April 1981

Within a day of their fight, Freya had moved out of Sirius's flat and into Remus's tiny house. There was only one bedroom, which Remus had helped her convert into a nursery, so they added a bed to living room for Freya, and for Remus, when he was home. Remus was rarely ever home, however; Dumbledore had him doing spy work amongst the werewolf packs, so he only got to come home once every month or two.

Between Sirius avoiding her and the other boys all busy with the Order, Freya had finally gotten together with Diana and Charlotte and apologized for how she'd treated them throughout their seventh year, and now the girls took turns babysitting Annabelle when Freya had to be at the Ministry for work. Freya was still chained to her desk in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, pushing paper until she was miserable, but she'd been promised that she could return to active duty the moment her second maternity leave was over. Freya was starting to show again, and she was suffering from morning sickness much worse with this pregnancy than she had with Annabelle. She couldn't help but be relieved the day that Moody decided to send her home early when she could hardly manage to stay at her desk. She apparated directly into her living room, panic gripping her heart as Annabelle's crying reached her ears. She drew her wand and raced to Annabelle's room, horrified when she found Bellatrix LeStrange standing in the nursery holding a screaming Annabelle and Charlotte dead at her feet. Bellatrix noticed Freya and laughed. "Your little mudblood friend here was very determined to keep me away from Annabelle. Too bad she put herself in my way; maybe she wouldn't be dead quite yet."

"Let go of my daughter," Freya growled, forcing herself to ignore Charlotte in an effort to focus on protecting Annabelle.

Bellatrix cooed, using her wand to push Annabelle's black hair off her forehead, "This sweet little pureblood angel?" Shaking wildly, Freya stood frozen. "I can't do that, cousin. You see, Aunt Walburga is extremely angry that you and your brother have somehow managed to shut down all of her attempts to legally obtain custody of this little darling," she drawled. "So she's asked me to bring Annabelle to her to be raised in her proper family home as any proper pureblood should be."

Freya said heatedly, "She belongs with me, her mother. I'll kill you for touching her."

Bellatrix cackled. "Go ahead and try," she taunted. "You can't touch me as long as I'm holding your baby, unless you don't mind missing me and hitting her." Freya glared at her, furious that she was right. Bellatrix snickered, "That's what I thought. Now, if you excuse me, I've got a little girl to finally bring home."

Bellatrix disapparated with a loud crack, taking Annabelle with her. Gasping for air, Freya dropped to her knees beside Charlotte's dead body, checking to be sure there was nothing she could do to help her. The Killing Curse had killed Charlotte in a second, though, and her skin was already starting to grow cold. Sobs racked through Freya's body as the loss of both her best friend and her daughter started to sink in. A pair of hands took hold of Freya's shoulders and shook her, and she looked up to find Regulus's panicked eyes searching her face. A beat later, his terrified voice reached her ears. "Freya? Where's Annabelle? Who took her?"

Freya threw her arms around Regulus's neck, burying her face in his shoulder as she cried, unable to speak. His familiar scent overwhelmed her, reassuring her that he was here when she needed him most. He shifted from a crouching to a sitting position and pulled her to him, holding her close and stroking her hair, shushing her gently. After a few minutes, Freya finally managed to choke out, "Bellatrix took her to your mother."

Freya felt Regulus tense at her words. After a moment, he said, his voice cold as ice, "Do whatever you have to do with your friend. I'll get Annabelle back."

Freya shuddered at the intensity of his tone. "How?" she said, sniffling as she tried to compose herself.

"Don't worry about that," Regulus said as Freya moved off his lap and he stood. "I'll take care of it. Annabelle will be back before midnight; I promise. Take care of your friend, ok?" Freya nodded, and Regulus leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "I love you," he mumbled before disapparating.

Freya sat on the floor a few more minutes, staring at Charlotte's glassy hazel eyes in disbelief. Finally, she took hold of her friend's body, apparating them both to the morgue in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The place was empty, so Freya left Charlotte on an autopsy table and apparated back home. She picked up Annabelle's favorite toy, her stuffed lion, from her crib, and clutched it to her chest, stumbling to her bed in the living room and collapsing onto the floor next to it, tears threatening to spill from her eyes again. Morning sickness gripped her again, and she spent the next several hours between the toilet and the bed. Midnight came, and fear ripped through her mind. What if Regulus wasn't able to get Annabelle back after all?

