Messr-Paddifoots-love: Glad to hear it. Yeah, about Sirius...did someone say stubborn? Now, this time I updated fast, didn't I?
wendela400: Thanks! Here's the update.
darklady5289: Wow, such a wonderful review. Make my day ;) I did my best, so I hope this wasn't too bloody long LOL.
PotentialTempest: short and to the point. Thanks a lot!
hpandfriendsruletheworld: Yay! I'm flattered. I hope you like the chapter, although it is - again - a bit Sirius-less. But you know what they say...absence makes the heart grow fonder ;)
Kurama-forever: I'm very glad you liked it. Thanks for reviewing and here's the update.
DollFace080: Sorry. Blame my teachers ;) I know I do LOL. "Creature from the Black Lagoon" omg that was so funny. And very accurate :D
SexeiAlexeiGurl: I'm afraid you'll have to bear with me a bit longer. Sirius will pop up again eventually. He's just doing his angry-boyfriend-thing... I'm a third-year. Is that junior? Here it's just 'derdejaars': a third-year. If your teachers have half the sadism that mine have, you'll be swamped sometime soon, I guess. Teachers are evil!
Interlude: Christmas at 12, Grimmauld Place
"What?" Molly exclaimed. "Are you lot still in here? Get downstairs, Tonks will be here any moment!"
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Carden, and Lupin were sitting in the recently cleaned drawing room. At the sight of Molly, they all jumped up as they had been enthralled by Carden's story.
"Sorry, Molly," Carden smiled. "We'll be right there." She looked at the young wizards. "I'll tell the rest later."
"Hurry, hurry," Molly said and shooed them all out of the room. Lupin and Carden lingered a bit and walked downstairs last.
"How do you think Harry is taking it?" Remus asked. He had walked in on them only five minutes after Niamh had begun her story. Niamh shrugged. "I'm not sure. I've told him everything." She grinned. "With the exception of some of the finer details I don't think a godson needs to know about his godfather."
Remus snorted loudly and Niamh laughed.
It turned out Tonks was already in the kitchen, with Charlie fussing over her and Fred and George grinning madly at the sight. Tonks's hair was a deep crimson shade of red. George commented it was the colour of love and inquired when he would become an uncle. Charlie threw him a threatening glare at which he only chuckled.
"Sit, sit, everyone," Molly commanded. "It's time for dinner." The magic word had been said and George sat down and shut up immediately.
Niamh looked around the large table, occupied by all the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Fleur, Tonks, and Remus, and smiled. She caught Harry's gaze and sighed in relief when he smiled back. Remus noticed the exchange between the two and smiled too.
Loud chatting and laughter filled the kitchen, now not as gloomy as usual thanks to the numerous candles that had been lit all over the place. Niamh enjoyed the warm atmosphere in silence. Remus watched the faint smile on her face. Her face glowed in the soft light and the flames from the candles were reflected in her dark blue eyes. Though time had left some traces on her face, her appearance was a world away from the last time he had seen her.
It was a memory he would never lose. Haunted eyes, almost too large for her face, gaunt, jumpy, scars still flaming red. Remus blinked and took a sip of his wine. He was drawn into the conversation by Ginny and soon the image of the twenty-one-year-old Niamh was at the back of his head again.
He should have been here, Harry thought. He couldn't get rid of the feeling that his godfather should be here. If only she had come back sooner -- then maybe he wouldn't have run off to the Ministry, maybe Bellatrix wouldn't have hit him…
"Don't," Hermione said softly. In surprise, Harry looked at her. "I know what you're thinking," she continued. "I've been thinking the same thing, but it wouldn't have made a difference. He would have gone to the Ministry anyway."
"I know," Harry admitted, "but then at least he wouldn't have been alone in this house all year. He would have had his -- his -- her with him."
Hermione gave him a slightly incredulous look. "You think they would have just kissed and made up? I'm not sure it would have been that easy. I don't know what happened to them, but it separated them for fifteen years. There's obviously some reason."
"Yeah, well, maybe, but she's thinking the same thing as me," Harry said, looking at Carden. Hermione followed his gaze. Carden leaned her chin in her hand and looked across the room with a distant look in her eyes. The smile that had been present earlier had vanished.
Lupin leaned closer to her and said something. She jumped up and gave Lupin a rueful smile. Ginny whispered, "Do you think there's something going on between them?"
"Er… no, Ginny, I really don't think so," Harry said. Ginny frowned at the strange note to his voice.
