Valentina felt a lot better after her chat with Daisy, it helped her quit thinking about that awful afternoon. As she expected it another similar mission was planned for next month. This would go on until she would have to attend a bigger event, to actually start the real mission. It had drained her so much, she went to sleep as soon as she came home.

The next day she had already forgotten about Regulus Black. But he surely hadn't as she received his reply in the middle of the day. It was funny to read. She wished she could be laughing with him.

A whole month passed by. At the beginning of May, as planned, Lily and James got married. It was a breath of fresh in this chaos. For a whole day they were in their own bubble, having fun all together, partying until dawn like they were still in Hogwarts. This lasted too short. As always, the good moments always lasted too short. And it was already time for another solo mission. Daisy would be there at first but would leave at some point. Dumbledore wanted Valentina to be as immersed as possible. She could be in a way relying on Daisy if anything wrong was to happen and that shouldn't be the case. Valentina had dinner with Daisy's parents. She had to share some futility with them. They had planned with Daisy what to answer, what subjects to talk about and what to avoid the most. The hardest part that night was probably to actually eat. She was so nervous again her stomach was in a knot. She forced herself to eat at least a little before pretending she wasn't hungry anymore. It wasn't like Daisy's parents really cared. She still couldn't get used to them but she tried to adapt to their way of life. It was purely acting after all. So far Daisy's parents were completely clueless to the fraud.

Valentina was getting busy with those missions every two or three weeks. She was now spending full days at Daisy's house. Being either busy with that or her own studies at St Mungos, she had no real time for the other missions of the Order so that she was quite surprised to learn that at the beginning of July, a very big mission had been planned. It was only recently that the Order received some information regarding Voldemort's next move. They were about to do a mass attack somewhere in London. In times like those, no one was safe. However as to prevent it, the Order would be ready to fight.

Like before every mission, Valentina felt stressed. The air was hot outside but it seemed like a storm was coming. It gave her a bad feeling. The silence was heavy at the headquarters as everyone mentally prepared up on their own. Valentina was sitting on a chair at the large table, observing Daisy and Gideon from afar. She hoped everything would go fine for him. She hoped everything would go fine for everyone and herself.

They left the place all together at 3:34pm precisely. A time not randomly chosen as they knew the city would be full to the brim. If their information was correct, one specific neighborhood had been targeted. They arrived in pairs, hid and waited. Valentina had been paired up with Dorcas Meadowes. They had shared classes together not long ago, knew each other very well and so she knew what a strong witch she was. They were walking together from alleyway to alleyway, their eyes and ears wide open to be sure they wouldn't miss anything. The sound of an explosion broke the silence. They looked at each other in shock before running in the direction of the noises. There were a lot of screams now and when they arrived some innocent Muggles had already been victims of those cruel Death Eaters. The fight had already started. Some members of the Order were protecting the Muggles running away while others were dueling. In spite of this panic, Valentina tried to keep her calm.

She stayed hidden while throwing jinxes and hexes here and there. She couldn't see everything, she could only focus on one enemy at once and it almost costed her life. As she was stupefying Death Eaters as best as she could, she didn't see the ray of green light coming from her right. When she did notice it, she thought it was too late. But before it was indeed too late, someone took a hold of her and brought her away from the mess. She had closed her eyes as a reflex as she thought she was about to die and when she opened them again, she saw a silhouette, faced a back, as a ray of green light flashed from his wand. Regulus looked back at her and remained silent for a moment. He was out of breath and sweating a little. This was intense for everyone.

"Be careful, I can't kill all of my fellows just to make sure you stay alive."

Though surprised, she didn't say anything but even if she wanted to say something, he was already gone. Valentina had met Regulus again and it did have some effect on her. Then she remembered he asked her to be careful. She had to focus. It wouldn't be long before the Aurors would arrive. She sincerely hoped everyone was fine. And at this exact moment, fear took over her. What had happened to her friends? And Regulus? She couldn't recognize everyone in this mess. She just had a bad feeling as she kept dodging curses and trying to stop Death Eaters.

