"You know, most people I know are usually happy when their mother claims she's coming for a visit," James began after several moments of passing silence where neither he nor Adelmo said anything, " but you don't look thrilled at all."

Renata was still resting on the sofa and if one hadn't been aware of the events that had taken place before they would have never suspected anything was wrong as she looked like she was just taking a nap at the time. However, with Sirius gone to collect Harry, James had the opportunity to talk to Adelmo one on one and he wanted answers. He saw the expression on Adelmo's face, the worried look, paired with how tightly the man was gripping the letter in between his hands.

"I haven't spoken with my mother in a while," Adelmo admitted quietly, " and if Renata is under enough stress that it's triggering night terrors and whatever this state is with her phobia, I don't think a visit from our mother is the best thing as of right now."

"Why?"

James wasn't trying to be rude, he didn't really want to invade the privacy of the Abate family and all their problems, but at the same time, he was so incredibly worried about Renata that he honestly didn't care if he came across as rude or insensitive at the time. He wanted to know what he needed to know in order for him to help in any possible way that he could.

It was unfortunate that Renata had been fine up until the point where they had started dating and now all the problems seemed to be unravelling themselves. Life was cruel in many ways, James had firsthand experience with that, however, hadn't he suffered enough? He had lost so much in such a short period of time, but he was on the path back to happiness, but there was a rather nasty detour where the woman who had helped him discover the path back was suddenly facing her own troubles.

It wasn't fair, not to James, not to Renata and not to all the possible people that were involved in whatever was taking place. James didn't want to think that he had stumbled across a cult or its victims, but there was so much to assume with only a little bit of information.

"I don't think you understand our family very well, James," Adelmo told him as he set the letter aside for a moment. "I'm not sure how much Renata has told you, but I do not get along with my parents very well. They don't support who I am and because of that, I left home."

"I thought you left to take the job at St Mungo's," James said, " you were a renowned Healer, one of the youngest."

"Yes, St Mungo's had been pursuing my employment back when I was in Italy, but originally I wasn't going to take the job. I was going to work in my home country, but I never really felt comfortable knowing that what I felt inside was wrong. I couldn't face my parents with those feelings. I remained for Renata's sake, I remained until she went into her Auror training and then I took the job."

"So you left Italy and you came here," James made his way over to sit down on the arm of the sofa, near Renata's head, placing one of his hands to rest on the top of her hair. "Then what?"

"I left in the middle of the night, I didn't tell anyone but Renata where I was going," he confessed, "somehow though my parents eventually figured it out. How? I'm not sure, but I know Renata didn't say a word, she never would. Of course, they were disappointed, told me to come home, but I didn't respond. I figured I was better off being far away so that I wasn't there causing them direct disappointment."

James said nothing, his way of urging Adelmo to continue to spill everything that he possibly before Sirius and Harry returned.

"Then came the day that Renata was dismissed as an Auror and I think that was probably the most devastating thing to happen to our family. I received an owl while I was at work and Renata didn't know what to do with herself. My parents were going mental and trying to get her back into the training, but when Renata told me it was due to a blood phobia, I was just...floored."

"So, the blood phobia wasn't something she had all of her life?" James asked with a raised brow. "It was something new that developed out of nowhere, not from childhood?"

"I never witnessed Renata ever react to blood to how she has recently. I don't know what happened but with a medical condition like that, it is a safety risk for the person and other parties involved, so she couldn't possibly continue. I think that just sent my parents into a state of grieving and Renata didn't know what to do-"

Unable to listen to how disappointed Renata's and Adelmo's parents were over the situation, James found himself having to interject.

"Why were they so set on her becoming an Auror? Why was it so bloody important that she remained in the training?"

Adelmo adjusted himself from where he sat and suddenly, a chuckle emitted from him, but it didn't sound like he found anything humorous. It sounded pitiful as it rang in James' ears and when he peered up, he could see the saddened look written all over Adelmo's face.

"You really don't know our family," he whispered, " Renata was the favourite between the two of us. My parents could always sense that things were wrong with me from the moment I was really young. When I was born and as I developed, one of my legs actually grew longer than other, it left me walking funny for quite sometime before my parents took care of it. But that was just one of my many imperfections in my parents' eyes when it came to me."

"No one is perfect," James said, knowing it to be true for himself, " doesn't make you less of a person."

"That's not the motto of the Abate family-"

"It's Renata who taught me that!"

"Renata is wise," Adelmo said with a faint smile, " she always knows exactly what to say because she always knows how a person is feeling."

