A Sirius Change

Chapter 9: Out of the Bag.

They were home. Sirius landed in the middle of his office, and grabbed a hold of Cordelia to prevent her from stumbling. Draco arrived just after.

Colin burst through the door, but skidded to a halt in front of Sirius, with his wand arm outstretched and pointing to a spot between Draco's eyes. "OH! It's you!" He relaxed his arm slowly. "Errrr, welcome back, sir."

"Thanks." Sirius shook himself, smiled at Colin, and glanced at Draco and Cordelia. "Everyone all right, then?" Draco nodded and went to slouch on the couch.

Cordelia smiled, "Thanks, it's good to be home, Colin."

Sirius crossed to his desk and spoke into the small blue intercom flame. "Samantha, could we get some coffee and if there are any donuts left, that would be nice too."

"Oh! When did you get in? How did you get in? And where have you been?" she scolded.

"Just now. We were Portkeyed."

"But, you can't do that; don't we have wards and other precautions?"

"It's my office, Samantha; I can get here a number of ways that others can't, remember?"

"How do I know it's you, sir?" She sounded suspicious.

"Colin?"

"It's him, Samantha. They wouldn't be alive if it wasn't," Colin responded dryly.

"All right. I'll take your word for it. What can I get you, sir?"

"Coffee, remember? And something to eat."

"How many are with you?"

"Just four of us: me, Cordelia, Malfoy, and Colin. We have a lot to talk about, so just bring the pot."

"Oh! Cordelia's back too! Oh, how marvellous!" The intercom flame flared red and went dead and five seconds later the door burst open. Samantha nearly bowled Cordelia over in her exuberance. "I am so glad you're back. We were very worried about you. Particularly him," Samantha gushed as she pointed to Sirius.

"Um, Samantha?" Sirius said, trying to draw her back to the task at hand.

"Yes, sir?"

"Coffee?" Sirius reminded.

"Oh, right then. Welcome back." Samantha pulled back from Cordelia.

Cordelia smiled at her, "I'll chat with you later, all right?"

Samantha beamed, and left to get coffee.

"I need to call Nick and see if I can speak to the kids," Cordelia said as she headed towards Sirius' desk.

Sirius nodded, "Anyone you want to call, Malfoy?"

"Nope." Draco slumped further down on the couch by the fire.

An hour later Colin was briefed about everything that had happened at the Pard.

"We'll get some additional security for Cordelia. They did bring Peregrine in for questioning three days ago, but the prosecutor is mumbling about insufficient evidence. We're hoping for an indictment later this week. Until then he's secure in a Ministry jail."

"Good. At least we have a few days reprieve."

"Not necessarily, sir. It appears Peregrine rarely did anything himself. We have no evidentiary trail that leads from him to you, that means he hires people out there to do his work and take the blame. If another incident is planned, he may have set it in motion before he was taken in."

"Okay, fine, but I can't continually look over my shoulder."

"Nope, that's what I'm here for, sir."

Sirius smiled. "So can we keep Cordelia's infection between us for now?" Sirius asked as he looked around the room. Colin and Draco both nodded.

"You can tell Ginny if you want, but if you do please ask her not to tell her whole family."

"Don't worry. I don't need to tell Ginny. I'm not even sure I'll be seeing her again."

Sirius glanced at Cordelia who had raised her eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Sirius had told her all that Draco said at the Pard hospital. Sirius was doubtful Draco could stay away from Ginny Weasley. He recognized that look in a man, when he saw it.

They wrapped up the briefing session. Cordelia was going to look into whether an Environmental Impact Statement had been completed for the pipeline. Draco was supposed to look into Mason Randall's connections and see if Peregrine had a lot of Muggle connections or just the ones they'd discovered to date. Draco had expressed distaste for this type of work as he wasn't comfortable in the Muggle world, but Sirius convinced him that they didn't want to bring anyone else in quite yet, so he was stuck. Sirius also asked him to find out how Peregrine found out and made first contact with the Pard and also to look into Draco's family connections.

After everyone had left Sirius' office, there was one more communication he wanted to make. Sirius spoke into the fireplace and was immediately connected to Remus.

"Welcome back!" exclaimed Remus, obviously delighted to see his friend in one piece. "Is everyone all right?"

"Yes, we're fine. Mostly. Remus, I need you to come to dinner tonight. There are some things we need to discuss with you and some questions I hope you can answer."

"Questions? That sounds ominous." Remus looked worried.

"I'll tell you more then. Can we expect you about seven?"

"Sure, can I bring anything?"

"No, not really. Just yourself. I'll supply the whisky."

"Oh, that bad, is it?"

"I'll let you figure that out."

******************

Cordelia entered the house and Charlie jumped from the third step onto her mum.

"Mummy!" she squealed. "I missed you so much. I knew something was wrong because you didn't say goodbye. You always say goodbye either at night or at daytime, and you didn't say goodbye and Daddy was so sad and his eyebrows got all crinkly and I was afraid you were gone and wouldn't come back, or be gone like Uncle Harry was gone, but he came back so I knew you'd come back. I told Daddy that, but he kept looking sad. Then he went away, and Grandma Kate and Nick were so nice, but their eyebrows got all crinkly too. Oh, I'm so glad you're home. Ian's been so mean. He won't share with me and I always have to share with him, and…"

"Charlie … shhhhhh, it's all right. I'm here now and Daddy's here. I promise not to go away again without saying goodbye."

Charlie's eyes were wet and her lip was trembling. She was making snuffling noises, but Cordelia could see she was trying so hard not to cry. Cordelia was on her knees by then, trying not to cry herself, when Ian came tearing down the stairs and launched himself into her as well. Ian was crying unabashedly.

"You can cry if you want, baby," Cordelia said softly to Charlie.

"After some more snuffling Charlie looked up at her mum and whispered, "Okay. I think I will," and she started to sob in earnest. Cordelia half laughed and half sobbed, but ended up hugging them both to her, sitting on the floor, rocking, crying, and kissing whatever part of them was within reach. Cordelia glanced up at Sirius who was watching them with brimming eyes. He dropped to his knees and tried to wrap his arms around them all, as Cordelia could feel his tears fall on the top of her head.

Finally Charlie stopped and pulled back, like she'd suddenly remembered something very important.

"What did you bring us, mummy?" With this she broke away from the group and started to rout around in Cordelia's purse and satchel. Cordelia laughed and sighed. "Yes, Charlie. Hang on, let me get it out." She whispered to Sirius, "This is the most important part of coming home after all, isn't it?" He laughed and so did she.

*************

"I see you survived without me?" Remus chided as he stepped over the threshold into the foyer of Sirius and Cordelia's London Townhouse.

"Just barely. We had injuries, but nothing that you could have prevented."

"So good to be useful," Remus said sarcastically, as Sirius led him through the toys into the kitchen.

Sirius didn't even ask, poured, and pushed one glass towards Remus. "Cordelia was infected." His face was serious, and tired.

This caught Remus mid-swallow and caused him to gag on the fine Scottish whisky that Sirius had provided. "What happened," he choked out.

He coughed for a good five minutes. Sirius explained further, as Remus regained his composure. "Oh, Sirius. I'm so sorry. I'll do whatever I can to make it easier on her. She's a leopard, right? Can leopards use wolfsbane? It's the only thing that makes my change bearable."

"Their leader seemed to discourage it. They have a very unique take on lycanthropy."

Cordelia entered the room at that moment and Remus couldn't help but feel sad to see her. She looked fine and seemed in high spirits, but he knew that would change once her changes started to affect her family. He flashed on the ostracism his family faced because of him and thought about Sirius and the kids.

There was one time in particular when he and his parents had gone on holiday to the south of France. The holiday had fallen on a full moon and his father had escorted him to a nearby forest to change and hunt. Another guest spotted them. His parents were forced to leave the hotel before Remus could get back, and they were escorted to the train station first thing in the morning. This family would to learn to adapt certainly, but he could see the huge mountain they would all have to climb, and he wasn't positive that this family could survive the climb. Not that they weren't strong, but any change of this magnitude is bound to rock the foundations of a marriage and the web of family dynamics.

"Don't look so sad, Remus. I'm not dead. Not yet anyway."

"You've been through your first change?"

"Yes, and I must say it wasn't too bad. It was painful but really no worse than childbirth. I wasn't wild about the raw meat, but it was fun to run with the Pard. Sirius even joined us. Now I have a much better appreciation for when you want Sirius to come out with you on the full moon."

"Yes, it is much better with others, but Cordelia … what about your mum and the kids, have they been told yet?"

Cordelia laughed, "Charlie was excited that she has a cat now. She said she always wanted a cat. She also said she has a wolf and a dog, so a cat is just right."

"Ah, the naiveté of children."

"Yes, or maybe she has a point. Isn't that the type of reaction we should be encouraging in the kids?"

"Actually, yes, I agree. I guess I was just used to the shock and horror my infection resulted in. I have to rethink what should be expected, I suppose."

"Yes, you really should, Remus. You should see it there. It's a community of support and encouragement. It's not treated as a plague there. It's a simple fact of life that has to be controlled, but not regretted."

"Really? Oh my. That is a refreshing attitude. I warn you, though, that it's still not like that here." He smiled, but still felt doubtful.

"I know. That's why we are not making a public statement out of this. For now we're keeping it to close family and friends," Cordelia stated, more solemnly.

"I understand." Remus turned his attention to Sirius. "So you were there, Sirius, for her first change?"

Remus could see the optimism blossom in Sirius' eyes. "Yes, it was quite amazing. There were hundreds of shapeshifters in the cave and none were using any kind of spell or potion. It was fascinating to watch."

"And there were humans there? How did they keep the leopards from tearing them apart?"

Cordelia cut in, "The structure of the local Pards. The leader would keep the aggressive ones in check, and the more experienced ones didn't try anything, because they knew their Nimir-Raj would hurt them for it."

Remus just nodded. He just wasn't sure he could see this from their point of view. They both seemed entirely too comfortable with this.

Dinner was ready so they sat down at the table with Charlie and Ian. Charlie asked all sorts of questions about lycanthropy, which she pronounced ly-cat-trophy. At one point she made the assumption that Cordelia had gotten an actual trophy, like the one she'd gotten for her first year in football, and she wanted to know if Uncle Remus had a ly-wolf-trophy, but they explained that there was no real trophy. Then Charlie offered to share her trophy with Uncle Remus since he didn't have one and made Sirius promise to get mummy a trophy for her new shape.

