I'd like to thank my wonderful beta Alabaster Princess and to all of you who are following this story, favouring me, putting me on alert, and of course a very special thanks to all of my reviewers. If you sign in to review, I will most certainly reply.

I don't know if I have to point out explicitely that there will be the mention of blood and abortion in this chapter since this story is rated M anyway. If you feel somehow prissy about these things, just don't read those parts.

Reviews are always welcome.

36- Prince Charming

Ever since James Potter's stag party, Sirius Black was a regular guest at the Red Lantern- much to Wilda's delight. She thought he was her Prince Charming she'd been waiting for, but although she had finally developed a taste in lingerie, Raven seriously doubted he would sweep her off the stage and marry her. Sirius Black was decidedly not the kind of wizard who longed to get married and stay faithful to only one witch when there were so many other pretty girls out there.

Wilda, however, refused to listen to Raven's well-meant advice and kept on dreaming about a white wedding because she was so in love with Black, who did his best to fuel her romantic desire for him. But the puppy eyes he gave Wilda were pathetic since it was obvious that he only wanted to get laid.

You just don't go to a place for erotic entertainment if you want to find the love of your life, Raven thought, and besides- to hell with love! What a stupid invention!

Love only made your heart break over and over again; she had her own fair share of that and was sick of it. She didn't want to hear any of Wilda's gushing about how very wonderful her dear Sirius was...

…she thought he might kiss her, that night in her room. They sat together in companionable silence, listening to some new records she had bought, drinking cheap red wine. Then he told her about his encounter with the Dark Lord, mentioning with a shudder that he had managed to please the tyrant. She could almost see his discomfort; it was like a dark cloud lasting on his soul, eating him up. She just had to hug him and for a moment it seemed like he was melting in her arms. They were so close, so very close...

And then he had politely said goodnight.

To hell with love! It only leaves you frustrated and yearning.

-o-

At least, there was one good thing about Sirius Black visiting the Red Lantern that often- Raven had now found another way to pass secret information to the Order without having to use Polyjuice Potion. Of course, she never talked to the obnoxious Gryffindor nor introduced herself as Mata Hari of the wizarding world; she simply took advantage of the fact that his motorbike was often parked next to hers in that Muggle backyard. All she had to do was to tie a note to his handlebar and hoping he'd deliver it to Dumbledore.

Sometimes, she could read about her success in the Daily Prophet. Of course, it was always possible that Dumbledore had more spies out there, within the Dark Lord's ranks, than she'd ever imagined, and yet it was a satisfying idea that it might be she who was responsible for a change to the better.

Alas, the Order had to suffer a harsh blow when Fabian and Gideon Prewett were killed by five Death eaters including Antonin Dolohov, who boasted about his deed one night at the Red Lantern, Saying they died like cowards, begging for mercy. Whereas the wizarding media claimed they were among the best witches and wizards of the age and 'died like heroes', like their sister- a certain Molly Weasley- stated in an interview.

Raven glanced at the picture of a teary witch with reddened cheeks that clashed awfully with her reddish hair; she was short and plump and wore a flowered apron.

What had gone so fucking wrong? Raven wondered. Her source of information was as reliable as any Death Eater could be and she had placed her hint well enough for Black to find it; he must have past it on to Dumbledore. So why did the Prewett brothers have to die?

She didn't grasp it until almost a week later when she overheard a conversation between Rosier, Wilkes and two other, older guys she wasn't familiar with. Holding her breath while dancing on, it soon it became apparent to her that spying was by no means a one-way street- it also worked the other way round. Meaning, there was someone within Dumbledore's prodigious Order of the Phoenix passing secret information to Voldemort.

First, she thought it was Black since he was hanging around at a regular basis in a place that was highly frequented by Death Eaters. But then she dismissed that thought soon after it had crossed her mind. No, it couldn't be Black. He was too much a Gryffindork to ever betray Dumbledore, even if he was raised in a Slytherin household. Also, he was much too loyal (like a good dog) to James bloody Potter, his best buddy. They were almost inseparable, like Siamese twins, and Raven had once heard that they had a pair of rare two-way mirrors so that they could still communicate even if they were in different detentions.

Now, that spoke of real devotion

It also meant that the spy must be someone else instead. The werewolf, perhaps?

