When I arrived home Gabriel could tell I was upset about something. I slammed the front door shut violently causing him to look up from the kitchen table with concern. He didn't question what was wrong, just looked at me with raised eyebrows. I marched straight through the foyer to the stairs and went to my room, where I slammed the bedroom door.

Want to talk about it? Gabriel's voice echoed in my head making me scream loudly with frustration. Guess not…dinner will be ready in twenty minutes.

I opened the bedroom door. "Alright!" I shouted.

Like Mother, like daughter, Gabriel said into my head.

I slammed my bedroom door again and began to pace back and forth in the bedroom. My arms were crossed over my chest; occasionally as I paced I would bite my lip, tap my fingertips against my lips, or through my hair out of my face and rub the back of my neck. I lost track of time as my mind raced thinking over what had occurred at the Shrieking Shack. I was worried that Sirius wouldn't believe me about Carrigan. And if he did, I was afraid that he might try to see her, to see for himself how similar she looked to him.

I didn't tell Gabriel that Sirius knew about Carrigan until early June. I wasn't surprised when he seemed to know already—Gabriel was very perceptive, especially when it came to things that upset me. However, I was surprised that he had yet to bring it up in conversation. It had been well over a month before I told him—I'm not sure why I told him either. Perhaps because the end of the school year was approaching and Carrigan would be returning home; I'd have to tell her eventually too.

"I figured that's what set you off the last time you saw him," he shrugged easily across the kitchen table from me. It was three in the morning and I was clinging to my cup of coffee. Gabriel had made a habit of going into the office ridiculously earlier in hopes that if he got his paper work done he could get back out in the field. Scrimgeour was still keeping Gabriel benched, which was starting to piss Gabriel off. I didn't usually go in with him that early, but I couldn't sleep that night. Something was bothering me—I had a bad feeling.

"But I don't think that's the only thing that upset you—actually I think you told him to counter whatever he said to upset you. You were just trying to hit him where it hurt," Gabriel said. I blinked and looked at him, sighing slightly. Of course, it wasn't the only thing that upset me. I was upset that it was three in the morning and I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with the sexiest man in England.

I bit my bottom lip before taking a sip of my coffee. It always amazed me how Gabriel knew what was on my mind. He knew exactly what I was thinking, or what had happened, without me telling him. I put down my coffee mug slowly as he studied me with sapphire blue eyes. His facial features were relaxed today, calm and attractive; he hadn't shaved in about a week, allowing a nice dark beard speckled with grey to be growing in. He looked rugged and handsome; if I wasn't careful he'd seduce me just with those sapphire eyes.

"He called me a thinly spread whore," I whispered still holding the coffee mug, despite it resting on the table.

Gabriel looked at me very seriously. "He was accusing you of cheating?"

"I'm pretty sure he will accuse me of such things until I'm dead," I sighed leaning back in my chair.

"No point in wasting your time trying to change his mind then," Gabriel shrugged. He picked up his spoon and finished his breakfast cereal.

"I don't plan on it," I whispered. "I'm just frustrated because I still feel hurt by everything he says. I'm hurt that he thinks I would betray him."

Gabriel looked at me with a deep frown. "You still love him, that's why it hurts."

I rolled my eyes and stood up from the table, taking my coffee mug and empty cereal bowl to the sink. "No, there's nothing left to love. Well, besides Carrigan. She's the best thing that ever came out of our relationship. Sirius and I may have loved each other at some point, but somewhere along the line we became poison to our own relationship and both of us were too stubborn to admit it was over. I wasted a lot of time with him when I could have been with you, but I was too proud."

I didn't hear Gabriel stand up, but he was behind me once I finished speaking. He wrapped his arms around me from behind and buried his head into my curly hair.

"You're with me now," he whispered in my ear as he pushed my hair over to my other shoulder. He kissed my neck softly as his hands found mine. He held me tightly to his chest, keeping me close, and breathing softly on my neck, tickling my skin.

"How can you forgive me?" I asked sadly. "I lead you on for years—"

"I love you, Cadence," he said sternly, but with a loving tone. "I always have, and I've known that you love me. That will always be enough."

