There were chills crawling through my entire body. Gabriel's words were not registering with my mind. I heard him, but I didn't comprehend what he was saying at all. Just like years ago when he had caught me on the street, as my house burst into flames behind us, and he was telling me that Sirius was responsible for the Potters death; I didn't believe it…just like I didn't believe it now.

I shook my head and stepped away from the bed, going back to the window and staring out of it. I gripped the windowsill, trying very hard to stay calm. Looking out it, I saw the beautiful city of London outside. The sun was shining down and reflecting off the snow covered ground, making the city look bright and welcoming. It seemed ironic to me that the world looked so beautiful, so happy, when I was falling to pieces—again. Everything had been wrong; what was I going to tell Carrigan? I didn't want her to hate her Father, it was just easier to hate him when he was a lying, betraying, murdering, Death Eater—now that wasn't true?

Biting my bottom lip, I turned and crossed my arms over my chest as I looked at Gabriel on the bed. He had gotten out of the bed by now and was putting a shirt on to cover his well chiseled chest.

"He could still be a Death Eater," I said.

"You know in your heart that's not possible," Divinity said. I turned, facing her with an ugly look. My eyes were covered with ice as I glared at her mismatched pair, wanting desperately for her to shut up. For the first time in years, the room began to shake with my frustration. Divinity flashed her eyes at me, threatening me for not controlling my powers. I felt Gabriel's hands on my shoulders, squeezing them gently to help me relax. I pulled out of his grasp and turned to him.

"You take her back to Hogwarts," I said.

"Where are you going?" he questioned as I buttoned my cloak over my torso.

"To find Sirius," I said.

"Didn't you hear me say you can't go after him?" Divinity snipped. "You have to let his story unfold with out your interference. If you catch him then Grandpapa will surely return."

I grabbed Divinity's arm and pinned her sharply against the ward wall. She left out a soft scream of surprise, which caused the other tenants of the room to grow quiet.

"What makes you think I trust you?" I hissed. "You told me yourself you're not on our side. If you don't trust your parents that means you're finally catching on that you shouldn't trust anyone—it doesn't mean you're not still for dear old Voldy. How do I know that you're not setting into motion some ridiculous plan to help bring him back? I don't think you want me to catch Sirius because he is a Death Eater and his return to Voldemort's side will bring him back—"

"Cadence, I saw it," Gabriel interjected with a stern voice. "Sirius is innocent."

I didn't look at him. I only kept my eyes on the niece that I had been fighting so hard for. I had hoped we hadn't lost her—that she was savable; but something happened that day as I brought her from Hogwarts that changed my perspective on Divinity Jasper. When she told me she was still against us, I believed her.

How did I know that she wasn't responsible for helping Voldemort return? After all, that is why he kidnapped her. She was being used to ensure that he survived, at any cost. If she didn't want me to catch Sirius Black it wasn't because he was innocent; and it wasn't because she thought I should be looking for the real follower of Voldemort; if I didn't go after Sirius, if I let things play out with out interfering he could be helping my Father's follower return to his side—whoever that follower maybe, whether it was Sirius or someone else. I had to interfere—because Divinity was so adamant that I not.

"You're a fool," Divinity hissed as she grabbed at my arms. I released her and gave Gabriel a sharp look, then left the ward. I was marching down the stairs, heading for the lobby when Gabriel caught up to me.

"Cadence," he said grabbing my arm and stopping me on the second floor landing.

"Where is Divinity?" I questioned. "You can't just leave her alone—"

"She's coming," he said in a calm voice. "What are you going to do?"

"I told you," I said irritably. "I'm going to find Sirius Black—"

"And do what?"

"Talk," I shrugged.

"Really? You're going to find him now, after we've been searching for him for months, and just talk to him? You're in a horrid temper and he usually raises yours—"

"If he's innocent, like you're suddenly insisting he is, then all will be well," I shrugged. "I really have no reason to catch him or kill him."

Gabriel frowned as I pulled my arm from his grasp. I heard a door open in the stairwell above us and sure enough Divinity's ghostly figure descended the stairs.

"I'll be careful," I said reading the desperate look in Gabriel's eyes. "If all of this is true, and Sirius is innocent and not a Death Eater then he's not a threat." I turned and descended the rest of the stairs quickly, leaving Gabriel and Divinity in the stairwell. As soon as I was in the first floor corridor I Apparated to avoid him coming to stop me again.

I appeared in my study at my country home, a place I had not been for sometime. I tore my cloak off and sat down in my arm chair, thinking how I was going to find Sirius. He and I did not share the same kind of connection as Gabriel and me. When I had been in trouble Gabriel always found me because of some sort of connection we shared. I didn't have that now; I was going to have to think through this mess.