It didn't take long for the Death Eaters to either run away or be arrested and for the most unfortunate of them, none of these situations would happen. Valentina tried looking for people she knew, made sure no one was in danger or injured at the same time. She noticed Lily and Marlene from afar, they were kneeling on the ground next to each other. When Valentina approached, she realized they were knelt over a body. It was Dorcas. She looked at her in shock, her expression reflecting the one she was wearing, though hers would forever be this way. She knelt by her friends' side and let out a few tears. She held Marlene's hand as her other one placed itself on Dorcas' leg and she cried silently.

Valentina stayed there two or three minutes, maybe four, before going back to the headquarters. She didn't know whether the others knew already but she stayed silent and searched for some of her colleagues that had been hurt in the battle. Both Remus and Alice Longbottom had been quite wounded. Valentina made sure they weren't bleeding anymore and healed them. Lily and Marlene came back eventually, but she didn't see nor hear them. She didn't want to.

When the girl was done, Dumbledore asked everyone to gather in their meeting room.

"The mission was a success," started the man though his expression stayed neutral and his tone of voice sounded serious. There was no move and no sound and he continued. "But we lost Dorcas. We've contacted her family already, they'll be here soon. You can go see her now."

Some stood up right away. Some others like Valentina stayed stuck to their seat. Like everyone she felt guilty. She had lost her focus for only a few seconds, but if that didn't happen maybe she could have seen this coming, she could have done something to help Dorcas.

"I know how you feel. But no one could do anything," murmured Remus, sitting by her side while placing a hand on her shoulder.

She didn't even try to stop the tears from falling.

Valentina said one last goodbye to her friend, someone she had been knowing for almost a decade, a friend she could have spent more decades with if life wasn't so cruel and if her fate hadn't been so tragic.

Everyone had been given a few days of break afterward so they could mourn the loss of their colleague and friend. Valentina went back home. She hadn't even got the time to come back even though the holidays had started and Hannah had graduated. Hannah was in very much pain too. Being only one year younger than Valentina, she had many opportunities to get to know Dorcas and get close to her. She had spent many days with them, laughing or hanging out at the Three broomsticks, just her, Valentina, Dorcas, Lily, Marlene, Mary and Alice. She would regret her.

Marina was such a ray of sun, they were so lucky to have her in the family. It helped Valentina a lot. When some days had passed and she was feeling better, she decided to invite Daisy home to meet her mother and sister, though Hannah wasn't really happy with that, Marina felt very much enthusiastic. She welcomed her warmly and asked many questions, and couldn't stop talking at all. Daisy found her very amusing and adorable. She said the same thing about Jo, one simply blushed and smiled, the other looked disgusted. Both their reactions made Daisy laugh heartily. Daisy too had been hurt by Dorcas' death. They may have not always been friends but they had been working together for almost a year and as she always said, she was one of the least hostile to her presence. Dorcas had always been a good friend, and a good person overall. They had truly lost someone precious.

In August, Valentina was back to playing Daisy Parkinson. The new exercise was to go out in public with the Parkinsons as to prepare herself for the upcoming event that would take place somewhere at the end of August or at the beginning of September. Daisy had no clear date yet. Going out with them was a thousand times more stressful. She had got to know them a little, she had started expecting some of their behaviors and such but out of their house with different people, they could change slightly obviously. That was today's challenge. And also acting natural and normal while being with them outside of course. She came back to the headquarters after a dinner she had barely touched once again, her stomach being completely controlled by anxiety, making it difficult for her to ingest food.

"Too bad, you just missed Black!" exclaimed Daisy, once she stepped out of the fireplace. She didn't even notice her irritation as the simple mention of Regulus brought curiosity in her.

"Regulus? He came? You brought him?" wondered Valentina, her eyes falling on Sirius behind Daisy.

"No, it was Hannah," he answered.

Hannah had also recently joined the Order though for now she had no big role and only took part in meetings.

"And he couldn't even wait?" she wondered, a confused expression on her features.

"He said he was busy tonight. If you're so unhappy about it go tell him yourself!" he sighed and contained a laugh as he saw her huff.

She directed herself to the kitchen as to see Hannah, ignoring Daisy calling out her name, claiming she required explanations.

"Hannah! Why did Regulus come today? Wouldn't that be better if I were there?"

"No, he said it'll be better if you weren't planning together so your interactions would come as more spontaneous at the party. And Dumbledore quite agreed with him," replied the girl with a shrug, sipping on her freshly-brewed coffee. It seemed like she had picked up the same habit as her sister.