I turned to him, still engulfed in his arms, and looked up at him with smiling eyes. The romantic words he had just said would have sounded like crap coming from anyone else, but because they were coming from Gabriel I practically melted in his arms. I was never one for mushy romanticism, but there was something about Gabriel that made it amazing; perhaps it was his passion for love and romance, the charm he exerted over me, or even simply how freaking gorgeous he was. Of all the women in the world that Gabriel could have, he chose me; he loved me and it was probably time that I started loving him back.

I stood on my toes and kissed his lips delicately as I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders. He pulled me tighter against him as he kissed me in return with deep passion and uncontrollable lust. I opened my mouth welcoming his tongue to press against mine. Gabriel's hands were all over me; they wondered down my back, across my hips and onto my thighs. He suddenly lifted me up and placed me on the counter, all while still kissing me. He spread my legs apart with his body as he stepped closer to the counter and my body. His hands touched my cheeks, my neck and shoulders as we continued kissing, tasting the love from each others lips and mouth. He pulled away suddenly and his lips danced across my jaw line, down my neck and across my collar bone. He carefully kissed my revealed cleavage with his eyes closed. I couldn't help but sigh softly as his hands ran up my thighs teasing the growing heat that was between my legs. Gabriel's lips formed a smile against my skin as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed back up to my ear.

"We have to go to work," he whispered while his hands moved down my back and grazed my butt.

"You've been waiting twenty years to screw me and now you're going to tell me we have to go to work?" I questioned.

Gabriel pulled away, smacked my thigh playfully as he smirked and nodded. "Yep," he said. I sighed and leaned back against the cabinets, wanting desperately for him to keep kissing me. He moved away from the counter and headed for the dinning room where his work things were spread out on the dinning room table.

"You're a bastard!" I yelled through the house.

"Just giving you a taste of your own medicine," he responded with a yell.

I sighed but remained on the counter hoping he would come back.

"I'm not coming back!" he yelled.

I groaned with frustration and hopped off the counter, then proceeded to march into the dinning room where Gabriel was leaning over the dinning room table. He was picking up papers, organizing folders, and placing them into his bag. I stopped in the door frame with my hands on my hips. He ignored me at first, after a few minutes he turned to me, smirking.

"You just going to stand there?" he questioned putting another file folder in his bag. "Not going to get ready for work?"

"Gabriel," I said going to him. I turned his head to me and stood on my toes to kiss him. He smiled against my lips and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing my body against his. I touched his cheeks and pulled my lips away from his; my fingers grazed his lips as I looked up and beamed at him. "I love you," I said softly.

My fingers traced his jaw line and up onto his head where I stroked his smooth brown hair. I planted a few more small gentle kisses on his lips and then stepped away from him, pulling out of his arms.

"I'll get ready for work," I said moving away. Before I could get out of the room, Gabriel grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him, catching me between his arms and chest. He kissed me lustfully, with tenderness and passion; only Gabriel ever kissed me like that. I couldn't help but kiss him in return. I sighed into his mouth as I wrapped my arms around him. His hands stroked my hair and held me close.

"What are you going to do about Carrigan?" he whispered kissing my cheek.

"You mean about Sirius?" I asked as he continued to kiss my neck.

"Yes."

"Well, what is there to do? He knows about Carrigan. I am afraid that he's going to try and contact her," I said stepping away from Gabriel. "But she hasn't called for me…and I don't want to stop him from seeing her." I started to pace back and forth in the dinning room. "Because it's right for him to see her and know her—except she still thinks he's a guilty mass murderer. That could cause some issues."

Gabriel leaned against the table and crossed his arms over his chest as he nodded at me. I continued to pace before him, tapping my fingertips against my lips as I thought out loud.

"Perhaps I should talk to her, tell her what we know—"

There was a sudden sharp pain in my head causing me to grab my temple and fall to my knees in the middle of the dinning room. I screamed as if my head was being split open and laid on my side on the ground.

"Cadence!" Gabriel called my name as he leaned over me, but he seemed so far away.

Mom, Mom—he's here—

Carrigan's voice was screaming in my head. I cried out as my body contorted on the floor. Gabriel grabbed my shoulders and held me firmly on the ground to stop me from seizing on the floor.

