The Final Choice

Thank you, saiyanwizardgurl, for this edited version of the chapter!

Chapter 1

Sirius Firecalled early in the morning. Caine was still sleeping and Angela was enjoying a cup of tea in the living room when the flames in the fireplace suddenly rose and she saw her husband's face. "Hello, Angela."

"Hello," she whispered, almost fainting with relief. She had not heard from him since he had left for Russia three weeks earlier and had begun to worry. "How are you?"

Sirius had grown visibly thinner and he looked thoroughly exhausted but managed a smile. "I'm fine. How are the two of you? Is Caine fine?"

"He's sleeping, Sirius. Yes, he's fine."

"Good. I wanted to tell you that everything is fine with me, so don't worry."

"Where are you calling me from?"

"From the Headquarters. Dumbledore will be here any minute now. I'll report to him and then I'll drop by James and Lily's place. I'll be home soon."

Somehow, Angela managed not to show her disappointment - the last thing they needed was a quarrel through fireplaces. "All right, Sirius. Take care."

"You too. Tell Caine that I'll be there to take him to the park, just as I promised him when I left. You've been looking for him so long all by yourself, you need to rest."

"Okay."

The flames died out and Angela stood up - a little awkwardly because her pregnancy had finally begun to show up. Well, that was not a bad thing. Truth be told, she had been concerned about that - it was not natural for a fifth-month pregnancy to have so few signs and almost no weight gain. During her first pregnancy, she had gained so much weight that she had been unable to look in the mirror when undressed. The Muggle doctor that she used to visit had told her that this was not so uncommon but still, Angela worried. Now, with half a kilo added to her frame, she felt more composed. Maybe it was time to tell Sirius.

When he came back from the Potters' place, of course, which meant late in the night. She sighed and picked a book from the shelf, waiting for Caine to wake up.

Despite Sirius' promise to come and play with Caine, she knew that her husband would stay with James and Lily the whole day, so she decided not to postpone her own plans. She had a monthly arrangement she was not willing to miss.

"Mr. Nero!" Caine exclaimed happily and ran towards the old man who was waiting for them on a bench in Hyde Park.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" His old friend smiled down at him, and, being four, Caine did not notice the sudden aging and tiredness printed on his face. Angela, however, did not miss it.

"I had a birthday last month!" Caine announced. "I am four now." He grinned broadly, showing his perfect white teeth.

"Yes, I know."

"Why didn't you come?"

The old man looked at Angela for help. Because your dad would have thrown me through the door. "Because I had work to do."

Caine though about that and finally nodded. Work was something he could understand. "Daddy has work to do, too. He's always working. He goes on a missions and..."

"On missions, Caine," his mother corrected him.

"Yes, them. And his other work is keeping Harry and his mummy and daddy safe. He does not come home very often."

"Caine, that's enough!" Angela said firmly, feeling herself blush. She did not like the difficulties of her marriage being exposed by her son, not at all.

Their new companion did not notice, though. He only smiled at Caine. "I'm sorry I couldn't come," he apologized. "I've brought you a present."

Greedy as any child would be in his place, Caine's face lit up. "A present? What is it?"

Mr. Nero gave him a package. When Caine unwrapped it, he screamed with joy - there was a parchment and a self-drawing quill. Angela knew how it worked - the quill would draw on the parchment whatever Caine wanted and the way he wanted it, the way he saw it in his mind.

Her son went a few steps away to enjoy his newest acquisition and she turned to Mr. Nero. "You look tired."

He shrugged. "I have trouble sleeping."

"I see." She hesitated. "I'm sorry about Regulus' death."

He nodded. "It's hard, but you should accept things you cannot change. Tell me about yourself now. Do you have any new pictures for me?"

She shook her head. "No."

He shot her a penetrating glance. "So, Caine was right? Sirius is never home?"

Angela shrugged. "He's a busy man."

"He's a fool. No need to tell me, I can imagine what's going on. And don't look at me that way, I have ears. It's not a secret that the Potters are in hiding, and I can easily imagine Sirius trying to play the hero for them and not seeing that other people need him too. Really, it still amazes me how anyone can be so smart and at the same time so stupid, but Sirius somehow manages to combine both qualities."

Angela laughed. "Too true."

Some of the other visitors turned to look at them, then at the child who was drawing happily near the bench, and then at Orion Black again. Angela laughed harder.

"What's going on?" Orion asked.

"Those people, they were watching us. Then when they look at Caine and you, they see that you two look a lot alike, you know. They looked at me so strange; I'm sure they think that I'm your mistress."

"And Caine is our son, I suppose?" Orion asked and smiled. "It's nice to know that some people think that an old man like me deserves a young and dazzling beauty like you. Do you want coffee?"

"Are you going to conjure it?" she asked suspiciously.

"No, I'm going to buy it from the booth there."

