James didn't get an ounce of sleep after the whole ordeal with Renata suffering from a night terror. He couldn't bring himself to even close his eyes in fear that she would wake up in a panic again and he wanted to make sure that if she did wake up again that he would be right there with her. She had offered to retire to her room for the rest of the evening so that she didn't disturb him, but James couldn't let her leave. He had never really witnessed what true fear looked like on Renata's expression before and since he had seen it, it couldn't be unseen.

The sounds of her scream nearly haunted his mind as it echoed in his thoughts and he so desperately wished that he understood what she had been saying in order to decipher what the night terror had been about. He convinced her to stay with him on the sofa after she cleaned her face of the tears and make-up and grabbed them a blanket and pillows so they could be more comfortable. When she returned, James wrapped his arms around her and held onto her throughout the entire night.

He played with her hair, rubbed her back, and hummed a soft tune in order to keep her in a peaceful state and it seemed to work as Renata remained content and asleep without another disruption. But James remained wide awake as he listened to the silence of the room and eventually, the sounds of the birds chirping outside as they began to welcome the early morning hours.

Not that he would admit it, but he was actually terrified for Renata after what he and Sirius had discussed. While they didn't have all the information, there was enough there that made his skin crawl. From what it sounded like, the children that attended the school where Renata and Adelmo went had no other choice to pursue a career in the designated fields. How could so many people contain the same ambition for just a few jobs out of hundreds? They had to have other wants and goals in life besides just those, how could Renata be the only one to break the chain and do so by the chance of a phobia?

It didn't settle well with him, but whenever Renata's past was brought up, she became rather defensive about it. Things that James viewed as abnormal, she didn't have a problem with, or at least, she didn't think she had a problem with them. However, James thought back to the Quidditch match and how Renata spoke of having what she believed to be a memory of her childhood before she woke up. She described it as painful and from what James had witnessed when she was having her night terror, whatever was taking place was painful to witness.

He needed to find out more, he needed more information, and hopefully, Sirius would be able to assist him.

And just like clockwork as she became so accustomed to Harry's early morning schedule, Renata stirred from her slumber and started to look around as if she was expecting Harry to be right there waiting for her to get up. Instead, she came to face James, who peered down at her and offered a small smile. He watched the confusion drain from her face as she remembered that she had dropped him off at the Weasleys' for the evening. But the confusion was replaced by a frown as she met James' gaze and saw the tired look on his face.

"I really hope that you got some sleep, Mr Potter," she said quietly, " I hope I didn't keep you up all night. I didn't have another night terror, did I?"

"Relax, Ren," he said in a soft voice, " you didn't keep me up at all. You went to sleep and you stayed asleep, no nightmares or anything of the sort. I only woke up a few minutes ago myself, so don't worry."

She was about to start to apologise again for waking him up to begin with, however, before she could say anything, her stomach let out a loud growl that seemed to practically roar. A smile formed on both of their faces before Renata covered her face in embarrassment.

"Is that you're way of telling me to get my arse up and cook something for you?" James chuckled. He could see her opening her mouth to tell him that it wasn't the case at all, but he just smiled to show that he was joking around before he placed a kiss to her forehead and pushed himself up. His body was sore and a bit stiff from how they had both slept somewhat compromised on the sofa.

As he walked into the kitchen, James could feel Renata's eyes watching him and as he briefly stole a glance in her direction, he could see the worried look on her face. It was obvious that she felt bad about the entire ordeal but James was trying to show her that everything was fine. He wanted to pretend like nothing was wrong and dismiss all the thoughts of any possibility of anything messing with her mind.

"Eggs?" he offered to cook as he held some up. "I'll wash them extra well for you."

Finally, a smile appeared on her face before she gave a shake of her head. "Let's spice things up, Mr Potter, or rather, let's make them sweeter. I'll show you how to make crêpes, I think you can manage that."

James enjoyed the morning cooking session with Renata, even though it was clear that he wasn't ready for the fine cooking that went into making the delicate crêpe. After he managed to burn and rip several of the thin pastries, Renata decided that she would take over to help him. She offered that he use magic but James actually refused because he thought it took away from the personal aspect of the cooking lesson. He stood behind her as she showed him how to work the batter into the crêpe and not destroy it as he did before.