Nah, that wasn't likely either. Lupin wanted to belong; he wouldn't sell his friends to Voldemort. Probably the spy wasn't anyone she knew and Raven didn't even know half of the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

She decided that a warning was in order and was just about to tie another note to Sirius Black's handlebars, when all of a sudden the guy himself came walking through the gateway that divided Knockturn Alley from the rest of London.

"Oi!" He yelled. "What're you doing there?"

Shit, Raven thought. Fortunately, she already had her helmet on, so Sirius was still clueless about her identity.

"Are you the one passing notes to the Order by using me as a bloody owl? Who are you?"

Thanks to Professor Steel and her book list for Auror training, Raven hadn't wasted time but had taken on studying on her own. A basic spell in Stealth and Concealment would come in handy now so she magically altered her voice.

"You don't look like an owl and besides, owls don't ride motorbikes."

"Good one," Sirius chuckled before he demanded. "Who are you?"

Raven mounted her bike; she had to get away from here. This place was much too close to Knockturn Alley and she didn't want to be overheard by any dark wizard should she consider to talk to Black- she still had to make up her mind about that. Therefore, she had to gain time. Time to weigh all the pros and cons.

Black was approaching her. She could tell by the look on his face that he was... intrigued, but he hadn't drawn his wand yet. That was her chance!

"Catch me if you can," she challenged him as she started the engine and rode her motorbike from the backyard out into the streets of London.

Needless to say that Black accepted her challenge and was following her with screeching tyres.

-o-

The best thing about working late at night was that the streets were pleasantly empty in the early hours of the morning and the traffic police was still in a state of slumber. Therefore, it was decidedly the best time to have a little race through London..

Raven headed southwards, down to Trafalgar Square where she circled the roundabout twice before she finally turned right into Cockspur Street, following the A4. She didn't have a concrete destination on her mind but thought it would be wise to leave town in case she might decide to actually talk to Black instead of just hexing him off his bike at the first opportunity.

They passed Hyde Park Corner and, keeping left, raced down Knightsbridge and Brompton Road. Although Black had no problem to keep up with her speed (in fact, he even had the faster motorbike and it was also magically enhanced) he never tried to get ahead of Raven. Instead, he seemed to be enjoying their race. That became obvious when all of a sudden he was next to her, flashing her a grin before he dropped back again.

-o-

Sirius thought he was quite a gentleman to let the lady take the lead, but in fact it was more the sight of her bum clad in black leather that he was enjoying. Of course this wasn't a real race. He could have long ended it and stopped her by one of his brilliant manoeuvres if not for the fun of it. Perhaps he simply liked chasing witches. And he could use a little fun after Wilda had let him down again, playing prudish and hard to get. Why did witches have to be like that?

He remembered James telling him that his beloved Lily hadn't let him go any further than snogging either, at least not until James had proposed to her. But Sirius didn't want to wait until he was married to have sex with the witch he desired. Especially not if said witch was working in the erotic scene, stripping in front of an an audience every night- he had expected her to be more... obliging to his wishes. And most of all, he didn't intend to get married if there were so many more tasty witches out there, spurring his imagination.

That leather-clad motorcyclist ahead of him was decidedly quite a scorcher...

-o-

It felt good to feel the power of a solid V-engine roaring underneath her, and it didn't take long until they reached the outskirts of London. Raven didn't know where she was but then she crossed that bridge and realized where her heart had taken her to, although she failed to fathom why.

It touched her to see that there were still fresh flowers, to know that he wasn't forgotten yet, when she stopped her bike at the foot of a sycamore tree, dismounted it, and waited for Sirius to catch up with her.

-o-

In the light of his headlights, Sirius was watching her shapely form. Her backside was still looking formidable, but soon he regretted having focussed on that alone when all of a sudden she turned around to aim her wand at him.

He realized he shouldn't have been that taken in by her female allures- after all, there was a war going on in the wizarding world, and he had followed that witch from a shady place in Knockturn Alley to the outskirts of London... to an even shadier place perhaps,

And yet, he didn't fear to encounter a pretty witch clad in black leather. It was actually more exciting than frightening, even though she was aiming her wand at him. But that only added to the excitement he felt after their race through London and he was decidedly more curious to eventually figure out her identity.

