"What happened?"
Adrienne heard James's hushed voice above her somewhere, but kept her eyes shut and her breathing regular as she heard Sirius's equally quiet though extremely bitter reply: "Malfoy used the Cruciatus Curse on her, what do you think happened?" That confirmed that what she remembered was not just a nightmare as she had hoped for a moment. Still not wanting to have to explain what was truly wrong, she continued to fain sleep, fighting back the tears that would betray her consciousness.
"Er—Sirius..." she heard Remus whisper tentatively, "not to belittle that, but...well it's not the first time he's done that to her, and she didn't have nearly that strong of a reaction last time..."
"Plus she started acting weird before that," James put in.
"I guess you're right," Sirius admitted. "She just kind of stopped moving and stared at your Deatheater."
"I'm telling you guys, there was something weird about that guy..." James was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.
"That's probably Dumbledore," Sirius said. "He sent word he'd be dropping by. He wants to 'speak' with us."
"Meaning tell us off for being 'irresponsible,' and probably for blowing off the Ministry while he's at it," James groaned.
"He's one to talk about that—" Sirius began, irritated.
"Perhaps someone should let him in?" Remus interjected lightly, trying to stave off any annoyance with Dumbledore until they at least had a reason for it.
"K, Moony, since you suggested it, you can do it," Sirius answered. "I need to wake up Adrienne, and James you should probably send off an owl to Lily saying we're all ok, just in case something about the attack gets back to her; we don't need her worrying needlessly. I'll come down with Adrienne in a few minutes." Adrienne heard two sets of footsteps walk softly away just as the doorbell sounded a second time, increasing the pace of one set. Sirius just looked at Adrienne's face for a moment before leaning down to "wake" her with a light kiss on the lips. As Adrienne made her eyelids flutter open, he smiled down at her. She wished she could stay forever lost in his beautiful gray eyes, with their depth that had caused so many girls to fall for him at Hogwarts. She was still wrapped in his arms as she had been before she fell asleep; he must have lain there holding her the entire time she slept, fearful of waking her. She focused on the feel of his arms. She could feel the strength contained within them as he pressed her to him. In those arms, she felt as though nothing could harm her. Even the terribleness of the betrayal that had been sprung on her seemed diminished by the pressure of his arms on hers. "Are you feeling any better?" he asked gently. She nodded the lie. "Dumbledore's downstairs with James and Remus, we should go see them." As he got up, the sense of total safety evaporated. Desperately needing the reassurance of physical contact with him, she hooked her right pinky finger in his left. Even that minimal contact would keep her from breaking down; she could focus on the feel of his skin and ignore at least for a while the fact gnawing at her mind.
She followed Sirius downstairs to the living room to see Remus sitting in awkward silence alone with Dumbledore. The old man looked like he normally did these days: like he hadn't slept in weeks. The man ran himself ragged in his attempts to counter Voldemort. There were deep shadows under his eyes, and his whole face seemed strained. Even the way he held himself while sitting in the armchair betrayed the fact that he had lost much of the energy she remembered in him from her early years in Hogwarts. As she and Sirius reached the bottom of the staircase, James appeared in the doorway from the kitchen and shot the couple a grimace from behind Dumbledore's back. He took the remaining armchair, leaving the couch to Adrienne and Sirius.
No one spoke for what seemed like ages to Adrienne. She didn't like that; it left her alone with her thoughts. It made her want to be in her love's arms again, but she couldn't even bring herself to hold his hand in the present company. They had only been out of school a few months, and the discomfort with even such a minuscule display of affection in front of their former headmaster had not yet faded. Finally, Dumbledore said in a very controlled voice, "Lily and Peter weren't with you, were they?" Adrienne sensed Sirius tense next to her, obviously taking Dumbledore's tone to be hiding anger. Peering at the eyes behind the half-moon glasses, Adrienne realized that the man who many believed (or perhaps more hoped) to be made of stone, the world's best hope against Voldemort, was in fact trying to mask the concern he must have felt when he first heard they had been attacked.
"No," she heard Remus say, "Lily's ill and Peter had other things to attend to."
"What were you even doing at a Muggle playground?" he asked in the same constricted voice.
Again it was Remus who answered. "There really wasn't any particular reason...We were bored, we wanted to get out for once, and a Muggle area seemed like a safer idea than a predominantly wizard one."
"How many times have I asked you all not to be out unnecessarily after dark? You're members of the Order, you ought to know better than that."
Finally it appeared Sirius could contain himself no longer. "Oh, so you want us to just sit and do nothing all the time," he burst out angrily. "Unless, of course, you want us to risk our necks! Then suddenly it's ok for us to be in danger, it's ok if we get in a fight with Deatheaters, ok for someone to use an Unforgivable Curse on Adrienne, just as long as it's convenient for you!"
"Do you think I enjoy asking you all to put your lives on the line?" Dumbledore threw back sharply. "You knew what you were getting into when you joined the Order, or at least you claimed you did. You begged me to let you help, to be able to do something to stop Voldemort. No one asked you to join. In fact, I had many misgivings about letting young people fresh out of school become so involved, and now I wonder if I did make the right decision after all."
