I was sitting at the kitchen table, staring blankly at the bare walls of the kitchen in the new house Gabriel and I had just bought, when I heard the front door open and close. I assumed it had to be Gabriel returning form his errand for Dumbledore. No one else knew where the brownstone was located. I didn't look over my shoulder, but I could hear Gabriel's footsteps coming down the hallway. He entered the kitchen and approached me, touching my shoulders gently as he stood behind my chair.

"I'm surprised you're still up," he said calmly, breaking the silence that I had been sitting in for at least two hours. His voice sounded like satin, which provided me some comfort. My body was still electrically charged from my visit to Hogwarts.

"I can't sleep," I whispered. "Too much on my mind."

"Having these answers doesn't change anything, Cadence," Gabriel advised. "We have to keep working on what is right in front of us, like Podmore's situation."

"I thought it would bring some ease to know what Form was after, why he was so intent on hunting us and who Savanna Snow is," I replied, still in a low whisper, as I ignored Gabriel's comment for the most part. "I didn't expect any of these things."

"The facts are the facts. There is nothing we can do to change what happened in the past. You have to look at the positive outcomes of today's situation. Now, Form will not be coming after you or Carrigan. Because he is dead perhaps there is some hope that Haiden will be able to break free of Divinity's hold on her. If the spells and potions aren't still being used on her, perhaps she can overpower Divinity for good."

"You killed him?"

Gabriel was silent for a moment. I turned in my chair, forcing his hands to move away from my shoulders, and looked up at him. I clenched the back of my chair with white hands. "I took care of it," he said as I stared up at him.

"Alright," I nodded. I turned away as my skin crawled with discomfort. I didn't want to think about Gabriel's actions. There was a time, many years ago, that I would have done the dirty work myself. The idea of killing people to silence them, however, was now becoming a guilty burden on my conscious. I closed my eyes to forget the dark thoughts in my dead, and forced a change of subject. "My Father will know Form is missing. Divinity knows we had someone in that classroom—"

"You ran into Divinity?"

"Yes," I replied. "She will conclude that it was Form we had captured because I made it clear that I knew her situation. She has known for sometime, Voldemort told her she would live for a long time. She seems intent on keeping his legacy strong if he does not achieve immortality."

"That is his goal then?"

"Yes," I nodded carefully as I stared at the wall. I bit my bottom lip and gripped the arms of the kitchen chair tightly. "Divinity's future is not the only thing on my mind," I said to break the silence that had fallen. "She will have to be stopped, just like Voldemort, but I am also worried that Form said he served many masters. Who else could he be serving?"

"I don't know if we should worry about it," Gabriel said as he touched my shoulders again.

"How can you say that?"

"Look at what is right in front of us," he advised. "Podmore's situation and stopping your father. Evil will always exist in the world, Cadence. We can't stop it all. But we can stop the evil that is before us, destroying lives. We don't know what Form was referring to. For all we know he was making it up to confuse you, or he had a distorted view on reality."

"Fine," I whispered as I rubbed my forehead. It would just be easier to let it go. I wasn't going to stop worrying about the possibility of a threat other then Voldemort or Divinity. I would worry about that tomorrow.

"How is Carrigan?" It was Gabriel's turn to change the subject and break the tension that was spread in the room.

"Well," I replied as I turned to look at him. "She was fine in the hospital wing, itching to get out of there and see if I was okay. She wasn't hurt at all."

"Did Benjamin make her train?"

"No. I asked him not to."

The disappointment was clear in Gabriel's eyes. He thought I should have done otherwise; I should have ensured that Carrigan trained because it would have been an outlet for her anger, frustration and fear. I turned back around to face the blank wall of the kitchen. In my opinion, there was no right or wrong answer.

"Form won't be the last one to come after us," I said to change the delicate subject back to one of Gabriel's pervious comments. I did not want to argue about Carrigan, or Guardian's, or even Penelope Talon. I didn't even want to think about that bitch and what she had done to my family…

"We are safe here," Gabriel said as he touched my shoulders again.

"No where is safe, Gabriel," I replied sorely. "I always thought I was safe with Sirius, but our houses always burnt down around us."