Alas, she made no attempt to take off her bloody helmet.

"Who are you?" He wondered aloud, eyeing her from head to toe without gathering much information from that. She was a witch. And most likely she wasn't a Death Eater because those pure-blood supremacists wouldn't ever choose the disguise of a Muggle motorcyclist just to kill him on a lonely Muggle road. Therefore, he was safe.

"My identity is none of your concern," Raven replied, again with an altered voice.

Although Sirius was certain that the witch wasn't totally unfamiliar to him and that he knew her from somewhere (he knew a lot of witches) he didn't recognise the voice.

"Ah, don't be so modest, darling, tell me your name."

"My name doesn't matter."

"Why don't you at least take off that helmet. I'm sure you're pretty enough to not hide behind it."

Raven ignored his poor flattery. "Shut up and prick up your ears now 'cause I'll tell you only once and won't repeat myself-"

"You are a bit... touchy, aren't you?"

"-I'm not the only spy in this game," Raven continued unfazed. "There is someone among the members of your prodigious Order of the Phoenix who is passing information to the Dark Lord. I don't know who it is so you'd better be on the look-out. Don't trust anyone but Dumbledore. Don't even tell your friends. Remember how high the stakes are in this war."

Sirius seemed to ponder her words; for the first time since she knew him he wore a serious expression on his face. "Why should I trust you?"

"I assume you told Dumbledore to not send the Prewett brothers to that mission in York because that was supposed to be just a set-up. A larger group of Order members went there and nothing happened at all, no Death Eater showed up. Then there was an alleged emergency in Wolverhampton and the Prewetts Apparated headlong into an ambush by the very same group of Death Eaters which had been planning to kill them in York, and this time they succeeded. If you believe that to be a coincidence, forget about my warning and just carry on. But if you think I'm right, you better keep a sharp eye on every member of the Order since one of them is passing information to the Dark Lord. "

Brooding, Sirius took in his surroundings and realized that this place was not quite as shady as it had appeared first; he now noticed the flowers that someone had placed at the foot of a tree. Was it a memorial? He came to the conclusion that the motorcycle-witch must have led him to a place she considered- well, if not sacred then at least neutral grounds.

Sirius glanced at her again, once more startled slightly by the thought that she did look vaguely familiar to him even though he couldn't quite able to put his finger on where he might have seen her before. Was she a dancer at the Red Lantern? Her shapely body did approve to his theory, but he wanted to find out more about her and most of all her name.

"Alright. Well... so, assumed I believe you, what do you want me to tell Dumbledore? There's a spy in our ranks and greeting from- what was your name again?"

Oh, he was clever; she had to give him that. But he wasn't clever enough to catch her off-guard.

"I told you all you need to know. My name doesn't matter. Now please do me a favour and piss off, before I have to hex you."

It took her by surprise that he actually mounted his bike and kick-started its engine without asking any more questions that she wouldn't answer anyway.

Raven watched him ride away, back the road they had came from, and only a little later she was alone in the darkness and silence of the night. She got down on her knees and Summoned a couple of sunflowers from a nearby field to place them at the foot of the sycamore tree.

-o-

The Red Lantern was buzzing more than ever when the summer holidays began and curious Hogwarts students came to visit. In the first days of that rush, Henri was busy checking if they were of age, but soon he became lenient- provided, of course, they had enough Galleons to spend.

Money had never been Regulus' problem; the Blacks were one of the wealthiest families in the wizarding world and so he became a regular patron of the Red Lantern. He liked to meet his friends there. Alas, it was inevitable that he also ran into his brother since Sirius was still wooing Wilda.

The Black brothers hardly ever glanced at each other and even less would they exchange a word in public. They tried to ignore each other as much as possible since Sirius was actively fighting the beliefs of his parents while Regulus tried to please them and was still eager to make his way within Lord Voldemort's fraternity of pure-blood supremacists.

When they met, they quarrelled. Never in front of others but always in the bathroom, and that was unfortunately next to Raven's wardrobe, so she often heard them. Or, to be more precise, she heard Sirius harassing his little brother with Gryffindor morality... which was quite absurd. He really seemed to be thinking that he was the height of decency and integrity only because a ragged old hat had Sorted him into Gryffindor house, when in fact he was just a mean bully with a nice bum. And when he ran out of sensible arguments, he simply raised his voice.