She was about to say yes when she remembered her condition. "No, thank you."

"All right, then I'll buy one for myself. Is something wrong?"

"Well...haven't you heard that a man who has suffered a heart attack should give up on coffee?"

"I might have heard it, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to actually apply it. Besides, it was never proven that life could last longer without coffee. All that we know is that it seems longer without our little luxuries."

Angela felt stupid. What right did she have to tell the man how to live? He was not her father; she didn't even know him that well because she met him only once a month. But one thing she was certain of was that he loved her child. It was evident and had been since the moment she had pointed her wand at him, demanding to know why he was following her, and he had answered, "I won't harm your baby, I just want to see him." During this first meeting, she had allowed him only to look from a short distance in the baby-carriage.

Besides, he looked so old and tired right now. "When was the last time you went to St. Mungo's?"

"Recently enough," he answered in a voice that she knew well; Sirius was used to talking this way when he wanted to say that the conversation was over. She shuddered internally, when she imagined the great row that would follow if Sirius knew that she took Caine regularly to meet his grandfather. Well, that won't be so unusual. We quarrel all the time now...when he's home, of course.

Sirius was not home when they returned, not that Angela had really expected him to be. It was barely eleven o'clock and Sirius' visits at James and Lily's usually lasted for at least half a day. She made lunch and called Caine, but she had to fight him for his new parchment and quill because he was so enraptured by them that he did not want to stop drawing. She had expected him to be disappointed when he saw the two plates on the table, but he only nodded. "Daddy isn't coming, is he?" he asked.

Angela shook her head. "No, he's at work."

"He's with Harry and James and Lily," Caine said in a sad voice. "I heard you saying that to Mr. Nero," he explained when his mother looked at him.

"Well, yes, he is. He has to take care of them, you know."

He nodded again. "I understand."

Well, I don't. Why are you doing this, Sirius? Can't you understand that we - Caine and I - need you too? Or maybe you understand and you don't care. Is that it?

Of course, she knew that it was not true. Sirius loved them as much as they loved him, she had no doubts. But sometimes loving someone just was not enough. A marriage should be maintained with many other things and Sirius did not seem to realize that.

After lunch, Caine went back to his parchment and she cleared the table. She was just raising her wand to make them wash themselves when she felt a cold chill like a physical strike on her body. She knew what it meant: somebody was removing the wards around the flat and she knew for certain that it was not Sirius. She knew his way of acting with the wards and it was not him. Without thinking, she threw a Silencing Charm at Caine and shoved him into the wardrobe in her bedroom, telling him not to move whatever happened. Then, she conjured her Patronus - a large owl - and sent it through the window, desperately hoping that the newcomers did not have allies outside who could percept it.

The last wards gave up the same second she knelt in front of the fireplace, hoping to find someone - anyone - at Headquarters.

There were three of them, all hooded and dressed in black robes. Angela did not waste time looking at them more closely, she just pointed her wand at one of them and yelled, "Levicorpus!"

The Death Eater merely shrugged and blocked the curse in an almost disregarding manner. "Come on, Ravenclaw, I thought you could do better than that."

"Well, Malfoy, I never thought you could do better than that," she answered, looking pointedly at his mask. If she could keep him talking, that could gain them some time.

"Is your husband here?" another of the newcomers asked. She could not recognize his voice.

"You know that he isn't," she answered, trying to sound nonchalantly. "If he were, there would have been at least seven of you. I know that one to one doesn't suit you, even three to one doesn't."

Under his mask, she could swear that Malfoy wanted to answer but unfortunately, one of the others was smarter than that. "Don't say anything! Can't you see what she's trying to do? She's trying to gain time!"

Bellatrix Lestrange had always been a smart woman. Evil, yes, but smart.

"Where's the child, blood traitor?"

Angela's blood froze. Caine. If they found him...no, she did not dare to even imagine what would happen. "He isn't here," she answered, trying to sound steadily.

"Don't lie to me, stupid girl; it's useless. We know that he's here; the two of you entered the block together, so just tell us where he is. It'll be easier for you."

So, they had been under surveillance. Still, Angela did not intend to surrender without a fight. "You're a clever woman, Mrs. Lestrange," she said. "Maybe you've heard of this useful invention, a fireplace? I took Caine to a friend's place through the fire and then came back here. I needed a rest."

Please believe me, please believe me, please...

"Well, the boy isn't that important, but look around for him anyway."

Bellatrix had obviously taken the lead.

It had been a few minutes since she had sent her Patronus to Headquarters and there were no sign of it being intercepted. Someone would certainly come. If another Death Eater didn't intercept it. If it got there in time. If there was someone at the Headquarters.

Until then, Angela and Caine were left to themselves.

"Expelliarmus!" she yelled, pointing her wand at Malfoy, who stepped aside and the spelled missed him only by inches.