"What do you-"

"She's an Empath," he cut James off, a proudful tone taking over as he looked at his little sister, " and a very strong one at that."

Not wanting to sound stupid, James was hesitant to ask what exactly an Empath was, but it seemed Adelmo could sense his confusion, mainly because it was all over James' face without him realising at the time.

"It means that she has a very strong sensitivity to the emotions of others," Adelmo explained, " she can feel what you're feeling. If you're happy, sad, angry, frightened...it doesn't matter, Renata can feel it. It can be extremely overwhelming for her, one of the reasons why I was very nervous about her taking this job with you. No offence."

Thinking back to all the emotional baggage he had carried and how terrible he felt all the time when Renata first came into their lives, James couldn't imagine what it was like for her to carry the emotions of someone else, especially that of a stranger. Yet, despite having to be around all the pain that came with grieving and guilt, she had still agreed to take the job, without question as he remembered. For a moment, James was left completely stunned because now it went beyond an act of kindness in his head, but he didn't know how else to label it.

"If you are feeling sad and you force that smile onto your face, no matter how great of an actor you might be, Renata can sense that something is wrong," Adelmo said. "That's how we remained close as children, she could always sense when something was wrong with me. You would think we were twins with how in tune she was with how I was feeling. She always managed to make me feel better too, I'm sure she does the same for you without you even realising it, correct?"

James couldn't bring himself to disagree since he had met Renata there were, of course, times where he felt downright dead inside, but she had always managed to make him feel better or pull him out of a rough state of mind. He nodded his head to answer, which left Adelmo to reach forward and grab his sister's hand.

"It's a remarkable thing," he smiled, "I've been doing my own side research of it, there have been mentions of it here and there. Empathic healing."

"Is it rare?" James questioned, leaning forward as he became more and more intrigued by the conversation.

"Yes, very rare, some of them reported not to live very long sometimes because the toll it takes on them. You see, Empathic Healers are sometimes unaware of what they are capable of doing, it's very second nature to them to want to help people. They can heal emotional wounds, something even magic cannot do, however, it's almost like they absorb the pain themselves. It weighs heavy on them, leaves them vulnerable, feeling weak or tired more often than not. I've warned her plenty of times to be careful because I suspected what she was capable of."

"When did you figure it out?"

"When we were younger, I didn't know the term for it, but I knew she was special. My parents figured it out too, mainly because an Empath can use one's feelings against them as well. There is a reason why Renata would have made a very frightening but amazing Auror. She can sense fear and she can use it against you in a heartbeat. She can feel when you feel uneasy, she knows what makes you uncomfortable, even if you don't show it on your face. Her abilities make it easy to pick apart a person without even a word being exchanged."

"It sounds like she would have been an unstoppable force," James swallowed, looking down at the same woman that came across as far too sweet for him to consider dangerous or frightening. Sure, he could see her strength, but to think that she was capable of using someone's fears and insecurities against them, that was a terrifying notion.

"She would have been, I'm sure of it, but she didn't have the heart to be an Auror," Adelmo admitted.

"But she said-"

"Of course she says that she's always wanted to be an Auror, that's what she's been told since the time we were little. But when she failed...when she had that episode during the training and was dismissed, all she could feel was the disappointment around her. She was surrounded by my parents who were so disappointed that she had failed. You can only imagine how it feels when someone is disappointed with you, but imagine being able to feel that person's disappointment, breeding inside of you...manifesting itself in your mind."

The two stopped as Renata moved on the sofa, however, she didn't seem to be waking up as of yet, just trying to get in a more comfortable position. They remained still and quiet for a solid minute to make sure she was still asleep before Adelmo went on.

"I think she tried to absorb the disappointed feelings of my parents and it took such a toll on her. She really does try to absorb the pain of others, myself included, and it takes so much for her to do it. She couldn't take it anymore, I couldn't take the idea anymore of her suffering or punishing herself in such ways, so I told her to come to stay with me here. We could find her another job."

"But she still wants to be an Auror, that's what she said earlier-"

"That's because she believes it's the only way to stop feeling the disappointment from our parents. Luckily, when she's here, she's not around all that negativity, it doesn't affect her like it once did. But my parents want her to come home, they've been trying to get her to come home for ages. They think I'm the one who's keeping her here. I've tried explaining what they were doing to her, but they don't listen to me. She's always been their perfect child and they want her home. They want me to go back as well, hoping they can help me with my issues-"

"Your issues of liking men?" James replied gruffly. "You know that's not an issue, right? That's just part of you, that's what you like, that's all! There's nothing wrong with you, they can't help you with that because there's nothing to fix."

