The Space Between by YelloWitchGrl



Summary: Harry and Ginny's lives have finally evened out. They've faced trauma, and loss, more than most have, but they've fought hard to find a normal.

If only things could stay that way... Old enemies find new ways to seek revenge.

This story is the sequel to Bound. It would be extremely helpful if you read that first.

Warnings are to be safe. It's probably overkill. Please message me if you have any questions or concerns.
Rating: R starstarstarstarstar
Categories: Post-Hogwarts, Post-DH/AB, Post-DH/PM
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: Connections
Published: 2014.12.14
Updated: 2024.02.20


Index

Chapter 1: Prologue Part 1
Chapter 2: Prologue Part 2
Chapter 3: Prologue Part 3
Chapter 4: Chapter 1
Chapter 5: Chapter 2
Chapter 6: Chapter 3
Chapter 7: Chapter 4
Chapter 8: Chapter 5
Chapter 9: Chapter 6
Chapter 10: Chapter 7
Chapter 11: Chapter 8
Chapter 12: Chapter 9
Chapter 13: Chapter 10
Chapter 14: Chapter 11
Chapter 15: Chapter 12
Chapter 16: Chapter 13
Chapter 17: Chapter 14
Chapter 18: Chapter 15
Chapter 19: Chapter 16
Chapter 20: Chapter 17
Chapter 21: Chapter 18
Chapter 22: Chapter 19
Chapter 23: Chapter 20
Chapter 24: Chapter 21
Chapter 25: Chapter 22
Chapter 26: Chapter 23
Chapter 27: Chapter 24
Chapter 28: Chapter 25
Chapter 29: Chapter 26
Chapter 30: Chapter 27
Chapter 31: Chapter 28
Chapter 32: Chapter 29
Chapter 33: Chapter 30
Chapter 34: Chapter 31
Chapter 35: Chapter 32
Chapter 36: Chapter 33
Chapter 37: Chapter 34
Chapter 38: Chapter 35
Chapter 39: Chapter 36
Chapter 40: Chapter 37
Chapter 41: Chapter 38
Chapter 42: Chapter 39
Chapter 43: Chapter 40
Chapter 44: Chapter 41
Chapter 45: Chapter 42
Chapter 46: Chapter 43
Chapter 47: Chapter 44
Chapter 48: Chapter 45
Chapter 49: Chapter 46
Chapter 50: Chapter 47
Chapter 51: Chapter 48
Chapter 52: Chapter 49
Chapter 53: Chapter 50
Chapter 54: Chapter 51
Chapter 55: Chapter 52
Chapter 56: Chapter 53
Chapter 57: Chapter 54
Chapter 58: Chapter 55
Chapter 59: Chapter 56
Chapter 60: Chapter 57
Chapter 61: Chapter 58
Chapter 62: Chapter 59
Chapter 63: Chapter 60
Chapter 64: Chapter 61
Chapter 65: Chapter 62
Chapter 66: Chapter 63
Chapter 67: Chapter 64
Chapter 68: Chapter 65
Chapter 69: Chapter 66
Chapter 70: Chapter 67
Chapter 71: Chapter 68
Chapter 72: Chapter 69
Chapter 73: Chapter 70
Chapter 74: Chapter 71
Chapter 75: Chapter 72
Chapter 76: Chapter 73
Chapter 77: Chapter 74 Part ONE
Chapter 78: Chapter 74 Part TWO
Chapter 79: Chapter 75 Part One
Chapter 80: Chapter 75 Part Two
Chapter 81: Chapter 76 Part ONE
Chapter 82: Chapter 76 Part TWO
Chapter 83: Chapter 77 Part ONE
Chapter 84: Chapter 77 Part TWO
Chapter 85: Chapter 78 Part ONE
Chapter 86: Chapter 78 Part TWO
Chapter 87: Chapter 79 Part ONE
Chapter 88: Chapter 79 Part TWO
Chapter 89: Chapter 80 Part ONE
Chapter 90: Chapter 80 Part TWO
Chapter 91: Chapter 81 Part ONE
Chapter 92: Chapter 81 Part TWO
Chapter 93: Chapter 82 Part ONE
Chapter 94: Chapter 82 Part TWO
Chapter 95: Chapter 83 Part ONE
Chapter 96: Chapter 83 Part TWO
Chapter 97: Chapter 84
Chapter 98: Chapter 85 Part ONE
Chapter 99: Chapter 85 Part TWO
Chapter 100: Chapter 86 Part ONE
Chapter 101: Chapter 86 Part TWO
Chapter 102: Chapter 87 Part ONE
Chapter 103: Chapter 87 Part TWO
Chapter 104: Chapter 88 Part ONE
Chapter 105: Chapter 88 Part TWO
Chapter 106: Chapter 89 Part ONE


Chapter 1: Prologue Part 1

Author's Notes: Some of this first part will look *very* familiar if you're read "Socks". It's expanded, though, to tell the rest of the story that isn't part of that one. Thank you Arnel for keeping me on the straight and narrow :)


January 2004

“Mine.”

Harry froze in the act of pulling on his jumper to stare at his wife, her finger pointing at his chest. “Excuse me?”

“Mine!” she said again, flicking her finger in a dismissive gesture. “Take it off, Potter. That one is mine.”

He glanced down, wondering what exactly she was referring to. “Uhm…”

“The sweater, Harry! It’s mine.” She crossed her arms and began tapping her toe on the hardwood floor of their bedroom.

Harry needed to tread carefully. She’d been in a foul mood for days and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of another tongue-thrashing. “Your mum gave this to me for Christmas a year or two ago.”

“Six years, Harry. She gave it to you six years ago. It doesn’t fit you anymore, not since you started working out.” She smirked in a way that told him she appreciated the work outs and he relaxed. She was in a good mood right now and taking the mickey. He had gotten used to her occasional mood shifts over the years of their marriage, but the last few days had been more than a little disconcerting.

He thought back to what she’d said. Has it really been six years already? “It goes on all right.”

“It’s too tight, hand it over.”

“Ginny…”

She sighed in exasperation clearly telling him she thought he was being dense and she was only humoring him. “I nicked that one fair and square a while ago. But, even if I hadn’t nicked it, which I did, and it did fit properly, which is doesn’t, it still looks better on me. Therefore, it’s mine!”

Well, it was only a sweater... He pulled it off and handed it over. He watched in amusement as she slid it over her head and began to roll the sleeves back several times. It looked almost like a dress on her. “It’s too big for you,” he stated flatly.

Ginny raised an eyebrow and a secret, almost shy smile flitted over her face. “It won’t be for long.”

Completely wrong-footed by the comment he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You’d have to stuff yourself for years to even come close. Quidditch keeps you in great shape.”

She took a deep breath and walked over to him. She reached up and cupped his cheeks before whispering, “Can’t you think of any other reason that I might start to fill out this jumper… especially right here,” she took his left hand with her right and guided it to her lower abdomen.

Harry felt his heart lodge painfully in his throat. Does she really mean… “Really?” he breathed it out, barely more than a whisper. “I thought… you know, wow,” he let out another hard breath, staring into her eyes which were studying him closely. “You’re pregnant?”

Ginny nodded.

He closed his eyes and all of his feelings rushed in on him until he had to pull her into his arms, his anchor and strength through many years, through the good times and the bad. A baby… a baby… he almost couldn’t wrap his mind around it. They were going to wait another year or two, but he’d wanted kids. The longing had only intensified the more now that Teddy was getting older. “Are you happy?” he asked. She seemed happy, but…

“I am,” Ginny replied; her whisper nearly lost against the cotton of his shirt where her head nestled. Her arms tightened slightly. “Are you happy?”

He was terrified. He was elated. He was… too many things to name. “I’m overwhelmed, but in a really good way.” Harry leaned down to nuzzle her neck, right at the collar of his jumper. “That’s going down at the most creative way of telling a bloke that he’s going to be a dad.”

“I didn’t plan it that way,” Ginny admitted with a giggle. “It just sort of came out.”

Harry found her mouth and began a slow kiss that quickly heated up to more. “Merlin, I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she assured him.

More kissing followed, but was halted when Harry had a vision of all of his clothing quickly disappearing from his dresser as her belly rounded with their growing child and her justifying why she needed them and him ending up walking around starkers all the time. His heart constricted and immense joy flooded him. However… “You leave my socks alone. There is no way you can argue that you need my socks.”

“I make no promises. It’s true love when a girl steals your clothes. Didn’t you know that?”

Harry sighed before laughing. To hell with it, he thought. She was so damn beautiful that everything he owned really did look better on her than it ever would on him.

“I’m scared, though,” Ginny whispered.

He nodded against her hair. He was scared, too, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. It was his job to put on a brave front. “It won’t be like last time. We’re not going to lose this baby.”

“I talked to Audrey a few hours ago and she said the same, but I can’t help it.” Ginny let out a sigh and looked up into his face. “I don’t know that I can lose another one.”

Harry cupped her cheek. “Last time was completely messed up. Nothing went the way it was supposed to and the odds were always stacked against Hope living. This time will be different.” He told her confidently.

“I wanted this time to be the more ‘normal’ way,” Ginny admitted, “even though we didn’t plan this baby either.” She laughed and stood on her toes to kiss him. “It’s very different being pregnant and not being bed ridden.”

“You’re definitely moodier this time,” Harry said, remembering the last few days.

Ginny poked him hard in the belly. “Excuse me?”

“Well,” he grinned, leaning down to nip at her neck. “I mean… you’re so beautiful.”

She only eyed him before grinning sheepishly. “I forgot to go get the potion.”

“You forgot?” Harry said, completely bemused. “You’ve been religious about it for the last few years.”

“I know!” She said, turning her head so she could rest flush against him. “I got the owl from Martha reminding me and just kept putting it off because I was busy and… then I forgot.”

“Good,” Harry told her firmly.

She quirked an eyebrow as she glanced up at him. “You’re glad I got shoddy with our birth control?”

“Yes, I am,” he promised kissing her soundly on the top of the head. “Feel free to get shoddy with it any time you like.”

“You are a strange man, Harry,” Ginny said, hugging him tight. “But I’ll keep you.”

Back to index


Chapter 2: Prologue Part 2

Author's Notes: There is one more part to the prologue, then we dive in to the main story. These chapters will be longer, so I'll probably go two weeks between posting. It depends on what I get done. This story is not done, but I have done through chapter 6 so I have a great start on it. It's already massive. But, readers, as you know I do not do unfinished stories. It drives me nuts. I want to do this right, I'm going to take the time to do it to the best of my ability, but that's likely to not be weekly updates.

Thank you so much Arnel!!


May 27th, 2005

“It’s okay, James,” Ginny shushed as she rocked her fretful son as he tried desperately to shove his entire fist in his mouth. She was exhausted. She was beyond exhausted and had, in fact, passed into zombie state weeks ago. James had been a demanding baby, although usually a happy one as well. Once his teeth had started coming at the end of February, when he was five months old, James had turned into a colicky mess. He only stopped crying when he was asleep and he didn’t sleep much. He even cried when he nursed because the pain was bothering him so much. Ginny wanted to cry too because the teeth were making nursing excruciating.

They’d tried pain potions, chewing on cold rags, and even an ointment that Audrey had suggested. Nothing worked. He cried much of the night, leaving her so bleary that she went through her days in a stupor. Harry had tried to help, but James only wanted her and he still had work.

“Here,” seven-year-old Teddy said, handing her the ring sling.

“Thank you,” Ginny told him trying to smile. He was staying with them for the week while Andromeda traveled to Scotland to visit a friend who was ill. One handed she threw it over her head like a sash and fitted James down into the pouch. His crying turned instantly into a low keening. Her lip trembled as she looked at the little boy. “This isn’t how I wanted our week together to go.”

“It’s okay,” Teddy told her, patting her elbow.

It wasn’t really okay, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Harry was working very long hours at the moment. He’d taken over as Head of the Auror office a few weeks before and the work load had tripled in the transition. Ginny was so tired that she felt sick and like she’d been trampled by a dragon. She’d been running on empty for over a month and it was only getting worse. She’d been looking forward to her week with Teddy. Without warning her lip quivered and she hooked an arm around his thin shoulders and pulled him in close. “I’m sorry. I wanted to have so much fun this week. You’ve got to be deaf by now from all the screaming.”

He shrugged as he hugged her. “I don’t mind. Did I cry like this when I was getting teeth?”

She ran a hand through his short hair and shook her head. “You did cry some but not like this.” His blue eyes met hers and taking a deep breath she willed the energy to come. It didn’t, but she would push through anyway. “Let’s go for a walk.”

“Okay,” he agreed and took the hand she held out. They walked out the back and down the lane. Before they were even halfway down the drive James went limp with sleep and Ginny tucked his head more securely in the cloth so it didn’t flop about. The two talked some about the deer they spotted and the squirrels, but mostly they walked in companionable silence.

They wended their way towards the back of the house and over the bridge. Ginny sat heavily on one of the benches, unable to move another step. She closed her eyes and heard Teddy moving somewhere close by.

“Hope Potter,” Teddy said slowly.

Ginny’s eyes snapped open as the dread filled her. She didn’t want to do this right now, and she’d forgotten that he was getting really good at reading.

Teddy’s eyes met her questioningly and her heart lodged itself in her throat. “Who was she?” He asked hesitatingly.

“She,” Ginny licked her lips and tried to will herself to remain calm. “She was our first child. She died.”

Teddy came over and sat, leaning against her as the tears started to rain down her face. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.” His voice was filled with remorse.

“No,” Ginny pulled him in close and kissed the top of his head. “No sweetheart, you didn’t make me cry. I get sad when I think about her and I’m so tired right now that everything is more difficult.”

“She was born the year I was,” Teddy whispered.

“She… she wouldn’t have been,” Ginny explained gently, swiping away the tears. “She died in my belly. It’s called a miscarriage.”

Teddy looked back at the grave and then up at her. “You want to take a nap?”

“No,” she assured him even as a yawn snuck out. “I want to spend time with you.”

“I want to read a book that Grandma got me,” Teddy said with a grin as he stood and tugged her to standing. “I’ll be able to concentrate on it while you both sleep.”

He half dragged her back to the house she went up to put James down in his cot. Thankfully he slept through the transfer. She fell in to bed, fully clothed, and instantly passed into a sleep filled with vivid dreams.

She woke later and turned towards her alarm clock to find a tray waiting with a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of orange juice. Just by how it was put together Ginny knew that Teddy had made it for her. The tears began to flow again. He was the sweetest, most thoughtful child. She didn’t feel like eating; thought there was a good shot that she’d throw up if she did but she wouldn’t risk hurting his feelings for anything.

Ginny dragged herself up and pulled the tray over to slowly eat the sandwich. Amazingly she felt better after the bit of food and the juice. She carried the tray downstairs and went straight over to give Teddy a hug. James began to scream and with a sigh, she went to get the baby from his room.

Harry arrived home looking worn around the edges just in time to say goodnight to Teddy, and to tuck him in with a story. Ginny lay in bed nursing James, who for the moment was nursing contentedly and not pulling off every few seconds in pain. Ginny had to fight her own cries of pain that the new teeth were causing her tender breasts. By the time Harry got into their room, James had fallen off the breast, into a milk coma.

“Come here,” Harry said quietly as he picked up his son and carried him off to his room.

Ginny dragged herself to the bathroom to get ready for bed. She’d seriously considered just ignoring brushing her teeth as she’d done more than once in the last few months, but she really had to pee and that couldn’t wait. She didn’t know how her mum had done this so many times and much of the time she felt like the biggest failure ever.

She opened the door and automatically glanced at the calendar that was tacked to the wall. What day is it… she tried to add in her head but couldn’t.

Harry came through the door and pulled her back against him, kissing her neck. “Rough day?”

“Mmm,” she agreed, wishing she could just lean back and fall asleep. “What day is it?”

“The twenty-seventh,” Harry told her.

She opened one eye and found the date, which was circled in red. “Potion day.” She sighed heavily and reached into the medicine cabinet for the potion bottles. Because she was nursing she could only take the once-a-month contraceptive potion. If she took a bigger dose it would dry up her milk instantly. She uncorked the vial and downed it in one go. She looked at the bottles in the cabinet and tried to count them, but they seemed to go in and out of focus. Did she have more than she should? Try as she might she couldn’t remember how many she was supposed to have left. It didn’t matter. She hadn’t had a cycle since she’d had James, and there was a good chance that him breastfeeding was keeping her from being able to get pregnant. But better safe than sorry, she thought.

“Come on, Gin,” Harry said gently as he steered her back to bed. “I’ll get up with him tonight.”

“No,” Ginny protested. It was her job. “You have to work tomorrow.”

There was a pause and she glanced over to see him looking at her with concern. “Tomorrow is Saturday. I wasn’t going to work.”

“Oh,” she nodded as if she hadn’t forgotten what day of the week it was. She climbed back into bed, still clothed. She was too tired to get changed.

Hands reached for the waistband of her yoga pants that had become her staple after James had been born and he slid them down. Ginny lifted her hips without even opening her eyes.

He got in next to her and pulled her into his arms. She breathed in his scent.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently as he kissed her temple.

“Teddy asked about Hope,” she explained as she relaxed into the comfort of the bed.

Harry sighed heavily. “I was hoping we had more time.”

She shook her head, but couldn’t fight off the exhaustion anymore.

~*~

August 23rd 2005

Ginny had to keep busy. If she didn’t keep busy on Hope’s birthday she would brood and fall into a deep hole that would take weeks to pull herself from. She cleaned the kitchen, top to bottom, played with James way more than he wanted to be played with, and cooked several meals to have on hand.

She wore herself out and had hours left in the day. She glanced over at James who was banging on her pots with a wooden spoon and fought back a sob. He didn’t know he had a big sister, as he beat a happy rat-a-tat on the pots. He didn’t know that his mummy was hurting and part of her hoped he never would know it. Ginny wished she could keep the pain from him, even as she knew it wasn’t possible.

Ginny looked around, trying to find something else to do and spotted the jogging stroller that sat near the front door. She scowled at it, but looking down at her shapeless t-shirt and baggy shorts she knew she should go for a run.

She didn’t want to run. She was so tired. Even after James had gotten through the initial round of teething her energy hadn’t come back. He’d gotten into the habit of getting up to nurse several times in the middle of the night and they hadn’t been able to break him of it yet, but he was only eleven months old. They still had time.

Sighing heavily she went to get socks and her trainers. She was a couple pounds heavier now than what she’d been when James was born. She couldn’t stop eating, didn’t want to exercise and the weight was really starting to pack on.

James crawled over to her just as she laced up her shoe and she picked him up and pushing the stroller one handed, she made it out the door to go for a run.

Ginny didn’t even make it half a mile before she had to stop. Her stomach rolled as she bent double and put her hands on her knees, trying to fight off the nausea. She was so tired of feeling sick and tired. James needed to sleep through the night.

Tonight Harry is going to have to get up with him, Ginny thought as she turned the stroller and started to slowly walk back to the house. She didn’t care if he had to work tomorrow. She was beat, and couldn’t take much more.

James had fallen asleep in the stroller by the time they made it back to the house. She left it outside and picked James up gingerly to haul him upstairs and lay him in his bed.

She stared down into his sweet, peaceful face and gently ran a hand over his dark locks. He was worth it. Her heart swelled with love as she watched her sleeping son, and knew she’d do it all over again for him. James sighed and rolled over and she quietly exited the room to go get a shower. She stripped in her room and went to the bathroom. Ginny froze as she looked in the mirror.

Her body was gone. In its place was a lumpy, stretch marked, mass that she barely recognized. It was no wonder she and Harry hadn’t made love in weeks. She was a cow.

Fighting off the tears, she showered quickly and dressed again. Ginny crawled into bed and hugged the pillow. She didn’t want to look like this.

But, a gentle voice whispered in her head, you look like this because of your son.

Ginny bit her lip and stared out the window into the fading light of the afternoon sun. Hope’s grave could be seen if she was standing at the window. She’d have given up anything to keep her daughter alive.

It was really unfair that Harry would not want her when she had gotten dumpy for his son.

“Gin?”

She turned scowling to see Harry in the door. “Why are you here?”

His eyebrow raised but he came in and closed the door. “I live here. I wanted to come home early today.” He sat on the edge of the bed looking her. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re a selfish blighter!” Ginny growled feeling so many emotions run straight through that she wouldn’t have been able to separate them to save her life. “I can’t believe you don’t want me anymore!”

His green eyes filled with confusion and wariness. “I do want you.”

“You haven’t touched me in weeks,” she said accusingly, pointing a threatening finger at him. “You can’t just decide you want out just because I got fat! I got fat for you!”

He studied her carefully, like she was a bomb about to go off. “You aren’t fat and you’ve been asleep by nine every night.”

“You’re never home!” Ginny barked out, wanting to sit up but found that her head spun when she tried. “I am so tired and I feel like crap and you’re never here!”

“Yeah,” he said quietly, trying to reach out to her but she smacked his hand away. “I know. It will be finished soon.”

“Just go away,” she breathed out as the tears started to fall. She buried her face into her pillow and sobbed. “I just want this day over with and you’re not helping.”

She heard him get up and start walking to the door. Panic flooded her and she sat enough to chuck a pillow at his retreating back. “Coward!” Ginny shouted at him, glaring at his back. “Can’t even face me crying!”

Harry turned slowly and eyed her speculatively. Something flashed in his gaze, but at that moment James let out a cry. “I’m going to get him.”

“No,” she spit out trying to stand. “He’s my son, it’s my job.”

“You stay there,” Harry said quietly, but with steel threaded through every syllable. Something in his expression kept her in bed. “I’ll be back with him in a minute.”

True to his word he was back a minute later, with James in a fresh nappy and ready for a cuddle and to nurse. She took her son and pulled up her shirt so he could get access as he lay next to her in bed. She had to breathe in deeply as the pain bit deeply into her breast. His latch had been horrible for months; ever since he’d gotten teeth it was painful every time he nursed.

She looked down into his contented face; his cheeks still flushed from sleep and felt more tears come.

Harry stood there silently watching them.

A knocked sounded at the partially opened door. Ginny looked over and blinked at Martha who stood in the doorway. “What-”

Harry didn’t look surprised to see her. “Thanks for coming,” he told the midwife.

Ginny glared at him. He’d called the midwife on her for a bad mood? Did he think she was PMSing? “I don’t need to see you,” she told her, more rudely than she’d meant. “I’m fine.”

Martha came over and ran a hand over James’ sleep tousled hair. “I’m sure you are, but you know it’s best to have a look.” She pulled out her wand and ran in over Ginny who continued to glare at her rotten husband.

Then she muttered a familiar spell and Ginny looked back at the midwife in confusion before her mouth fell open.

~*~

Harry watched Martha run her wand over Ginny, fervently hoped that it was pregnancy that was making his wife nuts and that she wasn’t under the Imperious Curse. After Ginny had gone off on him he’d gone to get James and sent a Patronus to the midwife, begging her to come immediately. He edged slowly over to the bed, studiously ignoring his wife’s glare, so he could see better just as she muttered the spell that would show what was going on. His mind froze at what he saw.

The image of a baby, but not a tiny baby, floated above Ginny’s stomach. This one was a lot longer than his hand. He was sleeping, a hand near his face, with his legs curled up. Harry felt his knees go weak as he sank onto the bed.

James popped his head up and stared at the apparition that was floating above his mummy’s belly. He crawled over and waved a fat fist through the hologram, his hand moving harmlessly through the image.

“Well…” Martha said, starting to laugh. “It looks like you’re having a baby.”

“Oh my…” Ginny whimpered. She looked over at Harry and any hurt feelings he may have had fled at the blank look on her face. He scooted over the kissed her lips, feeling her trembling. “Harry… I’m-”

“Ginny,” he whispered as he ran a hand over her cheek. At least this explained her bizarre outburst. He chuckled. “We’re having another baby.”

“In about four and a half months, by the looks of it,” Martha said genially. She scooped James up in her arms and hugged him in. “You’re a big brother, James.”

Harry and Ginny looked at her too dumbfounded to do more than ask than, “How far along?”

“About twenty weeks,” she told them. “You’ll be due in the first part of January.”

James wiggled and she put him down so he could crawl over to the laundry basket and dump it. It was a favorite game of his.

Harry scooted further back on the bed so he could pull Ginny more fully into his arms. He couldn’t believe it. On Hope’s birthday, the day she’d died, they were finding out about another new life coming into their home. His wife burrowed into his arms and he felt her shoulders shake.

“Do you want to know what the baby is?” Martha asked.

“He’s a boy,” Ginny said as she stared at their sleeping child who looked remarkably like James. “It’s really easy to tell.” She looked up into his face. “We’re having another boy. Oh Merlin…” tears began again.

Martha took her hand and Harry watched the concern cover her face. “You are severely run down right now. All of your vitals are weak.”

Harry felt guilt swamp him as the last several months came flooding back to him. How many days had he worked late? How many times had he let Ginny get up with James when he was crying in the middle of the night? How often had he seen her exhausted and yet still moving through the day? He hadn’t done enough to help her. He’d let her take the bulk of the load at home and the result had been that she’d been so drained that she didn’t even realize that she was pregnant.

She should have been taking it easy, sleeping extra… he thought, guiltily, recalling how much care had they put into keeping Hope alive and yet he’d left her this time to-

“I’m putting you on bed rest,” Martha told her firmly. “You’re allowed to go to the loo, and that’s it. Otherwise you’re in bed.”

“I can’t be in bed,” Ginny protested instantly. “I have James to take care of.”

“You’re going to need to bring in help,” Martha said, brooking no argument. “Ginny, you’re health is not good right now. If you don’t take care of yourself you’re going to end up in St. Mungo’s. I’d rather you be allowed to stay here at home.”

“It’s fine,” Harry said instantly. “I’ll take off from work.”

“Good,” Martha said even as Ginny protested. “You can’t!”

Harry shook his head. “No arguments, I’m on holiday.”

“You just became the head of the department!” Ginny told him tearfully as she rubbed at her brow. “Oh… I’m due just a few weeks before Hermione!” Color flooded her face. “How did I miss this? Why didn’t I feel him moving?”

Fear flooded Ginny’s expression but Martha shook her head in reassurance. “There isn’t anything wrong with this little boy. I’m betting he’s not the jumping bean that James is.”

At that moment James knocked over a picture frame and grinned at them happily. “Dada!”

Harry felt an ache in his heart as he went over and picked up his son. He cuddled James close to him as he heard Martha explain that she’d be back the next morning to do a full exam. Soon he’d have another baby and it was relief and joy mixed with remorse for all Ginny had been through. He took James out into the hallway and sent out a second Patronus, asking Molly to come as soon as Audrey picked up her girls from her.

He needed some time with his wife.

Molly arrived about twenty minutes after Martha had left. He met her at the fireplace. Her face was washed in concern. “What’s the matter?”

“Ginny’s pregnant,” Harry told her as he handed over James who was trying to throw himself from Harry’s arms to reach him grandmother.

“Oh, how wonderful!” Molly smiled as she hugged James, but it faltered. “What’s the matter? You look worried. Is something-”

“She’s on bed rest,” Harry said as he ran a hand distractedly through his hair. It was times like this that he desperately missed his old house-elf the most. Kreacher had lived for two years after they’d moved into Ivy Run before passing peacefully in his sleep. He looked into his mother-in-law’s face. “She’s twenty weeks pregnant.”

Molly’s jaw dropped. “But… why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“We found out forty-five minutes ago,” Harry told her nodding at her dumbfounded look. “Ginny has been too busy running herself into the ground taking care of James to notice, and I haven’t been any help. I’m going to take off work to look after James, but with today being Hope’s birthday… I just need some time with her.”

“Of course,” Molly said, kissing James’ brow. “I’ll keep him happy so you two can talk.”

Harry hugged her hard and murmured thanks as he went back upstairs. Ginny was still where he’d left her and now that he looked closely, he saw the pallor of her skin and the heavy bags under her eyes. She wasn’t watching him, but looking out the window as night fell. Still, she was so beautiful that she took his breath away. “Your mum is here.”

She nodded.

He walked over as sat next to her, taking her hand and lacing their fingers together. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, not meeting his eyes.

“For what?” Harry asked. He was the one who needed to apologize.

“For calling you a coward… and sniping at you,” she turned her bloodshot eyes back to his and he saw that her brown orbs were filled with regret. “I can’t believe I called you a coward!”

Harry couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. “Honestly, it was refreshing. No one else has the guts to call me a coward.”

A small smile tugged at her lips. “It isn’t true, though.”

He shrugged. In this case it was true, but he didn’t think she was up for the argument. “It doesn’t matter.”

“What made you think to call Martha?” she asked him curiously, as she licked her dry lips.

“Ah,” he hedged. “Well… I was looking at you and it was as if my Ginny was gone, replaced by an imposter. After you called me a coward it occurred to me that maybe you were being influenced by something else. I was hoping it was a baby and that I wasn’t going to have to call in back up Aurors. That would have been embarrassing trying to explain needing protection from my wife. Between Imperiused and hormones, I’ll take the hormones.”

She crossed her arms. “I should hex you for that.”

“You should,” Harry assured her, trying to sound contrite as he reached for her wand that was lying on the bedside table and held it out for her.

She didn’t take it, just continued to glare at him. “You aren’t funny.”

“Luv,” he smiled wryly as he put her wand back and tenderly kissed her cheek. “I’m very funny. Your sense of humor is gone.”

Ginny sighed heavily and let her head fall back against the pillows. “How could I not know that I’m pregnant?”

“You’ve been too exhausted to even think about it,” Harry reminded her gently, cupping her cheek. “Gin, I’m so sorry I’ve left everything to you around here. I knew you were shattered but I let work get in the way. Maybe if I hadn’t been gone so much we’d have figured it out earlier.”

“How did this happen?” Ginny asked him suddenly. “I know I was taking the potion!”

“Martha counted the bottles before she left,” Harry informed her with a grin. “We have one too many, so it looks like you skipped one. At least it’s harmless if you’re already pregnant, since you kept taking it.”

She closed her eyes. “I can’t do anything right.”

“Hey,” he chided her. “Don’t say that! You’re doing a great job.”

“I can’t remember to take the bleeding potion, and I can’t take care of James and the house by myself, and I can’t even figure out that I’m pregnant.” Ginny started to cry in earnest. Harry pulled her into his arms and lay down with her. “Today is Hope’s birthday… I was so miserable, and I just wanted to stay busy. I tried going for a run so I could work off some of this fat-”

“Stop!” Harry said forcefully. “You aren’t fat!”

“I guess I’m not since I’m almost five months pregnant,” she said with a hiccup.

Harry propped himself over her and ran a hand down her side. “Even if you weren’t, you’re not fat.”

“I am…” she said miserably. “I weigh more now than when James was born! I haven’t got any clue how he got in there.” Ginny put her hand on her stomach, which now that Harry was paying attention looked like a pregnant belly.

Harry bent and kissed her neck suggestively. “If you don’t know how he got in there, I’m obviously doing something wrong.”

“Harry…” she said in exasperation. “Why aren’t you upset with me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why would I be upset?”

“Because!” She huffed like it should be obvious to him. “Because I got pregnant again without meaning to!”

He shrugged trying not to look too smug. “I helped with that.”

“Well… because I shouted at you…” her lower lip quivered.

“I deserved it,” he said evenly even as his gut twisted with regret. “You snapped because you’re grieving, exhausted, rundown and pregnant. I contributed to all of those except the grief.”

She sighed and shook her head. “You can’t take off of work. You’re the head!”

“What are they going to do?” Harry retorted. “Fire me? I didn’t want the bleeding promotion anyway! We don’t need the money.”

“You love your job,” Ginny reminded him softly. “You enjoy what you do.”

“I love you more,” he replied honestly. “I love James more and…” he bent as he pulled up her shirt and kissed her stomach. Love swamped him as he thought of this new baby. It never failed to amaze his just how fast he could fall in love. “I love this little guy.” He rested his head on her thighs, and kept him hand on her stomach. “I’m…” he beamed goofily up at her. “I’m going to be a dad again. What are we going to name him?”

“Albus,” she answered instantly, love filling her eyes as she really smiled for the first time.

Harry considered it and nodded. It was a good name. “Al for short, yeah?” When she nodded he grinned and kissed her belly. “Alright, Al. You are a really huge surprise.”

She groaned. “My brothers are never going to let me live this down! Halfway through a pregnancy and I didn’t even know!”

“Nah,” Harry lied. “They won’t say anything. They’ll just be happy that Al is coming.” He was going to have a talk with all of them and make sure they didn’t tease her. Most of the time Ginny could hold her own; this wasn’t going to be one of those times. However, he rather thought they were going to have something to say to him… not her. “Hermione had said that she wished we were having a baby right now, remember? She wants to have a playmate for their baby.”

“I guess,” she muttered, and then let out a noise that was a mixture of ‘uhg’ and ‘oh no’. “I’m supposed to mind baby Rose once Hermione goes back to work! How am I going to do that with two babies?”

Harry shrugged. “We’ve got time to work that out. Maybe we’ll hire a house-elf. Neville told me last week that a few were looking to leave Hogwarts.”

“No!” Ginny scowled at him. “I can do it!” Then her face fell. “No, I can’t. I’m useless as a mum.

“You are not!” Harry said, feeling the prickles of anger seep back in. “Gin, you have to stop this. James’ teething was worse than anything your mum had ever seen! He cried constantly, he didn’t sleep which means you didn’t sleep. Four nights out of five you were up all night, and then the next day he just kept crying. You were pregnant, exhausted, and nursing and now you’re taking a well-deserved break. You made it through that worst, and James is back to his happy, mischievous, energetic self. I am so proud of you for how you’ve handled this and pretty damn disgusted with myself for not helping you more. This is my fault more than yours.”

“You had to work-” she began but he shook his head.

“No, I chose to focus on the job because you seemed like you had it under control, and you did for the most part,” he let out a harsh breath and looked away. “I should have done more.”

Ginny was silent for a long time. “You really still want me?”

“More today than ever,” he promised and came up to kiss her again surprised that she had to ask. “I can prove it if you want.”

“With Mum downstairs?” She shook her head. “Later.”

“You’re always asleep later,” he teased and held on to her. “You know, I didn’t expect it to end up this way today.”

“I didn’t either,” she admitted, stroking a hand through his hair. “I thought we’d go down to her grave and have a good cry. I might still have a good cry, just up here.”

Harry kissed her temple. “We can have that cry together.” He cupped her belly. “Then celebrate that we’re having another baby.”


~*~

Harry stared at his brothers-in-law, well, most of them anyway. Charlie was still in Romania chasing his dragons, but Harry had sent an owl to him and he expected a Howler at some point.

Every face showed the exact same shock as they gaped at him from his kitchen table at nearly eleven o’clock that evening. He’d sent messages and they’d come, well after both Ginny and James were fast asleep.

He stood at the head of the table, waiting for the explosion that he knew would soon follow.

Ron broke the silence first. “You have to be effing kidding me!”

“Ron,” Percy chided gently, but he too was frowning. “How did you get this far in without noticing?”

“Is that why my sister has looked like hell for months?” Bill asked quietly, his voice menacing.

George didn’t say anything at all; he regarded him with a closed expression that Harry knew wouldn’t last long.

Harry sighed and sat down. “I messed up.”

“Damn right you did!” Ron practically yelled, his face going completely red. “How the ruddy hell do you not notice? Here we thought she was just tired from James not sleeping and you’re telling me-”

His stomach churned from the guilt. “I messed up,” he said again even though he knew there was no excuse for it. “I should have seen it, but-”

“Yes, you should have!” Bill growled, standing up and striding away from the table, fury running through every line of his body. He turned and the rage was just barely below the surface. “You’re supposed to be taking care of her!”

“I know,” Harry swallowed hard at the bile. “I let her down.”

“I should beat you senseless for this,” Bill said darkly and they both knew that Harry would let him. It might make them both feel better for what had happened.

Percy held up a placating hand. “Is the baby okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, more grateful than he could express that his inattentiveness at home hadn’t caused more damage. “Yeah, he looks great. Ginny wants to name him Albus. He’s…” his throat closed as he remembered looking at his sleeping child’s face. “He’s really cute. He looks a lot like James.”

“Twenty weeks though…” Ron hissed out, clearly not ready to let go of his anger. “Harry, Hermione is eighteen weeks pregnant. I couldn’t have missed that fact. This isn’t even the first time Ginny’s been pregnant!”

Harry gazed at his best friend. “I know, Ron.” He could make excuses all he wanted, but the fact was that he’d let Ginny handle everything at home. James had started teething and he hadn’t wanted Harry. She was so capable at everything that he’d let her get on with it. He’d become complacent and it could have cost him his wife and child. He’d never forgive himself for that and he wasn’t going to ever make that mistake again. He couldn’t let her lose another child.

“How did you finally figure it out?” George asked, breaking his silence.

“She, uh…” Harry shrugged helplessly. “She called me a coward and chucked a pillow at me.”

George’s lip twitched. “Well, she was right on that.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “Yeah, she was. I didn’t know how to help with James’ screaming and I let her deal with it.”

Bill started towards him, but was brought up short when George, who hadn’t moved from his seat, grabbed the back of his shirt. “He’s being honest, Bill. We can’t fault him for that.”

“You were supposed to take care of her!” Bill said again, his scars standing out as pale slashes across his red face. “That’s what you signed up for.”

“I messed up.” Harry said again as his culpability ate at him. “I could have cost my wife and child their lives!” He got up. He couldn’t sit through this anymore and he was thankful that he’d made sure that he’d warded the upper rooms so no one would hear this shouting match. “It’s been seven years today since we lost Hope.” Tears prickled behind his eyes and he made no move to fight them. The enormity of just how badly things could have gone was not lost on him and this time it would have been completely his fault. No one said anything and he slowly turned back to them. “Ginny’s afraid you’re going to tease her about this… for not knowing.”

Again four shocked faces stared at him. “We wouldn’t do that,” Percy said quietly.

“No,” Ron agreed, looking sick at the thought. “I’m hacked off at you. She doesn’t need any more rubbish.”

Bill looked uncomfortably close to tears and he turned away. “Definitely not.”

“This is on you,” George shrugged. “You’re going to catch hell for it, and we’re never going to let you live this down, but Ginny… no. We protect our sister full stop.”

Harry nodded, knowing they’d reached an understanding. “Just… I needed to make sure you understood. She’s on bed rest. She’s not as sick as she was when she was pregnant with Hope, but she’s still pretty damn sick.”

“You’re staying home?” Bill said, finally turning back with his features composed. “You’re going to make sure she takes care of herself?”

“Yes,” Harry told him firmly. “I’m on holiday for a few weeks and then if needed I’ll work from home.” He turned back to Ron. “She’s worried about what will happen after with Rose.”

Ron’s face was blank for a moment before comprehension dawned. “She was going to mind Rose for us.”

“Don’t change that plan yet, at least not with her,” Harry stated flatly. “She’s feeling like she can’t do anything right and if you change things, then it will only make her feel worse, like she’s let you down. We’ll work it out, but right now…” his voice trailed off when Ron nodded his understanding.

“I don’t know about you two,” George said mildly. “But after how well she dealt with James I think she could handle just about anything.”

All of them turned to look at him. “What?” Percy asked, frowning slightly.

“Oh come on,” George started to laugh. “None of us could stand hearing that crying for hours on end! It was unnerving; after even ten minutes I’d start to wish my other ear had been blasted off too. I think Ginny’s a hero for handling it the way she did. Then on top of that she was pregnant. She deserves a medal.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. He knew she’d been upset that James was in pain, but it was almost like she accepted that she couldn’t make it better and went on to be as comforting as she possibly could be. He’d come home, his son would be screaming and helplessness would overwhelm him as he rocked this child that he couldn’t do anything for. It was easy now to look back and see just how he’d slipped in to working longer hours; how he’d let the job eat up more and more time. He’d left her to deal and she’d let him get away with it. Harry glanced up towards the stairs and thought that she should have just hexed him and left him to rot.

“That’s true,” Percy agreed after a moment. “Molly and Lucy never cried like that. I don’t know how I’d have handled it.”

Harry closed his eyes for a moment, feeling much older than his twenty-five years. When he opened them again his brothers were all staring at him. “I really do get it. I made a-”

“Harry?” Ginny’s soft call filtered down and they all froze, looking up to see her at the top of the landing.

Harry gave his wand a small flick, removing the Silencing Charms that kept her from hearing them even as he bolted for the stairs. “You’re supposed to be in bed,” he chided gently as he ran up the stairs two at a time to reach her.

Her tired eyes met his briefly before turning back to look down at her brothers and he saw the trepidation. “I needed to use the loo and you weren’t there.”

“Come on,” he put a hand around her waist and tried to move her back to their room.

She didn’t move. “What’s up?”

“I was telling them about Al,” Harry said, grinning at her. “They’re all really happy for us, like I said they’d be.”

Ginny turned to look at him and several swear words filtered through his brain. She knew better. “Why are they really here?”

“I did tell them about the baby,” Harry answered evasively. “Come on, back to bed.”

She looked once more towards her brothers, who were all standing near the table and then nodded, allowing him to guide her back to their room. He tucked her in, his hand resting on the swell of her belly as remorse gnawed at him even further. “Why are they here?” she asked again, covering his hand with hers over their baby. “Why is everyone upset?”

Harry tried to keep his expression neutral but knew from her face that he was failing. “They’re mad at me.” Before she could say anything, he kissed her and silenced her protest. “Ginny, they have every right to be mad at me. I’m mad at myself.”

“I’m the one they should be mad at,” she whimpered as tears filled her eyes. “I forgot to take the potion.”

“It isn’t about that,” Harry correctly gently. “I’m really glad you forgot to take it. I…” he was too choked up to speak, so he laid his lips on her belly.

“I am too. I’m happy about the baby.”

He nodded and met her weary eyes. “This is a guy thing.”

She let out an impatient huff. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really,” Harry answered back. “It’s the way it goes. When you’re pregnant, it’s on me to take care of you and I bollixed that up completely. I expect the same from them. I expect Ron to be taking care of Hermione and if he weren’t, there would be hell to pay. I need to pay up.”

Ginny studied him for a long moment, and he let her think. He knew she knew this. She’d lived with six boys for so many years and she knew about the code they held themselves to. She knew that when one fell short, they were going to come in and hold the delinquent accountable. “We didn’t know I was pregnant.”

“We didn’t know because I didn’t know how to deal with James’ crying,” Harry admitted as the shame filled him.

“Oh, Harry,” she sighed exasperatedly. “No one knew how to deal with his crying! He drove me completely round the twist before I gave up and accepted that I couldn’t do anything for him but be there.”

“I wasn’t here,” he said flatly. “I let you do all the work.”

Ginny was quiet for a long moment, her brown eyes intent upon his face. “I let you get away with it.”

“Still, though…” he paused at the hurt in her eyes. “Why did you let me get away with it?”

“I…” Tears flooded her eyes as she covered her face in her hands, sobs shaking her whole body. Harry scrambled up to pull her onto his lap murmuring comfort. Her words were muffled by his shoulder, but the still rang through their bedroom. “I wanted to be enough. I d-didn’t want to fail again.”

“You aren’t failing anything,” Harry chided softly. “You’re a great mum, Ginny.”

“I failed Hope,” Ginny whispered and his heart broke. “I wasn’t enough for her.”

Harry felt his own eyes swim and a small movement made him look up to see Ron’s stricken face illuminated in the door. His brother-in-law backed away silently and Harry ran his hand through Ginny’s thick hair. “You didn’t fail her. You haven’t failed James.”

“I can’t do anything-”

“Stop!” Harry shook his head, interrupting her. He wanted to be frustrated, but knew getting upset with her when she was pregnant was not only counterproductive but also useless. She wasn’t really thinking about any of this rationally. “You are an amazing mum, Ginny. George thinks you deserve a medal for how well you’ve done with James.”

She sniffed and gradually the tears faded into a huge yawn. Harry handed her a glass of water from the bedside table and she drank deeply. He knew they had a long road, and that there were wounds here that hadn’t ever healed; wounds that she hid from him and maybe even from herself. For tonight this was enough. He kissed her brow, loving the feel of her in his arms. He reached down and placed a hand on her belly. The second it settled, a small thump hit him and they laughed, both amazed and relieved.

“I guess he does wiggle about some,” Ginny said, rubbing her stomach happily. “Harry?”

“Yeah?” he asked as he helped her settle back down with her pillows.

Her red-rimmed eyes met his. “Tell my brothers they can’t kill you, okay?”

“Got it,” he said with a gentle kiss to her lips. He left; closing the door behind him and putting the Silencing Charms back up. Slowly he made his way back down to the kitchen and found only Ron still there. He looked around questioningly.

“They left,” Ron explained shortly, “We decided I could deal with you.”

He nodded and slumped into one of the chairs at the table. “Ginny says you can’t kill me.”

Ron sat slowly across from him, his expression devastated. “She’s not doing well.”

“No,” Harry agreed, feeling the ache in his gut. “I don’t think I realized just how bad it was. I’m going to speak to Martha tomorrow about a therapist.”

“I was coming up to reassure her,” Ron said, running a hand through his hair and sitting back. “Bloody hell, I can’t believe she still feels guilty over that.”

Harry shrugged helplessly. “We’ll deal with it.”

“You’re on probation,” Ron said dully, staring at him. “We’ve decided that’s all we can do for now. Especially since Ginny won’t let us kill you.”

Harry had expected that. George had ended up on probation first. He’d gotten Angelina pregnant while they’d still been dating. Ginny wouldn’t ever confirm it, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it had happened during one of their hide-and-go-seek games. George had gotten the notice from the Ministry the day that Angelina figured it out, and instead of manning up George had gone on a week-long bender that required most of Harry’s contacts to track him down. After they’d sobered him up, they’d all sat him down to talk to him and let him cry it out with them, mostly over Fred. Then he’d went to the Ministry and they’d arranged for a wedding a few days later. He’d been on probation for months with his brothers after that until he’d proved he wasn’t going to go off again.

“I deserve it,” Harry said hoarsely. “I deserve worse.”

Ron shook his head and eyed him shrewdly. “Harry, I doubt very much that Ginny’s the only one grieving right now. You both should talk to a therapist.”

He closed his eyes as he felt the hot pricks of tears as his daughter’s birthday slipped away.

Back to index


Chapter 3: Prologue Part 3

Author's Notes: I know it's been two weeks! I'm sorry, I've been crazy busy with my other book. I did work some on this, but the other story snagged my focus.

Readers, I finished my second book!!!!! EEK! In 45 days I wrote 113,000 words.

But better still? I'm still completely stunned by this, it's so surreal! My first book is now up on amazon (presale until Jan 20th, 2016), and goes up on other platforms shortly. Go to my profile, find the links. Even if you don't buy... it's just been such a fun journey, and I appreciate everyone's kind words.

For those who do want to buy, it's a special presale price right now, and will go up as it gets closer to release, so if you were buying anyway (THANK YOU!) get it now. I'm pasting in the summary to the new story:
Mia Harper was not prepared for a solar flare to knock out the world's electricity. No one was, although Mia and her fifteen-month-old sister had a slight advantage: their father, a hardcore doomsday prepper, left them a safe haven to help them survive their new reality.

Andrew Greene is Mia's childhood friend. On track to graduate college at nineteen years old, his sharp mind gives him an edge against the competition.

How will the trio survive the harsh winters of Pennsylvania? How will they survive attacks from hungry wildlife? What will they do when faced with perhaps their greatest danger: the other survivors?

Can they live in this new world? Or will their Shelter turn into their grave site?


June 2007

“Harry?”

“Hm?” He looked up from the report he’d been reading in bed, pushing his glasses further up his nose to see his wife walking back in from the bathroom. Her long red hair fell down her back in soft waves and her truly amazing breasts, thanks to Al refusing to wean, were hugged in one of his old t-shirts that came down to just below her knickers. A slow smile spread over his face as he watched her climb into bed next to him and he set the report off to the side.

Her eyes pulled him in, sinking him under the spell she always wove over him. Her face was alight with mischief and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He couldn’t dwell on it too long, though. Her soft lips were calling to be kissed. Before he could kiss her, she spoke. “I don’t want to take the potion tomorrow.”

His brain stuttered for a second, trying to place what potion she meant. Then it clicked. Harry schooled his featured as joy flooded him. He watched her expression and the unnamed emotion became clear. It was nerves. “So… let me get this straight…” he drawled out, saying each word as slowly as he could. “Either we’re going to have another baby or we’re never having sex again. That about it?”

Ginny bit her lip and this time it wasn’t the seduction that it normally was. “That’s about it.”

Harry nodded slowly, pretending to think about it. When her bottom lip began to quiver he gave it up and pulled her down for a kiss, startling a gasp from her. “I guess we’re having another baby,” he breathed against her mouth before deepening the kiss.

“You’re okay with this?” She asked, forcing him back a bit.

He grinned and pulled her in again. “Well, I was hoping you’d forget to take the potion again, but I guess we can do it this way.” Harry laughed and ducked the pillow that came flying towards his head.

~*~

April 2008

Ginny groaned and swayed as she waddled around their bedroom at two in the morning. “I can’t have her now, Harry! It’s too early. Both the boys were weeks late.”

Harry watched his watch counting the minutes between the contractions. “Martha will be here soon. Maybe she’ll stop the labor.”

“Owwwww, bloody hell,” Ginny ground out as she came over to lean against him.

Harry stood and helped her to sway her hips. “She’ll be okay, Gin,” Harry promised, trying to reassure himself as much as his wife. “I know it’s early, but you’re still thirty five weeks along.”

“What if she isn’t?” Ginny cried out as another wave hit her.

Harry checked his watch and started to panic. The contractions were getting really close now. She never had very long labors but at less than forty five minutes this was going to a record. “She will be!” Harry told her firmly. “Do you want to get in the tub?”

“No!” Ginny shouted as she knelt down and put her head on the bed. “Oh fuck this hurts! Why do I always forget how much this hurts?”

Survival of the species, Harry thought, but knew better than to say it. He’d been married for almost ten years now; he wasn’t stupid. There was a call from downstairs and Harry heard Martha making her way up to them. “Ginny,” Martha said coming to kneel down next to her, putting her hand on Ginny’s lower back, starting to kneed her knuckled into her to help relieve some of the pain. “Are you ready to have this baby?”

“Nooo,” Ginny moaned as another wave hit. “It’s too early.”

“We saw her practicing breathing last week when we took a look at her,” Martha reminded her calmly. “She’s telling you she’s ready to come.”

“I want to get in the tub,” Ginny moaned and Harry hopped up, thankful for something to do.

Just as he finished tapping the bath Molly poked her head in. Her hair was liberally streaked with silver now, but her eyes were bright with excitement at her youngest grandchild’s imminent arrival. “Is the bath ready?” She asked.

Harry nodded. “Did you check on the boys?”

“Yes, and they’re still out,” Molly said and winced as Ginny let out an ear piercing shriek. “It’s always amazed me what kids will sleep through.”

Harry walked back in to his bedroom and found Ginny stripped out of her nightgown. “You,” she growled at him. “Get changed!”

It was always like this when she was in labor, but he didn’t take it personally. She was so tough that he knew she had to be in a lot of pain to be crying out and cursing like she was. He’d seen her arm shattered with a Bludger and she didn’t do more than wince and swear at the ref when he said that she had to leave the pitch.

The women left and Harry quickly got into his swim trunks to join her in the tub.

“Oh fuuuck, ouch, damn it!” Ginny said twisting in the water as Harry settled in to help her in any way he could.

“You’re in transition,” Martha told her calmly. “Ginny you’re so close, just minutes. I know it hurts, but you are doing great.”

Ginny awkwardly sat back, resting against Harry with her legs propped up on the bath’s tile wall. “Ohhhhhh!!!!!! OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” She screamed. “Pushing!”

“I see her head,” Martha coached. “Ginny, reach down and get her.”

Ginny reached down and seconds later Harry saw a tiny red head pop out into the bath water, followed immediately by her body. Ginny grasped her under the arms and pulled their daughter up on to her bare chest. Ginny burst into tears and Harry had a few of his own running down his cheeks as well as he wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter:

his daughter who was screaming her head off.

Harry sent thanks up to whoever was listening that she was alive and healthy.

“Shh Lily,” Ginny crooned through her tears as she cupped their child to her breast. “Shh, Mummy has you darling. It’s okay.”

“Oh, Ginny,” Molly cried. “You did it, sweetheart.”

Ginny beamed and turned her sweaty face around to Harry’s for a kiss. “She’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Harry said, too choked up to say more.

A few minutes later Ginny was settled back in bed, cleaned up and with a sleeping Lily in her arms. “She’s so small,” Ginny said running a finger down the baby’s perfect cheek. “The boys were huge.”

“She’s five pounds, two ounces, but with a very healthy set of lungs,” Martha promised. “She was ready to come.”

Harry reached out his arms and took his tiny daughter to cradle her against his chest, forcibly reminded of having done this many years before with Hope. Then he’d only needed one hand to hold his daughter. This time he needed both arms and there was only joy with a tiny bit of longing for what could have been. Harry kissed her soft, red hair and told her that he loved her. She yawned her pretty little mouth and turned her face into him.

“I’ve sent word to the family,” Molly said, coming back in carrying a very sleep three-and-a-half-year-old James on her hip. “I also found someone sitting in the hall.”

James looked at his parents. “Did da baby come out?”

Ginny held out his arms for him and he clambered up onto the bed and into her lap. “Yes, do you want to see her?”

“Mmm,” James said noncommittally as he snuggled into his mother’s warm embrace.

Harry brought the baby over and sat down on the edge of the bed to show James his baby sister.

James frowned at her. “She’s all wed.”

Harry chuckled. “You were all red, too, when you were this small.”

James peered around the blanket further and Harry knew he was studying this new creature with interest. “Babies smell.”

“So did you,” Harry informed him very seriously. “You had the worst nappies.”

James grinned proudly at that, his bright brown eyes shining.

Lily started to mew and tried to latch on to her blanket. “Time to nurse,” Harry said, passing her over to Ginny.

“Daddy,” James said holding out his arms.

Harry picked up his sturdy little boy and held him close. “I love you, James. You’re a good big brother.”

James nodded, knowing it already. “I wuv you, Daddy.”

Harry kissed him. “It’s still night time, though. Back to bed with you.”

“Aww,” James whined, but without real heat. His head was heavy on Harry’s shoulder as he carried him down the hallway to his bedroom. After tucking him in, Harry went over to Al’s room to see make sure his middle child was still asleep.

He wasn’t. Al was sitting up in bed, his thumb firmly in his mouth, his stuffed bear clutched tight in his other arm. At two, Al didn’t say much. He mostly let James talk while he watched. Where James would go out exploring, Al tended to hang back and wait. “Hey, Al,” Harry said, walking over to scoop his youngest son into his arms. “Do you want to go see the new baby?”

Al nodded against him and Harry carried him back down the hall. He entered his room and found Ginny alone with the baby and Lily already nursing. Harry came over and crouched down so that Al could get a good look at his baby sister.

Al leaned his dark head in and looked at her. Then he held out his bear for Lily and dropped it on her. She didn’t notice, too intent on her meal to appreciate the generous gift. “Bear,” he told Lily pulling his thumb from his mouth long enough to utter the single word.

Harry and Ginny exchanged startled looked. Bear was Al’s favorite. “You want Lily to have your bear?” Ginny asked gently.

Al nodded, thumb still in his mouth.

“Are you sure?” Harry asked, boosting him around so he could see his son’s small face.

Al nodded again, green eyes meeting green.

“You can change your mind later if you want to,” Ginny told him, holding out her free arm.

Harry carefully put Al next to Ginny and he lay still against her, watching Lily nurse. James would just as likely have hopped down in a flash, but Al was a cuddler and he always had been.

Al reached out a single pudgy finger and touched Lily’s hand gently. “Wiwy.”

Ginny kissed his cheek. “That’s right. Now you’re the big brother, Al.”

Al looked so serious for a moment that Harry thought he might cry, but then he smiled a radiant smile and looked at Harry who felt his heart soar at the joy he saw on his child’s face. “Wuv Wiwy,” he said around his thumb.

“Me too, Al,” Harry promised as he ran a hand through Al’s messy black hair. “I love you too,” he told his son so proud of him for sharing his bear. He’d said it to James, and Al needed to hear it too. “You’re a good big brother.”

Al smiled at him again, but more shyly. Then he carefully climbed over and kissed Lily’s cheek.

Molly, who had just walked back in the room with Martha, burst into tears. Al looked over at his Gran confused but she scooped him up and hugged him tight. “You are the sweetest boy, Albus!”

A moment later Al reached out for Harry and he took his son back down to his bed.

When he got back it was to find Ginny burping Lily. Harry carefully took her and started to pat her back gently as he swayed. After the weight of the boys, Lily felt so tiny in his arms.

He looked at Ginny and she smiled sleepily at him, love, joy and happiness shining from her.

This was more than enough.

~*~

Ten-year-old Teddy stood staring at the clock, willing it to be eight o’clock. He stomped around his kitchen impatiently, huffing out a breath.

“Calm down, Teddy,” his Grandma said from the table, sipping her tea. “Why are you so nervous?”

“I’m not nervous,” Teddy lied running a hand through his hair, which was dirty blond today. “I just want to go!”

“They might still be asleep,” Grandma reminded him, smiling at him over her paper. “Having a baby in the middle of the night is exhausting.”

Teddy shook his head. “James is up at six every morning.”

Smiling knowingly, his grandmother stood and walked over to where he was. He was now almost as tall as her. He’d shot up a lot in the last year. She put her hands on his cheeks. “It will be fine.”

“I know,” Teddy said embarrassed. “I just want to meet her.”

“All right,” she said, kissing his cheek. “You go then. Give the baby a kiss from me.”

Excited, he nodded and ran for the Floo powder. “I will! Bye!” He took out a pinch, threw it in the fireplace and said, “Ivy Run!”

Seconds later he spun to a stop in the sitting room of his godfather’s house. He straightened and then was knocked sideways at the knees by a dark haired blur that yelled, “Teddy!”

Teddy hefted James up for a quick hug. “Hey.”

James bounced down out of his arms and ran yelling to the kitchen. “Teddy’s here, Daddy!”

Teddy made his way around the toy dragons and the train set and walked into the kitchen to find his godfather making crepes. Harry grinned at him. “I expected you hours ago.”

“Grandma made me wait,” Teddy explained, trying not to fidget. Something tugged at his pant leg and he looked down to see that Al had toddled over, his thumb in his mouth. Al held up his arms and Teddy picked him up. “Hi, Al.” Al put his head on his shoulder and Teddy pulled out a chair and sat with him in his lap.

James sat next to him, practically bouncing out of his seat. “Da baby came out of Mummy’s belly.”

“I know,” Teddy said grinning.

James wrinkled his nose. “She smells.”

Teddy saw Harry roll his eyes and he laughed. “You smelled worse.”

“Yeah?” James asked hopefully.

“Oh yeah,” Teddy assured him seriously. “Your nappies made me gag.”

James giggled and dived for the plate of crepes as soon as Harry set them on the table. “One at a time James,” Harry told him firmly and huffing, James just grabbed one.

Harry took Al and strapped him into his high chair before giving him a crepe. “Are you hungry?” he asked Teddy.

Teddy just shook his head. His stomach was in knots.

“Go on up,” Harry told him, nodding towards the stairs. “Ginny’s awake.”

Teddy stood awkwardly and Harry came over, seeming to sense his hesitation. He hugged him hard, holding him in close. Harry was still a head taller than him and his arms always felt absolutely strong and secure like he was being enveloped by him. Ruffling his hair, Harry prodded him to the stairs. “Go on, Ginny wants to see you.”

Teddy walked slowly up the stairs, remembering vividly when James had been born. When he’d first heard that Ginny was having him, he’d been scared that things were going to change for him. He had his Grandma and she was great, but since before he could remember Harry and Ginny had been the closest thing to a mum and dad that he’d ever have. They told him stories about his real parents, and he looked at pictures of them all the time, but it wasn’t the same. They weren’t here to hug him or listen to him or play with him. They didn’t get to say that they loved him and that they were proud of him.

Teddy was proud of them, though. He knew that they died for a really good cause and it hurt to know that he’d never get to know them, but Harry had told him about himself and how he didn’t have his parents either when he was growing up. That had helped.

He walked past a picture on the wall that was taken the Christmas before. Teddy was sitting by the tree holding Al in his lap while James ran in circles around the frame. He stopped at the door to Harry and Ginny’s room, hesitating.

Nothing had changed for him when James was born. Harry and Ginny had still loved him the same, and treated him the same. He didn’t know why this time he was so nervous. He knocked and heard Ginny say, “Come in.”

Teddy pushed open the door and looked at her brilliant smile, the one she always had for him, and felt the fist around his gut unclench. She held out her free hand and he rushed over, into her arms. He breathed in her flowery smell that always meant he was safe and loved and he hugged her, trying not to knock into the baby who was sleeping there.

“Come here,” Ginny said, patting the spot next to her on the bed.

Teddy went around the bed and crawled over next to her. He looked down at Lily and was amazed at how tiny she was. “Can I hold her?”

“You bet,” Ginny said and she helped him cradle the baby. “You’re late this morning.”

“Grandma,” Teddy said, and knew she’d understand because that’s just how Ginny was. He looked back down at Lily’s cute face. “She’s so little and her hair is red.”

“Yeah, it looks like Harry got his wish,” Ginny agreed touching the baby’s soft downy head. “She was a few weeks early.”

Teddy nodded and lifted her up to kiss her baby soft skin. “That’s from Grandma Andromeda.”

“So how does it feel to be a god-brother again?” Ginny asked, elbowing him gently in the ribs. “I hear little sisters are just dreadful.”

Teddy laughed, knowing that’s exactly what her brothers said about her all the time, especially when they were playing games. “I think she’s brilliant.”

Harry walked in, a fine mist of flour clung to his blue t-shirt. “They’re eating like pigs, oinks included, but thankfully your mum just got back so she’ll keep them in line.” He came over and sat on the other side of Teddy. He wrapped his arm around his godson’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “So should we keep her?”

“Yep,” Teddy told him, soaking in the warmth of two the people who loved him most in this world besides his grandma.

“I’m thinking so, too,” Harry said. “You want to spend the night tonight?”

Teddy nodded. Lily stretched in his arms and let out a loud, long, wet fart without even waking up. They all laughed. “James definitely smelled worse,” Teddy said.

“Too right he did,” Harry said, picking up the baby to go change her nappy.

Ginny pulled Teddy in close until his head was on her shoulder and he relaxed into her arms. It was something he’d been doing for as long as he could remember, except now he was taller than her. He didn’t want things to change just because he was getting bigger.

“You’re an amazing kid, you know that, right?” Ginny whispered into his ear.

Teddy shrugged, feeling his cheeks flush. “I guess.”

“You are,” she told him, firmly staring into his eyes in a way that always made him feel like she understood him. “I love you and I’m so glad I have you in my life.”

“I love you, too,” he whispered back feeling his insides squirm with joy. He held on, enjoying this moment with her. Nothing had changed. All was well.

Back to index


Chapter 4: Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Here comes the main story!

Silver Trinket Voting is up! Go vote, even if it isn't for me! :)

Also, check my profile to find the information for my original story. If you like my writing, I think you'll enjoy it. It comes out Jan 20th, 2015 YAY!!!! I'm actually working on the third book in the series.

Thanks for all of your support and the reviews. Let me know what you think of this chapter, okay? We're settling in for a very long journey, readers. The prologues were important to get us here, but now we start the meat of the story.

Arnel, who has read the first five chapters, is saying it's great. I need to get through the edits, but I did get through this one. Thank you to her for all of her help! She also edited my original story for me, which I can't thank her for enough.

Okay, on to the story...


August 31st, 2017

Harry stared blankly down at the note.

‘I know your secret.’

He sighed heavily and looked around his office at Auror Headquarters. The door was closed, and the bustle of the busy office around him was hushed. He glanced at the picture of his kids, including Teddy, which graced his desk. Yet another picture showed himself and Ginny, his hair starting to gray ever so slightly, and lines deepening around his eyes. Ginny looked as beautiful as she ever had, her figure trim, and her hair in a short, red bob that was just long enough for her to tie up in a short tail. They were snogging in the picture. They were usually snogging. It incited James to fake gagging and retching noises every time he saw it, but it made Harry smile. He’d been married for nineteen years, and the fact that he still loved kissing his wife was cause for celebration in his book.

He glanced back down at the note. Harry did have a secret, but it wasn’t the one the note spoke of.

It was the note itself. Only Ginny knew that he still received them regularly.

He rose slowly, feeling the weight of the parchment that had arrived, like all the others, through the Muggle post. He pulled open a file cabinet, and sorted through until he found the right folder. He dropped the note in, along with the nineteen others he had accumulated. He hadn’t told anyone of the second note’s arrival, or any of the subsequent ones. He’d quietly investigated them by himself, and that hadn’t moved the search at all. He’d investigate this one as well, but not yet.

Harry had no leads on the note. He’d thought, at first, that it had come from the woman that had turned his life so completely upside down, but she’d died a long time ago and still the notes came every summer. They didn’t always arrive in the same month, but they came nonetheless.

He sighed wearily and grabbed his cloak. It was nearly five o’clock and both James and Al would be heading to Hogwarts that next morning. It was Al’s first year, which was enough to leave Harry queasy and a little off balance. He wasn’t sure how his small, shy child had managed to turn eleven.

He shook off the wool-gathering. If he didn’t get home shortly to help harass James into packing his trunk, Ginny would have his head.

A knock sounded at his door.

“Enter,” Harry called and hoped that it wasn’t something urgent that would tie him up.

Teddy poked his head through the door. “I was wondering if you’d left yet,” he said as he sidled into the room. “I got a note from Ginny saying I was coming for dinner, and to make sure you left promptly at five.”

“She doesn’t trust me,” Harry grinned as he fastened his cloak. “Weren’t you eating with Victoire tonight?”

“Apparently, they’re shopping,” Teddy informed him, holding out his hands helplessly. “She told me yesterday that her mum is taking her out or something. I’m going to see her off tomorrow, though.”

“Ah,” Harry nodded. He wasn’t entirely sure what that was about, but knew better than to dwell on the things his sisters-in-law did. Only Hermione ever made sense to him, and that wasn’t often. “Well, let’s get on them before we both get murdered. How was Auror training today?”

Teddy shrugged as they walked out to the lifts. “Really interesting,” he said as he explained what he’d learned that day.

They arrived through his Floo to find Ginny sitting at the table drinking a glass of wine, with a sour expression on her face. Lily, Hugo, Rose and Al were all playing a game of Exploding Snap in front of the fireplace, and none gave the two newcomers more than a cursory ‘hello’ before turning resolutely back to the game. The atmosphere in the room was so thick that they couldn’t have cut it with Gryffindor’s Sword.

Harry exchanged a glance with Teddy, who promptly sat down with the little kids so Harry could go sort out his wife.

Ginny glanced up at him and took a long sip from her glass. “He’s all yours. I’m done for today.”

Harry looked up the stairs. “Is he in his room?”

“He was,” Ginny said dismissively.

Harry heard a noise and turned to see Hermione’s head in the fireplace. “I’m home kids, you can come through. Thanks, Ginny!”

“Sure,” Ginny called out, not moving from her spot.

“Bye Aunt Ginny, bye Uncle Harry!” Rose and Huge called out together as they left. Ginny had watched first Rose, then Hugo all their lives. Her job as a sports writer let her work from home much of the time, and when she couldn’t Molly Weasley or Fleur would step in.

As of the next day she would only have Lily and Hugo, and them for only two more years. Time was flying. Harry sighed heavily. “What did he do this time?”

“If it was just one thing,” Ginny growled, pointing at him with the wine glass, “would I be drinking a glass of wine?”

The short answer was no. Ginny had unbelievable reserves for James’ antics, which often brought a tear of joy and pride to his Uncle George’s eye.

That exact trait had been a major focus of Ginny’s years of therapy, in fact. They had lost their first child, Hope, through a late miscarriage. Ginny had been poisoned and Hope hadn’t survived. She’d blamed herself for their daughter’s death, but it was only when she was pregnant with Al did they realize just how deeply the pain was entrenched. Ginny had started therapy shortly after, and her therapist had told her point blank that she needed to get tougher on James, and that letting him get away with things wasn’t serving him, and wouldn’t make up for Hope’s loss. Harry had heard the same speech during his own therapy sessions.

Ginny had turned around completely, and while she wasn’t exactly like her own mum, she did now rule the house with more an iron backbone. However, James’ character was already well cemented by that time. Almost nothing James pulled, and he did pull a lot of hair raising stunts, ever really rattled her. When she was really stressed she’d go out to their back yard and sit by their daughter’s grave. She’d come back in, and tell him that it didn’t matter what he did because he was alive. It was hard to fight with that.

“He turned my clothes pink,” Al said quietly from beside him.

Harry startled a bit, not having realized his son had wandered over. “Sorry?”

“Everything pink,” Al confirmed gloomily. “Mum couldn’t get my pants to turn back.”

“Then,” nine-year-old Lily jumped in as she hopped on one foot across the kitchen tiles, “he relabeled all of Mum’s spices and potion ingredients.”

“That was to distract me long enough to get the Marauder’s Map and your Invisibility Cloak,” Ginny scoffed. “Like I’m stupid and was born yesterday. If he’s not clever enough to sneak them out without me knowing, then he doesn’t deserve them.”

Al shifted from one leg to the other, “Then he-”

Harry held up his hand. “I get the picture.”

They’d never been a household where Ginny had said to the children, ‘wait till your father gets home’. She’d told him that just wasn’t her style and she’d rather deal with it herself. They were a team, partners, and in a partnership if one of them had been driven to drink by the children, the other was honor bound to step in. Harry bent and left a lingering kiss on his bride’s lips, tasting the wine and her frustration mingled together. “Okay, you’re off the clock. Go take a bubble bath.”

“Dinner,” Ginny sighed. “I couldn’t make anything because I had to reorganize the kitchen.”

“Take away,” Harry countered. He turned to his godson, who was smiling sympathetically. “Why don’t you, Al and Lily walk down to the village and come back with something?”

“Sure,” Teddy agreed easily. It wasn’t the first time he’d taken the kids down to the large village. Even for nineteen he was eminently responsible, and Harry trusted his kids with him. He was their unofficial, but recognized, big brother.

Harry went for the drawer and fished out some Muggle money, which he handed over to Teddy. Then he retrieved the Portkey Galleons that Hermione had made so many years ago for him, and handed one each to Al and Lily. They rolled their eyes, but stuck them in their pockets.

If someone snatched them, all they had to do was touch the gold coin and say, ‘home’ and they’d be whisked away to the safety of their house. It had saved Ginny’s life once, and when the children were out of his sight, except for at school, they always had one on them.

“Come on, squirts,” Teddy called out jovially, heading for the door.

Lily ran to him and took his hand. “I want ice cream, too.”

“You’re not supposed to say that until after we’ve left the house,” Teddy teased. “They can still hear us, you know.”

“Pshhh,” Lily blew out as she waved that off dismissively. “Mummy isn’t stupid, remember? She knows I’m going to talk you into ice cream.”

Al grinned back at his bemused parents, and closed the door behind them.

Harry pulled Ginny to her feet and held her close. They swayed a little on the spot and he ran his hand up and down her back, enjoying the feel of her curves pressed against him. “I’m sorry your day was so lousy.”

“It wasn’t all bad,” she muttered in to his chest. “Al is all packed, minus his pants. I called in the expert and she’s trying to get them changed back. If Mum can’t get them fixed, then I’m going to beg Hermione to have a look.”

“If that doesn’t work,” he said firmly, “Al gets James’ pants. They will switch.” The two were very close in size, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

She nodded, “That was exactly what I was thinking. It’s also what I told him, which is why he’s sulking in his room.”

“Let’s just leave him there,” Harry said suddenly. “I think I want a bath, too.”

Ginny cocked her head to the side and stared up at him. “You have to be kidding.”

“Nope,” he assured her. “Locking and Silencing Charms were invented for just such an occasion.”

“You pick the worst times to-”

Harry kissed her deeply, trying to drag her in to the bliss of a nearly empty house. He ran his hands down her back, over her very nice butt, and hoisted her up by her thighs. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and held on to his neck. “I’ll beg if you want,” he grinned against her mouth.

She laughed. “I wouldn’t want that.”

Harry turned and started for the stairs, his wife still firmly wrapped in his arms.

~*~

September 1st, 2017

“What are you doing?”

Teddy broke away from the kiss and glared down at James. “Go away.”

“I will if you tell me what you’re doing,” James said with a sly grin.

“If I have to tell you, then you’re in big trouble, kid. I’m here to see her off, now scram.” Teddy growled as Victoire buried her face in his shoulder. He ran a hand up into her long, soft locks and watched his god-brother run off down the platform, his messy black hair flying up as he ran. “Don’t worry about it,” he said to her, looking into her beautiful blue eyes.

“I know,” she said, her cheeks stained with a charming blush. “It’s just that little twerp is never going to let me forget it.”

Teddy grinned and rested his forehead against hers, cradling her smaller hand in his against his heart. “He’ll grow out of it soon.”

Victoire raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure about that, are you?”

“Well, no,” Teddy replied honestly. “But he’s twelve, so who cares? The adults all know and the littler kids were going to find out eventually.”

Victoire stood on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her off her feet a bit with another kiss. “I’m going to miss you,” she said against his lips.

“I’m going to miss you, too,” he promised, feeling the ache in his gut and wishing they could put off this parting.

“Hogsmeade weekend?” she asked, not for the first time, but he didn’t mind reassuring her.

“Definitely,” he promised. “Write to me when you get there.”

“I will,” Victoire whispered and he lost himself in the feel of her lips one last time.

~*~

“Hang on, Nat, I’ll put it up for you,” her dad said and she struggled in vain to get the trunk up onto the scarlet train as the steam from the engine swirled around them, dancing in between the moving families.

Natalie shook her strawberry blonde hair out of her face, ready to tell him she had it when she tripped on the step, slammed her hip hard and slid painfully back onto the platform. “Owww.” She groaned and knew she was going to have a massive bruise on her hip.

Her dad sighed and hauled her up. Unfortunately, they were used to this. “Are you all right?” he asked. Nat nodded, although she wasn’t entirely certain. “You wait here and I’ll put the trunk up for you.”

Nat nodded and waited. She saw families all around and wished like crazy that her mother could have been there. Unfortunately, when your mother is Julienne Parker a top reporter for Britain’s most respected news station, she had to travel quite a lot. Her dad was there, though, which was a blessing. They’d had to juggle to make sure that one of her parents would be there to get to Diagon Alley the day before and to see her onto the train today, but they’d managed. Her dad, Curtis Parker, her handsome, tall and amazingly brilliant father hopped off the train and pulled her into a hug. “I’m going to miss you so much, Peanut,” he assured her, bending down to kiss the top of her strawberry blonde head. “Who am I going to show my findings to, hm?”

“Hopefully, Mum,” Nat grinned and her dad laughed. Her father was a forensic anthropologist, one of the best, and Nat had spent her childhood traveling with him, being homeschooled and seeing the world. There used to be a TV show in America about a forensic anthropologist who fought crime, but that wasn’t what her father did. Mostly he worked in the background making identifications of old skeletons and often testifying in courts all over the world. Her mother covered the biggest stories around the globe and then spent the down time with them, wherever she and her dad happened to be. It had been a crazy life, but nothing thus far had compared to the wiry man in an eye-watering neon orange suit showing up to give her a letter and explain that she was a witch. It wasn’t the witch part that was odd, though. It was definitely the orange suit.

The whistle blew and Nat jumped. “Dad, I’ve- I’m-”

“I know,” he told her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too!” Nat said, and she scrambled up onto the train. She’d have fallen again if he hadn’t been prepared to catch her. She stood and watched him waving, a lone tear sliding down her cheek. She swiped at it. She’d seen other parents waving, other students also sad. She’d be all right, though. Nat knew how to go new places and meet new people.

Nat turned to her trunk and groaned, amending her thoughts. She might be all right if she could get her trunk moved without killing herself in the process. Grumbling, she grabbed the handle and started to slowly drag the trunk down the aisle of the train, her bruised hip causing her excruciating pain with every step. Natalie’s normally chipper mood and good sense of humor were failing her, probably, she reasoned, because she’d just said goodbye to her dad and hadn’t seen her mum in nearly two weeks.

“Hey, do you need some help?” a hesitant voiced asked.

She fell onto her bum, right onto her bruise, and nearly blacked out from the pain as stars danced before her eyes. She shook her head, trying to clear it, and looked up to see a boy with messy black hair and piercingly green eyes staring down at her. Right behind her was a girl with curly red hair and a decidedly kind face. The boy was dressed in jeans, but the girl was already in the black school robes. “I really could use the help. I’m dead klutzy and I hurt myself getting on the train.”

The boy held out a hand and helped her to her feet. “We’re just in here. You can sit with us if you want-” then he did a double take. “You’re short!”

Nat laughed. He wasn’t being mean. Some people were, but she could tell he was just surprised. “Yep. My mum is tall, my dad is tall… we’re not sure what happened to me, but I’ve always been at least two inches shorter than anyone else my age.”

This boy was a good six or more inches taller than her, though. “I’m Al, this is my cousin, Rose.”

“I’m Nat, err, Natalie, but I go by Nat. It’s nice to meet you both.”

Rose grinned at her. “We’re just in here,” she said, pointing into the compartment she’d just passed. “Go on in and Al and I will sort out your trunk.”

“Oh, I couldn’t let you-”

“It’s all right,” Al assured her. “Anyway, you look like you can barely walk.”

Rose helped her into a seat and she sank into it gratefully. The two hauled her trunk in, but before they could get it lifted up a burly boy, about fifteen and with medium dark skin and black hair poked his head in. “You lot alright?”

“Can you put this up for us, Fred?” Rose asked.

“Sure can,” he said affably and single handedly stuck the trunk up top. “Anything else? Aunt Hermione ordered me to check on you at least once.” He winked at them and Nat saw Rose roll her eyes.

She looked between them and saw the facial resemblance between Rose and Fred even though their coloring was so different. Part of having a father who studied people meant that she was good at picking up on those things. “Are you related?” she asked.

“Cousins,” they all said together. “Our grandparents had seven kids.” Rose explained.

“Oh,” she said. “I’m an only child.” The train hit a bump and Nat caught her breath as the pain shot down her leg.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Al asked, his face showing his concern.

Nat shrugged. “I get bumps and bruises all the time. I’ve broken a ton of bones. I keep falling into the pits my dad works in. It’s all right; I’m used to the casts.”

“Why don’t your parents just heal it for you?” Rose asked and then gasped at Nat’s blank look. “Oh! You’re Muggleborn, aren’t you?”

Nat grinned and sat back. “No idea, maybe?”

“It means your parents aren’t magical,” Fred explained. He pointed to Rose. “Her mum is Muggleborn.”

Al looked to Fred. “Do you know where Victoire went? Maybe she can heal it for Nat.”

“Probably down in the Prefect carriage giving out instructions,” Fred said. “Thankfully I escaped this year.” He pretended to shudder and Rose giggled. “Only prats,” Fred told Nat, “become Prefects. Unfortunately, our cousin Victoire is Head Girl this year. It’s going to make getting into trouble more difficult.”

Al grinned. “You’ll manage.”

“Too right I will.” Fred looked out of the compartment door. “Oi, Molly!”

“Another cousin,” Rose told her.

Nat laughed. “How many do you have?”

“All told there are twelve of us, well, thirteen really,” she amended. “Teddy isn’t technically our cousin, but he might as well be.”

A girl with chestnut brown hair and eyes to match popped her head in. She was already in her uniform and Nat noticed a blue and bronze patch with what looked like an eagle stitched on. Next to it was a silver letter P. “I’m going to be late Fred. What’s up?”

“Can you ask Victoire to come have a look at her?” he pointed to Nat. “She hurt herself and Merlin knows Victoire’s great at healing spells.”

Molly’s face turned instantly to concern and she looked at Natalie. “Are you okay? Should I send her down now?”

Nat shook her head. “I’ll be all right.”

Molly nodded. “I’ll tell her, then. I expect she’ll come down right after the meeting so maybe an hour.”

She left and with a wave Fred followed her out.

~*~

Ginny put her arm around Harry’s waist, and held on. She knew he was going to brood all day over Al’s leaving. Al’s quiet, careful countenance, which was so unlike any of them, had always given him a soft spot in her husband’s heart. He squeezed her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

Hermione dabbed at her nose. “My baby just left.”

“You’ve still got me,” Hugo reminded her with a grin. He was a few months older than Lily, but they would still be going to Hogwarts together.

Hermione gave a watery chuckled and pulled her son in for a hug. “You’re right.”

Hugo pretended to grimace, but Ginny could tell he liked it.

It was hard losing your siblings to school, but at least Lily and Hugo, who were the last two to go, would still have each other during the wait. Ginny had been all alone, and it had been awful.

“Why don’t we skip school work today,” Ginny said suddenly. Hermione eyed her warily, but didn’t comment.

Ginny was in charge of their schooling and after Rose’s first year with her, she’d backed off on trying to control it. It hadn’t been easy, but Hermione had accepted that Ginny knew how to school the children better than she did. After all, Hermione hadn’t ever been schooled at home.

Lily and Hugo cheered. “Can we go to Diagon Alley, Mum?” Lily pleaded.

“I think that sounds fun,” Ginny said easily. She looked to Ron. “Do you want to Apparate over, or drive with us?”

“I’ll Apparate,” Ron shuddered. “I do not like it when you drive.”

She rolled her eyes, but didn’t otherwise comment. Ron couldn’t drive without magic, and she could. Ginny fished the keys from Harry’s pocket and stood on tiptoes to kiss him. “I’ll see you later, Luv.”

Lily threw herself at Harry, who swung her up into his arms. She planted a noisy kiss on his cheek. “I love you, Daddy. Catch some bad guys for me, okay?”

“I’ll try,” Harry assured her, hugging her in close. “Bye, sweetheart.”

Hermione gave her son a hug, bid him to behave, and she and Harry wandered out to her car, which Hermione would drive to the Ministry, before taking it home later that day. Harry always said he liked Hermione’s driving. She never broke any of the speeding laws, and it was entertaining to watch her get flustered at those who did. Muggles constantly made rude hand gestures at her for driving like an old biddy.

Ginny took the children’s hands and led them out of the station. It was very odd only having two of them.

~*~

“All right,” Nat said, getting down to business as Al and Rose sat across from her in the train’s compartment as they sped away from London. She heard a hoot and looked up to see two owls. “Why are there owls up there?”

“For sending letters,” Rose explained. “Owls are dead useful.”

There was so much she didn’t know, but thankfully these two seemed very friendly and her mother wasn’t a top journalist for nothing. Nat had learned a few tricks through the years. “Right… well, I need to know what’s going on here. I’m hopelessly lost.”

Al shrugged, “There’s a lot to know, but you’ll figure it out.”

“What do you want to know first?” Rose asked.

“Your family,” Nat decided. “Go through it for me, will you?”

They looked at each other then back to her. Rose spoke. “There are an awful lot of us.”

“I have an excellent memory,” Nat told them. “My dad studies people and I like to know where people fit in, so fire away.”

“Are you from England? You accent is different,” Rose said cocking her head to the side.

Nat grinned sheepishly. “I’m from all over really.”

Rose nodded. “All right, well I’ll start at the top,” Rose said, taking a deep breath. “First is that my Gran and Granddad are Arthur and Molly Weasley. They had Bill who married Fleur and they have Victoire, Dominique and Louis.” She paused, studying Nat who was taking it all in. “Do you want to know how old everyone is and what house they’re in?”

“House?” Nat probed.

“We’ll be Sorted into one of four houses at Hogwarts,” Al explained. “Most of our family is in Gryffindor, but we have two cousins in Ravenclaw and one in Hufflepuff. You don’t want to be in Slytherin,” he said firmly and Nat thought he was referring more to himself than her.

“What’s wrong with Slytherin?”

He shrugged. “They’re just not the best people, usually.”

“Stuck up,” Rose added helpfully.

Nat nodded. “All right, ages and houses would be excellent.”

“Well, Victoire is seventeen and in Ravenclaw. She’s the Head Girl, as you already know. Dominique is fourteen and in Gryffindor, and Louis is twelve and also in Gryffindor. Then there’s Uncle Charlie, but he’s in Romania and not married. He works with dragons.”

Nat’s mouth fell open. “Dragons? Really?!”

“Yep,” they said.

“I’ve been to Romania many times and I’ve never seen a dragon there!”

“You wouldn’t have, they’re kept away from Muggles. Let’s see,” Rose said, tapping at her chin. “Then there’s Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey and they have Molly, who is fifteen and is the Prefect in Ravenclaw, and Lucy who is twelve and she’s the only cousin in Hufflepuff. After that is Uncle George. He had a twin brother, Fred, but Fred died in the Battle of Hogwarts.”

Nat frowned, but not at all the details. Those she could keep straight. She had a knack for names. “What battle?”

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know about that!” Rose exclaimed.

“It’s a relief,” Al muttered.

His cousin grinned at him. “Shouldn’t we tell her that our parents are famous?”

Nat shrugged. “So are mine- at least my mum is famous. It sucks.”

A look of understanding passed between the three of them and they all grinned, each knowing it was in relief.

“About the battle…” Rose paused, thinking.

Al picked up the story. “There was this evil git named Voldemort who tried to kill a lot of people, and my dad was the one who killed him. Uncle Fred died in the last battle.”

“I’m sorry,” Nat said sincerely.

“We didn’t know him, this was years before we were born,” Rose said. “Uncle George was apparently not the same ever again, although he’s still the coolest uncle of them all. Well,” she said fairly, “Uncle Charlie is awesome, but we don’t get to see him much. So Uncle George married Aunt Angelina and they have Fred who is fifteen and in Gryffindor and Roxy, erm, Roxanne, who is thirteen and also in Gryffindor. Then there’s my dad, Ron and my mum Hermione and there’s me, I’m eleven and my brother Hugo who is nine.”

“My parents and Harry and Ginny Potter,” Al told her. “My mum is the youngest Weasley and only girl in the family. I have an older brother, James, who is twelve, but only for another few days. His birthday is September tenth. He’s in Gryffindor, and there’s me, I’m eleven, and my little sister Lily who is nine.”

“That must have been hard for your mum to be the youngest and only girl,” Nat said, pondering it.

They both laughed, shaking their heads. “My mum is tough,” Al told her. “She was a professional Quidditch player.”

“What’s Quidditch?”

“It’s this sport played on broomsticks,” Al started to explain, but Rose cut him off.

“It’s hard to explain. I have an excellent book on it, though, with pictures. When we get to Hogwarts I’ll dig it out of my trunk and show it to you.” Rose beamed, her eyes twinkling. “I want to make my house team, but I’m not sure I will. I’m a fair player, but it depends on the competition. Al’s great, though. I’m sure he and James will play. James might even make it this year.”

Nat cycled through all the information. “Okay, let’s see if I’ve got this straight then…” and she quickly rattled back through all the names and information she’d been given.

Al and Rose goggled at her. “Blimey, you do have a good memory!” Al spit out.

“Only for people and details like that; I have to study hard in other subjects, but I’m great in history. Now, who’s Teddy?” Nat asked.

“Teddy Lupin is my dad’s godson. His parents were killed during the war and he’s nineteen now. He lives with his grandmother, Andromeda Tonks, but Dad and Mum have had him over a lot.” Al smiled happily. “Teddy is excellent. He always keeps James from picking on me and he takes us to do fun things like get ice cream in the village.”

The compartment door opened and a truly stunning girl with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes walked in. Nat was amazed by her. There wasn’t a flaw in her face or her bone structure, which almost never happened. She zeroed in on Nat. “I’m Victoire, the Head Girl. Molly said you got hurt.”

“Yeah, I fell getting onto the train. It’s a nasty bruise.” Nat pointed to the spot on her hip. She studied her. Despite the French name, she had only a British accent.

Victoire’s beautiful face was pinched with concern. “Well, I can relieve the pain a bit, but if it’s bad you’re going to need to see the school matron when we get there. I’ve started studying to become a Healer, but only just.”

“That’s like a doctor,” Rose added at Nat’s blank look.

“I will send an owl to the Headmistress to let her know, so hopefully she’ll have Madam Pomfrey waiting for you. Here,” Victoire bent down next to her and pointed her wand at Nat’s leg. She didn’t say anything, but a pale blue light streaked into her leg and the pain lessened considerably.

“Wow,” Nat breathed out in relief. “That feels so much better.”

Victoire was muttering, still waving her wand and shook her head, clearly not liking the results. “You did a lot of damage. You’ll need to get seen before the Sorting, just as soon as we get there. I can’t believe you’re sitting there so calmly. Don’t try to do much. I’ll send someone along to help you off the train when we get to school. Leave these clothes on, don’t change. I don’t want you to hurt yourself further.”

She turned to Al and Rose. “If you need me, I’ll be up front in the Prefects’ carriage. Just run to fetch me, all right?”

They nodded. “Thanks, Victoire,” Al said and she left.

“She’s really nice,” Nat said, feeling better than she had in hours.

They were both studying her. “Why didn’t you say you were so hurt?” Rose asked her voice wobbling.

Nat shrugged. “I hurt myself all the time. I’m unbelievably gifted at it. I’ve lost count at this points of how many times I’ve been to the hospital and when you’re in some of the remote places I’ve lived, that’s not always fun.”

Shortly after that a squat witch came by with a cart offering sweets. “Want one?” Al asked through a mouthful of chocolate frog.

Nat shook her head. “I can’t eat those things. They make me sick. I brought some snacks.” Al stood up and retrieved the sack from her trunk for her.

“Rabbit food,” Al scoffed at her almonds, carrots, hummus and cheese. “No wonder you’re so small.”

Rose smacked his arm playfully. “Sweets wouldn’t help her get any taller!”

Nat ate a few bites and then put her food back into her bag. She knew she should eat more or she’d start to get dizzy, but the pain was back and it was making her feel sick.

About ten minutes before they arrived at Hogsmeade Station Rose told Al to get changed and Fred showed up to tell Nat that he was going to carry her off the train. Nat groaned. “That’s humiliating,” she said, and then laughed. “Well, it’s always fun to make an entrance, right?”

“That’s the spirit,” he told her as he gently picked her up. Al and Rose followed behind him. “Blimey, you are little! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a first year as small as you.”

Nat winced and had to suck in a breath as he climbed down the train steps. She was afraid she was going to throw up, the pain was so bad. Fred was being gentle, but something was definitely wrong. She’d been hurt enough times in her life to know that something was likely broken. Fred walked over to an older woman in a nurse’s uniform, who had a stretcher and was clucking disapprovingly. “Here you are, Madam Pomfrey. This is Nat.”

“Natalie Parker,” Nat told her as she lay back onto the very soft stretcher.

“What happened?” Madam Pomfrey asked before waving the others off.

Nat heard a booming voice calling for first years and she knew she should be with them, but she was afraid to move. “I fell getting onto the train. I get hurt a lot.”

“I’ll reserve a bed for you,” Madam Pomfrey said, and Nat thought she was probably not joking. She was waving her wand and also muttering like Victoire had done. “Oh dear, it looks like Miss Weasley was correct and you’ve broken your hip socket. I’m glad she sent us that note. I’m going to fix it, and then we’ll take you up to the castle on the stretcher. I don’t want you to injure yourself again before the swelling has gone down.” She waved her wand and Nat felt a momentary zing of pain before the bone mended.

“That’s amazing,” Nat said, letting out a happy sound. “Does this mean I don’t have to wear a cast anymore when I break a bone?”

Madam Pomfrey chuckled and waved her wand, the stretcher moving along with her and Nat on it. “No, no more casts. How many times have you been in a cast?”

“Uhm,” Nat tried to think back, “At least twelve, probably more. I’ve broken both legs twice and my arms several times. Mostly it’s been fingers and toes, though, and those don’t always get a cast.”

Madam Pomfrey glanced sideways at her. “You’re not allowed to get on a broom. When Madam Hooch does lessons you’re to stay on the ground. Understood?”

Nat sighed and nodded even though she really didn’t understand it. She knew that tone, though, and it’s the one her mother always used when Nat wanted to climb a tree or ride a bike. “Understood.”

They passed by a set of carriages and Nat blinked in surprise. “What are those?” She asked pointing to the skeletal horses that were hitched to the carriages.

Madam Pomfrey looked at her appraisingly. “You can see them?”

Nat turned back, confused. “Why wouldn’t I be able to see them?”

The matron shook her head. “They’re called Thestrals. You can only see them if you’ve seen someone die.”

“Oh,” Nat breathed out, amazed. She’d seen several people die. The Thestrals looked horrible but they seemed docile enough. She wasn’t sorry to not be getting in to one of the carriages, though.

Back to index


Chapter 5: Chapter 2

Author's Notes: My book is on sale! Go see my profile for links! I'm so excited, and nervous, and excited and thankful for all of the help and support along the way. GO LOOK! The publishing happening (at this moment it's tomorrow) has kept me insanely busy, plus I'm finishing the third book in the series, then I'll buckle down hard on this story and start knocking it out faster (hopefully!)

But REALLY! Go check out my book! SQUEEE!

Okay, must thank Arnel for all of her help. She's told me that she's loving the story so far, so hopefully you will as well.

Thank you for all the reviews. The next few chapters focus heavily on the kids, but then it gets to be a little more back and forth. Tell me what you think! The story isn't finished, so your input is valuable.

Thanks again everyone and if you read my book, let me know what you think!
~Sarah


Evening Sept 1st, 2017

Harry trudged into his house later than he’d meant to. They’d discovered someone attempting to make Inferi, and the resulting paperwork and media hoopla had taken hours to sort through.

The first thing he saw was his daughter’s bright smile. She was already in hot pink pajamas, with her long hair plaited down her back. He gratefully sank down next to her on the couch, and she crawled in to his lap, for a hug. He didn’t have any idea what he was going to do when she was too big for cuddles. Probably cry.

Lily was so unlike the rest of the family, that he didn’t know how to describe her properly. She was smart, funny, caring, and didn’t have a single ounce of guile to her. She was secure in her place as the baby of a very large, extended family. She was sweet, and so carefree that just being in her presence was like breathing in fresh, spring air. Nothing bothered her for long. Lily was truly her godmother’s replica, except not as batty. Harry missed Luna, but Luna was a free spirit, traveling the world with her husband Rolf.

Harry sometimes wondered if they’d sheltered Lily too much. She didn’t really know of the troubles that her parents had gone through to get to where they were in life, but Lily seemed to encourage being sheltered, so he’d never pushed. Neither had anyone else; Lily had been left to love the world like a fairy.

She looked like Ginny. They had the same coloring and build. Lily was tiny, just like her mum, but in personality they couldn’t have been more different.

They didn’t fight, though. Lily wasn’t a fighter. She had guts, and courage, and she’d speak her mind when she felt called to, but she didn’t ever go out of her way to upset anyone just for the sake of being mean or making mischief. She saw her mother struggle against James, and she didn’t want to add to it.

“I love you, Daddy,” Lily told him grinning.

Harry wouldn’t ever tell her, because she probably knew anyway, that he appreciated that he was still Daddy, and not Dad. He didn’t want to keep her a baby, exactly, but he wasn’t ready for her to be a grown up either. “I love you, too, Lily Lu,” he said shortening her middle name down from Luna. “Did you and Hugo have a good day?”

“Yep,” she nodded. “We went and bugged Uncle George for a bit until he told us to scram. Uncle Ron was working on paperwork, so we didn’t see him at the shop. Then we went to pet the kittens at the Magical Menagerie, and Hugo got bit by a lizard, but he was okay. Then we went to The Burrow to have lunch with Gran and Granddad, then we came home and we spent the rest of the afternoon flying.”

“A busy day,” Harry sighed, enjoying the normalcy that he could give his children. His own life had never been that idyllic. It was a joy knowing it was their reality. Everything he’d worked for had paid off.

Unless the note writer turned out to be a psycho killer, of course. With Harry’s luck they might. But after nineteen years of unimpressive threats, he thought it was unlikely that they’d act now. It hadn’t intensified, and nothing overt had ever happened.

He tugged gently at Lily’s braid. “I think it’s probably bedtime.”

“Yes,” Lily agreed heavily, her big brown eyes peeking up at him through long lashes. “I asked Mummy if I could stay up to say goodnight. I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” he assured her as he hugged her close and kissed her one last time. “Off to bed with you, then.”

“I want you to come home on time tomorrow,” Lily told him as she stood. “Tomorrow is my day, okay?”

Harry grinned despite himself. He and Ginny had worked out a system where by she’d tell him exactly what she wanted, needed, or expected of him, and he did his absolute best to fulfill it. He was rubbish at subtlety, and this had saved them a lot of heart ache and fights.

Lily had picked up on this early on. Rather than sulking, or getting upset, she simply told him what she needed from him. It was a beautiful system.

“I had a bit of a mess today,” Harry told her honestly. “If I can get it cleared up tomorrow I will be home early. That’s the best I can promise.”

“Okay,” she smiled broadly and skipped off for the stairs. “Night!”

He let his head flop back against the sofa, and let out a long breath.

“Wrapped,” came a voice from his right. He looked over from the living room into the kitchen and saw Ginny holding up her little finger.

Harry shook his head, and chuckled. “Yeah, well, guilty. She’s got everyone wrapped around her little finger. How was I supposed to resist?”

She strode over and sat next to him, pulling his hand onto her lap and entwining their fingers. “Something is bothering you.”

“Inferi, and the idiots who think they can conjure them, but can’t,” Harry grumbled.

Her brows knit as she studied his face. “Something else,” she prodded. “It takes a lot more than idiotic criminals to pull this line out between your eyes,” she said gently, tracing the line with her finger. “Tell me. You’ll feel better.”

Harry sighed and slid down a bit on the couch so he could lay his head in her lap, and let her fingers sooth him as they played through his hair.

Her fingers worked their way through his tension, rubbing at the stress and worry. He didn’t want anything to ruin the tranquility of his home. It was no longer under the Fidelius Charm, but it was still magically protected to the best of the Ministry’s ability. Harry didn’t want his kids living in a prison, cooped up like Sirius had been. But just sometimes…

Ginny fingers danced over his brow. “What’s wrong?”

He pulled his eyes opened and looked up into her beautiful face. The insanity that had always plagued his life had slowed considerably. In fact, for a few years, it was Ginny’s career with the Harpies that had made the press go nuts, rather than anything he’d done. Whatever the note was, it wasn’t a threat at that moment. No one had gone after him for being ‘Harry Potter’ in a long time. Instead it was his title as Head Auror that had made him a target.

The world was peaceful, and he didn’t want to ruin that by telling her. But Harry wouldn’t lie to her, so there was no choice to it. “I got another note.”

“Oh,” Ginny nodded. She didn’t need any other information. She knew what that meant. “Are you going to investigate it?”

He shrugged helplessly. “I’ll try, but I doubt it will go anywhere.” He’d refused to waste any more Ministry resources on the anonymous notes, especially when there was no imminent threat. He’d put their house under Fidelius Charm several times because of the notes. But he’d given up after the fourth one.

“Are you hungry?” Ginny asked.

He shook his head. “Hermione had food sent to my office when she realized we were both going to be there late.”

She laughed and her chuckle was low and throaty. “Poor Ron looked harassed when he came for Hugo. I took pity on him, and fed them supper.”

“You took pity on Ron?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” Ginny waved that off. “Hugo.”

~*~

They arrived at the huge castle and Nat stared up at the lit windows and all the turrets, wanting to pinch herself. She couldn’t believe she was going to get to live here for seven years! They entered through a huge set of double oak doors and Nat was deposited in an anti-room.

“You’ll wait here,” Madam Pomfrey said. “The others will be in shortly.”

She left and a few minutes later a professor with a round face and kind eyes came in with all the other first years to wait for the Sorting. She’d been allowed to get up and Al gave her his arm, helping her to stand. “It’s all right,” she assured him. “I’m just a bit sore. Madam Pomfrey said it’s because I waited so many hours to get healed.”

Al continued to hold onto her as they walked into the Great Hall. Nat was thankful for his arm as she was a bit wobbly, although the room was amazing. It was huge with four long tables and the celling was beautiful, matching the night’s sky that she’d watched on her long ride up to the castle. The same man who had brought in the first years and had escorted them into the hall put an old, singed and battered pointed wizard’s hat on a stool up at the front of the hall and the hat began to sing, explaining all about the four houses. Nat couldn’t really concentrate, though. She was hungry and nervous and even though Al was helping to hold her up she thought she’d rather go lie down. The room was beginning to spin.

Al looked down at her and secured his arm around her more firmly. “You okay?” he asked.

A blond boy with a pinched face was on her other side. He glanced over at them when Al spoke and instantly moved to help prop her up on the other side. “You don’t look so good.”

Rose saw what was happened and said, “I’ll go tell Neville, er, Professor Longbottom.” She pushed her way up to the front and before the professor could start reading names she hurried up to him. Nat could tell Rose knew the man and knew him well even without her having slipped by having said his first name.

He bent down to her and after a few seconds he glanced back to Nat. He motioned to Madam Pomfrey as he walked over, the hat in his hand. “Here,” he said, gently guiding her down onto the end of one of the benches. His face was round and his eyes were very kind. “You’re Natalie Parker?”

“Yes,” she said and he plunked the hat onto her head.

It went straight down to her chin. “You’re going first and then you’re going up to the hospital wing.”

She vaguely heard Professor Longbottom and Madam Pomfrey talking and she said, “I just need to eat. Low blood sugar…” before the hat spoke into her head.

“You’re not difficult to place at all,” the hat said into her head. “Very smart and very kind, but above all you’re got a lot of courage, especially with the life you’ve led.” Then it shouted out loud, “GRYFFINDOR!” and she heard a bunch of people break into applause.

When the hat was pulled off her head so she saw a plate of sandwiches floating before her and she gratefully grabbed one and started to eat. “Thanks,” she said, trying to moderate her rate of eating. “I can’t go very long without eating, and my hip was hurting so badly on the train that I couldn’t each much.”

Madam Pomfrey helped guide her over to what Nat assumed was the Gryffindor table and Nat smiled at Fred whom she sat next to. “I’ll be all right, now,” she assured the nurse.

“We’ll look after her,” Fred told her and Madam Pomfrey went back up to the head table while the Sorting continued.

She looked down the table and blinked in surprise. “Fred…” she whispered quietly.

He turned his brown eyes back to her. “What’s up?”

“Is that a ghost?”

Fred looked down the table and then laughed. “Yeah, that’s Nearly Headless Nick. He’s the ghost of Gryffindor tower. He’s a good sport.”

Nat could only nod faintly and she was shortly joined by several more first years at their house table including the blond boy, Scorpius Malfoy, who had helped Al keep her on her feet. When the hat had shouted his house name there had been a brief pause, as if everyone had been in shock, before the Gryffindors began to clap.

“Scorpius, right?” Nat asked as he sat down across from her.

He slumped and nodded once. “My dad is going to kill me,” he told her quietly.

“Why?” Nat asked.

“I was supposed to be in Slytherin,” he grumbled.

She turned as she heard “Potter, Albus,” and watched as the hat rested on Al’s head for almost a minute before shouting “GRYFFINDOR!”

Al ran over looking happier than she’d seen him all day. He plopped down next to her and nicked one of her sandwiches. “Blimey, I’m glad that’s over. Dad was right; I just had to tell the hat that I wanted to be in Gryffindor.” He glanced curiously at Scorpius. “I thought you’d be in Slytherin.”

“So did I,” Scorpius said miserably. “I’m never going to be able to go home!”

Nat held out a sandwich to him. The plate kept refilling itself. “Here, take a few bites and you’ll feel better.”

He took it and after a big bite said, “Thanks.”

Rose was last, but finally she was called up. “Weasley, Rose,” and no sooner had the hat landed on her head than it shouted “GRYFFINDOR!” and she happily came over to sit next to Scorpius, across from Nat and Al. “I’m so glad!” she said.

Nat goggled in amazement as platters of food suddenly appeared before them, with all of her favorite foods and many others that she didn’t even recognize. She loaded up her plate.

“So Al,” a boy who looked remarkably like him only a little older and with brown eyes said, leaning towards them. “Did the hat want to put you in Slytherin?”

That must be James, Nat thought. She could see that Al’s brother liked to wind him up and from the pink that was staining Al’s cheeks, Nat knew it was working. “Are you James?”

He focused on her, then. “Yep, and you’re Natalie- the one who trips a lot.”

“That’s me,” she agreed affably. It took a lot more than one twelve-year-old boy to rattle her. She’d spent large chunks of her life in war zones and around guerilla fighters. Nat pitched her voice so that it would carry down the table. “Is it true that you got a month’s worth of detentions last year because you came down to breakfast in just your pink flowered underpants?”

Several people laughed. Fred spit pumpkin juice from his nose and James’ mouth fell open. “No! Blimey, where did you hear something like that?”

“A few third years were saying that as they walked by our compartment today,” Nat lied smoothly. “Hmm, amazing how these odd rumors start. Well,” she amended, lowering her voice again so that only those around her would hear, “if it wasn’t a rumor flying about before it certainly will be now.”

A red-haired boy next to James elbowed him. “She got you, mate.”

“Shut it, Louis,” James growled as his face turned beet red.

Ah, Cousin Louis, Nat realized. She could feel Al shaking next to her with suppressed mirth. Rose and Scorpius were openly laughing. James eyed her shrewdly and Nat thought he’d taken her measure. He wasn’t likely to try anything around her for a while.

Madam Pomfrey came over to her as they were getting ready to head up to bed and told her that she would let the house-elves know that Nat needed food regularly and that if she needed food at any time she would simply have to call out for food from a house-elf and one would bring her something.

Nat waited until she was walking up with Al, Rose, Scorpius and the other first years up to what their Prefect had called Gryffindor Tower to ask, “What’s a house-elf?”

“They’re these little creatures who help keep Hogwarts running. They clean and cook and stuff,” Al told her.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get used to all of this,” Nat whispered, but she didn’t really care. This was another new adventure in a life that had been full of them, and she was ready for the challenge. It didn’t even shock her too much when she saw all the people moving about in the portraits.

~*~

“We have our first letter!” Ginny called through the house as she gently took the scroll off the leg of Al’s owl, Nero. She patted the owl and gave him a treat before bidding him to rest for a bit so she could send a letter back. Nero nibbled her finger for a moment before taking off for the perch that they left in the kitchen. Slowly she walked over to the kitchen table and sat.

Lily came scrambling into the room and over to Ginny’s side. “Did he mention me?”

“Yep,” Ginny promised, pointing to the first line. “He says he misses us already.”

“What else!” Lily asked, trying to read over her shoulder. “Mum, please!”

“Hang on,” Ginny soothed. She frowned as she kept reading. “Woah, Harry! You need to hear this.”

Lily huffed as she sat next to her mother, and stared at her. As soon as Ginny heard Harry’s footsteps coming into the kitchen, she began to read.

“Dear Mum, Dad and Lily. We got here safely and I was sorted into Gryffindor, and so was Rose. I miss you already. School is fun, but hard, and it isn’t like home, only don’t tell James I said that.

Rose and me met a girl on the train named Natalie. She fell and we helped her get her things on, but she broke her leg or something. Victoire had to send ahead so she could be seen by Madam Pomfrey. She’s really nice, and she’s in Gryffindor too. James started to tease me, but she put him in his place and James hasn’t said anything to me since. I think she scares him, which is funny ‘cause she’s smaller than Lily and dead clumsy.”

Ginny paused there, and looked up at Harry, a little flummoxed. “How did a tiny, klutzy first year get the better of James?”

“I have no idea,” Harry laughed. “But if so I want to meet her. And learn her ways.”

“Daddy,” Lily rolled her eyes. “Please, I want to hear the rest of the letter.”

“Sorry,” Harry smirked at Ginny. “Please continue.”

Ginny took a deep breath, and read on. “My housemates are Fabien Smithe, but he goes by Smitty because he hates his name. I told him that was my great uncle’s name, though. Then there’s Ansel Leathen, Matthew Kingston, and Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius isn’t what I thought. He was scared to be put in Gryffindor and he says his dad will disown him. He’s really nice, though, and him, me, Rose and Nat have been hanging out together.

“My first day was fine. Classes were hard, but it wasn’t too bad. I hated History of Magic, but Nat can memorize stuff really fast, so she’s helping. I helped her in Defense, which is my favorite class so far.

“We have flying lessons tomorrow, so I need to get to sleep. I’ll write again soon.

“Love, Al.”

“Scorpius Malfoy,” Harry mouthed. “Oh, Merlin, Draco must be livid.”

“Poor kid,” Ginny said, frowning down at the letter. “I hate that he’s been put in this position.”

Harry came over and rested his hands on her shoulders. “If he was put in Gryffindor, he’s got the courage to go against his family. His house will help him with that. Remember Sirius did that with my dad.”

She patted his hand, and glanced up at him. Ginny read the concern on his face, and wondered if he’d discovered anything about the letter writer. He shook his head almost imperceptibly, like he’d read her mind, and she nodded.

“Can I see the letter, please?” Lily asked, holding out her hand for it. Ginny handed it over, and watcher her daughter’s expressive face as she read through it again quickly. When she looked back up, she looked upset. “His family wouldn’t really kick him out, would they?”

“No,” Harry said firmly. “His dad loves him, Lils, but he’s definitely going to have to get over the shock.”

She sniffed, and turned her troubled eyes back up to him. “I hope he and Al stay friends. Al will look out for him.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. Al definitely would.

~*~

“Madam Pomfrey told me I was not to get on a broom,” Nat told Madam Hooch right before their first broom lesson. “She thinks I’ll hurt myself.”

“Nonsense,” Madam Hooch boomed out. “You’ll do fine.”

Nat doubted that, but she went to stand next to Al. “Up!” Nat said to her broom as she’d been instructed. It zoomed away from her. She knew that wasn’t a good sign since Al’s broom had flown straight up into his hand. Could the broom tell that she was a walking disaster? It was a shame, too. Nat rather thought she’d like flying. She went to retrieve it and mounted it as instructed. They went up into the air a bit, and came back down. That was fine. They did that several more times, but the third time something odd happened. Nat was sitting on the broom, but before it could rise more than three feet off the ground, it suddenly turned over and dumped her onto her head. “Ouch!” she groaned as she sat up. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt, just annoyed. “That’s not nice,” she groused, shaking her fist at the broom. It seemed to be mocking her, though, because it flew away to hide behind Madam Hooch.

Al touched down next to her and Madam Hooch looked dumbfounded. “I’ve never seen a broom do that!” she said, utterly amazed.

“Come on, Nat,” Al said, holding out a hand to her. “Climb on with me.” He pulled her on in front of him.

“Mr. Potter-”

“I’ve been flying since I was one and I often take my sister along with me. We’ll be okay. I won’t go high up.” Al sounded confident for the first time since Nat had met him. She relaxed back into him, his one arm around her waist, the other on the broom.

“All right,” Madam Hooch said reluctantly. “But not high, Mr. Potter.”

“You’re even smaller than Lily and she’s nine,” Al comment and he pulled the broom up in the air.

The feeling was amazing! Nat never wanted to land and she wanted to go faster. “Please, Al?”

“No,” he said chuckling. “Madam Hooch will kill me.”

Scorpius was fighting hard not to laugh ask they walked back up to the castle. “I have never seen a broom do that.”

“The broom can tell I’m a disaster,” Nat told him with a giggle. “It knows how clumsy I am and tried to get away for its own safety.”

“You truly do have a gift for getting hurt, don’t you?” Rose asked.

“I really do,” Nat agreed amiably. “I fell in this mass grave once in Russia, right on top of a skeleton. My dad just about had a heart attack. Told me to go sit in the truck and not move.”

“Ew,” Rose gasped. “What on earth does your dad do?”

“He’s a forensic anthropologist,” Nat explained as they walked through the doors and to the Great Hall for lunch. “He looks at people’s bones to tell how they lived and died.”

“Really?” Scorpius asked his pale gray eyes lit with fascination. “How does he do that without magic?”

Nat piled turkey onto her plate and took a bite before trying to explain. She needed to eat before she could think clearly. “Well, the bones tell a lot. For instance, the bones wear out differently depending on what your job was or where you were born. He can tell about how old someone is just by looking at their teeth. I’m pretty good at it, too, but I do better with living people.” She pointed to Rose and then down the table to Fred. “For instance, I could see in your bone structure that you and Fred are related and that clearly he’s half black and half white.” She turned back to Al. “Although your coloring is similar to James, and you share the same cheek bones, your nose and the shape of your face and eyes are different and I can tell that you’re going to be built more like Fred, more beefy. James is likely to be taller and on the thin side.”

“Wow,” Al said, a little stunned.

“That’s amazing,” Rose agreed and Scorpius nodded.

Nat shrugged, trying not to show what it meant to her. “I have an eye for it… I often helped my dad on missing children cases and using the age progression software on his computer. He still can’t turn it on without breaking it. It’s… it’s not a lot of fun identifying the skeleton of kids, but in a way it’s also really rewarding.”

This time it was Scorpius who spoke. “Wow. I can’t believe you’ve done that. When did you start?”

“I was about six, I think,” Nat said quietly. “My dad and this bloke from Scotland Yard were arguing over whether or not the girl was one or the other. I was playing on the computer in the room with them and I plugged both pictures in and aged them up. It became obvious which girl it was.”

The three of them stared at her in silence for several long, tense moments.

“You’ve had a really interesting life,” Al finally said.

“That’s a nice way of putting it,” Nat said, taking a drink of her pumpkin juice.

~*~

The first few weeks of school were interesting. She went with Al and Rose to have tea with Hagrid, whom she liked very much even though she doubted that he could be totally human. They even dragged a reluctant Scorpius along. Scorpius and Hagrid had stared at each other for several long moments before Scorpius asked him a question about dragons and the tension was broken.

Her classes went well. Not surprisingly History of Magic was her best subject, although it had been a shock to see the ghost that was teaching it. She did all right in her other classes and by October she really felt like she was fitting in. Rose was the best in the year, although Scorpius was no slouch. He and Rose were often in competition to get the best marks and they always had a good laugh about it when one beat the other. She, Al, Rose and Scorpius were friends. Rose had told her why it was such a shock that they were friends with Scorpius, but they all agreed he was a good sport.

Gryffindor house initially held back from Scorpius, unsure as to what he was doing when the Malfoys had so long been in Slytherin. Once or twice some of the older students had made derogatory remarks that Nat hadn’t fully understood. The Weasleys, who followed Al and Rose’s lead on this one, didn’t stand for that and before long everyone knew that if they picked on him they had the entire Weasley clan to answer to. Even James reluctantly backed him up.

The comments from the Slytherins started almost immediately after the Sorting and hit a crescendo around the middle of October.

“Can’t believe a Malfoy ended up in Gryffindor,” one brown haired boy with big ears sneered. “Your father is going to die of shame.”

A blonde girl let out a shrill laugh. “I knew the Malfoy family was going down. None of the respectable families will want to associate with your parents anymore.”

Nat didn’t understand a lot about the blood politics but she did understand societies and the hierarchies in them among the so-called elite. “Yes, Scorpius,” Nat said sweetly. “What a shame you’ll have to stop the incessant inbreeding that this lot is clearly suffering from. Won’t it be a disgrace to not have to marry your first cousin and have a three-eyed baby?”

Al snorted, Rose laughed and Scorpius shot her an amused look. “I dunno. I always fancied a three-eyed baby.”

“You stupid mu-” but whatever the Slytherin boy was going to say was cut off when Al stepped in front of her. “Say it to me,” Al growled fiercely. He wasn’t any bigger, but Nat could see by the expression on the other kid’s face that size didn’t matter in this case.

“You can’t tell from looking at a person if they’ve got inbreeding!” one of the girls said, trying to sound confident but failing.

Nat rolled her eyes at her and lied through her teeth. “Of course I can! It’s clear that your family tree isn’t branching out enough. It’s why your features are so… well… unfortunate.”

The girl flushed and would have retaliated if Professor Longbottom hadn’t walked by at that moment. “Aren’t you all supposed to be in class?”

“Yes, Professor,” they all intoned and he watched as they walked off.

Al wasn’t going to let it go, though. “You leave Scorpius alone or you answer to me and my family. Is that clear?”

“We’re not afraid of you, Potter,” the big-eared boy snapped.

Rose shook her head sadly and rolled her eyes. “Stupid and inbred. Not afraid of Harry Potter’s son or the Weasleys when there are so many of us, including the Head Girl? Idiots.”

They left them standing there and just before they entered Transfiguration, Scorpius stopped them. “Thanks,” he said a little sheepishly.

“You’d have done the same for us,” Al told him clapping him on the back and Nat knew Al was right. Scorpius may not have known why he was put in Gryffindor, but it was apparent to Nat that he had a lot of guts.

~*~

James made the Quidditch team as one of the Chasers and they all groaned when they heard the news. He strutted around the castle for several days before Nat convinced Fred, who was a Beater on the team, to tell her how to turn James’ underpants pink. They stayed that way for an entire week and James, who couldn’t prove she’d done it although he suspected her, had stopped shoving it in everyone’s face that he was on the team.

Rose showed her how to send letters to her parents using the school owls and soon after her parents both decided that they were each buying an owl so that they could always be in touch with her, even when one of them was in America and the other was in Tanzania. Her dad’s reply to her told her that he’d been called back to Britain to help on a case and he’d popped in to Diagon Alley to get the owls. He’d had to explain to the shop owner that he needed owls smart enough not to show up when other Muggles were around, and they’d found two. One was a large barn owl and the other a beautiful eagle owl. The post was always slow because her parents could be anywhere in the world. If her mum was in Ireland then the owls came back fast, but with her dad in Africa it often took the owls weeks. The letters, however, made up for the grueling waits. They were always big fat letters telling her about their lives and gushing about hers.

Nat managed to break her arm only once and land in the hospital wing only twice in the first term. She was certain it was because Al stuck close to her all the time. He was a great bloke and she appreciated it. She’d also figured out that the Hogwarts house-elves were just about the best thing to the place. Any time she felt faint she just called for one and they showed up with food. “It’s like pre-diabetes,” Nat explained. She only got blank looks. “My blood sugar dropped really fast,” she told them. “That’s why the doctors think I’m so small and why I eat so much, although no sweets and not too many carbs.” Again blank stares. She blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay, you know when you’ve not eaten for hours and you’re really starving and sometimes it’s hard to think?” They all nodded. “I get like that all the time, especially when I haven’t eaten in two or three hours. I stop being able to think properly and I fall more. Sometimes I start to stutter or shake-- especially in my hands.”

“Oh,” Rose had said and they’d left it alone.

Back to index


Chapter 6: Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Have you checked out my book yet??? If you haven't, take a second, head to my profile and check it out! There is a FREE preview on many of the sites. Please, please, please at least go look :)

If you have read it, let me know what you think. I want to hear! Good and bad.


Thank you, Arnel, for all of your help!!!

I'm working on my third original right now. Once that is done I'll put more work into this story and might move to posting faster. I'm just very focused on the other story and can't hold two plots in the forefront of my brain. It will happen, though. My track record proves I do NOT leave things unfinished.

Review! Tell me what you think.


Harry walked slowly through the bowels of the Ministry, neither hurrying, nor strolling. He greeted colleagues and chatted amiably as he made his way through the storage rooms that were located in the level below the Department of Mysteries. It was mainly the archivists who worked down this low.

“Afternoon, Mr. Potter,” the head archivist, Maud Blanch whispered.

Harry had never heard her say anything above a whisper. If there was a fire, he was pretty sure no one would know because she didn’t seem capable of shouting. For all that, he liked the older woman, in her jumper with a puppy on the front, and her thin wire spectacles that were the exact gray of her hair. She was pleasant, efficient, and above all, more self-sufficient than any of the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries. “Evening, Mrs. Blanch,” Harry smiled blandly. “I need to visit the Auror’s archives.”

“Of course,” she waved him through.

Harry touched his wand to a metal disk in the wall, a routine he was very familiar with. The disk turned green as new spring grass, and he made his way through. If he’d not been himself, it would have turned red and he’d have been blasted by something that George had invented for the Ministry a decade earlier.

He walked more quickly now, bypassing several long rows of book cases, that were full of books, scrolls and labeled boxes, until he reached the one that contained all of his case notes from when he and Ginny had been poisoned nineteen years earlier. He dragged down the familiar box and hefted it over to a large, wooden table.

Harry stared down at the box as bile rose unbidden into his throat. No one was allowed to look in this box. He’d put a hex on it so that if anyone but himself touched it, the other person would be very sorry. It was the same curse used on the prophecies in the Hall of Prophesy.

Slowly, almost unwillingly, he removed the lid to dive once more into the only official record of his oldest child’s short life.

~*~

News came in the first week in December that her parents weren’t going to be home. Her mum was covering a UN peace summit and was sequestered with the other journalists in France. Her dad was stuck in South Africa looking at several thousand year old bones and couldn’t get back to England. Nat sighed. “I’m staying here for Christmas,” she told her friends.

“No you’re not,” Rose said, rolling her eyes. “You can come home with one of us. I’ll send an owl to Mum and let her work that out between her and Aunt Ginny.”

“I wish I could invite you over,” Scorpius said morosely, “but even I don’t want to go home. My dad was livid when he heard I’d been Sorted into Gryffindor. He still hasn’t written to me. Mum says he’ll get over it, but I know Christmas is going to be awful.”

“Want to come to my house?” Al asked, looking concerned.

Scorpius shook his head. “That would be worse, trust me. My dad may not hate yours, but they’re not exactly pals. He’s not going to be pleased when he figures out we’re friends.”

Rose eyed him curiously. “Are you going to let that stop you?”

“No,” Scorpius assured her quickly. “The old pureblood ideal isn’t for me. I’ve always thought it was rubbish. My grandparents nearly lost everything because of You-Know-Who.”

“Voldemort,” Al and Rose said together.

Nat had been told the full story months before and laughed. “How about just calling him Tom Riddle, then?”

It was worked out that Nat would stay with Al’s family for the holidays. Rose’s family was going to be spending a few days with her Muggle grandparents so they weren’t going to be home the whole time.

“You’ll like my parents,” Al told her as they walked off the train. He grabbed her arm and pulled her upright as she nearly fell. He didn’t miss a beat and kept talking. “My mum is a great cook and my dad is really funny. Lily is a lot of fun, too.”

“I’ll see you three later,” Scorpius grumbled as he saw his parents. “This holiday isn’t going to be a laugh.”

“See if you can come over,” Al said to him. Scorpius only shrugged, hunching his shoulders as he walked off.

“Come on, you two,” James hollered and they waved to Scorpius as he walked away.

James was already standing next to two older people and a small, red headed girl. Nat saw with a shock that Lily, for she couldn’t be anyone else, was beautiful. It was not usual for nine-year-olds to already be so attractive, but Nat could tell she would be stunning when she was grown. She turned to study Al’s parents and saw that Lily looked nearly identical to her mum, and Al was the spitting image of her dad although his dad’s hair was starting to gray a bit. She saw the facial discrepancy that she’d noticed between Al and James. James’ face was more along the lines of his mother, but not identical. He probably bore a stronger resembles to a grandparent.

“Hi, Nat,” Mrs. Potter said warmly as Mr. Potter took her bag from Al, giving him a hug. Al had refused to let her carry it, stating she needed both hands to keep herself upright. Nat had laughed. It was the truth.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Nat grinned, trying not to be nervous. “My parents are really grateful as well.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Mr. Potter assured her as they walked to the car. “Al and Rose have told us all about you.”

“We couldn’t let you spend Christmas alone,” Mrs. Potter assured her with a warm smile.

It wasn’t like a normal car, Nat realized quickly. The seats were extremely spacious and all four kids fit well into the backseat. The ride was easy, the four of them bantering back and forth. Nat realized quickly that she was going to love Lily, who was fun and funny and didn’t take anything from anyone. They arrived at a house that was down a long, winding tree-lined drive up to a large, ivy covered walls. Nat followed Al inside, looking around at the home. There was a sitting room off to the right and an open kitchen and dining room towards the back of the house.

“You’re in with me,” Lily told her, and led her up to her bedroom. She had bunk beds with lilac coverings. “I’m on the top,” Lily said as Al followed in, putting Nat’s bag on the bottom bunk.

“I told her to do that,” Al winked at her.

Nat playfully punched his arm as he walked out.

“Come down, you lot,” Ginny called. “The family will be here shortly for dinner.”

“Everyone?” Nat asked Lily who nodded.

“Yep, the whole family gathers the first evening they all get home for the hols. It’s a tradition and we’ve got the biggest house, so we usually host. It takes a long table to seat us all.”

Nat and Lily wandered into the kitchen to find Al’s parents locked together and laughing as they kissed each other. They would have beaten a hasty retreat, but James skidded into the kitchen, sliding on his sock covered feet, and called out, “Gross!”

“Don’t look,” Al’s dad said and James rolled his eyes as they continued kissing. They were a lot like Nat’s parents, so she didn’t mind.

Within thirty minutes the house was full to bursting and Nat was in heaven. She’d never been to a really noisy family get-together. Her parents were only children, all of her grandparents had died before she was born and she didn’t have any other living relatives. Everyone laughed, argued, and enjoyed each other and she instantly felt welcomed.

“What do your parents do?” Bill Weasley asked her during dinner. It had given her a start to see him for the first time. His face looked as if it had been mauled by an animal, although Rose had given her the full story weeks before, so she knew it was a werewolf. It looked like it had been very painful, though.

“My dad is a forensic anthropologist,” which she went on to quickly explain, “And my mum is a journalist; Curtis and Julienne Parker.”

Bill looked impressed. “I’ve heard of your dad. He’s really well respected in the Muggle world, did a lot of work in Egypt while I was there for a short trip a few years back. I didn’t get a chance to meet him, but I’ve always wanted to.”

“I wish you’d have had the chance!” Nat exclaimed. “I’d have met you then as well. I’ve been with my dad pretty much all the time since I was a baby.”

“Really?” Gran Molly probed as she dished more food onto Nat’s plate. “What about your mother dear?”

Nat groaned as she tasted the truly excellent potatoes. “These are amazing!” she exclaimed after she swallowed. “Erm, well, Mum was around as much as she could be when a big story wasn’t breaking. She stayed with Dad and me almost constantly between Cambodia, Australia and South Korea ‘til I was about one, and then Dad took over most of my care with the help of a nanny till I was five and my nanny got married. I traveled around with him to various places while he worked. They wanted me to go to a boarding school when I was five, but I refused. So I’ve been doing homeschooling online.”

“Online?” Roxy asked.

“You know,” Rose said. “My Granger grandparents have that computer that connects to other computers using the internet– you know, online. I showed it to you last summer when we were there.”

“Oh right!” Roxy said, cottoning on.

“But you wanted to go to Hogwarts?” Teddy asked. Nat had been momentarily surprised when she met him. His hair was bright blue, but oddly enough looked natural on him. She noticed that he sat close to Victoire and they smiled at each other a lot.

Nat shrugged. “Can’t learn magic online. Besides, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I love being with Dad and traveling around the world, but I don’t want to be an anthropologist.”

Hermione studied her, in a way that let Nat know that she knew people. “You’re an unusual eleven-year-old, Nat. In a good way, of course, but you talk like an adult.”

Nat flushed but that wasn’t the first time she’d heard it. “Yeah, well… I’ve had a weird childhood and most of my time was spent with extremely brilliant adults, so I had to learn fast to talk to them and ask good questions or they wouldn’t have let me participate and I’d have been bored out of my skull. It’s sad to say that the weirdest part of my life hasn’t been going to Hogwarts, but I love the castle! I don’t have to move all the time and I can make and keep friends. We don’t really have a home of any kind, just a tiny flat we keep in London to store a few things and crash in when we’re in town.”

“How many languages do you speak?” Percy Weasley asked her, pushing his glasses up further on his nose.

Nat bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling, counting. “Erm, thirty or so.” Everyone gasped. “I don’t speak most of them fluently!” she assured them hastily. “Some of them are dead languages, and several are fairly useless unless you’re in a remote part of Africa, but I played with a lot of kids all over the world so I know a lot of slang.”

“What about swear words?” George asked and ducked as his wife tried to slap him upside the head.

“George!” Gran Weasley hollered.

Nat smiled sheepishly. “Much to my father’s chagrin I can curse fluently in several languages. The workers at digs didn’t often censor their tongues, but I don’t use them. My dad always says that it’s better to think up different words to express what you’re feeling.” She sighed. “Dad and I rarely stayed in one place longer than three to six months, but I pick up languages quickly.”

“She’s got an excellent memory,” Rose added. “She can go around the room and name all of you.”

Nat blushed hard and wanted the conversation off of her. “But I can’t fly a broom.”

“That’s true,” Al added laughing. “The broom dumped her off.”

“Really?” Harry blurted out. “You mean you fell?”

“No, it was weird, Dad! She was on and it turned her upside down so she’d fall off!”

“The broom knew I was a disaster waiting to happen, so it shook me off before I could get too high,” Nat added helpfully while everyone laughed. “I love to fly, though! Al’s taken me up a few times.”

“She wanted to go a lot faster than the school brooms can go. Dad’s the one you should fly with on one of the Firebolts.” Al told her. “He can go wicked fast; so can Mum.”

The conversation thankfully moved off her and Nat took in everything, deflecting James from tormenting Al and getting into a lively discussion with one-eared George (he insisted she call him that although Ron dryly referred to him as ‘the holey one’) about the joke shop which George and Ron ran together.

After dinner Nat followed Al to the living room and tripped on a rug, nearly pitching into Al. Al’s reflexes were excellent, though, and he caught her before she could hit her head.

“Do you always do that?” Audrey Weasley asked her, walking over to them. She seemed to be sizing Nat up, literally, taking in her tiny stature. She tucked her chestnut hair behind her eat.

“All the time,” Nat said, trying to keep her sense of humor over it and not get embarrassed. “At least now that I’m in the Wizarding world I don’t have to deal with casts or surgery anymore.”

The brunette cocked her head, looking at her through her glasses. “Did you have a lot of ear infections as a child?”

Nat was flummoxed. “Yeah, I had to get tubes when I was six and everything, but I still get them several times a year.”

“Hmm, would you mind if I had a look?” Audrey asked and explained, “I’m a Healer which is just like a doctor.”

“No, please look,” Nat said and she sat in the chair that Audrey pointed to.

She used her wand and muttered some spells. Victoire had come over and she asked a few questions using words that Nat didn’t totally understand. “You were in Egypt, you say?” the Healer asked and Nat nodded. “Ever in a tomb?”

“Mhmm,” Nat said. “I got lost in one, once. My dad was frantic and it took nearly two days for me to find my way back. They thought I’d been kidnapped. I was only about three and Dad had no idea how I’d gotten away from the nanny, let alone into the tomb. I spent weeks in hospital after that one.”

“Bill, come look at this,” Audrey called to him. “I’m surprised Poppy missed it.”

She pointed her wand into Nat’s ear and Bill whistled. “I’ll be damned. I haven’t seen that curse in years.”

“Curse?!” Nat squeaked as everyone else around her said the same.

“It’s not really a surprise Poppy missed it,” Bill said fairly. “You only get that in Egypt. She’s probably never seen a case before.”

“Curse?” Nat repeated, trying not to sound as hysterical as she felt.

“It’s called Mortuorum Ambulantum. We can fix that,” Audrey assured her. “You’ll probably always have some scarring, but we can lift the curse and get rid of some of the scarring which should help with your balance.”

“Do you have problems with your blood sugar?” Bill asked her. “You’re so small, though, it’s really obvious what it is.”

“She does,” Al said, sounding odd. “You can really help her?”

“Of course,” Audrey smiled. “Let’s do that now, then. No need to put it off when she can barely walk without falling. I need a particular potion for the scars but I can go by Floo over to St. Mungo’s and get that while Bill deals with the curse.”

Bill grimaced. “Come on, Nat, you’re going to want to lie down for this one. It’s going to hurt– a lot.”

“I’ll bring back a pain potion as well,” Audrey said and she went over to the fireplace.

Nat barely had time to register that the woman had disappeared into green flames in the fireplace before she was led over to a squashy sofa. Al followed her over and sat down next to her hip on the sofa, taking her hand. Nat saw Ginny and Gran exchange a glance, but she couldn’t read what they were silently communicating. Rose hovered around, looking concerned.

“Ready, Nat?” Bill asked.

“Ready,” Nat agreed, trying not to be nervous. It didn’t matter if it hurt. If she’d stop falling over her feet all the time it would be worth it.

Bill uttered a spell, but it was forgotten in a blinding flash of pain that was so intense that she could hardly breathe. She squeezed Al’s hand and bit down on her lip, trying to keep herself from screaming. It felt almost like a headache, but it burned and was razor sharp in its intensity. It seemed to drag on for hours, but finally the pain faded and she found herself shaking and a woman’s arms around her, holding her. “It’s okay, it’s all over,” Ginny’s voice floated softly into her ears which were ringing a bit. “You’re all right now, Nat.”

Nat was clammy, the hand in Al’s was limp now, and Ginny was stroking her brow just as Nat’s mother would have done if she’d been here.

“I’ve got it,” Nat heard Audrey say. “Here, Nat, drink this. It’s going to tickle in your ears, but then it will be over with. I’ll give you a pain potion and you can get some sleep.”

Nat drank. It tasted terrible, but the itching that followed was like nothing she’d ever felt. She wanted to claw the sides of her head off. She heard Audrey telling Ginny that the scarring was really bad and that Nat had been cursed so long ago that she didn’t know how much was going to be repaired. Al held one hand away from her head in a strong grip and Nat knew Bill held the other to keep her from scratching while Ginny simply held her. The pain and itching crested and then faded.

Nat was drained in a way that she’d never been before. Something was pressed to her lips and she drank without any real thought. The pain faded to nothing. Then competent, practiced arms were lifting her, carrying her up the stairs, setting her on the bed. She felt a mother’s hands, so gentle that she knew they had to belong to one of the mothers, wiping her brow with a warm, wet cloth. Her shoes were removed, the covers lifted up to her chin and Nat fell heavily into sleep.

~*~

As soon as Nat was in her bed, Ginny pulled Harry in to their room and shut the door. She stared at him.

“What?” he asked, unable to resist running his fingers through her loose hair.

“If that were my daughter,” she said finally, “I’d want to know what happened. We need to find them and try to get them here.”

“Gin,” Harry sighed and pulled her in close. “Luv, I know how you feel, but the red tape involved in getting those sorts of permits would take weeks. I can’t make that happen.”

She sniffed.

Harry groaned softly, and knew he was sunk. Whatever it was about Natalie, she’d pulled a string in Ginny’s heart, and now the thought of her going through this without her parents was reducing his unbelievably stoic wife to tears.

“I’m not crying,” she protested unconvincingly. She didn’t raise her eyes from his shirt, and he was reasonably certain he’d find a wet spot there. “I’ve got allergies.”

“Since when?” he probed. “I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed that.”

Ginny slowly curled her fingers in until they were clutching at his shirt. “Harry… that little girl is in a house full of strangers, and she’s just gone through a very painful healing. I’m asking you to play your Harry Potter card and get her parents here. Tomorrow, preferably.”

When she finally looked up, her eyes were dry, but red. “I don’t know that I can,” Harry admitted slowly. “It would take a lot of cooperation, and most everyone is on holiday right now.”

Her lower lip trembled, even as she bit it and looked away.

Harry swore softly, and pulled her back against him. Every so often something like this would get to her, and she’d be unreasonably upset over something that he couldn’t possibly fathom. Except it always had a root, and the root typically lay not far away in their backyard, in the small clearing along with Hope’s grave.

“Okay,” Harry assured her firmly. He cupped her cheeks and kissed her tenderly. “I’ll make this happen. Between myself, Hermione, Percy and your dad we should have enough connections.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. He could see the gratitude in her eyes, and knew she was glad he hadn’t mentioned her tears. It had taken him a lot of years to learn to read his wife, but he had a reasonable grasp on it now.

He nodded and took her hand. “Let’s go make this happen.”

~*~

Nat woke slowly, and blinked her eyes open to find Audrey Weasley sitting in a chair next to her bed, reading a book. She looked up and smiled kindly at her. “How are you feeling?”

“Odd,” Nat admitted honestly.

“I can imagine. We’ve tracked down your parents to let them know what’s happened. Harry and Ron sent word that they’re bringing them back with them. Hopefully, they’ll be here tonight.”

“Really?” Nat said breathlessly, hope filling her. “You’re sure?”

She smiled kindly. “Well, we can’t be sure they’ll make it tonight. Your dad might not get here ‘til tomorrow, but they’re both thrilled that you’ve been cured, or mostly anyway. I’d like to have another look at your ears.”

“Of course!” Nat said, sitting up slowly. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or not, but she thought she might be hearing better than she had ever before, although she was dizzy.

Once again Audrey performed the same exam on Nat. “Well, it’s definitely loads better. Bill and Victoire are going to want to see this if you don’t mind. Victoire has been studying with me to become a healer. Still, you’re not totally better. As I said you had a lot of scar tissue and some is still there so your balance isn’t ever going to be perfect, but you should trip less often.”

“Well, that’s something,” Nat said, thankful for it.

“I’m not sure you’ll ever catch up with your height either. You’re always going to be small for your age, but you should make some progress that way.” Audrey pulled Nat’s hand out in front of her and had her hold it in the air. Nat saw it shaking and knew what that meant. “I’m afraid the blood sugar issue is likely to remain and may even get worse if you’re not careful about what you eat. As I said, you had the curse for years, longer than most people do. It’s actually amazing that one of the curse-breakers didn’t hear about it and have you cured shortly after you came out of the tomb. Bill was telling me last night that they’d healed a bunch of Muggles over the years. Here,” she handed Nat a glass with juice, which Nat drank down, only spilling a little bit with her shaking hands, then a slice of turkey. “Eat up and then you can head downstairs for a late breakfast.”

After breakfast Ginny told Al that he could take Nat up on her Firebolt 2. “Really?” Nat asked, not daring to believe she’d heard right.

“Yes, but Al, you hold tight to her and don’t go too fast. Just fast enough,” Ginny said winking. “I’d take you up myself, but I’m preparing for your parents to stay with us and I’ve got an article to finish.”

The morning would have dragged on if it hadn’t been for flying with Al, James and Lily. Their house was set on sixteen acres and without any chance of being spotted by Muggles they were allowed to fly anywhere within sight of the house.

“Faster, Al!” Nat screamed, throwing her arms up in the air, reveling in the feeling of the cold air stinging her face.

His grip on her waist tightened. “I can’t go faster while holding you and the broom. You hold on tight and I’ll speed up.”

They landed a while later when they heard Al’s mum holler. Nat hopped off the broom and threw her arms around Al’s waist for a tight hug. “That was amazing.”

He hugged her back somewhat awkwardly, but his sheepish smile said he was pleased.

Teddy, still with his blue hair, was sitting at the kitchen table when they piled into the room and Nat did a double take. “What happened to your face?” she asked, sitting across from him and taking a large bite of her sandwich. “Your nose is off slightly and your cheek bones aren’t right.”

He looked genuinely surprised. “I hardly did anything to change them today. It’s supposed to be subtle.”

“Your bone structure doesn’t match, like you’re wearing prosthetics or something. Here,” she stood up and leaned over the table, poking at his nose. “Your nose should end right here, lower down and your cheek bones are down here, but your cheeks are puffier than they should be, considering your weight. Did you do magic to change?”

Teddy winked at her as she sat back, screwed up his face and created a pig’s snout for a nose. Everyone laughed. “I’m a Metamorphmagus, which means I can change my appearance at will.”

“Amazing,” Nat said, really impressed. “If you meet my dad, make sure you do that to him. It will drive him nuts till he figures out what the differences are in your face.”

Teddy grinned. “I’ll do that.”

“So what do you do?” Nat asked before taking another bite.

“I’m in Auror training for another year and a half, which is sort of like a policeman,” he said, also digging into his lunch. “My mum was an Auror and my godfather is the head of the Auror department, so they just let me in.”

“No, they didn’t,” Ginny said, rolling her eyes and ruffling his hair affectionately. “You worked hard in school to get top marks and you earned your place. We’re really proud of you!”

Lily giggled. “Teddy’s going to hurt the bad guys and Victoire will get to patch them up again. They’re quite a match. Are you going to get married soon?”

Teddy’s face went scarlet. “It’s a good thing you’re cute, Lily-Lu, ‘cause that question is getting old.”

“When you have a baby can I mind it?” Lily asked him propping her chin on her hand, her face masked in innocence.

“Lily!” Ginny choked out, trying to inject a scolding note into her tone, but failing when she laughed.

Nat could see Lily was having Teddy on, and he apparently knew it as well. “Funny, Lily… really amusing.”

They cleared the table and Ginny sent them into the sitting room with Teddy while she tidied up some. Teddy grabbed Lily around the waist and hauled her up into his arms, tickling her. “What’s the meaning of teasing me, huh? Just because you’re adorable doesn’t mean you can get away with everything!”

“Just wait until she’s older,” Nat commented, grinning at their antics. “Lily is going to be gorgeous.”

They all stopped and looked at her. “Really?” James asked, somewhat taken aback.

“Oh, yeah, definitely. I wish I had my dad’s computer. I could show you. I tried to learn to draw by hand, but I’m no good.”

“I can draw,” James told her. “I’m really good at faces.”

An impish smirk flitted over Nat’s face. “Get some paper and a pencil, then.”

Nearly an hour had passed and everyone was still standing behind James, except for Lily who was wiggling in a seat across from them. “Can I see yet?”

Nat said “Not yet,” at the same time that James said “No!”

“The eyes still aren’t quite right, right here,” Nat pointed. “They’re still a little too narrow. Yes, like that. Okay, the other one. Excellent.”

“What are you kids up to?” Harry Potter asked and they all jumped.

Nat looked up and saw, to her utter delight, her father standing next to Harry. “Dad!” she yelled, and ran to throw herself in her father’s arms. It felt truly excellent to have one of his hugs again.

“Hey Peanut,” he whispered into her hair, kissing her brow. “I have missed you so much.”

“Me, too,” she said.

Harry’s voice made them both look over at him. He was standing there, looking down at James’ drawing that he held in his hand. “What on earth is this?”

“It’s what Lily is going to look like when she’s eighteen,” James told him proudly.

Nat watched Harry’s hand that held the drawing start to shake and he sat heavily down on the sofa, staring dumbfounded at the picture. “No, no way. I cannot handle having a daughter that’s this beautiful.”

Lily went over to see the picture, perching herself in her dad’s lap. “Wow, I am beautiful!”

Harry groaned and closed his eyes, letting his head fall back. “This is going to kill me, Lily Luna. We’re going to have to lock you up to keep you safe.”

“You’re not locking me up. Mum won’t let you.” Lily put her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek, before resting her head on his chest. His arms came around her and he held her tight. “It will be all right, Daddy.”

“I’m not so sure about that. Have you seen how old your Uncle Bill is looking lately?”

“Yes, but Victoire is dating Teddy now and Uncle Bill likes Teddy so that’s all right,” Lily explained patiently.

Harry sighed. “Teddy is still a boy, and boys are not to be trusted.”

“Hey!” Teddy griped good-naturedly. “Besides, you’re the head of the Auror department, Harry. It’s not like just any bloke would ask Lily out.”

“Not to mention killing Tom Riddle,” Nat added. “I’ve heard that counts for something.”

Harry smiled wryly.

“Can I see the rendering?” her dad asked, holding out his hand for the picture. He kept his other arm around Nat and she was happy to stay snuggled into his side. Her dad studied it carefully and looked back at Lily. “This is an excellent job, Nat, as always. I agree that you’ve got her nailed. You drew this?” he looked over to James who nodded. “Quite a talent you have, young man.” Then she felt her dad stiffen as he looked at Teddy who was wearing a playful grin. “What on earth have you done to your face?”

Everyone, except her dad, laughed while Teddy explained.

~*~

Her mother arrived shortly before dinner with Al’s Uncle Ron. Her mother spent several minutes with her before setting to work helping Ginny finish up the dinner preparations. When Nat looked in on them she saw them laughing and talking.

Dinner was fantastic and the conversation flowed easily around them. Her parents knew how to fit in anywhere, but they seemed to have a genuine connection to Al’s family even though they were Muggles. After dinner Audrey and Bill came by to talk about what had happened to Nat.

“Bill Weasley,” Bill said, holding out a hand to shake her father’s.

“Curtis Parker, my wife Julienne,” her father said, studying Bill’s scarred face. “Animal attack?”

“Curtis!” Her mother gently smacked his arm. “It’s rude to ask!”

Bill laughed, “I’d have expected him to ask, Mrs. Parker. Yeah, in a manner of speaking it was an animal.”

“Julienne, please,” her mother said as they sat down around the sitting room. Nat sat between her parents, something that she didn’t get to do often.

“I’m Audrey Weasley, a Healer, which is like a doctor,” she explained. “I noticed yesterday how small Nat is for her age, although she doesn’t appear to have achondroplasia. Then she said she’d been in Egypt which got me thinking.” Audrey smiled kindly at Nat. “Then I watched her trip and noticed just how bad her balance was and I asked to examine her. She told us about getting lost in the tomb when she was three and ending up in hospital for several weeks.”

Her mum and dad both let out a groan. “Those were the longest two days of our lives.”

“Was she average sized before that?” Audrey asked and her parents nodded. “So the recurrent ear infections began after, as I suspected. Most people who are cursed with Mortuorum Ambulantum are cured reasonably quickly, but Nat’s had this curse working in her for eight years, so it’s had time to do some damage. The honest truth is that I’ve never seen a case this advanced and we don’t really know what problems it might cause later on. I’m going to do some research, but it will take time. She might be a unique case. What I see in her ears is that there is scar tissue still present, but it is definitely improved. I will, of course, continue to monitor her in the months and years.”

“Most Muggles who are cursed end up dying,” Bill told them. “The curse attacks the adrenal system, which produces hormones in the body. Another side effect is damage to the ear canal. That leads to balance issues. The victims eventually fall one too many times because of their balance being damaged and fall off a cliff. Because Nat is magical, her magic would have saved her from the worst falls.”

Nat reached for her parents’ hands and held them, not wanting them to be scared. “I haven’t tripped once today, though, and I was able to go over three hours between breakfast and lunch without feeling bad.”

“That’s excellent,” Audrey said, clearly pleased.

Her dad cleared his throat. “So how did you examine her? With your, erm, wand I expect?”

“Yes,” Audrey said.

“That’s when she noticed the curse,” Bill explained, his hands folded between his knees as he leaned forward in his seat. “It’s a relatively common curse in the old Egyptian tombs. The ancient wizards would put it on to keep the Muggles out and doing them in before they could loot the tomb. They’d be cursed with recurrent and severe ear infections that would damage their balance and hearing. Left alone to work it rapidly weakens the adrenal system, which is why she’s hypoglycemic and so small. It might have left scarring on other systems in her body, but we’re not sure. As Audrey said, she’s one-of-a-kind. We’ve removed the curse and fixed a lot of the scar tissue, and Audrey gave her a potion that’s helped boost her glands to start working again, but some of the damage is permanent. She’s probably never going to be tall and her hypoglycemia is still present. But it’s a definite improvement.”

Nat heard her mother sniff and she saw, to her horror that her mother was crying. “Mum… don’t, I’m okay!” She leaned into her mother and wished she could say more.

“Thank you, all of you, for helping her. I’m so grateful,” her mother said.

“Yes, and thank you for coming to get us. Those Portkey things really make traveling a lot faster.” Her dad squashed her into a tight hug. “I’m glad we get this time with her.”

~*~

After dinner, Nat and Al’s parents congregated around the kitchen table drinking tea and talking while James, Lily, Al and Nat sat in the sitting room, playing wizard’s chess.

It was Al verses James. Nat and her father had been playing chess for years, but it was nothing like this. It was entertaining to watch the pieces shout instructions and warnings. She’d played a few times with Al. She was good, but she’d noticed that he and James seemed to have an instinct for playing.

“Ohhhhh,” Lily whispered excitedly. “Al’s got his check mate face on!”

Nat looked and saw the quiet triumph there.

James looked up, noting them and rolled his eyes. “All right, what am I missing, Al?”

Al pointed to the board and Nat saw how in the next move James would be in check mate. Nat wasn’t really paying attention to the game, though; instead she studied his face and the expression there. It hadn’t come over his face until after Al had James cornered. Interesting. “Does he always do that?”

“Yep,” Lily told her laughing. “It drives Uncle Ron nuts. He keeps trying to get Al to hold it in, but he never does.”

Al shrugged, sitting back. “If there isn’t anything that can change it, what’s the point?”

“Let’s spy on the parents,” James said suddenly, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He pulled something that looked like flesh colored string from his pocket and crawled over to the side of the couch.

“If Mum catches you, James…” Lily began but then moved over to him, smiling impishly.

Nat looked to Al for an explanation. “They’re called Extendable Ears. We’ll be able to hear into the kitchen. Mum and Dad don’t want us using them.”

“Oh… neat!” Nat said, taking the one James offered. She watched them snake towards the kitchen and towards the adults. She followed suit and stuck the end in her ear.

“She’s a savant about faces,” Nat’s dad was saying quietly. “I’ve never seen another person in all my years that could look at someone and age them up to whatever age I needed or deconstruct the faces and say who the parents could be or what their race would be. She’s got a gift with faces. She can do it with skulls too, but she’s better with a live face. I only get better results from a DNA test.”

“When did she start doing that?” Ginny asked.

There was a long pause and Nat guessed he was probably thinking back on it. She remembered it vividly. “I really started to notice it when she was three or four. She’d be toddling around when I was working with the sketch artists and she’d always take a look at the faces we were doing. There were times when she’d say ‘das not wight, Daddy. Da nose isn’t long enough.’” He sighed. “I can still remember her saying it, just that way. She was always right.”

“That’s amazing,” Harry said, sounding awed. Nat felt her cheeks flush.

“As soon as she figured out how to use the computer she starting using it to create the faces,” her dad said.

Her mum laughed. “It was good fun to watch her try to teach Curtis how to use the software. She was five! He never did get it. Nat would get anyone working with him to help her learn new things. He had several interns who taught her quite a lot.”

“She’s an amazing kid,” Ginny said again. “She talks like an adult.”

“We took her to a psychologist a few times, especially since she’s been exposed to a lot of things that most children wouldn’t normally see,” her mother told them.

Nat looked over at Al, who was studying her as he listened to their parents talking.

“We didn’t want her to be hurt by the work,” her dad explained. “The doctor spent a lot of time talking to her and said that she’s fairly well adjusted, clearly brilliant, and that she’s very typical of a homeschooled child, especially for an only child. They tend to talk more like an adult and don’t have problems talking to a wide range of people. Nat’s just… different… but in a very good way. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve asked for her expert opinion on several cases and been astounded by the fact that I consider her an expert even though she’s a child and has had no formal schooling on the subject. There are times when I look back and wonder if I shouldn’t have… if she’d have been better at a boarding school, but I believe she can understand just how much she’s helped people and that someday that will mean a lot to her.”

Nat pulled the Extendable Ear from her ear. She didn’t really want to hear anymore. She saw Al do the same and shortly after James and Lily. She crawled back over towards the couches and sat with her back against them, staring into the fire. They all sat around her, Al on her right side. He took her hand in his. “You okay?”

“It was really hard some days,” Nat whispered, seeing the flames dance. “I have seen a baby who had been murdered… well, just her skeleton really. It was tough, but I got an idea of what the parents might have looked like long before the DNA could come back. The police were able to catch them using facial recognition software from the drawing I came up with on the computer. I just… I see them. I see them for what they are.” She shuddered. “It was important work and I’m glad I did it, but I’m never going to get the image of that baby’s skull out of my head.”

Al’s arms came around her first, then James on her other side and finally Lily throwing herself on top of the pile in an awkward and amazing hug. Finally Lily sat back on her heals and asked, “What’s a savant?”

“Genius,” Al said quietly. “Nat’s a genius.”

“Well, we knew that,” Lily said, rolling her eyes and reaching for her mug of hot cocoa. “Why can’t they use normal words?”

“I’m not a genius,” Nat corrected. “I’m gifted, but not a genius. I just have an eye for faces, like my dad said. And,” she added with a small smile. “They didn’t expect us to be spying on them so why would they use easier words?”

“You’re a genius with languages, too,” James reminded her, ignoring her jab that they’d been spying. He went back to the chess board and started to reset. “Can you learn to speak Mermish because I have several questions about the giant–”

“Bedtime, you lot!” Ginny called, coming into the room. She eyed Nat and Al who were still sitting close together on the floor. “You two okay?’

Al answered for them. “Never better, Mum.”

Nat gave her parents hugs and went to bed not long after with Lily. She crawled into bed, snuggling under the soft, warm covers. “Night, Lily.”

“Night,” Lily said. She was quiet for almost five minutes and Nat was almost asleep when she spoke again. “Am I really going to be that beautiful?”

Nat yawned and rolled onto her side. “Yeah, you will be. You already are. As long as you remember that beauty is as beauty does, you’ll have the boys throwing themselves at your feet.”

There was a long pause before Lily asked, “What does that mean exactly?”

“Treat people well or it won’t matter what your face looks like– no one will want to be around you,” Nat explained. “Not that I think you’ll have a problem, though. You’re nice.”

“Still, I’ll remember that.” Lily let out a sigh. “Thanks, Nat.”

“Sure.”

Back to index


Chapter 7: Chapter 4

Author's Notes: Have you checked out the free preview of my book? Check my profile!!!!! Pretty please :D I made the top 50 in young adult books list on amazon. Thank you to everyone who has.

So this story... I haven't written anymore, because quite frankly my head is stuck in the original. Never fear, as soon I'm through with the other, I will focus on this one. Full stop, tons of work on it. Promise. You can show your support for me by reading the free chapter of my book on amazon ;)

I have to thank Arnel for being a rock star beta!

Last, there is THIS chapter and NEXT chapter this still focus heavily on Nat, then it switches. Have patience dear readers, I promise we'll swap it up. I need to get some stuff settled with her first, as I'm setting a stage for a very big, complicated, looooooong plot. It'll be worth it, just hang tight.

Tell me what you think! Thank you for all the fun reviews everyone! ~Sarah


Her parents could only stay for two days, but they were an amazing two days. Nat went flying with Al to show her parents and although they were a tad uncomfortable about it, they quickly overcame it. Mostly, Nat knew, because Al refused to go very fast while they were watching.

Her parents and Al’s parents rubbed along really well and when Rose’s parents came over the night before they left, the six of them stayed up late laughing and talking. Nat heard Ginny say to her mum that it was as if they’d known them forever, which Nat could appreciate. She felt the same way about Al, Rose and Scorpius. There was an almost instant connection between the four of them.

“My turn,” Rose said as Nat fiddled with her dad’s laptop on their last day there. He’d brought it along, ostensibly to show her something he’d discovered on this really old skeleton, but Nat knew it was because he’d lost several files and needed her to find them. Harry and Hermione had fiddled with it till they coaxed it into working in the magical house. She was showing several of the Weasley cousins the aging software.

Rose sat in front of the laptop and Nat took her picture using the computer’s built in camera. She played with it for a while and eventually an image took shape, showing Rose at eighteen. “You look like your mum, but I figured you would. This software is really advanced, too. I can modify the image a lot more than I used to with the older version. It used to take a long time to get an accurate picture and even then it was still guess work with some science.”

“You look good, Rose,” Fred told her.

“What about you, Nat?” Al asked. “You’ve done everyone else.”

Nat went to the desk top and pulled up the folder with her stored pictures. “I did mine ages ago. It’s nothing special, really. I probably won’t change much.” She clicked on the file and pulled it up. “I changed a lot from my baby pictures. If I age myself before I fell in the tomb I grow up to be pretty much exactly like my mum, but something must have gotten mixed up when I got cursed. I didn’t put it together until yesterday what must have happened. See, this is what I’ll turn into now.” The picture had pulled up, showing her straight hair around her small, heart-shaped face. Her nose was too small, her eyes too big, and her cheeks to high and her mouth too wide.

“You sort of look like one of those Muggle pixies that we saw at Euro Disney last year,” Rose told her.

Nat cocked her head to the side. “You’re right, sort of. Mostly it’s in the shape of my face and thankfully without the pointed ears. And this one,” she went back to the folder, “is a rendering from a picture from when I was three, before the curse.” She clicked it and a tall, pretty woman who looked remarkably like her mother, but with her father’s eyes and nose, appeared.

“Wow, that is different,” Al said, whistling.

“You would have been so pretty,” James said and Rose and Roxy both hit him hard. “OW! Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way, I just…”

“I know, James. It’s okay,” Nat said, closing the files, trying to not let James’ words sting. “It is what it is and no sense being upset by it. I’m just glad to know what happened. I was really confused before.” She grinned at them. “So that’s what I did in my free time growing up.”

~*~

Nat had to work hard not to cry that evening when she hugged her parents. “We’re both going to make it back to London for your Easter holiday,” her mum promised. “I’ve already told my boss that’s not negotiable since it’s also your twelfth birthday.”

“We love you, Peanut,” her dad said. “I wish we didn’t have to get back to work.”

The Potter and Weasley kids refused to let her brood over her parents and it was quickly decided that they were going to have a game of what they called ‘midnight hide and go seek’. They Floo called all the cousins and nearly everyone in the family decided to join in and shortly after dinner, Nat found herself dress in all black in the Potter’s large dining room with the rest of the family. They looked like a motley crew about to attend a funeral. Only Aunt Audrey couldn’t come because she was on call that night at St. Mungo’s. Even Teddy had come.

“The rules are simple,” Harry told her. “It’s a normal game of hide and go seek with a few twists. One person is ‘it’ and the rest scatter to hide. The person who is ‘it’ gives the rest of the family a one minute head start before going out to search. The person who is ‘it’ tries to find and tag as many people as possible and those that get tagged also go seek out the others who are hidden. After five minutes of play Gran will call out and those who haven’t been tagged have to leave their hiding places and try to make it back safely here to the table where Gran will be waiting. That’s the dangerous time since it’s easier to get caught then. Either the last person not tagged, or the first person back to the table wins. We play it in pitch darkness and the boundaries are already marked around the yard, through the woods, with red lights. You won’t be able to go past the line.”

“Gran is the referee and her word is final,” Grandad Weasley said cheerfully, donning a black cap over his silver hair.

“Do you do this often?” Nat asked, seeing the excitement on everyone’s faces, including all the mums.

They all nodded. “Every chance we get,” Dominique assured her.

“Who’s ‘it’ first?” Nat asked, but Ron has already put a hat in front of his mother, who drew out a name.

“Percy is ‘it’ first,” she said. “I’ll give the signal in one minute for Percy to start.”

Nat felt Al take her hand in his.

“Go,” Gran Molly said and Al pulled her behind him, out of the house.

Nat couldn’t ever remember having more fun in her life. Her heart raced every time they were nearly caught, and they laughed when they were caught and they caught others and when the dads and Ginny would jinx each other trying to get back first. Nat and Al only once managed to make it back to the table without getting tagged, although Lucy beat them there by about thirty seconds. They sat with Gran Molly and waited for the others to get back, breathless with excitement. “How did you come up with this?”

