A/N: Not much this week.

Except,

As always,

Enjoy.

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

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX: SORTING THINGS OUT

Turning to Arabella, Sirius ask her for the vial Snape had given her before they left. Rooting through her robes, Arabella finally produced the small vial and handed it to him.

Getting up, Sirius walked over to where his brother was still locked in an argument with Katlin.

"Give the poor woman a break." He stated, crouching next to them. "She needs rest and you're over here badgering her."

"I'm not badgering her, I'm asking her opinion on a few things."

"Fine." Sirius said, handing him the vial. "Ask her her opinion on how this tastes."

Orion took the vial and handed it over to Katlin, who frowned at it. Orion quickly pulled out the small flask again and shook it in front of her. "We can add flavoring if you like."

Katlin shook her head as she uncorked the vial. "Put that stuff away." She stated in a weak voice. "It'll just make it harder to swallow than it already will be."

"You have no taste." Orion commented haughtily.

"I have plenty of taste." She replied, frowning at the small bottle once again. "That's the problem."

"Off you go then." Sirius ordered lightly. "Down to the last drop."

Katlin sighed, then up-ended the bottle as she downed it in one swallow. But as soon as she lowered the vial she immediately started to cough and choke, wrapping her arms about her body to ease the pain.

Orion quickly produced a small bottle of water that she quickly took several draws off of.

"That good?" He ask.

"Tasted like mint." She replied with a sigh.

"Well, everyone likes mint." Orion offered helpfully.

Katlin didn't respond, but instead curled back up in Orion's arms and closed her eyes.

"So what's our next move?"

Orion shook his head. "I haven't gotten that far yet."

"Any ideas?"

"Quite a few. Several of which I was running over with my lovely bride until you sent her off to lala land."

"I'm rumored to be a good stand-in for listening." Sirius offered.

Orion continued to stare at the red glow of the stones as he thought. "I'm starting to think there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye."

"No kidding." Sirius replied flatly.

"Think about it." Orion replied. "Heudros and the others treat Becca like a second class citizen at best. Like Roland said, to them she's used, abused, then refuse. Why would someone stay in a situation like that?"

"Maybe she has nowhere else to go?"

Orion shook his head. "Becca could go anywhere she wanted. But she chooses to stay here and serve Heudros. Why?"

"Well," Sirius speculated, "People usually do that for two reasons. Love or fear. Maybe she's in love with him."

Orion turned to his brother with a frown. "I think it's more likely she fears him. We've seen how he treats her. How they all treat her. I'd be hard pressed to think Becca loves any of her keepers. But I'd bet everything I own she fears them."

"Then he has to have something else he's holding her by, Orion." Sirius suggested. "People don't fear someone for no good reason. And it can't be that Heudros is more powerful then Becca. Roland said Becca was the power behind Heudros' magic."

Orion tapped his chin. "So he did." He muttered more to himself. "So if he's holding her, the question now is 'with what'?"

Katlin awoke to a burning in her shoulder. At first she couldn't quite discern the reason for the pain. But as she shifted slightly and her mind focused a bit more, she remembered exactly what had caused that pain.

Stretching out a bit, her feet touched something solid. Levering herself up on one elbow, she glanced down to find her husband sleeping at her feet, his head resting on his arm. His own cloak was wrapped warmly about her body while her's was tucked under her head.

The slight nudge with her foot had stirred him and he was slowly shaking off sleep as he pulled himself up next to her.

"You OK?" He ask solicitously. "Do you need anything? How do you feel?"

"Yes. No. And fine." She answered in order. "I'm sorry I kicked you. You look like you could use the sleep."

Orion shook his head. "Just catching a nap."

"How long have we been here?" She ask, looking about at the other sleeping bodies around the caves floor.

"Few hours. Lupin is outside standing guard. I'll be relieving him in a few minutes. So I had to get up anyway. Sirius already took the first watch."

"Is your brother still with us?" She inquired with interest.

"So far. He says its because Voldemort is tired. And he's worried about you. He knows Sirius is the best person to look after you."

"I'm sure Arabella appreciates that."

"Well, quite frankly, I appreciate it too. Sirius is a master at strategy and its given me a few hours to discuss different ideas I've had with him."

"Does he have anything to share?"

"A few ideas. But right now. Since you're awake, I'd like to discuss a few things with you."

Katlin turned to him as he positioned himself behind her, supporting her as she leaned back against his legs. "Me?"