"Those homes burned down around you because of other reasons, not because of your safety. Voldemort wants me dead as much as you. We are both betrayers to him," Gabriel continued in a calm voice despite my negative and antagonizing attitude. "We have both survived this long, and we will continue to do so."

I grabbed his left hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. He bent down and kissed the side of my neck affectionately, then kissed the top of my head, before wrapping his arms around my shoulders and holding me tightly as I sat in the chair.

"What did the Ministry say about Podmore?"

"He's been sent to Azkaban," Gabriel whispered in my ear before he kissed it. "They wouldn't give me much details because I am not assigned to the case. I didn't want them to start wondering why I was so interested in the case, so I let up. Shacklebolt, Tonks and Arthur are all keeping an ear open."

"I told Dumbledore I would take over his shifts."

"Those are late nights, Cadence."

"I'm not doing anything else now," I replied with a lazy shrug. "Might as well make myself useful."

Gabriel nodded, but when he didn't speak I looked over my shoulder to see that his shoulder's were slumped and his dark eyes looked very uncomfortable.

"What's the matter?"

"I just worry about you," he said easily. "Which I have a right to!" he added quickly as my face turned stern and perturbed. He stroked my hair behind my ear before he continued speaking. "As your husband, I have a right to worry about you all the time."

"As my husband, you should trust that you don't have to worry. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."

"I know," he conceded. "That's something that I love about you. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't worry about you taking care of yourself. We live in a dangerous time, Cadence. And we are both being hunted by your father. I have every right to be worried about you."

I scowled and turned back in my chair. He was right. He was always right.

"Besides, Podmore must have been under the Imperius Curse. Why else would he try to open the door into the Department of Mysteries?"

I turned in my chair sharply and looked up at Gabriel. "Is that where he was trying to get, for certain?"

"That's what Shacklebolt told me. When the security guards found him he was dumbfounded. Someone lifted the curse just as they arrived, which means that someone inside the Ministry is getting close to what we're trying to protect."

I frowned deeply. "It's no surprise that my father has people in the Ministry."

"Of course not," Gabriel agreed. "But it's unnerving how close they're coming to getting into the department."

"What does Dumbledore think?"

"That we should continue to guard the door," Gabriel said easily. I could tell by the tone of his voice, and look in his eyes, that he did not agree with Dumbledore's direction. Perhaps, he thought we should take a more radical route to defending the Department of Mysteries.

Gabriel bent his head down and stole a kiss from my lips. "Let's go to bed. Dumbledore said he would come by with Arthur tomorrow morning to discuss protecting the door. It seems you both will be picking up Podmore's shifts."

"So you knew before you asked that I was taking over the shifts," I snipped as I stood up from the chair. "Why ask then?"

"I wanted you to have the opportunity to tell me," he said while wrapping an arm around me and guiding me out of the kitchen. "Imagine what you would have done to me if I said 'yes, I know already,' when you told me."

He had a point. "Oh, you're right, I would have been furious," I smirked up at him. He bowed his head before mounting the stairs. He held my hand delicately as we walked up the stairs; I followed him with tired feet, almost dragging them up each step.

That night I did not sleep. I was restless and wired, despite being completely exhausted both physically and mentally. I stared blankly at the ceiling as Gabriel slept peacefully next me. It never ceased to amaze me how he was capable of compartmentalizing so many incidents in our life. He was always able to sleep because he didn't allow things to bother him…unlike me; everything bothered me and kept me up at night. Sleep did not come until the early hours of the morning, and despite it finally taking me, it was short.

There was a loud, rather obnoxious, beating sound in the distance that woke me. I opened my eyes and rubbed them to clear my blurred, groggy vision. Sunlight was pouring into the bedroom from the window, falling across the floorboards and bed sheets. I was in bed alone. I pushed the blankets off my body and stood up to look around the room. Gabriel had moved boxes into it while I was sleeping. My trunk was placed at the foot of the bed. I went to it and opened it, looking for something to wear.