Adrienne laid a restraining hand on Sirius's shoulder to warn him against rising. She didn't have room for any emotion except sorrow at the moment and hadn't managed to become angry herself. James was riled up now though, judging by the look on his face as he opened his mouth to continue where Sirius had left off. Whatever retort he had in mind, Remus, always the one to try to defuse a situation, headed him off by saying, "What we mean, Albus," he used the word purposely, reminding Dumbledore that they were no longer in school, "is that it feels like we hardly ever get out anymore, especially outdoors, and we just needed a night to relax and blow off some steam. I'll admit that it may have been a tad irresponsible, but who could have guessed five Deatheaters would have been at that same playground at the same time as us?"
Dumbledore appeared to have regained control of himself. "That was too coincidental for my liking as well," he said with his customary calm. Seeing he was done lecturing for the time being, both James and Sirius visibly relaxed. "I gather you were not too cooperative with the Ministry—"
"Only because they weren't interested in cooperation," James interjected bitterly. "I've never seen people trying to 'help' act so belligerently. You would've thought we were the ones who attacked people!"
Dumbledore maintained his calm tone as this was something he agreed with them on. "I know how the Ministry is, I understand. But remember, their job is to maintain order. Unfortunately, they have a tendency to view anything outside their control as a threat to whatever stability they have fooled themselves into believing still exists, even if it is an effort itself to right the world. However, we don't need to antagonize them by leaving without talking to them at all." Here he gave a significant look towards Sirius and Adrienne. "That could have contributed somewhat to their unwillingness to cooperate."
"When telling you we left," Sirius said quietly, "did they happen to mention Adrienne had just been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse? That she was sobbing hysterically? I doubt questioning her at that moment would have proved useful to the Ministry."
Adrienne had been staring at her knees since Sirius had started talking, suddenly ashamed of breaking down like that. She felt Dumbledore's gaze but couldn't make herself meet those eyes. "Are you going to be alright?" she heard him ask. She didn't know how to respond and continued to sit there mutely.
"Adrienne?" Sirius took her hands in both of his, and she lifted her eyes to meet his, seeing two wells of concern. "Hunny, did you hear Dumbledore's question?" She nodded. "Are you going to be ok?" She nodded again. Sirius still looked concerned but was satisfied for the time being. She refused to look at anyone else and returned her gaze to her lap, though she didn't let go of Sirius's hands.
"Dumbledore," James said suddenly, "did they tell you the name of the Deatheater who was left behind?"
"Yes, it was McNulty. We had suspected him of course, but were never sure. Speaking of which, did any of them identify themselves?"
"Malfoy," Sirius said shortly.
"Lucius?" Dumbledore said. "Be careful with saying that, Sirius, his family's very powerful, as you well know, and if he wasn't actually there..."
"He was. It was him who cursed Adrienne." Adrienne nodded her agreement. Sirius continued, "He has it out for her. This is the second time he's used Crucio on her, and he's gone after her many other times, including using Imperio too."
"Did you see his face?" Dumbledore was obviously directing the question towards Adrienne, but Sirius once again answered for her.
"No, they were all very good at keeping their masks on."
Dumbledore sighed. "Is he the only one?"
Adrienne had to say something. As much as she didn't want to admit the horrible truth to herself, let alone anyone else, she couldn't withhold that kind of information; it was so hard to gather information about their enemy that even the tiniest bit of information could prove vital. And this wasn't exactly tiny. She opened her mouth, but at first no sound came out. Closing her mouth, she screwed up her nerve and forced out "Sev." it came out as only a whisper, but apparently Sirius at least heard that she said something. He looked at her curiously and she repeated a bit louder "Sev—" she swallowed, "Severus Snape."
There was a moment of absolute silence while all of them stared at her. Dumbledore looked completely shocked as he asked her, "How do you know?"
"His voice." Her own voice shook as she said it. As Sirius put his arm around her shoulders, she pushed away the pain, the sadness, refused to let herself feel anything at all. "He was the one fighting James," she continued in her now perfectly steady voice. "I think that's why you were having so much trouble with him, he knows your fighting style. He hates you, we all know that, which is why his attacks got so frenzied; he got to the point where he obviously forgot whatever they were supposed to be doing and just wanted to hurt you. I wouldn't have been able to put those pieces together on my own of course if he hadn't slipped and said something out loud. And even if the voice hadn't been enough, the fact that it was Sectumsempra definitely would have given it away. He invented that curse. I remember when he first told me about it," she knew she was rambling now but didn't care; the continuing speech was helping her keep away emotion, "right after Malfoy tried to—hurt—" she still couldn't call it what it really was, not out loud, "me, Sev told me that if he ever tried again that I should use that curse on him and he wouldn't bother me anymore, so I made him tell me what it did," she shuddered as once again she visualized what it had been meant to do to James," and he did, and it's horrible and it was definitely him, I know his voice, you know I do, and I swear to you," as she finished the floodgates of her eyes broke even as she maintained that same calm voice, "Severus Snape is a Deatheater."