Deciding to take the opportunity of them having some time to themselves and being able to talk in private, James moved closer to her and came to rest his chin on her shoulder.

"So where did you learn how to cook?" he asked her, his arms slowly coiling around her waist as she continued to work. "Did you learn from one of your parents or did Adelmo teach you?"

"No," she answered, " I taught myself actually. I wasn't joking when I claimed that I would go to Parma and eat my own body weight in food. I love food, I love the taste, learning the different spices and recipes, it always interested me. When I moved here, I had some downtime before I started to try to find work. Adelmo told me to keep myself busy, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. One day I was walking around Diagon Alley and I came upon the markets, I made my way over and started asking questions.  Plenty of them, to the point where I figured all the vendors were growing tired of me."

"I don't think that's possible," James told her, " I doubt anyone could grow tired of you even if you tried."

She grinned but peeked over her shoulder at him. "You flatter me so, Mr Potter," she said, "but before I drove them mad, I decided to start testing out my cooking skills. I bought some books and Adelmo became my test subject for all the recipes I wanted to try. Turns out, I was pretty good at it, so I kept up with it for a little bit."

"So, did you want to become a chef when you were younger?"

He suddenly felt her body tense under his hold as she stood there for a second without moving.

"No," Renata said in a monotone voice, " I wanted to be an Auror."

It sounded so scripted as if that was the expected answer out of her and she had to say that or something bad would happen.

"You always wanted to be an Auror, even from the time you were young?" he questioned further. "I remember when I was younger, I wanted to be a million different things at just throughout the week alone. You didn't want to be anything else besides an Auror?"

"No."

She moved away from him as she removed the crêpe from the stove top, completely silent with all of her actions. Once again, it seemed she was on the defence, she didn't want to discuss it anymore and while James really didn't want to push her, he found it hard to believe that even as a little girl that Renata didn't have any other ambitions outside of being an Auror. A little one only dreaming about fighting the Dark Arts, while noble seemed to be a bit of a stretch.

"What about all the other jobs you had?" he continued, watching her but keeping his distance. "Did you like any of those to continue with them?"

"Seeing as I got fired from all of them, not really. Mr Potter, please-"

"What about now? What would you want to do now? If you could be anything now, what would you want to do?"

With her back facing him, James couldn't see the reaction on her face, but he could see how hard she was gripping the plate in her hands.

"I would want to still be an Auror, Mr Potter. That's it."

Her voice was firm, he could hear a hint of anger perhaps annoyed that he wasn't letting the subject drop.

"What about being Harry's nanny?"

Suddenly, her grip on the plate loosened drastically, enough that she dropped the plate and allowed it to shatter on the floor. The crêpes spilt and the glass went everywhere and while it was easily fixable with just a wave of her wand, Renata backed away as if she had committed a horrible crime. Her hands covered her mouth and James could see her eyes instantly become watery as if she was about to cry.

"I'm sorry," her voice quivered, "I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

James didn't even have time to react as she dropped to her knees and started collecting the pieces of the broken plate in her hands.

"Ren, stop, don't touch the shards you could cut yourself, I can just use my wand-"

He could only stand witness for a few seconds as she continued to shake her head and continue to clean up, unfortunately, during her rapid movements she did manage to do what James wanted to avoid. A slice down her right pinky finger had opened up and within seconds, blood spilt out onto the floor. Her eyes trailed downward almost immediately and lingered on the small pool of blood that collected on the floor.

There was a sense of shock that she didn't faint right away as she continued to stare at the sight of her own blood, usually the reaction was instantaneous. Thinking that it might have possibly been a good sign, James moved forward to help Renata, but as soon as he got close enough, she threw her hands out, yelling something at him. He stopped, especially when he heard her say her brother's name as she looked back down at the blood.

James was still, he didn't even dare to breathe as he didn't know what was going on or what to do, very similar to how he felt when Renata had been suffering through the night terror. He could only watch as she gripped her hand, the blood from her cut trickling down into her hair and down the side of her face.

There was really only one thing he could do.

Adelmo raced up the stairs of the flat, knocking urgently on the door after receiving a panicked call through the Floo Network. He had just arrived at his own home, going through the post that had been delivered when the sound of James Potter's voice echoed into his living room. He claimed that something was wrong with Renata and was asking if she should be brought to St Mungo's. Adelmo instructed him to just wait there until he arrived and assessed what was going on. As soon as his knuckles met the door, James greeted him with no smile on his face as he practically yanked him inside.