After dinner Cordelia helped Nick put the kids to bed and Sirius and Remus settled into the living room.

"She seems very comfortable with this," Remus commented.

"Yes, she is. She hasn't had any exposure to the fear, discrimination, or hate, yet. I hope to get her to understand before she experiences it first-hand."

Remus nodded.

"On the other hand, this Pard seems to have a lot of things figured out to make this change easier on everyone. They have a mentoring program established. She's met the head of the London Pard and will be studying under him for the first six months or so, until she's comfortable with control and precautions."

"I don't know, Sirius," Remus said, doubtfully.

"I know it probably seems very foreign to you. Can you stay for a bit? Cordelia's mum is stopping by and I want you here to answer her questions."

"Of course. But only if I can have some more of this." He raised his glass in gesture.

They had about a half an hour of discussion on other topics before Cordelia came down the stairs and the doorbell rang. It was Kate.

After a long hug between Cordelia and her mum, reintroductions were made between Remus and Kate. They moved to the living room and Cordelia settled onto the floor at Sirius' feet, giving the couch over to her mum and Remus who were at opposite ends.

"Mum, I think we told you that Remus was a werewolf, right?"

Kate looked sideways at Remus and smiled politely. "Yes, I remember now. Do you really turn into a wolf, or is it more like a very hairy man?"

"It's a full wolf, four-legged and everything," Remus assured her.

"I see, well, if Sirius can pull off a dog, the wolf shouldn't be too different, wouldn't you think?"

Remus nodded, although he wasn't in complete agreement.

"It isn't quite like that, mum," Cordelia interrupted. "Werewolves are compelled to change form on the full moon, and have the potential to infect others and to kill and eat people if not careful, once they become a wolf."

"I see. Why are you telling me all this? Not that it isn't fascinating, I find a lot of Sirius' world very fascinating, but I'm at a loss for the relevance here."

Cordelia moved across the floor to sit at her mum's feet. "Mum, while I was missing, I ended up at the headquarters of the wereleopards. I was in India and I was infected."

Kate looked surprised and confused, "But that can't happen to a Muggle!"

"I found out that it can," Cordelia said, looking up at her. Remus could sense the hesitancy in her voice, like a small child afraid how a parent would react to a bad choice.

Remus looked at Kate and felt compassion at her confusion. He also saw a complete range of emotions move across Kate's face in rapid succession, some he could identify, some he could not. It was a lot like what happens when someone is told they have a terminal disease. Shock, fear, regret, anger, relief (that it wasn't something else), pity (this one he hated to see), more confusion, and then a time when the person gets back a hold of their face and a calm mask of political correctness falls into place.

"Oh my," Kate said, as she reached down and embraced Cordelia.

Once the embrace ended, Kate held Cordelia at arms length and looked her over. "You don't look any different."

Cordelia laughed just a little. "Just wait to see me at the full moon, or maybe not, but no, I don't look or feel any differently at the moment, except for some odd twinges now and again."

Remus could see tears running down both mother and daughter's face.

Kate turned to Remus. "So tell me what this all means."

The next hour was spent briefing Kate on just exactly what it meant and what she could expect and what she could do to help. Sometimes she looked shocked, sometimes she let the anger peek through; sometimes she just looked very sad. There were a few times she looked over at Sirius with such sadness it nearly broke Remus' heart. He had the same feelings. He hoped to God that Sirius wouldn't lose Cordelia because of this. He knew his friend would never intentionally leave her, but he also understood how circumstances could get to that point, and he could see Kate going through the same thought process. Before Christmas, everything had been going so well for Sirius. He had a loving family, a good job, friends, and was comfortable with himself for the first time in a long time. He could see a little bit of the Hogwarts Sirius peek through. But that was before Harry went missing and Peregrine began his systematic attacks.

"I feel like I should stay and help somehow," Kate said, as she finally had seemed to have exhausted her questions.

"There's nothing at the moment, mum. I'll need you more as the moon gets closer to being full. I may need you to stay with the kids a bit more than usual for the next six months or so. Nick needs some days off and there might be times I don't trust myself."

"Anytime, anywhere, darling. You know that," Kate said, hugging her daughter. They broke the hug and Kate turned to Remus. "Thanks you for being here and answering my questions. Your experiences make me worry, but I think if we all help, that maybe we can adapt."

"Yes, I agree. If you ever need to talk to anyone about this, Mrs. Hunter, please don't hesitate to call. Sirius knows how to get a hold of me."

"Thank you. I'm sure I'll have some questions." With that, Kate and Cordelia walked out of the room to the front door.

Sirius slumped into his chair and rubbed his face. "That went better than expected."

"Be glad Kate isn't a witch, you would have gotten cursed if she had been," Remus said, only half joking.

"You think?" Sirius looked surprised.

"There were a few times that I saw a bit of anger there. You did drag her daughter into all this and now she's paying the price."

Sirius leaned his head on the back of the chair. "Oh hell, Remus, don't you know that's exactly how I feel! I wouldn't blame her if she took Cordelia and the kids and moved far away."

"But she won't," Remus said quietly.

"No? Not even after she thinks about it?"

"No. She won't. Because I also saw her look between you and Cordelia and I could see her worry that you might not stay together. That this might divide the two of you and that made her sad."

Sirius smiled. "Man, you are perceptive."

Remus laughed. "Thanks, but you already knew that."

"Yes, I did. Thank you for being here."

"As Kate said, … anytime, anywhere."

They raised their glasses to each other and drank deeply.

****************

Over the years Draco had gotten plenty of advice about how to deal with women from Lucius. He recalled it now. Lucius' first rule was never to let a women dominate your thoughts. Women were to be used as ornaments. If it got to the point that politically it would be appropriate for marriage, then so be it. But a marriage that didn't gain one any political advantage was to be avoided. The second rule was that if a woman began to dominate your thoughts then she was to be controlled. If Draco could not dismiss her after a reasonable period of time designed to exhaust the physical attraction, then she needed to be put in her place, made to understand that she could not control the relationship. Draco had been instructed that if it got as bad as a need, then something must be done to bind the woman into some sort of submissive role. Emotional abuse would do, physical abuse was not beyond the realm of possibility, and physical restraint, while frowned upon because of certain messy details was a viable option.

Draco recalled as an adolescent that he'd wandered down into the mansion's dungeons once or twice to get away from Lucius, just to think for himself for a change, and he'd come across women that were kept there. Lucius had explained later that they were there to be used and that he could use them if he'd like. He had once or twice, but it was never really satisfying. Well, it was at first, but after a bit they would begin to look the same, and that got rather boring rather quickly. Draco never claimed to have a long attention span.

So here he was a week after Ginny had walked out on him, a week after she had fucked that other man, and he was disappointed that she hadn't owled or anything while he was gone. Shit, he thought. She's gotten to that point. She dominated his thoughts. She had dominated them while spending interminable hours in that godforsaken Pard hospital ward, and all he could see was her fucking Grant. He saw it so clearly in his mind's eye. He could see her on top, with her hair falling down around him as she went down on him and coming back up and settling on him. He could see her rocking, setting up a motion. He could see his hands on her breasts and hips. He could almost hear his moans. He wanted to put Grant's face through a window, and he wasn't all that pleased with Ginny either.

Yet still he was disappointed not to have heard from her. How twisted was that?

He was exhausted from the trip, he had come home early intending to take a nap, but did a fair amount of tossing and turning before slipping off to sleep.

He was disoriented when he heard the knocking at the door. Who the fuck would it be at this hour, then he realized it was only 7 pm. He grabbed his wand and stumbled to the door. He opened his door and there she was. How dare she come here, was his first thought. He was surprised at his own anger. He shouldn't let her dominate his thoughts like that. But, here she was, just standing there, looking beautiful. She was dressed for work in a deep blue skirt, heels, and a tailored jacket. The jacket had a bit of the pink lace camisole showing at the top, but revealed a lot of her long pale neck. Her hair was drawn up out of the way. She rarely left it loose for work. And she had a bag tossed over her shoulder. Her face was neutral. He could tell she was trying to look friendly, but he could also tell she was trying to keep her distance.

"What do you want?" Draco asked shortly.

Ginny looked nervous. "Cordelia called to let me know you were home."

"Did she?"

She squared her shoulders and looked directly at him. "Yes. I thought I needed to apologize to you."

"Oh." Draco stared at her for a long moment.

"May I come in?"

"Yeah, sorry. I was asleep and … sure … come in. Can I get you anything?"

"Have you got any wine? It was a rough day. I could use something. Besides I'm nervous," Ginny said, trailing behind him.

"Nervous? About what?"

"Talking to you. I behaved badly last time I was here. I wasn't sure you'd see me. I half expected you'd close the door in my face, in fact. That or demand your money back," she said as she set her bag down on the counter.

"I thought about it." He meant it seriously, but he couldn't help but smile a little bit, as he got out the bottle of wine and opened it.

Ginny smiled. "Well, you can't have it back, because I used it and it's gone."

Draco handed her a large glass of red wine. "You used it?" Draco was surprised at this. "Does that mean you owe me?"

"I suppose it does, but just principle and interest, and the interest is prime plus one percent and not a penny more."

"Skip the interest. I don't want it."

"You'll have it anyway. I can write it off of Circe's taxes."

Draco shrugged. "Is that it? You wanted to let me know what our new terms were?"

"That and like I said I wanted to apologize for my behaviour when I left here last. I hope you weren't out too long. My stunning spells are rather rusty."

"I was only out for a few minutes. So you're sorry for doubting my motives?"

"No, those I'll always doubt."

Draco frowned.

"I'm apologizing for not talking this through with you rationally and then stunning you when I left. It was a gross overreaction and I'm sorry. Will you accept my apology?" Ginny asked, still looking nervous.

Draco was good at accepting apologies. Not so good at giving them. He looked at her for a long time, considering, making her wait. She fidgeted with her hair, and smoothed her skirt. She looked worried. As she damn well should. He kept flashing to a vision of her and Grant. He closed his eyes hard, and shook his head, trying to banish the vision.

