmmmm..., no. Still utterly clueless. Keep in mind that Voldemort accepts the relationship because he believes it is a 'sex for secrets' trade off. Therefore, seeing the two of them together is not surprising to him at all. And seeing Orion drooling all over his head Elite only serves to reinforce that belief in that he sees Orion as so utterly smitten with Katlin, he'll say or do just about anything to get time with her.

I have played around with the idea of having him find out accidentally, or just having Katlin tell him straight out. But that scene never plays out very pretty. Things exploding. People dying. Very messy.

Now, having read the Author's Notes, I'm sure you have a theory for me now.

Reviews are as of 04/15/2006.

And remember;

For all you working, happy tax day. For all of you not working, you're time will come.