Sirius was there too, apparently coming over to visit when he had come across the whole ordeal in the first place. There was just a second of an awkward exchange between the two as they made eye contact, but Adelmo's priority was his little sister as James brought him over to where Renata was. After some sort of episode, she had eventually fainted by the sight of the blood or became so overwhelmed that she passed out. James had moved her to the sofa after healing her finger and wiping away the blood but she had yet to wake up.

"She cut herself on a plate and the next thing I know, she just started panicking," James told him, running his fingers through his hair in a stressful manner. "I tried to help her, I was going to heal it and clean up the mess with no problem, but she insisted on cleaning it and then she went mental over the blood. She was saying something in Italian and she said your name. She was calling out your name while looking at the blood."

All eyes fell on Adelmo as the Healer stood by the side of the sofa for a few moments, a blank stare on his face. He didn't know how to respond to such information, unsure as to why Renata was calling out his name when faced with blood.

"Why is all of this happening?" James questioned and Adelmo wasn't sure if it was in an accusatory tone or not. "First the night terror last night and now-"

"Night terror? What night terror?"

"Renata woke up screaming last night, once again whatever she was saying was in Italian so I can't tell you what she was going on about. But whatever it was scared the living hell out of her, she was crying and then when she finally woke up, it was like it never happened. She had no recollection of it. I'm not even sure if she's going to remember this happening!" James exclaimed. "So what is going on?"

"I'm not...I'm not entirely sure," Adelmo whispered, "I won't really know much until she wakes up and I get to speak with her. Was there anything else? Anything before she cut herself on the plate?"

Suddenly, James demeanour changed as he suddenly appeared guilty-looking. "We were talking about professions," he said, earning a look from Sirius, " I was asking her if she always wanted to be an Auror or if there was anything else she wanted to do with her life. She got upset before the plate broke..."

Adelmo understood why his sister had grown upset rapidly since the topic of her dismissed Auror training had never settled well with her. It had nearly broken her heart when she was dismissed and Adelmo was certain she had yet to forgive herself for disappointing their parents and herself.

"That's a touchy subject, James, it's best to leave it alone," Adelmo advised, " but it still doesn't explain why she was calling out my name and it doesn't explain the night terror."

"You don't think there's any correlation between the two?" Sirius questioned, bringing Adelmo to glance over at him.

"What are you talking about?"

Sirius walked over, placing his hands on the back of the sofa and staring Adelmo straight in the eye. "You don't any of this is related? The fact that your sister failed in becoming an Auror, one of the only four professions that alumni from your former school partake in and this blood phobia that triggered some sort of response that dealt with you. Nothing? No connections there?"

"I don't know what you're talking about-" he went to defend himself but Sirius continued on.

"Yeah, you and Renata seem to use that line a lot but do you know what you're talking about, do either one of you? You two don't seem to have a grasp on certain things and that all just seems too convenient-"

"Sirius, that's enough!" James cut him off sternly. "Listen, Renata was supposed to go pick up Harry from the Burrow right now, but seeing as she can't, I need you to go get Harry while I stay here, alright?"

It looked as though Sirius was going to protest but with the help of Renata, James had mastered a look that said he meant business. Even Sirius couldn't bring himself to argue as he gave a nod of his head and went to leave.

As James turned back, he could see that Adelmo had taken to sitting down, looking slightly pale in the face as he sat there. James could see that he was clutching an envelope in his hand as he sat there waiting for Renata to start stirring.

"What's that in your hand?" he pointed out. "A letter?"

Blinking several times to snap out of his daze, Adelmo peered down to see the letter in hand still. "I had just gotten home when you called," he began to explain, " I was going through the post and as soon as you said something was wrong with Renata, I just ran out of my place and made my way here. I guess I didn't think to set it down."

He turned it over and saw that it was addressed to him and Renata, leaving him to swallow for a moment as he opened it and pulled out the letter slowly. He didn't need to read it though, he already knew what it was, but he forced himself to read it anyways before one of his hands rubbed over his mouth.

"It's from our mother," he whispered looking down at Renata, " she's coming for a visit."

A/N: Mamma Abate is coming to town.