—He's here—he says he's innocent—

"Carrigan," I muttered grabbing Gabriel's collar. "Carri…"

—Innocent, he says he's innocent—Mom! Dad is here at Hogwarts!

All of a sudden the pain stopped, Carrigan's voice stopped, and I was staring up at the ceiling of my dinning room with watery eyes. My head was throbbing and my body ached from thrashing around the hardwood floor. Gabriel was no longer by my side, he was in the kitchen.

"Gabriel?" I sighed as I sat up cringing and holding my head.

"In here," he called. I rolled onto my knees and started to crawl forward into the kitchen, annoyed that I just had some sort of psychotic episode that connected me to my daughter and Gabriel wouldn't help me into the kitchen.

"Gabriel—!"

Gabriel looked at me from the table where he was standing reading a letter. He sighed and came forward helping me to stand. I leaned against him, holding onto his waistcoat as he looked at the letter in his hand.

"I'm sorry," he whispered extending the letter for me to see. "Fawks just left this from Dumbledore. Sirius is at Hogwarts. They caught him."

"That's what Carrigan said," I responded looking up at Gabriel's eyes.

"She connected with you again?" he questioned with raised eyebrows. "That's what that was?"

"Yes," I whispered with a nod. "Is it possible that the Connecto Anima curse Voldemort placed on me passed onto Carrigan?"

Gabriel pulled away slightly as I took the letter from his hands. I looked it over as he thought about my question. "I suppose it's possible, you know I don't know very much about that curse or the blood bond he performed."

I touched my right arm out of habit where a long thin scar remained from my wrist to the inside of my elbow. When I had been sixteen Voldemort has sliced me open to perform a blood bond ceremony because he felt that my pure blood would make his stronger. The wound had taken forever to heal; and I had been accused of trying to remove a Dark Mark from my arm.

"Cadence, we should go to Hogwarts," Gabriel said. "The Ministry may already be there—Sirius is innocent, we have to vouch for him."

I looked up at Gabriel suddenly.

"They won't believe us," I said shaking my head. "Not with out Pettigrew. If they've caught Sirius, Peter is probably still out there."

Gabriel frowned deeply and nodded. "Let's go, we should get out there. Carrigan reached out to you with Legilimency for a reason."

I nodded my head. "I just need to get dressed," I whispered as I moved away from Gabriel. His hands lingered on my hips before I drifted away. Once I was in my bedroom I changed quickly into tight blue jeans, a black blouse and a black vest. I pulled on my knee high leather boots and tied my hair back in a ponytail as I left the room. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

As I descended the stairs I rubbed my throbbing head ache. I would have to speak to Carrigan and Dumbledore about controlling her Legilimency connections with me. We needed to figure out how to control the connection between Carrigan and me because the head aches were killing me. If Carrigan was capable of connecting to me, and my Father was in fact still alive and out there, then it was completely possible that Carrigan could connect to him, or vice versa.

"Ready?" Gabriel asked offering me my cloak as he stood in the foyer. I took the cloak from him and pulled it on.

"What about you going into the office?" I asked.

"It's three in the morning," Gabriel shrugged. "I don't have to be in until nine or ten."

"Alright," I said holding onto his traveling cloak. "You Apparate us."

He kissed my forehead before wrapping his arms around me and concentrating all of our energy on Hogsmeade. I closed my eyes as our bodies were pressed together into what felt like a tiny tube. Suddenly our feet hit the ground, and thankfully I was holding onto him and his arms were wrapped around me, otherwise the rush of landing on the dirt road in front of the Hogwarts castle gates would have sent me to my knees on the ground.

Gabriel asked if I was okay and I nodded as we moved forward and pushed open the gates. We marched up the gravel path to the castle and immediately were welcomed by Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house. She was standing with her arms folded in front of her, looking ridged and cold—just like she did when I was in school. She was wearing emerald green robes and matching hat. Her square glasses her sitting on the bridge of her nose, almost slipping off the tip of it.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"Black caught Weasley, Potter, Granger and your daughter and took them to the Shrieking Shack," McGonagall said as we walked through the entrance hall. "Professor Lupin went after them, following a hunch—apparently he thinks Black is innocent, as do the four students. Professor Snape apprehended them and on the way back to the castle, Dementors attacked. Professor Snape saved Black and Potter's lives."