"I want to ask you a question. And I want a straight answer."

Katlin steeled herself up for what she knew already was coming. "All right. What is it you want to know?"

Orion didn't waste any time getting into the matter with her. "Why do you hate Heudros so much? Every time you were near the man the sheer hatred rolling off of you was so strong even a muggle would have felt it. From the moment you met the man you've been on the verge of murdering him. But to my knowledge, you've never even seen the man before."

Katlin settled back against him, staring out in front of her as she kept her voice low. "Can't you guess?"

Already Orion could feel the tension in her body rising. He didn't want to put her through whatever the man triggered in her again, but he needed to know what the problem was. Katlin could usually shield her emotions with the best of them. The woman could be near murder and you would never know it standing next to her.

But her feelings for Heudros she never even tried to cover. She openly displayed them, letting the world know how much she hated this one particular man.

"Love, I'm usually very good at this game." Orion confessed. "But you've got me stumped this time. As I said, to my knowledge, you've never met the man before."

Katlin gave a short, derisive laugh. "Oh, I've met him before." She replied. "We met a very, very long time ago."

"When?"

Katlin shifted herself again against the support behind her. "I told you once before," she said in barely a voice above a whisper, "about a man who came to my village. He manipulated the people there, using them to murder my parents." Katlin paused as Orion felt a shudder run through her body, as if she was suddenly very cold. "I hoped I would never see him again. Every day I prayed he was dead. That I would never have to see him again." She paused again as her voice fell even lower. "But my prayers weren't answered. And he is still alive. And I have seen him."

Orion wrapped a hand comfortingly over her shoulder. "Heudros."

Katlin nodded slightly. "So, can you blame me for wanting him dead? For wanting to kill him with my bare hands? I want to see him suffer, Orion. I want to see him take his last breath while I tighten my hands around his neck."

Orion didn't say anything, but instead lightly tucked a stray strand of hair back behind her ear.

"But before he dies," Katlin spoke up again, "I want him to answer a question for me."

"What's that, Love?" He ask.

"I want to know 'why'. Why did he murder my parents? What possible reason did it serve to kill a harmless couple who were nothing to him?"

"Maybe they were something to him."

Katlin turned a startled look to him. "What?"

"They were your parents. In one thing, I think the informant who told me the story about that man being Voldemort, was telling the truth. I think Heudros came to your village, Love, because he wanted you."

Katlin pulled up slightly. "For what?" She ask in the same startled voice. "Orion, I keep telling you, I wasn't anything special. My mother was the village healer. My father manipulated the weather and made the crops grow so we all had enough to eat. That was the extent of it. We weren't anything special."

"Maybe not as you were, Love. But I suspect Heudros wanted you for a very specific purpose. Trust me," he added, placing a kiss on her head, "you'll get your answers. I promise you."

Katlin mulled over the idea for a few minutes, then turned back to her husband. "Have you sensed anything from Bo?" She ask, hating just to bring the subject up, knowing how worried Orion still was for his friend. "Do you know if he's all right?"

Orion slowly shook his head. "That's what worries me. Where is he?"

"Orion," Katlin ask, her own voice laced with worry, "you don't think that they actually...?"

"Bo can't die, Katlin." Orion told her. "He isn't really alive to begin with. They can kill the boggart side of him, if there's even anything left of it. But I think that part of Bo stopped existing a long time ago. The only thing they could possibly do to him is capture him. They might try to break his hold in this realm, but I don't think they can do that without my father. He's still the host and Bo is still bound to him. Based on that, I think he's really the only one who can discharge Bo from our realm. I think the reason I can't feel him is they've captured him and cut me off from him like they did before when we were in the castle."

Katlin gave him a worried look. "Do you think he'll be all right?"

Orion sighed quietly. "I don't know." He replied. "Right now, if they have him, he's probably frightened out of his little mind. And Bo in that state is a very dangerous thing. But what worries me more is that in the end, Heudros finally got what he really wanted in all this."

Katlin stared back at him. "Bo?!"

"You remember what I told you Hershel said before we left? He said I should take Bo with me."

"Oh, Orion, you don't think Hershel meant for Bo to be...?"

Orion waved her off. "No. I don't think Hershel really meant any harm to come to Bo. I think he was trying to warn me. He said when he was attacked by the wizards people he felt something. Something he hadn't felt in so long he almost didn't recognize it."

"What?"

