A/N: Yup. I survived.

And as always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Go back and read the one before the one before the one before this one.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: BRIDGE

Lupin sighed as he faced Orion, then slowly nodded. "I felt there were things best not said." he replied.

"What things?" Orion all but demanded.

"You understand what I told Voldemort?" Lupin asked.

"I understood that in trying to keep my brother under lock and key he is effectively cutting himself off from half of his magical ability."

Lupin simply stood and stared back at the man, waiting for the words to sink in.

And it didn't take long. A deep line etched itself across the Unspeakable's brow that quickly turned to an expression of concern.

"He's cutting himself off from 'his' magical ability." Orion repeated. "There's no differentiation."

Lupin shook his head. "No. There's still some. But the gap is narrowing. The fact that Voldemort, trying to suppress Sirius' side of the personality, caused this worried me. So I studied the spell a bit closer. Apparently the more one act effects the other, the closer the two personalities become."

"Until?" Orion ask.

Lupin fixed a hard stare on the man. "Until there is no more question which personality is dominant."

"Because there won't be two personalities anymore." Orion finished for him.

Lupin nodded. "The two personalities are merging faster than I anticipated. So much so, that I doubt Voldemort even realizes what is happening. The only thing I can imagine causing this...is Sirius."

"Sirius?"

"Voldemort may be able to stop him from interacting with the world outside of his body, but he can't stop him from acting from within. It appears that Sirius is pushing the merger forward."

Orion grabbed the man by the front of his shirt. "You're saying my brother is causing this intentionally!"

"I don't know." Lupin replied calmly.

"But he'll destroy himself in the process!"

Lupin simply stared back at the man.

Orion let go of Lupin as he turned to pacing the room. "He never thinks things through." he stated. "Always impulsive. Always living in the moment. He isn't thinking!"

"He's trying to do what he feels is necessary." Lupin replied. "And his playing field isn't as large as yours or mine right now. He only has so much to work with and he's trying to make the best use of it. And I am just guessing here." he added quickly. "Sirius may be no more aware of what effect whatever he's doing is having than Voldemort."

"Well, whatever he's doing, he's going to stop." Orion stated, pointing a finger at the man. "He's going to listen to me for once in his life."

"Well, before he'll listen to you, you have to find Voldemort, then convince him to let you talk to Sirius."

Orion turned a hard stare on the man. "You have yet to present a problem." He replied, then turned back to the room. "Bo!"

Almost instantly a tower of black robes appeared in front of the Unspeakable.

"Bring Voldemort here. Now." Orion stated, pointing the space between them.

As soon as Orion stopped talking, Voldemort stood before him.

Any surprise or irritation the dark lord may have felt at the sudden alteration in his surroundings quickly disappeared behind his usual mask of indifference as he faced first the boggart, then turned his attention to the Unspeakable.

"A simple request would have sufficed." he stated.

"Nothing with you is simple." Orion snapped back at the man. "I want to speak to my brother...now."

Voldemort stared back at the man as though considering the request. "And I should do this why?" he finally ask.

"Because it'll be a lot easier and a great deal less painful for you rather than having me rip your personality out of the body one piece at a time."

Voldemort considered the man before him before shifting his attention slightly to Lupin, who was standing just behind Orion. "Do you have anything to add that might better explain why I should grant this request?" He ask. "Because at the moment..."

Orion grabbed the man's shirt. "'At the moment' is exactly how you are ticking off the remainder of your miserable life."

Lupin took a tentative step forward. There was no easy way to explain what he suspected without opening up several other doors to Voldemort's often keener than normal reasoning ability. "We suspect that there is a possibility that Sirius may be effecting the course of the spell."

Voldemort frowned as he considered this new piece of information. "Impossible. Black barely qualifies as an after thought right now. There is no way he could be effecting the spell himself."

Orion gave the man a smug smile. "Anymore than he could be accelerating the merger of your two personalities?"

Voldemort studied the man for a moment, then shifted his attention back to Lupin. "Explain."

Lupin sighed to himself. This is just where he hadn't wanted this conversation to go. "From what has already happened, I suspect that Sirius may be the cause of the acceleration of the merger of the personalities. It could either be by accident or it may be his way to try to..."

"...to stop me." Voldemort finished. "Lovely. And you were planning on telling me any of this 'when'?"

"We aren't sure exactly what is causing the merger to accelerate." Lupin explained. "This is all merely conjecture at the moment. But Sirius may be able to shed some light on the matter. He may, if fact, simply being doing something that to him is harmless, but is, in effect, causing the problem."

Voldemort frowned at the other man. "I have, more often than not, found that Black is the problem." He replied, turning back to Orion. "Do make sure it is a worthwhile conversation you have with your brother, Mr. Black. Or it may very well be the last one you ever have with him."

Before Orion could respond, Voldemort closed his eyes, a look of deep concentration overtaking his expression before it suddenly relaxed.

