Sorry it's taken so long, but my one shots can't be that terrible, can they? Anyway, here's 21 for those of you still interested.

Carina awoke half hanging from the loveseat, head and left arm both dangling. Her feet were propped up, funnily enough, on top of Harry's side; he himself was still curled in a ball, sleeping quite soundly, and did not seem to notice.

She snorted and stretched, yawning as she carefully sat up. It had to be rather early, considering the sun hadn't even risen yet, so she made her way to the kitchen to fix herself a cup of coffee, thankful her father kept it around before. She definitely wasn't going to trust Kreacher to make it without poisoning it or making it taste terrible out of spite, for he had never been particularly fond of her.

Carina leaned back against the counter with a sigh, taking a long drink from the mug.

She had certainly gotten herself into a mess, hadn't she? It was possible that during their hiding and the war that she could be killed, and though her prime instinct was to survive, she found that she didn't care if she died. If she did, she did. One of her only reasons for living was sleeping in the drawing room, completely unaware of any feelings had for her, and it was going to be kept that way until she was sure Hermione felt the same.

Like that could ever happen, though. She rolled her eyes. She's too hung up on Ron, though I can't see why.

She set the empty mug in the sink for Kreacher to find and made her way back to the drawing room to see if anyone was awake; they weren't. Or, rather, Ron and Hermione weren't. Harry was gone, though she had a feeling she knew where he was.

After a moment of standing in the doorway, Carina suddenly noticed how Hermione's hand was dangling from the couch, fingertips brushing the floor and only mere millimeters from Ron's.

She flinched, a curse escaping her lips before she could help it.

That just made my morning, she thought sarcastically, and with a now sour mood, made her way up the stairs with her wand tip lit.

She slipped into her father's room and noticed how everything was scattered about, and Harry was crouched on the floor, a torn piece of parchment in his hands.

"Hopefully you didn't make this mess," she drawled, making him jump slightly and fall back onto his rear. "I'd have to curse you, and it wouldn't be pretty."

"No," replied Harry quickly, shaking his head. "It was like this when I came in. And look—" He held up the parchment, and then motioned to the also torn photograph beside him. "—I found this. It's a letter from my mum, and a picture…"

Her interest was piqued, and Carina knelt beside him to examine the letter and photo—she could see why he would want to find the rest. He did not have much of his mother's besides her eyes, and it was clear it was very important to him that he find the rest.

"Someone took the letter." He glanced up at her with a frown. "And the picture."

"But why would they only want half?"

"I don't know." She shrugged and passed them back to him. "But whatever you're hoping to find, it isn't here."

They were both silent for a moment, before they could hear a familiar, rather worried voice calling for them, "Harry? Carina?"

"We're here!" he called back. "What's happened?"

There was a clatter of footsteps outside the door, and Hermione burst inside.

"We woke up and didn't know where you were!" she said breathlessly. She turned and shouted over her shoulder, "Ron, I've found them!"

Ron's annoyed voice echoed up from several floors below. "Good! Tell them from me they're gits!"

Carina tuned out the scolding Harry was currently receiving and got to her feet, slipping from the room without their notice and making her way down the hall, intent on escaping to see if the rest of the house had been as disturbed as her father's room.

However, something on one of the doors stopped her, and she turned to study it.

Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black

She could have hit herself just then. R.A.B., Regulus Arcturus Black! She had been told some about him from Sirius, but she had completely forgotten about her mysterious uncle until now, and it was fairly easy to draw conclusions.

"Hermione," she called evenly. "Come here."

Harry was nowhere to be found—she assumed he had gone downstairs to check on Ron—but Hermione came out of her father's room to stand by her side.

"What is it?"

"R.A.B. I've found him." Carina gestured to the initials. "Regulus Arcturus Black."

"Sirius's brother?" Hermione whispered, seeming shocked by their new revelation as she clutched Carina's arm tightly.

"My uncle," the other girl nodded soberly in confirmation. "Dad told me about him. He joined in when he was our age, but then seemed to realize what he had gotten himself into and tried to leave. But he couldn't, because they killed him."

"That fits!" The bookworm gasped. "If he was a Death Eater he had access to Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring Voldemort down!" She released Carina, leaned over the banister and yelled, "Harry, Ron! Get up here, quick!"

The two appeared a minute later, Ron panting and his wand drawn. Harry did not seem nearly as breathless, and his wand was gripped loosely in his hand; he had seemed to realize that there was no danger here, not now.

"What's up?" questioned Ron. "If it's massive spiders again I want breakfast before I—"

He was cut off by Carina, who had by this point grown impatient, "We found R.A.B. And yes, I'm sure. No—" She glanced at Harry sharply. "—you can't invade his room." His hand dropped from the doorknob, and he appeared embarrassed.