Around two in the morning, there was a knock on the front door. Freya raced to it and threw it open without even bothering to check who was on the other side. Regulus stood there, dripping wet, with a surprisingly dry bundle of green blankets in his arms covering everything but Annabelle's sleeping face. Freya choked back a cry of relief as she hugged him as tightly as she could without squishing Annabelle. "Sorry I'm late," he murmured in her ear as she embraced him. "The flight from London to here was longer than I expected."

Freya dragged him into the house, and Regulus couldn't help the small smile on his face as she took Annabelle from his arms and checked to make sure that Bellatrix's apparition hadn't harmed her. Satisfied that Annabelle was miraculously unharmed, Freya turned to Regulus and asked the obvious question. "Why the hell are you so wet?"

Regulus snickered. "I think I got a bit carried away with dramatics," he said softly.

Regulus stood soaking wet in the hallway just outside the room in which his mother and Bellatrix were standing over Annabelle, who hadn't stopped crying from the moment he'd entered the house. Neither woman could be bothered to stop their discussion of blood purity and the continuation of the Black family line, however, to even attempt to calm the baby girl. Regulus gritted his teeth impatiently until Bellatrix finally disapparated. He grinned, then burst into the room, making his mother jump out of her skin. "Hello, Mother," he snarled.

Walburga blanched as she took in Regulus's appearance. "Y-you're… H-h-how are you…"

"Sirius didn't kill me, Mother," Regulus growled as he stalked toward Walburga, who was cowering in a corner. "Your precious Lord Voldemort did."

Walburga shook her head. "You're - you're not real…"

Regulus reached forward and grabbed hold of Walburga's wand arm, and her eyes grew wide as she realized that he was, indeed, real. "I'm very much real, Mother," he hissed. "You see, Voldemort had me drowned by Inferi when he realized I loved Freya and my daughter too much to continue following his orders." He gave his wand a twitch, and the spell easily imitated the appearance of him coughing up water, making Walburga shriek in terror. She yanked her arm free and ran for the door, but Regulus slammed it shut and locked with a wave of his wand. "But Freya is a powerful witch, Mother. You took our daughter against our wishes. Surely you didn't expect to get away with it? Crucio."

Walburga fell to the floor, screaming and writhing in agony. Annabelle's fearful cries pierced Regulus's fury, so he decided to hurry things along. Releasing his mother from the Unforgivable Curse, Regulus continued, "My love, Freya, is extremely powerful, Mother. Much more powerful than you, to be sure. She made me into an Inferi, like the ones who drowned me at Voldemort's command, to rain hell down on you for taking away our baby girl."

"Impossible," Walburga gasped. "You can't be…"

"Oh, but I can," Regulus jeered. "You forced me to join Voldemort, and when I couldn't follow him anymore, he killed me. Sirius isn't the one responsible for my death; you are."

"No," Walburga protested weakly. "Regulus, my son, please, I love you."

"You never loved me," Regulus snapped bitterly. "You loved that my blood was pure and could continue the damn family tree, nothing more. You pushed me into the arms of the man who killed me. I died, and it was all your fault, Mother."

"No," Walburga moaned.

"The way you treated me, and even more, the way you treated Sirius, was unacceptable. Now you're trying to put my daughter through the same hell?" Regulus shook his head. "The violence in this family ends here, Mother dearest." Walburga reached toward her son as he picked up his mother's wand from where it had fallen to the floor and aimed it at her. "Avada Kedavra." A brilliant flash of green light, and Walburga fell to the floor, jaundiced eyes staring blindly at Regulus. Regulus breathed a small sigh of relief, then quickly rushed over to Annabelle and scooped her from his old crib. "Kreacher."

The house elf appeared, bouncing excitedly. "Master Regulus!"

"We haven't much time, Kreacher," Regulus said hurriedly. "We'll have a proper reunion soon. For now, I need you to clear out any signs that I and my daughter were ever here in this house today, understand?" Regulus shoved Walburga's wand into her hand as Kreacher nodded and began cleaning up the room. He rushed out of the house with Annabelle and his old Quidditch broomstick from his bedroom, then flew off into the night.

Hesitating to allow Regulus to take Annabelle back from her, Freya said quietly, "You're sure she's dead?"

Regulus nodded. "Extremely sure," he said. "Her supposed suicide will probably show up in the Daily Prophet before the end of the week."