Once again the eyes opened. But the whole look in them was different now. One of someone just waking up and not being entirely sure of where they were. But as his gaze focused on Orion, the gaze sharpened into one of disapproval.

"Am I ever going to be able to do one thing in my life that you won't interfere with?" Sirius ask his older brother.

"You brought me into this. Don't expect me to stand back and do nothing while you effectively try to kill yourself."

"I wasn't doing anything of the sort!" Sirius stated firmly, but just as quickly turned his attention to the figure behind him. "Hi, Bo."

The boggart gave him a friendly wave.

"Sirius," Lupin spoke up quickly, "how much do you know about what's going on?"

"Pretty much everything." he answered, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Do you really think I'm responsible for what happened, Remus?"

"It depends. What have you been doing?"

"Well, I haven't been trying to accelerate any merger, that's for sure."

"What have you been doing?"

"Trying to stand my ground." Sirius explained. "The harder he pushes, the harder I try to push back. I grab whatever opportunity I can and try to assert my own personality, not the other way around."

Lupin nodded. "Same difference though." he replied.

Orion folded his arms across his chest. "Meaning?"

"There's no balance." Lupin replied. "Sirius is basically fighting Voldemort every step of the way for dominance of the body's conscience mind. Voldemort is the holder of the spell, but Sirius is the body's original personality. That's causing a lot of strain on things. Sirius may not be consciously trying to accelerate the spell's conclusion, but he's doing it just the same."

"So how do we stop it?" Orion ask.

"If either personality is going to survive, you have to start working together."

"Then he needs to stop trying to shove me in a corner." Sirius replied, a small smile crossing his face. "Because if he doesn't..."

Orion pulled his younger brother back around to face him. "You will not pursue this." He stated determinedly. "You are going to back off and let us handle this."

"You handed me a trump card." Sirius replied. "You can't expect me not to play it."

"Even if winning the game could still cost you your life?"

Sirius met his brother's stare. "He's effectively killing me anyway as things are." he answered. "Fast or slow. What difference does it make?" Sirius turned back to Lupin. "You tell Voldemort that if he doesn't comply, follow your instructions, and even out the field a good bit more, I'll keep doing what I'm doing. And he's already well aware he can't stop me. And then, pretty soon, it won't matter which of us won the game."

Q&A

MasterLupin:

"Brace for impact boys, ruff seas ahead!" Good luck with your little wet problem coming in. I pray that it doesn't do anything.
Anyway that little quote has a double meaning, one is obvious, two will be in a moment. My powers of deductive logic are tingling; informing me that an important plot development is about to be revealed in the next chapter. So for this reason I will hold off any predictions pending the new information that could help shape my thoughts on the future of the story.
So instead I will do some character analysis. Voldemort, oh Tom what have you gotten yourself into? He seems to be forming a rather strong Hitler complex to me, a strong charismatic leader, who can bring an end to an undefined threat from the North. Bringing many under his control while being positively evil and making people think he's a good boy, while he's doing it. He is a strategist, and in the past his plans have all succeeded, that was until Harry. Even then undaunted by what many would see as a blunder, he has persisted with carrying out his agenda. With his moderate successes presently he is slowly but steadily becoming overconfident and delusional.
His belief in himself will cause him to make critical mistakes. He will never be able to turn Arabela to him, for he has overlooked her personal moral beliefs; even by trying to be more Sirius like he will fail. He has also misjudged Harry, thinking that he will do whatever Arabela doses or tells him to. Harry has until this story or more specifically the last story in this series, been living on his own emotionally, and for the most part without any real parenting. As fast as he is to accept parents into his life to provide guidance in his adolescence, he will not forget what it was like without them. He will also not forget why he had to live with the Dursleys in the first place, Voldemort having killed his first parents and having taken a second father figure from him now. He will never join with Voldemort even if Dumbledore told him to, he would rather kill Voldemort in revenge for his life having been so unpleasant.

Well, thankfully, Ernesto crapped out big time. We barely even got any rain out of him, let alone any wind.

And it seems even the predictors can't make heads or tails out of this hurricane season. We started with 13 named storms, then nine, then seven, and now five. There was a 59 chance one would hit the US, we are now at 35. And five were suppose to be major storms, now we are at three. Folks, I could have predicted better than that!

You might want to hold off on your predictions two more chapters. Yes, plot alerting things are coming.

You have, without a doubt, done some serious psychoanalyzing of dear old Tom. And that has got to be one of the best I've seen lately.

Indeed, the man woke up this morning and took his 'Little Hitler' pills. But overconfident and delusional? That remains to be seen.

A strategist? Absolutely. The man doesn't make a step that isn't carefully planned. And he's already said outright he has a plan for all this. His reasoning being that somebody ought to.

Whether or not and who Voldemort can manipulate in this also has yet to be seen. But for me to say anymore on that subject could effectively kill off the need for a few chapters.