"And that's all? He didn't say anything?" she wondered again, almost disappointed.

"Hmmm no," answered the girl, an amused smile on her face, enjoying way too much her sister's reaction. Sirius couldn't help laughing as he watched this.

"Ahem Hannah. You forget he did say something," uttered Daisy through-gritted teeth.

"Ah yes! This is hilarious! He came to Daisy, and told her with big surprised eyes that apparently she asked about him to his mother. Daisy was confused because she obviously hadn't and then she remembered it was you!" finished the girl while bursting out into laughter, being joined by Sirius as well.

"It was so embarrassing! Valentina, please, hold your tongue next time!" added Daisy, visibly not pleased by that.

"I'm sorry I-"

"No, no sorry, it's too late anyway. You can surely talk about anything when you're with my parents but no mention of boys and especially not in front of Walburga Black! Who knows what crazy ideas she's put in her head..." sighed the girl, placing a hand on her face as to hide her embarrassment.

"I'm sorry to say this, but she's definitely put crazy ideas inside her head. She's crazy herself after all," laughed again Sirius.

"Will you shut up!" huffed Daisy. "Anyway, I better get going. Good night everyone."

"Good night Daisy," they all said, more or less enthusiastically.

"Shall we leave too?" wondered Hannah. Valentina agreed and both girls said goodbye to Sirius. They then apparated together in the family house.

"You know, he did say something. About you. I mean he actually did say many things about you. But if we're only talking about today, he asked about how you've been doing lately and said that it won't be long before you see each other anyway."

Valentina listened closely to her sister's words. She had barely thought about Regulus these past weeks, the memory of him saving her almost forgotten as she kept thinking about Dorcas all this time, but now she was more than interested to know about him.

"He talked more about me then? But wait, how is he doing?"

"He looks okay. I mean as fine as Regulus Black could look. And he talked lots about you! Oh my, I got tired of listening to him! But I said nothing because it was cleared he needed someone to rant to."

"So? Any details?" asked the girl hopefully.

"He's so thankful about what you did for him and such. I heard that at least a thousand times. And he talked about how kind you were to him and how smart and caring you are. And literally freaked out when you told him about his mother. But it was hilarious to see."

Valentina's amber eyes were shinning and her lips were forming a little smile as she listened to her. It really pleased her to hear about him.

"And so, you two get somehow along now I guess?" she then wondered, trying not to look as happy.

"Well, yes. It's not like we could've avoided that. On the first day of school, he came to apologize. I was obviously surprised and didn't even acknowledge him but I soon realized he was very serious! Like he would harass me almost everyday! What a pain! I saw that he was really regretful though."

The date was settled. August 25th, during the last week-end of the summer holidays. A knot formed in Valentina's stomach the moment Dumbledore told her. The week before, they had their last meeting regarding this mission. Hannah was coming now as she was quickly integrated to the strategy team. She was younger and also knew all the Death Eaters of hers and Regulus' age, she could tell them more about some aspects of their personalities and such. Valentina had started thinking she might even be more suitable for this mission except that she wouldn't allow her to do that. She had been recommended to keep her interactions with Regulus short and simple so it wouldn't raise any suspicion. But they would have to talk eventually. If feeling in danger, she was allowed to leave.

Valentina wondered if Regulus was feeling nervous too as the day approached. Sometimes, was he staring into space too, overthinking and imagining all the worst scenarios possible? She thought it was stupid, it was his community, his people, he knew them and how to interact with them.

She didn't know it, but hours away from the beginning of this mission, that was exactly how he found himself. He woke up feeling anxious and had started overthinking. This wasn't any other party he had attended, it was a party he was attending as an unofficial defecting Death Eater, a betrayer and a spy. He knew nothing could happen to him because nobody would guess but he couldn't help feeling also nervous for Valentina. She was very brave and he couldn't wait to see her and tell her. She accompanied his thoughts as he left home with his parents. When he arrived, she wasn't present yet. His grey eyes roamed the room but there was no trace of her.

"The Parkinsons are here," muttered his mother. "Daisy's here too. It's been long since I last saw her," she continued more enthusiastically.