A breathy laugh escaped her throat as she shook her head as she finally allowed Regulus to take his sleeping daughter from her arms. "Good. It's about time that woman died after the way she treated you and Sirius." Regulus simply nodded, staring hard at Freya. She raised an eyebrow at him as she sat down on the small couch on the opposite wall from the bed. "What?"

Pointing out the obvious, Regulus said, "Freya, you're pregnant."

Cheeks flaming, she looked away from him, focusing on a small crack in the baseboard of the opposite wall. "Yes." Regulus merely watched her, afraid to speak the question on both their minds and potentially shatter the spell of their reunion. Freya sighed. "He used protection; you didn't. I'm sure it's yours." Regulus visibly relaxed, letting out the breath he'd been unconsciously holding. He started to drop into the seat beside Freya, but she shook her head. "You should probably put on some dry clothes first," she said softly.

Regulus nodded, giving Annabelle back to Freya. "Right," he mumbled, then he disapparated, leaving the two girls alone. He was only gone a few moments before he reappeared, dressed like any twenty-year-old year Muggle man would, in blue jeans and a band t-shirt and sneakers, and collapsed onto the couch beside Freya. He wrapped his arms around her, careful not to disturb Annabelle, and hugged her tightly, burying his face in her auburn hair. "Merlin, I've missed you," Regulus whispered.

Freya threw her legs across his lap, snuggling closer to him. "I've missed you too," she whispered back. "But you're going to have to leave again, aren't you?"

Regulus pulled back to look at her as it dawned on him. "You remembered that I was alive," he said, astounded.

Freya sighed. "I tortured myself until the Memory Charms started breaking a few months ago," she muttered. Regulus opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "If you even so much as try to use another Memory Charm on me, I will burn you," she threatened, her voice low and hoarse.

Regulus sighed. "I won't," he said quietly. "Not if it… Not knowing the way you were… I won't."

"Thank you." Regulus nodded as he leaned back against the couch, exhausted. "I don't want you to leave again." She'd not meant to sound so weak, so broken when she said that. She'd meant for her voice to be strong and demanding, but instead, it'd come out cracked and pleading.

Regulus reached out and brushed his fingertips against her cheek. She leaned into his touch, but he pulled away. "I want to stay," he murmured. "But I can't."

"Why did you come back?" Freya demanded. "Before, you said you wouldn't be back. Then the second I needed you most, you were here. How? Why?"

Regulus said slowly, "I couldn't stand not seeing you, but I couldn't interact with you, I couldn't let you see me because of what you said it was doing to you. Charlotte was watching Annabelle, and she was a fairly competent witch, so I followed you to work under a Disillusionment Charm instead of staying and watching Annabelle like I should've. I could've saved your friend if I hadn't been following you around, watching you interact with everyone like some kind of psycho stalker."

Freya shook her head. "Charlotte's death wasn't your fault, and you got Annabelle home safe. That's all that matters." She paused, then continued, "And yes, the following me around is a bit creepy, but seeing as you couldn't interact any other way, I don't suppose I can blame you, so it's ok." Regulus nodded. "The horcruxes," Freya said sadly, glancing down at her baby girl. The horcrux hunt had been going on for nearly a year now, and Freya was sick of the separation from her husband. "Any more progress?"

Sighing heavily, Regulus answered, "I've identified a couple. Found one, but I don't know what protections are on it, so I haven't dared to touch it. Left it where it was."

"Tell me where it is," Freya begged. "I can tell Dumbledore. He can destroy it; I'm sure of it. The locket too."

Biting his lip in thought, Regulus's eyes scanned the small room as he considered it. "Maybe," he said softly. "Not yet, though. Not so soon after Bellatrix broke in here. They can get to you here, Freya. I'm surprised they didn't come after you sooner. You should move; with my mother dead, it won't be long before Bellatrix assumes that you somehow forced her suicide. You and Annabelle aren't safe here anymore."

"Let us come live with you, then," Freya pleaded. "Let me be with you."

Regulus laughed, "No, absolutely not. Bring my pregnant wife and baby girl on a horcrux hunt? No bloody way. Why don't you go stay with James?"

"I can't," Freya said, shaking her head. "They've been bouncing all over Britain these days hiding from Voldemort. Some seer apparently prophesied that their son was going to defeat him, and now he's marked them for death. So, really, since he's so focused on them, there's no better time for you and me to find his horcruxes and destroy them."