"He didn't say. But I think that thing Hershel felt was what he felt when he first came into contact with Bo. That was why he told me to take Bo with us. Because he already knew what we were facing. And then you consider what has happened so far. All Heudros' tests. What were they really? First the box, then the bridge, then the castle itself. What was he really testing?"

"Voldemort said he thought it was to discover our weaknesses. To use them against us."

"And in a way I think he was right. But more than that, I think Heudros was testing something else. He was testing Bo. Trying to see just how strong he was."

"For what?"

"To see if he could capture him. If he could imprison him the way he has Becca."

Katlin's mouth dropped open. "He wanted to imprison Bo...like he has Becca? For what reason?"

Orion paused for a moment before answering her. "Since our first encounter with her, Bo's been asking me questions about Becca. He kept referring to her as 'the other'. I didn't understand what he was saying until a short while ago. Until I saw that ritual being performed."

"'The other'?" Katlin's eyes grew wide as she stared back at her husband. "You're telling me...that Becca...that that poor, abused child..is...is...?"

"What Bo is." Orion finished for her. "Those idiots back there have created another 'Power'. Becca."

Q&A

The point I'm surprised no one questioned here, (maybe this time around) was how did Heudros know whether or not Bo could really do what Orion told him to and destroy the castle.

Just curious.

Also, I am REALLLLLLLY surprised no one caught the huge continuity error in the last chapter.

If you will recall back in Chapter Forty-One B (By my count, not FFN's) Katlin came running out of a side corridor and smacked straight into Orion (Is everybody remembering that now?). Once she was sure Sirius was in control of his body, she quickly turned back to Orion and directly addressed him as 'Mr. Black', which he responded to by addressing her as 'Mrs. Black'. All in front of Lupin.

Continuity errors. Don't they just make stories interesting?

And if you're really bored, I'll even tell you how that happened. The scene in the last chapter was suppose to be Harry, not Lupin. But Harry found out much earlier in another scene that was added at the last minute that Orion and Katlin were married. But I thought the scene in the last chapter was cute and didn't want to delete it entirely, so I just substituted Lupin in there for Harry, forgetting completely that Lupin already knew Orion was married to Katlin.

See what happens when you muck about with your stories mid-way?

Q&A

MasterLupin:

Darn, I was way off this time. I was also admittedly hoping for a battle of epic proportions. Orion and Katlin are not doing a good job of keeping their secret marriage so secret. Everyone in the group excluding Voldemort seems to be privy to the secret information, and that's only counting the group. If keeping a secret, secret could be expressed in a math equation, from my experience it would be an inversely proportional equation. That is to say that as more people know the chance of the secret becoming public increases exponentially.
As for Bo's second advantage over Becca, I would say that it is combat experience first. However I would also say that Becca would have the true advantage in the fight if their power is almost equal; that advantage being that she has no apparent qualm with killing, something working against Bo.
Orion strikes me as a person who would easily lose a game of chess against Dumbledore. He seems to be a person who puts the wrong value on his pawns, and places the value that his pawns should have on his power pieces. He also seems to be unwilling to risk short term strife for a long term victory.

Not really, Dear. You had some points that were close, just needed a little more work.

A battle of epic proportions? It would depend on who is in the battle. If you're thinking of one between Bo and Becca, I hardly think 'epic' is the word I'd use. I mean. how epic can a battle be that involves someone who can't really manage their own power and a really pissy three year-old?

Wellllll..., true. But they figured it was safe. And if you think about it, actually, everybody in the group (except Voldemort) knew about it before they even left on the journey. That was the actual reason they weren't trying to keep it much of a secret. But do to my mucking about with the story line, things got a little confused. Mathematically, true, the more people that know that greater the chance of exposure. But if you think about it, Orion and Katlin have actually done a very good job of keeping it a secret. The only people who know are those on the 'Need to know' list, and they have managed to contain that information within that select group for fifteen some-odd years. Not too bad.

And despite all of that, Orion has managed to keep it a secret from the people he works with, excluding Orin and Charly, and Katlin has kept it a secret from those she works with completely.

Actually...no. Bo's advantage isn't combat experience. Bo, technically, has never been in combat. Who would take a three year old into combat? Sorry, Dear. It's something else that will be pointed out in up coming chapters. But feel free to keep guessing.

However, you are right on with your assessment of Becca's advantage over Bo...to a point.

Yes, Becca will kill where Bo will not. To her, killing is just sort of a problem solving tool. However, consider this point. The reason Bo will not kill is that he understands what killing is (sort of). He refers to killing as 'damage'. He knows the person isn't the way they were before and you can not heal them. Therefore, 'damaged' is very, very bad.

