"Aurora," the man said in a croak. That was him. That was her father. Her hand went to her wand and she raised it immediately, pointing it straight at his eyes.

"Don't you take another step," she snarled. She tried so hard to be menacing, but her fingers were trembling around the handle. She felt an awful lot like she was going to faint again, from sheer shock and terror. That was her father standing right in front of her. That was the first time she'd seen him in twelve years. No. No, that wasn't true. He - he had been right where that dog was. He was that dog. An Animagus. What.

She didn't know what she was thinking, holding a wand to him instead of running, Christmas presents be damned. She'd run back to the village and raise the alarm, tell them what happened, no one would blame her for a couple of lost Christmas presents.

But she wanted to stay. She wanted to stay for the anger that blazed stronger than any fear.

"Aurora," he repeated again, holding his hands up. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She let out a shrill, hysterical laugh. "Like I believe that! You make one wrong move and I'll make you wish you'd never left Azkaban."

"Look at you," he said with a madness in his eyes. "All grown up and threatening your dad." His voice fell to a whisper. "My little girl."

"I am not your little girl," she snapped. She told herself to do something, but she couldn't. This was the man who ruined her family, who let his younger brother die, who caused his parents so much grief, who turned his back on both his biological family and his chosen one, who led her mother to her death and... And she didn't even know what he was going to do to her. She'd imagined this moment before but now that it was here, she couldn't think of a single jinx or hex or curse, all coherent thought eaten up by fear and hatred. She felt her wand slipping between her shaky fingers. "I've nothing to do with you."

A twisted smile came over his lips. It was a horrid thing. "I said the same thing to my parents, once."

"I am not a blood traitor," she spat out, and he almost seemed to flinch. "I am nothing like you."

He raised his eyebrows, laughing. Her grip on her wand tightened but she seemed at a loss for what to say. "Aren't you?" He took another step forward and she took one back. "You look like Marlene."

Her heart seemed to plummet. "Is that right?" she asked shrilly, hot tears crowding her eyes. Stupid, she told herself. Hex him and run, spare the argument. But she wanted a fight. She wanted to yell herself hoarse at him. "Going to kill me too, then?"

Something like pain flashed through his eyes. "Aurora, I'm sorry—"

"Don't come near!" she shrieked, as he pressed forward. She ran through spells but she was too slow and she didn't know what to do. Her movements were sloppy, as her father caught her wrist.

"Keep your voice down," he said, and she immediately tried to scream. He clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. "Aurora, Aurora, please. I can explain everything."

"Murderer," she said, biting down on his palm.

He hissed and moved back, but her wand had already slipped from her hand. "Merlin, you don't give up, do you?"

"You're a murderer," she panted. She swung around wildly, clipping him across the cheek and he stumbled back. A burst of vindication went though her when she saw the red mark welling on his pale skin. "You — you — you killed her! You killed a dozen people!"

"I know," he said quietly, trying to take her wrist again. "Aurora, I know, but please listen, it isn't what you think."

"You just confessed!" She struggled against him, kicking against his shins.

"It wasn't like that!"

"You would say that!" Aurora shoved him off her, aiming a swift kick to the ankle. She scrambled on the ground for her wand, but he got there first, eyes meeting hers. His hand was clasped firmly on her wand.

"Aurora, it's my fault Marlene was killed. But I didn't — I would never have wanted that."

"So what? Your Death Eater buddies got out of hand?"

"No," he said, and there was desperation in his voice. "No. I wasn't a Death Eater, I was in the order. I was — I was loyal, Aurora! And I loved you and your mother!"

"Of course you'd say that," she spat, trying to wrestle his hand off her wand. For someone who had spent twelve years in Azkaban, he was surprisingly strong.

"I did. Aurora, I — I am so, so sorry."

"It's a bit late for any of that! I don't care!" His words to her mother rang in her ears: I love you.

"Please hear me out."

