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Chapter 6- Friends, Odds and Ends

Remus sat down with Sahara and together wrote the hardest letters they would ever write. It took them over 2 hours and the final results didn't really explain everything but it was the best they could do under the circumstances. Sahara's letter was the worst, it was barely legible as the ink had run from all the tears that had spilled from her beautiful sparkling eyes. Even though she was of Italian descent her skin was milky white so the weeping made it blotchy and red. But fortunately her silver glow had returned and even intensified. In short she looked radiant. Even Remus looked healthier even though the full Moon was in two days. The couple put their heads together to re-read it once more:

Dear Mum and Daddy,

I'm not quite sure how to tell you this. It will probably give you a heart attack!! The thing is, I'm writing to inform you that yesterday I discovered that I'm 6 weeks pregnant. I know your probably furious at me and I admit it was an accident and I'm stupid for giving away my innocence but I'm so happy. More happy than I've ever been in my life. The idea of having my child growing inside of me is over whelming. Just think your going to be grandparents! Mum, it will call you Mamma and daddy you'll be Papa! I want to stay at Hogwarts. I might be expecting but I still want my education. The good news is Professor Dumbledore says that you can visit and stay for a weekend every two week (that's when I have my checkups). The plan will be for you to floo to Professor McGonagall's office and then stay in a special room on the seventh floor.

There's something else. I'm also going to get married. To the father of course. His name is Remus Lupin and I love him so much! Remus is in my year, and I know your thinking he took advantage of me, but he didn't. We came to a mutual agreement.

So that's it then. I love you mum and daddy. Please don't hate me and don't hate Remus and our baby. I need you more now than I have ever done before. See you in a fortnight, Write soon.

Love you

Sahara

Xxx

P.S

Dumbledore is going to write to you soon!

It wasn't long but it said most of the important stuff. Except the part about the babies father being a werewolf!

James and Sirius sat in their cave and discussed the very interesting subject of their best friend becoming a dad. Well James was talking about it and Sirius was ignoring him,

"But seriously though, now he's a dad he will hardly ever do anything fun with us…Oh Merlin he'll have to get like morals or something, shit this is so much to deal with at once!"

James' ramblings had become incessant in the last few days. Sirius stared into space absent-mindedly picking at a loose thread on his trousers. He was thinking about Macy. Her long copper hair that sent waves of light like rainbows everywhere she went, her black eyes that looked incredibly sexy and sultry when she outlined them with her trademark midnight black eyeliner. The way she stuck her tongue out whilst concentrating or biting her nails when scared. She had quite a flat chest but it suited her petite frame. Sirius could actually smell her, roses and honey. It made her seem more majestic, Sirius couldn't really explain why that was but that was just what he imagined. In short she was not too bad to look at. He knew he loved Macy, well at least he thought he did. Remus had well and truly put a spanner in the works. After the half an hour, in which Sirius had done the thinking, of awkward and absolute silence James finally cracked,

"Sirius Orion Black, what the hell is up with you? You are doing my flamin' nut in! You're best friend, best friend, tells you his whole world is on the brink of annihilation… well, he thinks its gonna be good but he isn't thinking straight…but he is on the brink of full-on, bloody, annihilation, and all you can do is friggin grunt!" Sirius again completely ignored the outburst and continued to gaze into the jagged, pointy rocks of the caves archaic walls.

"Ohhhh…I've just got it! You hate Moony! I cannot believe it!" he threw his weather beaten hands into the air as if all of a sudden everything made sense. Finally Sirius was pulled out of his reverie,

"Shut up you prick, I don't hate him, I l…" he stopped and stared at his hands, blushing a deep crimson at nearly revealing his deepest, inner most secret. Standing up he mumbled his excuses and tumbled out of the rocky exit of the cave. He sneaked through a secret passageway into the school. Sirius ambled slowly down the deserted corridor, squinting slightly as he passed through the brilliant moonlight streaming through the open windows, it had to be about 1 o' clock in the morning. Tomorrow was full moon, tomorrow he would have to face Remus again. What would he say? Had he even noticed that Sirius had been avoiding him in the corridors, skulked in the corner of the common room watching him and Sahara giggling and cuddling (though she didn't look completely happy, sometimes downright miserable, but Sirius put it down to the pregnancy): his hand laid protectively on her fast growing stomach, or even that he laid awake for hours watching his chest rise and fall and his eyelids flicker as he slept. Just as he was pondering this latest conundrum, Sahara appeared as if out of nowhere.

"Hey Sirius, what you doing out so late?" she sounded inquisitive but overly-happy but it was her eyes that looked dead, emotionless.

"Nothing, just thinking about things, you know, personal things" he added pointedly, as if to say 'don't bother asking cos I won't tell'. Unfortunately she did not pick up on the hint,

"Oh sweetie, anything I can help with? I've been told I'm a good listener" her hands were on her hips, her features concerned but she was still looking distracted.