Before he knew what he was really on about he was kissing her. He couldn't stand the thought of anyone else being with her. He couldn't decide if it was a challenge to his ego, or if he wanted her in a different way than he wanted other women. Most of the time he could have cared less if the women he had been sleeping with were sleeping with other men, so long as they were there for him when he wanted them. This was different. Ginny made him consider, however briefly, that if she wanted to be with Grant, then he wasn't good enough. That thought galled him as he was sure he was a better lover than Grant. But then there was the feeling of wanting her to himself. He didn't want to possess her. Okay, so he did want to possess her. He wanted to control her. No, that wasn't it. He wanted her to want to be controlled by him. He knew that idea would not go over really big with her, but at that moment he didn't really care what she wanted. He kept hearing his father's voice, don't let them dominate your mind. Control them. He took her shoulders roughly and pressed her up against the kitchen cabinets, and kissed her harder. Her red hair stood out vividly against the black cabinet surface. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and used his teeth to capture her lips. He used one hand to remove the fastener from her hair, and as it fell around her shoulders, he wound that hand through it, capturing her head and turning it up to him. His other hand was busy yanking off her jacket and roughly tearing off her skirt.

The look in her eyes was fear and confusion. That helped enormously. There was a corner of defiance to her look as well. That made him pause, just a bit. Would she defy him? Would she deny him this after fucking Him?

"Draco! You're hurting me," she whispered with a certain breathlessness to her voice, as if she didn't wholly mind being hurt.

He pressed her mouth harder. He bit down her neck until his mouth got a firm piece of her shoulder. His hands were everywhere. Tearing at clothing and stockings, stroking, probing, grasping, kneading, trying to possess, to prove to her that he was what she needed, not Him. He wanted her soul, but if he couldn't control her soul, the body would do for now, he thought. He could convince her soul later. He knew his body could convince her soul if given half a chance. He was trying to fuck Grant out of her mind. There were those images again and he redoubled his efforts to replace them with images of him, not Grant, with her.

She struggled at first. She wrestled his hands for control. Her sounds were minor protestations and efforts to counteract his efforts to strip her. Three times she removed his fingers from their intrusions, but she was hot and wet there, so he knew she wasn't completely opposed to his advances, but again, he didn't really care. He was going to be with her now, not Grant. She came to him. She apologized, she wanted him (maybe whispered in his brain, but he ignored it).

He had her stripped, and lifted her up and placed her on the kitchen counter. He didn't think he was really hurting her, bruising maybe, but no real damage. The fury that had been repressed through his stay at the Pard was rapidly taking control. He was ready, when he realized that his trousers were off and he was as naked as she was. He didn't remember removing them and what she was doing to him was not without a bit of pain mixed with incredible pleasure. She seemed to be taking something out on him as well, but it wasn't really important to find out what at the moment.

He pushed as she wrapped her legs around his waist and rested all her weight on him. He braced himself and pushed again. She bit down on his shoulder and gripped his head. He moved trying to establish a brutal rhythm, but he really wasn't all that sure it was him who was totally in control. Damn her and he thrust again. She bit harder as he increased the speed and effort of his movements. Damn her, damn him. I'm here now and I'm staying here. She has me and she can not want you, he thought to Grant, who obviously wasn't here to listen.

She was screaming his name, not Grant's. It was him who was bringing her to the brink. Wait, he was supposed to be punishing her and she was enjoying it? Damn her! He thrust harder and faster. There he was on the edge. He was trying to control her, dominate her thoughts for a change, to take what was his, but you can't rape the willing and she was willing, in fact she wasn't just willing she was encouraging. She was raking her nails down his back and gripping him tightly between her thighs. He couldn't take what was given freely and he couldn't possess her if she was possessing him, and he was a man possessed at the moment. He knew he'd slipped over that edge that his father had always warned him about, in fact forbid him from approaching.. At that point he realized that he couldn't control her. He tried to dominate to subjugate, but she responded by forcing her way into a participating role rather than a subservient one. Where the hell had she learned that? That was a bit devious he thought. This made him irrationally angry in that he realized in that moment he couldn't manipulate her, and maybe she was participating on purpose in order to teach him or posses him. If she was trying to do that, he realized that she half had him.

With the realization that he couldn't control her came a completely new wave of passion stronger than he'd felt before with her, which had always been pretty strong. At that point he gave up control and stepped over the edge of oblivion with her. At that point the world narrowed down to her. Her hair, her lips, her body, her heat. He melted away and all that was left was his responsibility to give her the most pleasure he could. Merlin, this was not supposed to happen like this. They reached a loud forceful, explosive climax that left Draco gasping for air leaning on the counter, still facing Ginny. Ginny had her back still against the upper cabinets, but straddling him. She leaned her head back and took a deep shuddering breath. He kissed the area just between her breasts, but this time it was tender and gentle. She looked down at him and he saw it there in her eyes. He saw love as he'd come to recognize it, but what about Grant.

She looked further down his body and gave out a short gasp. "What happened to you?" She was tracing her finger along the scar on his belly. It was still red and a bit raw, thoroughly healed, but definitely there.

"I got cut up on our merry misadventure," he replied, still breathing heavily.

"Does it hurt?" Ginny asked probing a bit more.

"Not anymore. It hurt like a sonofabitch at first, but it's getting better," Draco conceded, moving away, but still braced against the counter.

"Can you talk about it?"

"We were attacked, I got stabbed. That's pretty much the story," he said, looking up at her.

"Where were you that you got attacked?"

"Oh, that. I don't think I can tell you that. Ask Cordelia. If she wants you to know she'll tell you."

"Is she all right? What about Sirius?"

"Yes, she's all right, I think. Sirius is fine. He didn't get hurt."

"Was Cordelia hurt?"

"Like I said, ask Cordelia."

"I thought we were operating on no secrets."

"This is not my secret. It's Cordelia's, and speaking of secrets … are you going to tell me yours?"

"What secret?"

"After you left here last time."

"After I left here I went home and cooled off. I decided to sleep on it before I talked to you again about the money. I was still very uncomfortable about accepting it."

"Don't you mean sleep on him, before you talked to me?"

Ginny looked very confused. "Him? Him, who?"

"Grant. You left here and slept with him." Draco backed away and began to draw up his trousers.

Ginny looked at him in shock. She hopped off the counter and grabbed his t-shirt. "I didn't! Where in the hell would you get a bloody idea like that?" she said as she slipped it on over her head.

"I called later, much later, and he answered the phone. He sounded sleepy. I think I'm smart enough to figure out that if he was there at 3 am and he answers the phone half asleep that you and he most likely slept together. And if you and he slept together you probably fucked."

"Holy Merlin, Draco, you do have an imagination."

"Don't lie to me, Ginny. I thought we'd agreed on that. But then I also thought we weren't going to fuck anyone besides each other."

"Did we decide that, Draco? I don't remember that one. I remember we would play each day as it comes. One day at a time, is all you could handle. Things change too fast, you told me. What the hell is that? I always assumed you'd take up with one of my models if given half a chance."

"I don't want any of your fucking models. But that obviously wasn't the case for you, since you can't seem to cut the string with your co-publisher. Does Fiona know? Is this any way to treat her? I thought you said you rather liked her. Is this a habit with you, Weasley … things get too hot and you flee to Grant? Is that what happened when you were with Potter?"

Ginny was gaping, opening and closing her mouth like a fish. "I do like Fiona, and no, she doesn't know because there is nothing to know. Why doesn't she need to know, because she was there, you git!"

Draco opened his eyes very wide but a wry grin cracked his face and it wasn't a pleasant grin, "I didn't know you kinked that way, Weasley, you've just shown me a whole ‘nother side to you. I thought you might be into some adventurous things, but I didn't realize you did threesomes. Is that what it was with you Harry and Hermione? Was it a threesome?"

With that she slapped him, hard, across the face.

They stood there glaring at one another. The veneer of upper class disdain had masked Draco's face. Ginny couldn't control her emotions quite as well. Her face was flushed scarlet and her bottom lip was trembling.

"You really think I went right home and shagged Grant?" Ginny screeched.

"Yes. Why shouldn't I?"

"I didn't sleep with him, you asshole! I had no idea that's what you thought, and that was not what I came here to apologize for." Ginny shook her head.

"So you don't apologize for it?"

"NO! Because it didn't happen!" Ginny shook her head. "We were up until the wee hours running numbers and calling the banks in Hong Kong and Singapore. I was doing everything I could to not use your money. For god's sake, Draco, sex was the last thing on my mind that night. I was trying to save my business, not get laid!"

Draco shifted uncomfortably. "Sometimes anger can lead to a good shag."

"Obviously it can, judging from your performance just now."

"I wasn't angry."

"The hell you weren't. I thought it was about the money, but this makes more sense."

"Fine, I was angry, I've been angry ever since you slept with him."

"I didn't sleep with him. Yes, I was angry, confused, unsure. I didn't know what to believe or what to do. I've questioned your motivations so many times, trying to find an explanation for what this is between us. It was instinctual not to trust you."

"So you called good old Grant."

"Yes, I called good old Grant. He and Fiona came over. Fiona curled up on the couch while Grant and I went through the books. I was pressuring him to try to find someway to get through this without having to use that money. I didn't want it. At that point I didn't want any ties between us. I was going to direct Gringotts to put it all back in your vault first thing in the morning."

"You didn't. Why?"

"Grant thought I was being stupid. He went through things about fifteen different ways and … I remember your call, now. He'd fallen asleep on the ledgers. He had had the phone next to him, because he'd been calling the editor in the Singapore office, getting circulation and advertising figures. I remember the phone ringing but he said the line was dead. That was you, wasn't it?"

"I suppose it was."

"Anyway, he talked me into using the money. He trusted your word that there were no strings and he said that using that money would be cheaper and more flexible than a bank loan. He also said that if you used it to manipulate me or the company, he would kill you."

"You didn't have sex with him?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Right. You got me. You made me crack. I confess I had wild sex with both Grant and Fiona, at the same time, and brought the local house elf choir in to watch. I have pictures, wanna see?"

  "Can we sell them?" Draco asked as he cracked a smile. He felt embarrassed and relieved. "So you haven't had sex with him since starting to see me?"

"No. He's been committed to Fiona since October."

"Do you love him?"

"Yes, I love him, but I'm not in love with him. I AM in love with you if you didn't figure it out from the shag on the counter. I don't get that worked up over just physical attraction, Draco."

"I need a drink," Draco said as he brushed past her and walked back into the kitchen. "So you didn't sleep with Grant."

"No."

"And you trusted me enough to use the money."

"Yes."

"And you want us to be together in some sort of long term assumption."

"Yes."

Draco looked at the floor. He had his arms crossed across his chest. "Sirius told me I was full of shit, when I told him we were doing one day at a time. He said that wasn't much of a commitment."

"He's right," Ginny agreed.

"Do you need that?" Draco asked.

"Don't you?"

"I don't know. Why do you need it?"

"I want to know that I'm enough for you."

