As Emmy and Regulus left the coffee shop later that evening, he held the door open for her. She pulled her jacket around her tightly, barely able to look in his direction.
What Regulus had told her was monumental; that he'd had a change of heart and he was going to try and flee before the Dark Lord realised. She had begged him to come back to the flat so they could protect him, insisted the Order would help, but he had point blank refused.
So she was going to race home and tell Sirius herself. He deserved to know and while he might never forgive her for meeting with Regulus in secret, it was a shadow in the dark compared to saving his brother.
He had told her he needed to go back to Grimmauld Place to collect something which meant Sirius might still have a chance of finding him before he disappeared. Though he wouldn't tell her what it was, it was important enough that Voldemort could never get his hands on it. Her mind was whirling as she puzzled what it could possibly be, but she didn't have a clue.
It was a beautiful evening, lights flickering in the park nearby, but the darkness seemed worse than ever.
As they continued along the street, Regulus insisting on walking her to the train station, Emmy was struck by the silence around them.
She realised he was looking at her and glanced up. Instead, he was staring at something over the top of her head, brow furrowed.
She whirled round as he pulled his hood down to hide his face and noticed the black fog creeping along the ground from below the park fence, through the trees. Her wand was out in seconds, back to back with Regulus as they instinctively moved to protect each other.
"It's Bellatrix," he growled. "And a couple others too I think."
"Regulus, you can't be here, you need to run. They can't know you were meeting me."
"I'm not leaving you, Emmy," he growled. "Sirius would kill me himself, besides that's my nephew you're carrying."
With a swoop of her wand, she sent her patronus billowing up into the night sky.
If the worst were to happen, she wanted the Order there immediately and it was not a moment too late as the first spells started raining down on them.
She screamed with effort as she fended off curses from every direction. She couldn't even see how many people were there. There seemed to be about five or six surrounding them and they were relentless.
Glancing around frantically, she spotted a gap between some cars that they could shelter behind.
"Over here," she cried, casting the strongest shield she could muster to buy them time to run for cover.
Regulus swung down beside her as she panted heavily, trying to ignore the pain radiating from her belly.
Wincing at the sounds of more cracks of apparition, dreading the arrival of more death-eaters, she was surprised at the noise of volleying spells colliding and peaked over the bonnet to see Edgar Bones, Hestia, Axel, Lily, James and Sirius fending off their attackers.
"Emmy!" Sirius yelled, looking around wildly for her as he fought of Avery.
"I'm here, I'm alright," she cried, cradling her bump as she stood up.
As soon as he'd seen her, he's face melted in relief. James covered him for a moment and he sprinted towards her. She shrieked as she noticed Mulciber running after him and screamed for him to duck as she cast bombarda maxima, sending the death-eater crashing over the fence into the park.
Sirius stood up in shock, glancing behind him quickly before he ran the rest of the distance to her and launched into her arms. He swiftly pulled her round the corner of the building to shelter from the battle continuing behind them and held her tightly as he checked her over, hair messy and panting for breath.
"Oh Merlin, are you alright? Are you alright, my love?
His hands were either side of her head as he searched her eyes, kissing her forehead desperately.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," she replied, holding him steady. "But you need to help Regulus-"
She turned to where they had been crouched behind the car mere seconds ago to find the spot vacant.
She swore loudly, "He's made a run for it. You need to stop him."
"What?" he exclaimed, confusion clouding his eyes. "Regulus was here? How did you find him?"
"That's not important right now. You need to go to Grimmauld Place before he disappears. For good this time."
He stared at her for a second, unable to take in all this information.
"Sirius, you trust me, don't you? You will regret this moment for the rest of your life if you don't go now. Right now."
"Okay," he replied breathily. "Okay, I'll go."
"Take the others with you. I'll be fine."
"No, I'll take you to Andromeda's first, it's not safe."
"There's no time, he might already be gone!"
Realising he wouldn't leave without her somewhere safe, she swung around the corner and flew back into the fight, determined to finish this once and for all.
Bellatrix was cackling as she commandeered the battleground. It was taking both Lily and James to fight her off while Hestia and Axel duelled another two.
Barty Crouch lay unconscious in the middle of the street near where Edgar knelt screaming out in pain. He cradled his splintered arm, the bones sticking jaggedly through his skin.
She realised she wouldn't be able to reach him without getting through their assailants first so dashed to her friends' sides and took on Rodolphus Lestrange.
He snarled arrogantly as he fended off her first few curses but his face paled as they kept falling short. He grunted in effort, clearly having underestimated her. Moments later, he apparated away before her jinx could hit him and she was met with Bellatrix striding towards her, Hestia thrown backwards by her spell. She noticed Axel catching her mid-air as Sirius blasted Lucius Malfoy against the side of the building nearby, but her attention was focused on her old friend.
"Flipendo!" Bellatrix screeched.
Emmy blocked it with a grunt, casting another curse in return.
"Confringo!"
"Expulso!"
Neither of their spells were hitting each other, they were equally matched in both skill and fury.
All the time they had spent practising against each other for the Triwizard Tournament showed, not only could they hold their own in any fight, they knew what spells the other would use, the shortcuts in wand motions that meant the jinx wouldn't be as powerful, or the slight of hand to distract from another lethal curse.
"Should have thought of this when I trained you up in fifth year," Bellatrix snarled, eyes dancing with a strange sort of jest as she fired spell after spell.
"Should have done," she growled back. "Or maybe you shouldn't have picked the losing side."
