A/N: Well, my step-niece was married last weekend. It was a lovely wedding, but, not being a big fan of the institution, that's about all I can say about it.

So instead allow me to say,

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 TWENTY-THREE: RECOVERY

Snape didn't waste any time in getting to the heart of the matter with Analisa as they headed for the infirmary.

"You'll be heading for Dumbledore's office?" he ask as soon as he was sure they were alone in the corridor and out of anyone's hearing.

"Why would you think that?" Analisa ask, never slowing her pace in the least. Both knew that any time they wasted was likely time Orion didn't have.

Snape turned to her. "Because, my dear," he replied, "you were doing everything in the room but taking notes. I can only surmise that there was a reason. Likely because Dumbledore was as interested in this cure as anyone else."

Analisa was silent for a few moments before she ventured her next question. "Did he notice?"

Snape considered the question. "I don't think so. Voldemort is no great potions brewer. It takes his total concentration to make one correctly, and this one was very complicated."

Analisa fell silent again.

"So why the story?" he ask finally.

"I had to tell him something." she replied in barely a whisper. "He was going to kill me, Severus. Or more likely, both of us. Surely you knew that."

"What I knew was that you wouldn't have come to Dumbledore with the information you did without a contingency plan to explain such a 'slip' to Voldemort. What I wonder is why you didn't tell me? I could have used a little advance warning in there."

"Well I didn't expect you to be brewing potions with Voldemort for a start." she replied. "I thought I had time to warn you. Bu the next thing I knew you were being summoned to help brew a potion and Dumbledore wanted me there to do a grocery list for him." She ventured a cautious glance towards him, trying to gage his mood. "I am sorry, Severus." she said finally. "I tried to give you as much warning about what was going on as I could without having Voldemort become suspicious. Thankfully, he laid out most of the information you needed on his own."

"And why use me as the perpetrator of the spell?" He ask as they continued down the corridor.

Analisa sighed. "I didn't, really. That all came from Voldemort himself."

"Explain."

"When I told him of the spell originally, I told him I didn't know who had done it. I had been...more or less ambushed from behind. By the time I was released, I had simply been dropped off in the woods, never having seen my captures faces. Voldemort simply assumed it was you and supplied that part himself. I didn't even know he was going to say that, Severus." she implored him to believe her. "And I tried to cover it as best I could. I couldn't deny it was you if I had claimed to never have seen the faces of the actual people. I was literally thinking as fast as I could to keep us both alive."

Snape paused for a moment. "It was still very dangerous." He said finally.

Analisa walked in silence for a few minutes. "Am I at least in the running for forgiveness?" she ask tentatively.

Snape turned to her with a questioning stare.

"I didn't mean to get you into such a dangerous situation, Severus." She tried to explain quickly. "And I would have done anything to draw Voldemort's attention away from you if something had gone wrong. I know it was risky, and I know it was dangerous for you, and..."

Snape stopped her. "You think I am worried because it was dangerous for me!" He ask in surprise. "Analisa! It was you I was worried about. Not myself."

"Me?" she all but squeaked.

"Voldemort may be suspicious of my loyalty, Analisa, but he knows you have betrayed him as a fact. Anything he believes about me I can explain away. It simply takes a little creativity. But you were the only one who knew about the spell he planned to use on Black. You were the only one who could have told Dumbledore. Voldemort stated as much in one of the first meetings we had with him. He knows you have been disloyal. And we both know how he responds to that. His belief that I used a spell to force you to reveal his plans is immaterial. He doesn't care 'why' you do something, he only cares about the danger it brings to him."

"I'm still sorry you got involved in my lie." she said quietly.

"We'll deal with it when and if it becomes a problem. Right now we have other more pressing matters to deal with."

They continued on to the infirmary in silence until they reached the door. Just as she reached for the handle, Snape reached for her hand and turned her back to him.

"And just so there is no misunderstanding," he stated in a quiet voice, "you were never in anyone's shadow."

Analisa blinked back at him for a second. Then a small smile curved over her lips. "You are the strangest man I have ever known." She stated. "I never know one minute to the next what to expect out of you." And with a quick kiss, she hurried into the infirmary with the antidote.

The first dose of the poisons countering agent reacted much as Voldemort had said it would. Within twenty-four hours Orion was not only awake, but clamoring to be released from the infirmary. But Madam Pomfrey stood firm on wanting him to remain at least a few extra days so she could monitor his health and check for any aftereffects of the poison.

Still monitoring the poison's reactions for Dumbledore, Analisa had stopped by the infirmary herself each day in the afternoon to question Orion in length about how he felt. A task that left her feeling genuinely sorry for the poor nurse. Getting a single answer was a chore that took the better part of a fifteen minute argument as to why he couldn't leave that day.