Draco laughed, "You're more than enough."

"So why the hesitation? Do you need another woman to make up for my deficiencies?"

"What deficiencies?"

"The ones you're still looking to fill. See, if you don't want to commit yourself to me, it says you're missing something with me that you're hoping to find. So you keep your options open in case it comes along."

Draco looked bewildered, "Really? It says all that?"

"Yeah, it says, 'I'm lacking something'. Is it the sex? Too loud? Too soft? Too gentle … no, that doesn't fit," Ginny said, answering her own question. "Too rough?"

"Holy Merlin, no! Every time I'm near you I want to have you. I'm not sure why and I don't care. I want you with a capital Want. But, all my life, I was taught no to want something too much. Lucius warned over and oever that desire could control me and I could be controlled by my desire. That was intolerable. I learned very early that if I really wanted something, I had to be careful. I had to want it just enough to be taken seriously, but not enough to get beaten for it. If Lucius ever knew how much I want you, I'd be chained in the dungeon and never again see the light of day."

Ginny's mouth had dropped. "He would do that?"

"In a heart beat. I wasn't raised like you, Ginny."

"No, in our house you could want to your hearts content and not usually ever see any result. Whatever you wanted had to have at least three uses and be something more than one of us wanted for it to be considered. I got used to not wanting girl things, so I had a chance of getting anything at all."

"So am I a girl thing?"

"Well, I hope I wouldn't have to share you with my brothers."

Draco made a face. "I hope not either. So will this want last?"

"I have no idea, but what's left if it doesn't? Do you like to be around me?"

"Yes, very much," Draco said, wondering where this line of discussion was going.

"Even when we aren't having sex?"

"Surprisingly yes. I feel like I can talk to you more easily than anyone I've slept with. You're more intelligent than I expected. It's refreshing to make love to someone and actually want to talk to them in the morning."

"Okay, so you like me, talking to me, making love to me, you obviously object to me sleeping with another man."

"Yes," he said with feeling.

"So you want me to save my body just for you."

"Don't you want to? I get the feeling you quite enjoy yourself with me."

"I do, Draco, and sex with you is the best I've had, ever. But I can't continue to have sex with you if you want other women … or men for that matter. I'm selfish. I didn't get enough that was just my own, growing up. On this I want something that is just my own. I want you to want me more than anyone else."

"I do."

"I now pronounce us … well, something. So, do you think you'll feel this same way tomorrow?"

"If you make love to me tonight I will," Draco said with a sly grin.

"Are you sure?"

"No."

"So you want the option of sleeping with the next beautiful woman you meet?"

"No, I've told you beauty isn't everything and you are beautiful, by the way."

"Not extraordinarily so, but back to my point. Do you want the option of shagging the next intelligent woman you meet?"

"No, they wouldn't be the same as you," Draco said in a half mumble, looking down at his feet, followed by a large swallow of wine.

Ginny touched her foot to his, and looked up into his face, "So what do you want?"

Draco hesitated, then looked her in the eye. "I don't want you wanting anyone else."

"But you want to be free to want someone else."

"No."

"Draco, that's what a commitment is. Letting the other know you don't want anyone else, and having that assurance that they don't want anyone else. Then you move forward together as a team. There are no guarantees. I don't expect that, but it's an intent to make the effort."

"So I have intent?"

"You seem to."

"Why does this sound like another business contract?"

Ginny laughed. "It does, doesn't it. I've been spending way too much time with our legal team, lately. Sorry about that."

"So do we have to talk about marriage now?"

"Holy Merlin, NO!"

"Isn't that what you expect this will lead to?"

"No, I don't want to share Circe with anyone."

"Wouldn't a prenup cover that?"

"Those are tricky. Grant and I started down that path a few years back, and the lawyers nearly ate us alive. I don't even want to go there. Plus there is plenty of precedent for those not holding up in a divorce settlement, particularly that portion of the business that developed during the marriage."

"What would your mum say? I don't expect a traditional woman like that would approve of her daughter shacking up with anyone, particularly a Malfoy."

"Are we going to shack up? I'd really like to stay in this loft."

"Okay, so no marriage, no engagement, not living together, but committed?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"What do you call that?"

Ginny laughed, "Rupert."

Draco laughed. "Does Rupert need an announcement?"

"Lord, no. I was hoping not to have to deal with my family quite yet. Can we keep this between us, and few selected people?"

"Gladly. I'm not going to subject you to Narcissa any time soon."

"You don't think I can handle her?"

Draco laughed, "No, I think you could, but there would be repercussions I'm not quite prepared for yet."

"All right. I don't want to keep you secret. If asked I will confess, but I'm not planning on suggesting it right away anyway."

"Works for me."

"So do we get some dinner or just go to bed?"

"I'm starved. Could you cook, though, or order. I've had too much wine to go out."

"Only if you promise not to put on any more clothes."

"No, I'm quite comfortable, would I shock the delivery boy?"

"Probably, but I'll answer the door so that you preserve your modesty."

"Me? Modest?" As she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and leaned up to kiss him, he engaged in the kiss and ran his hand up over her bare bottom and up her naked body beneath his t-shirt she'd appropriated.

He broke away, "Good lord, we can't get started if we want to eat. Go over there, I'll order." He pried her away, turned her around and gave her a little push towards the living room. He looked after her longingly until his eagle owl tapped him on the nose after landing on his shoulder.

**************

One week later Colin was sitting in a courtroom stunned while a judge refused to charge Avian Peregrine with anything. It was clear to Colin that Avian had been behind Cordelia's poisoning, Ian's fall, Circe's explosion, and indirectly Cordelia's infection, yet the judge declared the evidence that linked Peregrine to these crimes was not strong enough to hold him for trial. Peregrine had lied on the stand, under oath that he knew nothing of these incidents and also declared he harboured no ill-will towards Sirius whatsoever.

They had a sworn deposition from Mason Randall about Peregrine's connection, but the judge would not accept the word of an Azkaban prisoner that had obviously been mentally incapacitated. They also had presented other connections between the incidents, but they were declared circumstantial and invalid by the judge.

Colin fumed and was not looking forward to reporting back to Sirius.

He sat lost in his thoughts as the courtroom emptied out. Peregrine was still seated at the front table with his solicitors, who were packing away their notes. Peregrine got up, one lawyer left and Peregrine waited for the other. She was a tall, leggy blonde that seemed too young to have acquired a law degree, let alone any criminal experience. Colin noted that she hadn't presented any of the arguments before the judge.

As Peregrine passed, he did a double take, then he stopped and approached Colin. Colin stood and, it turned out, he towered over the five foot ten inch Peregrine.

"Tell Mr. Black that I'm not done with him yet," Peregrine whispered.

Colin glared at Peregrine. "What do you intend to do now?"

"Continue with my business plan. Is he appreciating the change in his wife?"

"He's adapting."

"Adapting? Oh, and thank him for screwing up my profit from the pipeline project. I will repay him."

Colin looked at him blankly. "I could be recording this, you know."

"You could be, but you're not," Peregrine said smugly.

Colin wanted to either grab him by the lapels and fling him to the other side of the courtroom, or he wanted to curse him into a toad, as he was a type of toad already.

"Don't touch me. I'll charge you with assault."

"If I wanted to touch you, there wouldn't be enough left of you to speak."

"Tough guy, aren't you? After I leave here, you'll be lucky to find me." Peregrine swept out of the courtroom with lawyers trailing behind him.

Colin clenched his fists and fought the urge to grab his wand and blast the bastard.

*********

Colin had just finished briefing Sirius on the hearing. Sirius was alone and pondering the fact that Peregrine was out again. It made him nervous and angry. He knew it would frighten Cordelia, but he couldn't keep it from her. He wanted to be able to tell her what they were doing to build a case against him, one that would stick this time, before he brought the subject up. Draco was working on the Muggle and Pard connections, Colin was getting histories on every person who was remotely connected to Peregrine. Sirius had decided to involve one more person, who might be able to find a link. There was a buzz on his ______.

"Bill Weasley is here to see you, sir."

"Send him in."

Sirius got up from his desk and crossed to the door just as it was opening. "Bill! I haven't seen you since Christmas. How are you and the kids?"

They shook hands. "We're getting by. What can I do for you today?"

"Come sit down," Sirius said as he directed Bill to one of the couches by the fireplace. "I have this problem. His name is Avian Peregrine."

"I read about him. I know he was charged with harassing you, but he was acquitted, wasn't he?"

"Actually he was never charged. The ministry fumbled the quaffle. We fed them everything we could dig up on this creep and they couldn't put the pieces together enough to even get him charged. That's where you come in," Sirius commented. He could see that Bill was wary. "Don't worry, I'm not out for revenge, but I need something to make sure he's charged next time and hopefully convicted and put away for a long time. I'm looking for the evidence that he harassed me and my family."

"So he was harassing you?" Bill asked, obviously concerned.

"Yes, more than that, he was injuring me and my family." Sirius went on to describe the various incidents that while looked at separately seemed random in nature, but when put together Sirius was hoping that Bill would see the same pattern he did.

"I hadn't realized you thought the Circe fire was targeted at you and not Ginny."

"I'm sure Peregrine wasn't an avid reader of that publication. Did you know his brother tried to give Ginny the capital to start Circe, but she refused him?"

"No, I hadn't realized that. You think he was angry about that? Seems a little extreme," Bill laughed.

Sirius agreed, "This guy is a nutter. He has something against me and I never did anything to him personally, so, yeah, he could be angry about that too. You know, how dare she refuse a great Peregrine."

"So what can I do?"

"I was wondering if you could help me investigate Peregrine's finances."

"I can't delve into his accounts, if that's what you expect."

"No I'm not asking you to do that. What I need is someone to follow the money trail. I don't want you to do anything illegal or unethical, but you're in a better position than the investigators here to take a look at the public records and make something out of them. I could request all the records, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Peregrine knows how to forge and fake documentation. I think if one of us goes in and asks for these records, they'll be altered before we see them."

"So you think if I go in and take a look while they aren't suspecting, I might find authentic documents."

"Yeah, something like that."

"Sure. I'd be glad to help. I'll see what I can do. I warn you I may not find anything. Gringotts is notorious for its privacy policies. I may not even have the proper clearance to take a glance at some of the records. But I do have a pretty high clearance."

"I know, and I don't expect miracles. I repeat, I don't expect you to do anything illegal or unethical, or anything that might cause you to be suspect in any way."

"Thanks. I'll get back to you in about a week or so."