"How do we know it's really him though?" Ron frowned at her. "We can't be sure unless we look." He reached for the doorknob, but she stepped directly in front of it so that his hand was forced to stop millimeters from her abdomen.

"No," she repeated firmly, attempting to keep a handle on her rising temper. Something about that boy riled her up more than ever now, but if she reacted the way she wanted one of them would be taking a tumble down the stairs and more than likely breaking their necks. "He's dead, he is my uncle, and this is my house. I get the say in what you do, and you will not open that door."

Regulus Black may have been a Slytherin, may have been a Death Eater, but in the end he had tried to do some sort of good and through all his faults and his mistakes, somewhere deep down her father had loved his brother. He had loved James more, but his brother was his flesh and blood and he had cared for him; besides, she figured Regulus wouldn't have liked a bunch of people invading his room, anyway. He deserved at least some respect.

She stood there for a few moments as they both stared the other down, and eventually she won out as Ron looked away.

"I'll go see if there's anything for breakfast."

With those words, he walked off, and after a few moments Harry followed, shooting her an apologetic look; Hermione stayed.

Carina slumped against the door now that they were gone. "That went well."

"Better than I expected," commented Hermione. "I thought you were going to curse each other."

"Possibly," the raven haired girl acknowledged, not bothering to deny it considering her first impulse had been to shove the boy down the stairs.

"Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Hermione frowned worriedly. "I heard you this morning. You were cursing about something…"

Carina inwardly groaned. Of course she'd be partially awake.

"Just tripped, that's all." She did not even bat an eye at the lie. "Too dark to see straight."

"Oh," the bookworm nodded in understanding and glanced down the stairs as the smell of bacon floated up to them. "Shall we?"

With a silent nod, Carina followed her down the stairs, eyes planted firmly ahead as she went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After breakfast, the questioning of Kreacher about the mysterious locked was not going well. The tale of her uncle's death was tragic, and it was obvious it hit the house elf hard.

Carina was feeling a bit sorry for him, that is, until Hermione attempted to hug him and he recoiled, obviously repulsed.

"The Mudblood touched Kreacher, he will not allow it, what would the Mistress say?"

"The Mistress told you not to call her that," snarled Carina, temper flaring, but he was already punishing himself. He fell to the ground and banged his forehead on the floor repeatedly.

She may have been all for house elf rights and such, but that did not mean she felt that he deserved this somewhat. After all, she had forbidden him from saying such things and he had done it anyway, and it was partly his fault her father had been killed, anyway. If he had just told them Sirius was home two years ago and went to fetch him, maybe he would still be alive…

"Stop him!" cried Hermione, distressed. "Don't you see how sick it is, the way they've got to obey?"

"Kreacher, stop!" shouted Harry, causing Kreacher to hesitate for half a second before he resumed his bashing. "Stop!"

He can't recognize Harry as his master because I've got Black blood, Carina realized. My ties to everything here are stronger than his, even though he's my father's godson.

Hermione's further anguished face caused her to growl to herself, before she commanded sharply, "Kreacher, stop that. Now."

The brunette gave her a disapproving look, so she looked away.

The elf lay on the floor, shivering and attempting to draw in breaths as mucus glistened around his nose, a bruise already forming on his forehead; his bloodshot eyes were shining with tears.

It was disgusting, if not rather pitiful.

"You brought the locket back," she continued, brows furrowing as she clamped down on her inner frustration. "And you tried to destroy it, but you failed. Right?"

"Yes," moaned Kreacher. "Tried everything, Kreacher did, but nothing would work, so many powerful spells upon it...Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but he did not know how….Kreacher tried and tried, and he punished himself each time he failed, because no matter what he did, he could not obey orders, could not destroy the locket! And his mistress was mad with grief, and Kreacher could not tell because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave…"

Too late for that.

The elf began to sob so hard that he could no longer form coherent sentences, much less words, and Hermione watched with tears streaming down her cheeks, but did not touch him again; Carina shook the urge to crawl to her side and merely shifted on her knees. Even Ron appeared quite troubled, and he was not a fan of the elf himself. Harry merely shook his head, appearing puzzled.

"I don't understand you, Kreacher," he said finally. "Voldemort tried to kill you, Regulus tried to bring him down, but you were still alright betraying Sirius to Voldemort? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information off to them…"

"Harry, he doesn't think like that," said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. The other girl's eyes followed the movement, and she clenched her fist by her side. "He's a slave; house elves are used to brutal treatment, so what Voldemort did wasn't that unusual for him. Wizarding wars mean nothing to him—he's only loyal to those who are kind to him, and the others must have been…" Carina, who had been too busy studying said elf, did not hear a word they said until, "I've said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat their house elves. Well, Voldemort did….and so did Sirius."