“It was George, well really it was Luna, but you don’t know her,” Gran told her. “All of them were having trouble after the final battle and grieving. George was really down and Luna told us about this game she and her father would play. By the end of the first night everyone loved it.” Gran sighed, but it wasn’t a sad sigh, more of a remembrance. “It was good to watch. They kept it up, playing nearly every time we all got together. I’ve always been the referee and sometimes the babyminder. Just as soon as Teddy was two Harry had him out there playing as well. Teddy would giggle or talk and give them away, but the others tended to let Harry escape with him, chasing slowly while Teddy shrieked with laughter.”

Nat tried to picture Teddy as a baby and formed a clear image of the toddler in Harry’s arms, running around in the dark. It was a good image. “This is so much fun.”

When they finally fell in to bed, well after midnight, Nat was exhausted and happy, even though she missed her parents. It was Christmas Eve the next day and everyone would be back Christmas Day for presents and a huge dinner. She let out a contented sigh and fell asleep immediately.

~*~

Christmas Eve was quiet around the Potter house during the morning. They’d all slept in late from their game the night before, and they sat around in the living room playing Exploding Snap. They were on their fourth game when the fireplace roared to life and Scorpius stumbled out.

“Hey,” Al said, looking surprised. “I thought you said you couldn’t come.”

Scorpius looked unsure for a moment before sitting down with them. “I’d had enough. My dad isn’t speaking to me, and my mum is mad at him for not speaking to me. She told me I could come over for a while when I asked. I needed to get away from him. Sorry I didn’t send an owl to check before. I was about ready to lose it.”

“Did I hear–”

Nat turned to see Ginny frozen in the doorway, surprise written on her face, but it faded quickly. A small smile came to her lips.

“Mum, this is Scorpius,” Al said, introducing him.

“Hello,” Ginny said. “Al said you might come. I’m glad you could make it.”

“Thank you,” Scorpius said, his cheeks a little pink.

Ginny nodded. “Lunch will be in about twenty minutes you lot. I’ll call you in a few to come set the table.”

“I’m Lily,” Lily said, holding out her hand. Scorpius shook it and said hello.

“You should have been here last night,” James told him. “We played midnight hide and go seek.”

“What’s that?” Scorpius asked, picking up one of the exploding snap cards.

Nat played her next card while Lily explained the game. “It’s so much fun! We’ll have to let you know next time we play.”

“I’ve never had so much fun,” Nat told him, unable to contain her grin.

Scorpius grinned back, and Nat could tell he wanted to try it. “Hopefully, my dad will just disown me and I’ll be able to do whatever I like.”

Before anyone could comment the whole pile of cards blew up, and singed Al’s sleeve.

After lunch they went out back to fly. Nat tried to get on a broom by herself, but once again the broom dumped her off. “That is not fair,” Nat grumbled as she climbed onto Al’s broom with him. “I’m loads better now that I’m not cursed.”

“It’s all right, Nat. I don’t mind,” Al assured her. “We can go really fast today.”

They flew until nearly three o’clock when it started to snow. They went in for hot chocolate and to warm up. Nat sipped at some unsweetened herbal tea, as they sat around the kitchen table, chatting happily.

“I’ve got to go,” Scorpius said finally. “I promised Mum I’d be back by four o’clock.”

“Come back any time,” Ginny told him sincerely and he grinned at her. “We enjoyed having you.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Potter. I’ll see you later.”

Harry arrived home about an hour later and was told about their house guest. He only raised an eyebrow at the name, but seemed reassured by Ginny’s words that he was a nice boy. They ate a quiet supper and everyone turned in early, knowing that the whole family would arrive around ten the next morning for gifts. They didn’t do gifts on the end of the bed like most families. Instead they’d all gather and exchange gifts together around the tree.

~*~

“He was nice,” Ginny told Harry as she chopped onions next to her husband, while he diced potatoes. While she could have done it quickly with magic, they enjoyed this time together to talk and reconnect. There was a very reasonable chance that none of the children would wander in to the kitchen. They’d have been put to work. “Honestly, Harry, I was so surprised, but he’s just a normal kid. He looked so scared, though. I think he thought I was going to kick him out.”

“I trust you,” Harry assured her quietly. “I just…” his voice faded off.

She turned to look at him, trying to read his expression. “What if your grandparents had turned Sirius away? What if Narcissa hadn’t spared your life in the forest? You’d be dead. She saved you by not revealing you to Voldemort.”

“You’re right,” he said firmly, dumping the potatoes in a pot. “I want to get to know him better, though. We should invite him over when I can actually meet him.”

“We will this summer,” Ginny promised, sniffing from the onion odor. “I think you’ll like him, and if he comes during the day I can send you a message and you can come home to meet him.”

Harry nodded slowly. “I went back through the box.”

She frowned, trying to figure out what he meant. “That box?”

“The records of what happened,” he told her quietly. “I looked through all the case notes. I know it can’t have been her who sent the note since she’d dead and I’m still getting them, but I’m constantly drawn back to it.”

“Luv,” Ginny said gently, putting her arms around his waist and pulling him in tight. “You have fantastic instincts. Maybe there is something there to find.”

He sighed heavily, and laid his cheek on the top of her head. “I keep circling back to her, and wondering if she had an accomplice. I thought maybe her sister, you know, Goyle’s mum, but she died a few years ago. I’ve investigated every avenue and I can’t see where else I can look.”

“Do you want to talk to Hermione?” she probed, eyeing him curiously. “She is the Deputy Head of the Magical Law Enforcement, after all.”

Harry shook his head. “I have nothing to go on except those stupid notes. We’ve got no leads on them, at all. She’s not going to have any more insight than we’ve had. I just… I don’t want to make a move without having something.” He ran a hand through his hair, standing it even further on end. “I can’t explain it properly.”

She stood on tiptoes and gently brushed his mouth with hers. “I trust you. You’ll figure it out someday, and in the meantime you’ll keep us safe.”

“More security around the house,” Harry said after a moment pause, not really looking at her now. “After the kids go back to school, so that they don’t ask questions.”

“Lily?” Ginny asked, but needn’t have. She knew Lily wouldn’t question her father doing something around the house. She accepted those things, where as her curious brothers would want to know every detail.

His troubled eyes met hers. “Am I doing the right thing?”

“I don’t know,” she licked her lips, and held his gaze. “I trust you, though. You’ll figure it out, and if you don’t then we’ll realize that it wasn’t worth fretting over.”

“Mum!” James yelled, skidding in to the kitchen. “I’m starving.”

“Set the table,” Ginny and Harry said in unison.

James rolled his eyes, and walked out hollering, “Al! Mum says set the table.”

He was gone before they could scold him.

~*~

The next morning everyone was in for a surprise. Nat, Al and Lily padded down to the living room and found a large, redheaded man sleeping under a quilt on the sofa.

Lily squealed and threw herself onto the man, who grunted and woke up with a start. “UNCLE CHARLIE!!!”

Shortly thereafter Harry, Ginny and James came running in to see what the commotion was about and Nat realized immediately that Charlie was not expected at all this Christmas. After hugs were exchanged and she was introduced, Charlie explained. “Wanted to surprise Mum,” Charlie told them, while Lily snuggled in his arms. “Can’t kip on her sofa if I’m going to surprise her. You were all asleep when I got in last night so I thought I’d just see you this morning.”

They talked and laughed over breakfast. Everyone busted up when Ginny put her freezing hands on Charlie’s arm to warm them up and he started swearing and pushed her over to Harry. Nat grinned as she watched Harry manfully tolerate her freezing fingers on his cheeks. “It’s real love when a bloke will put up with this,” she said winking at Lily and Nat.

“Yeah, not for brothers, Smidge,” Charlie said to her as he walked over to the table to sit down.

Nat was sitting next to Al. She leaned over to him and said, “That’s how big Fred will be in a few years; you too if you work at it. You’ve all got the same general bone structure.”

“Come again?” Charlie asked.

Nat blushed. She hadn’t realized he was listening. “Erm, bone structure… you, Mr. George, Fred and Al all have the same body architecture. I was telling Al that’s what he’s going to look like if he works at it.”

“I thought George told you to call him the holey one?” Ginny mused.

Harry ignored his wife’s joke. “Really?” he questioned, looking skeptical. “Al looks more like me, I think.”

“His face yes, but his body no. James has your build. It’s in the shoulder breath and the width of their bones. James is going to have your build, maybe a bit taller, but Al’s bones are thicker than James’ bones.” She grabbed Al’s wrist and held it up, along with hers. “See how much wider it is? His wrist is over twice mine. Even though he’s skinny now, he’s going to grow into the bones. The bones don’t lie.”

Charlie was goggling at her and Lily giggled. “Her dad is a world famous Muggle bone man. He knows all about people and what they’ll look like and guess what, Uncle Charlie! I’m going to be extremely beautiful, just like Aunt Fleur! Nat showed James how to draw my picture of what I’ll look like. I’m thinking about having twenty boyfriends when I get to Hogwarts.”

Nat had to bite hard on her cheek to keep from laughing and she saw that Lily’s mum was having the same problem. Lily was stringing them along for all it was worth and Nat could see that Charlie had taken the bait. “I don’t think so, Lily! You’re not dating until you’re at least forty.” He turned to Harry, who was looking pale and horrified. “Back me up, here! Maybe she should be schooled at home.”

“I suggested it,” Harry sighed. “Gin says she’s going to Hogwarts.”

“Ginny,” Charlie said, trying to sound reasonable. “Boys are no good. The whole lot of us are rotten to the core. You can’t let Lily go to school! What about an all witches school, then?”

“There aren’t any in Europe, Charlie. She’s going to Hogwarts,” Ginny said firmly. “I went and I was just fine.”

Harry went even paler. “Oh bloody- no, no she’s not going! I know what happened with you and I’m not–” he cut off mid-sentence blushing.

Charlie was glaring at him. “What do you mean you–”

“Excuse me,” Ginny interrupted calmly. “She’s going to Hogwarts you two. She’ll have a great time, maybe have a few boyfriends, play Quidditch, learn something and graduate. End of discussion.” Ginny grinned at her daughter. “Lily Luna, it’s not nice to wind up your dad and uncle. You hold an important position, being the baby girl of the family. They’re terribly frail where you’re concerned. Best give it a rest for now.”

“Hey!” Charlie said, but Harry seemed to agree with his wife.

Nat helped clean up from breakfast and watched avidly as Ginny showed her how magical cooking was different from Muggle cooking. Before long she was back into the groove of preparing food. “We typically had a cook wherever we went. My dad liked to hire local women who often wouldn’t get as good a job otherwise and we always ended up with fantastic local food. I loved hanging out in the kitchen with them, learning to prepare different dishes.”

“You are a fascinating kid, Nat,” Ginny told her affectionately. “You have so many different interests. I can see why Al and Rose are so fond of you.”

Nat blushed. “I’m fond of them, too. I’ve not really had friends that I’ll get to keep for longer than a few months.”

“I heard from Rose and Fred,” Ginny continued, “that you’re part of the reason that James has settled down a bit.”

Nat eyed her warily, not sure if she was in for it or not. Ginny didn’t seem angry, but she could imagine that when provoked that Al’s mum would have quite the temper. “Erm…”

Mrs. Potter turned to her, a twinkle in her eyes and Nat relaxed. “I’m not angry. Fred told me that you convinced him to turn James’ underpants pink.”

“With flowers,” Nat added before snapping her mouth shut. She relaxed when she saw the older woman smiling. “He just wouldn’t stop going on about being on the Quidditch team!"

“I gathered,” Ginny said resignedly. “I love him to bits, but from everything I’ve heard he’s just like his namesake, Harry’s father. You’ve had a good influence on Al as well. When he wrote and said that he’d made a friend who shut James up and helped him stand up to his brother… well, that cinched it. I wanted to meet you. You wouldn’t know it now, but James used to torment Al all the time. I’ve not seen him really pick on him much.”

“James isn’t so bad,” Nat said, resuming cutting the onions, and sniffing back the tears that sprang up from the powerful fumes. “He just needed to remember that he wasn’t the only one who could dish it out.”

Nat tensed for a split second as Ginny’s arm came around her shoulder for a quick half hug, but then relaxed. “Yes, but only Lily, Fred and Dominique have ever dished it back to James. You’ve given Al the courage to stand up for himself.”

Nat kept chopping up onions as she spoke. “I dunno about that… but anyway Al helps me all the time. He’s kept me out of the hospital wing more times than I can count. He’s got excellent reflexes and always manages to catch me before I hit the floor or a wall or the stairs…”

“I’d noticed that,” his mother agreed. Nat glanced at her quickly, not sure how to read her tone, but Ginny went on to another subject. “You’ve led an interesting life. Most kids haven’t ever left their own country, but you’ve been everywhere and you know things most adults will never know. For instance, you seem like a very capable chef, especially for someone so clumsy. You’re very dexterous with your hands.”

Nat grinned. “Thankfully it’s mostly my feet that get me in trouble, not my hands. I love to learn. It keeps life interesting. It doesn’t even matter what I’m learning. A lot of the cooks my dad hired were usually really great about me helping them because most of them had kids so it was refreshing to be around someone who didn’t mind me much. Many of Dad’s colleagues didn’t want me around because they were all confirmed bachelors, or so my dad said.” She dumped a pile of diced onions into a bowl. “I’m glad Dad liked having me there. He’s a great teacher, always willing to show me what he was doing and explain it to me.” Nat froze as she heard a scream from the living room.

“That will be Gran seeing Charlie,” Ginny told her with a wink.

Lunch was served at eleven o’clock and the whole crew tucked in. Nat had convinced Mrs. Potter to let her make traditional Korean orange chicken and everyone was raving over it, much to her delight. She’d wanted to give something back to them for all they’d done for her. They’d taken her in so she didn’t have to spend Christmas alone, rid her of a debilitating curse, and even gave her two wonderful days with her parents. Nat thought that the least she could do was make something for them.

“This is fantastic,” Ron said, already on his fourth helping. “It’s not anything like what you’d get at a restaurant.”

“It’s all in what you put in it,” Nat said, blushing.

After lunch Teddy arrived with his grandmother and they gathered near the large tree in the living room to open gifts. Nat curled up at the foot of one of the couches, laughing with everyone as they opened gifts and threw wrapping paper at each other.

“Here,” Al said, handing her a gift. “This is from Rose and me.”

“Thanks,” Nat said, chewing on her lip and opening the paper to see a small, hand held mirror. “It’s nice,” she told him honestly.

“That’s a two-way mirror… well, four-way,” Rose told her. “I asked Mum to make them for us. You’ll be heading all over the world during the summers and this way we can all talk and keep up with each other. Owls take weeks to make it around the world. Mum says it will work just like Skype or like FaceTime on the iPad. Al, Scorpius and I have one as well. That way Scorpius won’t have to hear it from his dad if we want to talk. ”

Nat’s lower lip began to tremble and tears prickled at her eyes. She felt Rose’s arms go around her shoulders. “Thank you. I… this is the best gift. I didn’t want to wait weeks to hear from you this summer.”

She heard someone clear their throat and she looked up to see Hermione smiling. “I do have a condition on those mirrors. You’re not allowed to use them during class or during detentions if you ever wind up in detention.”

Nat let out a watery giggle. “Deal.”

Nat gave Al and Rose their gifts, something she’d had to badger James into helping her with, but it had been worth it. It was a hand drawn picture of the four of them, Al, Rose, Scorpius and her, aged up to around twenty, standing arm in arm. She’d had James write “To the Future” on the bottom and she’d then had Ginny help her make copies. It had Scorpius on the left, Rose then Nat in the middle, and Al on the other end.

“I wanted to give you something that only I could really give you. I gave one to Scorpius too.” Nat explained, feeling inexplicably shy. She shot James an appreciative look. “James did a good job drawing them for me.”

“It’s great,” Al told her.

“We’ll have to hang on to these until we are twenty and then pose for a camera and put them side by side,” Rose exclaimed enthusiastically. Al stared at her dumbly. “Okay, probably I’m the only one who’ll want to do that.”

Al’s cousin Molly leaned over Rose’s shoulder to look at the picture. “Is this right? Is Rose really going to be that tall?”

“Let’s see,” Charlie said, holding out a hand.

“She’s not that tall, actually,” Nat said sheepishly, casting Rose an apologetic look. “She’s only slightly taller than average now. She just looks really tall next to me. Scorpius will be a little taller than her and Al.”

Fleur took the picture from her husband. “Mon Dieu! Look at them.”

Harry took Al’s copy to examine it. “Most people have to actually wait to grow up to see how they’re going to turn out, or take an aging potion. This is quite a talent you’ve got. How tall will you be Nat?”

Nat sighed heavily. “If I start really growing I might get close to five feet, which is about a meter and a half, but I probably won’t. Odds are good I’ll be a couple inches below that.”

George took it next. “Well, you four make quite the set.”

They were almost done with gifts when Gran Molly stood up to start handing out lumpy packages. “Excellent,” Al whispered next to her. “Weasley jumpers.”

Gran moved around the circle and handed one to Nat. “When I wrote to Rose she said you’re about Lily’s size, but I think it might be a little big.”

“I don’t mind,” Nat said, overwhelmed. “Thank you!” she said, hopping to her feet and throwing her arms around the older woman. “Thank you so much!” The jumper wasn’t even opened, but that didn’t matter. It was currently being squashed between them.

“You’re welcome,” Gran said, holding onto her, and giving her a hard hug back. When they broke off, she didn’t fully let go but cupped Nat’s cheek with her soft hand. “You’re a good girl, Natalie.”

Nat sniffed and opened her jumper along with everyone else after Gran had finished handing them all out. She beamed as she pulled the plum jumper over her head and rolled the sleeves back a bit. It was warm and soft and she felt like she belonged. She settled back on the floor next to Al. She grinned at him and he grinned back before plucking at the hem of her sweater. “It’s a dress on you.”

If Nat hadn’t rolled her eyes and looked away from him for a split second she’d have missed the look Ginny, Hermione and Gran exchanged between them. It was an odd mix between shock and knowing. What does that mean? she thought.

“Nat?” Al caught her attention.

She swatted at his hand away playfully. “Doesn’t matter, Al. I think it’s perfect.”

~*~

Harry and Ginny walked hand in hand up the stairs of their quiet house. The excitement of Christmas was over and everyone was settled in for the night. The kitchen had been put to rights, the presents stored and all was still as the world was blanketed in thickly falling snow.

Harry closed the door behind them and Ginny went over to the bed and crawled in, sitting with her back propped up against the headboard to watch Harry as he changed into sweat pants and a t-shirt. They had been married for almost twenty years and he still had the ability to turn her insides to mush. When he looked over she grinned at him. “What’s up with you?” he asked, pulling on his shirt and padding over. “Are you sleeping in those clothes?”

“Al is completely gone over Natalie,” Ginny told him and she enjoyed watched the shock wash over his face.

Almost instantly his expression turned skeptical. “Come on, Gin,” he shook his as he sat on the edge of the bed and laced his fingers in hers. “They’re eleven. Don’t you think it’s a bit early to be matchmaking?”

“I’m not matchmaking,” she correctly mildly. “Al is a completely different kid around her.”

Harry hesitated, “Well… I mean, he seems like he’s come out of his shell some, but… Ginny, they’re eleven!”

“That is not the son we sent off to school,” Ginny pointed out stubbornly. “I hardly recognized him even though I’ve been seeing the shift in his letters.”

“I guess you’re right,” he said. “She does seem to bring something out in him, but she’s definitely an odd child.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ginny agreed laughing. “But in the best kinds of ways. I didn’t know what to expect when we met her but here she is, this tiny little dynamo who has the poise of someone so much older. She’s funny, smart, respectful and I really like her. I really like her parents, too.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “They were great. Curtis and I had a good time at a pub before the Portkey left. The whole traveling by magic thing didn’t throw him as much as I was expecting.” Sighing Harry lay down with his head in her lap so she could stroke her fingers through his hair. “She is titchy, though. She even makes Lily look like a giant, and that’s not really easy to do since Lily is small like you.”

Ginny scrunched up her nose, pretending to glare at him. “I am not small.”

“Well,” Harry said giving her a once over from his limited vantage point. “Well… not small in certain places.”

“You…” Ginny said, leaning over to kiss him. “You are trouble, Potter.”

“Ah, but you knew that when you married me,” Harry reminded her. “I’ve always been trouble.” They kissed again. “Speaking of marrying me, what do you want to do for our twenty year anniversary? It’s only a few months off.”

Ginny’s mind went almost immediately out to the little grave across the stream, to their first child. When she thought of their wedding, Hope always came to her mind. “Yeah…”

“Gin,” Harry sat up and pulled her into his arms. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“No,” Ginny said, wrapping her arms around his trim waist thankful that he could read her so well. “No, you didn’t. I’m not sad. It’s just hard to believe that if she’d lived that she’d be about to turn nineteen.”

Harry gently kissed her temple. “Time has flown by.”

“The kids are going to ask more questions soon,” she said, burying her nose in his soft shirt. “Honestly, I’m amazed that they haven’t yet. If they do the math they’ll figure out I was sixteen when we got married.”

Harry sighed and pulled her backwards so that they fell back onto the bed with Ginny half-sprawled across him. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“I don’t want them to know the whole story,” she admitted with a hitch in her voice. “I don’t want any of them to hear just how awful people can be.”

He ran a hand through her hair, letting it fall gently through his fingers. “Then we don’t tell them the full story.”

“We can’t lie to them, Harry,” she huffed. “Just because I don’t want them to know, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the truth. Just… just maybe not the truth any time soon.”

Harry shifted and pulled her more fully against her. “Teddy took it okay,” he reminded her gently. “Well, he cried some, but he understood.”

That had been one of the hardest talks Ginny had ever sat through. Teddy had known about Hope already. He’d seen her grave all his life because he was in and out of their backyard as much as his own. When he’d finally learned to read he’d asked her and she’d told him about the baby they had lost. It was very brief details, but enough that he could understand. When he was fifteen he finally did the math and worked out just how young Ginny had been, he’d gone straight to them for some answers.

Harry had told him the truth. Ginny had tried not to cry, but she hadn’t managed it and by the end of the story Teddy was crying on her shoulder, his tall, lanky frame shaking.

“How did you do it?” Teddy asked. “I’m going to be sixteen soon and I can’t even imagine being in that position.”

Harry had looked at him steadily and had replied softly, “Just make sure you don’t put anyone in that position, yourself included.”

Teddy understood completely.

“Bill asked me to talk to Teddy,” Harry said, snapping Ginny back to the present. “He’s worried about Victoire.”

“What did you tell him?” Ginny said, eyeing him.

Harry shrugged. “I told him that Teddy knows the truth about Hope and that he didn’t have to worry about it.”

Sighing heavily, she nodded and slowly rose up from the bed to change into her sleepwear. “Still, you should have that talk with Teddy before too long. They’re getting to be that age and it’s looking like they’re going to stick it out. I’m sort of surprised at how long they’ve been together.”

“I will,” Harry assured her as he slid under the quilt. “Definitely before she comes home this summer now that she’s of age and finishing school, but let’s go back to Al.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not saying they’re going to get married or anything. I’m just saying that he’s smitten with her, even if he doesn’t know it and I’m inclined to think that he doesn’t or he’d be shy around her.” Ginny padded back over and crawled in next to him, cuddling up to his side. “Mum and Hermione also saw it. He’s careful with her and very aware of her. Hermione said it’s like watching how you are with me. You really didn’t see anything?”

Harry rolled until he was half on top of her and kissed the tip of her nose. “What was there to see?”

“She loves flying,” Ginny smirked. “He loves taking her flying.”

“Well, if that isn’t a marriage proposal I don’t know what is,” Harry said dryly. “Let’s send out the invitations.”

“You mark my words, Harry. She’s going to have a major impact on him, more than she already has.”

Her husband bent again, nuzzling her neck. “If you say so.”

“I want to go to Ireland for our anniversary,” she told him, tilting her head so he could get to that spot she loved behind her ear. “Let’s leave Lily with Ron and Hermione and spend a weekend away.”

“I was thinking a whole week,” Harry murmured as he made his way down to her collarbone.

“I like the way you think.”

~*~

“Look at the snow!” Nat said the next morning. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Snowball fight!” James shouted as he came into the kitchen and looked out the window. “I’m going to get the cousins.”

The fight was intense and fiercely competitive.

Nat ran across the bridge, over the almost completely frozen stream with Al hot on her heels, snowball in hand. Nat’s foot hit an exposed tree branch and she fell giggling into a pile of snow next to a large oak tree.

Al flopped next to her, laughing. “I think I win this round.”

“You won the last round,” Nat panted. “Come on, we have to get a move on before we get ambushed”. She put her hand down and it slipped on something under the snow. “What’s that?”

Al frowned and then comprehension crossed his face as he pushed the snow away from a grave marker.

‘Hope Potter 23rd August 1998’

“It’s my sister’s grave. My mum had a miscarriage,” Al explained. “She doesn’t talk about it much and when she does mention it, she cries.”

Nat stared at the name and date, her mind racing as the dates and math started to filter in. She didn’t know exactly how old Al’s mum was, but Nat was reasonably certain she wasn’t more than thirty four or thirty five. “That’s sad. I’m sorry, Al.”

Al nodded, and stood. He held out his hand and hoisted her onto her feet. “It was a long time ago.”

“Yeah,” Nat agreed and watched his face. He didn’t seem to realize that his mum had been a teenager when she’d gotten pregnant.

A snowball hit Al in the back of the head and the fight was back on.

Back to index


Chapter 8: Chapter 5

Author's Notes: I'm on twitter now! If you want to follow me, it's @sarahjaune

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing for me :D

Also, pretty please, go check in my PROFILE! Go look at a free preview of my book. If you like my style, you'll like my book. Give it a chance (the first chapter is FREE!)

Some asked in reviews, and I responded, but here's the LAST bit in Nat's POV for a couple of chapters. We'll have a small POV from her in three chapters or so, but that's it for a while. No way am I making Nat this all powerful something like Dumbledore. Nope, not happening. That kind of character irks me. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Next chapter has Al's POV in it for some :D


“How was it?” Rose asked Scorpius, her face pinched in concern as she shifted restlessly on her seat. Nat sat next to her as they sped along the countryside back to Hogwarts. Christmas was over. It was time to get back to school.

Scorpius shrugged. “He was a prat all through Christmas. Aunt Daphne eventually blew up at him and told him to get over it and that I could have worse friends.” A smirk flitted across his face. “Then she said, ‘you know, Draco, just like the friends you had during your years at Hogwarts? The ones that nearly got you killed?’ That shut him up and he’s not said anything since. My aunt is basically the only one who stands up to him anymore. He did say that I’m not to mention you three to my grandparents.”

Al rolled his eyes. “Uncle Ron told Rose she wasn’t to get too friendly with you when we were about to get on the train, remember, Rose?”

Nat looked over to see Rose blushing. “Really?”

Rose sighed, “Yes, but I can decide whom I want to be friends with and Dad was joking.”

“I don’t think he cares about you being friends, he just doesn’t want you two to get married,” Al said.

Rose’s face went red and Scorpius looked as though he wanted to throw himself from the train. Nat had to fight hard not to bang her head against the compartment wall. “Al, you just said the exact wrong thing.”

“What?” Al said, clearly confused. “That’s what he said!”

Nat blew out a breath. “He was probably teasing her and while in some cultures kids get married at thirteen, we’re not one of them. They’re not ready to get married any time before they’re twenty-five or so.”

“My dad and mum got married earlier, at twenty I think,” Al told her. “I think Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione were twenty-two.”

Nat stared at him. He clearly doesn’t know, she thought. But she wanted desperately to save Rose from the waves of embracement that she could feel rolling off the other girl. “Yes, but it’s embarrassing. Would you like Rose to tell me all about how your parents had told you not to marry me?”

Al squeaked, before cottoning on to the fact that she’d turned the tables on him. “Oh. Sorry, you two, I didn’t mean to…you know.”

Scorpius clapped him on the shoulder. “The picture you sent me was excellent. I really like the mirror, too. How did you get the owl to me without my parents seeing it?”

“Dad did it,” Al told him. “One of the perks of having an Auror in the family is getting letters to people secretly.”

Rose seemed all too glad of a reason to change subjects and launched into an explanation on the mirrors as the train clacked along the tracks.

~*~

A frantic knock rapped at Harry’s office door, and before he could say anything Hermione sidled in, closing the door behind her. Her short hair was tied back from her face, but the curls were starting to explode out. She looked slightly manic. “I need your assistance.”

“What?” Harry asked standing and grabbing his cloak. He moved over to her, but she still hadn’t opened the door. “What’s up?”

“I got a message from Timons. We’ve had a girl brought in from a raid of an old hut that the MLE was investigating for possible smuggling of magical objects. She’s… oh, Harry, she’s not doing well and her story…” She nattered on rapidly. Tears filled her eyes, but she quickly shut them down. “It’s a matter for the Aurors now, which was partly why I was brought in to liaise. She’s hysterical, and the MLE were having trouble and they wanted the boss to make the call.”

“Slow down,” Harry took her shoulders, looking down in to her shattered face. “What happened?”

“She was being held,” Hermione whispered. “Raped and beaten, Harry. She’s a mess and…”

His stomach did a slow roll. He nodded curtly and led the way out of his office, on his way to St. Mungo’s. “Is Audrey on it?”

“Yes,” she assured him as she hurried to catch up. “I’m hoping you can get through to her, but I’m not sure. I wanted you to see her before an Auror was assigned to her case. You’ll know who is best to handle it.”

Harry didn’t respond. He knew that likely he would handle this case all on his own. He only had one senior female Auror at the moment, and she was on maternity leave. He’d been trying to pull more women in, but with no luck.

They arrived at the hospital quickly, and moved towards the room without alerting anyone that they had arrived. The door to her room was guarded, and the MLE officer, Timons, gave them a nod. “She’s awake, and calm. The Healers gave her something.”

“Thank you,” Hermione said briskly as she gave a quick knock and entered, with Harry behind her.

He saw the instant panic on a face that closely resembled Hagrid’s after he’d first arrived back with his brother, Gawp. She was average height, with shorn blonde hair, and blue eyes that he could barely make out behind the swollen, matching black eyes. It was telling that they hadn’t yet healed the bruising. Her injuries must have been extensive.

Harry held up his hands, and paused. “My name is Harry Potter. I’m here to help.” He didn’t often use his name to his advantage, but this is one time where it would be an asset. Children had been told from early on that he had saved the world. It made people trust him, even when he hadn’t done anything to deserve it.

The girl relaxed slightly. “Coriander Yale,” she croaked out through cracked, dry lips. “Cori.”

“Cori,” Hermione moved slowly over to her. “I told you I would be back. Do you remember?”

“Yes,” Cori said, her eyes flitting between them.

“Can we sit?” Harry asked, giving her all of the power. If she hesitated, he’d back off. His training, plus decades of experience, took over and he didn’t move until he saw her nod. Harry dragged over another chair for Hermione, and they sat to her left. “We’re going to be talking a lot in the next few weeks so that we can bring down whoever did this to you, but I need something to get started on. Is there anything you can tell me right now?” He didn’t expect much right away, but he also knew not to push. She’d been pushed around enough.

Also, if he pushed her, Audrey would box his ears. Percy’s wife was a force to be reckoned with.

Cori took a deep breath, and stared down at her scratched and bruised hands. To his surprise, she started talking. It was a little disordered, but the story that poured forth was so heartbreaking that he could hardly sit still through it. He wasn’t going to need to make notes to remember anything she said, even though he would make copious notes once he arrived back at his office. He was never going to be able to erase the poison that flowed from her, or the horrors of what she’d been put through. How Hermione had stopped herself from crying, he had no idea. He was choked up.

When she finished, he turned to look at Audrey. She’d entered noiselessly during the story, and had waited silently by the closed door. She came forward and ran her wand along Cori’s body, nodding at Harry, indicating that he could go on.

“Do you remember what your attacker looked like?” Harry questioned.

“Somewhat,” Cori admitted quietly.

“We have a sketch artist,” Harry said gently. “He prefers to work from a moment in your memory. We’ve found that it is easier on your survivors.”

Cori gave a short nod, and then looked to Audrey. “Am I pregnant?”

“I think you are,” Audrey confirmed carefully, sitting down gingerly on the side of the bed. “It looks like that’s what’s going on. You’re not far enough along yet for the Ministry to have been alerted, though. I just checked. We probably have a day or two. I’m sorry, Cori.”

Harry closed his eyes briefly, trying to bring back some calm to his thoughts. Then he looked at her straight on. “Here’s what will happen. You will have to marry him if he’s magical, and odds are good that he is, but once that is done you will never have to see him again. He will be in prison for the rest of his life and we can make it so that he can’t contact you. We will do a Muggle ceremony so that the union doesn’t have to be consummated. I have a friend who is a Squib who became a Lutheran pastor and he’s helped me out before.”

He hated this part most of all. He hated having to tell these women what was in store for them, and just how messed up the magical laws really were. No amount of pushing had moved the Wizengamot to change the law.

At least they had a day before she’d be forced into anything.

She sniffed and looked away. “I’m just stuck with no real husband and a baby I can’t care for.”

“You can put the baby up for adoption,” Audrey assured her. “The other, I’m sorry… it’s horrible and unfair and we’ve fought for almost twenty years to get the law changed.”

“I need to tell my boyfriend,” Cori whimpered. “Not that he’d likely want me now, but–”

Harry held up a hand. “You have a boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Cori nodded.

“What’s his name?” Harry asked her, his eyes narrowing as an idea struck him.

Minutes later, Harry was heading back to the Ministry and down towards the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to meet one Carter Oldford. He was a nineteen-year-old man, new to the department, and probably one of Teddy’s classmates. Harry walked in and everyone stopped to stare.

“I need Oldford,” he asked, looking around.

A thinner man, medium height with brown hair and black glasses stepped forward looking nervous. He also looked like he hadn’t slept in a month. “That’s me,” he swallowed. “Did you–” but he didn’t seem to be able to finish his question.

“Yes,” Harry answer with a jerk of his head. He looked over to the head of the department, and couldn’t think what her name was. He should know, since she was Hermione’s replacement from when she was promoted, but his mind was a blank. “He’s with me, probably the rest of the day. Official business.”

“Of course, Mr. Potter,” she replied.

Carter followed him silently back to his office. Once they were seated, Harry carefully chose his words. “The MLE found her today. Cori has been put through hell, but she’s alive and she will heal. Unfortunately, it’s likely that she’s pregnant.”

Carter sucked in a breath.

“That means she has to marry her attacker,” Harry told him slowly, and was somewhat gratified to see the tears that remained unshed in the other man’s eyes. That gave him hope. “I have a plan that could save her, but we’d have to move fast and it means your help.”

“What?” Carter asked him instantly, sitting forward a bit.

He took a deep breath. “She needs to be married before the Ministry registers that she’s pregnant. We have a day at most. Once the Ministry is notified officially, she has to marry the biological father. If she’s married to someone else before that happens, then she’s in the clear.”

Carter didn’t hesitate. “I’ll do it. I wanted to anyway, but we were too young.”

Harry bit back a triumphant smile. “She’s pregnant with someone else’s child. That’s going to be a lot.”

“I’ve had three weeks of worrying and wondering,” Carter shook his head. “I don’t care.”

“She also might want to give the baby up for adoption,” Harry informed him.

That gave the other man pause. “Okay,” he agreed slowly. “Whatever she wants.”

“She needs therapy, too,” Harry told him. “She needs lots of support. We’ll need to use a Muggle pastor to marry you. You can’t be soul bound. She’s not physically capable of being intimate right now. It’s going to be difficult, painful, and a hell of a lot of work.”

Carter’s brow furrowed. “You talk like you know from experience.”

“Not personally,” he said grimly. “I’ve had my own troubles, but not this. I’ve just seen a few survivors who made it out without getting pregnant. It’s very difficult for the men in their lives.”

“We’ll go to therapy,” Carter repeated, twisting his hands. “Anything.”

“Do you have enough gold to buy two plain wedding bands?” Harry probed.

Carter nodded without hesitation. “What about her mum?”

“The hospital will have alerted her,” Harry told him. “I want you to go get wedding rings, and get back to St. Mungo’s as soon as you can. Ask for Healer Audrey Weasley when you get there, tell her you’re Cori’s boyfriend. If anyone gives you any grief, tell them I ordered you to come.”

“I will,” Carter said getting to his feet. He stuck out his hand. “Thanks.”

Harry sent his assistant to track down his pastor friend. The Muggles had a lot of paperwork, but his friend knew all the ways they could magically make the paperwork appear all in order. It was still legal, which was all they needed. He then traveled back to the hospital.

Cori’s mother was in the room when he made it back. After a brief introduction, he explained what had happened with Carter.

Cori looked stunned. “Really?”

“It’s up to you,” Harry said in a low voice. “You don’t have to marry him, but I thought he might be a better alternative.”

“I want to,” Cori said, and she smiled tentatively. Then her face fell. “I forgot to tell you something.”

“What?” he asked, coming in closer to her.

Her bottom lip trembled. “There were others, and she didn’t let them live. Most were men and I think a few of them were Muggles.”

Harry’s heart slammed into his throat. “Who… who is she?”

“I don’t know,” Cori shook her head helplessly. “I only saw her once, but she was older. Her men were doing something for her.”

Harry gave her a reassuring look. “We’ll figure it out.” He made a mental note to get Dean to the hospital as soon as he could so they could get that sketch.

~*~

Al turned twelve on January nineteenth, with Rose following along two days later.

“I think Mum and Aunt Ginny planned it,” Rose told Nat over breakfast the morning of her birthday. “I mean, they got pregnant the exact same time. I think they wanted Al and me to have each other.”

Al groaned and dropped his head to the table. “I really don’t want to be thinking about this, you know.”

Scorpius snorted. “Who would?”

“I think it’s interesting,” Rose said, sounding hurt. “I mean, Mum won’t admit it or anything…”

Al made a pitiful noise. “You asked?”

“Of course, I asked,” Rose said indignantly. “I wanted to know. Mum just stalled and promised to tell me when I was older.”

“Maybe one of you wasn’t planned,” Nat speculated. “They wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Rose nodded thoughtfully. “True. It would likely be Al, since James was so young when they conceived him and my mum never does anything without planning it all out.”

Al started to bang his head on the table.

Scorpius took pity on him and tried to change the subject. “Should we go down and see Hagrid later today?”

Nat ignored this. “Al, it’s not like your parents don’t love you or anything. They clearly do and it could be just as easy to assume that neither of you was planned. Birth control is only about ninety-five percent effective when used properly and that’s only if it’s used.”

“Why do you know that?” Scorpius asked, his lips twitching into a smile.

Nat shrugged. “I spent lots of times in hospitals for broken bones and stitches. Sometimes I’d forget to bring a book and pick up pamphlets or magazines.”

“But Nat, they’d not have used Muggle means,” Rose told her. “Wizards have their own methods and they’re usually more effective than the stuff Muggles use.”

In the exact same tone, Scorpius asked, “Why do you know that?”

Rose grinned mischievously. “Extendable Ears, of course. Roxy, Lucy, Lily and I learned quite a lot last summer. We were spending the night with Lily after Uncle Harry’s birthday party and all the mums were chatting in the kitchen. They thought we’d gone to bed hours before, but we were upstairs talking. Then Lily wanted hot chocolate and we snuck down to get some, and heard them talking, so she ran back up for her stash of Ears and we listened in.” A glint of amusement filled her eyes. “You’d be amazed at just how silly they all get when it’s just them. We learned loads!”

“Don’t tell me,” Al’s muted voice came from where his forehead still rested on the table. “I really, really don’t want to know.”

Nat looked at Rose thoughtfully. “I suppose it makes sense that the Wizarding world would be different. Am I going to run into more surprises along the way?”

“Probably,” Rose admitted. “My mum’s parents are Muggles so I’ve seen both and some things seem really different. I know my mum and dad got married way before my grandparents did. I think wizards and witches marry sooner than Muggles.”

“I think we also live longer,” Scorpius added. “My mum said something about that once. She’s got a few Muggleborn friends, although my dad doesn’t know that.”

“Is your dad really as bad as everyone says?” Al asked, looking up with concern.

Scorpius shrugged as if flicking off an annoying fly and shoveled in a large bite of porridge. “It depends. I think he’s trying to impress his dad. My grandfather Malfoy is an arrogant berk. I hate having to spend time with him.”

Rose placed a comforting hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. I only have to see them twice a year. My mum’s parents are great and my Aunt Daphne is a kick.” He took a sip of pumpkin juice before continuing. “Mum was in Ravenclaw, but Aunt Daphne was in Slytherin and just before Voldemort took over here her parents left England with her and my mum and moved to America. They knew that if they didn’t join they’d be killed instantly, or worse. They came back after Al’s dad killed Voldemort.”

“What would have been worse?” Al asked, confused. “I mean, if you’re dead…”

Scorpius’ eyes darkened. “My mum and my aunt are both purebloods, you know? There were a lot of Death Eaters they could have been married off to who wouldn’t have been nice to them. It would have been punishment for not supporting Voldemort since they weren’t blood traitors.” He stared down into his plate. “I’d have stayed and fought against them, but I can see why my granddad didn’t.”

“So what about your dad?” Nat asked. “Did he fight the Death Eaters?”

Scorpius laughed bitterly in a way that shocked Nat. She’d never heard a kid make that kind of sound. “My dad and Grandfather Malfoy were both Death Eaters. They were both punished after the war, but since they quit before the end of the final battle they weren’t punished too much. My grandfather likes to pretend that he wasn’t publicly humiliated and he still struts around like he’s some important man because he’s a Malfoy. It’s a load of dragon dung.”

“Your grandmother saved my dad’s life,” Al told him. “Right after he’d been hit with the Killing Curse in the forest.”

Rose looked aghast. “How do you know that?”

“I heard Dad and Mum talking the day after Scorpius came to visit. Mum told him how nice Scorpius is and reminded him that if Narcissa Malfoy hadn’t lied to Voldemort about him in the forest, he’d have been killed.”

“I’ve never heard that,” Rose whispered.

Al rolled his eyes. “It’s not like they tell us much of anything, Rose! We didn’t even know our parents were famous until about a few years ago. We’ve only gotten the general story of the last battle and they’ve never gone into detail.”

Nat looked over at Scorpius and saw that he was clearly stunned. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” she asked.

“I dunno,” Al said, clearing his throat. “It was just… I dunno. I didn’t know if Scorpius knew.”

“I didn’t,” Scorpius said quietly. “Wow.”

Al shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. We aren’t our parents. We can choose to be who we want to be.”

Rose looked impressed. “That’s very insightful.”

“Yes,” Nat said dryly. “Who did you hear it from?”

Al grinned sheepishly. “Teddy.”

“Miss Parker,” Professor Longbottom’s voice floated over to them. “The Headmistress wants to see you in her office. Please come with me.” He smiled kindly at her stunned look. “Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble.”

~*~

“Are you sure about this, Potter?” McGonagall asked him, staring at him above her spectacles.

Harry wasn’t sure about anything. They had the sketch of the woman that Cori had described, and he couldn’t tell for sure that it wasn’t Isabella Crabbe, the insane woman who had used magic to impregnate Ginny and had poisoned both of them. But something in the eyes looked the same. He’d seen the memory, too, in fact he’d brought it along just in case.

When Hermione had suggested asking Natalie to look at the sketch, he’d dismissed it and reminded her that Isabella was dead.

“I know,” Hermione said slowly, her brow furrowed, “but Harry, that child has a gift for this. I swear it’s magical… we don’t have to scare her. You show her the sketch that Dean created, and a stack of photos of various women. If she can match them… well, I won’t go there just yet. It doesn’t have to be traumatic for her.”

Harry hadn’t agreed until he’s spoken to Nat’s mother, who was miraculously in London at the moment. He’d explained Hermione’s idea and told her that he’d lie to Nat about what he was after. Julienne had agreed.

“It will be fine,” Harry said. “I have her mother’s permission.”

There was a knock at the door and Neville came in with the girl. She smiled when she recognized him, before her face fell. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone is fine,” Harry reassured her and he shook Neville’s hand.

“I’ve got a class,” Neville said, “but come say ‘hello’ before you leave.”

Harry shepherded her over to a seat, and he sat across from her. “I actually have a favor to ask of you. I need help placing a woman. She was found wandering the streets, and we’re sure she’s magical, but we’re having trouble putting a name to a face. We want to find her family.”

“Oh,” Nat brightened, and grinned. “I can do that.”

Harry pulled out the sketch. “This is the woman, and I have a stack of photos of possibility from missing persons. Some of them are over thirty years old, but I wanted to be thorough.”

“It’s no problem,” Nat said absently as she studied the sketch. “This artist is good.”

“He’s a classmate of mine,” Harry said, and he agreed with her. “We don’t need a full time artist, so he comes in when we do.”

She nodded, her eyes flying over the picture. “Okay, let me see the photos.”

Harry handed her the stack of moving pictures. In it were people he knew couldn’t be guilty, as well as both Isabella Crabbe and her sister, Fiona Goyle.

Nat flipped through them. Some she passed over almost instantly. Others she studied a little closer. She came to Fiona and paused for a full minute. “I want to say that this person is a relative.”

Harry could have fallen off his chair. “But that’s not her?”

“No,” Nat assured him firmly. “But they share a few characteristics that I’d say make them close blood relations.” Harry felt awful, but he kept his face impassive. He’d been living under the hope that Isabella was dead. If she wasn’t…

She kept going. Isabella’s photo came up, and Nat stopped. Thirty long, silent seconds ticked by. “This is her, but it’s at least twenty years old.”

His heart sank. He wanted to ignore her, wanted to dismiss her as a kid, even as his mind slapped him for being stupid. How many times had adults ignored him as a child, when they shouldn’t have? “Natalie, thank you. You’ve been so helpful.”

She smiled happily. “I don’t mind. This is fun for me.” She handed the photos back to him. “I hope that helps you.”

“More than I can say,” he assured her, even if he wished he could erase what she’d said from his brain.

“Off to class with you, Miss Parker,” McGonagall said with a rare, encouraging smile. “You’ve done well.”

As soon as the door closed, the old professor pulled out a scrap of parchment and wrote something down. “Do some research on this, Potter. I think you’ll find it interesting.”

Harry wasn’t sure he was going to find much of interest. He had to get his house back under the Fidelius Charm immediately, and start a massive manhunt for a woman who had faked her own death, and had hidden herself for almost two decades, but he took the slip of parchment and glanced down at it.

On it was written, ‘Augmentum Imaginari’.

~*~

Going home to tell Ginny that Isabella Crabbe wasn’t dead just about broke Harry’s heart. He waited until Lily was asleep before explaining what had happened that day.

“She’s sure?” Ginny asked quietly. “Nat was positive?”

Harry shrugged helplessly. “I couldn’t push her, Gin, but she seemed that way. She knew who her sister was, even though I couldn’t have ever pointed them out as sisters. Also, Minerva gave me a phrase to look up.” He fished the slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Ginny.

“Augmentum Imaginari?” she studied it, even as her hands shook. “Imagine change? Something like that?”

He nodded. “My Latin is very rusty. She told me to figure out what it meant, but I’ve got no clue. No one I trusted enough to ask at the Ministry knew either. Your dad suggested I go digging through the archives, but I haven’t got the time right now. I dunno why she wouldn’t just tell me what it meant. It was almost like having Dumbledore back, and not in a good way.”

Harry walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red wine and two glasses. He poured them each half a glass.

Ginny’s brow furrowed. “You can get me into the archives, right?”

“Sure,” he agreed after taking a sip. “Not the really restricted stuff, of course, but everything else only needs a Department Head to sign off.”

“I’ll find it,” she told him, flicking her gaze up to his.

It was exactly what she did. To everyone else who saw her going in to the archives, it appeared that Ginny was teaching Lily and Hugo how to do research. Much to Hermione’s chagrin, and everyone else’s delight, the kids decided to research the history of Quidditch while Ginny frantically searched for the term.

She’d bring the kids up to say ‘hello’ to him or Hermione sometimes before they went home, and both of them were bursting with fun facts, most of which he already knew, and pages of hand written notes that they’d compiled themselves.

They finished their project on Quidditch well before Ginny had located the Latin phrase, and they presented a well-written report to Ginny, Harry, Hermione and Ron along with a model one evening after supper. Harry had to admit that he was really impressed with all they’d accomplished. Even Hermione had to agree that she’d learned a few things she didn’t already know.

They continued to go down into the archives, and the kids started reading whatever took their fancy. Lily read up on magical creatures, while Hugo fixated on learning about vampires.

Ginny looked for almost a full month, between her Quidditch games and articles, before she found what she was looking for. Harry had contacted McGonagall a couple of times, but she’d either ignored his letters or told him she didn’t know enough to be helpful.

The day she found it, she arranged for Hugo to spend the night so that the adults could talk as late as they wanted without wearing the kids out. As soon as the two little ones were in bed, and their doors warded so they couldn’t listen in, the adults assembled around the kitchen table.

“I’m dying here,” Harry groaned as Ginny leisurely poured herself a glass of wine. “Gin, come on.”

“The phrase refers to a magical gift,” Ginny informed them as she sat down. “In this case, it refers to Natalie herself as magically gifted.”

“Her ability with faces,” Hermione concluded instantly. “When you told me what her parents said, and that she started when she was four or five, well, I knew that something was working there. I’ve never heard of it, though.”

Ron took a swig of his beer and shook his head. “It’s funny to think of that titchy girl as being powerful.”

“It’s her vision that’s so amazing, actually,” Ginny said. She pulled out a long scroll of parchment on which she’d taken copious notes. “Basically, it works like this. She sees people for who they were, who they are, and who they will become. Her dad says she can do that with skulls as well, but I imagine that’s more because she’s been given the chance to practice with him, rather than this inborn skill. Like I can run fast, but if given a trainer, I could eventually run a marathon. If someone is born without legs, they’ll never be able to do that. Do you see what I mean?”

They all nodded. “So other people have done what she can do?” Harry asked her.

“Yes,” Ginny sighed heavily, “but it’s been hundreds of years since the last one was alive. It goes beyond seeing faces, though, and here is where it gets interesting.”

“Yeah,” Ron drawled sarcastically, “what would I do without an interesting plot twist?”

Hermione must have kicked him under the table because he winced. “Go on, Ginny.”

“As she grows, Nat’s ability will grow until she is able to see things exactly as they were before they were magically altered.” Ginny stared around at them as they ingested that bit. “So in effect, if someone like Teddy alters his appearance, she will always be able to see through it. If someone transfigures a mouse into a cat, she will still be able to see the mouse as well as the cat.”

“Holy effing Merlin,” Ron sat back in his chair, completely stunned. “You’re serious?”

“No,” Ginny rolled her eyes, “I’m lying to you for the fun of it. This gift is going to make her not only a valuable asset, but also a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.”

Hermione rubbed at her temple and shook her head. “If she can see through things, and can see magic at its core, then she’s going to be able to function like Dumbledore being able to see magical signatures, including who performed the magic.”

“Better,” Ginny corrected. “Dumbledore had to teach himself how to do this. This is an innate ability in her already. She’s a natural.”

“But,” Harry closed his eyes, “as smart as she is, Nat isn’t magically powerful overall like Dumbledore. She’s doing well, but she isn’t a gifted in defensive magic. Al’s told us that her best subject is History of Magic.”

They all fell silent at that. Ron voiced what they all feared. “So unlike Dumbledore, if someone finds out that she can do this, Nat won’t be able to protect herself.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Ginny agreed quietly. “This gift has been mostly in one or two old families. The children typically didn’t make it to adulthood. They were kidnapped and exploited. The last one who lived had only one son, who was a Squib and no other magical children so it appeared to have died out there.”

Hermione groaned. “Did you trace them?”

“Yep,” Ginny nodded. “Direct descendant. I spoke with Julienne Parker this afternoon, and she had a genealogy done from some sort of computer program. I was able to find the Squib son on her chart.”

“We have to protect her,” Harry said instantly, and saw his wife shoot him a grateful look. “We need to make sure this stays as quiet as possible while she’s very young, and help her cope. We have to tell her parents.”

The four of them looked around at each other. They’d all liked Al and Rose’s friend, and her parents. Not only that, but Nat had helped Harry realize that his family was in jeopardy. Without her, they might have gone another few years without realizing Isabella Crabbe was alive. Harry owed her. He reached out for Ginny’s hand and squeezed it gently. He didn’t know what was going to happen, but he was pretty sure it was going to be a rough go.

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Chapter 9: Chapter 6

Author's Notes: Thank you, Arnel, for all of your help! You are a rock star :D

I hope you enjoy the chapter. Please check out my original work. If you look in my profile, you'll see the links to my book. My second book will be on sale/presale shortly. If you like my stories, you'll like my original.

Thank you for all of your support! Let me know what you're thinking about The Space Between :)
~Sarah


Winter melted in to spring as their classes picked up and the competition between the houses heated up. Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in the Quidditch match, but only just. James was still being annoying about it, but Al was getting better at ignoring his older brother. James’ taunts and jabs didn’t hurt quite as much with his friends around all the time.

He, Scorpius, Rose and Nat walked down to breakfast on the last school day before the Easter holidays to find the post already waiting for them and a big, fat letter for Nat from her dad. “He’s getting me from the train,” she said between bites as she read through it quickly. “Mum will be here on Sunday for my birthday.”

“That will be nice,” Rose said helping herself to some eggs. “Come on, we’re going to be late for Defense.”

They exited the hall right behind James and Louis, and hurried up the stairs. Al held back a bit, not wanting his brother to see him, and none of his friends commented. They all knew that James could be a pain.

The corridor ahead of them was vacant except for a small knot of fourth year Slytherins. One of them was on the Quidditch team, but Al couldn’t remember what his name was. His face looked a bit like a pug’s, a bit squashed.

“Oh, look,” pug face drawled out quietly. “It’s the Potter bastards.”

Al saw James and Louis freeze in front of them. Nat hissed out a slow breath. He glanced over and saw her expression was bleak. She rallied almost instantly and took a step towards the three boys, all of whom were significantly bigger than she was. “Last time I checked, their parents are married.”

“Not because they wanted to be,” the boy laughed derisively. “I’ve heard stories about how they were forced to marry when your mum was sixteen.”

Al’s stomach dropped. What he was saying didn’t make any sense. His parents were in love. It was pretty disgusting most of the time, to be honest. They hadn’t been that young.

“Shut up,” Scorpius growled pretty much in unison with Louis.

“Can’t take the truth?” another boy with brown, curly hair asked them. “At least my parents kept it in their pants before-”

Al didn’t even think. Neither, it seemed, did James. They both ran forward towards the boys, and would have started wailing on them if Scorpius and Louis hadn’t grabbed them.

“Boys!” a sharp voice called down the hallway. “Get to class, all of you. No fighting.”

Al’s vision was red. He wanted to hit the stupid kid for saying something like that about his parents. Scorpius dragged him back.

A small hand fitted in to his, and tugged, and he felt the breath leave him, the anger die, as he followed the trail of strawberry blonde hair, as it pulled him towards their class. He didn’t see which way James and Louis had gone.

He sat in class, not taking in a word of what the professor said, and left in a daze, not sure of where he was going. Natalie guided him in to a vacant classroom and pushed him gently into a chair. He sat. His ears were still ringing.

“Al,” Nat said quietly. “How old is your mum?”

“She’s thirty-six,” Rose said quietly. He looked up at his cousin and saw the devastation on her face. “Al…”

“It can’t be true!” Al blurted out. He couldn’t believe it.

Scorpius’ pale face was even whiter. “There’s this law, Al… if you get pregnant when you aren’t married, then you have to marry the… the other person.”

Al’s mind raced through all the things he knew about his parents, but none of this computed. “My parents love each other!”

“They do,” Nat agreed softly. “But Al, your sister was born in 1998.”

“So?” Al blurted out, a little harsher than he’d meant to. “What does that mean?”

He turned to see tears on Rose’s cheek. “Oh, Al… I didn’t even think about when Hope was born! Aunt Ginny’s birthday is the eleventh of August.”

“Al, if you do the math backward,” Nat said quietly, “She had just turned seventeen when Hope died.”

Al closed his eyes, and felt Rose and Nat hug him. He felt sick. He felt horrible.

He couldn’t wait to confront his parents, and yet he dreaded the train ride home the next morning.

It couldn’t be true.

~*~

Al couldn’t settle. He felt edgy and jumpy as he stared at the clock, waiting to make sure his brother and sister were asleep so he could go talk to his parents. When it finally hit nine, he crept from his room only to find James in the hall doing the exact same thing.

They stared at each other, brown eyes glaring at green. “Go back to bed,” James hissed.

“No,” Al refused stubbornly. “I want to know. You should go back to bed. You’ll only make Mum cry.”

James recoiled, clearly shocked. “I won’t make Mum cry!”

“You always make her cry about everything,” Al hissed, crossing his arms. He didn’t care if James beat the stuffing out of him; he wasn’t going to let his brother win this time. “She gets really sad when we ask about Hope, and you’ll only make it worse for her. I don’t want you to hurt her!”

James’ face went white. “I don’t do that.”

Al simply stared at him. “You’re not stupid, James. Don’t pretend you don’t know how upset you make her all the time.”

James swallowed hard. “I… I won’t. You talk, and I’ll listen.”

“Promise?” Al asked him suspiciously.

“I swear it,” James murmured, still looking off kilter. “I don’t want Mum to cry.”

Al nodded once, and walked down the hall to his parents’ bedroom door. The light shone under the crack, and he could hear their quiet voices. James stood so close behind him that he could feel the heat coming off of his brother. Al raised his hand, hesitated for only a fraction of a second, then knocked.

“Come in,” his mum’s voice called to them, and Al reluctantly opened the door.

~*~

Ginny watched her two sons, both of whom looked pale and drawn, as they made their way into the room. She and Harry were sitting in their bed. She’d known something was coming. They’d both been so quiet when they’d gotten off the train.

She patted the bed, and watched James close the door, before they both climbed on, sitting cross legged and looking at them.

Her two boys, both of whom looked so much like Harry.

“What’s up?” Harry asked them.

They exchanged looks, and it was Al that answered. “We heard something at school.”

Ginny’s heart sank, even as her pulse kicked into overdrive. She knew, without having them tell her, what they’d heard. Her breaths came out in short pants as her vision clouded.

“Ginny!” Harry took her hand.

But she couldn’t hear him clearly. Her ears were ringing, and she closed her eyes.

No. It was too soon. Her little boys shouldn’t have to hear this, not now.

Young legs crawled over, and two little boys threw themselves on her, holding her tight.

“We love you, Mummy,” Al whispered. “Please don’t cry.”

She held on, fought back the tears, and the bile that resignation flooded through her system. It took her a few minutes to get herself back to calm, but finally she managed. She nodded at Harry, who started the story just as he had with Teddy a few years before. The two dark haired children, who looked so alike, but couldn’t have been more opposite, sat back and studied them.

“We were at a funeral,” Harry began, and she could feel the nerves that shook his hand as it held hers. “I was seventeen, and your mum was sixteen. It was just after the last battle. Someone attacked your mum, and I defended her. We both ended up in St. Mungo’s.”

He took a steadying breath, before he continued recounting the story to their children. “While we were in the hospital, a woman broke in and…”

Harry glanced at her, and she read the anguish on his face. It was like rape. They had both felt so violated by what had happened. Neither of them wanted to admit it to the kids.

“What happened?” Al squeaked. He looked terrified.

“We didn’t want to tell you, now,” Ginny admitted and hated that her voice quavered. They were only thirteen and twelve. “We didn’t tell Teddy until he was almost sixteen.”

Al and James exchanged a look. It was Al again who spoke. “We need to know, Mum. Someone at school said stuff. Others know.”

“They don’t know all of it,” Harry said, and his voice sounded a lot lower than normal. “Only a few people know the whole truth, Al. Once you hear it… it’s not pretty.”

James looked like he was going to be sick. He was pressing his lips together into a hard line.

“I want to know,” Al said miserably. “Even if it’s awful, I want to know.” James nodded in agreement.

“The woman,” Ginny haltingly picked up the story. “She used your dad to magically impregnate me.”

Both of them stared at her. “What?” James finally blurted out, breaking his silence. “Like… like not the normal way, but with magic?”

“Yes,” Harry confirmed, misery washed off of him in waves. “Then she poisoned us.”

Both of their faces went blank. “What?” Al looked devastated. “What?! Why would someone do that?”

“She was really ill,” Ginny said quietly, remembering just how insane Isabella Crabbe was, and still remained now that they knew she was still alive. Their house was under the Fidelius Charm again, though, so while the kids were at home they were safe. “She’d just lost her son, and she’d had a very hard life. The why isn’t really that important right now. That can wait. What happened after,” she took a steadying breath, and fought back the tears. “We had to get married, because that’s the law. Do you know–” they both nodded curtly, so she didn’t explain further. “Aunt Audrey cured your dad and me of the poison, or she thought we had been cured. I was really sick, and…”

“Hope didn’t make it,” Harry said through a voice choked with emotion. “The poison stayed in your mum enough that Hope couldn’t live. We lost her when she was seventeen weeks pregnant.”

They both looked shattered. Al started to cry first, but James followed shortly after. Both Ginny and Harry cried with them, holding their sons in their arms.

“I get why you didn’t want to tell us,” James said after a few minutes. His face was blotchy and red, but Ginny couldn’t have loved him more than she did at that moment. She was pitifully grateful that he wasn’t upset that they’d kept it a secret. “Mum… Dad, I’m so sorry.”

Ginny nodded, too choked up to speak as she cupped his damp cheek and kissed away one of his tears.

“We don’t want to tell Lily,” Harry told them. “She’s too little, and this…”

Al shook his head violently. “No, we can’t tell her.”

James’ eyes took on a hard glint. “We’ll make sure no one at school tells her, either.”

“James,” Ginny began reproachfully, but cut herself off when she saw the look in his eyes. Something was shifting there, so she changed tactics. “Just don’t get expelled, all right?”

He nodded once. “Who else knows?”

“The family knows,” Harry said after a moment. “The adults, anyway. A few key Ministry members know, but it has been kept very quiet. We didn’t want that bit to be exposed. If Hope had lived, it would have been crucial that she not know how she got here. Teddy knows, so does Victoire. We weren’t planning on telling anyone else until after they’d finished school.”

They both nodded, and looked at each other, almost like they were silently communicating. “We’ll keep it quiet,” Al said finally, brushing at a stray tear.

“Thank you,” Ginny whispered, pulling her children to her. They were what this bearable.

“You can talk to us any time,” Harry assured them. “We know it’s a lot. We spent a lot of time talking it over with Teddy.”

“Did he cry?” Al asked in a small voice.

Ginny nodded. “It’s okay to cry. You’ve lost a sister, even if you didn’t know her.”

Al’s lower lip trembled, but he held it together. “Did you hate having to get married?”

It looked like it took all of his will to ask, and Ginny marveled at the strength she was seeing in him. “No, Al, we were always going to get married.”

“Yeah,” Harry assured them. “Your mum was supposed to go back to school that year. It wasn’t the time we’d have picked, but it worked out. Marrying your mum was one of the best things I’ve ever had happen to me. I don’t regret that at all.”

“Do you want to talk some more now?” Ginny asked gently, although she suspected they were both ready for bed.

They both shook their heads. “Maybe later,” James replied. His brown eyes looked so overwhelmed that she pulled him to her for another hug. “I love you, Mum,” he whispered into her shoulder.

“I love you, too,” Ginny promised him. You helped me survive all of this, she added silently.

~*~

When his sons had asked him, point blank, why he’d put the Fidelius Charm back up on the house Harry hadn’t lied. He also hadn’t told them the truth. Threats come in all the time. That was part and parcel of being an Auror and they should always be vigilant. Oddly enough it was Al who seemed not to buy it. His quiet, introspective look gave Harry more than one moment of disquiet. After the week they’d had with the boys and them learning the truth about Hope, this felt like one more thing to list of parental worries.

Harry didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. He’d set up a meeting with Cori Oldford at her home in London at nine o’clock on the Friday before his children were set to go back to school. Harry went into the office at eight, retrieved the address from his assistant, Daniel, and headed right back out to walk the ten blocks to their flat. He needed the cool, spring air to clear his head and compose himself for whatever he was going to hear.

Harry checked the slip of parchment as he stopped outside an older, stone building that looked to have been converted to flats decades before. The building was maintained, but there was a faint air of poverty. This was the sort of place that Teddy was looking to move in to, the kind that a new couple would be able to afford. It made him grin. It was the step someone took on their first trek out into the adult world.

He surreptitiously unlocked the front door with a quick Alohomora charm, before making his way up to the second floor. At the door marked 3B, where the ‘B’ was slightly crooked, he rapped smartly.

The door opened to Carter. He looked tired, but otherwise unchanged from when Harry had seen him last at Cori’s bedside.

“Mr. Potter,” he stuck out his hand with a small smile. “Come in.”

He was ushered into a small sitting room with a shabby chintz couch and a single arm chair that might have come from a dumpster the week before. It was clean, but clearly older than Harry was himself.

Cori looked wan as she picked at her nails from her seat on the couch. Harry didn’t reach out, simply sat in the chair across from her so her husband could sit with her. As soon as they were all seated, he saw the tiniest drop of her shoulders as she glanced at Carter and Harry knew he’d made the right call. He’d put in a request for Oldford to be present at home, made sure his boss gave him the morning free, with pay. Carter Oldford was so junior on the list that it was not the sort of leave he could have managed for himself.

“How have you been?” Harry asked as he studied the blonde hair that had been regrown for her along with the blue eyes that still wore the haunted expression that he’d seen weeks before in the hospital.

“I…” she sniffed as stilled her fingers when Carter gently took them. “I miscarried last week.”

Harry checked his immediate response of, ‘I’m sorry’. It was a different situation than many other women. “How are you dealing with that?”

“Confused,” she wiped away an errant tear that trailed down her cheek. “I’m really s-sad, but also relieved. It’s difficult most days. I… I go to my mom’s house and spend my days with her because I don’t want to be alone, but… part of me is very sad.”

“Part of the baby was yours,” Harry reminded her gently. “It’s okay to grieve and be upset if that’s what you’re feeling.”

Cori nodded, but didn’t look up at him.

“Any luck on finding the guys who did this?” Carter questioned after a moment’s silence.

“In that,” Harry was relieved to tell them, “we have a few leads. I was able to get the records from the Ministry about who was recorded as the baby’s father. That’s given us a very good idea of who would have been with him. He’s got a group of blokes he’s been known to associate with. We’re making headway.”

“What about the woman?” Cori probed in a shaking voice.

Harry kept his face carefully neutral. “We have a few leads on that.”

He left forty minutes later after hearing her go through the story again. As near as he could tell, she was part of a group that was being experimented on. Most of the time they took homeless Muggle men, but she was taken by the men and the older women had let them use her. That, in itself, was troubling. What motivations could Isabella Crabbe have had to let them rape the poor girl? Isabella Crabbe was, to coin a favorite phrase of his niece, Roxy, a flaming psychopath. But could she have wanted Cori pregnant or was she trying to pacify the men she’d been with?

Thankfully, Curtis Parker was in London and Harry had arranged a meeting with him that afternoon after Curtis had agreed to examine the remains of the woman they’d thought was Isabella Crabbe. Hermione had brought him into St. Mungo’s that morning and he would likely be at it for another couple of hours in the examination room down in the basement of the hospital.

Harry went back to his office, checked in with his assistant, took the memos, case files and general update on the morning’s happenings, before he locked himself in his office to fill out his report on Cori Oldford.

A knock sounded at his door and Daniel stuck his head in. “Mr. Potter, Mrs. Weasley is here to see you with Mr. Parker. Shall I show them in?”

“Please,” Harry stood as Hermione came in with Curtis. “I thought I was going to meet you at the hospital.”

“We were done early,” Curtis shook his hand and took a seat. He handed over a folder. “I got everything I needed quickly. I can go over the science with you, if you’d like, but I can tell from the teeth that the victim from the fire was no more than twenty or twenty one. Also, although it’s difficult to tell definitively because of the damage from the fire, I would guess that the woman was of African descent.”

Harry glanced at Hermione. “How could we have gotten it that wrong?”

Hermione shrugged helplessly. “Curtis has offered to give the Healers a book to study, but essentially we use magical signatures to identify bodies. It’s typically reliable, but…”

He flipped over the folder and saw two dozen pages of notes in Hermione’s clear, precise handwriting. Harry turned to the pictures and saw the shots done in stills, rather than in typical magical fashion of moving portraits, of the teeth, nose area and a shot of the pelvis. He held it up. “What about this one?”

“You see that the pelvis is not fully fused,” Curtis began, but at the blank look on Harry’s face, changed tactics. Clearly he was used to working with the police. “Basically, as we age the bones fuse and become harden at a prescribed rate of growth, with typically only a few years of wiggle room. I look at the spaces between the bones to see if they’re fully formed. In this case, it was at the very end of fusing, so her hips and teeth together give me late teens or early twenties. Although this woman could have had a child via Caesarian section, her bones do not otherwise indicate that she has born a child.”

“The Caesarian rate among wizards,” Hermione went on, “is extremely low. We call it ‘removing’ here. There is not specific term for it. But when Curtis told me about the birth I went to check in with the midwives and confirmed with Healer Sterling that Mrs. Crabbe did not have the baby removed. He was a big baby born at home.”

“How does she remember things like that?” Curtis asked Hermione curiously as he turned more fully in his seat, his intelligent eyes studying her.

Hermione laughed softly. “I should have introduced you. She’s got a mind like a trap, but as I said the rate is low. She delivers fifty babies a year, maybe one or two need to be removed. It’s the type of thing you would remember.”

They went over the finer details of the body, and Curtis gave him a general idea of whom to search for in locating the real woman that had been burned that night.

He’d known as he closed up his files that Isabella Crabbe was still alive, but having it confirmed was more than he wanted to consider.

He also had concerns for Natalie’s safety buzzing around his brain. Curtis had agreed to let him put up protective charms around their flat, a very nice flat in a posh part of London, but it wouldn’t hold up against anyone seriously bent on hurting the child. They hadn’t yet gone over the issues with Natalie. They’d decided to have everyone over for dinner the next night so that they could talk and discuss what Ginny had learned.

“Mr. Potter?” Daniel knocked at the open door. “Are you done with me for the day, sir?”

“Yes,” Harry grinned and waved him off. “You’re free. Have a date tonight?”

“I do,” the handsome twenty-three-year-old grinned. Ginny’s only stipulation to Harry’s assistant was that it couldn’t be a young, unmarried woman after the previous assistant, a woman older than Dumbledore, had retired.

Harry waved him off. “Tell Blake I said hello, then. I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Thank you, and I will,” Daniel said cheekily. “Ginny sent an owl to remind you to be home on time.”

Ginny’s entire concern had been that Harry not get hit on.

She hadn’t counted on his new assistant being gay. When she’d learned, she’d laughed at her own folly and had become very attached to the young man.

“Got it,” Harry acknowledged as he capped his ink bottle. “Heading out now.”

First thing Monday morning, he’d be opening a task force to start sifting through the records of all the missing and unexplained deaths over the last two decades.

That night, however, was an overdue talk with Teddy after the kids were in bed. With their doors warded against eaves-dropping.

Later that night, with the kids securely asleep in their beds, Harry, Ginny and Teddy sat around the end of the long kitchen table while Teddy tried not to look sick.

Harry wasn’t sure why he was bothering, since he also feeling decidedly green. Ginny was the only one who was unaffected by the conversation.

“We’ve already had the talk, of course,” Ginny finally broke the awkward silence as the light from the candles flickered around them. “But if it’s serious with Victoire–”

“It is,” Teddy interrupted her quickly, his earnest face so like Remus in that moment that it tripped Harry’s grief for his lost friend all over again. “I want to marry her.”

Harry stared at him, a little surprised. He’d known that Teddy was getting serious, but he hadn’t realized it was quite that far along. “Now?”

“No,” Teddy shook his head grimly. “No, she needs to go to school and focus on that. Plus I can’t afford to move out, can’t afford a ring, or anything. I’m definitely finishing my training before I ask her. Then we can decide from there if we’ll get married before that, but… I told her last night that I meant to at some point.”

Absently he rubbed at a chin that needed to be shaved and stared at the nineteen-year-old. “That’s sensible, enough, and will keep Bill from throttling you. You’ll need to ask his permission. That’s big with him.”

“Got it,” Teddy’s skin went even greener at the prospect of facing off with Bill Weasley. “I will.”

“You’re still being safe, right?” Ginny probed delicately. “We can deal with surprises, but the consequences are sometimes difficult to stand up against.”

Teddy’s cheeks went slightly pink as he stared at the table. “We haven’t and we’re not going to.” Finally he met her gaze head on. “I’m not ready to be a dad right now. I’m not ready to support a family. We both… I mean, it’s… it’s not fun, because I really want to be with her, but I’m not doing that to her. The shame and– damn, I’m sorry, Ginny! I didn’t mean–”

Ginny patted his hand as tears threatened. “You didn’t. Someone at school told James and Al about Hope and us having to get married. We had to tell them the truth.”

“Oh,” Teddy breathed out the word rather than spoke it. He shot Harry a questioning glance. “How did they take it?”

“About like you’d expect,” Harry muttered grimly. “About like you did. We’ve been reeling from that. We thought we had years.” He reached over to take Ginny’s hand, wishing he could take away her pain. “Something about marriage that I need you to know, Teddy, something I’m not sure Ginny wants to cop to, but it’s served me well.”

Teddy waited while Harry gathered his thoughts.

“There will be a time when she will be at her most vulnerable, and it’s on you to be the one protecting her, even from herself,” a gentle squeeze to Ginny’s fingers as her eyes told him clearly to go on. “It will be on you to shelter her and make sure she’s safe, that she feels safe.”

“He’s right,” Ginny took Teddy’s hand and linked the three of them. “There are some times when we’re too vulnerable. I do that for Harry, as well, although it tends to be subtler and when no one is there watching. We protect each other’s hearts, keep each other from falling apart, and help pick up the pieces when we do.”

Teddy grinned at them. “You’re why I want to get married. I see how you are and… I want this.”

Later that night, in the dark of their room, both naked and a little sweaty, Harry ran his fingers through her hair and tried to quiet his mind.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked him as she trailed her fingers along his bare chest. “It might help.”

He sighed wearily. “I’m going to fill in the rest of the department on Monday and form a task force, choose someone to head it up.”

Ginny’s decidedly indelicate snort was more informative than words.

“Okay,” he admitted reluctantly. “I’ll probably head it up. I will have someone else checking over my shoulder, though. I don’t want to miss something because I’m too close to the situation. I’m concerned that I’ll miss something.”

“Probably a wise decision,” Ginny murmured as she kissed his bare skin, sending a shiver up his spine. “What did Curtis say?”

“Exactly what we expected,” Harry told her. “It wasn’t Crabbe. So I have the body of a young, dead woman and her family has been wondering about her for the last twenty years.” He couldn’t express the remorse that caused him. It also made him blindingly angry if he thought about it too long. He would find her family, come hell or high water. Curtis had taken a DNA sample from the bones that he was hopeful he’d be able to run through the Muggle police. Harry had made contact with his Scotland Yard counterpart and told him that the request was coming through him.

Her soothing, gentle hand stroked his cheek. “You’ll find her.”

“I thought everything was peaceful,” Harry sighed as he stared at up the darkened ceiling. “We’ve had peace for so many years and now… the smugglers were dealing in potions ingredients, which we know that Isabella Crabbe is adapt in. We haven’t seen an uptick in illegal potions, though.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Ginny said confidently. “She’s got to be getting money somewhere, right? Find the money. That’s what you always say.”

There was a low knock at the door. “One second,” Ginny sat up and quickly grabbed her pajamas while Harry threw on sweatpants.

The moment she was clothed and back in bed, Harry went to magically unlock the door. He pulled it open to find Al on the other side.

“Hey,” Harry tugged him in gently and closed the door. “What’s the matter?”

“Tomorrow…” Al shifted from one foot to the other, his small face screwed up in concern. “With Nat… she’s coming and there’s something wrong. I know it.”

Ginny held out her arms and Al rushed forward towards her. “Come on,” Ginny guided him into the middle of the bed so he could lay with them, his mother’s arms around him as she kissed his brow. “You know we wouldn’t let anything hurt a child, Al, but more than that we know she’s your friend. You don’t have to worry about this, okay? We’re on it.”

“But…” Al’s voice trailed off. “It feels like something bad is going to happen.”

Harry ran a soothing hand over Al’s dark hair. “Your mum and I always keep you safe. We’re going to make sure Nat is safe as well.”

What he didn’t say, screamed loudly through the room. Harry could read the thoughts as though they were printed in a Muggle cartoon thought bubble. “This isn’t like Hope, Al,” he promised his son gently. “Nat isn’t in danger today and you’re going to have to trust us to keep her safe, which,” Harry realized heavily, “is the sort of rubbish that would have made me mad when I was your age. I wanted to be doing, not sitting on the sidelines. Is that about right?”

“Yeah,” Al sniffed in a small voice. Then more forcefully, he added, “If I can help Nat stay safe, then I want to help.”

“You can,” Harry replied and ignored the look Ginny shot him. “You already do. Her curse, while cured, means she’s still a bit of a klutz, right? You protect her from that.”

His son gave him that look that told him he wasn’t fooled. It was very unnerving to see his green eyes, mirroring doubt and annoyance back at him. “That’s not all that’s wrong or you wouldn’t have called a meeting.”

“We wanted to have them over for dinner,” Ginny argued instantly as she shifted onto her side and propped her head up on her hand to see them better.

“But that’s not the only reason,” Al retorted stubbornly. “Something happened.”

Harry searched Ginny’s eyes and saw her resignation. “You’re right, but we want to discuss it with Natalie’s parents first. That’s their right. Can you understand that?”

Al nodded reluctantly. “She’s not going to die, is she?”

“No!” Ginny promised with heartfelt sincerity. “She’s got a gift that some people might like to exploit. We need to protect her from those people, okay?”

Shoulders relaxed and Al swallowed back the obvious fear. “Okay. I can look out for her, too.”

His son… his son’s courage, openness and absolute loyalty humbled Harry. He took Al’s chin gently in his hand and pressed his lips to his dark locks. “I know you can.” Then saying the thing he’d never heard, ever, in his young life. “I trust you, Al. Right now you’re job is to be her friend and to report anything you see to Neville, okay? When you’re older and a bit more trained up, then you can take an active role if you still want to. Is that a deal?”

He hesitated only a split second. “Deal.”

Ginny shot him a look that screamed, ‘what are you doing?’ but Harry knew what it was to have a drive to be in the thick of things. If Al had that same drive, it was best to channel it and help him hone his skills, rather than knock him down. Also, Al wasn’t reckless like Harry had been as a boy. That was James. Al was careful, methodical, and despite what he’d have said even a year earlier, Al was showing him a whole lot of courage. It would be interesting to see what he did with it.

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Chapter 10: Chapter 7

Author's Notes: Thank you, Arnel, for all of your help!

Readers, tell me what you're thinking, give me feedback. This chapter took me forever to write. I need motivation ;)

My second book is up for pre-order right now on amazon. You can find the information in my profile. Please go check it, and my first novel, out.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the new chapter!
~Sarah


Ginny stared at Teddy through her open front door and couldn’t fathom that it was actually him. He’d outdone himself in his disguise for their dinner with the Parkers. The only reason she knew it was him was because Harry had warned her how Teddy would present himself, and the house was under the strictest security so not just anyone could get in.

“Who’s that?” James asked pointed as he wandered over and stared at the older gentleman in the door.

Teddy stuck out his hand, “Baxter Hornsby. I work with your father.” Even his voice sounded distinctively different. Gone was the sandy-haired, tall, young man and in his place was a short, solid man of about sixty with dark, slightly gray hair, and light green eyes.

James shook his hand reluctantly. “I’ve never met you before.”

“He works in the MLE,” Ginny explained quickly. “Please, come in Mr. Hornsby. I’d like you to meet our guests. This is Julienne and Curtis Parker and their daughter, Natalie. You know Hermione and Ron Weasley, of course. These are their children,” she pointed around the table. “Rose and Hugo, and these are my children, Al,” she pointed, “and Lily, and of course, James. You remember Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom, I’m sure.”

“Of course,” Teddy held out a hand to shake. “How do you do?”

“Er,” Nat held up a hand like she was in class.

Harry walked over with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. “What’s up?”

“Why is Teddy dressed like that?” she asked the group at large.

Teddy, unfortunately, faltered and spun to gawk at her.

“I told you,” Professor McGonagall chuckled dryly. “Change back, Mr. Lupin. No point in keeping it up now.”

“How did you know it was him?” Al questioned, astonished, as he studied his godbrother morphing back into himself. Then he spun on Ginny. “Why was he like that, Mum?”

“A small test,” Ginny cupped his chin and grin. “We’ll explain over dinner, I promise. Everyone, let’s sit.”

They refused to comment, despite the nagging of the six children, until they’d consumed the chicken Ginny had prepared for the evening. They dug into treacle tart with abandon as the conversation flowed around them.

“Well,” Harry pushed his plate away from him. “First off, Minerva, Neville, thank you for being here for this. Ginny pointed out that having Nat’s Headmistress and her Head of House in on this conversation would be a smart move, and I agree.” He turned to Natalie, who was staring at him, wide-eyed. “First things first, Nat. We had Teddy disguised because we wanted to see just what you could do. Curtis, could you tell that it was Teddy?”

“No,” Curtis admitted as he took a small sip of wine. “I saw nothing wrong with his appearance, but to be fair, I wasn’t looking for someone to be disguised. When he changed his face before, it was very obvious that something was wrong. This was a total change and a cohesive fit. I’m assuming,” he turned his intelligent eyes on Teddy, “that you chose a real person to mimic?”

“I did,” Teddy smiled ruefully. “It’s the owner of a pub near my grandmother’s house.”

“What did you see, Miss Parker, when you looked at Mr. Lupin?” Professor McGonagall asked Natalie curious.

Nat glanced around the group. To Ginny, she looked a little off kilter. “I saw…” Nat began hesitantly. “I… well, see, he didn’t look right. I don’t know how to explain it. I could just tell it was him.”

“That’s so cool,” James whistled.

Ginny shot her son a quelling look, but James only grinned in response. “You helped Mr. Potter find a missing woman, Nat, after which Professor McGonagall suggested to him that you might have a gift. I did some research,” Ginny pulled out her notes. “We believe that you’ve got a gift called Augmentum Imaginari.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Julienne probed curiously. “Is it going to be a problem? Is that why you asked to put security on our flat?”

“What it means,” Ginny explained carefully, “is that Nat will be able to see through magic and see something to its core. Teddy is a great example. We have another one, although we’re not sure that Nat will know what it was. Al, can you fetch the box from the counter?”

“Sure,” Al hopped up from his seat at the table and scrambled over to get the plain, black box that Minerva had transfigured earlier before Nat’s arrival. He brought it back and at a nod from Ginny, set it before Nat, before taking his seat next to her again.

“What is that, Miss Parker?” Neville posed the question.

Nat stared at the box. “It’s… it’s a box. I don’t…” then she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes a bit. “It should be green.”

“What do you see?” Curtis studied his daughter curiously.

“I don’t know,” Nat shrugged helplessly. “I see the box, but the color looks wrong. It’s supposed to be light green, like lettuce colored.”

Ginny turned amazed eyes on Harry, then to Minerva.

“Exactly,” Professor McGonagall agreed quietly, clearly impressed. “I transfigured a head of lettuce into a black box.”

“Really?” Nat’s wide eyes turned to her Headmistress. “I see a box that’s green.”

“I see a black box,” Rose told. Ginny saw her niece was slightly disappointed, but she rallied quickly. “That’s so neat that you can do that!”

Curtis cleared his throat as he also studied the box. “This sounds like an interesting, er, magical gift. I’m sensing there is a major ‘but’ to this, though.”

“Unfortunately,” Ginny agreed.

Harry scraped at his brow wearily. “It’s exceptionally rare. In this case, it’s rarer than Teddy’s gift for changing his appearance. Because she will be able to see things exactly as they are, it means she can see magic that has been used for illegal purposes. No one will be able to trick her. She can use that as a very powerful asset, however…”

“She could be exploited,” Julienne concluded heavily, her eyes haunted.

“Yes,” Ginny replied softly.

“No one is going to hurt her,” Al piped in stubbornly. He looked at Nat. “We’re going to keep you safe.”

Rose nodded fervently. “Don’t worry, Nat. We’ll stick with you.”

“Secrecy is going to be essential,” Neville told Natalie. Ginny watched him try to conceal his concern for his student. They knew, the adults anyway, how serious it was for Natalie. They would, of course, tell Curtis and Julienne to true ramifications once the children were off to play upstairs. They needed to know, to be aware.

“Is there anything else?” Hugo asked curiously, hopping in his seat.

Ginny waved them off. “Go on. I know you want to show them your new game. Troll Wars,” Ginny explained to the Parkers. “It’s a new game my brother came up with.”

“Let’s go,” Hugo crowed in excitement, sprinting away from the table and ignoring his mother’s remonstration about his table manners.

She watched them go racing up the stairs, all except Al. Ginny watched her son deliberately hang back so that he followed Nat up the stairs and was ready to catch her when she tripped about halfway up. A sharp memory of Al, when he’d been about two-years-old, flashed through her mind. Ginny had been heavily pregnant with Lily and Harry had been stuck at the office later than usual. She’d given the boys a bath and her sweet, little boy had carefully stacked the toys while James had thrown them higgledy-piggledy all over the floor, along with a good bit of water. She’d been so tired, so worn out from the day, but as she looked into his baby face and his brilliant green eyes, she’d seen that her middle child would be a calm in the storm and that the details mattered, greatly, to him. Al showed it now in how he watched Natalie. He’d promised to take care of his friend, and her sturdy, solid little boy was growing into a careful, sturdy, considerate young man.

She shot Hermione a glance and intercepted one from Julienne. All three women had seen what Al had done.

That was interesting…

“So,” Curtis interrupted their silent exchange, clearly having missed what had just occurred. “What does this mean for Nat?”

Harry held up at hand and moved over to the stairs to set up charms to make sure the kids didn’t try to spy on them. “Okay,” he turned back to the group. “Only George could find a way through that.”

Ginny grinned into her glass of wine. “You’re sure he hasn’t taught James, yet?”

“I have a little sway over George,” Harry sighed heavily as he dropped into his seat. “I made him swear not to reveal that secret.”

Ron opened his mouth, but at a silent glance from Harry, shut it with a knowing grin. Ginny would have to worm that out of her husband later.

“Miss Parker’s ability is one that can be learned, of course,” Minerva explained to her parents. “Notable, powerful witches and wizards throughout history have managed to do what your daughter can do naturally. Your daughter is bright, engaging and a good student.”

Julienne smiled sadly. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming our way.”

“She’s not magically powerful,” Neville sighed as he rubbed at his eyes and sat back in his chair. “She can learn and remember, but she’s moving along at the pace we expect from our first years.”

Curtis glanced between them, his eyes crinkled a bit as he contemplated them. “It’s odd to hear that my bright daughter isn’t excelling, but–”

“No!” Neville held up a hand. His round face looked horrified and Hermione had to grab his wine goblet before he spilled it. “I don’t mean that. She’s very smart, but she’s…” he glanced helplessly at the Headmistress.

“She’s book smart,” Minerva supplied.

“I know that all too well,” Hermione admitted ruefully. “I knew more about Defense than Harry, but he could outperform me in the magic every single time. I never could keep up. In a test of facts, though…”

“Hermione knew her stuff,” Harry confirmed. “But she couldn’t cast a Patronus until much later than I could. That’s Nat.”

“A Patronus?” Julienne queried with a raised eyebrow.

Harry pulled out his wand, waved it, and the silver stag circled the room. “That’s a Patronus.”

“It’s beautiful,” Julienne whispered in awe as she watched the stag canter around the room. “What’s it do?”

“It’s a magical protection,” Hermione explained as she wiped her mouth with her napkin. “It’s used to ward off a few dark creatures.”

“Nat won’t be able to do that?” Curtis asked in concern.

Ginny felt her heart go out to him. It had be to so overwhelming to leave his child in a world he didn’t understand. “She will! The thing is, Harry could do that at thirteen where most don’t learn until they’re adults. You see the difference?”

“Harry is powerful magically…” Curtis said carefully.

Harry said, “No,” while every other wizard or witch said, “Yes.”

Ginny grinned at her flushed, annoyed husband. “So modest. You’re adorable.”

“Anyway,” Harry shot her an exasperated glance, “we want to be extremely careful with Natalie’s safety. In the normal course of things that wouldn’t be a concern and as long as we are able to keep her ability under wraps it should remain that way.”

“What about the children?” Julienne asked as she glanced around. “We’re asking them to keep a big secret.”

“The kids will keep the secret,” Ron assured her without reservation. “We’re famous and in our lives are a lot of secrets. They’ve grown up with knowing there are certain things they can’t tell anyone. Besides, we need them watching her.”

Hermione reached over to pat Julienne’s hand. “I know this is scary, but our children are the first line of defense since they’re with her all the time. At Al’s age, Harry had already faced the most powerful Dark wizard of the ages twice and won both times. We don’t underestimate our kids, even if we are trying to protect them.”

“They’ll keep the secret,” Teddy agreed wholeheartedly. “One because they care about Nat, but also because they will see it as the honorable thing to do and the kids live by a certain code.”

Ginny shot him a quizzical look, but he didn’t meet her eyes. “You’re taking Nat to Brazil this summer, right? Does she speak Portuguese?”

“Yes,” Curtis confirmed wearily. “And yes, although not well. She’ll pick it up again quickly, but we’ll be at the University much of the time so I don’t expect it to be a problem.”

“I doubt she’ll have any trouble away from home,” Harry replied honestly. “I think it isn’t going to be obvious to anyone who doesn’t know her well that this is what she’s doing and most people will pass it off as your influence, Curtis.”

“Agreed,” Minerva cleared her throat. “I will be working with her a few times a year to see how she is progressing, but I doubt I will be needed to teach her any new skills. Still, while I trust Professor Lucas,” she commented dryly, referring to her replacement for Transfiguration teacher, “I do not know him well enough to let him in on this secret.”

Ginny hid her smile behind her glass of wine. The new teacher had replaced Minerva and had been at Hogwarts for twenty years.

“I have another security question,” Julienne piped in after a lull in the conversation. “Harry is the head of the police, right?”

“Sort of,” Hermione explained to her. “He’s in charge of the witches and wizards that investigate the very serious crimes. A petty crime would be investigated by the MLE, or the Magical Law Enforcement. His branch is more specialized.”

“Okay,” she nodded contemplatively. “How long have you been the Head, erm, Auror? Did I say that correctly?”

“You did,” Harry chuckled easily. “A long time. Teddy was small, I know that. Ginny was pregnant with Al.”

Teddy snorted as he pointed at Harry. “I remember distinctly. My grandmother had to go out of town and I was seven. I was staying the week here while she was gone, and you worked all the time. I only saw you for stories right before bed.”

Harry grimaced as he stood and picked up the plates around him. “He’s right. I worked a lot during the transition.”

“Not to mention James crying all the time,” Ron reminded him helpfully. “I’m still deaf from that and I didn’t even live here.”

“He didn’t cope with teething well,” Ginny explained to the Parkers.

“It got so bad that Ginny didn’t know she was pregnant with Al,” Ron told them with a wink for his sister. Ginny picked up a bun and lobbed it at her brother’s head, but he laughed and caught it, taking a big bite. “She’f za bes of mums to deal wif dat,” he told them through a mouthful of food.

“You’re still disgusting,” Ginny said scathingly while the Parkers laughed.

Hermione shot him a quelling look. “Can we get back to the matter at hand?”

“I need to be going,” Minerva told them as she rose slowly to her feet. “We’re getting a transfer student from America and I still have some forms to fill out for her.”

“This late in the year?” Hermione blinked in surprise at their old professor.

“I’m afraid so,” the older woman sighed heavily and Harry helped her shrug into her traveling cloak. “She and her sister have come to live with their grandparents. She’d been at the Salem’s Witches Institute, but her grandfather is insisting on her starting with us. Thankfully, we have very similar teaching schedules, so she shouldn’t have too many difficulties in integrating.”

“Her sister isn’t starting?” Ron asked, and then shook his head. “Never mind, younger sister, right?”

“Indeed, Ron,” Minerva confirmed.

“The new girl is a second year,” Neville said as he also put on his cloak and ran a hand through his thinning, blond hair. “Thank you for dinner.”

Ginny stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Give Hannah our love and we’ll arrange to have dinner again this summer. I think Luna is coming home in July.”

“She’ll like that,” Neville shook hands around.

~*~

Al slumped into his seat next to Scorpius and stared at the corn flakes like they’d done him a personal injury. He knew he was being stupid. No one knew the real reason his parents had been forced to get married, but it still felt like he had a taint. He hadn’t told Nat or Rose when they’d come over for dinner, even though they’d pulled him aside to ask.

Amazingly when he’d explained that he’d gotten an answer and his parents wanted it kept quiet, they’d both respected it. Scorpius had given him the same, after he’d told him when he got back.

He did confirm that they’d gotten married because of his sister, though. That wasn’t a secret.

James wouldn’t talk to him about it, which left Al feeling out of sorts and grumpy.

“You okay?” Rose asked quietly from across the table. “Are you sick?”

“He’s fine,” James interrupted her and reached across her for the bacon, barely avoiding her hand when she tried to smack him.

Nat’s solemn eyes met his and he thought, just for a moment, that maybe she knew what was bothering him, but he shook it off and hunched his shoulders over his breakfast. He didn’t want to think about his mum being violated, or about any of the horrible things she’d had to go through. Just as soon as the summer hols came around, he was going to talk to Teddy. Teddy wouldn’t blow him off and try to act like a tough guy.

The worst part was Al had thought James was coming around and wouldn’t be quite as big of an arrogant berk.

“Attention students,” Professor McGonagall’s voice floated through the hall.

Al looked over, along with everyone else, to see her standing in front of the teacher’s table with the Sorting Hat in her hand and a small girl, close to Al’s age, standing next to her.

“We have a transfer student from America, Caroline Baker. She is in her second year and I will trust that everyone will make her feel welcome,” the Professor said. It was more of an order rather than a request.

Caroline Baker stared straight ahead, but even at a distance Al could tell she was shaking. She had golden blonde hair pulled up in a neat bun, and blue eyes the exact color of the lake. They didn’t seem able to decide between azure blue or slate gray.

“Wow!” James whistled low under his breath while Louis snickered. “Hope she ends up in Gryffindor, ‘cause she’s a–” he froze at the dirty look Roxy was giving him.

“You leave her alone, James, or I’ll make you miserable!” Roxy’s amber eyes flashed dangerously as she glared at him.

James tipped his head to the side and regarded her carefully. “I’m just looking.”

“And if she was Lily and someone was ‘just looking’ like you’re just looking?” Dominque fired back, her brilliant red hair practically standing on end in her ire. “Don’t be a–”

The hat interrupted their quiet argument by shouting out, “Gryffindor!”

The table erupted in cheers.

“Gymnast,” Nat told them. Al glanced over at her and saw her studying the new student. “She’s really fit.”

“Bah!” James spit out, still stung from the girls’ take down. “I could take her.”

“I bet you couldn’t,” Nat rolled her eyes at his brother. “A galleon says she could beat you in arm wrestling.”

James’ sneer was one for the record books. “I’m not fighting a girl!”

Nat’s answering smile was all sweetness. “Good, because you couldn’t take her, I…” her voice faded off as she gaped at the new girl, who had sat down a couple of seats away.

“What’s the matter?” Rose questioned in concern.

“Uh…” Nat swiveled around, looking ill. “I need to, erm, go talk to Professor McGonagall.”

Al rose with her. “I can come.”

“No, no,” she assured him hurriedly as she made her way forward.

Al watched her come up to the side of the Headmistress as she stood speaking to Professor Sinestra in the front of the hall.

The old professor looked at her for a moment, before beckoning her off to one of the anti-chambers from the Great Hall.

“What was that about?” Rose wondered aloud.

“Who knows,” Scorpius sighed as he dug into breakfast. “We’ll ask her in Defense.”

They didn’t get a chance to ask Nat about it until break.

“I saw something on her face,” Nat explained quietly after they’d quickly explained to Scorpius about Nat’s odd power. “I thought I was going crazy, but Professor McGonagall was able to explain it to me and it’s nothing to worry about. She had a magical healing and I could see the before and after, so it was freaky. But,” she continued on a little breathlessly. “I did promise not to tell anyone because her medical records are private, if you know what I mean and it isn’t our business, you know?”

“‘Course,” Scorpius patted her on the shoulder. “So, I have to ask. Are the giant squid’s tentacles all real, because I think he’s had some added on.”

Nat breamed at him while Al and Rose laughed. “Was your holiday okay?”

“It was fine,” Scorpius waved it off. “My mum’s parents came to stay from Greece, along with my aunt Daphne, so Dad wasn’t home much. Aunt Daphne took me to a Muggle cinema and then we went for Chinese take away, which we ate in Hyde Park. My dad would have busted a gut if he’d seen us.”

“I think I’d like your aunt,” Al mused as he could barely picture Scorpius doing any of those things. “We never get to do that because of security.”

“You’ve never been to the cinema?” Nat glanced between them curiously.

“I have,” Rose corrected as she leaned back against the stone of the castle. “My Muggle grandparents have taken Hugo and me, but not Al. With his dad’s work, he can’t exactly go traipsing off anywhere he fancies.”

Al scuffed his shoe along one of the cracks in the walkway, dislodging a bit of moss and dirt. The truth was, while he loved his family, he also knew that there were decided disadvantages to having famous parents, especially his dad. He’d never felt like his dad was trying to overshadow him, but nor did Al ever see a way that he’d be able to come out from the aura of all his father had accomplished.

He thought about his parents, not even out of Hogwarts, but having to get married. Suddenly he couldn’t take it any longer. “Someone poisoned my parents when Mum was pregnant with Hope.”

The bell rang.

“W-what?” Rose hissed out, horrified, as she covered her mouth. “W-what? When?”

“Oh, Merlin,” Scorpius said as his skin went several shades paler, which wasn’t something Al was sure it could do. “You’re joking?”

“You can’t say anything to anyone,” Al whispered urgently. “They don’t want anyone to know!”

“Of course not,” Rose’s eyes filled.

Nat stepped forward and hugged him tight, briefly offering comfort. “Let’s get to class. We can talk later.”

Al trudged back to the castle feeling simultaneously better and worse in equal measures. He’d let his parents down. He’d let his family down. He hadn’t explained everything, nor would he, but…

Rose threaded her arm through his and squeezed gently. “It’ll be okay, Al.”

“Thanks, Rosie,” he replied without feeling. Nothing felt like it would be okay, ever again.

~*~

Harry stared around the conference room that he infrequently used for his Aurors. Typically he didn’t call staff meetings, as he didn’t want to go to them himself, and it was bad form for the boss to be a no-show.

It was, in fact, the same room where he’d sat across from Isabella Crabbe and her sister when Goyle’s mum had pleaded for her son’s release from Azkaban.

Gregory Goyle was still locked up and would be for at least another year. It didn’t matter any longer. His parents were dead now. His aunt Isabella was crazy and on the run, doing Merlin only knew what with potions.

“Sorry,” Kingsley came in with a wave, his deep, sonorous voice resonating through the room. “I was unavoidably detained, Potter.”

“No problem,” Harry wasn’t at all sorry to delay the meeting. The moment the Minister was seated Harry closed and locked the doors, magically sealing them against listening and turned to face his twelve Aurors. Silas Raeburns, the oldest of the crew, had been part of the Aurors the longest. He, alone, remained from the crew that had been active before Voldemort’s reign of terror. His lined, craggy face was still as sharp as it had ever been, but he now sported thick, steel gray hair. He sat straight as he eyed Harry impassively. Harry didn’t know what he’d do when Raeburns retired. He counted on his steady, immovable presence, plus his decades of experience. It was almost like having Moody back, but without the rampant paranoia.

“Say,” Collins, a man a few years Harry’s senior interrupted. “I thought Macmillan would be back by now.”

“She’s asked for another few weeks,” Harry told the group at large. “I’m inclined to give her the extra time to be with the baby, since Susan is our only senior female Auror. I’d rather give her more time now than risk her quitting altogether.”

Thomas Gregory cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “That’s the thing, boss. We need more women.”

“I’m aware,” Harry bit back the annoyance. He’d tried, with each seventh year Hogwarts class, to get women to train, but thus far he’d had only one take him up on it and she was still in her third year of training. His niece, Dominique, had told him over Christmas that she was thinking about it, but she was still in her fourth year. “I’m going back to Hogwarts next week, but in the meantime we’ll have to make due.”

Harry glanced at Kingsley and saw the Minister gesturing at his pocket watch.

“Right,” Harry pulled out the heavy box that he’d retrieved from storage from its spot on the floor by his feet and set it on the table. “I’ve got a personal problem that now needs everyone’s attention. Almost twenty years ago my wife and I were attacked. Is everyone familiar with the general story?” He scanned the room and saw no one was giving him a questioning glance. “Right, well, what I need to have everyone understand is that I’m about to reveal details that are pertinent, but I would request that they remain private. My children could be adversely affected if word got out and they are still young. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” a murmur floated around the room.

Harry forced himself to take several slow, deep breaths before he started in on the story. “Ginny and I were attacked with a Blood Boiling Hex and landed in St. Mungo’s. Everyone knew that, correct?” At every nod, he went on. “That’s where the official story moves sideways from the truth. What everyone thinks happens is that Ginny and I acted like a couple of teenagers, she ended up pregnant, and we were forced to marry.” He looked down at his simple wedding band and thought of his beautiful wife and the life he’d made with her. “What really happened, that no one but the Minister knows, is that a woman named Isabella Crabbe used me to magically impregnate Ginny.”

Several sharp, indrawn breaths, a couple of gasps, and a fog of stunned silence filled the room. No one moved as a dozen sets of eyes bore into him.

“Then we were poisoned,” Harry continued the story and fought with every fiber he had to keep his composure. “It was a little known poison called Dolore Tardus. It’s slow acting, and so obscure that it’s a miracle that we were cured. However, the poison was still inside my wife and she lost our baby.”

“Merlin’s beard,” Raeburns muttered at just above a whisper.

Harry closed his eyes briefly before glancing around. “At first we kept it quiet because we didn’t want our daughter to feel like she was unwanted. After, we kept it quiet because we thought Isabella Crabbe was dead and we wanted to protect our future children from feeling like we were forced to be married. At this point, my oldest children are aware of the truth, but our youngest isn’t ready.”

“This…” Collins looked stricken as his brown eyes flashed with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Harry. I have to ask, though. Why are you telling us now? Isabella Crabbe is dead, as you said, so…” his voice faded off as he stared at Harry in horror. “She’s not dead? The recent rape case, the woman that you’ve been taking a personal interesting in?”

“Yes,” Harry rubbed at his brow behind his glasses. “We’ve confirmed that she’s not dead. I’ve had a Muggle expert confirm that the body we found could not have been Crabbe. She was a younger woman of African descent. I’ve got Scotland Yard combing through their missing persons cases, but so far they’ve had no luck. That first year I received a note that said, ‘I know your secret’. Each year, from a Muggle post box, I get a letter. It isn’t always the same time of year, or the same post box and I’ve had no luck in tracing the sender. I now believe it is Isabella Crabbe, but for what reason, I haven’t got a clue. I need help.”

“What do we know?” Raeburns asked him flatly. “We know she took that girl not long ago and let her be raped by men working for her, right?”

“Yes,” Harry confirmed as he pulled out Cori Yale-Oldford’s file. “The information that I have from her is that the men took her and she believes she was kept alive for them to play with. However, her being pregnant might have been part of the plan. We know there were others who were experimented on and didn’t make it. Most of them were older men who she believes were Muggles who might be homeless. They’d be the least likely to be reported as missing. No one lived long. I’ve started to check for potions ingredients, for any illnesses coming in through St. Mungo’s that can’t be explained, but I’m coming up blank.”

Kingsley gazed at him thoughtfully. “What about selling overseas or on the continent?”

“It’s possible,” Harry nodded as he considered that idea. “I didn’t think it was possible to get magical items over the border, but with a powerful enough witch or wizard, I suppose anything is possible. Isabella Crabbe is brilliant. Background on her. Her father wouldn’t support Voldemort, so she was captured, handed over to her soon-to-be husband, who spent weeks raping her until she was pregnant and was forced to marry him.”

Auror Gregory swore under his breath. No matter what she’d done, Harry couldn’t stomach the violence that had been done to her. Gregory seemed to form his words carefully. “How old was she when this happened?”

“She’d just turned fifteen,” Harry said as he forced down the bile. He had nieces that age. “She was a Greengrass, but she and her sister were both attacked. Her nephew, Gregory Goyle, is still in Azkaban for his crimes with helping the Death Eaters. He’s showed no remorse and hasn’t been cleared. His mother died a few years ago.”

“How did you identify Crabbe?” another Auror, Becket Hera asked as he took notes on a scroll.

This was the sticking point for Harry. He had given it a lot of thought, had run it through Kingsley, and had opted to keep Natalie out of it. He trusted the men in the room with him or he’d have fired them. There was no room for a traitor in the Auror department. However, a single slip of the tongue could cost a child her life. All he risked for his children was embarrassment if the truth of his marriage to Ginny got out, but this was serious. So, he lied through his teeth and gave Nat’s dad the credit. “One of my sons, Al, is friends with a Muggleborn named Natalie Parker. Natalie stayed with us over Christmas and I met her father, a Muggle expert in bones and faces. He’s an anthropologist. Is anyone familiar with that term?”

“Yeah,” Gregory nodded. “They study ancient bones.”

“Essentially,” he agreed with a slow nod. “However, Curtis Parker is a world renowned anthropologist and he often deals in recent murder cases, helping to solve crimes. I contacted him and he has some computer program that can make a person look older or younger. He took the sketch that Dean Thomas made from Cori Oldford’s memory, and we were able to confirm it. After that, Curtis examined the remains we had that we thought were Crabbe and confirmed that it was definitely not her.”

“So, we need to figure out what Crabbe is up to,” Raeburns said carefully. “Then we need to figure out how to stop it and bring her to justice.”

“Yes,” Harry nodded towards the files. “I have some notes on what happened to me, but it isn’t a large casefile. We’ve got very few leads and no idea how she’s funding what she’s doing. Also,” he said regretfully, “because we believed she was dead, we didn’t attribute any of our unexplained cases to her. That was a mistake that we will need to rectify. If she’s been murdering people for the last twenty years, we need to pin those on her.”

“You think there are more?” Kingsley questioned, straightening in his seat. The light from one of their fake windows shone off his bald, dark head and Harry met his gaze head on.

They exchanged a silent conversation, a trick they’d perfected in the last decade of working closely together. “I think it would be prudent to check all avenues. I would like to bring in Hermione Weasley. One, because I trust her implicitly and two she already knows the history of what I’ve shared. Do I have any objections?”

Several groans, but no objections. Hermione was thorough, easy enough to work with, and she never showed up unprepared. However…

“She makes us fill out the damn paperwork,” Collins grumbled in annoyance as he leaned back in his seat, tipping the chair up onto two legs. “She’s a stickler about it.”

Harry grinned sympathetically. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t. We need to liaise with the MLE and she’s our best bet as they like her and aren’t too fond of us. They’ll have the information on any stolen potions ingredients and possibly back alley sales that we might not have been alerted to.”

The head of the MLE, essentially Harry’s counterpart, was a man named Helminth Smith. He was Harry’s old classmate’s, Zachariah Smith’s, uncle. If it were possible, which Harry wouldn’t have put money on when he was in school, Helminth was even more unpleasant than his nephew. The old coot had resented Harry taking over the Aurors at such a young age and he’d made sure that everyone knew his objections. No one cared, though. Smith was old money, an old family with ties back to Helga Hufflepuff, and he kept his job for purely familial reasons. He didn’t want it. He was a figurehead blowing steam when the mood struck.

It was really Hermione running the department, along with her other duties, but for pretense sake, it was made to look like Smith was still in charge.

A loud knock sounded at the door. Only Harry’s assistant, Daniel, would be at the door and he knew better than to interrupt unless it was urgent. Harry rose and moved to unseal the door to admit the younger man.

Instead he found Daniel along with one of their newly minted Aurors, Kyle Stebbins. Kyle shot him a nervous glance and held out a note. “We got word from Hogwarts.”

That effectively lodged Harry’s heart into his throat as he unfolded the letter and read.

Body found on the grounds, near the lake. Request Auror Potter to investigate immediately. His son, Albus Potter, was one of the children who found the unidentified body. We do not believe it is a student.

Harry stared at the words and felt his entire world tilt sideways. “Hell. Okay,” he turned back to the room. “Raeburns, Gregory, Collins, you’re with me. The rest of you, we’ll meet again tomorrow if I don’t make it back this evening. Kingsley,” he handed the note over to his boss and waited while the Minister quickly scanned it. “Are you coming?”

The older man nodded. “I need to check in with my office first. I’ll meet you there. Tell Minerva.”

“I will,” Harry said as he shook his hand and went to fetch his traveling cloak.

Back to index


Chapter 11: Chapter 8

Author's Notes: IMPORTANT! My second book releases on April 9th! If you wanted to get a copy for pre-order, it's still 60% off right now. (if you're reading this past 2015 you've missed it!) Links to my books are in my profile.

Thank you Arnel!!!

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Harry and his crew was met at the gates of Hogwarts by Hagrid, who assured him straight off that Al was okay and was currently sitting in Neville’s office with his friends, waiting to be questioned.

“He held up,” Hagrid said as he led the group of Aurors and the Minister around the lake. “He kept his cool. Well, he would. He’s your kid. Rose is upset, though.”

“What happened?” Harry asked as he tried to match the half-giant’s long strides through the grass past Hagrid’s cabin and towards the lake.

Hagrid glanced back and slowed a bit. “From what I got from the kids, they were taking a walk before dinner and found the body in the bushes. Nat says she smelled it, or summit’ like that. I was closest, so Scorpius came to get me and I alerted the rest of the staff. It’s a right mess, too.”

“Any idea who it might be?” Kingsley questioned as he came up along Hagrid’s other side.

“Nat says it’s a white male,” Hagrid shrugged. “She says he’s not a teenager, but couldn’t tell his age without some kind of ray.”

X-ray, Harry surmised. “Okay, did she say anything else?”

“Uh,” Collins butted in. “Are we talking about a student?”

“This is the one who has the father that studies bodies,” Harry reminded the other man and saw them all nod in understanding. “Is the body in bad shape?”

“It’s not really a body anymore,” Hagrid told them sadly. “Tell the truth, I had no idea what I was looking at at first. The smell gave it away, though. You know what I mean.”

“I do,” Harry agreed coldly as they made their way around the lake to the group of professors he could see off in the distance.

The next hour was spent in a routine that was familiar and yet never quite the same twice. Harry’s scan of the body was cursory. The smell was horrible. It was that dead, cloying, rotting stink that could bring bile to his throat even after all this time. The skin had liquefied and was sunk around the body. Maggots were everywhere, crawling over and feasting on the desiccated flesh. Pictures were taken, notes were transcribed, and arrangements were made to transfer the body back to St. Mungo’s.

Professor McGonagall and Neville waited for him off towards the edge of the crime scene while he issued final instructions to his men and conferred with the Minister.

Wearily, he walked over to the professors. “I need to see the kids, now. Kingsley?”

“Yes,” he said in his deep voice as he marched along beside him. “I can’t stay much longer, but I want to hear this for myself.”

“They’re in my office,” Neville told him. “Harry… how did this happen?”

“I wish I knew,” Harry sighed in exhaustion as they made their way up to the castle. He ignored the small faces that peered out at him from the windows and concentrated on every footstep as he made his way to his friend’s office, the office that used to belong to Professor Sprout.

Neville pushed open the door and Harry took in the scene quickly. Scorpius leaned up against one of the walls, his hands in his pockets. His pale face was deathly white, and his hair was slightly disheveled. Al sat on the edge of the desk while Nat and Rose sat in the chairs that Neville had for his students.

They all spun at the adults’ entrance and like a shot, Rose was up and out of her seat, throwing herself into his arms, sobbing hysterically. “Uncle Harry!”

“Hey,” he knelt and pressed her close, soothing his hand over her bushy hair and kissing the crown of her head. “It’s okay, Rosie. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

Twelve she might be, but she was still his niece and his goddaughter. He’d kissed her tiny cheek the day she was born, had protected her all her life, and he would gladly lay down his life for her. He loved her more than she’d ever understand. She was the child of his best friends, and he held on until she’d pulled herself back together again.

“S-sorry,” she whispered, embarrassed as she swiped the tears from her flushed face.

Harry cupped her thin cheeks and implored her brown eyes to meet his straight on. She looked so much like her mother at that moment that it was like being thrown back in time by a Time-Turner. “You have nothing to be sorry about, do you hear me? That was a horrible thing to go through and there is no shame in crying, all right?”

Rose nodded and led him lead her back to the seat while Minerva conjured up a couple more chairs.

Harry held out a hand to Draco’s son, who eyed him nervously. “You must be Scorpius.”

“Yes, sir,” the boy agreed politely and gave him a firm shake.

“I wish I was meeting you under better circumstances,” Harry smiled sadly. “Please have a seat. Everyone knows the Minister, except Nat. Natalie Parker, this is Minister Shacklebolt.”

Kingsley held out his hand to the little girl and she shook it.

“Use my seat,” Neville offered Harry.

As soon as he sat across from the kids, he studied them closely. The boys looked like they were on the verge of throwing up. Rose was still hot with embarrassment and fear, but Harry saw Al take her hand and give it a squeeze. She shot her cousin a grateful glance. Of anyone, Nat looked the most composed.

“Please tell me what happened,” Harry instructed gently.

The children looked at each other, and it was Al that answered. His son’s cheeks stained pink as he gazed at him, shame faced. “Dad… I told them about the poison and about why Hope died.”

Harry stared at his son, trying to decide exactly what that meant, but he needn’t have bothered. Al’s eyes clearly begged understanding and mercy. “I see.”

“I know you said not to talk about it,” Al went on bleakly. “I just couldn’t keep it in anymore and… I blurted out that you’d been poisoned.”

His son, his quiet, serious little boy… not so little anymore. He’d told him plainly what he’d said to his friends, and from all of the children’s expressions, none of them had heard more. No one looked guilty, and Rose would have. “That’s understandable, Al. I’m sure it’s been on your mind.”

“He said it right before the bell for classes,” Nat went on, sitting forward in her seat as her swing of strawberry blonde hair, fell around her shoulders. She absently pulled a tie from her wrist and pulled the mess of hair up and away from her face. “We went on a walk around the lake so he could explain properly, without anyone overhearing. He told us how you were poisoned in the hospital and that’s… that’s…” her eyes were overly bright as she paused. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Potter.”

He nodded in appreciation, even as his gut clenched involuntarily. “Please, go on.”

“I smelled it first,” Nat admitted quietly, nervously. “I know that smell, although I’m not around it often, but it’s the sort of thing that a person doesn’t forget, you know? There is this body farm in America that… well, never mind that. I know the smell. The body looks to be at least a week dead, and I looked at the soil carefully around the body and I think that it had to have been placed there, and not died there. The ground around the body didn’t look right. It wasn’t trampled or covered in the fluids like I’ve seen at other body dumps.” She shot Rose an apologetic nod. “I’m sorry, Rose. I know it’s awful. If I hadn’t seen it all my life…”

“Tell me about the victim,” Harry gently steered her back on topic. “Age?”

“I don’t know,” Nat shook her head. “I’d say definitely more than twenty. I’d possibly say closer to forty, but I can’t tell without x-rays of the teeth. There was too much flesh, still, and I’m not that good at it. He’s definitely a man. The skull was clean enough that I could tell by the brow ridge and… I can’t explain it, but I’m pretty sure he’s white. He wasn’t a tall man, and from the amount of flesh still around him, I would say he was probably fairly thin, but that’s also a guess because scavengers could have got after him. I saw a…” Nat paused and glanced at the Minister nervously, before turning back to Harry. “Can I tell you everything right now?”

Understanding, Harry nodded. “The Minister is a good friend, one I trust implicitly. He’s been informed of your gift and is helping to ensure your safety.”

“He has a green aura around him,” Nat admitted quietly. “I don’t understand it. I’ve never seen that type of thing, but there’s this green… it’s like that slime green on- no, wait. You wouldn’t know of that television show. It was…”

Horror filled Harry. He glanced at Kingsley and saw the same disgust and recognition on his old friend’s face. Kingsley cleared his throat meaningfully. “That’s extremely helpful, Miss Parker. I think that will give us the leads we need. I’m sure this is difficult–”

“It isn’t, actually,” Nat interrupted him in her quiet, but insistent voice. “That’s not my first body. It’s not even the worst I’ve seen.” Rose squeaked in horror, but Nat appeared not to notice as she continued on. “I may not want to do this as a profession, but I know that I’m helpful in this instance and if I can be of assistance, I will be.”

“Nat…” Al shook his head. “You don’t have to put on a brave face on this one. We all hated it.”

“I hate it,” Nat agreed as she turned to Harry’s son. “I hate murder and I hate the violence. Someone killed that man and that’s what I hate, but death and decay? That’s natural. It’s a part of life. It’s only the bodies of babies that really get to me.”

Minerva’s quick exhalation was the only sound in the room. Harry stared at the remarkably stoic girl sitting across the desk from him and had to marvel at the unbending steel he saw in her. She wasn’t hard. She wasn’t cynical. She was a bizarre mixture of realist and optimist.

Definitely the strangest kid he’d ever met.

The door banged open, making everyone jump. Harry was on his feet, raising his wand, only to freeze when he saw Draco Malfoy positively vibrating with fury in the doorway.

Scorpius swore under his breath, so softly that Harry assumed he was the only one who heard it.

“Malfoy,” Harry gave him a tight smile. “We aren’t quite done yet, but will be in a moment.”

“My son,” Draco drawled quietly as he stepped into the room. “Will not be questioned without my presence. Am I understood?”

“Father,” Scorpius shot his dad an annoyed glare. “I can do this without you.”

Draco gave him a quelling look, which shut Scorpius up. Harry rarely ever saw his former classmate lose his cool. Apparently he could with his son, because his son had fear on his face. He had to stop himself from hexing him on the spot. No one’s kid should quail like that. Vivid flashes of Uncle Vernon danced before his eyes, taunting him.

“I want my son transferred from that house. The people he is associating with are clearly exposing him to dangerous —” Draco’s cool tirade was cut off by Harry’s burst of laughter.

“You’re worried about what’s he’s exposed to?” Harry blurted out, caught between amusement and incredulity.

Draco’s mouth firmed imperceptibly. “I’ve paid my debt to society, Potter. I do not owe you anything.” It was said carefully, with a lot of meaning behind the words.

Somehow, Draco had worked out just how Hope had come to exist and he’d told Harry that he knew. They’d come to an agreement that they were even, with Draco’s silence about Harry’s daughter’s conception, and for Harry saving Narcissa from going to jail.

Harry nodded slowly. “I appreciate that you want to ensure your son’s wellbeing, but this matter cannot be discussed with you present.” He stepped out from behind the desk and gestured Draco out into the hallway. Harry was reasonably certain that he’d have refused if the Minister hadn’t been standing behind him, brooking no argument.

They exited and Harry shut the door, casting a charm on it so no one inside would hear them.

“That’s my son,” Draco hissed meaningfully, pointing at the door.

“I know,” Harry turned to him, rubbing at the ache forming behind his temples. “It’s my son, as well as my niece. I’m fully aware of just how this feels. I’m not legally allowed to discuss this case with you presently, or I would allow you to be there. Your conviction means that, even though he is your son, you cannot be privy to any sensitive details to an ongoing investigation.”

His gray eyes narrowed briefly. He considered Harry for another moment. “I want to speak to my son.”

“We’ll be done soon,” Harry retorted as calmly as he could manage. If the roles were reversed, he’d have wanted to be with Al, and he understood the impotence that Draco had to be feeling at that exact moment. Until he’d become a parent, he’d never quite gotten just how far someone would go to protect a child. He’d done everything he could to protect Hope, and it hadn’t been enough to save her. He’d not failed with Teddy, nor with James, Al or Lily. He faced his former enemy and tried to explain. “I’m not going to hurt your son, or endanger him in any way. I simply need to question him on the events today, and then he is free to go. I will treat your son with the same level of concern as I treat my own.”

Draco’s shoulders stiffened and it was the only visible reaction the other man had. Harry could see the turmoil written clearly over his pale face. He loved his child. He clearly cared, and Harry could imagine that Draco hearing about a dead body being found on the grounds had scared Draco into coming here.

Harry also knew, without a doubt, that Draco had no idea how to reach Scorpius and Draco’s own lack of a positive role model meant he was failing spectacularly at parenting his child. He would have been in the same boat with his children, if not for Arthur Weasley. He glanced down the empty corridor, past suits of armor that quickly snapped back to attention, like they hadn’t been eaves-dropping on the conversation, and saw one of the ghosts float out of the wall, cross the hall, and go through another.

“All right,” Draco replied finally. This time he was fully in control of himself. “I want to speak to my son when you’re done with him.”

“It won’t be much longer,” Harry assured him as he removed the charms he’d placed on the door. This scene reminded Harry that even though he’d be getting a much louder interrogation just as soon as he was back at the Ministry and Hermione tracked him down.

~*~

Scorpius regarded Mr. Potter carefully as he came back through the door, without his father, thank Merlin. As soon as Harry sat, Scorpius took up the story. “Nat said she smelled something and she went to look and then we all saw the body. I wanted to vomit.”

“Understandable, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor McGonagall assured him.

He nodded at the old Headmistress in thanks. “Then Nat told us to back up so we didn’t contaminate anything and she sent me to get Hagrid. Rose was crying and Al was trying to get her to calm down.”

“Sorry…” Rose sniffed.

Scorpius huffed out a short laugh. “I wanted to cry, Rose! It was revolting. I might have if Nat hadn’t sent me off.”

“Me, too,” Al added helpfully with a wink for his cousin. “I wanted to cry.”

Rose gave a watery giggle.

“So, I got Hagrid and that’s the end of it. Nat told the teachers what she knew and Professor Longbottom brought us up here and asked us to wait,” Scorpius finished and sat back in his seat.

Mr. Potter turned to the Minister. “Did you have anything else?”

“Just one question,” the Minister said slowly. “Was anyone around when you found the body?”

Scorpius thought about it. “I think there were a couple of prefects up by the Quidditch pitch and two seventh years snogging further down the lake. We weren’t going much father because we didn’t want to disturb them.”

“Yeah,” Rose nodded fervently. “I didn’t see anyone else.”

“All right,” Harry stood. “You may go. Scorpius, your father wants a word with you. He’d waiting in the corridor.”

Scorpius’ heart sank.

His father stood rigidly outside the door and immediately ushered him down into an empty classroom, where he shut the door and spun slowly to face him.

Rage.

Disgust.

Disappointment.

The story of Scorpius’ life. He shoved his hands in his pockets and eyed his father warily. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

“I want you to in Slytherin.”

Also the story of Scorpius’ life. “That ship has sailed, Dad,” Scorpius sighed. “Can’t you just disown me? It’d be simpler that way. Try for a better son next time.”

“Scorpius!” He glanced up in time to see his father’s outrage. “I do not want to disown you. I just want you to behave in a way that does not besmirch the Malfoy name.”

That was rich. Scorpius didn’t say it, though. His father would explode all over him for reminding him of his past. “I’m doing the best I can.”

“I don’t want you to be friends with Potter or that mu-” thankfully he cut himself off or Scorpius would have had to hex Draco and he wasn’t quite adept enough to get away with it yet.

Someday.

Scorpius met his father’s eyes straight on. They looked so much alike, a lot like Al and his dad. The difference was that Al was a lot like his father, while Scorpius only looked like his dad. It was a pity, too. It shot up any hope Scorpius had that his mum had played his dad false and they weren’t actually related. “I’m never going to be who you want me to be and I don’t care to try. You don’t have to like my friends, but I’m not ditching them to make you happy. I’ll see you at the summer hols unless you send word that I’m to go live with Aunt Daphne.”

“I’m not through with you!” Draco bellowed as Scorpius made his way to the door.

He paused and let the hurt that had him in its grasp run through him. “You were through with me the second you realized I wasn’t the son you wanted me to be, Father.” Scorpius pushed the door open and walked through.

He found his three friends waiting for him.

Nat hugged him briefly, same with Rose.

“Come on,” Al clapped him on the shoulder.

He didn’t turn around to see if his dad was watching. He didn’t need to. He could feel the hate that was aimed at his back.

~*~

Ginny would have paced with Hermione except that one of them had to be calm and sensible and it was, apparently, Ginny’s turn.

“He’ll be back soon,” Ginny held out the glass of water to Hermione. “He’d have said if the kids were hurt.”

Hermione’s hands shook so badly that the water sloshed everywhere. She was in enough of a state that she didn’t even notice. “A body?” she moaned for the millionth time that hour. “Where the hell is Ron?”

Ginny bit back a retort. If she was swearing, then Hermione was in no fit state to be reasonable. “He’s upstairs with Lily and Hugo, remember? He’s keeping them entertained while we wait for Harry to get back from Hogwarts.”

“Harry’s probably at the Ministry,” Hermione turned to march towards the fireplace, the water glass still clutched tightly between her white fingers. “I can track him down there.”

“Or you can wait here,” Ginny grabbed her arm to stop her. “If you go into the Ministry looking like a crazed lunatic, they’re going to fire you.”

Hermione rounded on her, red faced and close to tears. “How can you be so calm!?”

Ginny moved over to pull her sister-in-law into a hard hug. “Because Harry will make sure they’re safe, Hermione. That’s what he does. You know that.”

“You’re right,” Hermione sighed after a moment as she ran a hand through her messy curls. “I’m having a massive meltdown over this. How did our parents stand this?”

“We didn’t tell them,” Ron reminded her as he jogged down the stairs. “We kept everything to ourselves. Personally, I prefer hearing about what my kid is up to.”

Ginny had to agree with her brother. “Are they asleep?”

“Yeah,” Ron confirmed as he slumped down onto the couch, his long legs sticking straight out in front of him as he threw an arm over his eyes. “They’re curled up on Lily’s bed, so I left them there. We might leave Hugo for the night. I’ll put him in Al’s bed after he’s been asleep for a while.”

“That’s fine,” Ginny agreed easily. He’d be back the next morning first thing anyway. She studied Ron’s tired eyes and knew that the same anxiety she was feeling was running through her brother. “Does it feel like something is starting?”

Ron’s easy grin flashed briefly. “Not really, but only because I’m not sure it ever stopped.”

“A fair point,” Hermione murmured as she went to sit with Ron. She curled into his side as he draped an arm around her and kissed the crown of her head.

Ginny wished like hell that Harry was home, so she’d have someone to lean on. Almost as though he was reading her mind, Ron held out his other arm and with a short laugh, she went to lean on his other side.

Sometimes her older brother wasn’t a complete prat. She was really thankful that right now was one of them as she rested on him. Ginny closed her eyes, for a moment, just to try to block out some of the fear.

The next thing Ginny knew, someone was gently shaking her shoulder. “Hmmm?” she groaned softly and blinked her eyes open to see Harry kneeling in front of her. “Huh?”

“You fell asleep,” Harry told her quietly. “Ron?” he poked his best mate in the chest. “Come on, it’s almost midnight.”

“Rose!” Hermione’s eyes flew open as she groped for Harry’s hand. “Is she okay?”

Harry nodded as he squeezed her hand. “I saw her myself, Hermione. I gave her a hug and everything. She’s okay. It was scary and shocking, but she’ll be fine. They weren’t in any danger.”

“Tell me what happened?” Ginny demanded quietly, then listened in stunned silence as he related the details back to her.

~*~

Harry paced around the living room in his best Muggle suit and tried to bury the nausea. He glared at Teddy, who was laughing at him from the sofa while he demolished an entire pack of crisps. He was also in a suit, and he looked a lot like his father at the moment.

“Shut it,” Harry griped as he surreptitiously tried to flatten his hair.

“It didn’t work,” Teddy said around a mouthful of crisps.

Harry flopped down next to him and stuck his hand into the crinkling bag. “What could be taking so long?”

“You’re asking me?” Teddy chortled with an elbow in the ribs. “Victoire takes an hour to do anything. I’ve given up trying to understand them.”

“Ginny doesn’t usually take this long,” Harry reminded him. “Throw on jeans and pull her hair up in a tail with that thing. What’s it called?”

Teddy shot him a baleful look. “You’re a mess. This is sweet, and all, but it’s just Lily. It isn’t like she’s going to turn her nose up at you.”

“It’s her first date,” Harry reminded him. “I’m setting a stage and damn it, Teddy, I never went on any successful dates until after I was married!”

“That’s sad on so many levels,” his godson remarked dryly.

His annoyed glare only made Teddy laugh. “You’re cool as a slug.”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Teddy pointed out evenly. “I’m secure in Ginny’s love for me, and I know she and I will have a great time. Plus, this isn’t my first date with her.”

Harry compressed his lips and jumped to his feet again, needing to pace some more. His insides were all churned up over this. Bill had introduced the idea of taking his daughters out on special dates to help show them how they were supposed to be treated. Harry had loved the idea, but now that the time had come… “I want her to have really high expectations.”

“Holy Hippogriff, Harry, you have got to calm down. Go take a shot of fire-whisky or something.”

“You were this nervous on your first date with Victoire,” Harry reminded him flatly. “I thought you were going to puke.”

“But Lily is ten,” Teddy reminded him. “Also, I wasn’t worried about the date. I was worried about Bill flattening me. Ginny had already walked me through how to be a gentleman. I had that bit down. If you haven’t figured that out by now, there’s no help for you.”

“Cheeky kid,” Harry rejoined sourly. “I don’t know about this.” There were serious concerns to their safety. They had no new leads on finding Crabbe and no idea what she was up to or any leads on the body that they’d found the week before at Hogwarts. Their best guess was that the older gentleman was a Muggle. Because of his security concerns, he was driving Lily to a Muggle restaurant three towns over and not to one of the wizarding-run establishments that he could have made reservations for. Teddy was taking Ginny to Diagon Alley to a place just down from George’s shop that one of Ginny’s classmates owned. It was upscale eating compared to The Leaky Cauldron.

“Harry?” Ginny’s voice floated down the stairs and he spun to see Lily in a pale blue dress that floated down to her calves. Her bright red hair was up in a sort of bun with riotous curls spiraling down and around her shoulders. Her cheeks were flushed and her brown eyes bright with nerves and excitement.

“Lily…” he breathed out her name and felt his fear fade. He could do this, Harry decided as he moved over to meet her at the bottom step. He stooped to kiss her cheek and take her hands. “You look beautiful, Lily-Lu.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” she grinned up at him as he escorted her over to the corsage he’d bought especially for the occasion.

Harry drove them the twenty minutes to the next town. He kept glancing in the rear view mirror at her, strapped in her booster seat as per the Muggle laws in Britain. She didn’t technically need one. He’d never let the car crash. Arthur Weasley had made too many modifications to the car for that to happen, but it still was prudent to keep up the pretense in case a Muggle policeman happened to pull him over.

“Where are we going?” Lily asked him as she sat very still in her fancy party dress.

“It’s a surprise,” Harry told her with a grin. “But, they do have all your favorite foods there.”

He pulled into the parking lot and heard her excited squeal. “Indian?! Oh, Mummy is going to be so jealous.”

Before she could open her door, Harry was out and pulled it open for her, holding out his hand. “Ladies sit and wait for their dates, Lily.”

Lily giggled. “I’m no lady.”

“True,” he said as he clicked the fob that would lock the BMW and pocketed the key. Hand in hand they went into the restaurant and into the heavenly smells of curry and warm spices.

“Do you have a reservation?” asked the Indian man with midnight hair so dark it was almost blue, at the front asked.

“Potter,” Harry told him. “Table for two.”

“Ah, yes,” the man nodded as he scanned the book. “Please, right this way.”

The moment they were seated, Harry took Lily’s hand and squeezed gently. “Happy birthday, Sweetheart.” He felt so unbelievably blessed to be sitting with her, to see her bright smile and be in the aura of her joy and innocence.

“This is the best birthday surprise,” Lily informed him as she looked around. “I need to turn ten more often.”

“Any time you want a date,” Harry told her evenly, “You just ask. If I can’t, Teddy would love to take you out. I think he’s lonely without Victoire.”

“Are they getting married?” Lily asked him curiously as the waiter brought over wine for Harry and water for Lily.

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. I know you’d like it, but they’re still very young.”

“But sometimes people get married young,” Lily replied as she took a sip over her water and set the glass down carefully. “Maybe they will, too. I want Teddy to be part of our family.”

“Lily…” Harry studied her small face carefully. “Is he your brother, just as much as James and Al?”

She nodded as a small pink tinged her cheeks. “Yeah, but other people don’t see it that way.”

“I don’t care what other people think,” he said quietly. “We’ll always be talked about, and we can’t control what they’re saying about us. We can control how we react, and I don’t want to go along with the crowd. We have choices and I say Teddy is already a part of our family.”

Lily nodded absently and worried at her bottom lip.

“What’s the matter?” Harry asked carefully as he set the menu aside.

“People don’t always have good families,” Lily said as she stared down into her lap. “You didn’t have a good family, right?”

Harry felt his insides freeze over as he watched the storm clouds gather on her face. “My mum and dad were great, Lily, but no, my aunt and uncle weren’t good people. Gran and Grandad were amazing and they made me feel loved and accepted. Even if I hadn’t fallen in love with Mummy, I’d have always had them as my family.”

“Okay,” she nodded after a minute and gave him a small smile. “Let’s eat.”

But her comment nagged at him the entire rest of the evening and by the time he was back home and changing from his date, he was itching to discuss it with Ginny.

His wife, however, wasn’t completely surprised. “She’s been worrying about Scorpius, if you can believe it.”

Harry sat heavily on the edge of their bed, his tie held limply in his hand. “She’s got a right to worry there. Draco was fuming when I met up with him at Hogwarts. Scorpius is afraid of his dad, although I don’t think he’s physically abusing him. It’s more that he’s not good enough in Draco’s eyes.”

Ginny sat next to him and saved the tie he was mangling. “I think it’s going to make him stronger. We can’t protect him from that, Harry. We can only give him a break when he wants it. I met up with Draco’s wife last week in Madam Malkin’s when I was getting new robes.”

“What?” Harry blinked in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it wasn’t a big deal,” she soothed as she stood and started to remove the pins from her hair. Harry watched the tendrils fall with absolute fascination and had to force himself to pay attention to her words. “She told me that she was happy our sons are friends and if she can, she’ll let Scorpius come this summer. I understood that she had to work around Draco and she didn’t need to state it out loud. I was actually glad for that ruddy Ministry ball.”

“The what?” he shook his head, sure he’d heard her incorrectly.

Ginny shot him the look that spoke volumes without her uttering a single sound. “You are useless. You know that, right?”

He couldn’t help but chuckle as he pushed to his feet and strode over to wrap her in his arms and bend to kiss her neck. “We’re going to a ball?”

“Yes, you daft git! You’re getting an award since it’s the twentieth anniversary of the final battle coming up.”

Harry groaned. “How did I miss this?”

“I think I was naked when I told you about it.”

“Ah,” he smiled lazily as he started to work the buttons loose at the back of her gown. “Well, you can’t fault a man for being distracted.”

~*~

“Nat?” Al said as they made their way back up to the tower to drop their bags before dinner. Rose and Scorpius both had to stay after in Transfiguration after they’d somehow turned every scrap of parchment into feathers and Professor Lucas decided to make them clean them up by hand.

“Hm?” Nat glanced up at him confused. “I’m sorry, Al, were you saying something?”

Al sighed and shook his head. “You’ve been distracted for days.”

“Exams,” Nat waved it off. “I want to do well, you know.”

They fell into an uncomfortable silence as they continued to walk. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed with an easy smile. “I’m–”

“Natty-gnat!” the voice of Peeves rang through the hallways ahead of them.

“Oh, no,” Al groaned and tried to think of how they could duck out of the corridor.

The poltergeist flew above them, cackling happily as Nat stared up at him blankly. He taunted her, all the time, but she never reacted. Al had no idea how and Peeves seemed to think of it as a personal challenge. “Natty-gnat, tinier than a rabid bat!”

“Clever,” Nat drawled evenly. Al had to pull her out of the way as Peeves tried to drop a book on her head.

“Get stuffed, Peeves!” Al bellowed, finally getting annoyed.

“Peeves doesn’t really rhyme with anything but ‘grieves’ and ‘leaves’,” Nat mused as she continued to make her way down the hall. “I guess we could say ‘No one grieves when Peeves leaves’, but it doesn’t really have a catchy tune to go along with it.”

“Tiny little gnat!” Peeves blew a raspberry at her and flew off into the ceiling.

Al eyed his retreat with concern. “We should move in case he comes back.”

“I hate being called gnat,” Nat shrugged her shoulders, unseated her book bag and nearly tripped when it slid to the floor.

He snatched it up and slung it over his own shoulder. “That’s your name, though.”

“No, g-n-a-t,” she sighed. “I am tiny like a gnat. It’s an unfortunate coincidence.”

“You don’t look like one, though,” Al said as he tried to cheer her up.

“I guess,” Nat mumbled. “I used to want to have people call me Leah, ‘cause that’s my middle name. You know, nothing rhymes with Leah, it’s just lee-uhhhh,” Nat drew it out.

Al studied her as they moved to the portrait hole. “I can call you Leah, if you’d like.”

“It’s okay,” Nat stopped at the Fat Lady. “I don’t need people confused as to what they call me.”

“When it’s just us, then,” Al grinned as he patted her shoulder.

“Password,” the Fat Lady asked with a huff.

“Dragon dung,” Al and Nat said together and she swung open.

They walked in on James having a row with the new girl, Caroline. Her blonde hair tumbled down around her red face as they squared off against each other.

“Oh, yeah!?” James bellowed straight into her face.

“Yes!” Caroline shouted back. “I don’t need your help!”

“You!” James growled and to Al’s horror, he saw the girl step back in fear. Nat gasped, but his brother was too furious to see what he’d done.

Al dropped the bags and sprang forward, pushing his brother away from the girl. “Stop it!”

“Leave off, Al!” James shoved him back a pace, but Al came right back again.

“Go cool off!” Al moved straight into James’ face, eye to eye, until his brother truly focused on him.

James took a deep breath and stepped back from Al. He shot Caroline a furious glare. “Fine,” he said as he stormed off out of the portrait hole.

Al turned to see Nat standing with Caroline who was shaken and on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry, for whatever he did,” he told the girl. “I didn’t think my brother could be that big of a prat.”

Caroline shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Thanks, Al, Nat. I was…”

“It’s okay,” Nat took her arm. “Come on, let’s go up for a bit.” Nat shot him a very clear look that telegraphed that he was to go away.

“I’ll see you later,” Al stuck their bags out of the way and he, too, made his way out the portrait hole. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. He’d never seen James that angry, especially not with a girl. If there was anything his dad had pounded into their heads it was that they were never to hit or hurt a girl and yet…

A small noise from an empty classroom drew Al’s attention as he moved over to peer in. James kicked the leg of a desk.

“What the ruddy hell was that?” Al demanded as he walked in and shut the door behind him. “You scared her!”

James spun slowly to stare at him. “I didn’t scare her. She’s too annoyed to be scared.”

“You scared her,” Al argued back. “I saw her flinch, James! I can’t believe you’d scare a girl. What is wrong with you?”

James’ face paled slowly, but she shut his mouth and shook his head. “Get off it, Al. I’m not discussing it with you.”

“You’re not discussing it with me?” Al stepped towards his brother and pulled on every ounce of courage he could muster. “You stay away from her, James, or I’ll make you sorry. You don’t treat girls like that. There’s no excuse for it.”

James’ shoulders sagged and he pushed past Al, leaving him alone in the ringing silence of the classroom.

Al stared off at the retreating dark head and had to fight the urge to write to his parents. He wasn’t a snitch. He needed Louis. If anyone would know what was up with James, it would be his cousin.

Back to index


Chapter 12: Chapter 9

Author's Notes: Thank you, Arnel, for editing!

First off, Thank YOU for reviewing! I appreciate the feedback.

I hope you enjoy the chapter and it answers some questions. Next up is summer for the Potters and some new adventures. Remember, readers, this story is going to be nine years of story line so we have a looooong way to go.

Thank you everyone for checking out my original novels! If you like my writing, you will probably enjoy them. The information can be found in my profile. Click above and PLEASE check out the free preview (even if you probably won't buy). Also, you can follow me on twitter @sarahjaune


“Louis!” Al caught up with his cousin right outside the Great Hall. He turned, the light from a candle in a nearby sconce shone off hair the same copper color as Lily’s.

Louis’s quirked brow said it all. “What?”

“I need to talk to you,” Al grabbed his arm and hauled him off down the corridor.

Louis shook himself free the moment Al shoved him in to an empty classroom. “What’s up with you?”

Al shut the door and stared into blue eyes the same color as his Aunt Fleur’s. “What’s up with James?”

“I dunno,” Louis shrugged, but wouldn’t meet his eyes.

He pulled in a deep breath and tried not to overreact. Louis was lying to him. “I just saw him bully a girl.”

His cousin’s mouth fell open. “He wouldn’t.”

“He did,” Al informed him flatly. “It’s that new girl, Caroline.”

“Oh,” Louis nodded as he looked around the empty classroom. Save for unused desks, there was nothing in the room except the two of them. “She’s weird.”

“At what point did we think weird was a good reason for bullying someone?” Al ground out as he felt his temper rise. He took a step towards Louis and didn’t care that his cousin, although only a year old, was several inches taller. “I’m about to call him out on this one.”

Louis sighed heavily and knocked Al’s shoulder a bit as he dropped down into one of the seats. After a brief pause, Al took another chair. “Don’t call him out,” Louis ran his hand through his hair, making it stand straight up. “You don’t understand about her. She’s gone most evenings. She leaves the castle and then she’s gone all day Saturday.”

“So…” Al left off anything else. It was a bit odd, but not the strangest thing he’d ever heard. “She’s new. Maybe she wants to see her grandparents or her sister.”

Louis shot his a calculating look. “She comes back with bruises, all the time. She’s always hurt.”

That stopped Al’s heart for a moment. “You think she’s being abused?”

“That’s what James thinks,” Louis confirmed. “He’s been a bit of an ass trying to figure out what’s going on with her, but she’s refusing to talk to him. She says it’s fine, but… I dunno. I think she’s doing some kind of sport away from Hogwarts. I heard one of the girls say something to her about it.” Louis sat forward in his seat and poked the table with his index finger. “I’ve told James to let it go, but you know how he gets. He’s been a prat about it and I can’t get him to let it go. I’m hoping the summer helps it calm down.”

“Okay,” Al nodded vaguely. He needed to get James to talk to him, but odds were good his brother would shut him out like he always did.

Exams were coming up and he had to focus on them. His brother’s batty moods would have to wait until they were on break. He did, however, ensure that James left Caroline alone by telling Fred what James had done.

Al might not be able to sort James out, but Fred could.

~*~

“How did you figure out it was Avada Kedavra?” Collins pressed Harry as his temple throbbed viciously. He should have been home hours before, but they got a lucky break with the Muggle police and the body of the man they’d recovered from Hogwarts was a forty-seven-year-old war veteran from London. He’d been reported missing by his daughter, and Army officials had x-rays of his dentals that they were able to confirm.

That meant mounds of paperwork, getting the body out of St. Mungo’s and to the Muggle morgue, and preparing a press statement that wouldn’t cause a panic.

They still had no idea how the body had made it into the school, but Rita Skeeter had posted a lovely article, including a photo of Ginny and Teddy eating out in Diagon Alley. She’d gone on to say that Ginny was about to throw Harry over for Teddy.

Teddy had been horrified. “She’s basically my mum!” was his rambling chant that had gone on for two days after the story broke. Although she’d have been young to be his mother, Hope would have only been ten months younger than Teddy, so it was possible. Ginny had laughed it off and vowed revenge on Skeeter.

Why Harry expected the Daily Prophet to print anything of substance, he didn’t know, but he was also grateful for the reprieve since he had no answers to give.

“It isn’t important how I know,” Harry sighed heavily as he gazed at his, arguably, smartest Auror. Collins was a lot of things, stupid wasn’t one of them. He was also tenacious and loyal to a fault, which meant he was going to gnaw this bone until it was powder. “Listen,” he tried for a modicum of patience. “Suffice it to say, I’m positive. One of the professors is moderately talented in magical signatures and they saw a green haze on the body, which as we’ve previously been informed by great wizards, such as Dumbledore, means the person died from the Killing Curse. This professor wishes to remain anonymous and as they helped me, I’m inclined to give them that privacy. Both the Minister and I questioned them after we questioned the children. You will leave this alone. Am I understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Collins replied evenly, clearly seeing he’d been put in his place. Harry didn’t even feel an ounce of guilt for lying about Nat.

He did, however, feel like a lousy father. Ginny had left for a Quidditch match in Russia and he’d had to ask Teddy to mind Lily until he could make it home. He hadn’t seen his daughter since dinner the previous evening. “Listen,” he told the Aurors gathered around the table. “It’s late and we’re all tired. Let’s get some sleep and tackle this again in the morning. I have to drop my daughter off with my sister-in-law before heading into the office, so I won’t be here until at least eight o’clock. Unless you’ve got pressing matters here, everyone else should show up around then.”

He arrived home to the place quiet and Teddy passed out in James’ bed. Harry kissed Lily’s cheek, tucked her in again and was asleep seconds after his head hit the pillow.

The morning was rough. Harry couldn’t get Lily to wake up enough to get dressed so he grabbed clothes for her, hauled her into his arms down to the fireplace and managed to wake her enough to use the Floo to get to Shell Cottage. He followed right behind her and found Lily mumbling to Fleur, who was preparing breakfast for an amused Bill, while his daughter stumbled for the stairs to find a vacant bed.

“Thanks for this, Fleur,” Harry kissed her cheek and didn’t protest as she forced him into a seat at the table.

The fireplace sprang to life and out tumbled Teddy, who looked only marginally more awake than Harry. “You’re here? Lily is here? Merlin…” he dropped into a seat, his head hitting the table with a small thunk. “Saw she was gone and panicked, then remembered you were bringing her here…” his words were cut off by a yawn.

“Teddy,” Fleur slid a mug of tea in front of him. “Do you want something to eat?”

“I love you,” Teddy grinned at her. “You’re my favorite aunt.”

Fleur laughed and ruffled his already disheveled blond head. “You say that to all the aunts.”

“How’s it going?” Bill asked as he set aside his paper.

“Nothing yet,” Harry replied grimly. “Thanks, Fleur,” he told her as he took a plate of eggs and bacon from her. “We were there until midnight last night. Ginny had to leave at five yesterday afternoon, so I sprang Teddy early from training and sent him on to watch Lily and Hugo so she could catch her Portkey.”

“It’s not a big,” Teddy said through a mouthful of bacon. “We had fun. After Hugo went home, we made some dinner and played several games. Where is Lily, by the way?”

Harry pointed towards the ceiling and was amused to see the tender look that Fleur was bestowing on Teddy, who was completely oblivious. Both Fleur and Ginny were both thinking ‘grandchildren’ in the next few years and whether he knew it or not, Teddy, who was now twenty, was a key component in their plans. He’d be good at it, too, Harry knew. Teddy was great with all the kids. Five years, though. Harry wasn’t ready for Teddy to have kids quite yet. “She went back to bed,” Harry told him. “I thought I was going to have to carry her in the through the Floo. She didn’t want to wake up.”

“Is Hugo with Hermione’s parents?” Bill asked as Fleur sat next to him. He took her hand and brought it up to his lips for a brief kiss.

“That was the plan,” Harry agreed as he checked his battered pocket watch. “We need to go.”

Teddy shoveled in another huge bite. “Thanks for breakfast.”

Harry’s morning did not run smoothly. He had to meet with the Ministry’s press secretary to go over the bullet points of what he wanted released to the public, all while trying to maintain the integrity of his investigation.

On top of that, the head of Scotland Yard requested a meeting with Harry. To the Muggles, Harry was in charge of an organization much like MI6. He was, to the Muggle authorities, the leader of a legitimate shadow group inside the British government. This left Harry juggling several balls in order to keep the whole thing running smoothly. His meeting with Scotland Yard did go smoothly, though. He was assured full cooperation and Harry was given access to the missing persons files that he needed in order to try to identify the body of the woman Crabbe had used to fake her own death.

On days like this, when he had a really good excuse to knock off early, he wished he’d rejected the promotion to the Head of the Aurors. It was less risk, but the paperwork was a bloody nightmare and he wasn’t, on his best days, an extremely tactful man.

Picking up Lily from Fleur, taking her home to cook up a quiet meal and spending the evening trying, and failing, to braid her hair so she’d wake up with ‘waves’ was not a bad way to end the day.

“I can just magic waves in your hair tomorrow,” Harry reminded her as his fingers clumsily tried to form the intricate pattern while she sat on the floor at his feet.

Lily giggled. “But this is fun!”

Harry couldn’t argue with that. “What am I going to do when you go to school?”

“Have lots of lovely alone time with Mummy,” she told him happily. “I’m going to miss you, but I am excited to go to Hogwarts. It’s almost the end of the year and then I’ve only got a year left to wait.”

Harry groaned. “You’re growing up too quickly.”

~*~

The ball was in full swing in the Ministry’s Atrium and it was, to Ginny’s way of thinking, just as boring as every other official Ministry function. At least she wasn’t there working.

Harry had received an award, to which he’d nearly scowled at the presenter, a woman that Ginny didn’t know, and now the party had moved into dancing and mingling. Her husband was missing from the dance floor, of course. He might be a brilliant Auror, but the man had two left feet when it came to dancing. Stand in one spot and revolve slowly was Harry’s speed. Ginny had attempted, once, to try to teach him to dance, but Gwenog had forbidden her from doing it again as it risked her being on the injured list. Speaking of her former Quidditch Captain, she’d seen Gwenog Jones across the room.

Still, Ginny had enjoyed dancing with several old school friends and her father. She’d surreptitiously dropped a Canary Cream on Rita Skeeter’s plate as she’d walked by and everyone had enjoyed the spectacle of the infamous reporter turning into a squawking bird.

Now, however, Ginny would have given anything to be speaking with Skeeter, as a very large, powerfully built man snagged her by the hand and introduced himself enthusiastically.

“Dodi Baker!” he schmoozed charmingly as she gazed up, and up, and up into his large square jaw and buzz cut blond hair. His accent wasn’t British, and Ginny had to guess American.

“Er,” she attempted to smile as his meaty hand smashed her fingers. “Ginny Potter. It’s nice to meet you,” she lied through her teeth.

Not a single flicker of recognition. Definitely American. They tended to ignore anything that wasn’t happening outside their own country. That wasn’t actually a detraction in Ginny’s book, but this man oozed self-importance like a slug oozed slime. It came slithering out of every pour to gunk up any unwary passer’s hands. “You, my dear,” Dodi’s voice practically oozed from his lips, “have to be the most beautiful woman in the room.”

Ginny’s brow raise slightly as she contemplated the man’s alcohol consumption. She was, she knew, attractive, but Fleur was standing not twenty feet away and it was tough to win a beauty contest against someone who was part-Veela. “Well,” she hesitated. “That’s very kind of you to say, thank you.” She glanced around, trying to catch one of her brothers’ eyes, but they were all clumped together in the corner of the room studiously ignoring her.

Fantastic.

“I came with Helmenths Smith. He’s a cousin of mine, you know, and I’m visiting him from Boston,” Baker informed her effusively. “When he said about the party, I just had to come and see how the Ministry here gets a to-do together. It’s not like in America, but it isn’t too bad either,” he bellowed in laughter.

“I’m sure,” she gave him a tight smile, trying not to grind her teeth. “Listen, I–”

“So,” he steamrolled right over her, “I said to Helmenths that I simply had to come. I’m looking to start a business up here in London, but the paperwork needed is unbelievable. You have to practically be sleeping with someone to get them to sign the form.”

Ginny had absolutely no idea what to say to that, so she kept her mouth shut while her temper built up a head of steam.

“Then, of course–”

“Excuse me!” Ginny yanked her hand free. “I need to use the ladies.”

With that, she spun on her heels and marched off towards the loo, which was coincidentally right where her brothers were.

“You!” she growled at the four of them as soon as she was in range. “My entire life you annoying prats have interfered, attempted to manage, and strove to protect me and the one time I could have used a save, and not a single one of you stepped up!”

Bill, Percy, George and Ron all turned to stare at her.

“What happened?” Percy asked her curiously, pushing his glasses a bit further up his nose.

“I was waylaid by that man back there,” Ginny waved her hand behind her.

“I saw,” George smiled cheekily. “I thought you could take him.”

She scowled. “I could take him, but I was going to look like an idiot getting away from him and I’d rather one of you look like an idiot for me.”

“Get Harry to fend the men off,” Ron said around a mouthful of hors’ d'oeuvres. “That’s what you pay him for, right?”

Ginny’s temper melted as she leaned against Bill’s side. “I’m sorry. I’m on edge.”

“Understandable,” Bill assured her as he kissed the crown on her head. “You’ve got a lot of things going on right now, what with…” but he let his voice fade off. He didn’t need to say it.

She glanced around, trying to spot Harry, but he was still missing in action. She did see Teddy with Andromeda and Ginny’s parents over by the drinks.

Lily… her daughter was, at that moment, staying with Hermione’s parents so they could attend this function. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Hermione’s parents, but they were Muggles. They couldn’t protect Lily.

“They’re fine,” Ron said as he clearly read her mind. “Hermione went out and used that mobile to call them not twenty minutes ago. They’re both asleep. Relax.”

“I’m not going to relax,” Ginny shook her head. “Not until it’s finished.”

Unbelievably, right after the ladies, the berk accosted her again and asked her to dance. It was on the tip of her tongue to say no, even as he was dragging her to the dance floor.

The man might be huge, but he was light on his feet. Within seconds, he had her spinning around.

“You’re married?” he asked.

“Yes,” Ginny confirmed with a sigh. “To my childhood sweetheart. It will be twenty years soon.”

“No!” Dodi cried, never missing a step. “There is no way you’re that old. You had to be a baby when you got married!”

Practically, she had been. She’d only been sixteen, but she wasn’t about to discuss that with this odious man. “You flatter me.”

“What do you do?”

“I write a sports column,” Ginny said as she resigned herself to the banal conversation. “And, you?”

“I sell books and trinkets, a sort of general mercantile if you will,” he replied.

Blessedly, Ginny spotted Harry coming right for her. She beamed at him and silently promised to reward him handsomely for rescuing her.

It didn’t exactly matter if the wife of a department head acted badly at a Ministry function, but it was frowned on.

Hexing Dodi would have fallen into the ‘acting badly’ category.

“Excuse me,” Harry smiled politely. “I need to steal my wife. The Minister needs a word with her.”

Ginny exacted herself from the big man’s grasp. “Thank you for the dance!”

“Wait, you haven’t introduced me,” Dodi pointed out eagerly. “Dodi Baker,” he stuck out a hand.

“Harry Potter,” Harry shook and Ginny was amused to see the recognition flicker through, plus the perfunctory flick of the eyes up to Harry’s scar. “Excuse us.”

Harry steered her away quickly. “You looked ready to hit him.”

“Self-important man,” she griped in annoyance. “What does Kingsley want?”

“Nothing,” he chuckled as they walked up to the Minister, who was speaking with Hestia Jones. “Kingsley, we owe you for saving Ginny’s life.”

Kingsley’s eyebrow rose. “Surely not,” he commented dryly.

“We owe you for saving that man I was dancing with,” Ginny corrected as she gave Hestia a hug. “How have you been?”

“Good,” she shook Harry’s hand. “I’m actually off.”

They bid their goodbyes and Kingsley gazed speculatively off across the Atrium. “I think dinner as payment sounds good, Ginny. I’ve been having thoughts of that chicken dish you make.”

“It’s a deal,” Ginny said happily.

~*~

“Kingsley!” Lily’s happy cry filled the living room as she threw herself into the Minister’s arms.

Decorum was lost on his daughter, Harry knew, as the older man picked her up and hugged her close. Lily adored the Minister and the feeling was mutual.

“What am I going to do when you get too big for this?” he asked Lily in his slow, resonate voice.

“You have to get bigger, too,” Lily informed him very seriously as she kissed his cheek and hopped down. “Come, I set the table already for dinner.”

“Let me at least say hello first,” Harry tried to interject.

Lily, being Lily, giggled. “He’s not here to see you, Daddy. He’s here to see me.”

“Of course I am,” Kingsley promised as he sat next to Lily at the table.

Dinner was light conversation with nothing more serious said than Lily arguing that the Harpies were better than Kingsley’s favorite team, the Tornados.

After Lily was in bed, though, the conversation turned to heavier matters. Kingsley stared into his glass of wine, twirling the slender stem in his fingers. “I think I’m done.”

Harry sighed heavily. He’d had a feeling this was coming. “No one is trying to oust you.”

“Are you sure, Kingsley?” Ginny reached over to grasp his hand. “I know you’ve been at this for twenty years, but it’s been a peaceful twenty years.”

His dark eyes flashed in humor. “Much of that has been down to Harry, not me. He’s been leading the charge on keeping the criminals. I think it’s time. I rather think I’d like to come back to the Aurors, if Harry will have me.”

Harry sat back in his seat, hearing it creak a bit as he stared in truly stunned silence. “I… don’t know what to say. You’re welcome back, of course, but…”

“I don’t want your job,” Kingsley assured him hastily.

“That’s a shame,” Ginny chuckled. “Harry doesn’t want his job, either. He hates the paperwork.”

He winked at his wife. “Maybe he’ll swap and I can go back in the field.”

“I don’t think so,” Ginny shook her head. “I like you in one piece and we’ve got enough trouble right now.”

“That’s another thing,” Kingsley sat forward and laced his fingers on the table. “This case with Crabbe is going to take a good amount of manpower and I think I want to get into it, again. I’ve missed the investigations and this one is a lot of legwork.”

Harry considered him carefully, weighing what this would mean for his department. It would be a boon, of course. Kingsley was one of the best Aurors they’d ever had. “Who are you looking to replace you?”

“Ideally, I’d love Hermione,” Kingsley chuckled softly. “She’d never do it, but she’d be marvelous. With her brain? We’d have the whole Ministry in shape, but she’s young yet. No, I was actually speaking to Arthur about it not too long ago and he suggested Allison Macmillan. I believe her son was a classmate of yours, Harry.”

“Her daughter-in-law as well,” he told him. “Susan. She’s just back from maternity leave in the Auror department.”

“That’s right,” Kingsley nodded contemplatively. “Yes, Allison is currently head of International Magical Cooperation and I think she’d make a fair leader. But, of course, it’s up for the wizarding community to decide.”