She shook her head. She didn't understand. He couldn't just appear twelve years after he murdered thirteen people and caused her mother's death and tell her she was wrong and expect her to listen. And yet, she didn't know how to walk away from this. She wanted to spit her fury at him all day long. "You..." Her skin prickled with discomfort. This felt so wrong. "If you're sorry, then why are you here? If you were hoping for a reconciliation, the family you turned your back on is dead already. If you're so sorry, why not leave me in peace and rot in Azkaban like you're meant to?"

She could tell that hurt him, and though part of her was glad to see that feeling hit his face like a slap, part of her wondered why those words could hurt so much. He didn't care about her. He'd proven that twelve years ago. He'd killed her mother and their best friends and he'd gone to Azkaban and if he was so sorry, if he gave a shit about her, he had never once proven that in her life.

"I have to protect you."

She let out a derisive laugh. "Protect me? You? You're a murderer and a blood traitor and I've survived twelve years without you, so I think I'm pretty capable of protecting myself!"

"What do you know of Peter Pettigrew?" he asked and her blood went cold.

"What?" Her mind reeled. "You killed him! You killed him like you killed my mother!"

The thought renewed her anger and shocked her out of her numbness. Aurora lunged forward, fists clenched and swinging for his chest.

"I didn't," he said desperately, hurrying backwards. "I thought I did, but I didn't."

"You're insane," she hissed, and his other hand took her wrist as she tried to catch him across the jaw.

"You're probably right." His voice was oddly heavy and his eyes held a twisted gleam. "But I promise I'm not going to hurt you. Aurora, can you trust me enough to believe that?"

She shook her head. "No!" She struggled to keep her breathing even, but she felt like she was going to be sick. "I should leave right now and tell McGonagall."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did," he replied, fingers tensing around her wand. "It's a natural reaction. But you haven't run away yet."

"I don't run away," she whispered back, fury rising.

"And I'm glad to hear it."

"I'll kill you myself."

A smile twisted his lips. "Ah, yes. I'm sure my dear old mother would love to look down and see that. Child turned on parent once again."

"You turned on my family long before I was born," she spat, nails scrabbling at the back of his wrist. She drew a spot of blood and felt a malicious thrill go through her at the sight. "And you're no more a parent to me than a stranger." Fury wrenched from her. "You're a blood traitor and you killed my mother! You're the worst of both!"

"Aurora, I—"

"Give me my wand!" She shoved him as hard as he could and alarm flashed across his features. "Give it to me now, or Merlin help me, I will find some other way to kill you!"

"Aurora, please listen to me!"

Aurora lunged forward, grasping for her wand. "You—"

"Aurora, I didn't kill Marlene! I didn't kill those twelve Muggles or Peter and I have no intention of doing you any harm!"

"Then give me my wand back!" When he didn't, she spat, "You liar."

"Aurora, please," his eyes seemed to swell, "I didn't kill her. It was the Death Eaters, I never intended — we were coming to save you!"

Those last words burst from him and Aurora paused, for a moment, and the new and strange wrench in her thoughts. Then her father got to his feet and she stumbled back, heart leaping into her throat. "Stay away!" she shrieked again, heart pounding. "You're a liar!"

"I'm not. I know you don't believe me, I know you've no reason to believe me—"

"Damn right I've no reason to believe you!"

"They took you!" His voice cut through the heavy air in something horrible like a sob. "They stole you to get to us. We had to save you, and they — they killed Marlene." His voice broke and Aurora went cold. "I was framed," he said, "Lily and James made me Secret Keeper, the Death Eaters needed information so they took you, but I never gave it to them. I got you back. We..." His shoulders slumped and his breathing became ragged as he stared straight into her eyes with that piercing gaze all her family possessed. "Aurora, you have every right to be upset. But please... You need to know the truth."

The truth. How on Earth was she supposed to know the truth? No one had ever told her the whole truth, she reckoned — and she certainly didn't trust her father to give her it. He was lying. She was sure of it. He was lying to her because he was a traitor, plain and simple — traitor to his blood, traitor to his house, traitor to his cause and even to his wife and his best friends. He had lied to them all.

Everything was his fault. Everything that was wrong in her life was, to her, in that moment, his fault. She made to lash out again. "You're a liar! You're a fucking liar!"

"Aurora." His eyes shone. "Aurora, please, listen—"

"No!" She swung for him, and he darted just out of the way.

