Disclaimer: Regretfully, I do not own Sirius Black or any of the other characters found in the Harry Potter Septology. However, if anyone would like to donate funds so that I can become richer than J.K Rowling and buy them from her, I promise I will bring Sirius Black back from the dead and do anything else you say. Please send your gold to Ian McDiarmid's front lawn, where I am currently begging him to take me as his new apprentice and teach me how to bring someone back from the dead. (Ian McDiarmid plays the Emperor in Star Wars, if you happened to not know that.)

A/N: I got a review or two asking if Raven was a vampire. Let's see what you think after this chapter. This one can get a bit confusing, so if you have any questions, feel free to email or instant message me. I'm EvrChanginAnthem on both AOL and Yahoo!. I'll do my best to explain but I'll also do my best not to give too much away. Thanks for reading, guys!

Luv, Liveley

Chapter 4 – The Werewolf's Mate

"All right, you guys better be ready to explain to me what this is all about!" Jordan demanded as Raven and Sirius entered through Sirius's back door with solemn expressions on their faces. "Black basically chucks me through the door and then disappears and leaves me here to die! There's not even any food in the house!"

"Breathe, Jordan. Breathe." Sirius ushered her back into the chair she had just sprung up out of upon hearing them approaching.

"Well then someone explain to me what the hell is going on! What happened to Remus? Is he all right?"

"Yes, Jordi. He's okay for now. We apparated him to St. Mungo's after he passed out," Raven answered.

"But what was he— Why was he—"

"Remus is a werewolf, Jordi," Raven said warily.

"…Ya think!" she responded sarcastically. "How long have you known that?"

"…A while," answered Raven.

"Well, how can he be a werewolf when it's not even a full moon?"

Raven and Sirius exchanged glances and Sirius answered, "We don't know for sure. Dumbledore thinks—"

"You saw Dumbledore?" interrupted Jordan.

"Black sent him a message right before we apparated, and he was waiting for us at St. Mungo's," Raven explained.

"Oh."

Sirius continued. "Dumbledore thinks he might have been given something at dinner."

"On purpose?" asked Jordan disbelievingly. "But why? And what could do that?"

"Again, we don't know," Raven took a turn answering, "but Dumbledore thinks it could have been on You-Know-Who's orders."

"You-Know-Who! But why would he want to—"

"Dumbledore said he had suspected for quite some time that Voldemort was trying to develop some way of transforming werewolves regardless of the moon cycle," Sirius began. "As of right now, most of the werewolves are on his side, lead by the one who bit Remus when he was young, Fenrir Greyback. If Voldemort could make them transform whenever he wanted, they would be an extremely powerful weapon, and he could set them loose on Muggles everywhere without having to put his precious Death Eaters in danger. Not to mention that while Aurors and Order members are out chasing after werewolves, Voldemort is free to do what he wants with less risk of being challenged by them."

"Well, it looks like he's succeeded if Remus transformed tonight."

"He did transform," agreed Raven, "but only for a matter of minutes. So either You-Know-Who found out how to transform them only for a few moments or Remus was only given a small dose of the potion to test if it would work properly."

"The waiter that brought Remus the cheesecake must have been under the Imperius Curse, then?" asked Jordan.

The voice that answered her was suddenly cold and accusatory. "I should have recognized it. What the hell am I in the Order for if I can't even—"

"Black, don't start that again," Raven cut in. "It wasn't your fault any more than it was ours. None of us noticed it either, not even Remus himself. Besides, no one got hurt, and Remus is going to be fine."

"But if I had realized it, Voldemort wouldn't know it worked, and—"

"And then he would have just tried again. And this time it might have been when we weren't there to control him, in the presence of hundreds of people. Or even worse, he might have tested it on Greyback this time, and he would have wiped out the entire block just for the hell of it," reasoned Raven. "Don't do that to yourself, Sirius. We have more important things to worry about."

Sirius looked at her slyly, and Raven thought he was going to make some smart-ass comment about her using his first name. "Like…why he didn't even try to bite you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly at her.

Raven sighed. "That's none of your business, Black."

"I can't believe you still won't trust me," he responded, growing exceedingly angry.

"Try not to take it personally."

"It's pretty damn hard not to!" he spat.

"Well, I'm telling you not to. It's not—"

Raven was interrupted by a tawny owl swooping through Sirius's open window. He sighed as he read the brisk notice from St. Mungo's. "He came to."