“Whatever you do,” Ginny said as she passed over a plate of biscuits, “you know we’ll support you.”

“Thank you,” he replied honestly. “It will be an interesting transition.”

Harry could only agree.

~*~

Rumors, accusations and wild outright lies flew through the school all the way through the run up to exams. Their security had been tightened around the borders of the school and security trolls had been posted around.

To Al’s mind, the trolls hadn’t done anything but give the castle a funky smell. James wasn’t speaking to him, but he had left the new girl alone.

Nat had insisted that she was an athlete and when he’d questioned her conclusion, she’d smirked and reminded him that she was the one who knew muscle development and kinetics, whatever that meant.

The final run up to exams had made everyone crazy. Al was doing okay in his classes, but he knew he needed to study or he’d never pass with high enough grades. He had no shot of beating Rose or Scorpius, at all, except perhaps in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Al didn’t want to admit it out loud, but he rather thought he was the best in the class, just like his dad had been. It was, however, in moments like this that Al truly felt the weight of his father’s success.

There was no possible way to live up to Harry Potter’s standard, and also no way his dad would want him to feel like he needed to, but Al wanted to be good in Defense, just like his father. It felt… he couldn’t explain it. He only knew that it felt right.

“I do not get this,” Scorpius interjected into Al’s thoughts as they sat at one of the tables in the common room amid the clutter of dozens of studying students and the noises that they made. “The goblins rioted in 1719 because of stolen gold? Help me out, Nat. What was that one, again?”

“Which riot that year?” she asked as she pulled the book towards her and scanned the passage. “That one? There were two that year, actually. Let me grab those notes,” she pulled a journal from her bag and flipped through the pages. “Right, so in that one, which was the second one, the goblins rebelled because the wizards were stealing gold from them. The goblins retaliated by sending out a bunch of explosive bracelets to a ton of prominent wizarding homes in London. The bracelets blew up, causing panic, then they began looting and setting fire to anything they could.”

“How did they get the bracelets to explode?” Al asked her curiously.

Nat shrugged. “They won’t say. I’m assuming it’s because they’re so good with metalwork, but it’s unknown. That was one of the more colorful riots. The Minister, Rowle was his name, ran out onto the street in his burning underpants while his wife screamed at him. He’d apparently put the bracelet on instead of her and it was a bit of a scandal.”

“Why’s it a scandal to wear a bracelet?” Scorpius wondered curiously.

“I think boys should be able to wear them,” Rose agreed indignantly.

“Well…” Nat giggled. “It wasn’t the bracelet so much as he was wearing his wife’s underpants… which were on fire.”

“Oh,” Al shut his mouth and bit at his lip as his face went red with suppressed laughter.

Rose began to chuckle and soon all four of them were in stitches.

“How do you learn these things?” Scorpius wanted to know.

“Letters, old documents, books, and so on,” Nat explained as she picked through her parchment. “Professor Binns has loads of stuff in his office that he hasn’t touched in a long time. I haven’t been through very much of it at all, but he waved vaguely at me and told me, ‘read whatever you want Miss Pfeiffer’. He calls Al, ‘Mr. Parker’, like he’s my brother, but I get Pfeiffer!”

Fred, who was near the fireplace, threw something in and caused a massive diversion as fireflies filled the common room.

“I’m bored!” Fred called to the room at large. “Let’s take a study break.”

One of the prefects tried to shush him, but Fred hopped up on the couch and ignored the prefect completely. “I’m thinking arm wrestling.”

Nat swatted at a firefly that was trying to land on her nose. “He really is bored.”

Fred wandered over and eyes followed him. “Didn’t you tell me that one of the girls could beat me?”

“I don’t know about you,” Nat said fairly. “I said she could beat James, but you should leave her alone, Fred. Everyone’s trying to study.”

Al glanced over and saw the girl in question eyeing them warily.

“What say you, Caroline?” Fred bowed to her regally. “Relieve me of my boredom?”

She cocked her blonde head to the side and considered him curiously. “What will you give me if I win?”

Hoots rang out through the common room as everyone turned to watch and the prefect slunk back into his seat trying not to notice the commotion.

“That’s an interesting question,” Fred tapped his fingers lightly on the side of his face. “I am, after all, the assumed winner. I’m bigger. I play Quidditch, and I’m three years older than you are, so… what would be a good reward?”

“What’s to say you won’t let her win?” one of the seventh year girls called over to Fred.

Fred plastered an offended expression on his face. “I would never throw a match. See, Nat here says I can’t win.”

“I didn’t say that,” Nat grumbled as she continued to write notes on goblins.

“I need to defend my honor,” Fred held his hand up to his heart. “I would say a good reward would be… a prank.”

Caroline choked out a laugh. “I get pranked?”

“Nah,” Fred assured her seriously. “You pick one person in the school and I will prank them for you in a spectacular way. I’ll take all the blame, too, if I get caught.”

“Hm,” she took a moment to consider that. “What do you get if you win?”

Fred winked at her. “One of the girls said you can do a backflip.”

“That’s it?” Caroline laughed with obvious amusement. “You want to see me do a backflip?”

“That’s it,” Fred agreed.

Caroline stood from her armchair and moved over to one of the tables. Al stared in stunned disbelief as they lined up to arm wrestle.

James, who had remained silent through the whole thing, now watched in fascination as Fred told Caroline to say when.

“Go,” she called and the struggle began. At first, Al thought Fred was going to have to win. His arms had to be twice the size of hers. She wasn’t exactly a big girl, but when his arm didn’t move and he could see a slight flush to his dark cheeks, he knew they were in for a fight.

Caroline, who had a creamy complexion, was also turning red as their arms fought, trying to force the other down.

Slowly, very slowly, Fred began to move forward, advancing Caroline’s arm towards the table and a full forty-five seconds after they’d started, every second of which had ticked by like an hour, her arm hit the table first.

“Wow!” Fred shook his fingers out and stuck out his hand to shake. “That was impressive! You want to play Quidditch, right?”

“Nope,” Caroline shook her head. “I need to change out of my skirt, first. I’ll be right back.”

The moment she was gone, Fred dropped into the seat next to James and said, “You’d have lost.”

“Piss off,” James mumbled as he went back to his studies.

Three minutes later, Caroline was back in a shirt that was tucked into a pair of shorts. She eyed the room and called out, “Okay, I need some space. Back up.”

Everyone scattered and Al turned to watch as Caroline took a deep breath, and moved in a way Al had never seen.

She took several running steps forward, planted her hands on the ground, flipped and landed on her feet.

The applause was tremendous.

“Oh,” Nat considered her. “That’s not a standard gymnast move. Interesting.”

“What does that mean?” Rose asked her curiously, but Nat only shook her head

Caroline grinned at them. “Also, because I’m feeling generous…” she swung into a handstand and Al gasped as she stayed in that vertical position.

Then she bent her arms down like she was doing a pushup, back up, over backwards into a sort of backbend, then she stood.

“Wow!” Al gasped in awe.

“That’s really impressive,” Nat agreed. “That handstand pushup is really hard to do.”

“How did you learn to do that?” one of the fourth year girls asked her.

Carolina shrugged and moved back over to her books. “Something I did after school back home in America.”

It took several more minutes for the bedlam to die down for them to get back to studying.

“That was an interesting distraction,” Rose mused as Al tried to force himself to concentrate.

“We need distractions to get through this,” Scorpius sighed as he slammed his book shut. “I hate History of Magic.”

“But you’re never going to forget the riot of 1719,” Al pointed out with a laugh. He glanced over to see Nat staring at Caroline with concern on her face. When he looked at the other girl, though, she was laughing and chatting with her friends. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing,” Nat shook her head. “Let’s get back to work.

~*~

There was a ball at the castle in remembrance of the last battle. The older students, fifth year and up, were allowed to go to the ball, which meant Al and most of his cousins weren’t invited.

Teddy came, though, and they were able to hang out with him for an hour while he waited for Victoire to get ready. She did look really good, Al thought, as he saw her coming down the stairs of the main entrance hall with a floaty, dark blue dress that Rose told him was navy blue. Al snickered at the look of stunned idiocy that Teddy wore. He gaped at his girlfriend, then moved forward to press his lips to hers.

“Gross,” Al grumbled and turned away, feeling his face flush.

Rose shot him a nasty glare. “It’s sweet, Al! We want them to stay together, remember?”

“Yeah,” he hunched his shoulders. “But she’s my cousin!”

“I’m your cousin!” Rose fired back instantly. “If you dare say it’s gross when I kiss someone, I will punch you.”

Al’s lips twitched. “Deal.”

“Come on,” Scorpius said as he backed away from the door. “My parents might be coming and I don’t want to see them.”

Al did want to see his parents, even though he knew he’d see them again in a week once school was out, but his best mate was pale and grumpy looking, so Al nodded. “Yeah, let’s go raid the kitchens. I’m hungry.”

“I could just call a house-elf,” Nat reminded him as they set off down to the kitchens.

“That’s cheating,” Al assured her as James and Louis caught up with them.

“Going to the kitchens?” Louis asked curiously. “We were just talking about doing that. Reckon they’ll be really busy, though.”

Scorpius threw a companionable arm around Nat’s shoulders. “Nat, here, is hungry and we’re simply helping our friend to get food.”

“Hey,” James whistled in appreciation. “That’s a handy excuse.”

Nat rolled her eyes and tripped over a stone in the floor, nearly pitching headfirst into Rose. Thankfully, Scorpius was no slouch either when it came to reflexes and stopped her fall.

“What was that?” Al glanced down at the floor and began to reach for the white object.

“Stop!” Nat fell to her knees at the object and batted his hand away. “That’s a finger bone!”

“A… what?” Rose mouthed at her. “No…” as what Nat said sunk in. “I can’t do this again.”

Nat shook her head. “This is bleached. It’s older, I’d say at least five years old. Al, I think we need your dad.”

Al swore under his breath. “Okay, I’ll go down to the party and try to find him.”

“What are you doing, young Gryffindors?” a voice floated out of the wall and Al turned to see Nearly Headless Nick staring down at him in his best ruffled collar.

“Perfect,” James said as he took a step back. “Nick, do you know if my dad is here yet?”

“I believe so,” the ghost confirmed slowly.

“Can you go get him for us, please, Nick? Also, Professor McGonagall. I’ve found a finger bone,” Nat sighed as she let herself slide backwards onto her butt. “Try not to alert the entire party, though. We don’t need a panic.”

“Good gracious!” Nick’s opaque hand flew up to his neck. “Yes, yes, of course! I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Nat glared down at the bone. “Why did I have to trip on it? This is lousy. All I wanted was a quiet evening now that exams are over. I wasn’t hungry before, but now I am.”

“Call for an elf,” Al came over and hauled her up and away from the bone. The elves tended to Apparate straight in front of Nat and would, in this case, land on the bone. He leaned her against a wall and she closed her eyes. “Natalie… an elf.”

Her head lulled to the side. “Right, I’m hungry please, elves. Can someone bring me food?”

A massive crack ripped through the hallway as one of the tiny creatures in its Hogwarts stamped tea towel appeared in front of Nat with a plate of sandwiches. “Here we are missus.”

“Thank you,” Al took the plate, grabbed a sandwich and held it up to Nat’s mouth. “Eat.”

She took a bite and then tried to take the sandwich from him, but her hands were shaking too badly at first. “Thanks,” she said around the bread. “I think the adrenaline zapped me and I got hungry faster.”

He wasn’t entirely sure what she meant by that, but he didn’t bother to ask. She was probably too out of it to make any sense anyway.

Footsteps thundered down the hall. Al turned to see his father sprinting for him along with a dozen others.

Rose pointed to the bone as he came to a halt to look down at it.

Harry crouched and ran his wand over it, examining it and Al was struck again how much he thought his dad had the coolest job. James didn’t think so. Al’s brother was already bored and clearly itching to escape, even as he swiped one of Nat’s sandwiches.

“What do you think, Dad?” Al questioned as he came over.

“I…” his father hesitated and to Al’s shock, he saw the grief on his face. “This is an old bone.”

“Nat said that,” Al confirmed quietly. “She said at least five years.”

“It’s older than that,” Harry stood and put a firm hand on Al’s shoulder. “I know who this belonged to. It was a friend of mine from school. I can identify his magical signature.”

“Dad…” Al didn’t know what to say and no one else said anything else.

Harry glanced sharply at Nat. “Is she okay?”

“She got hungry,” Al mumbled helplessly. “We were going down to the kitchens to get food for her, but an elf brought some up for her.”

His father nodded absently. “Kids, this isn’t anything to worry about. It’s from the battle of Hogwarts. I’m a little shocked that it’s in this hallway, especially tonight, but no one new has died. I want you to get back to the common room.”

“Oh, but,” James shut his mouth.

His dad shook his head and went to speak to the other adults.

“I wanted pudding,” James grumbled and he leaned against the wall. “This is rotten luck.”

Al moved back over to Nat and held out a hand, but her pale face and clammy hand told him she was in trouble. “Damn it, we need to take her to Madam Pomfrey.”

“What?” James looked down at her. “She looks ruddy terrible. Okay, come on,” James bent and hoisted her up while Louis grabbed her other side.

Before they could move even five feet, his dad and Professor Longbottom rushed over and conjured a stretcher. “Use your wand,” Harry showed Rose the wand movement. “Point where you want to go, Rosey, and she’ll move.”

“Okay, Uncle Harry,” Rose inclined her head to her friends. “You’re all coming with me, okay?”

“Why do I have to come?” James asked petulantly.

“Because you owe me,” Rose said simply. “Remember the large tarantula that you–”

“Got it!” James called as he chased after his cousin.

“I guess I’ll see you in a week,” Al said to his dad. “You’re going to take the bone?”

Harry nodded and hugged him briefly. “Is Natalie okay?”

“This happens sometimes,” he held out his hands in defeat. “Sometimes we don’t catch it fast enough and Madam Pomfrey needs to pump her with fluids and sugar. She’ll be okay in a few hours.”

“You’re a good friend,” Harry clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Al tried to hide his absolute joy and spun to chase after his friends.

Back to index


Chapter 13: Chapter 10

Author's Notes: I know, I know! It's been forever. Things have been a little crazy here, and might be for the next several months as my house is going to be under a massive construction project. Please be patient and leave reviews! :D

For anyone wondering, my third original book is in edits right now!!!! Stay tuned for more information.

Thank you, Arnel, for all your help!


Summer came and Al was equal parts glad to be home and missing his friends. James oscillated between moody, surly git and obnoxious older brother. He did, at least, have Rose, Hugo and Lily to hang out with when James was being an obnoxious prat. Nat went straight from the train to get on an airplane to fly to Brazil. Al and Rose spoke to her using the mirrors that they’d all received for Christmas, but with the time difference it was difficult to find times to talk.

Two weeks after the end of school, his parents threw a huge dinner party for all their friends and family over the weekend. Everyone was there, including his entire family, Teddy and his grandmother, the minister, Neville and his wife, and Luna and her family.

Luna and Rolf had only returned to England the week before, so this was the first time he’d seen them in almost a year. Al loved Luna, very much, even if she was a bit odd. Her husband was one of those brilliant types who lost the thread of conversations, often, and constantly used words that Al had no hope of understanding.

Their twins, Lysander and Lorcan were pretty cute. They both had their mother’s blonde hair and their father’s hazel eyes. Everyone loved the twins who were fun to play with, but the girls especially glommed on to them.

This worked in Al’s favor, as his cousin Victoire was attached to the toddlers, which mean he could pry Teddy away from his girlfriend.

He dragged his god-brother off into the trees, away from everyone else.

“What’s up?” Teddy asked the moment they were out of earshot.

Al glanced down at his trainers and tried to think of what to say.

“Ah,” Teddy intoned, cottoning on. He sat down in the grass beneath a tree and leaned up against the trunk. “Come on, this is probably going to take a bit.”

Al sat a few feet away and leaned against his own tree, drawing his knees up to his chest. “James is being an arse.” It wasn’t what he’d meant to say, but it had come out anyway.

“I expect he is,” Teddy agreed as he picked up a twig. “Everything that’s happened, Al… it’s a lot to take in. Your parents, your dad in particular, have had a rough go of things. It was difficult for me to deal with, and I was a lot older when I found out.”

There was a stinging behind his eyes that Al didn’t want to acknowledge for fear it would only grow. “I guess I always knew that I had another sister, but… she was murdered.”

“Yes,” Teddy agreed slowly. “She was. She and I would have been raised together, and we’d probably have been pals. You, James and Lily are like my siblings, but you’re all so much younger than I am. I can remember your mum being pregnant with you. I held you, Al. I look out for you guys, but Hope would have been different. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss that until I understood what I’d lost. I have Victoire, and she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but as kids she was a baby for the longest time.”

Al sniffed and picked at his laces. “My parents had to get married.”

Teddy snorted. “I think that’s the least of our worries. They love each other so much. I envy that. I want that, you know? I think I’m going to have that with Victoire, but I have to tell you they’ve set the bar high.”

“I think,” Al said slowly as fear and anxiety ate at him, “that Dad put up the latest round of protections around the house because the woman who attacked them is still on the loose. Something he said made me think that, and Aunt Hermione made those Portkey socks that work like the Galleons do and will get us home if we’re kidnapped.”

His god-brother’s expression remained forcibly neutral, but Al knew him well enough to know it was confirmation without breaking a trust with Al’s dad. “You don’t need to worry about it,” Teddy told him flatly. “Your dad is the best at what he does. You’re safe here.”

“It isn’t enough to be safe,” Al complained, his fear swapping over into annoyance. “This is my family, and I–”

“Wait,” Teddy interrupted, holding up a hand for silence. Al waited while Teddy struggled under something that seemed to tear at his heart. “Listen, I’m the big brother, here, right?”

Al nodded, thankful that it wasn’t James. Technically it was, but James abdicated that role when it came to responsibility. Being a royal pain in the arse was the only big brother role that James took seriously.

“You’re twelve, and it isn’t on you yet,” he leaned forward and met Al’s eyes head on. “You’ve got enough on your plate with school, dealing with James, and I know you’re looking out for Nat. Let this one go for now. I’m not saying,” he interjected quickly, reading Al’s mutinous expression, “that I’m sidelining you forever, but come on. Your parents never had a normal childhood, and I can promise you that the one thing they’d really love is if you kids didn’t have to grow up too quickly. Can you understand that?”

He mulled, and thought, and mulled and finally nodded. He could understand how his parents would want him to have a safe, normal, happy childhood. It was something they’d never had, and he would dare to guess that they’d likely do all in their power to shield them from what could be traumatic events. “It isn’t exactly working out that way, though.”

“I know it isn’t,” Teddy sighed heavily and kicked at a small rock. “Let’s get back to Hope, okay? It sucks. It flat out sucks that you’ve lost your sister, and that she never had a chance to grow up. It’s horrible that someone would do this to your parents. It’s scary to think that someone might still be out to get them, but you have got to keep in perspective that your dad killed Voldemort. Voldemort was true evil. He was powerful, dangerous, and unbelievably sadistic. You haven’t been taught the full picture yet in school, but you can find the books in the library. There’s a particularly good one called The Rise and Fall Of The Dark Arts. There are two versions of that book, one was completed about ten years ago. Find a copy of that and read it. When you have a full understanding of just what your dad has accomplished, it will help you accept that you’re safe with him, and also help you understand why you should let him think he’s sheltering you. You have no idea how much he loves that Lily is so innocent and untouched by all of this. Al, she’s a breath of fresh air from our jobs. I can be having the crappiest of days, and one hug from her and it’s all gone.” Teddy paused for a single breath. “If it was me, and I hope it is someday, I’d do the same with my family.”

Al felt his shoulders hunching under the unspoken reprimand. Teddy wasn’t being mean, or harsh. He was simply reminding Al that, as a kid, he didn’t know everything. Most of the time, though, it seemed to Al that he knew next to nothing. “Do you ever feel like Dad is overshadowing you?”

“Nope,” Teddy shook his head firmly. “First off, he’d have to stand in my light to do that, and he never would. He wants me to succeed and do better than he does, although he’d never want me to struggle under the weight that he has. He willingly put his life on the line to make sure we can live in peace. I aspire to be as brave and as dedicated as he is, but the bottom line is I hope I never have to prove myself in the way he did. If we get there, again, then my family and everyone I love will be at risk. I’d rather be an ordinary Auror, living a relatively quiet life, than a hero.”

Al ran his hands through his hair and leaned back against the tree. A single tear slid traitorously down his cheek. Immediately, he found Teddy’s solid arms around him as several more tears forced their way out. Nothing was said in the minute it took him to pull himself back together.

“I love you, kid,” Teddy ruffled Al’s hair. “Give James time, okay? He’s stuck being a git for a while, but he is your brother and you have to make allowances for him.”

Teddy moved back over to his tree as Al said, “He was picking on a girl.”

“Then he likes the girl,” Teddy informed him without a single moment’s hesitation. “He’s going to be one of those who has no idea what to do with himself.”

“That’s stupid,” Al muttered, even as a grin tugged its way across his mouth. “I told Fred, and he warned James off. The girl is… she’s different. She’s American.”

Teddy cocked an eyebrow and opened his mouth to speak, but a voice came from the edge of the wood. “Teddy? Al?”

“Here, Ginny,” Teddy called back and hauled himself to his feet.

“It’s time to eat,” his mother’s voice said in a tone that brooked no argument. It was time to go in.

~*~

It was the shouting that woke Natalie from her sleep. It was the banging and screaming that had her reaching for her backpack, the one that held her wand. “Dad?” she whispered into the darkened room, but heard nothing. She glanced around, but saw only the crack in the shade over the window that let in the light from the capital city of Braslia.

Curtis Parker been out late at a dinner with some colleagues from the University at the restaurant in the hotel, and had told her she could go to bed. Where was he? What time was it?

“Cale-se!” someone hissed out. Her Portuguese, while still rough, could translate that one.

Shut up!

Nat flung herself to the floor and crawled under her bed, dragging her backpack with her. With trembling fingers, as the doorknob rattled, she pulled her wand free, and, on impulse, grabbed the two-way mirror that her fingers had grazed. She was in sweatpants, which thankfully had a large pocket. She shoved the mirror in, and after a moment’s hesitation, also threw the wand in. If she was going to be taken, there was no way she could fight.

Where was her father?!

Nat bit hard on her lip to stifle the surprised gasp as the door was forced open. Seconds later the bed was wrenched up, and she was grabbed roughly by a man dressed in camouflage fatigues.

“Ela est aqui,” the man called over his shoulder.

Before she could get a good look at him a dark bag was thrust over her head, and a sweet, sickly smelled filled her nose.

The world went black.

Her next awareness came with a pounding headache, a roiling stomach and the smell of damp, rotting earth.

Her wand was sticking her painfully in her side, but otherwise her limbs felt heavy and a little numb. She didn’t speak, didn’t move, as she tried to take in her surroundings.

The smell was wet, of earthen buildings and forgotten caves, but there was a slight tang of fresh air, so there had to be ventilation somewhere.

Fear licked hungrily at her, wanting to draw her into a romping game of panic and tears, but she bit hard on her lip and forced herself to focus.

Sounds… she heard a small drip off to her left, a slow, melodic trickle on water. No insect, no birds and as near as she could tell, there were no humans in the near vicinity.

When she finally wiggled her fingers, it was to find that she wasn’t bound as she’d have expected. Undoubtedly, the men who had taken her hadn’t seen her as a threat. Nat was tiny, just a child.

How little they knew.

Natalie pulled in a deep breath and tried not to think about her father. She needed a way out, and thank goodness, she’d managed to grab her ticket to freedom.

“Hello?” Nat choked out through a phlegm-filled throat. Nothing. “Ol?”

No response.

Nat pulled the mirror from her pocket and cleared her throat. She really hoped she could reach Al, but Rose would do as well. “Albus Potter,” she whispered into the mirror.

The mirror sprang to life as dancing, dazzling lights played around the room and the world spun until it showed a darkened bedroom that she knew to be Al’s.

Nat glanced around her again, quickly, trying to spot a sign of the time of day, but there was none. If it was night in England…

“Al!” Nat bit out more urgently. “Al, you need to wake up!”

A groan came from somewhere off the glass of the mirror as the image shook roughly, coming to show Al’s sleepy face, his eyes hardly slits in the dim light. “Wuzamatter?” the words came out, blurred together.

“I’ve been kidnapped,” Nat managed to say through the rush of emotions, namely gratitude, that overwhelmed her. “I need your dad!”

For a second he didn’t move, then his eyes popped open, fully alert and he was off and running.

She heard, more than saw, Al’s frantic cry for Harry, heard the quick explanation, and saw Harry Potter’s face fill the mirror, even as he was shoving on his glasses.

“What happened, Nat?” he asked her urgently. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Nat assured him. “I was sleeping in my hotel room in Braslia, and some men broke into my room. They put a hood over me, and I think they drugged me because I feel a little sick and it was nighttime when they got me.” She paused, trying to work her brain into a slower thought process so she’d stop babbling. “I’m underground somewhere. I can’t see the sun. No one is around me, and I don’t know where my dad is.”

“Okay, Nat,” Harry said evenly. “I’m going to get you, or at least ensure that someone is there to rescue you. It’s going to take a while, but we’ll get you out of there. Cooperate with your captors and pretend like you don’t understand a word their saying, okay? Do not, under any circumstances, let them know you’re magical. If they’re Muggles, we don’t want them to be spooked and kill you. If their magical…”

“I understand,” Nat promised him.

“I’m going to end the call and head straight to the Ministry, but I will have the mirror will with me. I want you to wait about twenty minutes, count if you have to, and then call me back if the coast is clear. Can you do that?” his intense eyes scrutinized her, even through the mirror.

She nodded, “All right.”

The mirror went blank and Nat shoved it back into her pocket. She ignored the debilitating tremble in her hands as she finally allowed herself to be afraid, and began to count.

~*~

Harry’s arrival at the Ministry was only moments before Arthur, Hermione, Percy, Kingsley, and about a dozen others who were on the alert system that Harry had activated.

By protocol, everyone converged on the conference room outside the Auror’s office, the only one that had a fireplace attached to the Floo Network.

“I need Brazil,” Harry barked at his assistant, Daniel, the moment he saw the young man walk through the door. “She’s in the capital city.”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel answered as he knelt at the fireplace and tried to raise someone.

“What’s the situation?” Kingsley asked as he took his customary seat at the head of the table.

It was not typically the Aurors that dealt with British wizards being kidnapped overseas. It typically fell to the head of the International Cooperation or, in some instances, Helminth Smith as the head of the Magical Law Enforcement.

He was currently on the receiving end of a death glare from the obnoxious Smith and an annoyed stare from the head of Magical Cooperation, Adina Kaiser. Adina was, on the whole, a good sort. She was reasonable, fair, and a genius. She was about fifty with nut-brown hair and matching eyes. She had the sort of thin, pinched face that one might expect to see on a pixie, but she was a tall woman, about Harry’s height. It gave her an odd, mismatched appearance.

“I know I’m overstepping,” Harry told Smith, trying to sooth egos so he could ensure their cooperation. “The child who has been taken is the daughter of Dr. Curtis Parker. He recently completed work for the Aurors. It is possible the child was taken because of his work with us. In this case, I will take point until such time as we prove that isn’t the case. We haven’t made contact with Dr. Parker yet, nor have we heard about a ransom.”

It was a sticky situation, asserting his control over that of the other department heads. In terms of rank in the Ministry, Helminth outranked him. Harry was, for all intents and purposes, on the same level as Hermione, who was Deputy Head of the MLE. However, a change that Kingsley had instituted after he’d become Minister was to reorganize the office hierarchy so that the Head Auror had complete autonomy. The only person who could overrule Harry was the Minister himself. Harry had the authority to take over any investigation at any time, for almost any reason.
He didn’t often use that power, because it tended to generate ill-will among his colleagues, but in this case he was going to keep that right to have his fingers straight in the pie. What most of the people in the room didn’t know was that Nat’s powers could make her a serious security risk for them.

Arthur shot him a curious stare, but nodded in approval. Harry grinned weakly at his father-in-law, appreciating his support and the encouraging smile that graced Arthur’s lined face.

“I would like to know how you were alerted,” Adina put in.

“That would be the mirrors, right?” Hermione said as she sat on the edge of her seat. “I made the children two-way mirrors for Christmas last year. The girl is friends with my daughter, and we knew that she would be traveling all over the world when she wasn’t in school. It was the only way they could keep in touch as owls will take weeks or possibly a month to reach her.”

“Exactly,” Harry pulled the mirror out and set it on the table. “She is supposed to be contacting me shortly, as long as the coast is clear.”

“I have Brazil,” Daniel turned his head to inform Harry. “They have a man who speaks excellent English, and he’s requesting permission to come through.”

Harry glanced towards Kinsley, who nodded slowly. “Have him come through.”

Daniel’s head went back through the fire for another thirty seconds, before standing and taking a step back. “I’ll get tea, Mr. Potter, and then try to find the girl’s mother.”

“Thanks, Daniel,” Harry waved the young man off. Daniel had clearance, but he would not be part of the discussion.

A moment later a large, powerfully built man spun to a stop at in the grate and stepped out. His skin was the color of mocha, with brown hair and thick, wavy brown hair trimmed very precisely. He glanced around the room, his eyes fixing on Harry, who felt his gut relax a bit. He knew this man. “Philippe,” Harry moved forward to shake his hand.

He’d met Philippe Alverez several years before when they’d been on holiday in Brazil for the Quidditch World Cup. Ginny had been working, of course, so in their free time Harry had mingled with some of the foreign heads of state. Philippe was his Auror counterpart in Brazil.

“Potter,” the man shot his hand firmly. “What happened?”

“We’ve had a child abducted,” Harry told him quickly. “She’s twelve, and her name is Natalie Parker. Her father has done some work for us, but he’s a Muggle. I believe he’s lecturing at one of the Universities in Braslia. We’ve not been in contact with him, but Natalie has a magical mirror that she shares with her friends. She contacted my son to get me the message that she was in trouble.”

Philippe rubbed absently at his cheek. “Do we know who took her?”

“She’s not seen them since she was snatched, but she says she thinks she was drugged,” Harry explained.

“Probably Muggle, then,” Percy frowned, his eyes full of concern behind his horn-rimmed glances. “Otherwise she’d have been rendered unconscious with a spell.”

“Agreed,” Harry added with a quick glance towards his brother-in-law.

“The problem is,” Helminth interrupted them. “You do not have clearance to go to Brazil, Potter, nor can you operate in a foreign country. Even for a Ministry employee, we do not call out the entire staff to rescue one person.”

Harry only spared him a sideways look, then went back to speaking with Philippe as if they hadn’t been interrupted. “She’s got a trace on her, of course. Can you use that to find her?”

“It’s possible,” Philippe said as he turned back to the Minister. “How important is this?”

It irked Harry that they could so easily dismiss the life of a child, but if she was in the hands of Muggles, it wasn’t a simple law enforcement case. There were channels and paperwork. Kingsley took a deep breath and studied his hands. “Her father has sensitive information about an ongoing investigation. We do not want him to be in a compromised position. If he and his daughter are able to be retrieved safely, we want that to happen. We can’t guarantee that she was taken by Muggles, and we need to react as if this were the worst case scenario.”

Harry’s attention, along with everyone else, was diverted back to the mirror as it came to life with Nat’s pale face shining through, and her tiny, fragile voice, saying, “Harry Potter.”

~*~

Seconds had never moved so slowly for Nat. She had to focus on her counting, and breathing, or she’d break down in tears.

The images kept flowing through her mind, replaying like a horror movie. The first time she’d seen a man die she’d been six. He’d been shot five feet from her. His face had frozen in a mask of pain before he crumbled to the ground.

It was his abused wife who’d killed him.

When she was seven, she’d seen a child trampled by cows in India.

When she was nine, Nat had watched helplessly as a man fell into a dig pit. It normally wouldn’t have been fatal, but he’d hit his head on an exposed stone wall. He’d never opened his eyes again.

The year before she’d gone to Hogwarts, when they’d made a short trip into Syria, she’d seen a woman shot by local fighters.

The fighting was supposed to have been limited. It wasn’t the war zone it had been even a year previous.

Her father had whisked her away from that country just as fast as he could, and they were leaving behind children she’d played with, girls her own age who would soon be sold as child prostitutes to pay bills.

Nat couldn’t blame her father for pulling her from the situation, nor could she forget the look of utter despair on the children’s faces.

Their dark, beautiful, soulful eyes haunted her now. The eyes were sometimes dead, even though the child still lived; but others were old, much older than their years.

It was time.

Nat cleared her throat again and stood on shaking legs to move to the short, wooden door. “Hello? Is anyone there?” She pounded her palm against the door, then waited. There was no sound, but the drip of water on stone and earth.

She sighed and moved back to her place on the floor, heartsick and scared stupid. Her dad was missing, and her mum would be worried sick.

Her dad might be dead.

Nat cleared her throat and held up the mirror. “Harry Potter,” she whispered into the glass and watched the lights swirl.

Seconds later, his face appeared through the glass. “Natalie? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” she sniffed as gratitude poured out of her. “I haven’t seen anyone.”

“We have someone from Brazil here, Nat,” Mr. Potter went on. “We’re going to try to use your trace to track you down, which means I’m going to need you to perform magic for us. It doesn’t have to be big, just shooting sparks will do it, but I want to try something first. Can you get your wand?”

“I have it,” Nat held it up so he could see.

“Okay,” Mr. Potter nodded in relief. “I want you to walk over to the door. Can you see a keyhole?”

Nat moved over to the door and examined it with her fingers in the dark room. Her palm brushed a door handle, but didn’t find a lock. “It doesn’t seem to have one.”

“But it’s locked?”

“Yeah,” she showed him as she tried to pull the door open.

“I want you to try the unlocking spell. Do you remember that one?”

“Alohamora,” Nat repeated as she pulled out her wand. She pointed it at the door and repeated the spell. Nothing happened. “It didn’t work,” she grunted as she pulled on the handle.

Harry’s face gave nothing away. “I don’t want you to worry, Nat. There could be a lot of reasons why that particular spell didn’t work. Namely, that there is no key and it’s locked with a big slab of wood on the other side, okay? I want you to count every five minutes and perform a spell. If you need to contact me, I will have the mirror with me. Don’t worry,” he went on in a low, soothing voice that guided her towards feeling less panicked. “We’re going to get you out of there. I’m waiting for your mum, then I’m heading to Brazil myself. In the meantime, the Brazilian Ministry is working with their Aurors to attempt a rescue. I’m friends with their Head of Department and he’s a good man. We’re coming for you.”

“Okay,” Nat replied in a trembling voice.

“Every five minutes,” Harry reminded her. “I’ll see you soon.”

She nodded as the mirror went black.

Natalie moved back to her place against the wall and began to count.

~*~

Contacting a Muggle establishment from inside the Ministry had been impossible up until Hermione. Hermione ran into several instances when it would have been helpful to use a telephone. She’d petitioned the Ministry to investigate and was turned down, saying they were not Muggles and would not behave in such a way. She appealed directly to Kingsley, who had granted her permission to investigate the problem.

Though she’d been sneered at, mocked and ridiculed, Hermione had soldiered on much to Harry’s amusement and her husband’s bafflement. Arthur, learning of her aspiration to hook the Ministry up, had taken up the challenge.

The first problem was shorting out the electronics, but Hermione had fixed that by finding an old rotary phone. The next had been shielding the wires from magic, but it turned that heavily shielded cable that Hermione was able to appropriate from the British military, was enough to keep it from being shorted out. The one phone resided in the Minister’s office and could only be used by his express permission.

George was now using the same shielding technology, much to the Ministry’s chagrin, to make a lot of money on new gadgets.

Julienne Curtis was in Australia according to her boss at whatever television station she worked at, and Daniel had no luck in convincing them that they needed to contact her until Harry pulled the phone away from his assistant and said it was life and death.

Unfortunately, that didn’t resolve anything because she was still half a world away. She did, at least, know that something had happened and they received word that if she heard from Curtis, she was to call the Ministry directly to let them know.

“I thought the telephone was a stupid idea,” Kingsley admitted when Harry hung up. It was only himself, the Minister and Daniel in the office. “Don’t tell Hermione I said that; she’ll have my hide.”

Harry wanted to laugh, but the situation was too dire. They had word out to the Muggle Police in Brazil that there was a problem, but so far they’d been unable to locate Curtis.

“Sir,” Daniel said hesitantly. “I’ve had word from Ginny asking for an update. Can I let her know? Your kids are going spare, apparently.”

Harry considered the younger man. It was nearly four in the morning and they’d yet to receive confirmation that Harry was cleared through the Brazilian Ministry to travel. “Yeah, but go to my house. I’d rather you tell her in person. Then get some sleep and head back in.”

“I’ll come straight back,” Daniel said solemnly as he headed out.

The second he opened the door, Adina walked right in around the young man. “I’ve had word, Harry. You can head out. The paperwork is now in order and Philippe said he is waiting for you.”

“Thanks, Adina,” Harry nodded briefly and headed for the door to move down towards the fireplace that was connected up for international travel.

“Harry,” a voice from the hall stopped him and he turned to find Arthur waiting for him.

Harry paused and waited for his father-in-law to speak.

Arthur took a deep breath and glanced around, making sure they wouldn’t be overheard. “You’ve ruffled a lot of feathers on this one, and I think it was the right call. People are going to be curious as to why you went to all the trouble for Nat. They’re going to speculate and ask questions. Be careful, son.”

Harry’s heart jolted in fear, even as his body hummed with the thought of action. “I understand.”

“Good luck,” Arthur clapped him on the shoulder and Harry made his way to the correct fireplace.

Traveling to Brazil was not unlike traveling anywhere in Britain. The only problem was that it took minutes, rather than seconds, to come through to the other end.

Philippe was waiting for him, along with the Brazilian Minister of Magic, a woman whom Harry had only seen once years previously. She was a stately woman with iron hair, streaked with dark threads, and sharp, brown eyes. She was diminutive in size, but one look at her left Harry with the impression that she was not a woman to be messed with.

“Mr. Potter,” she said with crisp, precise English that still hinted at an accent. “We are happy to have you. We have a team, right now, working to retrieve the girl, but her father is still missing. I’ve alerted the Muggle authorities and they have launched a search. Your colleague, Mrs. Kaiser, has been most helpful in using your trace on the girl.”

“Please,” Philippe held out a hand. “I’ll take you to our meeting room.”

They left Harry to wait, mostly by himself, in a large, sparsely furnished room while the local MLE narrowed in on Nat’s position. Every so often someone would poke their head in to smile at him, but as almost no one spoke English, he was left to his own devices.

The minutes crawled by like an eternity.

Finally, two hours after he’d arrived, Philippe burst in and motioned him to follow. “We have her location.”

~*~

Nat had fired sparks off forty times, at the instructed five-minute intervals. She’d not seen anyone, nor heard anything. Her head ached. Her stomach hurt. She was starving, and her blood sugar was in the toilet.

The silence was driving her mad. The counting was making her crazy. The loneliness and fear had won and she was now in a full out panic.

Several times she’d forced herself to not pick up the mirror and make the call, reasoning that there was nothing that talking to Mr. Potter could do.

It didn’t help that the drip, drip, drip was driving her crazy, or that the cold was seeping in and she was shivering violently. Her sweats were damp and nothing she did helped. She was too weak to move, to try to warm herself up.

Finally, she gave in, because she knew she was close to losing consciousness, and thinking was taking all of her effort. She pulled out the mirror. “Harry… Potter,” she whispered.

His face shone through, with weird lights all around him. She blinked, trying to focus and it registered in the back of her head that she had spots before her eyes. “I’m hungry,” she said before he could even speak.

“We’re nearly there, Nat,” he huffed out, clearly running. “Just hold on and we’ll get you to–”

Her hand dropped, too heavy to hold up anymore and she felt herself sliding sideways, even as the door burst open. She saw men she didn’t know, rushing for her.

She wanted to protest, wanted to fight, but there was nothing left in her except the rushing in her ears and the cold, clammy feeling that always preceded her passing out.

The world went blank.

~*~

Harry hung back, as ordered, even though it contradicted everything in him. He was used to being in charge, used to diving in when he felt the need to. Here, in Brazil, he had to hang back and be grateful they’d let him come at all. “She needs food immediately,” he said again to Philippe. Harry had completely forgotten about Nat’s need for food on a regular basis in the chaos of simply trying to find her. “I think she passed out.”

“I’ve alerted a Healer,” Philippe assured him. “She’s coming straight off and should be here any moment.”

A man shouted something to Philippe, who replied in Portuguese. The rapid exchange went straight over Harry’s head, so he kept his eyes fixed on the house.

Nat was, apparently, somewhere in that house, and from her description Harry had to assume there was a cellar or underground basement of some sort. The house was apparently deserted, which did not leave Harry with a good feeling. He’d have expected some guards.

There was a soft pop from his left and a young woman, several years Harry’s junior, appeared next to them. She was dressed in light blue robes that looked clinical.

Philippe greeted the young woman, and motioned to Harry. “She doesn’t speak English, Harry. Can you give me a rundown of what we can expect?”

“She was cursed by something in Egypt,” Harry began, and waited for Philippe to translate. “If she needs the exact name, I can get it. But, basically, her blood sugar drops.”

“I’m not sure how to translate that,” Philippe said with a frown.

“She gets hungry fast and passes out,” Harry rephrased it.

After a quick exchange, the Healer smiled at him encouragingly.

“I think we have it,” Philippe turned as his men shouted something. His eyes widened. “I think we have your missing Muggle, too.”

Moments later, a man appeared leading a stretcher with a bloodied Curtis Parker on it, unconscious. Right behind him, came a man with Nat in his arms. The tiny girl was miniscule in the huge Auror’s arms.

Harry let out of a sigh of relief as the Healer moved into action to triage them before moving them to the local magical hospital. Harry knew, from experience, that he would not be allowed near them until the Healer had cleared them. One too many run-ins with his sister-in-law, Audrey, had taught him that.

Harry glanced at Philippe. “Can I examine the building?”

Philippe held out a hand. “We shall do this together.”

Absolutely nothing about the kidnapping made any sense. The building was an abandoned farmhouse well outside the city, right on the Tocantins River. No magic, except for Nat’s, was detectable on the premises, and yet something about it struck Harry and decidedly wrong.

“It had be Muggles,” Philippe assured him slowly, but Harry could tell his heart wasn’t into the statement.

“Something is off,” Harry shook his head as he gazed around the dusty, unfurnished upper room. “I don’t like this. Something isn’t right about this.”

Philippe’s dark eyes studied him for a long moment. “I can’t argue with that. I have no proof of anything magical, which means I can’t launch an investigation, but I agree. It feels like this is… I can’t think of the right word.”

“It’s a set-up,” Harry supplied. “Someone made everything look like this so we’d think it was Muggles. But why? Why do this?”

“This child,” Philippe cocked his head sideways. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble for this child.”

“She’s my son’s best friend,” Harry met his eyes straight on. “She’s been a guest in my home. What would you do for your son?”

“The same,” Philippe conceded. “But, I have to ask, because I’m starting to wonder. Is there more?”

Harry sighed heavily, knowing he had to give the man something else or the questions wouldn’t stop. “My family is being threatened, Philippe. Curtis Parker is helping me. I owe him, but he also has sensitive information that could hurt my family. I can’t let that fall into the wrong hands, if it hasn’t already.”

Satisfied, Philippe nodded. “Let’s go to the hospital, then. Hopefully, they will be well enough to talk by now.”

“Good,” Harry agreed as they made their way down the rickety steps. “Can you let someone know on my end that things have ended well?”

“It’s already done,” Philippe assured him as they emerged into the newly dawning day. Harry glanced at the sun that was cresting the mountains in the distance and marveled at the landscape around him.

Brazil was a beautiful country.

He walked over to Philippe who grasped Harry’s arm to pull him into oblivion and lead him to the hospital, where hopefully Harry would get some answers.

Back to index


Chapter 14: Chapter 11

Author's Notes: I would like all of you to give my beta, Arnel, a big round of applause! I sent this chapter to her, and less than four hours later, she sent it back!

This is an intense chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think.

Remember to be patient. This story has like ten years still to go. It's a long road.

I updated quickly this time, because I know I was late on my last one.

I'm in final edits for my third original novel. Please, pretty please, go to my profile and check it out! Amazon has a free preview of the story. My only payment here is reviews, which are awesome, but actually contributing to my household with profits from a book is very nice as well.

Thank you, and much love! ~ywg


The news at the hospital was not what Harry wanted to hear. Curtis was brought around quickly, but he was kept isolated while the Healers worked to figure out exactly what had happened to him.

Audrey had sent word to the hospital about Nat’s condition, and the Healer in charge came out after an hour looking extremely grim. She spoke in rapid Portuguese to Philippe.

The Auror turned troubled eyes back to Harry to translate. “She says the girl was given something. It worked for a while to keep her alive, but she was in major organ failure when we got to her. In another hour she’d have been dead.”

Harry’s heart skipped a beat. “Are you able to help her?”

Another conversation flowed around him, but it was their faces he tracked, not the words. The eyes told the story he needed.

“It is not good,” Philippe answered slowly. “She will need medical attention for weeks, maybe months. She’s going to need a feeding line. I don’t know if you’re familiar.”

“I am,” Harry nodded. “My wife had one when she was pregnant with our first child.”

Hope. The child who hadn’t made it.

Philippe translated that for the Healer. “She says,” Philippe explained to Harry, “that the child will either need to stay in the hospital or be cared for by Healers.”

“Can she be moved?” Harry asked quickly. If at all possible, he needed to move Natalie back to England and keep her protected until they could figure out what happened.

“Maria says she will be stable enough to transport by Portkey tomorrow, but she would like a Healer to travel with her,” Philippe said carefully. “You can treat her in your English hospital.”

Harry sighed and nodded. It would be Audrey, then. He’d need to make the arrangements shortly.

Natalie, however, was not going to St. Mungo’s.

“Do you have any idea when I can speak to Dr. Parker?” Harry questioned the Healer.

Philippe waited for the response, then told him, “She says maybe an hour. They’re finishing up treatments with him.”

Harry shook her hand and smiled wanly at the woman. “Obrigado,” Harry said with feeling. “I said that right, didn’t I?” he grinned at Philippe, who smiled back.

“Close enough,” Philippe assured him as Harry sat to think, and ponder just what the hell was going to happen now.

Forty minutes later, Harry was allowed in to see Curtis. The man was patched up, for the most part, and sitting up in a bed. Harry strode over and shook his hand. “I’m glad to see you alive.”

“I’m glad to be alive,” Curtis admitted gruffly. “I’ve gotten a general idea of what happened. Thank you for saving my little girl. I…” he broke off long enough to clear his throat. “I guess you want to hear what happened.”

“I really need to know,” Harry agreed as he pulled up a chair and sat. Philippe stood, immobile, at the edge of the room. A witness, but not part of the interrogation.

As Curtis was a Muggle, and not even a citizen of Brazil, things were complicated, to put it mildly.

“I was having dinner with a colleague and a friend he’d brought along,” Curtis told him. “Nat ate with us, but then said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. We were only down in the lobby, so I didn’t think anything of it. She’s twelve, after all.”

It was a reasonable, safe decision. They were staying in a nice hotel, with security. His daughter, while young, was not a child and could be close to the age in which she could be a minder for other children. However, Harry knew it was a decision that Curtis would second-guess for years to come.

“So,” Curtis went on. “My colleague, whom I’ve known for years, was a little off all through dinner. I didn’t really register it at the time, but something seemed different. He drank way too much. I excused myself, at one point, to use the loo and the other man followed me.”

“What did he look like?” Harry probed as he scribbled down some notes on a piece of parchment.

“That,” Curtis sighed heavily and let his head fall back against the pillows, “is the weirdest part in the whole story. I can’t remember what he looked like.”

That was not entirely unexpected. “That’s fine. What happened after you went to the loo.”

“Things were a little fuzzy, but,” Curtis told him slowly, “I think he wanted me to transport something back to England for him. He ended up frustrated with me when I said I wouldn’t do it. He hit me, and told me that they’d kidnapped Nat. I lost it and I think I attacked him. Everything went blank after that.”

“He is showing signs of magic being performed on him,” Philippe confirmed. “But, for whatever reason, the spells did not work well. I imagine they did not send a very skilled wizard after him. It begs the question of who put the Imperius Curse on his colleague, because it surely was not the man who was with him.”

Harry’s foot tapped as he thought through all the implications. There were a million different explanations that presented themselves as ripe, ready for the picking. Now that they knew this was not a Muggle kidnapping, the person could have been a smuggler. It would be easier, Harry assumed, for a respected Muggle professor to traffic goods into England, possibly as research materials. He’d have to check on that.

It could also be that they wanted to question Curtis about Harry.

The least likely was that they found out about his connect to Harry and wanted to question Curtis about the body that he’d examined for the Ministry.

Harry rubbed hard at his scalp, trying to ease out some of the tension that was killing him at the moment. There was no good way of looking at it.

“Can you check on Muggle postal operations here, Philippe?” Harry asked the other Auror, as he glanced back over his shoulder. “We’re having a smuggling problem on our end. This might be a link we can look into.”

“We have to bring in the International Magical Departmental head,” Philippe grumbled.

“I know, but,” Harry pointed out as he stood. “It could be a simple matter, rather than some major conspiracy.”

It was a huge conspiracy, and he felt a small twinge of guilt for not telling his friend about it, but right now they had nothing to go on. There was nothing to be gained from telling Philippe about Isabella Crabbe.

“Curtis,” Harry turned back to the other man. “I strongly urge you to come back to England. I also need your permission to take Natalie back. We need to make sure she’s looked after, as she’s pretty sick.”

“I can’t go yet,” Curtis shook his head. “I have a contract to finish and a class to teach. I need to be here. You know what I mean,” he went on in a low voice. “I don’t run from danger. I face the truth, and I tell what happened to people who have died. That’s always made me a target, but Natalie can go. I know you’ll protect her, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all you’ve done for us.”

It made Harry extremely uneasy to leave Curtis here, but he was a grown man and made his own choices. However… “Philippe, are there private security agents here in Brazil? Any that you would suggest.”

Philippe looked surprised, but nodded. “Yes, we have a fellow recently retired from active duty as an Auror. He’s now on his own. I could make contact.”

“Do that, please,” Harry said. “Also, I need word sent that Audrey Weasley is to come here to supervise Natalie’s transfer back to England. Should I do that, or can it be arranged?”

“I will ask one of the secretaries here at the hospital to make the call,” Philippe assured him.

“Excellent,” Harry said as he pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment and quickly wrote out a note.

Audrey- I need you in Brazil to bring Natalie back to England. She will need care in the exact manner as Ginny did while pregnant with our first. Please arrange the Portkey accordingly. Yours, Harry

He handed it off to Philippe who nodded, and after a quick scan, left.

“How’s Nat doing?” Curtis asked.

Harry couldn’t control the worry that had been plaguing him over the child’s health. He cast a Muffliato Charm, to ensure they weren’t overheard, and sat again. “It’s not good, Curtis. She’s going to need intensive care, which we will provide at my house. You must not let anyone here know that she’ll not be transferred to the other hospital. It will raise too many red flags.”

“Do you think the same woman who is after you sent the men after us?”

“I don’t know,” Harry groaned as he rubbed at his eyes. “Being associated with me has always been dangerous, I’m sorry to say. It looks like you’ve been caught up in it.”

Curtis was silent for a long moment. “It doesn’t appear to be your fault, though.”

“I attract trouble,” he shrugged helplessly. “There are some days I feel like the biggest arse for having kids at all. They’re paying a heavy price. But Ginny wouldn’t have stood by and not had children, so that was that. She wanted babies. Come to that, I did, too.”

“We didn’t think we’d have a child,” Curtis explained as his eyes traveled back in time. “Nat was a complete surprise, but a good one. She’s the best little thing…”

“I’ll keep her safe,” Harry clapped him gently on the shoulder and surreptitiously removed the spell. Curtis didn’t notice a thing. “Still, though, the investigation into your abduction might lead us to new leads on the case of our resident nutter.”

“Potter?” Philippe’s voice came from the door. “The child is awake and asking for you.”

“Can I see her?” Curtis asked quickly.

Philippe shook his head gently. “In another few hours, Mr. Parker. You’re not well enough yet.”

After he’d promised to give Curtis a report as soon as he could, he went to see Nat. Her tiny, elfish face was dwarfed in a bed meant for adults as a tube fed a continuous drip into her arm, much like an IV in the Muggle world. For a moment, Harry flashed back painfully to his wife, just over four years older than this child, with a tube in her arm as she fought to keep their baby alive.

It was all for naught.

Harry shook off the grief and focused on Nat, who did not appear to be awake. He sat with her and took her hand. “Al and Rose send their love. They’re worried sick about you.”

“M’kay,” Nat murmured sleepily. “I hurt.”

Harry glanced sharply at the Healer, who held out a placating hand.

This one, it appeared, spoke English. “We are giving her mild potions for the pain. We cannot give her more until her body has healed a bit.”

“Are you sure we can transfer her?” Harry asked as he glanced back at the listless child.

“Yes,” the Healer, a woman around sixty nodded confidently. “She will be strong enough tomorrow. She’s responding well, but this will be a slow treatment to make sure her organs do not suffer any lasting damage.”

“Do you know what was given to her?” Harry asked the Healer as Nat’s head lulled and she fell asleep.

“It was not something we have seen before,” the Healer admitted slowly. “What we do know is that she was given a potion that it meant to revive someone who has been without food for a long time. Then, it appears that she was given another potion that we are attempting to analyze right now. She was initially drugged with a Muggle compound called Chloroform, which is what put her to sleep. That is short acting, though. She would have needed to be sedated another way.”

Harry nodded slowly, trying to take it all in. “As soon as Healer Weasley arrives, please explain all of this to her. I want Natalie’s transfer to be as seamless as possible.”

“Of course,” the Healer inclined her head.

~*~

Al couldn’t take his eyes from Nat’s pale face as she lay on the bottom bunk in Lily’s bedroom.

“Come on, Al,” his mother whispered gently as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. The weight of it was reassuring and solid. “She’s going to be okay.”

He couldn’t quite reconcile that fact. Nat had been brought straight to his house with his Aunt Audrey just a few hours before. She’d been installed in with Lily, while a clear pouch hung from a pole near her, putting food into her body.

Nat looked so pale, so fragile.

His mother knelt next to him and cupped his cheeks. “Your father had to hold a vigil like this for me, when I was pregnant with Hope. It’s scary watching someone we care about suffer, but I need you to hear me, Al. She’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t know how to believe that,” Al whispered into the quiet room. “Is here mum going to be here soon?”

“Very soon,” Ginny assured him. “Aunt Hermione is picking her up from the train station or… that place they fly into.”

“Airport,” Al supplied through a throat that felt a little scratchy. He’d heard Nat talk about airports a lot.

Ginny rose and pulled Al from the room. “Let her sleep, okay?”

Al reluctantly followed his mum out into the hall, but it was with a heavy heart that he made his way down the steps. He found his aunt still in the kitchen, making lists on parchment.

“Do you remember most of this, Ginny?” Audrey asked as she focused on the page in front of her.

“Sadly,” Ginny sighed.

Audrey’s head flew up and moments later, she had Ginny in her arms. “I’m sorry, luv. I know that’s a painful topic.”

“Mum?” James came in from the back and stopped at the sight of the two women in front of him.

Ginny plastered on a smile that Al could tell was completely fake. “Yes?”

“Neville is here,” James shifted from one foot to the other. “He says he needs to talk to Dad, but I told him what happened.”

Lily came in, leading Neville by the hand. Al saw his sister’s fear was written all over her expressive features.

Al could also see the concern written plainly on Neville’s round face.

“Is she okay?” Neville asked he closed the door behind him.

“She’s getting there,” Audrey nodded grimly. “I’m making up her potions and feeding bags right now for the next two days.”

Ginny sniffed. “Al, did you move your stuff in with James?”

“I didn’t yet,” Al told her. “I will soon.”

He would be sharing with his brother while Mrs. Parker stayed with them, so she could have a room to herself. They could transform his parents’ office into a bedroom, but it was easier for him to share with his brother.

They could make do for however long Nat needed. Al had resolved to ignore every single stupid thing that James was bound to say.

“Her mother is coming?” Neville questioned, looking between his mum and his aunt.

“She’ll be here soon,” Ginny agreed. “How did you hear?”

“Oh!” Neville shook his head. “I forgot why I came. I ran across some letters that were exchanged between my mum and Harry’s. I only have Lily’s replies, so I thought Harry might want them. I’m sure my mum’s letters were destroyed when…” his voice trailed off as he pulled a bundle of letters from a coat pocket.

Al stared at the aged parchment, his mouth hanging open slightly. No one moved.

His grandmother… the one his sister was named for… his grandmother’s words and thoughts were on those pages. No one could really tell him about her, or what she’d been like. He knew that she was brave and loving, but very little else was known.

“Neville…” Ginny’s voice was full of awe and wonder. “Where did you find them?”

“My gran had them,” Neville shrugged in resignation. “She didn’t exactly love my mother, so she never went through her things. She locked them up in a vault at Gringotts. It’s only now that I’m starting to sort through all of it, what with us selling our house in London.”

“Wait,” James butted in. “You’re moving? Where are you going?”

“Hush,” Ginny waved at her son. “We’ll tell you about that later. Neville isn’t leaving us, I promise.”

Al knew that Neville’s grandmother had died a few years before, but he’d only met her a few times. She was a funny lady, though. He’d never quite known what to make of her. She wasn’t ever mean, but she also never really smiled.

“Anyway,” Neville set the bundle on the counter, and it might as well have been a priceless artifact for the reverence that was given to it. “I am sure Harry is really busy with everything, so I’ll leave these. Hannah and I will come to check on Nat in a few days, okay? I’ll also let Minerva know what happened.”

“Thank you,” Ginny whispered, as she skirted around the counter to give him a hard hug. “Nev, only you know just how much this is going to mean to him.”

Neville let out a long, painful sigh.

Moments later, he was gone, with Ginny staring after him, clearly troubled.

James reached for the bundle, and Ginny immediately swatted his hand.

“If you touch those before your father, James, you will never fly a broom again. Am I understood, young man?” Ginny’s glare was fierce and brooked no argument. “Your father has never said a single word to his mother, not once. You do not have a right to touch those unless he says you may.”

James looked from the letters, then back to their mum. Finally, he nodded and backed up. “It’s a shame he doesn’t know what it’s like to have his mum yell at him.”

“Jamie…” Ginny slipped back into a childhood name for him as regret filled her face. “I’m sorry, James. We’re all very on edge right now.”

His brother stuck his hands in his pockets and turned, walking away and up the stairs.

“He’ll be okay,” Audrey murmured comfortingly as she slung an arm around Ginny’s shoulders. “It’s a very tough age.”

“You’d think I’d know that with how many brothers I had,” Ginny groaned and turned to Al and Lily. “Are you two okay?”

Lily didn’t hesitate to throw herself into Ginny’s arms, wrapping her hard in a hug. “I miss Dad. When can he come home?”

“Soon,” Ginny crooned into Lily’s hair. “He needs to find all he can in Brazil before he comes home.”

Al didn’t move forward. He felt rooted to the spot, but his aunt came straight for him and hugged him hard. “I’m going to make sure she gets better, okay? I know what she means to you.”

Al reluctantly wound his arms around Audrey’s waist and tried to pretend a tear hadn’t just slid down his cheek.

It didn’t feel like anything was ever going to be okay again.

~*~

Every lead he’d followed in Brazil, from questioning the wait-staff in the restaurant, to Curtis’ clearly confused colleague who had dined with him that night had turned up nothing.

The logical conclusion was that Curtis was being asked to smuggle, probably by whoever was working with Isabella Crabbe.

But…

“This is too neat,” Philippe complained to Harry as they made their way through the Brazilian Ministry of Magic. “It seems like someone stupid attempted to smuggle something to England.”

Twenty years previously, Harry had assumed that a dumb snatcher had attacked him and Ginny. He’d assumed that the moron had made a mistake and that’s why they’d ended up in St. Mungo’s. They’d worked on the assumption that it was all an accident, not a carefully orchestrated plan, plotted out by a brilliant, twisted woman.

Harry had been critically wrong, and he wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. He had twenty years of experience, plus countless sleepless nights going over and over the details that had led to Hope’s death to fall back on. “If I had to guess, I would say that this is a red herring.”

Philippe gazed at him quizzically. “I don’t think I know that term.”

“It’s a rouse, or a bluff to try to distract someone from seeing the real problem. We shouldn’t have had an easy time finding Natalie,” Harry went on as they moved towards the fireplace that would take him home. “This was planned. Nat was left with her wand, which made her almost simple to find. They had no guards. It looked, at first, to be a Muggle kidnapping, but that was also misleading. We’ve been had, but I don’t know why.”

That was, at least, the simple truth as they stopped before the fireplace. Harry had no idea what Isabella could be up to or why. He didn’t have the first clue as to what she was trying to accomplish. If she was brewing potions, she needed ingredients. In order to get them, they had to be acquired illegally. In order to get them illegally, she most likely had to search for sources outside of England. If Isabella wanted to send him off on a wild goose chase, this was a convenient way to do it.

If she was aware of his involvement with the Parker family, then she could have targeted Natalie to ensure that Harry would be involved in the investigation.

It meant that Harry had played straight into her hands, but there was little choice on that. He couldn’t have done otherwise.

Harry shook Philippe’s hand. “Thank you for all of your help.”

“You’re welcome,” Philippe replied solemnly. “I will keep an eye on your friend. I hope the little girl is okay.”

He really, really hoped so as well.

Harry threw some Floo powder into the fireplace and stepped in. “Ministry of Magic, London, England.”

The spin of the Floo sucked him into another place.

He arrived to chaos. His assistant was waiting for him. Daniel, much to Harry’s shock, was clearly exhausted and disheveled.

“Minister Shacklebolt needs to see you immediately,” Daniel told him as he handed over a file and they took off, out of the conference room, and towards the bank of lifts.

“What happened?” Harry asked him quickly as he hit the button and turned back to the young man.

Daniel shook his head sadly. “They exhumed Colin Creevey’s body. I don’t have the details, sir.”

Harry’s heart stuttered for a moment as he thought about the lost boy. It had been his finger that the children had found at Hogwarts. “All right,” Harry told him soothingly, as the doors of the elevator slid open. He stepped in and turned back. “I need you to go home, sleep for eight hours, shower and then come back. You’re no good to me if you’re falling down.”

“But, sir,” Daniel protested instantly, only to halt when Harry raised a hand.

“You go home. This is not up for discussion,” he finished just as the lift doors closed.

Harry blew out a breath and was thankful for the late hour and the silence around him. He flipped open the folder, one he saw was a Muggle police report on a missing woman. The report was beginning to yellow around the edges, but the woman, a black woman about twenty, stared back at him through blank eyes.

He saw the note, scribbled in what he knew was Arthur Weasley’s hand, that said, ‘May be our missing woman who was switched.’

Arthur had taken up the challenge of sorting through the Muggle records sent over from Scotland Yard. If this was her, and Harry had a sneaking suspicion, that Arthur was correct, then that was a tick off of one of his unsolved mysteries.

Harry exited the lift and moved quickly down to Kingsley’s office. He found Hermione, Arthur and Percy crowded around, waiting.

“What happened?” Harry asked and he entered and closed the door.

“Colin’s right hand is missing all the fingers,” Arthur said sadly. “It appears that he was dug up from the Muggle graveyard near his parents’ home, and his fingers removed.”

“Then,” Percy sank heavily into one of the seats. “He was reburied. We can only assume that someone else has those other fingers and is waiting to plant them.”

Kingsley nodded in agreement. “I believe the message is clear, that somehow she can get to the children. That’s what she wants us to know.”

That left Harry in the horrible position of having to either find out how, or possibly close the school. “We’re going to assume she planted the other body as well, the one that was found down by the lake.”

“We’ve had news on that man, actually,” Hermione said as she fished out a sheet of parchment from the stack she was holding. “He has a nephew who is a wizard, one that we’ve had in custody a couple of times. Right now the nephew is in hiding, so we’re going to assume he’s involved.”

“That’s just sick,” Harry grumbled as he quickly skimmed through the details. “This is just unbelievable.”

Kingsley rose to his feet. “I can’t step down right now.”

“I was going to say that,” Harry grinned sadly. “We can’t have a new minister in right now. That’s asking for a lot of trouble.”

His friend nodded to everyone in the room. “It’s late and none of us has slept well. I suggest we all go home, get some rest, and tackle everything again tomorrow. We have over a month to improve the security at the school. We know how to do that.”

Harry nodded and left with the others. He was so ready to go home.

~*~

Ginny stared at the dark ceiling of her living room and counted heartbeats like some would count the minutes. The house was silent, save for the ticking of an old clock. There were times, like now, when it felt like the only safe place on the planet was here in her home.

But even here, bad things could happen.

She sighed heavily and shook away the maudlin thoughts that were a perpetual drumbeat in her brain. Julienne was asleep upstairs, after having spent a good amount of time with her daughter.

Natalie’s feeding line was all set to get her through the night. There would be no need to check on her, because there was a monitor on her, like one that Ginny used on her sleeping children when they were infants. If something happened, Ginny would be woken by a noise from her wand.

She hadn’t seen Harry in three days, so she waited by the fire. She waited for her husband to come home from what was likely some of the longest, most stressful days of his career.

Ginny didn’t know how she felt about everything that had happened. Julienne was overwhelmed by the magic involved in order to keep her daughter alive, but she hid it well. Ginny’s children were upset and scared about their friend being hurt. Nat was a pale shell of herself. Whatever was given to her, and Audrey had yet to figure it out, was making Nat violently ill.

However, it wasn’t an illness that showed on the outside. When the Healers in Brazil had said Nat was in organ failure, Ginny hadn’t understood what that meant and it seemed that the Brazilian Healers didn’t realize the implications either.

Nat’s condition had deteriorated after the Portkey had dropped Audrey and Nat in Ginny’s living room. It took Audrey several hours to stabilize the girl, and they’d nearly given in and taken her to St. Mungo’s.

In the end, it was Slughorn who had come through for them. Audrey had contacted the old Potions Master and explained the situation. Ginny didn’t understand exactly what they’d done next, but they’d used some kind of antivenin to arrest the damage. Audrey had forced Nat to throw up. Blood had come out, along with some kind of damaged capsule.

Audrey explained that the capsule had likely been eaten away by Nat’s stomach acid, only to release venom into her system. Now came the laborious task of putting Natalie’s body back together, when she was already in a fragile state to begin with.

The only blessing was that Nat was a witch, and Audrey had assured Ginny that they could repair the damage. This wasn’t anything that time, care and potions couldn’t fix.

Harry still didn’t know about the toxins. Ginny hadn’t had the heart to tell him when he was so far away, unable to do anything.

The fireplace sprang to life. Her husband, her Harry, slowly stumbled from the ashes and with a sigh of relief, collapsed next to her on the couch, pulling her tightly into his arms and kissing every inch of her that he could reach. “If you want to leave me for someone else that isn’t a magnet for nutters,” Harry whispered into her chin-length, “I will completely understand.”

It was an empty offer, since they were bonded for life, but she appreciated the sentiment. “I want only you,” she reminded him as she cupped his cheeks. “It’s always been you, Harry. I don’t want to live this life with anyone else.”

“How is everyone?” Harry asked her quietly, tenderly running his hands up and down her arm.

“Nat is finally over the worst,” Ginny recounted. “There’s more to that story, but we’ll wait on that. For now, everyone is okay. I suggest we get some sleep and I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”

She ached all over, but she managed to pry herself from her seat, and held out a hand to him. “Come on, luv. Let’s get some sleep.”

He didn’t resist as she led him upstairs to their bedroom.

The chaos in the house the next day was more than a little daunting. To top it off a house-elf showed up at the front door from Hogwarts. “Polly is my name, ma’am,” the elf, a younger one by the look of her, with a tiny little voice and huge green eyes, told Ginny. “I is here to clean the house and do the cooking, ma’am. Mr. Potter says I is to take over.”

Ginny wanted to throttle her husband. She also wanted to cry with relief, because everything was falling apart around her ears. “Polly, I appreciate that, but–”

“I isn’t allowed to leave, Mrs. Potter,” Polly shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “Professor McGonagall says I is to stay until term begins.”

“Well,” Ginny ran her hand through her hair and let out a defeated breath. “I guess we’d love for your help, Polly. We have a Muggle in the house, though, so I want to warn her that you’re here so she isn’t startled.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Polly bobbed and moved into the house, immediately setting to work on the disaster that was the Potters’ kitchen.

Julienne did not scream when she saw the tiny elf, but she did turn a very interesting shade of white. “Oh… uh, hello.”

“Hello, missus,” Polly bobbed very politely, before shoeing an annoyed James from the kitchen. “I has a snack ready in a few minutes, Master James. You is to wait.”

Ginny let out a low whistle. Clearly, Polly had dealt with James before.

“The scones I like?” James asked her hopefully.

Polly nodded indulgently. “Only if you is patient.”

“All right, then,” her son said as he exited the house.

“Well,” Julienne commented with a sidelong look at Ginny. “You might want to think about hiring her on permanently.”

Ginny had to laugh. “You’re not kidding. I’ve never seen such a forceful elf. Even our old elf, Kreacher, would have struggled to kick one of us out of the kitchen.” She remembered her old friend fondly. “He’d have done it, though. But he was older and crotchety.”

She tried to corner James to talk to him, but her son was being slippery and evading her at every turn. Nat woke up for the first time since she’d been in England, which had Al and Lily excited. Rose and Hugo, who were over as well, were all up with Nat to help keep her company until she fell asleep again.

James, however, walked off into the woods and didn’t want to come back when she asked.

Ginny gazed at his back, and decided to leave it for Harry.

~*~

Harry arrived home to find a warm plate on the counter waiting for him, and his surly son seated at the table, glaring at him.

“Where is everyone?” Harry asked as he brought his plate over to sit across from James.

There were times when he thought James looked just like him, but at the moment, he looked a like Bill, before Bill was attacked. James wore the same grumpy, stubborn scowl that Harry had seen more than once on his son. Oddly enough, though, he rarely saw the same look on Bill.

“Mum says I have to talk to you,” James grumbled, as he hunched in his chair. “She stuck me to the chair and says I can’t get up.”

Harry blinked. “She… she stuck you to the chair?”

James tried to rise, but neither his chair, nor his butt, moved. “It’s not funny!” his son shouted.

He fought valiantly to compose his features, and managed to hide all but a tiny smile. “Do you know why Mum stuck you to the chair?”

“It’s the letters,” James retorted. “She’s mad that I said I wanted to read them.”

Harry hadn’t read the letters yet, but he doubted seriously that that was why his wife had stuck their son to a chair. He didn’t have time for the letters, or the right frame of mind, to tackle what would undoubtedly be extremely painful words, but they weren’t a pressing issue at the moment. “I see. You want to read them?”

“She’s my grandmother!” he bit out stubbornly, with a huff of indifference. “I know you didn’t know her, but I have a right to see them, too.”

Harry considered his son for a moment. It was, he knew, self-absorption that left James unable to see what his words and actions were doing to his father. He was young, still, thirteen, but there was a time and place to grow up.

That time was rapidly approaching.

Harry flicked his wand as he rose. “Please stay there,” he instructed gently.

James nodded warily, and stretched out his legs a bit, but stayed at the table.

Harry, meanwhile, went quickly to the office to retrieve the bundle of letters. His child’s brown eyes were wide with astonishment as he stared at them. Harry set them before James and resumed his seat to continue eating. “Go ahead and read them.”

James hesitated, his eyes narrowed. “Is this a trick?”

“No,” he promised around a mouthful of chicken. He was starving. “I probably won’t be able to read them for a while. She was your grandmother. You don’t know her, and I didn’t know her. If it means that much to you, please read them. I’m sure you’ll be careful with them.”

His son didn’t move. “You don’t want me to.”

“I want you to read them eventually,” Harry assured him as he met his son’s gaze head on. “If it means that much to you to read them first, then go ahead. This isn’t something that we should be fighting over. Natalie nearly died, James. We have bad people trying to get to us. I’m not going to throw a fit over a bunch of letters from a mother I don’t remember. You mean more to me than something that petty. She’s gone and her words won’t change that, but you’re right here, alive. You need me, and my mother is beyond needing anything. I love you too much to fight over this.”

James’ lower lip trembled slightly as he turned his eyes back to the letters. For a long moment, James didn’t move and Harry watched him carefully, waiting to see what he would do.

Slowly, James’ hand moved out towards the letters and Harry thought for a brief second that he hadn’t reached his son. But then, his thin hand pushed the letters across the table towards Harry. “I’m sorry, Dad. I was being selfish.”

“You’re forgiven,” Harry replied evenly. “Now, this isn’t about the letters, James. Something else has been bugging you for a while. Are you ready to talk about it?”

Never, in a million years, did Harry think this child would open up to him. James was always his closed off wall, the one that exploded rather than let the air out a little at a time. He didn’t communicate.

Nevertheless, for whatever reason, James opened his mouth and poured out his heart. “There’s a girl at school named Caroline. I think she’s being abused.”

Of all the things that Harry thought would come from his mouth that was never even on his radar. “Why do you think that?”

“She’s… she’s always got bruises. She leaves school several times a week,” James rushed on, sitting forward in his seat. “She’s totally bubbly one minute, then the next she’s crying by herself in a classroom. If someone scares her, she sort of curls in a ball! I remember you talking about a kid that was being abused… but she won’t talk to me, or anyone. She hates me.” Petulance and sheer bafflement were the only emotions Harry could read clearly on the teen’s face.

“Do you want me to have Aunt Hermione look into it?” Harry asked him gently.

“No,” James shook his head. “I asked her and she told me to butt out.”

Harry cocked his head to the side and had to wonder if his son wasn’t the littlest bit interested in this girl. “You don’t know what to do about her.”

“No,” James scowled.

“My best advice, James,” Harry went on in a deliberately measured tone, “is that if she has been abused, you need to back off and let her come to you. People who are abused have a lot of things done to them. Let her have the choice to say yes or no. Be friendly, stick up for her; otherwise just leave her alone until she’s ready to talk.”

James stood abruptly and shook his head. “Whatever.”

He stomped off towards the stairs.

It was more than Harry typically pulled from his son, so for that moment, Harry would call this a victory. It would have to be enough. For now.

Back to index


Chapter 15: Chapter 12

Author's Notes: Thank you, Arnel, for beta'ing!

Also, please PLEASE check my author's profile to find my original stories for sale. Pretty please!!! :D


Despite the fact that James didn’t want Harry to speak to Caroline’s parents about being abused, now that he was alerted to the possibility, he had to take action. Harry notified Hermione, who ran the staffing on those sorts of issues. It came back to Harry that the child and her sister had been removed from their previous home because of the death of their mother and suspected abuse, although no charges were filed. Interviews had been conducted in the home when the children had first arrived in England, but someone would visit again to do a wellness check.

That duty dispelled, Harry dove back into trying to figure out why Natalie had been taken. He’d hoped, at first, that the poison she’d been given would give him an inkling as to what Isabella Crabbe might be up to, but that ran dry. It was a little known poison in Europe, but common in South America because the ingredients were more readily available.

After weeks of fruitless searching, and no new leads, Harry had to table to investigation. It was frustrating to no end.

Nat was still on a feeding line, but she had been well enough after a week that her mum had gone back to work. The addition of their newest member, the house-elf Polly, had made the load of having Nat there not only do-able, but easy. Ginny was free from cooking or cleaning, and Polly was clearly enjoying being with a family. When Harry had contacted Minerva to ask about a house-elf, Polly had jumped at the chance. She was refusing to be paid, which stuck in his craw, but she so obviously enjoyed what she was doing that it didn’t leave him feeling too guilty.

This left Harry at odds with himself. He had no reason to put off reading his mother’s letters except that part of him was still strangely reluctant.

James, however, was going to stage a protest if he didn’t soon.

So, on a clear evening in mid-July, Harry took the bundle out to the bench near his daughter’s grave and sat to read.

He unfolded the first one slowly, trying to prolong the inevitable.

Dear Alice-
I was so thankful to Dumbledore for suggesting that I write to you and I hope you do not mind that I am doing so. I know we were a few years apart in school, but I will always remember how kind you were to me when I was a first year. Now we are in the same position. It has been very lonely here, even though I have James with me. I am used to a fast pace and all of the activities that have been a part of my life since graduation. I am adjusting to being in the house all the time, mostly because I’m too tired to do more than be pregnant. No one told me it would be quite so exhausting. James is restless. He’s worried about me, so it has put him on edge. I don’t know what to say to reassure him. Nothing in our lives is guaranteed.

I do hope that you and Frank are well and that things are smooth with your little one. I know that having to take a sabbatical from the Aurors must be very difficult, even if you are excited about the baby. Do take care and be safe.
-Lily Potter

Harry stared at the words, the handwriting, the script he could still vividly remember from the first time he’d seen it in Sirius’ room in Grimmauld Place.

With hands that were steadier than he could have imagined, he moved on to the next letter.

Alice-
Thank you for replying. I’m going spare! James has taken to pacing and I want to throw things at him. This is hormones, right? I’m not turning into a nutter, right? I know what you mean about Frank’s mother, and I’m sorry she is giving you a hard time. Family can be very trying. My parents have both passed now, so it is only my sister and her husband. My sister is trying under the best circumstances, but her husband is unbelievable. I’ve never met someone so narrow-minded! I thought Petunia was difficult. My sister is also having a baby, and I thought we might be able to bond over the experience, but it isn’t happening. She doesn’t want her child exposed to mine, and she’s accused me of trying to upstage her. It’s so ridiculous! I’m sure you’ve guessed, but we didn’t exactly plan for this to happen. I thought James was going to faint when I told him. He was a rock, though. Sirius told me later that he cried when it was just the two of them. He’s very excited now, but the fear of what we’re facing with the world the way it is, is just unbearable sometimes. In a way, though, I’m so very thankful for the baby. I have wanted children and part of me thinks that if we’d waited until a safer time, we might never have had children. Does that sound silly or nave? Sometimes I feel like that.

Please give Frank my regards. We will be finding out the gender soon. Are you going to find out?
-Lily

Harry sighed and packed the letters in. He’d read the rest some other time. If he were honest, especially once he’d had children of his own, he’d have bet that he hadn’t been planned. It was difficult to swallow that his birth, not something his parents were looking for, was what set off the chain of events that led to their deaths.

Still, it was rewarding to see this glimpse of his parents. He’d been more than a little panicked when he’d learned, at the age of seventeen, that he was going to be father. Harry glanced to Hope’s grave and felt a small prickle in the corners of his eyes.

“Harry?” Ginny’s voice floated towards him in the darkening evening air. She sat next to him and took his hand. “Are you all right?”

“I’m not sure what I am,” he admitted sadly. “I know I’m tired.”

“About that,” Ginny squeezed his fingers lightly. “We’re leaving.”

He cocked his eyebrow and stared, sure he hadn’t heard her. “Excuse me?”

“I have it all arranged,” she leaned in to lightly brush her lips to his. “I even packed your bag. We’re going to France for the weekend, to that little place on the beach that Bill and Fleur inherited from her parents. We’re not taking the kids.”

Harry eyed her skeptically. “What, exactly, are we going to do with the kids, then?”

“Teddy and Victoire are spending the weekend with them,” Ginny informed him.

“Uh,” he could see several pitfalls with that.

“Teddy is sleeping on the couch, and I told Victoire she could use our bed,” Ginny went on like he hadn’t made a sound. “Victoire already knows how to handle Nat’s needs with her feeding line. Polly will still be here handling the house. Teddy is here for security, but they’re not leaving the grounds. Plus, I spoke to Nat’s mum not even an hour ago, and she’s fine with that plan. Our entire family is close by, Harry. You’re exhausted and so am I. We need to get away. We missed celebrating our anniversary.”

Harry leaned his head against Ginny’s and breathed in her familiar, comforting scent. “I don’t know about this.”

“We’re going,” she replied firmly. “If I have to stun you and drag you along, we’re going. I want to sleep in, drink too much and make love to you without having to lock the damn door. We’re going.”

“Well,” he grinned as his lips moved long her jaw to her neck, “when you put it that way…”

~*~

Teddy crossed his arms and glared at his unrepentant godbrother. “Do you really want to do that?”

“What?” James asked innocently, sticking his hands behind his back.

A large snap came from the kitchen and the Dungbomb flew out of James’ hand and into Teddy’s.

“Thanks, Polly,” Teddy told the elf.

“You is welcome,” she called back. “Master James will go to bed now.”

James glared between them before heading off towards the steps.

The moment the house was quiet, Polly excused herself for the tiny room in the cupboard under the stairs. Teddy flopped on the couch and groaned as Victoire curled into his side, wrapping a slender arm around his waist. “Do you think they left us to do this just to cement that we don’t want kids right now?”

Victoire laughed her melodious laugh and kissed the spot on his chest where her head rested. “It wasn’t that bad, you know. At least no one is in diapers.”

“That’s true,” he said with a yawn as he rubbed a hand up and down her arm. “I still can’t believe your parents said you could do this. I thought I was going to be on my own when Ginny suggested it.”

“You really needed me here for Nat’s care, though. Mum was okay with it,” Victoire reminded him. “That usually means it’s going to go that way. Dad’s putty in her hands.”

Teddy couldn’t help the amused grin as he could just picture how that conversation had gone. “That’s how it’s going to be for us, huh?”

“I’ll make sure you’re very happy with losing,” she giggled unrepentantly. “I promise.”

He kissed her, trying not to get too caught up in the moment. It didn’t hurt that he was exhausted. “I am beat! I swear I’ve minded children before, but James was just a rat tonight.”

“He’s hurting,” Victoire murmured. “I can see it in his eyes. I don’t think he knows how to talk about it.”

Teddy shifted a little, trying to pull her in closer. There were a lot of times when he wished he could race through the next few years and start his life with Victoire, but at the moment he was thankful they weren’t completely there yet. It was daunting. “I tried to talk to him. He ran off.”

Her fingers traced a lazy circle on his shirt causing gooseflesh to erupt all down his arms. Teddy sucked in a steadying breath and tried to remind himself that there were four kids upstairs, none of whom were likely asleep yet. He glanced around the spotless living room and let out a low groan. “You’re… really trying to drive me nutters, aren’t you?”

“It’s a perk,” Victoire assured him, silently giggling. “I’ll stop, though.”

He almost regretted it until he heard the faint sound from Victoire’s wand that meant it was time to change Nat’s feeding bag.

“Go on up to bed after you see to that,” he whispered as he kissed her. Teddy would have offered to help, but she’d have turned him down anyway. Victoire was already in school to become a Healer, and she wanted to get as much experience as possible. Unfortunately due to budget cuts, Healer training was now offered only via tuition, so Victoire had needed to take out a loan from the goblins. Bill and Fleur had offered to pay for it, but she’d discussed it with Teddy and they’d decided together that they wanted to try to make it on their own. It felt like the right thing to do. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she purred as she rose gracefully and headed up the stairs.

Teddy watched her go and reflected that it was going to be a long, long weekend. He fluffed up his pillow, grabbed a sheet off the end of the bed, waved his wand at the lights and fell almost instantly to sleep.

The next day Lily talked him into going on a picnic for lunch with food that she’d prepared herself. She even ran it by Victoire, who thought the whole thing was utterly adorable.

Lily had him haul a full hamper while she carried a blanket and they made their way out into the yard to set up away from the house.

The entire time, Teddy couldn’t help but wonder what Lily was up to.

It wasn’t until she’d set everything up, that Lily broke down. “James was crying last night.”

“Oh,” Teddy breathed out the word. “You heard him?”

Lily nodded as her lower lip trembled. “I went in to talk to him, but he told me to beat it.”

For someone as sensitive as Lily, Teddy knew that her brother’s rejection would cut straight to the heart. “James is at a really hard age, Lily-Lu. Plus his head is stuck up his bum.”

“You need to talk to him,” Lily gazed up at him with those big, doe eyes, the exact same color as chocolate, and he knew he was sunk. Just the littlest bit of moisture, and he was a goner. The damnedest thing was Lily had no clue, at all, that she could so easily manipulate the situation around to what she wanted.

“I tried to talk to him,” Teddy told her honestly. “I can’t make him talk.”

Lily’s lips turned into an adorable pout. “Big brothers are hard work! I only have you three, but Mummy had six. How did she manage them?”

Privately, Teddy suspected Ginny did so by sheer force of will. That was just how Ginny was made. She was a powerful witch, with just the hint of a mean temper if someone made her mad. Lily had her moments, but most of the time the child in front of him was like a pixie, flitting happily through her life. “You and your mum aren’t the same people, though. What she did won’t work for you.”

“I guess,” Lily agreed as she glanced off across the yard. “I like having you and Victoire here.”

Her cheeks went a little pink, making the light smattering of freckles stand out even more. “What’s up?”

“Are you two going to get married?” she blurted out quickly.

“I think so,” he smiled easily. “It’s definitely looking like that’s what will happen. It’s what we’ve both wanted for a few years.”

Lily’s smile was absolutely lovely, showing promises of the beauty she was going to be. “I like how you are together. You’re always touching, and hugging, and you pay attention to her! I want that someday.”

“You’re going to have it,” he told her without a moment’s hesitation. “Boys are going to be flocking to you. I don’t have to worry about that, though. James is going to be all over that.”

She scrunched up her nose in thought. “I don’t mind that so much. I know it bothered Mummy, but I think it’s wise to listen to my brothers about the boys around me.”

Teddy’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, lost in thought. “I’m not a boy, so I don’t really know how boys think. If one of you told me a boy was not good for me, I think I’d probably listen. Everyone wants me to be happy, so they’ll try to protect me from someone who is mean.”

He started to speak, stopped, then cleared his throat. “That’s a remarkable way of looking at it.”

“Plus,” she added as her expression fell just a bit. “If I am as beautiful as Nat says I’ll be, then a lot of boys will only want to date me for my looks and I won’t like that. Did you like Victoire because she’s so beautiful?”

“No,” Teddy assured her with absolutely certainty. “I appreciate her beauty, Lily-Lu, but it’s her heart, courage and brains that I fell in love with. If she had only been a pretty face, I wouldn’t have been involved with her.”

This was turning into one of the oddest conversations he’d ever had with anyone. Most girls he knew were extremely independent and insisted on setting their own courses. Lily, despite a mother who was fiercely independent, was forging her own path along a different track.

Reassured, Lily took a bite of her sandwich. “Good! I want people to love me for my heart and not my face.”

“They will,” he said quietly. “You’re so sweet, Lily, that it would be difficult not to appreciate it. But, uh, you do know that most girls don’t want be told what to do, right?”

She shook her long, red hair. “I don’t want to be told what to do, either! I just want advice. I trust everyone around me to give me advice. Even James would know a prat if he saw one, since he’s one himself.”

Teddy burst out laughing, it pealed out until he had to hold his sides. “True.”

“When do you think you’ll get married?”

He almost answered, almost told her that he was currently saving for a ring and hoped to be able to ask her in a few months, but instead he shoved a sandwich in his mouth and left her wondering. He still had a full year of Auror training left, but after that he would be ready to help support her while she finished her schooling. That was the goal.

He’d also been informed, casually but firmly, by Fleur that weddings took a year to plan.

As far as hints went, it was one he knew he was going to need to heed. Or else.

He finally managed to pin James down, almost literally, Sunday morning. Ginny and Harry weren’t due back for several hours, yet, but he wanted to make sure they had enough time.

After shoving James into his bedroom, closing and locking the door magically, he turned to stare into eyes that were the same shade as Lily’s but held none of her innocent joy. “Talk to me.”

“About what?” James fell back on his bed and glared at him.

“You can’t keep this up,” Teddy told him gently as he made himself comfortable at the end of the bed. “I know you’re hurting over what happened to your mum and dad.”

His mouth compressed into a tight line and he glanced away.

“It was rape,” Teddy went on and for once when he spoke about it, he let his feelings show on his face. “Your parents were essentially raped and you’re smart enough and old enough to have figured that out.”

James’ face turned bright red as he flew to his feet and paced across the room. The anger washed off of him in long, rolling waves, filling the room with the heat and oppressiveness. But this was what Teddy was hoping for, so he waited.

“I hate this!” James finally shouted at the top of his lungs. “I hate the whole fucking situation!”

It was the first time he’d ever heard that word come out of James’ mouth, but he let it ride. “Tell me.”

“I just–” James froze as he balled his fists and his entire being vibrated. “We’re never safe! We’re always under lock and key because of Dad and now we have this shitty person trying to harm us, and I can’t have any friends over from school without a lot of planning and…” he swallowed hard. “My mum nearly died because of that bitch and now I have to know that I drove her so crazy, crying all the time, that she nearly died when she was pregnant with Al!”

“Wait a minute!” Teddy sat forward, holding up a hand. “Who told you that? Your mum was not that sick. She just needed bedrest.”

“I heard Aunt Audrey talking about it with Gran,” James muttered as his anger deflated.

“This isn’t your fault,” Teddy informed him quietly. “Do you blame your dad for all the bad stuff that happens to him?”

“No,” James sighed, but Teddy couldn’t tell if he meant it. “I don’t like all the restrictions in our lives.”

Teddy shook his head. “You’re just going to have to suck that up until you’re seventeen, kid. I know that’s hard, but look at it from my point of view. Do you think I liked that my parents were killed when I was an infant? Do you think I like what life dealt me?”

Shame. James’ expression telegraphed it straight out. “No. No, you’re right. I don’t like that my mum gets hurt, though.”

“Your mum is a seriously tough woman,” Teddy reminded him. “She takes care of herself and she chose to be with your dad.” But instantly he knew he’d said the wrong thing.

James’ ire flared right back into life. “She didn’t choose him, though! She had to marry him!”

“She chose him years before they were married,” he retorted with conviction. “The fact that they love each other as much as they do tells me that they were always going to be together. You have to let that one go or it’s going to make you crazy.”

His godbrother continued to pace restlessly around. “There’s this girl at school.”

This, Teddy knew, was another major part of the problem. “Al mentioned her.”

“She makes me crazy, too,” James grumbled as he leaned against the wall and slumped down to the floor. “I act like an arse when I’m around her and I can’t seem to stop myself!”

“Find a girlfriend when you get back to school,” Teddy suggested with an amused smile. “You’ll soon forget about her.”

“I don’t fancy her!” James shot back. “I think she’s been hurt.”

“I didn’t say you fancy her,” he said agreeably. “I’m just saying that if she makes you this nutty, it’s best to avoid her. Getting a girlfriend will help with that.”

“I do sort of think one of the Ravenclaw Chasers is worth a second look,” James conceded.

Teddy waited a long moment. “Are you ready to quit being a prat to everyone around you? None of us signed up to be your dueling dummy, you know.”

“Yeah,” he grinned sheepishly. “All right, I’ll try to quit. Can I see if Louis can come over?”

“Sure,” Teddy waved his wand and unlocked the door. Adding Victoire’s baby brother to the mix wouldn’t add too much to the insanity. Plus, James had opened up. It was a start.

~*~

“You need to have this in at least another few weeks, Nat,” Audrey Weasley told her as she checked her over in early August.

Nat sighed and flopped back in her bed, the place she’d been for more time than she’d care to remember. “I’m tired of being sick and tired.”

“I know,” Audrey patted her hand consolingly. “I am sure that you’re going to be well enough to go back to school.”

She eyed the Healer. She heard a major ‘but’ coming her way.

“But, you may have to keep the feeding line longer.”

“No,” Nat closed her eyes and tried not to cry. “How come?”

After a long silence, Audrey explained. “Your body is still recovering from the poison. You weren’t healthy to begin with, Nat. It’s almost always going to take you longer to recover from major illnesses.”

Nat stared down at her hands and nodded. “Okay.”

“It won’t be a big deal,” Audrey assured her. “You can use the backpack that we’ve modified to hold it. It will come down your sleeve and most people won’t even notice.”

She’d have loved to argue, but they had created a way for her to walk around without the pole that normally kept the feeding bag. Before that she’d been practically bedridden. At the time, Nat hadn’t cared because she’d been too exhausted to move, but now she wanted to get out a bit more. They’d found a way. The small backpack had a soft latch in it that could keep the magical bag upright and flowing into her body. Nat knew that Muggles had similar contraptions for patients with feeding tubes, so she supposed if they could manage it, so could she.

“Scorpius is here,” Al called out as he skidded into the room. “Are you done yet, Aunt Audrey?”

“We are,” Audrey said with another gentle pat on Nat’s hand. “Let me help you with the backpack.”

The only problem would be carrying her school bag and wearing the backpack, but as she explained it to her best friends, both Al and Scorpius promised to help her out.

They played Exploding Snap for a while, then chess. By the time dinner rolled around, Mr. Potter was home and debating with Scorpius and Mrs. Potter over if the World Cup winners had cheated.

Ginny was of the opinion that Uruguay had been robbed of the cup.

Right in the middle of Harry telling her she was wrong, Nat fell asleep.

~*~

Ginny held her finger up to her lips and pointed out that Nat was out. “Let’s get her up to bed,” she told Harry.

As soon as they had Nat settled, Ginny turned to dinner. “Are you going to be able to stay to eat, Scorpius?”

The boy nodded. “My father is in Germany until next week, so he won’t know I’m gone.”

She tried to hide the sadness that his words inflicted on her. “All right, then.”

At dinner James, who had had a remarkable turnaround from the difficult grump he’d been for the first part of the summer, suggested a game of hide-and-seek since Scorpius was there.

Soon enough her home was overflowing with her nieces and nephews. Thankfully, after a long nap, Nat was even able to come down and enjoy the fun.

As she gazed at Harry in between one of the games, she mouthed, ‘this is good’. He grinned back, but it wasn’t meeting his eyes.

They’d located the woman’s family, the one that Isabella Crabbe had used to fake her death twenty years before. Harry had a meeting with them early Monday morning at their home in Kent and it was weighing on him.

But, for now, there was peace in the childish game. It was enough that they could spend this time together.

The summer was flying by. Curtis Parker came to stay for a week along with his wife. He kept trying to thank Ginny for caring for the child, but as she told Curtis, it was exactly what she hoped someone would do for her child. She could do no less.

~*~

Harry stared down at the copy of the report he’d just received from a man in Hermione’s side of the office on his visit to Caroline Baker’s home. Nothing was reported amiss. The child seemed to be fine, and they would do another well check at Christmas. Whatever it was that had set James off, Harry couldn’t push it any further.

And yet… he tapped a finger on the page, unsure of what he could be missing. Obviously, if this child’s safety was in question, that was of paramount importance, but that wasn’t what was nagging at him. The home was reported to be fine, not perfect, which was great. They were making an effort while not putting on a front. Harry couldn’t name what was bothering him, but it left him in the uncomfortable position of going over the… he had to check the name, Penelope Douglas. He’d need to go over her head in order to investigate this himself.

There was just something nagging at him that he couldn’t name. He rose slowly and made his way from his office.

Daniel looked up from some paperwork. “Are you off, sir?”

“I need a word with the minister, then I might be out of the office for the rest of the day,” Harry sighed as he donned his cloak. “You can head out when you’re done.”

“All right,” Daniel agreed reluctantly. “Send an owl if you need something.”

Harry waved and made his way up to Kingsley’s office, only had to wait a moment with his secretary, then entered to see the older man looking as exhausted as he felt. He closed the door and set Douglas’ report in front of him.

“I have a problem, politically speaking,” Harry explained while Kingsley’s quickly scanned the report.

“This is a child abuse investigation,” Kingsley held it up. “That’s not exactly your area.”

“I know,” Harry agreed, “but something about this child is setting off all my alarms. I want to interview her myself.”

Kingsley rubbed wearily at his brow as he sat back in his seat. “You’re going to cause waves in the MLE. You’re already causing waves.”

“I know,” Harry agreed heavily as he sat forward and laced his fingers, studying them, but not really seeing them. “I’ll back off if you want me to.”

“If I wanted you to back off,” Kingsley retorted, “I wouldn’t have promoted you to the Head Auror position. I need someone like you with tenacity and great instincts. Go, interview the kid, but take Hermione with you. We want witnesses, and we also want it to appear to the MLE that you are keeping them in the loop.”

“Okay,” Harry replied. He made his way quickly to the lifts and pressed the button, waiting for the doors to slide open. The problem was that he was unlikely to gleam any more than the investigator had unless… he froze as the doors slid open, a crazy, completely unorthodox idea suddenly coming to mind.

Harry stopped in to inform Hermione of what he was doing, to which she called him a nutter, but agreed to meet him at Caroline Baker’s home in an hour, then he made one quick stop before heading home.

He found the house in the typical level of chaos for a rainy afternoon. There were games everywhere and the noise level was close to deafening as not only his kids chattered happily, but also Rose, Hugo, Nat, Louis, Fred, Lucy and Roxy all crowded around the expanded kitchen table playing a game that Rose and Hugo had received from Hermione’s parents. Whatever it was, they were all shrieking in laughter while Ginny worked in their joint office and Polly doled out snacks, clearly in seventh heaven.

“Hey, Dad,” James grinned at him. “You’re home early.”

“I need a quick word with Nat, then I’m off again,” he told them easily, trying to keep it light. “No one is in trouble, guys, just a logistics question.”

Nat rose and shrugged on the backpack that held her feeding bag. It was all black, but oddly enough had a small, purple butterfly that Lily had stitched on for her to make it prettier. “Save my spot,” Nat called out to the group as they slowly made their way up to his office.

“Hey,” Ginny blinked in surprise as she saw them come in. “You’re home early.”

“I needed a word with Nat,” he told her, conveying more without saying a word. “None of the bigger girls are here?”

“No,” Ginny laughed and waved that off. “Fleur and Angelina took Mum, Dominique, and Molly out for a spa day of some sort. That’s why we’re inundated with kids at the moment, but with Polly here it isn’t even work. I offered to do something and she kicked me out of my own kitchen.” She stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for hiring her for the summer.”

It had been one of his better ideas. Admittedly, it had been his father-in-law who had suggested it. “I just need the room for a few minutes,” he told Ginny.

“No problem,” she breezed on out. “I’ll get myself a snack and make sure no one spies on you.”

Harry had thought this through carefully as he watched Nat sit in one of the seats. “I have a professional favor to ask of you,” he began. Then he paused, unsure if he was doing the right thing. Harry could now see plainly how easy it had been for Curtis to fall into asking his daughter for help when he was working on new skeletons. The child just had this way about her.

He took a deep breath and pulled a mouse from his right pocket. He’d placed a spell on the creature moments before entering the house. He’d bought the mouse ten minutes earlier in Diagon Alley rather than conjuring it. He’d needed a live born mouse, not one created from nothing in order for this to work. Otherwise all she’d see was his conjuring. “What do you see on the mouse?”

She cocked her strawberry blonde head to the side and studied it, then held out her hand for it. The moment she touched it, she gasped. “It’s… wow. It’s got like a heat haze around it, do you know what I mean by that?”

“I do,” Harry agreed. It was that distortion of light waves caused by heat on objects that made it appear as though the object was moving.

“But, it also has sort of tiny blue sparks traveling through it,” she said as she held up the docile mouse for inspection. “I’ve seen this before.”

Harry’s breath caught. “Have you?”

“Yes,” she nodded as her blue eyes flicked up to his. “One of my house mates, Caroline Baker. Except the one time the blue sparks were really strong around her. Also, she’s had other colors around her head, like reds and purples. She’s always covered in spells. I told Professor McGonagall but she says that Caroline is part of a sport and is magically healed often. I think she’s a competitive cheerleader.”

He opened his mouth to ask another question, but then thought better of it. He had to meet Hermione shortly, and things had just taken a serious turn. “Thank you for this. Nat, if you ever see that thing with the blue sparks on anyone again, you need to let me know immediately, okay?”

Alarm crossed her tiny face. “Is Caroline okay?”

“She will be,” Harry rose quickly to his feet, and raced out.

He Apparated to a spot down the hill from the home where Caroline lived and saw Hermione waiting for him in the light afternoon drizzle.

“Well?” she asked quickly, nervously.

Harry nodded dejectedly. “Nat made the connection without my even asking her to.”

“Oh, dear,” Hermione chewed at her bottom lip and pushed a stray wild hair from her face. “Her grandparents are Delmar and Elizabeth Compton. It was their daughter who married Caroline’s father, and she has a sister who will be in Hugo and Lily’s year.”

Harry gave a sharp nod and they made their way up to the house. Delmar and Elizabeth –call me Betty– were the typical small, watery-eyed grandparents that one might expect to find on any street in England. They were friendly, but there was definitely something sad about them.

Harry shook Caroline’s hand and studied the tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed thirteen-year-old. She was definitely the type to have caught James’ eye, but she was also poised and more than a little aloof. She moved with an athlete’s grace and confidence.

“You look like your sons,” Caroline commented carefully.

“I hear you don’t much care for James,” Harry grinned to show her he understood completely.

She smiled back, a little warmer than before. “He’s not my favorite. Al’s okay, though. This is my sister, Honor.” Caroline pulled a girl out from behind a tapestry.

Where Caroline was fair, this girl was dark, with hair almost coal black and hazel eyes so deep they were almost brown. She was a little chubby and tall for her age. She stood awkwardly off to the side, trying desperately not to be noticed. “It’s nice to meet you, Honor.”

“‘Lo,” was the entire response they received before she bolted for the stairs.

“She’s really shy,” Delmar explained sadly. “Poor mite has been through a lot. Please sit and have some tea.”

“We need to do something first,” Harry explained. “I need to ask for your trust and patience because what I’m about to do is extremely unorthodox.”

“It’s not illegal,” Hermione added quickly. “But, we have some concerns about Caroline’s safety.”

The grandparents glanced at each other in alarm. “What’s wrong?”

“We have a small idea of what could be wrong,” Harry said as he pulled out his wand. “Are you ready, Caroline?”

Her face glazed over in a look he’d seen more than he’d care to remember and she tried to run. Harry immobilized her, levitated her, and placed her on the settee before anyone else in the room could react.

“I’m sorry about this,” Harry said to the spluttering, horrified grandparents. “She’s not responsible. Just a moment.”

He waved his wand over the child, waited until he felt the pull of the magic, and removed the Imperius Curse from her. She let out one long shudder before her eyes popped open wide in horror.

Back to index


Chapter 16: Chapter 13

Author's Notes: GO VOTE!!! It's Silver Trinket Award time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you haven't already, go to your account info page and vote. Vote for me, vote for someone else, but let your voice be heard. :)

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!

Also, thank you all who have bought my book(s)! I'm getting close to my third being published. Stay tuned for details, and if you want to learn more, please visit my page for links.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm giving you a nice breather, no nasty cliffies to fall off of this time. :)
~Sarah


“I just don’t understand,” Betty Compton wrung her hands incessantly as she paced back and forth in the waiting room at St. Mungo’s. Harry had given up trying to get her to sit down and speak to him. The older woman was beside herself with her granddaughters both being examined thoroughly by the Healers. “How could this have happened? Why would someone do that to Caroline? She’s such a lovely girl!”

“Betty,” her husband attempted, again, to sooth her nerves. “We need to sit down and talk to Auror Potter.”

Betty paused and reluctantly turned to sit next to Delmar. Harry was grateful to see them join hands.

“Who would have access to Caroline?” Harry questioned as he glanced between them.

“No one,” Betty promised quickly, sitting forward and tapping her index finger hard on the table between them. “Her father wouldn’t have been above using her, but Donald hasn’t been in the country! We’d have been notified.”

Harry couldn’t imagine doing that to his own kids, but knew there were some seriously twisted individuals out there. “What does Donald do?”

“He’s a business man of sorts,” Delmar explained sadly. “The Americans have a sort of mafia. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the term, Mr. Potter. I only know from my daughter’s explanation. We had the Death Eaters and they had their Liens du Sang. I don’t know how it started, my Lucy never knew either.”

He jolted slightly at the name, the name of his sweetest, shyest niece. “I see.” Harry had heard of the Liens du Sang. It was not a racially motivated group, much as the Death Eaters had been, but they were no less brutal. Their motivation was all money and using magic to gain more wealth. It was very typically American. “So, your former son-in-law is a member?”

“As far as we know, yes,” Betty chewed at her lips nervously, wringing her hands yet again. “We barely got the girls away from him. The only reason we were able to was because their house-elf brought them to us, and we were able to convince the Ministry to put Donald on the no-travel list for Britain. He hasn’t even bothered to contact us, but the girls…”

“It was horrible,” Delmar blew his nose loudly into a hanky. He turned red, angry eyes to Harry who could read clearly the impotence and rage. “The girls were badly beaten, both of them. Donald had forbidden the house-elf from treating their wounds. We didn’t know Lucy was… was…” he straightened himself through sheer force of will. “Lucy, my little girl, she… she killed herself just the night before and Donald hadn’t seen fit to tell us. After we saw the girls, we tried to press charges, but we couldn’t make anything stick internationally. The girls were traumatized, but they were both very vague on the details of how they’d been hurt. He’d done something to them, given them something so that they could only remember the fear of the beatings.”

Harry swallowed hard against his bile and revulsion. How could anyone do that to a child? Let alone their own child? “I’m so sorry.”

“We were just thankful he didn’t come for them,” Betty explained quickly. “So, we didn’t want to press the issue. We’d already lost Lucy, and we didn’t want to lose the girls as well. We hardly ever saw them as it was, when they were little. Donald was so controlling, but you’d never know it to look at him. He looks like a big stuffed bear and he can be so charming. Well…” she dabbed at her swollen eyes. “Do you know how long it will be?”

“I don’t,” Harry murmured apologetically. “I do know that I trust the Healer overseeing their care with my life and with the lives of my children.”

Delmar nodded gratefully. “I haven’t seen Caroline cry like that in months, Mr. Potter.”

“Please call me Harry,” he replied evenly. “I am not going to press charges against her for smuggling in the fingers. There is no way a twelve-year-old could have raided a grave. It’s simply not possible. Whomever did this planted them on her so that she could lay them out in Hogwarts.”

“It was your son that found the first one, right?” Betty asked cautiously. “Is he okay?”

“Al?” Harry gave them his first smile, albeit a wry one, of the day. “Yeah, he’s a tough kid. It takes a lot to rattle him. “We will keep this quiet, too, so that Caroline isn’t tainted by any scandal. I’ve heard she’s an athlete.”

“She’s a cheerleader,” Betty explained and something in her relaxed. “It’s very popular in America, you know. She’s so strong! In a way, I think Caroline was her father’s favorite. She had his coloring and her mother’s good looks, plus she was upbeat and outgoing. Being a cheerleader is a status symbol, you know. I think she went with it because it made her father happy to brag about her to his friends. Of course, in America they have magical teams as well as Muggle, but here in the UK there are only Muggle teams. Carolina uses the Floo network to travel to our home several times a week and either Delmar or I take her to her practices. It seemed to really help her, you know? Cheering makes her smile.”

Harry only had a vague notion of what a cheerleader was from his time with the Dursleys. He’d have to ask Nat when he went home to fill him in. She seemed to be familiar with the sport. “You said Caroline was distraught when she first got to England. When did that change?”

The older couple regarded each other, both seeming to consider how best to answer. “I believe it was a week or two after she started at Hogwarts and had started cheering,” Betty replied hesitantly. “I thought, at the time, that she was excited to be doing what she loved again, but now… now it does seem like she came out of practice a different person. It was impossible to tell, though. She was sweaty and exhausted, but overjoyed at nailing part of a routine.”

“It’s a lot like dance,” Delmar explained quickly, “but with tumbling and gymnastics. I agree, though. She left broody that one day and came back in a better mood. Honor is still struggling. She won’t open up.”

“We’ve had her talking to therapists, of course,” Betty assured him. “But, she’s just so beaten down, the poor lamb. Her father never liked her. She looks nothing like anyone in the family, and I know Donald accused Lucy of playing him false. But… Lucy said she was his.” Tears rained down through the lines on the older woman’s face. “She’s his, Mum, that’s what Lucy said. I know,” Betty sobbed hard, but forced the words out, “because he’s the one raping me.”

It was another hour before Harry was allowed in to question Caroline, but he couldn’t get much out of her.

“She was a mess, Harry,” Audrey told him sadly. “I had to give her something for the panic and she dropped off almost instantly. I’m sorry, I know you were looking for answers.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Harry eyed the exhausted-looking girl in the bed. “I’m not going to be upset that you put this thirteen-year-old child’s welfare above my questions. I trust you. I do need to speak to her once she’s over the worst.”

“Her body is… it’s a mess, Harry,” Audrey whispered in horror. “I’ve seen sports injuries, but she has healings that could only come from when she was a small child. Arm breaks on top of arms breaks that have left their marks on her growing bones. It’s a miracle that she can even move, let alone do what she does.”

“What about Honor?” Harry asked after a long silence. He couldn’t even absorb what he was hearing. He’d have to sleep on it.

Audrey shook her head sadly. “She’s the one who is the worst off in this. Her condition is… it’s bad. It’s very bad. It looks like a lot of her injuries were left to heal on their own, like she was being tortured.”

“Oh, damn it,” Harry scrubbed hard at his face, feeling the rough stubble that would need a shave soon. “What the hell was their father doing to them? What kind of parent does this?”

Audrey swiped at a single tear. “I know I’m going home to hug my babies a little tighter tonight.”

“I need to speak with Hermione before I can call it a night,” Harry sighed as he rubbed at the tension in his neck. “She’s running interference with the press right now so I don’t have to.”

Audrey looped her arm in his and steered him towards the door. “You know, if it was anyone but Hermione in her position, your job would be so much harder.”

“Don’t I know it,” Harry said as he imagined the number of times he’d have ended up hacked off at the press and walked out on a press conference. “If I’m honest, I’d quit if she did. I can’t handle it. When she was on maternity leave with Hugo, I was ready to turn my wand on myself. Kingsley ended up stepping in for me so I didn’t strangle Helminths Smith.”

No one loved Hermione’s boss, least of all Hermione, but she was adept at dealing with the old man and keeping him out of the way so he couldn’t do more damage. Hermione beautifully and flawlessly manipulated the man into thinking he was actually useful, while mitigating any of his decrees.

“I need a good night’s sleep,” Audrey yawned. “I can’t believe school starts again next week. Did you know Ginny took most of the kids shopping today? By herself?”

“Well,” Harry added fairly, “they’re all a lot older. Lily is the baby of the group and she wouldn’t ever run off.” He didn’t add that when he’d received word that they were traveling to Diagon Alley shortly after he’d left the Compton’s home with Caroline and Honor for St. Mungo’s, he’d assigned two Aurors and a Hit Wizard to tail them. Ginny wouldn’t be upset, exactly, that he’d assumed she’d need protection, especially since she’d had so many children with her, but neither was he going to rush to tell her about it.

Audrey stood and kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry dragged himself towards the office the held the fireplace so he could get back to the Ministry and hopefully debrief with Hermione.

By the time he crawled into bed that night, Harry wanted to cry from the heartache and grief he’d witnessed that night. He couldn’t imagine being so scared of a man that they’d let him get away with beating his daughters, just to ensure that he stayed out of their lives. He had confirmed with Hermione, though, that Donald Baker was forbidden from coming to the UK and that the Ministry was set to alert the Compton’s if their son-in-law came anywhere near them.

Tomorrow he’d need to go to the cheer place, wherever that was, and interview the coach to see what he could find out. It was unlikely that the Muggle woman who ran the gym would know anything, but it was a box he needed to tick.

“How bad was it?” Ginny asked as she snuggled into his arms and kissed the underside of his chin.

“Their father made the Dursley’s look positively loving and cuddly,” Harry told her. “I really can’t talk about it, Gin. I want to, but…”

“I understand,” she held on to him and didn’t let go until he had fallen fast asleep.

Harry made an appointment to speak with the director of Caroline’s gym at ten the next morning and met up with the woman in her office while a squad of pintsized girls practiced rolling and dancing out on the mats of the main gym.

“I’m Scarlet Tuttle,” she smiled and firmly shook his hand. She was a woman in her mid-forties with bleached blond hair, red lips and extremely intelligent blue eyes. “What can I help you with?”

“I need to know if anyone has come around asking about Caroline Baker,” Harry explained as he showed her a badge that she would take as a Muggle police badge.

Scarlet sat back in her seat, which creaked beneath her. “Except for her grandparents and sister, no one comes to watch her practice.”

Harry pulled out a card with the number that would connect her to the Muggle phone in Kingsley’s office. “If you ever see anyone around her, especially a man, I need to hear about it.”

Scarlet took the card slowly and studied it for a moment. “I heard about her father. You’re worried about him.”

“I don’t know if it’s her father or someone else,” Harry told her honestly. “I just need eyes on and around her.”

“She’s a sweet girl,” Scarlet inclined her head. “I have some girls that are full of hysterics and don’t want to put the work in, but not that one. She’s hardworking, driven and she keeps her nose out of other people’s business. She’s talented, too. It’s unusual to see someone so poised at her age. I typically don’t get flyers to do those stunts until they’re at least a few years older, but not Caroline. You can put her up in the air and it’s like she could fly.”

Harry gave the woman a tight smile and rose, thanking her for her time. Caroline could, of course, fly and with her magic, she wouldn’t be seriously hurt in a fall, but it still took nerves and guts.

By the time he made it back to the hospital, Caroline was awake. Harry saw her downcast features and wished he didn’t have to press her. He sat in a chair close to her bed, with Hermione off on the other side, the only two witnesses to her statement.

“I know what you want to know,” Caroline said before he could speak, “but I don’t remember who gave them to… to me,” she faltered. Her blue eyes flicked up to his, awash with pain and startlingly cerulean in her red-rimmed orbs. The misery simply flowed off of her. “I can’t believe I did that!”

“You didn’t do it,” Harry reminded her gently. “Someone else made you.” He leaned forward to hand her a handkerchief, but she flinched wildly back from him. He paused for a moment, studying the fear on her face. “Are you actually afraid of me?”

Caroline would have shredded her sheets if they were made if paper. Her hand fidgeted in the fabric as her foot tapped restlessly. “I… no. No, but I can’t seem to help it. I remember things now that I didn’t before you removed the curse. My dad beat me.” She broke down in sobs, heartbreaking sobs that shook her thing shoulders.

Hermione rose and put a comforting arm around the girl. “We’re not going to let him get anywhere near you, Caroline. I personally added your father to our list of those not allowed to enter Britain, but I also went the extra step to ensure that the Muggles were notified as well. He can’t come in, not legally, and we have a very good detection system in place, all right?”

Caroline finally accepted the cloth from Harry and wiped her eyes. “I feel so bad about this.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Harry said again. “Just because someone used you does not make you guilty. I know someone who was used as a little girl and it took her a long time to get over it, but Caroline, it made her so strong. You will be okay and you need to believe that we do not blame you and no one will find out your role in this, not unless you tell them personally.” Harry thought of Ginny, thought of her lying in the Chamber of Secrets and nearly dying. What had happened to Ginny, who she’d hurt, had been a horrible weight around her neck, but the woman he’d married was as tough as they came. They’d been refined by the trials of their lives.

“You won’t tell James?” Caroline asked in a tremulous voice.

Harry shook his head. “He won’t know a thing.”

~*~

Nat didn’t want to brood. Her dad had made it to see her off to the train, and she did have her friends around her, but she still had the feeding line in and Madam Pomfrey had retired.

She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around that one. Professor Longbottom and his pretty wife, Hannah, had come to dinner two nights previous to meet her and go over the feeding line with Healer Weasley.

Now, here she sat next to Rose while Scorpius and Al sorted their trunks, and she still had her backpack next to her with the bag.

“It’ll be okay,” Rose said confidently. “No one will care, Nat.”

“We’ll have Fred beat the stuffing out of anyone who says anything,” Al laughed as he flopped into the seat across from her.

The compartment door slid open just as the train began to move and they waved their final goodbyes to their family on the platform. Fred, now in his sixth year, stepped in. “What am I going to do?”

“Take care of anyone who pokes fun at Nat,” Rose informed him.

Fred nodded. “Too right I will. No one picks on our Natalie. Now, I have a bit to share because we need to take the mickey out of him for it.”

“What?” Rose wondered curiously.

“James has a girlfriend,” Fred raised a dark eyebrow. “It’s that Ravenclaw Chaser, Veronica something.”

Nat knit her eyebrows as she tried to place the name, but nothing came to mind. “I don’t recall her.”

“I think she only played in that one game when you were sick,” Al told her thoughtfully. “How did he get a girlfriend so fast?”

“Nerves like a troll’s,” Fred chortled as he slid the door open. “Brains, too. Well, anyway, just wanted to let everyone know so they’d be on the lookout to take the piss out of him.”

“Is your hair getting darker?” Nat wondered, staring at Scorpius’ head. “It’s starting to look a little darker to me, but maybe that’s the light.”

He shrugged his thin shoulders and shifted uncomfortably. Both Scorpius and Al had grown a few inches in the last year and they were entering what Nat thought of as the awkward stage of puberty. She didn’t say that, though. She knew they wouldn’t thank her for breaking it down for them.

“I think it might be,” Rose agreed. “It’s not white anymore, more sandy colored.”

Scorpius glanced away from them for a moment. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay,” Nat said after a moment’s silence. He’d looked so much like his father before that she could only imagine that it would be a relief to have his hair changing, but still…

The compartment door opened to reveal Caroline standing nervously before them. Nat blinked in surprise. The confident, upbeat girl they’d known before was gone, replaced by someone who looked as though life had taken a Beater’s bat to her head. She was still perfectly put together, as beautiful as she had been before, but there was something about her eyes and the tightness around her mouth that gave her away.

But oddly enough, the dancing blue lights she’d seen before around the other girl were gone.

“Can I talk to you?” Caroline hesitated, but came in quickly and shut the compartment door behind her. She dropped into the seat next to Rose and began to pick at her fingernails, which Nat saw were raw and bruised.

“What’s the matter?” Rose questioned as she rested her hand on top of Caroline’s, stilling her fingers.

“I don’t want everyone to know,” Caroline said quietly, “but I needed to apologize to you. I was… do you know about the Imperius Curse?”

“Sure,” they all answered at once. They’d all heard stories, especially from Al’s older cousins, about what it had been like during the war.

Caroline pushed at her perfectly pulled back hair, as if a stray hair had dared come loose. “I was under it last spring.”

A very loaded silence filled the compartment as a lot of things fell into place for Nat. The dancing blue lights… “Oh, Caroline… I’m so sorry.”

“It’s me that’s sorry,” she rushed on quickly. “It was me that put the finger bone in the corridor. I didn’t know until I came out of it, but… I’m so sorry!”

Rose put her arms around the older girl while the boys shifted, uncomfortable at the tears. Nat kicked Al’s shin and glared at him meaningfully when he winced.

“Er, it’s okay, Caroline,” Al said, gazing at her desperately as if trying to read Nat’s mind to figure out what he was supposed to say. “We know you didn’t mean to do it.”

“Yeah,” Scorpius jumped in nervously. “It’s fine. No harm done.”

It took them ten minutes to get Caroline calmed down enough that she could head back to her friends. They promised her that they wouldn’t tell anyone, including James.

“I should apologize to him, too,” she sniffed as she stood at the door, “but I just can’t. He’s…”

“A berk?” Rose suggested helpfully. “We won’t tell him, Caroline. He doesn’t need to know. It wouldn’t make a dent in his thick head, anyway.”

“He has a girlfriend,” Al blurted out, clearly looking to keep the conversation moving.

Caroline opened her mouth, then snapped it shut again. “Well… uh… that’s good, then. Maybe it will keep him out of my hair. I’ll see you later at the feast.”

They watched her go silently. It was almost a full minute before Rose said, “Wow.”

~*~

“It’s so strange not to be going to school right now,” Victoire commented as she and Teddy made their way, hand in hand, down the long stretch of beach from the house she’d grown up in.

Teddy knew what she meant, but was also extremely grateful that they weren’t going to be separated again this year. It had been bad enough the last two years. The air around them blew warm and smelled of the tang of salt and brine, and brought back in floods memories of playing with Victoire on this very beach throughout his whole childhood. There were times, like now, that it felt like their lives were moving so slowly, and yet they had made it this far and were still a long way from where he really wanted to be.

Soon enough, though.

He was nervous, which was ridiculous. He’d been ready to vomit when he’d spoken to Bill and asked him for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Bill had hugged him hard, not letting go and with a voice not quite steady, had told Teddy that he could ask, but that he’d better take care of his little girl.

Just the day before, Teddy had asked Harry to go shopping with him to buy an engagement ring. Harry, while happy with the purchase, had pointed that he was rubbish at buying jewelry and had suggested that they bring Ginny along.

So, they’d gone, dropping Lily off with George at his shop and made their way down to the jewelers. Lily had no idea what they were doing. Teddy felt a little bad that they’d lied to her and told her they were doing something at the bank that she wasn’t old enough to participate in, but none of them was entirely sure that Lily could keep it a secret.

Ginny had found the ring. It was a small solitary diamond on a simple band, but the cut made it sparkle. It was just a little out of his price range, but Teddy knew that it was one that Victoire would love, so it was worth it.

He might never move out of his grandmother’s house, but Andromeda was happy to have him with her, at least for now. He knew he’d be able to afford a flat by the next summer, which was all that mattered.

“Are you okay?” Victoire’s voice pulled him back from his musings as she came to a stop, her bare feet digging in to the sand close to the spot where Harry and Ginny had been married twenty years before.

Teddy couldn’t help but grin down into her lovely eyes. Her answering smile was more than enough. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” she replied simply, raising onto her tiptoes and resting her hands on his chest so she could kiss him.

Teddy wanted to forget about the rest of the world, lie down in the sand with her and never stop kissing, but that wasn’t their reality. The only effective method of birth control was a potion, which was illegal to make yourself, and only available to married couples through a midwife. There were rumors of a spell, but if one had ever been developed, it was not widely known, although the Americans were apparently working on it.

It was still a subject that made Hermione’s face turn an impressive shade of red. If she was really in a mood, she’d even swear over it.

Which meant that in their antiquated world, he still had a year to go before he was free to touch, kiss, and love the woman before him.

Speaking of which…

Teddy pulled back a bit and dropped to his knees before her, taking her hands in his as he kissed her knuckles. Victoire’s stunning blue orbs filled with unshed tears as she kept her gaze fixed on his. She knew what he was doing, but it mattered to her to go through the steps and Teddy found that he wanted to give them to her, to make her happy in this way.

“I have loved you for a long time now,” Teddy said through a voice choked with emotion. He fought hard to regain his composure, though. He needed to get through this. “I think I’ve loved you since the day you were born, and every day since. But over time it has grown into love of your character, and your wit. I love your intelligence, your humor and your unimaginably giving heart. I love you for the girl you were, the woman you are, the one you will become. I want to marry you, to love you as my wife and the mother of my children. I want to be your home, your family, and a man you can count on every day in the good times and the bad.” He pulled the ring from his pocket and held it up for her. “Will you marry me?”

Victoire fell to her knees and threw her arms around his neck, trusting him to keep them steady and upright, which was another thing he’d have promised if she’d needed it. He didn’t need to say it, though. She already knew.

“Yes,” she whispered against his mouth as her tears cooled on his cheeks. “Yes, yes, yes!”

They told her parents first. Fleur cried and talked about dresses. Bill clapped him on the shoulder, but didn’t have much else to say that hadn’t already been said.

They traveled to tell his grandmother next. Andromeda cried. She was older, beat down by such a hard life, but this news gave her a lift and Teddy was glad to give it to her. Because it wasn’t too late, they went to Molly and Arthur’s next, and when Victoire showed them her ring, it was a repeat of the experience with her parents.

They saved Harry and Ginny for last, although Teddy didn’t know why, but since they already knew what was coming, he knew it wasn’t going to be a surprise.

They used the Floo network to travel to Ivy Run and it was a jubilant Lily who tackled Teddy and demanded to be picked up, despite being ten and nearly too big for such things.

“Hey,” Ginny walked in, drying her hands on a rag. “We just finished dinner, but we have some left if you’re hungry.”

The look Victoire gave him, the one of undisguised love for him, was enough to reduce him to his knees.

Lily was his baby sister. She was the baby of their family and it still humbled him that Victoire was secure enough in herself and him, that Lily hopping into his arms and demanding his attention didn’t throw her off her stride. She saw the big picture, and knew that his love and care for these his adopted siblings meant he was that much closer to being ready to be a father.

With the way their lives and careers were going, it was probably going to be at least five years before they could have a child, but that was okay. He was looking forward to having her all to himself for several years.

Teddy planted a noisy, wet kiss on Lily’s cheek and dropped her down to her feet where she laughed and swiped spit off her face. “You’re gross!”

“Yes, yes I am,” Teddy agreed with a laugh. “Lily-Lu, what’s on Victoire’s finger?”

Lily’s eyes went wide as she took her cousin’s hand and saw the ring. “You’re getting married!” The shriek was enough to break glass, but everyone laughed, cheered and cried.

Harry hugged him hard. “Congratulations, son. Your parents would be so thrilled.”

Teddy fought down the sting that meant he was close to tears and hugged him back. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

~*~

The first few weeks of school were interesting, in that James was so wrapped up in his girlfriend that he completely forgot about everyone else around him. It was, in Al’s opinion, the best possible scenario.

There were Quidditch tryouts and Al, Rose and Scorpius tried, but were passed over for older kids. It wasn’t totally unexpected, so none of them were too upset. They still had a lot of years to make the team and right now the team was all sixth and seventh years, except for James, who was the youngest. He had made the team again as a Chaser. Fred was also back as a Beater.

Nat was still using a feeding line. His Aunt Audrey had come up to see her personally after a couple of weeks and had decided that it was staying in. Nat, who had thus far taken everything in stride, had cried. Rose had been helpful, though, giving her a hug.

It left Al feeling like a useless sack of slugs. He and Scorpius were matched sets, really. They couldn’t fix it, but they had kept anyone from saying anything to her about the thing. She didn’t need to eat at meals, but Nat still went down with them and picked at the food when she felt like it. The only positive side of it was that Nat hadn’t ended up in the hospital wing for her blood sugar once. She had no fainting spells, no shaking and no weird moments where she forgot where she was.

“I know it’s better for me,” Nat grumbled on that first day after she’d been told it was staying in, “but it’s such a bother.”

After that day, though, she was back to her old self. Nat made a point of them all hanging out with Caroline in the common room whenever the girl was by herself, which happened more frequently than it had the previous year.

The year before Caroline had instantly made friends with her bubbly, happy, and upbeat self. She was clearly popular and used to being so.

Now, though, while Caroline always looked, on the outside, like everything was perfect in her life, the moment one of the boys came near her, she’d become edgy and jumpy. This left a lot of the kids avoiding her or poking fun at her to the point that she’d lost a few of her friends.

She explained to them about being a cheerleader and why she left school so frequently. There were competitions in the spring and she’d be entering them with her team.

Nat and Rose had determined that they were going to go.

Defense was still Al’s favorite subject in school, more than any of the others, although he also really liked Herbology, too, but that could be because his godfather was his teacher.

But unlike the year before, when things were weird, scary and sometimes completely disgusting, it seemed as though they had all mellowed out.

Then in the first week in October, right before one of the Hogsmeade weekends that Al still wasn’t old enough to enjoy, James broke up with his girlfriend.

For days on end, he was a mopey, useless, twit that no one wanted to hang around.

Then he found another girlfriend, this one a Hufflepuff.

“At least they aren’t in our house,” Roxy had muttered darkly at dinner one night as the girl in question blew James fake kisses across the Great Hall, while everyone around him pretended to vomit.

“If I am ever that disgusting, please kill me,” Scorpius told his friends in a low undertone. “This seems like too much work.”

Nat quirked at eyebrow at that. “What’s work about it?”

“The trying not to be sick, work,” Scorpius sighed as he stabbed a sprout with his fork.

~*~

“James has another girlfriend,” Ginny sighed as she read over the letter from Nat, of all people. She’d never expected that her best source of information was going to be one of her son’s best friends, but she was thankful for it. She glanced over to where Harry was pulling off his robes. “Hang them, please. With Polly back at Hogwarts, the laundry is back on me.”

Harry hung his robes and padded barefoot over to the bed to crawl in and hug her around the middle, laying, to her sitting up. “Maybe we should hire her full time.”

“Hermione would disown us,” Ginny grinned down as she ran fingers through his thick hair. “Well, not completely. She’s mellowed over the years. But Polly wants to be where the kids are, and here we only have Lily. If we were having another baby, I’d be all over that.”

“Do you want to?” Harry glanced up at her curiously. “We could still, you know. We have a few years yet.”

“You are a lovely man to offer,” she shook her head. He meant it, too. Harry hadn’t taken anything to convince to have more babies. He’d loved the experience of having and raising their children. It was Ginny who’d wanted to stop at three. They’d had the money to have more without any additional strain to their finances, but she’d felt like three was a good number, especially because she still wanted a lot of time for Teddy. “I think we’re going to tough it out and wait for those grandbabies. I’ve already got Fleur sending me owls about planning the wedding. I had to remind her I didn’t want to plan my own and she could have full reign. Poor Victoire. Her mother does have her opinions.”

Harry chuckled softly as he shifted to rest his head in her lap. “So what else does Al say?”

“No, this one is from Nat,” Ginny explained as she glanced back at the note. “I’ve only had one letter from Al, and none from James, so we’re right on target there. Nat’s written a couple of times. Apparently that girl, Caroline, is struggling because of what she’s been through. That Imperius Curse, while horrible, did at least help her to forget all the troubles she’d had in her young life. This is just so sad, Harry.”

Harry ran his thumb along her cheek, trying to sooth her. “I know, luv, but she’s getting therapy for it at the school. It’s the best they can do right now.”

“I wish you had answers.”

“Believe me,” he grumbled, “so do I. Not having made any headway on this investigation is driving me mad. I’ve checked, though, and Donald Baker hasn’t been in the country. I can’t get a straight answer out of the Americans what he’s been up to there, either. They have just as many problems with corruption as we do and he has deep pockets.”

“If they’re connected…” Ginny began as she stared across the room at the moving photograph of her and Harry on their wedding day. “If they’re connected,” she said again with a sigh, “I just don’t see how. What would this American have to do with Isabella Crabbe? It has to be a coincidence that she used his child. Also, if he was abusive, wouldn’t he want to dump the children? He clearly didn’t want them.”

“It’s not that simple,” Harry told her sadly. “The abuse is about control and right now he has no control over those children. He may have beaten them and done God only knows what to them, but he had them in his control. Now that they’re away from him, he’s probably going to try to find a way to get them back. No, I’m betting that he’s biding his time. It’s the same with abused wives. The men keep trying to get them back, sometimes killing them just so no one else can have them. They’re possessions, not people.”

“That’s so sick,” Ginny gasped in revulsion. “How can people do that to another human being?”

“I have no idea,” he murmured as he hugged. “Okay, let’s get off that topic. What else does Nat say about our wayward children?”

“Al tried out for the Quidditch team but didn’t make it,” Ginny skimmed down. “She says he’s okay with it since a good portion of the team graduates this year, so next year the field will be wide open. Also,” she kept reading until she found something interesting. “Oh, that’s nice! Molly has won an award in potions. I’ll have to send her a letter.”

Harry laughed softly. “At least someone in the family is good at potions.”

“Yep,” she stopped as she reread a paragraph. “Oh… wow.” Ginny couldn’t help the burst of laughter. “Fred, apparently, spiked the entire Slytherin table so that everyone grew violently purple hair. George is going to be so proud. He wasn’t caught, either. That’s something.”

Harry kissed her stomach lightly. “Anything else?”

“Nat says she’s still using the feeding line, but that Al has been a great help to her,” Ginny paused as she considered the girl’s words. “He is gone over. I’m convinced of it, now.”

“You keep saying that, Gin,” Harry sighed heavily. “But we have no idea what our children are going to do next week, let alone a decade from now. A lot can happen between now and then.”

“A lot will happen,” she agreed as an ominous feeling settled into the pit of her stomach. Ginny tried to shake it off, but it didn’t want to go now that it was firmly lodged there. “I just want them to live easier lives than we had.”

“It’s been mostly good the last fifteen years or so,” he reminded her. “How about we stop talking about our children’s love lives for a bit,” Harry said in a husky, inviting tone as he pushed her t-shirt up a bit to get to her bare skin.

She forced a smile and reminded herself that borrowing trouble never did her any good. “How about we do just that.”

Back to index


Chapter 17: Chapter 14

Author's Notes: First off, thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!!

Are you ready to shoot me yet? I know the wait was long between chapters and I'm so sorry about that! It's been bugging me, too, I promise! BUT I finished writing my fourth novel and rather than continue to split my brain between the two stories, I pushed through on that one so it could go to editing.

REVIEW! Tell me what you think! Keep me motivated to write the next chapter. I'm not kidding, the more you're engaged, the more motivated I am to keep going. Ask questions if you have them.

Also, thank you for the Silver Trinket award! I really didn't expect to win one, so that was super sweet and awesome :)

Thank you again for all of your support and stay tuned, because my third novel is releasing shortly :D If you haven't checked out the first two, go see my profile for links!
~Sarah


It was a change of tone, Harry thought with a shiver of dread that left him cold. He reread the note again, the one that Isabella Crabbe must have sent him, as she’d done every year.

This year it had been late, not arriving until early November. He’d been ready to write it off, but no, it was here and it didn’t say, ‘I know your secret’ as it had every other year.

He stared at the scrawled words and tried to fight down the urge to rush to Hogwarts.

‘If I can sneak a rotting body in, what else can I do?’

A knock sounded at the door and Daniel popped his head in. “Sir, there’s a dragon in London.”

“A…” for a moment, Harry’s mind went blank. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah,” his assistant grimaced. “The Magical Creature Department has it mostly under control, but I was told to let you know just in case they need to call in back up. There’s a Head of Department meeting up in the Minister’s office shortly, also. I was told to remind you.”

He’d forgotten. Harry shoved the note back into the file and came to his feet. “Okay, I’m coming. How did a dragon get to London?”

“It was being transported to America,” Daniel sighed heavily as he handed over a report. “It broke free and hurt at least one of the handlers. Still, though, it’s only a Welsh Green, so at least it isn’t one of the more vicious ones.”

Harry shook his head sadly and made for the lift. It was not a complication he needed that day, although admittedly, these sorts of things were relatively rare and would require much of the senior ministry to deal with it.

Kingsley was retiring in a matter of days and the votes for the new Minister were currently being tallied. Thus far it was appearing as if Allison Macmillan, the woman Kingsley wanted as Minister, would be stepping in. The other candidates were a farce, as far as Harry was concerned. Arthur had declined to run, which Harry thought was a relief. It wouldn’t make his father-in-law happy, although Harry felt like he could be a good leader.

But Arthur, too, was close to retiring.

Time moved, seasons changed, and people left. It was odd, in a lot of ways, for Harry to know he was older now than Remus had been. Remus, who hadn’t lived to see his son crawl, but as a child Harry had looked up to both Remus and Sirius, searching them out for comfort and reassurance. He saw now, as pushed the button for the lift, that Remus and Sirius were often grasping at straws, trying to figure out what to say to this child that was cursed from day one, even though they didn’t know the exact nature of it. Nothing, absolutely nothing, about Harry’s childhood had gone along any sort of normal path and Harry knew now that that sort of impotence to affect any change in Harry’s life had to drive Sirius and Remus mad.

Harry understood, now, just why Molly had attempted to keep them safe. He wanted nothing more than that wrap his children up and never let go, but he remembered too Dumbledore’s words that it was folly for the old to forget what it was to be young.

So the note, the note that was designed to impose fear upon him had worked. Isabella Crabbe was telling him that she was able to put a dead body at Hogwarts. She had access to two of his children, plus most of the children in his family. If he reacted as Molly would have, he’d pull his children. So, it was with great reluctance, he remembered that the teachers and staff were not the only ones that could and would protect the castle.

Cedric’s face flashed into his mind just as the doors slid open, so it took him a second to realize that Hermione was standing at the lift doors, staring at him in stunned horror. It took him a moment to realize he hadn’t pushed the button to go to the next floor and had been standing in a completely still lift for at least a minute. He hadn’t even realized Hermione had been on his floor.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked as she joined him in the lift. In her hand was a piece of parchment that was shaking gently. “Hermione? Were you looking for me?”

“Helminth Smith has been named Minister of Magic,” Hermione hissed through clenched teeth.

Harry shook his head, sure he’d heard her incorrectly. “No, it was going to be–”

“It’s not her!” Hermione interrupted furiously, her eyes a little bright as a single curl sprang from a pin. She pushed it roughly behind her ear, but only managed to knock another few loose. “This is a disaster, Harry!”

He couldn’t wrap his brain around it. Smith was an idiot. Smith was worse than Fudge who had, at least, managed to do some good. He wasn’t stupid, but Smith was. He was the worst form of narcissist that Harry had ever had the misfortune to work for. They were doomed. Not only that, but he hated Harry. “Fancy quitting?”

Hermione’s dry stare said plenty. “I don’t run from a challenge and neither do you.”

“We don’t need the money, though,” he pointed out as a pit formed in his stomach. The doors swung open to an extremely somber group. Harry had to stop himself from turning tail and going back down to his office as everyone stared at him.

The only person who looked happy was Helminth himself, and… Harry blinked as he spotted his former classmate Zachariah Smith. He had not aged well. The boy had grown from a blond-haired, brown-eyed, fit teenager into a pudgy, bald man in glasses. His grin was still every bit as smarmy and smug as Harry had remembered.

“Ah,” Helminth paced around the room, his hands behind his back. Harry had to fight not to react to the man. His very existence set Harry’s teeth on edge. Ron had, at one Ministry party, called Helminth a horse’s ass, but Harry had told him that was unfair to the horse. Helminth normally sat on his bottom, watching everyone else work and fret, but today the thin man was enjoying taking up space in the room, making everyone watch him.

Kingsley, who had been in the background, gave Harry a small grimace.

“You may be excused,” Helminth said to the former Minister. “I’m sure you have work to do down in your old department.”

They could have heard a pin drop. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Kingsley shot him a quelling glare. “Yes, of course, Minister. Congratulations again. I shall see everyone later.”

The moment Kingsley was gone, Helminth turned to Hermione. “This is a Department Head meeting, Mrs. Weasley. You are not needed. I’ve already appointed my replacement.”

Hermione took a short breath. “Of course, sir,” she smiled at him and Harry knew she was thinking about pinching his nose. “I have a report for you about the dragon.” She handed over the paper and left. He dropped it on the table, not even bothering to look at it.

“Now,” Helminth indicated a chair for Harry to sit in at the long table. He almost didn’t. It went against everything in him to sit on command for this berk, but he moved over to seat himself. “The Ministry has been run by one man for a number of years now. In the wake of the war, my predecessor was a stabilizing influence, but it is time to build again, to make the Ministry strong once more.”

That was when Harry tuned him out.

The speech went on for almost an hour.

Harry didn’t know how long it lasted, because ten minutes in his assistant sent him a memo that he was needed downstairs and left, but Arthur informed him later that Zacharias was now Hermione’s boss. Zacharias had no experience, at all, in the MLE and had, as far as Harry knew, been a clerk down in Magical Transportation. He also learned later that Helminth would be requiring regular reports and was demanding audits on all activity.

Harry wasn’t worried about any of that, though, as he sat in a conference room. His entire focus was on the woman who had been kidnapped from a street in the village near her home.

Veronica Sinestra. Harry hadn’t ever met her, but she’d been close to Teddy’s age and he did know her.

Harry stared at her parents, Leanne and Miles Sinestra, a couple in their late forties with only the one child. Veronica had recently celebrated her twenty-first birthday. Leanne was Deputy Head of the Department Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Her short, dark hair was a little disheveled as her dark, frantic eyes pleaded with him. The redness bore testimony to the amount of crying she’d done. Miles worked for Gringotts, and was as fair as his wife was dark. He seemed to be aging with every moment that Harry spent with them. “She was going to the market this morning? Does she have a job?”

“No,” Leanne said as she nearly tore a handkerchief to shreds in her wrestles hands. “She… she had worked at Gringotts for a few years, but she was quitting to get married and h-have a family.”

Harry felt the ache in his gut as he pictured the girl. “Have you spoken to her fianc?”

“Yes,” Miles leaned forward in his seat as the wood creaked beneath him and held out a pleading hand. “His name is Stephen Davies and he’s a good man. He’s a Quidditch player, and he’s in Russia at the moment, but he’s trying to get a Portkey back right now.”

Harry felt something in his gut unknot. It was often a family member, specifically a boyfriend or husband, in a missing person’s case. It didn’t happen often, but with an alibi as tight as being in Russia, he knew he didn’t have to grill the fianc the moment he was home. “When she didn’t come home, you went to look?”

“I did,” Miles told him. “I thought it was weird when she was an hour late, but I needed to get to work and didn’t want to leave until I knew she was okay. I just had this feeling, you know? Something didn’t feel right. I found the groceries on the side of the road. I knew something was wrong, then. I didn’t like that Leanne wanted to go to the market, but I thought it was Muggles that might try to harm her and she could look after herself well enough against them, but this…”

Harry knew exactly what he meant. Although it was not impossible for her to have been ambushed by Muggles, it was so rare that a Muggle could overcome a wizard, that it was not the standard answer in any assault. “Was there anything with the groceries?”

“Just the note that they told you about,” Miles indicated the parchment in front of them.

His gaze shifted to the note, even though he’d already read it at least twenty times. The handwriting alone was enough to tell him exactly whose quill had been put to the parchment.

‘So much easier than sneaking into Hogwarts’

It sent a shiver up his spine. “We’ve already got Aurors coming the area, looking for any clues,” Harry told them. “I know you’ve been told almost nothing, but that’s because it’s part of an ongoing investigation. I will not jeopardize your daughter’s safety, but I need to protect the information we have which is why I am not filling you in completely on the backstory of who we are looking for.”

He took in a deep breath and wondered in this would be just like the girl, Cori, who had been taken and raped. Harry sincerely hoped it wasn’t the same case, but his gut was telling him that they would find her in close to the same situation. The question was why, though, and what was the purpose? If Isabella Crabbe had to keep her cronies cooperative by supplying them with rape victims, what did that say about them? What truly didn’t make sense was that, even though she was a skilled potion maker and would have access to the birth control potion, she hadn’t seen fit to give it to Cori, leaving Cori to get pregnant.

That was traceable by the Ministry. They’d have known who the father was within a few weeks and he’d have been prosecuted after being forced to marry her.

Nothing, nothing, was making any sense to him. Whatever her aims, or goals, Harry was as lost as the poor parents in front of him. “I need to see Mr. Davies the moment he’s back in England.”

“He’s coming straight here,” Miles promised him as a single tear slid down his cheek. The stoic man didn’t even try to cover his grief and fear.

A knock sounded at the door and Arthur poked his head around. “I need a word.”

“Yeah,” Harry waved his father-in-law out. “Can you two excuse me? I promise that if we hear anything, someone will be in immediately. I’ll be back shortly.”

The wife leaned into her husband and wept.

He led Arthur into his office and shut the door, facing the old man. “What’s up?”

“It’s not good, Harry,” Arthur sighed heavily and sank into one of the chairs. “No one I talked to was going to vote for Smith. Not a single person! I’m not sure how he managed to become Minister, but I don’t trust the results.”

Harry perched on the edge of his desk. Office politics were not his thing, and he had a case to solve. “My plan is to ignore him.”

“He’s not going to let you ignore him,” Arthur fired back, his cheeks flushing in temper. “He’s going to make all our lives more difficult.”

“He can try,” Harry shrugged, completely unconcerned. “He is my boss, but he doesn’t have grounds to fire me and frankly I’ll quit before I bend to him.”

“He made Zacharias Smith the new head of the MLE,” Arthur pointed out quietly.

Harry swore softly, turning away. “He won’t last long.”

“He might,” Arthur reasoned. “I think we need to talk about this, as a family.”

“I can’t right now,” Harry pushed off from his desk. “I have a missing woman and a lot of work to do. Smith can try to interfere in my department, but he’ll be sorry if he tries.”

Harry pulled the door open and strode from the room, pushing the new Minister from his mind. He had important things and actual work to focus on, while all around him the Ministry began to stumble into a new level of normal, marked by unease, fruitlessness, and general grumblings about the new way that things were being handled. Or mishandled, depending on who one spoke to.

A week later they still hadn’t located Veronica and it was starting to look like the might not. It was only through chance that they’d saved Cori during a raid. Harry had spoken to Cori again, and found her happy, recovering and expecting a baby in early spring. She didn’t have any other insights to add that might help. Harry hadn’t wanted to press her at all, but Veronica’s life was in danger. He’d let it go, though, after wishing the young woman and her husband well.

Veronica’s fianc, Stephan, was a mess. He’d answered Harry’s questions, cooperated when needed, but was easily angered at the lack of progress and tended to lash out when he was frustrated. He wasn’t happy with the investigation, which Harry fully understood. He wasn’t happy about it, either.

“The Minister wants to speak to you,” Daniel told him after Harry made it back into the office one morning a few days later. He’d only gone home to change, eat, shower and sleep for two hours before heading back in to keep going on the search. “He’s insisting.”

Harry ignored the memo that Daniel was holding out for him. “I’m busy. Let him know that he can wait or come see me later this afternoon.”

“I’m the one catching hell for this,” Daniel told him bluntly. “He’s threatened to fire me. There’s a Muggle saying, you know. ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’.”

Swearing under his breath, Harry grabbed the memo. He knew that phrase and knew he wasn’t being fair to his assistant. “Okay, I’m going. I’ll be back in ten.”

Harry made it to the lift without being stopped once. The one person who’d looked like they wanted to say something, turned tail at the scowl on his face. He went up one floor and marched over to the Minister’s office. “He wants to see me?”

“Take a seat,” the secretary said with a small tremor.

He studied the woman, one who’d worked for Smith for years, and cocked his head to the side. She was pinched around the mouth and eyes, but there was something else there, something he couldn’t name. “I’m not waiting,” Harry replied firmly. “He’ll see me now or I’m going back to work.”

“I…” she faltered and Harry fought to remember her name. Beverly… Betty… Bonnie… he shook it off. He wasn’t likely to remember. “Just one moment,” she told him as she rose to knock at the door. She was barked at and she flinched visibly.

Alarmed, Harry moved towards, but she held up a hand. “He’s busy. You need to wait.”

“He can come find me when he’s done being busy,” Harry shrugged it off and made for the office door.

“Potter!” the voice bellowed through the room and he turned to see Helminth standing in his door, glaring at him angrily. “I need a word.”

Harry almost retorted with, ‘then be available’, but thought better of it and made his way to the office. He sat and nearly smiled when he realized when Smith glared at him for being so impertinent. He kept his mouth shut, though, and waited.

“I do not like how you are handling the current crisis,” Helminth began smoothly. “I believe that your lack of progress on the case is a concern.”

Harry felt his heart trip over a bit, but he continued to maintain his silence.

“I have concerns that you are too close to the situation and would do better with someone else overseeing it. I have a couple of people that I will be sending to your office to–”

“No,” Harry replied coolly, cutting him off.

Smith’s ears turned ever so slightly pink. “You do not get to say no.”

“I do, actually,” Harry smiled evenly. “I have complete autonomy so that if there is corruption in the upper levels of the Ministry, the Aurors remain free to operate to bring back order.”

“I have rescinded that law,” Helminth told him smugly. “You will now be subject to oversight.”

There were a lot of things that Harry loved about his job. He loved the excitement. He loved the mystery. He really loved helping people and bringing justice to those who didn’t follow the law. He’d never loved, and never tolerated, the political games. “I’m tendering my resignation,” Harry stood, feeling the pit of guilt, knowing he was leaving the department in a bind. “Effective immediately. I’ll go pack my things.”

Without waiting for a response, he strode for the door.

“Wait!” the voice called out to him, but he didn’t stop.

Harry told his staff, quickly, what had happened. The only blessing was that Kingsley, as a newly reassigned Auror, had seniority and the role of Head Auror automatically fell to him. There was no getting around that. It was a centuries old practice.

Daniel told him he’d pack up his stuff and have it shipped over to his home, which allowed Harry to make a break for it.

He wanted out. He wanted air. He wanted…

Harry found himself striding down Diagon Alley towards Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and his best mate.

One look at Harry’s face, the moment he entered the shop, and Ron called out to George, “Hey, I’m taking an early lunch.”

George swore at him, but he too could see the thunderclouds on Harry’s features. “Yeah, sure.”

They had a favorite Muggle pub that they frequented. It was a quaint, out of the way, hole in the wall that no one else seemed to know about. Without having to say anything, Harry and Ron Apparated to a grove not far from the small village and walked the ten minutes down to the pub in silence.

Ron bought them each a pint and sat with Harry. “You ready to tell me?”

“I quit,” Harry said after a long drink of the amber liquid.

“You’re kidding me,” Ron whistled in awe. “I thought you’d die in that office, hopefully eighty years from now.”

“Smith tried to pull rank,” Harry shrugged off just how badly that had bothered him. “He demanded I come to his office and then wanted to make me wait. I had things to do, and I wasn’t going to listen any of his rubbish. He wanted control of the Aurors, so I quit.”

“I wish Hermione would quit,” Ron clicked their glasses in salute. “She’s a nutter over this whole thing. I swear she’s sleeping there half the time, trying to fix ruddy Zacharias Smith’s mistakes. We don’t need the money, but she likes the work… or she did.”

Harry felt his temper rise dangerously. He wanted to throw something. “Hermione should have been made the Head. It was her right and she’s the most qualified.”

“I know,” Ron snorted into his drink. “She is playing nice, trying to get along with that worm, but I don’t think Hugo has seen her in almost a week.”

“Please tell me you didn’t point that out,” Harry said to his best mate.

Ron shook his head, red hair that was just a tad too long covered his eyes before he could push it out of the way. “I’ve learned a few things over the last several decades. The most important lesson has been when to keep my trap shut around my wife. She doesn’t need the guilt, but if it goes on much longer I am going to have to say something. I had my son asking me this morning when Mum was coming home. Ginny says he’s been extra grumpy, too, during the day.”

“Shit,” Harry breathed it out and downed the rest of his beer. “Your dad wants to have a family meeting.”

“It’s probably time,” Ron agreed. “Should we let Mum coordinate it?”

“Ginny will,” Harry sat back in his seat and contemplated another round of drinks. “You know she doesn’t like sticking those big meals on your mum, not with her lumbago acting up.”

Ron nodded and signaled for another drink. “You tell me when, and I’ll stun Hermione and drag her from the Ministry.”

~*~

“I can’t believe Dad quit,” Al said for what felt like the hundredth time. From the annoyed sigh from his cousin, it was probably closer to the thousandth time. “Well,” he glared at Rose, “I’m sorry, but I just thought he’d stick with it. He loves his job. Loved,” he corrected.

“We’re hearing a lot of funny rumors, though,” Rose reminded him as they made their way up to the hospital wing to visit Nat.

Scorpius shook his blond head in disgust. “I asked my dad about it, which was a mistake. I should have left that one alone. He sent me a snarky reply about keeping my head in the books since Rose is beating me in Transfiguration.”

Rose snorted, giving her silent opinion of that.

Al was top in Defense, Rose was top in Transfiguration, and Scorpius was stomping on them in Charms. Far and away, Scorpius was best in the class. The only other class with such a large achievement gap was History of Magic, the prize for which went to Nat and that was because she was the only one who gave a pixie’s fart about paying attention to Professor Bins. Still, Al was forced to admit, Nat was really good at the class and tended to make it interesting. She’d started giving fun lectures on various topics, which were starting to draw a regular crowd every Friday night in the common room. History, in her hands, came alive and was very funny.

“Do you think she’ll get that feeding line out today?” Rose asked as they neared the hospital wing’s door.

“I doubt it,” Al sighed heavily. “Not with her nearly collapsing this morning.”

Nat’s bag had run out in the middle of the night, hours before it should have, and when she’d stood to go to the loo, Nat had crumpled to the floor. Thankfully, Rose had been there to see and had called for help.

Natalie had missed most of their morning classes.

“I don’t know how she does it,” Scorpius told them. “If it were me, I would be so mad about having to haul that thing around with me.”

Al was forced to agree with him. He pushed open the door and saw her on the bed, tiny and a little pale. Nat smiled at him and it sent a small thrill through his belly that he quickly squashed flat. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

Hannah came out and Al forced himself to remember that she was Madam Longbottom, and not Hannah at school. “Oh, good,” she smiled her cheerful smile that seemed to light up her round, pretty face. She tucked her short swing of blonde hair behind her ear and ushered them forward with the crook of a finger. “Nat, here, has been really bored today. You three can visit for a while before dinner. Call if you need me.” She left them to pull chairs over to Nat’s bed.

Unlike Madam Pomfrey, Hannah didn’t hover and fuss. Al missed the old matron, but had to admit that the new one was a very nice change, plus he knew his godfather was a lot happier having his wife here with him all the time.

“How are you feeling?” Rose asked Nat as she took her hand. “You look a little sick, still.”

“Yeah,” Nat leaned her head back against the fluffy pillows and sighed. “It’s been a rough day. I keep getting sick. Madam Longbottom figured out what happened, though. Apparently the bag had a hole in it and it leaked out. She’d never heard of it happening, but it could have been accidentally cut or something.”

Rose’s expression changed swiftly to understanding. “Your pillow was wet! I noticed that but didn’t think anything of it.”

“Yep,” Nat spit the word out with a heavy emphasis on the ‘p’. “So, now I’m stuck here through today. What did I miss in classes?”

“Not much,” Scorpius assured her. “We have your stuff, though, if you feel like making any of it up tonight.”

Nat shook her head and closed her eyes. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to. Maybe this weekend.”

The professors, all of whom were aware of Nat’s condition, would give her the extra time to work through it. She would, in due course, get to all of her assignments, but it had been explained to them by Healer Weasley that Nat was fragile and would need special considerations when it came to her school work if she was ill. It didn’t hurt that Nat was always polite, helpful, and never milked the situation unless she needed to.

If it had been James, Al doubted that the teachers would have cut him any slack.

“I hate being in here,” Nat said quietly. “She says the line isn’t coming out before January, which means I can’t go home.”

“You can come to my house,” Al reminded her. “We’ve already arranged it with my parents and your parents can come stay, too.”

“I know,” Nat licked her lips and sniffed a little. “I’m sorry, I’m just… tired. Have you heard anything else about your dad?”

“Nope,” Al told her. “All I know is that he’s driving Mum nuts. Lily says he needs to find a job because he keeps trying to fix things around the house that Mum doesn’t want him to fix.”

Rose’s lips twitched into a reluctant smile. “I bet Uncle Harry will be back in the Head Auror position soon. Most of the wizarding community is calling for him to come back, what with that woman still missing. Did you see the paper? Her poor fianc looks like he’s lost a stone.”

“I dunno,” Scorpius replied skeptically. “The new Minister is starting to make it sound like all the bad things were Harry’s fault and that stupid Rita Skeeter is not helping.”

“I just don’t understand how he was elected in the first place,” Al said thoughtfully. “I mean, no one wanted him and everyone thinks he’s a joke. How did he get the job? He wasn’t even popular.”

“You can’t rig the voting, right?” Nat asked them.

Scorpius nodded. “It’s a lot like anti-cheating spells we use for exams, here. You can’t get around them, so everyone knows they can trust the vote.”

“Can we start a petition for a recount?” Nat wondered, but not with any enthusiasm.

“It doesn’t really work like that,” Rose said sadly. “Once the vote goes through, it’s there until enough people get mad and want to chuck the Minister out.”

“If he gets much worse,” Scorpius grumbled as he glanced around to make sure the matron wasn’t listening, “we should fake a scandal to get him out.”

“Or find an actual scandal,” Rose giggled. “He probably has at least one.”

“How would we manage that?” Nat asked them. “We’re just kids and we’re stuck here in school.”

“Uncle George,” Al and Rose said at the same time, as if the answer should be obvious. Al smirked at her consternation.

“Don’t worry, Nat,” Al assured her consolingly. “If it gets that bad, we won’t even have to ask. He’ll already have a plan.”

~*~

Teddy hurried through the hospital’s corridors, trying not to panic. He didn’t even know exactly where he was going, but he couldn’t manage to stop himself long enough to ask.

All he knew was his grandmother was here and he needed to get to her.

“Teddy!” a voice caught his attention and he spun to see Audrey Weasley coming down the hallway. Her face was maddeningly neutral.

“Is she okay?” he demanded, skidding to a halt near the woman. He could remember, vividly, when she’d been so tall and he’d looked up to her. Now, though, he stood a good half a head above her.

Audrey took his arm and guided him down another corridor and opened a door, ushering him in. Victoire sprang to her feet and rushed to him, her face very pale and soaked in tears. She threw her arms around him and cried as he held on.

Teddy stared at the woman in the bed, her face sunken and colorless.

“She’s very ill,” Audrey explained gently. “I don’t know that it’s going to be long.”

He couldn’t take it in. He’d seen her just that morning. Teddy held fast to Victoire, needing the stability and warmth that she offered, knowing he’d fall apart if she wasn’t there. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I…” Audrey hesitated. “I don’t know,” she admitted reluctantly. “It’s like she’s been poisoned, but I can’t detect anything. I honestly can’t find anything wrong with her, except that she’s gravely ill.”

“How long?” Teddy asked her as he and Victoire moved as a unit to the bed so he could hold his grandmother’s hand. This woman, this strong, amazing woman, who had raised him his entire life, lay dying. She’d survived the loss of her family, her husband, her daughter and son-in-law and now… he had no idea how to go on without her, no clue what to do or say. He felt rudderless and adrift and it scared him straight to his toes.

Victoire gripped his arm and kissed his shoulder. He felt her tears, her grief as poignant as his own, soaking into his shirt and his center shifted straight again.

The door behind them opened and Harry and Ginny poured in with Lily and Hugo right behind them.

His parents, the ones he’d looked to, rushed in to hold him tight while Victoire hugged a sobbing Lily.

This, his family, his anchor in a bad storm, held him through the hours until Andromeda Tonks breathed her last breath and moved on to the next great adventure.

The next several days were a blur of funeral preparation and dealing with the estate. Harry helped him sort through most of the paperwork, along with Bill. It hit Teddy as it never had before that he had no blood relatives left on this planet, none who would willingly stand with him. But the men who worked tirelessly with him, his father in all but blood and his soon-to-be father-in-law helped put straight everything that needed to be taken care of.

It turned out that Andromeda’s house was mortgaged to the hilt, something she’d never mentioned to anyone. They discovered, much to Harry’s great ire, that she’d done so to continue to take care of Teddy and not have to work when he was younger.

“She could have asked me for money!” Harry fumed as he continued to sift through the documents. “Teddy, I had no idea… I’d have paid everything off if she’d said something.”

Ted Tonks, Teddy’s grandfather, had been the primary source of income. Upon his death, all Andromeda had had was the house.

“Harry,” Bill interjected quietly as Teddy stared numbly at the mounding paperwork. “You didn’t know and she didn’t want to ask. I’m sure if it had been dire, she’d have said something. As it is, we sell the house and call it even.” The look Bill shot him said a lot more than that, but Teddy had no ability to try to interpret.