"I know you're angry, but I swear, I'm not going to hurt you! Everything you've been told, it's all wrong, I loved your mother! I love you!"

"You don't know me!" she shouted, the sound ripping from her throat. "How can you possibly love me if you don't know me?"

"You're my daughter."

"I am nothing to you!" Her hands reached for his shoulders, to push him back. But he did nothing. He stood there, wide-eyed, pleading. "You don't know me! And I don't want to know you! You turned on our family! You broke my grandmother's heart." He said nothing. That enraged her further. She pushed forward. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Aurora, you don't understand."

"No! No, I don't understand! Why are you here?" She shoved his shoulders. "Why did you turn your back on the family, why did you turn traitor?" She pushed him down, so angry she might have been on fire. "Why won't you fight back, you fucking coward?"

"I don't want to fight you, Aurora," he whispered. He scrambled to sit up, but snow dusted his dark hair. "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm not here to hurt anyone but Peter Pettigrew—"

"Peter Pettigrew is dead!"

"No!" He caught her wrist. "Aurora, he's not. He should be, the little rat, but he's not. You're in danger."

"Says the murderer!" She made a dive towards his hand where her wand was still clasped. He dropped it into the snow.

"Take it," he told her breathlessly. "Take it. As proof I don't want to use it against you."

It was a trap. Had to be a trap. She trembled in the snow. "Why are you here?" she asked lowly, almost spitting the words. "If you don't want to hurt me, then why are you here? For Potter?"

"No," he said quickly. "No, it's.. You have to listen."

"I don't want to listen to you," she said, chest shaking. "You... You're mad."

She reached out to take her wand and he didn't stop her. Then, still shaking, still terrified, still furious, she got to her feet properly and aimed her wand directly at her father's chest. He sat, slightly slumped on the ground.

"If you want me to listen," she told him in a venomous voice, "then stay there and don't you dare come near me again."

Her father obliged with a slow and deliberate nod. It did little to ease the knot nerves in her chest. "Right. I don't trust you."

Blood traitor, death eater, treacherous scum, failure, murderer.

"You make one wrong move and I will bind you, stun you, and take you to the Dementors myself, do you understand?" Her father didn't seem to take her threats seriously at all, which only further infuriated her. She prodded her wand forwards, pushing it against the bob of his throat. "I said, do you understand?"

"Perfectly, Aurora." His voice came out strangled.

"Very well." She narrowed her eyes and did not lower her wand. "Explain."

Aurora's father seemed to be taking his time to think before he replied. Everything about this meeting disconcerted her, and yet... She couldn't bring herself to run. She replayed the names of her dead. They were the last Blacks standing. And she had never known everything. She remembered her childhood, how conversations would end with a snap if she brought him up, the scoldings she got from her grandmother if she spoke his name. She remembered how Arcturus told her, "We don't talk about him," and how Lucretia said, "That is not for polite conversation," and how she had stood in his old room at her old house and wondered how he had once lived there. She remembered being a child hungry for answers to satiate her confusion.

But she told herself she knew who he was. A madman, a blood traitor and a death eater and a fool. He wasn't important and he didn't care for her and she shouldn't care for him either; that was what she had always been taught. And yet.

He still looked like a madman, but she knew what caring looked like. His eyes were the same as her grandmother's and while her grandmother had been many things, she had cared. His eyes were the same as the eyes of her childhood, and all of a sudden she felt like a child, desperate only to know. But she couldn't trust him. There was no way.

"I can't deny I was to blame for Marlene's death," her father said slowly, pain in his eyes. "But it was never my intention. I was never in league with Voldemort."

She flinched at the name, fumbling for her wand. "Don't say it!" she hissed at her father, who grinned.

"I didn't think you'd be so scared of a name."

"Well, you don't know me, so I don't know how you could come to any conclusions about what I would and wouldn't be scared of." Her mind went back to that Boggart and she shivered, but even standing here she didn't feel quite so frightened. There was something in her father's eyes that hadn't been in that Boggart - kindness. That sort of scared her too. She couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't, because it looked genuine but it couldn't be. Her whole life she had been taught that it couldn't be.