Regulus shook his head. "No, definitely not," Regulus insisted. "Just because his attention is turned elsewhere doesn't mean that this task isn't incredibly deadly. There is serious dark magic protecting these horcruxes from being discovered or taken, and I can't let you anywhere near that."

"I won't let you go off by yourself and martyr yourself trying to do this alone," Freya snapped. "Talk to the Order; get someone to come with you. Please, stop trying to take him down all alone."

Groaning, Regulus complained, "Why is there not a single Gryffindor with a good, solid sense of self-preservation?" Freya simply glared at him as he watched her face for any sign of her relenting. Huffing, he exclaimed, "All right, all right, maybe. Maybe I'll let someone help me, but you are staying the hell out of it, understand?"

A smug smile spread on Freya's face, then she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear. "And you know, Remus won't be back for another week, in case you wanted to stay a little longer."

Regulus tilted his head as he thought, then grinned. "I'll stay, but only if you go ahead and move out of here first thing in the morning. We can't risk the Death Eaters showing up and discovering that I'm alive, ok?"

Freya's smile grew wider as she nodded. "Whatever you say, honey," she said happily before kissing him properly.

Freya woke up the next morning to find the bed disappointingly empty. She sighed as the familiar loneliness started to settle in until she suddenly heard it. A soft voice, his voice, singing a familiar song in the other room. "Go to sleep, my baby; go to sleep, my dear. You've got a lot of dreaming to do, and I will take you there. Hushabye, my baby; hushabye, my dear. Drift away to dreamland, and I will find you there."

Freya smiled as she heard Annabelle giggle, and as Regulus carried her into the makeshift bedroom, he was beaming down at her as she reached a tiny fist toward his face, which was covered in dark stubble from lack of regular shaving. He looked up at Freya, eyes filled with wonder and possibly tears, and she sat up and said softly, "I know. She's incredible."

Regulus sat down next to Freya and kissed her hard, and she tangled her fingers in his shaggy black hair. She laughed when she felt Annabelle's tiny fist hit her chest, demanding the return of her daddy's attention. They broke apart, both grinning like mad, and Freya leaned over the other side of the bed and pulled a bag of Annabelle's toys out, dumping them out on the bed. Regulus plopped Annabelle gently on the bed, and she crawled over and started playing with her stacking rings. Regulus shook his head in amazement. "Merlin, I've missed so much," he said quietly.

Freya leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You don't have to miss anything else, you know," she said quietly. "And you've got another chance to be there for number two."

Regulus grinned at that. "Yeah, I've got the perfect solution to make sure of that," he said happily.

"Oh?" Freya smiled.

"Yeah," he said as he pulled her closer. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I got up extra early this morning and slipped out to London. I bought a flat there for you."

Freya froze as Regulus stood up from the bed, waving his wand to start packing Freya's things. "You... you what?"

"I bought you a flat in London," Regulus repeated as he shut her trunk and shrunk it to a manageable size. "Well, I suppose I should really say that I bought us a flat, but I won't be able to live there full time yet, so it's mostly yours right now."

Freya shook her head, hardly believing her ears. "But what about the horcrux hunt and…"

"Don't even worry about it," Regulus said with a smile. "I put the house under the Fidelius Charm myself, so the only people who will be able to get in are me, you, and Annabelle, so I'll be able to come and go as I please without anyone who shouldn't know ever finding out I'm alive." He walked back over to the bed and kissed Annabelle's head, then looked up at Freya. "Oh yeah, I'm assuming there are some people who you've told I'm alive?" Freya nodded slowly. "Don't worry, darling; I'm not mad at you for it. It's my own fault for thinking the Memory Charms were a good idea." Regulus took Freya's hand in his and continued, "Freya, I want to be with you again, at least as much as I can."

Freya smiled back at him. "I love it," she said, laying down beside Annabelle, rolling onto her back as her baby giggled. "I've missed you so much, you know."

"I've missed you too," Regulus grinned, leaning down to kiss her upside-down. Annabelle's little fist made contact with his eye, and he moaned, flinching away and accidentally biting Freya's lip too hard. Laughing, Regulus caught hold of Annabelle's wildly waving fist, which contained the smallest of her stacking rings, as his daughter giggled harder than ever. "You, little miss, have got quite the right hook."

Freya snorted in amusement as Regulus sat up straighter. Annabelle's stopped laughing and, reaching up toward Regulus's face, cooed, "Da-da."

Both adults froze, staring into each other's eyes. Regulus's face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. "She knows me," he whispered, his gray eyes misty.