His heart was too tired to care. The only comfort was in those around and him and his fianc, who spent as much time as she could with him, holding him and letting him grieve. Ginny had insisted he move in with them for the time being and he’d done so, more to make her happy, but now he knew it had been the right decision. It was difficult to fall into a dark hole when so many people were holding him up. He spent an hour with Lily on the couch the night before, while she sat reading. He played with his sister’s soft hair and enjoyed her small giggles at the silly adventures of Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle. After she’d gone to bed, and Victoire was finally off her shift at the hospital, they’d walked into the village together, hand in hand, just to get out into the cooling air of an oncoming winter.

A loud clack pulled Teddy back to his grandmother’s study. Harry nodded curtly and shoved papers into a bag he’d brought along.

“It’s important to know how to deal with this,” Bill told him quietly, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “I know you’re in a fog right now, but you need to know. I had to deal with all of that stuff after my brother was killed because my parents just weren’t capable and neither was George. As the oldest, this sort of thing is going to fall to you.”

Teddy gave a curt nod and refocused on the task before him as Bill ran him through estate laws and all that needed to be dealt with.

It soon became apparent that even with the sale of the house, Teddy was going to be saddled with an extremely large debt. Cold fear clenched at his gut as he tried to work through how he could pay that off and still get married.

There really was no way to make it happen.

“Stop it,” Harry told him firmly, snapping him out of it. “I’m dealing with the money. There’s no need for you to. We wouldn’t be doing this now if she’d said a single word to me about needing money.”

“No,” Teddy shook his head, ready to argue as his pride prickled.

Harry took him by the shoulders and shook his head. His green eyes bore straight into him. “You are my child, my responsibility. You have been nearly every day of your life. If you think, for one moment, that I’m going to let you derail not only your life but also Victoire’s, you have another thing coming. Your grandmother was in debt because of your care as a child. Your care as a child was my responsibility. End of discussion. If I didn’t miss her so much, I’d be bloody furious with her for keeping this from me!”

He wanted to fight, wanted to tell Harry he’d make it work somehow, but with the salary he currently made, there was no way that he could pay it off. Once they added in Victoire’s debts from becoming a Healer, they’d be sunk. Mostly, maybe selfishly, Teddy didn’t want to have to tell Victoire that he couldn’t marry her. He desperately wanted her in his life, in his arms right then and there. He didn’t want to put it off even longer. It wasn’t fair to her. “Okay, thanks.”

Harry hugged him hard. “I love you. I know you feel like an orphan, but–”

“I don’t,” Teddy replied immediately, a little surprised. “I still have my parents here, but she is, was,” he corrected with a lump in his throat. “She was a lifeline for me and I don’t know how to work without her there every morning, but I still have you and Ginny. I maybe miss my parents at times, but I always had you. I always had my grandmother. I wasn’t alone or… I’ve always had a big family and I still do.”

“Good, I’m glad you know that,” Harry replied with a long sigh. “We’re going to be here with you, every step of the way, and until you’re ready, you’re living with us. After that, we’ll find you a flat.”

He didn’t have a clue how he’d be able to afford it, but he’d have to look. Teddy thought it might be possible to find one in Muggle London.

A knock sounded at the door and Ginny poked her head in. “The kids and I are done packing up the photo albums.”

Harry stood and crossed to her, kissing her tenderly as he swayed with her in his arms.

No, Teddy was not an orphan. He wasn’t alone in this insane world, and he wasn’t going to be grieving by himself. He had so many people who loved and cared about him.

Hugo wandered in, skirting around his aunt and uncle. He plopped into the seat next to Teddy and said, in a small voice. “I’m really sorry, Teddy.”

“Thanks, Hugo,” Teddy replied in a hoarse whisper as he clapped the lad on the back. Hugo surprised him by throwing his arms around him. Teddy held on to the boy and fought back another wave of tears.

Back to index


Chapter 18: Chapter 15

Author's Notes:
MY THIRD BOOK IS ON SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go to my author's page and find the links, please! Please! Help support the work I do that pays the bills, while also enjoying the work I do here for free!!

Thank you Arnel!

Also, this chapter is coming out only a week after the last one as an "I'm sorry" for the long wait between 13 and 14 and because it was super easy to write. I was asked for a lighter, fluffier chapter in a review. I hope this fits the bill.

Tell me what you're feeling in the reviews! I do listen. I'm taking what you say seriously. I have a lot of stuff to get through in this book and it's going to take a long time to get there. If it gets too heavy or depressing, say something. Me adding in a chapter to what will be a story that's upwards of half a million words long (or more) isn't that big of a deal. We're going to be working on this one for a long time yet. Like years. I want to say soap opera like, in that the story just keeps going, but that brings up all kinds of weird images in my head, so let's say this is like a long running TV show. If we need to take a little time off from the main story to have some fun, that's absolutely allowed.

REVIEW! (and please go check out my books!) Please!
Thanks everyone!
~Sarah


Teddy gazed around the tiny, dingy flat and had to admit it was no palace. Victoire’s small hand slipped into his and squeezed. “It’s perfect.”

He couldn’t help but laugh as he gazed down at her. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing because I think you might need glasses.”

She led him over to the third-hand couch and had him sit next to her. She rested her blonde head against his shoulder and sighed in contentment when he put an arm around her shoulder. “That table over there was the first one my parents had in their home. That table saw so many happy memories and it has the scars to show a long life of trials that only give it character, and right there,” she pointed to a box they’d yet to unpack. “Those are your grandmother’s dishes, Teddy. Those are the dishes that your mum ate off of as a child and that means she is here, and Grandma Andromeda is here with us. Your bed,” Victoire went on as a smile began to tug at his lips, “Is brand new and it’ll be just for us. It was really nice of Aunt Ginny to buy that for you as a house-warming gift.”

Thinking about her and that bed was not helping him anyway. “Uh…” he cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

“I have been thinking about it,” Victoire went on, not seeming to notice that his temperature was going up. “This isn’t the place we’ll have our babies, or where we’ll have fancy dinner parties, but this is the perfect place to gather with our friends from Hogwarts and look back on in ten years and think about how poor we were, and it didn’t matter because it was just you and me.”

Teddy brushed a kiss on the top of her head. “You’re right. It’s a place to start.”

“Yes,” she nodded and leaned further into him. “This whole flat is filled with things from people who love us and who want us to have a good life together. So, I think it’s perfect.”

She was right, of course. She usually was and she tended to see the better side of things. Teddy still missed his grandmother horribly, but getting to move into his own place felt like another step towards being the independent man she’d wanted him to be. By July he’d be a fully qualified Auror and his salary would take a huge boost, but just as that happened, he and Victoire were getting married and they’d have added expenses plus starting to pay off her loans from becoming a Healer. They would be poor as the proverbial church mice, but they’d have each other every day.

And every night.

Teddy tried to shake that off, but as if she’d read his mind, Victoire boosted herself up to kiss him, running her hands into his hair and holding him captivated by her soft lips. He skimmed his hands along her waist to guide her hips until she was straddling him on the couch and she would have no trouble knowing just how badly he wanted her. She let out a low purr as she settled more firmly into his embrace, deepening the kiss until he couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. All he knew was Victoire, and her scent and the curves of her body pressed against his chest.

Merlin, he loved her so much.

The simple thought had him pulling away and holding on, trying desperately to stop the wild pounding in his heart. “We have to stop.”

She didn’t reply as she sucked gently at the pulse on his neck.

Teddy groaned and tried to keep himself focused. “Luv… please… you’re… wow…”

Victoire sat up a bit so her blue eyes could meet his. The passion that he read there nearly undid him. “I want you. I want us to do this.”

“I do, too,” he replied throatily, stating the obvious. “But we can’t risk it.”

“We…” she hesitated and chewed at her lip. “We can do other things that don’t risk pregnancy.”

All sorts of wonderful images filled his mind, but he shut them down. “I don’t know…”

“I really want to,” Victoire said, but this time she sounded surer of herself as she climbed from his lap. He wanted to weep at the loss of her body on his, but his eyes went huge when she knelt before him.

“What…” he tried to think, tried to focus. “Your dad is going to kill me.”

Which was his only objection. It didn’t matter that they were engaged or adults. That didn’t matter, at all, to Bill Weasley.

“My dad is not going to know,” she reminded him as her pale brow arched. Victoire’s smile was radiant. “I have been waiting for this and we can do this without any risk of pregnancy. This is our place, Teddy… no one else’s. Please, I want to.” She cocked her head to the side. “Then, you can return the favor.”

“Ginny will know.” Because she would. She had a knack for knowing.

“Aunt Ginny has lots of very fun stories and she was married at sixteen,” Victoire informed him with a tiny laugh as she ran her hands up his thighs. “You’re already twenty and she’s not a hypocrite. If you really don’t want to, then we’ll wait.”

Teddy was a lot of things, but an idiot was not one of them. “We just have to be careful.”

“We will be,” she promised as her nimble fingers found the button on his jeans. “Now, stop arguing with me and enjoy.”

He did stop arguing. When it was her turn, he carried her to the bed because she deserved the bed when he explored her body for the very first time. The most beautiful sight on the planet had to be the love of his life coming completely undone under his touch.

Later, much later, when Victoire was back with her parents and he went to pick up another box from Ivy Run, Ginny gave him the once over and the small smirk that crossed her lips told him she did know. All Teddy could think was he wanted to be that all knowing when he was a parent.

~*~

James turned into the unused classroom at the sniffling noise, then nearly turned right back around when he saw Caroline crying in a corner, practically curled into a ball. She spotted him, though, so he stopped and waited while she swiped furiously at the tears on her cheeks.

He didn’t know why he did it, but his feet propelled him until he was sitting next to her on the ground, watching the flames of embarrassment flicker over her flushed face and puffy eyes.

There were no words that he could think to say that wouldn’t make the situation much worse. That, at least, he knew was the biggest issue with him. But now that he was on his second girlfriend, he thought he was starting to appreciate just when to keep his mouth shut around a girl. They tended to blow up over the stupidest things.

Caroline’s gaze flicked up to his, then back down again.

Finally, though, he couldn’t take it. “Do you want me to go?”

Her shoulders shrugged, which he took to mean as, ‘no’.

So he waited in the uncomfortable silence, not sure of what to do. Part of him wanted to get up and leave, but that seemed like it might make things worse and he really didn’t need to make things any worse between them. It was already strained and tense in the common room and during classes. He still didn’t know what to do about this girl, but he was fourteen and in his third year. He needed to figure them out at some point.

James really wished that girls weren’t so complicated. His cousins who were girls weren’t complicated. It might be because most of them were older than him and tended to smack him if they felt like it. He still had no idea why they felt like it so often, but now that he was getting older it had mostly stopped.

Roxy would still cuff him upside the head on a regular basis. She said it was good for him and James doubted that she’d ever stop, even when he was a head taller than her.

He really liked that he was getting taller. Annoyingly, Al was shooting up, too, and they were holding steady at the same height and Al weighed more than James did now.

“I’m sorry.”

James’ head snapped up to look at the girl and swallowed hard as her pretty eyes met his briefly. “For what?”

“It…” she hesitated. “It was me that put the bone in the corridor last year.”

For a long moment, he couldn’t remember what she was talking about. Then it hit him and shock flooded through him. “You did?”

“I was under the Imperius Curse,” Caroline muttered miserably. “Your dad took it off of me.”

James stared at her for a long, long time, unable to process what she was telling him. “My dad…”

She nodded and pushed a lock of her long, straight hair behind her ear. “He’s really nice.”

“Yeah,” James agreed, even though he wasn’t really sure what he was agreeing too. He was still too stupefied by what she’d told him. “What…” he shut his mouth when he realized he didn’t know what to ask.

“I don’t want everyone to know,” she said with a small hitch. “I’m sure you want to tell everyone it was me, but I don’t–”

“I won’t tell anyone,” James sat back, affronted that she thought that. “Did you tell Louis?”

His cousin had been there with him when Nat had tripped on the bone.

“I did,” she sighed and rested her cheek on her knees. “You’re… you’re the last one. I didn’t know how to tell you, to tell you that I’m sorry.”

It burned in his gut, sticking into him that she’d told him last, but he didn’t know why that ate at him so much. “You don’t have to say you’re sorry. You didn’t do it on purpose.”

Her eyes, the same blue as a sky right after a summer storm, were filled with pain so poignant and James had to look away. There was something about this girl that left him defensive and out of sorts… but still he was drawn to her. If he’d had to words to label it, it would have been something like tenderness or concern, mixed with a healthy dose of ire.

James’ hand moved automatically to brush at a tear on her cheek, but her startled gasp and flinch left his hand frozen between them. His fingers curled back and he let his hand drop. “Who hit you?”

She shook her head as she covered her face. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters,” he said as rage filled him. He had to fight hard not to raise his voice.

Caroline stood on shaking legs and headed for the door. At the last moment, she turned back. “I’m sorry, James.”

Then she was gone in a swing of blonde hair, leaving James more confused than he’d ever been in his life. Even when his girlfriend found him ten minutes later, he couldn’t begin to explain to her what he was doing on the floor of an unused classroom.

One look at her pinched expression, and James knew he couldn’t tell her the truth. He took her hand and smiled what he knew was the kind of charming smile that made her melt. “It was nothing, Kara. I just needed some time to think. My dad quitting his job and all…”

Thankfully, she bought it.

~*~

“You didn’t need to come help, Mum,” Ginny said to her mother as they prepared dinner that night for the family. They’d meant to have this dinner weeks before, but with Andromeda’s death, things had been pushed off while they all learned to cope with it. Ginny still couldn’t believe she was gone. She’d been closer to her own parents’ age and it was crippling to think of losing her parents now. Poor Teddy had taken an entire week off from training, but now he was back into it, using the work to push through the pain.

“I wanted to help,” Molly assured her as she peeled potatoes with her wand. “You know, I never thought you’d be the one to cook. You were always so determined not to do anything I did.”

Ginny laughed softly and gently nudged her mum with her shoulder. “I used to think a lot of things, but I grew up and realized that there were more important things than running away from stuff just so I’m not pigeonholed.” She took a deep breath. “So… Harry’s not working.”

“He’s driving you up the wall, right?” Molly mused as she put the potatoes in a pot. “Yes, I love your father but I’m not looking forward to him being at home all the time. I’m sure it’s going to be quite the adjustment.”

“I feel bad about it,” she admitted with a sheepish grin. “He wanted to paint the house, the Muggle way mind you, and ugh, Mum, I just about lost it! I didn’t want the house to stink like Muggle paint when we could just wave our wands and make the walls another color. He’s enjoyed flying with the kids a lot, but I have to take them in to do lessons and then everyone’s upset with me like I’m the bad guy.”

“Send him to work at George’s shop,” Molly suggested reasonably. “Make him get a job.”

Ginny shook her head and stopped what she was doing to turn more fully towards her mother. “He needs to be investigating. That’s what makes him happy.”

“Then he should do that on his own, freelance,” Molly told her simply. “Dumbledore did it.”

“Harry is not Dumbledore,” Ginny pointed out, knowing she was stating the obvious. “He’s powerful, but not like that. Dumbledore couldn’t be contained.”

Molly considered the problem for another moment. “Is Kingsley coming tonight?”

“Yes,” she confirmed, hoping that Kingsley would have some good news for them about the investigation into Isabella Crabbe, but not holding her breath. Ginny was reasonably certain that if anything had been solved, Kingsley would have stopped by to say something before now.

“Let’s just wait and see what he says when we talk,” Molly said after a long pause. “I think it will be something Kingsley is interested in Harry doing. Not a single person I’ve spoken to put their quill mark next to Smith’s name when they voted.”

That was the consensus that Ginny had as well. “It’s not supposed to be possible to cheat the voting parchment.”

“But,” Molly reminded her, “it is something that Harry can spend his time looking into. If someone did cheat, to get Helminth into office, then he can figure it out. He’s tenacious that way.”

That was very true. “You’re right.”

“Another thing I never expected you to say, my love,” Molly assured her with a broad smile on her lined face. “I never had those fun years where you would rebel against me and we’d battle over the boys you wanted to bring home. I used to think that we would when you were a toddler. You climbed bookcases and if you didn’t want to eat your sprouts, there was no one who was going to make you. I saw all that strong will and I was sure that you were going to be the biggest handful as a teenager.”

“That wasn’t the way it happened, though,” Ginny said as her hands stilled and she stared into the half-finished mix. “We were at war all those years, plus after the Chamber of Secrets I wasn’t the same ever again.”

“And you were in love with Harry,” her mother reminded her. “Your focus was on him and how you felt about him.”

“I dated other boys,” she reminded her.

Molly shook her head sadly. “They were just placeholders for you. None of them actually touched your heart.”

Ginny put down her wand and went for the wine, pouring them each a glass. She didn’t care about cooking at that moment. “You know, I used to think there was no way he’d ever look twice at me.”

“I still don’t know that I understand that,” Molly replied honestly as she took a sip of wine. “You’re smart, brave, and beautiful, Ginny.”

“When I saw him as Harry Potter,” she said, trying to figure out how to explain it to her, “I didn’t think there was any way I could be smart enough, brave enough, or beautiful enough for him to notice I was alive. It was so difficult to believe that he’d look at ordinary me, the one who had nearly killed a bunch of people in my first year, and see anything worth loving. But,” Ginny smiled sadly at her mother’s devastation, “I learned to love myself again. I learned to respect who I was, and more importantly I learned to see him as Harry, just a man like any other. Granted,” she chuckled dryly, “one with a few more tendencies to get into trouble than others, but still…”

“Just a man,” Molly agreed. “I couldn’t have asked for a better husband for you.”

Ginny had to agree. “And now I have to worry about Lily, although I admit I don’t worry overly much.”

“No,” her mum grinned broadly and turned back to the cooking. “Lily is not headstrong, nor is she gullible. She’s the prettiest little duck, but I think she will find a nice, young man to settle down with and have a good life. She doesn’t fight things.”

She could only hope that Lily’s life was smooth sailing. Thus far her daughter had no life ambitions, although she liked the idea of creating new spells and charms for healing people. She’d seen her aunt working on them, and thought that it was fascinating, but she was still so young. “I can’t believe she goes to Hogwarts next year. What will I do without her and Hugo?”

“Cry,” Molly assured her confidently. “That first day you’ll cry a lot, maybe even the whole first week. I bawled for quite a while after you’d left. It’s a grief that is filled with joy and sorrow, but then you learn to live with the hole that is left in your life and you find new ways of filling your day.”

“I could work more,” Ginny mused as she heard the door from the back of the house. She turned and saw Harry coming in. “Hi.”

“Hey,” he stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissed her on the neck. “It’s starting to smell good. Can I help?”

“I have a job for you,” Molly told him simply.

“Mum!” Ginny sighed in exasperation.

Molly waved her off and turned to Harry, who stared at her, a little nonplused. “As your mother, it is my duty to inform you that if you’re not going to have gainful employment, I have chores at my house that you can see it. Idle boys have always been boys in trouble in my experience. Our shed is falling down and needs to be rebuilt.”

A slow grin crept over Harry’s face. He turned to Ginny. “You’re ready to kill me, aren’t you?”

“Well,” Ginny chewed at her lower lip, then decided to be honest. “Yes. I need you out of my hair.”

“I see,” he kissed his wife soundly. “Okay, Mum, I’ll get to that shed next week. But, do you want some help in the kitchen?”

Ginny prodded him towards the door. “I’m enjoying a glass of wine with my mother while we cook. You’re not wanted.”

He winked, clearly not affronted. “Okay, I’ll be outside, then, with Arthur.”

The moment he was gone, Ginny turned to glare at her mother. “Really?”

“Well, it’ll give you a break,” Molly told her, completely unrepentant. “And I do need that shed rebuilt. If your father does it, he’ll end up in St. Mungo’s and I’ll have Audrey glaring at me for letting him do it.”

She had to concede that her mother was probably right. “Teddy’s totally moved out now. He got the last of his stuff last night.”

“Has that been hard?”

Ginny didn’t know quite what it was. “He’s just so grown up. I know he and Victoire are itching to move to the next phase, but there are times I wish I could tell them to slow down and enjoy their time now. But, that’s easy for me to say since I was married so early.”

“You were a different woman, though,” Molly reminded her gently. “You’d just lived through war and tragedy. We were all damaged. You were mature beyond your years.”

“I was supposed to be a mother at seventeen,” Ginny’s eyes strayed to the window that overlooked the back garden. She saw Harry and Arthur tending to the plants out by Hope’s grave and felt a pang that was so bittersweet now.

“You were a mother at seventeen,” Molly reminded her. “You were a mother to Hope and you were Teddy’s mother. When you weren’t in training or at a game, you had that little boy here with you, just as often as you could. I marveled at you, my love. I don’t know that you ever saw that. We were all so worried and protective of you, but you’ve always been so strong.”

“Mum…” Ginny felt the funny prickle behind her eyes and into her nose that told her she was really close to tears.

Molly cupped her cheek and stroked at it with her thumb. “Do you remember how the boys used to have that council where they’d put each other on… what was the word?”

“Probation,” Ginny recalled. “Harry was in hot water when I was pregnant with Al because I was so sick.”

“I remember talking to Bill afterwards,” Molly said as her eyes lost focus. “He was so scared for you, so angry with Harry. I tried to scold him for being so hard on Harry, but he looked at me and said, ‘Mum, you don’t understand. We watched her nearly die once already because of a baby and it was his job to protect her. He left her to deal with James all on her own.’”

It hadn’t been exactly like that, but it was close enough. Harry was a lot of things, but perfect wasn’t one of them. When faced with a child that would not be consoled, and no experience in parenting, he’d hid at work. It had taken years of therapy to come to terms with what had happened. She’d never blamed Harry for dropping the ball when James had been tiny and colicky. Ginny had known, from day one, that Harry would struggle to learn to be a father because he’d never had a good, consistent father. She’d accepted that, but to her brothers, who’d always had Arthur there, his behavior was unacceptable. They didn’t see that Harry was starting from nothing and they wouldn’t accept less than stellar for their baby sister. She could understand where they were coming from, but had a better perspective. After Al’s birth, she’d given Bill a piece of her mind and reminded him of just how far Harry had come.

It also hadn’t helped that Teddy had been a remarkably good baby, so Harry’s standards for what a baby was supposed to do were extremely skewed. James had been, and still remained, their most difficult child. Speaking of Teddy… no. Ginny mentally shook herself. She was not bringing up anything with her mother. Molly would lose it if she thought the kids were doing anything but holding hands. Her mother was still extremely old fashioned. “I have heard James is on his second girlfriend this year.”

“Yes, I heard that, too,” Molly sighed as she dumped potatoes in a pot. “Lucy wrote me a nice, long letter last week and let me know all about the doings at Hogwarts. That boy is going to be just like his grandfather, you mark my words.”

That was a scary thought. “Of course,” Ginny pointed out as she mulled that over, “if he finds a lovely girl to settle down with that will be okay.”

“You never met him,” Molly reminded her. “I only did once, and I can assure you that he was wild. Even after they were married, I heard stories about him and Sirius. It was challenging taking Sirius seriously,” she paused as her brows knit. “You know, that’s more difficult to say than one would expect. Sirius seriously… well, anyway, knowing his past I had a hard time not seeing him as reckless. Those two had a reputation. Lily was said to be a calming and stabilizing influence on him. I think she must have been a very strong woman to stop him from running around.”

Ginny thought it was more likely that Lily’s tenacity for wanting things her own way had won James over. She simply wouldn’t bend when James was behaving like an arse. “We have some letters from her to Neville’s mum. Did I tell you about that?”

“No,” Molly said in surprise. “When did you get those?”

“Last summer,” Ginny took a long, slow sip of wine. “Harry learned that he wasn’t a planned baby.”

“Well,” Molly had to laugh at that one. “Honestly, darling, how many of the babies were planned? They were so young and the world was in such a state? You and Percy were planned. That’s it. You planned for Lily, but the others? Nope.”

Now that she thought about it, Ginny felt the amusement bubble up. “Let’s see. Victoire was planned, Lucy was planned, Rose and Hugo were planned and… yeah, Lily. So about half of them.”

“Exactly,” her mother agreed. “Babies come when they’re going to come. We don’t always have a say in that.”

As they gathered around the table that night, all her brothers and their wives, minus Charlie, plus Kingsley, Ginny couldn’t help but be grateful that they were so close that this group had the cohesion of long standing friends, as well as family. Teddy and Victoire smiled at each other in a way that she knew spoke of further intimacies than they’d shared before and she was glad for them… and hoping that one of those unplanned babies didn’t make an appearance. Still, she trusted both of them and their good judgement. She thought they’d likely be careful. Ginny also thought that Fleur might have an inkling of what had occurred with the couple, but if she had, she was keeping it from Bill. Bill had mellowed a good bit in his years, except when it came to his daughters. If Victoire or Dominque were involved, his brain devolved into that of a stampeding Hippogriff.

Lily and Hugo were not terribly happy to be sent up to play once they’d finished eating, but they trudged along, knowing it was futile to argue. Harry put up several protective charms to stop them from listening in on the conversation, but Ginny knew that Lily wasn’t likely to anyway. Hugo might, though.

“I think,” Arthur said as soon as they were sure it was safe, “that we need to take a closer look at this election. Something is rotten with it.”

They were all seated around the long, wooden table that could expand to hold the entire family.

“I shouldn’t have retired,” Kingsley said on a long, slow sigh. “I had hoped that Macmillan would come in and I knew she’d do an excellent job of supporting Harry, but Smith… I really wanted him pushed out, but he’s got all that family clout.”

“What he’s doing in the Auror department is just obnoxious,” Teddy added as he twirled his wine glass between his fingers. “I’m not even involved in most of the oversight, but it has all the Aurors annoyed and on edge. We still have no leads on finding that missing woman and now another is gone.”

Ginny’s heart clenched. “When did that happen?”

“Yesterday,” Arthur said sadly.

“What can we do, though?” Ron asked them. “George and I have been talking about it–”

Angelina shook her head, cutting him off. “No.”

“But, babe,” George turned to his wife, who glared back stubbornly. “It might be the only hope we have of finding some answers.”

“No,” Angelina pointed a finger at him. “If you want to be sleeping on the couch for the next five years, then you go right ahead, but this is reckless and premature, not to mention immature.”

“Can I ask?” Bill interjected.

Hermione nodded, looking alarmed. “Yes, what are you two talking about?”

“We have this plan to oust him as Minister,” George told him. “It was actually Fred’s idea. He and the kids came up with it and sent me a coded message.”

“It’s a damn stupid idea,” Angelina interjected. “I’m extremely annoyed that your son thought that was a good use of his time while at school.”

George shrugged that off, totally unabashed. “I actually think it’s brilliant. He gives me hope that he’ll continue in the family business.”

“Please,” Bill held up his hands. “Someone explain before we all agree that it’s a damn stupid idea.”

“See,” Ron picked the story back up, shooting his sister-in-law a nervous glance. “The kids thought that creating a scandal around the Minister would be enough to get him to resign. They wanted it to be something embarrassing that would force him out of the Ministry, but wouldn’t be enough to land him in Azkaban or in any legal trouble. As Fred put it, he’s an idiot, not a criminal. They reckon, and we all agree, that if the voting was rigged, it wasn’t done by Smith, but by someone who wants to use him as a puppet.”

“But the question is who,” Hermione reminded Ron. “We don’t know who.”

“We know who,” Harry sighed heavily. “It’s Isabella Crabbe. We don’t know why or if Smith knows he’s being used.”

“Okay,” Hermione nodded in acquiesces. “What was Fred’s idea?”

George chortled. “See, this is the kicker. It’s already happened. Nat told him this story about a one of the Muggle royals being caught on one of those, what do you call them,” he turned to Hermione. “Recording somethings?”

“Tape recordings?” Hermione tried to fill in.

“Yeah, something like that,” George nodded enthusiastically. “The bloke said something nasty about a reporter being an idiot, or something like that. It’s the sort of thing that Smith likely does, but we don’t know because we never record things like that except with a Quick Quotes Quill.”

“How,” Hermione rolled her eyes to the ceiling, “do you propose to record the Minister saying something embarrassing, though? None of those things will work in the Ministry.”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” George waved it off confidently. “We have that system you used to get the telephone to work and we can make it work on other devises.”

“I’m not sure that you will, though,” Hermione narrowed her eyes, lost in thought. “They’re extremely sensitive. You might just pick up the sound vibrations from the magic in the air.”

Everyone stared at her blankly.

“Never mind,” Hermione shook her head as a flush spread over her cheeks. “The point is that it’s not a good idea, and I don’t think it will work.”

“Thank you,” Angelina held up her glass, toasting Hermione. “I can always count on you to be sensible and keep these idiots out of prison.”

“I think Harry should look into the voter fraud.”

Everyone turned to Ginny.

“Come again?” Harry linked their hands under the table.

“I think you should try to figure out how the voting was rigged,” Ginny said again. Then she turned to Kingsley. “Can you commission a special, independent review?”

“It’s not exactly in my prevue, even as Head of the Aurors,” Kingsley turned to Hermione. “What do you think?”

She tapped her fingers rhythmically on the table. “It could work. If we have enough support from the department heads we could form a commission. Or, we could start a public call for it.”

“We need the press on board,” Ginny agreed, which was more her area. “I can get a few people to push stories about the election, calling it into question. We could do informal polls, seeing if the numbers add up. My impression is that Smith won by a landslide.”

“It was steep,” Arthur agreed sadly. “Something like ninety percent of the voters.”

“Wait a minute,” Victoire turned to her grandfather. “Do people know that it was that much?”

He shook his head. “That’s not supposed to be public information.”

“Okay, then,” Victoire smiled at him. “I think it’s time that leaked to the press. That, right there, would get everyone wondering.”

“She’s got a point,” Harry told Arthur.

Molly patted her husband’s shoulder. “You’ve been a good employee, but you’re about to retire. I’m not sure we can risk your pension.”

“Screw the pension,” Harry shook his head. “If anything like that happens, you know we have the money to make up for it.”

“Harry…” Arthur began, but Harry shook his head.

“No,” Harry’s jaw firmed. “I have money, which means you have money. We’ve been through this. You’re my parents and I love you. I can’t ask Percy to lose his job now, not when his kids are still in Hogwarts.”

Percy shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Technically, I’m not privy to that information anyway.”

“It would be me or Arthur,” Hermione told Harry.

“You don’t need that job, either,” Ron pulled her hand up to his lips as he gazed at her in concern. “It’s causing nothing but stress in your life right now. You really should let Zacharias Smith go down in a flaming ball.”

“He’s right,” Fleur agreed pointedly. “It is not your job to clean up his messes.”

Hermione pinched her lips together and said nothing.

“Hermione can’t take the fall,” Bill said to his father. “She’s got a good shot of being Minister someday and she’d do a damn fine job of it. Harry’s right, Dad, you should leak that to the press in an interview. If you are fired, we’ll pick up the slack. You took care of all of us for all those years, working hard and sacrificing. None of us would mind doing the same for you.”

Arthur turned to his wife and Ginny watched their silent exchange. She knew, even before her father spoke, what the outcome was. “I’ll arrange an interview for you,” Ginny told him quietly. “I have a friend who is really good and she’ll do the story justice.”

The dinner broke up twenty minutes later and it was with exhaustion that Ginny climbed into her bed, feeling a little sick at the thought that her father’s long, good career might go up in smoke.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Harry told her as he climbed in beside her.

She didn’t want to think about it, though. “I was talking to Mum about when we were at Hogwarts.”

“Were you?” he asked as he kissed her shoulder and wrapped his arm around her middle.

“I used to think you’d never see me as anything but this skinny, freckly redhead,” Ginny reminisced and was extremely thankful to no longer be that same girl. “I thought there was no way I could compete with someone like Cho Chang.”

“Oh, how little you knew,” Harry grinned. “That whole crying thing…”

She snorted and turned to face him so she could trace her fingers over the familiar plains of his face. “Lily is definitely a crier and yet you never run from her tears.”

“Well,” he reasoned fairly, “I’m used to her crying and I’m not exactly fourteen anymore. Besides,” Harry kissed the tip of her nose, “I would do anything to put a smile on Lily’s face. She’s my little girl, the only girl, so she gets special consideration.”

“We were talking about Lily, too,” Ginny told him as she closed her eyes. “She’ll be so easy. She’s not going to date the wild boys. There isn’t a rebellious bone in her body, which means that if she didn’t have all those brothers and cousins, she’d be easy to take advantage of. Since she does have them all looking out for her, including Hugo who is going to be just like Ron, we’ll be fine.”

“I dunno,” Harry said after a moment’s pause. “I think with her tender heart, she could be led astray. I’m still worried.”

“You’re going to worry,” she knew that one as certain fact. “But she, at least, won’t be hampered by the insecurities that plagued me. Merlin, I was so sure I was going to die loving you and you’d still never know I existed. I was going to end up married to some poor berk I didn’t really care for. I actually imagined myself feeling sorry for him, whomever that ‘him’ was.”

Harry burst out laughing. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope,” she grinned at her own folly. “I was dramatic at fourteen. I was this big time martyr in my own head. I think I’d convinced myself that if I didn’t believe you were ever a possibility that it wouldn’t hurt as much when you went out with other girls.”

“Did that work?”

“Not in the least,” Ginny sighed as she let her hand creep down his side. “I couldn’t give up on you. I just knew… I don’t know how I knew, but I knew you were the one, you were it for me. There probably could have been other girls for you, but you were my one and only.”

“No,” he replied simply. “There was never going to be anyone but you. From that first kiss, I was hooked. You held my heart without any effort and you kept it safe, even when I didn’t know that’s what I needed. I didn’t understand then, but do you remember when you came to get me from the foot of the tower after Dumbledore fell?”

“Yeah,” she turned her gaze back to his. “I took your hand and pulled you back to the castle.”

“You didn’t really have to pull, though,” he reminded her. “I wanted to go, because I knew that wherever you were leading me was where I needed to be. I would have followed you anywhere, Gin. My heart was already tied to yours then. The thing I feared most was losing you. I could risk losing Ron and Hermione more than you, even though I didn’t know it at the time.”

She wanted to cry. Ginny’s heart swelled under the influence of his words until all she felt was amazing gratitude. “You never told me that.”

“I don’t think I really understood it for the longest time,” Harry admitted honestly. “At the time I couldn’t have said that I’d pick you over Ron. That would have been too difficult. Now, though… now I know that I’d pick you and Ron would tell me to pick you. Hermione wouldn’t thank either of us for that, though, so I’m thankful I don’t have to choose.”

“Me, too,” she assured him. She pressed her mouth to his and let her hand wander further south. “Now, we’re going to play a game where I get to touch you in ways that only I get to touch you and only I have ever touched you. How does that sound?”

“Really bloody brilliant,” he groaned against her mouth.

Back to index


Chapter 19: Chapter 16

Author's Notes: Are you ready to mutiny yet? I am so, so sorry about this. The chapter took forever, I'm in the middle of editing one book, and starting another series of books (this time for kids) and yeah, I know some fanfiction authors only update once every few months (or years *cough*) but I do try to be very consistent. My goal was every two weeks, but it's not happening like that. I am still trying, still plugging away.

Keep reviewing! It keeps me motivated. Seriously, it does. I enjoy the interaction, even if you've got some suggestions for making the story better. This is how I learn.


“Don’t be nervous,” Ginny told her father as they headed for the small back room at a Muggle pub. Ginny had placed a call to reserve this particular room, knowing it would be well concealed. The owner was a Squib and someone Ginny had worked with before when meeting, in secret, with various Quidditch players who didn’t want to be on the official record.

Her father shuffled after her as they wended around the crowded bar, completely ignored by the other patrons. Ginny waved to the large woman manning the tap. “Hello, Sally.”

“Ginny,” Sally inclined her head. “I’ll be back for drinks in a bit.”

“Thanks,” Ginny called back as she pushed open the back room’s heavy door.

Her colleague, Brian Wallach, watched them enter. He was a thin man with thick, wavy black hair that he kept cropped short. Today he was in a perfectly tailored Muggle suit. Being Muggleborn, he did a very good job of blending in when needed.

He was, typically, the man that The Daily Prophet used when Muggles were involved.

Ginny moved over to shake his hand as the other man rose to an impressive height. “Thanks for meeting us, Brian. Have you met my father, Arthur?”

“I have once, I believe,” Brian shook Arthur’s hand as they all sat around the small, round table. “I am interested in what I’m about to hear. I also know that your career is on the line, Mr. Weasley, and I will do my upmost to protect you. This is an important story.”

Her dad cleared his throat and finally spoke for the first time. “I appreciate that.”

Ginny took his hand, hating that his voice cracked from nerves. “Just tell Brian what you’ve found out.”

Arthur nodded as if ticking through a list in his head, which Ginny supposed he was. “The first part is that I’ve seen the tick marks for the election. It’s verified by a few of us on staff and it’s not good. Smith won by ninety-two percent, which the other candidates splitting the last eight evenly. That, in itself, is odd, because I have never heard of the trailing candidates having matching numbers. The votes were identical between the others.”

“That’s very odd,” Brian agreed as he took notes. “Who else has access to those votes?”

“Just a few of us,” Arthur told him. “Senior Ministry can gain access, but most won’t. The problem is that of everyone I’ve spoken to, and it’s been a lot of people, no one voted for Smith.”

“I’ve taken an informal poll as well,” Brian said, glancing up. “It was not good numbers. The exit polls were saying Macmillan.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” Arthur sighed heavily, then froze as a knock sounded at the door.

“That will be Sally,” Ginny told her father reassuringly. “Let’s get you a beer. I think this will go better that way.”

Once they all had drinks, they set up magical protections and went to work. “Smith is working to restructure the Ministry. With his landslide victory, which was highly unexpected, he’s feeling like he has to answer to no one.”

“Why did Harry Potter leave the Ministry?” Brian asked the question that Ginny knew was coming, and had refused to answer.

“Kingsley Shacklebolt set up the Head Auror to be answerable to no one but the Minister of Magic. This was done,” Arthur explained in a measured tone, “to ensure that the Aurors could not be corrupted. Under another Head, the Aurors might have been a problem, but Harry Potter is not a politician. He has no ambitions to rise further, or take over. He could have, on any number of occasions, but like Dumbledore before him, Harry wants to do what he does best. That’s not running the Ministry. I have personally witnessed him passing off the parts of the job that he didn’t like on many occasions.”

“Can you give me an example?”

“Dealing with the press,” Arthur smiled grimly. “He hates that, which is odd since his wife is a member of the press. No, Harry would typically beg someone like Hermione Weasley to make the press statements for him. He wanted to investigate, capture the criminals, and keep us safe. That was his job, in his view. The first day that he was in office, Smith demanded that Potter be answerable to him. Smith changed the regulations and dictated that Harry would have to run every decision through the Minister, rather than having some room to use his discretion. Shacklebolt asked for the highlights, while Smith wanted control of every detail.”

Brian nodded as he continued to scribble furiously. “I’ve met Potter a few times. I can’t imagine that went over too well.”

“He quit immediately and walked out of the Ministry,” Arthur informed him. “He was our best chance of catching whoever is taking these women, but now he’s gone. He didn’t feel the office had the integrity to continue, so he wouldn’t participate.”

“Has any progress been made in getting the women back?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Arthur told him simply. “They’re still looking, but that sort of information is kept very closely guarded so that the women’s lives are endangered further. I’m saddened that the best Auror we’ve had since Mad-Eye Moody was driven from the Ministry because he knew it would be corrupted under Smith. Several senior Ministry officials have asked the Minister for an enquiry about the election, but he is refusing.”

Brian waited a beat, seeming to take that in. “The Minister is refusing a request for an investigation on the election?”

“I do not believe, for one moment, that Smith rigged the election,” Arthur told him with absolute sincerity. “I do think, though, that something odd went on. No election has been a landslide like that, not even when Kingsley came in right after the war.”

“What do you think of the new Minister?”

“Well…” Arthur cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. “I do not believe that he is bringing the Ministry together to work as a team. In this time of crisis, with women being abducted, I feel we must work as a cohesive unit.”

Brian nodded and held up one finger to finish his notes. “Do you have any thoughts on Zacharias Smith becoming the Head of the MLE?”

“He is an incompetent twerp,” Arthur spit out as his face went bright red on that. “You can quote me. He’s causing a lot of damage and if Hermione Weasley weren’t sweeping up his messes, the Ministry would be in dire straits. It’s a clear case of nepotism and Smith has no qualifications for the job.”

Brian’s grin spread slowly. “Thank you for your time.”

~*~

“Did you see that article in The Daily Prophet?” Lucy asked as she came over to the Gryffindor table holding the article in question. She spread it out before Roxy, who happened to be sitting close to where Al, Nat, Rose, and Scorpius were sitting.

It was the last day before the winter hols and Nat was more than ready to get out of the school, even though she couldn’t go to her parents’ flat in London. She would, at least, get to see them for a few days. She was still hooked up to the feeding bag because of the mishap where the bag had been cut. After an intense interview by Madam Longbottom of the girls in the dorm, one of Nat’s dorm mates admitted she might have knocked into it in the middle of the night on her way to the bathroom. She hadn’t been sure so she hadn’t said anything.

Because of one lousy mistake, Nat was stuck as a medical freak for at least another month. Her attention, which had wandered, jumped back to the matter at hand when Rose elbowed her in the side. “Sorry?”

“We were discussing the article,” Rose told her. She frowned in concern. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Nat sighed as she glanced away. “Just tired. I’m ready to go.” It was an understatement. She was exhausted and not sleeping well. Every time she closed her eyes, she had horrible nightmares.

Everyone stared at her with concern. It was Fred who acted, though. “Right you are then, Nat. Let’s head up to see the nurse.”

“No,” Nat shot him an annoyed glare. “I’m fine! I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Just tired with you means you’re likely to pass out,” Scorpius pointed out fairly.

Nat stood and stepped over the bench. “I’m fine. I’ll… I’ll see you all later.”

She stomped off, heading towards the dorm. Nat hated being out of sorts with anyone, for any reason, but that’s all she’d felt recently. It was miserable being so helpless, so sick all the time. She didn’t want people to continue to pity her.

“Leah,” came Al’s voice from behind her.

Nat turned as she watched him jog up to her. He’d taken to calling her that, sometimes, true to his word. Peeves still called her ‘gnatty-Nat’ on a regular basis, though. Oddly enough, though, Al never said it when anyone else could hear them.

“You don’t have to go with me,” Nat protested immediately. “I can make it on my own.”

Al shot her a puzzled look. “I know you can. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh,” she felt her face flush as they continued up the main staircase. “What’s up?”

“I spoke to my dad about Caroline’s cheer competition thing and he said no,” Al sighed. “I didn’t expect him to say yes, but still. He said with security the way it is that we’re not going anywhere.”

Compassion swamped Nat. She knew what it was to have to be cosseted, but it didn’t make it any easier to bear. Al had no choice on whether or not he wanted to explore the world around him. “You won’t be twelve forever, you know.”

He grinned a little at that. “Says the person who is also twelve.”

“Yes, but what I mean is you’ll be an adult eventually, and,” she added when he would have protested, “once you’re not quite the novice at protecting yourself, he’ll let go a little. Right now if someone kidnapped you, the best you could do was to shoot sparks at them.”

Al looked for a moment like he wanted to protest, but eventually he just shrugged and let it go. “I’m glad you’ll be with us for Christmas. James is being a prat about his girlfriend, Kara. He is mad at Mum and Dad for not letting her come to visit.”

“But they let me,” Nat pointed out. “Of course, my parents are Muggles, so they’re no threat.”

“You were also let in before the threat got worse,” Al reminded her. “Poor Lily won’t get to have any of her school mates over to stay.”

~*~

Harry stared at the train as it slowly pulled to a stop at the station. He’d nearly insisted on the children using the Floo Network to get home but Ginny had reminded him that they’d enjoyed the train rides, and with Nat’s feeding line, the Floo could be trickier. She wasn’t exactly a graceful child.

He’d insisted on Lily staying at home, with Teddy. Ever since he’d left his job, he’d become paranoid and more and more on edge. Something always seemed to be nagging at him, watching him, waiting for something.

“Would you relax?” Ginny groused next to him. “Your edginess is making me edgy.”

Harry let his brow rise in answer.

“Fine,” she said as the train pulled to a stop, “but do try to smile at the children as though you’ve missed them and this isn’t a big chore for you.”

He felt instantly stung. “I didn’t say–”

“Smile, damn it,” she ordered through her own smile. Harry noted that her teeth were gritted together.

He did try to smile as the doors slid open and children poured from the carriages, happy and chattering. It would be good to have his children home again.

Plus, the house-elf, Polly, had asked to come back. Harry had attempted not to jump for joy over it. The story that Arthur had given had set off a firestorm, and now the wizarding community was in an uproar, demanding an inquisition. Minister Smith, however, was stubbornly refusing to cave, even though he was essentially committing political suicide.

Harry had started his own investigation, exploring how the voting was set up and trying to work out if there was any way to falsify an election’s results. He felt a bit like the fake Moody, back during the Triwizard Tournament. The pretend Moody had laid out exactly how one might fool the Goblet of Fire. He would have known, of course, since he’d been the one to do it. Still, though, Harry was finding a couple of ways that someone might be able to stick in another candidate and the easiest way to do that was through the ballots.

He had no real answers yet, but Harry was forcing himself to put that aside for the day and enjoy his sons being home.

They emerged slowly from the train and Harry saw why, instantly. Al had his arm around Nat who looked decidedly green.

Before he could even move forward, Audrey rushed forward to get a better look at the girl. “We need to get you home.”

“I think I got motion sickness,” Nat said barely above a whisper.

Audrey waved her wand over Nat and immediately the girl sighed in relief. “Better?”

“Much!” Nat grinned. “Thanks!”

“Hey,” Harry hugged Al first, before turning to try to locate James. His son, however, was attached at the lips to a girl he didn’t know. “Uh…”

Al glanced over at them dismissively. “He’ll be up for air soon, Dad. Just ignore him.”

“Er,” Harry wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that. “Right. Did you have a good term?”

“Not too bad,” Al nodded as he turned around to help Rose bring her bag down.

“Hi, Uncle Harry,” she beamed at him before racing over to throw herself at her mother.

Harry turned back to Al and was startled to see that his son was a couple of inches taller than he’d been in September. “You’re shooting up.”

Al pointed down towards his trousers and Harry saw, to his amusement, that they barely covered his socks. “I noticed, Dad.”

“You could have written for more trousers,” Harry pointed out as he stepped aside so Ginny could hug Al.

“We’ll have to go to Diagon Alley, I suppose,” Ginny agreed as she observed her son. “Goodness! Nat said you were getting growing, but I didn’t expect this much! Look at you!”

Al blushed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “It’s not a big deal.”

Nat came over to them and touched Harry’s sleeve. He glanced down at her in concern and saw her face was ashen. “What?”

“That man,” she whispered at barely above a whisper. “He’s covered in that blue light, the one I told you about with the mouse. He’s… he’s staring at you.”

Fear and adrenaline rocketed through Harry, but he mastered his impulse to spin and begin firing curses. He needed to think this through, and think about it quickly. “Don’t look at him, Nat.”

She turned her elfin face up to his and he watched her force a brittle smile. “He has brown hair and a black cap on his head.”

Harry smiled back, reassuringly, even though he didn’t know what he was going to do.

“Harry?” Ginny asked softly, and he heard the thousand questions she had.

“You stay here with the family,” Harry told her. “Wait here, I’ll be back.”

Harry turned and saw the man Nat had pointed out, but he couldn’t see his face. He’d turned and was walking away from them at a very fast clip. He took off after the man, wondering why this person was under the Imperius Curse. Harry had to wonder, too, why the man had been studying them in the train station. What had he been waiting for?

He dodged around other families, trying not to knock into anyone. He didn’t acknowledge any attempts of those trying to gain his attention. His whole focus was on the man speeding away from him. Harry nearly bowled over a grandmother who screeched indignantly as he ran full out towards the barrier towards to the platform. Harry lost sight of him as he moved through the divide into the Muggle world and by the time Harry skidded through, the man was gone.

Harry spent another ten minutes trying to find the man, but was forced to give up and go back for his family. By the time he arrived back at the train’s platform, only his family and Ginny’s brothers remained, watching the kids, who waited anxiously.

“Anything, Dad?” Al asked him the moment he was back.

“I couldn’t find him,” Harry answered quickly. “Let’s get to the car and get home. Bill,” he glanced to his brother-in-law. “Can you ride with us?”

Bill nodded. “Let’s go.”

The drive home was the longest of Harry’s memory. Surely the car could move faster than this, but it seemed to take forever. Bill and Ginny kept a lookout around them as Harry drove, but they finally arrived back at Ivy Run without a single incident.

Audrey met them there, along with Polly the amazing house-elf. Audrey hustled Nat off to examine her, while everyone else brought the trunks in. They were supposed to be having dinner at Ivy Run that night, and thankfully Polly already had preparations underway.

Ginny stared at the kitchen in wonder as the little elf dove through all the fixing. “I want to help her,” she said to Harry, who came up behind her to link his arms around her waist. “I really do, but she keeps shoeing me away.”

Harry bent to press his lips to his wife’s neck, luxuriating in the soft feel of skin there, even as his mind fled off to other things. “I need to go see Kingsley.”

“Yeah,” Ginny agreed. “Invite him for dinner, and you’d better not be late.”

“I promise,” Harry told her earnestly.

It used to be that walking into the Ministry at any time was a simple matter of just walking in. Now, he had to go through the security desk and put on a visitor’s badge. He smiled at the security man and waited while his wand was checked.

Harry shook off his annoyance at having to wait. He had, after all, quit in a spectacular fashion, so this was all to be expected.

By the time he made his way up to the Auror office, though, he was ready to be done with this. Daniel had stayed on as the personal assistant to the Head Auror, and the moment Harry rounded the corner, the young man grinned. There was something behind Daniel’s eyes, though. “Hey, do you need him?”

“Yes, if he’s free,” Harry said, then added quickly, “actually I need him even if he isn’t free, but I can wait a few minutes.”

“He’s busy at the moment, but he should be free soon,” Daniel informed him.

The second he finished speaking, Kingsley’s door opened and the man appeared with the parents of Veronica Sinestra, the woman who had gone missing when Harry was still in charge. They met his gaze, but the grief there was all Harry needed to see to know that the news was not good for their daughter.

His gut clenched horribly, in sympathy with them.

“Again,” Kingsley said quietly. “If we hear anything else, I will let you know. We’re still looking, though. Finding her and the other girl are our main focus.”

The man, and Harry had to struggle for a moment to remember his name was Miles, turned to Harry. “Are you still looking?”

“I can’t,” Harry answered helplessly. “I could be arrested for interfering.”

“What about as a private consultant?” his wife, Leanne questioned desperately. “We need to find her.”

Kingsley stepped in. “I really wish he could help us, but the Minister has enacted strict rules.”

Miles’ face went bright red.

“As someone who isn’t involved in the Ministry, anymore,” Harry told them in a low undertone. “I would speak to Brian at The Daily Prophet about the limited resources the Minister is allowing for your case.”

Kingsley shot him an annoyed glare. “Just do not reveal any of the sensitive information if you do.”

“No, I won’t,” Miles held out his hand to Harry. “Thank you for the suggestion.”

The moment they were gone, Harry was ushered into what used to be his office. He flopped down into one of the seats and rubbed at his sore temple. “Natalie Parker spotted a man at the train station today.”

“I expect there were a lot of men at the train station,” Kingsley commented dryly as he sat down, too.

“This one had the dancing blue lights around him,” Harry informed him quietly. A light of recognition and alarm flashed in Kingsley’s face. “I tried to chase him down, but he got away. We did manage to get all the kids safely home, though.”

“That’s not good,” Kingsley agreed heavily. He scrubbed at his face and Harry saw the exhaustion etched on his face. “The article in the paper has definitely made an impact here, but it wasn’t the one we were hoping for. Smith has doubled-down on not forming an inquiry, despite the public pressure. We’re at odds over it. His decree that no one can interfere from outside the Ministry has left our hands tied.”

Harry shrugged that off. He wasn’t above looking into the mess, despite the Minister. He would, however, do better with their support. “I want to unofficially report a man under the Imperius Curse, but of course, not officially because we can’t give Nat’s secret up.”

“What a mess,” Kingsley groaned. “Alright, I’ll put out a warning saying to be on the lookout for family or friends acting oddly. This wasn’t how I wanted to spend the day.”

“Cheer up,” Harry rose. “Ginny says you’re coming for dinner.”

Kingsley grinned then. “That does make it better.”

~*~

Teddy stared at the report as his fingers shook and numbness overtook his whole body. He sat on the couch in Harry and Ginny’s living room, unable to fully take in the words on the pages that Audrey had given him. Victoire sat next to him, with her hand on his leg. “Teddy?”

“Poison,” he told her. “My grandmother was poisoned.”

A sob burst from Victoire and she threw her arms around his neck. “I am so sorry.”

Ginny came to sit on his other side, rubbing at his back. She didn’t say anything, though.

There really were no words.

It was not the sort of thing one wanted to learn about three days before Christmas. At least all of the kids were in bed. He was struggling not to cry, as it was. It was odd to hurt so much at the same moment he was absolutely numb and couldn’t move.

Harry crouched down in front of him as Audrey sat in the chair across the room, her hands twisted together to hide the shaking. “We’ll find her.”

“I know,” Teddy agreed as he shut his eyes and forced back the grief.

~*~

“Happy Christmas!” Lily called out merrily as she hopped down from the top bunk, practically landing on Nat’s legs. “Come on!” she poked at Nat.

Nat tried to force her eyes open but all that happened was a yawn. “It’s too early.”

“It’s almost breakfast,” Lily informed her genially. “I know that doesn’t mean much for you, but still.”

“Okay,” Nat waved her off. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

Hopefully her parents would be at Ivy Run by lunch, then they would stay for two days.

Nat didn’t want to move, though. She was warm, comfortable, and exhausted. There was nothing about the feeding tube that made her feel well. It kept her alive, and going, but it also doled out potions to try to repair whatever had happened to her in Brazil, and it left her weak and drained more often than not.

A knock sounded at the door and Al poked his head in. He smiled and came over, holding out a hand. “Come on, time to get up.”

She let him pull her up, mostly because it was easier that way. He was now almost a head taller than she was. Nat stretched before unhooking the backpack from the side of the bed and shrugging it on. “Okay,” she said after it was situated. “Let’s go.”

Christmas Day was lovely. The snow fell softly outside, blanketing the world in a winter wonderland. Her parents made it just before the roads became too clogged to drive, thankfully. Most of the Weasley family was there, too, apart from Al’s Uncle Charlie.

Nat sat on one of the couches near the windows and watched the snow fall while people laughed and chatted around her. She turned when the couch cushion next to her depressed and saw Audrey Weasley studying her in concern. “You know,” she said to Nat, “when I first met you I thought that you were the happiest child I’d ever met. You were resilient, self-aware, and always upbeat. That’s not you anymore.”

“No,” Nat agreed sadly. “I don’t have the energy for it anymore.”

Audrey nodded thoughtfully. “When you’re better, though, you will again. I think. It’s safe to say you are a unique case, but I think you’ll be alright once we can get you stable.”

“Do you know how much longer?” Nat asked, unsure if she really wanted the answer.

The Healer smiled sadly. “It all depends on your body, I’m afraid. I think, though, that your mood could help you heal faster. Have you heard that a positive attitude can speed healing?”

She had heard that, more than once, but at the moment there was no way to drudge up a positive attitude. “I don’t know how to fix it.”

“What’s the worst part for you?” Audrey wanted to know.

“I think it’s not being able to eat, and not having much energy,” she said after she’d thought about it. “I miss food, but eating can make me feel nauseated more often than not.”

“Do you know what has happened, though?”

“What?” Nat asked hesitantly.

“You have gained two pounds and you’re almost an inch taller than you were in August,” Audrey informed her with a grin. “That’s a major growth spurt for you.”

Excitement flickered to life in Nat’s heart. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Audrey confirmed as she patted Nat’s hand. “I don’t want you to lose heart, okay? I know it’s hard, but you’re making a lot of wonderful progress. I think that we’ll be able to take you off the feeding line by March, at the latest, but you need to try to boost your spirits, okay?”

“Okay,” Nat agreed with an answering smile. She turned back to the snow and felt her heart lighten even further. She wasn’t tall, by any measure, but being taller meant she just might not standing out quite so much. That was a very good thing.

~*~

“Maybe we should leave the kids at home,” Ginny told Harry as they prepared to head to Diagon Alley. Al really needed new clothes. He was so tall, now, that nothing he owned was decent anymore. “You could go with Al, and I could stay here.”

Harry had thought about that, more than once, but all the kids were excited for the trip to London and they only had one more day until they would head back to Hogwarts. “I leave it up to you.”

“Ugh, alright,” she clipped her hair back and examined it in the mirror over their dresser. “They all want to go, so we’ll go.”

“I think we’ll be fine,” Harry said confidentially. “Things can happen in Diagon Alley, but it will likely be crowded today, and we won’t be caught alone.”

“You’re right,” Ginny came over to wind her arms around his waist. “You spoke to Ron, right? He says he’ll come with us?”

Harry pressed his lips to her brow and almost told her just to stay home. He squashed the urge, and said, “Yes, he said he’d watch my sorry bum.”

It had been a quiet few days, but that wasn’t to say things couldn’t still go wrong. Nat’s parents had come and gone. They’d had nearly a foot of snow fall around their house, and Nat had practiced using the Floo between their home and The Burrow, just to make sure she could with the feeding line.

It turned out, she couldn’t. The weight unbalanced her so much that she tumbled out, so they’d removed the feeding bag and someone else carried it through while she traveled alone. The whole summer, after she’d been brought back to England after her kidnapping, she’d been quiet and withdrawn, but she was starting to get some of her spark back. It was good to see.

Harry and Ginny walked down the stairs, their hands linked, to find Al and Lily battling it out in wizard’s chess. Harry could already see from Al’s expression that he was going to win. He watched Lily glance up and snort in disgust. “It’s like you’re gloating!”

“I’m not gloating!” Al retorted indignantly. “I just know I’m going to win in three moves.”

“Call it check mate and grab your coats, kids,” Ginny told them all as she moved over to Nat to help her remove the feeding bag. “Okay, are you ready for this?” his wife asked the small girl.

Nat smiled confidently. “I can do this… as long as James or Al goes first in case I fall out again.”

James snickered and went for the pot with the Floo powder. “I’ll go, then. See you there!” He took a pinch, threw it into the lit fire, and called out, “Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes!” In a swirl of green flames, he was gone.

Nat took a pinch and repeated the process.

“I’m up,” Ginny told Harry, before Al, then Lily went. Harry took a pinch himself and stared, for just a moment, at the flames. A tiny niggling tugged at his gut, but he didn’t know why. He shook his head. He couldn’t think about it just then, anyway.

George’s shop was packed as they made their way down from the vacant flat. Off and on George had attempted to let the flat, but anyone who moved in never stayed long. The noise from the shop could be canceled out with spells, but the smells from George’s experiments when he and Fred had lived there seemed to be stuck to the walls. Nothing they did could quite rid it of the fragrance of rotten eggs, burnt popcorn, and smashed ants.

They waved to George, grabbed hold of Ron who had been helping out a customer, and wandered out into the busy street where light winds knocked small bits of powdery snow around the street. Harry kept close to Nat and Lily, while Ginny stuck with James and Ron had Al.

Each of the children was wearing the Portkey socks that Hermione had created. If they were taken, they simply had to mutter the passphrase, which would activate the Portkey. They’d be whisked immediately back to Ivy Run.

Also, brilliantly, because none of them were the Secret-Keeper for Ivy Run, if someone were trying to tag along for the ride, the enchantments around the house would zap them, leaving them lying in a heap outside the perimeter. No one was exactly sure what would happen to the person, but they all were reasonably certain it wouldn’t be pleasant.

“We’re heading to Madam Malkin’s first,” Ginny told Ron. Ron already knew, but thanks to two decades with Hermione, he’d learned to shut his mouth. Ginny was already on edge, as was Harry, so she was liable to hex him if he’d said, ‘I know’.

They went into the shop, which was blessedly warm, and Ginny conferred with Madam Malkin over Al’s robes. “I think they need to be a little long. He’s growing so quickly.”

“Mr. Potter?” Nat came over to him. She pointed to a stuffed chair in the corner. “I’m going to go sit.”

Harry examined her with concern. She looked a little paler than usual. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she said with a tight smile. “I’m just a little winded and cold.”

“Okay,” Harry nodded to Ron.

Ron turned to see. “Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Thanks, mate,” Harry replied as Lily grabbed his hand. He glanced down at her laughing expression. “What’s up with you?”

“There’s a dress!” she pointed over towards a display.

Harry cocked his head to the side, not even bothering to look. “Am I going to get in trouble if we go look at it?”

“Yes,” Lily assured him solemnly. “I probably have way too many. Can we have a look anyway?”

“Why not?” Harry agreed, taking her hand as Ginny hauled James over to have him measured as well. James shot his mother a mutinous glare, but submitted to the measuring when she threatened to turn his hair neon-red.

The dress Lily was eyeing was a very pale green. It shimmered a bit as she ran her fingers along it. “I could wear this for Teddy and Victoire’s wedding, you know.” She turned her big, brown eyes up to him, pleading in a way that he knew meant he was sunk. “It’s practical and pretty.”

“Merlin, help me,” he groaned as he took it down from the rack and handed it to her. “Go try it on.”

Lily squealed and ran for the fitting rooms.

Ginny rolled her eyes when she saw what had happened. “You are the biggest softy, Harry.”

“It makes her happy!” he protested immediately. “It’s not as though she’s spoiled.”

They left the shop almost an hour later with shopping bags in hand and Lily practically bouncing with every step. “Can we go look at the kittens?”

“Uncle Ron needs to get back to work,” Ginny reminded her daughter. “We have already–”

Natalie screamed.

The next few moments slowed to a crawl. Harry spun to see a man grab hold of her, the same man he’d seen in the train station. Nat tried to throw him off, which knocked him off balance enough the he was unable to Apparate away with her immediately.

Harry pulled out his wand and shot a hex at the man, trying to miss Nat. She ducked down onto the ground, curling into a ball. People around them panicked and started shouting and bellowing for help, adding the confusion and din. The man fired back, but Harry deflected it with a jinx, which nearly bounced back onto the attacker. That was the split-second chance that Harry needed. He Stunned the man, who went down immediately.

His heart slammed into throat as he ran for Nat. She had tears streaming down her face as he hoisted her up into his arms. She was twelve, but no bigger than a seven-year-old. Harry passed her off to Ron, who’d run forward. “Back to my house,” he barked to his best mate.

“Got it,” Ron took the girl. “We’ll get a message to Audrey, too, just in case. I’ll see them to your place and wait there with them.”

“Thanks,” Harry turned back to the man and kept his wand on him as Ginny hurried the other kids back to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

He’s known something was going to go wrong. Harry had had a feeling, but still. This left him with a lot of questions and not a lot of answers.

What he feared most, what he hoped was not the truth, was that Nat was now the target of some plot.

If they were very, very unlucky, someone had discovered that was an Augmentum Imaginari. They’d learned that she could see magical signatures, and magical concealments. If that had happened, Nat’s life was now in very grave danger.

Harry felt a stab of anger. He’d been a marked child, through no fault of his own. The fury roiled as Aurors Apparated into Diagon Alley all around him. No one should have their childhood ruined this way. No one.

Back to index


Chapter 20: Chapter 17

Author's Notes: First off, thank you to Arnel for the quick turnaround in editing!

Readers, are you done with me yet? It's been a month of insanity in my home. We had a scheduled remodel of our house (which needed a new roof) and we started, the weather was fine, just a teensy bit of rain predicted. Then the hurricane hit and while we weren't directly impacted, the storm system brought in a ton of rain and my house was damaged. The ceiling collapsed in my sons' bedroom. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but this time that should have been a lot easier turned into very late nights of work and no time to write. If you want to see a picture, you can check out the one I posted on twitter @sarahjaune

So, my house is coming back together now, and I finally had a spare moment to write and I wrote the whole chapter yesterday. 6500 words! I was that determined not to make you wait any longer.

But, anyway, back to the fun of this chapter. It's a bit of a recap, but I think we could all use it. We're making a step forward and taking half a step back, in some ways. God willing my house won't take any more water damage and I'll be able to get back on an every other week posting schedule! What a mess. I assure you I'd rather be writing.

Last, but not least, my fourth novel comes out shortly! It's already out on selfy, actually. Otherwise, it's a spooky tail that's perfect for Halloween and I hope you will give it a chance, because I'll admit it- I need the money. My kids have no flooring in their bedroom :-/ Also, my first novel is only $2.51 on amazon if you've been putting off checking it out. If you like how I write characters, you will fall in love with these.

The Webs We Weave summary:
It's easy to say that curses do not exist, or that ghosts and demons are fairy tales, until the fourth man you've dated has died and your innocent childhood crush ends in leukemia.

Thus is the life for Carolina Richards. Most girls plan weddings rather than attending funerals. Where most people see a forest, she sees demons in the trees.

Now she must make the hardest decision of her short life: choosing between the life of another, or losing the only thing that has ever made her happy.
https://sellfy.com/p/Iqql/
http://www.amazon.com/Webs-We-Weave-Sarah-Jaune-ebook/dp/B0155PJRPS/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

***
As always, review and tell me what you think!


Harry kept his wand trained on the man he’d just Stunned as chaos swirled around him in dancing clouds of people, snow, and panic. Fear and anger warred bitterly in Harry’s gut, but he ignored them as he had for his entire career. He’d trained hard to learn to fight back against the urge to react emotionally rather than rationally. It was, Harry knew, what Hermione had been trying to get him to do the entire time they were at Hogwarts, but both he and Hermione had learned hard lessons. Harry’s instincts, his gut reactions, and his emotions were valuable tools when it came to fighting Dark wizards. But a cool head and steadfast logic would almost never steer him wrong. So he ignored the acid in his gut as he thought about the fact that Nat had nearly been snatched and waited for the teams that he knew were coming to back him up.

The Aurors and Hit Wizards arrived within moments, as Harry knew they would. They worked quickly to secure the man. Harry turned his attention away from the man, finally, to see Susan Macmillan staring at him. It was strange to know that she was head of this, and not him.

“Harry,” she said quietly.

“He tried to take a child,” Harry explained flatly, leaving his feelings buried deep inside. “I’d seen him at the train station when I was getting the children from school. I reported it to Kingsley. We exchanged spells just now.”

She tilted her head to the side and a single strand of dark, red hair fell across her cheek. Susan barely noticed it as she tucked it behind her ear. “I see.” Her tone said more than was spoken aloud. She did see. She was one of his better Aurors, much to Harry’s surprise and chagrin. When Susan had joined up, after the war, Harry had assumed she’d wash out. She’d been in the D.A. but Susan had never stood out to him, except as the niece of a great witch. She’d quickly proved her merit, though, and had earned everyone’s respect. Susan had a quick, agile mind that processed information and nuance quickly. What she lacked in aggression, she made up for in speed. She might not be who Harry would have sent in first, but as follow up to note the details, she was always sharp. He respected her immensely.

“I will discuss it personally with Kingsley, but the girl is safe,” Harry said under his breath, so only she would hear. Then louder, he added, “Let me know how I can help.” Then he took a step back, loathed as he was to do it. It felt wrong. He was supposed to be in there, right in the middle, but he couldn’t help the note of pride as he watched the Aurors that he’d trained perform their jobs, quickly interviewing everyone on the street to ascertain what exactly had happened.

The stories all lined up. The man grabbed a little girl, most assumed she was about eight-years-old, and Harry had come to her rescue. Harry had sent the girl off with Ron Weasley.

A flash went off somewhere to Harry’s right, but he barely paid it any mind. The press was always swarming around a big story. It would have been odd if someone from The Daily Prophet hadn’t been there. A small niggling of amusement flitted through him as he realized that it was no longer his job to give a statement to the press; or rather nag Hermione until she did it for him.

It felt like Hogwarts all over again when it came time for homework. He’d try, then Hermione would correct it. If he failed enough times, she ended up doing it for him. Harry sobered as he realized that was exactly what Hermione was doing for Zacharias Smith, her new boss. It was one thing for Harry to be rotten at speaking to the press. It wasn’t the main focus of his job, but Zacharias was actively damaging relations between the various departments and leaving Hermione to deal with the aftermath.

He shook his head, coming back to the present scene. The suspect had already been removed. Harry was not questioned further on the street, for which he was thankful. Susan came over to formally ask him to come back to the Ministry to make a statement, and Harry agreed. He had to focus most of his efforts on staying calm and in the moment, while his brain raced over all the possibilities. Nat was clearly the target. It was obvious that she’d been the one they’d been trying to secure.

He was escorted, as was protocol, by one of the junior Aurors, a man who had only qualified two years before. He tried to smile at the man, who Apparated with him to the Ministry’s main entrance so Harry could register as a visitor to the Ministry, but his face felt like it was glued in place. Harry could only hope he wasn’t scowling. “How have you been, Sam?” Harry asked as they waited for Harry’s wand to be checked. Sam was a big man, beefy and extremely muscled, but he was also fast. It was one of the reasons Harry had taken him on to train.

“Not too bad,” Sam said as he plastered on a huge grin. His teeth were the most noticeable thing about him, as they were brilliantly white. It was always striking to Harry, since his face was otherwise a dark, chocolate brown. His brown eyes were exhausted, though, telling the tails of the hours that the Aurors must be putting in on the missing women’s cases. Harry didn’t ask about how that was going. Sam wasn’t allowed to tell him, and he didn’t want to put the younger man in an awkward position. “It’s not the same, but we’re managing.”

They didn’t say anymore as they took the lifts up to the Aurors’ offices and Harry sat himself at Daniel’s desk. He had no idea where the personal assistant was, but was reasonably certain he wouldn’t be miffed if Harry used his chair.

“They’ll probably want you in the conference room,” Sam told him, “but they’ll insist I check that it’s available first.”

“No problem,” Harry assured him mildly. It was all an act. Inside his heart was still racing. They’d been having such a good day and now…

“I’ll be right back,” Sam said awkwardly as he shifted his bulk from one foot to the other.

Harry waved him off, not in the least surprised by what was happening. Five minutes later Sam was back to tell him the conference room was empty and he could wait there.

Harry sat in one of the large, comfortable chairs and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

He paced a little, but mostly he sat and he thought through all of the things that had been going on for the last twenty years.

The list of events were not random. His classmate, Vincent Crabbe, was killed in the Room of Requirement, which set his mother off.

“No,” Harry shook his head as he whispered the single word. It went further back than that. It went back to the Greengrass family when Oscar Greengrass had married Beatrice Fudge three-quarters of a century before. Harry could picture their family tree better than he could his own, because in that tree lay secrets, lies, betrayal, and heartbreak. All of it had led to the death of his oldest child, Hope, and was the key to whatever was going on now. Oscar and Beatrice had had three children, Oswald, Fiona, and Isabella. The first war against Voldemort had broken out while Fiona and Isabella had still been at Hogwarts, and Oscar had dithered about whether or not he’d wanted to join the Death Eaters. In the end, he’d decided not to and his daughters had been kidnapped by Voldemort in retribution for the pureblood Greengrass family’s lack of support, and they’d been given to men significantly older than they were.

Fiona and Isabella had been violated; raped until they were pregnant. The law, as archaic and misogynistic as it was, stipulated that they were required to marry the father of their child.

Fiona Greengrass had married Lucas Goyle and they’d had one son, Gregory. Isabella, meanwhile, had been forced to marry Samuel Crabbe. Their son, Vincent was the trigger in all of this.

Oswald Greengrass, the eldest of the three children, meanwhile, had married Virginia Bode and they’d produced two daughters. Daphne had been Harry’s classmate, and she’d never married. Draco Malfoy, however, had married her younger sister, Astoria. Their son, Scorpius, was one of Al’s best mates.

It was a complicated, and twisted, web that melded together.

Fiona had died a few years before. Lucas Goyle and Samuel Crabbe had both died in the war. The only ones still alive from that grouping were Gregory Goyle, who was still in Azkaban. He was up for parole soon, but Harry didn’t know if he was going to get it. That left Isabella Crabbe. She had been presumed dead, and likely she wouldn’t have minded dying after the life she’d lived.

Isabella was the only one among them with any kind of brain. Oswald might have been smart, Harry didn’t know. He’d never met Draco’s father-in-law. Oswald had taken his two pretty daughters and skipped the country when Voldemort was reborn. He’d learned from his father’s mistake and hadn’t risked his daughters’ lives or sanity. Oswald’s refusal to support Voldemort, especially with pureblood daughters that were not, strictly speaking, blood-traitors like the Weasleys, meant they were supposed to toe the line and support the Dark Lord. Daphne and Astoria’s removal to America had been all that had saved them.

Or had it? Scorpius didn’t seem to feel that his father was treating Astoria very well. Harry wouldn’t have suspected that Draco would be violent with his wife, but there was pressure, on all sides, and in this tangled web…

Isabella had been brilliant at potions, but as she’d never graduated from Hogwarts, they’d initially dismissed her as the one to have poisoned Harry and Ginny, which had ultimately led to Hope’s death. What Harry had learned about Isabella’s life was that she’d learned to play dumb around her family, while she secretly taught herself to be a potions master. She was brilliantly gifted, perhaps even a genius, when it came to potions. Her one joy in life had been her son. At seventeen, Harry hadn’t fully understood that because it had been Crabbe, after all, and he’d essentially killed himself with that fire he’d set in the Room of Requirement. Crabbe had none of his mother’s brilliance, or intelligence. He’d been a regular chip off the old block; an exact replica of his father. But Vincent had been the one good thing in Isabella’s life. He’d been her one joy and with him gone, she’d lost any reason to live. She’d poisoned her husband first, after securing the poison from Bellatrix. The only reason Harry knew that was because Draco had heard his aunt talking to someone about trading for the poison. Bellatrix had made Isabella promise to use the poison on Harry if she had the chance.

Well, she’d certainly arranged the chance.

But first, she’d needed to practice and Isabella had no love for her abusive husband. Harry wasn’t entirely sure he blamed her for that one. Samuel Crabbe had gone to St. Mungo’s where Audrey had researched the poison until she’d found the cure. Crabbe had gone on to fight at the battle of Hogwarts, where he’d died because of his weakened state: the poison robs a person of health and vitality, slowly killing the body until there was no way to repair it.

If Audrey hadn’t figured out that Harry and Ginny had been poisoned early on, they too would have been permanently afflicted.

After her revenge on them, and her failed attempt to kill Ginny after she’d miscarried Hope, Harry had assumed she’d died.

Except for the notes…

Notes came, still, once a year saying, ‘I know your secret.’ Every year someone, and Harry knew now that it was Isabella, had sent that note. He didn’t know what secret she referred to, exactly. It could have been Hope’s conception, of course, but Harry wasn’t ashamed of that anymore. He did want to protect his children, but knew that if it came out they would handle it. The boys were already dealing with it. Lily would take it badly. It would hurt her deeply to know how her parents had been used, but she would make it through.

If that wasn’t the secret, then Harry didn’t know what it might be.

Harry pulled out his battered pocket watch and saw that he’d been sitting for almost two hours. That wasn’t completely unexpected, of course, but this was still pushing it.

His mind flashed back to Cori, the first woman who had been taken. She had been found raped and she’d clearly been experimented on. She’d miscarried a baby, too. What had been the aim there?

Harry just couldn’t see what Isabella might be up to. She had a lot of reasons to hate and a lot of people to be angry with, but she wasn’t actively trying to kill him or seek revenge. Maybe she was over getting revenge on him. There was always that possibility, although Harry doubted it. Typically people who were bent on getting back at someone stuck it out until it was over, or everyone was dead. Now she was after Nat, but Harry didn’t know why she might want her. On the outside, Nat appeared to be a harmless child. There should be no possible way that anyone had figured out her secret power to visually detect magic. The only people who knew were those he trusted completely. His own children were acutely aware that if they told Nat’s secret, her life was in danger.

Harry thought that the kids had told Scorpius about Nat’s secret, but Harry’s gut told him they could trust Draco’s child. Besides that, Harry was certain that Draco had nothing to do with Isabella’s crazy scheme. The Malfoys were still trying to gain back their former glory after the last war and Draco was more about image than he was about purifying the Wizarding population. That wasn’t to say that they’d suddenly let Scorpius marry a Muggleborn, but they were a lot quieter now about their collective narcissism. It was difficult to see Draco taking up a cause with a woman who was so clearly off her rocker.

Harry stood and stretched, moving around the room. He was, thankfully, calmer now than he had been a few hours before. He admitted it was more difficult when the kids were involved, first with bodies being left at the school, then Caroline Baker being put under the–

Harry froze mid-step as the face of a large, blond man filled his memory. Why, though? The name came back, Dodi Baker. He’d met a man with hair the same color as Caroline’s, with the same last name. Her grandparents had said his name was… Harry struggled, trying to recall the exact details, but they failed to surface. Also missing was where he’d met the man. It nagged at him, right in the back of his brain. It was tantalizingly close, and yet just out of reach. Where…

He shook his head, knowing it wouldn’t come to him until he was ready. Caroline had been under the Imperius Curse and someone close to her had likely put it on her. She hadn’t recalled seeing her father, but from what they’d told him about the man, he was evil enough to have done it. He’d beaten his children and possibly murdered his wife. There was nothing to suggest that Dodi wouldn’t do something horrible to other people outside his family. Plus, he was supposed to be part of the American mafia, the Liens du Sang. All of Harry’s attempts to find out more about it had been met with dead ends and people too afraid to speak. The mafia would be the perfect way to smuggle potions ingredients, though.

If Isabella Crabbe was cooking up illegal potions, she wasn’t leaving a trail of money in any location that Harry had been able to detect. If she was using people to experiment on, she wasn’t taking many of them. It certainly wasn’t as though people were going missing like in the days of Voldemort, and Isabella didn’t seem bothered by blood status.

There was a point to all of this insanity. There was a plan, and if there was a plan that involved the Liens du Sang, then there was money involved. Harry hadn’t learned much, but he knew that their primary goal was money, with blood-status coming up a very distant second. The Americans were funny like that. If it served their purpose, then pureblood status meant something. If it didn’t, then no one bothered to mention it. America was more of a melting pot than England, anyway.

The door opened and Kingsley walked in, looking completely stunned. Harry strode over to him quickly. “What happened?”

“You are not going to believe it,” Kingsley told him in a dazed voice.

Harry didn’t quite believe it. In the time he’d been in the conference room, The Evening Prophet had been delivered and en masse, without a single thought to coordinate, half of the wizarding population of Britain had stormed the Ministry. It was a miracle Harry hadn’t heard a thing, because the entire Atrium had been filled to the brim with angry witches and wizards, demanding not only that Smith step down, but that Harry be reinstated.

The headline story had read that a little girl had nearly been kidnapped from Diagon Alley. The reporter, Brian Wallach, had stated that without Harry Potter’s quick actions, she would have been gone. He pointed out, yet again, that things were falling apart under Smith’s supposed leadership. He cried foul at the appointments Smith had made, all in the name of nepotism. He pointed out that no one had actually voted for Smith, but somehow he’d been elected. Brian had then gone on to demand action from the public to get the Ministry back on track.

It turned out that the Wizarding community had had enough, and they’d taken up the call to action. At the demand of an armed, angry mob the records for the election had been revealed. At a show of hands, not a single person admitting to voting for Smith. Everyone, instead, said they’d voted for Allison Macmillan, Justin Macmillan’s mother, and Susan Bones Macmillan’s mother-in-law. The call was put out immediately for her to take the job and in a stunning turn of events, Helminth Smith was out, Allison was in. The first thing she’d done, after coming forward to speak to the crowd, was to promise to reinstate Harry Potter as an Auror. Kingsley had immediately stepped aside, as he still wanted to be mostly retired, and Harry was brought down to show his unity while a humiliated Smith snuck out of the Ministry.

Then came the part that Harry absolutely hated about his job. They wanted him to speak. “I am not up to date on all of the case files,” Harry explained to the waiting crowd. “I do have every confidence that Kingsley Shacklebolt did as good of a job as I could have done in my absence and he has agreed to personally brief me until I can catch back up.”

A woman in the back of the crowd shouted out, “Will there be more kidnappings?”

“I would say,” Harry began, then stopped to think through what exactly he wanted to say. He didn’t want anyone to panic over the situation. “I would say that I am not confident we can stop another kidnapping with the limited information we currently have. It appears that only women and girls are being targeted, right now, but we do know men have been targets in the past. We are linking cases together as we speak. I do not want to jeopardize our ongoing investigation by revealing too much, but I will say that you need to be cautious. I do not think we are in a repeat of previous Dark times.”

“Is the child okay?” This was shouted from the back of the room. An older gentleman waved his hand, trying to catch Harry’s attention. “The one who was nearly taken today.”

He didn’t know if Nat was okay, but since he hadn’t heard otherwise he had to assume. “She is fine.”

“Do we know why they wanted her?” the older man asked.

“I’m not going to speculate on motives at the moment,” Harry explained quickly. “First, because we do not have a clear idea of the motives and second because I do not want to endanger the investigation or the possibility of getting the two women back. They deserve my discretion, and I hope you will understand and respect that. I think that the child was attacked because she was an easy target. If help hadn’t been there, she would have been easy to grab. I am urging everyone to be cautious, but I am also not saying that you should hide in your homes. It’s very unlikely that you will be targeted.”

Harry accompanied Kingsley back up to the holding cell where the man who had sparked a revolution was being held.

“There’s a small problem,” Kingsley confided as they moved to the guarded door. The room was warded so that Apparation was not possible inside the room, but there were still two Aurors standing outside, waiting for them. There would also be a guard in with him.

“What’s that?” Harry asked.

“He only speaks Portuguese.”

Harry stopped and turned to stare at Kingsley. “You’re kidding me.”

“I am a bit, actually,” Kingsley gave him a wry smile. “He’s pretending not to speak English, but with how he’s listening to us I know he does understand. We didn’t get much out of him.”

“I expect not,” Harry muttered as his mind raced back to Brazil and Nat’s original kidnapping. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Yes,” Kingsley nodded. “Yes, I am.”

Harry acknowledged the two Aurors on duty with a wave. He appreciated their congratulatory smiles, but his mind was still firmly on the matter at hand. He pushed the door open and found Sam standing guard.

“Thank you, Sam,” Harry said with a nod.

“No problem,” Sam assured him. “Do you need anything else, sir?”

“Not right now,” Harry replied as he took a seat across from the disheveled man with dark hair and tanned skin. His eyes were a dark blue and there were definite rings under his eyes.

Harry waited until they had the room to himself, and he pointed his wand at the man, lifting the Imperius Curse that Nat had said he was under.

The man flinched backwards, sucking in a large amount of air like he was pulling through a straw. He blinked, turned to look around him. “What happened?” he asked in accented, but flawless, English.

“We would really like to know that, actually,” Harry said as Kingsley took a seat next to him. His former boss didn’t say anything, though. Kingsley’s presence was often enough to intimidate a prisoner into talking. He had a way about him. Harry was only threatening if someone knew his story, which, of course, most people did. “You were following my family and you tried to snatch a child in Diagon Alley. Do you remember that?”

“I…” the man hesitated as fear flooded his features. “I don’t, no. Am I under arrest?”

“Yes,” Harry told him immediately. “But, depending on how cooperative you are, we might be able to arrange something. You were under the Imperius Curse, which means you were not fully liable for your actions. That weighs in your favor.”

He stared at them. “What do you want me to do?”

“First, we need your name and a little bit about you,” Harry informed him.

“Frederick Weise, but most people call me Freddie,” he blurted out quickly as his eyes darted between them. “I was born in Brazil, but went to school in America. My parents died when I was young and I went to live with my aunt in Pennsylvania. I’m twenty-eight and I’m an American citizen.”

Harry’s lips twisted into a grimace, but he forced his features to relax. If Frederick was American, they would have to contact the American wizarding government today. The Americans were a pain in the arse about their witches and wizards when they were abroad. “We will be sure to let your county know, but what would help us out the most is if we could see into your memories.”

“My…” Freddie paused, looking extremely unsure. “What about them?”

“Do you remember anything from when you were under the Imperius Curse?” Kingsley inquired.

The answer, was of course, no. He would remember almost nothing if the person who put the curse on him didn’t want him to remember. But that didn’t mean the memories weren’t there.

“Let me put it this way,” Harry told the man, leaning forward. “If you’re really innocent, then giving us those memories will be no problem. It’s a show of good faith, if you will.”

After a long pause, Freddie asked, “Are you going to look at everything in my past? I haven’t always been the best…”

“We have some specific memories we’re looking for,” Harry said, dodging the question neatly. He had two specific instances in mind, actually. “Those are the only ones we’re looking for. If we find you were ordered to take the girl in Diagon Alley, then you will be released and sent back to America.”

Freddie gave a curt nod. “Alright.”

Harry entered the memories with a mixture of trepidation and excitement fifteen minutes later after they’d retired to the head’s office. It was strange to be back, but it also felt right. Kingsley made a short crack about clearing out his meager belongings, but it was the right break in the mood they both needed. Neither of them was sure what they were about to see as Harry pulled out the Pensive that he’d liberated from Hogwarts a dozen years back. He hadn’t exactly stolen it. He’d simply explained to McGonagall that he was interested in a permanent loan. The surface swirled with images as Harry emptied the vial into the shimmering surface. “Here goes nothing,” Harry said under his breath as he bent his face towards the basin.

Freddie’s form came into focus and Harry saw they were in a dimly lit bar. From the writing on the wall, he guessed America, because the adverts appeared to be the sort that Americans went for. Freddie was standing next to a man, with a dartboard above his head. It had one lone dart sticking out of it, and it practically brushed Freddie’s dark locks. Freddie’s eyes were blank and his face expressionless. The man, who appeared to be a middle aged, balding grandfather type had his wand out, but concealed in the folds of a thick overcoat. “I need you to go to Brazil,” the man explained to Freddie. “There’s a girl there that we need. You’ll have to take her from her father, but he’s a Muggle. You won’t have to worry about the, and you will have help in Brazil. I will arrange for someone to meet you at the Brazilian Ministry entrance.”

“Okay,” Freddie agreed in what, to Harry, sounded like a robot voice.

“You will take her to a house and hold her there until we can fetch her back to England,” the man told Freddie. Then, blessedly, he muttered, “that will be our only chance.”

The memory shifted and Harry watched Freddie, who was watching Curtis Parker, Nat’s father, in the restaurant. Freddie was not alone, though. There was another man with him. This man was darker than Freddie, but not by much. His hair, however, was slightly silvered around the edges. The two made sure to keep out of sight of the table, but could also watch Nat, her father, and his colleague who were dining together. Harry saw Nat leave the dining area and Freddie followed after his companion motioned for him to go after her.

“I will subdue the father,” the older man told Freddie. “I’ll get rid of the coworker and meet you out back after you secure the girl.”

Freddie nodded and followed Nat up to her hotel room. From there it was simple to break in, kidnap her and secret her body out of the hotel.

How he removed Nat had bothered Harry. The Muggles had surveillance equipment, but they’d seen nothing suspicious. Freddie placed Nat’s limp body in a rolling suitcase and wheeled her from the hotel, as though he was checking out of a room. No one noticed. No one commented, and more importantly no one tried to stop him.

It was so simple, but extremely clever.

Once he met up with the man, they loaded the suitcase in the back of a large lorry, next to Curtis’ prone form.

“No trouble?” the other man asked Freddie. “Curtis went to the toilet shortly after you left and I was able to take him from there, dumping him out the bathroom’s window. I then jinxed the coworker so that he forgot he was eating with Curtis, paid the bill, and went to bed.”

“No trouble,” Freddie said absently. “Chloroform worked like you said it would.”

They drove for over three hours before reaching the home that Harry knew all too well. It was the house that he’d seen them rescue Nat from months before.

Freddie watched, dispassionately, as the other man levitated the bag down to the locked cell. He unzipped the bag, pulled the small girl out, and dosed Nat with something from a vial that he’d had in his pocket.

“I will stay here and guard them,” the man told Freddie. “You will go back and inform them that we have her and we’re waiting for an extraction team. Tell them I was able to snatch the man, as well, so we should be able to get some information from him.

Freddie nodded and left, Apparating away the moment he left the house. There the memory went blank.

Harry and Kingsley rose from the pensive and stared into the inky darkness.

“They removed his memory from there,” Kingsley sighed heavily. “Which means they didn’t care if we saw what happened up until that point.”

“It didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know,” Harry agreed bitterly. “We know how they got her out, but not what they gave Natalie. We still don’t know why they wanted her, or why the guard wasn’t there when we arrived.”

“What we do know,” Kingsley said slowly, “is that Natalie Parker cannot go back into the Muggle world. Whether it was their intention or not, we know that they want her and that the only real way to get her is through her parents.”

“But somehow she planted a body in Hogwarts,” Harry reminded Kingsley. “She could get Nat at school, unless…” his mind raced.

A lot of leads went back to America, including Caroline.

“Caroline might have brought the body in,” Harry said after a moment. “If she’d been under the Imperius curse, they might have been able to instruct her into transfiguring the body or concealing it long enough to get it in.” Even as he said it, though, Harry dismissed the idea. It was difficult magic that no child would be able to do, apart from someone like Dumbledore. It was impossible for Caroline to have done it.

“The security isn’t what it used to be on the castle,” Kingsley reminded him. “We relied heavily on Dumbledore to maintain the level it was at before the war. After his death, certain things fell by the wayside. I would say that it isn’t impossible to sneak anything in, if you have enough time and skill.”

It was a scary thought. “But they didn’t go up into the castle.”

“No, I think the castle is better guarded than the grounds,” Kingsley said as a knock sounded at the door.

“Enter,” Harry called out and Allison Macmillan poked her silver head in.

She was a woman of average height and weight. Her eyes were sparkling blue in a gently lined face. She was a few years younger than Arthur and Molly, and still commanded a presence. She smiled as she stepped in and closed the door. “What news?”

“Not much,” Harry said heavily. “We didn’t learn more than a few logistics. It does appear that he was not culpable for the kidnapping, though. He was under the Imperius Curse and was definitely ordered to snatch the child.”

Allison nodded thoughtfully, staring intently at Harry with very intelligent eyes. Harry had the uncomfortable thought that this was exactly what Hermione would still be doing to him in forty years. That kind of brilliance only grew sharper with age, cutting out all the things that they knew were fluff around the edges. “Do you know why the girl was targeted?”

“No,” Harry answered truthfully. He had guesses, but no solid leads. He knew he would have to fill the new Minister in eventually, but right now he didn’t want to overload her. Allison had enough on her plate. “This is much bigger than a few incidents right now, but I would rather we go over it later when we have time.”

“I can respect that,” Allison replied as she turned to Kingsley. “You’re going to hang around for a while, right?”

Kingsley nodded. “I’m going to work part-time with the Aurors, but I will be available if you need me. The job of Minister gets easier after the first few weeks.”

“I’m firing Zacharias Smith tomorrow,” Allison said after a brief silence. “I think I’ll put Weasley in his place, since she was doing the job anyway.”

“Good choice,” Harry said, “and not because she’s my sister-in-law.”

“She’s the most qualified,” Allison shrugged. “I would be doing the Ministry a disservice if I placed anyone else in the head’s position. I do want regular reports from you,” she told Harry, “but you can deliver them verbally or have your assistant write something out.”

Harry smiled sheepishly. “I’ll keep you in the loop. Speaking of which, we have to contact America. We have one of their wayward citizens.”

It was almost dawn before Harry made it home. He wouldn’t be able to sleep for very long, but he needed a change of clothes and a shower. More than that, though, he needed to wrap himself around his wife and inhale her sweet, flowery scent.

Ginny barely stirred when he climbed in behind her. Harry rarely worked late like this any longer, but whenever he did, she always slept through him coming back home to her. He liked that he could watch her sleep for a few minutes. She was still so beautiful and it gave him an ache in the gut to know he’d been blessed to be bonded to this woman. He wouldn’t have chosen anyone else, but for as angry as he was at Isabella Crabbe, he had to thank her for forcing him to marry Ginny. It could have been so much worse. Isabella’s intent was to destroy them, but as she’d never loved fully, she didn’t understand that nothing she did to them was going to pull them apart.

Ginny was his rock, his home, and his love.

She sighed in her sleep, snuggling further back into his chest. She’d been instrumental in getting him back out into the world, trying to get him to figure out how the vote had been rigged. Harry still had no idea how the voter tablets had been rigged. They were supposed to only register one vote per person. The witch, or wizard, walked into the booth, stuck their thumb on the name of the person they were voting for, and the vote was counted. The only thing he could imagine was that they’d been confounded as they walked in to vote for the wrong person, but the area was supposed to be heavily guarded against that sort of thing.

“Harry?” Ginny’s sleepy voice interrupted his musings. “You were there late.”

“You’re once against sleeping with the head Auror,” Harry told her as he kissed her brow.

Ginny laughed softly and stretched, rubbing her bare feet against his calf. “I heard there was an uproar. Mum came to tell me about it. I’m really glad, Harry.”

“How are the kids?” Harry asked her as he rested his face next to hers.

“They’re okay,” she said softly. “They were all scared. I think the scare set Nat back a little, but Audrey came immediately to see her. She is sleeping now, of course, but she might sleep through tomorrow. Audrey gave her a potion to try to help relieve the stress.”

He nodded, knowing she’d feeling his nose robbing against her cheek. “We have new information. It looks like Nat can’t go back into the Muggle world with her parents, at least not until she’s able to defend herself properly.”

Ginny groaned. “Her poor parents! That’s going to be so difficult for them.”

Harry didn’t say the next part, because he knew he didn’t have to. Just as Harry had been taken in to the Weasley’s home, he knew they’d give Nat a place to crash as long as she needed it.

“We’ll keep doing what we’re doing now, then,” Ginny said what he was thinking. “We can maybe see about creating a safe place for her in the Muggle world to stay with her parents.”

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to get the permits,” Harry reminded her. “We’d have to explain why we wanted to put those protections on a Muggle dwelling.”

They both fell silent as they contemplated the problem.

“We could buy a second home,” Ginny said thoughtfully. “Maybe a beach place.”

Harry chuckled as he thought that one over. “You mean, we buy the place and they can use it when she’s home?”

“Yes, exactly,” Ginny said, warming up to the idea. “I think that’s a great idea, actually. We could have a nice vacation home to get away to and they can have a place to still be a family. You’ve been talking about doing that for ages now.”

He wanted to remind her that she’d constantly said they didn’t need to spend the money since they could use Bill and Fleur’s vacation home any time they wanted. They had the money, that wasn’t the problem, but Ginny was still thrifty. She’d been poor most of her formative years and it had stuck with her. She didn’t want to spend money unless they had to.

“We can do that,” Harry said after kissing her cheek. “I like the idea and I think the Parkers would appreciate the chance to have as a family. I’d be able to protect the home any way I wanted to without anyone questioning why I was doing it. It’s assumed I would have security.”

“What would you do without me?” Ginny said with a grin.

“Bang off the walls, I’m sure,” he said as he kissed her deeply.

Back to index


Chapter 21: Chapter 18

Author's Notes: I managed to update faster this time! Thank you Arnel for helping me out with editing!

Also, pretty please, go check out my novels! My first novel, Shelter, is on sale for a limited time for just $.99! Less than a dollar! You can find it on amazon. My author's name is Sarah Jaune and the links are in my profile. Please help support my writing by going to see a preview of the books! You don't need a kindle to read, you can download to a web browser. Also, if you find my book's page on goodreads you can enter to win a free signed copy of my first book.

Last, but absolutely not least, my latest novel (a story of ghosts and demons to keep you up at night!) is on sale as well for $2.99! It's a Halloween treat. Summary:
It's easy to say that curses do not exist, or that ghosts and demons are fairy tales, until the fourth man you've dated has died and your innocent childhood crush ends in leukemia.

Thus is the life for Carolina Richards. Most girls plan weddings rather than attending funerals. Where most people see a forest, she sees demons in the trees.

Now she must make the hardest decision of her short life: choosing between the life of another, or losing the only thing that has ever made her happy.

**
I hope you enjoy this chapter! We're going to close one part of the mystery soon-ish, but other bits will continue on for a good, long while. Review and let me know what you think! Also, I know this story is a monster in length. I appreciate everyone who is sticking with it.
~Sarah


Buying a beach cottage in Devon was one of the easier things Harry did that week, mainly because he had nothing to do it with. Rather, after the kids were back at school, he handed the job of the cottage off to Ginny, who happily went around with Luna and her twin boys to go about and inspect homes. Ginny’s rational was that Luna was so rarely in England that she wanted the time with her good friend and that any home that could withstand the young twins, received the gold seal of approval.

It was a good theory. Lily and Hugo went along one day with Ginny. She’d expanded the car so that all four children would fit, even with the car seats, but Lily had been in such a grumpy mood that Ginny decided to send their daughter off to stay with Fleur for a few days, while Hugo went to spend his days with Gran Weasley.

To say that Lily was upset over the attack on Nat would be a major understatement. Early in the morning after the attack, Harry had awoken to his daughter climbing in to bed with him, straight into his arms where she cried on his shoulder for a solid hour.

Harry hated tears. He hated that he couldn’t fix what was wrong so that Lily would feel better. There was nothing for it but to hold on until the grief and fear had crested.

When Lily arrived back after her time with her aunt, she was definitely in a better place. Fleur had that effect on her youngest niece. The two were bonded and Fleur seemed to understand Lily better than anyone. It helped that Victoire was still living at home, and Lily was able to help with the wedding plans. She was full of stories about creating favors and picking out cakes. Fleur and Lily, apparently, made several cakes to test out for the wedding so that they would have the perfect flavor. Harry appreciated what Fleur had done for Lily. He knew that they made all of those cakes to keep Lily occupied, and that the favors for the wedding were made up this early just so Lily could keep herself busy.

He just wished they given him some of the cake! Harry had lunch with Ron, George, and Bill in Diagon Alley one afternoon where they told him about all the cakes Bill had been bringing for them and just how delicious they all were. Harry had to push that off to the side. He liked treacle tarts better, anyway, and it was a simple matter of smiling at Molly and asking nicely for him to have one delivered to his house.

Harry had been putting Teddy out into the field more and found that, like his mother, Teddy was going to be a good Auror. Harry was already sure of it. He wasn’t arrogant, as Harry had seen others try to be. Teddy was willing to learn, to be mentored, and when it came down to it, he had guts. He would dive in when needed. It did, however, remind Harry that he was putting Remus and Tonks’ son on the line every time he sent him out into the field and at this late stage in Teddy’s training, he was going out into the field with the seasoned Aurors.

Harry knew he had to get used to it now. Things could radically change, but if the questions that Al was asking him after the attack were any indication, his younger son was going to follow in his footsteps and become an Auror.

But at the moment, Harry had more problems than Teddy, or even Al. With the kids safely back at Hogwarts, he had to turn his concentration fully towards finding the two women who were missing.

He’d finally been given the details on the second woman. Her name was Jaylyn Teresa. She was a black girl who was two years out of Hogwarts and she hadn’t been seen in two months. They’d had no reports of her anywhere, and no indications if she’d left willingly or had been kidnapped. Harry re-interviewed her mother and found that it was out of character for Jaylyn to be gone from contact for so long, but that her daughter was a free spirit who liked to travel. There were no magical records of her leaving the country, so Harry had teams going to attempt to find Muggle records of travel, which didn’t always document when a person went somewhere. Jaylyn did have a passport, as her father was a Muggle professor at Oxford, but he claimed to have no knowledge of his daughter’s whereabouts.

The only crucial piece of the puzzle was that there had been a bitter divorce between Jaylyn’s mother and father. Because she had married a Muggle, Mrs. Teresa could divorce legally. There was no soul bonding. Also, because she was magical, she could remove her daughter from her husband and he would never find the child. The Ministry did have strict rules about such practices and could remove the child from the magical parent, but most of the time the Muggle parent did not seek to fight through the Ministry. It was intimidating enough, and despite their best efforts to ease the burden on the Muggle parent, it was still daunting to walk into the Ministry and claim their parental rights.

Their first break in Jaylyn’s case came a week after Harry was back in his position as Head Auror. He received word that the Muggle records had turned up a hit that she’d taken a train to France several months before, but there was no evidence of a return trip. Harry was in a tough spot. He could ask the French Ministry to do a search for her, apply for special permits to send one of his own Aurors, or assume she had left willingly and was not a victim of a crime. He didn’t really have the man power to send an Auror to France, and he knew that the French government wouldn’t give it more than a meager effort. The only option that Harry didn’t see as on the table was letting it go. He couldn’t let it go, not with Veronica Sinestra a confirmed kidnap victim.

A knock sounded at the door and his assistant, Daniel, stuck his head in. “Something came for you, sir.” He held out an envelope with a plain, red, wax seal, and from his expression, Harry could see that something was wrong with the younger man.

“What’s the matter?” Harry asked as he rose to retrieve the note.

“It came by crow,” Daniel explained. “I thought it was a small, black owl, but it was definitely a crow. When I took the note, the bird evaporated.”

Harry stared at him, stunned. “Right, clear out then. If you don’t hear from me in five minutes, send Shacklebolt in, alright?”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel replied, not needing to be told twice. He left, closing the door smartly behind him.

Harry ran his wand over the note, trying to detect anything, but apart from the faint hint of some seasoning, the note was free of magic. It would have been nice if Harry had had Nat on hand to look at it and know if it had been tampered with, but these were skills that Harry had possessed for many years. He wasn’t, however, as good as Dumbledore. No one was, to be fair, but since he understood his limitations, Harry knew he could be mistaken on the innocence of the parchment.

Deciding not to delay any longer, Harry broke the wax seat and unfolded the parchment. On it were coordinates that Harry thought were Muggle latitude and longitude numbers. He stared at them, unsure of what to make of it, except that it would be a specific location and someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to make sure he received them. They had to mean something.

Then he noticed the post script.

Come Alone.

~*~

Al hated History of Magic. The only redeemable thing about the class was that Nat loved it and could get them through the exams, and he wouldn’t have to continue on after fifth year. He only had three and a half more years before he could give it up. Fred had explained at breakfast that they would be selecting their subjects for the following year and they would do well not to pick divination because the professor who taught it, Professor Trelawney, was a dingbat of the highest order.

That was fine by Al. Unfortunately, Rose, Scorpius, and Nat were all set on taking Arithmancy which sounded very difficult.

“I think I want to take Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures,” Rose had told them. “I don’t want to miss out on a class with Hagrid.”

“You only need to pick two subjects,” Fred had pointed out to his younger cousin. “That’s a lot of work.”

“Will our schedules allow all three?” Scorpius wondered.

“Yep,” Louis had told them as he reached across the table for the kippers. “But really, you don’t want to do that to yourself. James and I are only taking Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. Those seemed to be the easiest. It gives you more time for the other classes.”

“I want those three classes, as well,” Nat told Rose, completely ignoring what Louis had just said.

Which left Al sunk. If he didn’t take those classes, he’d be without his friends and loathed as he was to admit it, he didn’t want to do any classes without them. That meant a lot of extra work next year.

A small elbow knocked him in the ribs and he turned sideways to see Rose’s eyes dart between him and the front of the class.

“What?” Al hisses, annoyed that she was trying to get him to pay attention in this class.

“Binns asked you a question,” she told him quietly.

Damn.

Al turned to smile sheepishly at the ghostly professor. “I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t hear you.”

History of Magic was the last class before dinner and Al was always loosing track of time while his stomach rumbled ominously. Normally Binns didn’t seem to notice that they were even there.

“I asked, Periwinkle, if you know who started the Giant War of sixteen-ten,” Binns said, clearly annoyed.

“Nope,” Al replied, not even bothering to pretend to think about it.

Binns nodded. “Very well.”

He went back to reading his translucent notes, which had been about a Muggle secrecy act.

Al shook his head in amusement. He couldn’t even work up the energy to care. All he needed to know was that wizards had been cruel and horrible to magical creatures, Muggles, and each other. The whens and whys were just an added bonus.

Besides, Nat could tell him anything he needed to know.

The second they left the class, Al shivered as a gust of frigid wind whipped through the corridor, leaving them all huddling together just to stay warm.

“Let’s get up to the common room,” Scorpius said through chattering teeth as a group of fourth year Ravenclaws passed in the opposite direction. “We can drop our stuff and wait there until it’s time to eat. I wonder if it’s still snowing.”

Al turned to a window and saw that it was indeed still snowing. “Yep. I wonder what we’re up to now.”

That morning there had been over three feet of snow on the ground. All outdoor classes had been canceled and the Quidditch match, Slytherin verses Hufflepuff was due to start early the next morning.

Scorpius seemed to be thinking what Al was. “They’ll never be able to play in this.”

“They can’t cancel, though,” Al reminded him.

“If someone dies it’s going to be a major problem,” Nat sighed as she wordlessly handed her bag to Al. He was used to that at this point, and he didn’t mind. By the end of a long day, Nat was often too tired to carry her school bag and her feeding bag.

Al slung it on his shoulder and continued on as though nothing had happened. “Quidditch isn’t cancelled for anything, especially not snow.”

“But this is an abnormal amount of snow,” Nat pointed out. “I can’t even go to the game if they hold it! The drifts are well over my head.”

“That’s not really saying much,” Scorpius laughed as he held a hand above Nat’s head.

She grinned back and stood up on tiptoes as the light from a wall sconce bounced off her strawberry blonde hair. “I guess not.”

“I’m going,” Rose said decidedly. “If they hold it, I’m going. I want to see if I’d be able to tough it out. If I’m going to make the team, I really need to be committed.”

“I am not that committed,” Nat assured her. “I will sit in the common room and drink herbal tea next to the fire while you three shiver through the game.”

The next morning, the blizzard was still roaring around outside and the storm had dropped another foot of snow, putting the piles over two meters in some places. They ate breakfast together before Nat wished them farewell, waving cheerily as she headed back up to the warm common room.

“You know, I reckon Nat has the right idea,” Al told Scorpius quietly as they piled out onto the cleared path.

They all three gazed up at the snow banks off to either side and Al couldn’t help but imagine them tumbling down onto the students. It was with relief that they made it to the stadium and climbed up to their seats, which were covered in snow. Al, Rose, and Scorpius brushes off the benches, but the second they sat, the wet started to seep into their trousers.

“Oh, this was a bad idea,” Rose shivered as she scooted closer to Al. She motioned to Scorpius to scoot closer to her, as well, on her other side.

“We’re going to keep you warm?” Scorpius questioned, bemused as he did what she wanted.

A low whistle blew before she could answer.

“Is that the start of the match?” Rose had to practically yell to be heard over the howl of the wind.

“I think so,” Al confirmed as he squinted through the swirling snow. He knew that players were out there, somewhere, playing, but for the life of him he couldn’t see more than a few splashes of green and blue, which had to be the players’ uniforms.

They sat through the game, unable to see or hear anything for ten minutes before Rose said, “This is stupid.”

Glad that Rose had made the pronouncement, Al nodded. “Let’s go back.”

They weren’t the only ones. Only a few of the diehard Quidditch fans weren’t already streaming down the stairs to head back to the castle. They almost tripped over Caroline as they made their way down the icy steps.

“Sorry,” Al told her, grabbing her arm to keep her from falling.

He hated that he saw her flinch. Al let go as soon as he was sure the older girl wouldn’t fall.

“It’s okay,” she shuddered as she hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know what I was thinking! I don’t even like Quidditch that much, but I thought…”

“We do like Quidditch that much,” Rose informed her as they began the hike back up to the castle, “and we’re not staying. This is madness.”

“They should have called the game,” Scorpius agreed. “They can’t hardly see to play and the Snitch might be lost for days out there. Someone is going to get sick.”

The warmth of the Entrance Hall was absolute bliss compared to the battering they had been enduring outside. “Oh, thank goodness,” Caroline sighed as she pulled her scarf down away from her wind-chapped cheeks. “What are the odds on us getting hot chocolate from the kitchens?”

“Excellent if we can track down Nat,” Scorpius said as they turned up the great staircase to head to the common room. “Hopefully, she’ll have seats by the fire saved for us.”

But when they arrived back at the common room, Nat wasn’t there. Al’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the empty room.

“Maybe check up in your dorm?” Al asked as he tried not to panic.

Rose didn’t need telling twice. She sprinted for the stairs and was back a minute later, saying Nat wasn’t there.

“We need to find her,” Al said as he forced himself to think. Then it hit him. “Polly, I need you.”

A moment later, the house-elf appeared with a loud crack, startling his friend. Al knelt before the small elf. “Do you know where Nat is?”

The house-elf shook her diminutive head. “I will go find her, sir.”

“Please,” Al said, trying not to beg. “She might be hurt. She was supposed to be here. We’re going to look, as well, and try to alert the staff.”

With another crack, the elf was gone and Al spun to his friends. “We have to find her!”

The four of them took off, back out of the portrait hole and ran straight into his cousin Dominique. She had her bright red hair up in a bun and her blue eyes sparkled, just as his Aunt Fleur’s always did. “What’s up?” Dom asked as she noticed their panicked faces.

Before Al could speak, Rose filled her in on the situation.

Dom, who was one of the Gryffindor Prefects, understood quickly. “You four look, I’ll find a professor. I just saw Neville not four minutes ago!”

“Wait!” Al snagged her arm before she could take off. “If something’s happened, you shouldn’t go alone.”

“He’s right,” Rose nodded fervently. “I’ll go with Dom, you three stick together and search from here to the Hospital Wing. It’s likely that’s where she’d go if she wasn’t in the common room.”

“Okay,” Al agreed as his cousins took off back down the stairs and he, Scorpius, and Caroline headed down towards the hospital wing.

All Al could think about was his father’s last words to him before they’d used the Floo to get back to Hogwarts.

“Watch out for Natalie, okay? She’s in danger.” His dad had been so serious when he’d said it, too.

Fear, anger, and panic coursed through Al as they ran full tilt towards the hospital wing. He glanced left and was amazed to see Caroline keeping up with them, not even winded.

It was too bad she didn’t want to play Quidditch. She was clearly a supreme athlete.

They skidded to a halt outside the hospital wing door moments before Polly popped up next to them.

“She’s in there, sir,” Polly pointed towards the door as Al yanked it open.

Al found Nat folding up bandages, sticking them in a pile.

She appeared to be perfectly fine. Nat blinked her blue eyes, glancing between them. “What’s wrong?”

“You…” he was too winded, and too stunned to speak.

Scorpius crashed onto a bed, laughing hysterically. Or hysterically laughing, Al couldn’t tell which. “You gave us all a fright, Nat! We thought someone had snatched you.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I was bored, so I came up here to help out. Madam Longbottom said I might any time I liked. You really thought I’d been kidnapped?”

The door burst open again, this time spilling in Rose, Dom, and Neville.

Al just shook his head and flopped onto the bed next to Scorpius. He was really, really glad they’d been wrong, but that didn’t mean his heart was ready to stop racing just yet.

It was only then, as his head lay back against the pillow, that he heard the low, sonorous rumble from outside the castle.

~*~

Harry stared at the warehouse in Ireland, unsure if it was abandoned or not. It appeared abandoned, but that didn’t always mean much. This was the place the coordinates had told him to go. He was here alone, although the rest of his team knew where he was and they were all standing by, ready to assist if needed.

It was extremely stupid to meet like this, but he didn’t have a lot of options. He hadn’t told any of his family what he was doing, because he knew they would be, understandably, panicked.

Harry walked slowly towards the two story structure that might have once been an airplane hanger. It looked to be the sort of thing he’d have seen in an old Muggle movie on the telly. The walls were sheet metal that was mostly gray, but had distinct patches that were starting to rust through. Broken window panes lined the south facing wall, the one that led up to what had been a road at one point. The grass was currently taking over, popping up through cracks in the tarmac, at least what he could see through the patches of snow. The grass, most of which was withered and brown in the chilly air, danced gently in a small, chilly breeze. It was snowing like mad up in Scotland and Harry knew Hogwarts was drowning in feet of snow, but the storm had only skimmed them, before slamming the north with ferocious tenacity.

It was supposed to have let up already, but it was holding on, stalled above Scotland. Harry had heard Hermione worrying over it that morning during a staff meeting between them and the new Minister.

Harry wasn’t worried. Hogwarts had seen plenty of snowstorms.

He cast the Homenum Revelio spell on the building and found that only one person was inside. He marched on, wand raised, ready for whatever awaited him, or so he thought.

Harry pulled the heavy, rusting door open a crack and peered inside. He blinked when he spotted Jaylyn Teresa wrapped in a thick, heavy down coat that was the color of warm honey. Her dark face was ashen and she appeared to have lost at least a stone. The last picture Harry had seen of the girl, she’d definitely had a rounder face. Her dark eyes were haunted and darted nervously around as she stood waiting for him to approach.

“We’ve been looking for you,” Harry informed her quietly as he took measured, careful steps to reach the fidgety girl.

A lone tear slid down her cheek and she pushed at it with the palm of her hand. “I’ve been really stupid.”

He stooped ten feet from her and waited. “Do you need help?”

“I’m going to be killed if they find out,” she told him flatly. “But… but I know where the other girl is being held.”

Harry’s heart leapt, but he forced himself not to react. “You mean Veronica?”

Jaylyn nodded as another drop of regret traced a line down her face. “I thought it would be better this way, but it’s not. Here,” she held out a slip of paper. “She’s supposed to be killed tomorrow. They figured out she’s infertile, so she’s useless to them.”

Harry took the paper, realizing it was a receipt from a market. On the back was another set of coordinates. “Let me get you home,” he pleaded softly.

Jaylyn shook her head. “If I don’t come back soon they’ll know something is up. You have almost no time to get her back safely. If… if I send another raven, come meet me back here again as quick as you can, okay?”

Harry opened his mouth to object, because he didn’t want to use this young woman as an informant, but she Apparated away before he was able to say a single word.

Harry stared down at the coordinates, his mind racing, and turned on the spot, vanishing into thin air.

He made it back into the Ministry, and up to the Aurors’ office, in record time, hurtling down the corridor to find his team. The grabbed Macmillan, Raeburn, and Gregory and the four of them located the coordinates on a map, figuring out that it was part of an old Muggle development. They all stood around the conference room table, staring down at what might be their last chance to save a girl’s life.

“We Apparate here,” Harry pointed to a location just off the coordinates. “It looks like that’s a stand of trees. Hopefully no one will notice us arriving. After that, we see the lay of the land and move in.”

The conference room door opened and Kingsley stuck his head in. “I need a word, Potter.”

Harry opened his mouth to object, then realized that Kingsley was eyeing him in a way that meant they really needed to talk.

“So,” Harry turned to his team. “I trust you three to do this. You have whatever resources you need. Raeburn,” he nodded towards the senior Auror. “This is yours.”

“We’ll get her out, Potter,” the older man assured him.

Harry moved to the door and hated that he was going to have to trust that they would. Whatever Kingsley had for him was going to be very important.

They were barely in Harry’s office when Kingsley told him, “I figured out the money trail.”

Harry sat behind his desk and waited for Kingsley to take his own seat.

“Donald Baker, otherwise known as Dodi, has been entering the country legally as a Muggle with a Muggle passport,” Kingsley informed him bitterly. “What’s more he has filed papers with the Muggle authorities to get his kids back. He’s pressing to have his in-laws arrested.”

Harry was out of his seat before the words had left Kingsley’s mouth. The older man waved him down. “You took care of it?”

“It’s done,” Kingsley promised. “We had no trouble with the requisite to tamper with the Muggle records. The children’s medical exam at St. Mungo’s was enough for the Minister to approve it. No, he will not gain custody. The oldest is still at Hogwarts, of course, and we have moved the youngest and her grandparents to a safe location. I took the liberty since this all came about while you were meeting the girl. That’s quite a shock, by the way.”

“To put it mildly,” Harry agreed dryly. “Anything else? You mentioned money.”

“Yes,” Kingsley pulled out a thick stack of papers that had definitely been printed using a Muggle printer. “We know how he’s getting money into the country, and it’s through a Muggle venture. He bought a national chain of stores that Muggles shop at frequently. He’s also to move large amounts of goods and capital into the country without anyone being the wiser.”

Harry growled in frustration as he read through the sheets before him. “How on earth did he pull this off without our knowing?”

“That’s the best part in this,” Kingsley grumbled sourly. “I just found out that he’s Helminth Smith’s cousin.”

Harry’s eyes rose slowly to meet Kingsley’s. “Bloody hell!”

“Quite,” the other man agreed. “Smith couldn’t have rigged his election. He was always too big of an idiot, but the head of the American Leins du Sang? He’s a crime boss. If Donald Baker didn’t know how to do it, he could have hired any number of people to rig the election so that his cousin would win and continue to shield him.”

“We should bring Smith in for questioning,” Harry said as he clenched his fist in fury. “I can’t believe…” but the words faded off because, of course Harry could believe it. Nothing about Smith didn’t scream smarmy or untrustworthy. He’d been a thorn in Harry’s side for decades now. “We should wait until after we have Veronica back safely.”

“Agreed,” Kingsley told him. “You’re not going on that raid, right?”

Harry was supposed to be the Head, which meant most of the time he stayed behind. It was exactly what Ginny would want him to do, but she’d understand if he didn’t. Being married to his best friend was like that. They understood you better than anyone else. He flipped absently through the stack of papers, trying to work through the rage that still filled him. He froze when he flipped past a picture. Harry went back to it, staring at the big, blonde man with the buzz cut. He had a massive, square jaw that was so cartoonishly American that it was almost laughable.

Harry had seen those blue eyes. He’d seen this man, too, but mostly he knew those eyes. Caroline’s eyes. Where had he seen…

Then it hit him straight in the chest, more painful than a punch to the gut. “This man was at the Ministry ball!” Harry exclaimed as he held up the photo to Kingsley. “He was harassing Ginny, and I went to save her from him. We came over to you after that, do you remember?”

Kingsley’s eyes went wide. “Maybe we should talk to Ginny about–”

There was a loud, single rap and the door burst open, spilling Daniel in. He was pale. “There was an avalanche at Hogwarts! They need help!”

Harry was on his feet and running again before he even knew it.

~*~

Al stared out the window in horror as he saw mountains of snow sliding down over the Quidditch stadium, knocking over the goal hoops, tumbling the stadium seating over as though they were nothing more than twigs. Al gasped in horror as he saw students flying, limbs waving, down into large embankments of snow.

Most of the professors were in the stands!

“Neville!” Al cried out as his godfather skidded up next to him.

Neville swore and took off out of the hospital wing. “Get help, Al! Call the Ministry!”

Al didn’t need telling twice. He ran into Hannah’s office, noting the Matron wasn’t there, and grabbed the Floo powder off the mantel. He tried to calm himself enough to light the fire but his hands were shaking so badly that he couldn’t form the words.

“What’s wrong?” Caroline asked, coming in behind him.

Al shook his dark head and called out to the house-elf. “Polly, I need a fire!”

The elf appeared next to him, nearly scaring him out of his wits, snapped her fingers and the fire sprang to life in the grate. Al threw the Floo powder in and called out, “Ministry of Magic” before sticking his head in.

It was the work of two minutes to secure help. He pulled his head free and found Nat and Caroline working to fix up the hospital wing beds. “Where are the others?” Al asked them as he came back into the ward.

“Went down to help,” Nat explained as she rang her hands and glanced back out the window. “I’ve never seen anything like that, Al! The snow shouldn’t have done that! There isn’t enough of it.”

“I know,” Al agreed as the suspicions he’d been harboring for several minutes solidified. It was a distraction and he knew exactly why. He stared at Nat. “You need to hide, okay?”

Nat shook her head.

“You need to go, Leah,” Al said as he took a step closer, totally forgetting that Caroline was there. “If someone is after you…”

“It’s me,” Caroline whispered, making Al jump. He turned to look at her and saw she was white as a ghost. “My dad sent me an owl a few days ago. He’s… he’s…” She started to cry.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Al demanded, a little outraged that she’d kept it to herself. “That should have been reported.”

Caroline shook her head. “He said he would kill everyone around me, including my grandparents, if I didn’t do what he wanted. I burned the letter, though. I didn’t sneak out of school like he told me to. Now he’s gone and done this,” she wailed as her arm swung out to encompass the snow.

Al didn’t have much time to think. Any moment, Ministry personnel would be streaming through to help aid in the search for buried students. “It… okay, you two go hide. Polly, can you hide them?”

The little elf nodded happily. “Polly is happy to help young master. I is hiding them very well. We won’t be found.”

She held out her miniscule hands to the girls and they each took one. Moments later, they were both gone.

It wasn’t a second too soon, because the fire roared to life behind him and his Aunt Audrey was leading the charge.

The chaos that ensued was tremendous. Every able bodied student was sent to help dig through the snow. The younger students, the few who hadn’t been at the game, were told to stay in the Great Hall, but Al ignored them. Instead, he followed his father out into the blinding storm to help search.

His brother was out there, somewhere. Most of his cousins had been outside as well.

Al spotted Hagrid first, mostly because he was the biggest one moving around. His dog, Lulabelle, was sticking her dark head into mounds of snow and pulling students up using her powerful jaws. Hagrid hadn’t had that dog very long, and she was only a puppy now, but at seven feet tall Al couldn’t even begin to imagine how large she’d be when she was full grown.

“Stay back!” his father ordered as he fell in line with all the other adults from the Ministry who had rushed to the school. They all move their wands and Al was left to wonder how they all knew what to do, and how to do it. The snow started to melt and black coats began to emerge from out of the pure, white snow. The moment someone is revealed, typically lying unconscious, another person rushed forward to bring them out.

Al could barely stand to look at the white faces of the people coming from the snow. He wanted nothing more than to rush in and help, but what if they weren’t just knocked out… what if they were all dead.

Without thought, Al turned to see Aunt Audrey running her wand along a small girl. He rushed over to see that it was a girl from his year that he didn’t know very well because she was in Ravenclaw. Audrey glanced up and noticed his expression. “She’s okay,” she reassured him. “Most of them are just knocked out. It was a hard push.”

Al didn’t know for sure, but he thought that if a Muggle had been hit like that, they’d have been… more than knocked out.

Something, Al didn’t know what, itched at his back. It wasn’t a feeling, exactly, but… he turned, scanning the world around him, but saw nothing. There was nothing to see except for acres of snow and frantic searchers. He tried to crane his neck to see the trees beyond, but there was nothing. Where had the snow come from? He turned back to stare up at the castle in the distance and noticed the convoy of people that was levitating the injured into the castle. The rooves of the castle were still coated in snow… a lot of snow. Al narrowed his eyes and kept searching for something. He didn’t know what.

Then he saw it. There was a speck, it must be a person, passing through one of the towers close to Gryffindor Tower. It was too large to be a student, Al was sure of that. Or if they were a student, they had to be in seventh year. The person’s head went well above the window and Al knew that window was over six feet tall.

“Dad,” Al turned to see his father helping a fourth year from the snow. He firmed his mouth into a thin line and said more loudly. “I’m going up to the Great Hall, okay?”

“Go,” Harry waved him off.

Al almost felt bad about lying to his dad, but not enough to change his mind. The second he’d gained the castle, Al took off at a run the window where he’d seen the large man. He thought briefly about trying to find his friends, too, but didn’t want the man to get away from him.

He ran past Gryffindor Tower and saw the Fat Lady still in her frame. She yelled something at him, but he didn’t slow down until he was right outside the corridor. Al stopped and poked his head around, but unsurprisingly, there was no one there. He crept along, trying to hurry as quietly as he could. He passed the place where the Room of Requirement was hidden and kept going. He knew all about that, thanks to Fred. Uncle George never hid anything from his kids, unlike Al’s parents who didn’t tell them anything.

James had finally managed to steal the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauders’ Map– Al’s brain froze.

The map. Loathed as he was to turn around, as painful as it was to think about abandoning the identity of the unknown man, that map was key to finding everyone. It showed everyone on the grounds, everyone buried in the snow.

Al spun and raced off for Gryffindor Tower and almost slipped when he tried to stop before the Fat Lady. “Bat Dung!” he gasped to the Fat Lady.

“Yes,” she sniffed. She hated the password, but one of the prefects had set it, so she swung open and Al took off for his brother’s trunk, hoping James had left the man in his room.

Ten minutes later, Al raced back down to his father, waving the map. Harry’s face lit up with relief as he snagged it from Al and quickly started directing the rescue efforts to the correct locations.

Al was ushered, none too gently, back up to the Great Hall by his aunt and he plopped down next to Rose, who was pale and shaking. “They won’t let us help.”

“I know,” Al nodded. He didn’t really expect that they would. They were thirteen… well, almost thirteen. “Have they found James yet?”

“Not that I’ve seen,” Dom said from her seat across the table. “Molly didn’t go to the game, thankfully.”

Al couldn’t keep it in any longer. “I saw someone sneaking around upstairs.”

They all looked at him, Dom, Scorpius, and Rose. “What do you mean?” Scorpius asked him.

He stared at the pale boy and shook his head. “It was a big guy. It had to be an adult, because he was huge. I saw him walking up by that corridor that leads to the Room of Requirement.”

“Where’s Nat and Caroline?” Rose said in a panic as she gripped his arm. “I just realized–”

Al felt his stomach drop as he realized the colossal mistake he’d made when he hadn’t warned his father about that. “They… they’re…” he cleared his throat and said, barely above a whisper, “they’re hiding. Polly has them safe.”

Al rose shakily to his feet. “I need to go find my dad.”

None of the adults paid him the slightest attention as he left the hall. Seconds later, Scorpius caught up with him. “Safety in numbers,” he assured Al as they made their way back outside.

Al spotted his dad and nearly cried out when he saw James in Harry’s arms. Al sprinted down to them just as James blinked his eyes open. “James!” Al called out, practically crushing his brother in a fierce hug. He hadn’t let himself think about how worried he’d been until just that moment.

Unbelievably, and truly it was Al would think later that it was James’ concussion, but his brother hugged him back. “‘M okay,” he slurred the words a bit as Harry finally set him on a stretcher.

“We’ll get you up to the castle,” Harry told him and Al was unsurprised to see the fear and worry on his father’s face.

“Dad, I need to tell you something,” Al blurted out urgently. He glanced around at everyone, but no one was paying attention. “I was with Caroline Baker before the avalanche and she said she had a letter from her dad.”

His father’s face, if it was possible, went even paler. “Where is she?”

“She and Nat are hidden,” Al explained quickly. “Polly hid them after Caroline told me. But Dad–”

Harry was already turning towards the castle and Al had to grab his arm. “I need to speak to her, Al.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Al shook his head and pointed up to the castle. “I thought I saw a big man up there. I think someone is in the castle and look at the snow,” he pointed towards the rooftops.”

His father turned to see what he was pointing at and realized why Al was so upset. “The snow didn’t come from the roof.”

“It didn’t come up from the forest, either,” Al replied with a shake of his head. “Someone had to do this, create all this snow. I think…” he didn’t say it, because it sounded stupid to say it out loud.

“I want to hear,” his father encouraged gently, and Al could see that Harry already knew.

“I think it was a diversion,” Al mumbled.

Harry nodded. “I agree.”

Back to index


Chapter 22: Chapter 19

Author's Notes: Nov 18th, 2015: I am participating in a podcast on Nov. 21st!! I will be answering fan questions about my writing, publishing, original stories, plot lines, new projects, as well as fanfiction, and so on. If you have a question, please visit my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sarahjaune OR email me at sarahjaune03@gmail.com

The podcast will be available shortly after and you’ll be able to find the link on my facebook page or on twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahJaune

Thank you Arnel for all of your help! Also, please see my Author’s Profile to find links to my original works. I love fanfiction, but paying the bills is also pleasant. Thanks again! ~Sarah

May Contain Triggering Material!!!!


Harry’s mind raced as he quickly ran through the possibilities. If the girls were really hidden, then he could leave them be and continue on with the rescue of the students in the snow. Harry had a lot of faith in the little house-elf’s ability to hide them. If anyone could keep them out of the way, it would be the elf who had worked in Hogwarts her whole life. If it was Dodi Baker running through Hogwarts at that very moment, he would be at the disadvantage. He hadn’t gone to Hogwarts, and thus wouldn’t know his way around.

But…

“Where else should we be looking?” someone called to Harry, which snapped him out of his thoughts.

The map would be helpful in tracking down whoever broke into Hogwarts, because Harry was sure that Al was right. His son had seen someone and there was no way this much snow should have fallen in the location that it had.

But the map was needed to save lives right now. Harry handed the map to Neville. “Keep going, Neville. I have to go check something out.”

Neville nodded, not even surprised as Harry took off towards the castle with his son and Scorpius trailing along behind him. He nearly told the boys to head back to the Great Hall. It was exactly what Ginny would have wanted, not to mention Draco, but he didn’t, mostly because he knew how much he’d hated having adults shove him to the side.

Dumbledore had given him a chance to prove himself, and right now he was with Al to help guide and protect him.

“Where did you see the man, Al?” Harry asked as they bounded up the steps.

Al pointed and took the lead, running along until they came to a deserted corridor. “It was that window,” Al said, pointing towards it. “I saw him there and his head was at least to the top of the window.”

Harry examined it and realized the man Al had seen had to be several inches taller than himself, at least. That was how large Dodi was, but it was reckless to break into Hogwarts. It was also nearly impossible, although not completely. The school was hooked up to the Floo Network, but it was monitored to make sure that nothing unauthorized happened.

There was no way… Harry stopped his racing mind and forced himself to think. Caroline was a cheerleader with a Muggle team, meaning she used the Floo to get home on a regular basis to attend practices. That meant her grandparents’ home was connected, which meant that Dodi Baker simply had to break into his in-law’s home and he would be able to get to the school without it raising too much suspicion.

It was so simple, so easy, yet a major flaw that none of them had seen. They’d left the girl to continue with her sport because she’d been through enough trauma and no one had wanted to take away something she loved, but that had left a gaping hole in the security around the school.

Kingsley had told him they’d removed Caroline’s grandparents and her sister from the home. There would have been no reason to leave security to watch the house. Not only that, but they didn’t have the manpower to leave someone at the house.

“Dad?” Al asked, interrupting his thoughts. “What should we do?”

Harry turned from the child who looked exactly like him, to the pale version of Draco with slightly darker hair. Harry hadn’t noticed before that Scorpius’ hair was starting to darken. He was intelligent, it was clear from his sharp, gray eyes, but the one thing that Harry didn’t see on Malfoy’s son was malice. There was nothing mean, condescending, or flat out rude about this kid. He simply wanted to help.

There were a lot of things they could do. They could search the castle, but with the size of Hogwarts, that would be a nearly impossible task. They could go back to rescue more students from the snow. They could verify that Caroline and Nat were both safe, but that might lead them to be in danger.

Harry was stuck without a way around it. Without the map, he had no idea where to search. If the man was searching for Nat or Caroline, likely Caroline, then he would possibly have a way to track her down, but there was nothing like that in the magical world, and no Muggle object would work in the magic-filled castle.

He needed to speak to Caroline and try to figure out what her dad was up to. “Let’s go to your common room.”

That, at least, could be searched and cleared.

They walked quickly back down to the common room and Harry smiled at the Fat Lady. “How have you been?”

“I have been well,” she told him primly, smoothing down her skirts. “Password?”

Harry held up his hand. “Is anyone in the common room or dormitories?”

The Fat Lady blinked in surprise. “No, Mr. Potter, it is quite empty at the moment. All the students who weren’t hurt are in the Great Hall.”

“I am going in and I want you to admit no one to the common room,” Harry explained quickly. “In fact, I would rather you made yourself scarce and didn’t come back for a while.”

“I cannot abandon my…” her voice trailed off. “Very well. Password?”

“Dragon dung,” Al and Scorpius said together.

The portrait swung open and they all climbed in, shutting the portrait behind them. Harry cast several charms on it, closing them into the room.

Now the only way in or out, apart from the fireplace, would be with a house-elf and Harry was going to solve the first one immediately. He took a tiny packet from his pocket and opened it as he moved over to the warm, crackling fireplace. He knelt, threw in a small pinch and said, “Ministry of Magic, Office of Magical Transportation.”

Within moments, he had made the arrangements to shut down the Floo Network in, out, and between the various fireplaces in the castle.

Minerva might not approve, but as Head Auror, it was his right to take control for safety reasons. He grimaced as he thought about the possible scolding she would give him. Or maybe not. She tended to agree with him on safety.

Harry straightened and put his packet of Floo Powder back in his pocket. “Polly, I need you to bring the girls to me.”

Nothing moved for a moment. For a single heartbeat, he thought that something might be wrong, then with a loud pop, the girls appeared, holding the hand of the little elf.

“Mr. Harry Potter, sir,” Polly squeaked with a small curtsey.

Nat sank onto a couch, looking decidedly green. Caroline’s face was as white as a ghost. “Are we safe?”

“No,” Harry shook his head. “I may send you back into hiding shortly, but I had questions about that letter your father sent you.”

Caroline sat next to Nat, while the boys hovered behind the girls on the couch. Harry sat as well, hoping to put the girl at ease. “What do you want to know?” she asked hesitantly.

“I want you to tell me, as much as you can, what it said,” Harry explained.

“I didn’t read it closely,” Caroline admitted while staring at her feet. “I skimmed it, then burned it, but basically he said that if I didn’t meet him outside the castle he would hurt my family. I warned my grandparents the last time I went for cheer practice, but they said not to worry about it.”

Harry bit back his annoyance that her grandparents not informing the Aurors that Donald had made contact with her. Since Dodi was not supposed to be in the country, he could understand why they might take it as an empty threat. But still, if she was supposed to meet him… “When was the meeting set for?”

“Uhm,” she chewed nervously at the side of her thumb, which Harry saw was red and raw. “Two days ago, I think.”

It was enough time for him to cook up some scheme in order to break into the school, and to cause a diversion. “Do you think he is coming after you?”

“I don’t know,” Caroline admitted miserably. “He never wanted me before. I can’t imagine what he wants from me, now, except to use me. I was nothing to him except a prize to show off when it was convenient.” She gestured to her face, and Harry felt intense rage at her implication.

Caroline knew that the only thing that made her father care, at all, was her pretty face. She knew she was worthless as a person to the man who had helped give her life.

“You know he’s sick, right?” Scorpius said to her. “It’s not you. My grandfather is pretty insane, as well, but nowhere near as bad as yours. You have to ignore him.”

“You’re worth more than that,” Nat agreed, taking Caroline’s hand.

She nodded, but didn’t speak.

“Was there anything else?” Harry asked her gently.

Caroline shook her blonde head, and gazed up at him with eyes raw from pain. “If you have the chance, kill him.”

Harry sat back in his seat, stunned at the venom of her words. “Caroline…”

She shook her head and turned away from him and Harry saw a girl that was utterly broken. Acid filled his gut at a sudden, horrible thought. He couldn’t ask it, though, not in front of the other children. Harry hoped he was wrong. There were many, many types of abuse. He knew that Caroline had suffered physical and emotional abuse, but…

No. She was checked for that at St. Mungo’s. She could have still been abused in other ways, but Harry was sure she hadn’t been raped. It wasn’t much comfort, but it was something.

Still, Caroline had every reason to wish the man dead.

“Okay, I want you all to stay here,” Harry told them. “No one comes in, no one goes out. Polly,” he turned to the little elf and wished suddenly that she’d agree to work for him fulltime. “I am going to ask you to take me from this room, then come back in and wait with them. If they need to be moved to safety, can you do that for me, please?”

“Yes, sir,” Polly assured him, holding out a hand.

“Stay here,” Harry reminded them, not that they had a choice. They were locked in as surely as everyone else was locked out.

A second later, he was outside the common room. He righted himself, then instinctively ducked a jet of red light that nearly hit his chest. “Go!” he hollered at the elf, who was gone a moment later, while he rolled and brought his wand up, ready to defend himself.

There was no one there.

Harry stood warily, gazing around the corridor, while he kept his back to the wall.

“That way!” a voice said from behind him, coming from the Fat Lady’s portrait. It wasn’t the Fat Lady, though. This was definitely a male voice and one Harry recognized all too well.

Sir Cadogan.

“Which way?” Harry hissed quietly.

“To your right,” Sir Cadogan blurted out in exasperation. “Can’t you see him?”

Harry bit back his frustration and scanned the walls, trying to spot something, anything, that could be a large man throwing jinxes at him.

This was stupid. “Come out, Baker!” Harry called. “I think we’re beyond hiding from each other.”

The man appeared suddenly, as though from thin air, his wand held in his hand. He didn’t use it, though.

This was definitely Donald Baker. The big, powerfully built, blonde man smiled pleasantly at Harry. “I am here for my daughter.”

“You can’t have her,” Harry replied, equally pleasantly. “You’ve lost all rights to her.”

“She’s mine,” he said forcefully. “I have heard all kinds of stories about the great, wonderful Harry Potter. You’re a bit of a nothing in America, of course.”

Harry had a fleeting thought about moving to America, just so he could be a nobody for once, but he forced himself to focus. Baker was trying to distract him. “What’s the end game in this, Baker? What do you hope to gain from grabbing your daughter?”

“Can’t I simply miss her?” Baker said as he started to circle Harry, who still had his back pressed to the wall. “She is my life, of course. I miss her and her sister dreadfully, especially now that my wife is gone. My wife’s parents never liked me. I’m simply trying to get them back, you see.”

Harry wanted to ask if Caroline was the real target, but he knew he wouldn’t get the truth out of this man. He also didn’t want Donald to know just how much Harry had learned. “Donald Baker, you are under arrest.”

“Only if you can catch and keep me,” the big man said with a vicious swipe of his wand.

~*~

Teddy listened carefully to Raeburn’s instructions as they observed the location where the girl, Veronica, was supposedly being held captive in the low, one story shack that didn’t appear to be much of anything. The boards along the side appeared to be rotten and falling off and there were several holes in the windows.

“I make out four people in there,” Susan Macmillan told them quietly. “I’m not detecting any traps between us and the front door, but I’m sure the door will be jinxed.”

“Here’s what we do…” Raeburn explained quickly.

Teddy was still in training. He was still a novice. He’d never done anything this dangerous before, but this was why he’d become an Auror.

The plan was simple. It was carrying it out that was going to be difficult.

“Are you ready?” Auror Gregory asked him.

No. “Yes,” Teddy lied as he closed his eyes and waited for the transformation.

“Remember to watch for traps,” Macmillan reminded him. “We’ll be right behind you, okay?”

Teddy nodded, too nauseated to speak.

He marched for the door in a body that felt nothing like his own. He wasn’t this tall, broad, or blond. He didn’t wait to be let him. He flicked his wand at the door, sending it flying open and marched in like he owned the place.

Three men jumped to their feet, wands raised, only to lower them when they saw who it was. Or rather, who they thought it was.

“What are you doing ‘ere?” barked a short, fat man with no hair and skin that appeared smooth as a baby’s bum.

“Watch your mouth,” Teddy growled, thankful that his modified vocal cords dropped his normal voice down another couple of notes. The trick was the American accent. He’d never been fantastic at accents, but at least American was attainable. When asked to sound French, he butchered it so badly that he Fleur had actually thrown a newspaper at his head.

He glared around at them and strode in, slamming the door shut behind him.

They all took a step back, clearly not looking for a fight with him.

“Didn’t go well, Baker?” one of the others, a man with a full beard and absolutely no fat on his tall, lanky frame. “Did the avalanche work?”

“It worked,” Teddy bit out, trying to keep the words short. He had to verify that the girl was alive and, hopefully, get her out so the team could storm the place and capture them.

“So, uh, where’s the girl? She’s going to do her nut if you don’t have the girl,” the first one commented.

Teddy pulled out his wand and Stunned the man. “Fuck off.”

Unbelievably, it worked. The man slumped over and the other two didn’t even bat an eyelash. Their assessment of Donald Baker’s character had been spot on.

“Any more stupid questions?” Teddy wanted to know of the other two.

They shook their heads.

Then, the skinny one handed Teddy a gift. “We saved the girl for you like you wanted.” Clearly, he was hoping to placate Teddy. He waved his hand vaguely towards a back door.

Teddy forced a cruel smile and strode for the backdoor. He couldn’t believe they were going to pull this off. He banged the door open and the girl jumped in terror as she stared at him.

“No!” she cried, trying to curl into a ball as Teddy slammed the door shut behind him.

He knew that the other Aurors would be listening in with Extendable Ears, waiting for this. The second Teddy Apparated away with the girl, they’d rush in.

“Shut up, you stupid bitch!” Teddy glared, coming towards her. She was manacled to the wall, unfortunately. He flicked his wand, releasing the restraints.

She tried to scramble away from him, but the poor girl was emaciated and clearly weak. Her dark hair hung limp around her thin face, but there was fire in her yet. “No!” Veronica screamed, lashing out at him. She sprang to her feet and Teddy caught her. He held her tight and concentrated and Apparating to St. Mungo’s.

The hospital had a specific room set up for just this purpose. It was empty, save for a bed along the wall. Veronica screamed shrilly as Teddy deposited her on the bed and transformed back into himself.

“You’re okay!” he assured her, holding up his hands for peace. “My name is Teddy Lupin. I’m an Auror and you’re in St. Mungo’s. You’re safe.”

Veronica’s eyes glazed over as she curled into a ball and began to sob hysterically. Teddy covered her mostly naked body with a blanket and went to find one of the Healers. Many of them had been called to the school to help deal with the crisis there, but a few were still on duty. He found a woman that he only knew by sight and explained the situation.

Then he turned back to the room, knowing he needed to take a statement as soon as she was able.

Teddy allowed himself only a brief smile. Yes, he’d been part of saving this woman’s life, but her life was never going to be the same again. There was no celebration there.

Susan Macmillan joined him before he was able to question Veronica Sinestra. Veronica’s parents and her fianc, Stephen Davies, all rushed into the hospital just minutes after Teddy contacted them to let them know she was safe. It was heartbreaking to see how broken she was from her ordeal. She had asked for a moment alone with her fianc, and he’d come back out to get them, pale and shaken, but clearly determined.

Teddy thought he knew what that was about. He’d heard in the briefing that Veronica was going to be killed because she was unable to have children. He didn’t know how he’d have reacted if Victoire had told him that. It wouldn’t have changed his love for her, and he’d still marry her, but it would definitely be a blow. They both wanted children.

“I’m just glad we have you back,” Stephen kept saying to Veronica. “We’ll deal with everything else that comes.”

The story that Veronica told Susan, while Teddy observed, was unbelievable.

“They took me from the market,” Veronica explained quietly. “I was taken to that place where you found me and they forced me to drink a potion. Then the men took turns raping me. They… they tried to induce ovulation a few times,” she said through a thick, veil of tears, “but nothing happened.”

Susan nodded sympathetically. “Do you know what the potion was for?”

Veronica shook her head. “There was another girl at one point, but I think she was working for them. There was an older woman, too, but I only saw her once. She seemed to be the one giving orders. But that one, the American that you were pretending to be,” she nodded towards Teddy, “he was also in charge. I think he had all the money. You’re…” her voice trailed off, but Teddy knew what she was asking.

“I’m a Metamorphmagus,” he explained quickly. “I’m really sorry about shouting at you. I needed to stay in character to make sure we could get you out safely.”

She seemed to be swallowing back something completely vile. “He liked raping me. He enjoyed torturing me, got off on it, the sick fuck.”

Stephen leaned over her and gently pressed his lips to her bruised forehead. “I’m so sorry, luv.”

Veronica smiled up at him, almost as though she couldn’t believe her luck that he was still there with her. “I made it out.”

“We’ll let you get some rest,” Susan said, bringing the interview to a close. “We will have more questions later, but for now I want you to have some time with your family. We will leave a guard on duty, just in case, but I do not think you’re in any danger here in St. Mungo’s.”

After some goodbyes, Teddy was left to stand guard outside the door for several hours before being relieved by another Auror.

He made his way from the hospital and walked back to his place, letting his mind wander through uncharted territories. He’d done his job, exactly how he was supposed to do it. He’d saved a life for the first time.

Teddy felt good about it, but couldn’t stop the pain from the look in Veronica’s eyes when she’d thought he was Donald Baker. It was fear and loathing that was so potent, it still felt like a gaping wound in his side. Before he knew it, he was outside his flat, climbing the steps to unlock the door.

The smells that greeted him were warm, fresh bread, some kind of meat, and a sweetness that could only mean Victoire. He smiled as he dropped his keys on the sideboard and went to find her in the kitchen.

She was stirring something on the stove, her back to him, even as she flicked a grin at him over her shoulder. “Hey. You’re home late.”

“You’re here,” he sighed happily as he wound his arms around her waist and hugged her from behind, bending to kiss the nape of her neck. “Merlin, you’re like chocolate right now. I needed your smile.”

Victoire set her wand aside and turned in the circle of his arms to wrap him in a tight hug, kissing him tenderly. “I just knew you’d need me tonight. I told Mum and Dad that I had to go, but I’m not sure they noticed anyway. Did you hear about the avalanche?”

“I did,” he nodded as he swayed gently. “Is everyone okay?”

“No one has died, thankfully,” she informed him quietly as the wonderful aromas wafted around them. “But a couple of the kids are badly hurt. Dom wasn’t in it, but Louis was. He has frostbite and a concussion, but Aunt Audrey sent word that he’ll be okay.”

Teddy let out a small sigh of relief that their family was all going to be fine. He kissed her again, wishing he could simply forget the world with the woman in his arms.

The world, however, wouldn’t be forgotten.

“Tell me,” Victoire prompted. “Tell me what you can.”

He did, at least the parts that he was able to share. There would always be secrets between them, things that he couldn’t divulge due to Auror rules, but he could unburden enough that he knew he’d sleep tonight.

It was only another few months and he’d never have to say goodbye to her, only goodnight. “Let’s eat,” Teddy said after another moment. It would come soon enough.

~*~

Harry deflected the first curse, parried with Expelliarmus, which Baker blocked. Harry expected this, though, and in his momentary distraction, fired off the Full Body-Bind Curse. Unfortunately, Baker was ready for him and blocked it with a Shield Spell.

A moment later, he was gone. Harry straightened, unsure of what exactly had just happened.

There was only one explanation and that was a Portkey.

Harry swore softly under his breath and checked the area around the portrait hole. Nothing.

It was one more thing they’d have to protect the castle from. The rules had been relaxed a bit since Voldemort’s downfall. After all of the Death Eaters had been rounded up, there wasn’t as much call for keeping the school locked down like a prison.

Leaving the kids locked in the common room, Harry went back down to the rescue.

It was nearly three hours before he was able to speak with Caroline about her father, and then all he was able to learn was that he was a rotten bastard. Harry already knew that much.

He didn’t push, though he suspected that she would need to spill those secrets at some point. After assuring himself that his kids, plus his nieces and nephews were all fine, he left the school via the front gate and Apparated back to the Ministry to learn that Veronica Sinestra was safe and in St. Mungo’s.

He didn’t like Raeburn’s tactic of using Teddy to gain entrance to the building. It could have gone horribly wrong, straight from the off, but he had to admit it was a clever gamble and he was glad that his godson had acquitted himself admirably.

Harry made it home to a nearly silent house. Lily and Ginny were both sitting at the kitchen table, mugs of tea in their hands, when he appeared in the fireplace. Lily cried in relief when she saw him and ran for him, practically throwing herself into his arms for a big hug. “Are they okay?”

“Yes,” he promised as he kissed her brow.

Unbidden, the image of Caroline’s damaged, hate-filled eyes flew through his mind. Caroline’s expectation of her father was that he would hit and abuse her. She’d likely never ran to Dodi Baker for comfort or reassurance. She’d never known his love or had trust in him.

It was so unbelievably sad that Harry felt his eyes sting from it. That child was in for a rough road. If she and her sister ever made it out of this to live a normal life, it would be a miracle. Harry’s childhood had been, by all accounts, miserable, but at least his aunt and uncle never violated him. They’d abused him, but he’d never had to worry that one of them was going to treat him so inappropriately that he’d wished them dead.

He’d just wished them far away from him.

“Harry?” Ginny’s voice broke into his maudlin thoughts. “Are you hungry?”

She looked pale and tired, worn down from all the stress and worry. Harry had a fleeting thought that this was what Molly Weasley had gone through when Voldemort had been powerful.

Or maybe it had been worse.

Whatever it was, it was definitely wearing on them.

The worst part was they were no closer to ending this than they had been the day before. The only bright spot was that they’d saved everyone, including Veronica.

And Minerva hadn’t been too cross that he’d sealed all the fireplaces and wasn’t letting up on that any time soon.

~*~

“Hey.”

James turned from the common room fire towards the small voice that was calling from the darkened, seemingly empty room behind him.

His head throbbed amazingly, even though Hannah had told him he should be feeling better right now. The pain was too much, though, and he’d wandered down in the middle of the night to stare at the dying fire and try to build up the energy to go get more headache potion.

What he didn’t need right now was Caroline Baker. She always made his head ache more as he fought to find things to say to her that wouldn’t make her cry.

He felt himself shift away from her, more annoyed than he cared to admit. James felt like dragon dung and he didn’t want to be tiptoeing around this girl who left him confused and… he didn’t know what, exactly, but it wasn’t a nice feeling.

The couch dipped a little as she sat on the other end. “I couldn’t sleep, either. Are you okay?”

“No,” he bit out, still not wanting to talk.

He half expected her to get up and leave, but she didn’t. James shot her a sideways glance and noticed her chewing on her thumb. It was bleeding. “Stop!” he told her, swatting her hand away from her mouth. He took ahold of it, even as she tried to pull away, and focused on the raw skin. “Bloody hell, Caroline! Look what you did to yourself!”

She did look, but if she cared she didn’t show it. Caroline continued to pull on her hand until he let go, and she folded her fingers together in her lap, keeping them still.

James waited, but she seemed unable to speak, so he went back to watching the fire.

They sat in silence for a good ten minutes before she spoke. “I’m sorry for the avalanche. The whole thing is my fault.”

It sounded as though every word she spoke was unbelievably painful to utter. James didn’t even bother to turn her way. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard today. You didn’t make your father do that.”

“I should have just gone to meet him,” she went on, like he hadn’t said anything at all. “He’d have what he wanted and that would have been the end of it.”

“Until he used you to get to us,” James pointed out spitefully. He cursed himself silently, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut. “Sorry,” he muttered, feeling like an arse. “I didn’t mean…”

“There’s no point in any of this,” Caroline told him in a tone that screamed resignation. “You have no idea… there’s no point. I should just give up and let him take me. He’ll eventually kill me like he killed my mom, but I already feel dead anyway. There’s no point in fighting anymore, not after all that’s happened.”

Suddenly, his head didn’t hurt anymore. It was as though he’d been struck by lightning, and the only thing he could think about was the burn that centered in his heart, straight where the jolt had gone in. James turned to face her now, fierce and angry. “Stop it! You’re not dead! You’ve already survived him.”

Caroline’s eyes closed as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. “I wish he was dead. I wish I was dead.”

He wanted to ask why she was telling him, of all people, any of this, but the words wouldn’t form. Nothing came out of his mouth, even when he forced it open, trying to pry words from his numb lips. The anger evaporated into fear.

“My sister wants to kill herself,” Caroline sobbed, still with her eyes slammed shut. “I did, too, but I told her we’d live for each other. I can’t do it anymore. I hurt too much.”

James let out a slow, aching breath. “Okay.” He stood and reached down to gently take her hand. He tugged until she stood, and led her out towards the portrait hole.

The fact that she didn’t even question him was unbelievable. She didn’t pull her hand from his, as he pushed the portrait open and stepped out to see Neville standing guard.

“James, what are you–” he began, then blinked as he saw Caroline.

“We’re going to see Hannah,” James told him softly. “It’s…”

Neville sized them up, but Caroline’s tears, plus her refusal to meet anyone’s eyes seemed to settle the matter. “Straight up there, yeah?”

James nodded. Whatever Caroline was going through, it was too big for him. She needed more help than that. He was only fourteen and knew nothing about… whatever this was.

They walked slowly, silently.

“I don’t want to go,” Caroline admitted after a minute. “But, I think I have to.”

“I think you do, too,” James agreed.

“I didn’t tell your dad everything,” she said as she pulled him to a stop. “I can’t tell anyone what happened.”

James stared down into her beautiful face, with her red, puffy eyes and tried to think of how to make this right. There was nothing he could do, though. “You can tell my dad anything. He’s… he’s the perfect person to tell.”

Grief, so raw, rushed over her that James had to fight not to reach out and hug her. If it had been Lily, that’s what he’d have done. Well… if he was honest, James would have only done that as long as no one else was around to take the mickey out of him. He knew what Caroline would do. She didn’t like to be touched. He was still shocked that she was holding his hand, but odds were good she’d try to flee if she wasn’t, so he suspected it was the last part of her that was going for self-preservation.

“You are so lucky,” Caroline hiccupped as she swiped at her face with her free hand. “My father is… God, he’s such a bastard. He’s a sick, sick, bastard.”

He waited, not sure he wanted to know, but absolutely sure that if she wanted to share that he would listen.

Caroline inhaled deeply and waved at her face. “He thinks I’m beautiful, you know. ‘Caroline, at least you’re beautiful, because you’d be a useless idiot otherwise.’ That’s what he’d say to me.”

James honestly couldn’t imagine it. She wasn’t stupid.

“He’d tell his friends about me, but ignore my sister, Honor,” she went out, letting out the poison. “Then he’d whisper it to me in the dark.”

Icy horror filled him as he realized just what she was implying. James squeezed her fingers lightly, reflexively, but it seemed to snap her from whatever place she was in.

Embarrassed, Caroline turned away. “What’s the point in living after that?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” James croaked as he fought not to cry. “He’s the one who’s wrong in this. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You British have this sense of purity,” Caroline said bitterly. “You have this code that everyone lives by because of this blood status mania and you know what?” she turned back to glare at him like it was his fault. “I’m never going to fit into that, all because my father thought was I was beautiful.”

“No!” James shook his head frantically. “That has nothing to do with you! That’s not your fault!”

She almost pulled away from him, but he tightened his hold. “Let go.”

He wanted to do what she asked, but James knew her life was at stake. “As soon as we’re at the hospital wing.”

“I don’t want to go,” she pulled again, but not enough to break free. James was sure she was stronger than the effort she was making.

She was mad, now, but it could switch back to destroyed at any moment.

Slowly, James stepped towards her. Moving carefully, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to him.

After only a few seconds, she broke down sobbing on his shoulder.

Eventually, he managed to get her up to Hannah, who gave Caroline a potion to help her sleep.

The next morning, James learned that she’d been removed to St. Mungo’s for further evaluation.

Neville found him later and commended him on what he’d done.

The words meant nothing, though. All James was left with was the memory of this girl who had been utterly destroyed by her father, the man who was supposed to protect her.

All while James had always been a total arse to his own father.

He sought Al out later on and made a point to talk to his little brother as though they were friends and James hadn’t spent his entire life being a berk to him. Al, although a little confused, went along with it.

There was nothing like a midnight confession to give him perspective, and the perspective James was left with was that he really didn’t like the person he’d been most of his life.

It was time to change that.

Go up and read my author's note please!!!!

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Chapter 23: Chapter 20

Author's Notes: This is a difficult chapter. Just warning you now.

If you want to read the transcript of my podcast, you can read it here: http://knitterwithkids.blogspot.com/2015/11/q-with-sarah-jaune.html

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing.

Let me know what you think. This chapter went in a way I didn't expect.


Chapter 20

“She’s not doing well,” Audrey sighed miserably as she rubbed at her brow. The dim lights of the private ward in St. Mungo’s were meant to sooth, but instead always gave Harry eyestrain from trying to see everyone. “We’ve had a few of the trained therapists in with her, but she’s not opening up. The potions are helping, though. I took another look and you were right.”

Dread filled him until it was almost bursting from Harry. “She’s been raped?”

“He healed it,” Audrey bit out in disgust. “That’s why we didn’t see it before. It was subtle. He’d beat them, leave those wounds to fester, but it’s almost like he couldn’t stand just how sick he is, so he healed her bruises from the rapes. Merlin, Harry, it’s bloody sick.”

Harry, quite simply, wanted to vomit. Her own father… “I need to speak to her if you think she’s ready.”

Audrey shrugged helplessly. “She said she wanted to speak to you, but I can’t see that you’ll get much more out of her. She’s a mess.”

Harry nodded, understanding completely as he pushed open Caroline’s door. The little girl sat in the bed, a book in her lap. She stared off towards the walls, though. She turned to see him, her blue eyes red-rimmed and achingly raw with emotion. He moved in to sit on the stool by her bed, and her resignation was almost too much for him to stand. “Hello, Caroline.”

“Hi,” she sniffed as she glanced down at the book, seemingly surprised that it was still there. She closed it and set it off on her side table. “I didn’t tell you everything.”

“That’s okay,” Harry assured her gently. “You can tell me now, or later. We have time. I understand why you held some things back.”

Caroline chewed at her bottom lip, which was bruises and puffy. This was clearly something she did on a regular basis. “He never did it to Honor. If he had, I’d have tried to kill him. He said he only wanted me because I am so beautiful.”

Revulsion and bile clogged Harry’s throat and he had to fight them both back so that he could remain focused on the girl before him.

It didn’t matter how many times he’d heard this same story. It never, ever, became any easier to take in.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Harry told her.

She smiled a little. “That’s what James said. He told me to tell you, but…”

It still left him a little stunned that James, of all people, had been there to help this girl. He hoped that it meant his son was really, and truly, starting to grow up. He was fourteen, after all, but he’d been spoiled much of his life. He’d never really had to deal with anything. It had been exactly what Harry had wanted for his children, but it did have some unintended consequences. “There is no ‘but’ in this,” he told the girl. “You are blameless.”

Caroline hunched her shoulders like she didn’t really believe it. “I need to tell you about my father. I know I have to, but it’s just so–” she cut off her words and stared straight ahead of her. “My father likes to be the best. He saw having a beautiful wife as the best thing. He wanted a son, but there was only myself and Honor. My mom couldn’t have children after Honor, but I don’t know why. My father wanted us to behave perfectly and when we didn’t, he beat us. My father wanted to be the wealthiest, so he stole when he couldn’t easily earn. He hires henchmen to do his dirty work for him, bullying and intimidating people into doing what will make him rich and powerful.”

None of this surprised Harry.

“My mom started drinking to ease her pain,” Caroline admitted quietly. “It was so bad dealing with him that she wanted to escape from him. He raped her. We heard him doing it. I think he liked that, actually.”

The matter-of-fact way that she put it was revolting.

“Then he started in on me,” Caroline said. “He’d come into my room and he’d tie me up, rape me, then heal it. He didn’t want me to forget. He’d whisper that I was beautiful and I was his. I belonged to him. I…” Tears poured down her cheeks as the poisonous words spilled from her lips. “I lied before when I said he didn’t care about us going. He didn’t care about Honor. He never cared about her, because she wasn’t something he could be proud of. He didn’t see how great she is. But, I think he didn’t fight hard to get us back, at first, because he had me under the Imperius Curse, and also because he didn’t want me to spill his secrets. If his friends knew he’d been raping me,” Caroline continued as her fingers restlessly kneaded the blanket, “they’d have been horrified. That’s just not something people are okay with.”