"Sectumsempra!" Angela barely managed to dodge before the red light from Bellatrix' wand hit her; the curse flew over her head and splintered one of the bookshelves into tiny pieces. Angela had never heard of that spell, but seeing its effect on the unanimated object, she could say that it was highly effective.

"Protego!" she shouted, trying to block the curse that Malfoy had sent in her direction and listening for a sound that could give her a clue whether the third Death Eater had found Caine or not.

Bellatrix' next curse hit her in the head and a stream of blood gushed out on her right cheek. Ignoring the pain, she flicked her wand and the heavy bookcase fell between her and Malfoy, thus blocking his Imperius Curse. Angela used the moment to spit the blood out of her mouth before trying to Stun Bellatrix.

Trying.

"I can't believe you've ever gone to Hogwarts," Lestrange said lazily, evading the spell with well-practiced ease. "Where have you learned those poor tricks?"

Angela threw a Cutting Curse at her and Bellatrix yelled with anger, but no serious damage was done. Lestrange was the better dueler, no matter how much Angela hated this fact. She sent a Blinding Curse in Malfoy's direction and hit him with it, but Lestrange simply muttered something, waved her wand and the curse sprang off. Angela had no time to wonder how it happened because a victorious cry from her bedroom told her exactly what she had been dreading to hear: the third Death Eater had found Caine. Bellatrix used her distraction to Disarm her.

What happened next was the most awful experience in all her life. Caine was still under the effect of her Silencing Charm, so he could not scream or cry for help - his eyes just began rolling uncontrollably and his face contorted in agony.

"No!" she cried. Until now, she had never seen a person under the Cruciatus Curse; now, she was seeing it performed on her own child. "No, please, he's only a child!" Cane fell on the carpet and began wriggling and gasping for air, his mouth opened in a soundless scream. "Please, do it to me instead. Please!"

"If you are this willing," Malfoy, who had recovered from the short-lasting Blinding Curse, said and added, "Crucio!"

The pain was like nothing she had ever felt in her life. She thought she had reached the final stage of suffering during the two days that the childbirth had taken, but it was a pleasant caress compared to this. White spit in her stomach, red light in her eyes, a thousand knives in her limbs. Next to her, Caine was still wriggling on the ground. They would soon lose all their strength. Very soon, her little boy would die.

"Please," she begged again as she fell on the carpet. "Please, not Caine. Please, leave him alone." She started crawling toward Malfoy on her palms and knees, and he laughed.

"Not so proud now, aren't we, Miss Ravenclaw? Little Miss Know-It-All doesn't know it all after all, does she? I think I like seeing you like that."

"Please," she continued her pleas, and made another step towards him.

Looking at the little boy, Bellatrix sighed, "He's lost consciousness. Pity. My, my, what is my dear cousin going to say when he comes here and sees your bodies, huh?"

Angela wailed, made another step towards Malfoy, and then suddenly threw herself on the floor, rolled down and ran right into Malfoy's knees, snatching the tip of the wand that had been pointing at her merely moments ago. "Stupefy!" she yelled, desperately trying to stay in conscience, to concentrate, to beat them...it was Caine's only chance.

And it worked! She did not even have time to kick Malfoy's now unconscious body before shooting a Tickling Charm on the other male Death Eater, thus making him unable to cast any spells from laughing. Of course, he could just hit her physically, but he seemed thick enough to not even think of fighting in another way than using his wand. At least Angela hoped he was. However, she did not have the time to tie him up because she still had Lestrange to deal with - the most dangerous of them all. But she too had her weakness - she was so proud of her pureblood heritage that she would hardly think of another way of fighting except for a magic duel. Caine was still lying unconscious at her feet and she had her wand pointed at Angela's heart.

"Avada - "

Angela quickly stepped aside and while Bellatrix was still casting the curse, she threw herself at the Death Eater and got a hold of her hair. Bellatrix screamed in rage and tried to point her wand at her, but Angela's hand tightened around hers. With her other hand, Angela dealt a blow on Bellatrix' wrist and the natural instinct made the other woman to open her palm. Angela immediately snatched the wand out of it and threw it aside.

"I learned this one from your cousin," she explained and twisted Bellatrix' wrist while trying to figure out a way to keep her immobile, so she could have the chance to step aside on a short and Stun her. Nothing came to her mind and anyway, it hardly mattered because three people suddenly appeared in the doorframe Angela loosened her grip only for a moment but it was enough for Bellatrix who shoved her hand away, grabbed her wand and Apparated away.

"When they removed the wards, they must have removed the Anti-Apparation spell, too," Angela muttered absently, kneeling next to her son, and frantically began checking for a pulse. There was one, thank Merlin. She now felt the pain she had been repressing during the fight - a pain in her head and limbs.

And in her stomach.