Adelmo didn't say anything, he only appeared to look away in shame.

"So, your parents want Renata home, " James went on, " to do what? How are they going to help her? Are they going to try to help her with the blood phobia or are they going to just guilt her into trying again? And they want you to go home to fix your "problem" but how are they going to fix it?"

There was a shrug of Adelmo's shoulders. "I don't know."

Standing up from the sofa, James pressed his hands against his face and let out the sound of a frustrated growl before throwing his hands down. He was glad that Renata remained asleep because he definitely didn't want her feeling his anger at that moment. It was overwhelming even for him.

"My mother is going to try to convince Renata to come home on this visit," Adelmo said to him quietly, " I know that. She's not going to approve of Renata being your son's nanny and she's probably not going to approve of you two dating-"

"Not approve? She doesn't even know me and she doesn't know my son-"

"It doesn't matter, James!"

Suddenly, from the sound of her brother's yelling, Renata woke with a start, instantly sitting up on the sofa that caused both men to become startled. She looked around and spotted both of them, looking confused at first, but she seemed to remember some of the prior events as she peered down at her finger, only to see that it was healed. However, judging by the expression on her face and her eyes darting back and forth between James and Adelmo, she could definitely sense that something was wrong.

Pressing her lips together, she didn't like the atmosphere of the room, especially as she saw that her brother was present which meant that she had probably done something.

"What's going on?" she dared herself to ask. "What did I do?"

"Nothing-" James went to lie, but Adelmo knew better than that, he knew that they weren't going to be able to lie their way out of it.

"You ended up panicking over the blood that came out when you cut it on some glass from a broken plate, Renata," he said, "it was a bit of a stronger episode. Have you been feeling a little stressed? Perhaps more than any usual-"

"No," she answered right away, giving a shake of her head. Although all she could think about was how much she had been fretting over the wedding ring on James' finger. Had that really caused her to get so worked up that she sent herself into a stronger attack?

"What do you remember, Renata?" Adelmo examined her as she sat up in front of him.

"Uh, I remember waking up and making breakfast with Mr Potter."

"You don't remember the conversation we were having before you cut your hand?" James asked her, only to see that Adelmo was giving him the look not to bring up anything about the Auror business as that was probably going to get her worked up even further.

"No, what were we talking about?"

"Uh, you know, about Parma and how you learned to cook," he said, " just stuff like that."

"I remember that," she said, " I do remember that, but I don't remember the plate breaking during the conversation."

Both James and Adelmo did their best to reassure her that everything was fine and before they could go into any further discussion, Sirius arrived back with Harry. The toddler seemed all too pleased to be home, unaware of what was taking place prior to his arrival. Instead, he entered the flat and was placed down by Sirius before he ran over and greeted Renata with a hug. He started making all sorts of noises as he tried to explain all the fun he had at the Burrow.

Taking the opportunity, Adelmo pulled James to the side to speak with him. "I can take her home," he offered, " back to my place and watch over her for the night."

"Why?" James questioned him. "Why can't she stay here, I can watch over her. It'll be fine-"

"Are you sure? With Harry around-"

"I'm sure," James said in a final tone, " I want her to stay. But I think before you go that you should warn her that your mother is coming."

"I'll let her know tomorrow," Adelmo said, "it's best not to add any factors onto the stress level as it is. She needs to relax, I suggest brightening the mood in any way that you can. Please, just let the Auror business go. Try to keep her from becoming upset about anything. If you need my help or she has another episode, contact me as soon as possible. It's for your safety, Harry's safety, and her own."

"Is there anything we can do?" James wanted to know before Adelmo left. "Anything for the blood phobia? Therapies or something of the sort? I know they may not be common around here, but there has to be something, right?"

"I've been trying to get her to look into it," he answered, " I can't force her to do anything though."

"Why wouldn't she want to do it?"

"We all have our own reasons for how we handle things, James, even if it's not clear to ourselves. "

"Well, anything else? A potion, a draught? Something?"

"I already told you," Adelmo sighed, as he opened the front door to leave, " magic is messy with emotions. It can create artificial senses but only temporarily and more often than not, they are more harmful than they are good. The only other way besides possible exposure therapy is meddling with her mind. I don't think you're looking to obliviate her memories to fix her, are you?"

Before James could say anything, knowing damn well he would never want that, he watched as Adelmo stopped in the doorway and looked down at the ground with a disgruntled look. But within seconds, he gave a shake of his head and made his way out, wishing James a good rest of the day.