“You know this is all his fault,” Harry reminded her carefully. “He’s the one who is sick and demented. No one is going to hold this against you.”

“My father will be after power and money,” Caroline concluded, ignoring what he’d said. “Whatever is going on, he sees a chance to get even richer and gain even more power. You can count on that.”

Harry stared into her shattered blue eyes, on a face that was pale and sunken in. “If I can, I will kill him.”

He’d never promised that before. He’d never wanted to be a murderer, but he also knew that for a man like Donald Baker, there was no prison that would hold him forever. He had too much money, too much clout, to be pinned down. Dodi had seen to that himself. The only way this girl and her sister would ever be safe would be if their father was dead.

Dodi would never forgive the insult of this girl abandoning him. It was a stab in the back that told Dodi he wasn’t actually the best, and Caroline knew it.

“Are you doing okay here?” Harry asked her.

Caroline nodded and turned away. “I like it here. I like school, too, but I needed a break. There’s too many people and wearing a mask all the time is exhausting.”

As Harry left her room ten minutes later, he had to wonder just how many people wore masks just like hers every day to hide the gaping wounds that had been inflicted upon them.

It was sickening to even consider.

~*~

Ginny couldn’t concentrate on the game. It wasn’t as though it was a major game, or anything, because the Cannons vs Puddlemere was essentially just a matter of ‘when’ the Cannons lost. They would lose. They always lost.

Ron was an idiot for still supporting them, and now he sat glumly beside her while Puddlemere Chaser, Bebe Specks scored yet another goal, putting the score to four hundred sixty to ten.

Sadly, the ten points for the Cannons had been when the Puddlemere’s own Keeper had accidentally kicked the Quaffle into his own hoop.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Ginny reminded him as she bounced her knees, trying to warm up. It was February and so bloody cold that she feared the tip of her nose would fall off.

“It’s fine,” Ron told her through gritted teeth. “There’s still time.”

Ginny managed to not roll her eyes, but it was a close thing. Many times Ginny would be given two tickets for a game, and Ron always came to watch the Cannons.

It was a blood bath, though. This was the worst year the Cannons had had in almost a decade.

Still, it was a nice diversion from her regular life which was basically falling apart around her. Ginny hadn’t wanted to admit it at first, but there was really no way to deny it now. Harry was never home. He still wasn’t home, actually. Teddy was spending the night at Ivy Run to be with Lily. She could have gone home with Hugo, but Teddy had offered and Lily missed her god brother.

Harry’s obsession with Isabella Crabbe was taking up his every waking moment. He was spending most of his nights working through tips that came in from the public. He used countless hours trying to piece together just what Donald Baker was trying to do in England and how they were related to each other.

He’d missed the fact that his wife was upset. She didn’t blame him, exactly. Ginny hadn’t had the heart to tell him she needed more from him when she knew, quite simply, he didn’t have any more to give. He’d been like this through their whole marriage, but never had a problem run this long. Even Voldemort had only been in a body for three years. He’d been much more dangerous, but it had been a significantly shorter duration.

Ginny also knew that Harry felt guilty about everything. He’d been part of Isabella’s son dying, even though Vincent Crabbe had lit the fire that took his life. Harry hadn’t been there for the years of abuse that had driven Isabella crazy, but her son’s death had sent her over the edge. As a result, she’d nearly killed Ginny, and had killed their daughter, Hope, in an attempt to exact revenge. Harry desperately wanted to keep them safe.

He thought that working all hours was going to do that.

“Are you okay?” Ron asked her suddenly, jolting her from her maudlin musings.

Ginny nodded, not wanting to burden Ron. Hermione had confided to her that she and Ron had been fighting a lot. It wasn’t exactly unexpected, because they’d always fought a lot, but Hermione was definitely starting to wish the fighting would end. There was no divorce, though. It was comforting, and also extremely frustrating. A soul bond couldn’t be undone.

Ginny wasn’t entirely sure Hermione wouldn’t just go off the deep end and murder Ron in her sleep. They fought over money, working hours, and Merlin only knew what.

“Hermione told you, didn’t she?” Ron said in a voice so low she almost missed it.

She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. Hermione was one of her best friends and her sister.

“We’re not…” Ron began, but cut himself off. “She’s working all the time, you know. Now that she’s the head of the department, we never see her. It’s not really a marriage if you have no idea what’s going on in your spouse’s life.”

It was one of those oddly insightful things that Ron sometimes spit out and Ginny couldn’t do more than nod. She did understand that. When they’d been younger, so much of their lives had been dominated by passion. It was easier to skate through the rough patches where apathy and presumption that the other person would always be there, no matter how much they were neglected. Once the reunion happened, it was fireworks and magic, typically in bed. Now, after twenty years, Ginny knew that these parts were not to be taken for granted.

She would still have a husband at the end of the day. The soul bond ensured that neither of them could leave, but it didn’t mean they’d like the other person. It didn’t mean that Harry wouldn’t look at her with resentment, or Ginny stare at him in anger. They didn’t have to like the person they were living with. That was how a lot of couples ended up living alone.

It wasn’t the way Ginny wanted her relationship to turn out, but Harry wasn’t in a place to hear her. He was drowning in the horrors of the case, and just how enormous the problem was. Something had happened with one of James’ classmates. Ginny couldn’t know the details, because those were private. That was fine. But Ginny didn’t need divination to see that whatever had happened to that girl was so horrible that Harry was not the same anymore. She only had to let her imagination run from there to figure out just how bad it had been for Caroline Baker.

She’d had a letter from James not too long after that which had been full of the news that he’d broken up with his girlfriend and had decided to be single for a while. He’d written, ‘don’t worry, Mum, I was really nice to her when I ended things,’ which Ginny wouldn’t have believed if she hadn’t received a letter later that week from Nat telling her that something was wrong with James because he seemed to be a completely different kid. He was being unbelievably nice.

“We’re falling apart, too,” Ginny blurted out, a little shocked that she’d actually said it. “Harry, and I are struggling. It’s this case…”

But it wasn’t just the case. They’d been in the habit of taking each other for granted for too long.

“Let’s do a swap off,” Ron suggested. “You have that beach house, right? Let’s each take a week’s vacation and go. The other gets the kids for the week.”

Ginny snorted. “You honestly think either of them will agree to a week off?”

“No,” Ron shrugged. “If she won’t go with me, I’ll go without her and think. It’s been too much recently.”

She watched with dispassionate interest as a Cannon Beater smacked the referee on the arm and the ref spun away for a moment, before coming back to shout at him. “Okay, that’s a plan.”

Harry hadn’t wanted to go. When she’d said she was going without him, though, he’d changed his mind and had put in the request to take the week off.

Ginny liked the beach house. It was small, cozy, and just as safe as Ivy Run. The air smelled of salt and new beginnings which was exactly what she was hoping for. She dropped the food off in the kitchen, while Harry took their bags upstairs. By the time he arrived back down with her, she’d opened a bottle of wine and poured him a glass.

Harry’s dark brow rose as he accepted it. “We’re getting started early?”

“It’s never too early when you have deep things to discuss,” Ginny informed him. Harry’s brows drew together, but she pointed to the fireplace. “Build up a fire. I’m going to set supper to cooking, then we’ll sit and talk.”

It was only the work of ten minutes before they were lounging on the couch in front of a roaring fire. She’d deliberately sat far enough away so that she could see him as they spoke, but close enough that she could stick her cold feet under his leg to warm them up.

At this point, Harry was starting to look panicked. “What’s up?”

She chose her words very carefully. “I need to know where your loyalties lie,” Ginny told him, taking a sip of wine.

Stunned, Harry gaped at her. “What are you talking about?”

“What comes first in your life?” Ginny asked him, rephrasing the question.

“You do,” he assured her quickly. His expression shifted seamlessly from confusion, to annoyance, and back into a careful mask of reassurance. “I don’t know why you’re asking this.”

She knew him so well. She’s known him for thirty years, now. Ginny could have easily taken the bait and gone straight into anger, but there was no point. Ron would get angry with Hermione. They would row, loudly, because that was how they worked. That wasn’t Ginny’s style. She didn’t mind a good fight, but she’d rather argue a person down with reasoned arguments than screaming. “If I came first in your life, Harry, I’d merit at least an hour a day of your time. I kept track this last week,” she explained. “Apart from the time we slept next to each other, we interacted for a total of fifty-seven minutes in the last seven days.”

“No way!” Harry shook his head. Then he went still, and his face went pale. He wasn’t a stupid man. He wasn’t petty, or unfair. He was reasonable.

But he was also single-minded and stubborn when there was a problem.

Unfortunately, he was missing the problem that was right in front of his nose. “Oh,” he sighed as he rubbed at his brow. Harry reached for his glass and downed half of it in one go. “Damn it.”

She reached out with cold fingers and threaded their hands together, much as they’d done when they were first dating. They’d needed each other, then. They’d moved together, pulled by their own gravity which drew them to link hands, to touch shoulders, to smile as though there was nothing else in the world but them. “I need you to remember to put us first, Harry. I know how much this case means to you. I can see just how badly it is eating at you, but if we fall apart it’ll be for nothing. Your daughter has stopped asking for you. She’s just assuming you won’t be there for her.”

It was a low blow, but one he’d absolutely needed. Stricken, Harry pulled her onto his lap, nearly spilling her wine as he buried his face in her neck and held on tight. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better.”

Ginny had heard that before, though. She wished she weren’t so cynical, but he’d let her down many times. He was a great husband, a great father, but he let work consume him too easily. She’d wait to see just what he did.

~*~

Nat stared at Mrs. Audrey Weasley, trying not to cry. “It’s March already,” she reminded the Healer as the sun streamed weakly into the hospital wing at Hogwarts. “I’m supposed to be going home for the Easter holidays soon.”

“I know,” Audrey said as she patted Nat’s hand. “I just think we should wait a little longer to take your feeding line out.”

Nat shook her head. “I can’t go to the beach house with my parents if it isn’t out! I can’t spend time with just them if…” she pressed her mouth into a hard line, biting her cheek so she wouldn’t completely lose control. “I think my emotional well-being would be better served by being able to spend the hols with my parents.”

Audrey sat back, her brow raised thoughtfully. “Alright. We’ll give it a try. One week here at school, but if you aren’t maintaining, you go straight back on the feeding line. Deal?”

“Deal!”

An hour later, Nat was feeding line free for the first time in many, many months. She couldn’t help but grin as she made her way down to lunch. It was a Saturday, so no classes, and she was already caught up on her homework. Today she was free of the strings that held her back. There was an American Disney movie where the character sang a song about it, and Nat happily whistled the catchy tune all the way down to the common room. No sooner had she reached the correct corridor than she spied James coming from the opposite direction, his eyes on his trainers, hands shoved in the pockets of jeans.

Caroline still wasn’t back from St. Mungo’s, but that didn’t surprise Nat. During their time hiding from her father with the house-elf, Polly, Nat had figured out just how badly Caroline had hidden what was done to her. James, it was rumored, had been the one to take her up to see Mrs. Longbottom before she was removed.

Ever since Caroline left, James had been, to put it simply, odd. It had been as though the real James had been plucked from the school and an alien spawn had replaced him. It wasn’t to say James was always in a great mood. Generally, he’d been moody and sad, but the difference had come from how he’d treated them. Before, if he’d been in a bad mood, James would have taken it out on Al, just because. There didn’t need to be a reason except that Al seemed to be James’ punching bag.

Now, though, he just quietly kept his pain to himself.

He was changed.

Nat smiled at James, trying to read what mood he was in. “Hey.”

James glanced up and gave her half a grin. “Hey, Nat.”

They came level to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Nat cocked her head to the side. “Are you okay?”

James shrugged, then seemed to notice her for the first time. “You got rid of the feeding line?”

A mile-wide smile split her face. “Yes, just now.”

“That’s great,” James told her. He didn’t move towards the portrait hole, though, just shifted from one foot to the other, his eyes drifting back to the floor.

Nat studied him closely, trying to figure out just what to say. “You’re not really okay.”

Heat flashed in James’ brown eyes, but he shrugged it off quickly. “It’s nothing.”

“I miss Caroline, too,” Nat told him simply. “But she’s better at the hospital. She needs help.”

He didn’t respond.

“She’s hurting herself,” Nat pointed out, trying to make a dent.

James opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again and remained silent for a long time. “What do you mean?”

“Her fingers,” she reminded him. “She was chewing on them. It’s a way of dealing with the pain. You hurt yourself in one place to forget the pain of something else. It’s better she’s in the hospital so that doesn’t get worse.”

He looked sick, now. “You don’t know…”

Nat nodded and tucked a strand of her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. She didn’t know exactly what Caroline had been through. “She’s not ever going to be the same as she’d have been before her father.”

James shifted again and flicked his eyes up to hers. “Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?”

He seemed so sad, so beaten, that Nat could only nod. “Come on.”

She led him towards an empty classroom and plunked him down into a chair and called out for a house-elf for hot chocolate for him, and tea for her. Polly arrived moments later with a pop, bringing with her sweets for James, and tea for her.

He sat and drank thoughtlessly and Nat rather thought he was regretting asking her to do this. Talking was not something James did easily.

“You’ve been different,” Nat pointed out, knowing it was obvious to everyone.

He shook his head. “I’m just trying not to be a complete arse. Caroline’s story sort of made me see what a stupid berk I’d been.”

“We’re here to help, you know,” she said after taking a sip of her warm tea. “We’re your friends. Al is glad you aren’t picking on him constantly.”

James laughed humorously. “I used to think that was such fun to make him mad. I wanted to see how far I could take it before he broke. Now the thought makes me sick. If I was anything like her father–”

“You weren’t,” Nat assured him, interrupting. “But you might have been.”

If she’d slapped him, Nat thought dryly, her hand probably would have hurt less. There was some kind of connection between James and Caroline. There was something there that tinged the air, making it charged when they were together. Nat didn’t know if it would end up as good friends or as something more, but what she did know was that the James of last year was dangerous for the girl who was still in St. Mungo’s. He’d have crushed Caroline.

This one, though… this one stood a chance of being a force for good. “She’s going to need people around her who are going to be there for her, no matter what. That kind of abuse makes people do the most erratic things. She’s going to try hard to push you away. She’ll be irrational, moody, and a pain because it’s really hard to trust.”

“How do you know this?” James questioned her, narrowing his eyes contemplatively.

“I took a couple of psychology classes from Yale online,” Nat explained. At his blank stare she laughed. “It’s this Muggle university in America. They have a lot of their classes online.”

Nothing.

“The internet?” Nat reminded him. “You can watch a video of the professors teaching classes.”

Nothing.

She shook her head with a grin. “Never mind that, the point is I was interested in the human brain and how it worked through trauma so I found the information and studied it.”

“How old were you?” James asked in amazement.

“Ten,” Nat told him as she looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember. “I think. What I’m trying to say is that Caroline will be challenging to be friends with after this. What she’ll need is people around her who steadfastly support her. You haven’t been good at that before.”

There was no point in sugarcoating it. Nat knew that bluntness was what was needed.

James considered this as he ran his fingers along the worn grain of the wooden desk. “What if I don’t think I can do that?”

“Then you need to not be close to her,” she said carefully. “You can be friendly, but don’t try to be her good friend. Her good friends are going to be in for a great deal of drama if Caroline is going to survive this.”

“She has to survive it!” James blurted out fiercely.

Wordlessly, Nat reached over to take his hand. “A lot of people don’t. Being alive isn’t the same thing as surviving and thriving after. Like I said, she’s never going to be the same.”

She let go and sat back, letting her words sink in. She’d never dealt with someone like this long-term, but she’d read plenty of blogs online that detailed what it was like. For about three months she’d been very fascinated by the world of teenage girls who were in real schools, not traveling the world being homeschooled as she was.

James sighed and after a long pause, said, “Okay. I… I want to be her friend. If I start messing up, you’ll tell me, right?”

Nat smiled. “I can do that.”

~*~

“Are you going this week?” Harry asked Hermione as they filed out from the conference room after their weekly morning meeting with Minister Macmillan.

Hermione shrugged. “I really can’t spare the time.”

Two weeks before, Harry would have said the same thing. He’d have told Ginny that the office needed him and that he wasn’t doing the case any good if he wasn’t there.

He’d also have pointed out that Isabella Crabbe was a direct threat to their family. Now, however, he knew that the real threat to his family had been himself. “You should go.”

Hermione’s lips pinched together, and Harry knew he wasn’t going to get anything else out of her. “When is your talk with the seventh years?”

Change of subject. Divert. That was Hermione. If she didn’t want to talk about it, she’d sidestep the problem. “After the Easter holidays,” Harry told her. “I’m not sure we really need any more at the moment, but we could use another woman. Susan is still our only female on the team. Hermione, you need to get away.”

“I’m not discussing it with you,” Hermione told him primly as she pushed the button for the lift. “I can’t believe Ginny told you–”

“Ginny told me nothing,” Harry retorted sharply. “What I’m seeing is you’re having the same issues that I am. This job isn’t everything. It’s just a way to pay the bills, and frankly neither of us needs the money. The job isn’t worth blowing up your family.”

The lift doors opened and Hermione entered. There were others on the lift, so Harry didn’t say any more. He went back to his office to catch up on a mountain of paperwork and deal with the rest of the annoying bits of being the Head Auror.

They’d had no word on Isabella Crabbe and Donald Baker seemed to have gone underground. The only progress they’d made was discovering that the men they’d captured when Teddy had rescued the woman from the small shed was that the men weren’t British.

The simple brilliance of that was unbelievable. If they’d been Brits, they’d have been registered as such. If those men had made a British woman pregnant, they’d have been dragged in and forced to marry. When Isabella had brought in help, she’d brought in men who could fake a British accent. They were given free-reign over the women they held, with no possible legal consequences unless they were captured.

The goal now, clearly, was they wanted women to be pregnant. The men they’d captured wouldn’t speak. They’d proved resistant to truth-telling potions because they didn’t know what was going on. All they knew was that they were allowed to rape the women, holding them captive, until they were pregnant.

It begged the question of what on earth was Isabella trying to accomplish? She wanted wizards, because these men were magical, to try to get a woman pregnant. She could have done that with just a spell. She didn’t need them to have sex.

But then again, Isabella was buggered in the head. She was certifiably insane, and she’d been raped by her own husband.

But the goal of getting a woman pregnant… what was that about? Why did she need pregnant women? Why not just kidnap an already pregnant woman?

A knock sounded at his closed office door.

“Enter,” Harry called out and to his surprise, Hermione came in, shutting the door behind her. He watched as she seated herself across from him. Her posture was stiff, her chin in the air. “Are you okay?”

Finally, she said, “No. I think you’re right. Ron and I are falling apart. I honestly don’t know why we married in the first place. We fight all the time. We’ve always bickered. We never have any peace in our house. It’s miserable. Part of me wants to let the whole thing fall apart.”

He nodded slowly. “You married him because you love him and he loves you. You have a long history together.”

Hermione shook her head and a stray curl came lose, hanging down her cheek. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t have the energy to fight this anymore. I’m too tired from fighting him. But we’re stuck because we have a soul bond. Half the time I want to move out.”

Then she burst into tears.

Harry handed over a tissue from the box he kept on his desk for crying witnesses and waited for her to collect herself. “Hermione…”

“You and Ginny are much better suited,” Hermione sniffed as she dabbed at her red eyes. “Your personalities don’t clash. I’m afraid that if I go away with Ron to the beach house we’ll figure out we really aren’t meant to be together forever, and we’ll decide to split houses.”

“That’s not what Ron wants,” Harry reminded her. “He loves you, even though you drive him mental. I think if you two make the commitment to work it out, you can. You probably need therapy or something, but you can do it.”

She laughed bitterly. “We’ve been in therapy before, Harry. It never works. He ends up accusing me of being too rigid and a workaholic, while I can’t stand the fact that he never takes anything seriously.”

“He takes a lot of things seriously, and you are a workaholic,” Harry pointed out with the shake of his head. His exasperation was starting to leak out. “Hermione, he takes your family very seriously. Family has always been a key part of Ron’s framework. He’s a family man. You can’t tell him he doesn’t take that seriously and not expect him to be offended and put out. You work a minimum of sixty-hours a week on a light week.”

“Oh sure, so it’s all my fault!” Hermione sobbed as she sprang to her feet.

Harry rose, as well. “If you can’t see your own faults in this, there’s something wrong. That’s not the Hermione I have known all these years. I don’t think you take your marriage seriously enough.”

“I do!” she cried, pointing at him. “You aren’t there, Harry! You’re not there to hear all the ways he makes me feel like I’m less than…” Hermione shook her head sadly. “You don’t know.”

“I do know that Ron thinks you’re the smartest person he knows,” Harry said quietly. “If you’re feeling like he’s saying something else, then something is being lost in translation. You need to get away for a bit and fix your relationship. If it falls apart, I’ll be able to point and say that you didn’t try at the end, but Ron did.” Now he smiled, a little ruefully. “You wouldn’t want him to win that one.”

Hermione gave a watery laugh. “Childish, Harry, but… you’re right.”

~*~

Isabella stared out of the window of the small room where she liked to sit and think. She liked the quiet here. She liked being alone with no one to bother her. Sadly, the oaf was in residence, so her tranquility was meager.

She had plans, big plans. She ought to have been working on them, but there was brilliance in finding the silence. She had hit a small stumbling block, to be sure, but it was only a temporary setback.

She would have her revenge. She’d waited this long, and it might be years yet, still, but she had years. It would be years until the one she wanted would be ripe, ready to pick. It was so perfect that he’d provided her with the perfect victim.

Her hands were aging. They didn’t cut potions ingredients as smoothly as they had in the past, but that was no matter. They worked. Her brain was as sharp as ever, honed to a razor’s edge by years of living in fear and torment.

She didn’t enjoy the method that Baker had insisted on employing to achieve their goals. The women didn’t need to be tortured, although certainly it kept the men in her employ happy enough.

She’d needed Baker. She’d needed his funds, and he, in turn, wanted what she was going to create. She was sure she’d succeed and when she did, she would have the whole of the wizarding world at her feet. They’d all be under her spell without even knowing it.

It was simple brilliance, but first she needed to make it work. She had five years minimum before it would be important, but upwards of ten to get it right.

Time.

Isabella sighed and turned when she heard the loud footsteps of the perverse man she’d taken up arms with.

Donald Baker was a pedophile and a murder. He was, quite simply, everything Isabella had hated about her own husband. She couldn’t wait until the moment she could stab him in the back.

She rather thought she would do so literally, with a sharp, hot blade, slicing his spinal cord so that she could watch him slowly bleed to death, unable to move to help himself.

It was with that thought that Isabella was able to create a false smile for him. First, she needed the money to continue to fund research for her project. Next, she needed his worldwide distribution network and clever marketing in order to spread the product to every magical person on the planet.

If it worked, and she had no reason to suppose it wouldn’t, they would be wealthy beyond their wildest dreams when they figured out just what had been done to them, or more importantly, to their children.

“Shouldn’t you be working?” Baker barked out.

Isabella flicked her wand and sent an absent curse towards the odious man. Used to this, he blocked it with a laugh.

“I am taking a break,” Isabella told him primly. “Besides, we have no one to test upon at the moment.”

“We will shortly,” Baker waved that small problem aside. “I’ve arranged for a couple of girls to be smuggled here from abroad. No one will miss them, not even when they’re dead.”

This was why she kept this man around. He’d likely fiddled with his daughter more times than could be counted, but he did have his uses.

Too bad he was such a pervert.

“I will set to work on the latest modification of the potion then tomorrow,” she said flatly. “Make sure they don’t touch the girls until it is ready.”

“Don’t dawdle,” Baker told her as he turned his back and strode for the door. “They won’t wish to wait long.”

He meant that he didn’t wish to wait long.

Baker could have found a girlfriend. He could have paid a prostitute, but the sick man preferred to take his women by force.

When he said he’d found girls, Isabella rather thought he was being literal. None of the foreign girls were likely to be over sixteen. That wasn’t how he liked them.

Dispassionately, she turned back to gaze out onto the rolling hills of the English countryside. He was still useful, so for now he would live. A few girls were always going to die anyway.

Her son would have his revenge upon Potter, even if it was from the grave. Isabella would make sure of that.

In the process she would bring down the entire corrupt system in England. It was, as they said, a win-win.

She smiled.

Back to index


Chapter 24: Chapter 21

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Ron stared out the window of the beach house, without taking in anything around him. He didn’t notice the half-finished beer in his hand, the sound of the waves crashing on the shore mere feet away, nor the smell of wood polish from whoever had cleaned the house last.

He stared, with one hand in his jeans pocket, the other with the mouth of the beer bottle hanging limply between two fingers, and contemplated the end of his family.

Hermione hadn’t come.

Ron hadn’t really figured she would come. She had given up already, Ron knew. He wasn’t stupid or blind. Somewhere along the line, his wife had begun to value her job more than their marriage. Her job was giving her more of what she needed than Ron was.

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t talk to him about it. Hugo had been acting out more at home, which left Hermione staying in the office later and later. Ron couldn’t really blame her for that. Kids seemed to have an innate ability to sense when the ship was sinking and rather than help, they defaulted to pouring on more water just to ensure the whole thing went down faster.

It wouldn’t be Hugo’s fault if Hermione moved out, or more likely she kicked Ron out, but there was no denying that his son was adding fuel to the fire. He didn’t blame him, though. Ron had never once doubted his parents’ love for each other. He’d never once thought that they would be anything but solid and happily married, not even after his brother’s death. The stress of that, the heartbreak, would have been crushing to Ron.

He valued family. He wanted to fix this, but without even a little crack to peer through, he wasn’t going to see what was going on in his wife’s head. They’d been married for a long time now, but there were still moments when he didn’t understand her at all.

The front door, which was to Ron’s back, banged open, startling him. Ron spun to find a furious Hermione glaring at him.

“Hey,” he said as he set his beer down on the kitchen counter and waited for the explosion. He knew that expression.

“You,” Hermione began, punctuating the word hard as she slammed the door closed and marched over to him, poking him in the chest. “You left!”

Ron shrugged and stuck both hands in his pockets, just to make sure he didn’t react by throwing the bottle against the wall. He was angry as well, but his had simmered into unbelievable hurt. Given half a chance it would boil over again, which wouldn’t help anyone.

Also, Ginny would be furious if he hurt her house.

“I told you I needed a vacation,” Ron reminded her quietly. “You said you were too busy. I told you I was going anyway. What’s the problem?”

“The problem, Ronald Weasley,” she informed him in an ever higher pitched voice, “is that I made it home to see that my son was gone, and so were you!”

He quirked an eyebrow. “I left a note. Didn’t you–”

“I found the bloody note!” she bellowed as she threw the crumpled ball at him. He hadn’t even realized she’d been clutching it in her fist. “You had no right to–”

“Stop right there,” he ordered her quietly. “I have every right to go on vacation. Most of Hugo’s care has fallen to me, so I arranged for his care. If you don’t want to leave it that way, you’re free to pick him up from Angelina and George.”

Hermione blanched and glanced away from him as her cheeks reddened. She didn’t say anything.

“Are we done?” Ron asked her. He hated dancing around the subject. He hated feeling as though he was walking tightrope with her on every issue. If she was planning on them splitting up, then he wanted to know now.

“I haven’t…” her voice trailed off as she studied him closely, taking a step away from him at whatever she saw. “You want to move out?”

“Not particularly,” he admitted honestly. “But this isn’t really a marriage anymore, Hermione. We’re at odds when we do see each other, but rarely see each other as it is.”

Her color rose even higher as she spun away to march over to the wine cabinet. With shaking fingers, she poured herself a generous glass of red wine. “So this is my fault for working too much?”

Ron rounded the counter, grabbing his beer as he went, and sat at the table.

This might be the table where they discussed their breakup. It was an incredibly heartbreaking thought, but there was no point in denying what was happening. After a minute, Hermione sat across from him. They both stayed silent for a minute.

“I love you,” Ron informed her simply. “I always have, and I always will, but you are unhappy. I’d like to work to save our marriage, but I can’t do that alone.”

He knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment it came out.

Hermione tossed her hair back in outrage. “You think I’m not trying?”

“I think you’re not home enough to try,” Ron said with resignation. “I know your job is important to you, luv. I get that you’ve always been ambitious and you want to help people. But at some point, it switched over in to being the thing you loved more than me.”

“That’s… that’s not true,” she denied fervently.

“Tell me you love me, then,” Ron told her.

She hadn’t said it to him in several months.

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but her eyes glazed over in tears. “Oh, God…”

“Yeah,” Ron sighed as he reached over to take her hand. “What do you want to do?”

Tears filled her eyes and dripped silently down her cheeks which were steadily growing paler. “I want to fix this.”

“Are you sure?” he asked urgently. He didn’t want to drag this out. “I need you to be willing to meet me halfway on this. I can’t do this without you.”

She nodded and swiped at her tears with the heel of her free hand. “Yes.”

Ron nodded and sat back in his seat, letting her hand go. “I need to know what’s been going on with you.”

She shrugged helplessly and took a sip of her wine. “I don’t know. I’ve been really swamped at work.”

Ron arched an eyebrow and shook his head. “Try that again.”

“I have!” Hermione protested, but it was short lived. “I’ve let myself be swamped at work. Ginny says I have no boundaries.”

He personally thought Ginny was right, but didn’t say so. In taking sides, he’d learned that it was always better to take his wife’s side over his sister’s.

“I really want the new minister to succeed,” she admitted quietly. “Minister Macmillan has been great for us so far, but it feels like she’s meeting resistance from some areas.”

“This has been going on longer than that,” Ron said shortly. “This isn’t about the politics, anyway. Even when you were back in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures you didn’t work like this, and that was something you were passionate about.”

Hermione worried at her bottom lip and wouldn’t meet his eyes. “We had small children. They needed me at home more than now.”

“Hugo still needs you at home,” he pointed out flatly. “He’s been missing you. He knows something is wrong.”

Her eyes filled again. “I don’t know what’s wrong, Ron. I don’t know why I haven’t wanted to come home. You haven’t done anything.”

“Are you taking this week off?” Ron asked her softly.

“I can’t,” she shook her head. “It’s a busy time and…” Hermione stared at him as he held up a hand to stop her.

“If you can’t take the time to try to work on this, then there is no point in trying,” Ron informed her. “I’ll take a week here to think things through and then we’ll decide who is moving out.”

“No!” Hermione wailed in fury. “You do not get to make ultimatums like that! Not after all we’ve been through.”

Anger burned again, low in his belly, and the first hints of his own rage leaked through. “We’re not doing this to our children anymore! We have barely six weeks until Rose is home. I want this settled. I want Hugo’s life to be settled. As I’m the primary one looking after them, I think you should move out into a flat. With all the overtime you’re working, you’ll certainly be able to afford it.” More venom than he’d intended leaked out and she recoiled as though he’d slapped her.

“You want to take my children?” Hermione shook her head.

“I want your children not to wonder if they’ll have a parent to tuck them in at night,” Ron said, jabbing the wound harder. “They can’t count on you, Hermione. You’re never around.”

Hermione snapped her mouth shut. “I really hate you right now.”

Ron let out a slow breath, one he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “But?”

She covered her face with her hands for a moment, then pulled her hair back away from her face and glanced out the bay window that faced out onto the beach. “But you’re right.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Ron questioned, unsure of where this would go.

“I’ll go home and pack a bag,” she sighed heavily. “I’ll send in an owl saying I’ll be here. I can’t ignore the office completely, though, Ron. We have a psychopath on the loose.”

He could work with that. “We’ll work on our problems and try to fix this?”

She nodded once and rose. She hesitated before she said, “I haven’t eaten all day. Can you make something while I’m gone?”

“Sure,” Ron agreed as he stood as well.

Hermione walked around the table and tentatively kissed him. Her eyes held pain, sorrow, anger, but also a tiny bit of hope.

They had a long road to go, Ron knew as he watched her head for the door, but he really hoped this was the first step towards a better place than they’d been.

It could get much worse, but Ron really hoped it wouldn’t come to that. All he could do was hope and fight to keep his family together.

~*~

Harry arrived home from work, almost on time, which was better than he’d been doing for months. They had no leads on Isabella Crabbe. They had no leads on Donald Baker.

They’d also had no kidnappings reported. It was a lull, but Harry would take it. He’d had a huge lull in the years between his daughter, Hope’s, death and Crabbe’s reemergence into his life.

Then one major success that Harry could claim was seizing all of Donald Baker’s assets in Great Britain. Every avenue of Muggle capital that he’d built up, the Ministry of Magic had taken as their own.

They’d received word from Baker’s American attorney saying that lawsuits were in the works, but the English legal system didn’t work that way and it would net Baker nothing to try.

They’d had no word from Baker himself.

Caroline was finally back at school. She’d gone back the week previous, and from what Harry was hearing, had fit back in. She was far from well. She continued therapy with a therapist that traveled to the school to see her. Her sister, Honor, was also in therapy but during his interview with the little girl, Harry hadn’t learned anything new. It seemed that Caroline had been right and her father had never sexually abused his youngest child.

It was a small comfort.

Honor and her grandparents continued to reside in a safe house, guarded by Aurors around the clock.

The reason Harry was late was that he’d taken the seventh year’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class to tell them, as he did every year, about the war against Voldemort. He also pitched that they were looking for Aurors, but had no takers.

It was a pity, but he would keep trying every year.

Harry pushed open his front door and called out to his family. He heard a good deal of laughter from the kitchen as he hung up his cloak and made his way around. To his surprise, he found not only Ginny and Lily, but also Teddy and Victoire. “This is a surprise,” he said with a grunt as Lily threw herself at him. He couldn’t quite believe his little girl was eleven now. She’d be gone to Hogwarts the next year.

It boggled the mind.

“We’re having takeaway,” Lily informed his as she dragged him to the table.

“It smells good,” Harry said as he kissed his niece’s cheek and moved to Ginny to pull her in for a full out snog. He’d been making a point of doing that more often.

Ginny laughed and poked his belly. “Beer or wine?”

“With pizza? Definitely beer,” Harry told her. “Thanks,” he said as he took the bottle and made his way over to the open boxes. “I don’t know whose idea this was, but it’s brilliant.”

“Mine,” Victoire admitted. “It’s been a long week.”

“How is training going?” Harry asked as they dug in to their dinner. He ran his hand along Ginny’s thigh under the table, until she met his hand with hers and they linked fingers.

“It’s good, but exhausting,” Victoire said after a huge mouthful of pizza. “I’m really glad Mum is handling most of the wedding details, because I couldn’t imagine adding anything else into my schedule. I know it will be worth it,” she said with a beaming smile at Teddy, “but we have a long, hard slog before we get to enjoy the benefits.”

“Even then it’s still sometimes a slog,” Ginny laughed as she handed Lily another slice of pizza. “It’s really easy to get caught up in work.”

Teddy inclined his head. “You’re in the run up to the world cup now.”

“True,” Ginny agreed. “We have a few months of play, yet, but I’m not taking an active role this year. The very last playoffs are right around your wedding so I’ve arranged to have another reporter take over come June.”

Teddy and Victoire exchanged a look. “Sorry, Aunt Ginny,” Victoire said earnestly.

Ginny waved that off. “Don’t be sorry! I do this job for something to do and because I love Quidditch. I love both of you more, though, so I’m happy to be part of your wedding.”

They would be more than part of it. They were Teddy’s parents in the truest sense of the meaning. When the mothers were escorted in, Ginny would be one of them. Teddy’s only living family, his grandmother, had been murdered.

They’d still never caught her killer, although Harry was reasonably certain it had been Crabbe. He just couldn’t prove it. Yet.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Harry assured them, “although maybe not as much as you are.”

The look Teddy sent Victoire’s way was so raw, so intense, that Harry had to glance away. It was a private look, but one he knew all too well.

The moment was broken by Lily announcing, “I want a baby.”

Everyone turned to stare at her. She looked confused at their stunned silence.

Ginny seemed to recover first. “You’re eleven, Lily-Lu.”

Lily burst out into giggles. “No! I mean, I want them to have a baby,” she informed them as she pointed towards Teddy and Victoire. “I’m tired of being the baby of the family. It’s someone else’s turn, now.”

Teddy let out a snort. “Lily, you’re in for a long wait. Victoire has two more years of training to get through to be a Healer.”

“And we’ll be in that small flat,” Victoire added. “We could have children there, but it’s not ideal.”

“Ouch,” Harry turned to Ginny, who had kicked him under the table. “What?”

Her pale brow rose pointedly as she stared at him, but for the life of him, Harry couldn’t think of what she wanted him to do. Casting her eyes up to the ceiling, she said, “The money, Harry.”

“The… oh!” It finally occurred to him what she was talking about. “Right, the money.” Victoire and Teddy both appeared mystified. “We have money for you for the wedding.”

They both continued to stare mutely.

“We set aside some money for Teddy, then for the other kids, for when they get married. You can have it, if you–”

“No,” Teddy said firmly.

Victoire smiled, but shook her head. “We’re going to do this on our own.”

“Are you sure?” Ginny asked quietly.

“Positive,” Teddy promised.

“Can I have some money?” Lily asked hopefully.

Harry turned to his daughter in amusement, “When you get married.”

“What do you want money for?” Teddy asked as he leaned over to ruffle her hair.

“I’ve observed,” Lily told them very earnestly, “that when one has money, there are more options available in life. I want all of my options to be open just in case.”

There was a small beat of silence before they all burst out laughing. She was so serious that it Harry could only laugh.

“So,” Ginny said after she’d wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes, “are you sure you still want the beach house for your honeymoon?”

“Yeah, I think that’s best,” Teddy said with a sigh. “Victoire is only getting three days off as it is. We’ll both continue to work and train, but we’ll have the beach at our feet when we’re off work in the evening.”

“I have managed to arrange all my shifts to be day shifts,” Victoire explained to them with a rueful grin. “It will at least ensure that we get some time together.”

“We didn’t have a honeymoon at first,” Ginny recalled as she glanced towards Harry. “I think we didn’t really get away until a year after we were married. But it was a different time and place.”

“True,” Harry said as he stood to retrieve a bottle of wine. He didn’t want to think about their first year of marriage, or what they’d lost. He especially didn’t want Lily asking about it. “Who wants a refill?”

~*~

Al couldn’t take much more of studying. In fact, he’d already made up his mind and fled out into the sunny grounds to enjoy the late spring day and all the fragrances that went with it.

Everyone else had stayed to study, but Al was done.

It was a Saturday and Quidditch had been over for a week. The Quidditch Cup had been won by a margin of twenty points by Slytherin, which had annoyed James to no end. Even his brother’s unbelievable personality makeover couldn’t compensate for the loss of the season. Gryffindor had come in second, well ahead of Ravenclaw, with Hufflepuff in at dead last. Again.

Al really hoped he could make the team the next year. He wanted to be part of the Quidditch team, but if he was honest, Rose was better than he was. Scorpius liked Quidditch, but had no desire to play on the team.

Al half thought that was because his father wanted him to try out for the team. Whatever it was, Scorpius was not having it.

He moved slowly, not in a rush, down the lawn towards the lake. His friends were signed up for three extra classes the following year. Al had, reluctantly, done the same. It was going to be brutal. If he did make the Quidditch team, he wasn’t sure how he’d keep up with practices and the extra homework.

A bird screeched overhead and Al glanced up at the hawk that soared over him, and towards the forest. He followed it with his gaze as it flew over Hagrid’s hut.

Smoke curled from the chimney of the small, wooden house. On a whim, Al followed the bird and went to pay a call.

He knocked at the door and heard a scraping as Hagrid stood. He pulled the door open and a grin split his face. “Albus Potter, haven’t seen you in weeks.”

“Sorry,” Al apologized. “Exams and all.”

Hagrid nodded, then stepped back.

Al made to walk in to the hut, but stopped at the sight of Caroline sitting on the floor with Hagrid’s puppy, Lulabelle draped over her.

Caroline’s troubled, blue eyes met his and he smiled as he stepped in and sat down at Hagrid’s table.

Lulabelle, who was has hyper as a dog could be, didn’t move away from the girl to greet Al. Instead she stayed put, bigger than Caroline, but still in the girl’s lap.

He couldn’t help but stare. It was so odd.

“I like her,” Caroline told him unnecessarily as she stroked the russet colored fur.

“I’ve been tellin’ Caroline, here,” Hagrid explained to Al as he poured him a cup of tea, “that she should get a dog.”

It was the strangest visit to Hagrid Al had ever had. The more time he spent there, the jumpier Caroline became. The jumpier Caroline became, the more the dog nudged at her. Al cut his visit short, only staying for the one cup of tea, and made his way back up to the castle, unsure of what he’d accomplished by skipping out on studying.

He made James in the entrance hall. “Hey,” he said to his older brother.

“You saw Caroline?” James asked without preamble.

“Yeah, she was with Hagrid,” Al informed him in surprise. Then it hit him. “The map?”

“She disappears sometimes,” James informed him as he glanced away. “After everything that happened, I checked once and saw she was down there. She was difficult to spot because the dog is always right on top of her. Since then, I’ve just assumed that’s where she’s gone.”

“I think the dog helps calm her down,” Al told him. “She was sitting on the floor with Lulabelle.”

James nodded absently. “Listen,” he said after a moment. “Sorry about the Quidditch thing. We worked really hard, and I felt like I didn’t play as well in this last game.”

It stilled stunned him worse than a curse to the chest in class to have James treating him like this. However, he tended to agree with James that his brother hadn’t played his best. He wasn’t going to patronize his brother by pretending otherwise. “You’ve had a lot on your mind.”

James shook his head. “I can’t let the outside world change how I play.”

“I don’t want you to tell me what Caroline said to you that last night,” Al told him flatly. “It’s none of my business, but I know it must have been really bad because you were more shaken up by that than when we learned about Hope. But, James,” Al put his hand on his brother’s shoulder and was surprised to see James’ brown eyes filled with anger. “She’s not your responsibility, you know. The teachers are helping her.”

“I know,” James mumbled and glanced away. “She’s avoiding me, too. I think she’s embarrassed or something.”

“Give her space, then,” Al pulled his brother around and hauled him back up to the common room. “Come on, we both have exams to pass.”

~*~

“Stop staring,” Harry hissed in Ginny’s ear.

Ginny shook her head and ignored him as she continued to observe Ron and Hermione while they waited on the train’s platform for the Hogwarts Express. “It’s getting better,” she whispered to her husband.

“What is?” Lily asked softly as she stared up at her mother curiously.

Ginny cupped her daughter’s chin and brushed her lips against Lily’s forehead. “Never you mind.”

She stared down at Lily’s brown eyes and her beautiful face and thought, even though she knew she was biased, that she had the loveliest daughter in the world.

“Nat’s coming home with us, right?” Lily queried again, for the hundredth time.

“Yes, she’ll be with us until August,” Ginny reminded her. She would be there through the wedding mid-July, but as it was only a small, family affair, it wouldn’t be a problem. They’d be able to trust everyone in attendance. Molly had wanted a bigger party for her grandchild’s wedding, but wisely agreed that they had no idea how to ensure everyone’s safety. It only took a reminder of what happened at Bill and Fleur’s wedding for Ginny’s mother to see sense.

So Nat would be with them. Nat’s parents had asked them to take her, as otherwise Nat would have been in Liberia with her father. It was not the sort of place one could take a child at the moment, especially not one who was still fragile and vulnerable.

Ginny hadn’t minded, though. The girl was easy to have around. She was helpful, bright, and kind. That was all Ginny could ask for in a houseguest. Come August, her parents had both arranged time off to spend here in England with Nat at the beach house.

“There’s the train!” Lily cried out as she ran from Ginny to grab Hugo’s arm. Her cousin didn’t even seem to notice as he, too, was waving at the oncoming locomotive.

“It’s another year gone,” Ginny reminded Harry thoughtfully. “We’ve been married almost twenty-one years now.”

“Your parents are approaching two-hundred years, right?” Harry quipped, then laughed as she prodded him in the side. “I still can’t believe Lily leaves us this fall. She was a baby a minute ago.”

Ginny studied her daughter as she hopped on Hugo’s back so she could see over the crowds that were surging around them. Hugo was turning into his father, indeed. Where Lily was still a tiny thing, Hugo was sprouting up, no longer even close to Lily’s height.

Ginny was reasonably certain he was taller than Rose, but she’d know for sure in a few minutes.

Hugo laughed as he hoisted Lily up, while they continued to wave.

An agonizingly long three minutes later, Al was in her arms, followed swiftly by James, then Nat, then Rose, and so on. Ginny laughed as she caught snippets of conversations, and questions that were fired rapidly around her.

She saw, but didn’t draw attention to, Harry directing one of his Aurors to a blonde girl that Ginny had to assume was Donald Baker’s daughter.

She was very pretty, but strikingly thin and clearly not attempting to take care of herself.

James, however, caught where Ginny was looking. “Let me introduce you, Mum.”

The gaggle of kids moved over to swamp Hermione, Ron, and Fleur, so Ginny went with her son towards the girl.

James smiled at her, but Caroline seemed to only shrink in on herself. “Caroline, this is my mum. Mum, Caroline. She’s a friend from school.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ginny assured her as she held out a hand to shake.

Tentatively, the girl reached out with icy fingers and whispered in an American accent, “Hello.”

Harry stood back from them, keeping the Auror away as well.

“Hagrid has this puppy,” James went on as though the whole situation weren’t awkward, strained, and frankly heartbreaking. “He named her Lulabelle.”

Ginny snorted out a laugh. “Of course he did.”

“Lulabelle is kind of a menace, actually,” James told his mother. “She’s still a puppy, but she’s huge. She’s bigger than any of us, and during class she sometimes tries to jump on us. The only person she’s gentle with is Caroline. It’s like she’s a dog whisperer or something.”

Caroline’s eyes lit for a single moment, but then it was gone. She looked behind Ginny towards the group of kids. “Your sister starts next year, right?”

“Yeah, Lily,” James confirmed. “Why?”

“My sister, Honor, does as well,” Caroline added in a low voice as she made the first human gesture Ginny saw from her and reached out to take James’ hand. “Al says your sister is really nice. Can you ask her to sit with Honor next year on the train? Honor is going to struggle with making friends.”

James, although surprised, nodded quickly. “Sure, I will. Lily is really sweet. She’d be happy to, same with my cousin, Hugo. They both start next year.”

“Thanks,” Caroline said as she let go and turned to move towards the Auror. She glanced behind her one last time. “See you next year, James.”

“See you,” James called out as he gave half a wave. The moment she was out of earshot, and with the Auror, James demanded, “Where are her grandparents?”

“In hiding,” Ginny said into his ear so no one else would hear. “Your dad didn’t want her on the train. He was actually going to escort her home personally, but she begged to be allowed to go this way.”

James’ troubled expression touched something in her. She’d seen the changes in her son, but it was still unsettling.

Ginny caught sight of Al, Rose, and Nat saying goodbye to Scorpius, although they’d be seeing him again in a week. Ginny had corresponded with Scorpius’ mother, Astoria, to arrange for her son to spend a few days with them.

Ginny rather liked Astoria, even though she wouldn’t have said that when they’d been in school together. On the whole, the woman had become a type of ally to her in her quest to get their kids together. Ginny rather thought that Astoria was happy with the route Scorpius was taking.

Bracing herself for the noise, Ginny rounded up her children and herded them towards the car with Harry close by, keeping a firm eye on all the people around them.

They were attempting not to scare the kids more than they needed to, but it was difficult when so many things had gone wrong in the last few years.

However, they made it home without incident and walked in to find the house smelling of cooking ham and Polly, the house-elf, already installed in the kitchen.

Ginny had been wondering if the tiny creature would come again. Clearly, she needn’t have concerned herself. “Hello, Polly,” Ginny greeted her cheerfully. “It smells amazing. Kids!” she called out before they could dump their stuff. “Put everything away first.”

“Alright,” James called out as he hauled his trunk upstairs.

“Leave it,” Al told Nat. “I’ll come back for it in a minute.”

“I have it,” James said as he sprinted down the stairs and grabbed her trunk for her.

Ginny stared in disbelief as her oldest hauled the trunk up the steps and out of sight.

“He had a hard year, miss,” Polly told Ginny in a squeak.

Ginny turned to the elf and stared at her big eyes which were fully of worry. “What do you mean?”

“His friend is very sad,” Polly said, but then went back to cooking.

She let it go. There was no point in priming the elf. She’d rather hear it from James, himself, if he had something to tell.

Harry came up behind her and slipped his arms around her neck. She breathed in a warm feeling of comfort as he pressed his lips to her neck. “You smell better than the ham,” he told her, “but only just.”

Laughing, she turned and boosted herself up so she could press her lips to his. “You’re going to pay for that.”

“Promise?” he asked against her lips.

Ginny didn’t have to wait long to hear from James, and when it came, it was a shock.

She’d decide to plant tomatoes out in their back garden that year, although she couldn’t honestly explain why. Ginny didn’t exactly like gardening and tomatoes weren’t her favorite food. It ended up being endless hours of weeding.

Today was no exception. The kids had started a kind of Exploding Snap tournament and the whole of the downstairs ended up smelling like burnt farts. After complaining about the smell, James had fessed up to getting the cards from his Uncle George. At that point, Ginny had retreated from the house, donning her big, floppy hat to protect her face from the sun, and went to deal with the garden.

“I should have planted peas,” she muttered as she pulled up yet another weed. She at least enjoyed peas immensely.

“I think we need chickens,” James’ voice said from behind her, startling her so badly that she let out a small scream.

“You scared me!” she complained as she watched him come sit on the ground beside her.

“I didn’t mean to,” he said with a grin. He might not have meant to, but he clearly still found it funny.

Ginny waited for him, seeing plainly that he needed to collect himself. James fidgeted with a weed before finally plucking it up and throwing it into her small pile.

“You can talk to me,” Ginny assured him gently.

James shook his dark head. “I kind of promised not to tell.”

“How about if you tell me how it made you feel,” Ginny suggested as she tried to work around that. She didn’t want him to break a promise, but she also knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it inside. “I don’t know what happened, James, but I saw your father’s face after he came back from talking to Caroline. He was destroyed. It takes a lot to rattle your dad, but whatever happened to her, it hit something in Harry.”

James picked up a twig, stuck it into the ground and dug a small hole in the brown earth. “If… if I tell you how I feel, that’s not breaking my promise.”

“I don’t think it is,” Ginny replied honestly. “I don’t think she’d expect you to keep it all inside, not when it’s eating at you.”

“It shouldn’t be eating at me,” James told her bitterly. “It wasn’t me that it was done to.”

Ginny waited for him to go on, knowing he would when he’d found the words.

“I felt like…” he said slowly, starting off haltingly. “I felt like I’d been hit in the gut, you know?”

She nodded. “I’ve had that happen before.”

“I was so mad at her father, Mum,” he admitted reluctantly. “I think I could kill him if I saw him.”

Ginny closed her eyes briefly. She knew that James was speaking from the heart, but he had no idea what it would be like to kill someone. It wasn’t something that a person could just come back from.

She knew, however, that Harry had promised the same thing. He’d promised to kill Donald Baker.

Harry’s feelings towards Isabella Crabbe were complex and layered. The woman was a product of countless years of abuse, of torture, of subjugation, and finally of losing her son. She was brilliant, but also certifiably insane. Harry would kill her since she’d been the person who instigated the death of their daughter. If pushed, Ginny rather thought he’d want her dead. But if the option were there to put her in Azkaban, or even into a secure cell in St. Mungo’s, she thought he would do that. If they could make sure that she couldn’t escape, that would likely be enough for Harry.

But with all that Baker had done, Harry was ready to kill the man. It didn’t shock her that James felt the same way.

“He’s a horrible man,” Ginny said slowly.

“He’s the worst kind of man,” James spit out angrily. “I just want to strangle him for what he’s done!”

Ginny watched her son jab the stick into the earth again, but he didn’t break it off like she thought he might. Instead he found another, then another, lining them up until he could lean a leaf on them, creating a sort of hut.

“It also made me feel ashamed,” James said when he’d finally finished his creation.

Shocked, Ginny stared at him. “Why?”

“Because of how I’ve acted,” he told her quietly. “I’ve been a toe rag, Mum. I know I have been.”

She opened her mouth to contradict him, but ended up closing it again to think about what he’d said. “You haven’t always been the easiest to get along with,” she finally agreed diplomatically. “But I can see the changes in you.”

He shrugged. “I’m trying. I can’t just be an arrogant berk all the time, taking everyone around me for granted. I assumed, all along, that if I needed help, you and Dad would be there. I just assumed it, even though I haven’t done anything to deserve it. Caroline sat next to me, chewing her thumb until it was bleeding, and then…” James’ voice cracked as his eyes went bright from tears.

“Oh, Jamie,” she pulled off her gardening glove and cupped his cheek. “There are people in this world who have been so damaged by what’s happened to them, that they’re difficult to be around.”

James sniffed and shook his head. “I want to be her friend. I feel…”

Words failed him, but she knew because she knew Harry. “You feel protective of her.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “She’s avoiding me.”

“I need to tell you something,” Ginny went on softly. “I absolutely want you to be friends with Caroline if that’s what you want, but there are hard truths that you will have to live by.” When she saw she had his full attention, she went on. “Caroline is going to be hurting and broken for a long, long time. The only person that can fix Caroline, is Caroline herself. If she’s not trying, she’s never going to get there. Now,” she went on before James could interrupt, “she may be trying and failing. It may be one step forward, two back, and that’s okay. The road to recovery is never short, not after such unspeakable trauma, but you have to understand, James, that she’s going to be difficult to be friends with.”

Her son deflated before her eyes. “I’m not good enough for this.”

“No one is good enough,” Ginny assured him sadly. “But she is worth being friends with. She, and every other victim, deserves to have friends and family. She didn’t ask for this. She’s going to push you away a lot. She’ll cling other times. She’s going to be a broomstick ride of emotions, first up, then down. You only have to be two things.”

Hope flared in his brown eyes, eyes so like Lily’s and yet the expression was one Lily would never have. Lily didn’t know or understand the world. James, sadly, was learning all too quickly. “Yeah?”

“Two things,” Ginny repeated for him. “The first is that you need to not change. You have to be stable, steady, ready to be there when she comes close. This isn’t something easy, though. It’s going to be exhausting never knowing where you stand. You might also never see her succeed in getting better. I’m sorry,” she said as she took his hand, much as Caroline had at the station. “I want to tell you it will end beautifully, but that’s not real life. I hope it does, though.”

“What’s the second thing?” James asked her hesitantly.

“You need to be a friend,” Ginny said sadly. “Not a boyfriend. She doesn’t need that sort of complication in her life until she’s put herself back together again.”

James’ expression was so sad, so bitter, that it looked completely out of place on a fourteen-year-old. “I doubt she’ll ever want a boyfriend, Mum. After what she’s been through? I couldn’t do that to her. I just want to be her friend.”

Ginny very much doubted that, but she didn’t contradict him. They’d made some progress. She hoped they’d have a lot more in the years to come. “Okay, then,” was all she said as they continued to weed the tomatoes. She smiled as her heart warmed at the sight of James’ features, which were starting to go angular as he grew into the man she knew would resemble Harry so much. It was a good day.

PLEASE take a moment to read my author's note above! Very important!

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Chapter 25: Chapter 22

Author's Notes: It's been a monstrous wait, I know. I had to finish a book before I wrote this chapter. Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing.

My latest book is only $.99 on amazon. Please check it out.
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I hope everyone enjoys the nice break in the tension and action of this story. We'll get back into it in the next chapter as the kids go back to school. Let me know what you think!


Chapter 22

Al squinted into the dark as he crouched low, stalking after his prey. It was a moonless night, which absolutely didn’t help, but it also meant he wouldn’t be spotted either. They had to be around here somewhere… He inhaled deeply, holding his breath and only letting it out in slow, deliberate exhalations. He wanted to hear. His ears were his best weapon at the moment.

A tiny snap of a twig, feint, but definitely there.

Al turned his head slowly, centimeter by centimeter, trying to see what had made the noise that–

A blur from his right caught Al by surprised as a dark figure slammed into him, pinning him to the ground with a bellow of, “Run!”

Al attempted to push Scorpius off of himself as Nat and Lily ran around the two heaped boys, but it was no good. As wiry as he was, Scorpius was strong.

“Get off!” Al laughed as he pushed at his best mate. “You’re cheating.”

“I am taking one for the team,” Scorpius informed him jovially as he sat back and inclined his head. “I may be out, but you know Nat was never going to make it to base otherwise.”

Al smacked Scorpius hard on the shoulder. “Tag, and what about Lily, eh? There’s nothing wrong with her.”

Scorpius shook his head and pushed to his feet, holding out his hand. “I was raised a gentleman.”

“You were raised to be nasty to Potters,” Al reminded him as they started around the house. “You’re just having fun thumbing your nose at your father.”

“I have no argument to that,” Scorpius said as he stopped at the edge of the path. Under his breath, he said, “Fred is over behind the tomato plants, but mind them. Your mum’s already told your dad off from when he got too close.”

Al watched Scorpius ran back for the house. Admitting defeat was not the worst lot to be cast. Inside Al’s kitchen was his Gran, who would be baking biscuits and all kinds of other sweets to feed a rowdy cast of family members. Al half wished he could throw the game and head back in as well. He was a bit peckish.

The best part of the whole night so far, apart from Molly taking down the entire family in the first round of play, had been watching Scorpius completely unwind here. Al knew what his friend would be like come September and it wouldn’t be good. Scorpius would have had months of relentless bullying from his own father, who didn’t seem to grasp the concept that the bullying wasn’t working to turn Scorpius into the man Draco wanted him to be.

Here, though, tonight with Al’s family, everything was different. They were able to relax, have fun, eat way too much food, and count down to Teddy and Victoire’s wedding. It was only two weeks away and then Teddy would officially be part of the family. It made Al grin, even as he spotted his father and dove after him.

~*~

“Where are we going?” Victoire demanded as Teddy dragged her further back into the woods behind the house. He was a man on a mission, though, and didn’t do more than grunt as they ducked under a low branch. “Teddy?”

“A little bit further,” Teddy said quietly. “Lily is ‘it’ so we have time. She’s careful.”

She was at that, Victoire knew as they skirted around some more trees. “I doubt she’ll look for us out here.”

“I’m absolutely not worried about Lily finding us,” Teddy promised as he stopped and in a single fluid motion, pulled Victoire flush with his body. He sealed his mouth to hers, pressing her up against a large tree so that she had the bark biting at her back and Teddy’s solid body pushing at her front.

It surprised her, but not terribly, that he’d wanted to get away like this. They’d been watched closely by her father over the last several weeks. Victoire had previously been spending lots of time at the flat they would share in a few weeks, but recently her dad had made up a million excuses for why she needed to be home. She’d missed this with Teddy. She’d missed the intense passion and all the things they’d done together.

In fact, they’d done almost everything except consummate their relationship.

Desires swirled through her belly, ringing out ache after exquisite ache until her whole body pulsed. Teddy’s hands swept up and down her body as he pressed her further back into the tree, rocking into her as his lips left her mouth to trail down to her neck.

“Merlin…” his ragged voice came through the pounding in her ear. “I want you so badly.”

Victoire’s only response was to fist her hands into his shirt to keep them from exploring the way she wanted to. “My dad is out here somewhere.”

“I know,” Teddy groaned as he gentled his kisses and tried valiantly to steady his breathing. “Two weeks… two weeks and we could ditch out on the game and go home.”

“Or stay here,” Victoire reminded him.

“Do you know,” he laughed as he cupped her cheeks and peppered her face with light kisses, “that Fred reckons he was conceived out here during a game?”

She felt her eyes widen in astonishment. “Really?”

Teddy nodded. “He heard Angelina say something to George in a fit on temper that hinted at as much.”

“Well,” she said as unbidden images filled her mind. “Let’s not repeat that, right?”

He grinned as she ran her hands up into his blond hair and directed his mouth back in for a kiss.

“I found you.”

Teddy turned slowly at Lily’s voice as she stood just five feet from them, smiling impishly. Her red hair was caught up in a tail at the back of her head. “I will give you anything if you go away and pretend like we weren’t here.”

Lily considered them for a moment. “Uncle Bill is back at base. You have maybe five minutes before he’ll set out to find you.”

Without another word, she turned and headed off, melting back into the trees.

“She is the sweetest kid on the planet,” Teddy mused. “When you think about the melding of Ginny and Harry, it sort of boggles the mind that they’d produce Lily. If we end up with one half as good as her, we’ll have it made.”

Victoire’s heart, already so full, burst with happiness and joy. She was so lucky, so blessed, to be marrying Teddy. He wanted what she did. He valued what she did. He loved her for who she was, faults and all. He was going to be an amazing husband and an amazing father. Victoire buried her head against his neck and cried a little as he held her. Teddy probably had no idea why she was crying, or that it was because she was so happy, but that didn’t matter.

When she needed them, his arms were always there.

~*~

The look that Victoire was giving Ginny was a lot more pensive, maybe one could argue more understanding, than she was used to from her niece. Chaos swirled around them as children ran screaming after each other in the continued game, but here they stood together, together and yet separated from the chaos at the kitchen table, which served as the base.

“When you were about one,” Ginny explained quietly, needing to spill out the nostalgia, and some of her pain, on a young woman who was ready to hear it, “I had Teddy out there to play.”

“He’d have been about three, then,” Victoire said quietly as she turned her full attention on her aunt.

“He was,” Ginny smiled fondly as she closed her eyes against the clutch of pain in her chest. “You were asleep by that point. Audrey was practicing being a mum by putting you in the cot we had upstairs. I had Teddy out with me and he had this stick that he was pretending was a wand.”

Victoire’s reaction was as Ginny would have predicted. “Aww! That’s adorable.”

“It was,” she chuckled in agreement. “We had this game where we’d hex whichever of the uncles was ‘it’ for that round.”

“You still do that,” Victoire noted dryly.

Ginny shrugged, completely unabashed. “It’s my sworn duty as the baby sister. I was required to dump Ron on his arse as many times as I could. It was important for Teddy to learn our traditions.”

“Naturally,” her niece agreed with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Her mind flashed back to that moment in the bushes with the three-year-old Teddy and spotting her husband. Ginny could still picture it as though it had happened moments before. “Teddy said something like ‘bang’ and I tripped Harry with my wand. The two of us ran for the house.”

“I bet Uncle Harry let you win,” Victoire said.

“He did,” Ginny confirmed. “Harry came in, wrapped his arms around me and…” she let her voice fade off.

“He pinched your bum, right? He likes to do that,” Victoire noted.

Ginny laughed; she couldn’t help it. “Cheeky girl, but yes, he did. I sat at the table with Teddy and thought about all I had missed out on when Hope died. Teddy fell asleep in my arms and I mourned my daughter while I was so grateful for that little boy who loved me unconditionally. I was his ‘Ginny’ and that meant something. It gave me purpose.”

“Oh,” the younger woman sniffed as her eyes filled. “Aunt Ginny…”

She pulled in a couple of breaths and forced herself to focus on what she needed to say. “Life is going to throw a lot of things at you, but in a few weeks you’ll be marrying one of the best men I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing,” Ginny said as she took Victoire’s hand and saw the smooth skin of youth next to the fine, tiny lines that were appearing on her own hand. “Together you will be amazing, even when things get rocky.”

Victoire moved quickly into Ginny’s embrace, now so much taller than her aunt, but still the child that Ginny had loved for nineteen years. “I love you,” Ginny promised.

“I love you, too,” Victoire cried softly onto Ginny’s shoulder as she held on tight.

~*~

Mrs. Potter said, with a lot less patience than she’d had even ten minutes before, “I didn’t even want to plan my own wedding! Why are you doing this to me?”

Lily, who was sitting next to Nat, giggled. The wedding was now just thirteen days away and nerves were very frayed.

It was, Nat realized, a lot like watching a tennis match. They kept going back and forth with each other, neither willing to give even an inch.

“If you would just tell me which one you liked better, then I would stop asking,” Fleur said, yet again, as she waved two nearly identical swatches of pink fabric in front of Ginny’s face.

Ginny, who had been attempting to get lunch on the table, slammed her sauce spoon down in annoyance. “Can’t you ask Audrey?”

Fleur’s beautiful face firmed into what Nat knew was stubborn resolve. “She is busy and they are our children.”

Ginny hesitated, which Nat thought was remarkable. “Should we put a wager on what will happen when Lily gets married? What are the odds that I’ll be involved in that down to picking colors?”

“She won’t care,” Lily piped in, while both mothers ignored her, still stuck in their heated battle over blush rose over petal pink.

The back door to the kitchen opened and Harry came in with several ripe tomatoes. “They’re looking good, now,” he said to no one in particular, completely unaware of the heated tension of the room.

“Harry,” Fleur called out in a dangerous soft tone. “I have a question.”

The expression of absolute glee on Ginny’s face was so funny that Nat had to bite her lip not to laugh.

“What’s up?” Harry asked as he turned around. His face froze at the sight of the swatches.

“Which one do you like better?” Fleur demanded, a little more forcefully than she had with Ginny.

Trapped now, like a caged rat, Harry studied the swatches as though they were a lion ready to pounce. “Erm, which one do you like better?”

“No!” Fleur pointed threateningly at his chest. “I know that trick. You will pick one.”

From next to Nat, and behind her aunt’s back, Lily silently motioned to the one on the left, petal pink. Harry’s gaze didn’t betray that he’d seen, but when he pointed to the correct swatch, Fleur grinned in delight.

“See? Harry has excellent taste,” Fleur assured Ginny smugly.

Harry grabbed a beer, kissed Lily’s cheek with a quiet, “Thanks,” and beat it from the kitchen.

It went on and on like that, but Nat and Lily left shortly after to track down the boys for a fly around the back gardens.

“Everything all right?” Al called out as he landed his broom. Scorpius circled just above them.

“Fabric swatches,” Nat explained. At Al’s blank look, she explained, “your aunt Fleur wanted help picking colors and your mum wasn’t too happy about it.”

“She made Daddy pick,” Lily giggled over it.

Al exchanged a glance with Scorpius. “Right,” he drew the word out. “Should we fly, then?”

“Let’s,” Nat agreed as she hopped on the broom behind Al.

~*~

The clock’s rhythmic tick, tick, tick was the loudest thing in the entire house except maybe the silent disapproval of the adults sitting around Scorpius.

He wanted out of there. The Potter’s house, of which he was allowed into the Fidelius Charm, was full of warmth, chatter, and food that didn’t make Scorpius want to retch. It still left Scorpius in shock that Mr. Potter gave him the secret to the house.

They trusted him. Him! Scorpius hadn’t yet heard a single kind word from his father’s mouth about Harry Potter, yet Mr. Potter never, ever, said anything negative about Draco Malfoy.

Resentment stirred up the fish that was sitting heavily in Scorpius’ gut. Really, if he could make himself puke all over the table it would be absolutely worth whatever his father would do to him.

Scorpius missed his aunt Daphne, but she was out of the country again.

His grandparents had come to dinner.

All of them.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy sat on one side of the table, politely ignoring Oswald and Virginia Greengrass. Draco sat at the head of the table, with Astoria at the foot.

Scorpius had been bidden to sit at Lucius’ left. He hadn’t wanted to. Grandfather Lucius tended to hex when annoyed.

He knew his parents had liked each other well enough when they’d married, but that it had mostly been an arranged marriage. Oswald had taken his daughters to America during the worst of Voldemort’s destructive march through England, but that hadn’t been to escape being a pureblood. It was simply that he’d known Voldemort was crazy.

Oswald had seen, first hand, just how badly his sisters had been treated by Voldemort during the first war. Scorpius’ great aunts, Fiona and Isabella, had been married off to Death Eaters when they had still been in school. Fiona Goyle had died years before, and they’d assumed Isabella Crabbe had been dead as well. Now, though, Scorpius knew that his great aunt was hunting down Al’s family.

It was sickening to think that he shared any blood with that woman.

“How was the term?” Grandmother Virginia asked, breaking the silence and startling Scorpius so badly that he accidentally threw his fork.

Draco glared at him in annoyance. “Was that entirely necessary?”

Scorpius almost said, “Yes,” but decided against it as he saw his father’s expression. “The term was excellent, Grandmother,” he replied politely. He couldn’t say he liked Virginia, as he didn’t know her well, but she’d always been polite to Scorpius so he returned the courtesy. “I made top marks.”

His father’s sniff, almost silent, told Scorpius exactly what he thought about that.

He and Rose had tied for first in almost everything. It wasn’t a true win in Draco’s mind. It certainly wasn’t acceptable in Lucius’ view, something that Scorpius had been made aware of upon his return from the Potters. Not that Lucius knew where Scorpius had gone. If he’d known about that, Lucius’ head might have come off.

As entertaining as that would have been, somehow Scorpius had stopped himself from telling the old man.

“I didn’t take the top in History of Magic,” Scorpius told them. “I lost to another girl in my class.”

In fact, Nat had trounced them all in that subject.

Oswald cleared his throat. “You will need to work on that.”

“I’d have to stay awake through class, first,” Scorpius replied with absolute composure.

It wasn’t quite the explosion that Scorpius hoped for, but it did get him excused from the dining room. All in all, not a bad sort of punishment as Scorpius went to find his four-way mirror so he could call one of his friends.

~*~

Ginny heard the silence more than anything else. “Any idea what they’re up to, Polly?” she asked the tiny elf as they worked together on creating pastries for the wedding that was just under a week away.

“No, madam,” Polly shook her head so that her tiny ears flapped a bit. “It’s just the girls upstairs, though. The boys are out attempting to set up a trap.”

“Excuse me?” Ginny’s momentary distraction from whatever the girls might have been up to sharpened into annoyance. “What trap?”

Polly glanced outside nervously. “They is trying to trap a rabbit in a cage.”

“Why?” Ginny asked, aggravated, then shook her head. “No, never mind. I’ll deal with them later.”

She marched up the stairs just as Lily pushed out of the bathroom, excitement written all over her face. “Mummy! I was coming to get you.”

That was typically not a good sign, but Lily didn’t look even remotely upset. “What’s up?”

Lily pulled Ginny into the bathroom, cramming her in with Rose and Nat. Ginny knew instantly that it was Rose who was upset, simply by the pinched line of her mouth. “Rosie?”

Rose shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, unwilling to talk.

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Nat assured her friend.

A very strange mixture of pity and understanding flooded Ginny’s whole body. “You got your first period.”

Rose nodded as her lower lip trembled.

Ginny moved over to hug her close as a torrent of tears broke free from the girl. She was thirteen, now, so it was expected, but that never made it any easier. Ginny ran her hand over Rose’s curly, auburn locks, whispering soothing words of comfort. “It’s really okay. Did you find the pads under the sink?”

“I knew where they were,” Lily piped in.

“Don’t t-tell anyone,” Rose begged her through her sobs. “Please, Aunt Ginny!”

“I won’t,” Ginny promised as she moved back a bit to face Rose. “But sweetheart, you have to understand that this is a big part of life. It’s the most important part, in fact. Life doesn’t happen without this. At some point you will feel okay talking about it.”

Rose shook her head and glanced down at the floor.

“You do need to tell your mum, though,” Ginny told her gently. “She’ll be hurt if you don’t.”

“Okay,” Rose sighed.

“When do you suppose I’ll get mine?” Lily wondered aloud.

Nat piped up immediately. “You’ll start about two years after your breasts begin developing. I’m still flat as a board, so I expect I have at least another two year wait.”

Lily gazed down at her chest. “I haven’t got anything either.”

“You’re young yet,” Ginny reminded her as she hoped they had plenty of time. “I started when I was thirteen. How about we go down and get some chocolate? That always makes me feel better during my cycle.”

“Daddy will know, though,” Lily told her seriously. “He says he has to tiptoe around you when you break out the chocolate.”

“We’ll just have to finish up before he gets home, then,” Ginny said as she led the way from the bathroom.

Whatever James, Al, and Hugo were up to would have to wait for a bit.

~*~

James glared at his brother. “You aren’t taking this seriously.”

“I’m not taking it seriously?” Al spluttered out a laugh. “We’re trying to catch a rabbit.”

“It’s eating Mum’s garden,” James reminded him. “It’s been driving her mental.”

Hugo bent down and stared into the metal trap. “I dunno how this is supposed to work, but it doesn’t work. Can’t Uncle Harry just charm the garden? I mean, you don’t have gnomes or anything.”

“He said he tried,” James told his younger cousin for the fourth time as he fought not to lose his temper.

“Well, it seems to be set,” Al said as he eyed the trap. “I think we can agree we gave it a go and head inside. It’s hot and I’m hungry.”

James could have argued that the trap was not set, and didn’t appear to be doing anything, but as his father could just summon the rabbit, he decided to let it go. He was pretty sure his dad had only set them this task to keep them out of the way, anyway.

The moment they walked into the house, James knew something was up. His mum and the girls were all sitting on the floor of the sitting room, eating chocolate and biscuits. At the sight of the boys, they all stopped laughing and glared at them.

“Er,” Hugo froze next to James.

Al didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his brother and cousin and pulled them towards the stairs. “We’ll be in my room,” he called down to his mother.

The moment the door slammed on Al’s bedroom, James spun to him, feeling like someone had hit him with a bat. “Chocolate.”

“Yeah,” Al agreed nervously. “I thought that was two weeks ago!”

“Maybe it was Rose,” James said as he glanced back at the closed door. “She’s about that age.”

“What are you two talking about?” Hugo demanded testily. “Why were they so mad at us?”

James clapped his cousin on the shoulder. “You know what a period is, right?”

“The thing at the end of a sentence?” Hugo said with a roll of his eyes. “Yes, I know what…” his voice trailed off in horror. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” James agreed. His dad had talked to him and Al about periods years before. That was something that was cool about their dad. Things that most fathers wouldn’t talk about, Harry would. He explained everything to them and told them about their mother’s thing for chocolate when she had her period.

He could still hear his father say, “It’s not joke, either. They truly do feel like rubbish when they have their period, so you need to be extra nice. You’re not a pleasure to be around when you’re sick and they go through this every month.”

“It can’t be Rose,” Hugo said as he interrupted James’ thoughts.

“Why not?” Al wondered. “I suppose it could be Nat. She’s the same age.”

James shook his head. He was the oldest and it was on him to be the mature one. “It doesn’t matter who it is. We’ll let them have their alone time and keep out of the way.”

“I dunno about girls,” Hugo said as he sank onto the bed. “It just seems like a lot of work to be a girl.”

James and Al exchanged a silent look. Neither of them said it, but they both wholeheartedly agreed.

~*~

Harry sat on the bed watching Ginny change into her pajamas later that night, unsure of what exactly had happened in the house, but knowing enough to know that it had been important. “Are you going to tell me, then?”

“I promised Rose I wouldn’t,” she said as she gave him a meaningful look over her shoulder.

Unfortunately, he had no idea what it meant. “And…”

“We ended up eating chocolate on the living room floor.”

Chocolate on the… oh. Harry sucked in his bottom lip and felt the stubble that he hadn’t bothered to shave off that morning scratch at his upper lip. “Isn’t she a bit young?”

“Same age that I was,” she reminded him as she turned and strolled over to him. They were eye level this way, with him sitting at the edge of the bed and her standing. Ginny pushed him backwards, then crawled up to straddle him.

Harry stared up into her warm, brown eyes and said, “Please tell me we have years yet before Lily gets her period.”

“We have years yet before that happens,” she assured him as she bent and kissed the tip of his nose. “Why didn’t we have six children?”

Surprised, Harry ran his hands over her hips and down to her bum. “We still could if you’d like.”

“I’m being serious,” Ginny told him as she lay down on his chest, resting her head under his chin.

He ran his hands up her back, under her top. “So am I, Gin. We’re not exactly ancient, you know. Thirty-seven is a little bit older than most new parents, but we still could.”

“I’ll be thirty-eight soon, and you thirty-nine,” she pointed out flatly. “We’re done. I’m happy to wait for the grandchildren to come along.”

Harry fell silent as he counted her slow, even breaths against his neck. “You wanted to stop.”

“But I can’t remember why,” Ginny told him. “I know I did, but I was so tired all the time that much of those years are a blank.”

He chuckled deeply. “Well, there you go. You were too tired to handle more; that and you got better at remembering to take your birth control. I spent several years expecting you to forget again and for you to say, ‘hey, I’m pregnant. Oops.’”

Even as she pinched his side, she said quietly, “I think I didn’t want to be like Mum, but I’m starting to see that Mum had the right idea.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well,” Ginny tilted her head up to kiss the underside of his chin. Her shifted weight, while not uncomfortable, did make certain parts of him beg to shift his focus away from what she was saying. “We have all this family around us and we have all of this support because my parents had seven children. We’ve lost Fred, but we have so many people who have our back if times get hard. I just can’t imagine not having that, and if we’d had six children, we’d have had the same.”

Harry thought about it, but not too much because his hands were moving of their own accord up her stomach. “We do have the four, though, so it’s not like we we’re impoverished.”

“Charlie arrives in two days,” Ginny said, then moaned as his hand went even higher.

“Let’s just not think about your brothers for right now,” he suggested as he guided her onto the bed and rolled on top of her. “I have a better idea.”

~*~

Teddy pointed over towards the sofa where Charlie and Lily were curled up together, fast asleep. “How long have they been like that?”

“Since he arrived a couple of hours ago,” Ginny told him quietly. “I know I should wake them for dinner, but they both look at peace. Do you remember how she did that when she was a toddler?”

“Yeah,” Teddy said as he took a stack of plates to set the table. The wedding was in three days and all he wanted to do was be at his own flat, enjoying dinner with his fianc. Instead, he was here at Ivy Run because Victoire was being kept cloistered by Bill. He couldn’t stand another minute of the silence of their tiny flat.

Better to be where the noise was, plus then he didn’t have to cook a meal for himself. Teddy could have gone to any of the homes, except for Victoire’s. He’d been informed that they were doing final fittings on her wedding dress and he was to stay away.

“I bet you’re ready for this to be over,” Ginny said as she reached over to squeeze his hand.

Frustration welled up inside him as he went to grab silverware. “I miss her. That’s what’s been the worst part in the run up to the wedding. I barely get to see her.”

“It will all be over soon,” she promised him. “I know the days are dragging a bit right now, but you’ll have your stag party tomorrow night. That will be fun, right?”

If he was honest, the real answer would be no. He and a mate from school were going to a pub with Harry, Ron, George, Charlie, and Bill.

“Bill is being an overprotective git,” Ginny told him flatly. “I know it has nothing to do with you, though, and everything to do with him letting go. He was a prat when I got married.”

“You were sixteen and pregnant,” Teddy replied dryly.

“Through no fault of my own,” she agreed. “But he remembers that all too well and knows exactly what it’s like to be a young man.”

It left Teddy with the uncomfortable realization that Ginny knew exactly what he and Victoire had been getting up to. Three more days… well, two and a half at this point. It was Wednesday night and they were getting married Saturday morning.

Teddy wanted it to be Saturday night where there would be nobody trying to step between them.

“Just remember she’s worth the wait,” Ginny said as James, Al, and Nat came down the stairs together.

“I’ll go wake them up,” Teddy said as he pointed to the pair on the couch.

Charlie, who hadn’t really aged, was still a huge, beefy man with more muscles than anyone Teddy had ever seen. He had scars, too, all over his body. Lily, who wasn’t exactly a large child, looked miniscule next to her uncle.

“Time to get up,” Teddy said with a laugh as he kicked Charlie’s shoe. He was a little surprised that Lily would be sleeping in the middle of the day, but then remembered that several of her cousins had spent the night last night. Undoubtedly, the girls had stayed up for hours talking and no one had slept well.

Charlie grunted and yawned hugely as he nudged Lily. “Lily-Lu.”

“No,” was all Lily said as she buried her face into his side.

“No, you don’t want to get up?” Teddy asked in amusement.

The look she gave him was not that of an eleven-year-old, but more of the little girl which she was rapidly outgrowing. “Bed.” She held up her arms for him, just as she’d have done a few years before.

Teddy plucked her up and resisted the urge to grunt. She wasn’t heavy, not even four stones, but she wasn’t six any longer. “I’ll be back,” he called to Ginny as he carried his baby sister up to her room. The moment he set her on her bed, she curled into a ball and waved her hand vaguely in the direction of her comforter.

As he pulled the covers up it hit Teddy with the force of a ton of bricks. This was likely the last time he’d do this. She was heading to Hogwarts in two months. Lily was going to be old enough to mind Teddy’s children whenever he and Victoire had them.

She was growing up too fast.

All of the sudden, three days didn’t seem like that long of a wait.

~*~

“I’m not nervous,” Victoire said from her seat in Ginny’s bedroom as they finished the last touches on her hair. The golden locks fell in long curls down her back with her fringe pinned back by some elaborate combs that were Fleur’s. Her dress was simple, white, and made from satin. It flowed all the way to the ground and hugged her slim figure as though it were tailor made for Victoire.

“I’m nervous,” Ginny told her with a laugh.

“Bah,” Fleur shook her head as she finished up the final touches. “You look perfect,” she told her daughter with a loving smile.

“Thank you, Mum,” Victoire said as she studied her reflection.

“Now if you’d only worn the–”

“No,” was Victoire’s reply.

There came a knock at the door and Bill poked his head in. He stared at his daughter as his eyes grew suspiciously bright. “We’re ready,” he told them as he cleared his throat.

“Alright,” Ginny made her way to the door as Fleur followed along down the hall.

They had a large marquee out back, much as they’d done for Fleur and Bill’s wedding, but here at Ivy Run it only needed to be big enough to hold immediate family and four of Victoire and Teddy’s closest friends.

Things had been quiet in the last month, but there was no sense in tempting fate.

James waited for Ginny, ready to escort her down the aisle. “Thank you,” she said as she took her son’s arm. It still startled her to have to look up into her son’s eyes, but he was rapidly shooting up in height now.

He was so serious, but there was still a little of his old fire left as he walked her to the front towards her seat. Behind her, Louis did the same for his mother.

Teddy moved up to the front, with Harry by his side, while Dominique made her way forward in a pale, green dress, carrying a bouquet. Dom was just as lovely as Victoire, Ginny saw. Her eyes danced in joy as she made her way forward.

Then the music, which Ginny hadn’t really noticed until that moment, swelled further and Bill stepped forward with Victoire. Ginny’s eyes spun to Teddy’s and what she saw was enough to melt the whole of the artic. The awe, the wonder, the joy, and yes, the heat was raw and intense on his face as he studied his bride.

There were words. The little man who performed weddings, who had to be at least four hundred years old at this point, said things in that strange voice that almost sounded to be singing rather than speaking.

Ginny cried. Fleur cried. Bill cried. Molly cried. Arthur blew his nose loudly. Harry seemed to be biting hard on his cheek to keep from crying.

The little tufty-haired man waved his wand and a shower of stars fell around the figures, entwining them together as they were bonded for life.

Ginny felt a fluttering in her heart, as she realized that the son she’d helped raise for Tonks and Lupin was now a legal part of their family. He probably always should have been, but his last remaining family member was not there. Andromeda was gone. She cried for that, too, as she hugged an uncomfortable James and wept on his shoulder.

“Mum,” James patted her awkwardly. “Get a grip, please,” he hissed out. “You’re embarrassing.”

She let out a watery giggle as she kissed his cheek and felt the beginnings of stubble there. Ginny cupped his cheek. “I love you, Jamie.”

“I love you, too, Mum,” James said as the family flooded out to hug everyone else. “Can we eat now? I’m starving.”

~*~

They were supposed to be dancing, but Teddy was struggling to keep his lips from finding Victoire’s. Her little brother kept making gagging faces behind them so that only Teddy could see.

“Louis is laughing at us,” Teddy whispered into his beautiful bride’s ear.

“He’ll get his,” Victoire grinned up at him. “You’re my husband.”

He felt a bit like an idiot just by how big of a smile spread across his mouth. “I know I’m going to get used to that at some point, but right now it’s just brilliant.”

They had eaten, they’d danced, they’d talked to everyone…

“You’re ready to go,” Victoire said with an arched brow.

He could have denied it, but there wasn’t much point to that. They only had a few days off from work and training before they both had to get back to it. “I’m really ready to go.”

“Let’s go then,” she said as she took his head.

Teddy did not see that ending well. “There is no way–”

“This is our party,” Victoire reminded him. “We can leave when we want to.”

It didn’t quite work out that way. It took another half an hour to extract themselves from the rest of the family and use the Floo to get to the beach house.

Then everything blurred in a rush as Teddy swept Victoire up into his arms and attempted to carry her to the upstairs bedroom while kissing her and endeavoring to not run into the walls.

They laughed as he flipped on the light and Teddy set her down, running his hands up into her long hair. “I love you so much,” he said between kisses. He fumbled at the back of her dress, but couldn’t figure out how to undo it.

“There is a hidden zipper,” she told him breathlessly.

They laughed their way through removing the fancy clothes until there was finally nothing between them. The two fell onto the bed in a tangle of kisses and limbs as the world around them faded to just the two of them.

Victoire’s gorgeous mouth curled into a smile as she ran her hands through his hair. “I want you.”

They melded together, two into one, and moved with breathlessness and heat.

The only thing that bested making love to his wife for the first time was waking up in her arms a few hours later and knowing he could do it again and again.

They lay in the dark, warm bodies pressed together as Victoire rested her head on his chest. “We’re the first.”

He knew what she meant. They were the first of their generation to marry. “I guess we are.”

Victoire’s long, slender fingers traced a pattern over his chest. “Do you know what I was thinking as I swallowed the potion that would prevent me from getting pregnant for a year?”

Teddy didn’t, but he could imagine. Victoire was leaning heavily towards midwifery. “What?”

“I didn’t want to take it,” she admitted quietly. “I knew it was the best thing. I knew we wouldn’t be able to support a baby for at least a few years, but I still didn’t want to take it. We don’t even have any babies around us for me to babysit because we’re the oldest. We’re the first.”

Teddy kissed her brow gently, leaving his lips on her skin. “Just as soon as we aren’t flat broke, I promise.”

“I know,” she said as she yawned. “It used to be possible for one person to work and the other to stay home. That isn’t really the case anymore. We both have to work to make it.”

It was the unfortunately truth. The only one of the family that didn’t work was Fleur, but that was because Bill was so high up at Gringotts that he was paid well. Ginny didn’t have to work, but that was because of the Potter fortune. Harry didn’t have to work, either, come to that.

They lived in different times.

Teddy wanted to give Victoire everything she wanted, but he also knew that a few years of working together to build a life were going to be good for them. He used his nose to nudge her chin up so he could kiss her again as somewhere out on the beach the waves crashed and the gulls cried.

He held his wife and knew he was home.

Back to index


Chapter 26: Chapter 23

Author's Notes: I have another book coming out the first weekend in March 2016 called The Pursuers

Please go to my profile and take a look! My book, The Overseer's Son, is only $0.99 on amazon. I really need help getting the word out.

If I can get enough book sales through here, through all of you sharing on facebook, writing reviews, etc, then I'll take a request for a one-shot to post here for you. I never do this, but if we can see sales pick up I will make the time and devote the energy. Otherwise I have to spend more time sewing and not writing because money ;)

Thank you all for everything! Let me know what you thought of this chapter. We'll get back into the heavier action next chapter.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!!


The bills were going to do them in, Teddy was sure of it. This was not how Friday nights were supposed to go. On top of Victoire’s student loans to become a Healer, they had rent, food, and utilities in this Muggle flat in the armpit of London. Teddy stared at the bits of paper and tried to force himself to focus on them. It didn’t work. All he saw was the shabby kitchen around them, and his stomach rumbled while Victoire cooked. It was like his brain was rebelling at the impossibility of it all. They’d only been married a month and already Teddy was seeing that being an adult was going to be tougher than anticipated. He’d been functioning well enough on his own, but they’d committed to paying for part of Victoire’s loans now, rather than waiting until after she was finished.

He had a stipend from training. She was paid a small allotment for working after classes in the hospital. It was just not enough. “I think I’m going to see if George could use me for a few hours on weekends.”

Victoire turned from the stove with a slight frown on her face. “It’s that bad, huh?”

“It’s that bad,” he agreed as he stretched and went over to take the spoon from her so he could continue with the sauce. They traded off cooking nights, although it was often more of a matter of who was home first. That was always a toss-up. “Take a look.”

She studied the papers in much the same way that he had. “It looks like you’re right.”

“I didn’t really want to be,” Teddy mused. “I have another year until I’m done with training and I get full pay. You work half the weekend anyway, so it isn’t like I’m missing out on time with you. Your shoes are beyond magical repair, and my wand needs to be replaced. We simply need more money.”

Victoire glanced over to the door where her uniform shoes sat waiting for the next day. Healers had specified modes of dress and she’d bought them second hand when she’d started training. Victoire had been keeping them alive through will power and spells, but they were ready for the bin. When she turned back to him, it was with a rueful smile. “No one said it would be easy.”

Teddy turned off the stove and pulled her into his arms. “I think they told us it would be bloody hard, but so far the worst part is figuring out how to pay for it all.”

“I didn’t really appreciate just how much I had when I lived with my parents,” she said thoughtfully as she boosted onto her toes to press her lips to his. “But I’d still rather be here with you and poor as we are, than back home.”

He grinned against her lips and deepened the kiss. “We could forget dinner.”

“We should eat since we can’t afford to waste food,” Victoire reminded him. Sadly, she was right.

They ate, they talked, they cleared up, then went to bed because that was the best perk of being married.

The next morning, bright and early, Victoire reported to the hospital and Teddy headed out to Diagon Alley to see his now official Uncle George about a job. WWW wasn’t open yet, but Teddy knew George would be in already. He knocked at the shop’s door and when George saw who it was, he came to open it.

“If she’s chucked you out already, I can’t help you,” George told him as he ushered him into the shop. “Come on, let’s have a cuppa.”

Teddy waited until they were settled at a table in the back room before asking. “I need a part time job.”

George’s face stayed impassive as he studied him. “What’s up?”

“Victoire’s student loans have put us over,” he told his uncle. “We could shuffle off the debt until she’s done with school, but you know how the goblins are. They don’t like debts, and we don’t want to be indebted to them for longer than we have to.”

Understanding washed over his face. “How many hours were you looking for?”

Relieved, Teddy explained the situation. “I’ll take whatever you can give me, honestly. I’ll do anything.”

“That’s good because all I have left are the jobs no one wants,” George laughed broadly. “You can start now.”

~*~

“We’ve had nothing from Crabbe,” Auror Gregory reported to Harry. It was the middle of August and things were extremely quiet in the office. Normally that would be excellent news, but it left Harry edgy and constantly on alert. Harry was sure that Isabella Crabbe was up to something. He was equally sure that whatever it was, he was not going to like it.

These were the moments when Harry found his job the most frustrating. There was nothing they could. They had no leads, and it appeared that she had gone to ground. For now.

Gregory cleared his throat and Harry studied him expectantly. “We’ve had one other problem.”

“What is it?” Harry asked.

“Lupin fell asleep in training today,” Gregory informed him flatly. “This is the third time this week.”

Surprised, Harry opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a knock at his office door. “Enter.”

Hermione poked her head in. “I’m sorry, Thomas, I didn’t realize you were here. I can come back.”

“No need,” Gregory told her.

“Send Lupin to speak to me,” Harry told him. “Immediately.”

The moment the door closed, Hermione spun to him. “What is that about?”

“I have no idea,” Harry admitted as another knock sounded at the door and Harry’s assistant, Daniel appeared in the door. “Yes?”

“There is someone from Gringotts here to see you,” Daniel explained quickly. “He says it’s urgent.”

“Send him in,” Harry rubbed at his temples. “Hermione, this may need to wait.”

“Of course,” She assured him as a goblin that Harry vaguely recognized came in.

Harry held out his hand. “Harry Potter.”

“Hignold,” the goblin told him in a voice that was slightly higher than any other goblin Harry had every spoken to. He shook Harry’s hand, but only briefly.

“Have a seat,” Harry indicated the empty chair. “Do you mind if Mrs. Weasley stays or do you need privacy?”

“It concerns your ward,” Hignold grumbled.

Harry tried not to show his confusion. “My ward?”

There was another knock at the door.

It was like a play where the performers kept entering and exiting the stage. Harry rose, a little annoyed now, and barked out, “What?”

Teddy opened the door. “You wanted to… oh,” he said as he spotted the goblin.

“Him,” Hignold pointed to Teddy.

“You’d best come in, then,” Harry said sharply. The way the goblin was looking at Teddy did not leave Harry with a warm, glowing feeling inside.

Teddy closed the door behind him and stood with his back to it. “I have the money.”

“Excuse me?” Harry blurted out in alarm.

“I… we were late on our loan payment this month,” Teddy told him. “I have the money in my desk, though. I was going to stop at the bank after training today.”

“There is interest incurred due to the lateness of the payment,” Hignold informed him threatening.

Teddy nodded. “I have it all. I’ll be back in two minutes.”

The silence in the room was unbelievably uncomfortable as Teddy left, then came back with a leather satchel that clinked in his hand. He passed it to the goblin. “I’m sorry. I have another job, now, so next month will be on time.”

Hignold stood, made for the door, and said, “It had better be,” before he slammed from the office.

Teddy sank into the vacated seat. Harry saw his hands were shaking. “I’m sorry about that.”

“What is going on?” Harry demanded of his godson. “You cannot be in debt to the goblins, Teddy! It makes you vulnerable to blackmail.”

“It’s Victoire’s schooling,” Teddy explained miserably. “I’m taking care of it.”

“And that’s why you’re falling asleep on the job here?” Harry demanded. “Teddy, you’re our only trainee. I need you to get through training, but if you can’t handle the job–”

Teddy sprang to his feet. “I can handle it! I have a weekend job with George, and I started delivering pizzas for a Muggle shop. I’ll be able to drop the pizza shop after a month. We worked it all out.”

Three jobs… his godson was working three jobs, and was still clearly broke. “I can help you.”

“No,” Teddy’s jaw firmed so that he looked just like his stubborn father. Hermione must have seen it, as well, because she let out a small gasp. Harry was a little surprised she hadn’t added anything in the conversation. “We’re managing. We’re going to do this on our own.”

“You need to figure out how to get more sleep,” Harry informed him. “There will be repercussions if you keep falling asleep.”

Teddy inclined his head and left.

“I think you were a little too hard on him,” Hermione told Harry sadly. “God, he looked so much like Remus just then.”

“That’s why you think I’m too hard on him,” Harry reminded her, but it didn’t help his conscious any. “What did you need to see me about?”

Hermione held up a roll of parchment. “Budget issues for the Aurors.”

Harry groaned. That was just about his least favorite subject. “Okay, let’s get to it, then.”

When he arrived home later that day, it was to a daughter who wanted him to sit and snuggle on the couch. Harry sat with her pressed against his side. “What’s up?”

“I don’t want to go to Hogwarts,” Lily informed him with a sniff. “I just want to stay here.”

“I see,” Harry said, even though he absolutely didn’t. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You don’t want to go off with your cousins?”

Lily shook her head. “I will miss you too much.”

“Lily-Lu,” he sighed and wished she could stay at home. Technically, she could, but Lily would miss out if she didn’t go. “Sweetheart, it’s going to be a wonderful time. You’ll have your brothers there, and Hugo. You’re going to have a lot of fun.”

“I don’t want to go,” Lily told him as she pressed her face into his chest.

“What happened to upset you?” Harry asked her as he ran his fingers through her hair. “You were excited when we got the book lists yesterday.”

“That was yesterday.”

Harry glanced around to the kitchen and saw Ginny and Polly studiously ignoring them. Clearly, they weren’t going to help him out.

“What happened today?” Harry asked her gently.

“Nothing, Daddy, I just don’t want to go,” Lily sobbed in his arms.

“Okay,” he said firmly. “You don’t have to go.”

Lily stared up at him hopefully as Ginny snorted from the kitchen. “Really?” she asked him.

“Really,” he promised. “You can continue to homeschool here with Mum.”

His wife rolled her eyes and mouthed the word, ‘sucker’ at him.

Harry made to get up, but Lily clutched his hand. “Not yet,” she pleaded and he settled back on the couch with her.

Lily kept up her stubborn stance of not going to Hogwarts for two days and no one knew what had happened. Her resolve lasted all the way until they were in Olivander’s where Hugo was picking out a wand.

Then, without warning, Lily changed her mind and said she wanted to go.

And asked for a kitten.

Harry said yes. Ginny must have broken something with how hard she rolled her eyes. She poked him in the stomach. “You are the biggest idiot I have ever met.”

He shrugged, enjoying the sight of Lily playing with the kittens. “It’s a small price to pay.”

“Harry,” she said in exasperation. “You’re spoiling her!”

“She could have had a kitten anyway,” Harry reminded her. “She’s allowed to bring a pet to school. Besides, she wasn’t trying to wind me up. She’s just… a little emotional. You have no patience for that since you’re rarely that changeable.”

“I would like to point out,” she said in just over a whisper, “that if I acted like that, you would be ready to tear your hair out. When it’s Lily, though, you bend over backwards.”

“I know,” he agreed as he slipped an arm around her trim waist. “Think of it this way,” Harry said as he bent to kiss her. “I absolutely adore our children. I could be worse things.”

~*~

“I can’t believe we’ll be in third year,” Rose said to Al and Scorpius as they sat on the floor of Al’s room. Scorpius was to spend a long weekend at the Potters. Unfortunately, Nat wasn’t there. Her parents were in town and they were spending time together as a family at the Potter’s beach house.

“It does seem like time is flying,” Al agreed as he flipped through his new Defense Against the Dark Arts book. “Lily was swearing she wasn’t going to go.”

Rose nodded grimly. “That was probably my fault. I told her about feeling all alone in the tower the first week I was at school.”

Al’s gaze rose slowly to his cousin’s. “Do not tell Mum that. She was furious with Lily for waffling.”

“Lily seems like she’s younger than she is,” Scorpius added.

“She’s always been babied,” Al confirmed. “It isn’t that she’s immature, but I think she really enjoys being looked after. That’s just her. She’ll need that from James and me this coming year. Thankfully, James has stopped being a prat and can help out with that.”

“You know, most little sisters would head to school and tell their big brother to shove off,” Scorpius laughed.

Rose grinned and shook her head. “That’s not Lily. I don’t mean to imply that there is anything wrong with her, of course. I’m sure she’ll outgrow it, but she’s not likely to do anything stupid or risky.”

“I bet she’ll go to Hufflepuff with Lucy,” Al mused as the door creaked open and Lily came in with her tiny, gray kitten in her arms.

“Are you talking about me?” Lily asked as she sat down next to Rose.

“Yep,” Al said as he scratched the top of the kitten’s head. “We were saying you are likely to go to Hufflepuff.”

“I’m going to be in Gryffindor,” Lily replied easily. “I’m going to choose that one.”

Al had told her about being able to ask the Sorting Hat about which house one wanted to be in.

“What’s the kitten’s name?” Scorpius asked Lily.

Lily smiled so hugely, she was practically beaming. “Ducky.”

“You named the kitten, Ducky?” Scorpius asked, a little confused.

“It’s because she’s as soft as a duck down,” Lily said. She held up the kitten for Scorpius. “Here, if you hug her you’ll see what I mean.”

Scorpius’ expression was so full of consternation, Al barely managed to hold back his laughter. It wouldn’t have surprised Al at all to learn that Scorpius had never held a kitten. Al certainly couldn’t imagine Draco Malfoy having kittens in their big mansion. Finally, his mate took the kitten and held it one hand. “Right.”

“No, not like that,” Lily crawled over to reposition the kitten on Scorpius’ shoulder. Ducky rubbed her nose against his cheek and purred loudly. “See, she likes you,” she told him cheerfully.

“Right,” Scorpius said again as his shoulders relaxed fractionally. He held the kitten closer and let out a long sigh. “She’s really cute, Lily.”

Lily sat back next to Al and rested her head against his shoulder.

That was Lily. She was cuddly, lovable, and happy most of the time. She could be stubborn, feisty if someone really annoyed her, but mostly she was sweet.

“I’m glad you decided to go to school,” Rose told her.

“I am too, I guess,” Lily’s eyes filled with tears. Al didn’t have to see her to know it, because Scorpius was suddenly looking panicked.

He stuck his arm around his baby sister and squeezed her shoulder. “You have to cut that out, Lils, or Scorpius is going to faint.”

“Piss off,” Scorpius laughed nervously as he lay back on the rug to let the kitten curl up on his chest.

~*~

Harry hated paperwork. He’d hated it for as long as he’d held the job as head of the Aurors and it hadn’t changed. He frequently put it off so long that someone, usually Hermione, would come tell him off for holding her up in her reports. Now that Hermione was head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department, he supposed she would have someone under her to come berate him for leaving it too long.

It just wasn’t as much fun when it wasn’t Hermione. Harry was so used to her nagging him about homework that it was nostalgic now to see that annoyed, prissy expression on her face. He could swear that sometimes her hair still stood up on end, even though it was short and well under control now.

That was the problem with working with family, he supposed. They always knew how to push the right buttons.

A knock sounded at his office door. Harry glanced up and scowled. “If it’s Hermione, tell her I’m not done.”

“It’s not, Mr. Potter,” came Daniel’s nervous voice. “You have a guest to see you.”

Harry rose quickly and said, “Send them in.”

Whatever made Harry’s assistant nervous had to be much more interesting than paperwork and it would give him an excellent excuse as to why he wasn’t done.

The door was pushed open and to Harry’s shock, Draco Malfoy waited on the other side. Draco was dressed in severe black robes that left his pale face almost white. Harry rather thought that some of his old classmate’s hair had to be turning gray, just as his was, but it was so pale already that it was nearly impossible to tell. Draco’s face bore the same fine lines around the eyes that crossed Harry’s.

“Draco,” Harry said with as much neutrality as he could manage. Draco’s son was, after all, staying at Harry’s house. There was no point in being hostile. “Please, come in.”

Malfoy entered and seated himself in one of the guest chairs while Daniel quickly closed the door. Harry sank back into his own seat and contemplated the other man. He didn’t say anything. If he was honest, Harry had no clue what to say to him. They rarely interacted with each other.

“I imagine you know why I am here,” Draco said finally.

Harry shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t. Scorpius is fine. They were getting up a game of Quidditch when I left this morning.”

Draco’s jaw tightened ever so slightly before he forced it to relax. His expression didn’t, otherwise, change. “I did not come to talk about my son. I do not approve of their friendship, but I find myself unable to curtail it either. I am sure you feel the same way.”

Harry had two ways of responding to that statement. He could either get mad, or be amused. He decided on the latter. “Actually, I like Scorpius a great deal. He’s a good, smart, respectful kid. I think he is an excellent friend for Al. He is welcome at my house any time.”

Real surprise crossed Draco’s face now, and it must have been quite a shock because he didn’t bother to hide it. “You… you’re…” he struggled to control his reaction and pull it back towards neutral.

“When you think about it,” Harry went on, now truly amused, “Al is the child of three of the oldest Pureblood families. You have the Potters, the Weasleys, and the Prewitts. But then you throw Nat, the Muggleborn, into the mix and my argument all falls apart. Then there’s Rose, who is a half-blood herself.”

Draco held up a hand. “I can see what you are doing. I… I am under a lot of pressure. Scorpius is unwilling to uphold family traditions. It is causing a lot of strife in our family.” Now that he said it, Harry could see that there was more than the rapidly approaching middle age in Draco’s face. His eyes were weary, and clearly disappointed.

“You’re not going to change him,” Harry informed him simply. “He’s already made his choice. He needs you to love and accept him where he is. I like family tradition as much as the next man, but sometimes they need to change. If you push him too hard, he’s going to mutiny.”

Draco’s pale brow arched. “If your son told you that he was going to be a Death Eater, would you just accept that as a change of tradition?”

“No,” Harry replied as the thought hit him in the gut. “But we aren’t talking about that level of revolt. We’re talking about your son being unwilling to discriminate against someone just because they were born to Muggle parents.”

“Some might say that we are too accepting as a society,” Draco replied as he smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle on his robes.

“The some that would are also the ones who helped get us into a war,” Harry retorted as he felt the first twinge of annoyance. “You said you didn’t come to discuss your son.”

“No,” Draco agreed. “It is about a relation of my wife’s.”

Dread filled Harry as though he’d replaced all of his blood with ice water. It burned through him as he sat back in his seat. “Isabella Crabbe.”

“She was the aunt of my wife,” Draco confirmed steadily, but Harry could see it was bothering Draco to speak about her as much as it bothered Harry. “She was also the mother of a friend of mine. I did not know her well. I only met her a few times, but I understand that she is causing a lot of problems right now.”

That was a mild understatement. “Go on,” Harry invited.

“I spoke with my father-in-law a few weeks ago about her,” Malfoy said with deliberate enunciation of each word. “He wants to be sure that it is known that we have nothing to do with her. None of us have seen her in decades. I believed her dead. He also wants me to pass along a message.”

Intrigued, now, Harry leaned forward and rested his folded hands on his desk. “What would that be?”

“She is brilliant,” Malfoy said through lips that barely parted. “She is one of the smartest people you will ever meet. That’s what he told me. But he also explained that after what she went through at her husband’s hands, after all of the abuse, she is equally as insane as she is gifted. She should never be underestimated.”

“I will not underestimate her,” Harry assured him. “She’s already proven just how resourceful and cruel she can be.”

A sudden image of the last time he had spoken to Malfoy filled Harry’s head and he spoke without thinking it through. “Do you remember when I visited you in Azkaban?”

Wary, Draco nodded, but didn’t speak.

“My wife was pregnant with our daughter, Hope,” Harry said with a lot more composure than he’d have been able to manage ten years before. “I have always appreciated that you wanted to help me then. I think of that now, when I see our sons laughing and having a good time.”

The corner of Draco’s mouth twitched slightly. “I seem to recall telling you that I hoped your kid would look like your wife.”

Harry chuckled and was so grateful that he and Draco, while not friends, could be cordial with each other. He remembered vividly that Draco had said that he hoped that their child looked like Ginny because Harry was too ugly to replicate. He’d said it in jest and Harry had taken it that way. “Yes, Al does look a lot like me, poor kid. Lily looks a lot like Ginny, and just as beautiful. It would have been easier if she hadn’t been. She starts this year at Hogwarts.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I’m still at a loss for how she grew up so fast.”

Malfoy, however, didn’t seem to have noticed that Harry had turned into a sap. “My wife wanted a girl.”

Harry waited.

That was it, though. Draco didn’t add anymore.

Scrambling for something to say, Harry admitted, “I think having girls is harder. She just has to look like she might cry and I buy her a kitten.”

Malfoy stared at him blankly before bursting out laughing. A light of mirth filled his pale eyes. “It might be best that we never had one.” He stood and schooled his face. Draco held out his hand which Harry shook. “I appreciate your time.”

Harry nodded. Before Draco could leave, he said, “I know we’re not going to see eye to eye on a lot of things, but I hope you can trust that your son is safe when he’s with us.”

Draco paused for just a moment. “I can accept that.”

Then he was gone.

Harry slowly sank back into his seat and stared at the closed door.

Four minutes later, when Harry still hadn’t managed to move, it was opened again by an annoyed Hermione. “Are you done with those forms yet?”

“Draco Malfoy stopped in to see me,” Harry informed her.

That stopped Hermione in her tracks. “What did he want?”

“To tell me that their family has nothing to do with Isabella Crabbe and that we shouldn’t underestimate her.”

Hermione considered him for a moment, then held out the forms. “Give them over.”

“I’m not done,” Harry reminded her, even as he held them out.

Hermione took them and tucked them under her arm. “It’s not like you were ever going to finish them anyway. I’ll just forge your signature again.”

“You’re the best, Hermione,” he said.

She waved and headed for the door. “You’re lucky I love you.”

~*~

Scorpius tried not to show just how much he liked the kitten, but Lily seemed to know anyway. Every chance she had, she handed the kitten off to him to hold as though he was doing her a favor. She’d smile at him in a way that let him know she understood. It was nice. He’d never had a sibling, but Scorpius had always thought that having a little sister would be annoying. They were supposed to be bratty, but Lily was never like that. She was so sweet that it was difficult to ever get mad at her, and he had to admit that she never tried to make James or Al mad. If he could have had a sister like that, Scorpius thought it might have been okay. The only horrible part was the crying. When she started crying, it felt like he’d been clubbed with a Beater’s bat. Scorpius ended up with equal parts panic, a desire to make her stop, and the inability to move.

Al knew what to do, though, and never seemed to mind Lily’s tears.

“How do you do that?” Scorpius asked him.

Al shrugged. “You get used to it. She’s always been like this.”

Scorpius was sure he wasn’t going to get used to it, and also thankful he didn’t have to deal with it often.

By the end of the second day at the Potter’s, he just plain liked the kitten and didn’t care if anyone saw it. He carried it around with him a good bit of the time, when Lily didn’t have her. He was even used to Lily, who was hanging around them more than she had in the past.

His father had been beyond annoyed that Scorpius was going to the Potters, again, that summer but Astoria Malfoy had finally managed to put her foot down. It wasn’t like Draco would let Al come visit him at his house.

Al’s cousins came over on his third day there and they all went out to play Quidditch for several hours. It was so much fun flying with them and Mrs. Potter even came out to fly.

She stomped them all into the ground. No one could get the Quaffle from her and they all tried their best.

“Your mum is unbelievable,” Scorpius told Al in awe as they flew side by side over the back of the trees, watching her shoot the Quaffle straight by Fred, who was in goal. “I’d have liked to see her play professionally. I bet she was amazing.”

“James plays like her,” Al agreed with a whoop as his brother stole the Quaffle from Molly. “I think that’s what he’ll end up doing. He wants to play for England.”

“Are you trying out for the team this year?” Scorpius asked him.

Al shook his head. “I think I’ll give it another year. I won’t make it. Rose wants to try and I’m betting she will.”

Rose flew better than almost all of them. She wanted a spot on the team and had been putting in the work all summer long in order to get a place.

“Agreed,” Scorpius said as they shot back into the game.

When Mr. Potter came home from work that evening, Scorpius saw right away that something was wrong. Al must have seen it as well because he asked, “What’s up, Dad?”

Mr. Potter, who had been absently removing his cloak for over two minutes, jolted and turned to stare blankly at Al. “I… it was just work, Al. It’s been a long day.”

Al and Scorpius exchanged a look, but didn’t press it. Al might have challenged his father, but Scorpius wouldn’t. As nice as Mr. Potter was, he was still the Harry Potter, which carried some weight with Scorpius.

Then Mr. Potter smiled at him. “I saw your father today, Scorpius. We had a nice chat.”

Scorpius felt himself shrink as he fought not to stare at the floor. “Oh.”

Harry clapped him on the shoulder. “It was very polite, I promise.”

That was something Scorpius could believe. His father was mostly polite.

“We even shared a laugh,” Harry said.

Stunned, Scorpius gaped as Harry made his way into the kitchen where Ginny and Lily were fixing dinner with Polly, the house-elf. Scorpius had offered to help, but Lily had wanted to make the dinner mostly by herself and had, very nicely, told him to scram.

Harry pulled Ginny off to one side and whispered something in her ear. Her already pale face when even whiter.

Al and Scorpius moved out of the way as the two adults headed for the stairs up to their bedroom.

“What was that about?” Al whispered to Scorpius.

“No clue,” Scorpius said honestly.

“Hey,” Lily called to them. “Can you come help me while Mummy is upstairs?”

Scorpius glanced over and saw her smiling as she held up a knife and a red bell pepper. “Sure.”

The dinner was amazing. It was some sort of Mexican dish that was a mixture of cheese, spices, tortillas and beef. “This is great, Lily-Lu,” Harry told his daughter.

“Thanks,” she beamed at him. “Nat left this recipe for me to try. I’ll have to tell her it went well.”

“When is she coming back again?” Scorpius asked Al.

“Wednesday,” Al said around a mouthful of tortilla chips. “Her parents couldn’t stay through September first.”

James groaned as he shoveled in another bite. They were all eating like pigs, but no one cared.

Mrs. Potter dished some more onto her plate. “Lily, I could cheerfully get fat off of this.”

~*~

Ginny felt like the entire night was spent in a fog. She tried to focus on her children, who only had another week, but the news that Harry had brought home with him left her in a daze.

It wasn’t often that Harry talked to her about his work. Much of it couldn’t be shared, but this had been so horrifying that he hadn’t been able to keep it inside.

They’d finally figured out what Isabella Crabbe had been doing all summer. “Tell me again,” Ginny said after the kids were in bed and they were alone in their bedroom.

Harry sighed as he flopped back onto the bed, still dressed. He wasn’t done for the day. The only reason he was home then was that the Healers had kicked him out and told him to go home. Specifically, Audrey. “I don’t know much, Gin. She was too out of it when the Muggles found her.”

“But she said there were a dozen other girls?” Ginny prompted as she sat next to him and ran her fingers through his thick, dark hair.

“That’s what the translator said,” Harry confirmed as he captured her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. “This has turned into such a mess. I don’t know how we’re going to end it.”

It had been years of thinking Isabella was dead. Then they’d learned she was alive, well, and causing a lot of damage to a lot of people.

“Do the healers have any idea what was done to her?” Ginny asked him hesitantly. She had the beginnings of an idea, but it was admittedly a bad, desperate idea.

Harry shook his head. “Audrey knows that she’s been raped, but she has no idea what magic was used on her…” his voice trailed off as he stared at her, a sudden looking of dawning comprehension. “You mean, Natalie, don’t you?”

“It’s a bad idea,” Ginny said with the shake of her head. “But she would be able to see what was done.”

That was a blessing and a curse for the girl. She had a gift to see magic at its core and she was getting better and better at using it all the time. All summer long, Minerva had come by to continue lessons with her.

“If you’re desperate, Harry,” Ginny began, but stopped when he shook his head.

“I can’t take her to see that woman,” Harry said with finality. “She’s only thirteen. I know she’s tough and she’s seen a lot in her time, but–”

She touched a finger to his lips. “That child has seen genocide pits in Africa with the bodies of hundreds of children in them. Can you really say that this will be worse? Most of her injuries will be healed by this point.”

Harry scrubbed hard at his face. “You’re right. I’ll go ask her parents.”

She waited up for him, trying to amuse herself with silly novels, but nothing kept her focus. Eventually, Ginny made her way to Lily’s room and stole Ducky from her daughter’s bed. The kitten peeked one sleepy eye open and then snuggled back in on Ginny’s stomach as she settled back into her bed.

The kitten was admittedly adorable, even if Harry was the biggest sucker on the planet when it came to their daughter. He was right, though. She did love that he loved their children and Lily wasn’t spoiled. She was a lot of things, including sheltered, but she wasn’t a brat.

“It’s just you and me tonight,” Ginny told the kitten. “I wonder how you’ll do at Hogwarts. You’re going to be the tiniest kitten there.”

Ducky purred in response.

The door creaked open and an exhausted Harry trudged in. Ginny glanced to the clock and saw it was almost three in the morning. “That good, huh?”

He fell face first into the mattress. “She saw, Gin.”

He started to tell her the story, in fits and starts, as he took the kitten and held it close like the miniscule ball of fluff would keep them both sane.

Harry had gone to speak to Nat’s parents, Curtis and Julienne Parker, to ask them if Nat would be able to help. Nat had heard what he’d wanted and insisted on going. “Her parents wanted to come as well, but I didn’t have permission to bring Muggles into St. Mungo’s,” Harry explained.

He had taken Nat to the room and Audrey had told them that they were having a beast of a time with the woman because the translator only understood about half of what she was saying. “It was an African dialect that was specific to only a small part of Tanzania called Hadza. She had also spoken a little bit of Swahili at first, but after she was woken with most of her injuries healed, she panicked and reverted to the other language.”

“That had to be so traumatic for her,” Ginny said sympathetically.

“Then,” Harry went on through a huge sigh, “Nat walked into the room and started speaking to her in her own tongue.”

She felt her mouth drop open in stupefied silence.

“So it turns out that she and Curtis had been in that part of Africa for a better part of six months and it was one of the dozens of languages that she speaks,” he finished. “He was able to get a better handle on the story from her, unfortunately.” Harry was broken. Ginny could see it in every line of his body. “I didn’t want her to have to hear that. I didn’t want to ask this teenager to help me do my job, but she calmly translated the story for me, Luv, like she wasn’t telling me a tale of sadism, rape, and murder.”

Ginny hugged him and held on. She didn’t know what to say. There were no words adequate to speak at that moment anyway.

“Then Nat examined her and said that a lot had been done to her reproductive tract.”

“No one else was in the room, right?” Ginny asked him quickly.

Harry shook his head. “It was just myself, Nat, the woman, and Audrey. I made sure no one could listen in before we started. Nat described to Audrey what she was seeing in the woman’s magical injuries. She said there is also a potion at work in the woman’s body. She can see it in her veins.”

Impressed, she let out a low whistle. “That’s a new trick.”

“It is,” Harry agreed as he seemed to age before her eyes. “I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep it quiet that she’s an Augmentum Imaginari. The only bright side was the African woman spoke no English at all and couldn’t understand what Nat was telling us.”

“Was Nat okay after you took her back to the beach house?” Ginny asked hesitantly.

“She seemed to be,” he told her with a helpless shrug. “I asked if she wanted to talk about it, but she said she was tired. She said it wasn’t the worst thing she’d seen in her life and that I shouldn’t worry about asking her for help.”

“She’s a tough kid,” she agreed. “I don’t think she should be asked a lot.”

“The strangest thing is,” Harry told her as Ducky yawned and stretched in his hands, “that I think it helped to her to help me. I think a lot of the time Nat feels a little helpless and overly cloistered. This was something tangible that was a real asset to me. I don’t want to risk anyone getting wind of what she can do, but I think if I can safely get her help with something, then I’m going to let her. I think it would do her a lot of good.”

Ginny didn’t know what she thought of that idea. It didn’t seem right to ask that of a child, but then again at thirteen Harry took down a hundred Dementors.

“She speaks several African languages,” Harry chuckled softly. “She is really the strangest kid.”

Back to index


Chapter 27: Chapter 24

Author's Notes: Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing, and to Dennis for the prompt for Teddy.

Dear readers, I have to go where the money is and right now the money is flowing my sewing business, and not in writing. I will update as often as I can, but it's likely to be slow for the next few months. As always, you can check out my books by searching out my Author's name, Sarah Jaune, or checking my profile. Also, if you want to see my sewing goods (which are wetbags and snack sacks including Harry Potter themed) shoot me a message.

Otherwise, I will see you when I can! I know it's a long, long story. I appreciate those who take the time to review. I love hearing your feedback. I know there wasn't much of Crabbe in this chapter, but it will ramp back up more and more for a bit.

Okay, I think that's it for me.
Thanks again!
Sarah


Ron woke on his side, facing Hermione as the first feeble hints of light started to poke through the curtains of their bedroom. He didn’t need to see the clock to know it had to be before six in the morning. Hermione was always up at six, come rain or shine. She never slept in on Saturdays anymore, either. Today was an important day. It was the first of September. Today Rose and Hugo would both go to Hogwarts.

He studied his wife’s face, which was aging gracefully, much more so than his own. She was still as beautiful to him today as she had been twenty years before when they’d first been together. Six months ago Ron hadn’t known if he and Hermione would still be sharing a bed, but they had pushed through a lot of difficult conversations to get to where they were now. They were still a unit. Sometimes, maybe often, it felt tentative and fragile. There were days when Ron didn’t know if he had the energy to keep fighting.

His father had told him that bonding his soul to another in a magical marriage was like having half of his heart walking around outside of his body. Arthur had been exactly right. The thought of breaking up his family wasn’t only emotionally painful, it physically felt like someone was ripping his heart out. It tore at him until he wanted to cry. Rose had seen it. She had seen what Hugo hadn’t. His little girl hadn’t even been home two days from her second year at Hogwarts before she’d asked him what was wrong with him.

“Sometimes love isn’t enough,” Ron had admitted.

But sometimes it was. Hermione was a work in progress. Her drive, her intelligence, and her big heart were all things he had fallen in love with. He simply hadn’t loved that she’d started to use those attributes to avoid him. He hadn’t understood why she’d want to be away from him, when all he’d wanted was to draw near. Even after they’d talked at the beach house and spent time trying to reconnect, he still hadn’t found a good answer from her. It wasn’t until a few days before Teddy and Victoire’s wedding that he’d finally figured it out.

Hermione was scared. She’d toughed it out through Voldemort’s rise to power, and Ron had reasoned that she’d done so because she had only herself to lose. Now, though, with their children being effected by Isabella Crabbe, along with everything that had gone on, Hermione had chosen work rather than dealing with her feelings. It wasn’t healthy, or right, but Ron understood exactly why she’d done it.

She was helpless to completely protect their children. It was impossible to promise that they weren’t going to die too early. She’d fled their life rather than risk the hurt of losing it, but it came to the same end. She’d almost lost their life.

It had been the Wednesday before the wedding and Hermione hadn’t made it home before the kids went to bed. She hadn’t even sent an owl to tell Ron that she would be so late. At first, he’d fumed silently as he made dinner and cleaned everything up. Then he’d sat out in their back garden and stared at the stars as he tried to work through what he was going to say to her. When she’d finally come home, he’d very calmly asked her to let him know if she was going to be that late so he wouldn’t worry.

Hermione had blown up. She’d ranted, screamed, thrown something across the room, then slumped to the floor in tears. “I’m afraid.”

That’s it. That’s all she’d said, but it had been enough. Ron had sat with her and held her while she cried and then she had told him everything. That had been almost six weeks ago now.

Ron ran his fingers lightly over Hermione’s cheek. She pulled in a deep breath and turned into his touch. Ron leaned in to kiss first her cheek, then her lips. “So beautiful,” he whispered as he trailed his mouth down to her ear. “My love, my wife.”

He felt her small laugh escape her. “What time is it?”

“Early,” Ron promised as he propped himself up to kiss her again. “We have plenty of time.”

Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and they deepened the kiss.

No, it wasn’t perfect, and it certainly wasn’t fixed, but now when they parted, Ron was more confident that his heart was safe in her hands.

~*~

“I changed my mind,” Lily whispered quietly to Harry as chaos reigned around them. Owls hooted in protest from their cages, socks were flying through the air, and Ginny was running through the house attempting to get everyone packed.

In the midst of it all, his tiny redhead with her big, brown eyes that were exactly like her mother’s, met his imploringly. “Lily, we’ve been over this before,” Harry said as he knelt down and took her hands. “You want to go to Hogwarts. Your kitten, Ducky, will be there to sleep with you tonight and you’ll have your brothers and all of your cousins. Odds are very good you’ll have at least one cousin in your house.”

Lily nodded reluctantly. “I’m not going to Slytherin.”

“Well,” Harry added fairly as he ran a strand of her long, coppery locks through his fingers, “there isn’t much hope that Slytherin would want you. There isn’t a single ruthless bone in your body.”

She giggled then. “Will you plait my hair?”

He didn’t need to glance around to know that Ginny would want him doing anything but plait Lily’s hair, since they were close to running late for the train, but Harry nodded and kissed her brow. “Of course I will.”

Harry took a seat at the table and Lily turned around for him. He started the weaving and knew, immediately, that today was not a good plaiting day for him. “Mummy could do this for you in a snap. I’m messing it up.”

Lily waited until he’d finished and she handed him her hair ribbon. Then she spun and threw her arms around him, kissing his cheek. “I wanted you to do it for me, Daddy.”

Harry held on tight and tried to fight back the tears. He’d half expected to have a girl just like Ginny. It made sense to him that he would be blessed with a wildly independent girl who would be into absolutely everything the boys were into. Instead, he had Lily. His pixie daughter was smart, funny, sweet, loyal, and didn’t have even a hint of rebellion to her. She was light, she was love, and she was basically always good. He grinned and tugged lightly on her plait. “How did I end up with someone like you?”

“Merlin knows,” Lily said sincerely, even as amusement danced in her eyes. “Gran tells me she wished Mum would have a daughter just like her so she’d know what it was like.”

“Lily!” Ginny called down the steps. “Your kitten is refusing to get out from under your bed and we need to leave now!”

Lily jumped, and ran for the stairs while Harry caught the look in his wife’s eye that meant he better load the car.

They were on the road less than five minutes later with James, Nat, Al, and Lily all in the back along with three very annoyed owls, who were all ducking to get away from the kitten that was hopping from one cage to another, swatting at them playfully.

Harry turned in his seat, having asked Ginny to drive, and snatched the kitten mid-leap. Thankfully, his Seeker skills were still excellent. “One of them is going to bite her and you’ll be very upset, Lily-Lu. Put Ducky in her basket until you’re on the train.”

“Okay, Daddy,” Lily agreed as she took the kitten and shut her away.

“You remember about Honor, right?” James asked his sister as he tapped his foot nervously. “They’re going on the train, aren’t they, Dad?”

Harry nodded. He had two Aurors escorting Caroline and Honor Baker, along with their grandparents, to King’s Cross. “It’s all arranged. I’ve already had word that they’re en route.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lily assured James confidently. “Hugo and I already have a plan and we’ve worked out things to talk about in case she’s shy. We’ll stick with her the whole time.”

James hesitated only a moment, before he wrapped an arm around Lily’s shoulder and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Lily said quietly. “It helps that you’ll be there. How did you do this by yourself, James?”

“He’s just that brave,” Al replied with a completely straight face. He laughed when James kicked him and almost caught Nat.

“Don’t get me,” Nat said as she scooted closer to the door.

They settled down into chatter and Harry took Ginny’s hand, linking their fingers as the miles rolled by. This was their last time. Ginny was now officially free of homeschooling. Tonight at dinner, for the first time in too many years to count, he would come home to just his wife.

It would be lonely. It would be quiet. It would be…

“Did I forget my broom?” James asked, interrupting a pleasant thought about what their quiet house would mean.

“I stuck it in your trunk,” Nat told him. “I grabbed it when I got Al’s for him.”

James let out a sigh of relief. “Great, thanks Nat.”

~*~

Nat fell as they walked to the train. James was used to it by now, and also used to his brother’s uncanny reflexes for catching her. She pushed her strawberry blonde hair back out of her face and scowled at the platform, like it was the platform’s fault that her feet didn’t do a good job of keeping her upright.

“Are you okay?” Ginny asked as she looked Nat over.

“Yeah,” Nat grumbled as they moved towards one of the train cars.

“Let’s get the luggage up,” James told Al. “Then we can come back.”

Al nodded and the two of them worked together to get Al’s and Nat’s trunks onto the train, followed by Lily’s, then Rose and Hugo’s when his Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione arrived.

“Have you seen Scorpius yet?” Rose asked Nat as they glanced around. James hung back, not only because of saying goodbye, but because he really wanted to see that Lily met Honor.

Or that’s what he told himself.

“There he is,” Al said as he pointed across the station. Scorpius loped over to them, a glum expression over his pointed face, as he pushed his trolley. His parents followed behind him.

James’ mum held out her hand for Mrs. Malfoy. “It’s good to see you again, Astoria.”

“And you,” the beautiful woman smiled at Ginny. “It was good of you to have Scorpius over this summer.”

“It was our pleasure,” Ginny replied as Harry and Draco gave a short nod to each other, but didn’t say anything.

Hermione joined into the women’s conversation while Scorpius stared over everyone’s heads.

Lily broke the tension in a very Lily manner by scampering up to Scorpius’ dad. “Hi!” she said to Draco as she stuck out her hand. “I’m Lily and this is my first year. I’m very nervous to go, but I have a kitten now and her name is Ducky and that helps.”

James tensed, unsure of what Draco would do, but he saw immediately that Draco had no idea what to do with the tiny redhead. Lily had clearly flummoxed the older man. He shook her hand automatically. “Er, hello.”

“Your son is very nice,” Lily promised as she dropped his hand and stared up at him with wide, innocent brown eyes. “He has very good table manners. Mummy says that means a person was raised right. We like having him over to play. He helped me with my Latin lesson this summer, and he climbed a tree for me when my kitten was stuck.”

Draco flicked a look over to Harry. “Is that the kitten?”

Inexplicably, James’ dad replied with, “Seriously, could you have said no?”

A tiny smile cracked over Draco’s mouth. James thought it looked painful and had no idea what they were referring to. “I imagine not,” Draco said quietly.

Then the distraction that James had been waiting for arrived. Caroline, along with her sister Honor, who looked nothing like her, arrived with their grandparents and flanked by two Aurors.

James wanted to say something to Caroline, but found that his vocal cords were frozen shut. She was taller than the last time he’d seen her. They were still eye to eye, even though James had grown as well. Her blue eyes were shadowed, like sleep was something she didn’t know well, and her blonde hair was cut short now, in a bob that ended at her chin. She was thinner than she had been, almost painfully so. Gone was the strong, athletic girl who had first arrived from America. This one appeared to be ready to topple in a light breeze. Next to her was Honor. Honor was also tall, the same size as Hugo, but she was chubby, with coal black hair and deep hazel eyes that were almost brown. Caroline met James’ gaze head on, but Honor wouldn’t look to them.

Lily sprang into action. “Hi,” she said as she bounced over to Honor. “I’m Lily Potter, and this is my first year. Is it your first year? I’m really nervous about going, but my brothers are going, and this is my cousin Hugo,” she pointed to Hugo, who stood just off to the side of them. The sun made his red hair stand out like fire, while it turned Lily’s to pure copper. Both Lily and Hugo had brown eyes, as well, but that was where the resemblances ended. Lily was, there was no other way to say it, already beautiful. She was small and graceful. Hugo, much like himself and Al, was tall, gangling, and with feet that were way too big for their bodies.

“Hi,” Honor said just as a train whistle blew.

There was a rush to get the last trunks on the car. Nat nearly tripped, again, and was saved by Al plucking her up to carry her onto the train. James laughed as Nat said, “No, Al, this isn’t at all embarrassing. Go right ahead.”

“No more broken hips,” Al retorted as a laughing Scorpius and Rose followed them up. James had completely forgotten that Nat had broken her hip on her first train ride to Hogwarts.

They gave out last hugs, and James hopped onto the train just after Caroline, helping her with her trunk. “Where to?” he asked her as he finally unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth.

Caroline shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Louis and I are in there,” he pointed over to the door that Louis had propped open. “You can join us if you like. You’ll be close to Honor, since they’re in the next compartment.”

Finally, Caroline nodded and together, James and Louis stored her trunk. They sat awkwardly facing each other all the way until the train started to roll.

“Anyone for Exploding Snap?” Louis asked.

Caroline smiled, the first real smile he’d seen. “Sure.”

~*~

Harry waved at the train as it rounded the bend and felt something inside of him let out a howl of protest. Lily… his last…

“So that was your daughter,” Draco said from next to him.

Harry almost jumped. He hadn’t realized his old school mate had come up to him. “That’s Lily Luna.”

Draco was silent for a long beat. “She isn’t what I would have expected.”

Harry grinned as they said goodbye to everyone. No, she absolutely wasn’t.

He’d taken the morning off to get the kids to school, but now he couldn’t bear the thought of going into the office. Harry wrapped an arm around Ginny’s waist and nuzzled his nose into her sweet smelling hair. “Let’s go home.”

Thoughts, wonderful thoughts, naked thoughts, swam through his brain, and frankly through the rest of his body, as he decided not to focus on the kids being off to school. He led Ginny back to the car and let her drive, since she always drove too fast anyway, back home.

The moment she parked the car in their drive, Ginny burst into tears.

“Ah, luv,” Harry pulled her into his arms and stroked a hand up and down her back.

“I’m okay,” she sniffed. “I just needed to get it out.”

He understood that all too well. However…

Harry pressed a lingering kiss to the base of her neck as he let his fingers drift up from her waist. “Let’s go inside.”

They made it to the couch, which was a miracle in itself. Harry pressed her down into the couch cushions as he worked his fingers between them, trying to undo the buttons on her blouse, then down to her jeans.

Ginny wrapped her legs around his waist as she tried to draw him closer. She moaned softly against his lips as his fingers moved over her skin.

“Oh shit!”

There was a stumble, and a crash as Harry jumped off Ginny and spun to see Teddy sprawled on the ground, his hands over his eyes. “What…” Harry couldn’t even finish the question.

“Sorry,” Teddy said as he kept his eyes covered. “Merlin, please wipe my memory! I did not need to see that.”

Harry quirked an eyebrow. “If you weren’t doing the same thing with your wife last night, then I’m a Hippogriff. But you can look now,” he said after he’d verified that Ginny’s had her buttons done up.

Teddy slowly pulled his hands away and Harry smirked at the bright red on his cheeks. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t think you’d be here, Harry.”

“Did you need me for something?” Ginny asked Teddy pushed himself to his feet.

“Just a recipe… I wanted to make a special dinner tonight,” Teddy admitted. “I’m officially done with training as of an hour ago, now, so I wanted to celebrate with Victoire.

Teddy’s commissioning to be a full Auror was a week away. It was amazing how fast those three years had gone.

“I’ll get it for you,” Ginny said as she moved to the kitchen. “Which one?”

“I can’t even remember now,” Teddy sighed as he scrubbed at his brow. “It’s very disconcerting walking in on your parents about to have sex.”

Harry shot him a sideways look.

“Well, it is!” Teddy muttered. “It’s not like I don’t know you two have sex, but damn. I’m being an arse. Okay, I’m over it. Mostly.”

Harry laughed and shook his head. “I need a beer. Want one?”

“Merlin, yes,” Teddy sighed, clearly not bothered by the fact that it wasn’t even noon.

He’d give his godson fifteen minutes, and then kick him out. Harry still had plans for his wife.

~*~

“I really thought your father was going to fall over,” Rose told Scorpius. “It’s difficult when one is on the receiving end of Lily’s cuteness.”

Scorpius arched an eyebrow at the expression. “I have never, ever, seen someone disarm my father like that. If I’d had to place a bet, I’d have said he would have swatted any of Harry Potter’s children off. He’s never even spoken to Al.”

“Lily is an experience unto herself,” Al agreed. “If we could bottle that, we could have world peace.”

“And way too many kittens,” Rose added dryly.

Scorpius and Al laughed, but Nat’s expression caught Al’s attention. “You aren’t still mad I carried you on the train, are you?”

“What?” Nat focused on him and blinked, like she was coming back to herself. “No, sorry. I just…” she rubbed hard at her brow and shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

Rose reached over to take her hand. “It isn’t nothing, Nat. What’s up?”

“I…” Nat hesitated as she tapped her foot. “I can’t really talk about it, but something I saw on the platform was difficult. It reminded me of that case with your dad a few weeks ago,” she told Al. “That woman I talked to had some horrific magical injuries, and I’ve been dreaming about them.”

“You need to tell my dad to stuff it the next time he asks for help,” Al told her honestly. “He won’t hold it against you.”

Scorpius nodded. “Mr. Potter is a really decent bloke, Nat. If you told him you couldn’t do it, it would be fine.”

“I know it would,” Nat promised sadly. “I would feel worse if I didn’t help, though.”

Rose scooted over and put her arm around Nat. Nat laid her head on her friend’s shoulder and sighed. “How about,” Rose began, “if you tell us what went on and we swear to never talk about it. You can still help, but you can also share the burden.”

Nat’s reluctance was palpable, but finally she nodded. “The woman spoke an African dialect that I hadn’t heard in years. Honestly, I’d have sworn I’d forgotten it, but it came back as I heard her speak. She was covered in spell injuries.”

“What does that look like to you?” Al wanted to know. Nat’s power for seeing magical signatures completely fascinated him.

“It’s different colors all over her. Sometimes the colors are darker, or layered, but I can see the damage done,” Nat admitted with a shudder. “I know that your namesake, Albus Dumbledore, could do this sort of thing, but I have no idea how he stayed so sane.”

“It’s maybe questionable that he was sane,” Scorpius told her earnestly. “He was brilliant, fair-minded, and always for the Muggleborns, but by all accounts he was very eccentric.”

Nat grinned reluctantly at that. “Maybe that’s how he coped.”

“You’re certainly eccentric,” Rose agreed. “But Dumbledore taught him to do what you do. You do this naturally, without thought or effort.”

“It looks painful,” Nat told them, going back to the original topic. “The wounds, I mean. It’s not painful for me to see them, at least not physically. I heard this woman’s cries, though, and I know she went through something close to hell. It isn’t right that someone was able to steal her from her home and force her here to England where she wouldn’t be missed.”

“That’s awful,” Rose said as her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Al opened his mouth to tell her not to help his dad again, but Nat held up a hand and he stopped. “I know what you’re thinking, Al,” she said simply. “I get it, but I can’t not help! I see what has been done to people and I have to speak up. If I don’t speak up for them who will? Caroline’s sister, Honor, has a slight limp, which I know is from a badly broken leg early on that was likely never set properly. Certainly, it wasn’t healed with magic because then she wouldn’t limp. Now,” Nat sat up as she folded her hands in her lap. She pinched her fingers so hard that her knuckles turned white, “mostly that’s Honor’s business, and not ours, but if we know then we know to be extra careful with her feelings. That matters.”

“You’re right,” Rose agreed quietly. “I know you’re right.”

Scorpius sighed heavily. “I hate that it’s my great aunt causing all of these problems. It isn’t like my family didn’t have enough nuts already. Did she really have to add to the mess?”

“On the plus side,” Rose said with a small laugh, “you get to improve things as you’re the only heir. It’s up to you to turn around your family’s reputation.”

“But no pressure,” Al told him with a straight face.

~*~

Lily grinned at Honor as the kitten, Ducky, scaled up her new friend to nuzzle at her neck. She hadn’t been sure what to expect with Honor, but as soon as the train had been underway, Honor opened up a bit.

“It’s nice with my grandparents,” she told them as they watched the world travel by through the carriage windows. London streets gave way to green fields and gentle, rolling hills dotted with trees. “There are a lot of cows here. I’m still not used to that.”

“Don’t they have cows in America?” Hugo asked her.

“Oh, sure, but not where I was from,” Honor admitted. “We were in the city, and my grandparents live in Sutton, in the town. Then we went to a safe house with the Aurors, but that’s also in London. It’s this creepy old place.”

“Oh!” Lily clapped her hands together. “You’re in Grimmauld Place.”

Honor’s eyes widened in surprise. “You know of it?”

“It’s my dad’s house,” Lily explained. “It’s dreadful, I know, but we’ve actually done it up nicer than it used to be. My Aunt Fleur let me help her when we were redoing the bedrooms to make it nice for anyone who had to stay there.”

“It’s still not all that nice,” Honor told her hesitantly.

Lily nodded in understanding. Many of the furnishings had refused to leave. “I know, it’s dreadful. We weren’t able to do much. The bathrooms were horrible before we fixed them, and we were able to redo some of the bedrooms, but the other rooms were stubborn.”

“My parents lived there for a bit,” Hugo explained. “They tell stories of the things that tried to eat them. Well, Dad does anyway.”

They fell into a silence that wasn’t uncomfortable, but which still left Lily feeling like there were things that were unsaid. She sat back in her seat and tried to make herself relax. “I’ve decided on Gryffindor.”

“Not really a surprise there,” Hugo mused as he pulled a coin from his pocket and began to work it through his fingers. He was attempting to teach himself to shuffle the coin across his knuckles, but it was slow going.

“Can you pick which house you want to be in?” Honor asked Lily.

“The Sorting Hat will take your wishes into account,” Lily confirmed.

“I’m glad of that, then. I want to be with Caroline. Is that a Muggle coin?” Honor asked Hugo as she tilted her head to get a better look.

“I dunno,” Hugo admitted. “My uncle gave it to me the last time we were at his shop. I was playing with it and he said I could have it.”

“That’s Uncle George,” Lily said. “He’s the best uncle, besides Uncle Charlie, although Uncle Bill and Uncle Ron are great, too.”

“Basically the only one we don’t adore is Uncle Percy,” Hugo said matter-of-factly. “But we love his wife, Aunt Audrey.”

Honor held up her hands and Ducky slid down into her lap. “Hold it! How many aunts and uncles do you have?”

“Too many sometimes,” Hugo told her with a laugh. “Except at Christmas when we’re getting presents, then it’s never enough.”

“Hugo!” Lily shook her head in amusement. “There were seven children in my mummy’s family. Our Uncle Fred died in the war, so there were the six. My mum is the only girl and she was the baby of the family.”

“Lily is also the baby,” Hugo told Honor. “It’s very obvious. We have thirteen of us if you include Teddy, which we all do, and Lily is the last.”

“Who is Teddy?” Honor asked him curiously.

Lily stroked a finger over Ducky’s soft fur and said, “He’s my godbrother. His parents died in the war, too, and my dad is his godfather. He’s always been a part of the family, but this summer he married our cousin Victoire, so now he’s officially a member.”

Honor shook her head. “I am officially confused.”

“You sounded very American when you said that,” Hugo said with a grin. “Sometimes you sound British, but sometimes American.”

“Caroline teases me about that a bit,” Honor said as she completely relaxed. Lily saw it happen. She finally let go and started to open up. It made something in Lily’s heart warm to see it. “Just last week she wouldn’t let up when I called potato chips ‘crisps.’”

Hugo shook his head sadly. “My big sister is a pain in the arse sometimes. Most of the time, though, she’s alright.”

“What about your brothers?” Honor asked Lily.

Lily smiled as she thought of them. “Teddy is perfect. He’s lovely. I can always count on him to be there when I need him. James is…” she hesitated as she tried to think of how to say it. “James is a work in progress. He used to be a prat, but he’s getting better. Al is a good brother, too. He doesn’t always have the same patience for me that Teddy does, but I know Al will be there for me if I need him.”

“My sister doesn’t like James so much,” Honor told her.

Lily laughed. “Well, to be fair, none of us liked James all that much before this last year.”

“He was a prat,” Hugo agreed. “He’d be just as likely to crack an egg on your head as say hello.”

“He’d crack an egg on your head?” Honor asked in disbelief.

“I’ve had at least three,” Hugo sighed. “Our Gran keeps chickens. She has a fit every time he does it. He doesn’t do it to Lily, though, because Lily cries.”

Lily felt her cheeks flush. “I can’t help it.”

“Then when she cries, the whole world just stops,” Hugo shook his head at that. “Merlin, the last time she cried I thought Uncle Bill and Uncle George were going to wet themselves. They both just start panicking.”

Honor shot Lily a sideways look. “Do you cry often?”

“No,” Lily assured her, because it was the truth. “It’s just that when I do, it seems to make them panic. I have no idea why.” She’d cut her arm open wide once and had cried then. Her Uncle Charlie, who had been visiting and was covered in his own scars and burns, had turned sheet white and started screaming for a Healer. Lily’s mother had rolled her eyes at him and fixed it with her wand.

Hugo snorted. Lily eyed him curiously, but as was usual, Hugo shook it off. “It’s just that our uncles have a low tolerance for it. They’re just…”

“Men?” Honor said as she ventured a guess.

“Sort of,” Hugo replied as he waggled his hand back and forth and nearly dropped his coin. “My Uncle Bill has Victoire and Dom, neither of whom are overly girly. Uncle George has Roxy, who is definitely not a crier. When faced with one, they don’t seem to know what to do. My dad, who is used to my sister Rose, just shrugs it off.”

“Yes,” Lily pointed to Hugo. She hadn’t thought of it that way. “My dad handles it pretty well, too. He’s used to me.”

Hugo opened his mouth, then shut it and looked pointedly at Ducky.

Lily smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like that, you know. Anyway, Daddy would have said yes to the kitten even if I’d not been upset. Mummy would have, too, eventually. They both like cats.”

Before Hugo could retort, the door of the compartment slid open to reveal the lunch trolley. A young woman with curly red hair, and huge, round glasses asked, “Anything off the trolley?”

~*~

Harry didn’t make it into the office by lunchtime like he’d planned. Instead, he received an urgent message saying he was needed at a home close to the border with Scotland, close to Hadrian’s Wall. A cold, crisp wind blew hard against Harry’s back as he marched up the hill to a small, beautifully appointed stone home. The stones were almost white, and the roof was recently thatched. It was odd, too, because Harry hadn’t thought there were many thatched homes this far north, but he’d always liked the looks of them. It reminded him of the time he and Ginny had gone to Hawaii and had stayed in a hut with a traditional grass roof. He shook his head as he focused on the Aurors and MLE he who were waiting for him at the entrance of the house.

Gregory, who had his hands shoved deep into the built in pockets of his cloak, nodded to him. “We think we have the way point.”

Harry’s heart sank as he studied the house. “Is there anyone there?”

“No, but we have a local woman who reported suspicious activity to the local police,” Gregory said. His mouth thinned as he surveyed the house. “It was then bumped to us when the Muggle Relations Department noticed the suspicious activity. I don’t know that we’re going to find any clues, but I wanted you to have a look at it as well.”

Harry nodded as his mind instantly replayed through the system that Hermione, along with a few others, had set up. They rented a local office in London, hired the best computer hackers they could find, and set up a network to monitor all Muggle police activity for anything that might be magical. It was a brilliant system, and staffed by mostly Muggleborns. “Do we have any idea how they’re bringing them into the country?”

“There’s a pile of rubbish in the corner, so my guess is Portkey,” Gregory informed him.

“Let’s take a look, then,” Harry said grimly. The house was a house. It was nicely furnished, comfortably appointed, and there wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere. That was, of course, until he reached the basement. This was clearly where the women were kept. It was dirty, smelled of feces and stale urine, and had piles of trash everywhere. Harry pulled out his wand and began the laborious task of trying to find the magical signatures. It was something that Nat saw with no effort, but for him it was work. The Portkeys were obvious, and easy to detect. It was no work at all to find the places along the walls where manacles had been conjured to hold people hostage. There was a patina of other spell work around the periphery which experience told Harry was likely one of the Unforgivable Curses, most likely the Cruciatus Curse or the Imperius Curse. “It was like someone was living a good, respectable life upstairs,” Harry muttered to himself, “while keeping slaves in the basement.”

Unfortunately, his educated guess was probably not far off.

“Sir,” one of the MLE called down into the basement. “We have the witness who talked to the police if you’d like to question her.”

“I’ll be right up,” Harry said as he took one last walk around the old basement.

Mrs. Agatha Smee was at least eighty years old, if she was a day, and by the way she held tight to her umbrella, Harry was absolutely certain that the old woman with the sharp, intelligent eyes, would beat him senseless if he put one toe out of line. She pursed her lips as her gaze traveled up and down him. Harry, unlike everyone else at the scene, was dressed like a Muggle because he’d been to Kings Cross that morning. He had, however, grabbed his cloak and a cloak over jeans and a jumper was not exactly the look of the professional man in charge. “Mrs. Smee?” Harry asked her with extreme politeness. “I have been told that–”

“You aren’t really a police officer,” Mrs. Smee interrupted him. “I know no one who wears clothes like these,” she told him as she pointed around at everyone assembled.

Mrs. Smee would have her memory modified, Harry knew, but it was still important to be as cordial as possible. He opened his mouth to reply, but she spoke over him.

“You have a look in your eyes, though,” she told him as she inclined her rounded chin. “You have the same look the boys did when they come back from the war.”

Harry scrambled to remember which wars had happened recently and blurted out, “You mean the war in Afghanistan?”

“No,” she scoffed at that. “I meant World War II.”

“Er,” Harry hesitated as he studied her closer. He was not stupid enough to ask her age, but if she could remember World War II then she might be a good bit older than eighty.

“But I suppose you was in Afghanistan? You do have that war worn look about you,” she told him. “You look as though you’ve lived a hundred lifetimes in your short years. That’s tough for a mother to see, you know. Was your mother worried when you went overseas?”

Deciding it was best to just play along, Harry shook his head. “My mother and father were murdered when I was a baby. I never knew her.”

The woman gave a single cluck of sympathy, before plowing on, which he appreciated. Harry didn’t like to dwell on the past. “Do you have kids yourself?”

“I do,” Harry told her and decided to make it even more personal. “I have three sons and two daughters.” He needed to include Hope and Teddy into his count. It never felt right to leave them off.

“Bless your wife,” Mrs. Smee said as she raised a hand to her chest. “Five children? That’s rare in this day, you know. I admire that. Well,” she said and Harry saw her shoulders straighten as she came to a decision. “You wanted to know about the doings of this house. I saw lots of men, rough looking men, coming and going at all hours, you know. There was one man that I thought might be that American bloke, Donald Trump, but his face weren’t orange enough.”

Harry had no idea who Donald Trump was and made a mental note to find out.

“Anyway,” Mrs. Smee went on. “There was an older woman, who appeared to be in charge of the whole operation. When she gave the orders, they all marched. Then just as I was thinking to call the police, they packed up and left. I called anyway, and now I’ve had to talk to six hundred different people and you,” she eyed his jeans with a pointed glare, “need to dress properly, young man. I do not approve of these new codes of dressing casually on Fridays.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Harry agreed with a nod. “I’m afraid that I was called here at the last minute. My children started school today and I was dropping them off. I don’t normally show up like this.”

Mrs. Smee sniffed and waved her umbrella towards the house. “I hope you catch them.”

So did Harry.

He detoured by a Muggle library before heading back to the Ministry to search out who Donald Trump was and saw, immediately, what Mrs. Smee had meant. The man had an uncanny resemblance to Donald Baker, Caroline’s father. They had the same build, the same facial expressions of smug self-importance, and the same smile that didn’t ever reach the eyes. But Dodi was at least twenty years younger than Donald Trump and, as Mrs. Smee had said, he wasn’t quite as orange.

They still had no leads, but they also hadn’t had any more reports of dead women being dropped all over the country. Harry’s mind flashed to Hogwarts where the Sorting would be taking place soon. He squared his shoulders and left the library. He had work to do.

Back to index


Chapter 28: Chapter 25

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Readers... it's been insane here. I have another book coming out in a few weeks (check my profile for links) and I'm told that it's awesome, but I'd love to hear your opinion. The first of the series is FREE if you have kindle unlimited! It's called The Overseer's Son.

I know you want more chapters, but I need to pay the bills so my originals and sewing have to come first. I'm sorry. It's going to be crazy through the first week in June (minimum). Chapters will be slow until then.

However, I think most of you will enjoy how this chapter ends.... Reviews are always appreciated and I always respond to them. Questions are welcome, too.


Chapter 25

Lily looked like she might start crying, which was not something that Al wanted to see happen. She stood up at the front with the rest of the first years and Al wouldn’t have been able to spot her if Hugo hadn’t been right next to her. He remembered his own sorting, when Nat had nearly passed out and grinned at the memory. It seemed like ages ago, but it was really only two years.

First up was Honor Baker, and she moved with hunched shoulders up to the front so that Neville could place the Sorting Hat on her dark head. She didn’t look into the Great Hall as the hat considered her, but instead seemed to burn a hole into the floor. Al saw her lips moving and wondered what on earth she could be muttering about, but after a minute, the hat yelled out, “Gryffindor!” and she came to sit at the table just a few places down from her sister. Caroline gave her a smile and a thumbs up as the sorting continued.

More than half of the first years were through when it was Lily’s turn and Al crossed his fingers under the table as the hat went on and fell down past her nose. He laughed, so did several others, but a moment later, it spit out the same result as Honor and Lily skipped happily over to sit with her new friends. Hugo was last and the hat barely touched his head before, “Gryffindor!” was shouted out and the feast began.

Overall, it was exactly what Al had expected, at least for Lily and Hugo. It was a relief for him, as it would make keeping tabs on her that much easier.

He listened, with half an ear as he stuffed himself, to McGonagall’s start of term announcements. There was the notice for the Quidditch team, which was interesting, but as far as Al knew there was only one Chaser spot open and he’d rather be a Beater. One of the seventh years in Gryffindor was the captain that year, but Al had no idea who she was.

Rose wanted to be a Chaser, and Al thought she had an excellent shot at making it. She wanted it even more than Al did. He wanted to play Quidditch, but despite two parents who both played, it wasn’t quite the passion for him. Still, it might be good to try this year. He might make it on as an alternate.

Nat poked him and he glanced over to see her smiling at him. “The feast is over if you’re done.”

He glanced down and saw he’d cleaned his plate. “I guess I am.”

They strolled up to Gryffindor tower, the seasoned veterans of two full years at Hogwarts, and split off to their respective dormitories to get some sleep.

Al and Scorpius arrived in their old room first and started unpacking their trunks in companionable silence.

“My dad wasn’t a berk today,” Scorpius said quietly.

Al paused in the act of digging out his pajamas and turned to him. They’d talked about it on the train, but mostly because it had shocked Rose to see Draco Malfoy as cordial to Lily and Harry as he had been. He hadn’t thought much of it. “Well, I don’t think he’d exactly turned over a new leaf, but it was something.”

Scorpius nodded in confusion. “I just wish I understood him!”

Al snorted and kicked off his shoes, which landed somewhere under his bed. “There’s nothing to understand, mate. Your dad faced off with Lily and Lily won. Anyone could have predicted that. You climbed a tree for her, and I have worn a sparkly crown more than once when she’s asked.”

His best mate laughed, and plopped down on the side of his own four-poster. “Please tell me someone has a picture of you in a crown!”

“James does,” Al assured him, “but he won’t show it to anyone because I have one of him in a pink bunny suit.”

Scorpius’ mouth fell open. “There is no way that even Lily could have talked James into that!”

“Oh she didn’t,” Al agreed seriously. “She asked, he said something like hell no, and a bit of accidental magic later, he was in the suit. They couldn’t get it off of him until she went to sleep that night.” A feeling of absolute contentment settled over Al as the memory replayed itself in his head. “For an entire week after that, he didn’t speak to us. It was the best week of my life.”

“How old was she at the time?” Scorpius questioned as the door burst open and their other dorm mates, Fabien Smithe, otherwise known as Smitty, Ansel Leathen, and Matthew Kingston, trooped in.

Al had to count back to remember. “I think she was four or five. Old enough to know what she wanted, and young enough to still have that kind of magical fit. Mum never said so at the time, but I know it is still one of her favorite memories. She kept the suit.”

“What are you two laughing about?” Smitty demanded, so Al retold the story, knowing it would be all over the tower the next day.

They all laughed over it.

“I saw you on the platform with your dad, Scorpius,” Matthew told him. “He looked like he was about to curse someone for a moment. Is the little redhead your sister, Al?”

Al nodded. “Yeah, that’s Lily.”

“Cor, she’s a looker,” Ansel said with a whistle, then he shut his mouth at Al’s withering glare. “I am not going to make a move on your baby sister, Albus, but I’d have to be a blind bugger to not see she’s beautiful.”

“Leave off,” Scorpius said mildly to Ansel.

Ansel held up his hands for peace. “I won’t mention it again.”

“You should get used to it, though,” Smitty told Al, who could feel his blood pressure rising with the heated flush on his face. “She was easily the best looking of the first years. It’s going to be a problem.”

“Not while Fred is still in school,” Scorpius reminded him. “He dotes on her and has no problem taking down anyone who messes with her. Plus he’s big. You don’t want to mess with him. When you add in James, Al, Louis, Hugo, and especially Roxy, she becomes someone you don’t want to mess about.”

Smitty grinned at him. “Fair point. Alright, let’s get to bed.”

~*~

“It’s done!” Teddy said triumphantly as Victoire came through the door.

“I know,” she laughed as she hung up her cloak and came over to wrap him in her arms. “You’re all done with training!”

“Not only that,” Teddy replied as he buried his face in her soft, beautiful hair. “I quit at the pizza place.”

She shook her head. “You just quit on them?”

“No, I said I could work out the two weeks, but the owner said he only needed me this coming weekend,” he told her and couldn’t quite hide his relief. Going full tilt with three jobs was exhausting, and he rarely saw his wife. It was the worst of all worlds, but he didn’t mind as much since Victoire needed to concentrate on school and he’d been so close to done with his. Now, though, he had a modest pay rise coming and it would be enough to get them by with only two jobs. George had assured him that as long as he needed hours, Teddy could have them at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

Teddy was fully aware that it was mostly out of familial obligation that he had that particular job, but he did work hard and was helpful with the shop.

“We should celebrate,” Victoire said, then had to bite back a yawn.

Teddy gently pressed his lips to her temple. “I got a recipe from Ginny and made dinner. Then we’ll get to bed early.”

“I feel old,” she sighed as she made for the table. “Oh! It’s her chicken tikka masala! I love this!”

“You owe me for this, by the way,” he groaned as he remembered what he’d nearly walked in on. “They were about to celebrate their lack of children in the house when I arrived.”

Victoire choked on his first bite as a giggle was forced from her. “No!”

“On the couch,” Teddy confirmed grimly. “I am scarred for life.”

She doubled over laughing so hard that he was compelled to laugh with her. “I’m sorry,” she said as she swiped at the tears that were dripping down her eyes. “It’s just been… merlin, what a long day! I love the thought of you walking in on them like that! How did you not know that’s what they’d be doing when their house was suddenly kid free?”

When she said it like that, Teddy realized that she was absolutely right, of course. Sheepishly, he shrugged. “I dunno, I just thought it would be Ginny at home, and I could get the recipe.”

“So,” Victoire popped another bite of the chicken in her mouth and swallowed before continuing. “Every time you took the kids out for a bit, you don’t think the first thing that they did was hop into bed?”

“Well…” he hadn’t really thought about it. Come to that, Teddy didn’t want to think about it. “I assumed they’d be sad that Lily was gone.”

She shook her blonde head. “Oh, there will be that, too, but more of enjoying having a spontaneous sex life again.”

Teddy stabbed at his chicken. “How do you know so much about it?”

Then he remembered her very passionate, French mother and decided that no, he didn’t need that question answered.

As they lay entwined together in bed an hour later, Victoire kept her head on his shoulder and her arm around his waist and he let the silence hang between them as comfortable as it was intimate.

“Thank you,” she said softly as she tilted her head to press her lips to the underside of his jaw. “I know you’ve been working so hard recently. Thank you for doing that.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d thanked him, and he didn’t shrug it off like he had before. Teddy had wanted to do this for them. He’d needed to make that stand on his own, to prove that he could keep the roof over their heads. He knew he was being stubborn. He knew that with a single word, Harry would give him some money and make it all okay. It would be easy. Done. Poof, like a spell, erasing everything that was broken.

But he hadn’t wanted easy. He’d wanted the work. He’d wanted the pride at knowing he’d managed it alone. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was crazy, but there was such immeasurable satisfaction in knowing they were making it on their own.

Teddy felt truly like a man and it was a feeling he wouldn’t trade for anything.

“You’re welcome,” he said simply. “I will always do this for us.”

Victoire was silent for a long time. “I know,” she said after a while.

~*~

Ginny sat up in bed, her heart hammering a mile a minute in her chest as she gasped in shock. The room was dark, nothing around her stirred. Her children were at Hogwarts. It had been just a dream.

“Wassamatter?” Harry slurred next to her as his hand groped out and found her hip.

“Bad dream,” she said even though that wasn’t quite true. Vivid dream. It had been a ridiculously vivid dream. Ginny let herself flop back on her pillow and Harry rolled over, resting his ear to her breast.

“Your heart is going crazy,” he said and this time he didn’t sound quite as sleepy. “What was it?”

She tried to piece it together, but nothing stuck out as the first image. Except... “It was about James, except he was older, at least eighteen or nineteen and he was in a hospital with people who didn’t speak English talking to him. He looked so sick, as he was curled into a ball on the exam bed.”