Raven and Jordan both let out a sigh of relief. "Well, let's go."

"Yeah," said Sirius, taking his cloak from its hook by the door, throwing it around himself, and then handing Jordan and Raven theirs as well.

When Raven reached for her cloak and tried to take it from him, Sirius held onto it and pulled her towards him instead so that their faces were only a foot apart. "We'll finish this conversation later, young lady."

She rolled her eyes and pushed him away from her. Sirius smirked as he watched her put on her cloak. "Right?"

"Can't wait," she answered him, sarcastically.

The three of them apparated to St. Mungo's where they were soon ushered in to see Remus. When they entered, he didn't smile amiably as he usually did.

He looked up at them, his face pale and anxious and said, "Are you all okay?"

"Shut up, Moony. Can't you see we're fine? How are you?" Sirius asked as they stood around his bed.

"I'll live," he replied dryly. "Dumbledore was right."

"About everything?" inquired Raven.

"Pretty much, but the Healers were able to identify traces of the potion they used in me and they're analyzing it at the Ministry. Hopefully they can come up with something to counteract it."

"That's great!" called Sirius. "Worked out fine then, didn't it?" Raven could tell he was trying to be overly positive to keep Remus from worrying too much about what could have happened. "Voldemort expected you to bite us quickly and then lose consciousness and not remember anything when you woke up. But now – if they can find an antidote, that is – we'll be more prepared if he tries to use it again."

"I know…" said Remus, softly, "but I still could have—"

"But you didn't, Remus," interrupted Raven. "You didn't. You're fine; we're fine; get over it. Stop looking so ashamed of yourself, okay?"

He cracked a small smile at this until he realized that Jordan had remained silent this whole time. "…Jordi? I'm…I'm really sorry. I know I should have told you… I didn't want you to find out like this, but… I don't know, I just…"

Jordan sat on the side of his bed, smirking. "I agree with Raven and Black. Shut up already and quit apologizing for something that wasn't even your fault." She kissed him.

Sirius and Raven quickly gave each other an eye roll. "Right, well…we'll just go…yeah…" stammered Raven, tugging on Sirius's sleeve and exiting the room.

Sirius followed Raven down the hall until they heard a voice behind them.

"Merlin's beard! That can't be Padfoot with Miss Raven Ashe."

Sirius grinned widely and then turned around to greet his best friend, James, and a very pregnant Lily Potter. "Yes, Prongs," he spread both of his arms out to his side as if to showcase Raven, "the one and only."

Raven had turned also and smiled her most annoyingly sweet smile at James. "Potter."

He grinned charmingly in return. "I guess I underestimated your skills, Sirius. I never thought you could get Ashe after that stunt you pulled at the end of the year."

"Neither did I," Lily agreed. "I thought Raven had much more sense than that."

"I do, actually," said Raven. "We are not together."

Sirius sighed. "Yes, Prongs, I cannot tell a lie or Ashe will most definitely maim me. As always, she'll have none of me."

"Good girl," teased Lily again.

Sirius grinned. "James, keep your woman under control; she's severely bruising my ego."

They all laughed. "Well, she bruises mine all the time, Padfoot. That's why I married her," said James, kissing his wife tenderly on the cheek.

"Oh Jesus." Sirius looked away as though they were doing something offensive.

Raven and Lily both giggled again. "So, how's the baby?"

"He's doing great," Lily beamed. "We were just here for my eight month check-up when we heard about Remus. He's okay, though?"

Raven turned to smirk at Sirius, who answered. "I think he's a little more than okay right now, actually. Ashe's friend, Jordan, came with us, if you catch my drift."

James let out a howl. "Ooh, Moony's got a girl!"

"Really?" Lily asked excitedly. "Oh, that's so cute."

"Wow, I never thought Remus would have a girl before Sirius," James remarked.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked her husband. "Sirius has had plenty of girls."

"Yeah, but not a serious girl. Most of those were just…"

"Practice?" suggested Raven.

"…That's putting it innocently," answered James.

Raven looked to Sirius questioningly. "You're not going to dispute this?"

Sirius shrugged. "It was true, but it's not anymore."

"Yeah, Sirius hasn't had a girlfriend in quite a while, have you, Padfoot?" asked James, smirking.