Freya bit her lip, trying not to smile too big. "Good," she whispered back.

August 1981

While Regulus was cooking breakfast in the kitchen of Freya's new London flat, Freya, now due any day, sat on the floor with Annabelle as she toddled across the empty living room floor, practically falling into her mother's arms laughing. Regulus glanced over his shoulder at the pair, smiling, as Annabelle cooed, "Mama."

Things had been going much more smoothly for the young couple since they'd gotten their own flat. Freya quickly discovered that Regulus had quit drinking since he'd left, although he'd gotten into the habit of dressing like a Muggle as he'd hidden in the Muggle world. He'd stopped wearing the locket and refused to keep it in the flat; he'd used Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as James (how he'd gotten James's hair, she'd never know) and open another account at Gringotts in Annabelle's name and hid the locket there. Regulus was almost back to his old self, the man she'd fallen in love with that summer so long ago, except for the occasional outburst, which was now directed toward walls or furniture rather than Freya. He'd shaped up considerably once he had the chance to be around Annabelle on a regular basis. Freya lifted Annabelle into the air and nearly dropped her suddenly as pain shot through her stomach. Freya groaned as she lowered the girl with curly black hair back to the floor, and Regulus was by her side in a second taking Annabelle from her, even as she smelled eggs burning. "Darling? What's wrong?"

Freya took several deep breaths, a hand on her stomach as the pain faded. "It's time," she said quickly. "It's time."

Regulus's eyes grew wide. "Oh," he said dumbly.

Freya used Regulus's shoulder to push herself up off the floor. "We need to go to St. Mungos," she mumbled, waving her wand and summoning her go-bag.

Regulus shook his head as he stood up, Annabelle sitting on his hip. "Freya, wait," Regulus said, his voice more firm this time. "I can't go to St. Mungos with you. I'm dead, remember?" Freya stopped, frowning. "Could we… could we maybe stay here and —"

Freya shook her head. "No way," she insisted. "At St. Mungos they gave me potions so I didn't feel a thing the whole time, I do not want to know how much it hurts without that."

Regulus thought for a moment as Annabelle reached up and put her hand on his cheek. "I don't want you to be in pain, darling," he said slowly. "But I already missed Annie's birth; I don't want to miss another."

Freya bit her lip, staring Regulus down as she considered. "I don't want you to miss it either."

"What potions did they give you?" Regulus asked. "Maybe I could get hold of them, and we could…"

"I haven't a clue, and you couldn't go buy them any more than you could go to the hospital with me," Freya groaned.

"Oh, right," Regulus said quietly. "And if I were busy helping you give birth, there'd be no one to watch Annabelle." Freya nodded. Another wave of pain hit her, and she doubled over, using a chair to keep herself standing. Regulus sighed, "Ok, I can't stand to see you go through this. You go to St. Mungos, darling. I'll stay here with Annabelle, and I'll slip us in to see you there somehow, ok?" Freya nodded before disapparating with a loud pop.

Early the next morning before the sun rose, Freya sat upright in her hospital bed in St. Mungos, cuddling the little boy in blue to her chest. James, Lily, Remus, and Peter had all been by already to see the newborn, but James had informed her that Sirius wouldn't be coming. He insisted it was Order business, but Freya knew that it was really because Sirius was angry that the baby wasn't his — tests had confirmed that with absolute certainty. She was incredibly surprised when she saw Sirius walking into her room anyway until she noticed Annabelle in his arms. That was when she started laughing. "Him? Really?"

Sirius, who was actually Regulus, laughed. "Believe it or not, his hair was the easiest to get hold of for the potion," he snickered. "How are you two?"

Freya took his hand and pulled him closer as she answered, "Oh, we're just fine, sweetheart. You wanna hold him?"

Regulus nodded, setting Annabelle down on the bed and sitting down beside his daughter, taking his on from Freya's arms. "Hi," he cooed. He tugged Annabelle forward, and she happily crawled into Freya's lap where she could see better. "Annie, meet your little brother," Regulus said softly. "Sigma Elias Black."

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UPDATE:

Folks, my Etsy shop is up and running! I currently have one Gryffindor scarf available for purchase, and other houses can be requested by custom order! My shop is named WingardiumStitchiosa. Anyone who messages me on fanfiction to request their scarf gets a five dollar discount on their custom listing! I love you guys! Please leave reviews!