"Call it what you want, the Dark Lord is more powerful than ever. It's only a matter of time," she retaliated.
"You'll never win, Bellatrix. Not over my dead body."
"And what pleasure that would give me-"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Awfully tame, Emeline? Don't you want to kill me?" Bellatrix taunted.
"We used to be friends! I don't even know who you are anymore," she shouted.
"I'm who I am, who you've always tried to pretend I wasn't."
"You're wrong," she replied fiercely. "The Bellatrix I knew was strong and brave and a force of nature. She had a mind of her own. Don't you see what he's made you into?"
"We're two sides of the same coin Emmy, I only hope one day your child will forgive you for what you've done, for going down the wrong path. You're going to die by the Dark Lord's hand soon enough anyway, he wants to kill you himself for polluting the Black family line."
"Then at least my daughter will be proud that I died trying to make the world a better place, so she can live in a world where she's free."
"And who will be there to tell her that?"
Emmy's anger boiled over in a white hot flash of rage.
"I will be!" she screamed. "Reducto!"
A split second later, Dumbledore took over.
Emmy had barely noticed the rest of the Order arriving but they were all looking at her in shock. They hadn't seen her like that in a long time, unbridled fury and pain shining in her eyes. Nevertheless there she stood almost nine months pregnant, splattered in blood and the fury of all the raging fires of hell burning behind her eyes.
She searched her surroundings for Sirius and found him racing towards her, Rosier crumpled in a heap behind him.
"Sirius, you need to get to Grimmauld Place now!" she cried as she limped closer. "James and Frank, go with him!"
Their brows furrowed in confusion but they nodded and ran to his side.
Sirius looked at her for a moment; he seemed unable to tear himself away from her but as she opened her mouth to scream for him to go again, he grabbed onto his friends and apparated.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins and she struggled for breath as she staggered to a nearby lamp post to hold herself steady. Dumbledore swiftly fended off Bellatrix and she apparated moments later, leaving no more behind than a furious scream in the air.
Arthur stepped closer, eyes filled with concern.
"Emmy, are you alright?"
She was breathing heavily, trying to ignore the pain radiating from her belly.
"Here, come and sit down," Alice said worriedly, both of them helping her to a nearby bench. Lily hurried over, Dorcas at her heels.
"I'm okay, just give me a moment," she tried to reassure them.
"We need to get you to the hospital."
"No, I'm waiting here for Sirius," she said indignantly.
"Emmy, you know he would want you go to St. Mungo's straight away," Alice reasoned with her.
She was right of course, but the guilt coursing through her was overpowering.
If she had just told Sirius to come with her to start with all of this could have been avoided. If only she had told him right when this all began.
She couldn't bear to think what was going through his head right now. He would be furious, and rightly so. She knew why she had done it; she had wanted to keep Regulus safe so that one day when this was all over they could be brothers again. Sirius wouldn't see it that way though, he would have wanted to protect her.
Brianna ran over, "What's happened? Is it the baby?"
Emmy nodded tightly, the emotions spilling over as a tear began to fall.
"Okay, we're gonna go to St. Mungo's right now, Emmy. We need to get you checked out."
She glanced to Dumbledore who was hovering nearby, looking over worriedly.
"Sirius' gone to Grimmauld Place," she said urgently. "Regulus has something of Voldemort's, a weapon I think. That's all he told me but he's going to destroy it."
Her lips trembled as she added, "Himself too."
Dumbledore froze, words dying on his lips as the clogs turned in his head. He paused a moment and nodded before turned to the rest of the Order to form a plan.
Brianna and Arthur helped Emmy up and in seconds they apparated to St. Mungo's.
—————
A few hours later, Emmy was persuading the healers to discharge her. There had been talks of bed-rest which she had swiftly dismissed but they were still wary about letting her leave.
She had been checked over thoroughly and they had agreed that it was probably only Braxton Hicks exacerbated by the strenuous circumstances, so she felt safe enough herself to get home.
There had been no word from Dumbledore but McGonagall had hurried onto the maternity ward less than five minutes after they arrived in a flurry of panic.
The professor was soon put at ease at by the news Emmy hadn't gone into early labour and settled in the chair beside her bed for the night. Alice, Dorcas and Lily stayed for the first few hours until she insisted they go home to sleep, hugging them tightly before they left.
The healers soon agreed she could leave in the morning as long as her condition didn't deteriorate overnight, not that Emmy could sleep a wink.
—————
It was around 3am when Sirius arrived. He appeared unhurt but his eyes were sombre, anxiously scanning the ward before he found her and rushed to her side.
He kissed her softly on the forehead, crouching by her bedside.
They didn't speak for a moment, unable to ask each other the questions they were too scared to know the answers to.
Emmy spoke first, "Did you find Regulus?"
He shook his head and looked away as a tear slid down his face.
"Oh, my love," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"Are you alright? Is the baby okay?"
She nodded.
"We're fine, just might have to take it a bit easier from now on. At least until this little one is here."
"Okay," he replied hoarsely, standing up slowly.
"Are you going?" she asked.
"I need to speak to Dumbledore, none of this makes any sense. He'll want to speak to you too, none of us knew you were keeping in touch with Reg."
He couldn't meet her eyes as he spoke and her heart sank.
"I'll be back in the morning," he said, turning to leave.
"Sirius," she called. "I'm so sorry."
He looked back briefly as he left and Emmy would never forget the hurt on his face as he walked away.