Once I was cleaned and dressed in black skinny slacks, a black peasant top, and red opened vest, I went downstairs. In the depths of the house, back in the kitchen, I could hear male voices talking casually. My bare feet beat against the wood paneling of the floorboards as I walked down the hall. When I arrived in the kitchen I was not surprised to see Albus Dumbledore, dressed in forest green robes and Arthur Weasley in a tweed suit sitting at my kitchen table. I was however surprised to see Henry Thrett at the table. He was sitting in the chair farthest from the entrance and wearing a black button-up and jeans. His dark skin looked smooth, and his hair was well kept. When his dark brown eyes fell on me, I felt as though he was imagining me naked. I glared at his stare immediately and turned to look at Gabriel, as if he would provide me comfort; he was standing at the stove, about to bring over a pot of tea.

"Good morning, Cadence," Arthur said in greeting.

"Hello everyone," I said mildly. Gabriel stopped next to me and kissed my cheek gently before making his way to the table. I noticed he had no mugs and went to the box on the counter that was labeled 'cups.' I pulled out five mugs and carried them to the table.

Once we were all sitting at the table with steaming mugs of tea in front of us, the serious conversation began. Mostly, it dealt with Arthur and I taking over Podmore's shifts guarding the entrance into the Department of Mysteries. But, for a moment the conversation took a turn according to Henry Thrett's agenda.

"Are you going to tell us what you suspect Voldemort is after in the department?" Thrett asked causing an awkward silence to fall around the table. Dumbledore's crystal blue eyes peered over his half-moon spectacles at Thrett with a calm demeanor. I would never understand how Dumbledore kept his emotions so in check; hiding them from everyone around him, included those who claimed to know him well. My feelings towards Henry Thrett were quite clear; his mere presences annoyed me, and that was clearly written all over my face.

"I do not think that information is pertinent," Dumbledore replied with complete composure.

"If we know what Voldemort is after, we could remove it from the department."

"You know better then all of us that items are not simply removed from the Department of Mysteries, Thrett," Arthur said with the intent to end the conversation.

"It may be difficult to remove things from the department, but I guarantee you it is possible," Thrett responded with an edgy voice. "I think it would be in our best interest to remove whatever it is from the department without Voldemort knowing. We can keep it safe and hidden, far away from the Ministry, while he keeps trying to break into the department."

"What he is looking for can only be removed by two people," Dumbledore said very softly. "And he has not discovered this yet."

Thrett sat up straight as he looked directly at Dumbledore. "He is looking for a prophecy?" Thrett's face faded to white and his eyes left Dumbledore's intent stare. Suddenly, it seemed Thrett understood what was at stake; I, however, was completely bewildered.

"A prophecy?" I questioned. Dumbledore turned his eyes to me.

"Yes, Cadence," he said. "I am not one-hundred percent certain that is what he is after, but I have a strong feeling it is."

"Why would he need a prophecy? Why would we consider it a weapon?"

"The prophecy is information; something important that he didn't have in the last war. Information, knowledge, could be the most dangerous weapon in our existence. Voldemort needs this peace of information so that he is better prepared for the fight ahead of us."

"What could be so important?"

"I imagine the prophecy has to do with him and Harry," Gabriel said very softly as he glanced at me. I frowned and nodded as I sat back in my chair. I looked around the table at the men surrounding me and decided that I did not want to pursue this conversation anymore in present company. This was something I wanted to discuss with only Dumbledore and Gabriel.

"Thank you," Dumbledore said as he stared at me. "Cadence and Arthur for picking up Podmore's shifts. We have to make sure that the Department of Mysteries is well protected from Voldemort and the Ministry. I must be getting back to Hogwarts."

He stood up from the kitchen table, and Gabriel stood up with him. I remained in my chair, slouched and slightly uncomfortable, as the men stood up and made to exit the kitchen. Thrett moved around the table and stopped next to me. He leaned down, close to my ear, causing my senses to tingle and the hair to stand up on the back of my neck. I looked at him crossly.

"Consider trying to remove the prophecy," he said easily. "You of all people should understand the importance of hiding things from your father, and Dumbledore will listen to your opinion."

"Dumbledore will do what he thinks is best no matter what my opinion is," I retorted as I leaned away from Thrett. He stood up straight with a mild shrug of indifference. He was a very attractive man; but he almost seemed too attractive. It made him appear too perfect and untrustworthy. A man who showed no flaws was not a man to be trusted.