Heading down on the third day, Analisa had chosen to stop by in the morning instead. Having agreed to have breakfast with Snape, she simply worked her daily visit into her morning schedule as a matter of convenience, seeing no ham in it.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Reaching the infirmary, Analisa had just pushed the door open a fraction of an inch when a voice stopped her, Snape nearly running into her from behind.

"What are you...?"

A hand quickly slapped itself over his mouth as Analisa silenced him, gesturing with her head towards the door.

Inside Snape heard a voice he was all too familiar with. But this time, instead of handing out orders with determined conviction, it was all but cooing over the infirmary's sole occupant.

"Honestly!" Katlin lightly chided her husband. "Half dead with poison or a simple head cold, you are the worst patient anyone could have."

A softer voice answered, one neither of them could make out.

"Be reasonable, Love." Katlin coddled him with her tone. "You want to get better, yes? You want to come home? The children are practically up the walls about when you are coming home. Poor Katy does nothing every night but cry herself to sleep for her da-da. And that won't happen if someone doesn't become a great deal more cooperative and takes their medicine."

Analisa pulled back, silently closing the door behind her as she turned back to Snape. "That's Katlin Griss!" the words came out in an excited hiss. "And there's only one person in the infirmary."

"You're putting the pieces together but coming up with the wrong picture, Analisa." Snape replied calmly.

The smile on the woman's face was positively bordering on a cat with a saucer of cream as she shook her head. "And she is all but crawling into that bed with him."

Snape shook his head. "It is well known that Griss is playing the Auror for secrets. Even Voldemort is aware of it."

Analisa gestured again to the room beyond, the smile remaining fixed on her face. "And exactly who is she playing to now, Severus? There's no one in there but the two of them. No audience."

"Then she's keeping up the pretext for him.

Analisa sighed dramatically. "You are such a man." she stated firmly.

"Thank you for noticing."

Analisa shook her head again. "That isn't playing to anyone, Severus. I'd bet every spell I know that is pure, genuine hearts and flowers in that room between them."

"And Griss is a competent actress. You're reading too much into things, Analisa. Now let's just come back lat..."

"Later, Severus?" The door swung open with a enough force to take it off it's hinges, being stopped with just as much precision. "But you're already here. And eaves-dropping, as usual."

Both Snape and Analisa stood stone still before the cold gaze of Katlin. And it was Snape who recovered first.

"Eaves-dropping?" He asked. "Analisa and I were just passing by. If anyone was listening in, I would say it was you, Ms. Griss."

"When people are 'passing by'," Katlin pointed out with a cool smile, "they usually keep walking. You two have been out here for a good three minutes." Katlin turned a stone cold gaze to Analisa. "I believe you have a patient to check." she informed her, giving the other woman no choice but to enter as she stepped back from the doorway.

Analisa gave Snape a quick glance before following Katlin's lead.

"Orion, your private pathology team is here." Katlin informed him as she walked back over to the bed in a stiff manner that was echoed in her words.

Orion turned slightly, then groaned slightly as he turned away.

Katlin went over to his bedside and immediately began a quiet, one-sided conversation with her husband, sounding very much like a mother trying to convince an uncooperative child.

"He's not feeling well today." she informed the other two without turning back to them. "Please be brief."

Analisa carefully edged forward, doing her best to get closer to the bed without coming into any contact with the other woman. Snape remained where he was, watching every movement with his right hand wrapped tightly about his wand. He knew Katlin Griss well enough to know her calm manner was belying whatever was to come. If she had suspicions about whatever they may have heard, she wasn't going to let them go without getting to the bottom of things first.

Analisa tried to maintain a cool, calm front while questioning Orion about any further aftereffects. One thing she had quickly noted was that Orion seemed to rank her visits with the same anticipation one awaits a shot in the arm. Though she doubted it had anything to do with the poison and everything to do with her patient.

Fifteen minutes later of Q&A that she could easily equate to pulling teeth, Analisa gave Orion a few gentle words of encouragement and turned back to Snape.

"He's very tired and I think that should be all we try to get for today." She stated in what she hoped was an amiable sounding tone. "I think it's best if we just let him rest."

Snape silently nodded in agreement and escorted Analisa towards the door, trying not to seem in too much of a hurry. Even out the door their problems weren't over, but it was a good start. But with only a few feet to go, a firm voice stopped them.

"Now that you've had your interview, perhaps I can have mine?"

Analisa paused, turning silently to Snape before turning back to face the woman behind her.

"Pardon?" she ask with an innocent smile.

"What did you hear?" Katlin ask, not returning one fraction of the woman's smile.

"Hear?" Analisa ask.

The voice that answered her was as cold as a blast of air straight from the artic. "If you want to play games, we'll play games."

