Despite the fact that everyone was reassuring her that everything was okay and that she had done nothing wrong, Renata certainly didn't feel like everything was okay and she knew very well that something was wrong. To go so long without any trouble and suddenly be faced with not only a night terror but with an episode that caused James to call her brother over, it left her really nervous. Not to mention, she could sense the tension around her, no one could really lie to her face because she knew what they were feeling. The only person wearing a genuine smile the majority of the time was Harry and that was because he didn't know what was happening around him.

The amount of guilt she felt was overwhelming because the last thing she ever wanted to do was place her troubles on James and Harry. They had been through enough and it wouldn't be fair to have them face her problems. After Adelmo left, Renata was kept occupied by Harry, who was playing with his toys in her lap, but whenever she glanced up, Sirius and James were watching her. The smiles on their faces were fake, given away by the look of concern in their gazes. It made her believe that something else had happened, perhaps something they weren't telling her.

Had something else happen during the time she couldn't remember? Had she said something hurtful or bizarre that they were having a difficult time comprehending? Adelmo had said nothing of the sort, but Renata knew her brother all too well. He would keep things from her if it meant protecting her, he had done it many times before.

When Harry grew bored of the toys in hand, he left to his room to collect others, leaving Renata with the chance to look over in the direction where Sirius and James were talking outside. Every so often, James would look inside to see if she was alright, and when he saw that she was sitting in the living room, looking at him, he stopped talking to Sirius and excused himself to come inside.

"Is everything alright?" he asked her as he walked in, his eyes scanning the room for Harry.

"I find myself asking the same question, Mr Potter," she replied quietly, " I feel as though my presence is making you nervous. Would you like me to leave?"

James' face drained of all colour at the sound of her suggestion as it was the last thing he wanted. He couldn't even bring himself to verbally answer right away as it had left him speechless. But he did manage to shake his head before he made his way over and crouched down in front of her.

"No, I don't want you to leave," he said, " I would never want that. I definitely want you to say and your presence isn't making me nervous-"

"But you are nervous, are you not?"

Glancing over his shoulder, James looked over at Sirius, who was waiting outside and called for him to take Harry outside. Despite Adelmo wanting to wait to talk to Renata, he needed to talk to her. She was just going to pick up on the vibes around her and there was no way they could just keep lying to her face. Now James understood her abilities as an Empath and if she continued to sense something was wrong, it was going to weigh heavy on her mind.

Sirius came inside, leaving Renata confused by the scene as he collected Harry out of his room and the two made their way outside. Even Harry looked extremely puzzled, but all was forgotten as soon as his little feet hit the grass and he started racing around. To keep his distracted, Sirius took his dog form and started chasing him, leaving Renata and James to talk in private.

"Mr Potter?" she called to him in a questioning tone as he had yet to answer her question. He held out his hand, inviting her to make their way to the front of the flat to sit down and talk. She looked uneasy, but there was no hesitation on her behalf as she took his hand and allowed him to lead the way out front.

As soon as they were seated, James turned to her to speak. "You don't make me nervous, Renata, but I think something is going on with you and that makes me nervous because I don't want you getting hurt."

"My blood phobia has never really been this bad before," she whispered to him, " at least, not to my recollection. I haven't had it really come up many times. But I've never had an episode like that before. And a night terror? No one has ever brought up me having one, so I don't know what's going on."

"Your brother said that it could have been triggered by amounts of stress," James told her, " have you been feeling really stressed out about something as of recently?"

Immediately, Renata's body became rigid, especially as James grabbed her hands in his. It was a sweet gesture to give her hand a comforting squeeze, but it reminded her instantly when she felt the cold metal press against her hand.  She didn't want to think that his wedding ring had been causing her that much stress that it would cause such a reaction.

Pressing her lips together, she refused to say such a thing, believing that it would ruin everything that had developed between her and James. What would he think if she told him that his wedding ring was causing her to be uncomfortable? Would he think that she was just being silly or would that make him uncomfortable? Obviously, she wasn't going to tell him to take the ring off but James was probably going to question it and just thinking about all of it was leaving her to hold her breath.

"Ren?"