Usually, Regulus was the more sophisticated of them. At least he never yelled. When he had enough of his brother's rants, he just walked away, knowing that Sirius wouldn't dare to continue their argument in the company of others.

Nevertheless, it appeared to Raven that the brothers must have loved each other a lot once, and probably they still did. Both of them didn't seem happy about their fights but none of them would ever admit that.

Wilda was always there to comfort Sirius after an encounter with Regulus; she was a very compassionate person. She called him her Prince Charming and wouldn't listen to anyone criticising him. Instead, she was still dreaming of a white wedding.

"That's an idiotic thing to believe in," Randy said in an attempt to shatter the naïve girl's hopes. "We're here to turn them on but we're just whores to them and none of the fine guys wants to marry a whore."

"You're a whore, Randy, but I am not." Wilda snapped. "Sirius says he loves me and he will marry me."

"Awww, isn't that sweet?" Lettie gushed. She was just as romantic as Wilda only that she was waiting for her Death Eater prince- the blood on his hands didn't seem to matter as long as the blood in his veins was pure and he was rich.

Raven thought that Lettie's chances were more realistic than Wilda's since she very much doubted that Sirius Black would marry only to get laid.

-o-

When Wilda didn't show up for work some weeks later, nobody thought much about it. Henri was mad at her but the girls were just cracking jokes, jesting that Wilda had to prepare her wedding and was too busy to go to work.

Three more nights passed and still there was no sight or note from Wilda. Henri decided to send her an owl saying that she was sacked but the owl returned with the message undelivered. Now Henri was fuming while Raven started to worry about Wilda. It wasn't in her character to not appear at work without asking for a day off; she was actually quite a reliable person.

"Perhaps she secretly married Sirius and is on honeymoon now," Lettie suggested with a loud sigh since Black hadn't been seen at the Red Lantern either.

"Never," Raven replied. "Black wouldn't marry just to have sex, no matter how keen he is on virgins."

"Oh, but Wilda's not a virgin anymore." Randy interjected casually

Raven stared at her. "You mean she...?"

"Yep. Didn't you notice? Of course, she didn't tell me but I just know that he already deflowered her couple of weeks ago."

"Were you watching?" Lettie asked breathlessly.

"No, silly. I simply noticed the change."

Now that Randy mentioned it, Raven grasped what she was hinting at and indeed, Wilda had been... different lately. It was in the way she moved- as if she was more aware of her own sexuality, and she had also been more confident. It even made sense that she believed Black would marry her. But he wouldn't. He had achieved what he wanted and now it was only a matter of time until he got tired of her-

"Damn! Girls, I guess Black ditched her and poor Wilda is crying her eyes out now."

"Oh no!" Lettie cried out; she positively looked as if she had been ditched, too, and her own little fairytale world was shattered to pieces. "But he wanted to marry her."

"No," Raven corrected, "she wanted him to marry her."

"Never trust the promises of a bloke 'cause they only want to get into your knickers," Randy said dryly.

"We have to pay Wilda a visit. After all, we're her friends."

Raven and Randy were staring at Lettie as if she had just grown a second head. Friends? They were working together but that was all. Nevertheless, it couldn't hurt to check on Wilda, so the girls agreed on visiting her the next day before they had to be at the Red Lantern.

-o-

Wilda was living in a shabby looking house at the far end of Diagon Alley; she had moved in when she started working at the Red Lantern. She didn't want her parents to know what she was doing for a living since she stemmed from a pure-blooded but unfortunately impoverished (due to the gambling habits of her late grandfather) family.

That was all Raven knew about Wilda although they were working together for almost a year now. After all, they were just colleagues and most certainly not friends.

She was climbing up the steep staircase leading to Wilda's flat on the top floor, followed by Lettie and Randy. No one was speaking, all that was to be heard was the creaking of the wooden stairs. Suddenly, Raven felt a strange sort of foreboding.

It was too silent. And there was a rather... foul smell in the air; one that couldn't be blamed on the age of the house or its sorry state. It wasn't the scent of dust or of rotting wood- that was to be expected in an old house- but it was the scent of death.