“Okay…” Harry said as his voice trailed off.

“Then one voice said something like, ‘he’s definitely been given something, right?’” she told him as she recalled vividly the sounds and smells of the hospital. “Then it flashed to you walking through this building I’ve never seen before and you have this baby in your arms.”

He shifted a bit and moved them until he was wrapped around her. It was only then that Ginny realized she was freezing.

“The baby had darker skin, like olive colored, maybe South American, you know?” she went on and at his nod, she continued. “Then you were getting in a car and driving to a house and in the house was a blonde woman that I don’t know, and Merlin, the biggest dog I have ever seen! It was bigger than Hagrid’s dogs.”

Harry snorted in amusement. “Do you know who the blonde was?”

“No,” Ginny admitted hesitantly, reluctantly. “But she looked familiar to me. I just can’t place her at the moment.”

Harry kissed her brow. “Go on, luv, before you forget some of the details.”

“Well…” she swallowed at the lump in her throat. “You told the woman that the baby was Jamie’s and Harry, the baby looked exactly like him except for his skin color! It was nutty! The blonde took the baby from you and said something like she’d look after it. Then I woke up!”

Harry contemplated that one for several silent moments. “It was just a dream.”

“I know,” she agreed heavily. “But James wasn’t there, Harry, and the woman had a wedding ring like… I seemed to have the impression it was James’ wife. But where was he and why was there a baby that clearly wasn’t his wife’s? What sort of meaning does that have?”

Then she really listened to herself, and she snorted. “Okay, stupid questions, because it was just a dream. I panicked when James wasn’t there, like he was dead or something.”

“Understandable,” Harry promised. “Are you ready to get back to sleep?”

She nodded, but didn’t fall back to sleep. Her mind kept drifting back to that baby. It seemed important, but Ginny had no idea how it could be.

The next morning she wrote the whole thing out and was shocked at the details that she could still remember from the night before, then she stuck the parchment in one of her favorite books, Matilda Magpie and the Squire’s Son, and headed into the office. Mostly she’d worked from home, in her time at The Daily Prophet, but times were changing and her children were at Hogwarts, safe and sound.

~*~

Isabella had had a hard life. She’d been born to a pureblood family that had assumed she would marry well and produce children that would carry on their bloodline. It was, she knew, a noble goal for some, but Isabella had wanted more for herself. She’d wanted to be a potion master. The moment she’d realized what potions were, she’d cleaved the knowledge of them to her bosom and worked feverishly to excel. She’d adored her potions professor at Hogwarts, and she’d known he’d seen her talent. He’d mentored her, as he’d done with so many others before her. It was such a fine, wonderful thing to be praised for her brain, rather than her ability to bear a son.

The Dark Lord had been gaining in strength. He’d been demanding allegiances with all of the old families, but her father had dithered. Oscar Greengrass had dithered for so long, in fact, that Voldemort had taken matters into his own hands and had Isabella and her sister kidnapped. She and Fiona had spent the better part of several months locked in dungeons while men did unspeakable things to them.

Girls. They’d both been school girls. They’d both ended up pregnant, and thus married, very quickly. Thus began the journey to the only thing that had been good in her life, her son, Vincent. He had been the only light in her life. He’d been spoilt, certainly. Her dimwitted, unpleasant husband hadn’t stood in her way as far as that, but she hadn’t felt like Vincent had ever been ruined by it. He hadn’t been smart. She’d known all along that he hadn’t inherited her brain, but his sweet, loving nature had more than made up for it. Her husband, and she scoffed now to even think the word, hadn’t touched her after her son had been born. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He hadn’t touched her most of the time. She developed a potion that, if she took it regularly, would cause him to break out in hives if they were intimate.

On his nether region.

It was off-putting to say the least, but he caught on to what she was doing.

Now he was dead, dead not by her hand, but she had most assuredly hurried the process along. Poison was the best of revenge. He’d lingered in this life, in agony and greatly weakened until he’d died in the Battle of Hogwarts. She hadn’t been sorry to hear that. She hadn’t even cared.

All she’d known was deafening grief at the loss of her boy when there was no body to bury. She hadn’t wanted to believe the Malfoy boy when he’d told her that he’d burned in the fire. She still couldn’t bear the thought of it. It was, to put it mildly, the thing that had killed her soul.

Isabella wasn’t stupid. She also wasn’t ignorant of her own motivations. She knew she was now a homicidal sociopath, but that didn’t bother her now. She’d had one purpose in living a life of peace, and now he was gone.

And there was one man chiefly responsible. He hadn’t saved her boy. He’d saved the Malfoy boy and her nephew, Gregory, but that hadn’t done him any good as he was now in jail. Her sister hadn’t protected her boy. She could have taken him abroad to avoid the Ministry, but she hadn’t. Fiona had never been bold. She’d walked into her marriage and accepted the violations.

Isabella had simultaneously loved and despised her sister, often in equal measures.

But there had been years of quiet and grief. Years to plot and to scheme. Years to think of all the things that she would have loved to have done to her revenge.

She’d been hasty the first time. She’d thought out a plan, enacted it quickly without much thought, and the consequences had been the plot had failed. She’d successfully killed Potter’s child, but not his wife and not him. It still left a bitter taste in her mouth. He was happy now, with his pretty wife and his pretty children.

That would change, of course, when the time was right. She knew better now that to act without having every contingency planned for was asking for failure.

She hadn’t intended to be out in the open this quickly. There had been the necessity of funds and Donald Baker had appeared before, an omen of bad things to come but wrapped so prettily in Galleons. He was a typical brash, disgusting, vulgar American, of course. He’d come along with his own baggage in the form of daughters he had lost to his wife’s parents.

It was a good thing, too, because he was a horrible man and Isabella knew that they were better off away from him. She couldn’t say that to him, and she didn’t really care if he found a way to get his daughters back, but neither did she go out of her way to assist him in that. He brought the worst men, as well, into the smuggling operation. They required victims.

But then again, so did she. She was nearly there, too. It was what she told herself all the time. She had years, still, to perfect her plan.

Isabella had learned from the Dark Lord’s mistakes. He had ruled as the head, but Isabella did not stick her neck out. She didn’t want world domination through violence and terror.

There were other ways to ruin lives, quietly, but oh, so effectively. She would be able to do it, too.

She just needed more time.

She needed the girl, but Potter was wise to that one. The girl had potential, and she was weak. She would be easy to control if she could get her hands on her. It was something to be considered, if the opportunity arose.

But for now she’d settle for Donald Baker to stop being a complete arse. She had a plan for him, though. She’d squeezed about all she could out of him and he was turning into more of a liability, rather than an asset. Yes, it was time for him to learn that.

~*~

Harry tapped absently at the wooden table as he stared across the bar, lost in the memories of the night before.

“Oy,” Ron snapped his fingers in front of Harry’s face.

“Sorry,” Harry sighed heavily as he picked up his pint. Ron had come round the Ministry right before lunch to see Hermione, then had come down to drag Harry out. “Why didn’t you go out with your wife?”

“She had a lunch thing with the Minister,” Ron explained. “She’d told me about it, but I thought it was tomorrow. So, I’ll take her out then.”

He nodded absently as Ginny’s words came back to him.

“What’s up with you?” Ron demanded sharply.

“Ginny had this odd dream last night,” Harry explained. “I don’t know why, but it’s stuck in my head. She dreamed about James being poisoned or something, and it has me on edge.”

Ron hesitated. “Ginny isn’t a seer, though, so it was just a dream.”

“I know,” Harry agreed and took a pull on his beer. “But she was worried about it, and it reminds me of Crabbe. I’m on edge all the time that she’ll do something to my kids.”

“The stupid thing is that Hermione and I were there when her son died,” Ron pointed out with a snort. “She never did anything to us. She’s fixated on you.”

“It’s a blessing,” he said with a grimace. Harry was thankful that at last Rose and Hugo were safe. “The problem with Crabbe is that she isn’t flashy or showy. She’s not into the big displays to get attention to just how dangerous she is. She’ll work in the background to get what she’s after. We couldn’t stop Voldemort, but we still had a pretty good idea of what he was up to.”

Ron finished off his beer just as the fish and chips arrived. Harry knew his best mate had chosen the Muggle restaurant so they’d have the anonymity, but Harry had to admit the food was the best part. He’d never yet found a wizard or witch who didn’t mangle this meal. Even Molly wasn’t able to produce the traditionally British meal.

“I don’t miss the job,” Ron promised him. “It was good when the war had ended. It was the right thing to do to help the Ministry get back on track, and I used to think it was the kind of job that would make me feel fulfilled. Instead, I was left depressed at all of the rubbish we ended up seeing. Teddy graduated this morning, right?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed and tried not to beam like an idiot. “I know what you mean, and it worries me that Teddy will start seeing all of the bad shite we deal with, but most of the time it’s stupid, boring paperwork and following up leads. It’s not nearly as stressful as it was in the first five years after the war.”

Ron grunted, but Harry didn’t know if it was in agreement or dissent. Then he changed the subject. “Do you know, I rather thought Lily would go to Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.”

“She decided on Gryffindor,” Harry informed him with a chuckle. “That was after she’d decided, again, that she wasn’t going to go.”

“I really thought you’d end up with a girl more like Roxy,” Ron said as he shoved a chip in his mouth.

“I thought that I would as well,” Harry agreed on a groan as the fish practically melted in his mouth. “Still, at least they’re all together now. I can’t believe Molly is graduating Hogwarts this year.”

“That’s not this year,” Ron shook his head. “She’s still in rompers. I refuse to accept that she’s seventeen.”

“We’re getting old, mate,” Harry said as he raised his glass for a toast.

Ron gave him a sly grin as they clinked glasses. “At least I’m not two or three years away from being a grandfather.”

“They won’t have a kid that soon,” Harry assured him. “Teddy says they’re going to get all of Victoire’s student loans paid off first before they try for a baby. Ginny asked,” he told him at Ron’s raised brow. “She’s ready for grandchildren, so much so that she was contemplating us having another.”

“You are too old for that,” Ron said flatly. “That broom has flown away.”

But unfortunately, it reminded him vividly of the dream. In the dream she said James had had a child at nineteen.

Harry seriously hoped that didn’t end up being the case because James, despite all of his progress, was not ready to have a baby in four years. That was a strange thought, as well. James would be fifteen in a matter of days.

Time was flying.

~*~

Time was flying. James still couldn’t believe it was almost Halloween and they were heading into Hogsmeade for the first trip. The captain of the Quidditch team, Amelia, had threatened to hold a practice for that Saturday if they hadn’t worked their arses off, but thankfully she hadn’t followed through. James was nearly out of sweets and there was almost no chance his mum would send him any.

What had surprised James the most about the team was Rose joining as a Chaser. His cousin was good, very good, especially for a third year. She wasn’t polished yet, but James could see the potential in her. She was the only new member on the team this year, since they’d lost their last team captain who had graduated the year before.

“Are you ready?” Louis asked as he laced up his trainers.

James nodded. He wanted out of the castle for a bit. His feet felt itchy and restlessness was the only part of him that he could recognize at the moment. “Let’s go.”

They made it down to the common room to head to breakfast and James skidded to a halt when he saw Caroline sitting by herself in the corner, huddled in jeans and a huge, red hoody that she always seemed to wear on weekends, no matter how hot it was. Despite their journey together on the Hogwarts Express, Caroline had been keeping to herself for the last several weeks. She wasn’t ignoring him, exactly, but neither did she seek him out. He would sit near her at meals if she was by herself, but more often than not she would choose to sit by herself, so after a week of that James had given up. There was only so much rejection a bloke could take.

Her sister was doing really well. After only weeks, one wouldn’t know that Lily and Honor had just met. They’d become the fasted of friends. Honor was undoubtedly still shy, but with Lily, and even Hugo around her, it didn’t matter as much if she wasn’t talking. She smiled more. She seemed to be looking into people’s eyes, at least with him when he talked to her and his sister. Honor was coming out of her shell, while Caroline continued to shrink further into hers.

“Hang on,” James said to Louis, who saw where he was looking.

His cousin groaned. “Let it go, James.”

James ignored him and strode over. “Come to Hogsmeade with us.”

Caroline glanced up slowly from her book. She shook her head. “I don’t want to leave the castle.”

“Why not?” James demanded. “I know there will be Aurors and other security in the village. Come with us.”

She didn’t even bother to answer, so he sat down on the chair next to her and waited.

“What are you doing?” she asked sharply.

“I’m not leaving if you don’t,” James promised. “You haven’t even had breakfast, yet, and you’re already too thin. Come on.”

Her brows winged up in annoyance. “Don’t you know it’s rude to talk about a girl’s weight?”

“Yes,” James grinned. If it had been his sister, or even a cousin, who was sitting like this he’d have plucked her up, but Caroline gave off a strong vibe that screamed Do Not Touch, and after what she’d been through, he respected that. “Come down and eat something, then you can decided.”

Caroline narrowed her blue eyes and tucked her short swing of sunny, blonde hair behind her ear. “Fine,” she agreed reluctantly, then joined them for breakfast where she picked at her food until it was time to go.

When she started back for Gryffindor Tower, James followed her and nearly plowed into her when she stopped short. “What are you doing?” Caroline demanded in exasperation.

Louis, who hadn’t made a single comment up until this point, filled her in. “He’s determined you’re going to go, Caroline. If you don’t, he’s not going either.”

“You are unbelievable,” she fired off and she actually poked James in the chest, sending him back a step.

He grinned and waited.

“Fine,” she sighed and started for the front doors. “Fine!”

The two boys fell into step next to her. Louis had asked him, more than once, why he was trying so hard with her. Louis was his best mate, but James hadn’t told him what Caroline had been through at the hands of her father. He wasn’t ever going to tell Louis, and he left his cousin thinking he had a major crush on her. James wouldn’t lie and say he didn’t think she was seriously pretty, because she was, and he probably had a small crush on her, but it was so much more than that.

He remembered vividly sitting on a classroom floor with her as she’d fallen apart. He couldn’t forget walking her up to the matron the year before and she’d told him about the abuse her father had put her through.

He still remembered the bleeding and cracked nailbeds that she’d spent so much time chewing on, and all the time she’d spent away from the school getting help to deal with what she’d been through.

That’s why he tried, because when his dad had been his age, Voldemort had been back and his father had fought him several times and the best that James could manage was saying he had won several Quidditch games.

That was important. James was certain, already, that Quidditch was the job he was going to pick, first as player and then as a manager, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t try to do something else that was worthwhile. Being a friend to Caroline, because he knew where she was coming from, seemed like a worthwhile thing. She probably deserved a better friend than him, but he could do for now.

They stopped at the sweet shop, and had a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. James and Louis talked around Caroline, but she didn’t contribute anything herself. He saw his brother, who was there for the first time, but didn’t do more than nod. That was their own rhythm for dealing with each other, and James liked it that way.

“Let’s go up to the Shrieking Shack,” James suggested suddenly.

Louis shrugged and Caroline didn’t say anything, but she followed along behind them so that was something. “Do you know the story?” he asked her.

“No,” Caroline answered without inflection.

“It was built for a werewolf,” James told him.

She shook her eyes and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay then.”

“It was,” Louis confirmed. “His name was Remus and he died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Remus was James’ godbrother, Teddy’s, dad.”

“You’re… serious?” she asked Louis hesitantly.

“No,” Louis shook his head and pointed to James. “He’s Sirius.”

“What?” Caroline questioned as Louis laughed and ducked away from James’ fist.

“Stupid, lame joke,” James said dryly. “One I’ve heard all my life. My name is James Sirius. My dad’s godfather was named Sirius, and my grandfather was James.”

“Oh,” she replied shortly and stuck her hands into the pockets of her hoody.

“Anyway,” James went on. “Remus was my dad’s teacher his third year and he taught him how to perform a Patronus. They used a Boggart to imitate a Dementor. He kept passing out,” he told her as he remembered his Uncle Ron telling the story, taking the mickey. “He practically lived on chocolate since that’s the–”

“Damn it!” Louis stopped just before the shack. “I forgot chocolate for Dom’s birthday.”

“Do you want us to go back with you?” James asked as he, too, remembered his cousin, Louis’ sister’s, birthday the next week.

Louis shook his head and took off back down the hill. “I’ll catch you up.”

“What,” Caroline wondered, “was that about?”

“Dom’s birthday,” James explained as they continued up the hill to the creepy shack. “She wanted chocolate and Louis was supposed to get some.”

“We could have gotten it on the way back through the village,” Caroline pointed out reasonably.

James stopped at the fence and turned to stare back down the lane. That was true. It wasn’t like they couldn’t have gone later. So was Louis trying to leave them alone? He shook his head. “Anyway, so the story goes that when Dumbledore became Headmaster, he built the shack and connected it with a tunnel to the school so that Remus could go to school. He’d be in the shack during the full moon, and everyone would be safe.”

“Where does the tunnel connect?” Caroline asked curiously, finally appearing to get into the story.

“The Whomping Willow, but I think they may have blocked it off,” he said with regret. James had tried to get the tree to freeze to test that, but the tree was even more murderous now than when his father and uncle had driven a car into it. “Voldemort hid out here in the shack before that final battle and Severus Snape was killed here.”

“God,” Caroline groaned. “I know who he was. Your brother is named after him.”

James nodded. “He was a brave man, but a serious pain in the arse from all accounts. He loved my grandmother, which is why he was on our side. Voldemort had killed her, even though he’d promised not to. In fact, at his funeral…” he trailed off when he realized he was probably going too far. “Well,” James cleared his throat. “My parents were one of the few who went to his funeral and they were attacked there. They nearly died.”

“I’m sorry,” she assured him earnestly. “That sounds horrible.”

“They’ve been through a lot, my parents have,” James agreed evenly. “It’s amazing they’re as normal as they are.” He fell silent when he realized what he’d said.

Caroline leaned against the rickety fence and stared at the dilapidated out that still bore an undeniably evil aura. “I hope I can be relatively normal someday.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. He couldn’t just tell her that all would be well. He didn’t know if it would, and it was the sort of stupid platitude that people always offered when they lacked anything useful to add. James scooted closer, slowly, and put his arm around her shoulder. She hesitated for only a moment before she rested her head against him.

A bellow of furious rage blew over them like fire from a dragon’s mouth as something bashed into him and a massive weight pinned him to the ground, while Caroline was knocked backwards into the fence which cracked.

James’ head hit the ground with a sickening crunch and stars danced furiously through his vision while his ears filled with Caroline’s screams of terror and anger.

Only one word made it through.

Dad.

It was the one word that had the ability to motivate James into action, because if she was screaming, “No, Dad!” and “Get off him! Take me instead!” he knew there was nothing else he could do.

James felt the blow to his cheek and heard something snap. He knew there was pain, but his fury was so deep, his fear so palpable, that even as the fists began to squeeze his windpipe, James couldn’t not act. He saw a branch swing in the narrowing of his vision as his arms flailed, but Donald Baker was so enraged that his daughter hitting him on the head didn’t even seem to faze the bull-like man.

Where were the Aurors?

One of the sticks of the huge branch broke off and landed next to James’ head. He grabbed it, and without a second’s hesitation, plunged the end straight into Baker’s neck. James saw, in stunned disbelief, as the stick went all the way through and out the other side.

It should have broken off. It shouldn’t have done that, but…

Donald let go on James to grab for his neck. He gurgled and blood flew everywhere as men swarmed them.

James flinched as a gush of blood splattered all over him and the huge man was pulled off of him.

He stared in horror at what he had done while one of the Aurors that James couldn’t name at the moment examined the man and Caroline fell down on her knees next to him.

James turned to her as she pulled him up to sitting. His head swam as the world revolved around him and another man came over to mouth something at him.

His ears weren’t working.

But for just a moment his eyes were, as he watched the oldest Auror wave the others back while foamy, red bubbles dribbled down Donald Baker’s neck.

He was still alive, but he wouldn’t be for long and no one was trying to save him.

“James!” came a voice sharp in his ear. He focused on the man in front of him. “Do you remember me? My name is Thomas, Thomas Gregory. Are you okay?”

He nodded and turned to Caroline who sobbed hard. James reached for her and they fell together in a hug. James’ hand cupped the back of her head and almost pulled back when he saw the blood all over his hands. She changed his mind when she fisted her hands into his t-shirt at the small of his back and held fast.

Then his dad was there. How had his dad gotten there?

Intense, green eyes bore into his over the top of Caroline’s head, but Harry’s mouth, which was moving, still didn’t make any sound that could make it in.

He glanced again to the still, gigantic man that lay motionless on the ground five feet away.

James felt his gut clench as he fully understood that he had killed a man.

And he wasn’t sorry in the least.

“Are you hurt?” Harry demanded sharply.

James shook his head, even though his temples were throbbing in time with his heart. “Hit my head,” he managed to say.

Someone, another man, ran a wand over him and a moment later his headache lessened down to a dull ache.

The sound turned back on and James sighed in relief.

“Is… is he dead?” Caroline asked as she turned to stare at the shell that had once been her father.

“He’s dead,” Harry confirmed evenly. “What happened?”

“He came out of nowhere,” James told him as he tried to work through what had happened. “We were just talking and…”

And James had put his arm around Caroline.

“He screamed and tackled James,” Caroline said with a steadier voice. “Is it really over?”

Harry nodded as he crouched down further to catch James’ eyes. “You still look like you took a hard hit. Let’s get you checked out.”

Caroline took Harry’s offered hand as he pulled her to her feet, then he bent and picked James up. Unfortunately, James’ legs didn’t really want to support him. Caroline stuck her arm around his waist and helped prop him up.

“I’m escorting them back up to the castle,” Harry told Thomas quietly. “Meet me up there once you’re done here.”

“Yes, sir,” Thomas replied.

The three of them began the walk back up to the castle along with all of the other students, herded by teachers and Ministry officials.

Several of them turned back to stare at James and glancing down he knew exactly why.

He was still covered in the man’s blood.

“Thank you,” Caroline whispered so that only he would hear. He nodded, unable to say anything else.

Maybe someday he would feel guilt or bad or something else, but not today.

Today, all he felt was relief.

Back to index


Chapter 29: Chapter 26

Author's Notes: I bet you're ready to murder me in my sleep for how long this took. I knew my last few months would be crazy, and they were. I hope you find this chapter worth the wait, and please, please go check out my books on amazon (which can be read in a web browser- you don't need a kindle). My author name is Sarah Jaune. You can also find me on twitter and facebook. If you like my characters, you'll like my original works. Tell me if you've read them and what you think :D

Thank you Arnel for being a lifesaver and beta'ing for me.

PLEASE REVIEW! No seriously, it does help inspire me to write faster when I know you guys are waiting for more.


“Hold still,” Hannah chided James as she examined his face closely.

James wanted to hold still. He wasn’t trying to be difficult, but it hurt so badly that he was having trouble not blacking out or vomiting all over her.

“Jamie,” his dad said from a seat next to him. His voice was firm, but not harsh. “I need you to focus on my words, not on what Hannah is doing, okay? Listen to me and let her work.” He took his son’s hand and held it. “Did you see anyone else out there? Squeeze my hand if so.”

James didn’t move, didn’t squeeze. They’d been alone at the Shrieking Shack when Caroline’s father, Donald Baker, had jumped him from behind. Louis had been with them minutes before, but he’d run back into the village to buy sweets for his sister’s birthday. That left only Caroline, who was sitting in the bed next to him, balled up and rocking.

Her father was dead. James was still covered in Donald’s blood. He still wasn’t sorry that he’s stuck that stick straight through the horrible man’s throat.

“James!” Harry said again, drawing James’ attention back from Caroline. He couldn’t focus on his father either, though. Harry caught his gaze and lowered his voice. “We’ll take care of her soon, but we need you healed first.”

The door to the Hospital Wing burst open and James’ mother, her red hair flying, came sprinting in towards him with terror etched all over her face. Her eyes locked on James and he managed to croak out a single, “Mum,” before she skidded to a stop next to Hannah.

“How is he?” Ginny demanded as she ran her hands through his hair. Gentle hands told him more about her love for him than any words ever did. He glanced up at her and wanted to say something, but his eyes went back to Caroline, who was still curled in a ball. His mother, bless her, took the hint and went over to the girl.

Ginny sat on the bed with her and carefully touched her shoulder. “It’s Caroline, right?”

The girl nodded her blonde head and looked up through eyes puffy from silent tears.

His mother gasped and her hand flew up to her mouth.

“What?” Harry demanded quickly.

“My dream! Harry,” she cupped Caroline’s cheek and remarkably the girl didn’t back away.

James, who was confused, but distracted when Hannah muttered a spell and his cheekbone knit back together, heard his parents say something that he missed.

When his eyes finally stopped watering in pain, he saw his mum holding Caroline while she continued to cry, whispering to her like every mother James had ever known.

“I’m going to give her a calming draught,” Hannah told Harry quietly. “I think she needs a good night’s sleep here with me. Same for James.”

James nodded and lay back against the pillows, too exhausted to think about moving. For a moment he, too, wanted to cry for all that had happened, but he bit hard on the inside of his cheek until the tears had passed. His father watched him silently and James appreciated that he hadn’t made a big deal of his momentary breakdown. “I need to speak to the other Aurors and process a few things. I’ll check back in before I leave.”

“Okay,” James agreed.

Harry briefly touched Ginny’s shoulder before he left, but soon the hospital wing was quiet, save for Caroline’s hiccups as she calmed down.

“I can’t believe he’s finally gone,” she murmured to his mum. Hannah, meanwhile, silently siphoned the blood off him.

James had a sudden thought that maybe he’d always see the blood there.

“Are you okay?” Ginny asked the girl in the next bed.

Caroline scrubbed at her face and shot James a cautious look. “I think I am. Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” James told her, glad that he was able to talk again. “If you hadn’t hit him with that branch, I wouldn’t have been able to–”

He couldn’t seem to finish the words. Stabbing a man in the throat so that he bled to death didn’t seem like something one should be thanked for.

“I’m glad you’re both okay,” Ginny said again as she smoothed Caroline’s tangled hair away from her face.

“Did you mention a dream?” James asked suddenly.

“I did, but it’s nothing,” she promised evenly, tipping James off to the fact that he was being lied to. “I had a bad dream with the two of you in it. I think I must have had a mother’s intuition moment about what happened today.”

James nearly argued with her, but decided to let it go. For now. Caroline’s eyes were shattered and red from crying.

“Here now,” Hannah came back over with a small vial for her. “Take this and we’ll get you changed to sleep.”

She set up curtains so that he and Caroline could change into pajamas, and despite the fact that it wasn’t even close to bedtime, they were both out less than an hour later.

~*~

“This was too close,” Ginny said as panic fought hard to drop her to her knees. She turned on Harry and pointed at him. “Where were the Aurors?”

She paced through Neville’s office, while her friend sat behind his desk, watching her work herself into a fit.

“I don’t know what happened, Ginny,” Harry told her furiously. “They were there! They just didn’t follow the kids up to the shack, and despite knowing that they were supposed to, they didn’t. The best we can guess is that Baker hexed the one who was set to watch the village. He’s one of the newer Aurors, but I wouldn’t have expected him to make this kind of rooky mistake.”

Ginny’s fury spiked as she froze mid-step. She wanted to scream at him for letting a rooky take the watch in Hogsmeade, but stopped when she saw the misery on his face. He was hurting, as well. He was blaming himself. He was devastated that he’d nearly lost their son. Beating him up for it didn’t make it any better. She walked over into his arms and held on for a moment longer.

“I need to go check on a few things,” Neville said tactfully as he rose and headed for the door. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”

Harry waited until the door was closed to cup her cheeks. “What did you mean about the dream?”

“It was Caroline,” Ginny explained as her head swam and she made to sit in one of the seats in front of Neville’s desk. “He was married to Caroline in the dream, Harry! It was Caroline I saw you handing that baby to.”

She knew the look even before she met his eyes.

“Gin,” he said reasonably as he ran a hand distractedly through his messy hair. “It was a dream, and you’ve met Caroline before. You know how he feels about her, so I think you just connected the two.”

“What if it wasn’t a dream?” she demanded quickly. “What if it really happens that way?”

Harry shook his head. “If they get married, then we’ll worry about it, but they’re still kids, and you failed Divination.”

“I can’t lose him,” Ginny said as tears tore loose from her tight hold. She balled her fists, digging her fingernails into her palm. “I barely survived losing Hope.”

“We aren’t going to lose him,” Harry promised, even though they both knew he couldn’t promise that. “Baker was the biggest immediate threat to the kids, and he was so enraged that he came after James with his bare hands. He’s dead, now. We have some breathing room because this means that Crabbe has lost her source of funding.”

But something had stuck with Ginny about the whole thing. “Why did he attack him without his wand?”

“James put his arm around Caroline’s shoulder,” Harry explained as his face paled. “I got that much from them, and I knew… Merlin, it’s disgusting. That man thought his daughter’s body was his and his alone. He went after James with his bare hands because he saw red and couldn’t think to do anything else. He even dropped his wand to attack him! We found it a few feet away.”

Ginny felt the bile rise in her throat as she thought about all the poor girl had been through and a small, selfish part of her hoped that James wouldn’t fall for the girl. It wasn’t that the girl wasn’t worth loving, but she didn’t know that James had it in him to be that patient, and loving someone who had been molested and abused took a lot more work. Then she felt sicker with herself for having even thought it, because Caroline didn’t deserve to be thought of as a ‘problem’.

But the truth was that James was selfish, hotheaded, and rarely serious and as his mother, Ginny knew best that he probably wouldn’t be the best person for the girl.

And now she was being ridiculous because it really had just been a dream, and as Harry said, she’d been dreadful at divination.

“I’m going back to check on them,” Ginny said after a short, terse silence. “Caroline looked like she was ready to fall over.”

“Alright,” Harry agreed, grazing his knuckles lightly down her cheek. “I’ll meet you there after I speak to Minerva.”

When she reached the hospital wing door, she stopped and held the handle, closing her eye as waves of exhaustion, relief, and guilt rolled through her.

Caroline was the victim in all of this and Ginny was a selfish arse for wishing that she and James wouldn’t become a couple. She made a vow to herself, from there on out, to never think that thought again. Al was smitten over Nat, who was constantly sick. That was another form of challenge, but she wouldn’t trade Nat for anything. It was better to get to know the girl just in case.

But if they did end up married, Ginny was going to be dead set against James going overseas by himself. She couldn’t stand to lose her son. Slowly, quietly she pulled the door open and froze at the sight before in the beds down towards the end of the row.

James was asleep, but Caroline was wide awake, her eyes huge and staring at the wall in front of her. She could have been a ghost for all the color that wasn’t in her cheeks.

Ginny came forward slowly and the blue eyes moved finally, tracking to her as she came to sit in the chair next to the girl’s bed. She didn’t reach out this time, since Caroline wasn’t crying, but she wanted to. Ginny desperately wanted to hold the child who appeared moments away from shattering into a million pieces.

“My sister just left,” Caroline told her in a voice completely flat of inflection.

“Is she okay?” Ginny asked her.

Caroline shrugged her thin shoulders and glanced down at her lap to hands that were twisting the blankets between her fingers. “I don’t think she really gets it, yet, but she doesn’t remember him like I do.”

It was a blessing and a curse. It left her alone in what she went through with her father, but Ginny wasn’t going to talk to her about that. James had told Ginny of the abuse in confidence, and if Caroline ever wanted to share, that was up to her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” the girl lied.

Ginny reached out slowly and took her hand, holding it between her own. “You can talk to me.”

She was sure the girl wouldn’t, but after a clearly painful struggle, Caroline said, a little defiantly, “I’m glad he’s dead!”

“Yes, I’m sure you are,” Ginny agreed evenly and noted that when she was upset, the girl sounded even more American.

Caroline peeked up at her with her startlingly blue eyes and waited a beat. “Have you ever wished someone was dead?”

Nodding, Ginny felt the shame and the horror she’d lived with after having been possessed by Voldemort. She’d felt violated, too… unworthy. But no one in her family had let her stay that way. They’d insisted on keeping her close until those feelings had passed. “I nearly got a few people killed when I was younger,” Ginny told her, knowing that Caroline needed the connection. “I was possessed by Voldemort. I felt like he’d ruined something inside of me and like it might never get fixed.”

Caroline’s eyes widened in surprise. “But… but…” she said falteringly. “You’re married to Harry Potter!”

Ginny shrugged and winced inwardly when she realized Harry had shown her more grace than Ginny had shown Caroline. He’d forgotten what had happened to her, back when she’d been fourteen and fighting desperately not to feel anything for him. He’d never held it against her, and before speaking more than five words to the girl, Ginny had hoped that… she didn’t know what she hoped for anymore. It was all too difficult and painful to think about. “Harry loved me for me, and understood that it wasn’t my fault. Someone who is worthy of you will see that.”

Caroline’s eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. “I don’t want that, ever. I’m not one of those girls who thinks about weddings and all that crap. I don’t want to be stuck with a man.”

In all honesty, Ginny couldn’t blame her, but she knew those words were spoken from a place of pain and not from any real, meaningful decision. It might be the decision that Caroline would stick with in the future, but she wasn’t in a place to judge that just yet. The girl was fourteen…

About the same age Ginny had been when she’d realized that not loving Harry Potter might just be impossible, even if she was going to try really hard not to.

She glanced over to her son for a moment and saw his sleeping, peaceful face, and thought again of all she’d been through when she was his age. “It’s my fault James is the way he is,” she told Caroline with a regretful smile. “I spoilt him a bit when he was young and he’s been a handful ever since. I lost a baby years before Jamie was born and I think I was rather overdoing it.”

“James isn’t so bad,” Caroline answered, then quickly added, “now.”

“He’s grown a great deal,” Ginny agreed with a longing sigh. “You’re a good bit of why, you know. It’s down to you that he realized he was being so horrible to us and immature.”

“I don’t…” Caroline let her voice trail off as she turned the sheets between her fingers.

Ginny patted her nervous hand. “I’m going to let you get some rest, now, and go check on how the investigation is going. If, at any point, you want your grandparents to come, you let Madam Longbottom know and we will get them here.”

“Thank you,” the girl said in a perfunctory manner.

She rose and walked slowly from the room, not sure she’d made any difference at all.

~*~

The fact that Harry didn’t lose his temper as he stared at the group of assembled Aurors was probably more a testament to having been James’ father than to any level of professional trailing.

The faces of the assembled men, and one woman, showed the gravity of the situation as they sat at the large, conference room table in the Ministry. The air was thick with tension and unsaid criticisms of all that had gone wrong that day.

After speaking to the younger Auror who had neglected to follow James out of the village, Harry had sent him over to St. Mungo’s where they found at least two hexes placed on him. It was a miracle that the kids hadn’t been killed, or worse that Caroline hadn’t been recaptured by her father. It left Harry uneasy and sick at heart to think of what could have happened to her if James hadn’t killed the man. It still hadn’t settled, either, that his son had murdered someone. How was Harry supposed to deal with that? How did he help James deal with that? Thus far James was coping well, but it was only a matter of time before the enormity of what had happened fell upon his son.

His son… already a hero, and not the one he’d have said would ever be a hero. It just went to show…

Harry shook his head, realizing belatedly that everyone was getting more uncomfortably restless as he continued to pace without speaking. “My son did what no child should have to do today,” Harry said simply. “I’m probably so angry because it was my son, but I think I would have been furious no matter whom it was. What happened to the checks? What happened to the partners?” His short glance to Teddy gave him the look of a pale man, still stunned at the news. Teddy hadn’t been at Hogwarts. He’d been manning the desk at the office in London when the attack had happened, which often happened to the junior member of the team.

“It was a complete cock up,” Thomas Gregory said flatly. “We had our signals crossed and we didn’t work properly as a team. I take full responsibility for this.”

Harry let out a slow breath and tried to focus his attention away from his anger, and back to something more productive. It wouldn’t do to lose sight of what needed to be done. “We will be starting back at the beginning for training first thing tomorrow.”

There wasn’t even a single groan of protest. Every single one of them realized the unbelievable mistake that had been made. A child, in a guarded town full of ten Aurors, should never have had to defend himself.

“We will spend the next several weeks working together as a team, again, and retraining the leaders to spot problems before they happen,” Harry said with solemn finality. “This sort of mistake will not happen again. Am I understood?”

A general chorus of, “Yes, sirs,” flowed through the room and they filed out, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts.

His son had taken a life. Shaking his head, he went back to his desk and meaning to tell Daniel he was heading home, but his assistant had already left with a note saying he’d be in early the next day. He didn’t fault the man. Daniel had recently become engaged, and it was tough to leave one’s fianc alone on a Saturday night, even if one had an extremely understanding significant other.

He’d barely managed to throw on his cloak when a tall, thin man in a black cloak topped by a shock of white-blond hair appeared before him. Surprised, Harry inclined his head. “Malfoy.”

“May I have a word?” Draco asked smoothly, never letting his faade of man in control crack. It was something that Harry had come to grudgingly admire about him. “In private.”

Harry indicated for him to step into his office and moments later they were seated across from each other, Harry’s desk separating them. “What can I do for you?”

“I was privy to a story of recent events,” Draco said without preamble. “I thought it might be pertinent to you, so I wanted to pass it along.”

Intrigued despite himself, Harry waited.

“I heard about what happened today from my son,” Draco told him and the pleasure at having heard from Scorpius shown on his father’s face. Harry didn’t know much about their relationship, but from what he’d heard from Al, he didn’t think Scorpius often wrote home to his father. “I had a letter from him just a few minutes ago, and it occurred to me that something I’d heard yesterday is likely connected.”

“Go on,” Harry said as he sat forward in his seat.

“My father came to dine yesterday and said he’d been in Knockturn Alley at Borgin and Burkes,” Draco informed him slowly. “He was after a particular book on ancient magical bloodlines,” he explained quickly. “It isn’t an illegal object, I assure you, but extremely rare and valuable. It’s also not in the current taste.”

Harry could well imagine the uproar that would be created in a book on purebloods that ended up in Flourish and Blots. “I can see that.”

“My father is set in his ways,” Draco said with a tight smile. “He is, however, old and harmless at this point.”

Harry waved that off. He expected nothing less of Lucius, and had also had over twenty years of good behavior from the Malfoy patriarch. Harry had no legal reason to complain.

“A man came stumbling in with a bag full of items that my father didn’t see and demanded money for them, said his mistress had sent him to get money,” Draco went on. “He said she’d kill him if he didn’t get five hundred galleons for the lot.”

“I can’t imagine that went over well,” he grinned as he pictured the greedy, old man whom Harry had dealt with on a number of occasions. Mr. Borgin hadn’t changed, except to age and grow stingier.

“Quite,” Draco said with a sardonic smile. “He kept rambling on about the crazy bird he worked for, his words for her. Then he said what struck my father. He said, ‘She’s so hard, she’s going to knock off the purse, she is. That’s why I needs the money.’” He smoothed out an invisible crease on his perfectly pressed trousers. “I do not know many women who are that cold or calculating, but Isabella Crabbe is one of them.”

Harry sat back and considered this. “Then the next day, Baker is killed, but not by an Auror.”

“From Scorpius’ letter,” Draco said as he pulled out the sheet of parchment and held it out to Harry, “he said that it was only by chance that one of the Aurors wasn’t there to take him down.”

Silently, Harry mulled that over. Was it out of the realm of possibility that Isabella had set the man up to go down? No. She was brilliant and cruel. She had her own agenda and Baker was becoming a liability. She likely hadn’t meant for things to go down the way that they had, but it was easy enough to tell Baker that it was a Hogsmeade weekend. Since Baker was American, he wouldn’t know what that meant, but Crabbe would. She could have sent him there to try to take back the daughter he coveted. Crabbe knew that the village would have been guarded. She’d made a point of getting to know Harry and to understand what steps he would have taken to ensure the children’s safety. It was, to put it simply, an easy way to off the man and make it look like she’d had no hand in it. Donald clearly hadn’t a clue he was being set up, or maybe he was so crazed that he didn’t care.

There was an inquiry of the body going on right that moment at St. Mungo’s. Harry would know by the morning if he’d been under the influence of anything magical, or alcoholic.

“I met Dodi Baker more than a year back,” Draco told him, breaking into Harry’s thoughts. “Helminth Smith had a dinner party that Astoria and I attended, and I made his acquaintance.”

“I met him once, as well,” Harry said with a raised brow. “I had to stop Ginny from killing him.”

That forced a chuckle from Draco. “Yes, well, I can see why. He was so crass, so very American. He spoke of his wealth and position as though any of that was fit for polite conversation. My wife,” he hesitated only briefly. “She has quite an astute read on people. I have found her to be an excellent judge of character, and she did not like him. She said he made her feel very uncomfortable.”

That didn’t surprise Harry in the least.

“When I spoke to him, he spoke of his wife and children as though they were property, and not people,” Draco concluded. “I remember wanting to step back from him at the look in his eyes when he spoke of his oldest girl. I thought, but dismissed, that that was not a look a father should have about his daughter.”

Harry didn’t comment. He couldn’t. Unfortunately, his silence spoke volumes.

Draco’s face went even paler. “I… I shall not speak of this again, then. I know that it was she who was nearly taken by him today. I am very glad your son was there to help, and that he is okay.”

“I appreciate that,” he said with only a slight tremble to his voice. “What you’ve told me, it is actually helpful. It gives me a fuller picture of what is going on around Crabbe. It’s important to know she’s scrambling for funding. Hopefully, that will slow her down.”

Harry arrived home fifteen minutes later, having bid Malfoy goodbye shortly before, to find mail from his cousin, Dudley.

It was never a good day when that sort of mail came. The only bright spot was that he didn’t have to listen to his children whine should Harry be required to visit.

He opened it to find a rather lengthy letter for Dudley… well, lengthy for Dudley, anyway.

Dear Harry,
How are you? We’ve been good here. Stephen has started at Smeltings and it getting along well. We are going on holiday this Christmas to France. Megan has set it all up, although I’d have rather gone somewhere that wasn’t forren. We are hoping that you and Ginny can come for dinner sometime next month. Please let us know when you’re available.
-Dudley

Harry grinned at the butchering of ‘foreign,’ and set the letter aside to deal with later. He heard a noise from upstairs and turned to see Ginny coming down the steps dressed in old, faded jeans, and a huge jumper from her days with the Harpies. “You’ll never guess what–” Harry paused as he caught sight of Ginny’s pale face. “What’s up?”

She motioned to their big, wooden table that had graced their kitchen their whole marriage and sat towards the end, as he took the end seat and reached for her hands. Ginny laced their fingers together and traced along towards his wedding ring with her free hand. She was so lost in thought that Harry didn’t say anything, but let her work through what it was that she needed to say to him. The fine lines around her eyes didn’t show any laughter now, only trouble and a bit of sorrow. “I had a long chat with Caroline today.”

Harry, who had spoken at length with the girl previously, waited. This could go many different directions, and he wasn’t sure which it would be.

“I looked at her as James’ mother,” she admitted with a tight smile that was aimed down at their linked hands. “I saw her as someone who was so badly damaged that if James went and fell in love with her, I knew she’d break his heart. She’s a walking disaster…”

Stunned, Harry had to fight not to let go. To say he was horrified was a gross understatement. He couldn’t have ever guessed that Ginny, who was so loving, would dismiss the girl out of hand.

“Then I spoke to her,” Ginny went on ruefully. “I saw, in her, a bit of myself. I wasn’t raped, certainly not by my father, but I did have an evil being sharing my body for the better part of a year. He controlled my thoughts and my actions. He nearly made me a murderer.”

Comprehension dawned as he thought back to her first year and her possession. Voldemort had done and said unspeakable things to Ginny towards the end, things that she hadn’t ever revealed to her parents. She’d only told him about them after ten years of marriage. “Ginny…”

“You,” she said, finally meeting his gaze with her lovely, warm brown eyes. “You never thought of it, though. You didn’t hold it against me. You didn’t cast me aside, and I didn’t even extend Caroline the grace that you showed towards me. I dismissed her without ever really speaking to her.”

Harry had no idea what to say to that, so he didn’t say anything. This was a confessional, not a conversation.

“I didn’t look at this girl like I was her mother,” she went on as a tear trailed slowly down her cheek. “I didn’t think about her needs, her wants, or the possibility that she might grow into the strongest woman I will ever meet for what she’s lived through. I only saw a problem for my son, and I am heartily ashamed of myself.”

Harry squeezed her fingers lightly, encouraging her to finish.

“I don’t know if she will ever love our son, or even if she’ll want to, but I see it in Jamie’s eyes,” Ginny admitted with a genuine smile this time. “We always say he’s just like your father, but gosh, I didn’t expect him to fall so hard, so young. I think he knows, too, deep down that this is where his heart is leading him. I don’t think he would have chosen to change so dramatically without those feelings.”

Harry still struggled to see his son as anything but the wayward child he was so used to, but now he was more. James had taken a life to save his own and another’s. It hadn’t been intentional, and yet it had been the right action.

He also knew that the Aurors on the scene hadn’t fought to save Baker’s life. Thomas Gregory had told Harry, in confidence, that they’d had a split second where they could have tried to save him, but he’d made the call not to. It might not have worked, anyway. It was the type of healing that they’d have needed a real Healer for, but they hadn’t even tried. None of them had wanted to try. It wasn’t explicitly talked about that Baker was a child molester, but still most of the senior Aurors had known. They’d known that letting the man die meant freeing his children, so they’d allowed it to happen. Harry had thought about it, briefly. He supposed there should be an inquiry on if they should have tried to save Donald Baker’s life, but he had already noted down that the treatments needed were beyond Auror skill level. As long as the examination by the Healers in the post-mortem agreed with him, the Aurors were cleared. He’d only lived ten seconds. It wasn’t enough time to set up a Portkey and barely enough time to Apparate with the man to St. Mungo’s, if he could have even survived Apparation. It was not a given that he would have.

Harry turned Ginny’s hand over, palm up and traced the lines on her hand. He had no idea which was the love line or the life line any longer. He’d long ago forgotten his lessons with Professor Trelawney, but he didn’t need a fraud’s interpretation to see the strength and gentleness in this hand. He didn’t want to bring up the fact that Ginny’s dream of the children in the future was just a dream. It had rattled her so thoroughly that he knew he couldn’t dismiss it without hurting her. He didn’t want to say they were too young, because he knew that Caroline had already lived five lifetimes of sorrow and pain in her fourteen years, and James had taken on a responsibility that most grown men hadn’t. It was, to put it simply, still up to the fates. “I don’t know where they will go in this life, but I know that if I could make it easy, I would.”

Ginny snorted at that. “The odd thing is that I always knew James wouldn’t take the easy path. He was never going to travel the way of least resistance. I just can’t imagine that she’ll ever be in a place where she’ll want…” she swallowed and glanced away. “I know some things, you know.”

“What?”

“Scorpius’ aunt was in your year,” Ginny told him. “I heard stories about why they left for America before her seventh year.”

Cold washed over Harry so completely that he found it difficult to speak. “What happened?”

“It’s maybe just a rumor,” she said quietly. “I… Daphne is single, you know?”

Harry nodded. He’d known that already.

“Well… there were stories that she was raped and that’s why her parents ran with the girls,” she explained quietly. “Daphne hasn’t been with anyone. She’s not been in any kind of serious relationship. The last time I talked to Astoria, she said that Daphne can’t stay still, can’t commit to anything. Astoria knew that I knew. She didn’t say it explicitly, but I read between the lines. Daphne has run from one thing to the next, never settling down anywhere long. Scorpius adores her. I can tell by the way he talks about her, but she’s never around. That was just one short time in her life, but Caroline has been through so much more.”

“But Caroline has had intensive therapy,” Harry reminded her. “She’s continuing to talk to therapists and will for a long time. We need to trust in that for her.”

“Maybe it’s nothing,” Ginny said with a shake of her head. “Maybe it won’t end up being anything, but on the off chance that my dream was real, Harry, we have to act. I stayed out because it didn’t seem like it was my business, but it will be if–”

“That’s a big if,” he stated flatly.

“I want to invite them over for a day during the Christmas holidays,” Ginny told him. “Lily will love that, as she and Honor have become the best of friends.”

Harry considered the logistics of getting two more people into the protected home and sighed. It wasn’t that much extra work. “Alright. I will speak with her grandparents about it when I check in with them next time.”

They had two months until the hols. It was plenty of time to make arrangements.

~*~

James didn’t know what woke him. The hospital wing was silent, and maybe that was it. He was used to four other boys snoring or shifting in their beds. All he knew was that it was too quiet and the moonlight was very bright that night, illuminating the room in a silvery, shimmering glow. He glanced over to Caroline’s bed and started when he saw it was empty. He sat up and scanned the room quickly, ignoring the wave of dizziness that begged him to keep his head still and lie flat. He almost missed her in the striped, faded pajamas as she stood at the window, gazing out onto the grounds of the school. He sighed in relief and rose silently.

Still she turned to look at him as pale light bathed her beautiful face, making her golden hair glow radiantly, almost like a halo. She watched him as he walked to her, then she pointed out to the grounds.

James looked and saw immediately what had her attention. Flying above the trees in the distance were skeletal, winged horses. They dipped and circled, almost chasing each other in a lazy dance through the sky. He thought back to Platform 9 and to his comments to his brother about Thestrals. It didn’t seem funny, now. Now it seemed sad, and scary, and maybe a little horrible. “I’d forgotten about them,” he whispered into the darkened room.

Caroline shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist. “It took me ages to figure out what they were. I’ve only read about them, but… I d-didn’t think it would be my father’s death that would m-make me see them,” she told him in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.

James’ heart ached horribly as he watched her struggle for composure. He didn’t know what to say to her. He didn’t know how to act, or what to feel. The weight of what had happened, and all that he’d done, was there. It was waiting on the edges to pull him under. He was a murderer. But he wasn’t sorry. He wasn’t in the least sorry for doing it. Caroline hadn’t lost her dad, she’d shed the monster that lived in her closet. It wasn’t sorrow over his death, it was freedom for the chance of a life without his constant threat.

He knew some of what she’d been through and wasn’t stupid enough to think that his feelings for her would be easy. She wasn’t shaking off her abuse. She was slowly, painfully slogging through the mess her father had made for her. She didn’t want or need James for anything more than friendship and that, James was quickly realizing, wasn’t going to be enough for him.

But it was enough for now. She wasn’t shutting him out. She wasn’t pushing him away. She might sometimes, but he was starting to see the patterns she went through with her moods. On a good day she was okay. On a bad day, she needed to be treated very carefully.

Part of him thought that was stupid, and a pain in the arse. Then he looked into her stunning azure eyes and he was lost again.

He’d read a letter his grandmother had written to Neville’s mum when she was pregnant with James’ dad. What she’d said ran through James’ mind at least once a day.

‘James used to be such a prat, but when I needed him most, he was there for me. He was the man I needed him to be. There is nothing better in the world than that.’

The man I needed him to be.

James held out an arm and after a moment’s hesitation, Caroline moved in. She didn’t hug him, exactly. Her hands gripped his pajamas in the front and she seemed to curl in on herself as she held on to him, resting her cheek on his shoulder. He folded her in his arms and pressed a kiss to her brow, rocking her back and forth gently while she broke down in tears again.

He had never once doubted his father’s love for him. He’d never known real fear at his parents’ hands. He’d never, ever, had to wonder if his father might not just kill him.

James wanted a lot of things, but so had Donald Baker. The difference was that Donald Baker had put his own wants and needs ahead of his family, every single time. He hadn’t cared that he was destroying his daughter’s life. He was too selfish to see anything beyond that.

What James wanted most was to be the kind of man his father and his grandfather had been. His grandfather had sacrificed himself to save his family. His father had risked everything to save the whole world. It was, simply, a lot to live up to. His younger self had only wanted to rebel and be whatever they weren’t, because there was no way to live up to that kind of pressure.

But then he read his grandmother’s letter. She’d always been this mythological being to him, never flesh and blood. She’d done something so amazing that James hadn’t thought could really happen. But it turned out she was an ordinary woman, with ordinary wants and needs. She just needed to be loved and treasured.

James hadn’t seen that as some great feat because he’d always been loved and treasured.

He rested his cheek against Caroline’s soft hair and held her, knowing that this met enough of his own needs that he could continue on. It hadn’t been a conscious decision on his part. He’d never really thought through and decided that this was where he wanted to be.

But it was. He wanted to be here. He wanted to be the man she needed him to be. It was a big task, and James was very afraid he was going to fail miserably more than once, but he was going to keep trying anyway.

Because when he looked out the window he still saw the Thestrals and he still wasn’t sorry that he could. It wasn’t taking on Voldemort as he broke into his house, and it wasn’t saving the whole world, but it was saving Caroline’s life and maybe her soul and heart while he was at it.

That was what she’d needed from him.

So he wasn’t sorry, and he knew without a doubt, he never would be.

Back to index


Chapter 30: Chapter 27

Author's Notes: First, thank you to Arnel!

Next, I know the wait is long. I have two jobs (besides the whole mother/homeschooling parent thing- I have three sons, too- lots of work). One job is sewing. The other is publishing books. At the moment, the sewing job is paying more than the writing jobs. If you want me to write more here, go onto amazon and buy my books. I have to be able to justify taking more time out from sewing for writing. Spread the word. Tell your friends. If you like my characters here, I know you'll like my novels. The goal is ten chapters in the novel, then one chapter for HP. All of that is around sewing. Such is life, right? I know you're all waiting and going crazy. I'd love to devote more time to it, but the time just isn't there right now because of the needing to make money thing. So patience as right now updates are probably going to stick to once a month, but I always finish a project. I will finish this one, as well, it's just going to take a very long time. We're approaching the 200,000 word mark. :D

PS you do not need an ereader to buy an ebook. You can read from a web browser just like you read fanfiction. Go to my author's profile for information on my novels.

PPS REVIEW PLEASE!


Chapter 27

Professor McGonagall died in her sleep three nights after Donald Baker was killed by James. All classes were canceled for the day as the school fell into mourning. Important people poured through the front doors to hold a funeral for her, remembering her work, her services, and all the years she’d been at the school. Not since Dumbledore had a teacher been so beloved.

Al had no idea how to feel about anything. He was very sad for her loss, but she had been really old. His parents were a mess during the funeral, which all the students had been allowed to attend. People gave speeches and his parents had cried. Nat had cried, too, and that was just as bad. Rose was crying.

All the crying made Al want to cry, which just made him mad. He’d really liked their headmistress. She’d been a good teacher.

Unfortunately, the whole thing meant that they’d need a new head and a man, about his father’s age, named Anthony Goldstein was appointed to the post. Al had the distinctly uncomfortable impression that his father had been the one to suggest the man. Professor Goldstein had taught Ancient Runes, but now he supposed someone else would take the class. It was one of Al’s worst classes, but Professor Goldstein had made it bearable. He’d been a good teacher with the same look in his eyes that Al’s parents and all his older family members had.

“Al,” Rose sniffed next to him from her seat towards the back of the funeral.

“What?” Al asked her and realized that he’d missed his father giving a speech of some kind.

Rose glared at him, then watered back up again and dropped her head on his chest to sob all over again. Resigned, Al put an arm around her shoulder and patted and studiously ignored the moisture that was threatening to fall down his own cheeks.

He didn’t know what the point of a funeral was. He’d said as much to Nat the day before and she’d explained to him that different cultures around the globe held rituals to help those left behind. Then she’d told him about how some people believe that without the proper funeral, the spirit of the dead will linger around the people, haunting them. Al had asked her why they wouldn’t just tell the dead person to go away, but that was because he’d forgotten that non-magical people couldn’t see ghosts.

All of the ghosts from the castle were out on the grounds to pay their respects, as well. They shimmered in the low, fall sun that peeked through the fickle clouds that wafted through the air.

Professor McGonagall wasn’t a ghost. She’d gone on, wherever that way. Al’s dad had kind of explained the moving on thing to him, but it all seemed a bit weird.

He watched his father sit down again with his mother, and hug both his mum and his sister tight. Lily was supposed to be sitting with her classmates, but she’s immediately gone running for their dad the moment they’d come out onto the lawn and hadn’t been willing to part with him since.

Nat, who was on Al’s other side, blew her nose into a tissue. “I w-will miss her.”

She had the most reason to be sad. Nat had been taking lessons with the professor to work on her skills as an Augmentum Imaginari. Nat was now to the place where she could control what she saw, and when she saw it, but not always perfectly. It would be tricky to continue without such a wise, experienced teacher. The important part was learning to control if she saw things, though. Otherwise, the magic of the castle could leave Nat overwhelmed and unable to see where she was going through the colored haze of magical auras.

Nat sniffed again and then she too leaned against him to cry on his shoulder. Scorpius’ eyes were suspiciously red, but he grinned nonetheless at Al’s predicament. He’d sat on the other side of Nat, next to Hugo.

Why one of the girls couldn’t have cried on Scorpius’ shoulder, Al had no idea.

He was sad about losing Professor McGonagall, but she’d been about a hundred and forty.

It wasn’t like it was unexpected.

The wet spot on his shirt from Rose’s tears continued to grow and reconciled to his role as comforter, Al patted her shoulder again.

~*~

Minerva’s death had come as major blow to the wizarding community. In particular, although it wasn’t expected, they were in a sensitive, critical time for the school’s security because of Crabbe. She’d already done things like dump bodies in the school. It was not the time for someone who had no training in such things to take over the head job. Harry had intended to bully his way into the meeting with the board of governors at the school, but Neville had asked him to come along.

Neville was a good choice for the Headmaster’s position, but the bottom line was that Neville didn’t want it. They had, however, another member of the DA teaching at the school. Anthony Goldstein had helped out the Aurors after the last battle. He’d received some training. He was a good, loyal family man who Harry knew and trusted. When he’d put it that way to the board they’d agreed and promoted Anthony.

It wasn’t anything Harry had wanted to contemplate. He’d rather have simply cried over the loss of a good friend and mentor, but it wasn’t to be so.

Harry had held it together all the way out to the lawn where the chairs were set up for the funeral, with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny right beside him. He’d been okay until he’d sat down, and then Lily had come hurtling towards him, awash in tears. He’d held her in his lap through most of the funeral, up until his time to speak when Ron had plucked her from his lap with the quiet words, “Come on, Lily-Lu. I’m not Dad, but I’m a good substitute.”

It was Lily’s anguish at the loss of a woman they’d had in their home more times than he could count that finally put him over the edge. He had no idea how he made it through his prepared speech, but he kept picturing having to do this for Molly or Arthur, both of whom were in the crowd.

Things had been so peaceful for the last twenty years, that it was easy to forget that time kept marching on. Hopefully, they had a few more years yet before they would lose their parents, but Harry knew it would come one day.

When he made it back to his seat, it was to find Ron crying hard into Lily’s bright, red hair as she held her uncle steady.

Harry met with Anthony again straight after the funeral, up in the head’s office. They walked slowly together, neither speaking, until they’d gone up the spiral staircase and entered into the room that still held many of Dumbledore’s old treasures.

“I am still unable to believe this office is mine,” Anthony told him with a grim smile. His blond hair was still the same color it had been when they’d been young. His eyes, a pale, golden brown tracked Harry’s as he sat himself down in the seat in front of the large, ornate desk.

“This is a seat I’ve been in many times,” Harry assured him and waited for Anthony to sit, as well. “We have a lot to discuss.”

Anthony nodded and shifted slightly. “Why didn’t you want Neville here?”

That was easy. “Neville didn’t want it, plus he’s not going to be the kind of tactful presence that’s needed in this job. You have those skills, plus the ones that are important to me.”

“Crabbe,” Anthony said. “What happened there?”

“It’s a very long story,” Harry sighed. “The short version is that after her son died, she went crazy and tried to kill me and Ginny. We thought she’d died in a fire, but she didn’t. We figured out, because of Natalie Parker’s father, that she’d faked her own death. She’s been causing trouble ever since, but we don’t know what her end game is, and she’s been impossible to pin down because she doesn’t do grand things in the same way that Voldemort did. He was, ultimately, out for power and to rid the world of Muggles. We could trace him through his actions, even if we didn’t know where he was. It’s like she’s gone most of the time, and only on rare occasions do we find evidence of her handiwork.”

Anthony nodded as he tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. “What happened with Baker?”

This was the part of the story that Harry really, really didn’t want to tell, but it was important for Anthony to know the full story. Caroline and Honor needed the head of the school to have all of the information so that he could act to protect them at all cost. “Baker was an American who made a lot of money. He joined up with Crabbe, we think as her financer, and now he’s dead. He was…” Harry hated talking about. “He was a vile, sick man. His daughters were abused. He killed his wife. Caroline had the worst of it. Baker had her under the Imperius Curse when she first arrived here at the school. That’s partially why she was able to act so normal, then. Now that we’ve removed it, she’s remembered all of the things he did to her.”

Anthony’s face went white in shock. “I… I didn’t want to believe it, even though she showed the signs of abuse. I knew she was getting therapy here at the school regularly, but…”

“She’s a bit of a mess, still,” Harry confirmed sadly. “James killing her father just might have been the best thing to happen to her. There is one thing.”

Anthony raised a brow, but didn’t otherwise speak.

“She has a love of cheerleading,” Harry explained, and had to chuckle at Anthony’s expression of shock. “I know, but it’s apparently big in America. She was forced to stop because of her father. I’m going to tell her that she can join back up again, now, if she wants. She would travel to her grandparents’ home a few nights a week for practice. I think it will help her if she does that.”

His friend nodded. “Alright. I think I remember her doing this before, during the first year she was here. If it helps, it will be worth it. I’ll ensure that the therapy continues, as well. Do we think that Crabbe will threaten the school?”

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted. “We have all of the new security in place, and I’d like to keep it that way. Until we figure out what her plan is, we’re in the dark, I’m afraid.”

When he finally left the school, alone as everyone else had already gone by then, it was to head to St. Mungo’s. He’d received a note the night before that the report was ready on Baker’s body and that the Healer in charge would like to discuss it with him.

He headed through the lobby of the hospital and went straight down the morgue, a place he’d been too many times in his life. It was the same place the Curtis Parker had examined the body that everyone had believed to be Isabella Crabbe. He listened to his footsteps echoing off the walls of the unadorned, cement stairwell that descended into the cool, dark depths of the hospital.

The Healer in charge, Wallace, was blessedly still there. Harry stuck out a hand to the older, black gentleman with spectacles and curly, salt and pepper hair. His face was round, and he happened to be one of the nicest men that Harry knew. Except that he worked with the dead all the time. “I’m sorry I’m late. It was a rough day.”

“I was there for your speech,” Wallace told him as he escorted him into his small, cluttered office. He had pictures of his kids and grandkids on his desk, waving up at Harry as he sat. Wallace moved aside a stack of papers and pulled out a sheet of parchment. “I hate to get down to business, but I think we’ve both had a long day. What I have on your report is that Baker’s injuries were too severe for the Aurors to treat.”

“That was my assessment, yes,” Harry told him. “I wasn’t there when it happened, but from what I saw, and the timeline, there wasn’t anything they could do to save him.”

Wallace sighed, pulled off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. Harry felt a sudden stab of nerves as to what he was going to hear. “I think, Harry, if I’m honest, that they could have saved him.”

Harry waited as his heartrate tripped into overdrive. He didn’t speak.

“I think they could have repaired the airway, and stopped the bleeding if they’d acted quickly,” Wallace informed him quietly. “It would appear that the Aurors chose to let this man die.”

He let a full beat of silence go before he asked, “Is that what you’ve put on your report?”

Wallace put his glasses back on and then studied Harry over the top of them. Finally, he said, “I haven’t written the report yet, because I want to know why the Aurors didn’t act to save him. If it was because it was your son–”

“No!” Harry assured him quickly. “It was…” he had a split second to decide, but Wallace’s granddaughter smiled at him from her spot of honor on his desk. “The man was a pedophile. He was trying to snatch his daughter, probably to go back to raping her. That’s why they let him die after James stabbed him. It had nothing to do with James at all. They were trying to spare the girl.”

Wallace dropped back into his seat, clearly disgusted and horrified. “I…” his hand shook as he rubbed at his cheek. “It will…” he cleared his throat. “It will be the opinion of this office that the man might have been saved if a competent Healer had been on hand. I will make a note that I want better education for the Aurors on triage for those types of injuries and the recommended course, from now on, will be transport to the hospital, even with these types of wounds.”

Harry let out a slow sigh of relief. “Thank you, Wallace.”

“It is, essentially, the truth anyway,” Wallace told him with the shake of his head. “It was very unlikely that he’d have survived the transport, but there was a chance. The judgment call was not wrong, but could be improved upon. I will make a recommendation for the further training and we will let this go.”

It was the best Harry could have hoped for.

~*~

The funeral had been sad, but mostly it had been long. That was the only thing James could think of as he threw his dress robes onto the floor of his dorm, then grudgingly picked them up to fold. It was haphazard, and not very neat, but he could hear his aunt’s voice in the back of his mind telling him that he shouldn’t make the house-elves’ lives even more difficult than they already were.

“I’m so hungry I could eat half of a cow,” Louis complained as he also divested himself of his robes. “The speeches went too long.”

“She was a good teacher,” one of their dorm mates, Ben, reminded him. “Plus she’s been here forever.”

“Yeah, but still,” James said and then couldn’t think of anything else to add. He was going to miss her, but it wasn’t like they hadn’t known it was coming.

“Come on,” Louis called to him as they raced down the steps. They were nearly through the portrait hole when James spotted Caroline hiding in a corner, her nose pressed in a book.

Things had been weird between them since the night in the hospital wing. They’d both gone back to bed, and then the next day neither had known what to say to the other. It was awkward and tense. Unfortunately, Caroline had been skipping most of the meals since her father’s death.

“I’ll catch you up,” he told Louis. His cousin shot him a knowing glance, then waved and headed out.

James wove around the other Gryffindors exiting the tower and walked over to her. He knelt down next to her and when she didn’t look up, asked, “Are you coming down to eat?”

“I’m not hungry,” she said shortly, still not meeting his eyes.

“You have to eat,” he told her firmly. “You’re wasting away as it is. Come on.”

She finally raised her eyes to his and they were cold and hard. “No.”

Rage filled him so suddenly, so blindly, that he spoke without any thought. “Fine,” he replied back, with complete disinterest, even though he was anything but. “I was going to sit with Christy anyway.”

He turned and stalked out, ignoring the flicker of hurt he’d seen in her eyes. James was fuming. How could she just ignore him like that? How could she bat away his concern so easily? Didn’t she get that he was just trying to help her? Why was she always such a–

James froze on the staircase and cursed himself silently. Merlin, he was such an idiot. Of course she’d rejected him. It was her only defense against him. Annoyed with himself for losing his temper, he fought back his embarrassment at making an arse of himself and turned back around to head up to the common room.

If she’d really wanted to be left alone, she could have hidden out in her dorm. When she did that, then James knew it was time to get Hannah involved. James knew what Louis thought. His cousin thought that Caroline was too much work, and she was too high maintenance. They’d used to joke about that, but it had been for very different reasons. When they’d talked about it, it was a girl who’d been perfect, but still wanted reassurances, and took seven hours to get ready.

Caroline wasn’t like that. She was just… a mess. He knew that all too well.

He reached the portrait hole and walked in, just as one of the seventh year prefects came out.

“You’ll miss dinner,” she told him.

“I’ll be there soon,” James told her as he ducked around her and into the empty common room.

Or almost empty. Caroline was nearly to the girls’ dormitory steps.

“Wait!” James called out to her.

He watched her shoulders stiffen, but she didn’t turn around.

“Come on,” he said again, softly as he reached her side. “You have to go eat something.”

“I’m not hungry,” she said through clenched teeth. Her cheekbones stood out because she hadn’t been eating. She hadn’t been sleeping, either. There were deep, bruising shadows under her eyes.

She started for the stairs and James reflexively grabbed her arm. It was the stupidest thing he’d done all day, but it was instinct.

“DON’T!” she screamed at him, and flew around, hitting out at him.

James grabbed her other arm and then everything happened all at once. She started sobbing, and shrieking, and kicking out at him, getting him in the shin, and the thigh.

“Damnit!” he bellowed and tried to pin her. “Stop it!”

Caroline wrenched her arm free, and hit him hard in the stomach. He nearly lost his grip on her, but in trying to hold onto her, he toppled them both over onto to the floor, him pinning her legs.

Her anger turned immediately on itself into blind, protesting panic and her jabs turned into pushing that was so feeble, he couldn’t imagine it was real.

But her words were and they were heartbreaking.

“Please, please don’t, no don’t! Please,” she begged through tears that blinded her to everything.

James knew he was a stupid idiot, and he rolled off her, sitting up gingerly since his stomach was sore from her punch. The moment her legs were free, she scrambled away from him and would have stood, but she caught sight of him and her face fell, if that were possible, into an even more miserable expression. She curled into a ball and wept. Her sobs shook her whole body, and her hair, which had come down from its clips. The one clip lay dangling from a strand, no longer holding anything back, but just hanging there, useless.

“I’m sorry,” James told her. “I shouldn’t have grabbed you.”

It was too little, probably too late, but he’d done it. There was no going back from it.

It took her a good fifteen minutes to stop crying. It was so long, that James went to retrieve tissues for her, and found a glass of water. By the time she’d calmed enough to speak, she’d been crying for so long that the only way her words could come out were in broken sobs. “I d-d-didn’t mean t-to h-hit you.”

“Okay,” he said lamely. “I get why you did,” he told her and raked a hand through his messy hair. “You thought I was going to hurt you.”

She didn’t reply.

“I’m never going to hurt you,” James told her forcefully.

But how was she supposed to know or trust that when her own father had done unspeakable things to her?

She started to cry again.

Yeah, James knew it then. He was really stupid. “I’m your friend, okay? I’m looking out for you, whether you like it or not. Sometimes you’ll have to look out for me, too. That’s the way friendship works.”

He sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. “Your father was a monster. I’m not sorry he’s dead. I will never be like him, Caroline. I’m never going to r-rape you,” he promised her, tripping over the word, “or force you to do anything that you don’t want to like that. But you can’t starve yourself. That’s not allowed. You get to choose everything else, but–”

His brain froze as he realized what he’d said. She’d been a top spinning out of control her whole life and the only thing she really had control of right now was eating. By forcing her, he was taking it away. But it was stupid, because she really did have to eat.

So he had to try another way. “Why don’t you want to eat?”

“Not hu-hungry,” she said through a voice muffled by her arms.

“That’s not it,” he said quietly. “You have to be hungry, that’s not something we control. Why won’t you let yourself eat?”

It was like when she’d been scratching herself the year before. She was trying to hurt herself, but he still didn’t understand why.

“Please go away,” Caroline begged pitifully.

“Why would I do that? I care about you,” he reminded her.

I care about you…

Did it feel like anyone cared about her? Did she feel loved? Did she feel like she was worth the effort?

Probably not.

Why was he putting in the effort? It wasn’t because she was pretty, because if he were honest, right now she looked like a scarecrow. He liked her, sure, but he’d liked other girls. What was it about her that drew him in so completely? Was he just trying to be a hero?

No. No, that much James knew, because he knew the feelings for her had started from the moment she’d arrived at the school. She’d been confident, smart, and brave then. She’d been under the Imperius Curse at that point, and not acting on the fact that she’d been abused. Then it had been her looks, and her smile, and her ability to do a flip. That had caught him. She’d nearly bested Fred in arm wrestling, and she’d probably have been able to take him.

Not now, though. Now she was a wreck of that former self and it was no wonder.

He wanted that other girl back. She might never come back, but something like her and he wanted her to be happy again. He wanted that very badly. His heart beat sped up as he watched her.

They’d been silent for so long, that he almost said something, but finally she said, “I’m never going to b-be anything b-but his used rag.”

There was such self-loathing in every syllable that uttered that James had to fight not flinch.

“You aren’t even that,” James told her. “He’s nothing. You’re everything, Caroline. If you starve yourself, you let him win.”

“The only thing I’m ever going to be is what he did to me!” Caroline said miserably, while pushing back her hair and dislodging the clip. It fell to the floor, and they both dropped their eyes to stare at it.

James reached out slowly for it, and picked it up. He scooted forward a bit, and then a bit more. She flinched a little as he lifted his hands and carefully pinned her hair back away from her face. He’d fixed Lily’s hair a time or two, but this didn’t feel the same. He forced himself not to think of her soft hair, and scooted back away from her.

The eyes that followed his were wide and unsure.

“You define who you are,” James told her. “I know it’s going to take you a long time to figure out who that is, but I know for sure that your father has nothing to do with it now. You are picking your own path and where you go. Everyone thinks you’re worthy, Caroline! Everyone is fighting to protect you, because you’re worth protecting.”

She rested her chin on her knees and pulled at one of the loops on her shoelace. “You’re missing dinner
with Christy,” she said finally.

James stared at her, stunned. She’d sounded just the littlest bit jealous. Which was… he knew he needed to swallow his pride one more time. “You know I only said that to get back at you. I was mad.”

Blue eyes flicked up to his, then back down to her shoes. “I didn’t know… not for sure.”

He let out a slow breath and thought of his grandparents. It was kind of a running joke that his grandfather had loved his grandmother for years and she’d never given him the time of day. His mum told him that the older James had been an arrogant jerk, and he’d needed to grow up.

James had played a stupid, childish game with Caroline by implying that he was interested in one of their classmates. She didn’t need that, and James needed to grow up.

He didn’t know if his heart would change in the next few years. Adults seemed to be forever telling him he was young, and things change, and what he was feeling at that moment would evolve. He really hoped it would, because this hurt a lot. It hurt to watch her hurt. It hurt to know that he was alone in what he felt. Even if, and it was a big if, Caroline returned some of his feelings, she wasn’t in any place to act upon it.

She couldn’t even work up the decision to feed herself.

So yeah, maybe he was still young, and maybe things would change, but right now this was where he wanted to be. He wanted to be sitting on the floor with her, waiting for her to see that she was worth it.

“I don’t like Christy,” James said simply. “I said it to make you jealous.”

She chewed at her bottom lip for a moment, but not like she used to. It was unmarked when she let it go to speak. Though her eyes were red from crying, the blue of them stood out even more beautifully. “I was jealous. That… that scares me.”

James’ heart turned over in his chest and he felt everything in his slide home, right into the place it should be. “I know,” he told her. “It scares me, too, a bit. But it doesn’t change anything right now. We’re friends, and that’s what we’re going to be.”

The unspoken for now hung between them.

He wasn’t stupid, though. He knew that it might never work out between them. She might not make the choice to get better, and if she didn’t, there wasn’t anything he could do to change that. He couldn’t force her to love herself, or take care of herself. He couldn’t be there all the time. He wanted to be. He’d thought about it, briefly, like what he’d do to keep her safe. He’d lain awake in the hospital wing mulling it over, but it had come to him that it wasn’t real that way. There were so many times his mum had begged him not to do things. She’d begged him to stop being a prat. She hadn’t called him a prat, exactly, but the message was there. He’d been spoiled. He’d been selfish.

His mum had stuck him to a chair at their kitchen table and left him there while she went to bed all because he’d wanted to read his grandmother’s letters. Then his dad had come home and Harry had freely offered James the first chance to look at Lily’s letters to Neville’s mum.

None of his mother’s nagging had changed him until he’d decided to change. He’d finally seen just how selfish he was, in the face of his dad’s love and generosity. He’d had to own, in himself, what kind of person he wanted to be.

The man I needed him to be.

That’s what Lily had said about James.

The man Caroline needed was one who thought she was worth his time and care, but more importantly, she had to feel like she was worth it, too. It didn’t matter if she never saw it that way. She had to see it for herself.

James couldn’t nag Caroline into loving herself.

“Your dad said I could start cheerleading again,” Caroline informed him. “I need to get back in shape to do that.”

He didn’t mention that eating was an important part of it.

“Would… would you like to go running with me in the morning?” she asked him hesitantly.

James couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread over his face. “Sure.”

She nodded and rubbed at her face. “I don’t want to face the crowds in the Great Hall right now. I nearly had a panic attack earlier, during the funeral.”

Okay… now that made sense. “We can go eat in the kitchens,” he told her. “Anytime you need to do that, just tell me, okay?”

Caroline let out one final, shuddering breath. “I’m going to try.”

James rose and held out a hand. “That’s good enough for me.”

She waited a beat, then put her hand in his so he could pull her to her feet. “Me, too.”

They walked side by side, not touching, down the kitchens to beg food from the elves.

~*~

“I am running so late!” Ginny told Harry as she dropped the bags from the market on the counter and started pulling out ingredients for dinner. It was already nearly December, which meant she should have been shopping for Christmas, but she’d let work pile up with one thing and another.

Harry abandoned the work he’d been doing at the kitchen table to help her with dinner. “It’s just Teddy and Victoire, you know.”

Ginny clucked her tongue at that. “Those two are poor as house-elves, and likely don’t eat well enough. I want them to have a really good meal.”

She tried not to be annoyed when his arms came around her waist to press a kiss to her neck. Her husband wanted to love her, show her he cared, but all she wanted was to get cooking.

“Why didn’t you let me do the shopping?”

“Like you aren’t busy, either,” she muttered and sighed, relaxing back into his solid warmth. She let him bear her weight for a minute before forcing herself to get to work. “I know you have been trying to track down what Crabbe sold at Borgin and Burkes.”

Harry stepped back and grabbed a bottle of wine and poured out two generous glasses for each of them. “I know what was sold there, I just have no idea how she came to possess a necklace that, as far as I can tell, was lost during the eighteenth century. I left strict instructions with the shop to let me know if anymore relicts from that particular collection come up for sale, but I doubt they’ll contact me.”

“Did you get a guard set up?” Ginny asked as she waved her wand and set the potatoes to peeling.

“I did, but odds are good anyone looking to sell will be able to tell that the place is being watched,” Harry sighed and held out Ginny’s glass until she took a drink. “Plus, they can simply move to having the sale happen somewhere else.”

Harry had told her a bit about the necklace that had been put up for sale. It was cursed, of course, or else it could have been sold anywhere for any price. It was also part of an old, ancient family that died out many, many years before when the last remaining family member had been eaten by a pet dragon. Ginny’s dry comment that Hagrid could have told him that a pet dragon was a bad idea, hadn’t even received more than the flicker of a smile from Harry.

They were all too stressed. Needing to change the subject, Ginny questioned, “Did you speak to Caroline and Honor’s grandparents?”

“I did this morning, actually,” Harry told her as he filched one of the carrots and took a noisy bite out of it. “It turns out that they need to travel to America to collect some things from Baker’s estate. They didn’t want to bring the girls, and have to go for three days. They were going to try to find someone to watch them, so I offered us up.”

Ginny paused in the act of setting the meat on the pan and turned to stare at him. “Pardon?”

“Well,” Harry added quickly, “Nat and her family will be at the beach house the whole time, so we don’t have the extra guest that we normally do. I thought you’d want this, plus we are a safe place for the girls.”

She thought about what it might be like having them overnight and realized that yes, this actually was a good idea. She would get a real chance to speak with Caroline this way and get her measure. “Okay. Well, we’ll need another bed in Lily’s room.”

“I’ve already taken care of that,” Harry promised. “It’s the first day back, by the way. Unfortunately, that’s when the lawyer for Baker could arrange things.”

“So there is an estate for the girls?”

Harry hesitated, then shook his head. “It’s not what you mean. The American wizarding government has seized everything that the gang hasn’t already liquidated. There is no money to speak of, nor property, just some pictures and legal documents that need to be signed. It normally takes longer to get things through the courts, but with Baker they wanted everything closed as quickly as possible. The girls’ grandfather told me he thought it would be good for them to have everything over and done with.”

She nodded and went back to cooking as her mind turned those things over and over. It was a lot to think about.

Teddy and Victoire arrived separately, both when they were done with their shifts. They were both too thin, both too worn around the edges. Ginny hugged them each tightly, and wished she could make things better. Teddy was still working as an Auror, and for George when he had time. Victoire’s schooling was picking up, and she needed to focus on finishing it.

This early life wasn’t nearly as difficult for she and Harry, because Harry had had money. It hadn’t been easy. They’d spent a long, long time grieving the loss of Hope, but there had never been a concern that there wouldn’t be food on the table, or money to pay the rent.

“Sit,” Ginny waved them over to the table while Harry poured out the wine. “Dinner just needs another few minutes. How have you two been?”

“Is there a word beyond exhausted?” Teddy wondered.

Harry snorted. “Yes, but it’s called ‘newborn’ and requires a very small dictator moving in with you.”

“Merlin,” Teddy shook his head and grinned at Victoire. “That would be all we need right now, eh?”

Victoire actually shuddered. “I think if we added one more thing to our lives, we’d blow up. I used to think I wanted a baby, but right now all I want to do is sleep in once a week.”

“It does get better,” Harry promised them as a timer dinged and he went to retrieve dinner. He waited until everyone was served to continue. “Being a newlywed is never easy.”

“I like being married,” Teddy said around a mouthful of food, and grinned at the quirked brow Ginny sent him. He swallowed before saying, “Sorry, Ginny. I’m starving. No, I mean the marriage part has been the easiest bit, but it’s being an adult that’s difficult. There’s work and bills, and responsibility.”

Harry snorted at that. “You don’t think marriage is a responsibility?”

“Well, it is,” Teddy replied sheepishly, “but not like the landlord. Victoire is more forgiving than he is.”

Ginny wanted to offer them money, again, but bit back the words. It wouldn’t do any good to offer, when she knew they were enjoying the experience of handling everything on their own.

She could respect that.

“But I like it,” Victoire told them, almost as though she’d read Ginny’s mind. “I like knowing that we can do this. We can survive on our own, despite the difficult challenges. I don’t want to say it isn’t tempting to cry out for help, but,” she looked over at Teddy and linked hands with him. He raised her hand to his lips and positively beamed at her. “It’s not going to be like this forever,” she said finally. “Right now it’s just the two of us, so screw ups and learning from those mistakes isn’t as big of a deal.”

Although she knew that her niece was right, it didn’t make it any easier, as a mother, to sit back and not try to help. Still, though, it was important to let them try.

“How is James doing?” Teddy asked as he cleared his first plateful of food.

“Fine,” Ginny said in not a little astonishment, while filling that plate back up again. “We had a letter from him, not even from Lily mind you, telling us about running with Caroline. I think he’s taken the whole thing in stride. You’ll get to meet her, by the way. She and her little sister are coming to stay for a few days while their grandparents go to America.”

Teddy raised his glass. “I never thought there would be a girl who would change him so completely, so quickly. I can’t wait to meet her.”

Ginny forced a smile and had to wonder if the whole thing wasn’t going to be a big mistake. But it was done, now. They would see, and very soon. Christmas was less than a month away.

***
Please go read the Author's Note.

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Chapter 31: Chapter 28

Author's Notes: Please don't shoot me! I know it's been forever and that I such and I'm really sorry. As a bonus, I have included an extra 3500 word chunk at the end that I wasn't going to post until next chapter.

My life is crazy right now.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Please check out my books on amazon. My penname is Sarah Jaune.


“She looks green,” Lily noted as she stood by her mother and Honor on the platform as light swirls of snow danced around them. It wasn’t snowing, exactly, more like a snow globe that was turned upside down, except nothing was sticking to the ground.

Honor nodded as she shifted from one foot to the other. “She’ll be okay, though. She just needs to get used to it.”

Lily privately doubted that Honor’s older sister would adjust to their short stay with the Potters. Honor’s grandparents had traveled to America to settle some things there, and Lily was excited to have one of her new best friends over for a few days. Unfortunately, Caroline looked like she might vomit. They weren’t close enough to hear as she and James hopped out of the carriage, but the look on her face said it all.

Unbelievably, James seemed to read Caroline’s discomfort and pulled her to the side to talk quietly to her. She nodded and some of her blonde hair slipped down out of her cap. Lily’s eyes went wide as she saw James tuck it back for her, then quickly drop his hand.

Her mother’s gasp told Lily that Ginny had seen it as well.

“They aren’t together,” Honor told Ginny shyly. “Caroline would have told me.”

Ginny made a non-committal noise and held out a hand for Caroline while she beamed at her. Only Lily saw the hesitation on her mum’s face. “Caroline, it’s good to see you again.”

“Thank you for having us,” Caroline said with what anyone could see was a forced smile.

“We’re just waiting on Al,” Lily told her. “Dad is getting Nat sorted out, and Al wanted to say goodbye. I was thinking we should do midnight hide and go seek tomorrow, Mum. Honor wants to try it.”

Her mother quirked an eyebrow. “Well, we’ll have to see. If the snow picks up, it won’t be a good night for it.”

Lily opened her mouth to say that she had heard the snow wasn’t going to continue, when she saw her mum’s eyes flick to Caroline. Understanding washed through her, and Lily hunched her shoulders. Just because Honor might like something, didn’t mean Caroline would. Everyone knew that Caroline was struggling with her father’s death and all that had gone along with it. Annoyed with herself for forgetting, Lily didn’t say anything again until they were all in the car heading for their home.

“We’ll be sharing a room,” Lily said, then felt like an idiot because both girls knew that already. It would be a tighter squeeze, but since Nat was going with her parents and a squad of Aurors to the beach house, it was still only the three of them in there. Lily didn’t know Caroline terribly well, but she suspected that she should probably try to get to know her better. James couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of her, but not in a weird, creepy way. He seemed genuinely concerned.

Al, who was the only one without a friend to bring home, vacillated between staring out the window, and staring at his feet. Lily like the word, which she’d just learned the week before. Vacillate… it seemed like most of her friends did that, on a daily basis, about everything. One minute it was fashionable to wear a feather in your hair, and the next they’d vacillated to it being horrible. One minute this boy was the cutest in the class, the next it was another. Nothing was ever stable and she wasn’t used to it. Lily had spent her whole childhood with Hugo, who was as sturdy and stable as one could hope for. Hugo didn’t vacillate about anything. He was simply Hugo.

“Wow!” Honor pressed up against the glass and stared at the house as they turned down the drive. “It’s beautiful, Lily!”

“I think so,” she agreed as she studied Ivy Run. The old, two story house, with the ivy that grew wild all around filled Lily with a sense of hope and joy every time she saw it. Here was home. Here was love. Here was– she blinked as the door opened and was immediately filled with a huge, brawny man with closely cropped red hair in jeans and an old, red shirt. “Uncle Charlie!” Lily practically squealed in excitement. The second the car stopped, she crawled over Al and James, ignoring their grunts and protests, and pushed out of the car to run for her uncle. She threw herself up into the air, knowing full well he would catch her.

He did, and the absolute joy of seeing her uncle flooded through Lily, overwhelming her completely. She burst into tears.

“Lily…” Uncle Charlie held on tighter as she wrapped her legs around his waist and let him hold her up, like he had when she was younger. He patted her back and kissed her temple. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

She sniffed and shook her head, unable to speak yet.

Lily felt another hand on her back, her father’s touch, one so familiar. “Lily-Lu?”

“Maybe it was the surprise of seeing me,” Charlie said hesitantly as Lily continued to cry.

It wasn’t that, though, but she couldn’t say what it was that left her raw and hurting inside, so she held tighter and her uncle didn’t let go.

~*~

Ginny watched Lily cling to Charlie and wondered if her daughter hadn’t gone mad. They’d meant to surprise the children with his visit, but now she wondered if she shouldn’t have told them he was coming to stay for a month. She wouldn’t tell them the whole reason, of course, not yet. Her brother’s face betrayed none of what he’d been through in the last two weeks, but Ginny could still see it in the tightness around his eyes.

“Charlie, this is Caroline and Honor,” she said by way of introduction.

Caroline looked ready to faint as she stared up at the huge man before her. “H-hello,” she stuttered.

“An American!” Charlie said with a smile that creased immediately into a frown as Caroline backed up into James and nearly tripped over him.

“Well,” Ginny cleared her throat. “Let’s go in and get some hot chocolate. It’s cold out here.”

She herded the kids into the house and went straight for the kitchen, only to find Polly the house-elf already busy at work with the preparations for dinner. “I is making hot chocolate madam,” she told Ginny in her squeaky voice.

“Thank you, Polly,” Ginny said in a grateful sigh. She had told the elf that, since Nat wasn’t coming, she didn’t need to either, but Polly had insisted. Another elf from Hogwarts was going to be staying at the house on the beach with Nat and her parents. Nat’s blood sugar was more stable, but if something happened she could need food immediately, or to be seen by a healer. A house-elf could Apparate with the girl, or bring help to her. At this point, Neville had assured Ginny in a letter the previous week, the house-elves at Hogwarts were used to Nat’s special needs and they had a plethora of volunteers for the Christmas hols.

She heard Harry helping the girls take their stuff upstairs and glanced over when she heard Charlie drop on the couch with Lily snuggled up to his side, her face pressed to his chest. A strange, creeping sensation tickled down Ginny’s spine as she watched them, but sure… no. There was no way that Lily could have sensed what Charlie was going through. No way at all… but…

“Mrs. Ginny?” Polly interrupted her thoughts. “Is everyone arriving at six?”

Forcing herself to focus, she turned back to Polly and the dinner preparations.

Dinner was an unmitigated disaster. Everyone started piling into the house and Caroline had a panic attack, to the point that Audrey gave her a calming draught to get her to stop hyperventilating.

Granted, it was a lot of people in the house.

Honor, on the other hand, was nervous, but excited to meet everyone.

Ginny felt terrible for Caroline. She’d known that it would be hard to have the large, family meal, but Nat had done it without any problems. They were simply two different children who had lived two different lives.

Caroline had been through unspeakable tragedy. The only bright spot was that Audrey was already on hand to help calm her down, and Caroline knew Audrey already through St. Mungo’s.

“Maybe we should call it early,” her mum said in a whisper to Ginny.

Ginny shook her head and sighed. “Audrey says she wanted to sleep, so we’ll let her sleep and be by herself.”

They ate, but Ginny couldn’t help noticing just how broody the whole thing left James.

By the time they’d finally cleaned up and cleared out, Ginny could only plop herself on the couch with a very large glass of wine, right next to Charlie, who was drinking a beer.

Harry, very tactfully, took himself off to bed.

“What was that about?” Charlie asked her curiously.

“That’s the girl,” Ginny told him. “James killed her father, right in front of her. That’s the one.”

Charlie let out a low whistle. They’d told the family the general story of what had happened, but not the specifics, just that he was a terrible man. “You know…” her brother said thoughtfully as he loosely held the neck of the beer bottle between two fingers, “it makes what I went through seem kind of petty.”

She held her breath and waited, hoping that maybe this time he’d talk about it. When Charlie had asked if he could stay with them, Ginny had known something was up. Often times, Charlie stayed with their parents, or with Bill, whom he was closest to, but when he stayed with them it always meant that he was hurting. The last time had been during Al’s first year at Hogwarts. He’d come for Christmas and said he’d wanted to surprise their parents, but had told Ginny later that he really just needed time to recharge. They’d lost his favorite dragon to scale rot and an infection that wouldn’t quit. It was such a tragedy, one that should have been preventable or treatable, and Charlie had taken it hard.

He took a long pull on his beer and set the empty bottle on the side table as he slouched in his seat. His large, scarred hands ran down his jeans, smoothing them out some. “Lily is like magic.”

Surprised, Ginny laughed softly. “Well, I’m a little biased, but I wouldn’t say that.”

He scratched at the side of his head and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “She’s like… she’s this little sprite of a thing, so tiny, and she loves with her whole being. Sometimes you just need that kind of magic.”

She reached out to him and laid a hand on his arm. “What happened?”

She knew the basics. One of his co-workers had died, but this seemed to be more.

Charlie’s jaw muscles worked, like he was chewing on his tongue. It took him a full two minutes to answer. “The woman who died was my girlfriend.”

Stunned, horrified, Ginny pushed up onto her knees and locked her arms around his neck. He gave her an awkward squeeze, but she knew he didn’t have it in him to reciprocate. “I’m so sorry!”

“It wasn’t a dragon or anything,” he told her in a tone so flat that it broke her heard. “She was murdered by this crazy local wizard who wanted her. She was… she was strong, and smart, and beautiful, and he wanted her. When she kept turning him down, and he kept coming, she filed a complaint. That’s when he killed her. He strangled her with his bare hands, then shot himself with a Muggle weapon of some kind.”

Ginny’s hands flew to her mouth. “Charlie…”

“I wasn’t with her that night,” Charlie went on and now his voice cracked. “I was seeing to a sick hatchling. If I’d been there–”

“You don’t know that,” she told him quietly. “You don’t know.”

He shot her a dry smile. “You’re the only one I could tell, you know. Well, probably George, but all the rest of them would have scolded me for sleeping with her when we weren’t married.”

“It’s not illegal there,” Ginny pointed out. She wasn’t shocked. She wasn’t even surprised. Except… “I thought you were gay.”

Charlie choked on his own spit. “Excuse me?”

“Well,” she hesitated. “When you didn’t bring anyone home, I thought that maybe you were gay and didn’t want to tell Mum.”

He glared at her for a moment before letting out a snort. “I’m not gay, Smidge,” he said simply, using her childhood nickname. “I just hadn’t found a girl who could keep my attention away from the dragons.”

Which was a statement all on its own. “But this woman did?”

He turned away again. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?” she prodded.

“I cared for her, of course,” he said as he pushed himself to standing and strode across the room to stare into the empty grate of the fireplace. “She was as mad for the dragons as I was, but mostly we were just lonely.”

Ginny didn’t need to give that much thought. She wouldn’t want to sleep alone every night. It didn’t sound like something many people would willingly choose. Not everyone needed to marry or find one person to spend their life with, and Charlie was that kind of man. But that shouldn’t mean a life alone if for short periods he wanted companionship. Unfortunately, they were so far behind the rest of the world here in England, that she couldn’t see a way around it. She opened her mouth to say something else, although for the life of her she couldn’t imagine what it would be when he stopped her cold.

“Tell me what’s up with that Caroline girl.”

She blew out a breath of pure frustration. “What she’s been through… no one should have to go through that. I can’t really tell you more than that, except to say that I’m glad her father is dead.”

Charlie was silent for a long time. “I think I can imagine what must have happened.”

“I’m not sure you can even do it justice,” she said honestly.

“James is half in love with her.”

It was the conclusion that Ginny had come to, as well, and one that left her extremely disconcerted. “I think it’s obvious for anyone who wants to see it, including Caroline.”

“I think,” he said as he cleared his throat, “the thing that surprised me the most is that it’s not the selfish kind of love I’d have expected from him. It’s not that love that isn’t really love, but is infatuation wrapped up in only wanting the other person to fulfil your needs.”

“You have such a lovely view of love, Charlie,” Ginny assured him dryly. “But I take your meaning.”

Her brother grinned at her. “He isn’t looking to get anything from her. If you’d told me he would be capable of that before he was forty, I’d have laughed at you. I thought he was going to be a berk for years yet.”

“Killing a man to save someone’s life does tend to change a person,” she remarked quietly.

His face fell instantly. “I’m sorry, Ginny. I didn’t mean anything by it. I love him, of course, but he was a pain in the arse most of the time.”

“He was,” she agreed with a sigh, knowing she couldn’t deny it if she wanted to. “I think she’s most of why he changed. He sees something in her that’s calling to him. But I don’t think it’s going to last.”

“No,” Charlie drawled out evenly. “It can’t last, not with how young they both are. He’s only fifteen, right?”

“Yeah,” Ginny said evenly. “At fifteen I knew Harry was the one. At sixteen I was pregnant and married. By seventeen I’d buried my first child.”

He swore under his breath. “Bloody hell, I always forget how young you were, but you’re right. That’s… that’s extremely off-putting, you know that right?”

“I do,” she confirmed easily. “We think of them as so young, and maybe they are in experience compared to what we went through, but James is less than two years from being a man. He’s already taken a life to protect another.”

“Does he know what he wants to do with himself?”

“Quidditch,” she said with a grin of pride. “That, at least, I know he can do well. I think he’d likely to be the only one. Al likes the game, but it’s not the life for him. I imagine he’ll follow Harry.”

“What about Lily?”

“I don’t know,” Ginny mused thoughtfully. “I’m not sure she’s yet found the thing she loves, but it’s still her first year. She, at least, has plenty of time.”

She went to bed that night with thoughts of James and that dream that wouldn’t stop haunting her. It wasn’t like she could predict that Caroline and James would be an item in a few years, but the prospect left her shaken and unable to sleep.

Harry rolled over and wrapped his arm around her waist. He nuzzled his nose into her neck. “It will be okay.”

Ginny really wished she could believe that.

The chaos the next morning was not from Caroline, but arrived in the form of Scorpius Malfoy through the Floo at seven o’clock in the morning. The boy tumbled out of the fireplace and Lily, who was sitting on the floor with her cat, yelped in alarm. Ginny sprang up from her seat at the table, spilling her first cup of tea all over, and then blew out a breath when she realized there was no threat. “Scorpius…” she scooted around the table to go to him. “What’s the–” her voice faltered at the flushed and angry face before her, with the eyes that were flooded with unshed tears.

“Are you okay?” Lily asked him quietly. When he didn’t answer, she scooped up Ducky, who meowed in protest and headed for the stairs. “I’ll wake Al.”

The second Lily was gone, Ginny reached out for him, but he backed away. “I need help.”

“Alright,” she said evenly.

“My aunt is in Ireland,” he explained. “I want to go stay with her for the rest of the hols.”

Ginny nodded slowly, taking it all in. “What happened?”

His mouth scrunched in fury, but he shook his head, refusing to answer.

“I can’t help you if you don’t give me something. Does your mum know where you are?”

He hesitated, then shook his head.

She let out a long sigh and felt the weight settle on her shoulders. “Let me send her a message, then.” She could tell the boy wanted to protest, but he didn’t as his shoulders sagged. “Go sit down,” Ginny instructed gently. “We’ll get you something to eat.”

She went to the kitchen and saw Polly already hard at work on breakfast. “Thank you,” Ginny told the house-elf. “I’ll be just a minute,” she told her as she grabbed a quill and a scroll.

Astoria, Scorpius turned up this morning and wants help getting to his aunt in Ireland. What would you like me to do? -Ginny

She sealed it up, and tied it onto the leg of Al’s owl. “Go on quick, now,” she told the owl gently. “I need an answer, so wait on her.”

The owl hooted, then took off out of the window that Ginny held open.

When she turned back, it was to find Al sitting across the table from his best mate, talking in a low murmur. Ginny wanted to leave it alone, or send Harry in to talk to the boy, but Harry was at work, and Scorpius had effectively run away from home. She plopped down into a seat next to Al. “Alright, I need you to spill.”

“Father and I had a row,” he told her slowly, deliberately forcing calm into his tone. She knew he wanted to scowl or yell, maybe both at the same time. “He lit into me last night about how my grades were slipping, and how I wasn’t living up to the Malfoy name, and how I was such a disappointment.”

Surprised, Ginny sat back and tried to process it. From what she’d heard from Harry, Draco had been working hard to improve his relationship with his son. This didn’t seem to fit into the narrative at all. An inkling of an idea tickled the back of her head, but she didn’t bother to explain it to Scorpius. He was too angry to process or care. “If your mum says it’s okay, we’ll get you to you aunt, but if she doesn’t, our hands are tied. It’s kidnapping to take you up there without their approval.”

His face fell and he dropped his head to the table. “I just want it all to stop.”

This time she did reach out and gripped his hand. “It will get better. One way or the other, it will get better.”

Unfortunately, better might mean when Scorpius moved out and cut off all ties with his family. She didn’t want to ever suggest it, though.

By the time Lily reappeared, she had Caroline and Honor with her, and all three girls were dressed in jeans and jumpers. She didn’t mention Scorpius’ upset, and they laughed and joked through breakfast like they were all back at school.

Ginny heard back from Scorpius’s mother around lunch. She took the note from the owl and walked over to the sink so that she could read without the kids seeing it.

Ginny, Thank you for taking him in. I have spoken with my sister and she is coming back to England immediately. She can meet Scorpius in Diagon Alley at seven o’clock tonight. I would come to get him, but I do not believe that would suit him. Is there any way you can get him there at that time? Let me know, and thank you again. -Astoria

Ginny jumped as she heard someone cough behind her. She spun to find Charlie holding out a hand for the note. Wordlessly, she handed it over.

“I have to go anyway,” he said after a quick scan. “I can take him.”

“Are you sure?”

Charlie nodded and glanced over his shoulder to where Al and Scorpius played chess at the kitchen table. “I feel for him.”

“Me, too.”

~*~

Scorpius walked silently with Al’s Uncle Charlie through the cold streets of Diagon Alley towards the joke shop. They hadn’t spoken much since they’d left the house, but Scorpius knew it was coming. He didn’t want to deal with it. He’d only just met this man, even though one could tell instantly that he was a Weasley. He was red-haired, freckled, and with the same general face, but with one distinction. Charlie was huge. He was brawny, muscled, and covered in scars all over his arms. He had the sort of air of a man who knew how to take care of things.

“Through this way,” he said as he pushed into the shop and nodded to George. “We’re a bit early, so we’ll wait in the back.”

“No problem,” George called with a wave. “Go on up to the office. I’ll send her up once she gets here.”

Silently, Scorpius followed Charlie through the back of the jokes, and crowds of kids shopping and looking through the merchandise. They wended their way through a storage room and to a flight of steps into what looked to have once been a flat, but was now a large, spacious office. Scorpius dropped down onto one of the sofas and tried to keep his eyes from meeting Charlie’s.

“What’s the point in sulking?”

Startled, Scorpius’ head shot up. “I’m not sulking!”

“World class sulk,” Charlie told him mildly. “Your father is a complicated man in a complicated position.”

“What do you know about it?” Scorpius fired as he jumped to his feet, furious. He strode to the bigger man, who didn’t rise from his own seat and jabbed a finger at him. “You don’t have to live with him!”

Charlie inclined his head slowly. “I don’t know him well, but I did get to know him right after the war. He was broken by what happened. He’d blindly followed a father who bullied him into behaving and thinking certain ways. I have to ask you, do you really think what your father does to you is any worse than what your grandfather did to Draco?”

That stopped him cold. Scorpius rocked back on his heels as he felt the world tilt a little. “No. But that doesn’t excuse–”

“There is no excuse for what he does,” Charlie agreed as he interrupted him. “But there are reasons. Sometimes we get into these patterns of thoughts and actions. We try to break free, but they’re really hard to break out of.”

Scorpius considered that, then slowly made his way back to his seat. “Do you do that?”

The older man chuckled softly to himself. “I’m not married because of it.”

“What… what do you mean?”

“I have this bad habit of losing myself in my work. I give all of my time and attention to it,” he explained to Scorpius. “I even neglect my family here. I’ve always been that way. I’d forget to do chores because I was interested in something else. I didn’t ever write home. I wasn’t great at school, but what I liked were magical creatures and Quidditch. Those two things had my full attention. I never even had a girlfriend at Hogwarts because by the time I thought about it, I’d already graduated.”

“Do you want to get married?” Scorpius asked hesitantly.

Charlie shook his head. “No, I’m happy where I am. My work is my real love, but I’m never going to get the chance to even come close because no one can stand being ignored for that long. Eventually, they all leave. That’s my bad cycle. I know it, but I don’t really want to change it.”

Scorpius had wondered why Charlie had been willing to bring him to meet his aunt, but he saw now that maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. Al only knew what it was like to have parents that loved him, so he didn’t really get it.

“I don’t think I’ve met your aunt,” Charlie told him. “I’ve never met your mum, either, come to that. They weren’t here during the war, right?”

“No,” he confirmed as he tapped his toe. “My grandfather took them to America to finish their education. They didn’t come back until after the trials were over.”

“I was already back in Romania by then,” he said evenly. “Your aunt was in Harry’s year?”

Scorpius nodded. “Mr. Potter says he didn’t know her very well. My aunt is the best,” he said and finally felt himself relax. “She stands up to my dad for me, and loves me, and doesn’t push me into things. I wish she was around more.”

Charlie didn’t say anything for a minute. “Does she travel a lot for work?”

“I don’t think she really works, actually,” Scorpius replied slowly. “She has money from my grandfather, which she invested, but I think she just likes to travel.” And suddenly he saw that maybe, just maybe, it was a bad cycle for his aunt, too. Admittedly, Scorpius didn’t know much about his aunt’s younger life or if she was running from something. “Lily says you’re her favorite uncle,” he blurted out. He was tired of talking about himself.

He looked flattered, maybe a little surprised. “Really? I thought that was George. I’ll have to rub that in his face.”

Scorpius grinned and opened his mouth to respond when a firm knock sounded on the frame of the open door and he turned to see his aunt standing there, grinning at him. Relief flooded him as he sprang up and rushed her for a huge hug. She made a crooning noise as she held onto him and swayed a bit. He was as tall as she was, now, or almost. It was close. She pulled back and cupped his cheeks so she could study him. Her blue eyes were warm but concerned and her golden blonde hair was pulled back in a loose knot at the base of her neck. Gently curling tendrils fell artistically to frame her face, which was a lot like her sister’s. High cheek bones, a straight small nose, and perfectly sculpted brows. Aunt Daphne always appeared put together. Her clothes, however, were another story. She was dressed in tight Muggle jeans, matched with a scarlet cable-knit jumper, and black boots that clung to her calves, ending just below the knee. “You look tired, baby. What happened?” she asked gently.

He shrugged and wished for the millionth time that he could live with Daphne permanently. “We had a fight. He threatened me and–”

“Wait!” Charlie exclaimed and Scorpius jumped. He’d almost forgotten the big man’s presence. “He did what?” he asked in a low, furious voice.

The teenager eyed him for a minute, trying to decide what would be the best course.

His aunt took over and held out her hand to Charlie, while keeping one arm around Scorpius’ shoulders. “You must be Charlie Weasley. I’ve heard a lot about you over the years. I’m Daphne Greengrass.”

He took her hand, which completely engulfed his aunt’s. “Yeah, nice to meet you. Listen, Scorpius, if–”

“Please don’t concern yourself,” Daphne told him simply. “My brother-in-law is a hotheaded arse of the first order, but I assure you it wasn’t physical violence. He’d threaten Scorpius with disinheritance. He does that a lot when he doesn’t know what else to do with him.”

Scorpius smiled like that was all that had happened, like he hadn’t seen his father’s hand twitch as though going for his wand.

Charlie didn’t buy it. “What happened?” he asked the teenager again.

His aunt gave him a searching look. Her expression faltered. “Scorpius?”

His first inclination was to lie to her, but he’d never, ever lied to her, but the truth wasn’t something he ever wanted to admit. “He didn’t touch me.”

That was the truth.

She took his chin and held on, narrowing her eyes. “You thought he might?”

Reluctantly, he nodded.

She swore under her breath and pulled him in for another hug. “What do you want to do?”

“I just want to make it through the hols and then go back to school,” he told her quietly.

Daphne closed her eyes, then rose up to press a kiss to his forehead. “Alright. We leave for Ireland in an hour.” He relished in the contact, which his mother never gave him, and his father would have disdained. It didn’t matter that Draco wasn’t Lucius. They were still Malfoys, and that meant there were certain rules.

“Can I do anything else?” Charlie asked them.

“Can you tell everyone I’m sorry for how I acted?” Scorpius asked him as he remembered his behavior that day, and how tense he’d made the whole house.

Charlie shook his head and clapped him on the shoulder. “You have nothing to apologize for. I hope to see you again sometime. It was nice to meet you, Daphne.”

“Same,” she said as he walked them back down through the shop and parted ways to go shopping.

“Let’s get something eat at The Leaky Cauldron, then we’ll get our Portkey,” she told him as she ushered him back down the alley. It wasn’t until they were seated that she spoke again. “The first place you thought to run was the Potter’s?”

Scorpius squirmed a bit as he stared blankly at the menu before him. “I figure… you know, Al’s dad is the one who can stop things. I didn’t know where you were at the time.”

“Oh, Scorpius…” she sighed sadly and reached out to take his hand, much as Mrs. Potter had done. “I haven’t done a good job of being there for you.”

“You have!” he protested, but stopped when she shook her head.

“Your father loves you,” she told him honestly. “But he is damaged and not facing things like he should. If he’d done therapy, none of this would have been a problem, but he’s too proud for that. My sister doesn’t have the spine to tell him to go. She could threaten to leave him if he doesn’t, but she won’t do it.”

Scorpius wasn’t really hungry anymore.

“They wanted me to marry him, you know,” Daphne snorted as she waved to the barman. “That would have been a disaster. I said no, of course. That didn’t go over well. They wanted a connection with the Malfoys.”

“You mean Grandfather?”

She gave him a tight smile. “He thought I should be grateful that he’d found me such a brilliant husband. In the end I threatened to tell the Malfoys what really happened during the war, and they backed down. Astoria was still the good little girl. She could have him for all I cared. I knew we wouldn’t suit, not like they suit either.” Daphne was rambling now, but Scorpius didn’t interrupt. “They kept saying how America ruined me, but what America taught me is that I could tell them to eff off and be happy with my life, and you my darling nephew, are going to need to do the same someday.”

“I’m going to try,” he promised as he felt his stomach settle down. “Maybe if I refuse to see him, he’ll get help.”

“It’s worth a shot,” she told him with a proud grin. “If not, he can eff off, yeah?”

Scorpius laughed. “Yeah.”

The trip to Ireland was a balm to his bruised heart, and his aunt promised to be there at the train station to get him for the summer hols as long as he could find some place to stay for Easter. That was solved when he was back on the train and Al assured him he would be welcome. “I have to clear it with my mum,” Scorpius said. “You do as well.”

“You know she’ll agree,” Al told him as he filched a carrot stick from Nat’s snack bag. He ignored her glare. “Anyway, Nat, how was the ocean?”

“Cold and wet,” she told him as she swatted his hand away from her grapes. “But I’m sure you could have guessed that. How did Caroline do?”

“About as well as you’d expect,” Rose sighed. She pushed her curly auburn hair back off her face and tied it up in a messy bun. “She was freaked for a bit, but Lily said she calmed down eventually. It’s not a surprise, though. We’re a lot to handle and Uncle Charlie was there.”

“I heard Uncle Charlie tell my dad that your aunt is gorgeous,” Al told Scorpius with a roll of his eyes.

Scorpius had to consider that one, and wave off the irritation. “I guess she is, but I’ve never known her to have a boyfriend or anything. She’s always been single.”

“Same for Uncle Charlie,” Al said, completely oblivious to the turmoil roiling inside Scorpius. “I doubt he’ll ever get married, but my dad was so funny. He said he hadn’t noticed! Your aunt was in school with him, but besides from this one girl, Cho something, he only had eyes for my mum.”

“It’s like my parents,” Rose agreed with a wry smile. “Except mine have had to go to therapy to try to pull themselves back together. They don’t think I know, but I can see them talking to each other like a therapist talks.”

“When were you in therapy?” Al wanted to know.

“I saw it on the Muggle tele,” she informed him with her nose up in the air. “At my grandparents while my parents went on what they said was a date, but really was therapy because they came back from it and weren’t speaking to each other.”

Nat shook her head. “It happens sometimes. I think if my parents lived together all the time, they’d need therapy. They seem to prefer only having short stretches.”

“Why are we talking about this?” Scorpius questioned.

“Your aunt,” Rose reminded him. “Or something else, I forget. But in any case, you’ll be welcome at Al’s over Easter. Aunt Ginny likes you.”

Scorpius nodded and slouched back in his seat. He really hoped that was true.

~*~

Harry stared at the stack of notes from the years of investigation into Crabbe and wanted to throw something. It had been months since James had killed Donald Baker, and since then Isabella Crabbe hadn’t made a single move. She hadn’t hinted at what she was doing, or what she was planning. They’d had a couple of years where they were able to find traces of her, but now as March was about to tick into April, Harry was realizing that it was Baker who was leaving all the crumbs for them to find. Baker had been sloppy and erratic. It was that man who had led to them knowing she was active in England.

It was maddening beyond anything. The only clue they had that she wasn’t dead was that they were finding traces of missing women from poorer parts of Europe. They were coming here as Muggles, and then they vanished. Harry still wasn’t sure why she targeted only women.

He hadn’t let up on the security around his children, and was thankful that they were back at school. Soon enough he would have them home for the Easter holidays, and that was a treat, but Hogwarts was truly the safest place for them.

Al was fourteen already, and Lily would turn twelve soon. Time kept flying by, but he was no closer to an answer than he had been a decade before. Ten years before he’d assumed that Crabbe was dead.

He looked up at the knock on his door. “Enter.”

Teddy came in holding out a piece of paper that he knew immediately had been sent over from the Muggle Cooperation Coordinator for the Aurors. “We have the Muggles searching for a woman. We think it might be connected.”

He studied the sheet and his heart sank. She was young, only just eighteen. He glanced up to see the bags under his godson’s eyes. “I can handle this. You get home and get some sleep.”

Teddy shook his head and took the sheet back from him. “I have it. I just keep hoping we find someone alive. I’ll get onto tracing her steps.”

He watched the younger man go and wished they could find something. Harry felt like he was losing his edge, and maybe the public was losing their trust in him, but there was nothing to find.

Crabbe was too good at hiding, and she’d had a lot of years to practice. It was going to take a miracle for them to find her before she hurt anyone else, and Harry simply didn’t see that happening.

~*~

If Teddy were going to rate his day on a scale of bad to dreadful it would fall somewhere along the line at horrendously unimaginable, he thought as he unlocked the door to his and Victoire’s tiny flat. He’d barely escaped the cool April rain throughout work that day, but that was the least of his problems. Surveillance had turned into an impromptu arrest which led to finding the remains of two women, their bodies badly decomposed and showing obvious signs of torture and abuse. It bore all the hallmarks of the Crabbe case, but with no evidence to link them. Frustration ran wild through the Aurors and it was only growing.

All he wanted was a meal, a shower and to try to forget the awful image that was now burned into his brain.

He pushed the door open slowly, dropped his keys on the side table and saw his wife sitting on the small, shabby couch watching him. Her beautiful face was ashen and she absently picking at her fingernails. Teddy frowned in concern. “What’s wrong?”

“I…” she said breathlessly and waited for him to hang up his cloak.

He strode over and took her hands, stopping the nervous movements. “What is it?”

Victoire closed her eyes and tears started to run down her cheeks. Panic flooded him. Had someone died? “I’m sorry,” she half sobbed.

“For what?” He asked, a little more harshly than he’d meant to. He softened his voice. “Victoire, what’s wrong? What happened?”

She pulled her hands from his and wiped at the tears, meeting his gaze with her red rimmed blue eyes. “I’m pregnant.”

The breath was forced from him as a kind of panicked stupidity flooded in. He couldn’t have heard her correctly. She’d taken the potion to prevent pregnancy for a year and that year wasn’t up until late July. Teddy watched her face and saw, but only dimly registered, the anguish, guilt and fear that played over her beautiful face. “What?”

“I’m pregnant,” Victoire repeated quietly. “I… I… w-we were learning how to induce ovulation last month and we practice on ourselves and I asked! I made sure that it wasn’t going to do anything to interfere with the birth control and Healer Sterling promised me it wouldn’t! I missed my period last week. I k-kept waiting for it to s-show up and then when I got home today I did the pregnancy spell and checked and… Teddy…” she cried, tears raining freely down her face. “I’m so s-sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen! I don’t know how it happened, b-but–”

Teddy’s heart just about broke in two from the misery that was radiating off her. He pulled her into his lap and crushed her in with a hug. “Stop. You have nothing to be sorry about. I… I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, but it’s a good thing.”

Words seemed to be beyond her now and she kept crying in his arms, sobs wracking her slender frame as he held her, soothing her. Oh sweet Merlin… she was having a baby. They were broke, living pay check to pay check in a tiny one bedroom flat. Victoire had at least another eighteen months of training to become a Healer that they’d already paid for with loans. She wasn’t going to be able to complete it now, at least not in that timeline.

“What are we going to do?” Victoire whispered into his shoulder, her delicate hands fisted in his shirt.

He ran his fingers into her long, blonde hair and kissed her temple and words that Harry had spoken to him years before came flooding back as if Harry were standing there saying them in his ear. There will be a time when she will be at her most vulnerable, and it’s on you to be the one protecting her, even from herself. It will be on you to shelter her and make sure she’s safe, that she feels safe. It hadn’t made much sense at the time, but now it rang true, crystal clear. He pulled back and cradled her face between his hands. He grinned and hoped that it didn’t show any of the fear or anxiety that was currently warring in his gut. “We’re going to have a baby.”

A tentative, hopeful smile formed on her lips. “Really? You’re not mad?”

He shook his head and kissed her gently. He loved her so much, had loved her for more years than he could count. “I’m not mad,” he promised. “I might still be a little stunned, but definitely not mad.”

Her lips trembled as she nodded. “I… I was so scared you’d be mad.”

“No,” he promised, pushing a lock of her golden hair away from her face. “Why would I be mad? We want kids.”

“Not right now,” she said quietly. “How are we going to do this?”

Teddy shook his head. “That’s on me to figure out.”

Victoire glared at him. “Why is it on you?”

Teddy truly smiled this time at her exasperation and annoyance. “Because it is; you have other things to worry about.”

She looked for a moment like she wanted to argue, but instead she put her head on his shoulder and sighed. Teddy maneuvered them so that they were lying on the couch with her body half on his. “I’m scared,” she admitted as she traced her fingers over his chest.

“Why?” Teddy asked, although he could name at least a dozen reasons why he was scared. He ran his hand up and down the smooth skin of her arm, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that in nine months he was going to be someone’s dad.

The words flooded out of her. “My parents are going to be so disappointed in me that I won’t get to finish my training and… and… we waited all those years not having sex so that we wouldn’t have a baby too soon and now…”

“No,” Teddy interrupted her. “Your parents are going to be thrilled to be grandparents and they will understand. You can still finish training if you want, just… you know… maybe on a different time table.”

“But–”

He kissed her temple and shook his head. “No buts. We waited to get married so we’d be ready. I knew when I said ‘I do’ that I was saying that if we had a child, I was ready or at least I could get ready. We can do this.”

Victoire was silent for a long time. “I’m going to be a mum.”

He was going to be a dad. “You’re going to be a great mum,” he promised. “Are you hungry?”

She shook her head. “I tried to eat something. I was feeling sick and I ate to try to settle my nerves. I threw it up.”

Remorse filled him. “I wish you hadn’t been so scared to tell me.” Teddy pulled her in closer and held on. “I’m sorry I made you feel like that.”

Another quiet sob left her. “It… it isn’t you, I just… everything is really overwhelming r-right now and…”

Teddy needed to see her face, needed to see her eyes. He gently extracted himself from under her and knelt next to her on the couch. He kissed her, wanting her to feel his reassurance. “I love you. No matter what I’m always going to love you and we can do this.”

Victoire nodded. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t stop crying.”

Something Harry had told Ginny once when she was pregnant with Lily popped into his head and he had to bite back a laugh. Remember… your brain has been hijacked by the baby. Ginny had nearly chucked a spoon at him for saying it. Teddy ran his fingers over her brow, marveling at just how beautiful she was. He grinned. “I think you probably do know what’s wrong with you. You’re right in the middle of your midwifery rotation.”

“Hormones…” Victoire answered slowly. “I can’t seem to stop myself or control it… or anything.”

“It’s okay,” Teddy promised and kissed her forehead. He saw her look down and she touched her stomach. Their baby was growing in there. It was such a huge thing and yet the baby was tiny at this point. He didn’t know how small, but figured it couldn’t be much bigger than a grain of rice. He rested his hand on top of hers and felt overwhelmed by the fear, love, joy and terror that swamped him all at once. He didn’t know how they were going to do this, but he’d figure it out because he wouldn’t let her down.

Working on impulse and needing to reassure her, he moved her shirt up a bit and kissed her flat belly. He closed his eyes as it hit him straight in the gut that his child was in there; his child who wasn’t going to grow up an orphan. His baby was going to have his dad there every night. A single tear fell down onto her exposed stomach and she ran a hand into his short locks. “Teddy…”

“I’m going to be a dad,” he whispered and looked up at her with his heart in his eyes. “Thank you,” he croaked out. It didn’t matter that he’d just turned twenty-two and that she wasn’t yet twenty. It didn’t matter that it was going to be hard and stressful and that he had no way of supporting them. Right now it only mattered that they were becoming a family, that she was there loving him and giving this to him. The rest could wait.

Victoire went to bed less than an hour later and Teddy stewed over his dinner as his stomach knotted up more and more. He didn’t want to eat anything and didn’t want to sit here with all the thoughts racing through him. Closing his eyes, he pulled out his wand and sent a Patronus to his godfather asking him to come. Teddy knew he would unless Harry absolutely couldn’t. He stood to cast a Muffliato Charm on their bedroom door so that his wife wouldn’t hear anything and he waited.

~*~

Harry and Ginny were nearly done with supper when Teddy’s wolf Patronus burst into the house.

“Harry,” the wolf said in Teddy’s voice. “I need to talk to you. Come to the flat but be quiet, Victoire is asleep.”

Harry looked at Ginny curiously. “I wonder what that’s all about.”

“Our son needs you,” Ginny told him looking speculative. “Sometimes you just need your dad to talk to, right?”

Harry eyed her suspiciously. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“No,” Ginny said honestly. “I may have a guess. Go before he starts to worry.”

Harry rose and kissed her. “I’ll be back when I can.”

Harry Apparated to a small alley not far from their flat and walked quickly to the building where they lived, and up to the flat. He knocked briefly and the door was flung open. He took in his godson’s white face and entered, closing the door. “What’s the matter?”

“Victoire is pregnant,” Teddy said without preamble.

And just like that, Harry thought, I’m a grandfather. Harry felt his face split into a mile wide grin as he pulled Teddy into his arms. “Congratulations!”

Teddy hugged him back and held on. Harry could feel Teddy shaking and before he could fall over, he guided the young man to sit on his couch. He sat as well, studying his face. “We didn’t plan this,” Teddy admitted. “I don’t know what to do!”

Harry nodded, understanding completely. “Panic is normal. Do you feel like your guts are filled with rocks?”

He nodded and looked so young to Harry. “How did you do this at seventeen?! How did you stop yourself from screaming and running from the room?”

“Did you scream and run from the room when she told you?” Harry asked hesitantly.

“No!” Teddy blurted out, sounding slightly hysterical. “No, I kept it together, reassured her and kept calm, but Merlin, it took all I had to do that and I have no idea how we’re going to make this work.”

Harry put his hands on his shoulders and shook him slightly. “You’re amazing with kids, Teddy. You always have been. You and Victoire are going to be great parents.”

“We’re barely making it,” Teddy said, closing his eyes. “She’s not going to be able to finish her training and we’re dead broke from her tuition.”

“You’re going to get a pay rise when you renew your contract this summer,” Harry reminded him gently even though he knew that wasn’t going to help overly much. He’d wished, yet again, that they’d let him help. He’d been arguing with Teddy for months to let them pay for Victoire’s schooling or let Bill and Fleur help, but they’d been stubbornly refusing, insisting on doing it themselves. While he’d admired it, he’d also known it was possibly going to cause them problems.

“How did you do this?” Teddy asked him again, his lost eyes meeting Harry’s.

“I had the family helping us,” Harry reminded him. “I’d also inherited a lot of money so funds were never a problem. The whole family pitched in through the good and the bad.”

He seemed to consider this. “But…”

“This isn’t a bad thing,” Harry reassured him feeling again a swell of joy at the thought of a new baby. “You’re young, but you’re adults and you’re married and you love each other. You have a lot of family around to help. If you’d stop being stubborn I could give you the money I set aside for you years ago.”

Teddy shook his head. “No. I need to do this myself.”

“No,” Harry rebutted. “You don’t. The money would have been yours when you got married if you’d just taken it. Besides, in our will you get a quarter of everything we have.”

Teddy just stared at him like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What?”

Harry pulled him into his arms again, remembering when he had been small enough to carry around. Now he was a man, taller than Harry, and he was going to be a father. He was going to know what it was to love a child more than he could have ever imagined loving anyone. “You are mine. You’re also your parents’ child, but you’re mine, too. From the moment they died that was it for me. You have been more than my godson your whole life and you know that. You know Ginny and I love you and consider you one of ours. If your grandmother hadn’t been there, Ginny and I would have raised you. You four get an even split of everything.” he said, referring also to James, Al and Lily.

“Harry,” Teddy said breaking away. “I can’t…”

“Why not?” Harry asked him, staring him down. “I didn’t earn that money, kid. It was given to me. Why can’t you take it? Did it make me less for having been given it?”

“No, but…” Teddy looked again.

Harry stood and walked over to look out the small window onto the busy street below. When he turned back it was with a lump in his throat. “I am so proud of you. You are an amazing man; you’ve turned into the kind of man that I admire and respect. Your parents would be so pleased with you. You’re a great husband, and you’re going to be a great dad. Sometimes things happen in life that we didn’t plan for and it’s okay to say that you need help. That doesn’t make you any less.”

“I… that… it should go to them, not me,” Teddy faltered looking so uncertain.

Harry strode over again and sat, meeting his gaze. “Look me in the eye and tell me that you aren’t my son; that you haven’t looked at me as your father all these years. This isn’t about blood.” Teddy closed his eyes and a sob shook his shoulders. Harry hugged him again. “I love you, and I’m so proud of you, but this stubbornness has got to stop. You’re giving me my first grandchild! Let me help make that a little easier.”

“I’ll pay you back,” Teddy croaked out finally.

“Not even going to consider that,” Harry grinned as they pulled apart. “I don’t need money. I need you to be happy and for this baby to be a really good thing, not something to worry over.”

Teddy nodded slowly. “Okay. Okay, we’ll take the money. I…” he looked around the flat. “I couldn’t figure out how we were going pay rent, student loads, and buy food without Victoire’s stipend from working in the clinic. I was thinking I’d get a third job again, but my hours now are so erratic and–”

“Ah, well,” Harry interrupted knowing how this was going to come out. “I have about a hundred thousand galleons put away for you so you should be covered.”

Teddy’s mouth fell open.

When Harry finally made it back home he found Ginny in bed reading. She set the book aside and looked at him expectantly. Harry’s burst out in a joyful laugh as he came over to crush her into his arms. He kissed her soundly before telling her. “We’re going to be grandparents.”

Ginny hugged him hard, practically squealing with excitement. “I was hoping that’s what he wanted to talk about! Oh, Harry!” They kissed, holding each other’s faces as they expressed silently all the things they didn’t need to speak out loud. “Did you get him to take the money?”

“Yeah,” Harry promised. “I’ll transfer it all over tomorrow.”

“Good!” Ginny said firmly. “Damn stubborn kids are giving me gray hairs.”

Harry buried his face in her neck, grinning. “Not yet for you, but they’re definitely giving them to me.”

She ran her hand through his hair which was graying around the edges. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he promised as he looked into her beautiful, brown eyes. “We have an amazing bunch of kids.”

“That we do,” she said immodestly. “I wonder how Victoire is going to react to him taking the money.”

“Teddy mentioned that, and I told him what I’d have said to you,” Harry explained and she quirked an eyebrow. “Life threw them a big surprise and now that it’s three of them, they need help and…” he broke off.

“What?” Ginny prodded him.

He swallowed hard, fighting back the tide of emotions. “I reminded him that he’s our child and we’re happy about this and the money is going to be his one day after we’re dead whether he likes it or not. If he was looking at his kid in the same position, what would he do?”

“You’re a good dad,” Ginny whispered. “You really are just amazing.”

Harry held her, too choked up to speak.

~*~
Please check out my books on amazon -Sarah Jaune

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Chapter 32: Chapter 29

Author's Notes: I'm back and watch me disappear again. I'm sorry about that. Long chapters, three jobs, three kids, homeschooling, and it all just goes away.

Please, please check out my original novels on amazon! PLEASE! Search for Sarah Jaune or go to my profile here and you can find a link to them.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!


Healer Martha Sterling was one of the oldest and most respected Healers in St. Mungo’s. She specialized in midwifery and had, Teddy knew, delivered both Harry and Ginny. Of anyone Teddy would trust, it would be the ironed-haired woman in front of him. She was as sturdy as Teddy remembered and still sported spectacles like she’d worn when Lily had been born. She was one of Victoire’s instructors, now, no longer delivering babies and it was to her that Teddy and Victoire had run to the day after they’d learned she was pregnant. The only thing they’d done before the appointment was to stop in at Shell Cottage to tell Bill and Fleur the good news. Fleur had cried and spoken in rapid French with Victoire, while they hugged each other. Bill had been too choked up to speak. He’d just clapped Teddy on the shoulder and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t know what happened,” Healer Sterling said after an initial exam to verify that Victoire and the baby were doing well.

Nothing had prepared Teddy for seeing the glowing light above Victoire’s smooth belly. The light was their baby and it pulsed and shone, transfixing him so entirely that when Martha had removed the spell, he’d wanted to shout for her to bring it back. It was only then that he’d realized he’d been squeezing Victoire’s hand tightly and that they both had tears in their eyes. No matter what happened, they were both committed to their child.

“If I had to guess,” Healer Sterling said, “I would say that it has to do with being part Veela. We’ve never had a Veela train to become a Healer, so we’ve never had one try to perform the charm to induce ovulation. As a rule, the Veela are a very fertile lot so it’s never been tried, that I know of.”

Victoire let out a long sigh. “I was afraid you were going to say that. So the theory is that the charm undid the birth control potion?”

“That’s my best guess,” Martha agreed with an apologetic shrug. “I have sent a letter to a couple of hospitals in Europe, where Veela populations are larger, to see if anyone knows, but this is possible a unique case. I am planning to write a paper about it in hopes that further research might be done.”

“Is this going to hurt them?” Teddy wanted to know. That was his primary concern.

She shook her head. “As far as I know, it didn’t do anything to them.”

“I know Ginny had–” Teddy began, but stopped at raised hand.

“Ginny’s situation was entirely different. While inducing ovulation is usually difficult for the mother, we had a unique situation. Ginny had just been through a war. She was nearly killed in an attack. She was also poisoned. All of those things led to Hope’s death. I checked Victoire over thoroughly and she’s not suffering from anything but mild morning sickness, which is absolutely normal and expected. As I said, the Veela tend to be a fertile lot. Victoire’s mother fell pregnant the first month that they tried, each time. It’s my professional opinion that her body simply wanted this and made it happen. Magic sometimes works that way.”

They asked about a hundred more questions about the pregnancy, and Victoire’s continued study, before they headed out to meet Harry at Gringotts.

“I still can’t believe you took the money,” Victoire said on a long sigh. “Well, actually I can. I can’t pretend I’m not breathing a sigh of relief that we aren’t going to go hungry.”

“We’d never have gone hungry,” Teddy promised her, a little hurt that she thought he’d let them starve. “I would have seen to that, but we might have had to stay in that flat, and that’s just not enough room for three people.”

“We could have made it work,” she said as they walked up the steps to the bank. “We could have always made it work, but I’m glad we don’t have to.”

Teddy was more than a little thankful that Harry had thought to put aside money for him. It made him feel loved, humbled, and a little annoyed all at once. He really had wanted to do everything on his own and it was just the littlest bit galling that he hadn’t been able to carry out their plans, but a baby changed everything. The birth control potion was free to any married woman in Britain. Teddy had reasonably expected that they would have been able to prevent a pregnancy until the very moment that they were ready. Victoire’s unexpected fertility was a shock in more ways than one. Harry’s words kept running in a loop through his head.

“I don’t need money. I need you to be happy and for this baby to be a really good thing, not something to worry over.”

In his deepest heart, Teddy knew his godfather was right. If he didn’t take the money, the baby would be loved, but also a major source of stress. That wasn’t what Teddy wanted for his child. He wanted the baby to be a really good thing. And it was. He was already deliriously happy and scared out of his mind.

“There you are.”

Teddy almost tripped as his head jerked up to see Harry and Bill waiting for them. Both men were beaming at them, and Teddy had the wildly inappropriate thought that this was odd that their fathers were pleased they’d shagged.

Victoire walked over to hug her father again, and he led them into his office while Teddy and Harry trailed behind.

“How did it go?” Harry asked them the moment the door was closed.

“She thinks it’s because I’m part-Veela,” Victoire told them as she took the seat her father held out for her.

“Your mum mentioned that after you left this morning,” Bill said without surprise. “She thought that might be the reason.”

“It’s a best guess, anyway,” Teddy said as he went to stand behind his wife, rubbing absently at her shoulders.

Harry let out a small sigh. “I won’t pretend I wasn’t a little concerned that something else might be going on, especially with all that’s happened, but Victoire hasn’t been snatched so it was just a small, niggling doubt. Anyway, we should get the forms signed that need to be.”

“At which point, you’re going to look for a house, right?” Bill asked the younger couple pointedly. “I have taken the liberty of compiling a folder on available properties.”

Victoire fluttered her hand. “Come on, Dad, we’re not going to die where we are. I want to take a breath and get used to everything.”

“And I want you under tighter security with protected transportation,” Bill said pointedly. He flicked a glance to Teddy. “You’re married to an Auror. That carries with it a certain risk and now that you’re pregnant, my concerns have doubled.”

She sighed and glanced up at Teddy, who shrugged. “I’d be happy to move tomorrow, honestly. I don’t love that flat.”

Her big, blue eyes filled with tears. “But it’s our first home!”

Teddy swore under his breath and knelt to cup her cheeks. “The next home will be special, too, and we can actually decorate a nursery. Won’t that be something to look forward to?”

“You’re patronizing me,” she said as she narrowed her eyes.

“A little,” he agreed with a grin and kissed her lips quickly. “But the flat has mice in the walls and cupboards, so I’m ready to move.”

~*~

“I am too stupid for Hogwarts,” Rose said frantically as she flipped quickly through her Transfiguration textbook and pulled manically at her hair. The common room around them buzzed with tension, nerves, and the quiet desperation of students about to wage war with their exams. No one was messing about, now. “Why didn’t I start studying weeks ago?”

“I think it was Quidditch,” Nat pointed out reasonably as she tried to concentrate around her friend’s panic attack. Rose had been on the point of fainting for days, now. “You wanted to win the cup, which you did, so now you can focus on school. You’ll be fine, though. You’re best in our year.”

“Hey,” Scorpius protested mildly, not even bothering to look up from the notes he was rereading.

Nat inclined her head. “You’re right. It will be down to you two, except in History of Magic. I expect to take top marks in that.” It wasn’t pride or conceit, either. It was simple, logical deduction. Natalie was the only person who had remained attentive and awake through every single one of Professor Binns’ inanely boring lectures.

Al sighed and dropped his head to the table with a loud thunk, and jumped up again at the manic squeal of delight and piercingly shredded the sanity of the common room. Nat’s heart thumped hard in her chest as she turned to see Lily waving a letter over her head.

“What on earth is the matter with you?” Al hissed out as he rubbed at the knee he’d plowed into the table when he’d sprung from his seat.

“LOOK!” she said in a voice that was half a scream, half a hysterical giggle. “LOOK!”

Lily shoved the parchment into Al’s hands and started dancing around in a circle.

“What’s going on?” James demanded as he came over from where he’d been studying. Nat knew it was bad when even James was taking his exams seriously, although if she had to guess, she’d have laid money on the fact that Caroline was sitting with him as his primary motivating factor.

Al gasped and Nat glanced up sharply to see his face go from pale to scarlet in a matter of seconds. James nicked the page from his brother and read it quickly. He let out a low whistle.

“I’m going to be an aunt!” Lily crowed in happiness, as she took the letter back from her brother.

“Well…” James began, but shut up when Lily grabbed his hand and began twirling him about. “Hey, now!”

Nat finally put two and two together. Since it was unlikely that Lily meant either James or Al was currently reproducing, that left only Teddy and Victoire. That was good news, of a sorts. The problem was that, as far as Nat knew, they were poor as the proverbial church mice. “Well, good for them.”

“Uh,” Rose said as though coming out of a fog. “What is she talking about?”

“Teddy and Victoire,” Nat replied.

Rose’s eyes went from clouded, to confused, to completely elated in the matter of three seconds. “Really?” She sprung up at once and grabbed the paper from Lily’s hand to scan for herself while James tried manfully to extract himself from his baby sister’s still-dancing clutches.

Chaos ensued, but Nat only had eyes for Al, who couldn’t seem to move, or meet anyone else’s gaze. She grinned, but tried not to show her amusement at his obvious embarrassment. Quietly, she stood and took his arm to lead him off towards a quiet corner. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled while he shuffled his feet and still refused to look at her.

Nat’s brow rose as she stared up at him and tried to catch his eye. “It’s just sex.”

Al let out a half-strangled grunt and shook his head.

“They are married…” she reminded him. “You didn’t think they were sleeping in separate rooms, right?”

“Leah!” he practically growled out her middle name, the one he only used when they were alone. “Merlin’s beard!”

Nat felt her grin slowly fade. “You’re really embarrassed by this?”

“I just… I…” he faltered and ran his hands through his hair, standing it even more untidily upon his head. “I read that she’s pregnant and the image of them actually, you know…”

“And it wigged you out?” Nat nodded in understanding, then laughed at his blank look. “It’s Muggle slang, all. It means you freaked out.”

Al nodded miserably. “I do not ever want to picture that again, is all.”

She nodded in understanding. “That’s reasonable.”

He glared at her for a moment and shrugged it off. Or tried to, anyway. Nat could see it was still bothering him. In some ways, Al was adorably clueless about a lot of the things that went on around him. Rose had had her period for a while, a fact that Scorpius knew about and accepted. If she was feeling terrible, she would tell Nat and Scorpius why, but hadn’t ever said anything around Al. She sensed, probably in the same way that Nat did, that he wasn’t quite ready to hear that.

Nat had intentions of breaking him of it, but not right before exams.

“A baby is a great thing,” she reminded him. “Think how happy your parents will be.”

Al’s shoulders slumped and he let out a long, painful sigh. “You’re right. I’m being stupid.”

“A bit,” she agreed jovially. “Let’s go save James from Lily and get back to studying.”

As they made their way back to the table, it hit Nat for the first time that she was fourteen, now. She was three years away from being an adult and in this world, she had no idea what she was going to do with herself once she hit that mark.

In three years, she would be an adult… legally. She shivered a bit and decided to give her studies just a bit more of an effort. She might only be finishing her third year at Hogwarts, and there was still plenty of time left, but that didn’t mean she should slack off. She’d never be as good as Rose at school, but somewhere in the mess she’d have to figure out who it was she wanted to be when she was grown up.

Victoire’s face popped into her mind, and instantly the face of a baby, a perfect blend of Teddy and Victoire appeared to Nat. She had a gift for faces, one she didn’t use often now, except if Al’s father really needed help in an unsolved case. But it was still there, sharp as ever. It had grown, in some ways, like her ability to spot magical signatures. That could be a useful, marketable, skill.

She shot a glance longingly at the letter and felt her heart fall into her stomach. Nat forced her face to remain neutral as she sat back down to her studies. It was important that she be able to earn a living for herself. After all, Victoire was studying to be a Healer. She could get by on her own. In the world they lived in, it was actually close to a necessity for a couple to have two working parents in order for the family to get by comfortably. Inflation hadn’t bypassed the magical world, oddly enough, because they had to deal with Muggles on a regular basis. If one wanted to buy a house, it meant going into the Muggle world. Many of the current homes were passed on in the family, so they didn’t come up for sale often. The exchange rate into the Muggle pound hadn’t kept up with the trends of the slowly devaluing currency.

All of which were things Nat’s mother talked about at length and were things Nat would cheerfully like to forget. Her home life, such as it was, had been traveling from one spot to another, never stable, with one parent. Her mum had come and gone. Her nanny had left for another job. She’d never had a place that felt like home. She’d never had the boring stability that was so wonderfully, beautifully Al’s home.

That, if she was honest, was what Nat wanted to do with herself. She wanted a home. She wanted a family. She wanted to stay in one place and cook amazing food. Maybe she’d work, like Mrs. Potter had, after her kids left for Hogwarts. Or maybe she wouldn’t, like Gran Weasley. But that’s what sounded like the most perfect thing ever to her vagabond, weary soul.

What Nat feared most, as she settled down to flip back a page and reread what she’d just read, was that it was a pipe dream, one that was insubstantial smoke and could never materialize into reality. With a small sigh, she went back to studying.

~*~

It was, without a doubt, the most uncomfortable silence of the previous hour, and that was saying something. Hermione stared pointedly ahead of her at the picture on the wall and refused to answer the question. She crossed her arms and had one leg over the other, tapping furiously to an internal rhythm that might drown out the hideous conversation.

“Hermione,” the therapist intoned. She was young, pretty, blonde, and wickedly smart. Hermione had chosen her for her intelligence, and hadn’t counted on how uncomfortable her obvious good looks would leave her when Ron was in the room.

She shook her head and felt a single pin start to slide lose. Hermione didn’t want to fix it, as that would mean uncrossing her arms.

Then a large, warm hand settled on her knee and she nearly jumped at the contact. She flicked a glance to Ron’s steady, blue eyes, and turned away again.

“Please,” he said in a gruff voice. “Just answer.”

Hermione had explained it to her therapist, and then realized with a shock that she didn’t know how to articulate it to her husband. Her therapist, the lovely Rebecca Hargrove with the big blue eyes and dimples to go along with her perfect, toned body, hadn’t been willing to just explain it to Ron for her. Even though the logical, rational side of Hermione’s brain told her that she needed to learn better communication with her husband, it didn’t mean she wanted to do it here. Now. With her.

“Hermione,” Rebecca said quietly. “It’s harder in your imagination than it will be in real life. Ron loves you. He’s been there for you, through terrible things, for most of your life. I want you to stretch yourself and trust that he will be there to catch you.”

Hermione didn’t roll her eyes, but only just. Annoyed, now, mostly with her therapist, or so she told herself, Hermione turned in her seat and glared at Ron as she said, “I feel like when we’re having sex you’re picturing someone else.” There, she’d said it. That wasn’t so bad.

Ron’s mouth fell open. “What?”

“What Hermione means is–” Rebecca shut up at the look Hermione shot her.

“I meant what I said,” Hermione told him coldly. “We haven’t really fixed anything. In the last year, the few times we’ve had sex, it’s like you aren’t even present. You’re going through the motions, pretending like you care, while really it’s likely you’re picturing yourself with someone else.”

The only thing that gave Hermione hope was that Ron appeared stunned. Maybe…

But then he ruined it, in the way that only Ron could. His face and his ears went red, which meant that he was about to lie to her, and yelled, “You’re off your rocker!”

It stilled something in Hermione, and left her insides hollow and aching. “See?” she said quietly. “You don’t want me anymore, and you’re barely able to hide it.”

It hurt so badly, that Hermione could have curled into a ball and cried for days.

“I don’t…” Ron stuttered, then shut up. He looked at the therapist nervously, then back to her.

“If what she is saying is true, Ron,” Rebecca interjected quietly, “then I need for you to be honest with her. If we have to start from the beginning again, to rebuild the relationship, that can only be done with total honesty.”

Ron shook his head and she saw the gray streaks that indicated he was getting distinguished, while she was simply lined, sagging, and aging. “It’s not like that.”

“What is it like, then?” Hermione found herself asking and wished she’d kept her mouth shut. But the hurt was rapidly spinning back up into the wilder, easier anger and venom that didn’t feel quite as acutely as the hurt. “What’s her name, Ron? Who is she? How old is she? I bet she doesn’t have stretch marks.”

Real anger blazed into Ron’s eyes. “I think of you!”

“You do not!” she shot back childishly.

“I do!” he argued instantly, and then deflated. “I think back on you, when you really loved me, not when you put up with me because we’re married and stuck in this situation.” Ron’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “That you also had stretch marks, or was really pregnant. God, you were so wonderful when you were pregnant with Rose! You loved me, you needed me, you wanted me! I want to go back to that. I want that wife back.”

A stunned silence permeated the air between them.

“All I want,” Ron went on in a voice that bespoke of years of fighting what they both felt was a losing battle, “is to have the Hermione who smiled when I came into the room. I don’t need you to look different,” he told her honestly. She could see the honesty written plainly all over him. “I am getting older, and so are you. That’s how it’s supposed to be, and I want you just the way you are, but that’s just physical. What I miss, what I want…”

But suddenly she knew. “You want me to love you.”

His chin went up a bit, but then he shrugged. “Yeah, that’s it. I know when we’re a hundred, I’ll still want you physically, but it doesn’t mean much when you’re only just putting up with me.”

Hermione felt the first trickle of shame snake through her defenses, followed closely by the first tears of grief. She’d never had therapy after the war. She’d stood strong for her friends. She’d ignored all of the horror and trauma they’d faced. As far of becoming an Auror, which had been Ron’s first job, they’d had to go through all of the pain and suffering. If an Auror left those things unsaid, it meant that they could easily be weapons used against them. At the time, Hermione hadn’t given it a second thought.

She’d gone back to Hogwarts to finish her education by herself. She was a modern woman, with a brilliant mind. Hermione had walked into the horror that was the school to find ghosts of people who shouldn’t have ever died. They weren’t the real ghosts, not like the Gray Lady, but ones that haunted her nonetheless. In order to survive that year alone, she’d pushed it all down. She’d pushed it down through graduating and getting a job. By that point, it was second nature for her to ignore the deeper feelings that were a cancer on her soul. When things were tough at work, she dealt with it outwardly, and hid it inwardly. It had gone on that way until nothing she did, anymore, had any meaning or any real feelings attached.

She’d even begun to ignore her own children.

She knew all of this, now, thanks to the brilliant work of the effingly perfect Rebecca Beautiful Hargrove.

The tears poured out, now, as they had over the last five therapy sessions. They’d been too young when they’d married. They’d been too broken. They’d been too damaged. They’d been too… it was easy to keep going.

But she wasn’t young, anymore, and she’d been married for many years now. She was an adult and responsible for her own actions. She might have married Ron because she was young, and in love, and maybe thought that no one better would come along. That was possible, sure, but Hermione was pretty sure she’d married Ron because he had the same wounds that she did.

Only he had had medical treatment for his and they’d healed over years ago, while she’d stacked up bandages until all she was, was a bloody mess of white, cotton gauze.

When the tears cleared, she realized that Ron had held her through them, just as he always had. He might hate the tears, but he was used to them, now. Rebecca handed her a tissue and they waited for her to compose herself.

Finally, Hermione turned to Ron and studied his face. He was exactly what he’d always been, but so much more. He was stronger now, sturdy in ways that she’d come to take for granted. He was exactly who he portrayed himself to be. There was never any artifice with Ron. With Ron… with Ron, she had a husband who had stood by her. She had a husband that was proud of her for what she’d achieved. She had an amazing father for their children, and a man willing to sit through a therapy session about sex. She smiled then, just a little. “I’m still a mess.”

“I know,” Ron agreed evenly as he took her hand and ran his thumb soothingly along the back of her hand. “It’s always been you for me, luv.”

Hermione nodded and swiped at a stray tear. Her hair had come all undone and was curled wildly around her face. “I must look a fright.”

“You look beautiful,” he said simply. “You always do.”

She snorted and shook her head, but felt her heart melt when he raised her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “I do love you, but I haven’t shown it in the way you deserve or need. I have to work on that.”

Ron squeezed her fingers and turned to the therapist. “You keep helping her fix herself. She’s doing loads better since she started seeing you.”

Hermione had to fight the urge to scowl, because damn it, he was right. The pretty, perky, perfect Rebecca was good at her job. Now the trick would be for Hermione to remember to follow all of her advice.

They left therapy a little while later, holding hands, which she knew was a step in the right direction. Ron bent his head, like he was going to whisper something, but instead nibbled gently at her ear. She shuddered. “Let’s go home,” he told her huskily. “We only have one more day before the kids are back from school. Best use it wisely.”

For the first time, in a very long time, Hermione was in complete agreement with him.

~*~

Victoire wasn’t in tears, which was good, but neither did she look entirely happy with the situation. “We have no furniture!”

“You’ll buy furniture,” her father reminded her as he gestured around at the house behind them, while both Bill, Fleur, and Teddy worked to pacify Victoire.

Harry chose judicious silence and waited with Ron by the large lorry. They hadn’t moved everything with magic, as would have been easier, simply because Victoire and Teddy had lived in a Muggle flat. But today was moving day, and all of the kids were home for the hols, which meant they had ample young helpers to help move everything.

The house they’d chosen was lovely, a small cottage on about an acre. It had once been a grounds keeper’s house for a large, rambling Muggle estate, but had been renovated into the current incarnation. The home was white with wooden shutters, and a gabled roof. It had four bedrooms, in all, and would suite them just fine. The yard was partially fenced with a low, stone wall that was grown over in Ivy.

Best of all, Harry and Bill had already put up all the wards that they could think of, plus a few they’d nagged Hermione into looking up for them. Victoire had told them they’d gone overboard.

Molly had sniffed in approval, even as she’d set to arranging the kitchen.

“What’s up, Dad?” Al asked quietly behind him.

Harry turned to find his son watching his cousin warily. “It’s nothing, Al. It’s hard setting up a house.”

“Your job,” Ron told him seriously, “is to stand around quietly and wait until she tells you to move something. If that doesn’t happen, you need to read her mind and move what she thinks she wants moved, until she changes her mind and yells at you to stop.”

Harry punched his best friend in the arm. “Shut it, you. He’ll never get married if you scar him now.”

Al looked on the point of laughing, but then the tears started, as Harry knew they would.

Fleur said something soothingly in French and pulled her daughter into her arms. She shooed the two men away, who appeared extremely grateful to be out of the line of fire.

Teddy clutched at his hair as he came over. “I told her we could buy furniture first, but she said no!”

“That doesn’t matter,” Ron assured him dismissively. “She’ll change her mind six hundred times anyway. Do you remember when–”

Harry stopped that train of thought with flick of his wrist. Ron glared at him, mutely. “Let’s just start moving things in, and then when she’s calmed down, she can tell us where to put them.”

“Why can’t she do that herself with her wand?” Al asked him curiously.

“I have never been able to figure that out, son,” Harry assured him with a long sigh.

They had the house moved in in a matter of an hour, thanks to the adults with wands, and Fred, Louis, James, and Al running in all of the smaller items.

The women and girls had been hard at work on cleaning, for which Harry was very thankful. He didn’t know why their family tended to fall into these sorts of lines, but neither was he going to protest. He’d rather move beds and haul dressers around when Victoire decided that the Head of the Aurors might dent the walls if he moved it with a spell, than scrub toilets. But her beautiful, happy smile was all the payment he needed.

“Thanks, Uncle Harry,” she said as she threaded an arm through his and rested her head against his shoulder. “I can’t believe I have a house!”

Harry felt the prickling behind his lids and ruthlessly shut it down. He pressed a kiss to her temple and patted the hand that rested on his arm. “Soon enough you’ll have a baby, too. Time is moving too quickly.”

“I meant to ask,” she said as they stared at the semi-arranged master bedroom. “Do you still have any of the stuff from Grandma Andromeda? Maybe some of his baby things?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Harry said after a moment’s thought. “I think we kept his crib and a few toys. They’ll be in the attic, I expect. Aunt Ginny will have a better idea of what is up there.”

“I’d like to get some of his things to put in our nursery,” Victoire explained quietly. “I think it’s really important to bring as much in from his family as we can. I know he had you,” she told Harry, “but I think the loss of his parents still sits there.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully. “He’ll be a great father, though.”

“Oh, I know he will,” she replied with a laugh. “He had you to show him how.”

“Harry?”

He turned and found Hermione standing in the doorway behind them. She had a bit of dirt smudged on her face, but she appeared relaxed and happier than he’d seen her in a long time. “Yeah?”

“You’ve had a note from the Ministry,” she said as she held out a sealed envelope.

Harry took it and tore it open to read the short note from one of the Aurors, Thomas Gregory, asking for him to return to the Ministry as soon as possible. He sighed and tucked the note back into the pocket of his robes. “I have to go.”

“Is everything all right?” Victoire asked him.

He smiled, mostly for her sake. “I’m sure it is, but being the head of things means that I never really get any time off. I’ll come back for dinner later, if I can.”

“Please try,” she urged him quietly. “It’s our first meal here.”

“I promise to try,” he said by way of reply. As Harry said a hurried goodbye to some of his family, at least the parts he saw on his way to the door and out of the wards, he reflected that sooner or later he would need to retire.

Then he reminded himself that the last time he’d been out of work due to a political coup, he’d nearly driven Ginny to murder him in his sleep. He didn’t do well sitting still and he liked working. Plus, there was a crazy woman on the loose and he had a personal stake in bringing her to justice. The problem was that Isabella Crabbe could, and did, go to ground for months and years on end and in the interim, bad guys continued to cause trouble.

Ten minutes later he was walking into the Auror’s office to find several Aurors waiting on him. “What’s happened?”

“We just heard from the American Aurors,” Gregory explained quickly as he pushed his glasses up onto his sand-colored hair and held out the letter for Harry to read.

He skimmed it quickly, then froze and forced himself to go back over it again, slowly this time.

Ministry of Magic, London
Attn: Auror Department

Re: Thorfinn Rowle
Antonin Dolohov

To whom it may concern: We have your rogue Death Eaters. Come and get them, if you want them.

-Auror Department, Magical Congress of the United States, New York City, New York

Harry stared at the words, then snorted out a laugh. “Bloody Americans.”

“Do you think they really have them?” Susan asked him. “It seems like a joke.”

“The Americans are a joke,” someone muttered from the back of the group, but Harry ignored him. He’d worked with the Americans a few times and had found them tough, but somewhat lax on the rules.

It was typical of their department to send something like this. “I’d started to think those two were dead. I hadn’t pictured them in America.”

“So you think they really have them?” Susan questioned again.

Harry nodded. “It’s what I’d expect from them. They joke to let off tension. I imagine that the capturing of those two was not a fun process, and now they have to hand them over to us for trial.”

He considered that for a moment. If they were convicted of crimes in America, he could leave them there to rot. The Americans had a magical prison in the Gulf of Mexico that made Azkaban look like a day at the beach. Removing those two Death Eaters to England meant a lot of time, money, resources, paperwork, and risk.

It was a risk transporting them. Anything could go wrong in transportation.

“I need to speak to the Minister about this,” Harry told them. “We do nothing until I’ve had a word with her.”

“She’s already gone for the day,” Susan told him, speaking of her mother-in-law.

He nodded, tucked the missive from the Americans into his pocket, and headed for the door. “I will catch her at home, then. This cannot wait.”

Harry had only been to the Minister’s house once, but was struck anew by the quiet elegance of the old stone estate that sat high upon a hill. He rang the bell as the sun began to set and Harry realized he was going to miss dinner, if this didn’t go smoothly.

Allison Macmillan herself answered the door. She was average height and weight with eyes which were a vibrant blue in a gently lined face. Her general appearance wouldn’t give one pause, if a person were to pass her on the street, but the way she carried herself always bespoke power to Harry. He never underestimated this woman. “Harry,” she said with a faint smile. “Come in.”

“I’m sorry to call so late, Minister,” he said as he stepped into her home and followed her down a short hall to her sitting room. She sat herself on a gray damask couch and waited while he sat opposite on the matching armchair. “We’ve had a letter from the Americans.”

Her brow rose in question. “Surely that should have gone to the Department of International Magical Cooperation.”

“It probably should have, but the American Aurors are…” Harry struggled to find the right word.

She waited a beat. “I believe the term you’re looking for is mavericks.”

He chuckled, despite the seriousness of the situation. “Not quite what I was looking for, but close enough. If I were to read between the lines of the note, I would say that they’d just finished a long fight, and they’re asking for me to come pick up the rubbish.”

“Indeed?” Minister Macmillan said politely. “What rubbish are we speaking of, exactly?”

“That’s where it gets complicated,” he explained quietly. “They seem to have captured Dolohov and Rowle.”

Back to index


Chapter 33: Chapter 30

Author's Notes: Than you Arnel for Beta'ing!

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The Minister for Magic sat back and regarded him for a long moment. She inclined her head, indicating he should go on and Harry filled her in on the scant details he had about the capture of the escaped Death Eaters. “So,” he let his voice trail off so she could think it through.

“The Americans are asking you to come get them,” Minister Macmillan summarized thoughtfully. Then she sighed and rose to walk calmly to a window and peer out. “It’s been many, many years of work since that time. When was the last time you had a meaningful holiday, Harry?”

Slightly taken aback, Harry stuttered in response. “I-I don’t know, Minister. Ginny and I went away for our anniversary last year.” Was it last year? Harry couldn’t really remember. It might have been two or three years before.

“Please don’t misunderstand,” she said as she turned back to face him, her eyes filled with concern. “You have been a champion for our world most of your life, if not for the whole of it. I know the work and sacrifice you have made. But you’ve stalled on the case with Isabella Crabbe, and because of how she operates, that might go on for the rest of your career.”

Unfortunately, that was probably true. “Minister?”

“Dolohov and Rowle,” Minister Macmillan continued. “It is my official suggestion that you lead a small team to America to recover them. They are dangerous, and we need to send our best to properly thank the Americans for their hard work and dedication.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly before she went on. “Then, it is my personal request, that you take a sabbatical and rest with your family. As you will already be in America, I would recommend going there. You have my permission to bring Kingsley back on for a short stay to cover for you.”

Harry’s mind reeled at the possibility. “You… you want me to go to America for a holiday?”

“Not a holiday,” she said evenly. “I want you to take a real break from everything, Auror Potter. This tragedy with your son, as he killed a dangerous man, and the risks to your family… all of it is weighing on you. I have spoken with Ginny a few times.”

That was news to him. “What?”

“We are in the same book club,” Mrs. Macmillan informed him.

And… damn it. Harry hadn’t even known Ginny was in a book club. He hadn’t had a lot of time with her over the last few years. She didn’t complain, especially not now that the children were in school, but that seemed like the sort of thing he should have known. “How long?”

“At least a month,” the minister replied firmly. “I would suggest the entire summer. Everything here can wait, especially as Crabbe has gone to ground again, and as you pointed out to me, your son killed her financial backer. She’s primarily after you and your family. If you go on holiday to America, you’ll be just another Muggle family. You won’t be Harry Potter, not unless someone is really paying attention. Take your kids, your wife, and go. I’ll help you expedite the Portkey for the family, if necessary.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Harry told her honestly. Then, he did, because she was right about something. He was tired. “Thank you, Minister. I appreciate the time off.”

As he left, to hurry back for the first dinner at Teddy and Victoire’s new home, he reflected that it was probably going to be a bit of a challenge setting up a trip to America, but that it would be worth it.

By that evening, with the kids in bed, including Nat who was there with them for the summer, Harry realized the whole thing was going to be a nightmare. “We can’t go,” he said to Ginny, who was pacing their bedroom while Harry watched her from his seat on the trunk at the foot of the large bed. “I wasn’t thinking. You have the World Cup, and Nat’s here. I’d blanked on that since she’s so often around now.”

“Then there’s Teddy and Victoire and the baby,” Ginny reminded him. “My job, your job, our family, Natalie… I just don’t know, Harry.” She turned to him. “Nat can stay with Ron and Hermione, she would be safe enough with them, but that’s asking a lot since there has been more than one attempt on her life.”

“But it’s been awhile,” Harry pointed out, then realized how ridiculous that sounded. He’d been the one to tell the Parkers that they could no longer take their daughter out into the Muggle world. Nat was medically fragile in a way that magic could not fix. She was also someone who understood magic and its effects on the world at an intuitive level that even Dumbledore could not have matched. But Nat was not Dumbledore. She was a tiny imp who was okay at school and not great shakes at magic. “We can’t just leave her.”