"That night was one of the worst of my life," her father told her quietly. "I was so scared. They came for you, Aurora, trying to use you as — as bait. To get us to talk. We thought it was safe, only a few people knew where we were, but Peter — Peter gave us away. We should have known! We should have known they'd come for you! But... Marlene fought the Death Eaters with everything she had. It just wasn't enough." He sighed, grief etched in the lines of his face.

Her words caught in her throat. "What do you mean, they came for me?"

"They thought that by using you, they could get to us. They wanted me to give over the secret of where Lily and James were, because Voldemort—" Aurora hissed again "—he was trying to kill Harry."

"Don't say the name!" she told him fiercely. Then she frowned, trying to make sense of his words. "And you did tell them," she said bluntly. "You told them, I know you did! You were with them all along! Or — or you switched after that! It doesn't matter, you still did it!"

But he couldn't have told them then. Why, then, would the Dark Lord have waited until the end of October, when her mother had died in June? He had waited, she told herself. Waited until the right moment. "I didn't. That was Peter. I was Secret Keeper for the Potters at first, but then we changed. I was scared something like that might happen again, that they'd come for you and... if it was between your life and Harry's... I knew I would always save you."

"But..." She frowned. "I don't understand." Her mind went to the voice she heard whenever the Dementors came near. Stop, Sirius, they'll kill her. Please, stop! This is your fault! "What happened?"

She could tell from his eyes it was painful, but she had to know, and he needed to tell her if he wanted her to trust him at all. She still had no idea why the fuck he had broken out of jail. Or why he seemed to badly need to speak to her. She supposed they could be one and the same.

"Pettigrew told them I was the Potters' Secret Keeper. Voldemort was after Harry because of... this prophecy, that said he had the power to beat the Dark Lord... He wanted to destroy him."

"Potter?" She blinked. "Him specifically?" She had never known that part.

Her father nodded solemnly and looked away. "I never believed much in prophecy, but there you go. Do you study Divination?" The question was unexpected. She blinked, then shook her head. "Yeah, I always thought it was codswallop. But Voldemort clearly thought there was truth in it and so did Dumbledore, because he warned Lily and James and told them to go into hiding. The only person who was able to tell anyone their location was me, because of the Fidelius Charm."

"I've heard of that," Aurora said slowly.

"But when the Secret Keeper is killed, the charm breaks, and anyone who knows the location is able to tell anyone they want."

"So Pettigrew could tell the Dark Lord?"

Her father nodded grimly. "That's right. But they knew — Peter knew — that I wouldn't give that knowledge up willingly. So they came for ou instead. I don't know everyone who was there but I knew — I knew Bellatrix was. She led the charge. Said it would be good to wipe away the... The dirty blood, from the family." He looked down, shame-faced and Aurora felt her skin burning in anger. "If I didn't tell them where Lily and James were, they were going to kill you. I almost did it — I almost told them. For you. They took you, to the Lestranges. Marlene and I were all ready to go in and do whatever we needed to get you back, and then—" His voice cracked. "We got there and they killed her, and all I could do was take you and run. I had no idea what else they had done to you, you didn't stop crying for days. You were in pain, there... I knew there was some sort of curse but I didn't know what. I was in no fit state... Dumbledore came and he lifted the curse, but it — you still kept crying. For your mother. And they went after the McKinnons. They'd already been targets and we knew that, they'd already killed Dan, but they... They got all her family. Set the house on fire, took out half her neighbours in the street, too. All Muggles, of course." Tears leaked from his eyes and she knew then that this was genuine, and that this was hurting him. And she hated that — hated that he dared to tell her these things. "I was so scared, Aurora. But I had you, and that — that was all that kept me going. I couldn't even see Lily and James and Harry, Dumbledore said it was too risky..." He reached out and his hand rested on Aurora's shoulder. It was cold like the hand of a ghost but she didn't know how to shake him off, too stunned and numbed by what she was hearing. "But I had my little girl.