Raven didn't even bother to knock at the door; she knew already that Wilda wouldn't answer it. Instead, she drew her wand and used an Alohomora spell to get in.

"You can't just walk in!" Lettie chided her before she let out a shrill shriek.

Although Raven had half-expected it, she nevertheless wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted her. Wilda was lying motionless in the middle of the sparsely furnished room, in a puddle of dried blood.

She gestured Lettie and Randy to stay behind. "Don't touch anything."

Lettie turned around and vomited on the stairs. Raven was feeling slightly nauseous too but that was mingled with excitement. She was at a possible crime scene and here was her chance to made good use of the things she had learned from her books on Auror training.

"Is she dead?" Randy asked. At least she managed to keep her cool.

Raven approached Wilda's body to check if she was really dead even though the amount of blood she had lost was proof enough for the obvious. It cost her quite an effort to actually touch the dead body but when she did so she noticed that Wilda's skin was cold, and apparently rigor mortis had already dissipated.

"I guess she died at least two or tree days ago."

"How do you know?"

"Watching Quincy and reading books on Auror training."

"What's a Quincy?"

Raven wasn't in the mood to explain Randy what a television series was, and Randy didn't try to dig deeper. It didn't matter anyway.

"Do you think Black killed her?"

Raven shook her head no. She would not put murder past Black since he had already proven what he was capable of in fifth year, when he had tried to kill Severus with the help of a werewolf and Dumbledore had decided that the attempted murder was just a prank gone wrong. But this was a different case. There were no visible marks of violence on Wilda's body; nobody had butchered her. All the blood she was lying in seemed to have its origin somewhere between her legs.

Raven lifted up Wilda's robes to see if her guess was right.

"We have to call the Aurors or hit wizards or... whoever." Lettie moaned from the stairway.

For a moment Raven thought she would have to join Lettie in the stairway, puking her guts out in loyal colleagueship because the sight was not pretty. She tried hard to keep control as she aimed her wand at the solid lumps of blood sticking on the floor, muttering a Homenum Mortuus Revelio spell. A tiny green spark confirmed her suspicion. Still, she didn't want to jump to a conclusion. Until she spotted a small vial that must have escaped Wilda's dead hands. Carefully she picked it up and sniffed at it; alas, the smell was unfamiliar to her.

"What's that?" Randy, who had been watching her with interest, asked.

"Dunno." Raven shrugged and handed the vial to Randy for her to take a sniff at it. "Any idea?"

Randy wrinkled her nose. "Yep. It's an illegal Abortion Potion."

Raven had already guessed so. She now had a vague idea of what had possible happened here. Wilda had found out she was pregnant but when she told the wonderful news to Sirius, he was not overwhelmed with joy and did not propose to her. Instead, he broke up with her... because he didn't want to be bound, didn't want to take the responsibility for his doings (something he had never learned, given that there was always Dumbledore to fucking overindulge him) and poor Wilda had seen no other way out of her dilemma but to purchase an illegal potion and down it...

She glanced at Randy who seemed to have been speaking of her own experience when she identified the potion.

The former whore just shrugged. "We all used it when we forgot to perform the contraception charm. No punter wants to shag a pregnant whore, and that stuff' isn't lethal if you follow the instructions ."

"Do you think she accidentally took an overdose?"

Meanwhile, Lettie started sobbing as if her heart was breaking due to Wilda's death.

"Knowing silly Wilda, she might have thought that drinking all of it would solve her little problem more thoroughly." Randy replied with a shrug, and that was also the conclusion the Magical Law Enforcement wizards came up with when they showed up a little later. They barely glanced at Wilda while already filling out her death certificate that stated 'accidental overdose of Abortion Potion' as cause of death.

It was only half the truth, through. If they had looked around more closely, they would have found the letters. One was from Sirius, saying he was ending his relationship with Wilda because he was 'not ready to get married yet'. The other one was from Wilda but she hadn't posted it; it was addressed to Sirius Black. She accused him of having lied to her because he had made her believe he would marry her and only because of that she had given herself to him, and she couldn't live with the shame any longer; she couldn't live without Sirius.