“She can be stuck here in England, under guard for the rest of her life,” Ginny pointed out. “Or we check with her parents about taking her along. Both of them are elsewhere, but could maybe come to America to see her there. Can we honestly say that keeping her under lock and key is the best thing for her? She’s changed.”

He shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know what the right answer is, Gin. There’s nothing in the manual of life to give me that answer. But that’s only if we go.”

Ginny stopped her pacing and stared at him, and for the first time in a long time he saw the shadows under her eyes. “Let’s just go.”

Surprised, Harry rose. “What?”

“Screw the consequences,” she told him firmly. “This is the chance to go. If I lose my job, that doesn’t matter. But I can change my focus to writing about America, which could be interesting for the Prophet. But whatever. Let’s go. We’ll go for the whole summer, we’ll take the kids with us.”

“Wait!” Harry shook his head. “All the kids, as in all the kids?”

She smiled then. “We take them with us. We take Polly, find a house on the beach, and we see some of America. We have the money, we have the time, and we should do this.”

“But that’s…” Harry had to pause to add it up. “If we take Nat, we need extra security,”

“Maybe,” Ginny said with a grin, “but I think if we pick a location that’s known to be secure by the American Ministry, we’ll be okay. No one knows about Nat.”

Harry hesitated for another minute. “We have to be near a magical hospital.”

“Leave the planning to me,” his wife laughed. “I am so excited!”

He didn’t want to spoil things, but also wasn’t so sure they could just pack up and leave.

He went to work the next day to run it by the Minister, absolutely convinced she was going to say no, only to have her wish him safe travels.

~*~

Lily glanced over to Nat and slapped at her hand, which was tugging at the strap of her bathing costume. “Stop.”

“It feels weird,” Nat told her flatly as she resolutely continued to watch the waves and the boys who were already splashing out in the water off the islands called the Outer Banks in North Carolina. “I’m wearing your old suit.”

“It fits,” Lily pointed out as she studied the navy blue one piece.

“Yeah,” Nat sighed heavily and picked up a handful of sand, letting it drift out the bottom of her fist. The breeze cause the falling grains and sent them sailing out away from them. “You’re two years younger than I am and now you’re taller than I am.”

It had only just happened. Lily was twelve, now, and Nat fourteen, but Nat was right. Lily was still shy of five feet tall, but that was taller than Nat by a good inch. She weighed more, too. It was weird. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“I think it means I’m not going to go through puberty,” Nat told her flatly. “I might never get a period or any of that other stuff. I still look like I’m ten!”

Lily shifted uncomfortably. “I started my monthly last month.”

Nat groaned and dropped back onto the purple towel that she’d spread out to sit on. “Your aunt says if nothing happens soon I have to take potions to make it happen! I just feel like I’m not really a girl.”

“You are a girl,” Lily pointed out reasonably. “A boy would never worry that he was not really a girl.”

Like she’d hoped she would, Natalie laughed. “God… this is so nice here. I am so happy I was able to come along, but I just… I can’t shake this feeling that everyone is growing up around me and I’m stuck.”

Lily had no idea what to say to that. She’d had the same thought, herself, but it didn’t seem like Nat had really changed except the length of her hair. She’d started out with shorter, strawberry blonde hair, but it was now down to past her shoulder blades. “I wish I had your hair.”

“No you don’t,” Nat assured her flatly. “Your hair is thick and can be styled. Mine’s all thin and stringy.”

“No, it isn’t!” Lily pushed at Nat’s side, really annoyed now. “Don’t be looking for reasons to put yourself down. You have the best color of hair and it’s all light and airy, like those pictures in the story books.”

Nat moved her arm off her face enough to eye Lily skeptically. “Yeah, okay then.”

It was so sarcastic that Lily couldn’t possibly miss it. “You wait and see. Boys will really like it.”

Her friend snorted so loudly that she started coughing madly. “Oh… wow…” Nat’s eyes watered as she tried to pull herself together. “Lily, I am so far from what any boy wants it isn’t even funny. No one is interested in me. Besides, anyone who sees the two of us together is going to think you’re older and you’re beautiful. They’ll flock straight to you.”

She hated what had happened to Nat. The long illness, and her prolonged time spent being guarded had left Nat a little bitter and cynical. Nat used to be upbeat and positive. She didn’t know how to get her old friend back. “Maybe Al likes you.”

“Al has no idea that girls exist yet,” she replied simply. “I expect that to change this coming year.”

Lily didn’t agree with that, at all. She thought she’d seen Al checking out a girl at the market early that day, but she couldn’t be sure. James definitely had, although he only ever looked. Lily knew what was going on there. James was gone over Caroline Baker and he was simply waiting for Caroline to catch up, which Lily wasn’t entirely sure she would.

“What about you?” Lily wanted to know. “Do you have a crush on anyone.”

Natalie didn’t reply for a long time, so long in fact that Lily started to think she’d fallen asleep. She was just about to shake her awake when Nat answered. “I don’t let myself have those feelings.”

Lily felt her eyes well as she took in Nat’s meaning. “But…”

She shook her head. “It hurts too much. I had these thoughts, maybe some plans, and it’s starting to look like none of them will happen.”

“If you close yourself off,” Lily pointed out quickly, “then you’ll be sure they won’t happen! You can’t just give up.”

“I don’t know what else to do,” she answered.

Movement caught Lily’s eye and she saw her brothers racing towards them at full speed. She shrieked and hopped up, but not before James scooped her up over his shoulder and ran back with her towards the water, laughing like a loon. Lily hit the warm water of the Atlantic and came up laughing and sputtering as she splashed water straight in James’ face. She laughed and threw herself up and over a gentle wave as it rolled in. She giggled when Al dropped Nat into the water. Nat took a second to catch her breath and was close to in over her head, but Al held onto her and the two hooted together.

Lily felt a flutter in her heart and wished, not for the first time, that she could make things better for Nat. Although Nat wasn’t willing to see it, Lily knew she was wrong. Al might not be into girls in general, but he was into Nat. A small voice in her heart told her it wasn’t the right time to say or do anything. She turned to stare up at the huge, three story, white beach house with the long, shaded porches and the swing. The place was beautiful, with sea blue trim and shutters. Lily knew that she was going to have the best summer here. She just hoped that everyone would enjoy it.

~*~

“We’re doing what?” James asked around a mouthful of eggs.

Harry stared hard at his son across the long, wooden kitchen table in the pristine and bright kitchen, silently scolding the rudeness. James grinned sheepishly, but thankfully didn’t expose them to anymore half-chewed eggs.

“It’s a famous place here in America,” Ginny explained as she finished up her breakfast.

“We went horseback riding on the beach yesterday,” James said in a very matter-of-fact tone, “and I didn’t object because I’m game for new things, even if they’re Muggle things–”

“That was actually fun,” Lily pointed out. “We got to see a lot of the beach that way.”

James let out a bark of a laugh. “The horse tried to throw Nat off!”

That was true. It seemed as though horses, like brooms, knew Nat to be miserably clumsy. She’d ended up riding with Al so he could keep an arm around her, as he often did when they went flying together.

“Yes, but,” James went on patiently, “my backside is still sore from that horse which was not like riding a broom, Mum, no matter what you say.”

Ginny shifted in her seat and winced. “I can’t argue with that, but we’ll be in a car to go see the location, James. It won’t be much of a walk. The Muggles don’t know where it was, but the magical community locally has a brochure to describe where the fort used to be. I think it will be fascinating to hear about it, since the Native Americans were the first magical people here in the Americas.”

They all stared at her. Nat cleared her throat and Harry noted that she was primarily pushing her breakfast around her plate. Again. He sighed. He’d already been in contact with the Healer at the magical hospital in Raleigh, as had Audrey over Nat’s condition. She was simply not herself anymore. She caught his eye and his raised a brow. She grimaced and speared a bite onto the end of her fork before stuffing it in her mouth.

They loaded up in the loaner car, a blue SUV, that was blessedly magically situated to drive itself, even if it appeared that Harry was driving, and made their way to the historical center that Ginny had picked out for the day’s activities. They’d been in North Carolina for almost two weeks, now, and most days they stayed home and played, or went to do a Muggle sport called mini-golf, which Harry found amazingly comical. He’d written down all the details to tell George when he went home. He’d brought a few of George’s gadgets with him, actually.

George had created a magical noisemaker that was remotely activated. A person could sneak the box somewhere in the house or under a seat, and then press the button on a wristwatch type device to set it off. Only Harry had realized that the same thing could be used for his kids if they walked away from the beach house. If something happened, they could press the button and Harry or Ginny would be alerted back at the house.

He’d bought four of them and packed them along. The magical inspectors had had a field day with them. But they were perfect for Harry’s piece of mind, and allowed the kids to wander around a bit on their own, even heading to the Muggle shops that littered the beach up and down from the magically protected house.

No one knew him here in America. A few of the magical folks who hadn’t seen his name seemed to glean who he was, but it didn’t carry the same weight here as it did in England.

It was amazing. If he hadn’t loved England so much, Harry might have been tempted to pack up. But he wouldn’t. His whole family was there. His life was there. His daughter’s grave was there. England was home, but anonymity was not overrated. He had no idea why anyone would want to be famous.

They drove over a bridge that spanned the water between the Outer Banks and Roanoke Island and Harry enjoyed being able to watch the scenery as it sped by. Once on the island, the car slowed automatically to match the leisurely speed of everyone else. They eventually pulled into a large, tree-lined circular drive and parking lot. Everyone piled out to stare around at the brown buildings, but Ginny studied at a map that Harry hadn’t realized she was holding before pointing them off into the woods. “It’s that way.”

“I think the staged fort is over there,” Al told her as he pointed to his right.

“No, that’s the Muggle bit,” Ginny explained absently. “This way.”

She led them between two buildings along the path, then to the right. The day was hot and muggy, as it often was, and Harry kept a close eye on Nat since she tended to tire faster than everyone else. She had along a water bottle and snacks, much like all the other tourists, and he knew she would keep herself hydrated. But that didn’t ease the worry.

The walk was a short one and Harry thought she would stop at an earthen work they passed on the right, but she kept going along a trail that wended down to the water. “Out there,” Ginny pointed to the water. “The first settlement was here,” she explained as she swept her hand around. “Much of it is now in the water of the bay, which is why the Muggles can’t find the evidence, but this is where they landed to start their new life.”

Harry tried to show some enthusiasm, but he couldn’t work up the energy. The beach looked like any other. He’d heard the story of the mysterious disappearing British colonists who left only the word ‘Croatoan’ carved into a tree to signify that anyone had been there, but that tree was long gone, as were any of the people who had lived here. He knew why she was doing this, since Natalie loved history, but he would have rather played another round of mini-golf or lounged with Ginny in their huge bathtub back in their private bathroom.

He glanced over to Nat quickly, then did a double take at the absolute shock on her face, along with the pale skin. “Nat?” he asked as he strode quickly to her and knelt next to her, bringing his face closer to hers. “Are you okay?”

She pointed into the bay. “I s-see it!” she stuttered. “I s-see the building! They u-used magic to keep the water back!” Nat turned and stared around at her. Her hands fluttered up to her mouth in horror. “I see bodies… bodies everywhere.”

“Are they buried here?” Harry asked her quietly as Al came over and put a hand on her shoulder.

She shook her head and her blonde hair came out of its tail. Harry quickly snagged the clip from the ground and pocketed it to give back to her later. “It’s the remnants of them. They didn’t want to die here, so an imprint stayed. It’s less than a ghost, just a… a snap shot, like a Muggle camera would do.”

“What else do you see?” Ginny questioned as she, too, came closer. Her expression had gone from delight at seeing the place, to concern at Nat’s pallor.

Nat took a step forward, then another. Then a few more. She reached absently for Al’s hand, and he took it, holding her steady as they walked to the shore, off the path. She stopped a step from the water and reached out her hand to trace letters that Harry couldn’t interpret. “The tree stood here,” she told them.

“Wow,” James whistled through pursed lips.

“That is amazing,” Lily said in awe. “That’s where the word ‘Croatoan’ was written?”

Nat’s eyes lost all their focus. “It meant so much to them. It was the only hope they had and they poured so many of their hopes into it as they needed to travel with the Croatan people. But that’s… that’s it.”

“Hey,” Al put an arm around her waist and led her back up the slope onto the grass. “Let’s go sit in the shade for a bit.

Harry watched them walk by and couldn’t stop the drop in his stomach. Nat’s powers had grown substantially in the last few years. Her abilities as an Augmentum Imaginari were now surpassing what Harry thought even Dumbledore could have done without significant effort. It was almost divination, except this was real.

And the little girl with her eyes closed, head rested on Al’s shoulder while she tried to find her balance again, had no way to protect herself. He glanced back to the beach and saw nothing but water. He could only see the water. He closed his eyes, waited through the nagging panic, and smiled at Ginny when she took his hand. “Maybe no more magical historical sites, right?”

“Agreed,” Ginny said with a shiver. “That was spooky… and really cool.”

He had to laugh at that and press a kiss to her temple. He felt his love for her spring more sharply into focus and grinned. “Indeed it was.”

~*~

“Do you want to go on a walk?” Al asked Nat two afternoons after their trip to the Roanoke settlement. She’d spent much of the last few days either in bed, or on the lounger on the long porch. It was where she was currently sitting, drinking some iced down herbal tea that Al personally thought tasted terrible. She was still pale, and a little out of sorts, but the day had cooled off enough and it was almost pleasant. Clouds had filtered in over the last few hours, and thunderheads were building in the west, which everyone said would mean a big storm, but it wasn’t predicted to hit until after dark.

She glanced out to the sea and her blue eyes tracked the waves. “Okay, just not far.”

He nodded and waited while she stood and set aside her tea cup. Al went to the door and called out to his mum that they were leaving, and then answered, again, that yes they were both wearing the panic watches that they’d brought from Uncle George.

“I swear,” Al said, once they were safely out of his mother’s hearing and walking slowly north along the beach, the ocean to their right, “you’d think I was four the way she treats me.”

“It isn’t you, Al,” Nat sighed and he checked his step so he wouldn’t outpace her.

He didn’t want to go far, just far enough so that she could start to feel more normal. Plus the ocean seemed to have a calming effect on her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and he watched, a little fascinated as she pulled her hair down and rubbed at her scalp. “My hair gets heavy when it’s up for a while.” Instead it tumbled and floated out behind her in a pale curtain that was getting paler by the day, losing more and more of its strawberry hue. Nat, too, was getting a bit of a tan from their weeks at the beach. Their holiday wasn’t even half over, and Al didn’t know when he’d had as relaxing a trip.

Here, in America, no one knew his father. No one looked at Al and wondered if he was ever going to match up to Harry Potter. There was no pressure here, and Al loved it. He missed his grandparents. He missed his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He missed Teddy and Victoire. But here in America he was just Al, and his dad was just Harry, even among most of the wizards.

“It will be difficult going back to school after all of this,” Nat mused as she turned her face up to the clouds and the breeze which kicked up for a moment. “We’ll be so spoiled. The beaches in England are nothing like this, although I have to say that the Bahamas are my favorite beaches.”

Al asked her about that, about her trips with her father. He liked to hear the stories of her early years with the famous anthologist. “It was a pirate discovery,” Nat explained. “Or so they thought. He was hired by a local museum to authenticate that it was a murdered pirate, which was impossible, of course.”

“Why?” Al wanted to know.

“He could have said a lot of things about the man,” she told him, “including if he was likely a sailor, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t an honest sailor. No one can know, for sure. But it turned out not to matter. The skeleton was at least a hundred years too new to be a pirate. It was old, but not quite old enough. It was more likely from the American Civil War era, or just before that. He did determine that the man had likely died from a bullet. He found a bit of the musket ball still in his spine.”

“Ouch,” Al winced as they rounded a dune. He enjoyed the sand under his feet, and the warmth that built up over the day, that was now releasing into the cooling late afternoon air. “So what did–”

Nat let out a shriek and Al jumped as he spun to her. But she wasn’t looking at him. He glanced over his shoulder and stared at the dune. The sand was mounded in sea grass and had a few dried bits of seaweed clinging to it. “What’s the matter?”

“You don’t see it?!” she demanded, a little hysterically, as she pointed to the dirt.

“No,” Al said slowly, “what…” but he let his voice trail off as he realized what this meant. “You’re seeing a magic thing I can’t, Leah. Tell me what you see.”

Nat pulled in two deep breaths and grabbed his arms, her fingers digging into the flesh as she held herself still. “Okay, sorry… it’s awful, Al! It’s a dead body.”

Al’s stomach gave a very long lurch. He didn’t have to think about it as he reached out his free hand and pressed the alarm buzzer to summon his dad. They didn’t have long to wait until his father came running. His initial relief at seeing them fell away immediately as Nat explained what she was seeing. After the initial shock of seeing the magical concealment, she quickly regained most of her composure, but Al had her sit with him on the sand while his dad went for help from the American Aurors.

“This is the worst kind of luck,” Nat said miserably as she drew shapes in the sand. “How do I explain how I found it?”

“Want me to say I did it?” Al asked her and wished he could do more.

She shook her head. “I don’t even know why I yelled like that, Al! I’ve seen dead bodies before. I’ve seen magic worked like this. It’s just…”

“It’s a shock to your body, still,” he reminded her. “You said it feels like you’re being overwhelmed by all the sensations?”

Nat groaned and leaned against him. “I think I’d like to hand back this particular magical skill.”

“I’m not sure it works like that,” he said and tried not to smile. She didn’t really mean it, but with all of her other challenges, this was just more work on top of it.

They waited almost twenty minutes before a squad of Aurors showed up and tried to send Al and Nat home. Harry wouldn’t budge. “You’ll want her here,” he explained. “Come, now, I’ll show you were I found the magical concealment.”

Nat let out a small sigh of relief. “Okay, that’s better. It makes sense that the Head Auror would spot something like that.”

“Looks like Dad is going to have you look at the body,” Al told her and tried not to cringe at the thought. Nat might be used to corpses, but that didn’t mean he was. “You up for that?”

“I am if they’ll let me,” she replied quickly. “I don’t think they’ll want to take my word for it.”

They didn’t. In fact, after they’d revealed the body, they tried everything to get all three of them out of there.

“No,” Harry told them firmly. “Trust me on this, you want her to look at the skeleton. She’ll be able to give you a good description right here and now.”

The woman in charge, a very tall, solid woman with a short, brown bob shook her head and pointed back towards Nat so that her robes billowed out in the breeze. It appeared that the storm was moving faster than predicted, and Al didn’t think they’d even make it until after dinner before the rain hit.

“She is just a little girl,” the woman said in a clipped, American accent. It wasn’t from the area.

“New York,” Nat piped up. “You have a very Queens accent.”

The woman froze, whatever she was going to say died on her lips. “How…”

Nat climbed to her feet and walked slowly over. Al stood up, as well, and followed behind, but kept his distance.

“Please,” Nat said to the woman quietly. “Let me help. Al, can you go back and get James with a sketch pad, please? He can draw.”

“I can draw,” another man piped in, but this one definitely had the southern drawl. “You actually think you can give me a face?”

“She can,” Harry promised the American Aurors. “I’ve had to rely on her before. Let her help.”

Nat stepped over to the body which was laid out on the sand. Al could see, now, that there had never been a dune. It was just a small amount of sand that had been hastily shoveled over the body before the enchantment had been erected. She knelt and examined the head, first, taking a careful study. “He’s male, which you can see from the pubic bone and the brow ridge. He’s very tall,” Nat said as she gazed down at the legs. “Very tall, at least six foot five.”

When no one moved, she went on. “I can guess at black, but that’s a guess. The jaw and the teeth…” she spent several minutes just on the teeth. “He’s young, no more than fifteen or sixteen. Wow, that’s so tall for that young.”

Al had stopped watching Nat and had turned to the stare at the Aurors, all of whom where horribly still. They all looked sick.

“I can’t…” the one who’d said he could draw told them. He cleared his throat. “I can’t do the sketch.”

“Al,” Harry told him, “go get James.”

Al ran, and by the time he and James made it back with a pad and pencil, Nat was examining something about the ribs. “That one was broken, but looks like it was healed magically. It’s very slight, which is what I’ve seen in those injuries.”

James recoiled at the sight of the body, but he pulled it together enough to sit with Nat to compose a sketch. “I think he was black, James, maybe about sixteen. He had one of those really long, narrow faces that very tall men have, you know?”

All the while his brother sketched through it, and the Aurors stood silent sentinels around them as the sky went darker. “You want to move the body?” Harry asked at one point.

“Almost done,” Nat assured him. “Fill out the brow right there, nose a bit more… yeah. Eyes more almond shape. Yes,” she nodded to James. “That’s good.”

James handed the sketch to the woman, who took it with a trembling hand. “Do you know how long he’s been dead?”

“The magic hid the body even from the bugs,” Nat told her. “Best guess is at least a year.”

“Damn it,” she swore almost under her breath. She studied the sketch, then showed it to her team. “Thoughts?”

“It’s him,” the Auror who had refused to draw it told her. “Oh, Merlin, it’s him, Rhea.”

Rhea gave a grim nod. “We know who this is. We’ve been looking for him for almost fourteen months.”

“What’s his name?” Nat asked her quietly.

“Samuel Kingston,” the Auror told her bitterly. “Only child of my former boss in the Auror Department, Louis Kingston. He’s a good man. He and his wife are going to be devastated.”

Nat shot to her feet and Al watched her sway. He rushed forward and pulled her against him before her knees could buckle. “Too much,” Al told her as he supported her and kept her in close. “She needs to get home and eat, Dad.”

His father inclined his head to the Auror. “You know where we are if you need us.”

“Is she okay?” Rhea asked Harry.

Harry felt at Nat’s forehead. “Clammy. Nat, do we need to head to the hospital.”

“No hospital,” Al said. “Hang on.” He thought of the house-elf and called out, “Polly, I need food for Nat!”

A moment later, a loud pop sounded and the house-elf handed Al some snacks and he sank back to the sand with his dad and James’ help. Nat’s full weight, which wasn’t much admittedly, leaned against him as they worked to get food into her.

“It’s just low blood sugar,” James explained to the Auror. “She had a curse on her for a couple of years; got it in an Egyptian tomb or something. She’s always passing out.”

“Maybe I should call a Healer to come,” Rhea suggested.

“No,” Nat croaked. “‘M fine,” she said firmly, even though her words slurred a bit. “Just need a few minutes.”

“I think we’ll just head back home,” Harry told the Auror. “Please let us know if we can help. We’re really sorry to hear about the boy.”

“I am, too,” Rhea replied with a long sigh. “I appreciate you letting us know you found something.”

Al’s dad bent and picked Nat up like she weighed nothing. “Let’s go before this storm hits.”

“Maybe Polly should take her back,” James suggested as they gazed off towards the sky.

Harry shook his head. “Go ahead home, Polly, thanks. No,” he told James. “The trip would be very stressful and her body can’t take much more.”

~*~

“Look at that one!” Lily cried from the bed next to Nat as lightning split the sky. Nat had turned in early, but Lily had come straight in after her and joined her on the bed that faced the ocean through the big windows. The crack came a moment after the strike and Lily jumped, even though she’d known it was coming. “I love this! We don’t get storms like this back home.”

“Not as often,” Nat agreed with a yawn.

Lily watched the sky as the rain pounded on the roof of the house and still couldn’t believe what had happened. “Was it scary?”

Nat was silent for a moment before she answered. “No, actually. I mean, the first part was scary. Seeing the magic is always scary.”

“Why?” Lily asked.

“Because it’s like… it’s like seeing something that shouldn’t be there. It frightens me. I except to see sand, not globs of greenish-gray goop hiding a body from sight.”

Lily shuddered. “Okay, I can understand that. But after that part?”

“It felt like… like I was doing something that was useful and I loved it,” Nat told her on a long sigh. “I have no desire to actually work forensics like my dad does, you know? But I’m so good at it and I was able to help someone today. It isn’t the kind of news the family is going to want, but it’s better than never knowing. I did that for them days earlier than anyone else could because I have this freaky magical gift.”

Lily watched another fork of lightning hit out in the ocean and waited for the crash before she spoke. “It’s like knowing your purpose.”

“Exactly,” Nat agreed. “James is going to play Quidditch. Al will be an Auror. I…”

When she didn’t continue, Lily nudged her with her shoulder. “What do you want?”

“It’s pathetic,” Nat told her flatly. “It’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?” Lily demanded curiously. “Is it something insane to get?”

“I want a family,” her friend said in a small voice.

Lily tried to think that one through, and was lost immediately. “You want a family?”

“I want… I want to get married and have children,” Nat said and Lily heard the tears in her words. She rolled over and hugged her friend’s shoulder, pressing her nose to Nat’s wet cheek. “I want to be settled in one place and know I belong there.”

“Why won’t you get that?” Lily wanted to know.

“Because…” Nat’s voice hitched. “Because I know what I’m going to look like, Lily. I’m not going to be pretty. I’m going to look strange, like a squashed bug. I might not even be able to have children if I don’t start having a cycle. Who would want me?”

Lily felt her own tears fall. “Natalie… you don’t know for sure what will happen.”

Nat sucked in a deep breath and ruthlessly swiped away the tears. “I need to feel useful. I need to help your dad on more cases. I need that. I didn’t even realize how much I needed that. If I can’t have my dream job, well… I can find joy in other areas.”

Lily opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Yeah.”

“What do you want to do, Lily?”

Lily smiled, but could barely put much effort into it. “I want to run a restaurant.”

“You do?” the surprise was genuine.

“We don’t have many magical restaurants in England, you know,” she said. “Daddy and I would go on dates and I loved it! I don’t really want to cook, although I don’t mind that. But I want to open restaurants with good food and I want to be the one who keeps them going. I think that would be my dream job. I want to give people that experience without having to worry about hiding their magic.”

“I like it!” Nat said with real enthusiasm. “I’ll make up the menu for you.”

“It’s a deal,” Lily laughed and then squealed as another crash of thunder ripped through the room.

~*~
Please go back and read my author's note! Free book for an honest review!

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Chapter 34: Chapter 31

Author's Notes: Big, massive thank you to Arnel for beta'ing this for me!

First off, everyone, I had to switch over to using a dictation program to record me telling the story. Between my two jobs, my arms are being worked a lot. I'm still learning to use the dictation program, so there were a whole lot of mistakes made. If you find grammar errors, please let me know and please be kind. I'm still new to this way of writing! It's going to get better, and I need this to write. My arms hurt too badly to continue to write quickly without it.

Last, if you would like to be a test reader for my books, please send me a message here or to my gmail account (sarahjaune03 AT gmail DOT com). Free copy of the book for an honest review (even if you hated it!)

Thanks everyone!


Another peal of thunder slipped smoothly through the room rocking the bed with the force of the sound. Lily let out a squeal of laughter as she rolled over to face the storm and Nat couldn’t help but notice just how alive the flashes of lightning made her appear. Lily was bright. She was energy and fire. It almost seemed to Nat that Lily was the lightning. As another flash filled the windows, followed quickly by the boom of thunder, an idea formed fully realized in Nat’s head that Lily was going to make just as bright of an impression on their world. Then, like the lightning, the thought was gone, leaving only an imprint of the light behind her eyes. She tried to hold onto the idea and find the foundation of where it had come from, but it was no use.

It probably should have left her feeling good about Lily’s future, but for some reason it gave her decidedly uncomfortable feeling. Nat didn’t know what to make of it so she didn’t say anything to Lily as they continue to watch the storm. “What do you think about James and Caroline?” Nat asked.

“That’s a really good question,” Lily mulled, “I guess I would have to say that James has a thing for her, and she doesn’t know what to do about it. I feel really bad for her and Honor. They have had a tough life all around.”

Nat’s thoughts were as solid as mist. She knew that Caroline’s little sister was one of Lily’s best friends, but she didn’t know her all that well. It was like Honor hid in the background behind the sunshine that was Lily. For her part, Lily tried to draw her friend out but she never pushed. Nat thought it was possible that Lily understood Honor better than anyone else and knew she couldn’t be pushed out into the spotlight. The next flash lit up the dancing sky and the roll of clouds, but the thunder didn’t boom immediately. Nat’s mind flashed back to what she discovered on the beach and all of her thoughts connected to that. She might be worried about such trivial things as her future plans or who liked who, but there was a boy who didn’t get to grow up. There was a boy who would forever be young and who left behind brokenhearted parents with no one to turn to for comfort in their later years. “I guess it doesn’t really matter,” Nat told Lily quietly. “The truth of the matter is that all of those things are fleeting and trivial and can be gone in a second.”

“I know,” she whispered into the darkened room. “But if we only live where the darkness dwells, and we don’t take time to enjoy the silly parts of life, everything becomes really narrow and depressing.” Lily sighed and rolled until she could stare at the ceiling. “I know you’re thinking about the boy,” she continued. “I have been thinking about him. too. I can’t imagine what his parents are feeling, and I can’t imagine what it was like for you to discover him. I think, as long as were living life to the fullest, we honor his memory.”

“It isn’t that I disagree with that,” Nat told her, “but… never mind. You’re right. We just need to live.”

Nat thought back to her walk with Al, and her face flushed as she remembered how good it had felt to simply be with him. Part of her really wanted Al to notice her, but she knew the odds weren’t in her favor. Al was good-looking and popular. He could have any girl he wanted, and Nat didn’t think it would be her. She forced herself to think of something, anything, else. “Does your Mum have anything else planned for us this week? I know there’s a lot of history around here, but I’m not sure I’m up for seeing any of it.”

“I don’t think so,” Lily replied as another flash of lightning lit up the room. Nat could tell that this one was even further away than the last. The storm was definitely moving out to sea. “I think she’s accepted that it’s not a good idea to take you to historical sites, well, at least magical ones.” The younger girl fell silent for most of a minute before she asked, “If you could give it back would you?”

Natalie didn’t need for her to explain further to know what it was that Lily was asking about. There were so many times when Nat wished that she was just like everyone else. “If I was going to pick which way I was special,” she told her slowly, “it wouldn’t have been this way. But I think that’s why we don’t get to choose our caps. We don’t always know what’s best for ourselves, and I think that I would have been unhappy if I had been given what I wanted.”

“What would you pick?”

“That’s easy,” she snorted. “I would’ve chosen to be pretty, but as you know pretty doesn’t always make things easy.”

Lily hummed in agreement. “Caroline is beautiful, and that’s partly why her father targeted her over her sister, Honor, because he was crazy and that mattered most to him.”

“There is that,” she agreed sadly. “I really hope that–” she cut off as a knock sounded at the door. “Come in.”

Al push the door open a bit and peered in at them. “Dad wanted me to see if you two were okay.”

“We’re fine,” Lily told him. Just as she said it a gale force gust hit the house, rattling the windows.

Al’s brow rose as he looked up windows of their bedroom. “I thought the storm was over, but maybe I’m wrong.”

“Storms can move fast through here,” Nat explained to them. “But odds are good the storm will last for a little while longer. The storm systems here tend to be focused in short bursts of intense rain and thunder.”

Both Lily and Al stared at her in amazement. “I don’t know why you know all of this,” Lily said in bemusement, “but I’m glad you do.”

“James and I are turning in,” Al told the girls. “See you in the morning.”

They both watch the door close quietly behind him and another harsh gust rocks the house. “I guess another storm is coming,” Lily said quietly.

Nat didn’t answer, but she thought about what Lily said as her friend drifted off to sleep next to her. Lily hadn’t meant anything more than the weather outside the room, but Nat’s brain wouldn’t shut off to let her sleep. Her mind kept racing through everything that it happened, to all the things she felt like she should’ve done. There were so many ways that she could’ve handled the day differently. She knew Al was trying hard to get her out of her funk. She hated feeling like this and knew, intellectually, that it was depression brought on by her health. It seemed so unfair that everyone around her could run and play. Everyone around her could eat whatever they wanted, while she was stuck carefully weighing everything that she put in her mouth. Nat knew that Mr. and Mrs. Potter were watching closely to make sure that she was eating enough, and it bothered her.

She had tried so many times to resolve to be better. Nat really wanted to feel better, to feel more like her old self. It was painful to know that she was bringing everyone else down. Logically, Nat knew that she couldn’t help how she felt, and that no one around her resented her for it. She also knew that she couldn’t will herself back to happiness. An old saying flashed into her memory. She thought it might be Buddhist, but couldn’t remember exactly where she’d heard it… she couldn’t even remember what language it had been in. One of the old cooks that her father had hired used to say this to her whenever she started to worry as a child. Depression is living in the past. Anxiety is living in the future. Peace is living in the now. Nat wasn’t entirely sure that she believed it, but she understood the sentiment. If she dwelled on what she lost, she would be depressed. If she dwelt on the mistakes she’d made, she would be depressed. If she worried about the future, she would get bogged down in all the possibilities. If she thought only of the future, she would forget to enjoy the now.

If Nat focus her mind to stay always in the moment, the past couldn’t hold her back, and the future couldn’t overwhelm her. She sighed and pulled the sheet further up as she listened to the wind beating a steady rhythm against the house. It was something that she could do, she knew. That would have to be good enough.

~*~

“I don’t think we’re supposed to be in the bathtub, in the middle of a thunderstorm,” Harry drawled lazily as he ran his fingers up and down his wife’s bare, wet arm.

“Why is that?” Ginny wondered, as she raised a foot out of the warm bubble bath to rest it against the side of the tub.

Harry hadn’t known the house would come with a huge Jacuzzi in the master suite, but it was a perk that he was enjoying to the fullest. They’d taken a bath together almost every night, something they hadn’t done in many years. Life had been in the way. They’d let careers and their kids monopolize their relationship. But here they were supposed to be on holiday, and that day hadn’t been a good day. It was all Harry could do not to dwell on the dead teenager and the lies he told the American Aurors. In other words, he wanted to talk to her about work. He’d heard many older married couples say that it was easy to fall into the trap of neglecting their marriage, but if he was honest Harry thought he and Ginny were immune to it. However, he’d come to realize that when they weren’t talking about the kids, or work, they didn’t have much to talk about. The disastrous truth was that for all the ways Harry was the exception to every rule, he was not the exception when it came to his wife.

“What you thinking about?” Ginny asked, breaking into the silence of the room, save for the lapping of the water against the edge of the tub.

Harry pondered for a long moment just how to tell her what he’d been feeling. It wasn’t that he couldn’t share everything with her, but in some ways it felt like admitting their distance was admitting personal failure. “Sometimes it feels like the only thing we discuss is the kids,” he admitted reluctantly. “I know that’s not really the case, but we used to talk about things like politics and sports.”

“We still talk about sports,” Ginny reminded him. “I don’t like talking about politics with you because it always leaves you frustrated. You have to deal with politicians every day with your job. My biggest stressor is my editor. Well, sometimes the players who don’t like to keep their hands to themselves.”

He sat up straighter, trying to get a better look at her face, but she kept her back pressed to his chest and her head on his shoulder. She took one of his hands and laced their fingers. “Relax,” she told him with a snort. “I can handle myself, as I’m sure you will remember.”

Harry did well remember that his wife was a hex first, ask questions later, sort of woman. She didn’t suffer fools lightly, nor would she put up with crap from anyone. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I handle it,” she retorted with annoyance finally edging her voice. “It was never any of England’s players. They’ve all been very respectful, but sometimes the foreign players would get a little too friendly.”

He didn’t know what to make of that statement, or know exactly how to feel about it. “I just can’t believe anyone would take such liberties with you.”

“No one who knows you’re my husband would,” Ginny sighed, then she let out an amused giggle. “One time one of the players from Morocco was chatting me up, and Timothy Ryan, you remember the Beater for England, right? Anyway, he came up to us. He put his hand on the other player’s shoulder, and I thought for sure he was going to tell him that you were my husband.”

Harry felt his back stiffened as he pictured the scene in his mind eye. “What happened?”

“Well,” she drawled out lazily as she traced the line along thigh that left him shivering, “Tim told the other player he better look out because I have a mean right hook. Unfortunately, the other player didn’t know what he meant by that, but he found out quickly when he wouldn’t back off.”

“You hit him?” Harry gasped in amazement.

She shook her head and stretched her arms up over his head to lace her fingers behind his neck. He wanted to pay attention to what she was saying, but the view was too enticing and he missed the first part of her sentence. “So then he dropped to his knees, cradling his bruised crotch.”

He didn’t wince, but it was close. What Harry really wanted to do was forget about Quidditch players, and how sexy everyone else found his wife. But it wasn’t the thing that was causing them to sit in long silence with nothing to talk about. “Are we just too used to each other?”

“That might be part of it,” she mulled as she lowered her arms. He watched, almost in fascination, as she used her index finger to slowly pop the bubbles that drifted around her stomach. “Honestly, I’d rather be a little bored with you than fighting all the time. Some people enjoy the conflict, but I see what it’s done to Ron and Hermione, and I don’t want to be them.”

He thought about his best friends and all of the counseling they’d had to go through just to salvage some of their marriage. Wizards didn’t get divorced, not in England anyway, so it was prudent to work through anything that came up. When they had been younger, they’d had to learn to live with each other, which was harder than most people would assume. Harry loved being with Ginny, especially after the years of fighting Voldemort, but now that they had their routines, it was easy to take each other for granted. “I don’t really know how to challenge you,” he acknowledged. “I’d like to, but I know you so well that everything is become routine.”

“We could discuss books,” she suggested halfheartedly. “Or we could find a hobby together.”

“You mean like winetasting or golf?” Harry chuckled as he pictured them continuing on with the ridiculous Muggle game. He’d seen a real golf course a few days before as they had driven around the Outer Banks, and he couldn’t imagine anything being more boring. “Why do they consider that exercise? There’s nothing to it that’s exercise. You stand still and hit a ball, then you move to the next hole in a golf cart.” He’d asked one of the local Muggles to explain the game to him, pretending as though they didn’t have golf in England. Actually, when he’d asked about golf in England, he hadn’t realized that the game was played worldwide, but thankfully the teenager who told him about it didn’t know that golf was universal. “I don’t mind the mini-golfing, because at least with that I get to hit the ball into the mouth of the dragon, or over a stream.”

“My favorite was the windmill,” Ginny told him. “Or maybe it was the pirate ship. But that’s not the point,” she reminded him. “The point is that if we find something to do together, just the two of us, we’ll have more to talk about and will build our relationship away from the kids.”

Harry bent to kiss her neck and wound his arms tied around her torso. “That’s a plan, then. But first, I have a different idea, and it definitely involves this bathtub.”

~*~

They could’ve had their own bedrooms, James acknowledged himself, but when given the choice he and Al had chosen one of the bedrooms with two twin beds in it. They hadn’t really talked about it, and James knew that a few years ago he wouldn’t have wanted to share with Al. But times were changing, and so was he. He and Al no longer fought like they used to. They no longer tricked or hurt each other as had been the case when they were young. Al was becoming James’s friend, as well as his brother, and James had begun to realize just how much he valued it. The lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled as Al reappeared in their door way. He shut the door quietly and trudged over to his bed.

“What’s up?” James asked him.

“Nothing,” Al denied.

This was the one thing that still annoyed James. If he was going to take the time to notice that his brother was in a funk, he wanted Al to at least admit that something was wrong. “Don’t give me that crap,” he said mildly. “The girls okay?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. Lily is enjoying the storm, and Nat seems good.”

James waited for a moment, wondering if his brother would elaborate. “You have a thing for her.” It wasn’t a question.

Al Huff got annoyed breath. “I do not have a thing for her,” he retorted angrily. “She’s one of my best friends. I’m worried about her. She isn’t the same as she used to be.”

All of that was true, James knew, but it wasn’t the whole of the story. James knew that his brother cared for Nat a great deal, and he maybe even loved her as a friend. James thought that was likely, but there was more to their relationship than Al ever let on. For one thing, Al was always looking after her. His brother sat by her, ate with her, tried to cheer her up, and was an all-around soppy mess. It would be embarrassing if James didn’t pity him, but as James had his own damsel in distress, he knew he couldn’t judge too harshly.

Caroline…

She was his weakness. She was possibly also his biggest strength. When James thought about who he’d been before he’d come to know Caroline, he cringed. It was painful to remember the callous, selfish boy who had tormented his family, and had taken everyone for granted. He hadn’t been a nice person. He hadn’t wanted to think about anyone but himself.

The memory of killing Donald Baker was still fresh in his mind, no matter what James did. He didn’t want to see the dead man above him, or the branch sticking out of his neck. He definitely didn’t want to relive the broken bones, the pain, or just how warm man’s blood had been as it poured down over James’ face. There were some memories that were best left forgotten, as long as he remembered the lessons from the incident. Unfortunately, James was pretty sure that he would not be able to keep fresh in his mind the frailty of life, or the things that were important, if he forgot what it was to end a man’s life.

“I’m worried about her,” Al said as he gave voice to his concerns again. Another flash blossomed from the sky, lighting up the clouds and the beach far below their window. The wind howled and leaves flew by in a tornadic cyclone.

James nodded, and then realized that was stupid because his brother couldn’t see him in the dark. “Are you worried because she’s your friend, or because you like her?”

“Sod off,” Al growled. “Just friends.”

He made a noise that he thought sounded like agreement, but realized from his brother’s annoyed sigh, that he had been completely convincing. “Not arguing with you.”

“You were thinking about it,” his brother said angrily as he rolled to face him. James couldn’t see him, but could imagine that Al was glaring at him. “You think you have it all figured out, don’t you? You think you know everything, just because you’re older than I am. You don’t know anything!”

That took James aback. He had realized he was poking a sore spot when he started the conversation, but he could see now that Al was really sensitive when it came to Nat. “I’m sorry, Al,” he said sincerely. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?” James retorted, as he felt his face flush. He knew exactly what Al meant, of course, but that didn’t mean he wanted to offer it up. It was too personal. It was too painful. It was too… everything.

Albus didn’t let it drop. “What about you and Caroline?”

It was on the tip of his tongue to lie, because that was the easier answer. But had he just been thinking that his brother was becoming his friend, and it wasn’t as though Al was likely to tease him or to try and ruin things for him. Al wasn’t like that. His brother was a good, decent person, which used to annoy James, but he was starting to appreciate him now. What he saw now in his brother was someone who could be trusted, someone to count on, and a person who he would be lucky to have as a friend. James pulled in a deep breath and slowly let it out as he worked through what to say. He wasn’t going to lie. “Nothing with Caroline is easy,” he explained slowly. “She’s been through so much, and most she won’t talk about. Much of the time I can’t even get her to talk to me, at all.”

“So then why do you bother?” Al asked him. He didn’t say it with any malice or derision, but frank curiosity.

James had an answer for him. “It’s the same reason that you stick by Natalie,” he explained grimly. “I’m drawn to her. Sometimes you just can’t help that.”

Al was silent for a long time, so long in fact that James thought he might’ve fallen asleep. Finally, he asked in a very small voice, “Are you in love with her?”

It left James stunned, and a little lightheaded. He hadn’t thought about it that way, at all. It was scary. It was too much. It was… “Yes.” Oh Merlin, the answer was yes. His brain wanted to argue with his heart. James could feel the need to deny growing strongly in his gut. He was too young for this, and he couldn’t really know himself. But none of that felt right. What felt right inside of him was his feelings for Caroline. It was what drove him, and helped keep him on the straight and narrow. She helped turn him into a better person… no, that wasn’t right. She hadn’t asked him to change, and he didn’t think she’d even thought about it. It was just her, just her being herself that had pushed him to see that he needed to be a better man.

That was too weird to think about.

“Can’t believe you admitted it,” his brother said it with awe.

“Can’t believe I did either,” he told him fully. “But it’s the truth, so I’m not going to deny it to you.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

James would’ve laughed if there’d been any humor to the situation. “Nothing,” he said as another flash of lightning illuminated the room. “She doesn’t want anything to do with me that way. I just have to wait and hope that she changes her mind at some point.”

~*~

The mess that littered the beach the next morning was stunning. Harry would’ve thought the bomb gone off, except for the fact that the debris was leaves, driftwood, and tree limbs. By the time they were moving the next morning, many of the locals were out on the beaches gathering up piles of debris. Everyone went out to join in with the Muggles who were cleaning up. It was a good time, too, because the kids could interact with other teenagers who were on the beach for holiday. Harry had a long discussion with the man staying two houses down from them about the hurricanes that plagued the east coast of America every year. The sky overhead was iron gray, and still looked formidable, but he was told by the locals that the worst had passed, at least for now.

“Mr. Potter?”

Harry turned and spotted a woman with a short mop of brown hair approaching from the street. Her black robes billowed out behind her, and although her shoes had to be sinking in the wet sand, it didn’t slow her down. “Auror West,” he said as he greeted her formally. Thankfully, none of the Muggles were around at that moment. He saw Ginny eye the woman curiously, then shoot him a questioning glance. He motioned to her to come over as he held out a hand to shake the Auror’s hand. “This is my wife, Ginny.”

Ginny held out her hand to the other woman. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Rhea West said as she stuck her hand out to shake. She let go quickly, and turned back to Harry. “I know that you’re on vacation, but I was up all last night with the boy’s parents. Mr. Kingston was beside himself at the news of his son’s death, as you can well imagine. After the news sunk in, and I explained about the little girl’s ability to identify the body, he reminded me of a twenty-year-old case that haunted him his entire career.”

Intrigued, despite himself, Harry nodded. He did, however, keep his face neutral as he asked, “What case might that be?”

“It’s the body of a little girl that we found in a dumpster,” she explained in a low voice. “It was one of those cases where we just couldn’t put a name to her because her body was already skeletonized and there was damage. It… I think it would mean a lot to him if Natalie could look at the body. It would give him something else to think on.”

While he could understand why the retired Auror might want to focus on an old, unsolved case, that wasn’t what struck Harry. What caught his attention was where the body was dumped. The implications of what she was saying struck Harry immediately as odd. One did not usually find a skeleton in a dumpster. Dumpsters were emptied regularly, especially in the Muggle world. He had one or two occasions, himself, where he’d been called into examine the body discovered in such a manner. “That is odd,” he spoke the words slowly, deliberately. “Did you ever have any leads on who it might be?”

“No,” the Auror replied with a shake of her head. “We were wondering if the little girl might be up to an examination.”

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look that held an entire conversation without saying a word. He thought back to the night before, when he’d felt like they weren’t challenging each other, or that their relationship was getting stale. He thought about all the times that they’d spent learning each other. He knew, now, that he wouldn’t change it for anything. This ability to look at her and know exactly what she thought was priceless.

“She’s feeling better this morning,” Ginny commented carefully. “I think you could ask her and it would be safe.”

Harry nodded towards the beach to where the kids were collecting debris. Nat been working most of the morning, but she was now sitting on the beach watching everyone else. No one seemed to mind that she’d needed the break, not even the Muggles who didn’t know her. She had the aura of someone who was a little fragile, maybe a little weak. She was so tiny with her wispy strawberry blond hair flying out around her face. She looked a bit like a pixie, but a Muggle pixie like he saw in the shop windows.

As though she sensed their gazes on her, Nat turned her head to meet Harry’s eyes. Her glance flicked to Auror West’s, then back to Harry’s. She nodded and rose to slowly pad towards them.

“I guess we’re a go,” Harry told them. “We’ll need to take the car. She won’t be up to magical travel right now.”

Rhea studied him for a long moment. “I’ll have another Auror drive with you, and I’ll arrange to have the body moved to the local office. It should be done by the time you get there.”

For better or worse, Harry thought grimly, the day had just grown much more interesting.

Nat was quiet as she sat by herself in the back of the car. Harry sat in the driver’s seat, pretending to drive, with the silent Auror next to him. They drove for almost an hour heading into the city of Richmond, Virginia. The drive should have taken four hours, or more, especially in the heavy traffic, but the magical car slipped along unseen by other cars at more than twice the speed of everyone else.

“Where are we going?” Harry asked the silent Auror.

“Just south of the city,” was the clipped answer.

“This is the closest ministry facility… uh, Congress building is I guess what you call it…” Harry let his voice trail off.

“Yes.”

When no further explanation was offered, Harry fell silent.

Nat shifted in the backseat. “The main government is housed in New York, right? The Muggles use Washington, D.C. as the base their government, but the magical community does not.”

“It’s No-Maj here,” the Auror reminded her.

“Oh, right,” she agreed quietly.

Harry turned and studied the young men beside him. His hair was light brown and cut close to his head. His eyes were a nondescript blue, and his face was very angular. He had the kind of rangy body that didn’t look intimidating, but in a fight, he would be able to hold his own. He looked poised on the edge, almost like a tightly wound spring. Harry had learned to read people’s bodies in order to find out how they would fight it magical duel. He would bet this man would do well for himself. But he was young, probably no more than twenty-five or twenty-six years old. It was also clear that he was not happy with this assignment. “I appreciate you coming with us,” Harry told him honestly. “Both Natalie and I are happy to help out your ministry in any investigation.”

The man didn’t react as Harry had hoped. Sighing silently Harry focused on the road again.

The car fell silent for another twenty minutes. Finally, Nat spoke up from the backseat. “You’re from California, right?”

The man started and turned to stare at her. “How did you know that?”

Nat cleared her throat. “It’s your accent, and it’s also something about the way you carry yourself. Californians just have a different way of doing things.”

Harry was stunned. He had never seen her do something like that. A New Yorker’s accent was very distinct, just like accent in England could be very distinct. But Harry had been to California, and he hadn’t noticed anything except the typical American accent. “That’s rather remarkable, Nat.”

“Not really,” she murmured as she sank down into her seat. “It’s just a thing.”

The Auror gave her an apprising look, then they fell back into the silence of the tree-lined freeway. Everyone said that England and Ireland were green, but Harry had to admit that drive up to Richmond was much the same. The only difference was that the sun was shining, now the clouds had passed, and the trees were positioned to hide the freeways from the Muggle homes.

“We’re almost there. It’s just up behind that bank over there,” the man told them as he pointed to their right. The roads sloped up an off ramp and the car followed without Harry’s intervention. He didn’t have much call to drive a car back in England, but he was going to have to look into this newer magical modification. He assumed, however, that it was probably illegal anywhere but in America. They drove past a few restaurants and a Muggle filling station before turning left into the bank’s parking lot, and the car drove around the back before it pulled to a stop. Harry pushed open the door before he opened Nat’s and gave her hand to help her out. She stared up at the building with wide-eyed amazement.

He didn’t see, exactly, what she could see. But what he saw was a door in a brick wall with a sign on it that said Magical Congress of the United States of America, and below that Richmond Office.

The younger men led the way through the door which opened at the touch of his wand. Behind the door was a long, narrow darkly lit hallway with doors off each side. He moved through the space until he arrived at the last doorway on the left. The man knocked twice sharply and at a word from inside opened the door to usher them in. It was an exam room, much like Harry would have seen back at St. Mungo’s Hospital. The room was shiny steel and chrome with a large metal table set in the middle. On the table was a body shrouded a white sheet. Behind the table stood Rhea West and one of the other Aurors Harry had met the night before.

“We’re glad you could make it,” Auror West told him. “It was good timing, actually, as we only finished setting up about ten minutes ago.”

Harry opened his mouth to say something but stopped when Nat stepped forward a tentative step, then another until finally she stood right next to the table. She was so small that she could barely see over the edge of it. It was obviously meant for a tall man or woman to use. “Do you have gloves and a stepstool?”

“Yes,” the woman replied simply and she nodded to the other man. Harry realized then that it was the same man who had assured them that he could draw. Harry noted that he had a sketchpad on a table behind him.

The sheet was removed and Harry saw immediately why they needed Nat’s help. The body was not large, may be that of a ten-year-old. Everything about the skeleton from the neck down seemed to be normal, but the face was horribly disfigured. The bones seemed to have melted in on themselves. It was all Harry could do not gasped out loud. It left him sick to think that anybody might do this to a child. He didn’t know how Nat had remained composed, but she had as she pulled on her gloves and began to examine the body.

“She isn’t a very old,” Natalie informed them quietly, with her head bent over the table to examine the bones more closely. “I would say no more than eight or ten years old. Some of the bones show signs of magical remodeling.”

“What are you looking for when you’re seeing magical remodeling?” asked Auror West.

Nat pointed to the right femur and the woman bent to examine it with her. “What I can see is that the bone is nearly perfectly together. Any bone that’s not broken you will never see any kind of stress fractures, or any kind of fissure. When there is a bone that’s magically healed, it’s just slightly off. Any bone that has been set conventionally by a Muggle, sorry No-Maj, doctor there is a very definite line left. You’ll see calcification and remodeling of the bones. In a magical healing the remodeling is so slight that it’s almost always imperceptible. But because I know what I’m looking for, I can spot it.”

“I don’t see it,” Auror West told her. She turned to her colleagues. “Can you see what she’s pointing out?”

First one man, and then the other, stepped up to examine the arm but both shook their heads. “I can’t see anything,” said the younger man who driven with them up to Richmond. He shot Nat skeptical glare. “We only have this child’s word that something is there.”

Nat shrugged her thin shoulders and studied him from head to toe. “I can tell you broke your foot when you were a child. It was set magically, but not until a few days after it happened.”

The man’s jaw dropped in astonishment. “How can you possibly know that?” He demanded angrily.

Natalie’s eyes stayed on the body, but Harry new exactly how she knew the answer. It wasn’t her father’s forensics that told her that. It was her magical skills of spotting the signatures of magic, combined with what she knew of forensics and anthropology. Those two things work together perfectly in her brain, but Harry wished that some of her brain would work towards regulating her health more. While this was a useful skill, and the magical law enforcement appreciated it, if he had a wish for her it would for her to be more normal.

“Can I continue?” she asked them quietly.

Auror West nodded. “Yes, please go on.” She shot the younger Auror a quelling stare, and he slunk back to the edge of the room.

They watched and waited as Nat examined the lower half of the skeleton for almost twenty minutes, before she moved on to the skull. She didn’t react outwardly, but Harry could see that there was strain on her face. He really hoped that she wasn’t going to be ill from this experience. Richmond would have a magical hospital that they could go to, but he knew she wouldn’t be happy about it. She spent almost as long on examining the skull as she did on the rest of the body.

Nat finally sighed and climbed off stepstool and went to sit on one of the few chairs that lined the edge of the room. “I believe her face was melted with a potion. If I had to guess, I would say it was a potion that caused extreme heating. Bones do not melt, though. So, something had to happen that would change the chemical or underlying structure of the bone itself. I think that I can give you a general description of her face.”

“Even with how disfigured it is?” Harry asked her.

She nodded sadly. “Even with it disfigured, I can still see her face. It’s just the thing I do. I’ve seen smashed skulls and sometimes the face just comes to me. Not always, but sometimes. I don’t think you’re going to figure out who she is, exactly, because she was clearly used for experimentation. Many things were done to her, and that her bones were kept for a long time to observe what would happen. Her bones have been cleaned, in a typical Muggle fashion. Unless the American magical community does things differently than the British, then her body was tampered with even after death.”

Horror and discuss flicked across everyone’s face as they took and what Nat said. Auror West cleared her throat. “No, we don’t clean the bones. We preserve the body in the exact state that it is found. It’s standard procedure.”

Harry waited a beat before Ian interjected. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

The two older Aurors exchanged and meaningful plants. “Yes,” West told him quietly. “We had a serial killer, but he’s dead now. He didn’t mutilate any of the bodies exactly like this, but he was known for mutilating. This might fit into his profile. It would give us a place to start, in any case.”

Harry moved to the girl and knelt down next to her. He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. “Are you going to be okay for a little bit?”

She sighed and gave him a tired smile. “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Even if I’m tired, this is really good work to do. I’m glad to help.”

Harry stood and had to hold back from barking out orders, which was his usual wont. “Let’s get started then. We have a long drive back after were finished.”

It took another hour for Nat to get the sketch right, and for them to answer the rest of the questions about the day before, and about the skeleton. They ended up eating dinner in one of the offices before they went back up the car to head back to the Outer Banks. The moment it was just Harry and Nat, he asked her, “Are you sure you’re doing all right?”

“Yes,” she said firmly, in truth rang out in her words. “This is the first time I haven’t felt helpless in almost a year.”

It shouldn’t have stunned Harry hear that from her because he knew what he felt like when he hadn’t had a job. He nodded and let the silence hang between them, but vowed to try to find more opportunities for her to use her particular magical gift for good. Now, however, it was time to get back to his family and to get back to his holiday.

****
I'm looking for readers for my original novels! Review copies available. Please see my Author's Note.

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Chapter 35: Chapter 32

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for all of your help!!

Readers, this is the last chapter until July. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but my other business and life are just sucking me dry. For anyone reading in the future this means nothing, I know.

If you want to support me in my writing that I actually get paid to do, please check out my novels on amazon. My name there is Sarah Jaune and I'm the only one with that name, so I'm easy to find. My YA series there (the overseer's son etc) I've been told is excellent and has the adventure, romance, and magic. Thank you all for reviewing!`


It always amazed Ginny when she saw Julienne Parker. Natalie’s mother was nothing like her daughter. Nat was small, almost to the point of absurdity. Her features had always been a little squashed, especially when Ginny first met her, but they were starting to even out a little more into a plain, average face. There was nothing about Nat that stood out, apart from her small stature, and her strawberry blonde hair. It was a nice color, for sure, but nothing compared to Julienne. The woman was a stunner, as Ron might say when Hermione wasn’t about. Her chin-length bob of loosely curled blonde hair set off her blue eyes to perfection. Hermione had once told Ginny that she had a ‘made for telly face,’ which Ginny took to mean, she’d look good on camera. She was tall and willowy, making a statement any time she walked into a room. She was smart as a whip on every subject that had ever come up, save magic, and even there she had read up on it after finding out her daughter was a witch. When Ginny hugged her in greeting, it was a genuine and honest reception of affection and gratitude. The one thing that Julienne couldn’t do well was protect her daughter from the outside world, at least not anymore. That had been proven when she’d been kidnapped in Brazil while on holiday with her father. From that moment on, Julienne and Curtis had entrusted their daughter’s safety to the Potters and Ginny did not take that duty lightly.

“It is so good to see you!” Julienne said as she loosened her embrace from Ginny and followed Ginny through the large, cool vacation home on the beach. “I just love the Outer Banks, and I’m so glad Natalie has had some time here to rest.”

“It hasn’t been all rest,” Ginny sighed as she made for the tea kettle. “We’ve had one or two surprises on the way. Her power to detect magic is definitely growing. Have a seat,” she indicated one of the high bar stools. She didn’t mind preparing the tea the Muggle way, but sped things up with her wand, just to expedite the telling. “The children are in town right now, with Harry sitting at a caf so that they can have a little independence, with him still close by. We’re trying on that one, but it’s difficult. Not only is your daughter a target, but my children are, as well, because of who Harry is.”

“It’s not easy,” Julienne agreed with a murmur of thanks as Ginny handed over her tea and sat down across from the other woman. “I didn’t think through all of the difficulties that would befall Nat when we had her. We were so excited, so surprised, that she would be coming along that it took until she was born for the realities to fully set in.”

Ginny smiled fondly as she thought back to when her own children had been born, but a hint of sadness snuck in, peeling back a layer of the old wound. “The first time I was pregnant, the war had only been over for a few weeks. We had been attacked, which was how it all came about.”

“What!?” Julienne let out a gasp of exclamation and set her cup down. She sat forward in her seat as her blue eyes went wide in shock. “You were attacked, but… how old were you?”

“It’s a long story,” Ginny warned her, but the other woman waved that off. “I was sixteen, and Harry was seventeen. We’d gone to the funeral of an old professor, one I hadn’t really liked, but Harry had insisted, and I’d wanted so badly to be around him. He hadn’t really been speaking to me at that point. The war was just over, and the Ministry was taking up all of his time. So I went. We were attacked at the funeral and sent to hospital. While we were in hospital, and I know this sounds crazy, but someone used him to impregnate me, and we were both poisoned.”

For the first time in knowing her, Ginny saw Julienne’s expression fall into something close to stunned disbelief, and truly undignified stupefaction. “If I didn’t know you, I’d say that was a load of rubbish you’d made up to gloss over a teenage dalliance. But you’re serious.”

“This,” Ginny emphasized by poking her finger into the countertop, “is the real beginning of what happened to us, and why that crazy woman is after us. During the war, her son had died and she blamed Harry, even though her son had essentially killed himself. She gave me a baby, and then ensured she would be taken away. Not once, during the months I was pregnant, did I ever think my child would be safe. I’ve never assumed that, but they’re still worth having.”

Julienne reached out for Ginny’s trembling hand as tears threatened in both of their eyes. “I am so sorry for what you’ve lost, Ginny. I truly am. May I ask what it was like for you?”

“To lose Hope, you mean?” Ginny clarified, and at the other woman’s nod, she gave it time to solidify in her mind before she spoke. “At the time, it felt like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me, but to some extent it still is. I’d just been through a horrible war, and I’d lost my brother and many of my friends. Before that I’d been at school for the better part of the year being tortured and assaulted by my fellow students and teachers. It was not a pleasant time, but there was a subtle difference, which I think you, of all people, will appreciate. When I walked into those situations, it was with my eyes open, knowing I was walking into danger. I chose to be there. I didn’t want it, but I chose to face it anyway. I didn’t want to lose Hope, and I thought for certain that we were in the clear with her. I’d felt her moving inside me. I was blindsided, caught off guard, and wanted nothing more than to run away. That was done to me. So, in that way, that was infinitely worse.” She took a deep breath, then a small sip of the soothing tea, and ordered her thoughts again. “If the midwife had told me that my baby was going to die, and I needed to make a choice on whether to carry to term or not, that would have been horrible, but I’d have had time to process, and I’d have had some measure of choice in it. That choice matters. Walking into things that are scary with your eyes open and alert matters when you consider how you’ll look when you come out the other end.”

Julienne nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “That’s probably one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard. It’s also one of the bravest. I do know what you mean. It’s easier to walk into an active war zone, because I expect it to be hell when I get there. It’s traumatizing to get into a car accident, because you don’t see it coming, or to be in a peaceful city and then suddenly a bomb goes off.”

“Exactly,” Ginny agreed, even though she only had a small measure of context to understand what a bomb was. She had to guess that it was a grander scale of destruction when compared to a stink bomb or the like.

Her companion raised an eyebrow. “I have another question, since it’s just us for now.”

“Go on.”

“You’ve been with Harry for almost twenty-five years now, right?”

“Well,” Ginny had to actually think about the math. “Yeah, about twenty-two, actually, but goodness. Yes, we’ll hit a quarter of a century shortly.”

Julienne’s expression remained neutral, but Ginny could still spot the reporter’s hint of curiosity behind her eyes. She had to appreciate it, since she had the same drive herself. “I met Curtis when we were both freshmen in university. We both attended Oxford, and were both top of our classes in our fields. I saw him for the first time and my heart simply rolled over in my chest. It was the same for him. We were glued together from that point on. From what I understand, you don’t have the university system, but something similar for job training. So after our four years at the first school, we both had to go to another level of job training.”

Ginny thought about Healer training, and Auror training, and nodded.

“We married at the end of our senior year at university, then both went to different universities in London to continue our education,” she let out a sigh and one of those smiles that Ginny knew bespoke many, many years of good memories. “But by the end of that two year stint both of us were ready to kill each other.” Ginny’s brows went up as Julienne laughed. “It turns out that the two of us need a lot of adventure and stimulation in order to stay happy and easy to be around. So, when I was done, I took a job at the BBC in London, that’s the television studio I work for, and started working my way up the ranks. Curtis had applied to a few schools for anthropology, and he accepted one in America.”

“That’s quite a distance for you two to travel to be together,” Ginny began, but then shut her mouth as she realized the implications. “You didn’t know if you were going to stay together.”

Her friend’s quick nod was answer enough. “He went off to school, and I worked. I took an assignment that let me travel to the same state of the university he was studying in, here in America. It wasn’t close for him, but Curtis traveled to me, and the reunion was spectacular! I was in love with him all over again, and all those things that had started to annoy me before were gone. We had a long talk about what we both wanted for the future and both of us agreed that we wanted each other, but that living together for any length of time was not going to be a good idea.”

“Wow,” Ginny breathed the word out. “So you chose this separation between you two? On purpose?”

“We did,” she confirmed after another sip of tea. “I don’t regret it. I think we’ll both come to a day where we’re ready to stay with each other for longer stretches of time, but right now I need more excitement than staying put can offer.”

“How long have you two been together?” she asked, curious because she had no idea how old Julienne really was.

Julienne’s pale brow quirked. “We hooked up, as the young people say, when we were eighteen, and then married at twenty-two. I’m going to be fifty-six soon, so all told about thirty-eight years.”

Ginny sat back, truly stunned. “I’m going to be completely flattering, or totally rude, and tell you that I didn’t think you were much older than early forties.”

“Cosmetic surgery,” Julienne waved that off, but at her blank expression, she explained further. “It’s probably just a non-magical thing, I expect. A doctor works with the skin in order to keep it looking young and healthy. I’ve had surgery, plus I make a point to eat very healthy, and work out daily. It’s part of what allows me to keep my job. If the viewers realized how old I actually am, they’d insist I stop being in the field.”

“But the field is what makes you happy,” Ginny nodded in complete understanding. “I get that.”

Julienne’s smile said very clearly, ‘what can I do?’ which Ginny could appreciate. “Now,” Julienne said with determination. “I want to know how you can live with someone for twenty-three years and not be ready to kill them. What’s your secret?”

Ginny thought about her discussion with Harry in the tub not too long before, and realized that Julienne and Curtis had intentionally kept the spark going through distance, but that would have never occurred to Ginny. “I don’t think I need excitement like that, and I’ll tell you why. I did go through a war. For the remaining years of my childhood, I was constantly afraid and in danger. I value the peace too much to want to be anywhere else, but still it isn’t all peaceful. As Harry’s wife, I’m exposed to things that I wouldn’t have been if I’d picked someone less exciting or danger prone. He attracts trouble to him.”

“I bet you had lots of options, too,” Julienne mused. “You’re so striking. You still are. I bet there are whistles everywhere you go.”

She shook her head. “No, actually, that almost never happens. I’m rarely in the position to tell someone off for hitting on me. Most know who Harry is, no matter where I am in the world. It’s happened maybe three or four times in the last two decades.”

Julienne’s brow creased in confusion. “No one will chat you up because of Harry? No one, no matter where you are in the world?”

“He’s known all over the world as the man who killed the most evil, powerful wizard that ever walked the planet,” she told her. “Looking at that from the outside, one wouldn’t want to hit on the wife of that person.”

“Well… no, I suppose not.” Julienne considered her next words carefully. “Does that bother you?”

Ginny let out a long laugh and broke the tension between them. “No! I find it a relief, actually. I don’t want random blokes coming up to me, especially not now. The last one who did turned out to be a psychopath, and he was getting close to me for information. I think that’s more likely than anything else.” She thought back to the Ministry ball that had been held a few years before. She thought about Donald Baker, Caroline’s father, asking her to dance, and how he’d been flirting with her the whole time. She’d been annoyed then, but later they learned that he was part of Isabella Crabbe’s plan to get to Harry. Also, he’d been a child abuser to his daughter. Ginny would always be sorry that James had been forced to kill anyone, but she was not sorry, in the least, that the man was dead.

“Can we go find the kids in this town or is it too far to walk?” Julienne wondered.

Ginny stood and took her tea cup to the sink. Polly would tidy things up once they were gone. Even now, the house-elf was skittish to be around the Muggles. “Let’s go, it’ll be about a twenty-minute walk.”

As luck would have it, some of the Muggle builders at one of the houses whistled at them on their journey into town, but Ginny blamed that entirely on Julienne, who thought the whole thing was very funny.

~*~

“Go on,” James prodded Al in the back as they stood outside one of the Muggle arcades where lights flashed, and buzzers let out shrill beeps and whines. They weren’t the only ones on the street, but no one else paid them any mind. Lily and Nat were inside, playing a game that involved rolling a ball up into a hole. So far, Lily was the only one having any success at the game. The two boys had elected to stand outside, which both girls had clearly thought was odd, but James had held Al back and assured them that they’d be in in a minute. “Go ask her.” Al shook his head, and James let out a snort of exasperation. He’d been trying for a week to get Al to work up the courage to ask Nat out. It was clear to James that his brother was smitten, although if he was honest he had no idea why. It wasn’t that Nat looked like the back end of a hippogriff, or anything, but she wasn’t a beauty. She was just Nat, and for whatever reason, that appealed to Al. “Why not?”

“Because she might say no!” Al protested in something that crept dangerously close to a whine. “You don’t understand it. If she says no, then we have the awkwardness of still having to be around each other. If she says yes, then we’ll break up at some point and still be stuck in that same awful place.”

“What if she’s just the one meant for you?” James wondered, then wondered where the hell that had come from. Caroline’s face blossomed in his memory, and his chest ached from missing her. He knew why he’d thought about there being a one. He knew now that she was the one for him, and always would be. He didn’t know what he’d do if she never wanted him back, which seemed more likely than not. He knew he could date other girls. He’d tried that. But he also knew that none of those relationships would stick, and none of the girls would hold his interest in quite the same way.

Thankfully, Al wasn’t aware of James’ embarrassing side trip through his own angst. It was bad enough that he knew just how awful it was. “Listen,” he clapped his brother on the shoulder. “You’re never going to know unless you try. So go try! Pull her outside and ask her. I’ll keep Lily distracted.”

Al gave it a long moment of thought, then straightened his shoulders and marched in, with James on his heels. Nat had given up any pretense of playing the game, and was watching them as they joined the two girls. She looked miserable to James, but then she squared her own shoulders resolutely and nodded to a group of giggling teenage girls off to the side where food was being sold. “They were checking you two out. You should go talk to them.”

Just like that, Al deflated in on himself and stuck his hands in his pockets. James could have cheerfully kicked Nat for her rotten timing. “I’m not interested in them, are you, Al?”

Al wouldn’t even look at them as he gave a half-hearted shrug. James knew exactly why. Just as he’d worked up the courage to ask her out, she’d told him she wasn’t interested by pointing him in the direction of other girls.

Brilliant.

“Should we go get something to eat?” James suggested with a forced smile. “I’m getting hungry.”

Their walk down the sidewalks of the main strip in the Muggle town wasn’t very far, but even so Nat was under a huge hat, and clinging to Al’s arm to keep her going. Any kind of strain in the heat was enough to leave her weak. James’ dad had been sitting at an outdoor caf, drinking iced coffee, or something equally detestable, while reading a Muggle novel he’d picked up at one of the local book stores. He’d been their protector on this adventure, but he’d been cool about it. James had to give him that. He hadn’t been following around right behind them, but he wasn’t stupid or rebellious anymore, either. James knew that their lives were in danger. If there was no danger from the outside, then there was always the risk that Nat might need medical attention immediately and they’d need a grownup right there to see to her. If it was really bad, James had no qualms about calling for Polly to come get Nat, but all things considered, he didn’t want to cause an incident on the Muggle town by summoning a house-elf.

“Hey, kids,” Harry set his book down after marking his page. The cover had a large, Muggle man holding some kind of long staff. “Did you have fun?”

There were nods from the girls, and a grunt from Al.

“Dad,” James pointed to the book. “Is that man holding a wand?”

Harry shook his head. “This book has turned out to be very funny, just in its own right, but no, it’s a story of a man who is a wizard, just not the kind we’re used to. They call it a staff, but it works the same way as a wand.”

“Huh,” James mused as he tried to catch the title upside down. “Well, we’re hungry.”

“Some place with air conditioning, please,” Nat asked quietly.

Harry zeroed in on her and was over to her in a flash. He cupped her chin and gave her a good once over. “I think the heat has been too much for you. Maybe we should go back. I can get the car quickly.”

James almost opened his mouth to say he could get the car, but didn’t say anything when Nat shook her head. “I just want to eat something.”

“Alright,” Harry took over for Al and led them off to a restaurant two doors down. The waitress seated them immediately, and Nat quickly downed a full glass of water, then started in on the nuts and berries the waitress brought over for her.

“My goodness,” the waitress, a kindly woman in her late forties, said to Nat. “You’re definitely overheated, honey. How about some ice cream or something?”

“I can’t eat ice cream,” Nat replied with a smile as she popped a berry into her mouth. “But thank you, anyway.”

“No ice cream!” the woman tisked sadly. “So many children with allergies these days, it’s a wonder anyone can eat anything at all. Well, I’ll just leave the menus with you and get back to you in a few minutes when you’ve decided.”

The moment she was gone, Lily piped in. “What’s an allergy?”

“It’s when a substance can make you sick by being around it,” Nat explained in her lecture mode. “Sometimes you can die from an allergy. Your throat swells shut and you stop breathing.”

“Oh, Merlin!” Lily gasped in horror. “That sounds awful!”

“It’s something that the magical community can cure easily,” Harry informed all of them, with a touch of regret. “Unfortunately, it’s just not something we can share with the Muggles because it requires a spell and wand.”

Al’s gaze focused sharply on the door and his expression lit up. He pointed to the door, and Nat turned towards it. James looked next to see his mum and Julienne Parker standing in the doorway. A chorus of, “Mum!” rang out around the table.

~*~

“It’s not good,” Harry confessed to Julienne later that night as they sat around the couches in the comfortable living room. Ginny was curled into his side, much like a cat, and holding her glass of wine in one hand, turning the glass by the thin stem so that the ruby liquid churned and spun in the glass. The kids were long since in bed, but the adults had serious business to discuss, which was partly why they’d called Julienne to come see them.

“What happened?” Julienne asked, then listened to the escapade at the Roanoke colony, and then finding the body on the shore. Her face was white as they went through just how much Nat had been through. “She’s depressed?”

“It seems to be something like that,” Ginny confirmed sadly. “She was such a happy, bright kid before she was kidnapped, and now she’s just not the same anymore. That long illness, the feeding line being in place for a while… all those things, and maybe a few more with it, went a long way in breaking her spirit.”

Julienne considered them both. “But she perks up again when she’s helping with cases or being useful?”

Harry and Ginny nodded together. “It’s stunning,” Harry assured her. “It’s like I have another kid on my hand. She doesn’t mind the day to day, either, but I think she feels like she’s not really useful, or maybe like she’s a burden.”

Ginny snorted out a laugh. “That’s such a man’s way of look at things, Harry. That’s not what this is about.”

If he’d been a younger man, with less marriage experience, he’d have been annoyed. However, life had taught him along the way that prudence was important. “What am I missing?”

“What she wants in life is a family,” Ginny told him. Julienne gasped, and both turned to see tears welling up in the older woman’s eyes. “Oh, Julienne, I didn’t mean it like that!”

Julienne waved that off as she pulled a tissue from her pocket to dab at her eyes. “No, but as soon as you said it, I knew you were right! She wants a family. She wants that very much. She loves babies, and little children.”

Ginny gave her a minute to compose herself before she went on. “I heard her talking to the other kids, a few years back, about her looks. She’s realistic about the fact that, even though we all treasure her, she’s not what a boy typically looks for.”

“But Al is smitten with her,” Julienne pointed out.

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, and hopefully he figures out what to do about that sooner rather than later, because quite frankly, I do not want him to blow this, but I know Al. We can’t push him if he isn’t ready for it.”

Harry was still completely lost. “What does having a family have to do with anything?”

“She doesn’t feel like she’ll have the chance to have a family,” Ginny pointed out as though he was a bit dim.

But come to it, he was a bit dim. She’d already said as much. “I mean…” Harry floundered as he tried to form coherent words to respond. “I guess… well, yes,” he concluded lamely, aware he hadn’t really said anything, at all.

“She likes the work with Harry because she knows she’s good at it,” Julienne said, intuitively filling in the blank, “and because it gives her purpose away from the thing she really wants out of life.”

“That’s my theory,” Ginny told her. “I think she wants my mum’s life, to be a wife and mother, which is fine, but not being able to have that, she’d like to help where she’s gifted, and she is definitely gifted. Her ability to spot hidden magic is unbelievable.”

Harry felt himself pull upright again onto firm ground. “So, we’d like to continue that with her. If I have a case where I feel like she can help, and she is physically well, I would like your permission to bring her in as a consultant.”

Julienne considered as she stared off out into the darkness beyond the windows, to the shoreline that was only visible by the light of the moon overhead. “I want her to be happy. In our world, I’d take her therapy and maybe put her on medicine to help with her moods, but I take it you don’t do things like that.”

“We have therapists,” Ginny said immediately. “I hadn’t thought of that, but that can definitely be arranged. One would travel to the school to see her. We don’t do Muggle versions of medicine, but tend to find that small potion pick-me-ups work out very well when someone is unhappy.”

“Alright,” Julienne smiled at the pair of them. “If she can have therapy, then I’m happy to let her work, if that’s what she wants. I just don’t want her to be unhappy.”

Harry nodded in total understanding. “Neither do we.”

~*~

“We miss you!” Rose’s voice said as her image shifted in and out of focus on the two-way mirror that Rose’s mum had made for Al, Nat, Rose, and Scorpius their first Christmas at Hogwarts. They only used them now for summer hols, and still that was rare, but it had been a lifeline that summer. Scorpius’ face flashed into the panel and Al thought his best friend looked a bit pale.

“We’ve missed you, too,” Al agreed as he showed Nat the mirror so she could see Scorpius better. She, too, looked a little alarmed. “You okay, mate?”

Scorpius’ face fell for a moment, then went back to neutral. “My aunt is missing.”

Everyone gasped at the same time, and Rose’s face came back into focus. “What happened?!” Rose demanded of him. “Why didn’t you call me to tell me?!”

Scorpius’ tired voice filled the line. “She does this sometimes. She gets into these black moods and she’ll disappear. She’s not normally gone this long, but it’s happened before. I just hate it. I was really hoping to see her more this summer, and then I did, but she dropped me at home, and then vanished.”

“Maybe we should tell my dad,” Al suggested to everyone, even though his dad couldn’t really do anything at that moment.

Scorpius came back to them through the mirror. “No, she’s hiding out somewhere. She has a couple of places that she does that. She wouldn’t be happy with me, or anyone, if someone tried to find her. I know that much. She’s off because she’s not a good person to be around right now.”

Rose came back, her picture still going in and out. “I’m so sorry, Scorpius.”

“Me, too,” Al agreed. Then to Rose, he said, “What are you doing? You look like you’re jumping.”

“I’m walking around the yard,” Rose informed him primly. “I’m trying to stay in shape, which hasn’t been the easiest thing to do around studies, and my grandparents. They keep wanting me to come over and hang out with them, but we just end up sitting around playing games. I like it, but it’s not been a good summer to prepare for Quidditch tryouts.”

Al blinked in surprise as he realized that was going to be coming up all too soon. “I forgot about that.”

“You look all brown and healthy,” Rose assured him bitterly. “I bet you’ve been swimming in the ocean and playing with James on the beach.”

“A bit of that, yeah,” Al agreed.

“But Nat,” Scorpius said as his face appeared again, “You look as though you’ve been through a war.”

“Oh,” Nat waved that off. “I overheated yesterday. I’m taking it easy today because of it. I just don’t do well with the hot and humid anymore, especially not after getting used to England’s milder weather. North Carolina is so hot and muggy it’s like you’re breathing in steam constantly.”

“Yuck,” was Rose’s opinion on that. “When are you guys heading back again?”

“We’ll be back the third week in August,” Al told her. “We’ll have to pick a date to go to Diagon Alley together.”

Scorpius gave a short, almost hollow laugh. “That’ll be fun. I could use the distraction. Just another few weeks, then.”

“Yeah, we’ll see you in a few weeks,” Nat agreed. “Keep us posted on your aunt, okay?”

Scorpius agreed, as they all signed off and Al put the mirror away. He sat back on the bed and stared at Nat with concern. “Do you really think she’s okay, or do you think someone got her?”

“I think,” she said slowly, thoughtfully, “that Daphne Greengrass is a very smart, and cunning woman. She strikes me as someone who is self-aware and resourceful. I won’t say that something couldn’t have happened to her, but I will say that I think it’s unlikely. She is probably off doing her own thing, just like Scorpius thinks she is. We’ll just have to hope for the best.”

Al didn’t necessarily like that, but didn’t see that he could do anything about it. He sighed. “Want to go out to the beach?”

“We’d better,” Nat said with a palpably forced smile. “We don’t have much longer for holiday.”

~*~

There are moments in her life that Ginny knows will stick with her forever. Lily’s birth was one of those moments, although certainly the birth of all her children was very special. But she’d known, even then, that Lily would be her last and that was what struck her so. The last of her firsts was upon her. The last time she’d see someone walk for the first time. The last time she’d nurse a baby. The last time she’d get to deal with a first tooth and all the fussing. Now her baby was splashing in the water, and she was gorgeous. Nat had predicted, years before, that Lily would grow to be a real beauty, and it was proving true, exactly as the girl had said it would. It was disconcerting, and also very special. Ginny wasn’t delicate in her features, by any stretch of the imagination, but Lily was, and in that delicacy, she seemed almost one to be protected. More bizarre to Ginny was that Lily was okay with that. If she had been in that position, she’d have done everything she could to prove she didn’t need anything or anyone. Well, Ginny reflected with a smirk, that is exactly what she’d done. They were two very different people, and Ginny had been forced to accept that although Lily wasn’t weak, she wasn’t strong in the ways that Ginny thought of when she thought of traditional strength. But she was unfailingly kind, very loyal, and in tune with people’s feelings. Ginny had little patience for feelings, which she knew was a weakness.

But that wasn’t the thing she’d been thinking about, although it maybe would have been a happier memory to focus on. The thing she couldn’t get out of her head was her dream of James and Caroline. She could replay the memory in her head, as clearly as if it was yesterday. The memory of it hadn’t stayed sharp, at first, but now she’d had the dream several times, and in each case, it was always the same. James was in a hospital, and Harry was handing Caroline a baby that was clearly James’ baby. She knew in her gut that it was James’ baby. They were in a house that she knew, without knowing how to explain it, that it was James’ house. She knew, without knowing how to explain it, that James was nineteen when all of this happened.

What she couldn’t explain was why Caroline was being given the baby by Harry, who appeared to be almost sick with worry. She didn’t know why Caroline’s face was blank with shock. She saw the wedding ring, again, signifying that the woman was James’ wife. She was his wife. If things came to pass, as they were in the dream, James would be married within three years to a girl who had probably never been kissed. Ginny shuddered violently when she realized that likely wasn’t true, but that any affection had been at the hands of a monster. There was no way that woman would want to marry anyone, not any time soon.

But her son… her baby… who was still childishly splashing in the waves with his siblings… He would be in his fifth year this year, and sixteen shortly after the start of term. He was beginning to grow into himself. He was growing so tall, definitely taller than Harry, although he wasn’t quite there yet. He wasn’t brawny, not like Al appeared to be, not like Charlie, but more like Ron. It suited him. His cocky attitude was tempered by forces around him, and she really respected the man he was growing to be.

She’d been a mother at sixteen, and Harry a father at seventeen, but they had been through the war. They’d been forced to grow up years before, but of course, so had James. He’d already killed a man to save the girl he loved. He did love her, Ginny knew. She had doubts it could last. She had serious doubts that Caroline could ever be ready to be the kind of wife that a passionate and fun-loving James could put up with for long, but the heart was rarely logical.

“What are you thinking?” Julienne asked from the chair next to Ginny as they sat under an umbrella.

She smiled as she saw Harry grab hold of James and take him down into the waves. “I was thinking that I didn’t know how James was going to grow up, when he’s so clearly still a child, but then my husband proved that maybe boys don’t change all that much when they’re playing.”

“I’ve heard about your hide-and-go-seek games,” Julienne said as she reached over to poke Ginny’s shoulder. “Nat says you’re more likely than not to jinx your brothers and cheat.”

“I rarely cheat,” Ginny assured her seriously, “I just get creative with the rules. Anyway, if you’d had six older brothers, you’d have learned to cheat to survive, too. The key was being sneakier, and just a little bit meaner than the rest of them.”

Julienne laughed. “Did you ever get away with it?”

“Frequently,” Ginny assured her, “but I also often admitted what I’d done, just to keep Mum and my brothers off guard. I wanted her to trust my word, which meant telling her things she knew I’d done. I only lied when she didn’t know one way or the other.”

Her friend let out a low whistle. “You must have been a treat to raise.”

“Oh, I was,” she agreed as she watched the girls out in the surf. Nat had a tube that helped her float, and she saw the peace on the little girl’s face. “My problem child was definitely James, but the others have been easy.”

“Nat was always easy,” Julienne confirmed. “I wasn’t around as much as I’d have liked, but she was so sweet, so easy to love. James seems very different from the boy I met a few years ago.”

“He is,” Ginny reluctantly confirmed. “He was such an angry, aggressive kid. It’s been a remarkable turnaround.”

Silence fell between them as they continued to watch the waves. “Nat wrote to tell me about what happened with that man. He was part of all of this mess, right?”

She thought about Baker’s association with Crabbe and grimaced. “Yes, in a fashion.”

“Nat says that James is gone over the man’s daughter,” Julienne informed her casually. “How do you feel about that?”

Ginny let out a snorting laugh. “My other son is gone over your daughter, Julienne. How do you feel about that?”

The other woman turned back to study Al, who was laughing with Nat, while helping keep her steady in the waves that wanted to rock her and tip her tiny raft. There was perfect peace on her face. “I am relieved, Ginny. I’m so relieved that a boy, raised by very good people, has such feelings for my little girl. There are a lot who would consider her too broken to be worth the trouble, but you know, as well as I do, just how special she is. I am pleased more than I can say. Now we need to wait to see if it will last.”

“Oh,” Ginny smiled and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slid them on. “Al is child. Once he’s made up his mind about something like that, he sticks. Of that I have no doubt. And you’re right, Natalie is a very special kid. I’m glad they’ve found each other.”

When her husband emerged from the ocean and began to stalk towards her, with devious intent in his eyes, Ginny sighed and knew she was about to get dunked.

No, it would seem that boys didn’t change all that much.

Back to index


Chapter 36: Chapter 33

Author's Notes: It's been so long, I know! Summer and vacation and kids... oh my kids. My middle child has been dx'ed with several learning hurdles, although he's incredibly smart, so now my life is spent back and forth to therapies. That's actually good for all of you, as I'm stuck in waiting rooms with hours to write every week.

Please, please consider going to my profile and checking out my novels which are on sale on amazon. I can't link here, but everything is on my profile. Also, my publisher and I started a podcast which we'll be putting out every week or so and the link is also in my profile.

I write fanfiction for free, but bills still have to be paid. Paying an artist for art you love is always appreciated. Even if you can't pay for a novel, you can go listen to and like the podcasts on youtube which can start netting us ad revenue.

Thank you so much to Arnel for all of her help in keeping the work free of mistakes.

Thank you most to everyone who reviews and keeps me motivated! This is a marathon story, not a short sprint, and sometimes we just need a kind word to think about writing that next chapter.

Please review!


Chapter 33

“Ducky!” Lily squealed as she ran through Ivy Run to scoop up her cat off the sofa. Ducky snuggled in for a brief second, purring in absolute delight, then flung herself out of Lily’s arms to sit on the floor and bathe. It wouldn’t do, Lily knew, for anyone to know that Ducky had actually missed them. That wasn’t the way with cats. She sighed happily and glanced around the house as everyone else trooped in, carrying bags and talking about dinner plans. Home smelled the same as it always did, of broom polish and pumpkin juice. It was a smell she missed dreadfully every time she was away. She grinned, so happy with the world that it was practically bursting out of her. She had loved their holiday, but equally loved coming back.

“Lily,” her mother’s voice called to her. “Can you help Polly get started on dinner, luv?”

Lily grinned and skipped over to the kitchen where the tiny house-elf was working. There was no place like home, not even a house on the beach.

No one lasted much through dinner, thanks to the time-zone difference between America and England, and it was with fully bellies that they all tromped upstairs to go to bed early. Nat barely had the energy to get changed. “You okay?” Lily asked her as she watched her friend droop through her ablutions.

Nat let out a long sigh and nodded as she finished up and moved over to lay down in the bottom bunk. “I’m so tired, Lil. It’s just been a long day. The Portkey home left me really nauseated.”

Lily had definitely felt the effects of the Portkey, as well, but it had disappeared shortly after landing in England. “We get to sleep in tomorrow, at least. Then we’ll have dinner with the family.”

But Nat was already asleep. It had been a long day, but Lily was too excited. She heard a small scratch at the door and bounced over to open it so that Ducky could slink in. “No one is looking,” she assured the cat. “Nat’s asleep.”

Ducky let out a low mew and allowed Ginny to pluck her up and stick her on the top bunk. She climbed up and snuggled in with her kitten and contemplated what the next few days would hold. She’d seen their Hogwarts letters waiting for them, but hadn’t looked. Nothing changed for her, as far as classes. James hadn’t looked at his letter, yet, but she knew that he wasn’t expecting a prefect badge, so there was no rush. It was odd that her brother was in his fifth year. That seemed old to Lily, although it wasn’t so much James’ age, but his air of solemnness. He was anxious to see Caroline again. He was hoping to see her sooner than the school year. Lily had seen him write to her just before dinner to ask about meeting in Diagon Alley.

Lily didn’t know how to form the words for what she felt about the other girl. She felt very sorry for her, especially after what she’d heard from her best friend, Honor, about what they had gone through. Lily knew her parents sheltered her, or at least tried to, from the worst parts of life, but she was still learning those lessons, anyway. It was scary to think of what a parent could do to their child. She had no idea how anyone could be so cruel. Unbidden, tears pooled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. It was miserable that people were so terrible.

She fell asleep to the thoughts of her own loving parents and the gratitude that went with that.

The next day brought two owls, one from Caroline and Honor, who said they could meet on Thursday, and one from Scorpius, who said that Thursday would work for him, as well. “Are Rose and Hugo coming, then?” James asked as he read over Al’s shoulder. “I bet Uncle Ron will love that.”

“Maybe just Aunt Hermione will come,” Lily interjected thoughtfully.

James let out a snort. “Not a chance, Lily. Scorpius’ dad has been mean to Aunt Hermione since they were both eleven. Uncle Ron wouldn’t leave her alone to face him.”

“I think Aunt Hermione can take care of herself,” Al reminded him. “She’s the smartest person I know.”

“I just wish everyone would get on well,” Lily sighed unhappily. She hated it when people fought. It made her feel terrible.

They didn’t have long to dwell on it, though, as the family started to pour in around four o’clock to kick off the dinner. She had cousins to laugh with, and play with. She had Hugo, whom she had missed tremendously over the summer. She’d hugged him hard and hadn’t wanted to let go.

“Lily,” her cousin groaned in exasperation while he patted her back awkwardly. “It’s only been a few weeks!”

“It’s been forever,” she assured him and pulled back to grin up into his freckled face. He was getting taller by the day, shooting up like his dad. “Have you spoken to Honor?”

“I had a letter last week,” he replied as they moved off to grab some crisps from the bowl on the counter before the rest of the teenagers could devour them. “She’s doing alright.”

She waited a beat for him to expand on it, but when it didn’t come, she let out a soft laugh. “You’re such a boy, sometimes, Hugo.”

He shot her a quizzical glance. “Thanks, I think. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If I ask a girl about a letter, she’ll give me most of the details. A boy just says one thing and that’s that, like that’s all that needs to be said,” Lily explained as she pulled him out into the back garden where the family was clustered in chairs under the trees. She scampered over to the swing that hung from a huge branch, and Hugo automatically went to push her. It’s what they’d been doing together for as long as she could remember. But things were changing. “We’re going into our second year.”

“I know,” he said as he pushed her up as high as he could and let her go so the swing would sail back. He grinned and stuck his hands in his pockets as the swing pulled her back and pushed her forward. “It’ll be cool, though. We’re not the youngest anymore.”

Lily was always the youngest, or at least she would be until the baby came. As though she’d called them into being, Teddy and Victoire walked into the backyard, hand in hand, with her cousin’s hand on her small, but definitely rounded stomach. Lily let out a shriek and would have fallen out of the swing if Hugo hadn’t caught her. The second she had her feet under her, she sprinted for them and flung her arms around Teddy, who swung her up into a hard hug. Then she was hugging Victoire, but gentler, since gentler seemed to be called for and it was so weird to have a baby between them, but so cool, too. Lily burst out into tears as she hugged this, her oldest cousin, who had minded her from the time she was an infant. Now it would be Lily’s time to return the favor. Lily touched a hand to her cousin’s belly and grinned up into Victoire’s beautiful face. “This is the best thing ever!”

“I think so,” Teddy agreed as he wrapped an arm around his wife’s expanding waist and pressed a kiss to her temple.

Soon enough Lily had to make way for her parents, who also wanted in on the greeting. Her dad held onto Victoire and rocked her back and forth a bit. She heard, although she doubted anyone else was close enough, him whisper just how proud he was of her and Teddy, and how much he loved them and was looking forward to having a grandchild. Victoire’s eyes teared up, but Lily had expected that. Her father could do that to her anytime. He seemed to like to pass out these words of praise, just for the sake of making them feel good.

She beamed around at everyone and spotted Nat a few steps off, staring at Victoire. Her expression was so odd that for a panicked heartbeat, Lily thought the other girl might fall over in a dead faint. She rushed to her friend and grabbed her arm. “Are you okay?”

“It’s a girl,” Nat whispered in a voice that sounded nothing like her own.

“It’s a girl?” Lily repeated, her eyes going wide as she realized what exactly Nat meant. “You’re sure?”

“I…” she hesitated only a second. “I’m sure.”

“We should tell them!” Lily squealed, but Nat shook her head violently and pulled Lily back. “You don’t know that they want to know, Lily! They may want to be surprised.”

Lily felt herself sway as she realized that Nat was right and that they might have made a mess of things. “I’ll just quietly find out if they want to know, and if so then you can tell them. They’ll be able to find out soon, anyway, right?”

It turned out that Nat was right and that they were hoping to be surprised. “It’s one of the few amazing surprises in life,” Victoire told her with a grin. “Plus, it’s driving my mum crazy. She wants to buy baby clothes right now and isn’t fond of either green or yellow.”

Lily smiled at that, and was very thankful that she’d let it go. She’d never forgiven herself if she’d ruined the surprise.

“We’re going to spend the night,” Rose told her in excitement. “Dad is going to help Uncle Harry set up a few tents and we’re going to camp out.”

Lily turned to see her Aunt Hermione stick her hands on her uncle’s cheeks. He jumped in surprised and laughed about how cold they were, even as he swung her into a laughing hug. “They look better.”

“It’s been loads better, Lily,” Rose promised earnestly as she gazed at her parents hopefully. “I thought for sure something was going to break between them, but they just keep getting better and better.”

“I’m happy for you,” she said as she took her cousin’s hand and squeezed. “My parents are always good together, so it’s something I take for granted. I don’t know what it would be like if they were on the outs.”

~*~

Harry couldn’t stop hugging his wife. He knew she was probably getting a little annoyed, especially since he knew she was trying to prepare for the large family dinner, but he simply could not help it. He’d have been part of this family, even without marrying her, but he had his own family because of her. Only it wasn’t just because of her. He had a family because of Remus and Tonks, and it was them today that kept him clutching at the woman who was his lifeline.

“What’s up with you?” Ginny asked him softly.

“I’m happy and sad,” Harry told her, whispering it into her hair. “Remus… Tonks… they should be here to be celebrating their grandchild.”

That was what was hitting so hard. Harry had all but adopted Teddy, bringing him into the fold of his family every step of the way. He’d been a father to him, and Harry knew that was exactly what Teddy needed, and what Remus would have wanted, maybe even what he would have expected. But that didn’t lessen the feelings that were swamping through Harry. The baby was his grandchild. It was technically his great-niece, as well, but primarily he was going to be the grandfather for Teddy’s side. He’d been longing for another baby, would have been happy if Ginny had given in a few years before, but he liked this, too. This felt like it was right, like it was the next natural step.

A grandchild…

“They would want us to be there for the baby,” Ginny reminded him. “I miss them so much, especially at times like this. I think about all we went through. I dread thinking about what would have happened if I hadn’t accepted Teddy into our life. I was so broken after Hope’s death.”

“You wouldn’t have stayed that way for long,” Harry said with absolute conviction. “You love too deeply, too fiercely, and Tonks was a friend to you. You’d have stood for her child just as soon as you got your feet under you.”

“I like to hope so,” she admitted as she leaned fully against him. “I really do like to hope so. I’m so excited, Harry! I’m so glad for them, and that they’re so happy about the baby. Just look.”

Harry turned and gazed across the lawn to where Victoire stood in Teddy’s embrace, talking to Audrey and Percy. Teddy kept absently rubbing her belly. The joy and peace on both of their faces was immense. It was even more impressive when he considered that Percy could, in the span of any ten minute conversation, bore the pants off of anyone. It was as though they had a happiness bubble.

“You were like that when I was pregnant with James,” Ginny reminded him. “You were a bit like that with Hope, but I think everything came at us too fast then to really enjoy it.”

His eyes flicked over to the stone bench and his daughter’s headstone. It was closing in on twenty-two years since Ginny had miscarried. Time had dulled some of the pain, but the longing stayed constantly. She’d be a beautiful, young woman, maybe on her way to a career or to becoming a parent herself. She’d have been wonderful. That’s all Harry knew. “I was too scared all the time to really enjoy it, but knowing she was growing inside of you was one of the best things. I didn’t have a clue how we would handle it, but I knew we would together. I have to start back in on the hunt for Isabella Crabbe. I have to bring her down so that she stops ripping families apart.”

Ginny shook her head. “I don’t think you’re going to catch her just like that. She’s too smart, too lucky, and too crazy to be predictable enough to catch. I think it’s only when she’s finally had enough, when she makes a big play, that you’ll then get the chance to get to her.”

He hated to think she was right, but knew deep down that she was. “Still, I have to try.”

“Ginny?” Molly called out to her daughter and they turned to see the matriarch slowly making her way over to them. “Polly kicked me out of your kitchen and told me she had it under control.”

The house-elf was particular about help, often only allowing Ginny herself, or Nat, in on the kitchen preparations. Harry thought that the tiny elf was partial to Natalie, since the girl was elf-sized, and because she knew just how much joy the cooking was to the small, sick child.

“Just sit down and enjoy the beautiful day,” Harry told his mother-in-law as he bent to kiss her wrinkled cheek. She was getting up there in years, but both she and Arthur were still very spry and had all their wits about them. It was a blessing that Harry appreciated every day. He wasn’t even close to being able to say goodbye to her. Saying goodbye to Andromeda Tonks had been bad enough, not to mention what it did to Teddy. Molly was still very much the matriarch of their family, and she was needed, as far as Harry was concerned. “Is Nat still in the kitchen?”

“She’s peeling sprouts and told me how she plans to cook them,” Molly confirmed as she allowed Harry to assist her into one of the comfortable chairs splayed around the lawn. She smiled at her daughter as she patted the chair next to her.

Ginny sat in one chair and Harry pulled another around to talk to her. “What is it, Mum?”

Molly gazed at her daughter for a long moment as she seemed to take in all of Ginny’s features. “I was standing there, watching Natalie, and thinking just how easy it would be to see her there in ten years, maybe even twenty, and wondering if I will be around to see it.”

“You will be,” Harry said confidently. “I have no doubt over that.”

“I think I will,” Molly agreed as her gaze slid off and out of focus. “You don’t know how things will turn out when you’re young. You hope for the best, and can never truly prepare for the worst. I’ve lived the worst,” she said on a long sigh and blindly reached for Ginny’s hand. They locked together, old and wrinkled, with young and strong. “You have too, darling.” She didn’t meet Ginny’s eyes, but her eyes stayed on Hope’s grave. “You have, too,” she reiterated. “It’s made you so strong. I didn’t think you’d ever be the one in the kitchen, willingly helping me. I didn’t see that for you, as you seemed to want so badly to run after the boys.”

Harry glanced to Ginny in confusion, but his wife seemed to understand what her mother was saying.

“I didn’t want to admit that I liked cooking,” Ginny agreed with a wry smile. “So many times we’re told that we have to like what the boys like, and I do like a lot of the things the boys like, but that doesn’t mean I need to be ashamed to be helping prepare meals.”

“Exactly,” Molly agreed as her eyes lit. “None of the boys like to cook, except that young Malfoy boy. If he’s over, he offers to help all the time.”

Harry blinked in surprise. He’d never seen Scorpius helping in the kitchen, although admittedly he was only in the kitchen if he was being ordered to do something. “Does he?”

“Indeed,” Molly confirmed. “I like him, a lot, Harry. I didn’t think that would be possible, but it’s true. He’s such a nice, young man.”

That had been the biggest surprise to Harry in the last few years. He’d not held onto his grudge with Malfoy, since Draco had helped him more than once over the years, but neither had he sought out his old rival. Draco’s family was still high browed about their status in the wizarding community, despite boy Draco and Lucius spending time in jail. They might have kept their family name out of the gutter since the days of Voldemort, but that didn’t mean people had forgotten what had gone on. No one wanted a repeat of the dark days, least of all Harry. He didn’t need people rallying around another Dark Lord to bring back the ways of purebloods. It was too sick to even contemplate.

If there was anything to be said in Isabella Crabbe’s favor, it was that blood had nothing to do with it. Also, she wasn’t a rallying point. She was the victim of abuse so horrific that it was truly unspeakable. To be forced to marry as a young teen, to bear a child, and then lose that child to what she saw as murder on Harry’s part… well, it was no wonder she was off her rocker. Harry hadn’t killed Vincent Crabbe, though. He’d killed himself with that curse in the Room of Requirement. It was only dumb luck that they hadn’t all died. There would be no convincing his mother of that, though. She wanted revenge, and it had made for an extremely sheltered life for Harry’s children. He’d enjoyed their time in America, if for no other fact that they weren’t well known in the wizarding world there. If they were known, no one had a problem with Harry. The wizards in America didn’t lean towards the type of blood mania that had been seen in England.

“Do you know,” Molly went on, interrupting Harry’s train of thought. “I think Al fancies Natalie.”

Harry grinned as Ginny laughed. “I think that’s pretty plain for everyone to see, Mum.”

“Oh, Nat doesn’t see it,” Molly assured her seriously. “I think that girl has a deep well of self-doubt that I wouldn’t have thought possible for her. She used to be so confident. I was always amazed at how poised she was. It didn’t seem to bother her that she was so very different.”

“Puberty has hit them all, well, except Nat,” Ginny reminded her mother with a shake of her head. “Dealing with all these hormonal teenagers is going to be fun. Still, she understands that they’re moving on without her. She’s not really progressed with the others, and I think it bothers her. I agree with you, though. She doesn’t see Al as having feelings for her, and that’s bound to make a girl feel terrible about herself.”

Harry winced and shot Ginny an apologetic glance. “Sorry about that, Luv.”

She waved it off. “I got over it, which is what needed to happen.”

“Do you ever think of meddling?” Molly wondered.

“No, I do not,” Ginny told her firmly, then hesitated. “Well, I do think about it, of course, because I want my children to be happy, but I also know what my own wise mother did for me. If we meddle, we risk messing everything up. These feelings that they have for each other will mature and grow in their own way, at their own time. I do not think it’s wise for anyone to get in the middle of that. Al will have to get up the courage to say something to her, and Nat will need to gain the confidence to know he means it.”

“It does seem a bit odd that, for as insightful as she is,” Harry mused to the two women, “that she can’t see what her best friend is feeling.”

Both of them stared at him with something close to sympathy. “Harry, darling,” Molly reached over to pat his hand affectionately. “It’s always in our own lives that we miss the most details.”

Understanding that she meant him, he nodded. It was something to think about.

~*~

“This tent is so cool,” Nat mused as she stared around at the beautifully appointed living room set, almost the exact same as the one they’d had at the beach. The sofas were plum colored with white pillow accents and currently had Roxy and Lucy sprawled out on them, gorging on chocolate covered strawberries. The two girls were heading into their sixth and fifth years, respectively. Nat smiled as she thought of the genetics involved with them. Lucy was pale, with her mother’s brown hair, but her father’s freckles. But Roxy was more of her mother, with brown hair and eyes, and a bronzed complexion. Yet they had the same nose, and the same chin. The two looked the most alike, apart from coloring.

“I wonder what the boys’ looks like,” Roxy mused around a mouthful of strawberry.

“It’s close to the same, actually,” Rose told her as she snagged a strawberry. “I wish Molly had stayed the night, too! It feels like we’re all spreading apart now.”

Dominique, who had been exploring one of the bedrooms off the main room, strolled back in. She was now in her seventh year, and had her long, red hair up in a messy bun at the base of her neck. “I’m definitely claiming the big bed, as I’m the oldest.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roxy chucked a strawberry to her cousin, who caught it deftly and popped it into her mouth. “Fine by me. I think I want the sofa! It’s so comfortable.”

“Is Molly coming, at all?” Lily asked Lucy as she sat herself on the arm of the couch and passed over a bowl of crisps.

Lucy shrugged as she took the bowl from Lily. “If she gets back from her date at a reasonable hour. She’s supposed to be here, which means Dad won’t be breathing down her neck to make curfew.”

“She is an adult,” Dom pointed out with the air of the smug, who has also reached that lofty status. Nat didn’t begrudge her that, though, since Dominique had put in the work towards getting through her teenage years.

It felt weird to Nat to be included in this sleepover. It was the Weasley and Potter children, all of them siblings and cousins, camping out in the Potter’s back garden. It wasn’t exactly camping, of course, as Nat had slept in a lot of rough locations with her father, some of which hadn’t had anything resembling a working loo, but she had to admit that she liked this sort of tenting. Nat was a fan of hot water. Her inclusion in the sleepover was more perfunctory, since she was staying with the Potter’s, as she often did, but she didn’t feel like the outsider anymore. They’d welcomed her in quickly, sure, but she hadn’t really been one of them until she’d fallen ill and had to stay with the Potters in order to save her life. After that, everyone had started to treat her like one of the family. Sometimes that was a good thing, and sometimes that meant waiting in line for that loo.

“I’ve checked out the boys’ tent,” Rose informed them as she popped into the tent, startling Nat. She hadn’t realized her best friend had even left. “It’s almost like it’s been warded against spills, but it’s also nice. They have more bunkbeds, even though there aren’t as many of them.”

“There are as many without Victoire and Molly here,” Lily pointed out.

“You have to let that go,” Dom said to Lily as she pulled her in for a swinging hug, lifting her smaller cousin up in a twirl. “We grow up, and change, and while Uncle Percy thinks Molly is here, she can do whatever she likes. She’s getting serious about the boy she’s seeing, you know.”

Lucy shook her head. “It can’t be too serious or she’d have brought him home to meet us.”

Roxy snorted out a laugh and choked on a strawberry. With tears streaming down her face, she pointed at Lucy, and then doubled over in sobbing giggles.

Lucy stared at her wordlessly for a moment and then burst out laughing, as well.

“I don’t get it,” Nat said to Rose, who hooked her arm in hers and pulled her over to sit on one of the other couches.

“I do,” Dominque said in grim amusement. “If she brings him home to meet Uncle Percy, then odds are good he’ll drive the boy away.”

Nat could well imagine that Percy, who was not the most intimidating man on the planet, could bore the pants off anyone who came to their home for dinner. She often wondered how his wife, who was lovely and interesting, put up with him, but for whatever reason, they made it work. She opened her mouth to say something to Dom, who had sprawled out across an armchair. She was beautiful, just like Victoire, but not in the way Lily was. Their beauty was obvious and easy to see. It was a turn of the face and a touch of magic from their mother. Lily, who sat next to Dominique in another seat, was beautiful in a way that she would grow into. Lily was delicate, and airy. Dom was a force unto herself and never took anything from anyone. Of the girl cousins, it could really only be said that Victoire, Dominique, and Lily were beautiful.

“What’s got you looking so seriously, Nat?” Roxy wondered.

Nat answered without thought. “I was thinking of how beauty works in DNA,” which was a stupid answer because DNA was meaningless in the magical community. “Er, how beauty runs in family.”

“Ahhh,” Roxanne pointed over to her cousins. Lily had the same red hair as Dominque, but that was the only similarity. Lily’s features were waif-like and ethereal, while Dom was carelessly beautiful, and she wore it as an afterthought, one she didn’t consider. It was the solid fact that her face was perfectly symmetrical and her complexion always flawless. Her Veela blood would not allow for anything else. It was the type of face that would radiate off the cover of a magazine without a single stroke from a photoshop brush. Nat knew she couldn’t have improved upon it with any form of technology. Victoire was the same way, although her coloring was different. Lily was not, in fact, perfect as her cousins were, but her whole package together was arresting nonetheless.

“What?” Lily questioned curiously as she glanced between them.

Dom snorted and kicked out at Roxy’s foot. “Fat lot of good it does me, right?”

Roxy grinned in triumph. “She means that you three are the prettiest among us.”

Lily scrunched up her mouth and nose and shook her head. “I think you’re all beautiful.”

“That’s because you’re a freak,” Rose assured her affectionately. “I’m not beautiful, not in any way, although I’m good looking enough to be getting on with.”

“Exactly,” Nat pointed to her, proud of her best friend’s canning understanding. “It doesn’t much matter if you’re beautiful or plain, of course, but genetics plays a role in this. All of you are all on the more attractive side of the scale, due in part to what your parents look like, of course. I would say that Roxy is the one that’s the least likely to be called beautiful, but her face and eyes are so interesting that it doesn’t matter. The boys still like her.” Roxy, as Nat had known she would, burst out laughing.

Lucy studied Nat for a moment before she added, “I think it’s more than that, though. Roxy’s just downright interesting, which has nothing to do with looks. She draws people in with how she is, and the fact that she won’t take crap from anyone.”

“What are we talking about?”

Everyone spun to the tent entrance to find Victoire and Molly climbing in through the flap. “You’re here?” Rose blurted out.

Victoire grinned and dragged an unenthusiastic Molly over to the sofa, where the others scooted to make room for them. “It didn’t feel right. Teddy and I got home, and I just knew I wanted to come back for the night. One last time we’re all together like this before this one gets here,” she said as she put her hand on her stomach. “I had Teddy track Molly down and we scared off her boyfriend.”

Nat had a fleeting image of Teddy forcing himself to grow taller and wider to intimidate the man, and had to fight back a laugh.

“Thanks for that, by the way,” Molly sighed, appearing resigned at her fate. She rested her head on her older cousin’s shoulder and grinned at Nat with laughing, blue eyes. “So what’s up?”

“We were discussing beauty and how it runs in families,” Nat said, catching them up. “It’s fascinating how all of you share features, but they’re morphed into their own subsets to make each of you individuals.”

Victoire’s perfect, pale brow arched in curiosity. “What brought that on?”

“Molly going out on a date,” Nat answered honestly. “Molly and Lucy are both classically pretty, in the English Rose sort of way. You, Dom, and Lily are unequivocally beautiful. I would say that Rose is good looking, and Roxy is unique, almost regal, but that’s not beautiful exactly. Your baby will be very attractive, whether boy or girl, of course. The Veela blood will assure that. Among the boys, Louis is undoubtedly the handsomest one.”

They all stared at her. “Well…” Victoire seemed at a loss for words. It was something no one would ever talk about. Nat knew that, but she knew this group of girls well by now. None of them was self-conscious, or would take offence to it. Rose had it right that she was attractive enough to get along. Roxy would be fine, as well. “What about yourself, Nat?”

Nat opened her mouth, and then shut it. “But I’m not in the genetic matrix, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Everyone stared at her blankly again.

“I’m not part of the family, and I was comparing all of you who have common ancestors,” which netted her several rolls of the eyes.

“Just answer,” Roxy ordered with a jab of the finger.

Nat tried to think through what she wanted to say before she said it, but the thoughts kept slipping away from her before she could form a plan of how to speak. She forced herself to let go and speak from the heart. “I’m more on the plain side, of the scale. I’m not ugly, of course. Very few people truly are, but my features are irregular, and I don’t look like most others, especially with how small I am. I’m not aging, either. I estimate that my growth is retarded at least by two years, so I appear to be more Lily’s age than my own, but the growth isn’t steady. Soon Lily will appear older than I am. Your mom has potions for me to start taking,” she told Molly and Lucy. “It might help me to grow, but my face before the curse would have been attractive, and the one after the curse from Egypt is nothing remarkable.” She hoped she sounded dispassionate and unaffected by what she’d said. That was the hope.

“You seem so sad,” Lily whispered into the clattering silence. “You’re always telling me that beauty doesn’t matter, that it’s the heart that counts.”

“It is!” Nat assured her. She did believe that. That wasn’t the trouble. The trouble was that people paired up along similar attractiveness lines. Victoire was, of course, more beautiful than Teddy, but he was very good looking. James was handsome, and Caroline beautiful. Nat had a feeling that those two would line up. Roxy tended to have the athletic boys after her, some who were handsome, but most who were into Quidditch, like she was. Al was… that’s where the knife went in. If Al hadn’t been so handsome, Nat would have had a chance with him. She knew what had been going on in human history for thousands of years, and this she knew surely. Al was too handsome for her. He liked her. He was her friend, but it had lodged home that when he chose a girlfriend, it would be with someone who was as good looking as him. It didn’t matter what Lily said. Lily didn’t understand human psychology or biology. “I’m not sad,” Nat lied smoothly, determined not to have anyone pity her. She was forcing herself to move on with life, because there was nothing she could do about it. There was no point in fighting an impossible battle, only to come out scarred and broken on the other end. “There will be a boy down the line who will like me. Women almost never end up alone forever, not if they’re open to the possibility. It’s typically only men that have that happen to them. So I will be fine.”

Dom shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. They all glanced to her to see her pale cheeks flushed red. “So, I have something to tell all of you. I decided, just now, that I’m going to tell you before I tell Mum and Dad.” They all waited for what felt like ten minutes as her face slowly drained of color. “I… I have a girlfriend.”

Everyone exchanged a glance, and then looked back at her. “If it’s that you’re gay,” Roxy spoke up first, “We all knew that. If it’s that you’re not single, that’s actually new.”

Dominique’s mouth fell open. “You all knew!?”

“So do the adults,” Victoire assured her with a smile. “You’re my baby sister, luv, of course I knew.”

Dom buried her face in her hands and Nat knew she’d started to cry.

Roxy threw a pillow at her older cousin’s head. “Knock it off, Dom! It’s not the end of the world. Actually, it’s a good thing, if you ask me. It’s one less pretty girl out there to take all the hot boys.”

Dominique burst out into hysterical giggles and finished the whole thing off by lobbing a strawberry right at Roxy’s forehead. Sadly, though, she caught it.

“You should have been a Seeker,” Rose whistled, completely impressed.

“Seriously, though,” Victoire went on as she rose and knelt by her sister, taking her in her arms. “We love you and we support you. No matter what.”

“So who are you dating, then?” Molly wanted to know. “And how did you keep it quiet?”

Nat opened her mouth without even knowing she knew the answer. “It’s Gwen, her best friend.”

They all turned to gape at her, then back to Dom, who nodded slowly. “How did you know?”

“Logical, actually,” Nat said as she rubbed her hand over her nose, a little embarrassed. “It had to be Gwen, because that’s the person you hang out with most.”

“I just didn’t realize Gwen was gay, too,” Roxy admitted. “Well, we learn new things every day. Should we try to spy on the boys and see what they’re talking about?”

“No,” Victoire put her foot down, as had always been her wont as the oldest. “They need their time to talk, just like we do. We will respect their privacy.”

“Easy for you to say,” Roxy grumbled. “You’ll go home and Teddy will just tell you everything that happened. I need a besotted husband to spy for me, I really do.”

Victoire opened her mouth to protest, then shut it again and grinned impishly. “Right, who has a pair of Extendable Ears?”

Everyone’s hand went up.

Back to index


Chapter 37: Chapter 34

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!

Please check out my original works. Sarah Jaune on amazon.


Chapter 34

Teddy held up a finger to his lips, just as James started into his plans for the Quidditch team that year. He wasn’t the captain, but he was already acting like it. It amused Teddy to know end, but they had other matters. He pointed down towards the entrance to the tent flap where the Extendable Ears had just crept their way in. James rolled his eyes, but kept up his story on Quidditch.

The girls, it would seem, were spying on them. Teddy thought quickly through what he could say to get back at his wife for spying, but just as quickly he threw that out as an absolutely terrible idea. He hadn’t been married that long, but he’d been married long enough to know that making his pregnant wife mad was the epitome of stupidity. “You know,” he went on as the other boys watched him, waiting to see what he would do. “I have the best wife.”

James rolled his eyes and grinned. “It’s almost like you’re saying that directly to her.”

“She couldn’t hear you,” Fred practically sang the words out. “They could just come over and we could all talk.”

They heard the laughter from the tent next door and not even a minute later, all of them came tromping into the tent. With all of them crammed together on the seats and floor it was too crowded to even breathe, but it felt right. Teddy knew that this was the end for them. This was the last time they would be in the group of kids. The group, however, was made up of adults and kids. Molly and Fred were already eighteen, and Dom was seventeen, heading into her last year. Soon enough they would marry and start having children, and then their child wouldn’t be the only one. But as he watched them laugh and joke, he could still see the childish fun in them. He’d been out in the world working for a while now. He had responsibilities. As he sat with Victoire, his arm around her shoulder, he thought about this time next year when they’d have a baby sitting with them.

Or rather, in this crowd, he doubted the baby would be sitting with them. Lily was likely to snatch the baby up every chance she could. She liked babies. When Luna’s boys were tiny, she was the one on the floor with them, playing with them all the time.

“They thought they were lovers,” Nat said, interrupting his train of thought. The whole group was listening to her, now, although he’d missed the first part and had no idea what she was talking about.

“Come again?” Teddy asked. “I was wool gathering.”

Victoire filled him in. “She’s talking about ancient bodies that her father had examined.”

“Ah,” he nodded, not at all sure he wanted to hear where this was going.

“So,” Nat hesitated only briefly as she tucked a lock of her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. “My dad thought for sure that’s what we’d find, even though the skeletons were not close in age. The woman was at least a good ten years older than the man’s, but I knew straight away that we were looking at a mother and her son. I could just see it. Dad thought I was crazy, but when the DNA came back, I was proved right. The bones showed signs of burning, so it looks like they might have both died in a fire and then were buried together.”

“Wait,” Roxy shook her head. “They were only about ten years apart in age?”

“Well, it might have been a bit more than that,” Nat said simply. “But it was about that much. It wasn’t uncommon for girls of ten or twelve to have babies hundreds of years ago. They think Mary from the Bible was only twelve or so.”

All of them stared at her blankly. “Who?” Al asked.

She shook her head and laughed. “Never mind, I can’t explain it.”

“As much as I’d like more scary stories,” Fred interjected jovially. “I think we should play midnight hide and go seek! Victoire, you can be the base keeper.”

Victoire opened her mouth to protest, then shut it again. “I guess it is that time, isn’t it,” she laughed as she rubbed at her stomach. “I’m the mum now.”

“That’s totally weird,” Louis told her as his face contorted uncomfortably. “I mean, I get that you’re married and all that, but uh… never mind.”

“Good thinking, so let’s play,” Teddy stood and off they went.

~*~

“It’s too hot,” Lily whined as they slowly tromped out of The Leaky Cauldron. “I feel like I’m melting.”

“We’ll get some ice cream,” Ginny promised her. “We’re meeting everyone there, anyway. It is rather hot today.”

Hot was a mild understatement, at least in Al’s mind. He was surprised that his shoes weren’t sticking to the cobbled stones of Diagon Alley. “Trying on new robes will be murder,” he told Nat.

She shrugged. “I don’t need new ones, so that’s mostly your problem.”

“Yeah, yeah, just rub it in,” he said as he ran a hand unconsciously through his newly shorn hair. His mum had hacked it off that morning and he still wasn’t used to it.

“You think I like the fact that I’m not growing any?” Nat demanded sharply.

Al stopped in his tracks and gaped at her as she walked on. After a few steps, she seemed to realize he wasn’t with her, and she stopped to turn back towards him. Her tiny, pixie face was pinched up in what even a blind man could see was annoyance. “What’s up with you?”

Nat threw her hands up in the air and shook her head. “Honestly, Al!”

“No, I’m serious,” he assured her as he closed the gap between them. “What’s wrong?”

She annunciated each word sharply. “I am not growing up.” The extra pop she put on the ‘p’ could have been heard from across the Alley. Nat pointed to her chest. “I still look like a small child.”

“But you aren’t,” Al reminded her dumbly, unsure of what she was talking about. “I mean, you’re fourteen."

She let out a long sigh and her whole body deflated with her. “You don’t get it, Al.”

“Does this have something to do with Aunt Audrey? She examined you yesterday.”

Nat’s cheeks flushed pink. “Yeah, well… she gave me something to help me grow up.”

“That’s good, then, right?” Al wondered, unsure of where this was going. Her face went bright red, then bled out until she was white as a ghost. Then, and only then, did he get what she was saying.

Nat glanced away from him, twisting her hands. “I’m just really mad today.”

Al had had this particular talk with his parents a couple of times. Puberty would do that to you. “That means it’s working, yeah?”

“I guess.”

“Leah…” he said softly, so no one else would hear. “It’ll be okay.”

She swayed a moment and for a horrible second he thought she might pass out, but instead she stepped into him and pressed her cheek to his chest. She was so small that her head fit under his chin. Al wanted desperately to hold on and make the pain go away, but he caught sight of James watched them and ended up awkwardly patting her back before she let go. “It’s okay if you get upset. We’ll just ignore it. It’s a side effect of the potions.”

Nat gave him a half-hearted shrug and they resumed their walk. “I woke up this morning like everything was just terrible. Is this how you lot have been feeling all along? I mean, I knew how puberty was supposed to change a person, but this just feels dreadful.”

“It comes and goes in stages,” Al told her as they caught up with his family. “You might be getting a concentrated dose.”

“Guh,” was her only response.

They spotted Scorpius and his mum right away, waiting for them outside the ice cream shop. “It’s good to see you again,” Ginny told Astoria as she shook her hand with a smile. “How have you been?”

Al immediately tuned the adults out when he saw Scorpius’ face. “What’s up with you?”

“My aunt showed up last night,” he told them quietly as misery rolled off him. “She was completely drunk and could barely walk. She looks like she’s lost about a stone and she didn’t have much to lose. I checked on her this morning, but she was still passed out.”

Nat took Scorpius’ hand and squeezed it. Her eyes brimmed over as she said, “I’m so sorry, Scorpius! You must have been so scared for her and to have her show up like this…”

He gave her a tight smile, and she let go as he shrugged his shoulders and stuck his hands in pockets. “At least she’s safe right now. Mum called a healer to the house last night and they gave her a sobering up potion. Anyway, what’s up with you lot?”

Before either of them could answer, Lily, whom Al had forgotten was standing there, let out a squeal and bolted for a girl who was walking towards them. If Al hadn’t known it was Honor, based solely on the fact that Caroline was walking right behind her, he wouldn’t have recognized her. He wouldn’t say that Honor had been fat, exactly, but she’d definitely been chubby the year before. Gone was the chubby, tall, awkward girl with her long, coal black hair. In her place was a trimmed down, more athletic girl who walked easier in her body. Her hair was cut short to a bob and Al saw her face, truly, for the first time. Her eyes, which he’d rarely seen because she never looked at anyone, were still the same deep hazel, but now she was smiling all the way up to her eyes. She looked like an entirely different person. Lily threw herself at her friend and the two hugged and laughed as they walked off to the side to catch up.

Caroline stopped short at the sight of her sister, but her grin was genuine as she turned back to see them watching her. “She started running with me,” she told them as she came closer. “I talked her into the haircut.”

“It really suits her,” Nat replied as she considered her. “All of that hair just weighed her down and helped her hide.”

“Exactly,” Caroline agreed. While Honor looked a lot better from the end of the year, Caroline appeared about the same, maybe a little worse. She was still beautiful, that was not likely to change, but her skin appeared pale and maybe a little thinner.

James seemed ready to explode. Al didn’t know if he wanted to talk, hug her, or just run away, but when a moment passed and he’d done nothing, Nat jumped in. “How is cheer going?”

“It’s good,” Caroline answered then a flicked glance towards James, who still stood there, stupidly mute. Al sidestepped to him and, with the cover of Nat’s body, punched his brother’s arm.

“When is your first competition?” James finally managed to ask.

Nat backed up into Al, who grabbed her arms and held her from falling. “Oh sorry, Al. I didn’t realize you were back there.”

“Come here,” he said as he pulled her off away from his useless brother. He nodded to the two. “He’s been wanting to see her all summer and he totally blew it.”

“He’s just nervous,” Nat reminded him. “He really likes her, so it’s scary.”

Al shook his head, unsure of what to make of it. But then he thought about how he felt about Nat and knew exactly how his brother was feeling.

“That girl over there is checking you out,” Nat told him with a prod to his arm. “No, don’t look!”

Al felt his insides squirm as he tried to make sense of what was going on inside him. He glanced briefly at the girl, one of the girls in their year from Hufflepuff, and to his shock he saw that she was indeed staring at him! “Maybe I have something on my face.”

“I’d have told you if you had something on your face,” Nat retorted with a snort. “Do you want to go talk to her?”

He didn’t. He really didn’t. It wasn’t even that he was scared, although that was part of it, but mostly he just wanted to stay with Nat… Nat who didn’t seem to like him like that. If she did like him, she wouldn’t be pushing him towards other girls, right? Didn’t girls get jealous? Nat was different, though, which is partly why he liked her, even as just a friend. She didn’t react the way most people did.

“Uh,” Scorpius cleared his throat and Al jumped. He’d completely tuned his best friend out.

“Sorry, mate,” Al said earnestly. “It’s been a weird summer. I’m glad you’re Aunt Daphne is safe, even if it isn’t the best of circumstances.”

He shrugged a single shoulder, and then grinned as Rose ran up to them. “Hey, Rose.”

“Hey,” she greeted them back as she glanced over her shoulder. “Dad came today. Mum had something come up at work. I’m surprised Uncle Harry didn’t get called in. She said he would be needed.”

“Did she?” Al shot his father a speculative look, but Uncle Ron had his dad deep in conversation away from his mum and Mrs. Malfoy. “Well, he’s not supposed to go back to work until September first.”

“He’s looking serious, though,” Rose commented. “I bet he will go in.”

“Alright you lot,” Ginny called out to all the children. “We need to get moving. We’re going to get books first.”

Rose fell into step with Nat as they followed like ducklings behind the adults. “So how did it go with Aunt Audrey?”

“She gave me the potion,” Nat sighed heavily. “I feel terrible, Rose! I knew that it would rough, but I’m nauseated, exhausted, and I yelled at Al this morning.”

“On the plus side you’ll start growing, now,” Rose reminded her sympathetically. “It’s worth the pain.”

“She’s also put me on this new special diet where I will run on fat and not carbs since I don’t do well with carbs,” Nat informed her. She thought of her breakfast of eggs and avocado with some cheese and salsa. It wasn’t a bad breakfast, all things considered, but it meant she couldn’t eat rice anymore. “She said that it might make me feel bad for a few days while my body adjusts. It’s called ketosis or something.”

“You don’t know what it’s called?” Rose laughed. “You must really be in a foul mood. You always want to know what everything is called.”

“Well, I don’t want to know this,” Nat retorted with a grumble. “I can’t have juice anymore, and I feel like I’m about to explode out of my body.”

Rose gave her a one-armed hug. “Let’s go spend too much money on books. That’ll make us feel better.”

Natalie couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, that will.”

~*~

Something was up with Harry. Ginny could see how distracted he was, although he was doing his best to hide it from the rest of them. He kept an eye out for security while the kids ate ice cream, all except Nat who was forbidden from it. Ginny didn’t love her sister-in-law’s pronouncement that Nat would have to stop eating all forms of carbs, but she wasn’t the healer and Nat needed some major changes. She felt sorry for the kid. She was going through such a rough year. Ginny shook her head and refocused on Harry, who briefly met her eyes, and then gave a short shake of his head. She forced down her scowl and focused on the kids who were sitting at a table away from the grown ups. They’d bought all of the books the children would need, plus a few extras the girls had wanted. Hermione would have been proud. She was supposed to be here, but from the look on Ron’s face, and her husband’s, she knew that something was up. She’d just have to wait until she could get Harry alone.

“Did you have a good time?” came a voice from her right.

Ginny glanced to Astoria and plastered on an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, I missed what you asked.”

“Your trip to America,” she repeated quietly. “Did you have a good time?”

“Oh, yes,” Ginny nodded. “We’d needed a chance to get away. I suggest it for anyone. No one knew who we were there, so it was lovely to be an anonymous family.”

Astoria’s beautiful, modeled smile was just a tiny bit wistful. “I’ve suggested getting away, but Draco isn’t sure it’s a good idea. He thinks we should stick close to home.”

Ginny wanted to ask why, but her relationship with Scorpius’ mother was tenuous at best. They’d been in the same year at school, but Ginny hadn’t known her then. “You lived in America during the war, right?”

“Yes, indeed we did,” Astoria’s smile was genuine then, just for a moment, before her expression fell. “I… I’m sorry. That must be a very painful subject for you. We ran.”

She surprised herself by reaching out to take Astoria’s hand. “I know what happened to the pureblood girls who didn’t have families doing what Voldemort wanted. I know that I survived because of my family, but that you wouldn’t have been so lucky.”

“You were kidnapped when you were seventeen,” Astoria said carefully. “You were kidnapped by my Aunt Isabelle.”

Ginny thought about that brief time with the crazy old woman who had been the one to start her down her current path. Isabella Crabbe had been Isabella Greengrass, the youngest child of Oscar and Beatrice Greengrass. Astoria’s father was the oldest, and Fionna Greengrass had been married off to Lucas Goyle. Isabella and Fionna had been young when they’d been kidnapped, raped, and then married off to the men who had fathered their children.

“Your aunt had a terrible life,” Ginny said, which was about all the compassion she could manage for the woman who had poisoned her, which resulted in the death of her baby, Hope. “I don’t hold it against you. You didn’t have anything to do with it. It’s a good thing that your father ran with you.”

“He…” she hesitated, glanced towards the kids who were ignoring them, and then stared down at the table. “He didn’t run before Daphne was… was…”

Ginny’s heart broke as she reached out for the other woman. “Oh no.”

“Daphne came in drunk last night. She’s always drunk, or running away. She had money, Father saw to that, but she comes and goes as the wind with no more thought to anyone than that. It breaks Scorpius’ heart to have her break her word to him. I think he cares for her most of all, but she doesn’t have it in her to be the steady hand he really needs.” Astoria’s lips compressed shut and Ginny knew she was regretting even saying that much.

Ginny reached out a hand and covered Astoria’s thin, pale fingers for just a moment. “Your son is growing into a good man. He’ll have to learn these lessons somehow. It’s giving him strength and a good heart.”

She didn’t cry, but Ginny could see it was a close thing. “I want to thank you for letting him be friends with Al, no, please don’t interrupt. I know you well enough now to know that wasn’t going to ever be a problem, but I need to thank you all the same. My family wanted me married to Draco, because it was a good alliance that insured I would be provided for. Daphne wouldn’t do it, not after everything that she’d been through, and I went along because I didn’t have a good enough reason to say no. But I knew that I was tying myself to a family with a questionable past, one I do not agree with. I’ve had to live with that shadow on us. It doesn’t matter that we’re pureblood, like it does to others, but it does matter that my husband’s family supported the Dark Lord. I can’t make that stain go away. You have lost so much, and you’re married to Harry… you could have let it matter to you.”

“Well,” Ginny began slowly, because she was painfully aware that this good relationship was one she needed to carefully tend. “If I’m honest, making your father-in-law mad about their friendship is a seriously major perk.”

Astoria burst out laughing, and laughed until she had tears in her eyes. She only calmed when she saw all the kids staring at them. “It was just a funny joke, finish your ice cream,” she told them and turned back to Ginny as her expression sobered. “The older he gets, the funnier Draco gets about Scorpius. He’s absolutely determined that he won’t go fully over to the side of the Muggle lovers. He’s been a bit harder on him about his grades this year, and trying out for the Quidditch team. I think Scorpius likes Quidditch, but I’m not sure he cares about making it on the team, at least not now. He makes good marks, but he’s not going to beat Rose in every subject. I wouldn’t expect him to beat Hermione’s child in everything. Last night,” she said as she lowered her voice, “he started to speak to him about arranging a marriage.”

Ginny’s mouth dropped open. “He’s only fourteen!”

“He’ll be fifteen soon,” Daphne said heavily. “He’s just over two years from being an adult. He’ll be encouraged to take over the family matters at that point, but then he’ll be married off. Draco is already planning on who it will be.”

“Oh, dear,” Ginny said, unsure of what else to say. She’d been forced to marry Harry, because she’d been pregnant with Hope, but she’d wanted to marry Harry anyway. That had always been her fondest wish. “You were in this arranged married…”

“I don’t wish it on my son,” she said softly, heavily. “I would like him to be happy, to be loved. It would be nice if he could find someone who is a partner for him. I can see how happy you are, and I’d want that for him.”

Ginny sat back in her seat, stunned at what she was hearing, but not sure why it surprised her so much. “You really were born into the wrong family.”

“It would have been easier in a family like yours,” she agreed. “The Weasleys weren’t always seen as respectable–” She cut herself off and gasped in horror. “Oh, Ginny, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean–”

Ginny held up a hand, only a little stung. “I get what you’re saying. My parents chose to have us rather than things, and that made us look poor. I do get it, but–”

“But you were loved, and you have this big family,” Astoria went on quickly. “That’s what I meant! The older I get, the more I wish for that more than things. I can buy whatever I want, but that doesn’t make me happy and it doesn’t fill my house with love and laughter. Scorpius told me people are always laughing at your house and it sounds magical to him. I can’t give him that.”

“Did… did you want more than one child?” Ginny inquired hesitantly.

She nodded sadly. “I really wanted a girl, but I would only be allowed more than one child if for some reason the first was a girl. Draco, however, took steps to make sure that we only had a son. There’s a potion for that, you know.”

“I didn’t know,” she said, completely horrified. This woman hadn’t been given almost any say in her life. She’d been protected, but only so she could be married off for the right reasons, rather than as a punishment by Voldemort. “Astoria…”

“When we lived in America,” she said as she changed her tone and forced on a bright smile. “We lived in a town called Chicago, and it was wonderful. There were many magical things to do there, as well as Muggle. We lived in a house on their big lake and during the winter there were storms that would blow in and shake the whole building. The house had large windows that looked down on the lake and I would watch it snow and snow and snow. It snows ever so much in Chicago. I… I would love to go back there again this winter.”

“I think you should,” Ginny whispered, her heart breaking for the other woman.

“Mum!” James called out to her. “We’re done.”

“Right,” Ginny agreed as she smiled at her son, and loved him all the more for the surprise that was him… the unplanned, very loved surprise. “Shall we go get robes?”

She spoke for a bit with Caroline and Honor’s grandparents, but spent the remainder of their trip contemplating what Astoria had told her.

Then something caught her eye and stopped her almost in her tracks. James had Caroline’s hand in his. She had to fight hard not to cheer, and she would have failed if she hadn’t then spotted the look on Caroline’s face.

Fear.

~*~

“It’s okay,” James said as quietly as he could in the crowded robe shop. “Breathe, Caroline.”

He’d wanted to hold her hand for years, now, but this was definitely not how he pictured it. She pulled on his fingers and he let go, but he trailed right behind her as she bolted for the door. He had seen the panic attack coming, he’d known she was going to freak in the robe shop, but he’d really hoped that she wouldn’t let it get to her. The second they were out of the door, he pulled her off to a side nook and sat her down on the ground. “Breathe,” he ordered again as he knelt down next to her.

“Go…” wheeze, “away…” gasp.

“Not until you can stand up,” James retorted. He didn’t want to scare her more, but he couldn’t just leave her vulnerable. He reached out and pushed her hair back away from her sweaty face. “What happened?”

He knew what happened, but felt like she should say it herself.

It took her almost a minute, during which his father silently appeared, and then just as silently melted back into the shop to leave him to deal with her. He saw, through the glass on the door, Harry filling in Caroline’s grandparents.

“It… it was th-the man,” she spluttered out while her lips went from blue back to pink and her head dropped onto her raised knees. “Merlin…”

Madam Malkin had a new assistant, apparently, and he was a tall, beefy blond man who bore a remarkable resemblance to Caroline’s abusive father, if her father had had an earring and was flamboyantly gay. “It gave me a jolt, too,” he promised as he sat down across from her and carefully put a hand on her ankle. She didn’t kick him, which he took to be a good sign. “It was a shock.”

“A shock for you since you k-killed him,” she added guiltily. She finally looked up at him as her eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m sorry, James.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” he reminded her. “None of this was your fault.”

“I sometimes think I’m going to be broken forever,” she went on, ignoring what he’d said.

James thought about the part of the conversation he’d overheard his mother having with Astoria Malfoy and winced. The parallels weren’t lost on him. But… but he couldn’t give up hope. “You can make it through this. Look how well Honor is doing.” He wanted to kick himself for saying it. Honor hadn’t been abused in the way that Caroline had. It was a very different experience.

“Why are you always so nice to me?” Caroline demanded as she first glared past him into the shop across the street, and then back to him.

He waited, keeping his eyes on hers. “You know why.”

“No, I don’t,” she bit back stubbornly. “I’m awful, James! I suck at life. I don’t get why you’re here.”

He lifted his fingers carefully up to her cheek and ran them along her soft skin. “You don’t suck, you’re just a little broken right now, but you’re working on fixing it.”

To his shock, she leaned into his fingers and closed her eyes. “James…” when her blue orbs met his again, he was sunk.

James leaned in and carefully pressed his mouth to hers. He’d kissed other people, but nothing, absolutely nothing prepared him for the soul-rending shock that shot straight through him. He wanted so badly to push in further, but he pulled away instead and rested his forehead against hers. “You know why,” he whispered again as the words caressed her cheek.

“You shouldn’t,” she said with a hitch to her voice. “I’m nothing but trouble.”

He grinned then and kissed her cheek, feeling better than he had in a long time. “I’m nothing but trouble, just ask my mum. We’re a good match that way.” He pulled back enough so he could see her eyes. “Are you okay?”

She considered him carefully, then closed her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’m ready…”

His heart sunk, but he understood. “There’s no pressure from me. Whatever you need from me, whatever… that’s what I’ll be.”

“I don’t deserve this,” she said again.

“No one deserves what was done to you,” James shot back. “None of that was your fault, just the worst luck of being born when you were. Once you get over that you’ll see it the way I do.”

“It’s cause I’m beautiful, right?”

Fury rocked hard through him, and just as quickly it died to sorrow. He didn’t know how to parse out all he was feeling, but the emotions were there, ready to fire. “You look kinda bad right now, actually.”

Caroline gasped as she stared at him. She gaped, a bit like a fish, and then laughed and playfully slapped at his arm. “You weren’t supposed to say that!”

“Well,” he said as relief washed through him, leaving him exhausted. It had been too many emotions in such a short time. He pushed to his feet and held out a hand to haul her up. The moment she was up, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’re always beautiful to me, but you’re not always at your best. But that doesn’t change anything for me.”

She lifted up a hand and he saw it was shaking a bit. He hated that this scared her so much, but he didn’t know how to change that. He closed his fingers over hers and held them still. “I’m not… you don’t have to stick with me.”

“I’m going to stick with you,” James promised, and knew he meant it more than he’d meant anything else in his life. “However long it takes you to get here. Come on,” he said as he led her back into the shop.

~*~

Harry watched his son in wonder and had to marvel at this kid, who had somehow come from him. He hadn’t fumbled when Caroline was down and needed him. He’d been the rock she’d needed.

He had to wonder, quite seriously, who his son had become. The boy, who would be sixteen in less than two weeks, was gone. In his place was a solid young man that he was prouder of than he could express.

“Harry?”

He turned to see Ron at his shoulder. Ron glanced down at his watch. “You really have to go. Hermione’s going to hunt you down shortly if you don’t get to the Ministry.”

“We just need to wait for–” he paused as the guard he’d summoned arrived. “Thanks for you, Teddy,” he told his godson as he shook his hand.

“No problem,” Teddy agreed as he took up a position by the door. “Are you taking her with you?”

Harry’s expression spoke the words he didn’t want to say. “I hadn’t planned on it.”

“I think you should,” Teddy said carefully. “I think we might need her.”

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but Harry made his way over to Nat and took her arm. “Nat, we need to go to the Ministry if that’s alright with you.”

Her expression didn’t change, but he saw the understanding as it washed over her face. “Alright.”

They had a car waiting for them just outside The Leaky Cauldron and in no time at all the Ministry driver delivered them to St. Mungo’s. Harry didn’t fill Nat in on where they were going, and she didn’t ask. She wasn’t nave. For a little girl, she had a firm grasp on what she could help him with. “This won’t be pretty,” he told her under his breath.

“It never is,” Nat reminded him sadly. She squared her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

“One moment,” he told her as he pulled out his Invisibility Cloak. He hadn’t known why he’d thrown it in his pocket that morning, but he was heartily glad that he had now. “If you wear the cloak, no one will know you are there. Just stick right next to me at all times.” He made sure she was fully covered as he exited the car, and felt her shoulder against his arm the whole way into the hospital. They made their way down into the morgue, bypassing everyone in line waiting for treatment. The moment they were by themselves down away from the public, Harry halted. “Okay, cloak off.”

Nat pulled it off, sending her wispy hair flying up with static. She handed the cloak over. “It’s hot under there.”

“Are you feeling okay?” Harry asked her quickly.

“I feel pretty good, actually,” she said as she continued down the hall. “I don’t want to admit it, but I think that the new diet is working. I’m not starving or anything.”

“Good,” he agreed as his mind shifted back to what they were about to do. The whole Ministry was in an uproar over this, and it was no wonder. “Are you sure about this, Nat?”

She nodded, and didn’t seem the least bit surprised as they walked into the morgue. Harry held out his hand for Healer Wallace, who still ran the morgue. He was a large, black man with a round face. Harry liked and respected the man immensely. “Wallace, this is Natalie Parker. You met her father, Curtis, I believe a few years ago. Nat, this is Healer Wallace.”

“How do you do,” she said politely as she held out a hand for him.

“I am well, young lady, but I do not know that this is the place for you, no matter who your father is,” Wallace said to Harry, not to Nat.

Harry shook his head. “I have been going over this, Wallace, and I know we’re missing things. Nat is special. We need her.”

Wallace appeared to want to argue, but he took his cue from Harry and handed over gowns. The gowns and gloves were way too large for the little girl, but she put them on like a pro, which Harry realized she was.

They went into another room where the body was laid out on the table… at least, Harry thought it was a body. Nat hesitated for only a moment before heading over to circle around, examining the hunks of meat from every angle. “This is acid burning,” she said quietly.

“Indeed,” Wallace agreed in surprise.

“Do you have a stool I might use?” Nat asked him. “I’m a bit too short to see everything.”

Within a minute the two were discussing the body in detail, including a few things that made Harry’s stomach roll in an extremely alarming way.

“Definitely female,” Nat agreed with him. “I think about twenty. I think she’s magical. She has an injury to this exposed bone that was healed with magic.”

“How can you tell?” Wallace inquired.

That was dangerous territory. Nat had a power called Augmentum Imaginari. It was an innate gift that she was born with and was developing, but others, like Dumbledore, could train themselves to use it. It was a way of identifying magical signatures. If anyone guessed what she could do, she could be targeted. In Dumbledore’s case, he could at least protect himself. Nat wasn’t that great with any other form of magic.

Nat, however, was ready for the question. “You know how many bones I’ve looked at? I’m just getting used to seeing them. It’s not perfect, that healing. It still leaves a tiny dislocation that’s almost imperceptible, but for some reason I can see it.”

That wasn’t the truth. Nat could see the magic in the bone, but it was enough to satisfy Wallace.

“Any idea what happened?” Harry asked her.

“She was burned with the acid, but she wasn’t alive. There is no defensive rigidity to her body,” Nat told him as she hopped down from the stood. She had put on a brave face but something was very, very wrong. “If the acid wasn’t personal, it might have been to cover up anything done to her.”

Wallace nodded sadly. “I completely agree with your young apprentice, Harry.”

“We’ll leave you to your work, then,” Harry said as he held the door open for Nat.

They didn’t take the car back to the Ministry. Harry snuck her up the stairs and used the Floo network via the hospital director’s office. If the director was surprised to see Nat pop out of the cloak, she didn’t let it show.

They didn’t speak until they’d ensconced themselves in Harry’s office. “I have minutes,” he said quickly as he pulled a chair around to sit facing her. “What did you see?”

“She was pregnant,” Nat said as she broke down in tears.

“Oh,” Harry breathed it out as he wrapped her in a gentle hug and held on until she’d calmed.

“I’m sorry!” she said after a minute. Nat swiped at her eyes fiercely. “It’s that stuff that Healer Audrey gave me that’s making me cry, it’s not the case! I’ve seen this sort of thing before. It isn’t easy, but it’s…”

Harry nodded and felt terrible. “I shouldn’t have brought you. It was too much to ask.”

“I want to help!” Nat protested immediately. “I’m sorry I cried. Please don’t stop asking for my help. It’s important work.”

He didn’t want to ask anymore, but he saw the pleading in her eyes and relented. “Alright, Nat. What else should I know?”

“She had magical colors that I don’t think I’ve seen before,” Nat told him as she pulled herself together. “It looks like it was concentrated around her stomach, but I’m not sure why. I think it was a potion. It looks like a potion, but that often goes all through the body and this didn’t. It just sat in her stomach, or rather what was left of it. The magical signature didn’t move, I don’t think. I think the acid was meant to cover up what was done.”

This wasn’t the first time one of Crabbe’s victims had ended up pregnant, but the last few times had been because of rape. Now, though… “Anything else?”

“The baby was magical, but not far along,” she told him quietly. “I could see the magic out of the baby. Teddy and Victoire’s baby has the same glow, but I saw a pregnant Muggle in North Carolina and there was no glow like that, even though I could tell the baby was fine. She was definitely twenty, I can just tell that now, and from her face I think she was from the Ukraine, or maybe Russian, but I think the Ukraine. I sort of sensed radiation on her, which is a Muggle thing, but you might want to look for a place not far from Chernobyl either on the Ukraine or Russian side of the border.”

Harry sat back in his chair and contemplated everything he’d just heard. A knock sounded at the door and Teddy popped his head in. “The family is home safe. I’ve come to fetch Nat if you’re ready.”

“Yes,” Harry nodded to the girl. “It’s an early morning tomorrow, so you need to get some sleep. Thank you for your help.”

He waited a few moments in the silence of his office and then sighed as he pushed himself to go speak to the rest of his team about figuring out who this girl was and hopefully find her family.

Back to index


Chapter 38: Chapter 35

Author's Notes: The long wait is over! At least I keep posting, right? I have a new book releasing soon, details to follow. Thanks for sticking around and please continue to review. It helps me feel like it's worth it to keep on writing.

Thank you Arnel for editing!


“Anything?” Ginny inquired quietly as Harry finally crawled into their bed many hours later.

“Too many bodies, too many dead women,” Harry explained to his pillow since he couldn’t bring himself to raise his head and look at her. “I know what she did to you, Gin. I know she impregnated you. She’s still doing that, but it’s like she’s experimenting on the women. I just don’t get what her end game is or what’s the point. I don’t even know if it’s still personal or not. She’s stopped sending me that stupid note every year. She skipped last year.”

“The one that said, ‘I know you’re secret?’, or something?” she asked as she leaned over and pressed a light kiss to his cheek. She ran a soothing hand up and down his back, almost like she’d done with the children when they were small.

He felt so terrible that it was manna to his broken heart. “That’s the one. I guess she’s tired of taunting us, and now she’s simply out to cause chaos. We found the girl’s family, exactly where Nat said we would. She was Ukrainian, the daughter of a local businessman. They’ve been looking for her for months. She was twenty years old. The parents, and her siblings, are devastated. They’re…” his voice broke as he thought about the conversation he’d had with them when they’d finally been able to connect the Floo to them. “They’ll be here tomorrow to collect her. I offered to have her remains taken to them, but they wanted to escort her home. We were able to get their entrance into the country cleared quickly, because of the circumstances.”

“Oh, Harry,” Ginny wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Your job is so tough.”

“I don’t feel like I’m making any difference in my job!” he grumbled, beyond frustrated.

She shook her head against his shoulder. “You have made a difference. In every other respect, except with her, you’ve been extremely successful. Crime is down and we’re safer. You’re still a bit of a legend,” Ginny teased as she ran her hand up into his hair. “This one is personal, though, which is why it’s getting to you. Imagine how everyone in the Ministry felt when Voldemort was rising to power the first time? They weren’t able to catch him or stop him. There was no real way to end his reign of terror and we still had Dumbledore then.”

“I’m no Dumbledore,” Harry agreed with a grimace as he turned his head and met her chocolate brown eyes. He saw no condemnation there, only compassion. “You put up with so much from me. There are so many late hours and long days. It’s so many nights and weekends.”

Ginny’s mouth twisted into a smile. “I married you knowing who you are and what you were going to do. You try your best to be there for the big moments, and that’s all I need from you. When things aren’t crazy at work you’re here, not off drinking or creating more work for yourself.”

Harry reached out to her, running his fingers gently down her cheek, enjoying her soft skin and the familiar touch and scent of her. “I can’t retire. I thought I could. I wish I could, but I just can’t.”

“Your brain is on and firing all the time,” she agreed with a snort. “You’re too nosey for that. You’d never be able to leave it alone. You’ll be like that ‘til the day you die.”

He pushed himself up and over her, pressing his mouth to hers in a long, slow kiss. He was smiling, though. She always had that effect on him. “How about I turn that curiosity around on you?”

“I would very much enjoy that,” she promised with a laugh. “That was a line corny enough to come out of a Matilda Magpie romance.”

She shrieked as his fingers found her side as he tickled her.

~*~

“We will miss you,” Nat’s parents had said. They’d flown in for the express purpose of seeing her off to school on the train, but hadn’t seen her all summer. She hadn’t realized just how isolated their jobs were until she’d been forced to stay put.

“Are you okay?” Al asked as he loaded the trunks up into the luggage racks. At fourteen Al was gaining in height fast, as well as muscle. He was turning into his Uncle Charlie as she’d predicted years ago. James might always be a little taller than him, but Al would outweigh him easily by at least a stone of muscle. Nat hadn’t even bothered to offer to load the trunks. She knew better than to attempt it. She’d end up in the hospital wing again for her efforts. The trunks still weighted more than she did. Well, probably not, but it was a close thing.

“I miss my parents,” she said heavily as she stared at them out the train window. They were talking with Mr. and Mrs. Potter as well as Rose’s parents. “Where is Rose?” she asked suddenly, realizing that her friend had disappeared.

Al shrugged as he plopped down next to her. “Your parents are right there.”

“I never get to see them,” she reminded him. “I can’t because of my safety. I wish I weren’t rubbish at magic.”

He eyed her warily, shifting a bit so he could get a better look at her. “You’re good at some magic.”

“I’m terrible at defense,” she pointed out grumpily, then she saw his face and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, Al. I’m trying not to be a brat. I just feel… dreadful.”

She didn’t expect him to say or do anything, so when he took her hand and gave it a squeeze, it shocked her enough to have her eyes fly open. “It’s okay,” he promised.

The door slid open and he dropped her hand quickly so that Rose wouldn’t see. She shook her head as she sat across from Nat. “Boys are running up and down the halls, screaming their heads off.”

“Already practicing for when you’re a prefect?” Al wondered and then laughed as she tried to kick him. “Well, it’s going to be you and Scorpius. We already know that.”

Rose pretended to scowl, but it only lasted a second. “I think it’ll be me, as well. No offence, Nat.”

Nat held out her hands. “No one in their right mind would make me prefect. You can’t even tell if I’m in first year or not.”

“It’s not that bad,” Al protested, but it was a feeble attempt. Most of the first years were taller than Nat. “Anyway, you’ll start growing soon.”

“I’ve looked at myself, and I don’t think the odds are good,” she assured him as the train gave one final whistle and started to move. “Where’s Scorpius?”

“Loo,” Rose answered. “I ran into him on my way back.”

The door slid open and a boy from their year with a Ravenclaw badge sidled in. Al scrambled back in his memory until the name came to him. Andrew Holmes. He was tall, thin, and had one of those faces that stood out as memorable. He always walked as though he knew where he was going and who he was. Al hadn’t spoken to him much, apart from a few class assignments, but he’d assumed him to be a bit stuck up. “Can I sit with you?” he asked in an accent that didn’t sound like most of his friends. “Everywhere else is full.”

They all glanced at each other, and then back to him. “Sure,” Nat said easily as the compartment door slid open again and Scorpius sidled in.

Andrew sat down quickly next to Rose, and after a moment of contemplation, Scorpius sat next to him. Rose shifted ever so slightly towards the window, away from the boys. Nat eyed her speculatively before turning back to Andrew. She didn’t believe for a single moment that everywhere else was full. Andrew was, without a doubt, a Brainiac nerd of the highest order. He didn’t beat Rose or Scorpius for top of the class, but he wasn’t far off. He was also popular and charming. He had brown hair that curled just a bit at the ends. It wasn’t too long, nor was it short. He had blue eyes that were deeper blue than normal, and he always looked as though he’d just stepped off the beach. His skin was always tanned. He was athletic, she knew that. He was already on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and had been since second year. She’d studied his profile a few times, trying to place it, because she knew she’d seen it somewhere. But really, she shouldn’t have tried so hard with his face. It was all in his accent. “You’re royal.”

He blinked, surprised, as everyone stared at her blankly. “I’m the third son of a Duke, actually. I forgot that you’re Muggle born. Have you seen me in the press or something?”

Nat shook her head. “It’s the accent and a bit in how you carry yourself. The royals walk like they own the place.”

Andrew smirked and settled back in his seat, suddenly relaxed. “I rather think they do.”

She eyed him speculatively, unsure of what to make him of.

“We don’t have royals in the magical world,” Rose pointed out coldly. “So no one will treat you that way here.”

Andrew pointed to Al as he shifted to face Rose. “If you don’t have royalty, you have something just as close. Harry Potter is as close to a god as one gets to it.”

Rose gasped in outrage. “Uncle Harry doesn’t lord that over anyone! He’s a good, humble person.”

Andrew opened his mouth to retort, and then closed it. “I think we got off on the wrong foot, which is my fault. I should have gone on to say that I find the whole thing ridiculous and I was glad to be out of that world. I was happy to find out I belonged somewhere where status was more on merit, not birth.”

Rose crossed her arms and turned to glare out the window and to Nat’s shock, Andrew’s expression fell, just for a moment.

A light went on in her brain and she realized exactly why this fourth year Ravenclaw had chosen to sit with them. And she felt badly that he’d blown things up so amazingly. “So the third son? Don’t they just need and heir and a spare?”

Andrew took only a second to pull himself together. “My mother wanted a girl very badly. Father didn’t have the heart to say no, so they kept trying until they had their girl.”

“You were supposed to be a girl,” Al said with a grin. “How does that feel?”

“Well,” Andrew’s lips twitched and a single dimple popped out on his right cheek. “Having seen how my mother dresses my sister, I’m heartily thankful I was born a boy. I don’t think I could stand pink ruffles. They’re terribly itchy.”

Rose glanced back once, but turned away again.

“How old is your sister?” Nat asked curiously.

“She’s three,” he answered and his whole face lit up with genuine love. He’d been handsome before, but with that expression on his face, he was now positively radiant. “I hated having to say goodbye this morning, but thankfully she’s old enough to remember me now when I’m gone. My bothers are all gone off to school, as well, so it’s only her at home. I have another younger brother, and he just started at Eton.”

Nat’s brain fired at that. “You have another brother younger than you?”

“He’s my twin, actually,” Andrew explained. “He didn’t want to start until this year when he was fourteen. My father and he had a huge row over it, but David won.”

“Are you two identical?” Rose questioned, maybe surprising herself.

Andrew nodded as he studied her carefully. “It was a surprise that we both didn’t end up here. Professor Longbottom was the one to come and explain it to us, and he had no explanation for why we wouldn’t both be magical. It’s hard being here without him, but I like being just myself. I’m not one of the twins here.”

Rose nodded, but fell silent as her eyes drifted from him back to Nat. She seemed to be sending a silent plea to her.

“So your sister,” Nat prompted. “You seem to adore her.”

“Claire is impossible not to love,” Andrew assured them. “She’s bright, funny, mischievous, and such a joy. It took my mother ages to have her, so we were all so much older. I’m definitely her favorite, although her nanny hates me. I take her out to the stream behind the manor and let her ruin all those hideous dresses.”

They all laughed at the image.

“I think she’s magical, actually,” Andrew told them. “She made a frog hop into her hand. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it fly through the air from ten feet away.”

“Wow,” Al whistled. “That’s impressive, especially at that young an age. Will your parents be okay with that?”

Andrew considered that seriously. “I think if she’d been first, no. I think if my oldest brother had been magical it would have been a major problem. But they didn’t need me, and I’ve been able to show my mother that things are good in the magical world. My mother is sheltering my sister terribly.”

“Except when you’re there to make sure she gets dirty?” Rose quipped with a raised brow.

“Well, yeah,” he grinned, his one dimple showing clearly.

Rose blinked, her cheeks turned a faint pink, and she turned away again.

This was going to be interesting.

“So are you trying out for the team this year?” Andrew asked the boys. He turned back to Rose, but she still wouldn’t look at him. “I hear you’re great at Quidditch, as well.”

When she didn’t say anything, Scorpius cleared his throat. “I’m not sure, honestly. I like the game, but it’s not going to sadden me to not make the team. I think Al will make Beater this year.”

“Good lord, yes,” Andrew agreed as he sized Al up. “You’re the perfect type for it. Is that your preferred position?”

Al nodded. “Rose is the Chaser, but I prefer being a Beater. My dad was a great Seeker, but none of us have any interest in it.”

“Lily isn’t likely to start playing seriously,” Scorpius agreed with a chuckle. “Much to your mother’s chagrin, I think. She’s very happy to sit and watch us play most of the time.”

Andrew’s brows furrowed together. “She’s the tiny redhead, right? She looks a bit like a fairy.”

“That’s her,” Al confirmed slowly, looking confused.

Andrew shot him a pained glance. “I am so sorry. My sister is going to be that beautiful when she grows up. It’s going to be a nightmare.”

Al scowled angrily. “She’s too young for you.”

Al, Nat knew, was dense, but this was pushing it. She silently groaned.

Andrew wasn’t fazed. “I didn’t mean it like that. One brother to another, you have my sympathy. It’s well known that she’s the prettiest girl at school, so–”

“Wait!” Al flew to his feet and resisted Nat’s attempt to pull him back to his seat. “What do you mean she’s the… she’s practically a baby still!”

“Albus,” Nat hissed out his name and this time he heeded as she pulled him back into his seat. He glowered at her, and she had to resist the urge to laugh. “You have eyes. You can see what she looks like.”

His red face slowly drained of all color. “I do not like this.”

“Neither does your dad,” Nat reminded him.

“Come on, Al,” Rose interjected, although it looked like it pained her to do so. “Lily wins the prize.”