***********

Draco had been in and out of Muggle and wizarding art galleries from Tokyo to New York. Next week was Africa and the week after that was South America. If it was Tuesday it must be San Francisco. He knew that because he'd managed to arrange to meet Ginny here on Tuesday. She had business with the regional offices, so they'd tried to coordinate their schedules to get maybe an afternoon and at least one night together. Tomorrow he was due in Cairo and she had to be in Atlanta.

He'd been through five Muggle and eight wizarding galleries and talked to at least twenty-five different people. No one had heard of Avian Peregrine, nor Mason Randall or Margaret Nielson for that matter. He was getting tired and frustrated.

Just as he was leaving the sixth Muggle gallery, having gotten no information from the very snooty owner, his eye caught on a piece of sculpture in the corner. It was a female torso stretched backwards in a graceful arch. One arm stretched out and back while the other arm and hand rested just below the navel. He knew this sculpture. He had looked at it a lot in his early adolescence. In fact… Draco circled the podium on which it sat and examined the outstretched hand. There it was. A faint line at the wrist.

"Who gave you this sculpture?" Draco called to the gallery owner who was buffing her nails, but watching Draco like a hawk.

"Why?"

"I think this piece was stolen."

The piece had been stolen from Malfoy Mansion last year after the ministry came to clear out illegal magical objects from the house. A lot of people had been there, taking away a lot of different things. They hadn't realized for nearly a month that this piece was missing, but Draco had known it was missing. He was also sure that this was the piece because of the line at the wrist. When Draco was fourteen, before Lucius would let him have real women to play with, Draco spent a lot of time with this sculpture … errr … admiring its lines … Draco blushed at his innocence, given that less than a year later, Lucius was practically supervising his sexual training using live models. But before that he had been running his hand along the sculpture when one of the house elves surprised him and he had tipped the sculpture over and the wrist had broken off. He had repaired it, but in his haste it hadn't been a perfect repair charm. He had looked away a second too soon and the wrist moved slightly. He had often thought he should have gone back and removed the wrist to make the repair perfect. Now he was very glad he hadn't.

The owner was now bustling towards him.

"How dare you accuse me of trafficking in stolen goods. I got that from the Northern European Art trust. They are a very reputable charitable organization. They donate works of art and we agree to reduce our commission by half when it sells. The proceeds all go back to the charity."

"I'm familiar with this piece of sculpture. I would dearly like more information on who donated it. Do you have any of that information?"

"No," she said curtly. "You'll have to ask them. They keep most of their donations strictly confidential."

"I'll do that. Thank you."

Draco left there and began going back to all the galleries he'd been in up to that point asking if they had ever had donations from the Northern European Art Trust. One other Muggle gallery had said they had had a painting a few years ago from them. Two other galleries said they'd heard of the trust, but had never accepted artwork from them.

It was nearly 8 pm when Draco finally arrived at the Circe offices. He was directed to the second floor and from there directed towards a large office that was bustling with people. Ginny waved him in while she was bent over a light table with three men and two women. She was choosing photos and instructing them on what she wanted to emphasize. He settled himself onto a couch and watched as four other people lined up to get her opinion or ask a question about a decision. She handled most of them in a polite business like manner, but one witch just didn't get it and he could tell that was frustrating Ginny after the fourth time she'd explained the same thing to the poor girl. This time in a bit of a terse tone.

He hadn't gotten much of a chance in London to watch her work. They usually met at a restaurant or at the theatre, or they'd meet in Draco's flat or Ginny's loft and get right to the sex, then do the dinner and socializing later. It was an incredible turn on to watch her work. He could see the energy and the expertise that she had and the passion she had for the publication. It was like watching her talk to Grant about the magazine only without the git anywhere at all. He was glad for that. While he had reconciled that Ginny no longer wanted Grant, he was still not anxious to spend a lot of time with the man and he sure as hell didn't want to be his friend.

After watching her for a bit and realizing it would take her longer to extricate herself from the business at hand, he excused himself to use her private fireplace to report his findings on the galleries to Sirius. Afterward he laid down on the couch there and was musing about how this might make a good place to shag her when she popped her head in.

"Nope, no shagging in here. This is where my family can get a hold of me if they need to. I would not want to be caught under you when they called."

"How about on top?"

"Draco! Come on. I'm starved. Come take me to dinner."

"I can't just take you? You get me all aroused watching you work."

"If I knew that I'd make you come to Circe more often. And don't say what I think you were going to say."

"Fine, shall we have seafood?"

"What else is there, here?"

Draco schooled his lust for now and presented his arm to escort her out to dinner. They had time later for what he wanted to do with her.

*************

It had been a long time since he had been out without the kids. Sirius had invited him over for dinner. It wasn't a purely social call, though. For the last week and a half he'd been doing some investigating. He'd finally found what could be a connection. He'd owled Sirius to request a meeting and Sirius had invited him to dinner. He was told that Colin had recommended that Sirius not be seen with Bill on a professional level, so as not to tip off Peregrine. So business it was, but it would be nice to spend an evening socially with adults who weren't your parents or brothers as well.

"Come on in," Sirius said as Bill huddled in the doorway of Sirius' townhouse, trying to get out of the rain.

"Thanks," Bill said, handing the bottle of Merlot over to Sirius and shaking out of his rain-repellent charmed cloak.

"I hope you don't mind, Cordelia invited her friend Emma, before I could tell her I had invited you. But that will give us more time to talk after dinner. She and Emma usually disappear into the study and talk for hours."

"Where are the kids?"

"Spending the night with Grandma Kate, God Bless Grandmothers."

"Hear, Hear!" Bill heartily agreed as his own children were with Grandma Molly this evening.

"Should I open this?" Sirius asked as they entered the kitchen.

"Sure," Bill responded as he charmed his longish hair dry and adjusted his rimless glasses.

"Bill! So nice to see you again," Cordelia beamed as she cut up cucumbers to go into the big bowl of greens that was sitting on the kitchen counter.

"Hello, Cordelia. It's been a while."

"Bill, you've met my friend Emma?"

The woman in question looked vaguely familiar, but no bells were going off. He sighed and wondered how careful he'd have to be this evening if it meant a Muggle was at the table. Not that he minded Muggles, it was just that he would need to adjust his conversation accordingly.

The woman had extended her hand and smiled. She was pleasantly attractive, dark brown hair, lively eyes and a warm smile. "I think we might have met at Sirius and Cordelia's wedding?" Emma questioned.

Bill looked again, more closely. Her hair was longer and she was thinner, but the dots connected and he did recognize her after all. "Yes! I think we did. You're her friend who got clued in at the wedding, right?"

"Yes! I remember asking you lots of questions at the reception. I'd just found out that day and I was fascinated."

"Are we still fascinating to you?" Bill asked.

"Some of you are. Some not so much," Emma said with a slight blush to her cheeks that was really quite attractive.

"Oh?"

"Since my divorce a couple of years ago, Cordelia has fixed me up with a few wizards, but none that she knew all that well, so I'll forgive her the toads."

"Well, you shouldn't be dating toads. I didn't know there were any toad Animagi at the moment?" Bill asked jokingly, and looking over at Sirius.

Sirius and Cordelia laughed. Emma smiled. Yes, she did have a very warm smile. He liked that.

The wine was good, dinner was delicious. Apparently Emma had made the entrée, and brought it over and heated it up. Dessert was strawberries and chocolate brownies with heavy whipping cream on top. After about an hour of lively conversation, Emma and Cordelia excused themselves, and Sirius volunteered to clean up the plates. This was a bit easier for them as they had magic on their side, whereas the women would have had to do things manually.

With Cordelia and Emma safely out of the room, Sirius asked, "So what have you found out?"

"Quite a bit, actually." Bill reached in his pocket and produced a miniature roll of parchment that he'd charmed to the right size and smoothed free of wrinkles. He laid the paper out in front of Sirius. It was a series of lines with boxes. Inside each box was an account name, a bank name and an account number. Bill started on the right and worked towards the left. "It seems that Mr. Peregrine draws a paycheck from two charitable organizations. The Northern European Art Trust, and The Centre for Magical Antiquities."

Sirius' head snapped up at the mention of the trust, but Bill continued. "They are sizable paychecks, and periodically he gets bonuses deposited into his accounts. One organization is Muggle, one is wizard. These organizations make most of their money from corporate donations or sale of art work through independent galleries. They use a really wide diversity of galleries. The corporations work a bit differently. The Muggle corporation gives money to the wizard charity and the wizard corporation gives money to the Muggle charity."

"Doesn't that disturb Gringotts, to be getting so much Muggle money and handing so many galleons over to the Muggles?"

"No, Gringotts changes money over all the time. But Gringotts never sends out galleons, and it doesn't keep track of any transactions after the money has been changed. It's the first thing they do when it receives pounds and it's the last thing they convert to before completing the transaction."

"So how were you able to get information on the Muggle transactions?"

"I have a few connections in the Muggle banking world, mainly through friends that have married Muggles."

"You didn't tell them what you were trying to find out, did you?"

"No, I did mention to my friend that it was to help you. That made all the difference. Actually, it wasn't you. It was Cordelia. More than once I heard that Cordelia had helped them work out some difficulty with a ministry or Gringotts official. They all spoke very highly of her."

Sirius smiled. "She is very good at negotiating between the wizards and Muggles. I'm lucky to have her as part of the IFW, let alone as a wife. Right then. Where do they get money?"

"The charity gives the gallery artwork to sell, the gallery takes the commission and gives the rest back to the charity. I haven't been able to trace the donated artwork to the charities. Since it's not a monetary transaction, I couldn't find out any more about it."

"Is it possible the artwork is stolen?" Sirius asked.

"I have no idea. It can't all be, can it? Wouldn't someone recognize a piece of stolen artwork?"

"Maybe, but if stolen wizard art were being given to Muggle galleries to sell, perhaps no one would notice or complain. I'll turn this over to Colin in the morning. So do we know anything about the artists?"

"I have a listing of everyone who got payments from the charities. I didn't recognize any of the names, but then I don't have much to do with the art world. I used to know some of the antiquities dealers when I did more curse-breaking for Gringotts, but since I moved back from Egypt I've lost track of most of them. They tend to be slippery fellows."

"Yes, very slippery. Thanks for doing this. If you could follow up on the artists I'd appreciate it. There might be something we can find out about those people. I want you to talk to Draco Malfoy when he gets back. But I don't want you to meet him in the office. Arrange a neutral time and place. Maybe the two of you can reconcile this and link Peregrine to something."

Bill looked at Sirius suspiciously.