Raven rolled her eyes at that. She had almost thought that she was a fool when it came to love, so it was a relief to see that others were much worse. Still, it was idiotic to try and force a wizard into marriage by not using contraceptive spells and getting pregnant; it was even more idiotic to commit suicide because of that. On the other hand, Wilda was a silly girl for hoping to find the love of her life in a place for erotic entertainment. And yet, it wasn't all Wilda's fault alone. Black was to blame because he had given her puppy eyes just to get her into his bed.

What would Rita Skeeter make of this story? Raven wondered as she clandestinely slipped the letters into the pocket of her jeans. Yes, she knew she was abstracting evidence from a crime scene. But if the Aurors had been more thorough, they could have found them. Instead, they had appeared rather bored upon realizing that they were not dealing with some sinister magic, that there was no Dark Mark hovering in the sky above the house.

Their bad. Raven wouldn't run to them since they didn't want her anyway, and she was quite content to have some sort of... leverage against Sirius Black. It might come in handy one day.

-o-

Henri was such a greedy git. All he seemed to care about was the jingling of coins in his cash register. After hearing of Wilda's death he had cursed and complained that now he would have to find another dancer, and then he wanted to go back to business as usual. His remaining dancers, however had protested. Lettie was close to a nervous breakdown and Raven just glared at him until he gave in. So in respect for Wilda he decided to offer no entertainment that night- meaning the Red Lantern was open and serving drinks but the dancers were not available.

On the other hand, he did have his moment of generosity. Knowing that Wilda's parents were impoverished, he arranged a nice funeral for their daughter and bore the expenses. Not without making the sad event an advertising campaign for the Red Lantern, of course. Rita Skeeter was invited to take pictures of a coffin that carried the Lantern's logo, and she wrote a sappy story about a young girl whose life had ended much too soon due to a tragic accident.

No one but Raven noticed the big black stray dog that seemed to be watching the funeral from the distance. She would have loved to catch him and take him to a Muggle vet in order to neuter him, just like Severus had suggested when Raven had told him how Wilda had died. Alas, the beast had disappeared faster than she could recall the curse that forced an Animagus to keep his animal form.

-o-

Black actually possessed the nerve to show up at the Red Lantern a few days later, lounging as casually in his plushy arm-chair as if nothing had ever happened, as if Wilda hadn't died because of him. And Henri was back to his greedy self, smiling at the bastard while taking his order for a bottle of champagne and three glasses, because tonight Black was in company of the werewolf and the creep.

Raven thought about quitting her job. She didn't want to become wanking material for neither Lupin nor Pettigrew's sick fantasies since she doubted that either of them got laid recently. Or ever at all..

Then the door opened again and Regulus Black walked in, accompanied by his Death Eater friends Wilkes, Rosier and Avery. They glared at the three Gryffindors and chose a table as far away from them as possible. There was so much hostility lingering in the air between them that it almost seemed to manifest itself and become solid, like a big dark cloud of trouble. Although there had never been any fights between Death Eaters and Order members before, this night might bring a change and mark a new area.

Fortunately, that never happened. Instead of quarrelling, the adversary parties were watching in fascination the rise of a new star when Samantha took on dancing. She was the replacement for Wilda, and although she lacked her sweetness, she was decidedly quite a looker with her dark skin, endless legs and huge boobs. Soon, Wilda was forgotten and Henri was happy because hiring Sammy proved to have been sort of a lucky pull.

Nevertheless, no night would ever go without the Black brothers quarrelling when they met at the Red Lantern, and once again this took place in the gents bathroom.

Raven was just enjoying a break in her wardrobe when she heard Sirius getting loud again. Later, she couldn't recall what it was exactly that he said to drive her up the wall (most likely he was complaining about Regulus' friends and their morality) but she was positively fuming. The nerve he possessed! She drew her wand and entered the bathroom.

Regulus' eyes grew wide as she came rushing in and grabbed Sirius by the collar of his robes, her wand directed at his head. Unlike Regulus, he hadn't seen her coming since he had been standing with his back to the door.

"You will leave now," she hissed into his ear as she dragged him out of the bathroom down the corridor leading to the back door. Regulus wanted to follow, but she shot him a sharp glance. "That's not your business any longer, Blackie. Go back into the bar and have fun with your friends."