Analisa barely even saw the woman move before she found herself pinned to the wall by the door, a hand wrapped tightly about her throat and pressing in a bit harder with each passing second.

Snape started to reach for his wand, but instead found Griss' pointed in his face.

"Touch it and I'll make your birth certificate a worthless piece of paper!"

Snape froze, watching Katlin turn her attention back to the woman she had pinned to the wall.

"Now tell me what you heard." Katlin repeated in a deceptively friendly tone. "And I might just let you live."

"Analisa shook her head. "I told you. Nothing!"

That was as far she got before the grip on her throat tightened again, cutting off any ability to speak.

"If I want lies, I'll ask Snape." Katlin hissed at her. "But you..., I thought you were an intelligent girl, Analisa. I thought you knew better than to lie to me."

Analisa tried to answer, pushing against the hand that held her in a steel grip. A choking sound came to her, which at first she thought was her own. But just as suddenly as it started, the grip on her throat let go and Analisa all but fell tot he floor, gasping for air.

"Orion?"

Analisa looked up to see Katlin running back to Orion's side, pure terror in her voice as she grabbed hold of the body as it fell to a violent seizure.

"Orion?" Katlin cried again, trying to hold him still. "What is it? Love? What's wrong?"

Analisa struggled to her feet with Snape's help and stumbled as quickly as she could back over to the man's bedside.

"Get back!" She all but pushed Katlin out of her way. "I can help him. But we have to act fast, or he stands a chance of choking that could prove fatal."

Katlin stepped back, staring in wide-eyed horror as Analisa worked several quick spells in rapid succession. With each one the seizures backed off a little bit more until the body collapsed back on the bed in exhaustion.

Katlin was back at her husband's side in seconds, smoothing his hair back from his brow as she called his name.

"He'll sleep for several hours." Analisa informed her, still rubbing her throat.

Katlin turned to her, the anxiety still in her eyes. "What happened to him. That hasn't happened before."

"But we expected it." Analisa answered her past a hard cough to clear her throat.

"Expected it?"

"The poison progressed further than we thought, Katlin." Analisa explained carefully, making sure the woman understood what she was telling her. "We've been watching for the seizures, hoping we were wrong. It's the main reason we wanted to keep him here for a few days more."

The woman's eyes narrowed. "You knew?"

"Suspected." Analisa corrected quickly. "It's not dangerous if he's careful. If you learn what to do and how to control them."

Katlin studied the woman for a few seconds. "What do you mean? He'll never recover from this? He'll always have these...these 'seizures'?"

Analisa shook her head. "He'll be susceptible to them. But he can control them if he learns how."

Katlin walked back over to her husband's bed, no longer facing the two people behind her. "And if he doesn't learn to control them," she ask quietly, "what then?"

"It's not an option, Katlin. He has to. If he has a seizure and it isn't stopped, it could kill him."

"And if you hadn't been here, he would be dead?" Came the nearly whispered question.

"We were lucky this time, Katlin. I knew what to do. Next time, he'll know what to do on his own."

Silence descended on the room like a woolen blanket, and for several minutes Katlin didn't say a word, much less move.

Her husband could have died. A freak accident she would never have been able to avert. No magic of her own, no pleading, or hoping, or knowledge she possessed could have saved him.

But for one small gift of fate, the man she loved more than her own life would have died.

Taking a deep breath, Katlin picked up the pale hand from the bed and held it tightly pressed to her body, willing her own warmth into it as she gently caressed it in her own.

"Get out." she whispered.

Q&A

Family Relations

MasterLupin:

Well sheep don't shrink because the oils they produce make the wool water proof.

Anyhow... Well here is my short term theory. Voldermort is hoping to get two birds with one stone. He is hoping that by slowly killing Orion he will appeal to Harry's hero complex as described in book five. Voldermort belives that Harry will come to him for help, and he Voldermort will produce the cure. However it will be near the end of the week leaving Orion recovering for a very long time, if not permently, getting him out of the way. Harry will then have agreed to help him of his own accord. So he will be forced by Voldermort into giving the secrit up. If Harry dosen't come to him, he still wins by getting rid of Orion.

I'm so sorry, Dear. I missed this one that one week.

Anyway, you were sort of on track. I don't know much about Book 5 as that I sort of skim-read it, got to the bad part and never went back. Killing off my favorite character sort of did the series in for me. But Voldemort is hoping to manipulate (not force) Harry into complying with his demand. Trust me, there's a BIG difference there and Voldemort has to step very carefully to remain within the parameters of the spell. The man is walking on fine line right now.

Orion's recovery itself is not going to take that long. But as this chapter showed, the aftereffects are more far reaching than anyone suspected. And the seizures are just the tip of the iceberg.

Harry absolutely has to help Voldemort of his own accord or Harry can never locate the wizard.