Ron looked past Harry to give his sister a weird look. "Bloody hell," he muttered. "I'm still getting over the fact that my Defence Against the Dark Arts professor is -- you know, and that she was friends with Malfoy's mother. I really don't want to think about possible 'going on's between her and an ex-professor." Ron shuddered. "But the Malfoy part is the worst, I have to say."
"I agree," Harry grinned. "That's scary."
Sniggering they went back to their dinner. The rest of the evening was spent in pleasant drowsiness. Fred and George sang some Christmas songs – loudly and off-key. Mr. Weasley and Lupin engaged in a game of wizard's chess, supported by Harry and Ron. Hermione and Ginny spent the evening chatting with Tonks, Charlie and Mrs. Weasley. Carden and Fleur were speaking in French to each other at an alarming speed.
Though it was very late when everyone had gone to bed, Niamh found herself staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep as she was being flooded with memories.
The next morning Mrs. Black started screeching and howling when someone rang the doorbell. Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the kitchen having breakfast with Ginny, Lupin and Mr. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley hurried off to get the door.
Several minutes later the hallway had gone quiet again and Mundungus Fletcher sauntered into the kitchen. "Go' a repor' for Dumbledore," he said.
"Hi, Dung," Ron said. Mundungus waved absently, sniffing the air. "Wha's tha' you cookin', Molly? Smells good."
"Would you like some breakfast, Mundungus?" Molly said with tight lips, clearly disapproving of Mundungus's presence.
"Tha'd be grea'," Mundungus said. Molly placed a plate with porridge in front of him and he began shovelling the food in his mouth, only to choke violently on it when three people entered the kitchen.
Fred and George stared at Mundungus, at a loss. "We're not that scary, Dung," Fred said, slightly indignant. Carden, who had entered the kitchen with the twins, looked at Mundungus with amusement twinkling in her eyes. "Still pursuing the same career then, I see, Dung?" she said.
Mundungus took a deep breath, grabbed Ron's water goblet to take a swig and swallowed with difficulty. "Well, I'll be damned," he choked. "Sirius's little serpent."
Several more people choked on their food and Carden gave Lupin a regretful look when several questions were fired her way. "So much for keeping it down."
"What do you mean: Sirius's?"
"Are you related to him?"
"Well, yes, that too," Carden said.
"What else?" Fred demanded.
"She and Sirius were together. She's my godmother," Harry said, smiling.
Carden was cornered by four students, instead of three, that afternoon.
"She wanted…" Harry stuttered at Carden's raised eyebrow. "I thought…"
Ginny eyed her professor hopefully.
"I don't mind," Carden smiled. "Shall we go into the parlour room again?"
They made themselves comfortable in various armchairs. Carden asked, "Did Harry tell you everything?"
"Yes," Ginny affirmed.
"Well," Carden began, "after Professor Morton left, that was it. I was back. Of course, the roof of the manor nearly blew up when my father came home, but in the mean time I had told my brother and fiancé enthusiastically about my plans for a career in the publishing world, so that, by the time my father was to be informed, Rowan, and Evan tried to convince him not to lock me in the attic for the next twenty years."
Ron sniggered. "Maybe your father is related to my mother. She has the same habit."
Carden chuckled. "I believe they are actually. Distant cousin, I think."
"Speaking of family," Ginny said softly. "You knew my uncles? Gideon and Fabian?"
"Yes, I did."
"Mum hardly ever speaks of them," Ron mumbled.
"It was an immense blow to her," Carden said, "to all of us." In a lighter voice she continued, "Your brothers are uncannily like them. They always knew how to brighten things up." She grinned and shook her head. "I remember, one time they voted for deposing Dumbledore and dub the Order "the Order of the Redheads."
They burst out laughing. "That does sound like something George and Fred would do," Ginny laughed.
"Yes. Of course, Sirius and James went along with it immediately. They charmed their hair. Merlin, it turned the most ugly shade of red I have ever seen," Carden mused. "Lily would not let James get near her for a week."
Harry smiled at the stories about his parents and godfather. Carden snorted. "Even Sirius didn't manage to look good with hair like that."
"No one would look good with hair like that," Lupin added, entering the room. "Pity they had charmed half the Order into redheads before they found that out."
Imagining McGonagall with red hair, Harry roared with laughter.
"So what happened next?" Hermione asked eagerly.
Carden sighed. "Well, for the next couple of weeks I was completely occupied with finding a place to live. The name Carden came in handy and I found a spacious apartment close to Diagon Alley. I was quite pleased with it – a large living room, two bedrooms, lovely bathroom…" Her eyes twinkled. "The kitchen was quite intimidating, I have to say. Now, you must understand, I had not been in a kitchen very often in my life and I decided cooking was an adventure that could wait."