Peering over at him, Renata let out a small sigh before placing a hand over her face. " I really rather not talk about it, I don't think it has anything to do with what took place. Were we really just talking about Parma when it all happened? I don't know why-"

"No," James said with a shake of his head, " we were talking about other things besides Parma and food. If I'm being honest, we were talking about careers and I was questioning why you wanted to be an Auror. You got really defensive about it and then the plate broke. You were upset and you tried to clean it up with your hands, rather than your wand and you cut your finger."

She held her hands up, looking over as there was no evidence that there had been any sort of cut but she knew it had happened.

"You were talking in Italian, saying all these things and when I tried to comfort you, you made these motions like I was to get away from you. Then you said your brother's name, so I really didn't know what was going on. Adelmo didn't want me to say anything to you, he wanted to talk to you about it tomorrow, but I figured you had the right to know. You could sense something was up anyway, right?"

Placing her hands down in her lap, Renata nodded her head before looking over at James again. "I don't know what happened, but really, if something like that is going to happen, maybe I should leave, Mr Potter. I wouldn't want to present you with any of my troubles and if I'm finding myself troubled by something as simple as your..."

James heard her voice trail off as she stopped herself from delving into what was bothering her. He was about to ask her what it was, especially if she figured it was something simple and it had to do with him that bothered her. If it was considered something simple, then that meant he could fix it and that would help the situation. However, as her words trailed, all James had to do was follow where her gaze settled for a few seconds. Where his hand rested on her leg, there was a gleam of his wedding ring that caught the light outside.

It was quiet for a few moments before Renata pushed herself up to stand and create some distance between them.

"I really should go," Renata said, " I can stay at Adelmo's until I figure out what I should do. I really don't want to be a burden-"

"Ren," he called after her as she went to head inside to collect her belongings. He had been too slow as she made inside before he could grab her arm, but he caught up with her in the hallway that led to her room. "Ren, please, I don't want you to go."

She stopped in the middle of the hallway but wouldn't face him right away, her head tempted to turn and look at him, yet she restrained herself from doing so.

"I would never see you as a burden," he said quietly, " you never saw me as a burden, did you? When I was going through all of my issues, did you see me as a burden?"

"No, of course not!" Renata quickly spun around with a shake of her head. "I never-"

"Then why would you think that I would see you as a burden?" James asked her. She didn't seem to have an answer as she stood there, with a puzzled expression on her face. All she could was give a small shrug of her shoulders before turning away and heading to her room. James followed her, only to walk in and see her sitting on the edge of her bed.

He walked over and sat beside her, the two of them sitting in silence while outside of the window they could hear Sirius barking and Harry laughing.

"I'm not going to force you to stay if you want to leave," James eventually spoke, " but I don't want you to leave under the impression that you think I see you as a burden. That's the farthest thing from the truth. I want you to stay here and I want to help you, you helped me-"

"Mr Potter, you don't owe me anything-"

"It's not a matter of owing you anything," he cut her off, " because if I owed you, it would mean that I needed to do this for you, but I don't need to, I want to. I want to help you with this blood phobia and with whatever is causing you to feel stress. Is it my wedding ring-"

"No!"

Once again, she stood up and moved away from him, her hands covering her face as she wouldn't admit it. But he could only assume that it was bothering her, especially with the reaction he was getting from it. He hadn't really given it much thought since he had moved his wedding band over to his right hand. However, as he tried to place himself in Renata's shoes, he could see how it could bother her.

After all, how would he feel if she had a wedding ring on her finger? Of course, the circumstances were unique but James hadn't even considered how Renata would feel about it.

"I understand if it bothers you," he said, " I didn't give it much thought, to be honest. It's just-"

"Please, please..." Renata said, her voice shaky and sounding like she was on the verge of tears, " you don't have to talk about it. It is your choice to wear the ring for as long as you want, Mr Potter. It's your wedding ring, I know it means a lot to you. She meant a lot to you, I understand that more than anything. I'm just a woman you've been on one date with, so I don't expect-"

When James decided to start talking to Renata, he really didn't expect the conversation to be taking such a turn down a path he had never thought about. But he didn't like hearing Renata downplay herself either, first she was a "burden" now she was "just a woman" that he had been on one date with. Walking over to where she was standing, James reached a hand out to touch her shoulder, watching as she flinched slightly from his touch but wouldn't look at him again.

But he slowly pushed against her shoulder, gently forcing her to turn and face him. It took a few seconds, however, she eventually looked up at him. Using only his left hand, James reached out and moved her hair from the side of her face.