And yes, if by some unbelievable occurrence Harry had refused, Voldemort still got rid of Orion. And as far as he was concerned, BONUS!

Well don't take it as a personal attack, I was just pointing out a inconsistancy in your story, because I thouhgt that you would care to know. I am working on a story myself not posting yet, because only 8 chapters into devlopment there are major incosistancys which are driving me up the wall.
Anywho I predict that Orion will be saved in just the nick of time and have a long and slow recovery, and Harry will begin to regret his decision to make a deal with the devil. question: who takes care of Orion's and Analisa's children while there both out doing what it is that they do.
On a side note I was wondering what kind of writing you do, i.e. do you write for a paper, magizine, T.V, books exc., if you would be willing to tell.

Believe it or not, Dear, I rarely take things as personal attacks. I've been in this business far too long to let criticism, constructive or otherwise, bother me. What I object to, always have, and always will, is the inane reporting of abuse by people who use that venue for something other than it was originally intended. Consider a writer who irks someone off due to a point of view or some other such thing the reader doesn't agree with. The reader can then hound that writer, reporting them for abuse until they are banned from the site. FFN really needs to get a better grip on their abuse reporting and control it a great deal than they currently do. (PAR jumps off her soapbox.)

And I love continuity police, Dear. Keeps me on my toes.

One of the hardest things about writing a story is making it all fit together. Especially long ones. Consider that Enemies, Family Life, Family Relations, Family Ties, and subsequent shorter stories are all linked together by common threads. All of which I have to keep in mind as I sketch out story plots. Trust me that I have a score card that I refer back to from time to time to keep all the major events consistent.

Slow recovery? Not really. Just nasty aftereffects.

I'm guessing that was just a mis-type and you meant Orion and Katlin's children? Dear, what do you think Bo does with his time? It's called 'live-in baby-sitter'. The kids just love him. And when Bo is otherwise occupied, as he will be in this story, then that is what grandparents are for.

I'm willing to divulge certain things about my writing career, just not too much due to a contractual dispute still in the works.

Currently I write novels and am working on my next one. I have written for magazines and am also currently working on a television script, a new venture for me. I doubt I will ever work in journalism. Too sleazy.

CelticHeiressFiona:

Hopefully, your area will be somewhat spared after last year. Unfortunately, no one is that lucky. Your in my prayers, ducky. Update when you can. This chapter was really good.

So far, so good! Alberto gave us five days of clouds and rain. But now we are dealing with the aftermath of that storm. Long dry spell plus lots of rain over short period usually equals sinkholes, and we're getting them.

Thanks for the prayers. Only a fool turns those down!

Skahducky:

Did Dumbledore tell Katlin that Orion was hurt? Will Orion's kids come to visit him at any point?
I think Harry might end up going to see Orion and run into Katlin. My speculation is that they'll talk for a little while, and Katlin won't tell Harry to do what Voldemort wants, but he'll pick up that she wants him to. After that, I'm pretty sure Harry will go along with Voldemort's plan; after all, Sirius probably didn't have any idea that when he said Harry shouldn't help Voldemort under any circumstances that he might bring about his own brother's death.
Anyway, this is a great chapter. Please update soon!

So sorry I missed you this one week, Dear. And such a nice review it was, too.

Yes, Dumbledore is Katlin's direct line to everything going on with her husband when she can not be there.

Have you been reading my notes? That's about as close as you can get to what happened. If you and MasterLupin ever start collaborating on second-guessing me, I might as well give it up!

But now on that last part, not quite. Harry didn't quite get any vibes that Katlin wanted him to agree to Voldemort's demands. Quite the opposite actually. Harry's decision was based on his own morals and sense of duty.

Indeed, Sirius was very short-sighted in his advice. In a later chapter, Harry does get to talk to Sirius again, and his advice is quite a bit different this time.

Well, it definitely seems like Orion is going to get better...after all Harry only agreed to help Voldemort on the condition that Orion lives. Please update soon!

BINGO! Have a gold star, Dear! (Gold star that keeps getting erased every time I try to download it with a story.)

I have often said I never put anything in a story that isn't relevant to that story...or at least I try not to. Harry's edict wasn't by chance. He was covering his bases with Voldemort. His helping Voldemort find the wizard in the north is contingent on Orion living. And actually, if you go back and look at that chapter, Voldemort more or less did himself in there. He was the one, not Harry, who laid down the parameters of their bargain. He was the one who spelled out that Harry would help him based on whether Orion lives or dies. Harry's only stipulation was that Voldemort provide the cure, not if it worked or not. Voldemort did that all by himself.

All reviews are as of 06/18/2006.

And remember;

To all you Dad's out there, and especially to my own, Happy Father's Day. Hope it's a good one.