Regulus barely listened to what his mother was saying until she mentioned Daisy and their meeting. His heart beat faster in his chest and he turned around right away, wanting to see the girl with his own eyes. He was almost disappointed when he didn't see Valentina, her red hair and amber eyes and kind smile. It was her still but looking much different, taller, thinner, her hair jet-black, her face tanner and her eyes so dark he didn't even try to make eye contact. It didn't matter, her simple presence was enough to make warmth swarm in his chest and butterflies fly in his stomach and maybe the tiniest and softest smile appeared on his face. His grey eyes followed her as she herself followed Mr and Mrs Parkinson. She probably hadn't noticed his presence yet. From afar, she looked very nervous, his eyes caught every detail like the way she kept wiping off her palms on her black dress or how her eyes kept looking around, everywhere but on him. Until she finally turned around to face him.

Regulus' heart went wild. He wanted to run to her and hold her and never let go, but he would never do that, not there, not anywhere, and especially for as long as she had that appearance. But still, he wanted to be close to her, in her presence. At least she knew he was there and somehow, a wave of reassurance washed over him.

"I think Daisy has noticed you. She can't take her eyes off you," murmured his mother by his side. It startled him and he looked away rapidly.

"She watches every boy that way," simply answered Regulus, feigning disinterest.

"Hm, really? What a behavior she has this one..."

The boy had looked away one second and it was enough for her to disappear from his sight. Eyes darting everywhere and anywhere, he finally found her, engaged in a conversation with Austin Wilkes and Silas Flint. Death Eaters fellows. She was already in action. He wanted to watch the exchange closely but as he walked closer, he noticed her slight distress. Valentina looked a little uncomfortable for his liking.

Regulus arrived from behind. The two other boys had not noticed him yet, seeming very involved in the conversation.

"Excuse me," murmured his calm voice. "May I take Daisy from you?"

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and could feel tension leave her.

"Black, sure, you may," replied Austin Wilkes, an amused glint in his brown eyes.

They walked away together, it didn't take long for them to finally stand face to face. He couldn't help feeling a bit uncomfortable as he took a look at her. She looked nothing like Valentina and it disturbed him.

"What?" she wondered, almost sadly. He noticed the pain in her voice and it hurt him too.

"Nothing, let's just dance, shall we?" he rejoined right away, taking her hand but looking away from her face.

Regulus still couldn't help feeling some happiness as he felt her in his arms, so close to him. No matter what appearance she had, it was still her. If he closed his eyes, he could easily imagined her beautiful face leaning onto his shoulder and that her delicate hands were holding him. He allowed himself to dream for only some seconds before he opened his eyes and saw the reality.

"I'm sorry, in this situation, it's just complicated," he finally said. Unconsciously he leaned his head forwards, just closer to hers, inhaled deeply before letting out a shaky breathe. In appearance it was not her but her scent was just the same. And he had missed her so much.

As they kept on dancing, the music suddenly stopped and murmurs could be heard everywhere. People started leaving the center of the room quickly.

"He's coming, move away! Make space for your Lord!" started shouting some Death Eaters.

Valentina looked up at Regulus and he could read the fear in those black eyes that weren't hers. Grabbing her hand, he lead her outside the room as discreetly as possible. They ran upstairs and decided to hide here for a while.

Regulus had been told nothing about this mission, he only knew Valentina would come and he had no role to play, except try and spy on his own. The only thing he had been told, by Dumbledore himself, was to keep her safe and to bring her away if Lord Voldemort was to make his appearance and that they could fool this whole lot of wizards and witches but not Voldemort.

"We're finally alone," she sighed, throwing herself in his arms.

He held her tightly in return, but her body was so foreign he couldn't feel at ease.

"I've been waiting too," said the boy, finally smiling at her.

Not resisting one more second, she took a hold of his face and kissed him softly. He kissed back though the lips felt foreign too, but not the way she kissed and not the way her hands got lost in his silky raven curls and it brought him back some months ago, when she first kissed him on his brother's old couch, late at night when he was sleeping.

Smiling at the memory, he detached himself, "You should go now. I'll cover for you with your parents."

Nodding and preparing herself to leave she suddenly told him, "I live at 29 Lindley Street. The password is scarlet satellites. I'll probably come home late but if you want you can wait for me."