"I had the charm put on our house too. I couldn't risk it. I made James Secret Keeper. We were protecting each other, but I should have known it was foolish — and when we made Peter take it instead, and then... For months, it was just us. I didn't have anyone but you, I barely got to see James or Lily or Harry. I didn't know how to cope but I had to — for you. But when Peter..." She nodded in slow, wary understanding. "I knew it immediately. I could feel it. I knew I had to get you somewhere else, somewhere safer, and the only place I could think of to take you was the Longbottoms. I only meant to go for Harry, to take him from that house and see — see what was left. It was one of the worst mistakes of my life. Losing you."

"Don't cry," Aurora said, voice sharper than she meant it to be, for she was horrified at the sight of a madman - her father - breaking down in a clearing in the woods. He looked insane and deranged and everything else, but in with all of that, he looked heartbroken. He looked like he was grieving. It was an expression that she was horrified to recognise on her father's face.

His face twisted. "That's the family motto, isn't it? No crying. No emotion. No weakness." He spat on the ground. "Look where that got them."

"Don't you dare—"

"They took Harry from me. I didn't know what else to do so I went after Peter, and he fired off the curse that killed the Muggles — not me."

"So he killed himself?" She narrowed her eyes. "How do I know any of this is true? You could be lying to me." A voice told her he must be, but then she looked at him and though her heart still raged with the hatred of twelve years, she didn't understand how the monster she'd been taught about could possibly look so heartbroken. And he'd — he'd called the Dark Lord by name. None of his followers or supporters did that. But that didn't change anything else. It didn't change the fact he was a Blood Traitor, that he'd walked out on his family and broken their hearts, all for the sake of the Potters.

"If it's the truth then why did you let yourself be taken to prison when you had a child without a mother? A child who clearly needed you! You left me, remember!"

"I promise you," he said, breath coming in desperate gasps as he leaned forward, reached up towards her. "Aurora, I promise you this is the truth. But — but Pettigrew got away. I didn't realise at the time, I was too busy trying to find you and escape the Aurors, but then the Longbottoms were tortured and they told me you'd been given to my mother, of all people, and then..." That haunted look came into his eyes and he slowed. "They took me to Azkaban."

"Oh." Aurora swallowed. How the fuck was she meant to reply to that? How the fuck could he expect her to reply to that?

"I would have stayed there forever. You're my little girl but I thought... Maybe you'd be better off without me. I was a mess, I didn't know — how to cope, how to raise a child in the middle of that." Bitterness stirred in her heart. "They said they were trying to move you and my mother didn't want you, and that was good enough for me."

"Good enough?" she echoed. "What do you mean, good enough?"

"I wanted Andromeda to raise you, and I'm glad—"

"She didn't raise me," Aurora cut across sharply, realising with a jolt what he had insinuated. Her father blinked with his great, pale eyes. "I only moved in with Andromeda a year and a half ago!"

"But... Where did they put you?"

She stared at him. Had he really not thought they'd make her live with family? Non-disowned family? Her grandmother would never have let her live with a blood traitor and a muggleborn - and she never would have if Dumbledore hadn't stepped in. "I stayed with Grandmother," she said blankly. "But she died, so I moved in with Uncle Arcturus and then he..." She swallowed painfully. "He died, so I moved in with Aunt Lucretia, and then she died too so... Dumbledore convinced Andromeda to take me in."

"You — you lived with my mother?"

"Yes," she said coldly. She did not like his tone. "She raised me."

"My mother." He shook his head. "I can't believe Dumbledore let her take you in. My one request — one — was that you wouldn't have to live with her! With any of that family!"

"They're my family!" she snapped, shoving him away from her, into the ground. "Don't you dare talk about them in that tone!"

"They really took you in didn't they?" A sick and bitter look came over his face as he tried to move back towards her. "What did they tell you about me, hm? Of the traitor's blood you share? What did they say about me and Regulus?" He took one step upwards and that was enough to set off panic in Aurora's head.

"Stupefy!" she cried, and with a red light he was flung backwards into the snow, landing with a wince.

"Bloody hell, Aurora—"

"Don't come near me!" she shrieked. "Or I'll do it again!"