"Typical," Lupin said. "Sirius couldn't cook to save his life either. Completely spoilt."
Carden glowered at him and continued as if he hadn't interrupted, "I also found a job at Baldric & Barnaby's, a publisher in history books. I was genuinely thrilled about this – it was exactly the job I had always wanted – and didn't stop talking about it, until Rowan, Lana, and Remus, independently of each other, threatened to silence me permanently."
"Yes, I remember that. You were quite annoying," Lupin mused. "Must be difficult, giving up a habit like that. Still trying?"
"Please, Remus, be quiet or go and do something useful. I'm trying to tell a story here. So…" she said loudly, raising her voice over the sniggering in the room.
"Wait," Hermione intervened. "What did Lana think when you went back to Evan?"
"Lana? Oh, she raved for two weeks about me and Sirius not getting back together. Keeping one of Moody's favourite comments in mind: "the less you know, the less can be tortured out of you", I had told her that her plan hadn't worked out, because there were too many differences between Sirius and me and that we had decided to leave it at this."
"She believed that?" Hermione asked surprised.
"No," Carden said dryly. "She went straight to Sirius, but apparently he had told her the same. As did Remus here. So she had no choice but to believe it. Of course, being the person that she was, at the end of those two weeks she decided none of it could possibly be the fault of her best friend, so she proclaimed Sirius the utter scoundrel of England and devoted all her attention to the decoration of my newly acquired apartment."
Harry let out a chuckle.
"Lana was many things," Carden said with a faint smile, that turned into an indulgent grin, "but above all things, she was practical and had a way of seeing a benefit in everything. Though she was deeply disappointed that she hadn't succeeded with her little intrigue, it did not stop her from commenting on the turn my life had taken. She was pleased with my gained independence and, with pragmatic reasoning, she told me to look on the bright side of it. At least my fiancé was a 'bloody sexy man' and I would not have to fear for my love life."
Hermione and Ginny squealed in amusement, whereas Ron and Harry looked slightly disturbed.
Raising a finely shaped eyebrow, Carden added, "I politely invited her to having an affair with my 'bloody sexy' fiancé. After several seconds of contemplating my offer she declined."
After the laughter had quieted down, Harry asked, "Wasn't there a lot of gossip about the postponed wedding?"
"Oh, there was," Carden answered, rolling her eyes, "but you underestimate my mother. Her social skills were unrivalled and she managed to turn the story in her favour. After all, I lived in a classy apartment, I had a respectable job and, most importantly, I was still engaged. Besides the wedding and the novelty of a witch living on her own, nothing really scandalous had happened."
"I don't understand," Ginny interjected. "Why was it such a problem that you wanted to live on your own? Everybody does it."
"I know, but this was twenty years earlier and it was not done amongst the oldest and most traditional families. You live at home, in the manor, until you marry. That was the way it had been for centuries. It caused quite a stir among the most traditional wizards, although the other families were not as bothered with it."
"I can't help but think," Hermione began slowly, "that you wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble if you had known earlier about your mother and professor Morton."
"Yes," Carden said. "I've thought that myself many times. If I had known earlier, I would've had something to counter her threats with. I would never have engaged myself to Evan. But, I would've run away with Sirius then and my father would have been after us anyway."
"And you wouldn't have been able to become a spy then," Hermione added thoughtfully.
"Indeed," Niamh agreed. "I would've been openly considered a blood traitor. Looking back on it, it was the perfect opportunity to place a spy. Dumbledore would've been a fool not to take it. All we had to do was ensure my mother would tell no one about Sirius."
"Do you really think there was something between Morton and your mother?" Ginny asked.
"I still don't know." With a shudder she said, "I've never asked. There are some things you just don't want to know about your mother and your Head of House. But I think that there had been something, but that it was over long before I found out."
"Brilliant," Ron interrupted, "but why you? You were only eighteen. Turning spy is very dangerous. Why would Dumbledore risk something like that? Why not Morton?"
"Morton was already a spy," Niamh answered. "He… er… was not entirely human."
"What was he then?" Ron asked curiously.
"A vampire."
There was a collective gasp. "But that made him incredibly dangerous to the students," Hermione exclaimed in horror.
"Not exactly," Carden said. "Someone who's been bitten by a vampire does not turn completely into a vampire himself unless he's drunk human blood. Morton was bitten only a few years earlier, when he was already Head of Slytherin and Dumbledore's swift actions prevented a lot of damage. Sunlight did not cause him pain and he could survive on non-human blood.