To Becca, they are just dead. No real point in worrying about them anymore. Period. Literally. For Becca, she sees no further than the act of killing. Someone bothers you, you kill them. They stop bothering you. Problem solved. She sees nothing past that.

Does that mean she has no conscience? No. She just doesn't understand the concept.

I never said he was a great strategist, Dear. When Orion needed strategy, who did he turn to? Sirius. Sirius is the strategist in the family.

Well who the heck would win a game of chess against Dumbledore?!

And I have said many times that Orion's strength isn't in his wits (so to speak). It's in the fact that he's so darned tenacious. Once he gets ahold of something, he's like a dog with a bone. He doesn't let go until it's resolved to his satisfaction.

Keep 'em coming, Dear. I always love your theories.

ilovesirisublack:

That chapter was amazing, I was on the edge of my seat plus yay Sirius! Never a bad thing in my opinion. Is Bo ok? I hope so. As for Becca, that girl needs to leave Heudros sharpish, he is clearly abusive, I hope someone knocks him down a peg or a million pretty soon.and just what does Orion think the castle is? Because I have no idea at all but maybe I'm just being slow.Anyways looking forward to the next chapter I hope its as god as this one. Bye!

Is Bo OK? You'll have to wait to find out, Dear. Can't answer something that is directly part of the story line. Sorry.

Yes indeed. Becca would benefit immensely from leaving Heudros. But how do you convince someone to leave the person they have literally built their whole world around? Heudros is everything to Becca. Practically her whole reason for being. Orion's challenge is how to change that and get her to see the man for what he really is. Not an easy task.

And yes, Heudros would benefit as well from being taken down a peg or two (or three or four or five). and I think you may be mildly surprised in who will be responsible for that.

What does Orion think the castle is? Again, can't answer that, but you will find out before the story is over. It serves a very specific purpose.

Silverfox:

Oh no! Bo! Believe it or not for a moment there I was hoping that Orion would drop Katlin (or at least shove her into Sirius' arms) and run to save his bogart. Guess that makes it pretty clear who my favourite character is (in case there ever was any doubt).

OK, OK. Yes, Bo is a reader favorite, but do you honestly think the man is going to drop his WIFE? She'd have killed him on the spot, sick or no.

Granted, I will say Orion was hard pressed on what to do in the situation. And it was not an easy decision for him to leave Bo behind. But he does make up for it in future choices.

Skahducky:

Haha, Remus' reaction was so funny! Didn't he already figure it out, though? After all, Orion and Katlin have been very close to each other this whole time, and Orion did call her 'Love' earlier.
What does Orion think the castle is?
Anyway, this is a great chapter. Please update soon!

Well, I must have loved it as much as you since, as stated in my little comment before Q&A, that was a scene that should have been taken out because it lost relevance in the story, but instead I just retooled it a bit to keep it in.

Orion's calling Katlin 'Love' is simply a character habit of his. He calls a lot of women 'Love'. He is, after all, English. It's similar to an Australian calling people 'mate'.

I can't explain off as easily how close they have been, but it is known by a slightly larger group that they are a 'couple'. The differences comes in with what reason people think they are together. The general consensus, as with Voldemort, is that she is playing him for secrets, as does Orion's people think he is doing the same to her. So it is tolerated.

What Orion thinks the castle is will come up shortly, so I can't really say right now.

CelticHeiressFiona:

Awesome chapter!

Thank you, Dear.

Elle's Bells:

Good chapter love! I do hope you didn't kill off Bo; it seems like the group would be royally skrewed without him (her?, it?). Also, could you just say that Voldie has decided to fly away and Sirius is here to stay? I'd love that muchly. Cheers! Elle

Him? Her? It? Good question. But I would have to say, based on future stories, that Bo definitely sees 'himself' in the masculine sense.

And indeed, the group would be in serious trouble without Orion's boggart to help them out. As to Bo's current condition, however, that remains to be seen.

Voldemort's time in Sirius' body is limited, if you'll remember. The spell is slowly merging the two personalities until eventually neither will exist anymore as a separate entity. Sirius' body, for him, is basically just temporary housing.

Cheers, Dear.

All reviews are as of 6/16/2007.

And remember;

A very happy Father's Day to all dads out there, especially my own. Eighty-four big ones and counting. GO DAD!