A/N: I'm still writing the other story, but the idea for this one has been swimming around for a while now. Hopefully I can work on the two concurrently and finish the other one up before long. Anyway, this is a completely different OC and situation, so we'll see where it goes. Please read/review and let me know what you think! I'll try to have the next chapter of both stories up soon, if possible.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of JK Rowling and rights-holders, of which I am not one. I make no money off this.

"Sirius? I know something about you," the woman said softly. She leaned over to get closer to the boy, who was ignoring everyone and reading a book. He looked up warily, wondering what she wanted.

"You're a good boy. Your heart is good. I can see it. I've seen you before, many times. I know it's you." The boy in question looked around slowly for back-up, wondering why this crazy person had singled him out. But his older cousins were all chattering amongst themselves and no one was paying him any attention. His little brother sat playing next to him, quite unaware of this furtive one-sided conversation beside him.

Sirius felt the need to say something, at least. "Um, really?"

"When I saw you in person, I knew for sure. Sirius. Well, I'll just tell you this, then I'll leave you alone. One day, when you're grown up ... well, anyway," she amended, "see that girl over there?" She pointed to a giggling dark haired little girl who was drinking a cup of pumpkin juice and running around. As they watched, she spilled it all over the front of her dress. The blond teenager watching over her called to her mother to clean it with her wand, then went back to gossiping with her sisters and friends.

"What, Cissy?" He craned his neck and looked back at the woman in front of him, thoroughly nonplussed.

"No, dear. The little one. My daughter Maddy. You're going to be ... very close to her someday." She chose her words carefully, but realized this probably didn't make any sense. "You take very good care of her, you understand? She'll take care of you, as well. Don't worry," she winked and smiled, seeing his stricken expression. "It's several years off. Sorry to have frightened you." She looked at him with satisfaction, remembering that he would grow up to be a very handsome man. Pretty grey eyes, dark wavy hair. She wished she could offer some words of comfort about what he would be facing in the future. Particularly the very near future, as in later this night. She feared he would despise her for what she had to do.

Before she could say more, though, Walburga called out and snapped her fingers imperiously. "Carol! Over here. Eleanor wants her leaves read." She looked shrewdly between Carol and her son and smiled, wondering what had been said. Carol sighed in irritation, and straightened up. The seer thing was quite possibly the most frustrating "gift" imaginable. Even when she actually saw something, nobody ever wanted the truth, and the truth, around here, could make one quite unpopular. She typically declined these requests when possible. The people here were different, though. They scared her. Her husband's friends. And he had turned out the same as them. She would see to it that their children weren't like that. But for now, she would tell them whatever they wanted to hear. Much easier on Maddy and Sirius that way.

As she walked over to Sirius' mother, she looked back once at the boy. But he had gone back to reading and appeared to have already forgotten their conversation.

Over the past four years since Maddy's birth, Carol had seen them together several times and felt the familiar sadness that she wouldn't be around when that time came. She knew Maddy would have some rough times ahead of her. And of course, Sirius himself was destined for plenty of tragedy. Another curse of the sight. Being forced to let things take their course and not interfering. But she felt slightly better having spoken to the boy. Maybe, with luck, he would remember their conversation someday when he and Maddy met properly. She wished she could see even more about them, but she had tried several times to no avail. Their future had turned too murky after a point.

By now, she had approached Eleanor, and the woman held out her cup expectantly. Walburga smiled indulgently at Carol. "What did you say to him?" she interrupted before letting Carol do the reading. "They'll make a nice pair to dedicate to the cause, won't they? Sirius has so much potential. Clever boy." Carol managed a faint smile, pretending to concentrate on the cup in front of her, but she felt comfort knowing secretly that things would be quite the opposite. Sirius and Maddy would instead, someday, be willing to give their lives to defeat Lord Voldemort, who was about to be catapulted into greater power very soon.

That evening, the party was in full swing and most of the adults were already drunk. Bella had snuck some wine from the cellar and gone up to her bedroom to drink it and snog her boyfriend, Roddy. She grew tired of Cissy's pleas to be given some, and finally took her wand and pointed it in her sister's face to make her shut up. Ten year old Sirius watched all this, but wanted nothing to do with them. He looked around the unfamiliar house to find a hiding place where he could keep reading and avoid everyone.

"What you doing?" a voice came from behind. He jumped but then realized that it was only the little girl from earlier.

"Oh, hi," he muttered, feeling relieved. "I'm not doing anything." Her presence was a welcome respite from all the dark talk he always heard at these gatherings, but he still didn't want to be followed around by a little girl. "Hey, isn't that your mum in there?" he asked, pointing in the direction of raucous voices in the next room. Maybe she would take the hint and leave him alone. She ignored it, and held out her hand, which contained another cup of pumpkin juice.

"Here," she said. He looked down at it in confusion and took it from her, noticing an orange pumpkin juice mustache over her mouth. She turned and ran off, leaving him to stare after her, wondering about four year old children's logic. Rolling his eyes, he put it on a nearby table, then resumed his search for a quiet place.