"He infiltrated the vampire community. Voldemort used them, but they were nowhere near as close as his Death Eaters. They needed someone else. And yes, Ron, I was only eighteen, but you have to understand that the wizarding world was in a full-fledged war situation and the Order and the Ministry were being overpowered by Voldemort."
Carden's face had turned grave now. "Dumbledore risked not only his own life; he had no choice but to ask others to risk theirs as well. And it was not as dangerous as it seemed. I knew perfectly well how to behave in those circles. I had the right family, the right attitude, and I was certainly well capable of defending myself. You don't spend eighteen years in a family that descends directly from the most Dark wizards of the Dark Ages without picking up a few useful curses."
"Unforgivables?" Ginny breathed, taken aback by the hard gleam that had appeared in Carden's eyes.
"There are a whole lot more curses out there than the Unforgivables, Ginny," Carden said, her face softening again. "The Unforgivables land you in Azkaban for a lifetime, but there are many more Dark curses."
"You would use them?" Harry asked.
"To defend myself from Death Eaters? Yes, I would."
They were silent for a while. Then Ron said, in an attempt to break the awkwardness, "Well, I suppose if you would use it on Malfoy, I can't be bothered too much with it."
"RON!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Did you really date Lucius Malfoy?" Ginny asked, ignoring the bickering that had once again begun between her brother and Hermione.
Carden nodded.
"That's disturbing," Harry said. Carden chuckled at his horrified face.
"Actually", Ginny said, "I suppose if you look past the sneer, the condescending attitude, the thickheadedness, and the arrogance, Draco is not that bad either."
Eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, Ron jerked his head towards his sister. "You did not just say that! You did not just say that you're attracted to that ferret."
"Oh, Ron, grow up. I'm not attracted to him. You think I can't see past his looks?"
Ron deflated a bit.
Carden chuckled again. "What Draco will do, we'll have to wait and see. I'm not so sure he's exactly like his father." She paused for a moment. "Lucius holds an amount of cruelty and ruthlessness that not many do. And even less people have the ability to hide it behind their looks and appearance like he does. I've known him all my life and even I was shocked when -- when I found out what he was capable of." Her face darkened for a moment and Harry noticed the flash of pain in her eyes. She blinked and it was gone, but seeing Remus's worried expression he knew he hadn't imagined it.
Carden continued, "Many people think Lucius is a devoted servant to Voldemort, but he only serves himself and his own interests."
"He won't be serving anyone now," Ron said with satisfaction. "He's in Azkaban."
"The Dementors will soon join Voldemort," Carden replied without a trace of doubt in her voice. "He'll be out before long. I'm looking forward to it."
Seeing Carden's eyes narrow into something disturbingly vengeful for a fleeting moment, Harry was not surprised when Lupin tried to change the subject. "Where were we again?" he asked lightly.
"Er… well," Carden blinked, "I moved into my apartment and began my new job. Despite my name, Cecil Barnaby and Quintin Baldric cut me no slack and made me work hard, to my delight. I quickly came to realise my work was the only place I could take my mind of the Order and the Death Eaters.
"Being a Carden meant that I was, by nature, a spoilt little brat that hadn't done a hard day's work in her life and it took me weeks to adjust to my new life. My work, the Occlumency lessons, the constant stress of coaxing Evan and Rowan into telling me about Death Eater's affairs, and Sirius's glowering looks at Order meetings exhausted me."
"What did he do?" Harry asked.
"The first few meetings I was present at," Carden answered, "Sirius wasn't even there, both to my relief and disappointment. I missed him terribly. He couldn't avoid me for long though, and our encounters were awkward, but short. He could barely even say hello to me. He was furious and hurt, which in turn incensed me because of the guilt he made me feel. After a while we had got ourselves so angry at each other the Order meetings turned into a very hostile affair."
"How did you go about infiltrating?" Hermione asked.
"Evan's own career in his family's business and his activities as a Death Eater prevented him from spending a lot of time with me, giving me enough opportunities to practise Occlumency. Under Dumbledore, Morton, and Moody's tutelage I advanced rapidly and soon learned to concentrate on particular – harmless – memories to feed a Legilimens, so he could not get to the compromising ones.
"I was still no match for Dumbledore, but he did seem very content with the improvement I was making. I practised every spare moment I had, knowing that my life depended on it.
"The few times I did see Evan we talked about the attacks and the progression Voldemort was making. By the time it was November I had not only let Rowan in on my wishes to become a Death Eater, I had also informed my cousins Rodolphus and Rabastan.
"It was at my brother's wedding when things began to gain momentum."
Author's note: Sort of an explanatory chapter. I hope it doesn't break the actual story too much apart, but I felt there were a lot of things to explain, so I decided to do it like this. Let me know what you think.