Before I could even start thinking there was a sharp tap on the window of my study. I turned in my chair to see a school owl from Hogwarts sitting on my windowsill. I sighed and stood up, praying that Carrigan hadn't gotten into some kind of trouble over the last couple of hours. I opened the window and allowed the barn owl to fluttering into the room. It perched itself on my desk and held out its leg where a small role of parchment was tied. I took the letter off and the owl sailed out of the open window before I had the chance to read the letter. I frowned and opened it, breaking the wax seal and unrolling it.

Mom, I didn't get the chance to tell you earlier because you were acting crazy, but Dad broke into Hogwarts again this weekend. He attacked Ron Weasley while he was asleep in his bed. Everyone is saying he meant to get Harry, but pulled back the curtains on the wrong bed.

Carrigan.

I jumped out of my chair and grabbed my cloak. Why was this the first time I was hearing about this situation? I Apparated as my cloak spun around me and appeared outside the gates of Hogwarts. I immediately marched up the gravel path, my cloak flowing dramatically behind me. I didn't stop briskly walking until I found myself in the Headmaster's office. He was not there, had to attend to a matter on the first floor, but I was assured he'd be along momentarily. To my surprised, after ten minutes of waiting, Gabriel entered the office, not Dumbledore. He looked just as surprised to see me.

"I thought you were going to find Black," he said as he closed the door.

"Carrigan wrote me about him breaking into Gryffindor Tower and pulling a knife on a student this weekend."

"Divinity mentioned it," he said as he nodded. He took a seat and rubbed his face.

"Are you two friends now?" I asked.

"Are you jealous?" he answered with another question. I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest.

"No," I whispered. "Just worried."

"Why?" he asked as he sat back in the chair, relaxing. I gave him a dirty look. He'd been relaxing for the last month and a half.

"Because it's like we've reversed roles," I said harshly. "Now you're hopeful about Divinity, and trusting her, and I'm the one slamming her into walls."

"I didn't say I trusted her."

"You're acting like you trust her. How do you know she didn't plant this vision in your head? How do you know she isn't supposed to be doing this so Voldemort returns?"

"I don't think you can fake premonitions, Cadence."

"No, but you can share memories through Legilimency," I retorted. "You can make those up, why couldn't you pretend one is a premonition."

"You have a point," Gabriel conceded. "But I believe in her power, I always have."

I rolled my eyes at him and turned away. I didn't want to listen to him babble about Divinity's Seeing power and her magical ways that put her in the middle of good and evil—obviously she wasn't in the middle; she had chosen a side—the wrong side.

"I'm surprised you've given up on her so quickly."

"She told me she wasn't on our side," I shrugged. "You were right, she's lost."

"Mark this day down in history," Gabriel said sarcastically from his chair. "Cadence Coleman just admitted that I was right, implying that she was wrong."

I turned to him as the room shook around me. He sat up in his chair, giving me a very serious stern look. I remember many times I made the room shake and he looked at me like that; like I was a child incapable of controlling the powers that had been passed down to me from my Father's powerful magical blood.

"Afraid I'm going to disintegrate you into a million pieces?" I snipped viciously.

"No," he shook his head as he stood. "I'm afraid you're going to bring the entire ceiling down and kill both of us."

"I could stop it if it started to fall."

"You sound just like her now," Gabriel said looking me over. "Just as arrogant as she is."

"I'm frustrated," I snipped. "So either I get lippy with you or the ceiling does come down on us."

Gabriel rolled his eyes and turned away. "Is it that hard for you to believe that I made a mistake? That we all made a mistake by thinking Sirius Black was responsible for the Potters, Pettigrew's, and those thirteen muggles' murders?"

"No," I whispered sadly. "It just makes me feel like more of a bitch for not believing in him."

Gabriel looked at me suddenly. "We all lost faith in him, Cadence. You can't let him hold that against you now. You didn't know. You were trusting the evidence in front of you—"

"Instead of trusting the man I loved," I interjected.

Gabriel stood up straight, looking hurt in his dark eyes. I frowned and stepped to him. "I'm sorry, Gabriel," I whispered touching his chest. "I didn't mean…"

"Yes you did," he said looking me in the eye. "And I'm the fool who has forgiven you time and again for loving another man." I frowned and looked at the ground, suddenly feeling like a horrible teasing witch. "I even tricked myself into thinking that I somehow could replace him—to you and Carrigan."

I looked up at him suddenly and grabbed the collar of his cloak. "You have always been there, and you have never doubted me. He did. He left me and you never have."

"I did," he shook his head. "I left you after we were kidnapped by your Father, when you hurt your leg…I left hoping to get you out of my head."

"But you came back," I said.

"Maybe Sirius is trying to come back now," he whispered stroking my cheek.