"Sirius! There you are, darling!" The sound of Walburga Black's voice made him cringe. She usually wasn't so sugary and never called him darling. He was instantly suspicious. "Come with me," his mother instructed.

"Why?" he asked, and received only a more characteristic icy stare in response. She had an iron grip on his shoulder as she led him into a different room.

He could see a few other people in the drawing room, including his father, Orion, who sat impassively in the corner nursing a glass of firewhiskey. Cissy and Bella were both present, as was Andromeda, though she was off to one side, wearing a look of utter disapproval. No one paid her any attention. Sirius looked to his favorite cousin for explanation, but she only shook her head helplessly.

"What's going on, Mother?" he whispered urgently.

"Hush, Sirius. Here comes Madeleine," Walburga murmured out of the corner of her mouth.

Carol carried the child in her arms into the room. Her lips were pressed together tightly and she wasn't the least bit happy about this. They were followed closely by her husband, Marcus, who had a much more serene expression on his face. Ever since she had made the grievous error of telling him about seeing Sirius and Madeleine together, he had been greedily encouraging such an event. All he could see were the galleons that the Black family possessed and their ever skyward social status, and he couldn't stop bragging to them about his wife with the unusual gift that could be an asset to them. Their interest in the dynamic Voldemort, who was gradually coming into greater favor amongst the purebloods, didn't hurt matters, either.

When everyone had assembled, Walburga flashed her indulgent smile back to Carol and shot a sidelong triumphant look over to her friend Eleanor. "Carol. Are you ready? I think it would be appropriate for you to do the honors." Then she nodded her head to Bellatrix, who grinned wickedly at Sirius and winked. She pulled a small knife out of her pocket and placed it on the closest table. Sirius eyed it nervously and spoke up, louder this time.

"What exactly is going on?"

Bellatrix and Narcissa giggled and snorted. "You are going to be married, Sirius!" Bella slurred a bit drunkenly. Her mother looked sharply at her, and she immediately straightened up, trying to appear sober.

"What?!" Sirius was alarmed and didn't appreciate one bit being the butt of some joke. He looked back to Andromeda, but she only shook her head wearily.

"It's not a real marriage. Just an arrangement for later. They get money and prestige; you get seer blood in whatever girly brats you have someday with her," Bella couldn't resist adding. "And you get to see the future whenever you want!"

"Bellatrix!" her mother snapped. "Enough!"

Marcus spoke up. "Go on, Carol." His wife held on to Maddy protectively, not moving at first. These people were all a bunch of fools. Her daughter didn't need some silly bloodletting to be attached to a boy, and Carol knew that the family's wish for greater dark powers in these two would come to nothing. She felt seething hatred toward her husband for condoning this, and wished, not for the first time, that she had never met him. There seemed to be no help for it, though. The people wanted a show.

With great reluctance, she put her daughter down and looked at Sirius, who appeared positively horrified. "It's alright, dear," she reassured him very softly. "This is nothing and it will be over soon." Then, after looking around the room at all the vultures present, she asked him to repeat something slowly while taking Maddy's little hand. The words were Gaelic and he had great difficulty with them, but Carol was determined that they should not be in English. It was better for Sirius that neither he, nor none of the idiots here, would understand. But she knew they were meaningful and would be repeated someday.

I vow you the first cut of my meat, the first sip of my wine,

from the day that we choose it shall only your name I cry out in the night

and into your eyes that I smile each morning;

I shall be a shield for your back as you are for mine,

nor shall a grievous word be spoken about us,

for our marriage is sacred between us and no stranger shall hear my grievance.

Above and beyond this, I will cherish and honor you through this life

and into the next.

Once he had stumbled through it, she kneeled in front of the boy, feeling his fear. "It's alright," she repeated softly. Then, with a great sigh, she took the knife and gently grasped his hand. He pulled back, resisting, and looked understandably frightened out of his wits.

"No!" he yelled, jerking his hand back in anger.

"Sirius Black!" his mother bellowed. "Do as you're told!"

Sirius looked back with hatred at his mother, then at the woman in front of him. Carol quickly took his hand back and made a small cut, mentally asking his forgiveness. As he gasped and watched it bleed, she grabbed sleepy Maddy's hand as well and did the same thing. Maddy started suddenly and began to cry. Before she could resist, though, Carol put their wrists together in a symbolic gesture of a handfast marriage. She knew this meant nothing, and decided right then that she would never have anything to do with these people again, nor would she ever teach her daughter anything about this accursed sight.

Late that night, Carol laid in bed, feeling intense guilt for what she had done, though she knew both children would get over it quickly enough and forget the incident. As long as Walburga didn't keep opening her mouth about it, at least. She had argued bitterly with her husband about all this and had gotten a heavy slap across the face from him. The biggest mistake of her life, she thought, was marrying Marcus. She'd had some clues about what a future with him would entail before they married, but she had been a lovesick teenager and thought she could change what she wanted. Now her children were the only bright spot, though she could tell William would most likely go the way of his father; intoxicated by Voldemort's promises. That knowledge made her heart ache, but at least she knew Madeleine would be different.