"I told you I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Don't talk about my family! You don't deserve to use their names! You left them, you betrayed me, and you betrayed everyone! Don't come near me!"

"Aurora, please." He sat up slowly, wincing in pain from his landing. Someone so skinny was easy to propel across a clearing. "Please, understand. I would never betray you."

"You did!" She snarled. "You left me! You didn't care!"

"Aurora, I love you—"

"You don't know me! You can't possibly love me, you don't even know me! You've no right to love me! Don't lie! Don't talk to me!"

"Please, I'm your father!"

Fury coursed through her. "No, you're not! You didn't raise me! I don't know whether you're lying or not but you're still a traitor! You still betrayed my family!"

"I am your family!"

"You're not! You're not! You can't say that!"

"Aurora, please, keep your voice down."

"Why? Why? Scared of a couple of little Dementors?"

His face went white. "Aurora. Please, don't do anything rash."

"Rash? Rash? Me, rash? You're a murderer, you broke out of prison to—" She blinked out of her rage for just a second, confused as she lost her words. To what? "Why?"

Her father seemed to take her momentary pause in yelling for a ceasefire, for he stumbled clumsily to his feet, hands again in the air. She didn't lower her wand. "Peter Pettigrew didn't die."

"Oh, really?" Her voice was shrill.

"He can turn into a rat, he cut a finger off so they'd think he was blown to pieces, but he ran down a drain and escaped—"

"That's convenient for you isn't it? I had to write an essay about Animagi for Defense Against the Dark Arts — he isn't on the list!"

"And am I?"

"No, but you're a criminal and you're supposed to be serving a life sentence for mass murder, so I wouldn't really trust you to register yourself with the Ministry."

"But he's the real killer," her father whispered. His eyes were almost pleading. "And he's at Hogwarts, Aurora. And he could kill you."

She stared at him. "Why would a rat kill me? If he's been hiding for twelve years he could have easily managed it before now." Her father looked intensely awkward, like he was hesitating. "You've told me this much," Aurora snapped. "Out with it."

"I thought he would take his revenge, and try to kill first Harry and then you."

"Why me?" she snarled. "What would be the point of it now?"

"Voldemort always wanted the Blacks on his side. Andromeda and I escaped him. Bellatrix got herself locked up and Regulus..." He glanced away, eyes shifting, and Aurora found her heart pounding with suspicion from that look. "Regulus is... Gone. No one knows where."

"So why—"

"Pettigrew hates me. But the other Death Eaters, they hate him, they think he sent their lord to his death that night. If he thinks he can win them back over to protect him by killing Harry and you, then he will." His eyes dropped. "There is every chance that Voldemort is still out there, Aurora."

"Don't say that!" she hissed. "He's been dead twelve years." She scoffed. "You are insane!"

"Please listen to me," he said, desperation running through his hoarse words. "Aurora, you're in danger. But... I didn't only come here to warn you." A harsh look came over his face. "Do you trust me?"

"I told you," she replied, quietly but firmly. "I don't know you."

"You do." His voice was just as quiet, and she recognised its lilt. It was almost similar to hers, to her grandmother's. A voice she recognised in the very depths of her buried memories. "Aurora, I do wish that things had been different."

"Then why weren't they?" she snapped. "If you are telling the truth, why did you have to leave? Why did you have to go after Pettigrew in the first place and get yourself locked up in that place?"

"I wasn't thinking, Aurora. I was furious and betrayed and scared—"

"I was scared!" she yelled. "I was a child, I was a baby, and you left me and you don't get to decide that you know me, or that I know you, and just swan back into my life after twelve years with some story about Animagi and secret keepers and tell me that you're suddenly my family, and disregard my actual family in the same moment!"

"I know," he said desperately. "But please, please. I just had to see you. Speak to you. Know my little girl... Know that you're happy?"

The last part came out as a question and it shocked her. "How am I meant to believe you about Pettigrew? How did you even know he's here?"

"I saw in the newspaper," he said quickly, taking a step forwards. She raised her wand again, instinctively, and he paused, continuing, "The Weasley family won a trip to Egypt, there was a picture... And their youngest boy had him and I knew it. I knew Peter immediately — his toe was missing. Here." He rummaged in his pockets and pulled out a faded scrap of newspaper, handing it to her.