"Look, Malfoy isn't that bad. I know he's questionable, but I have to trust him on this. I don't have a lot of choice. I need you to talk to him."

"Right then. I suppose I could. I never had a problem with him directly, but I dare say his family has been a bit hateful to ours over the years."

"I'm aware his family has been a bit hateful to a lot of families over the years. He doesn't follow that path anymore. I want to keep this investigation as quiet as possible, and I can't bring anyone else in.

"All right. I'll try to get a hold of him."

"Make it look unofficial, all right?" Sirius asked.

Bill nodded as Sirius refreshed his glass and changed the subject. "Look, I'm sorry it sort of seems like a set up between you and Emma here tonight. I swear I had no idea she was coming."

"But, Sirius, she made the dinner. This wasn't a last minute invitation."

"I thought Cordelia's mum was coming over and I expected the kids to be here with Nick, but it seems I'd gotten these plans very much confused with next week's plans. Cordelia had been rather annoyed with me, as she was thinking it was just going to be her and Emma for dinner. I was supposed to fend for myself. Emma was very gracious when Cordelia called her and informed her dinner was for four instead of two."

"It's all right. I rather enjoyed talking with her."

"Have you dated at all since Susan died?"

"No, I just haven't the heart for it. My mum has been trying to encourage me to get back into it, but I've been busy and with the kids, I really don't have the time. This is one of the first dinners I've had with just other adults."

"I know what you mean about no time and kids. We have a lot of help and I'm not sure how those who don't have the help manage."

About that time Emma and Cordelia came down the stairs.

"Thanks so much for the dinner, Emma. It was delicious. I wish you could stay."

"Not tonight. We'll be able to talk on Saturday. I need to get home. I have some work I need to get done before tomorrow. I was hoping they wouldn't drop this project on my desk until next week, but no luck. Plus they want to have a team meeting tomorrow morning."

"Saturday?" Cordelia asked, incredulous. Emma nodded. "I have a tough boss, but he doesn't work me Saturdays." Cordelia winked at Sirius, then continued "Well, he works me Saturdays, just not professionally."

"Can I see you to your tube stop?" Bill offered.

Emma looked up at him and smiled. "That would be lovely."

Bill couldn't help but smile back. It felt good to smile and renew a friendship. He'd been losing too many lately.

**************

It had been an extremely long time since Bill had had a first date, but this had been very pleasant. He survived. He'd had conflicting feelings about asking Emma out, but George was right, it was time he got on with his life and this was a first step. He wasn't sure why he chose to take that first step with Emma, he was well known around Gringotts as "eligible", but this just felt like an easier step to make than dating someone from his community. The Gringotts community and the circles his family travelled in were rather insular and he knew any dating he did would be the talk of the set before the date was done. This provided a bit of anonymity. He hadn't even told his parents where he was going when he'd asked them to baby-sit. They were used to this however, as he'd frequently gone out on his own in the year since Susan's death. They respected this as a part of his grieving process, but this time it wasn't about grief. It was about new possibilities and moving on.

They had gone out to dinner and had thought about the theatre, but ended up staying at the restaurant and chatting over coffee instead. Bill had escorted Emma all the way to her flat. He hadn't felt ready for a kiss goodnight, but they did make plans to see each other the following weekend. He was about to Apparate back to the Burrow when he realized he was very close to Ginny's loft. It was close to midnight by the time he got there, but he saw the light on, and decided to stop by. He didn't need to get back to the kids and could use someone to talk to about Emma. He'd had a very nice time with her this evening, but didn't know quite what to do about it.

Ginny answered the door in a white satin robe with her hair messed, looking flushed, but not really sleepy.

"Did I wake you?" Bill asked hesitantly.

Ginny smiled warmly and opened the door wide. "No! Not at all, come on in!"

"If you're sure I'm not disturbing you."

"You're not disturbing me," she said with an emphasis on 'me', which made him begin to suspect that she wasn't alone.

He entered the loft and there was dim lighting and jazzy music playing, with lots of candles lit all around. Bill began to feel very uncomfortable. "Um, Gin?"

"Can I get you anything? Glass of wine, maybe?" Ginny asked, unperturbed.

"Yeah, that would be good. I don't want to intrude if you have someone here."

Ginny brushed him off, "Don't worry about it. You don't visit me enough. I'd never turn you away."

Bill eyed her dubiously, "Well, family obligations only go so far, Gin … if this is a bad time…"

Ginny was handing him a glass and ushering him into the living room when his suspicions were proven correct. The shower turned on.

"Don't worry, you didn't interrupt." Ginny said, offering him a glass.

Bill got up and began to back up. "No, I really should go. I don't want …"

"Stay, really. I'm really curious what brings you all the way out here this late," Ginny said, approaching him.

"I was seeing a friend home, and she lives near here, and I saw your light on, so I … and well, I should have thought more about it. I didn't realize …"

"I know. I should have told you that I've been seeing one man rather steadily, but I, well … so stay and sit down and tell me all about the woman you had a date with."

Reluctantly, Bill sat stiffly in the chair facing the couch and placed his glass on the table. "It wasn't a date, exactly. Just dinner, actually."

"Sounds like a date to me, who was it?"

"One of Cordelia's friends. We met inadvertently at dinner last week at the Blacks."

"Ah, the plot thickens," Ginny said, looking excited.

"Don't make of it more than it is. It was just dinner and I'm not at all sure I should see her again."

"Why not? If she's a friend of Cordelia's she's probably very nice."

"She was quite pleasant, but you know Gin, I already had my one love and she'd dead, so I doubt that's at all where this is heading." Bill ran his hands through his hair, and sighed. "At least I don't think so."

"Bill, Bill … you're allowed to have more than one love. Susan wouldn't have wanted you to mourn her forever."

"But it feels too soon."

"It's been more than a year."

"So who's upstairs, anyone I know?" Bill asked, changing the subject.

Ginny looked down, and took a deep breath. "Draco Malfoy."

Bill looked at her with disbelief. "So I was right, that night, after the fire? You said nothing was going on."

"Look, I didn't want to lie to you, but I didn't want our relationship to get broadcast to the rest of the family. We really didn't have a relationship then, or rather one that was at all well enough defined to share. I just didn't want the whole thing to get misconstrued."

"We could misconstrue you sleeping with him?"

"Yes. Look, that night I didn't know what it meant and neither did he."

"Why? Doesn't he know the meaning of seducing a vulnerable woman?" Bill asked sarcastically.

"He didn't seduce me, Bill," Ginny said flatly.

"It was your idea?" Bill felt his eyebrows rise above his hairline at this point.

"It wasn't an idea, Bill. I didn't really think about it. It just happened and yes, I started it, and I continued it, and it was what I needed at that moment, that night."

"Oh. So you've been seeing him ever since? Does he treat you right?"

"We've been off and on since then. But I think we're more on, now. And yes, he treats me very well, thank you."

"Are you going to tell anyone?"

"I hadn't planned on making a big announcement. Most of the family knows we've dated a few times."

"And they were none too happy about that either," Bill interjected.

"I know. Why do you think I haven't brought him to any family dinners? I'm not ready for it yet."

"You're embarrassed to be seen with him? That's a bad sign, Gin."

"I'm not embarrassed. I just don't want to go through all the explanations and reassurances that will be necessary to explain this to anyone but you," she said with exasperation in her voice.

Bill sat back. "So what do you see in him?"

"He gets me. He doesn't laugh at my dreams. He doesn't make fun of my drawing. He doesn't think I'm pretentious when I want to go to the ballet."

"Do we do that?" Bill asked, earnestly.

"Fred and George do, and Percy just tries to come along, but he is being pretentious."

Bill laughed at that.

"Mom overprotects and can't understand why I'm not married with three children yet, and Dad has had such a hard time with Lucius Malfoy that I'm not sure he could be objective."

"You talk about how he doesn't do the things we do to you. Why him and not a thousand other guys who could appreciate you as well and are not Malfoys."

"Well, if there are a thousand guys lining up to date me, show me the front of the line. You don't understand, Bill. Ever since I started Circe, and it became successful, I've had a very difficult time dating men who see me as me, not a source of money for them, or a jewel in their collection, or an acquisition target. Draco remembers me from when I was not successful and still wanted to see me. He was expecting someone else, but really likes who I've become. He doesn't want my money or my company. We've already had that fight, and he's still here. He's different from who he used to be. He's learned a lot, but he isn't a Weasley, which makes him rather attractive."

"What, because he was evil for half his life? Ginny, please don't tell me you are falling for his dark side."

"He left his dark side when he left The Circle."

"Ginny, you never leave your dark side and his was bred into him. You don't think you're going to redeem him, do you?" Bill asked, incredulous.

Ginny laughed. "No! I don't want to redeem him. I like his cynical view on the world. He's redeemed himself and he's trying very hard to integrate a totally different perspective into his life. I admire that effort."

"Do you trust him?"

"Yes, I do. Most of the time. And when I don't I call him on it and he has been scrupulously honest with me."

"Do you love him?"

Ginny hesitated and looked away for a long moment. "Yes, I do love him, but can you keep that to yourself for now?"

"Has he made any promises to you?" Bill was very worried.

"He says he loves me."

"Have you talked about a future together?"

"Yes, but it doesn't involve marriage at the moment, if that's what you're getting at," Ginny said, a bit impatiently.

Bill smiled, thinking he had something, "Can't commit, eh?"

"Actually, Bill, I'm the one who rejects marriage. It would leave me too vulnerable with Circe."

Bill raised his eyebrows. "What the hell are you going to tell mum?"

"I'm not and neither are you. I won't deny that I'm seeing him, but I'm not announcing it either. Not yet. There will be a time for that, but not yet. We just got a lot of this sorted out a couple of weeks ago, Bill, can you give us some time before you rat us out."

"I won't say anything, and now you have the Emma issue to hold over my head. I'll keep your secret if you keep mine."

"Emma. Eh? Do I know her?"

"Probably not. She was at the Black's wedding, but that was the last time I'd seen her."

"I think I remember her. Is she the woman you talked to a lot at the reception?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"I liked her. She seemed very nice," Ginny said with a smile.

"Yes, she is."

There was a throat cleared from the top of the stairs.

Ginny glanced up, "You can come down, Draco, he knows. I explained. You won't be blasted."

"I can defend a blasting, but not whilst drying my hair." Draco came down the stairs wearing jeans, no shirt and rubbing a towel through his hair. "I'm glad you're here, actually. Sirius told me I need to talk to you."

