"Oh no! What happened to him?!"

Renata clapped her hands over her mouth in shock as she came to witness Sirius' face as James directed her to the room that Sirius occupied within the hospital. She thought it was planned, she thought in another room Sirius had taken Adelmo and was explaining things to him in the best way he could. Apparently, she was mistaken because the Sirius that was currently lying in bed, had a swollen face, too swollen to even speak properly, let alone be recognisable and there was a dark red substance oozing from his face.

Sirius was trying to move his mouth to think, at least, that was what she believed, but it only came out as grunting. Turning to James, Renata believed that something horrible had happened to Sirius after she had been taken, only to see that James was trying so desperately hard not to laugh in her presence. Immediately, she slapped his arm for his inappropriate response to his best friend's situation.

"Ow!"

"How could you be laughing at a time like this? Do you see his face?!" she scolded him. "And it sounds like he's in pain!"

"Oh, he's not in pain," James rubbed his arm, but couldn't help the grin that returned, " he is angry though. But it was the only thing I could think of at the time that would attract magical attention rather than just muggle help. We didn't know where they took you and they practically obliviated everyone on scene. But after we got to safety, we had to come up with a plan."

"So, what did you do? Rub his face with something poisonous?" Renata asked. "James, that's terrible."

"No, no, but I knew we needed to get magical help and maybe if we were lucky we could come across Adelmo. While we were trying to come up with a plan, I came up with one first, but I knew that Sirius wouldn't go along with it, he cares about his appearance too much and to present him as an oozing monster in front of Adelmo? He would never, but it actually worked out really well because while he's trying to swear at me, it sounds terrible, you know?"

Renata tilted her head as she watched Sirius fold his arms while he sat up in the bed, he couldn't speak properly but he still obviously hear.

"How did you get his face to look like that?"

"You mean, he doesn't always look like that?" James questioned playfully, leaving Sirius to make an ungodly sound in protest and finally, that brought Renata to chuckle. But she quickly covered it up with her hand as Sirius squinted in her direction.

"James-"

"Alright, no, I didn't use any poison, all I did was use Engorgio on sections on his face to cause parts to swell more than others to cause the unevenness."

"But what's that stuff oozing out of his face, James? It's disgusting!"

"Mashed berries," James answered proudly as he puffed his chest out, " I stomped them out with my foot, mixed it up with a little bit of dirt and then wiped it all over his face while he was distracted by how enlarged his face actually was. I had also taken his wand when he wasn't looking to keep him distracted. And then, to top it all off, I carried his bottom in the streets, crying out for help and this is where we've been since."

For a few moments, Renata was actually speechless, as she couldn't believe how well thought out James' plan had been, especially under the severe stress of the situation. She also couldn't believe that renowned Healers were tricked by mashed berries, but then again, she couldn't talk because it really did make Sirius' face look disgusting.

Suddenly, James nudged her shoulder, wearing the same smile as before. "And guess what Healer here is fluent in English and they called to handled this quarantined case?"

"Adelmo?"

James clapped his hands together, which reminded Renata of Harry, bringing her to smile. She had to admit, it was a brilliant plan, no matter how ridiculous it all was. She did feel bad for Sirius because she was pretty sure the noises that were emitting from him were due to him sobbing. After believing that he had lost Adelmo, Renata was fairly certain when they were reunited that wasn't how Sirius wanted to be seen.

"While this plan is brilliant, it doesn't explain why you were hiding in a cupboard, " Renata pointed out as she faced James again. "What were you doing in there?"

"Trying to keep a low profile as much as possible," James said, " they can't recognise Sirius right now, but I'm sure if the wrong people showed up, the same ones that took you, they would be able to identify me. That would just lead to further trouble, so I've been hiding out in spots. I saw some Aurors show up and decided to hide in the cupboard and then when I was peeking out to see if they were gone, I saw you stroll passed."

Unable to resist the urge, he pulled her into another hug, just incredibly thankful that she was there in front of him, unharmed, able to remember him, and aware of the situation that was going on.

"I'm really glad that you're alright," he told her again, " you have no idea."

"I'm glad that you're alright as well," Renata replied, " I'm glad that both of you are alright, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to stay, James. I think you and Sirius need to go back home."

Of course, as she expected, both James and Sirius put up sounds of protest, leaving her to look away for a moment. She knew the idea of them leaving wasn't going to go over well, but she didn't want either one of them to be in danger. It was bad enough that she and her brother were at risk.