Harry seemed to be at a loss for words, and Carina was gritting her teeth so hard she could feel a stabbing pain.

Don't do it, don't do it, don't say anything…you'll only make the situation worse if you say anything and it'll only upset her more…

She balled up her fists and managed to grind out, "Kreacher, when you've calmed down, please sit up." It was several minutes before Kreacher was finally silenced, and he sat up, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles like a small child. "Alright." She took a moment to let out a breath, taking care not to snap or snarl as her voice evened. "I need you to find Mundungus Fletcher and bring him here. We need to find out where the locket is and get it back so that we can destroy it, so that Uncle Regulus didn't die for nothing."

"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" Kreacher croaked, dropping his arms. "For Master Regulus?"

"Yes. For Uncle Regulus." She paused to feel a tap on her shoulder, and found Harry holding out the fake locket, emerald eyes flickering to Kreacher. She sighed, but nevertheless took it. "Here. This was his, and we think you should have it." When the elf burst into tears again and began to babble as he accepted the locket with wide, watery eyes, she found that she could not stand the crying anymore—it made her uncomfortable. "Alright, alright, you're welcome. Now, get to Mundungus."

He nodded furiously and disappeared with a crack, causing her to sink to the floor in relief.

"Good," she murmured, leaning against a cabinet and closing her eyes. "He's gone."

"Boys, can you give us a moment?" said Hermione suddenly. There were noises of protest-mainly from Ron-but it seemed as though the girl won out when the footsteps of the boys faded. "I'm sorry." Carina opened one eye to peer over at her, before closing it again. "Carina, I am. I didn't mean...I didn't mean to make it sound like Sirius deserved to die. He didn't, I cared for him too, so of course I'd never wish that for him, but…"

"Karma."

"Yes." There was a soft exhale of breath. "Karma."

Both gray eyes snapped open with some surprise to regard the brunette who had—she assumed—scooted over to lean against the cabinet beside her. "You're not going to rave at me for not being nicer to Kreacher?"

"I've found that, when it comes to you, raving won't work." Hermione turned her head to meet the younger witch's gaze. "But you could have been, you know."

"I know." Carina did not deny it. "Is that all you wanted to say?"

"I suppose so. Unless there's anything you'd like to talk about?"

"No." She could hear Ron and Harry speaking to one another in the next room quite loudly, and could make out Ron saying determinedly, "Well, I'm going to go check it out since Hermione's got her busy."

"Ron," tried Harry. "I wouldn't—Ron—"

His efforts were useless, it seemed, if the footsteps on the stairs were any indication.

He's headed for Regulus's room!

Carina scrambled to her feet and sprinted from the room, ignoring Hermione's confused call as she took the stairs two at a time, moving as fast as she could. Ron was almost up the stairs, and she jumped up the last few and tackled him, knocking him to the ground.

"Bloody hell!" he cried, struggling enough that she was nearly flung away. Instead, Carina attempted to gain hold of his wrists—it was difficult. He was not only larger than she, but stronger as well. "Get off!"

With an irritated growl, Carina grabbed his head in both hands and slammed it onto the floor, causing the boy to cease his movements with a grunt of pain.

"I told you not to come up here," she hissed, eyes boring into his. "You forget, I've got superior senses."

"I only wanted to check it out so we can be positive!" Ron scowled up at her and pushed her off him, causing her to roll to the floor. She dove back on top of him before he could sit himself up. "Seriously?!"

"Yes, seriously." She put a hand on his throat and squeezed warningly.

"Carina!"

"Ronald."

"Fine, fine—you can let me up now—"

"—oh, can I?" Carina nevertheless stood and then drew her wand, turning to the door and ignoring the way the boy had scrabbled about for his own. She ran her wand along the length of the door, and it glowed a faint red for a moment before dissipating.

"What was that?"

She turned to face him, returning her wand to its proper place and crossing her arms. "Don't open the door and you'll never have the misfortune of finding out."

He huffed, and they could hear Hermione calling them both from the bottom of the stairs.

"Go on," Carina told him. He shot her a look, but nevertheless made his way down the stairs, and she watched him for a few moments before shaking her head.

Idiot.

She hopped onto the railing an expertly slid down, before skidding across the first landing and onto the second railing in expert time; continuing this pattern twice more, she finally landed in the first floor hall.

She did not expect to slide across the floor and into Harry, sending them both flying backward and leaving them tangled together on the floor.

Oops.

"Er, Carina?" said Harry, looking rather uncomfortable.

The girl merely grunted in response and got to her feet, brushing herself off. She did not particularly care enough to help him up or apologize, so she instead found herself ignoring the others and made her way to the library to read while they waited for Kreacher.