Harry will never join Voldemort out of revenge? You're making Harry sound a little petty there, Dear. And Voldemort has yet to ask Harry to 'join' him. He has only stated he needs him to find the WitN. Nothing more. And I think Harry would choose the greater good over his own needs no matter what.

But time will tell. In the end Harry will have to make a decision on several matters. And he will have nothing more to help him than his own sense of morals.

Speaking of morals, thank you for acknowledging that Arabella does have some. Several people seem to feel she has tossed them aside simply to grab for a little gusto. Currently Arabella is no more sure of things than anyone else. All she knows is that somewhere under that charming and charismatic shell is Sirius. But in order to keep him safe, she has to walk a very fine line. The person who keeps moving the mark is Voldemort. A man who, for possibly the first time in his life, is looking at a woman and starting to think 'Wow, is that what I've been missing?'.

My advice? Give yourself a rest, Dear. Hold onto the prediction for the next few chapters, then...hit me.

CelticHeiressFiona:

Awesome, awesome, awesome chapter!It was so good! Please update soon! And good luck with Ernesto. I'll be following here in New Jersey.

First off, thank you, Dear. I am so glad you joined my reviewing group and that you are enjoying the story.

Now, you know, when I first read this, I thought, 'Phhhfttttt. New Jersey. Following that storm on the weather channel is all she'll be doing'.

How wrong I was!

Who would have predicted (Well, MasterLupin, maybe.) that Ernesto would be effecting your weather as well as ours? And that of our two states, you would get the worst of it. I mean, you at least got RAIN! We got this piddly stuff that was just barely classified over being a thick fog.

So, it just goes to show, you never know.

Silverfox:

I don't think Ernesto would have picked that name, if you'd asked him, but then again have you ever tried to pronounce the sound of a hurricane? That's probably what he'd have told you his real name is.
So, you don't have any hurt kids and nothing on fire, but the house might have been flooded and you might find a couple of baby dragons under the kids' beds? (Bo: Well, you didn't say I was to prevent them from getting new pets.)
hugs gold star Thank you! So pretty!
I like how Remus tricked Voldemort in this chapter. The Dark Lord clearly isn't as mighty as most people see him. I'm also beginning to like him as a character and that is quite a feat.

Well, I never said Bo was easy to communicate your wishes to. In fact, I think I've always advocated just the opposite. And that that was one of the reasons Orion doesn't exactly encourage him to have contact with other people and vice versa. Orion understands Bo probably better than anyone. He is, in fact, the first non-host to ever try communicating with Bo as a person and not as a non-corporeal entity. He treats him like a person. A sometimes irritating, irrational, difficult to understand one; but a person just the same.

Another large difference between Orion's relationship to Bo and that of the other hosts, is that Orion actually likes Bo. He's his first magic teacher, another family member, his confidant, his protector, and his friend. On the flip side, Orion is the one thing Bo can understand him as. He's his friend.

Glad you liked the star, Dear.

Well, it isn't so much that he isn't as mighty as most people may think of him so much as he's sailing on a slightly uneven keel right now. (OK, technically he always was.) But he's fighting a lot of forces from without and within all at the same time. He is trying to manage an unpredictable spell, trying to stay within the parameters of the secretkeeper spell on Harry, trying to manage Sirius and keep him in line, trying to keep things moving along the lines he's laid out for finding the WitN, trying to work with a man who is essentially everything he doesn't believe in, trying to keep his Deatheaters in line, work with an Unspeakable, a werewolf, and a teenager, and all the while trying to figure out how he managed not to notice how good a certain little witch looks in those robes.

Ohhhhh...my life is now complete! Thank you for saying that. One of my major goals in this was to work him into being a semi-likable character. And there's a reason for that. Which will become more obvious as the story goes along.

Skahducky:

I guess Lupin's hypothesis (although wasn't it just proved when Voldemort tried to give Sirius a little more free reign?) is good in that we'll see a whole lot more of Sirius. Also, when Voldemort and Harry go off in search of the wizard in the north, Harry will definitely feel a bit more comfortable if Voldemort lets Sirius out every once in a while. Will Voldemort eventually leave Sirius' body, or are you planning to keep them in the same body for more or less forever?
Please update soon!

Ohhhhhhhh, Dear, I am so sorry. But thanks for playing and we have some lovely parting gifts for you.

In other words, sorry, no. Not going to see 'a whole lot more' of Sirius. Based on this chapter you will see more of his personality, but not more of him personally. And that is going to effect how Voldemort relates to those around him a great deal.

Now, Voldemort will be letting Sirius 'out' a bit more, so you will see more of him. But I hesitate to tag that with 'a whole lot more'.

Now, how can I answer that without making the whole rest of the story redundant? Sorry, Dear. Can't answer that one.

All reviews are as of 09/02/2006.

And remember;

Ernesto was just another Cuban trying to make it to Florida's shores.

(Little hurricane humor there.)