"Look, before you start to argue with me, just listen to what I have to say, James," she said, " this situation is dangerous as you already know. It goes beyond anything I ever imagined, even when you and Sirius brought it to my attention as a theory. But the method that my parents used on Adelmo and me, the other families practise it and they have already infiltrated our local Ministry, the law enforcement, the schools, and the hospitals. And it's not just here, they've been sending some to other countries. They don't want these practices to be limited to just Italy, they want it to be global."

"Sweet Merlin," James said under his breath, but before he could argue his point as to why he would never consider leaving her behind, Renata continued on.

"None of them are going to practise any sort of mercy on you or Sirius, it's best that you go home and let me handle it."

"Handle it? How are you going to handle it on your own, Renata?"

"I-I-I don't know," she stammered, "I'll figure it out, but it's too risky for you two to stay. Like I said, they won't show you an ounce of mercy. They have beaten Adelmo, my own mother put me under the Imperius and Cruciatus Curse and-"

"SHE DID WHAT?!"

Sirius attempted to gasp at the news, but it only came out as a squeaking sound before he shook his head in pure defeat and leaned back against his pillow.

"This is why I need you two to leave," Renata said quietly, " I don't want either one of you to get hurt. I'll figure something out but I can't let anything happen to you, James, you have to go back and be there for Harry. He needs you-"

James finally brought her to stop talking as he began shaking his head to her suggestion of them just leaving her and Adelmo behind. Especially after learning that she had been subjected to two of the Three Unforgivable Curses, did she honestly believe that he was going to leave her behind after hearing that? It only made him want to protect her even more and Renata seemed to fail to understand that.

"Harry needs us," James told Renata, " not just me. He needs you too. He already lost one mother, I can't have him lose two of them. I made the same mistake when I thought I could handle everything on my own and it nearly cost me everything, I'm not going to make that mistake again, and I'm certainly not going to let you make it either. You have help, don't try to handle everything on your own. Let us help in any way that can, it doesn't matter if we're outnumbered or in way over our heads, we all stand a better chance together than you would on your own."

"But what about Harry?" she whispered to him. "What if something bad happens-"

"I assure you that Harry will be looked after properly until we get back," he put a strong emphasis on the "we" part before she nodded her head. He had a point and as much as she wanted to keep him from danger, if they didn't solve the problem, he was probably still at risk. After all, her mother knew where James lived, Renata had brought her there and if James continued to interfered there was no telling what lengths Alcina would go in order to get her daughter to submit.

"Alright, alright," she finally gave in before looking over at Sirius, " you two can stay but please when it comes to my people, let me handle them. Auror training might be universal in some respects, but in other ways, I have a feeling some of what we are trained to do is unethical by the standards of others-"

"Have you forgotten that we fought in a wizarding war, Ren?" James asked her as he folded his arms and gave her a look. "We fought people who are all about unethical practices, we'll be fine. We'll follow your lead, but don't worried about how we handle it."

She sighed, not really liking the idea of the two sticking around for a fight but she knew she couldn't control their actions, but as she stared down Sirius, she gave a shake of her head at his state.

"If we're going to fight them though, we really need to fix Sirius' face, it's borderline disturbing. Give him back his wand, James."

James didn't look very willing to give Sirius back his wand, but he knew that she was right, they needed Sirius in his best condition to fight. But he knew the storm that was coming because not only had he altered Sirius' face against his will, there was the jam in the man's hair and he knew that was enough to anger him beyond anything. Making his way over, he handed Sirius' wand over before he looked over at Renata.

"You might want to cover your ears, Ren," he warned her after Sirius snatched his wand back.

"Why-"

Within just a few moments, Sirius had fixed his face, bringing down the swelling, enough that he could talk and immediately turned to face James.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Sirius pointed his finger at James. "It was one thing to mess with my face but you put jam in my hair, I ought to-"

Renata placed her hand over Sirius' mouth rapidly, glaring at him as he was about to cause a scene and probably bring all sorts of attention to the room, the attention they didn't need at the time.

"Calm yourself, Sirius, you have magic, you clean yourself within seconds, we don't have time for this. We need to develop a plan for when Adelmo comes in here because if I'm in here, he's going to have a lot of questions and he's not in the right state of mind."

"Just let me snog the hell out of him, that should do the trick," Sirius said and while Renata thought he was joking at first, he seemed quite confident in his ability to kiss Adelmo and make it all better. She glanced over at James, only to see him shrug his shoulders in response.