"Yes, he thought we might be able to compare notes on this investigation. Is it okay to talk about it in front of Ginny?"

"Sure, she knows all about my end of it, so I wouldn't think your end would be confidential to her," Draco said with a shrug.

"I didn't bring my notes, so we'll have to do the details later."

"That's fine. Could we meet here tomorrow? It would really deflect any suspicion since there's a connection here." Draco looked at Ginny.

Ginny nodded. "All right by me, although if you want me here, it'll have to be later, after dinner. I have to get a load of articles reviewed and we're planning the Christmas issue, so that's bound to be a long meeting."

Bill nodded, "That's fine. I'll bring food."

Draco agreed and settled on the couch, next to Ginny. "So what have you found out?"

Bill and Draco spent the next hour detailing the results of their investigations. To Bill it felt like they were on the right track to make the connections that might allow them to figure out the game Peregrine was playing. While they were talking, Bill observed both Ginny and Draco. They were respectful of one another. Ginny had some insights into the art community and helped clarify some things for both Draco and Bill. They touched, and smiled, and joked about some of the experiences they'd had already. Bill could see the bond. He didn't quite understand it, but it was there, and it seemed real.

They wrapped up the investigation discussion with a list of information to bring to the next day's meeting. It was nearly 2 am by this time and Bill was tired. He cleared off the wineglasses and put them in the sink, gathered up his cloak and headed for the door. Ginny had excused herself to finish kitchen clean-up and Draco saw him to the door.

They shook hands and discussed food, but when all was done, he looked directly at Draco. "You know, everything seems okay here." Draco nodded with a slight smile on his face, but Bill went on very seriously. "You need to remember what I used to do for a living."

Draco raised an eyebrow.

"I broke curses for Gringotts, and you see, in order to break a curse you need to know how to cast it." Bill smiled warmly.

"Got it in one, Bill," Draco said, his smile fading a bit as Bill stepped out and Disapparated.

************

A Week Later

It was past midnight when Cordelia got back to their townhouse in the west end. Her training sessions were starting to wear her out. For the last month she'd been coming home from work, getting the kids, Sirius, and whoever else was there, fed. Then it was baths or playtime for the kids, then books, then kisses, hugs, fresh cold water, check for monsters, turn on the night light, have Sirius set the monitor charms, then a final good night. After the kids were asleep, she'd go over to Peter Micheal's, the Nimir-Raj of the London Pard, for at least two to three hours, three to four times a week. He and his wife were teaching her the finer points of Pard culture and control over her inner cat.

This week, he was coaching her on detecting when a change was approaching, helping her learn the triggers, and knowing when to allow a change and when to put more energy into controlling and preventing it.

Tonight they'd been working on arousal triggers. This was one of Cordelia's most frequent triggers. For some people it was raw meat, or the smell of blood. For others it was simply lunar. Cordelia found that she could control her change in the presence of blood and meat. The trip to the rendering plant was interesting; it was more nauseating than anything else. But around Sirius, she had definite trouble.

It was just a few days away from the next full moon and she had abstained from sexual contact with Sirius for nearly three weeks now. She and Peter spent an extra hour on arousal response. Peter's wife, Lea, helped enormously. At first Cordelia felt very voyeuristic, but Lea assured her that this was part of Peter's position and part of every wereleopards education. After a couple of sessions, it started to get more clinical. It couldn't get too clinical, however, as that would limit the arousal response that might trigger a change. She finally found that edge between feeling aroused enough to learn the necessary control, and feeling intrusive and shifting into a clinical response, which didn't help her learn anything. Peter and Lea never did anything that would earn more than an over 17 rating, but for someone raised to limit their public displays of affection, it took some adjustment.

Cordelia had spent some time in the last few weeks just getting to know Lea. Lea wasn't an exhibitionist, but she was a therapist who frequently dealt with sexual dysfunction in general. She was wholly more comfortable discussing and demonstrating arousal triggers than Cordelia, but Cordelia was grateful for the information and the sensitivity with which the lessons were approached and presented.

Lea was a witch and a wereleopard but specialized in mixed marriages between the magical and Muggle, and also between the human and lycanthrope. She commented that she wasn't sure she'd ever had a circumstance like Cordelia's where a Muggle lycanthrope was married to a magical non-lycanthrope, but Animagus. Lea was excited by the challenge, Cordelia, less so.

Cordelia shook her head to clear it of all the intricacies of this weeks lessons. She was exhausted and needed sleep. She put on her "everything is fine" face and climbed the stairs to their office, where she knew Sirius would be.

He was leaning on the windowsill, forehead pressed against the glass, his hands gripped the sill and she could see the tension in the muscles of his neck, back and arms.

"Hi," she said softly.

Sirius shot her a look over his shoulder. "Just heard from Colin, Peregrine was spotted in Milan yesterday, but he's vanished again."

"Damn."

"Yes, damn. Every time we get anywhere near him, he slips through. I'm afraid of what he has planned next. What happens next time? Does he kill you? Me? The kids? How about all of us together? That would be best I suppose." His voice was angry and filled with fear and frustration.

Cordelia crossed the room, wrapped her arms around his waist, and leaned her forehead into the space on his back between his shoulder blades. She held him like this for a bit, until she felt his breathing calm. She could see his hands were still clenched on the windowsill, like he would rip it from the wall. She was half afraid he'd punch out the window, but he didn't. Instead he turned and kissed her hard.

Over the years Cordelia had learned that one of the ways Sirius expressed his frustration and worked off discontent of a lot of different types was through sex with her. Generally she didn't mind this exercise as they both got some benefit from this particular form of stress release. When he was working through some sort of stress, his technique ran towards the more aggressive side of explorations rather than anything slow and gentle. Provided she was in the proper mood, aggressive could be a lot of fun. He liked to dominate in these circumstances and take control of the activities. Sirius certainly didn't mind being dominated, but when he was working through this sort of mood, he was definitely the aggressor. Cordelia could see this mood in him from the moment she walked into the study. Now she had proof of it in that kiss. It was very much an aggressive, domineering, highly charged kiss. One that demanded, not asked. During the kiss he moved away from the window and pressed her against the wall next to it. Cordelia half expected to tear down the curtains they were entangling themselves into, but they enveloped them instead.

He was taller than her by a good six inches and it seemed like more at the moment. Normally Cordelia would find this very arousing, and she did this evening. He broke away and looked off, breathing deeply trying to back off, placing his hands on either side of her. "How did the lesson go?"

She moved her hands to his chest and caressed it lightly as she spoke. "Good. I think I'm learning. We practiced a lot this evening."

"What were you practicing?"

Cordelia smiled a bit, and turned her gaze directly at him. "Trying to control the change when aroused."

"When aroused? How the hell do you practice that with him?" His hands had balled into fists, but she could tell he was trying to keep his voice light.

"I don't practice with him. I imagine you."

He took a deep breath and opened his hands to press his palms flat to the wall. He was trying to relax, but he wasn't giving her the chance to move away, either, not that she wanted to move away, but sometimes the lack of that option bothered, just a bit.

He looked at her, "I know. You've told me that before. I … I just … I miss you and I'm not positive I need you getting aroused with another man. Plus this Peregrine thing has me buggered, and we still don't know what the hell is happening with Harry."

"I hate being out so much, but would you prefer I change mid foreplay with you, because you're jealous?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not."

"You are, but that's okay." She leaned her mouth up to kiss him, to reassure him, to help him feel that she was there with him again. She intended it as a light kiss, but his kiss was hard and deep and probing and aggressive again. One hand went to undo the buttons on her shirt. She was terribly torn between succumbing to what promised to be a delicious experience or pulling back so she wouldn't have to test her control one more time tonight. She had tested it repeatedly at Peter's, and the more it was tested the harder it was to stay in control. She was knackered and the last few exercises with Peter and Lea told her she needed to be careful. But she felt anything but careful. She wanted him and needed him tonight. She began to unbutton his shirt, broke the kiss and whispered, "I want you, but I don't know if I can hold on."

"I'll hold on for you, maybe I can help."

She felt some energy pouring off of him while he finished off removing his shirt. He leaned into her again, chests touching. She could feel the air crackle between them with his magic. He was trying to give it to her, to help her control. She'd felt his magic fill a room before, but had never had it directed at her. It washed over her, and felt invigorating; like a shot of adrenaline. Unfortunately, she also found it incredibly sexy. She took a long shuddering breath, trying to go through the steps Peter and Lea had helped her practice. She tried to imagine a very small cage and imagined the leopard could be shut inside that small confined space. She felt a bit more confident as she hadn't felt her inner cat moving yet. He started to undo her trousers and slide his hand down. He was leaning into her heavily and taken to kissing her again.

It wasn't until she slid his zipper down that she felt it move just a bit within her. She imagined more bars on the cage. He touched her; probing roughly, stroking firmly. With this she felt it stretch and start to move about. One part of her felt like she was getting in over her head, the other just wanted it. She peeled his trousers down and could feel him long and ready, hard against her hip. Their chests were bare by this time and their hearts were pounding into one another.

She meant to moan, but a growl escaped her throat. That brought her up short. She could feel herself start to slip. The cat was picking the lock. She pulled back gasping, but he didn't stop. Typically she wouldn't mind it and any indication that he was being too rough would have been heeded.

She realized, a bit late, that he hadn't yet really had a chance to react to her change. She knew he needed to get angry about it. He needed to rant and yell, and even possibly cry about it. Instead he'd been calm, accepting, rational and supportive. But, he had also lost Peregrine three times in less than two weeks, and she had been going out to another man's house nearly every other night for a month. When she thought about it later she did understand why he didn't stop. But at the time, she really needed him to stop, back off and let her get control again. But he didn't. She said stop, but her voice came out breathless and even to her it sounded like pleasure. She said no and tried to move back, but in doing so she trailed her hand a bit too long over his back and made him shudder.

He crushed her to him and was moving his mouth almost violently over her breast. She felt the cage give way allowing the cat to whip through her body. At the same time she realized she had raked clawed hands down Sirius' back leaving a trail of blood and deep scratches. He yelled, grabbed her hands and looked up at her. He held her hands up between them and the fingers had been replaced by paws with claws flexed and bloody. Cordelia panicked, screamed, and pulled away, crossing her arms over her breasts and turning towards the wall. "Oh God, I'm sorry. I couldn't hang on, I just…"

Sirius looked stunned.

Cordelia took a deep breath and turned her face to Sirius. "Is the Portkey for the farm still here? I have to get out of here."