"Oh, shut up, James," responded Sirius.

"Hey, it's true," he went on anyway. "Perhaps he's been tainted by the one and only woman who's ever turned him down." He looked in Raven's direction as Sirius rolled his eyes.

"What, you mean me?" asked Raven. "I can't be the only one; he's probably just not telling you about the others, Potter. And anyway, I'm not trying to make history here."

"Then what are you doing, Raven?" asked Lily, "Because you are here with him."

"I'm not here with him, like I said before. I mean, I'm here for Remus, who has been my friend since I started Hogwarts." Raven added, in an attempt to change the topic, "And speaking of Remus, aren't you guys here to see him? Come on, we'll show you his room. Hopefully, he and Jordan have finished their snog session by now."

"Yeah, let's hope so," said Lily, looking to James to follow them.

"You go ahead, Lil. I need to talk to Padfoot for a second," he said, kissing her cheek again.

She smiled and then followed Raven to Remus's room, saying and gesturing behind her at the two best friends, "I honestly think they're having an affair."

Raven giggled as the two of them disappeared into Remus's room.

"So what the hell happened?" James asked. "We just got a message that he was here, but that he's okay?"

Sirius launched into an explanation of everything that happened in the park and everything Dumbledore had said to them. As soon as he'd finished, he had to start all over again because Peter had come wandering down the hall looking for Remus's room as well.

"That doesn't make any sense, Sirius," commented Peter, once he was given the explanation, too. "Why wouldn't he attack her? If he didn't attack Ashe then that means she isn't human. If she's not human, then what on earth is she?"

"She's human, Wormtail," Sirius answered.

"Then Remus would have attacked her."

"Not necessarily," said James, slowly. "Sirius, have you ever heard of a werewolf having a mate?"

Sirius laughed. "Oh, don't even go there. You're just trying to get me to stay away from her like everyone else these days."

"Wait, Prongs, what are you talking about?" Peter asked.

"Well, supposedly every werewolf has a human mate somewhere in the world. Most of them never find their mate, but if they ever come into contact with them, the wolf somehow instantly knows it. So like if Ashe is Moony's mate, he would know it, and he wouldn't want to hurt her," James explained.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "But then why was he in there snogging her best friend a few seconds ago?"

"Because the wolf's mate isn't necessarily the same for the human. Remus may like Jordan, but the wolf's mate can still be Ashe. It's actually very rare that the wolf's mate and the human's mate are the same person."

"Then wouldn't he want to turn her so they can both be werewolves together?" asked Peter, scratching his head.

"Well, yeah, probably, but he doesn't want to piss her off. She's his mate, the only one who can control him. If she doesn't want him to turn her, then he probably wouldn't do it. It also depends what kind of wolf he is. If Remus's wolf is an alpha, he's more controlling, and he probably would turn her even if she told him not to. Or maybe it's because Remus likes Jordan that he doesn't want the wolf to turn Ashe."

Peter was staring at James, eating up every word. "Whoa, Prongs, how do you know all this?"

"I wasn't Head Boy for nothing, Wormtail," James answered. "Remus said Ashe wasn't a werewolf, so what other explanation is there?"

Sirius couldn't help himself from thinking what that would mean for him. If Raven was the wolf's mate, could she still date him? Werewolves were known to be extremely protective of their mates. Maybe that was why she had always adamantly refused to go out with him.

"…Black?" Raven was staring at him through furrowed brows. "Did you hear anything I just said?"

Sirius shook his head to clear it and looked around him. The hallway was now devoid of his other best friends. The only other person present was Raven, who had clearly come out to get the lot of them. "What? I'm sorry…I was…thinking."

"New concept for you, huh?" she teased, and then repeated. "The Healer said Remus needs to rest now. Do you want to come in and say goodbye?"

"Oh. Yes."

She held the door open for him and followed after him. "He was thinking," she explained to the others when they had both stepped back inside."

Remus laughed. "Never a good sign."

A/N: No, I still haven't given you a clear answer. Aren't I a stinker? Wouldn't you just like to tell me off? Click that little button that says "Review" and you can do just that! Oh come on then, you know you want to swear at me. I think I'd find it rather amusing, actually. I'll even egg you on a bit: "I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" There, that should do it, yes? I thought so. That was from Monty Python, by the way. Thanks for reading!

Luv, Liveley

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