Then she shoved Sirius out of the back door. Until that moment he had been too perplex to protest or struggle against her manhandling him, but now he whirled around with his wand in his hand.

"Expelliarmus!"

Perhaps there had been no need to use the disarming charm because his wand would have clattered to the ground anyway due to his obvious surprise.

"You?"

"A very astute observation." There was a slightly mocking tone in her voice but her eyes were cold as ice as she regarded him with undisguised disgust.

"You were also the hot chick on the motorbike." Sirius concluded, and the spark of lust flickering up in his eyes sickened Raven even more. "You're the-"

"Shut. Your. Bloody. Gob! You will not tell anyone. Not verbally, not mentally, not in written form or via those two-way mirrors of yours. Do I make myself clear?"

He nodded, still being kind of gobsmacked, but one could see that her was already thinking about a way of spreading the news to Potter and Dumbledore.

"Don't even think about it," Raven warned him. She was quite good at figuring him out since Sirius Black was simply no Occlumens; he hadn't yet learned to occlude his mind and every emotion was showing in his features. Leaning closer to him she hissed, "If you dare to tell any bloody fucking soul that it's me who's passing information, then the whole wizarding world will find out about you and Wilda."

Sirius shrugged. "So what? We had an affair and as far as I know, that's not illegal-"

"You played a very foul game with her; you seduced her in the false pretence that you'd marry her. You got her pregnant and abandoned her when you found out. You're the reason she committed suicide."

"You don't have any proof for that." Sirius interjected in quite a cocksure way. "She wanted me. Get used to that fact I'm a very desirable man."

"You're just a bloody wanker that can't keep his wand to himself. A shabby stray. By the way, Wilda kept all your letters, did you know that?"

He paled before he tried to launch at her, but since he was momentarily wandless, Raven managed to get the upper hand on him and sent him to the ground with a Revulsion Jinx.

"Oh no, you can't possibly think I'd be so stupid to carry those letters with me? They're at a safe place but they will be made public the very moment anything happens to me. Now, what will Dumbledore think of you once he finds out that you're the one who's responsible for Wilda's death? Will he still call it a prank gone wrong? Will he still make excuses for you and your prodigious friends, knowing that you, Potter and Pettigrew are unregistered Animagi? Will he still be lenient towards you, knowing you fooled him for years and abused the trust he always had in you, while you and your cronies were merely thinking about having fun, even if that resulted in endangering those he promised to protect? Oh and does dear Lily know that one of her beloved husband's dear friends is a werewolf?"

"Leave her out of it," Black barked as he picked up his wand, brandishing it wildly as he got to his feet.

Raven wasn't impressed. She briefly wondered whether he cared about Lily herself or just because she was Potter's wife, but in the end that didn't matter. It simply felt too freaking good to finally being able to exercise control over at least one fourth of the Marauders. "Ah, you seem to be a bit… touchy today."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to stay away from the Red Lantern for good, and that's not a request- it's an order. Consider yourself a persona non grata. If you feel itchy, go to a whore or buy yourself a flea collar. But most of all I want you to keep your bloody mouth shut."

"Alright. I promise I won't tattle your little secret. Will you please give me these letters?" He gave her his best puppy eyes but what usually worked wonders with others failed to find favour with her; she really was a cunning Slytherin bitch.

"Dream on, Black. I don't trust you even half as far as I can throw you, therefore I find it quite agreeable to still have an ace up my sleeve."

"Agreeable? That's blackmail!"

"Well, I'd rather call it precaution," Raven said with a saccharine smile.

Sirius Black was clever enough to realise when he was at his wit's end since there seemed to be no way to sway Raven Lestrange- she was just so very stubborn! It aroused him just as much as it appalled him. He knew she had him by the balls because of his stupid infatuation with Wilda and he promised himself to never again mess around with virgins. They weren't worth all the effort and energy it needed to get laid; and then they tended to become much too clingy for his liking, scaring him with words like marriage and family when all he wanted was to have a little fun. Besides, sex was so much more fun with an experienced witch anyway.

All of a sudden, they both spun around with their wands at the ready due to a suspicious sound coming from the back door of Red Lantern- the scratching sound that dragon- hide boot soles made when cautiously shuffling around. Was there somebody eavesdropping on their conversation?