"Yeah, it's in the kitchen, where it always is. Here, let me help," he stuttered as he mechanically helped her on with jeans and her shirt. As he was doing up the buttons, Cordelia began to cry again. Blood was running down his back in a continual stream. Cordelia touched one and felt Sirius flinch.

"I could help," Cordelia gasped through her sobs, as she reached out a paw then quickly snatched it back. She realized she couldn't help in the state that she was in.

Sirius backed up. "No … go. I'll take care of it." Sirius turned her and pushed her towards the door.

"I love you," she said as she went out the door. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror in the hall and while she was not furry, her eyes had taken on the cat shaped almond and the neon blue of her leopard form. "Oh Lord!" she thought and fled.

**********

Sirius was left, half clothed, and in pain, physically and mentally. He had needed her tonight and he knew he had pushed her too far. Besides all that his back hurt like bloody hell and he wasn't at all sure if anyone he could call knew a healing charm strong enough to rapidly heal a wereleopard scratch. He couldn't go to a hospital, and preferred not to involve any mediwizards, as he was certain questions would be asked that he didn't want to answer. He did up his jeans and paced the room, thinking of what his alternatives were. He threw fire into the grate for the fireplace and took out a bit of glittering powder. "Remus?" he bellowed.

"Sirius, what's wrong, you sound upset," Remus answered, head floating suspended in the flames.

"I need you to go up to Cordelia's farm. She's up there all alone and I think she's going to have to change. We were snogging and I pushed too hard and she nearly lost control."

Remus looked shocked. "She shifted on you? How did she get up to the farm, can an animal use a Portkey?"

"Her hands slipped."

"She partially changed? Wow! That's very rare, from what I understand."

"Remus, can you just go up there and make sure she's okay," Sirius pleaded.

"What can I do that you can't?"

"You can shift and help her hunt, then help her when she shifts back. I can't hunt for her and she hasn't had a lot of practice."

Remus looked doubtful, "But the moon is still a week away, Sirius. I've never changed without the moon's pull."

"Will you try? I need someone there, but I don't think I'll be much help. Plus I have to get these scratches looked at. Is there a doctor with the ID that you trust, that won't ask too many questions?"

"Harry could heal that."

"That's right. Okay, I'll ask him."

"I'll go, Sirius, but I can't promise I can shift and hunt with her. If I can't I'll contact you. If you don't hear from me, assume I shifted and we're out looking for deer or something."

"Thank you, Remus."

"Anytime, anyplace, Sirius."

Sirius smiled as Remus vanished from the fireplace. Sirius added a bit more glittering powder and called out for Harry. He got Hermione.

"I really need to see Harry, right away. Is he there?"

"Yes, he's in the bath, hang on."

Harry appeared a short time later with a towel wrapped about him.

"I need some scratches healed, or at least dressed. Could you come and help? I don't want anyone else to know about it."

"All right. Let me dress and I'll be there in a flash."

**************

Harry arrived at the townhouse and found Sirius sitting in the centre of the kitchen on a tall stool with crude dressing on his back. The blood had seeped through on the left side already, and was dripping out the bottom of the right one. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was in pain. What Harry didn't know was whether the pain was physical or emotional.

"Holy shit, Sirius! These look bad," Harry said looking at the edges of the wounds more closely.

"Hi, thanks for coming Harry. How are you doing? Anymore incidents?"

"I don't think so, not that Hermione has told me about anyway." Harry shrugged as he moved to study Sirius' back again. "There are a lot of bandages here."

"I was able to apply the only bandaging charm I could remember, but the scratches need to be cleaned and stitched. I couldn't do that myself. Besides I'm feeling a bit lightheaded."

"It could be loss of blood."

Sirius laughed.

"I'm not joking, Sirius. Have you seen these?"

"Yes. How the hell do you think I got the bandages on? Just shut it and get to it," Sirius said shortly.

Harry looked at Sirius. This wasn't like him to be so short tempered with him. "Right then. I'll pull the bandages off quickly, but its going to hurt like bloody hell, and it will probably start to bleed again."

"I know."

"I'll do one side at a time." Harry touched Sirius' right shoulder. "This one first."

Sirius nodded.

"Do you want some whisky? Or a anaesthetic charm?"

"No, it makes the stitching charm less effective. Go on, get it over with."

"On the count of three. One, two, three." Harry stripped the bandages off the right part of Sirius' back. Harry let out a low whistle as he began to probe the top of the wound.

"Wow. These are bad! Was she angry at you?"

"No, she just got carried away and lost control. She started to shift."

"Started to? She was able to stop?" Harry asked.

"Yes, they've been teaching her how to do that."

"You're lucky you weren't killed. She may not be able to infect you, but she can still kill you unintentionally."

"I know that Harry! Just get on with it!" Sirius said, with obvious impatience.

Harry worked in silence for a bit. "How are you really, Sirius?"

"Not good, Harry. Not good. If we don't find Peregrine soon I'm not sure I'll be able to keep it up."

"Any nightmares? Blackouts?" Harry asked, trying to keep his tone light.

"You sound like Dr. Huebner."

"And your point is?"

"No. No nightmares. Well, not many anyway. Just because I have a nightmare doesn't mean I'm losing it again."

"I never said it did. Anything you want to tell me that you can't tell her?" Harry probed gently.

Sirius was silent for a long time. Harry could tell he was deciding what to confide and what to keep inside. Harry continued to mend the cuts on Sirius' back. "You may have some scarring."

"Goody, something else new," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Have you gotten angry yet?" Harry kept his voice neutral.

"Of course. I've gotten angry."

"No, I mean really angry about Cordelia's change and all."

"Why? Why should I be angry? It's Cordelia's life that changed. She's the one who deserves to get angry. I was the one who got her into this mess. I don't have a right to be angry."

Harry shook his head. He inspected his repairs to Sirius' back. They looked pretty good. The wounds were adhering nicely. They would probably be healed in the morning. But Harry could also see Sirius taking deep measured breaths. Harry whispered Silencio under his breath, then he grabbed the corner of the bandage covering the wounds on the left side of Sirius' back and pulled.

Sirius let out a shriek followed by a torrent of rather imaginative curse words, with some involving jungle animals doing things Harry thought quite impossible. After the shriek, the stool crashed as Sirius jumped up and brought his fist around towards Harry.

With his mage talents, and Quidditch reflexes, Harry avoided the fist and the next and the next. Sirius was flailing at Harry, trying to connect with anything he could. Harry let him land a few blows in non-critical areas, but was able to block most of them.

Sirius continued to curse, mostly unintelligibly. Harry heard Peregrine's name the most, then some chap named Kumar, and another named Michaels. After he seemed to have exhausted invectives against them, he started on Colin, Cordelia, Draco (three times) and even Ginny. Sirius was concentrating intently, but Harry could see the vacancy in his eyes. Blood was spattering off his back from both sets of wounds, as Sirius rounded to try to land one more blow to Harry. Harry blocked this one again, and at this point Sirius went for his wand.

"Expelliarmus," shouted Harry as Sirius' wand flew out of his hand, causing Sirius to let out a loud sound that was half frustrated groan and half angry shout.

He stood in the middle of the kitchen breathing hard and glaring at Harry. "Give me back the wand, Harry."

"No. I don't want to get killed, just yet."

"Give me the fucking wand, Harry!" Sirius shouted.

"To do what?"

"Curse you straight to Hell!"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Harry saw Sirius realize what he'd just said and crumple. Sirius legs gave way as he sat down heavily. He drew his legs up to his chest and locked his arms around them. "God, Harry! I'm sorry."

"I'm fine, Sirius. You needed that. Have you blown off any steam since you found out?"

When Sirius' breathing had finally calmed he said quietly, "No I haven't. I have to stay calm for her. I can't lose it. It's not my problem. I have to stay calm so she won't be scared. If I can keep it together, she'll be all right with it."

"You really think so? You have that much control over her?"

Sirius chuckled, "No. I guess not. I guess I can't fix her, can I?" Sirius looked very sad at this revelation.

"No."

"Damn. I know you're right." Sirius shook his head. "I'm too old for this big a change. I don't want Cordelia to be different! I want my Cordelia back."

"I could get her out at the farm, if you like."

Sirius glared, "That's not what I mean, Harry."

"Yes, I know exactly what you mean, but she's still the same woman you married."

"No, Harry she's not. She's cautious and frightened. I hate seeing that look of fear in her eyes, when she thinks no one is looking."

"You've never seen fear in her eyes before?" Harry asked, amazed.

"If you don't count our wedding day?" Sirius said and almost laughed. "No, I guess I've seen her really frightened just once. That's when she saw that poster of me after I broke out of Azkaban."

"Sirius, even if she hadn't been infected she'd have changed eventually. It's not your fault and you can't fix it."

"I know that, most of the time."

"The rest of the time you have me, Cordelia, Colin, Remus, and hell, even Draco, to tell you otherwise."

"Fabulous. All of you telling me when I'm wrong."

"No, telling you when you're right and when you don't have to take on the world."

"Oh," Sirius said quietly. He started to look about the room. "Holy shit, Cordelia's going to kill me. This place is a mess!"

Harry looked around. There was blood on the walls and splattered on the overturned kitchen table. One of the curtains on the window was torn down and there was a puddle of blood on the floor where Sirius was sitting."

"Don't worry, I'll help you clean up. But I guess I should patch you up before you pass out from blood loss."

Sirius got himself off the floor and righted the stool again. Harry moved back around Sirius and started to work on his back again. The left side needed repair and some of the right side had pulled apart. Harry worked quickly and finished up. He stood back, appraising his work. "Feel better?"

Sirius looked over his shoulder at Harry. "Yes and more than just the back."

"I know." Harry walked back in front of Sirius and leaned against the counter. "It's been just over a month since this happened. There'll be more stress and challenges to come. Can you handle that?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No, I guess not. But you do have a choice about how you handle it."

"You're right. I promise I will not try to hold it all in and pretend everything will be okay. Is that good enough?"

"That's good enough for now," Harry conceded. "Have you figured out how you're going to deal with the media when they get wind of this?"

"No, we'll cross that bridge, as they say."

"Yeah, but you might want to build a boat."

"It's on my agenda to think about next week."

"Good. Let's just hope to hell nothing breaks this weekend," Harry said cheerily.

********

Early the next morning, arriving by owl on the front steps of all the Daily Prophet subscribers, was the morning news bearing the headline in large and bold type:

Deputy Chancellor's Wife Having Affair with Rumoured Lycanthrope.