"You are not a burden," he told her, " and you are not just a woman I've been on one date with. You are so much more than that to me, I thought that was obvious. I will never know how to thank you for everything that you've done for me, that you've done for Harry, and I'm sure that I'm not the only person that you've helped in life. But helping you isn't to pay you back, I just want to be there for you, I want to go on more dates with you, hundreds of them! If you'll let me..."

He looked down at his wedding ring, biting the inside of his cheek for a few moments.

"And...and I can take this off-"

Before he could pull it off, Renata reached her hand out and blocked him from doing so. "No," she said, " I don't want you to take off the ring for me. That's not healthy, Mr Potter. You should only take off the ring if that's what you want to do. If not, you can wear it until the end of time. It's why I didn't say anything I don't have a say over that. That is something for only you to make a decision over. Please, don't take it off for me. It's not a big deal, I think something else is on my mind, but I just can't pinpoint it right now...I keep drawing a blank..."

"About that, Renata, there's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Seated at the table in the kitchen, Renata was presented newspaper articles of people she didn't recognise until she came upon an article of Adelmo as he was welcomed by St Mungo's.

"Do you recognise any of these people besides Adelmo?" James asked her as he sat next to her at the table. "The names, maybe?"

Looking over the photos, Renata didn't know them, but as she scanned the names, she did recognise the surnames.

Rossi.Cestaio.Pavan.

"I went to school with some of these people, not these people specifically, but probably some of their family members. I've been to a few gatherings hosted by the Cestaio family a couple of times. They're good friends with my parents, " she explained, " why do you have these?"

"Is there a reason why everyone from your school only goes on to hold only a few occupations, Renata? Everyone from your school becomes a Healer, an Auror, a teacher of some sort, or a member of the ministry. Are you all trained to be either one of the four?"

Renata frowned before shaking her head. "Wh-what? What are you talking about? I'm sure some other people went on to do different things-"

"No, Ren, they didn't," James said, " trust me, we looked into it-"

"Looked into it?" she cut him off. " Why are you looking into my schooling in the first place?"

"I didn't initially, but it was Sirius who brought it up because he remembered that his family wanted to send him to the school. To your school, but he couldn't get in, even with the amount of his family's money because your school only allows entry from certain families-"

"It was tradition-"

"He looked into it and the no outsider policy, only to discover that all the alumni from your school go on to the same four types of profession. Your family included. You told me very early on what your parents did, what Adelmo does and what you wanted to do. You're the only one who didn't go on into one of the professions and that was because of your blood phobia, it wasn't taken into consideration."

He brought it up not to shame her but to bring it to light, however, it seemed that she took it as the former as she looked away.

"Ren, it might have been a good thing, " James continued, " there are other articles besides these. These are the success stories of your school, but things have happened to these people, excluding your brother. A lot of them went mad, Ren, some of them killed their families, others tried to kill themselves-"

Her hand clapped over her mouth as she shook her head in disbelief, but as if he anticipated her questioning how he knew that, he pulled out more and more articles as if it was part of a magic act where a muggle magician pulled things from a hat. He sprawled all of them out in front of her, allowing Renata to read over the headlines. A small cry of horror escaped from her as she pushed them away after a moment.

"What...what the hell is all of this?"

"I don't know if it's all connected, Ren, or if it's one big coincidence, but I thought you had a right to know. But I have a question, when did your blood phobia start? When did you have your first episode?"

Thinking back on it, Renata could only remember the first instance occurring back when she was in Italy.

"It was during my Auror training, the first one happened when I was dismissed."

"That all seems a bit out of the blue, doesn't it? How could you go through all of your childhood without it and then have it pop out of nowhere? Did anything happen before that? Anything that could be considered traumatising?"

Renata shook her head. "No, nothing of the sort-"

"Are you sure?"

"What are you suggesting, Mr Potter?"

"I'm not sure," he sighed, " but I think something is wrong, not with you, but I think something is definitely wrong. And...I guess while we're on the subject of troubling things, Adelmo was going to tell you tomorrow when he visited, but I figured I might as well prepare you for what else is coming."

Suddenly, she appeared so small before him as she met his eyes with a worried look. "And what's that?" she asked in a little voice.

"Your mother is coming here for a visit."