He seemed to know what I was thinking. He smirked with an all knowing look in his dark velvet eyes before he pinched my cheek. I instantly grabbed his hand and stood up from my chair while twisting his arm behind his back. My chair went flying away from me, across the kitchen floor, and made a ruckus as I forced Thrett to turn and shoved him into the kitchen counter; bending him over with his arm bent behind his back about to snap the shoulder out of his socket.

Thrett groaned uncomfortably, but let a gentle laugh escape his lips. The way he looked at me, obviously thinking about me naked and the way he touched me made me sick to my stomach. He obviously didn't understand people's personal boundaries.

"If you ever touch me again, I will break your arm off," I hissed in his ear. I released him and he moved away quickly with a dark look in his eyes. "Understood?" I questioned as I placed my hands on my hips.

"Understood," Thrett said as he looked me over and nursed his twisted arm.

"Cadence?" Gabriel called coming back into the kitchen. Dumbledore and Arthur were following with concerned expressions on their faces. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," Thrett responded before I could speak. He turned and made to leave the kitchen. "You've got quite a pistol for a wife, Gabriel. Hope you know how to handle her caliber."

"She doesn't need to be handled," Gabriel said sternly in my defense as Thrett passed him. I smirked slightly while crossing my arms over my chest.

"Good bye, Cadence," Arthur said carefully. "I will see you late tonight to switch shifts."

"Bye Arthur," I replied with a smile to him. "See you."

"Cadence," Dumbledore said as he gave me an all knowing facial expression laced with disappointment. I wasn't going to feel guilty about defending myself to Thrett, no matter the expression Dumbledore gave me with his eyes.

"I'll walk you out," Gabriel said coming forward.

"No need," Dumbledore smiled. "Good day to you both."

Gabriel and I stood still as Dumbledore followed Arthur out of the kitchen. Once we heard the front door shut, Gabriel turned to me with raised eyebrows.

"What exactly is a pistol?"

I laughed lightly and moved to him, hugging him tightly around the waist. He wrapped me in his arms and kissed my forehead while brushing my hair.

"A human weapon," I whispered very softly and sadly. Gabriel tilted my chin up so I could see into his dark purple eyes. He was looking at me with curiosity. "Just makes me think of my father trying to use a prophecy as a weapon."

"Dumbledore seems to think that it will provide him with information he didn't have before," he shrugged while still holding me.

"What kind of information could he need now that he didn't have before?"

"Since it's a prophecy, I would assume that it is something about his and Harry's future," Gabriel said. "Who defeats who, or what is necessary to defeat the other."

I nodded in understanding, but my stomach turned with uneasiness. "Why wouldn't Persephone be able to see something? Why wouldn't Divinity be able to tell him based on what Persephone saw?"

"Premonitions aren't forced like that," Gabriel replied. "Persephone sees what she is supposed to, not what she necessarily wants to."

"Do you think Thrett's idea is valid?"

"Moving the prophecy?" Gabriel questioned. "No. I don't think that's valid. And he should know best that only the people who the prophecy is about can touch it. No one else can."

"Touch it? It's a tangible object?"

Gabriel shrugged. "That's how I've always understood it. And Thrett seemed to reveal that much, especially if he thinks it should be moved?" He paused for a moment as I rested in his arms, contemplating everything he said. "What happened by the way? Why did you pin him to the counter?"

"He pinched my cheek," I said matter-of-factly. Gabriel laughed.

"I'd hate to see what happened if he had pinched your ass," he was still laughing as he spoke. I looked up at him, pulling out of his arms slightly.

"You should know what would happen, I'm sure I've socked you a few times for less things."

"When are you going to learn to play well with others?"

"When are you going to learn that I don't play well with others?" I grinned.

"You seem to play with me just fine."

"Well, that's different Gabriel," I said as I held onto his shirt and stood up on my toes to get closer to his lips. "You have something that I want. There is a benefit to playing well with you."

Gabriel beamed and lowered his head to mine, kissing me delicately on the mouth full on with deep passion. I wrapped my arms tightly around his shoulders and let him hold me as we continued to exchange love with our mouths.

For those few fleeting moments, as we stood in the kitchen, everything was alright despite the chaos that was erupting in the world around us.