"Angela." Frank Longbottom knelt next to her, checking the child. "He'll be fine, Angela. You'll see."

"We should take him to St. Mungo's," she whispered in reply.

"We will. And you have to be examined, too. All will be fine. You'll see. Where is Sirius? Is he fine?"

"He isn't here," she answered. "And he is perfectly fine," she added bitterly before losing conscience.

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It was almost nine o'clock in the evening. Caine would probably have fallen asleep by now. Sirius had not planned to stay this long at James' place, but it was so nice to be there with James and Lily, and they hardly had any other visitors that he had not noticed how late it was until it was too late for the walk he had promised Caine, and then there was no reason to hurry his departure. Sirius silently vowed that he would redeem himself in Caine's eyes, and, ignoring the elevator, climbed the twelve flights of stairs that led to his flat, and started to remove the wards.

There were no wards. Frowning, Sirius entered the flat and called, "Angela?"

No one answered.

He entered the living room. The first thing he saw was the blasted bookshelf. When he looked around, he saw other pieces of furniture turned upside down; many of them had holes burned in them, and Sirius felt a sudden panic. "Angela?" he shouted. "Caine? Where are you?"

He hurried to Caine's room, shouting their names without answer. Everything in his son's room looked as usual. Caine's toys were scattered around and the beloved Snuffles looked at Sirius from the bed. Caine rarely went anywhere without this toy, so he had to be somewhere here, maybe in his parents' bedroom. Sirius opened the door leading to their room, only to find it empty. The door of the wardrobe was open.

"Angela! Where are you? Where is Caine?"

Again, nobody answered. Sirius now realized that he was the only person in the flat, and rushed into the living room again. No doubt, all the mess there could only mean one thing - there had been a fight. There was even blood on the carpet near the window. But if it had been the Death Eaters, why wasn't there a Dark Mark over the block? Sirius suddenly understood that if the attack had been an hour or two earlier, the Ministry officials would had had the time to remove the Mark...as well as the bodies.

He threw a Floo Powder in the fireplace and shouted, "Albus Dumbledore's study, Hogwarts!" Not even a minute later, the old Headmaster's concerned face appeared in front of him.

"Sirius, where are you?"

"What happened, Dumbledore? There's been a fight in here, there is blood on the floor and - "

"There was an attack this afternoon, Sirius."

That was just what he had expected to hear, but it still made his blood freeze. "Oh, Merlin! What...what..."

"They are both alive, Sirius. They are at St. Mungo's now, but - "

Without listening to Dumbledore, Sirius Apparated in front of the magical hospital. For a brief moment, he almost decided not to enter - he was too afraid what he might hear in there. Then, he braced himself with courage and stepped inside.

He was immediately directed to Healer Emerson's office. The Healer, a stocky built man in his mid-fifties, came a few minutes later and invited him inside. "You're Mr. Black, right?"

"Yes," Sirius answered, his heart beating faster. "My wife - "

"Yes, yes, I know the case," the Healer interrupted him. "The Cruciatus Curse."

"Merlin!" Sirius gasped with horror. "How are they?" he almost shouted.

"Mr. Black, calm down. They are under observation. The boy was lucky that they left him alone when he lost conscience. If they had continued with the torture..." He shrugged. "I don't know."

"He was lucky?" Sirius repeated. "That means that he's going to live, right?"

"Oh, yes, I can assure you that he'll make it. I cannot, however, guarantee that there aren't going to be any after-effects."

Sirius opened his mouth but did not say anything.

"We are doing everything we can," the Healer continued in a calm voice. "If you ask me, I'm sure that there will be no permanent effects."

It was good to hear that the Healer was sure, but it was not calming enough. "And what about Angela?"

"I think she'll be okay. If she was to die, she would have been dead by now. I've rarely seen a woman with such stamina." The Healer's blue, intelligent eyes did not leave Sirius' face. "I don't know about the baby, though."

The chill in Sirius' bones doubled in intensity. "The baby? What baby?"

The Healer looked surprised. "Didn't you know? Mr. Black, your wife is five months gone."

Whatever color had left in Sirius' face disappeared. "Are you sure?"

"Mr. Black, this is my job. Yes, I am sure."

"But that's impossible! Our son's birth was very difficult, and later she was told that she had almost no chance to conceive again."

"Exactly, Mr. Black. Almost no chance. She is pregnant now - still pregnant."

"Still? What do you mean, still?!"

The Healer said nothing. Sirius stood up. "I want to see them."

"I'm afraid that that is impossible, Mr. Black."

What? Why is it impossible? Were they so badly injured that he thinks I won't bear to see them? Were they mutilated, or what? And who does he think he is, making decisions in my place? "I want to see them," he said angrily. "I insist."

The Healer hesitated. "The problem, Mr. Black," he said reluctantly, "is that Mrs. Black doesn't want to see you."