"No really I'm completely fine… boy stuff!" she didn't look convinced but didn't press the matter, "so anyways, how's the mutant?" he wasn't at all interested but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"If you mean my baby-then it's doing beautifully!" she smiled widely patting her abdomen lovingly "yeah it's brilliant, me and Remus…" Sirius winced when she said his name with such adoration, "…me and Remus are going to see a werewolf specialist as he's going to be there for the birth to see…well, erm, well to see if it is…one" she shot Sirius a distressed look.

"Do you care particularly?" she now had his full attention,

"No! Oh no, no, no. Of course not! Well obviously I would love more than anything for it to be normal, so it won't feel the pain and anguish that comes with being a werewolf, but I will do my utmost to help and make it feel comfortable and happy. Most importantly I love him, or her. Please, you do believe me don't you?" Sahara's sparkling silver and gold eyes met Sirius' stormy grey ones pleading and desperate. He nodded but didn't say anything. For the first time Sirius took in her full appearance: she was very beautiful, striking in fact, she had an amazing figure-curvy in all the right places but not to skinny, just right. However her normally willowy skin was grey and her face red and blotchy. Put that together with the facts that she looked wholly dejected and that she was wandering the school at night in her pyjamas. Something was wrong.

"Wait a minute, are you alright? You look dreadful and why are you up in the middle of the night in your pyjamas? You'll catch a cold!" he now looked at her sleepwear. It was made of white silk and it skimmed her body so fully, Sirius could make out of bump and hollow of her slender frame. Also it was cut quite a bit above the knee and a lot below the collarbone, it was not something a 16 year old would wear, well not around school anyway. Unless….

"Where have you been and who with?" she just spluttered and looked nervously around "Okay I want the truth: are you cheating on Remus, 'cos if you are, I swear to the almighty Merlin…" he was cut off by her flinging herself on him and sobbing into his burly chest.

"It was him, my supposedly best friend! I trusted him. I kept his secrets and he kept mine, I never thought he'd hurt me and never my baby!" she dissolved once more into heart wrenching tears. Sirius immediately sensed that this was a very serious situation and he had to take control, put aside his feelings for now.

"Right here's the plan, you are now going to tell me what you mean…" she choked a little and buried her head even further into his shirt. So he lifted her chin and looked once more deep into her eyes, "…everything! Then I will escort you to my dormitory and once there I think you should confide in Remus then you'll stay with James and Peter while me and Moony pay your friend a little visit. If he's hurting you and the mutant then he'll have to be taught a lesson won't he?" nodding slightly she sniffed and gasped for air, trying to regain her composure long enough to tell the frightful story she should have revealed months ago.

"Well, I suppose the bad part started on the penultimate week of last year. Somehow he had found out that I had kissed this random boy from Hufflepuff, so…that night, he took me to this really weird place, like a secret room on the forth floor. It was, erm, well it was like a…1940's muggle semi-detached! It had the big fireplace and the squishy sofa's, a big wireless next to the small polished piano. It kinda reminded me of my great aunt Bessie's" she giggled despite of herself. Separating herself from him, Sahara sighed a deep woeful sigh and backed into the stonewall, pressing her picturesque silver hair in to it. " It looked perfectly normal but…it wasn't. There was a door on the left that I suppose would have been the kitchen but it was some sort of medical centre. But not like the hospital wing, it was dark and dank like something out of a horror, torture film. Mainly just a long, hard bed and various healing potions. Lets just put it this way, it's only been 8 weeks-ish and nearly every bottle is empty." pausing she brushed away a stray tear that was fighting it's way towards her lips

"That was the first time he hit me. Broke my jaw, a couple of ribs…my left k..kneecap. The he kicked and pulled my hair till I lost consciousness. The biting didn't come till my fifth visit," a bitter laugh rolled off her tongue, "He told me that I was his and no-one else's. He loved me, you see, couldn't handle the competition so he beat me so I would stay away from the other boys, eliminate the opposition. Never raped me though…yesterday he touched me and it hurt a lot but that's the extent of it!" she was almost frantic, defending him, like it had been programmed into her brain.

"When he found out I slept with Remus…Merlin, he must of hit me, abused me, for hours. Well into the night, no, morning. So much so

we struggled to cover up and heal all of the broken bones and skin. I was so busy fixing them I forgot to fix my soul."

"Six weeks later I found out I was expecting and…I was happy…overjoyed but not just cos of the baby but also cos I thought ,rather naively, that he would stop. How wrong was I?" again she laughed but this time it was really strangled.

"He had been practising the, erm, the…Cruci…Cruciatus Curse since me and Remus did it" Sirius who had previously been listening silently now gasped mournfully and pulled her into a death grip of a hug. Sahara continued, mumbling into his chest "so he tortured me and fucking touched me but I didn't object. If I was 'a good little veela' (as he called me)he would let me go faster and damage my baby less!" Finished, she started panting a bit but looking relieved at finally having it all out in the open.

"Why are you wearing that?" Sirius whispered indicating her nighty,

"Oh yeah, he says he likes it…turns him on! More like that its more humiliation for me"

"And one last thing…"

"Uh huh"

"…who is this sick bastard?"

"His names…Severus Snape, he's in Slytherin. Do you know him?"

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