"What about Pettigrew?" I asked without thinking.

McGonagall stopped dead before mounting the grand staircase.

"You believe it too then?" she asked with high eyebrows. I suddenly felt like I was back in school, being scolded by the old professor.

"Yes," I said boldly. "I do."

"We both do," said Gabriel. "Please, we'd like to see Carrigan—"

"—and Sirius," I said sternly. "We need to speak with Sirius."

McGonagall gave us one firm nod and turned on her heel, marching straight up the stairs towards the seventh floor where the hospital wing was.

"Is Carrigan injured?" I asked quickly realizing where we were heading.

"No," McGonagall shook her head. "She passed out because of the Dementors, but she's been in the hospital wing having some chocolate."

"Where is Remus?" Gabriel asked.

McGonagall frowned deeply as she glanced at both of us. "It's the full moon," she whispered. "He forgot his potion because he went to find Black. He transformed on the way back to the castle, Black tried to hold him off and then the Dementors came."

"I think we all owe you some gratitude, Severus," said a familiar male voice. I frowned slightly as we turned the corner and saw the Minister of Magic outside of the hospital wing speaking with Severus Snape. Professor Dumbledore was standing near by, looking into the hospital wing through the windows on the door.

"It was nothing Minister," said Snape as he stood up straighter.

"Ah, Quintin, Coleman," said the Minister as we approached. Snape turned to see us coming and loathing entered his eyes as he looked at me. "You'll both be pleased to know that Severus here caught Black!"

"Yes," said Gabriel extending his hand to Snape. "So we've heard. Thank you for doing our job for us."

"Yes, Severus," I forced a smile as I folded my hands behind my back. "Thank you for butting into something that was none of your business, as usual, and getting it wrong, also as usual."

"Excuse me?" Snape said raising his eyebrows at me.

"You heard me," I hissed. "You were always butting in when we were in school, never letting Lily be—and now you're butting into everything to do with her son's life—"

"Cadence," said Gabriel touching my shoulder lightly.

"No," I said crossly. "Sirius Black is innocent—"

"Miss Coleman—" interjected the Minister sharply. "You sound just like the children—"

"The children are right," I said harshly. "Sirius Black is innocent. He was framed by Peter Pettigrew—"

"Miss Coleman that is enough!" yelled the Minister.

"Cadence," said Dumbledore coming forward. "I think you should see Carrigan, she's been asking for you."

I nodded, turning away from the red faced Minister of Magic and stepped into the hospital wing that was a ruckus of yelling, just like the hallway.

"Mom!" Carrigan yelled jumping off of her hospital bed. "Mom! Thank Merlin! I knew you'd come. Dad is innocent. He's innocent and they're going to kiss him—please, we have to stop them—"

"—Cadence, he's innocent. You have to stop them—" Harry said also jumping off his bed and coming towards me.

"Harry," Dumbledore said catching the boy's shoulders and guiding him back to bed.

"Carrigan," I said holding her shoulders. I touched her cheeks as her midnight blue eyes stared up at me in fear. I brushed her brown curls out of her face and looked at her with smiling eyes. "I know," I said when she stopped yelling. I stood up straight and turned to Dumbledore. "Professor, I need to take my daughter to see her Father before he has his soul sucked out by Dementors."

Professor Dumbledore smiled and nodded his head. "I thought you might say that. Harry, Hermione, I will be back to speak to you in a few moments. Please try to remain calm and keep your thoughts to yourself," he added.

I took Carrigan's hand and folded it in mine as Dumbledore lead us out of the hospital wing.

"Professor McGonagall," he said as we exited into the hall. "Will you please take Miss Coleman and Carrigan upstairs to see Mr. Black?"

"Absolutely not," the Minister said instantly.

Professor Dumbledore raised his eyebrows high and then looked at Professor McGonagall who bowed her head and turned, leading Carrigan and I down the hall. I looked over my shoulder to see Gabriel speaking quickly with the Minister, still trying to convince him that Sirius was innocent.