Aurora's heart pounded as she looked at it, at the rat on Ron Weasley's shoulder. All that had been left of Peter Pettigrew was his finger. "Weasley?" Her breath caught. Merlin. All the times she'd been around Weasley and Peter Pettigrew — she was getting ahead of herself. Her father was lying. He had to be. That was who he was.

"You're totally mad! The rat could be anyone, it could have lost its toe in any way, I know what the Weasley twins are like, and you — you broke into the school to kill Potter!"

"No." He shook his head slowly with a cold smile. "To kill Peter."

"I don't believe you."

"Think, Aurora. You're a clever girl."

"You don't know me," she said again, and held out a hand, for he had taken another few steps forward. "Don't come so close to me. You stink."

That only made him smile wolfishly. "You remind me of her. Marlene."

"Don't talk about her either," Aurora snapped. "Don't taunt me with her! You — you sent me that necklace! Why? If not to hurt me?"

"It was your mother's," he said softly. "She would want you to have it."

She shook her head. "That may be but you... You have no right. You're telling me all this but you have no proof! And it doesn't matter. You still left me, you still betrayed your family even before that. It's your fault your father was driven to an early grave, why your brother felt he had to join the Death Eaters and my grandmother — my grandmother was destroyed when you took her family. The only thing you left her was me. But you are not a Black, and I am. You're not — you don't matter to me! I don't know you!"

"But you do," he said softly. "You liked my dog form."

"I felt bad for your dog form because I thought it was a starving stray, not a traitorous murderer!"

"I told you I'm not a murderer! Not yet, at least!"

"Was that a threat?"

"Not to you!" His fingers clutched at his hair, pain flashing across his face. "This was a mistake. Aurora, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sought you out, I should have thought this through. I had — I had to see you."

"Why?" she spat.

"Why?" Something seemed to break in his voice, and then in his eyes. "Because the thought of you was the only thing that's kept me sane for twelve years. As long as I knew you were safe, and happy, I could live with myself and everything I caused. The Dementors... That's the happy memory I wouldn't let them have. The day you were born."

She stared at him. She didn't know what to say or what he expected her to. "They're horrible things," she said quietly. "The Dementors. They came to our Quidditch match."

"I saw," he said, like he was desperate to cling onto any kinder conversation. "You played wonderfully."

"You — you were watching?"

"Yes." He winced. "I fear that may have been why the Dementors were there. I didn't think..."

"You say that a lot."

He chuckled. It was a familiar enough sound that Aurora let herself relax, just a tiny bit, before she caught herself and stood up straight again, wand at the ready. "The first time I met that rat, he attacked me," she said, and her father stared. "On the Hogwarts Express, I went with Draco to see... Well, we ended up at the compartment where Potter and Weasley were and the rat Scabbers attacked me, Weasley was furious because I kicked him away, and then we almost got into a fight before we even arrived at school." She scowled. "From the sounds of it I should have stepped on the rat right then and there."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No. Merlin, no, he's still a rat. I just thought he was feral, and with the way Weasley acts it wouldn't have surprised me if the rat were the same. But." She sighed, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Trying to understand. "So you were never a Death Eater? My mother died because you were trying to save me from them?" Her father nodded, eyes shining and sad. She still didn't want to believe it, but if she didn't believe it, then what did she believe? Death Eater or Blood Traitor or both? He didn't seem to be trying to hurt her, he seemed to be avoiding any possibility of hurting her... Somehow, that unnerved her. This wasn't how it should be. This was not what she had grown up imagining.

"But that's still..." Her words came in gasps. "You betrayed Grandmother! She said you left this family and Arcturus said you broke her heart and that's why Regulus..." She stopped. "Grandmother never believed you were a Death Eater."

"Ah, I'm so glad my dear old mum had faith in me."

"That didn't mean you could talk about her like that," Aurora told him pointedly, fury rushing into her again. "She's dead."

"So don't speak ill of her?"

"She raised me, which is more than you can say."