"It doesn't matter," I said shaking my head. "I choose you, Gabriel Quintin. I choose you."

Gabriel laughed lightly. "As happy as I am to hear that, Cadence, I don't believe you. You often chose Sirius over me…and yet here we are in each others arms years later."

I gave him a nasty glare. "I may have said those things, but it's always been you Gabriel, even when I was with Sirius."

Gabriel smiled a triumphant grin, as if those words completed his life. He could die happy now, knowing that I was admitting how much he meant to me…after nearly twenty years of loving each other…and even saying it sometimes. I was finally admitting that it was him over Sirius, despite those years that I stayed with Sirius.

"How are you going to tell Sirius?"

"He thinks we're together already," I shrugged moving away from Gabriel. I bit my bottom lip and started to pace the office. "The concern now is proving he's innocent. He has to know who was responsible for betraying the Potters…but he was their secret keeper."

I stopped and turned to Gabriel. "He didn't want to be."

"What?"

"He didn't want to be the Potters secret keeper, he thought it was too obvious," I said biting my lip. "What if he got someone else to take the position? But who?"

"Remus or Peter would be my assumption," Gabriel shrugged. I frowned.

"That doesn't make any sense because he blew up that street with Peter and the muggles on it—" I stopped dead. "He killed Peter."

"So?" Gabriel said looking at me with raised eyebrows.

"Gabriel," I said grabbing his cloak again as if to shake some sense into him. "He killed Peter because Peter betrayed the Potters to Voldemort. Peter was their secret keeper! Who would suspect stupid, shy, quivering Peter Pettigrew!"

"Obviously your Father did," Gabriel said nodding in agreement and understanding. "But Cadence, that means Sirius is still a murderer."

"If he killed Peter I can't hold that against him," I said. "We would have done the same thing—"

"I can't say that for sure," Gabriel said shaking his head. I gave him a steady glare and he shrugged.

"Come on, we really have to find Sirius now," I said moving to the office door. It opened before I got to it and Professor Albus Dumbledore stepped into the room.

"Hello Miss Coleman, Mr. Quintin," he said closing the door. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting. Mr. Quintin, it is so good to see you up and with your memory intact."

"Yes, thanks to Divinity" Gabriel said bowing slightly. I gave him a dirty look when he gave credit to Divinity for bringing his memory back. What about me? I had been the one who thought to bring Divinity to him.

"I'm assuming you're both here to discuss Black breaking into Gryffindor Tower this weekend?"

"Yes," Gabriel said glancing at me as I stood by the office door.

"Do you have any idea where he would be hiding, Professor?" I asked coming forward. He looked up at me from his desk and frowned slightly.

"No, Miss Coleman, I'm afraid not," he said. "I would assume that he is somewhere near Hogwarts though. How else could he break in two times and be at the Quidditch game?"

I nodded in agreement. "Maybe in the Forbidden Forest."

"I thought you two were on leave from the Ministry," said Dumbledore as he took a seat and went through some of the papers on his desk.

"Funny how we get taken off of Black's case and he breaks into Hogwarts again," I said. "Apparently he took advantage of no Aurors being close by." I glanced at Gabriel for a few moments, making eye contact with him.

Should we tell him? I asked.

"Tell me what?" Dumbledore asked softly. I looked at him with a slight frown and he smiled. "Forgive Miss Coleman, I couldn't help but over hear."

I shook my head, it didn't matter what he over heard. Now I had to tell him what we thought about Sirius.

"We think Sirius is innocent," I said to him.

Dumbledore seemed to ponder this for a few moments, after which he nodded his head. "That would explain some things that don't make sense. But it would also bring many other questions to rise."

"Yes," Gabriel agreed. "Like why Sirius broke into Gryffindor Tower this weekend."

"It was assumed he went to the wrong bed," Dumbledore said. "He was going after Harry."

"But if he's innocent he would have no reason to go after Harry," I said as I bit my lip. I stood quietly for the next few moments. "Who's bed was it?"

"Ronald Weasley's," Dumbledore responded.

I frowned and nodded my head. "Maybe he's just lost his marbles."

Gabriel rolled his eyes as I opened the office door. "If you will excuse me, Sir, I'm going to go find Sirius and ask him myself."

Dumbledore smiled wisely at me. "Of course, Miss Coleman."

As I walked down the corridor, heading for the entrance of the school, my mind raced allowing all of the pieces of fall into place. The many pieces that I had been missing for the last twelve years were starting to make sense: Why Sirius had betrayed the Potters to begin with (he didn't); why he had been their secret keeper when he didn't want to be (he hadn't); and why he had killed Peter Pettigrew. Sirius being innocent also explained why he had saved me on the ice—he was still good; whether he loved me or not.