"That's not going to work, Sirius," Renata told him, " if I'm correct, if it's like all the other times, he was beaten and his memories were altered, he's not going to take kindly to you kissing him. In his mind, that's a sin and he's back in the mentality that he has to do the "right" thing. I highly advise against that."

"So what do we-"

The three fell silent as the door opened and Adelmo walked in, but he wasn't alone as there was an Auror with him. It seemed that the suspicions had already been raised and Adelmo led the way in and as the Auror raised his wand, Renata disarmed Adelmo and James disarmed the Auror. There were the sounds of yelling and screaming that erupted in the corridor as Renata sent the Auror flying out of the room before she turned back to Sirius.

"You're going to have to talk him through it, Sirius," Renata said to him, " make him understand what's going on. James, I need you out here with me, I have a feeling that things are about to get ugly."

Adelmo looked at his little sister in pure confusion but she didn't have time to say anything to him as she and James ran out of the room, leaving him alone with Sirius. Renata closed the door and seemed to lock them inside, and for a moment, Sirius and Adelmo didn't say anything to each other, but as soon as Sirius saw him look over in the direction of his wand, he knew what he had to do.

The last thing Adelmo probably expected was for the man to launch himself onto his back and wrap his arms and legs around him bringing him down to the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Adelmo called out. "Who the hell are you?"

"Funny you should ask that," Sirius said through his teeth he struggled to keep his hold on him. He quickly realised that he probably should have just subdued him before trying to talk to him because he should have remembered just how strong Adelmo really was. "Would you believe me if I told you that I was your boyfriend?"

Adelmo pushed himself up and took to slamming Sirius in the wall, which he did numerous times.

"I'm going to take that as a no!"

Outside of the room, Renata could only see the storm of Aurors approaching as well as the Healers and other wizards and witches that assumed that she and James were threats. James took to one side of the corridor while she took to the other, as they remained back to back. She could see the surprised look on the faces of the people that she had seen on a daily basis within her training, but none of that mattered. She knew she didn't want to hurt them because there was no telling who was aware of the practice that was happening. Since she and Adelmo hadn't been aware of what was taking place, she had to assume there were others that were unaware as well.

She continued to stun the approaching the ones that left themselves opened and having to block the curses that were coming her way. But they were severely outnumbered as she had warned James and it had taken just one hit where she was knocked back behind one of the service desks of the hospital. She could hear James call her name out in worry but she remained down for a few seconds to come up with a plan.

Then she thought to herself what she had done back in the root cellar. "Well, I think that could work."

James was trying to get to Renata to see if she was alright because she had yet to come back out from where she had fallen. He had to take shelter behind one of the doors as they were clearly outnumbered as she predicted. He kept calling out her name was but she wasn't responding. There were curses and spells being launched over the top of his head and he didn't know how well it was going over for Sirius handling Adelmo.

However, as he went to attack back, he heard all sorts of screaming and the fire of spells came to a sudden stop. Curious as to what was taking place, he peered around the wall of the door, only to see that all of the Aurors and everyone that had been in the corridor had sunk through the floor, only leaving the upper part of their torsos exposed. During their panic, the majority of them had dropped their wands and the rest of them had been disarmed as Renata had climbed out from her place of hiding.

He didn't know how to respond as the people were dangling half through the floor, flailing all over the place.

Glancing over at Renata, he wasn't expecting to see her blush as she almost looked embarrassed for her choice of spell.

"I remembered another game that Adelmo and I used to play when we were young. We used to pretend that the floor was quicksand, I guess it stuck with me. I used to love that game, no one else seems to be a fan of it though. Such a shame."

As she met his gaze, all James could do was smile before making his way over towards her, but before she could reach him, the door opened to where they had left Sirius and Adelmo. Sirius walked out first with a triumphant grin and Adelmo staggered out behind him, his hair a mess.

"Renata," Sirius called to her, " I want you to take back what you said about snogging the hell out of him not working."

He looked about to continue telling her how wrong she was until he looked down at the sight of all the bodies sticking up out of the floor, causing him to scream before he launched himself into Adelmo's arms.

"The floor swallowed people!"

Adelmo looked down before he peered up at his little sister across the way, a smile forming on his lips.

"The floor is quicksand?"

Renata rubbed her foot against the floor. "Maybe."