She knew she was going too far, maybe, but she didn't know how to hold back. All the vile and confused things she'd thought about her father over the years coated her tongue like poison.

"The family all told me you turned your backs on us. Not just them, us. That you never wanted me and that you hated your very blood, that you drove your parents and brother to an early death. That you tore our family apart! You destroyed them, if you'd only listened and done what you were supposed to and been responsible, it you couldn't! You were a blood traitor of the worst kind, you didn't just turn on pureblood society, you didn't just befriend a Muggleborn — anyone can do that! — you turned your back on your family! You left them! You left them to die grieving for their traitor son and then you turned, you switched sides because you were a coward too, a traitor to everyone, but it was too late for the family, and now I'm the only one left and the Black name has fallen to me and you dare to speak as if my family are lesser than you! You never cared about me or my mother, or your parents or brother, or anyone else and if you did then it wasn't enough, was it? It wasn't enough for you to stay!"

"Aurora, I'm sorry—"

"Sorry doesn't make up for twelve years! Sorry doesn't make up for... For everything! I don't know what I'm meant to bloody say to you! You're basically a stranger!"

"That family treated me like one! They're vile, Aurora!"

"They're my family!"

"My mother always hated me. I did everything wrong by becoming a Gryffindor, by betraying my blood because I didn't share their bigoted views! I couldn't take it! I couldn't take the pain and the hatred they showed me!"

"And I don't know that, do I?"

"You say I drove my parents to their graves, well, I'm bloody glad of it!"

"That's my grandmother you're talking about!" she cried, wand out yet again. She was horrified by the stinging behind her eyes. Angry tears, but she thought her grandmother would have found them justified. "Don't you dare—"

"And she's my mother!" he yelled back, and she was sure someone must have heard because he was so awfully loud. The reality of her situation hit her. The man in front of her was her father, and whether rightly or not, he was a convicted, wanted mass murderer and prison escapee. If anyone found them there, he wouldn't only be done for, she would too. Right now she wasn't very inclined to go down with him. "Aurora you — I wouldn't expect you to know, for her to have told you, but they... They weren't good parents."

"And you think you are?"

"I would never — never hurt you — like they did to me..."

Something about those words made her stomach churn. She didn't know what he meant — and she didn't want to know either.

"I shouldn't be here," she said, glaring at him. "I don't know why I'm even listening." She bent to pick up her bags and swallowed the lump in her throat as she kept his gaze. "I don't care if you aren't going to hurt me, I don't care if you're innocent. I hate you. I am going and you are not going to follow me."

"Aurora, please don't go." His voice cracked. "I'm sorry, I've probably done this all wrong, but I — I love you."

"Don't say that!" she snapped, heart hammering with fury. Every part of her seemed to burn. "Just — just don't, because I can't stand to hear that from you! You shouldn't love me, and I don't love you, so what's the point? You might be my father by blood but that doesn't mean anything, not to me! You're not a Black, you've made that clear, but I am! And if you don't care about my family, then you aren't my family!"

She turned, trying to rid herself of the sob in her chest. This hurt, but it shouldn't. And none of this should be happening in the first place. She brushed her tears away furiously. "Don't cry," Aurora muttered to herself as she left the clearing, boots crunching on the snow. Paws padded gently just behind her and she scowled. "Leave me alone."

He didn't try to transform again, but remained by her side until she was out of the forest and the village was almost in sight. Her friends would be waiting on her, she realised with a sigh. She hoped she wasn't too late — and she could come up with a good excuse. Draco would have backed her up whatever she said once upon a time, but she didn't even expect to see him today. She wanted to tell him everything that had just happened but wasn't sure she could ever find the words to explain. She wiped at her eyes to make sure there were no traces of what she'd just gone through. Even if it was legal to talk to a wanted criminal and not tell anyone, she couldn't tell anyone anyway. How was she meant to explain that horrible feeling inside her stomach, the voice in her head saying listen, listen, when all she wanted to do was scream?

"Do me a favour," she muttered to the dog, still by her side. "Take a bath. And cover your tracks and mine. I won't be implicated in your stupidity."

He couldn't transform out here, but she was still wary as she strode away, hands shaking.