“There’s Dom,” Nat reminded her. “She’s still at school and she’s arguably more attractive than Lily.”

Rose shook her head. “She’s amazing to look at, but she also seems like she’d kill you as look at you. Plus she’s dating someone.”

Nat didn’t miss that she didn’t out her cousin by saying she had a girlfriend.

At one point Nat would have put Caroline in the run, but she wasn’t taking care of herself, probably on purpose.

“Do you have any pictures of your sister?” Nat interjected suddenly, scrambling to change the subject. She glanced to Scorpius, who hadn’t said anything, and saw he was staring out the window, not paying any attention to them.

“Yeah,” Andrew said as he pulled a wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open. He pulled out a picture from inside the folds and passed it over.

The tiny girl in Andrew’s arms had his blue eyes and curling brown hair. Her cheeks were chubby, and her smile radiant. In her head, the girl aged up and she could picture the features changing and transforming. “She’s adorable,” she assured Andrew. “She’ll definitely be a beauty.”

He grinned down at the picture, then showed Rose, who was leaning over to see. Rose’s smile was genuine this time. “She’s really cute.”

Andrew studied it for another moment before returning it to his wallet and putting it away. “My brothers think it’s weird that I like hanging out with her so much.” He almost looked like he wanted to be embarrassed, but then Nat watched him squash it down. “But I feel like she’s the only one who gets me, or just lets me be. She’s like me.” He blushed faintly under his tan. “That sounds stupid.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Rose assured him, finally letting go of her anger. “It’s difficult when you don’t fit in with everyone else, even if they love you.”

Andrew cleared his throat. “So, I have every intention of beating you in Ancient Runes this year.”

Rose appeared taken aback for a moment, then her eyebrow rose imperiously. “I’d like to see you try.”

~*~

“Are you okay?” Al asked Scorpius as they walked together up to their dorm later that night. They’d ditched their roommates after dinner, and the girls at the bottom of the staircase. It was the first chance Al had had to ask him alone. “Is it your aunt?”

Scorpius shook his head and didn’t say anything until they were in their dorm, the door closed. “No, my aunt is doing as well as she can.”

“Is it your dad?” Al asked cautiously, unsure of if he was pushing too hard.

He shook his head. “It’s nothing, Al. I’m just tired and glad to be back.”

Al really didn’t think that was it, but he couldn’t say anything else because their dorm mates burst in on them, laughing and carrying on.

“Did Andrew Holmes sit with you?” Smitty asked as he threw himself into his bed. “I hear he has a thing for our Rose.”

“She’s not your anything,” Scorpius grunted as he unpacked his trunk.

“Hark!” Matt joined in. “I hear the green-eyed monster. Do you happen to have a thing for our fair Rose?”

Al spun to stare at Scorpius who appeared genuinely stunned at the question. “No, I…” his voice trailed off as he laughed. “She’s like a sister to me, and she’s too damn good for you.”

Not to be outdone, Ansel threw a wadded up sock and pitched it at Scorpius, who caught it nimbly. “So any objection to Andrew pursuing her?”

“Not if she’s good with that,” Scorpius replied evenly.

“Oy,” Smitty laughed as he sat up in his bed. “What’s he got that I don’t?”

“Class?” Scorpius mused.

“Brains?” Al added helpfully.

Smitty laughed as he rose to unpack his trunk. “Well, if you’re going to be picky about who she dates.”

They all settled down minutes later, even though it was Sunday the next day, September the second, and they had the day off. It would be a chance to get back into life in the castle and time to catch up with friends. They had plans to have tea with Hagrid the next day.

The train ride wouldn’t let him sleep. It wouldn’t let his brain shut off. He’d had this weird thought that Andrew might have been saying something about Lily, which sadly happened more than Al wanted to admit. Okay, not so much to him. People rarely talked to him about his sister, probably because he was a little irrational about her. She wasn’t like other kids her age, which, yeah, he knew wasn’t that much younger than him, but she seemed a lot younger than him! She seemed fragile, and everyone felt like they should be taking care of her… looking after her.

But he had to admit that if Andrew had wanted to hit on Lily, he wouldn’t have sat with her older brother. So apparently, he’d missed the fact that Andrew had a thing for Rose. Now that they’d pointed it out, it did seem obvious. The guy had inserted himself into their group in one of the only ways that he really could. It would have been weird if he’d come up to them in the halls, the library, or during class. The four of them were a group and it wasn’t like they really let others in on that.

Al wasn’t sure he wanted anyone else in on that. He didn’t think Scorpius was lying about his feelings for Rose. He really did think he saw her as a chum, as a sister, but still.

Rose would make up her mind about Andrew. If she wanted him in their group, well, then Al would have to learn to deal with that. It would just be weird.

But he would learn to deal… at least when it came to Rose.

~*~

“It’s not, you added that incorrectly.”

“I didn’t,” Rose protested, glowering at Andrew while the five of them studied in the library. It was a bit like a tennis match in Nat’s opinion. They kept going back and forth with each other, and had been all that first week of school. They’d reached another weekend and it didn’t seem as though Andrew was going to give up.

“Mm, see there? You missed the one.”

“I didn’t! I… oh. I did.” Her face flushed as she used her wand to remove the mistaken quill marks.

Al and Scorpius were studiously ignoring the other two while they did their own work. Nat would have been happy to leave them alone, but Rose had forbidden her to do so, even as Andrew kept seeking her out.

“You have to think he’s cute,” Nat had said that morning in their dormitory.

Rose’s nose and mouth scrunched up into a tight ball as she pulled on her jeans. “He isn’t really interested in me.”

“Rose,” Nat strung her name out as she watched her friend search through all of her tops before pulling out a red one. “He’s clearly smitten!”

“How do you know?” Rose demanded suddenly, then flinched as one of their roommates came in from the loo. She lowered her voice as she grabbed her trainers and sat next to Nat on the bed.

Nat stared at her in amazement. “It’s not like he’s suddenly hanging out with us because of me! So unless you think he’s gay and after Al, then he’s into you.”

“Why wouldn’t he be interested in you?” she demanded sharply.

She could have cursed herself for slipping up like that. Rose was too sharp to miss anything. “I just meant–”

Rose flew to her feet and spun on Nat. “No! You don’t get to put yourself down like that.”

“I’m not,” Nat protested shrilly. “I just meant… you know, he wasn’t looking at me the whole train ride here! It’s not me he’s been seeking out to talk to in the halls.”

Her friend deflated and mercifully seemed to forget what Nat had said. “I don’t know what to do!”

Which was, Nat realized as she shook herself back into the present, the real problem. Rose liked to know what she was doing and where she was going, but there was no roadmap for the first boyfriend and Nat was positive that Andrew wanted to be Rose’s first boyfriend.

So that left Nat enjoying the dance for what it was, and studying it carefully. She hadn’t had anyone interested in her, and while she had a bit of a crush on Al, she knew that wasn’t going to go anywhere. He was too good looking for her. Still, if she ever had the chance, she wanted to know what she should do.

Except that this looked painfully embarrassing and she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to be a part of it. “It’s really nice out.”

Everyone stopped their work to stare at her.

“Let’s take a break and go for a walk,” Nat said, turning mostly to Al as her face flushed a bit. If everyone else thought it was a stupid idea, at least she could count on Al to go along with her. “I think we could all use a break.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Andrew said at once. “We can leave our stuff and get back to it in a bit.”

Rose opened her mouth to protest but everyone else was already standing.

Nat tried to think of how to maneuver things so Andrew was walking with Rose, and couldn’t come up with anything more than hooking her arm through Al’s on her right, and Scorpius’ on her left. Scorpius chuckled under his breath as she marched with the boys out of the school. “Devious, Nat. I like it.”

“Yeah, well,” she said as she realized just how tall the other two boys were. “You two need to either slow down or carry me. I’m too short to keep up.”

Andrew had Rose in conversation as they continued on out of the school without them and quickly left them in the dust as Al and Scorpius matched their steps to hers. The moment that the other two were out of earshot she let go. “Let’s go sit right there under that beech tree and wait for them to come back.”

“Why is she fighting this so much?” Scorpius wanted to know. “Doesn’t she like him?”

“Oh, she does,” Nat confirmed as she leaned back against the tree and idly watched Al braid blades of grass together. “But she doesn’t know how to get into a relationship and the not knowing is breaking her brain.”

Scorpius doubled over laughing. “Merlin! I can just see that bothering her.”

“Do all girls worry about that, or is it just a Rose quirk?” Al wondered as they lost sight of the other two completely around the lake.

“I’m not terribly concerned,” Nat admitted. She didn’t imagine she would find a boyfriend anytime soon, and accepted that it could be something that might happen when she was an adult. She frowned down at the grass and tried to picture it, but it wouldn’t come. She just couldn’t see anyone flirting with her like Andrew was flirting with Rose. While she was happy for her friend, it definitely left a twinge of sadness in her heart. “What about you two? Are you worried about getting a girlfriend?”

“Not particularly,” Scorpius laughed as he lay back in the grass. “I figure it’ll just happen, even if it’s a little weird at first.”

Nat turned to Al to find him not paying any attention to her, but staring off after Rose. “I like Andrew,” Al told her after a moment. “I wasn’t sure I would, but I do. So if we have to have someone else around, I guess I’m glad it’s him.”

Which wasn’t a response to anything Nat had said or asked.

When the other two finally made it back to them, Nat knew that they’d kissed. It was all over Rose’s flushed face. She didn’t get to ask her about it until after dinner, though, which drove Nat crazy. When they’d gone back to study, Andrew had held her hand as they’d walked and Nat thought that was just about the sweetest thing she’d seen.

“So?” Nat asked the moment they were alone in their dorm.

Rose slowly sat on her four-poster and stared off into space. “I was so caught up in our discussion on transfiguration that I completely missed that you three had ditched us. Then I noticed, and stopped and said something, and Andrew took my hand. I…” she licked at her lips nervously as her gaze fell to her hands. “I was so surprised and he said how he liked me, and had last year, but he hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask me. He’d spent all summer talking himself into it, Nat! I was… stunned. I mean, I’d noticed him, of course, but I hadn’t really been paying attention to him. He’s so handsome! I thought he’d be interested in someone else, but we talk about school, a lot, so I think he really likes that I’m really smart.”

“Of course he would,” Nat said as a grin threatened to split her face in two. “And?”

“And… so he asked if I wanted to go out with him and I was speechless and could only nod… and then he kissed me!” She was breathless and bright red by the ending of the tale, but her happiness radiated off her. “I hadn’t been kissed before, and it was… it was so sweet! I felt like my head was going to explode. I feel–” she held her hands to her, and then pushed them out again.

It wasn’t the words, but Nat could understand. “It’s a lot of feelings.”

Rose grinned sheepishly. “Do the boys think it’s weird?”

“The boys don’t think,” Nat assured her. “They’re very much in the ‘whatever’ camp. As long as you’re happy. Al thinks he’s a good guy, and doesn’t mind him hanging around if that matters.”

“It does,” Rose said as she kicked off her shoes and reached for her nightgown. “Al has been my best friend since we were babies. His good opinion matters.”

She froze, her face went sheet white.

“What is it?” Nat wondered in alarm.

“We can’t tell my dad!” Rose whispered urgently. “He’ll ruin everything!”

“Got it, Rose,” Nat patted her arm with a grin. “I promise to spread the word so that your dad doesn’t find out.”

~*~

“Rose has a boyfriend,” Ginny told Harry as she read through Nat and Lily’s joint letter. They’d taken to each writing a couple of pages before sending it on to her on the same owl. “His name is Andrew and he’s a Muggleborn. Nat says everyone likes him. He’s in Ravenclaw.”

When Harry didn’t say anything, she glanced up to see her husband frozen with his fork halfway to his mouth.

Ginny kicked him under the table, startling him back into animation. “Harry?”

“Rose is still a baby,” Harry said in as petulant a tone as she’d ever heard her husband use.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “She’s fourteen, Harry! I married you when I was sixteen, remember?”

Harry’s head hit the table. Repeatedly. “Why do they seem younger than we were?”

“They aren’t any younger,” she promised him. “We were too damn young, and that’s the truth of it. If we’d been anyone else besides us, I think it would have blown up in our faces.”

Harry raised his head and Ginny tried to ignore the red mark from where his head had fallen. He rubbed at it absently. “If she’s old enough to date, then Lily will be soon and I just do not like that.”

“Lily is going to have boyfriends coming out her ears,” Ginny reminded him ruthlessly. “She’s too beautiful not to. You have to get over it. Oh, and they’ve asked us not to tell Ron. I’m going to let you decide what to do with that.”

“Get him drunk first, I think,” Harry told her morosely. “He might be too pissed to hear me properly.”

Ginny didn’t comment further, since it wouldn’t do any good and she was too interested in what the rest of the letter said. “Al and Rose both made the Quidditch team as Beater and Chaser.” She set the letter down and studied him, the goofy grin on his face. “I don’t think you should tell Ron, actually. I know from experience how badly he’ll take it and frankly, she has everyone else there looking out for her. If she wants to tell her parents, she will.”

Harry shifted uncomfortably. “I’d want to know.”

“You’re the kind of father Lily will tell,” Ginny pointed out.

He let out a snort and shook his head. “No, no, Lily is the kind of child who will think nothing of telling me. That’s very different.”

She considered that for a moment, then decided he was right. Before she could say anymore, the fire erupted to life and a voice called to them from the living room.

“Mr. Potter!” came the voice of Daniel, Harry’s assistant. “They need you at a crime scene right now, sir.”

Fifteen minutes later, Harry was glaring at Lucius Malfoy as the old man stalked around the sitting room and wondered just why he, of all people, had been called out here. “Just explain to me, without shouting, what exactly happened.”

Harry turned to the rest of the room, which included Draco, Astoria, Daphne, Narcissa, and a couple he knew by sight, but hadn’t known until that evening. Their names were Irish and Bertrand Benoit and they appeared to be about his age, maybe mid-forties. They were well dressed, her in red robes, and him in black. Her hair was a coppery blonde, while his was brown already going to silver. They both gave off the same haughty air of snobbery that Harry would have expected to come out of Draco himself.

But the odd thing was that no one was dead, or dying, and no black magic seemed to have been done. The only thing wrong was Draco’s black eye and even that was fading with some attention from his mother.

The only person in the room who would look at him was Daphne. He hadn’t seen Scorpius’ aunt in a long time, but she appeared as she always had. Her blonde hair was done perfectly, her make up in place, and her blue eyes direct and unflinching. Charlie had once told him she was hot, but the woman looking back at him was too tough to be real. She was hiding something, but then again, she always was.

“What happened and why the hell is the Head Auror here when no one is dead?” Harry demanded again harshly. “I need an answer now, or all of you will be charged! It’s illegal to demand my time when I am not needed.”

Astoria shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I asked for you, as a friend, Auror Potter. Things were out of control and we needed help. I… please.”

The woman was so pathetically fragile, that Harry softened, just a bit. “Tell me what happened.”

Here, though, Astoria faltered. Daphne let out an annoyed sigh and sat back regally in her chair. “This dinner,” she informed him, spitting out the word, “was to arrange Scorpius’ marriage to the Benoit’s daughter, Chloe. Chloe is in her fourth year at Beaubatons.”

Harry’s mind froze as he tried to rapidly digest what he was hearing. “Excuse me?”

“I have objections to arranged marriages,” Daphne informed him with a sardonic smile.

“You have no say in it!” Lucius screamed at her, his rage letting go finally. He strode towards the woman, but Harry stepped in front of him.

Long gone were the days when this man could scare him. “You will sit down, and you will hold your tongue until I ask you to speak.” He didn’t say it loudly, because he wasn’t after embarrassing the man, but he said it with enough force to let Lucius know he was serious.

“You cannot speak to me that way, in my own house!” Lucius spat vehemently. His lined face went pale with anger.

Harry didn’t smile, but it was a close thing. “I can do what I like, Mr. Malfoy,” Harry assured him evenly. “Including having you arrested. I wouldn’t test yourself against me, sir. Sit down while we sort this out.”

Lucius met his eyes for a moment, then he faltered and went to sit in the lone armchair that was still vacant.

“What happened tonight?” Harry asked again, this time his tone brooking no room for argument.

“We were discussing the terms of the marriage,” Draco told him curtly. “The Benoits have, uh, concerns because of Scorpius’ house placement and his associations.” His words halted abruptly as he realized what he’d said.

Harry’s children were his son’s friends. He hung out with Harry’s family. Years ago that would have bothered him, but now the whole thing was so pathetic that it was simply amusing. His lips cracked into a smile. “You mean the scum like us, eh, Draco?”

“I didn’t…”

“Yes,” Mr. Benoit answered formally with a decided French accent.

“Well,” Harry eyed the man more closely, trying to gage him. “You’re right to be worried. Scorpius is a good kid, one with a good head on his shoulders, and he doesn’t buy into any of the pureblood nonsense. I’d suggest finding someone else for your daughter, if that’s what you’re looking for. He’s too smart and headstrong to change his mind.”

Daphne doubled over laughing while everyone around him burst out into a cacophony of angry speech.

It took a few minutes for order to be reached again, by which point the Benoits were fuming and wanted to leave. “Sit down!” Harry barked as he pointed them back into their seat.

“Who are you to–” Mr. Benoit began, but he didn’t finish his question. The look Harry sent him was not menacing, but he was done babysitting a family squabble and in no mood for this bigoted man.

“This whole thing is ridiculous,” Harry informed them. “Leave your children alone to find their own spouse. I know for a fact that you will lose Scorpius if you try to enforce this.”

“This is the way things are done,” Narcissa spoke up finally, quietly. “Marriages are arranged.”

“And look how well that has worked out for all of you,” Daphne drawled sarcastically. “You six, you’re miserable and you hate your spouse. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t cheating on you, Astoria!”

Draco’s shock was evident, but Astoria crumbled into tears and ran off. Harry didn’t bother to stop her. He knew that she, at least, hadn’t been the one to punch Draco.

“Get out!” Draco shouted at his sister-in-law, who ignored him, even though Draco appeared on the verge of murder.

“Scorpius is miserably unhappy here,” Daphne told him coldly. “You’re going to lose him because that boy actually has a spine, unlike you. He won’t bow to your wishes. Banning me won’t help that; you know I’m the only one he loves or cares about.”

To Harry’s shock, Draco backed off.

“How did you end up with the black eye?” Harry demanded of the other man.

“I threw the soup bowl at him at dinner,” Daphne answered sweetly for him. She held out her hands. “He neglected to duck. Are you going to arrest me?”

Harry let out a silent groan as he turned back to Draco. “Are you pressing charges?”

Draco appeared to consider it carefully. “Just get her out of here.”

“Fine by me,” Daphne assured him as she strode towards the door, her robes flowing out behind her. “I don’t want to be here while you auction for son off like a prized pig.”

Harry stared hard at Draco. “Do not call me in again for a family dispute or I will have you arrested. Am I understood?”

Draco nodded and turned away, clearly humiliated and Harry followed after Daphne.

He caught up with her in the gardens, just outside the gate. “Daphne,” he called out and she turned to wait while he caught up. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to know, but really there was only one thing on his mind. “What are you doing?”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “I’m self-destructing,” she informed him as the moonlight danced off her golden hair. “It’ll be more fun to take them all down with me.”

With that she spun, and vanished into thin air with only a small pop.

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Chapter 39: Chapter 36

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Thank you Arnel for beta'ing. I hope you like the chapter.


Chapter 36

James didn’t feel like he was sixteen. His birthday had been quiet, thankfully. His family hadn’t made a big deal of it. But he was sixteen. He was only a year off from becoming a man in the eyes of the wizarding world. Or rather, it was only eleven months because it was already October and they were heading into their first Hogsmeade weekend.

Normally, he’d want to go because it was a chance to get out of the school. He’d even forced himself to go back to the place where he’d killed Caroline’s father, just to make sure he could face it. But this weekend was different because Caroline had a cheer competition and his dad was taking him. He’d wanted to see what it was all about for a long time, but he hadn’t been able to get his dad to bend and take him.

Now, though, they were finally going. Finally… if his father would ever finish his breakfast. James glared at him. He’d used the Floo to get home earlier that morning so they would have plenty of time to drive to this Muggle event in London, but now his father seemed in no hurry to actually go.

“Glaring at me won’t change anything,” Harry mused as he took another sip of coffee. His green eyes held amusement and a bit of resignation. The lines around his eyes deepened even further as James watched him pop the last bite of bacon into his mouth. “Alright,” he said as he rose.

James didn’t growl ‘finally,’ but only because he was trying to be more mature than an eight-year-old. It was a lot of work. “Bye, Mum!” he called to his mother, who was still upstairs.

Then he was sprinting for the BMW. He threw open the door to the front seat and slid in, buckling his seatbelt so the Muggle police would have no cause to pull them over.

“You really want to go this much?” Harry asked as he dropped into the driver’s seat. “Do you have any idea what a cheer event is like?”

He honestly didn’t, but he didn’t want to admit it. “What’s it like then?” he demanded as his father started the car.

“It’s a bunch of girls waving poms and shouting chants,” Harry explained with a sigh. “I am glad that Caroline enjoys this sort of thing, but I think we’re in for a boring afternoon.”

It took them almost an hour to get there and when they did they found that finding parking in the huge stadium’s lot was nearly impossible. “There’s a lot of people here,” James noticed in surprise. “Do you suppose anything else is going on?”

“I have no idea,” his dad grumbled as he pulled into an impossibly tight spot in the back of the lot. “Come on, maybe they have a football match going on as well.”

“What’s football?” he wondered as he squeezed out of the car and shut the door. He glanced around at the sea of cars gleaming in the early morning light. The sky overhead was overcast, as it often was in October, but these clouds had the dark hue that might mean a storm was coming.

“It’s a Muggle sport,” his dad told him as he scanned around. “We’re to head to that domed stadium, I think.”

They waded through the parking lot, past parents and grandparents, all making their way in with them. His father presented their tickets at the gate and they were told where to go. “Up the stairs down that way, dear,” the ticket taker told them.

They followed the instructions and filed into the filled stadium where down on the court mats were spread out, along with television crews and a bunch of lights. “Those are cameras, right?” he whispered to his father, who nodded as they scooted around a bunch of people to find their seats.

Both he and his father had chosen to dress in jeans. His father wore a jumper while James had donned a black hoodie. He saw now that they fit in well with the men in the crowd. There were a lot of men, but also women and children. Within twenty minutes most of the stadium on that side was filled, which surprised him until he remembered that the performance would be happening towards the audience. He didn’t see Caroline’s grandparents, although he knew they were here, nor did he see any of the other cheerleaders.

An announcer came out and spoke, talking about regional championships or something that James didn’t completely understand. Then the first group was announced, and a group of small girls and one boy came out in bright red and black outfits. They couldn’t have been much older than five or six years old and they had a small routine set to music.

His father rolled his eyes towards him with a clear look that he’d told him so, but James ignored him. The kids were cute, even if it was boring. They had four young groups, and then next up were girls about six to age nine. These kids did cartwheels, which was at least a little more interesting. That went on for another forty minutes or more as many of the same color combinations came out. Red and black, black and gold, blue and silver, blue and red, purple and white, etc. The costumes were all colorful, and the music lively, but he had to admit his father was right.

“Thank you, division two teams! Next up, the division three girls,” the announcer said and the first group came out. They appeared to all be about Lily’s age, or around about that.

It was then that things went from boring to interesting. The girls did flips up in the air, and put girls up into the air. They did jumps and gymnastics that there was no way he could ever do. “That’s not too bad,” James told his father.

Harry was frowning. “Any idea what division Caroline is in?”

“No clue,” James informed him. “She said she’s in the blue and silver, though.”

Division four was even more impressive, with faster routines, more girls thrown up in the air, and several stunts that left James stunned.

But no Caroline.

The crowd went wild as the first of the division five teams came out, the black and gold uniforms, and they all paused on the mat, their heads down. The music started with an explosion of sound and an equally explosive movement from the group as they all moved as one, jumping up into the air, kicking their legs out to the side. They went instantly into these backflips where they didn’t even run into them.

“Merlin…” Harry breathed out. “This… this is not what I expected.”

“Not a single pom,” James laughed in amazement as a girl went flying up into the air, twisted about, and was caught again. It was all over too fast, but then another team was out with an equally amazing routine, and then another, and another, until finally the blue and silver girls came running out onto the stage.

He spotted Caroline instantly with her bright, sunny hair up in a tail at the back of her head. Her face was done up for the competition, but at that distance he couldn’t make out the details. She took her position and James watched as the routine started.

It was like flying, that’s what he’d think later. The girls moved seamlessly together, running between each other, flipping around each other. They would throw a girl up in the air and another group would catch her as she flipped and spun. Caroline flipped and danced, tumbled and smiled. She looked happier than James had ever seen her. Then it was over, and he stood and clapped, proud of her for reasons he didn’t know how to express. For a second he thought she saw him, but then the moment was gone as the girls ran off the stage.

They finished with the girls groups and then there were four groups that were coed. While the tumbling was impressive with the girls, the tosses and lifts were nothing compared to what happened with the boys in the groups, helping to get the girls higher up in the air. It was stunning. There was a coed group from Caroline’s gym, because they had the same color uniforms, but she wasn’t part of the group. It was fun to watch.

“I definitely want to come back,” James said as it ended and they started handing out awards.

“We will,” his father agreed with an easy grin. “I honestly thought we’d be so bored. We’ll have to bring your mum next time. She’ll enjoy this. Are we meeting Caroline after?”

James nodded as he watched the awards going to the smaller girls’ groups. “We’re giving her a lift back to our place, then we’ll take our, uh, way back to school. Her grandparents have something this afternoon, remember?”

His dad inclined his head as he clapped politely along with the rest of the crowd. Caroline’s group came in second in their competition, losing to the purple and white group, but they didn’t seem to care. “Where are we supposed to meet her?”

“She said to head to the back after,” James told him as everyone else rose and they did as well, descending down into the crowd.

They broke off from most of the crowd and followed along with some of the parents as they wound around the lobby of the stadium. James realized that they were heading to a smaller gym off towards the back where all of the groups were waiting. As soon as they were in the door, Harry spotted Caroline’s grandparents and waved, moving over to greet them.

James scanned the groups of girls, feeling suddenly nervous of what to say to her or how to act. Here, in this world, he didn’t know his place. He definitely didn’t know his place with Caroline. That might never be answered, but he was so proud of her and… he didn’t know what else. All of the feelings were a huge pile of jumbled somethings. He scanned the girls in the blue and silver and spotted her instantly, drawn to her as he always was. She saw him a second later and the world around them faded to a sizzling void of noise and things that just didn’t matter then. He strode over to her and grinned. “You did great!” he told her as he stopped a foot away from her.

He wanted to hug her. The urge was so strong he actually swayed towards her, but he stopped himself just in time, knowing she didn’t like being touched when it was uninvited. She beamed, and to his relief stepped up to hug him. “Sorry, I’m all sweaty,” she said with a laugh as she threw her arms around his neck and he held on, swaying with her for just a few seconds. Her hair smelled fruity and he realized then that it was covered in glitter and sparkles. She had on a huge bow, which should have looked ridiculous on a fifteen-year-old, but oddly it didn’t. It was cute. Her make-up was heavy, and didn’t quite look like her, but he guessed that was for the show.

“I don’t care,” he assured her as he reluctantly let go.

It was only then that he became aware of all the other girls around him, staring at them. James glanced around at all of the pretty girls, who were studying him as though he was in a glass jar.

“This is James,” Caroline said to them as she turned back to her team. “He goes to school with me.”

A particularly bubbly brunette with sparkling blue eyes bounced over and held out her hand with a wide, toothy grin. “Hi! I’m Libby! We’ve heard all about you!”

Absolutely everything she said was an exclamation point. James shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Is that your dad over there?” another girl asked as she skipped over. “He has to be! He is hot!”

“Uh…” which left James extremely uncomfortable.

“Shut up, Brit,” Caroline told the girl. “He’s old!”

“Old doesn’t mean not hot,” Brit assured her.

“You look like him a lot,” a third girl said, crowding in around them. “I’m Bianca, by the way.”

“Nice to…” James’ voice faded off as the girl let out a squeal of giggles and glanced behind him.

He turned to see one of the boys from the coed team walking towards them. He was a bit taller than James, and about twice as wide, with light brown hair and almond eyes. His was good looking, as far as James could tell from what the girls around him were doing. “Caroline,” he drawled with an easy, confident smile as he stopped next to her. “You did really well. All of you did,” he told the team.

James glanced to Caroline and saw the tiniest flash of panic and fear flicker into her eyes and just as quickly back out again. Here in this world, with her mask firmly in place, it seemed as though she knew better how to hide. More than that, James realized, she didn’t tell them anything.

None of these girls knew she was a witch. None of them knew she’d been part of her father’s death. He’d have bet money that she hadn’t told any of them what her father had done to her, because here she could pretend to be normal and enjoy the thing that made her happiest. This guy obviously had a thing for her, and James couldn’t really blame him, even though it ate at him. He wanted to get angry and lash out at something, anything. He wanted to punch the guy, or throw a hex, but of course he didn’t have his wand and then his dad would end up filling out forms until dinner if he did that. He might even go to jail for punching a Muggle.

James didn’t want to be jealous, and he had no right because she wasn’t his, but worse was the feeling of helplessness because he didn’t know what to do to help her.

Caroline straightened her shoulders and nodded at the guy. “Thanks, Jack. You did great, too.”

Jack nodded to James. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is my boyfriend, James,” Caroline told him with such a smooth delivery that James nearly ruined it by falling over. So she was playing it that way… well, he couldn’t fault her. It would be the easiest way of getting rid of a boy that she didn’t want anything to do with.

So instead of ruining it by stuttering, he held out his hand to the other boy and shook. “Hey.”

Jack returned the shake with his eyes narrowed, ever so slightly. “Hey.”

Which was it, of course, because they were guys. James turned back to Caroline. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she said as she grabbed a blue and silver bag from a pile of them, her name in glitter on the outside. James held out his hand for it, and she handed it over wordlessly, before taking his hand. “By everyone! See you next week.”

They walked silently back to his father, who was waiting for them at the edge of the small gym, eyeing them curiously. He didn’t ask, though. He hadn’t seen her grandparents leave, but they must have because they were nowhere to be found.

They left the stadium and a cold breeze blasted into them. It was at least ten degrees colder than when they’d walked in. “Do you have a jacket?” James asked as they stopped outside the door.

“No,” Caroline shook her head. “It was warm when- James, no, it’s okay!” she protested as he pulled off his hoodie and handed it to her. “You’ll be cold, now.”

“I’m good,” he promised, which was mostly true. He smiled to himself as she pulled the hoodie on over her cheer outfit and it fell down past her fingers and went almost down to the level of her skirt.

To his surprise, she took his hand again as they walked to the car. “He might come outside,” she whispered to James as she swayed into him so he could hear her.

They reached the car and his dad opened the boot so he could drop the bag in, then they slid together into the backseat. James hadn’t even considered sitting in the front with his father for the trip back to their house.

“What,” Harry said as he pulled out of the parking spot, “is going on?”

Caroline let out an exasperated sigh and folded her arms, which were still wrapped in the black hoodie. “Many of the cheer guys are gay! It’s so annoying that the one who isn’t has a thing for me, and has for like a year. Me saying no hasn’t stopped him from hoping.”

Alarm flared inside of him as he studied her furious face. “Is he bothering you?”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing like that, but he just keeps talking to me even though I’d rather he didn’t. He’s always nice and polite. All the rest of the girls would be happy if he liked them.”

But not Caroline… that wasn’t her. He wondered for a brief second if she thought of him that way, but then she reached over and took his hand again, linking their fingers to rest on the seat between them. Her smile in the safety of the car was more fragile than she’d ever have shown anyone else. “Thanks for that, James. I was worried for a second you wouldn’t play along.”

He laughed, despite himself. “Of course, I was going to play along. That’s what friends are for.”

They made it back to their house in time for a late lunch. Caroline washed off most of the make-up while James filled his mum in on the details of the competition. “I’ll have to go next time,” Ginny told the girl as she came back into the room. “Let’s eat up and then we’ll send you two back to school. Did you want to change?”

Caroline shook her head as she handed James his hoodie. “I will when I get back to the dorm.”

She caused quite a sensation in the halls of Hogwarts an hour later as they walked back from Professor Longbottom’s office. “Nice legs, Caroline!” a Ravenclaw seventh year called out.

“Piss off, Noaks,” James shouted back with a glare. “Keep your stupid mouth shut.”

Noaks was not a stupid man, so he wisely shut his mouth. The look James shot him could have been lethal all on its own.

“I should have changed,” Caroline sighed. “I only had leggings, though, and I ripped a hole in the knee just before the competition. I didn’t want to ask your mum to fix them.”

“She wouldn’t have minded,” James said as they stopped before the Fat Lady. “Higgly Wigs,” he gave the password.

“Wait,” Caroline stopped him before they could enter the common room. Her anxious expression had something inside of him clench. “I don’t…”

James bent forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I know.” And he did, he really did. Back here, in the castle, back in their world, he felt surer of himself, and more in control. Here where they belonged, he knew a bit more about where to step. “No pressure from me.”

She threw her arms around his neck again, and hugged him hard. “You’re maybe the best friend I’ve ever had, except for Honor. Thanks.”

Then with that she was through the portrait hole, leaving him just a little off balance, but definitely happy.

~*~

“What about this?” Victoire asked nervously as she came out of the changing room in a pair of maternity jeans and a red blouse that hugged all of the curves, especially the bump of her stomach. Ginny and Fleur both gushed over her, even though Ginny knew Fleur didn’t really understand her daughter’s desire to buy Muggle clothes.

“You look wonderful,” Ginny promised as she remembered her own time in these clothes and just how contrary being pregnant could be. “I remember feeling like I was so fat, but also never so amazing when I was pregnant. You just need to get used to your new figure.”

Fleur nodded in agreement. “Teddy will be thrilled, I promise my love!”

Victoire stared down at herself, then turned to the mirror, twisting this way and that. Her belly was very noticeable now. It wasn’t something she would be able to hide, except in the largest of witch’s robes. She rubbed at her stomach, then shook her head. “Let me try something else.”

Ginny absolutely did not like shopping for clothing. It was about as fun as peeling carrots by hand, but when Victoire had asked her to come along, she hadn’t been able to say no. Fleur wasn’t likely to upset her daughter’s feelings over the clothing, but Ginny definitely provided a buffer.

When she’d been expecting, Harry had come clothing shopping with her, but that had been in another time and place. Ginny had been so scared for their baby’s life that everything was ten times harder than it should have been, and she’d needed his support to make it through. Her mum had come, as well, but there was nothing like Harry’s eyes lighting up as he saw her to help booster her mood to stop being so afraid. Her baby, Hope, had died because of a poison. Ginny was totally cured, so it wasn’t likely that anything would go wrong, but still… she hadn’t wanted to risk it. She hadn’t been able to find the hope she needed to believe that things would be well.

Still, things had turned out and that baby was no longer a baby. He was sixteen, and head over heels in love with a girl. If Ginny wasn’t totally off her rocker, James would stick to Caroline like glue until either she shook him off or she gave in because it was clear to Ginny that there was a trust there between them Caroline probably didn’t have with anyone else. She was a severely broken person, one who had been through the worst of the worst that life could throw at her, so for her trust was more precious than love. Maybe they were the same thing, but Ginny didn’t really think so. She loved many people that she didn’t fully trust. George was one of them. Given half a chance, and a guarantee that she wouldn’t be able to retaliate, and he’d have pranked her with his latest product every single time he saw her.

“Darling,” Fleur went on as Victoire tried on something else. “You don’t really need much clothing, you know. Not zat I don’t want you to have it all, but most of your robes with fit cover your belly.” Ginny didn’t react at her slip back into her accented French. Fleur’s accent was, while not gone, almost completely erased by the years of practice she’d had from living in England. She only reverted back to it when she was upset or scared.

“I know, Mum,” Victoire said in exasperation.

Ginny put a hand out to Fleur and squeezed her fingers. She shook her head and silently mouthed that they shouldn’t argue over it. Whatever was going on, here, it wasn’t about the maternity clothes.

Victoire stomped out of the dressing room in a long, flowing gown of deep blue. “Wow!” Ginny said, completely honestly. “You look beautiful.”

“I do?” Victoire asked as she turned to the mirror and frowned at her reflection. She smoothed out the dress and turned sideways, her long blonde hair flowing around her shoulders. “I mean for reals, Aunt Ginny? Not in a Veela way?”

Ginny rose and walked over to stand next to her, her arm going around her waist as she stared at Victoire in the mirror. “In a real way. Now what is this about?”

Fleur rose as well, and came to stand between them and the mirror, eyeing her daughter speculatively. “Why do you need a dress like this?”

“I…” Victoire chewed on her bottom lip and shook her head. “It’s a stupid party that we’ve been invited to. Teddy’s classmate invited us along. She’s Muggleborn and she’s… well, her family is rich and important.”

“Darling,” Fleur soothed with a smile, “your family is rich and important.”

“Not in the Muggle world!” Victoire protested. She waved her hand. “Sure, Uncle Harry is Harry Potter, but that doesn’t mean anything in the Muggle world. I’ve met up with this woman before and she has this way of twisting things so you know you don’t rank like she does. It’s… I hate it. I don’t like her. I think she had a thing for Teddy way back when, but he says they were only friends. She’s so beautiful, Mum, and I just feel like a fat cow right now.”

Fleur scoffed quietly, and shook her head. “You are zee most beautiful girl in the world, my darling! No woman can compete with you.”

Ginny didn’t say anything, at first, because she understood completely what Victoire was saying. Unlike Victoire, though, Ginny wasn’t stunningly beautiful. She was pretty, sure, but not in the same way as a Veela was. Her existence since she was fifteen had been as the one Harry had chosen, but never the prettiest girl at the party. “You know how much Teddy loves you, Victoire. He clearly doesn’t want this other woman.”

Victoire threw up her hands and moved over to sit in one of the overstuffed chintz chairs. Thankfully, no one else was around. Ginny had slipped the owner a wad of Muggle money to have the changing area to themselves, and now she knew why. She’d sensed that something was wrong with Victoire and that they’d need some privacy. The shop was large and the dressing rooms were towards the back of the store. She pulled out her wand and cast a discrete Muffliato Charm so that no one would hear what she was saying. Fleur sat to one side of her daughter and Ginny to the other. It was to Ginny who Victoire turned, which didn’t surprise her. “I’m so young! Everyone else is having a lovely time building their careers and they’re all still out partying. I know she’s going to say something about how Teddy was trapped by me. You know…”

“I know,” Ginny agreed quietly, her sorrow a kindred spirit to her niece’s. “I know just what you mean.”

She did. She’d married Harry because of her baby. They’d been forced into it, because that was the law. It was a cruel, insane law, one that they’d worked to have changed, but no one would be the first to stand up and say that it needed to go. It was tradition, and tradition was hard to break. People had whispered and wondered about them through all of it. Everyone assumed that Ginny had trapped him. The people who knew her knew she hadn’t. The people who loved and trusted her knew that it hadn’t been that way. “You two were married for almost a year before you got pregnant,” Ginny reminded her quietly. “It wasn’t a sudden thing.”

“I don’t know why this is bothering me so much!” she wailed unhappily as she covered her eyes and tears poured down her cheeks. “Why does she get to me.”

“It’s because you love Teddy that much,” Fleur answered, surprising Ginny. “You want only the best for him. You want to be worthy of him. You want others to think he has the best. It’s your love that’s breaking your heart because you don’t think you are the best.”

Ginny blinked once, stunned. She’d never, ever, thought of it that way. Had that been what she’d been doing with Harry? Had she worried that whole time that she was simply not good enough? Was it a sign that she loved him so much that she’d only wanted the best for him? Maybe… maybe that was part of it, but it felt like there was more to it. “It’s difficult to stand up to the gossip and the mean comments. It’s hard to not fall when people keep hitting you. I get that, but Teddy married you and you know he is the happiest when you two are together. I think you need to cling to that and ignore this woman. Have you told him how she makes you feel?”

Her niece shook her head. “He wouldn’t understand. He doesn’t think about things like this.”

“I think you should tell him,” Ginny prodded quietly. “I think he has the right to know.”

Victoire sighed. “Okay,” she said, but Ginny knew it wasn’t a commitment. “Let’s finish picking out clothes.”

~*~

Victoire wiggled and tugged and twisted, trying desperately to get the zip at her back without having to resort to Teddy helping her. She’d banished him from their bedroom so that she could get ready and surprise him, hoping he would enjoy the dress. She’d settled on the blue dress because it had fit her the best, and flattered her fair complexion, but now at home she felt even fatter and uglier than ever before. She knew she was being ridiculous. She knew how stupid she sounded, she honestly did. She was part-Veela so she couldn’t be anything but beautiful, but it was like a show-plate. All polish and no substance. Plus, her father’s human contribution meant that she’d broken out in blemishes because of the baby and the stupid creams and potions weren’t safe for the baby, so she had to live with the spots on her chest, arms, and cheek. Despite knowing that they were tiny, to her they felt humongous and like everyone would see them. It felt terrible to be pregnant just then, and that made her feel like the world’s worst mother. She stopped trying to get the zip and felt her whole body slump in defeat. She’d tried her wand first, of course. It was lying by the wall, having fallen there after she’d lost her temper and thrown it across the room. It was no good. “Teddy?”

She waited while his steps thunder up the steps. Before he could open the door she called for him to stop. “I want you to close your eyes.”

There was a pause. “Why?”

“Because I said so!” she growled as she stalked over to the door. “Do you have them closed?”

“Yes,” he agreed cautiously. “What’s up?”

“I’m going to open the door and turn around and you’re going to do up my zip without peeking,” she told him as she followed through with what she’d said.

He reached for her and felt around until he found the bottom of the zipper and slid it up. “Can I look now?”

“No!” Victoire griped as she went back to her mirror to survey herself. She wasn’t perfect, not by any means, but it was the best she was going to do. If he didn’t gasp in delight she might throw him like her wand. She turned to face him and found him lounging against the door frame, his arms crossed, his eyes closed, and a bemused smile on his face. She did not like that smile. It engendered so much anger in her that he could be so calm when she felt so terrible. She had a thought about leaving him there and just going to her mother’s just to eat chocolate cake all night. But of course that wouldn’t help, and then she’d be stuck with her mother and her father might actually kill Teddy for upsetting her when he hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

It was very complicated being pregnant.

She took a deep breath and fought to hide her anxiety. She ran one more hand down her dress, smoothing it out as she studied how handsome he looked in his Muggle tuxedo. It was black, of course, just like every other man’s would be. She’d spoken to her aunt Hermione to make sure she understood the dress code etiquette for the evening. Teddy would still stand out, though, even in a sea of black. Merlin, she loved him. “You can open your eyes now.”

Teddy did and a second later he straightened, a beam of pure happiness radiated from him. “Victoire… wow! You look… wow!”

It was a great reaction, and he followed it up by swooped her up in a tender hug, placing a gentle kiss on her lips. His hand ran down her back and over to her front, caressing their baby through the slippery material of the dress. “You’re both gorgeous,” he said, and she could tell he meant it.

“Thank you,” she replied and fought back the urge to cry.

“Are you ready?”

“Almost,” she said with a sigh as she turned and pointed to the floor. “Can you get that?”

Teddy released her to scoop up the wand, a feat that was easy for him but had recently become difficult for her. “How did your wand end up there?”

“You don’t want to know,” she promised and vowed never to tell him of her tantrum. She hiked up the dress to reveal her bare feet.

To his credit he didn’t laugh. He did smile annoyingly, though, as he retrieved her shoes and helped buckle them on her feet. Unless she could slide them on, she was no longer capable of bending to get the shoes on. He draped a black wrap over her shoulders and kissed her temple. “Are you sure you want to wear heels?”

“Mum enchanted them,” Victoire explained. “They’ll cushion my feet and I won’t trip. Mum is good at those things. They matched the dress.”

“Right,” he said by way of a response. “Well, let’s go.”

He’d borrowed Harry’s BMW for the night so that they had a nice ride to the party, and she was infinitely grateful when they pulled up to the huge castle of a house. The drive was gravel, and a butler waited for them. He opened Victoire’s door and she was grateful for his extended hand, she really was, but it just wasn’t enough to heft her out of the car. She wasn’t going to cry.

“Just a moment,” Teddy said as he hopped out and hurried around. The butler ducked out of his way and Teddy practically had to lift her out of the car. “It’s alright,” he soothed so only she could hear. “You’re seven months pregnant, luv. It’s fine.”

The butler beamed at her, and she felt better for the smile as she straightened and Teddy handed over the keys to a valet. “This way, madam, sir,” he told them as he ushered them up the steps and another car pulled in just behind them. That car was a limo, which Victoire had only seen a few times. She had to fight not to stare and to watch her footing.

She waited with her parents at the top of the steps, just inside the doors, greeting all the guests. Her parents were a grand couple. It was clear that her mother dyed her hair so that it was still the same auburn as her daughter’s, but her clear blue eyes were open and sweet as she greeted them. Her father was equally charming, telling them how happy they were that some of her old school friends could make it to their celebration. Then it was time to shake her hand and Victoire did not want to. She just didn’t want to put herself through it.

“Catherine,” Teddy greeted her warmly, while his hand stayed on Victoire’s lower back. She was a younger, more beautiful, version of her mother. Her hair was up in an elaborate twist with a few curls artfully falling down to her neck. Her make-up was done to perfection and it was galling to see that her skin was perfectly clear. Her eyes were not nearly as nice as her mother’s. It wasn’t that they weren’t beautiful, but her eyes held none of the warmth.

“Teddy,” she purred as she boosted up so she could kiss his cheek. “It’s so lovely to see you. Victoire, my…” she surveyed Victoire who had to fight not to squirm. “Well, you’ve really blossomed in the last few weeks! I think I saw you just last month and one couldn’t tell you were pregnant. Now look at you.” She submitted to Catherine’s kiss to her cheek, but oh, how it rankled.

“Doesn’t she look spectacular?” Teddy said as he beamed down at her. “She’s never been more beautiful.”

Because Merlin, the man was a clueless twit. He had no idea of the dragon’s nest he’d just stepped into, or the dig that was part of the woman’s words. He was the biggest moron in the world when it came to women.

But he loved her. He loved her so much, and he’d said exactly the right thing to have Catherine taking a step back and to Victoire’s shock, looking just the littlest bit jealous.

They moved on a moment later, but she stayed by his side because he was her hero and she was so proud to be with him, and it was clear that he was proud of her, too. People would ask about the baby, and they answered that she was due in January. They ran into some of their other school friends, and were soon joined by some Muggles their own age. Everyone, except Victoire, had a glass of champagne in their hands. It was a party, and Teddy had made sure she had water, which was what she’d wanted to drink. They had everything, but she’d been wanting water, so water she had. They danced. It was romantic to dance with him, held close as he asked if she was tired. “I’m fine,” she assured him.

“Good,” he whispered into her ear, making her shiver. “Because I definitely want to get you home and take this dress off of you.”

She might have blushed, but not so much that anyone else would have noticed.

The dinner was lovely. They were seated next to the son of an earl and his wife. Aunt Hermione had explained that seating was arranged based on social status, which had made sense. Their seating arrangement, next to an earl, therefore, seemed odd. How they’d come up with that, Victoire had no idea and she didn’t want to question it. They were a bit older than they were, probably close to thirty, and the wife confided that she was expecting their second, but wasn’t very far along yet. “You look stunning,” she assured Victoire. “I looked like a stuffed goose when I was that far along.”

Victoire finally started to relax. It was not so bad. The party was a good idea and she was so glad that they’d come.

“So,” the earl said as he dabbed at his mouth, “what sort of work do you do?”

Teddy had an answer for that. They both did. “Victoire is in school to become a doctor, although that might be a little delayed. I’m in law enforcement.”

“Really?” his wife said with a raised brow. “What sort of law enforcement?”

“The sort I’m not allowed to talk about,” Teddy answered with an apologetic smile.

“Quite right,” the earl agreed with a pat to his wife’s hands.

His wife, however, was not deterred. “Maybe you’ve heard about the migrant women that have been disappearing. I’m just so worried about them and it seems like no one is looking into it.”

Teddy froze. “I hadn’t realized it was that publicized.”

“You’re part of that investigation?” his wife demanded. “We’re all so worried. I know that a woman like me won’t be targeted, but I think that makes it even more reprehensible! If I were taken the entire country would be turned upside down. These women deserve the same.”

Victoire felt Teddy’s tension. He couldn’t say anything about what they were doing or the fact that it was really a witch that was taking the women. She smiled at the countess and shook her head. “Teddy has been working long, long hours on this case. It’s been important to keep things quiet. In this case, the public won’t be helpful. I am glad you are so concerned. I am as well, but I promise they’re trying to find those who are responsible.”

Teddy squeezed her hand under the table as the woman nodded and let it drop.

Maybe she could be his hero, too. She grinned as her baby shifted a bit, kicking at her belly button.

Later, as she lay naked in his arms in their beautiful house, she told him how she felt about Catherine.

“You’re kidding,” Teddy exclaimed, clearly startled. “Victoire… I… you should have told me you felt like that! I wouldn’t have asked you to go. I didn’t… I don’t think Catherine feels like that towards me. Maybe she did back in school, but that was years ago.”

She shifted until she could press a small kiss to his neck. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“She’s nothing compared to you, you know,” he said as he gently ran his fingers up and down her arm. “I want nothing more than to be here with you, having a baby with you. I can’t imagine being with anyone else.”

“I love you so much,” she said as she thought about what her mother had said. “I want you to have everything.”

“I have everything,” he told her earnestly. “I have you! I worry sometimes that I’m not enough for you. All I can do is continue trying.”

She laughed, then, because what else could she do? “I bought more maternity clothes.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhmm,” she said on a happy sigh. “There’s this short red dress…”

Teddy groaned and pressed his mouth to hers. “I’m taking you out to dinner tomorrow night just so I can see it.”

Back to index


Chapter 40: Chapter 37

Author's Notes: This chapter is brutal... if you want to skip that, once it swaps over to Harry's POV, go for it. Warning you now. I won't do this again, not to this extent, but moving along the plot. Adding more layers...

I'm sorry it took so long, I had another work commitment that ate up all of my time. I'll get back to regular postings now.

Thanks Arnel for keeping up with my insane beta'ing. :)


Nat was sure that they were not going to make it. She stared out at the landscape that they were passing as they steamed through England and towards King’s Cross and ignored the turmoil that was twisting her up inside. Okay, she wasn’t ignoring it. She was trying hard to ignore it because Ellie Sandler was sitting with them, flirting with Al, and really, she wanted to be happy for Al, she really did, but instead she felt like something was sitting heavily in her chest, weighing her down and stripping off something that felt like it was never meant to be stripped away. Ellie was pretty, and a redhead, just like all the other Potter women, and she was tall!

Okay, she wasn’t really all that tall, but she was at least average height, unlike Nat, who was still gnat sized. She shook her head at that. She’d decided to call herself ‘fun-sized’ even though none of her magical friends would get the reference, at all. It wasn’t really a thing in England, either, but she’d seen the fun-sized candy in America, so she’d pointed them out to the boys when they’d been in North Carolina over the summer. It was something they would get, at the very least.

“Who’s picking you up?” Scorpius asked and Nat turned from staring out the window to look across the seat at him, only to realize he was speaking to Rose’s boyfriend, who was in at the end of the same bench she, herself, was sitting on.

“I’m not sure, actually,” he admitted with a grin. “I think my parents are coming for me, but that’s only if my father is available. Otherwise it’ll be a butler or possibly my oldest brother, since he can drive. I’d rather the butler, as my brother George is a maniac behind the wheel. He has this expensive car that goes really fast. It’s a wonder he hasn’t crashed it, yet.”

Rose shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable, and Nat knew why. While Andrew wanted to introduce his girlfriend to his parents, Rose was not feeling the same way. Her dad would lose his mind if he thought his daughter had a boyfriend. There was no telling what Ron Weasley would do, although Nat thought he might be more open to the experience than Rose feared. Still, that wasn’t the only reason. Rose had asked Nat about the Muggle royals until Nat thought her brains would leak out of her head. Nat didn’t even know most of what Rose had wanted to know, so she’d had to send out for books so they could figure things out. It was then that Rose had learned that most of the royals were supposed to be of good bloodlines, just like the purebloods of the magical world. Also, and this was a major sticking point to a fourteen-year-old girl, they were supposed to marry beautiful if they couldn’t marry other royalty.

It wasn’t that Rose was hung up about not being beautiful, because she wasn’t, but that didn’t make Rose any less, and she knew that. Rose believed in herself in a way that Nat envied wholeheartedly. It also helped that, while not classically beautiful, Rose was pretty. Nat was not. She was just slightly better than not freaky looking, so Rose was way ahead in that area and clearly Andrew thought she was wonderful. He thought she was beautiful. The day that he’d told Rose that she’d practically floated through the evening. She’d told Nat that she’d never expected it, that she could hardly believe that he meant it, but it was so obviously clear that he did that she’d been on cloud-nine. It wasn’t Andrew’s feelings that worried Rose; it was his family’s. There was always the chance that they could take one look at her, with her bushy hair and her freckles, and decide she wasn’t worthy of Andrew. They might want him to break up with her.

Nat didn’t think that would be the case, but Rose was definitely worried about it. However, Nat was not. Even if his family wanted him to end it with Rose, he wasn’t going to. Andrew Holmes was not a boy who would bend under pressure. He was a solid, steady boy and he did whatever felt right to him. For as long as he wanted to date Rose, he’d date Rose, and no one was going to change that. As if reading her mind, even though Nat knew Rose hadn’t told him of her fears, he squeezed Rose’s hand and shook his head. “It will be fine. Your dad will like me, my parents will like you, don’t worry so. Even my butler will like you.”

“I have a question,” Al asked suddenly. “What’s a butler?”

“It’s like a paid house-elf,” Nat explained while Ellie giggled. Nat ground her teeth and went back to staring out the window, trying to ignore what was going on around her.

Scorpius nudged her leg with his foot and she glanced over to see his raised brow and the silent questions. She carefully shook her head and went back to staring out the window. She couldn’t stand to watch the flirting, since she was forced to listen to it. She’d observed once that it seemed painful to have a new relationship, as it were. There was a lot about it that seemed extremely awkward, at least at first. She had to admit that she liked what Rose and Andrew had together. They were a couple, but it had moved on to the sweet and the funny. They laughed together, held hands, and when Rose was having a bad time of it studying for exams, Andrew had pulled her into his arms and had held on until she’d managed to calm down enough to go back to studying. The look on Rose’s face had been wonderful.

It made Nat jealous in so many ways. The thought of someone feeling like that for her seemed so far out of reach, and growing further away, so that she’d never, ever get to that place of being loved. Al would hug her, sure. He didn’t mind that, but he didn’t feel like that towards her and Ellie was just a perfect reminder that she needed to get over her crush on Al. While things like a boyfriend seemed to be going away, her crush on Al was not. That kept getting bigger and it was starting to crush her. Maybe that’s why they called it a crush, since it was so crushingly painful when it was one-sided.

There would be other things to think of for Christmas. She was only going to get two days with her parents, but she’d get to see both of them, at least. They would be going to the Potter’s beach house on Boxing Day, and until then she’d get Al’s parents, whom she enjoyed, and Gran Weasley was going to teach Nat how to bake things that Nat would actually be able to eat. Her new diet was working. She had more energy, she didn’t faint, and she was starting to gain more weight. It wasn’t that she’d had much in the way of sweets before she’d been on the feeding line for so long, but now it was so much worse. She could eat meat, cheese, eggs, and most vegetables. That was about it. She could also have some nuts, but that wasn’t all that much fun.

Gran Weasley had heard about Nat’s problem being able to eat foods like everyone else, and she’d taken matters into her own hands. Well, a bit. She’d summoned Harry to her house with his car and she’d had him drive her into London, to a book store, so that they could buy cookery books. When she’d read Mrs. Potter’s letter, she’d burst into tears of joy. She could just see the older lady ordering the famous Harry Potter around, and him being happy to do so. So now Nat knew there were going to be treats for her at the Potters, and that Gran was going to show her how to make them! She was so excited for that that she could have yelled in excitement.

She could have something that looked like a biscuit, and tasted like a biscuit, as long as it was made with almond flour and sweetened with stevia. Explaining that to the house-elves had gone nowhere. If she wasn’t ever going to have a boyfriend, at least she’d have biscuits. It was something.

“Nat!” Startled, she turned to find Al kneeling in front of her, his hand on her arm, his expression concerned.

“What?” she asked, very confused.

“Are you okay?” he demanded quickly as he scrutinized her from head to toe.

“Yeah,” she said slowly, “why?”

He gave her an odd look. “We’ve been trying to talk to you for over a minute and you didn’t hear us.”

“Oh,” she blushed as she realized she’d been trying to, and clearly succeeding in tuning him out. “I was dreaming of biscuits. Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

His face relaxed and he nodded. Al turned to go back to his seat, only to find that Scorpius had slid over next to Ellie, so that he and Andrew could play Exploding Snap, leaving only the window seat across from her open. Ellie looked extremely put out, with her arms crossed in front of her, so Nat went back to staring out the window. The day really couldn’t get much more awkward.

They arrived in a snow storm, but it didn’t make it onto the platform. Nat stared up in amazement at the sky above the train station and marveled at the snow that was hitting what appeared to be a protective bubble, but wasn’t landing on the platform. “Wow!”

“Oh, good,” Rose sighed happily. “I was hoping they’d have that up to save us. It looked like there was over a foot of snow on the ground as we were steaming in.”

“I think it’s a bit more than that, actually,” Andrew mused as he stood to help Al and Scorpius haul down the girls’ bags. He grinned at Rose. “Are you ready? I spotted both my parents.”

Rose’s face went white, but she took her small bag and nodded. Nat followed right behind them, mostly because she wanted to listen, but it was partially to get away from Al and Ellie. Al and Ellie… it sounded so… musical and right. She hated it, of course.

She silently scolded herself for being stupid and was amused when, after he’d exited the train, Andrew turned to hold out a hand for both Rose and herself. “Thanks,” she said with a laugh.

“I’ve seen you walk,” Andrew joked with a shake of his head. “You could trip over flat ground.”

“I have tripped over flat ground,” she retorted as she grinned at Mrs. Potter who was hurrying towards her. “Hi!” she said as she dropped her bag and flung her arms around Al’s mum.

“Oh, Nat,” she laughed as she squeezed her hard, then made room to grab for Lily, who had appeared out of nowhere, carrying no bags at all. “I missed you so much! How was your term?”

“It was wonderful, Mum!” Lily gushed as they broke apart. She was practically bouncing.

“Where’s Ducky?” Ginny asked in concern, referring to Lily’s cat.

Lily waved back towards the carriages, and a moment later Al and Scorpius appeared, carrying Lily’s bags. Al looked extremely put upon, but Scorpius was more amused at having to carry the unhappy Ducky.

“Lily Luna,” Ginny scolded quietly.

“I couldn’t wait,” Lily turned back to her mother, her eyes filling as she grabbed Ginny’s hand. “I couldn’t get through the crowds with the bags and I wanted to get to you, Mum. The boys didn’t mind.”

“I didn’t mind,” Scorpius agreed with a chuckle as he handed over the pet carrier to Lily. “Hi, Mrs. Potter.”

She smiled at Al’s best friend and shook her head with a wry grin. “You’re spoiling her.”

“She’s already rotten,” Al said as he dropped Lily’s bag next to his and glanced up at the sky above them. “How on earth are we going to drive home in this?”

It was then that Nat caught sight of Rose and Andrew and she grinned as she watched her friend shake hands with Andrew’s parents, while Andrew tossed a little girl up in the air, making her giggle madly. He stopped and introduced Rose to his sister, for she looked just like the picture that Nat had seen on the train ride to Hogwarts. Claire. That was Andrew’s sister’s name, and she was three, but Nat guessed that she was closing in on four by the facial development and size of her. She was… well, there was no other way to put it. She was glowing with a magical light that sparkled and shone around her, just as it did around every other magical person when Nat tried to see them for who they really were. But that wasn’t what drew her attention. Andrew’s father, the Duke, glowed as well. It wasn’t like a Squib, who only had one or two tiny flickers of light, typically around the head. No, the man was lit up with dampened lights that appeared gloomy and oppressed. Interesting. She could reason through that one quickly, but wondered at his father never telling Andrew that he, too, was magical but could not pursue it because of his title. Maybe it would come out when Claire went to Hogwarts, but then again, maybe not. Claire was definitely going to Hogwarts. Nat wouldn’t be able to tell Andrew about it, which was annoying, but she knew it was for her own safety.

The little girl tucked her dark head into Andrew’s shoulder and held onto him while Rose spoke with Andrew’s parents. It was then that Nat spotted Rose’s parents walking towards them and her heart sank. “Uh oh,” she muttered.

Ginny spun around and sighed. “He’ll be okay… I think. Both Hermione and I have been railing at him to keep his temper.”

To her surprise, Ron Weasley held out his hand to Andrew, who shook it, a bit awkwardly since he had his hands full, but there was a grin on the older man’s face as he spoke to first Andrew, then to Andrew’s parents.

“I didn’t see it going that well,” Ginny admitted to them quietly. “Hermione must have threatened to leave him in a snowbank.”

“I don’t think so,” Lily said slowly. “Uncle Ron looks happy, maybe a bit nervous, but he seems happy. He didn’t even flinch when Andrew put an arm around Rose’s waist.”

“This is all terribly interesting,” James said from behind them, making all of them jump, “but I’d love to know how we’re getting home in this mess.”

Ginny walked over to him, grabbed his ear and gently pulled his head down until she could kiss his cheek. “You can walk.”

James laughed. “Seriously, Mum.”

She shook her head. “Your father bought a new toy and it’s been driving me mad. It’s ghastly looking, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him no. He couldn’t find parking close, so he’s waiting out front for us.”

“I’ll see you in a few days, then,” Scorpius said with clear reluctance.

“No,” Ginny turned back to him. “Your parents are stuck at their house. I had a chat with your mother this morning. You’ll drive home with us, and I’ve arranged for you to spend the night. Your mum says you can come home tomorrow through the Floo.”

Scorpius’ expression relaxed completely.

“How are Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione getting home?” Lily wondered as she bent to pick up her bag, but Scorpius had already grabbed it.

Ginny sighed heavily. “Ron took one look at the blasted thing and decided he had to have one, too, so Harry bought him one. I swear they get more immature the older they get.”

It was a Hummer. Nat stared at the big, black beast with its chrome accents and shook her head. It was at least twice her height and she couldn’t fathom how she’d even get into it.

Harry solved that by plucking her up and handing her in. “Thanks, Mr. Potter,” she said as she climbed through and found a seat. It wasn’t like a normal Hummer, which only seated five or six people. This one had been modified to seat at least twelve, with comfortable seats spread around a large area. She plopped down and buckled up while the boys handled the luggage. Lily sat down next to her, her eyes huge. “It’s like a tank,” Nat commented dryly.

Lily shot her a bemused look. “What’s a tank?”

The boys clambered up, forestalling their conversation.

Al whistled as he looked around the cream white, leather interior. “Wow.”

Wow indeed.

The drive home was still a little scary, but with the magically enhanced SUV it was also pretty fun. It took twice as long to get there as it would have, otherwise, but no one minded because the scenery was beautiful and they had each other.

The only one unhappy about it was Ducky, who yowled and protested at the bumpy ride until Lily let him out. He tried to hide under the seats, but ended up wedged behind Al’s legs, scratching him in his terror. He appeared resigned, since he wouldn’t let Lily out of her seat to retrieve the cat.

When they finally pulled to a stop in front of Ivy Run, the snow was almost two feet deep. Nat stared at it, completely unsure of how she was going to be able to walk through it.

The door was pulled open and a bundled up Teddy grinned at them. “Hey, you lot. Let’s get in before this thing gets buried. Lily,” he said as he held out his arms and she scooped up her cat before allowing Teddy to carry her into the house.

The boys all exchanged a look, then scrambled out, leaving Nat the lone one left in the Hummer. Even Mrs. Potter was being helped into the house by her husband. Al stared up at her, but while he was tall, the snow was up past his knees already. He waited with her, though, until Teddy came back to carry her in. “I made myself taller to do this,” he laughed as he carted her inside and set her down. “I’m going for the bags, now.”

Nat turned to find Lily hugging a very pregnant Victoire. She walked towards her, her eyes fixed on the woman’s large stomach and saw the baby. Startled, she couldn’t tear her eyes away as the baby slept, but shifted a little, her tiny face going up to her mouth, then relaxing.

“Nat?” Ginny asked her in concern.

“I… I can see the baby,” she whispered, but everyone heard her and turned from her, back to Victoire.

“You can see the baby?” Victoire asked and Nat was suddenly relieved that she hadn’t spilled the beans about the baby being a girl. They wanted to be surprised.

She nodded and moved forward, tilting her head this way and that to get a better look at her. Victoire was eight months pregnant. Nat could see that by the development, which was basically done. Now she would need to get some fat to make her a chubby baby. That was nearly all of what happened in the last month of development anyway.

Completely oblivious to what had happened, Al, Teddy, and Harry tromped in with the last of the bags as Teddy asked, “How was your trip?”

“Annoyingly long,” Al grumbled miserably. “This maddening girl I don’t like decided to sit with us. It sucked.”

~*~

Harry didn’t get to spend the evening with his family. Before they’d even sat down to dinner, he and Teddy were headed back to the Ministry. He strode into the conference room where Auror Gregory waited for them, a piece of parchment clutched in his hands. “We’ve secured the scene,” he told his boss as he held out the piece of parchment. Harry saw that his hand shook, ever so slightly, but then it was gone as the man regained his control.

Harry had never seen the man so rattled and couldn’t imagine what could have possibly set him off, but his eyes only had to scan the words to know. “Merlin…” he sighed as he reread the statement more carefully. “Where?”

“South of London,” Gregory explained. “The MLE were called in on what we thought was a routine matter and they stumbled across it. It appears to have been a good fight before most of them got away. I checked in with the Healers and the three MLE agents are still being worked on. It doesn’t look good, but they won’t tell me more than that.”

“They captured one man?” Teddy asked as he read over Harry’s shoulder. “Want me to take him?”

“He’s still unconscious,” Gregory told him. “I have him under guard at St. Mungo’s. I think you should head to the scene.”

Harry’s brow rose as he studied the other man. “There’s something that you’re not telling me?” It wasn’t really a question, but it was coming out like it.

“We wanted no paper trail until you’d seen it for yourself,” Gregory told him shortly, his face pale. “In fact, we might want to leave Lupin out of this one. He can debrief the MLE once the Healers have cleared them for questioning.”

Teddy started at the notion, but Harry considered it. There were some things that could never, ever be unseen. It would be a shame to give him that when he was still so young. “Agreed.”

He and Gregory went towards the elevators to get out of the Ministry. “We’ll Apparate there. There is a place we can appear safely without alerting any Muggles. I’ve had them close it off because we’ll be examining this scene for at least another twelve hours.”

They arrived at a cleared warehouse to find half the MLE waiting around outside the building and a disheveled Hermione speaking to Susan Macmillan. The snow had been melted and was being kept from piling up at the entrance to the crime scene. It wasn’t a big warehouse, and Harry could see that the windows appeared blacked out from soot or lack of cleaning, he couldn’t tell which. Susan, Harry noted, did not look well. “What happened?” he asked harshly the second he reached the two women.

“I can’t go back in there, Harry,” Susan told him quietly as she closed her eyes. “I tried… I’m so sorry. I can’t.”

“You shouldn’t,” Hermione agreed as her face turned green. “God, what an awful… were you filled in yet?”

“No,” Harry admitted, alarmed at the look on both of their faces. He stepped around them and down into the hive of Aurors who were processing the scene. He found Silas Raeburn directing the whole thing. Silas was close to retiring, and a curmudgeon just like Mad-Eye Moody had been, but also a very skilled Auror. He was methodical and meticulous and the right man to have on the ground in a complicated scene. “You don’t want the MLE involved?” Harry asked, although he didn’t doubt that Raeburn had an excellent reason.

Silas shoot his silvered head. “Too many loose lips on this one. Come and see.”

Harry followed him into a back room where there were several bloody mattresses lined up along the wall, along with chains next to the mattresses. The smell in the room was so unbelievably foul that he couldn’t reconcile how he hadn’t smelled it before until he remembered that they’d just come up with a spell to stop smells at doors and windows. They’d been testing it for only a few weeks now. Clearly it was working. He gagged slightly, turning to clutch at his stomach at the smells of decay and feces.

“It’s working to keep most everyone from noticing what’s happening in here, but this is just horrendous, Potter,” Silas explained bluntly as he handed Harry a paste to put in his nose to block out the smell. He dabbed it on quickly and inhaled the smell of peppermint. It helped, to a degree, but did nothing to block out the taste of rot in his mouth.

“What the hell is that?” Harry demanded as he followed Silas over to a dumpster. He would never, ever know, until his dying day, how he didn’t throw up. The dumpster was full of writhing, wriggling maggots like the long grass dancing in the wind on a summer’s day, although there was nothing pleasant about this sight. The bugs feasted heavily on what he could see were the rotting corpses of women and… babies. He could see several babies on top of the pile, bugs climbing out their noses and eyes. Harry spun and strode off, so sick he could hardly think. He grabbed at his hair as everything in him screamed in anger and fury.

She’d gone too far this time! The stupid bitch was fucking crazy, but this was the absolute limit and worse still, Harry couldn’t seem to catch her! He was partially responsible for those bodies in the bin! Guilt, disgust, fear, anger, and so many emotions he couldn’t name roiled through him like those fucking bugs.

“Potter,” Raeburn said quietly. “It took me a good hour to get myself together, sir. I need you to do that in ten minutes. The press is going to be alerted before too long and we have to be well into this investigation before that happens.”

Harry nodded slowly and breathed as deeply as he could through the stench and the sick. “Is Wallace coming?” he asked, referring to the Healer who dealt with the dead bodies when their deaths were suspicious. He could use the old, experienced man’s calm demeanor right now.”

“He’s already here,” Raeburn answered quickly. “He was waiting for you so you could see what we were dealing with before. We thought about a picture to show you, but decided you needed to see it.”

“Agreed,” Harry answered. “I’m going to quickly consult with Mrs. Weasley and send McMillian to the hospital. She can trade out with Lupin if we need more manpower.” He hated to do that, but Teddy didn’t need to be in this room to be helpful. There was a ton of evidence and paperwork to go through in the front room.

“I think we’re fine on manpower,” Silas assured him. “You handle the front end of this and I’ll keep the back end going. I’ll send for Wallace shortly.”

Harry nodded and strode out of the room, reveling in the clean, untainted air he immediately began to gulp like a starving man at a feast. He found Hermione outside, her expression frozen into a mask of forced calm. “Susan, you can head home,” he told the other woman.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly again, clearly ashamed as she glanced down at the ground. “I just…”

She had a baby... well, not a baby, but still a small child. Harry struggled at the moment to remember how old her son was, exactly. “It’s fine.”

“I’m pregnant,” Susan whispered so only he and Hermione could hear. Normally that would have been cause for celebration, or consternation since she was still his only female Auror, but they both assured her they were happy for her and sent her on her way.

“I’m going to steal a Muggle expression for this,” Harry told Hermione as soon as Susan had left. “This is a goddamned mess.”

Hermione nodded slowly. “I had a small brief from Raeburn, but chose not to go in and see. I can’t see it, Harry, I just can’t.”

He wished wholeheartedly that he could un-see it. “Can you handle the press and the MLE? At this point we really only need a skeleton crew to keep everyone else out. It’s going to take hours to process this.”

She shifted uncomfortably. “I can do that. I’ll select the ones I trust the most to guard the scene. I need to report in to the Minister.”

“I can do that once I’m done here,” Harry told her flatly. “It’s better coming from me. I just need you to deal with the public face of this. I might lose my job over this one.”

When Hermione didn’t contradict him, he knew it was a likely possibility. At this moment, he felt like he deserved it. “I know you’re doing your best to find her, but the problem is that no one is going to believe that when they hear what’s been discovered.”

He nodded at his sister-in-law and moved back into the building. It was time to get to work. First, he went over with the Aurors in the front what they were finding in the papers and figured out that most of them were notes and notations on potions and experimentations of some kinds, formulations that weren’t working. “We might have struck a goldmine,” Harry told Gregory, who was dealing with this part of the collection. “If we can figure out what she’s trying to do we might have a clearer motivation for her, but that unfortunately won’t stop her. I think we’ll have to bring Slughorn in on this one.”

“Agreed,” Gregory told him, “but he is a cranky old man at this point. He might not want to help.”

“He’ll help if I personally visit him to ask,” Harry assured Gregory with flat determination. “He owes me.”

“Hermione is a dab hand at potions,” the other man pointed out, but Harry shook his head. “My other sister-in-law, Audrey, is better. Both she and Percy would have the time to devote to this, to help Slughorn out, but we need his brain.”

Someone called to him and he turned to find Raeburn summoning him into the room of death. Harry followed quickly, still queasy from his last trip in. Wallace was slowly levitating bodies out of the large bin and into individual body bags, stopping to photograph every step. Raeburn indicated the mattresses. “We have blood and semen on them. I’m also certain we’ve found afterbirth present on several of them. It looks like they were impregnated here and were kept here until they gave birth.”

“Merlin,” Harry swore as he stared at the dingy mattresses. “Did you find anything else?”

“There’s a pile of soiled bedding, which was sitting on top of the bodies. There hasn’t been a living woman here for at least a few days. It was a bit of luck because they were clearing up and packing out the potions notes when they were caught, which is partially why we have anything.”

Harry knew Isabella Crabbe worked, and he had a reasonable handle on her. She had rough men on hand, stupid ones who were brutal and didn’t ask too many questions. She captured young women and she let the men have at them, raping them whenever they wanted. She was intentionally impregnating women. That much was clear, but for what purpose? As far as he knew, this was the first time the babies had lived. They had had women before who ended up miscarrying and being sterilized by whatever she was doing to them. That didn’t seem to be the objective, though he’d once thought that was it. Now, though, it seemed like she wanted the babies born. Or did she? “Wallace, can you tell if the babies were born alive?”

“Not at this stage, no,” Wallace told him. “I’ll know after I examine them.”

“What are you thinking?” Raeburn questioned quietly.

“I just need to figure out what she’s trying to do,” Harry told him simply. “I can’t seem to fathom what her ultimate goal might be. Why would she want all these pregnant women? I assume she’s experimenting on them, but what’s the aim?” A cold shiver ran over his spine as he thought about Victoire, but as far as he knew she hadn’t snatched any women who were already pregnant. She wanted them before they conceived. It left him sick with himself that he’d worry more about his own family, when so many other women were being tortured and killed violently.

Maybe he really did need to quit. If ever there was an existential crisis in his life, this would be it. Sighing heavily, he thought through all of the missing women. At first Crabbe had snatched any woman, without thought to their having family who might protest, but she’d wised up when that had led to public attention and outcries to find her. It left the public more on guard. Now she was taking women from overseas, which meant that their babies weren’t going to register on the British system as a magical baby being born.

That… that might be a start. If they could get the magical registry to work for geography, not just its citizens, then they might be able to track the women down as soon as they were impregnated. That system was kept confidential and no one was allowed to see it, but under the circumstances, he would have no trouble convincing the Minister and the Wizengamot to sign off on his use of the tool. The question was how difficult would it be to make it work that way. “I need to speak to Hermione,” he told Raeburn before hurrying out to find her.

It took only a minute of explanation for Hermione to understand what he was after, and she said she had the best spell creator she knew in mind to start on the project. “It might not be easy,” she warned him. “I still don’t have a full explanation of how the registration works or how it knows when someone has been impregnated, but… but…” her eyes glazed over and she sighed heavily. “It does work on geography, Harry.”

“What?” he asked sharply. “How do you know?”

“It’s only registering unmarried babies and sending off a warning,” she told him sharply. “You overlooked the simple explanation that she’s either snatching magically married women or having them married, their souls bound, before they get into the country. That’s why we aren’t getting warnings of them being here!”

Several fluid and creative cusswords spewed from his mouth as he turned away from her to pace up and down. “What about the Hogwarts registry?”

“It’s only registering at birth,” Hermione told him dejectedly. “We would be able to know a baby is born, and possibly tweak that system to get their location, but my understanding is that they didn’t have the locations of the babies, on purpose, so that someone like Voldemort couldn’t target them. It’s going to take time, but that’s a way I can work it.”

He gave a sharp nod. “Do it. Please.”

“I will,” she promised.

It was something, at least a start to get a handle on this insane woman. Slowly, feeling older than he had in a long, long time, he made his way back in to check on his team. He found Wallace waiting for him, his expression grim. “Healer Wallace?”

“That little girl,” Wallace said in an undertone. “I just might need her.”

Harry felt his heart sink straight into his toes. He’d been afraid of that. “Do your best first, then if it’s impossible, I’ll bring her by.”

The older man inclined his head. “I’m ready to move the bodies back to St. Mungo’s. It’s going to be a long few days of exams for me.”

It was going to be a long few days for all of them, and worst yet, it was right before Christmas.

Back to index


Chapter 41: Chapter 38

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long delay!

Please search "Sarah Jaune" on amazon and go buy my books! My latest book just came out, called The Four Corners" This writing is free of charge, just a labor of love, but paying bills is also awesome, and you can pay me for my time by buying my other books.

Thanks Arnel for beta'ing.


In the end, Harry didn’t use Nat to separate the bodies. He just couldn’t do that to her. He called in her father, Curtis, and hired him to do the job for them. He had been on an assignment, but it was for the British Muggle government, so Hermione had been able to pull the strings needed to make it understood that this was a priority. Even after all Curtis had seen in his line of work, he came out of the morgue each day pale and shaken. Harry made him take the two days off to be with Nat and his wife, Julienne, at the beach house, but it hardly felt like it was enough. Curtis finally finished sorting the bodies the day before the children were set to go back to school, and it was with a relief that Harry sent him off with a fat paycheck and his deepest apologies. No one should have to see what they saw. Several of the Aurors and MLE personal were traumatized by what they’d seen.

They didn’t have enough to go on, but they could tell they’d been experimented on magically and with a potion. That hadn’t answered anything because it was not a potion that they could recover. It left all of the great potions masters that Harry trusted enough to call upon stumped. There was no trace left of the potion in the system of the victims. Either it had been gone long enough, or it disappeared as soon as it had taken effect. Everyone agreed that making the potion do that would be damned tricky and probably made the potion unstable. If Crabbe was continuing to experiment, it might be because that failsafe to keep it anonymous was also making it ineffective.

Whatever the reason, Harry didn’t want be circling around the problem for the next forty years as he tried to catch the woman. He had to put a stop to it, which was why the note in front of him didn’t make a lot of sense. He’d been receiving notes from Crabbe throughout the years, but they’d always said, ‘I know your secret,’ and frankly he’d never understood what secret she might be referring to. The only secret he had that wasn’t widely known was about his daughter, Hope, and her conception. Ginny had been magically impregnated, while she’d been unconscious, using Harry as the father. It was a sick, sick game that Crabbe had played. She’d poisoned Ginny so that she could take Harry’s wife and child at the same time, but thankfully his sister-in-law, Audrey, had discovered the poison and had cured Ginny. The baby, baby Hope, hadn’t made it. She’d died while Ginny had still been pregnant with her. It was all he could do not to cry about it, now, even though it was well over twenty years before. The pain was not raw or intense like it once was, but he knew at a bone-deep level just what had been lost when his daughter had been murdered.

Still, the new note was almost a taunt, a tease, a trick to say there was no way that Harry would ever get to the bottom of what she was doing. He stared at the scrawled words and wondered, yet again, what she meant by ‘Time’s ticking gone.’

“Maybe there is an end game,” Teddy mused as he lounged back in his seat in Harry’s office. He’d been in for a quarterly review when the note had arrived, and Harry had showed it to him. Teddy was very quickly proving to be the same sort of star Auror that his mother had been, and Harry could easily see his godson taking his place when it came time for Harry to finally retire. The other Aurors liked him tremendously, and even for as young as he was, he was respected.

Still, he was brand new at this, and yet… Harry nodded slowly. “Explain what you mean.”

“Well,” Teddy said slowly as he tipped his seat up and held out his hand for the note. “She’s trying to accomplish something, and there’s a buildup. There has to be a grand finale, of sorts, don’t you think? She’s saying, here, that time is moving on in it.”

“But does that mean now or in ten years?”

He shrugged and shook his head. “This game has been going on since I was born, so I would say that if she thinks it’s coming to end, that might still mean a few years are left in play. We know it has something to do with mothers and babies.”

That was the only solid thing that they did know, and it fit in with what Crabbe had done to Ginny. She’d magically impregnated her, and poisoned her. “But there is no poison, not the poison she used on Ginny.”

“No, but there is something,” Teddy pointed out reasonably, his expression looking so much like Remus’ from old photos that it caused a dull ache to thud in Harry’s chest. “We know that there is a potion, and that she’s actively working on it. I would assume from the state of the chaos that you walked into in that warehouse that it’s not complete yet.”

“We don’t know that for certain,” Harry pointed out. “She could be done, now.”

“If she’s done, then the plan needs to be enacted soon,” his godson told him.

Harry shook his head, unsure of what was nagging at him. “There must be something.”

“There must, but–” Teddy froze at an urgent knock on the door.

“Sir!” Daniel, Harry’s personal assistant, sounded harried. Without waiting, the handsome, young man pushed the door open, his face flushed. He was staring at Teddy. “I’ve just had word that your wife is in labor! Mrs. Potter says it’s going fast and you’re to get home immediately.”

Harry watched his godson go sheet white, but when Teddy stood, he was grinning and his gate was steady. “I guess I’m off for the rest of the week, then,” he told Harry.

“Make that two,” he told Daniel. “I’ll be out until further notice. If something comes up, you can reach me, Daniel.”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel said as he stood aside for the two men.

They arrived at Teddy’s house to gentle music playing and Bill pacing back and forth through the living room. “Oh, thank Merlin,” he said to Harry as Teddy dashed by him and up the steps. His brother-in-law looked frankly terrible. “I don’t know what I’m doing here!”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh, but at the sour expression on Bill’s scarred face, he fought back his amusement. He supposed it wouldn’t be quite as funny if it were Lily giving birth. It was, after all, Bill’s baby who was in pain upstairs. “Has she taken anything for it?”

Bill shook his head in disgust. “Every few minutes she lets out these long, keening wails, and I just want to tear someone’s head off.”

“That wouldn’t be advisable,” Harry assured him as he pushed Bill into a chair and went to fetch some Firewhiskey from the cabinet. He forced a large tumbler on the older man and sat next to him, nursing his own while Bill took a healthy swallow.

He heard the moan, then, and it brought him straight back to all of Ginny’s births, including Hope’s, when the pain had been so terrible for all that it wasn’t physical. They’d known that Hope wasn’t going to live, and it had hurt to the bottom of his very soul. But this time was different. There would be life. The baby was fine, or they would know by now.

“What happened?” Harry asked after Bill had drained his glass.

“Victoire thought she might be in labor,” Bill explained on a shaking breath, staring unseeing into his empty glass. “She called over and, as it happened, Ginny was at our place planning out a party for the baby. It’s to be a surprise, or something.”

It was definitely a surprise because Ginny hadn’t even told him she was planning something. “Go on.”

“So they came here, and then almost immediately Fleur is telling me to come, and I barely beat the midwife here.”

“Who’s the midwife?” Harry questioned. Martha, who had delivered him, was retired from this sort of thing, but she still taught at St. Mungo’s.

“Abigail, I think was her name,” Bill replied absently.

There was no Abigail, but there was an Alberta. However, Harry thought it wouldn’t much matter to Bill what the woman’s name was. “Then Ginny called to get us.”

“It’s going by fast,” Bill said as Victoire’s cries died out. “We’ve not even been here for fifteen minutes. Can’t they force her to take something for the pain?!” he demanded of Harry, who silently took the tumbler and refilled it half again with whiskey.

Twenty minutes later, and excited Ginny came tumbling down the stairs towards them, her radiant face flushed with joy. “It’s a girl!” she exclaimed as she threw herself into Harry’s arms as her ecstatic excitement overflowing onto him as he grinned like a loon.

A girl.

It took much, much too long before Harry and Bill were allowed up to their bedroom, although in reality it was less than ten minutes before Victoire was cleaned up, dressed, and settled in the bed, holding her beautiful daughter. When Harry walked in, the picture of them struck him so forcefully that he knew he’d remember that moment for the rest of his life. Victoire lay in the bed, on her side, the baby towards her breast, while Teddy spooned up behind her, his big hand resting gently on the baby’s back. Both of them were so fixated on the child that they had eyes for no one else.

Bill walked silently to his daughter and knelt, placing a gentle kiss on her brow as she smiled for her father, then watched as Bill kissed the tiny child’s forehead.

Victoire’s tired gaze met his. “We’ve named her Emma.”

“It’s a beautiful name,” Harry assured her as he came over to meet his granddaughter. “Budge over and share,” he told Bill, who growled good-naturedly.

His first kiss to the new baby was magical smells and undying love. It was an experience he was never to forget, and hopefully to repeat many times over. Molly and Arthur would be by later, to greet their first great-grandchild, but he understood viscerally the absolute love that Molly had explained to him. It’s like that for your child, but on a whole other level.

Ginny came in, carrying a glass of juice and set it by the bed. “Back off, you two, give them space.”

Harry did rise, but not before kissing Victoire’s cheek and telling them how proud he was of her. He felt a prickling behind his eyes and quickly turned away to see his wife studying him with a knowing smile. She didn’t look all that steady, either.

Fleur sat gently on the end of the bed, rubbing her hand along Victoire’s covered foot. “She was wonderful.”

“She did very well,” Alberta, the midwife, told them. Harry hadn’t even seen that she was there, working in the corner on a parchment. In a bowl next to her was a blob of red blood, and he noticed a pair of discarded gloves.

For the briefest moment he was brought back, horribly, to the warehouse and all of the things that he’d seen, but then Ginny’s hand was in his and he let it go. It wasn’t the same situation… but there had been women there, women giving birth, women and babies who didn’t live, or were murdered. It was a combination of the two. Some had died from childbirth injuries, something that was practically unheard of in the magical community, and others had been murdered. None of the babies had been allowed to live. Because none of the mothers had been English, their babies hadn’t shown up on the registry with the British Ministry. It was a stupid technicality, one that should have been easy to overlook. British babies born to Muggles showed up on the registry, so why couldn’t foreign babies? He’d yet to receive a satisfying answer from the Hall of Records.

“Harry?” Ginny took his hand as she quietly whispered his name. “Let’s let them get some sleep. We’ll be downstairs,” she told the room at large.

He followed her numbly, giving in to the pressure of her small hand in his, as he’d always done with her, and let her lead him down to the couch, where she sat him. She sat next to him, holding his hand and studying him closely. “Maybe it’s time to see a therapist.”

“Might be a good idea, yeah,” Harry agreed without really thinking through what she’d suggested.

His brain was too full of dead babies and possibilities to take in much more.

~*~

Teddy studied his sleeping wife and child as the silent room around him went dark with the fading light. He brushed a finger gently over Emma’s sleeping face and watched her sigh and shift a bit in Victoire’s arms. He knew that he should sleep while he could, that the night would bring many waking hours with this little being demanding to be fed and changed, but he couldn’t force himself to stop looking at her. She was Victoire in miniature. He remembered Victoire as a baby. He’d seen her a few days after her birth, and it was his first memory. He loved that it was his first memory. He’d been so young, but he remembered seeing her and thinking that there was nothing better than this baby. He’d wanted to hold her, and amazingly he’d been allowed to do that. They had a picture of him beaming at the camera then staring down in awe at baby Victoire, while Fleur knelt next to him, ready to catch the infant should he let her drop. Teddy hadn’t let her fall. He’d never let her fall, not then, and not now.

When he’d accepted the money from Harry and Ginny it had felt like he was letting them down. It had felt like he was giving up on the chance to be independent, but looking at Emma he knew he’d do it over again in a heartbeat. Harry had said it best when he’d explained that Teddy would want to enjoy this time with his child, not be at work all the time and stressed about money. He’d been right on that. Teddy could take days off, weeks if Victoire needed it, and they wouldn’t starve. The bills were all paid, there was food in the larder, and he could enjoy his baby and his wife. There were too many people who would never have that luxury and he had no intention of taking it for granted.

Emma didn’t have much hair, but what she did have was blonde and curling a bit around the crown of her head. She was dressed in a green sleeper and her tiny, perfect fingers curled around the edge of the sleeve, holding tight to it. He brushed at her fingers which flexed open, and he let her grab his finger, to hold fast to it with her miniscule, impossibly perfect fingernails just a little too long, so that he knew they’d need to be trimmed or she’d scratch herself. Al had scratched himself all up. Teddy could still remember the calamity of watching Ginny and Harry attempt to trim his nails while James attempted to scale the walls. Literally. They’d waited until Teddy was over to visit so he could watch James, but it hadn’t done much good. Harry had had to use magic to get the spider-monkey off the ceiling.

He really, really hoped his daughter took after Lily and not James, or he’d have to be changing his hair color constantly to hide the gray.

Emma’s mouth formed almost a bow shaped pout and for a second he thought she would wake, but she slept on, the sleep of the newly born. She’d earned it. Victoire had earned it. Labor was bad enough when it took hours to come, but it was almost like his wife’s body had forced the baby out. By the time he’d arrived she was nearly ready to push and the screaming from her had broken his heart. He hated to see her in pain, but he was so proud of her for enduring it that he could have burst from it. He knew he couldn’t have done it. He’d have taken the potion to stop the pain.

Emma squirmed again, squeezing his finger, and then he felt, more than heard, the rumble that meant a nappy change was in his future. Victoire didn’t even stir as he picked Emma up, easily able to hold her tiny form in his two hands, and carried her over to the changing table they had set up in the corner. Emma’s first squawk of real protest came when he unfastened her snaps and the cool air hit her stomach.

“What?” Victoire asked, startling out of her sleep.

“Nappy,” Teddy assured her, as he kept a hand on Emma’s belly and glanced over to his wife. “She’ll likely want to eat after this.”

They’d tried to get Emma to nurse before their nap, but to no avail. She’d been too worn out from being born to even attempt it.

Nursing, it turned out, wasn’t as simple as Ginny made it seem. It took the midwife, Ginny, and Fleur to get Emma latched and from the look on Victoire’s face, it was much more painful than the actual act of giving birth. Not only that, but Emma kept breaking off and screaming her head off, turning bright red in the process.

“Wait,” Alberta muttered as she looked into Emma’s mouth. “Aw, poor mite has a full tongue and lip tie. No wonder she can’t nurse. Let’s call in a Healer for this one.”

Teddy opened his mouth to ask what that was, but Ginny was already in motion to get in touch with Aunt Audrey. “Why can’t you do it?” Victoire asked Alberta as she tried to sooth the upset baby, but looked to be on the point of tears herself.

Teddy moved to her and gently took the baby from her, rocking her and soothing her until Emma started to calm. Victoire burst into tears.

It was all chaos.

“It’s not you, sweetheart,” Ginny soothed her as both mothers surrounded her. “Teddy doesn’t smell like milk, so she isn’t being reminded that she can’t eat at the moment.”

“I have only seen a tie that severe removed once,” Alberta explained with a smile, reminding Teddy that they had other problems. “I’m not going to experiment on a baby who is only three hours old.”

Thankfully, although it felt like it took Audrey ten hours to get there rather than ten minutes, the tie was fixed. Audrey made it look simple, even explaining to both Victoire and Alberta how it was done painlessly for the baby. “She might sleep through this,” Audrey explained as she passed Victoire the baby, “but then again, she might not. Let’s see if she’ll eat.”

She did.

“You can’t leave,” Victoire told her mother, and Ginny, very seriously just as soon as Emma was suckling away. “You two have to stay.”

“We’ll stay, my luv,” Fleur promised as she soothed back her hair. “When you’re ready for us to go, we will go.”

Teddy lounged back on the bed and watched his baby eat and thought that maybe, just maybe, they’d survive her first twenty-four hours of life, but it would be a close thing.

~*~

“It’s a girl!” Lily winked at Nat, who grinned knowingly as she read through the letter from Ginny about Emma’s birth.

“A girl,” Al mused as he munched on bacon at breakfast. It was the middle of January and the castle was currently under assault by a massive blizzard. The only warm places in the castle were the common rooms. Nat thought he looked a little horrified by that. “I dunno about girls.”

“What’s there to know about girls?” Rose demanded with a scowl. “She’ll be great because girls are great.”

“Yeah, but,” Al went on slowly, “she’ll look like Victoire and that won’t be good.”

“Is Victoire suddenly hideous?” Lily wondered with a grin.

Al scowled at his sister and shook his head, pointing at her with his bacon. “It’s just as bad with you, you know! You being all pretty and everything. I don’t like it.”

“It’s that Uncle Ron’s line?” Lily asked as she rolled her eyes, but Nat could see her smile.

Nat studied Al as he struggled, mightily, to come to terms with what his sister had said. “I hate that you’re right, you know,” he told Lily with a sigh, his mouth twisted in a grimace. “I feel honor bound to protect you.”

“Well, of course you’re going to protect me!” Lily huffed out with a giggle. “That is your job, Albus, and I will happily let you intervene any time, day or night, when I need it. If a duel needs to be fought in my honor, I assure you I’m going to stand back and let you take all the curses.”

Scorpius choked on his pumpkin juice and waved Rose off as she pounded on his back.

Lily ignored them, and went on, having finally made her big brother smile. “I can’t help what I look like, you know. If I were ugly, that wouldn’t solve your problem, though. I’m so precocious that I’d still have all the boys lined up.”

“I don’t even know what that means,” Al muttered, but he took the letter from home and read on. “It sounds like everything went well.”

“I love babies,” Lily sighed happily as she scooped picked at her bacon. “I can’t wait to meet Emma!”

Nat really wanted to meet Emma, as well, but she didn’t say anything as they finished breakfast and headed off to Potions. Babies were a complicated business in Nat’s mind.

She really liked babies. She thought she might want a baby someday, but she’d also identified dead babies, so there were a lot of things that were convoluted in that scenario. It also didn’t help that she was neither pretty, nor precocious, so finding a guy to have a baby with might end up being more of an ordeal that she would have liked.

They were in their fourth year, and things were starting to pick up towards selecting a career, but Nat was totally unable to settle on anything. She knew that Al wanted to be an Auror. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name, but she also knew he wasn’t yet ready to admit it to anyone. He hadn’t even told her, but she could tell from the way he talked about his dad’s work.

Rose was trickier, but at the moment she thought Rose was probably going to go into Potions. When they were younger, and the potions easier, Rose had taken it for granted and hadn’t been the best at putting her all into it. Now that the potions were getting trickier, and the work harder, she was really getting into the minutia of potions, and her passion for it was growing. That was all to the good, as far as Nat was concerned. She’d heard Mr. Potter complain about their lack of potions masters, especially ones he could trust, and Rose would fit both of those. It would take her a lot time and effort to reach the master level, but Nat had no doubt that she would.

Scorpius had said, with a roll of his eyes, that he was expected to take over for his father just like every other male in his family, but she thought he might like to work for Gringotts. He’d spoken to Bill Weasley about it at Christmas, asking him about his job working at the bank. It was a possibility, but she could also see him studying the law and working with Rose’s mum at the Ministry. Those were her guesses, at any rate.

Nat could easily walk into any Muggle police station and secure a job for herself. She could work with the MLE on a consultant basis, much like she did now. But she didn’t want to. She didn’t mind being helpful, certainly she had a gift and she wanted to use it, and she wouldn’t mind doing that for the rest of her life, but she didn’t want it to be the rest of her life. It was a hard and fast distinction.

She rather thought, horribly fascinated by her own hubris, that she wanted to be a mum as her fulltime job. She’d hardly had her mum, just a string of nannies throughout the world, and the thought of being in one place, or all time, with the same set of people sounded absolutely marvelous to her. She could be just like Gran Weasley, and that sounded so unbelievably amazing to her… except that she wasn’t pretty, and she wasn’t precocious, and she was half in love with Al, already, who was extremely handsome. She didn’t stand a chance with him, which was fine because Nat was nothing if not practical. He’d find whomever he was supposed to be with, and he’d marry, and she’d get over her feelings for him because in the wizarding world marriage was for life. There was no divorce, so there would be no chance.

Hope was a painful, evil little devil. Her heart wanted to hope that Al would love her, but of course he wasn’t going to. He was going to pick someone beautiful, like Mrs. Potter was beautiful, but still she longed to hope. Maybe it was time to find Al a girlfriend to help speed that process along.

Besides, people didn’t stay with their first love. That wasn’t how love worked.

“Leah!”

Nat stumbled and would have fallen if Al hadn’t caught her arm. She stared around blankly and realized that she’d completely missed their potions class and was heading off down a deserted corridor.

“What?”

“You’re daydreaming,” Al laughed as he took her hand and tugged her back towards the correct dungeon. “Come on.”

Yeah, it was definitely time to find him a girlfriend. Thankfully, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

~*~

“It’s weird that you’re a grandfather,” Ron mused as they lounged on Harry’s couch while the women did whatever it was that they were doing in the kitchen. Harry had offered to help, but he’d been handed the baby and told to sit down and don’t move.

He could absolutely manage that, even onehanded. Emma was so tiny, all wrapped up in her blanket, that he didn’t need a second arm. He grinned down at her pink, cherubic face and fell in love all over again. “It’s the best thing, Ron,” Harry assured him, totally unaware of how he sounded until Ron let out a snort. “Alright, I know you think there are better things, but there aren’t. Holding your child’s child is the real magic.”

Ron pointed at him with his beer. “You sound like the women.” He glanced over towards the kitchen, but they hadn’t looked around at his comment. “Why are we at the baby shower, again?”

“We don’t have to stay,” he assured Ron, and didn’t bother to utter, ‘Thank Merlin,’ out loud, because that was implied and understood. Not that he didn’t enjoy this one-on-one time with Emma, especially since Bill would have fought him over the baby if he’d been around, but he absolutely did not want to be here while they opened baby gifts. That sounded dreadful. He hadn’t even wanted to be at James’ baby shower, but he’d been obligated into that one.

Ron had laughed at him and mocked him then, until it was his turn. Hermione, however, was more practical than Ginny, or quite possibly not as sadistic, and she’d let Ron out of Rose’s shower. They’d gone out to a pub with all the other men and had toasted and jeered at Ron for several long, happy, hours, thankful to be men and excused from the festivities.

“Where is Bill, anyway?” Ron wondered.

“He claimed an emergency meeting at the bank,” Harry explained with a chuckle, “but really we’re meeting him at The Leaky Cauldron in a bit.”

Emma stretched in his arms and he set his beer down to shift his stance on the tiny mite. She was going to be so much fun once she was older. Harry hadn’t forgotten just how much he enjoyed two- and three-year-olds, and their antics. Right now she would sleep all the time, and he’d enjoy that for the brief time it lasted, but then it would be all play, all the time, and that was truly the thing he liked the best. Lily was now twelve, and there were still sweet times with her, but not the same kind of play with the wild, abandoned laughter and the joy that were the hallmarks of toddlers.

Soon, though, much too soon, she would be there, and then she’d be beyond. He raised the baby up and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s not weird that Teddy and Victoire have a child, that’s expected at their age. It will be weird when it’s Lily’s turn. Or maybe not,” he considered. At that point, he’d likely have grandchildren from all three of the boys, or at least they’d be ready to have them. Unless he missed the mark, James was going to try to win Caroline’s hand. He didn’t know if his son would stick with it, but from all he’d heard, his James was the spitting image of his grandfather, his namesake, so it was possible that once and done for love and romance. It was basically what happened to Harry, too. He couldn’t even remember why he’d liked Cho, now, and it didn’t matter. She was still single, last he’d heard. She never married, and she seemed fine with it.

But it wasn’t the life for him, not that he’d had much say in it. He could have run from Ginny when she’d been impregnated, but that wasn’t the kind of man that he was, and besides that he’d always wanted to marry Ginny. That had been his secret plan, even up to his dying breath at the hands of Voldemort.

“I dunno about Rose’s boyfriend,” Ron told him quietly, and not for the first time.

“He’s the son of a duke, Ron,” Harry reminded him in exasperation. “Hermione explained to you what that means in the Muggle world. It’s a big deal.” Ron opened his mouth to object, but Harry beat him to it. “Besides, you said yourself that you really liked the kid, and that he was very respectful. He’s a smart, nice young man, and he seems to adore Rose. What more could you want for her?”

Ron tapped his finger on the neck of his beer and stared thoughtfully across the room towards his wife. “I want her to have all the time she needs to grow up.”

Harry blinked, more than a little surprised. “She will have that.”

“You know what I mean,” Ron said quietly, shifting to stare off into the lit fireplace as a light snow began to fall outside the bay windows. “We were so young when we got together, married. We were too young to really know who we’d be when we were forty. I want Rose to have a chance to know.”

“You knew, even then,” Harry told him but hesitated a bit, because he wasn’t sure what Ron was saying.

“No,” Ron shook his head and a wry smile twisted his lips. “You always knew, and Ginny always knew, but Hermione and I didn’t have a clue. It’s worked out, because we’ve made it work, but it wasn’t an automatic thing for us. If we’d had the option to divorce, I bet she’d have left me a long time ago. She didn’t really know what she wanted. Once I’d made up my mind, I stick even if it doesn’t make any sense–”

“Like the Cannons,” Harry commented with a smirk.

Ron scowled at him, “Bugger off about the Cannons. They had a good year last year.”

They hadn’t. They just hadn’t finished out at the bottom, like they typically did. Harry didn’t point that out.

“But not our Hermione,” Ron went on. “She wasn’t really ready to get married, and I think she did because she was still so traumatized by the war and all we’d been through. I think if she’d been thinking clearly, she might not have picked me. I’m glad she did, for my sake, but I love her so I would want her to have the time to really make the right choice.”

It was possibly the most articulate thing Ron had ever said in his life. Harry studied his best friend, his brother, for a long moment. “We’re not going to war. We’re not going to let that happen, so Rose will have the time to know all she needs to know who she is.”

Ron didn’t look convinced, but then again it was difficult to say with Ron. Some of his waters ran deep, and others, as Hermione once said, were as shallow as a teaspoon. But whatever it was, he knew that he’d never have a more loyal friend or brother.

They left for the pub ten minutes later, having been chivvied from the house by Ginny, who had mercifully decided it was not his grandfatherly duty to stick it out. Of course, with him out of the way, she only had to fight Fleur for time with Emma.

Bill was waiting for them at a back corner table as soon with George and Percy already seated. “Is Dad coming?” Ron asked as he hung his cloak over the back of his chair and took a seat.

“I don’t think so,” Bill told him. “I asked if he wanted to, but he said he thought he might go with Mum to the shower, something about better food.”

They all scowled at the menu, which had changed in the last year to reflect the new head chef, a man who didn’t have any taste buds at all. “Why did we want to meet here, again?” George moaned as he set his menu down. “We could have gone anywhere in London and had better food.”

“There’s a curry place just down the block on the Muggle side that I enjoy,” Bill offered.

Percy shook his head and doggedly studied his menu. “Only Ron and Harry are dressed for Muggle London.”

“We could all pop home and be back in a trice,” George said resolutely as he stood up, settling the matter.

Percy sighed and managed not to roll his eyes.

“Are you leaving so soon?” Old Tom called out to them.

“You need a new chef, Tom,” George informed him dryly.

Ron and Harry walked down to the curry place in a light snow, following Bill’s directions, and secured a table. Not even five minutes later all of the brothers were assembled again, this time with much greater enthusiasm for the menu.

“How is the investigation going?” Bill asked Harry after they’d placed their order.

“I have no idea,” Harry admitted reluctantly as his brothers studied him. “I haven’t made any progress, to be honest. We know it’s a potion that she’s trying to perfect, but she’s arguably the greatest potions master alive, or she would have been if she’d been formally trained. I spoke to Slughorn about it, and he had a go at formulating an opinion, but it didn’t pan out. He ended up saying that whatever she’d started with was too badly degraded to find the ingredients and that we should expect it to be powerful magic. He said it almost seemed like a magical hole.”

“Really,” Bill whistled.

“I’m impressed the old man is still kicking,” George mused as he nursed his beer. “He has to be closing in on two hundred years old now.

“I don’t think he’s quite that old,” Harry laughed and thanked the waitress as she brought over their food. She shot him a confused smile, and hurried away quickly. “Thankfully, she didn’t take you seriously,” he told George, who shrugged, clearly unconcerned what the Muggle woman thought.

“Do you think she’s trying to cause a natural disaster?” Percy questioned as he took a careful bite of his food.

Harry shrugged helplessly. “I honestly have no idea. She’s experimenting on women, though, and we can assume it has something to do with women. I don’t know if she’s encouraging them to get pregnant or if she’s just letting her goons have free reign on these powerless women, but I think she wants them pregnant, for whatever reason. If she didn’t care about that, she could just take English women.”

“Not entirely true,” Ron reminded him. “If she doesn’t want to be tracked by those babies, then still needs foreign women.”

“I think a safer assumption is that the birth control potion, which we know she can make,” Percy commented, “would interfere with whatever potion she’s trying to create. Whether she’s keeping her men happy or not, I do not know. They can’t be English, either, though. I checked into that and if they were, their children would come up in the registry.”

“So she’s using all foreigners,” George summed up with a shake of his head. “Why doesn’t she just leave the country to do whatever she’s doing?”

“I think she has,” Harry explained quietly. “I received a letter, and unlike most letters she’s sent me before, she addressed it as having come from Hungary. I spoke with their government, of course, but she was already gone from the location by the time they checked.”

“I don’t want her gone from the country,” Ron told him glumly. “That means you won’t catch her.”

“I’m not likely to catch her, now,” Harry pointed out bluntly. “It’s been decades and I haven’t been able to nab her. Granted, much of that time I thought she was dead, but it’s still a hell of a long time to be on the run.”

“It’s longer than Voldemort,” Bill mused thoughtfully. “It’s a damn long time.”

“Let’s get off the shop talk,” George suggested as he held up his beer and everyone clinked bottles, all except Percy who always ordered wine, “to escaping the baby shower without any hysterics!”

“Here, here!” they all agreed wholeheartedly.

Harry ate his curry, laughed with his brothers, and thought about Isabella Crabbe. If it was true that she was gone from the country, it meant breathing room for him, and while he liked that, he agreed with Ron. He didn’t want to foist England’s problems off on another country. She was their insane villain, and Harry had every intention of being the one to bring her down.

But first he had to figure out just what the hell she was up to, and that was not going to be easy.

Back to index


Chapter 42: Chapter 39

Author's Notes: You're being spoiled (I mean, face it, 6500 word long chapters take time to write!) Two so quick. Please go to amazon and search "Sarah Jaune" and check out my books. PLEASE. That (and sewing) are my jobs! I need them to make some kind of income. Then, if you like them, share them with your friends.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!


“She’s definitely left the country,” Gregory confirmed as he strode around the Auror’s conference room during their full staff meeting as the windows lied, letting them think it was sunny and warm outside, rather than the typical frigid gray of a London February.

Harry sat at the head of the table, his fingers steepled, and tried to process all of the things that were running in a maze through his head.

“We had a confirmed sighting of her, by a Turkish Ministry official. At the moment the Turkish government is not willing to extradite her, despite our warnings about how dangerous she is,” Raeburn added from his seat at the opposite end of the table. “The press is having a field day with that, and they’re thankfully not focused on the fact that we couldn’t catch her.”

That was all thanks to Hermione, of course. She’d leaked that information to the Prophet, and it was all they could write about, which was what they’d planned for.

It wasn’t that Harry didn’t know he’d cocked up the whole investigation, straight from day one, and that this would go on to be legendary in the annals of how not to run an operation in the Aurors, but there was just nothing he could do about it. Unlike Voldemort, who an unfailing belief that he could not be killed, and thus was brazen and in the open, Crabbe was a careful woman who understood and valued her mortality, at least as far as it served her purpose. Harry wasn’t too certain that she wouldn’t happily let someone kill her once she’d done the damage she’d set out to do. He just didn’t know what the damage might end up being.

Mothers and babies… maybe.

“Do we have any progress on the potion?” Harry asked.

“Nothing,” Gregory informed him with a carefully neutral expression. It was well known around the office that their lack of talented potions masters was a major problem for the Ministry. Currently, they had two, one of whom was older than Merlin at this point, and the other was not known to be reliable or trustworthy. He’d asked Audrey and Percy to look at the potion, but they hadn’t made any more from it than Slughorn had.

“I don’t know what this potion will do, but we know she’s experimenting on women, primarily,” Harry told his staff, not for the first time. “The fact that she’s let us know that she’s out of the country and isn’t here is telling. I think she’s saying to us that she’s out from under our thumb.”

“We think she will be back, though,” Raeburns told the assembled group.

Susan stared at Harry thoughtfully and he waited for her question. “What is she waiting for?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Harry admitted as he sat forward in his seat. “I think she perfected whatever she is doing here in England to thumb her nose at me, in particular. I know the grudge is against me. She might want to go after Ginny, again, but–” he stopped as a horrible wave of sickness and dread flooded through him. He was still staring at Susan and realized she’d already come to his conclusion. “Lily.”

“Lily,” Susan agreed with a slow nod. “It would be wise to consider that she’s waiting for Lily to grow up enough that she’ll be able to use her.”

Harry blew out a slow breath and fought every instinct he had to leave immediately for Hogwarts. He glanced around the room and saw that, unsurprisingly, everyone was staring at him with pity, but no one seemed shocked.

“It has to be about childbearing, then,” Susan filled in the silence. “Lily isn’t old enough to have a baby, yet. The babies weren’t a random byproduct of this sick woman’s henchmen.”

“Okay…” Harry’s brain felt sluggish as he worked through the possibilities. “Okay, so let’s brainstorm from there.”

No one was going to hurt Lily. He would make sure of that.

~*~

Caroline stared at him with her blue eyes wide and full of horror, which James knew was a serious overreaction. Okay, put in perspective it probably wasn’t. “It’s just Hogsmeade,” he reassured her. “We won’t go anywhere but the Three Broomsticks, and then we can come straight back.” He took her hand, which felt like she had ice instead of blood flowing through her veins. “I know it was hard,” he said as he lowered his voice so that no one else in the common room would hear them. “I’ll think about your dad when I’m there, too, but we can’t avoid it forever. We can face this together, yeah?”

She shook her head and he sighed, and started to let go of her hand when she clamped her fingers on his so that it almost felt like his bones were rubbing together. “I’m going to look like an idiot,” she told him in a hiss.

“No one is going to be paying attention to you,” James promised dismissively.

Caroline snorted loudly and rolled her eyes. “You are the most popular boy in our year, James Potter! You’re the ‘it boy’ as they liked to say in America, the one everyone looks up to, and if I go with you, everyone will be staring at me!”

His brow rose in amused dismissal. “No one cares about any of that crap.”

“Everyone cares about that crap,” she shot back with a scowl. “You’re all everyone talks about in the bathroom.”

“I probably didn’t need to know that,” he replied as he felt his ears start to heat up. Why were the girls talking about him in the loo? That was just weird. Maybe it should be flattering, but at the moment it was making his friendship with Caroline difficult, and that mattered more, because he wanted to hold her hand all the time, and not just when she was furious with him.

“I can’t just be seen with you!” she informed him gravely. “They’ll start to talk about me.”

“I mean, it’s not like you’re some hippogriff or something,” James pointed out reasonably. “You’re beautiful, and American, and mysterious. They have to be talking about you.”

She shook her head and finally pulled her hand from his. He hated the loss of contact.

“I am doing a great job of staying invisible.” Caroline’s face was completely serious. She actually believed that.

“What a load of dragon dung,” James blurted out, finally starting to feel frustrated. “You can’t stay invisible, and you can’t hide.” He didn’t add the fact that she was gorgeous, but currently she was doing her level best, while at Hogwarts, to look as ugly as possible. She hated her face. He was pretty certain that she’d have intentionally scarred her face if she could have, but with magic the way it was, she would have to use Dark magic in order to create a scar that Hannah couldn’t fix for her.

He had learned along the way that some girls in the Muggle world cut themselves, and he’d learned this because Caroline had cut herself at one point to deal with all of her bad feelings, plus she’d picked her nailbeds apart, but with a flick of her wand, Hannah had healed them over, so there was no point.

She was beautiful, though, and the blokes noticed. They never, ever, said anything, of course, because James had warned all of them off from her. It wasn’t even that he wanted to be Caroline’s boyfriend, but that she wasn’t ready for a boyfriend. If she ever expressed that interest, or interest in another bloke, James would talk to the guy and he’d make it happen, even if it killed him. Mostly, he just wanted Caroline to be whole again, whatever that took, even if it wasn’t with him.

He was pretty sure that this was because he was in love with her, and part of him couldn’t believe that he’d let her go if that’s what she needed, but he would. He would because he didn’t want to have to hold on to make her stay. He only wanted her to stay because it was what she wanted. He’d loved her now for at least a year and a half and it wasn’t changing. Okay, it was changing. It was growing stronger, every day, and his commitment to her grew, every day. “It’s not a date,” he reminded her. “We’re friends and people see us together all the time. Louis has a date, that’s all. He doesn’t want to go with us, and we’ve spent all week studying, so there’s no real excuse not to go into Hogsmeade.”

“We could just stay at the castle,” she protested as she twisted her fingers together. “I don’t want to be an idiot, James.”

“I’m going to be there with you,” he reminded her quietly. “I’m not going to let you be an idiot, and we can face it together. I haven’t been back, either.”

She glanced up in surprise, her eyes narrowing. “You haven’t? I thought you went last year in the spring.”

He shook his head. He hadn’t wanted to go, not after everything that had happened. “I went out to practice Quidditch. You had a cheer thing.” He felt his legs go just a little bit weak as he admitted, “I’m nervous about going, too, but we have to face it.”

“God,” she hissed out, sounding very American at that moment. She shook her head and her blonde hair caught a stray ray of morning light. He couldn’t help but grin as she smiled back at him. “Alright, you win.”

Louis had a date with a Hufflepuff and James couldn’t seem to recall her name, even though he’d heard it at least a thousand times. The problem was the girl was so ordinary that she almost blended in like wallpaper. It blew his mind, quite a bit, because Louis was, not for nothing, the son of a part-Veela. He probably could have had any girl he wanted at the school, but instead he chose someone who was plump, with mousy-brown hair, and hazel eyes. She did have freckles. Oh, and glasses. Oh, and her hair was frizzy.

Louis was absolutely smitten.

“It’s Jane!” Caroline hissed as she jabbed him hard with her elbow as they passed the shoveled snow. It hadn’t snowed in a week, but it was cold enough that they were all bundled up, and they could see their breaths. “Sweet Merlin, Jamie, you are as dense as a post!”

Jane… right. Jane… see, and that was where he forgot it, because it was such a plain name, that he couldn’t quite hold onto it. He beamed at the girl just as soon as they caught up with his love-struck cousin and Jane the Plain on the walk to Hogsmeade, and she blushed a bit under his smile. “Hullo, Jane!”

“Hi, James, Caroline,” Jane said with a shy, sweet wave.

Okay, she did have a nice smile. James could appreciate that.

“We’ll leave you two alone,” Caroline assured them as she grabbed James’ arm and pulled him hard towards the village. “You are a twerp.”

“You called me Jamie,” he mused as he kept his arm linked in hers and patted her arm through the thick padding of her coat. “Only my parents call me that.”

“I wanted to try it out,” she retorted defensively.

“I like it,” he said with finality. He really did. It felt like something that was special, which was why she would use it. “I can be Jamie to you, but anyone else who uses it gets their arse kicked.”

“I’ve most definitely heard Lily call you Jamie more than once,” Caroline pointed out as they passed out of the school gates with a stream of other kids.

He shrugged at that, because of course it was true. “Yeah, well, it’s Lily, isn’t it? Lily does whatever she wants and gets away with it.”

“That is a gift.”

“It’s going to be a bloody curse for whomever she marries,” James laughed. “The poor sod will be bowled over all the damn time. He’ll never get his way.”

Caroline giggled, and it was a glorious sound, especially since they were heading towards the place where her father had tried to snatch her. “I honestly think that anyone she marries will be so grateful to have her that they’ll be thrilled to be at her beck.”

“I haven’t heard that one before,” James said as he started to steer them towards the pub, only to have her pull them off towards the end of the village. He opened his mouth to question her, but then he knew… he knew and he let her lead on.

“It was this thing we said, like someone is at your beck and call, they wait on you,” she explained with a forced bravado. “I can’t imagine ever having that happen for me.”

He shot her a bemused glance. “You’re leading me on where you want me to go.”

“But you’re different.”

“I’m not sure I am.”

She stopped and turned to study him. He felt his brow rise and she narrowed her eyes as her mouth twisted into a bit of a scowl. “James.”

“So serious again,” he teased gently as he bent forward, conscious of the fact that they were far away enough from the rest of their classmates that he could get away with this, and kissed the tip of her cold, red nose. He grinned as he straightened, and saw that she definitely looked flustered. She looked so adorable with her face framed in her thick, heavy red scarf.

She shifted restlessly, then stomped off again towards the Shrieking Shack and he followed, content to let her lead.

“I do not get you,” she said as she strode into the clearing, standing almost exactly where her father had jumped on him, kicking off the fight that had ended with James stabbing the man in the neck so that he bled out.

He still didn’t regret it, even after all this time. What Donald Baker had done to his daughter was unforgivable, and he had deserved to die. “What are you trying to get?” he asked, pitifully glad that she was mad at him and not scared of this place anymore.

“Why do you do things like that!” she blurted out angrily as she waved wildly at him, and back down the hill. “We’re friends!”

“I know,” he agreed, even though it cost him something to say it. “We are friends. We’re always going to be friends, no matter what else happens.”

“But… but you!” she spluttered into silence and glared up at him as he took a step closer. “You kiss me.”

He had, but only once on the lips. Otherwise it had been the forehead, or cheek, and now he could add the tip of her very pretty nose. He thought he was going to like that one in the years to come. “It’s an expression of my affection for you.”

“That’s bullshit,” she shouted, now almost vibrating in anger.

“Hey,” he breathed out gently as he pulled his hands out of his jacket pocket and spread them wide, trying to calm her. “What’s wrong?”

Her face fell and she spun away from him. “I don’t know!” she practically screamed, and he heard, more than saw, the tears.

James moved to her and wrapped her in his arms while her shoulders shook and she buried her face into his chest, holding onto his jacket with her gloved fingers. “Shh,” he crooned soothingly as he pressed his cheek to the top of her head and inhaled the fruity smell of her shampoo. “It’s okay, luv. Just get it out.” She cried for a good ten minutes, and he felt something washed away with those tears as he stood with her, eventually pulling her down to sit with him on a low, stone wall. The Shrieking Shack loomed behind them, an ominous, if silent, witness to the pain that was being expunged.

He had to conjure a handkerchief for her, and blessed his mother for that little hat trick. She could never manage to do it wordlessly, so he had the incantation memorized. He waited while Caroline pulled herself together and thought longingly of getting to do this for the rest of his life. He cupped her flushed cheeks and studied her red, swollen eyes. “It was hard coming back here.”

“I d-did it, though,” she said with only a slight hiccup. Her gaze fell down to about his chin and she didn’t seem to be able to look him in the eyes.

“Caroline,” he prompted carefully. “What’s bothering you?”

It took her almost three full minutes before she finally managed to get the words out. “I don’t understand you.”

“What don’t you understand?”

She still wouldn’t look at him, but she ran her gloved hand over the button on his coat, continued to watch her fingers. “I don’t know why you stick with me.”

“You do know why.” She had to know. It was pretty obvious at this point. She’d asked this before, but she’d never acted like she didn’t get it. She’d even accused him of sticking around because she was beautiful, and he’d promptly told her she looked like hell at that moment.

Her blue eyes flicked up to his and she held his gaze. “We were here, eighteen months ago, and you slew my dragon for me.”

His lip twisted up in a grimace. “I guess I did, yeah.”

“You killed someone for me,” she went on. “Then when I wanted to starve myself because I couldn’t handle the crowds in the Great Hall, you went with me to the kitchens for months so we could eat together, and you never made a big deal out of it.”

He did smile at that. “I got extra bacon from the house-elves.”

“Be serious,” she chided quietly, and he nodded, his face falling back into a neutral expression. “You have been there, every time I needed you to be. If I was scared, you’ve been there. When I needed you to pretend to be my boyfriend, you did, no questions asked. You’re a better friend than I deserve.”

“No!” he shook his head adamantly. “I think that’s why you don’t get it. You always deserved to be treated like this, Caroline. You should have expected to be loved from day one.”

Her lips trembled and she firmed them up as she sucked in a deep breath. “But I wasn’t. I had a father that raped me.”

James flicked off his gloves and cupped her cold cheek, running his fingers along the soft skin below her eyes, feeling the dried trail of her tears. “He was a sick bastard. You deserved to be loved, but he didn’t treat you like he was supposed to. You should be like Lily, and expect that you’ll be pampered and adored for the rest of your life.” He waited a beat, and then went on. “We can’t go back and change any of it. I wish I could. I do know that if I had to peg who was stronger, you or Lily, I’d say you any day. Maybe you shouldn’t have had to be this strong, but you are and you’re going to make it.”

“What if I don’t?”

“You will.”

She plowed on. “What if I don’t want to be kissed?”

“Then I won’t kiss you,” he promised as he pressed his forehead to hers. “I think you like the kisses, though.” He studied her eyes, so close to his and she gave a small nod.

“What if I don’t want anything else?”

He thought he saw where she was heading with this. “Then there won’t be anything else,” he reassured her again, cupping the back of her head with his one hand, running his fingers over her hair and pressing his cheek to hers.

“Why?”

He almost said it again, told her that she knew why, but he paused and realized that she really needed to hear it, now more than ever, and despite the fact that it left him a little sick to put himself out there when she wasn’t going to love him back, he said it anyway. “Because I love you,” he whispered against her skin. “And love, real love, doesn’t hurt people, not like that.”

Caroline threaded her arms around his neck and pulled him in close. “I don’t know how to believe you, except that you tell me with how you act.”

“You knew,” he said as he felt the relief that she hadn’t pushed him away. He felt her lips brush his cheek in a quick kiss and he reveled in it. “We’re in for a long, complicated ride, you and me. But I’m all in, and I’ll take your lead to where ever it is that you finally get.” He knew what he was saying, too. He knew that she might never, ever, be able to have sex, and yeah, his sixteen-year-old body seriously hated that thought. His hormones were definitely a problem he’d had to deal with on more than one occasion where she was concerned, but they were his problems, and not hers. Plus, he really did hope she’d get over it at some point. He thought that was a possibility. But if she didn’t, then he’d be her friend. Maybe they’d never be more than friends. That would be hard, but he’d take it. He’d take it because he really had no other choice. He wasn’t going to be Donald Baker.

He was going to be the man she needed, whatever that looked like. He’d never heard his grandmother’s voice, not in real life, but he could imagine Lily Potter saying it, just as she had in her letter to Neville’s mother. It still stuck with him forcefully, those words, even though it had been years since he’d read the letters.

“I love you, too, Jamie,” she whispered.

James almost jumped out of his skin as he pulled back enough to stare into her beautiful, blue eyes and watch the fear and uncertainty there.

She stuck her fingers against his lips to keep him back, and he smelled her lotions on the fabric of her gloves. “I can’t.”

He cupped her hand and kissed the palm, as he grinned at her. “I know you can’t. That’s not a secret. I’ve learned that lesson.”

“But eventually you’ll want more,” Caroline retorted as she glanced away towards the house as a shiver ran through her.

“I am not your dad,” he reminded her quietly, but forcefully, “and I know better than almost anyone just how his selfishness has nearly destroyed you. Why would I do that to you?”

“I don’t think you would intentionally, but you’ll want more,” she replied as a tear slid down her cheek. “That’s how guys are.”

“That’s not how I am,” he reminded her and tried not to be offended that she was arguing this with him. Of course, she’d argue this with him. She didn’t think she was worth the effort. “I’m alone with you all the time. At first I was a bit of a jerk, I know it, but that was years ago, and since then when have I ever treated you with anything less than respect? Have I ever led you to believe I’d force you into sex?”

She shuddered and closed her eyes. “I’d be crying, or begging, or screaming, and he’d tell me how he needed me, and how selfish I was being for fighting him, how all men need it.”

James had to fight not to puke. He stood slowly, walked away as his cold hands balled into fists, and he wished like hell that Donald Baker would rise, right then and there, so he could beat him to death again with his bare hands. He was going to be unravelling Caroline’s personal hell for years yet. He knew that for sure now. He stared off towards the woods on the other side of the shack and had to ask himself, again, if he was strong enough for this fight.

When he turned, slowly, back to Caroline, it was to see her face buried in her hands, and her shoulders shaking, and his heart broke for her. This was her fight. This was her battle, and her journey, not his. He couldn’t walk this for her, and the very least, the absolute least, he could do was to stand by her side while she took all those difficult steps and not be a total arse while doing so.

He strode swiftly to her, and plucked her up into his lap, wrapping her up again to cry on his shoulder, and to let it out. “He is a dead monster,” he whispered to her, “one you helped to kill. He deserves none of your tears.”

“James…”

“I am going to love you through all the bad stuff,” he promised. “I’m going to love you even if all I ever get are kisses on your cheek, and your hand in mine. You deserve to be loved, and that has nothing to do with him. He twisted you up in knots,” James told her and felt the tears clog his own throat. He had no idea where the words came from, but he felt them all the way to his toes. “But none of that stuff he said to you was true or real. That’s not what real love is.”

She nodded and stayed in his lap, letting him hold her up, with her head on his shoulder. They sat there until they were both numb and more than ready for a hot drink, but still they sat. “You don’t like hearing what he did to me.” It wasn’t a question.

“I can’t imagine anyone would like it,” he replied simply. “It’s not something to like, but I’m always glad you told me. I am glad you trust me.”

“I keep expecting you to push me away when I tell you stuff.”

“I’m never going to push you away,” he said, and then remembered the moment before. “Sometimes I might need a minute to pull myself together, though.”

They fell silent again, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

“I kind of want to kill him this time,” she said after a moment. “I didn’t think I could back then, but I think I could now.”

James laughed and pressed his lips to her forehead. “You could take him. I have faith in you.”

“I think I’m ready for some hot Butterbeer, now.”

He helped her to stand and grinned when she handed him his gloves. “Your fingers are all red from the cold.”

“It was worth it,” he promised as he pulled them on.

She hesitated only a second before she took his hand to walk back towards the pub. It was more than enough.

~*~

Ginny saw Nat hovering at the edge of kitchen where Ginny stood with Emma, cradling her granddaughter in her arms. The Easter hols had crept up on them quickly, and they’d already been home for a night. Thankfully, Teddy and Victoire had brought the baby over so that everyone could meet her. The longing was written plainly on Nat’s face, but so too was the trepidation. “Come here, Nat,” Ginny said gently as she continued to sway with the three-month-old. “She doesn’t bite, yet.”

Brilliant Natalie was gone and in her place was someone who inched forward. “She’s beautiful.”

“She is,” Ginny agreed smiling down at the tiny face. “She’s such a perfect angel.”

Nat finally arrived by her side and carefully used one finger to touch the baby’s hand. “I… you know, when I felt her moving at Christmas it was so hard to imagine her even though I knew what she would look like, but… she’s better than I could have imagined.”

Nat’s magical gift never ceased to amaze Ginny, but in this instance she knew exactly what she meant. “Do you want to hold her?”

Nat clasped her hands behind her and shook her head, even though her eyes told a very different story. “I can’t… I might drop her or something… I’m too… I can’t.”

“Are you hungry?” Ginny asked curiously, watching the fifteen-year-old struggling with something big.

“No,” Nat whispered. She couldn’t take her eyes off Emma’s sleeping face.

“You can’t be afraid to hold babies,” Ginny told her gently. “You’ll have your own babies someday.”

Pain washed over Nat’s face and she swallowed hard, clearly fighting off tears. “I… you know, I might not. I’m not exactly beating the boys off with a stick…”

She saw the anguish and her heart clenched in sympathy. “Natalie…” then she paused. “What’s your middle name?”

“Leah,” Nat whispered, her eyes still fixed on the baby.

“Natalie Leah Parker,” Ginny said sternly and finally Nat looked up at her. “You have no idea what this life is going to hold for you. Grab every moment you can.”

“But Mrs. Potter… I just…” she looked helplessly at her as Teddy and Al started to walk towards the kitchen. “I’m such a disaster,” Nat finally whispered.

“Put your arms out,” Ginny ordered and almost reflexively Nat did what she was told. Ginny carefully set the baby in her arms and Natalie held on to her securely.

Awe and wonder filled her face as she looked down at the baby. Teddy and Al walked up, not saying anything. When Nat finally looked up the joy on her face made her smile more beautifully than Ginny had ever seen and she looked straight at Al. She beamed at him and Al smiled back but it was like he’d been hit with by a troll as Nat turned her attention back to the baby.

Ginny wasn’t watching Nat anymore. She had her eyes fixed completely on her son and so did Teddy. They watched him as he watched her and saw him fall head over heels. The lightning bolt so obviously struck Al that Teddy and Ginny looked at each other as if to say ‘did you see that?!’

Emma started to stir and as naturally as Ginny had ever seen someone do it, Nat switched the baby to her shoulder and started to sway, making crooning noises. Awkward and clumsy were no longer words to describe her. This Natalie was in her element.

Emma let out a most decidedly unladylike snort and they all grinned. “She’s hungry,” Teddy chuckled. “Victoire’s on the sofa. Can you take her over?”

“Yeah,” Nat said breathlessly and walked out. Al followed her, almost like he couldn’t help himself.

Teddy turned to Ginny and they both wore the same amazed grin. “You saw that?” Ginny asked softly, even though she didn’t need to.

“Yeah… he’s completely gone over her!” Teddy said softly, not wanting them to hear what they were saying. “I mean… I guess I knew at his age too, or maybe a little older, but wow!”

“He has no idea he’s in love,” Ginny said. “You were the same way at first. I knew when you fell for Victoire, but you took a few months to come to it.”

Teddy studied her curiously. “You always know everything.”

“Well, not everything,” Ginny retorted mildly considering an idea that sprang to mind. “I think that after Emma is done nursing it will be time for Uncle Al to hold her.”

Comprehension dawned on his face and his lips twitched. “You are my hero,” he assured her.

Ginny laughed and hugged him hard. “You’re not too shabby yourself. You gave me that beautiful granddaughter.”

Teddy kept his arms around her, his head resting on hers. “I always wanted my mum.”

“I know,” Ginny said with an ache. “I wanted you to have her, too.”

“But,” Teddy went on. “Since I couldn’t have her I’m really glad I have you. I always knew that you loved me and you’d always be there for me.”

“Oh Teddy,” Ginny’s eyes filled as she squeezed. “You’re going to make me cry.”

Laughing, Teddy let go. “Don’t cry! Harry will beat me senseless if I make you cry.”

“It’s a good kind of crying,” she promised.

“You always understood me,” Teddy told her, looking into her eyes. “I didn’t ever have to explain because I knew you’d get it.”

Ginny smiled at him and felt her love for this, the child of her heart and not her body. “I’ve known you and loved you since you were tiny.”

“I didn’t really understand before,” Teddy said carefully and she watched the apprehension fill his face. She knew what he was going to say and decided to just let him say it, knowing he needed to. “I didn’t understand how much pain you must have been in when you lost Hope and there I was… this baby to remind you of what you lost. You loved me anyway.”

“No,” Ginny said shaking her head. “You don’t understand. You were a big part of what kept me living and moving forward.” She reached up and cupped his chin. “You already had a place in my heart before I lost Hope and her place there has never been filled, but I had you to hold when things got rough. I had your smile when all I wanted to do was cry. You gave me joy when I didn’t think I’d ever have it again.”

A tear fell down his cheek and he hugged her again. “You’ve been the best mum I could have asked for.”

“Your own would have been better,” Ginny promised. “But I am honored to stand in this place for her. Now let’s go see what Natalie does when Al holds Emma.”

Teddy chuckled and the two walked off to join the others. Nat was chatting with Victoire as the baby nursed, while Al stood off to the side, looking anywhere but at his cousin. Ginny saw that his face was nearly as red as her hair. She walked over, took his arm and turned him around. “Al, this is how babies eat. This is how you ate. In fact, you never wanted to stop nursing.”

“Mum…” Al was barely audible, his fifteen-year-olds’ embarrassment shown on every inch of his face.

Victoire smiled at him. “It’s okay, Al. I changed your nappy so this can’t be too much worse.”

“Oh Merlin,” Al moaned and tried to turn away. “Please kill me.”

They all laughed and a reluctant smile broke over his face.

As soon as Emma finished, Ginny went to pick her up. She took the baby over to Al and was pleased to see that her co-conspirator had already draped a rag over Al’s shoulder while he looked on in confusion. “Time to burp your niece, Uncle Al.”

“Uh,” Al tried to evade as she handed Emma too him, and helped his position his hands correctly.

“Pat her back gently,” Ginny instructed and she stepped back and looked over to see Nat’s reaction.

Victoire was looking between them, a little confused but when she too looked at Nat she saw it. They all saw it. Nat couldn’t take her eyes from him. Al looked up helplessly at them as Emma started to wiggle in discomfort and Nat stood and walked over, putting a hand also on the baby’s back. “Shh,” she crooned and Al handed her off. They watched and Nat put the baby over her shoulder and patted until the burp came that helped Emma feel better. Nat grinned at Al and handed her back. “Come on, Al. If I can do this, you can.”

She helped Al cradle her in his arms and finally his features relaxed and he grinned down at her. “She’s pretty cute.”

Teddy laughed. “Too right she is.”

Ginny looked at Victoire and saw that her niece understood completely what they’d just witnessed.

It wasn’t every day that you saw two people fall in love.

Moments later Harry and Lily came in from out back. Harry’s face lit up as he walked over to Al and Emma. “Hey!” He said, bending to kiss her soft blonde head. “There’s my baby girl! I didn’t know you guys were here already,” he said turning to Victoire and Teddy.

“I thought I was your baby girl,” Lily laughed as she came over and deftly snatched Emma from Al. She kissed her niece and grinned down at the baby cradled in her arms. “You replaced me,” she cooed at the baby who could barely stay awake for this exchange.

Harry put his arms around Lily’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “You will always be my baby girl. Now hand her over to Grandpa.”

Ginny watched her husband take the baby into his arms and gazed down at her with such love that she could have happily turned into goo on the sitting room floor. Harry was so obviously smitten with Emma. It was going to be just like Lily all over again. Emma was going to have Grandpa wrapped around her little finger.

Ginny walked over and sat next to Victoire, taking her niece’s hand in hers for a squeeze. “That’s true love.”

Victoire laughed. “She’s got two grandpas that are totally gone over her. I thought Dad and Uncle Harry were going to get into a fight over holding her at dinner last week. Then when you add in Granddad…”

She grinned at the memory. “She’s the first great-grandchild. She’s going to have a lot of spoiling as the first and only; then she’s going to have a lot of competition.”

“Was it hard being the baby?” Victoire asked her, glancing over.

“Like everything there are advantages and disadvantages,” Ginny sighed. “Being the youngest girl was tough.”

“Lily seems to love it,” she said, squeezing her hand as they watched Lily giggling with Nat. Al and James were over talking to Teddy, letting Harry have his moment with Emma. “It doesn’t bother her in the least.”

She nodded, watching her youngest child’s startlingly beautiful face. “She’s so young in some ways, and so carefree. I don’t think I was ever that relaxed about life.”

“You didn’t exactly have an easy life,” Victoire said softly. “Lily doesn’t know about any of that yet, right?”

“Not yet,” Ginny confirmed as she felt the nerves flutter in. She didn’t want Lily to know all of it. “Not the nitty-gritty anyway.”

Victoire squeezed her hand in sympathy. “It will be okay, Aunt Ginny. I think Lily will still have that smile even after she finds out.”

Harry turned to look at her, beaming and she couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s a good thing you had her or I swear he’d be trying to talk me into another one, and I might have let him. We were both starting to itch for grandchildren.”

Victoire was silent for the longest time and Ginny glanced over to see her niece’s face was awash in hesitancy. She watched the younger woman, waiting. “I was so sure that everyone was going to be upset since we weren’t really in the best place to have her.”

Ginny just blinked at her as what she’d said sunk in and had to fight back a laugh, knowing that her niece really needed to hear comforting words. Brown eyes met blue and held. “I was pregnant at sixteen and I wasn’t married. No one was upset about the baby! She was the one thing that was really good in the whole situation. We’re a family that loves and wants new life. When Harry came back from your flat and told me that I was going to be a grandmum I could have flown without a broom. We were both so excited.”

“I know,” she said, sighing contentedly. “I just couldn’t really focus on that with all the hormones.”

“Just wait until the next kid,” Ginny patted her knee consolingly. “You’ll be sleep deprived and hormonal. Teddy won’t know what hit him.”

Victoire groaned. “That’s just what we need.”

“The best laid plans,” Ginny waxed watching her children head towards the kitchen with Harry. “Only one of mine was planned.”

“Really?” Victoire asked curiously. “Which one?”

“Lily,” she told her with a smug grin. “I was still only taking the monthly potion because Al was nowhere near ready to wean. One day I looked at Harry and said ‘I’m not taking the potion next month.’”

Victoire’s smile spread. “What did Uncle Harry say?”

“He just looked at me for a long moment and then said, ‘so we’re having another baby or never having sex again?’” Ginny laughed at the memory and Victoire joined in. “I told him something like ‘pretty much’ and then he tackled me and said, ‘well, let’s have another baby.’”

“What are we laughing at?” James called out as he jogged down the stairs, and then he beamed as he spotted Teddy. “Hey!” he said as he hugged his godbrother.

“Woah, he shot up,” Victoire commented in a low whistle to Ginny as they both saw that James was now slightly taller than Teddy.

“Goodness, that means new trousers, I expect,” Ginny sighed as she squeezed Victoire’s hand. “It goes by so fast.”

“Hey, Emma,” James said with a wide, lopsided grin, as he carefully took her from Harry, rocking slowly back and forth, holding her hand.

“Where did he learn to do that?” Victoire asked quietly in amazement.

“I have no idea,” Ginny admitted as her brows knit.

But her son, bless his changeling heart, absolutely shattered hers with his next words.

“I’m your Uncle Jamie,” he informed the sleeping baby as he raised her up to kiss her chubby cheek. “I love you.”

He whispered it, but she still heard it, and she knew down to her toes that he meant it. He gazed down at the baby in awe and wonder, and her heart simply broke into pieces at her feet.

Her baby boy had been such a prat for so many years, but now… now, when it really mattered, he’d turned into a fine young man.

She was so proud of him and in awe of all the changes he’d made in himself. She didn’t know how he’d managed it, but she was so glad that he had. He really was his father’s son, through and through.

Back to index


Chapter 43: Chapter 40

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Please, PLEASE go check out my novels! Sarah Jaune is my name. My latest book, Remnants, just came out and it's a mixture of the end of the world meets Psycho. It's a small price for you, but it means the world to me and keeps me writing! Please check out my books and share with your friends. Thank you again!


Scorpius had a girlfriend and her snide remarks could have filled the Hogwarts library where they were all currently studying for exams.

Nat stared at the pretty blonde from Slytherin and wondered what on earth he was thinking, for about the millionth time, as she giggled at something not even remotely funny. She hadn’t pegged Scorpius for shallow, but the only thing the girl, Avery, had going for her was her looks! She was dull as a brick, dense as a post, and every other clich Nat could think of except for her looks!

She was quite good looking. She had green eyes, long lashes, and a pretty heart shaped face any boy would like. She was nice, at least when Scorpius was around. When the boys weren’t there, Avery would drop the act. “That’s not your best color, you know,” Avery told Nat over her hair ribbon.

“I don’t have any best colors,” Nat had assured her dryly. “I look equally bad in everything.”

“At least you know your own limitations.”

Rose was still dating Andrew. Nat couldn’t decide if they were going to make it or not. She rather suspected on not, because people who started dating when they were fourteen did not have an amazing track record, and also she rather thought the pair of them were growing distant. The problem was that Andrew was a major part of their group and if he broke up with Rose, it would be like breaking up with the group. Nat had advised both of them to part amicably, and stay friends so he could still hang out with them, but she didn’t trust in newly minted fifteen-year-olds to navigate a breakup amicably.

Al had gone to Hogsmeade with a third year Gryffindor. He’d been staring at their friends, clearly morose at not having a date, and she’d fixed him up with the girl, Ivy. Ivy had had a lovely time, but Al had informed all of them she wasn’t the girl for him. On the plus side, he’d had his first date, so that was out of the way. It helped Nat to think of him as dating other people. It helped with the loneliness and the heartache by putting it into the proper perspective. Al was going to end up dating lots of girls and eventually he’d end up married, and she had to be okay with it. In fact, she could help him along so he could find happiness.

It was weird having all of her friends dating, but Nat was pragmatic about it. She’d wallowed in self-pity for too long as it was. No, she wasn’t pretty. No, she wasn’t sexy. No, she wasn’t going to attract a guy. But she was smart, and nice, and a good person. She had just as much worth as anyone else, and while that may not amount to having a boyfriend, that didn’t make her worthless. A boyfriend was not the measuring stick she wanted to be judged on.

So when snotty Avery insulted her looks, she let it go. The only thing Avery had going for her were her looks, and that was pretty sad since it was the one thing Avery hadn’t chosen for herself. She was born pretty, not a mean bully. She’d chosen to be a brat.

The boys returned a moment later with a large stack of books and Nat pulled the top one from Andrew’s pile towards her, flipping to the section she needed on potions ingredients.

“Thank you!” Avery giggled as she took the book from Scorpius.

Andrew made a gagging face, which no one but Nat and Rose could see, and they both had to fight to hide their snickers. Nat shook her head and scrunched up her nose.

Seriously, what was Scorpius thinking?

After another hour of giggling, Nat decided she didn’t care what Scorpius was thinking. She’d absolutely had enough. “I’m beat,” she told everyone as she closed up her books.

Knowing she’d opened a chance to escape, Al, Rose, and Andrew all cleared up their things and joined her to leave Scorpius with his bad decisions.

“She’s just dreadful,” Rose groaned as they left the library. “She says the meanest things to Nat when you boys aren’t around.”

“I don’t care about that,” Nat promised sincerely as she pushed back a lock of her strawberry blonde hair which had fallen out of the ribbon that simply was not her color. “It’s the giggling!”

“I couldn’t stand that in a girl,” Andrew agreed with a shudder.

“She’s pretty, but a twit,” Al agreed with a frown as he glanced back towards the library. “You’d think he’d know it was time to break up with her.”

“Speaking of break ups,” Nat said as she pulled all of them into an empty classroom. She’d decided she’d had enough of it. There was no point in not saying what was on a person’s mind, and that was all they could do with Scorpius was keep silent and hope his insanity would end quickly.

Andrew and Rose both shifted uncomfortably as Andrew leaned back against a desk and Rose folded her arms tight. Al, bless him, was clearly confused.

“Look,” Nat said with a grin. “You both would rather be friends. Just agree on it. Andrew can still hang out with us; you can enjoy each other without the messy feelings.”

“Wait, what?” Al spluttered as he turned between his cousin and Andrew. “You two want to break up?”

Andrew shifted uncomfortably before turning to Rose. “I wouldn’t hurt you for anything. You’re one of the best people I know…”

Rose let out a laugh and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him hard for a second. “I feel the same way,” she said as she let go and cupped his cheeks. “I just… I feel more like friends.”

“Agreed,” he grinned and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Friends.”

“My work is done,” Nat said cheerfully as she took Al’s arm and stuck her cold fingers onto the warm skin there.

“Bloody hell, woman!” Al laughed as he wrapped an arm around her. “How are you cold? It’s June!”

“This castle is cold,” Nat replied as all four of them walked out of the classroom.

“I’m going to head back to my common room,” Andrew said with a wave. “I’ll see you tomorrow for class.”

The moment he was out of earshot, Rose spoke. “I told you not to interfere… but I’m glad you did. That was so much easier than I expected it to be.”

Al slipped his arm around Nat’s waist and pulled her in close, thankfully warming her up even more. “I mean… I saw you holding hands less and all that, but I didn’t realize you didn’t like him anymore.”

“I mean… I actually love him,” Rose said thoughtfully, to which Al spluttered and she let out a snort of laughter. “It’s not that way, and that’s the problem! I love him like I love you, Scorpius, and Nat. At the moment, though, I’m trying to decide what on earth Scorpius is thinking about Avery. She’s such a twit.”

Nat rather suspected he wasn’t thinking. “Anyway, I’m glad it worked out with Andrew. He’s such a nice guy.”

“You want to make a pass at him?” Rose asked her curiously.

Al’s arm tightened around Nat’s waist. “That would be weird.”

“It would be weird,” Nat agreed, “and I know he’s not interested in me. I didn’t want to lose him as a friend, but if I had to pick, I’d pick you over him.”

“Well, I’m glad we don’t have to,” Rose sighed happily. “I am so glad we’re going home soon. I can’t wait for the hols.”

~*~

Ginny kissed Emma’s sweet, chubby cheek and set the baby down with her toys in the living room, just off the kitchen where she’d be able to see her while she cooked. Victoire had started back at work with her studies to become a Healer, and she and Fleur were taking turns watching the baby while Victoire was in class, on rounds, and studying. It was the final push Ginny had needed to retire from her job with The Daily Prophet, although she’d agreed to special assignments as they came up, where she had full control of if she went or not. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the game, but she’d decided to write a book instead of reporting. Women in Quidditch. It was long overdue, as no one had ever tackled the complete history of women in the sport.

Of course, it was just an excuse. She’d also started a cookery book with her mum, and she rather thought Lily and Nat would want in on it for the summer. Nat would be with them all summer, again, and they would need things to occupy themselves.

Emma cooed happily, her pale blonde hair shone bright from the rays of the setting sun streaming in through the windows. The baby rocked herself over to her hands and knees and crawled for the bin of colorful toys Ginny had dug out from storage. It wasn’t so long before that Lily had been playing with them. It was still difficult to believe her baby was already thirteen. Time kept flying by, making a mockery of her attempts to hold on to every single moment.

The front door opened and Ginny grinned as her husband strode through. He was supposed to be at the office, still, but on days she had Emma, he often left the office early so he could spend time with her. Harry greeted her as he hung up his cloak and spun her around a bit, kissing her soundly, even as Emma let out a happy gurgle and tried to crawl for him. “Go on,” Ginny told him as she pushed him towards the baby. “I have to start dinner.”

Harry scooped Emma up and held her tightly, kissing her cheek. “How are you my darling girl?”

Emma was just fine, especially as she rested her head on Harry’s shoulder and smiled for Ginny.

“She’s been teething a bit today,” Ginny told him as she pulled out what she needed for supper. “The vial Victoire left did the trick, though, and put her to sleep for a bit, thankfully. She’s in a much better mood since her nap.”

“Teething is painful,” Harry agreed as he sat on a stool at the edge of the counter. “I remember James and just what a rat he was. He never seemed to stop crying.”

It was true James had been a terrible baby. He’d been colicky, and crying over teething. It had been so stressful, Ginny hadn’t even realized she was pregnant with Al until months into the pregnancy. Still, compared to James, Emma was an angel. “What time is Teddy coming for her?”

“He wasn’t back in when I left,” Harry told her as he snatched a carrot from her and turned Emma around to face the counter. He handed the baby a small spoon, which she promptly stuck in her mouth. “I have him on a very safe mission to observe an old man,” he assured her at her look of concern. “I don’t put the new parents at risk.”

“How is Susan doing?” Ginny asked.

“She’s on maternity leave, now,” Harry informed her as the front door swung open and Victoire called out to them.

Handing off the baby was always a bittersweet moment for Ginny. On the one hand, she missed Emma, who would be with Fleur the next day. They were picking up the kids from Kings Cross the next day, including Louis, so Fleur wouldn’t have to take the baby to the train station.

Harry pulled her in close, his body a familiar warmth and comfort. They’d been together for so long, now, she didn’t know what she’d be without him. She often felt like her parents were the same way. They weren’t too old, not by wizarding standards, which she understood were not the same as Muggles. They were heading towards eighty, but still very young and spry. It was difficult to believe both she and Harry were over forty. It felt like such a great age to have attained, and it wasn’t something she took for granted. They’d been through hell when they were younger. It could have easily gone another way. She’d actually spent time believing Harry had died at the Battle of Hogwarts. Now, that was going on twenty-four years before. Next year they’d have another remembrance ball to commemorate all those who fought, and all who were lost.

“The years are flying so fast,” she said and hated how clich it was, even though it was true.

Harry kissed her soundly and grinned. “We have one last night of freedom before the children come back. Then we’ll be inundated with their noise and chatter.”

“But soon enough, even that will be gone,” Ginny reminded him. “We have two years left for James, and then he will move out! We have only two years.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully and considered her for a moment. “We could spend much of the summer at the beach house.”

“We can’t,” Ginny told him and wished they could. “It’s too far to drive to get Emma, and Victoire needs me. I can ask Fleur about taking a full week, though, so we can get a proper vacation.”

“Soon enough they’ll be begging us to take Emma with us for a week,” Harry laughed and she knew he was remembering their own adventures with that when James turned two. “I was never so happy as to hand that little monster over to your mother for a few days, just to get some peace. Of course, we had Al by that point.”

“Emma is still nursing, too,” Ginny mused as she thought about taking her granddaughter to the beach for a week. “Maybe next summer we’ll be allowed to take her.”

They ate dinner and talked. They cuddled together on the couch and read books. They went up to bed and slowly made love, knowing the feel of each other’s bodies, understanding perfectly the other’s needs. It wasn’t the blinding passion of youth, or the fickle mood of young love. They’d moved beyond that so many years before.

Ginny had learned long ago that Muggles divorced, and for some relationships she really could understand why they might need to split. There are a lot of reasons, but to her it felt that if someone saw love as only the blinding, all consuming passion of first loves, then it would be easy to become discouraged and to feel as though they had fallen out of love. Real love was tempered in the fires of life, and it grew stronger for it. She wouldn’t have traded this for anything. She rather thought her parents were the same way.

Harry slept naked next to her, a luxury they would have to forgo for the summer, and she soaked it in, holding on to this moment for what it was.

He’d told her about their theory over Isabella Crabbe and her plans for Lily. In a sick way it made perfect sense to Ginny, even as it left her terrified. They would have to double down on making sure Lily was never out of their sight, even for a moment. She would have to be protected at all times… but not quite yet. She was still so young. Even if Crabbe had a plan for her, Ginny doubted it was for this moment. The crazy woman was out of the country and out of their hair, at least for the moment. They would be careful with her.

It was with thoughts like that that Ginny fell into a fitful sleep.


She made it to the train station early and met up with Ron, who was getting Rose and Hugo. “I think we’re going to take the kids to the beach house for a week.”

“Yeah?” Ron asked clearly not paying attention to her.

“I want to take your children, dolt,” Ginny sighed as she poked her brother’s stomach. “At least for a day or two. You alright with that?”

Ron laughed and shrugged. “Of course I am. They spend most of their days with you anyway. You do what you like, Gin. I’m just glad Rose has broken it off with that Andrew kid. She’s too young to be dating, anyway.”

Ginny rolled her eyes, but not so he could see her. Then she nearly laughed out loud when Andrew gave Rose a long hug goodbye before they split. The look on Ron’s face was priceless. Personally, Ginny had liked Andrew. She’d heard a lot about him and thought he was a nice young man. She was glad they were still friendly.

It wasn’t until they were almost home, and she’d told the five children about the beach, that problems started up. “Can I ask Honor to come, Mum?” Lily wanted to know. “She’d love it! You know she would.”

And without even thinking through it, Ginny said that of course she could ask Honor to come because she’d truly forgotten what it meant to be a parent.

“Hang on,” James said slowly. “We can’t just invite Honor and not Caroline.”

Ginny had seen the hug the two of them had shared at the train station, and she was very certain inviting Caroline would mean many, many more troubles for her that she really didn’t want to deal with. They’d exited the train holding hands, after all. “Are you and Caroline a couple now?”

She glanced over at James, who sat next to her in the passenger seat, just in time to see him squirm uncomfortably. “Not… no, not really. More than friends, maybe, but she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Leave off on that one, Mum,” Al piped in, surprising her so she flicked her eyes to meet his in the rear view mirror for a moment. “It’s all complicated with Caroline, but James is watching out for her, you know?”

“I get what you’re thinking,” Nat agreed as she pulled Lily’s cat, Ducky, off of her head. “But there won’t be the drama if you invite her. Unlike with Scorpius…”

“Yeah, that was a mess,” James jumped in, turning around to face them. “What happened there?”

Nat shook her head and laughed. “Rose told him she’d had enough of Avery’s snotty comments and she wasn’t going to hang out with her anymore.”

“Who is Avery?” Ginny wondered, trying to keep up.

Nat launched into the whole story and rounded off by saying, “He broke up with her on the train. It was pretty ugly, actually.”

“We heard them yelling from the other train car,” Louis assured her with a snicker. “Avery has a reputation as being a snake, which is fitting since she’s in Slytherin.”

“Not everyone in Slytherin is bad,” Ginny reminded them as she pulled into their driveway.

The kids piled out and grabbed trunks, owls, and one cat. “Can I stay here tonight Aunt Ginny?” Louis asked as soon as they walked through the door.

“You have to ask your mother,” Ginny told him as she dropped the BMW’s keys in a basket on the counter and smiled for Polly, the house-elf. “You are a miracle, Polly.”

She heard a commotion at the door and found Al hauling a trunk in on his broad shoulders. He was getting so big, now. He was already fifteen and it just didn’t seem possible he could truly get any bigger. James had really shot up, but he wasn’t nearly as wide as Al, who was probably a good four inches shorter than his brother, but several inches wider in the shoulders.

It was an odd thing, gazing at one’s son, and seeing a man where the boy should have been. Right behind him was Louis with another trunk, and James with yet another. Neither Lily nor Nat had offered to carry a trunk, and the boys had assumed they wouldn’t. Maybe it was sexist, but the two girls would have had to work together to even attempt to lift a trunk.

“Can I help with anything?” Nat asked Polly, who shook her tiny head, her ears waggling.

“I has it miss,” Polly assured her. “Coconut chicken curry tonight.”

“Oh, Polly,” Nat laughed and hugged the tiny elf, who was only slightly smaller than Nat herself. “You are my hero! It’s been so long since we’ve had a good curry.”

“I have something else for us to do,” Ginny informed Nat as she started pulling out ingredients. “We’re going to make a cake you can eat. I tried to make it two days ago with magic, but it turned into soup.”

The two of them started in on the cake, made with almond flour, coconut oil, many eggs, stevia, and carob.

“What is that?” Al wondered as he came up next to Nat and peered over her shoulder. He swiped at an edge with his finger and stuck it in his mouth to taste. Ginny covertly studied the two of them as Al’s expression turned pensive.

“It’s crap,” Nat sighed dejectedly, appearing to shrink in on herself. “We should make something everyone else will want to eat.”

Ginny opened her mouth to object, but Al beat her to it. He wrapped an arm around Nat’s shoulder and shook his head. “It’s good, Leah!” he said, surprising Ginny at the use of Nat’s middle name. “I was just expecting sickly sweet.”

“You don’t have to eat it,” she said as tears filled her eyes.

Ginny stared at Nat and wondered what on earth was going on with her. Nat was not a crier!

“Hey,” Al soothed as he pulled her in for a hug, completely enfolding her in his arms. “I like it! It just wasn’t what I was expecting, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.”

Ginny eyed her son, who mouthed, over Nat’s head, ‘I have it.”

So she walked off and left him to deal with it. She checked in with Louis, who told her is mum had said it was fine for him to stay. “Midnight hide-and-go-seek,” her nephew told her, “after dinner! Rose and Hugo are coming, too.”

By the time she made it back to Nat, Al was helping her make the cake and they were smiling. By the time she had Nat alone again, she almost hated to bring up the tears.

“It’s the hormones,” Nat explained with a shake of her head. “It’s been bad the last week, and then this morning I got my first period and promptly bled through everything I was wearing.”

“Oh Merlin!” Ginny exclaimed as she ran a hand over Nat’s head. “That had to be embarrassing!”

Nat shrugged, but her feelings were easy to read on her face. “We were on the train, and I stood up to find a huge puddle of blood there. Rose helped me get everything I needed, but Al and Andrew were there to witness the whole thing. I was crying so hard when Rose dragged me back to the compartment, in the midst of the screaming match between Scorpius and his girlfriend, but Al was really good about it. They both were. The boys cleaned up the blood, and they both said it wasn’t a big deal. I still felt really awful, just weepy and so embarrassed, but… well, you saw. I’m still a little weepy.”

“It’s your first period,” Ginny reminded her. “It’s a big deal. I should let Audrey know, actually.”

“I sent her a letter,” Nat informed her as she poured the cake batter into a baking pan. “She wanted to know because it meant the hormones they’d been giving me had finally worked. Sadly, I still look like I’m ten.”

“You’re tiny,” she agreed as Ginny opened the oven they almost never used for Nat to stick the pan in. It was a gas oven, something which had fascinated Ginny’s father. There were no electronic parts on it to break in the magical house, so Ginny had left it alone. She rather thought the people who owned the house before them had used it often. “Still, it doesn’t matter so much since you’re a girl. The world is sexist like that.”

Nat laughed and shook her head. “Did Al tell you he had a date to Hogsmeade the last trip?”

“No!” Ginny said with bemusement, then confusion when she realized her son had gone on a date with someone other than Nat. Then she was sad when she learned Nat was the one who had set the date up for Al. “You want him to date someone else?”

“I want him to be happy,” Nat explained.

Harry missed dinner and the game, but Ginny’s parents joined them for a while and Molly had played referee so Ginny could join in on the fun.

Ginny was already in bed by the time he crawled into bed. “What happened?”

“A bomb went off in Muggle London,” Harry told her. “It’s the third one in a week and a hundred people were killed today.”

“Was it a wizard?” she asked, unsure why he would have been involved otherwise.

He shook his head and sighed, resting his head on her breast, hooking a hand around her hip. “The Muggle prime minister is beside himself, desperate for any help. Normally we wouldn’t get involved, but they have no leads and no idea how to stop it. The person who is doing this is very cunning, but they’re definitely Muggle. I had a look at the scene and we did what we could to try to help them, but there wasn’t much we could do. The Muggle police were quite confused as to why we were there, but they’re so desperate for leads they’ll do anything.”

“You’re sure it isn’t Crabbe?”

“It’s not her,” Harry confirmed confidently. “There wasn’t even a hint of a trace of magic. It was an ordinary Muggle bomb, one with a timer that a wizard would have ended up frying if they’d tried to use magic on it.”

“We can use Muggle things, though,” Ginny said as worry filled her at the possibility of someone out killing so many Muggles.

“That’s true, but this is a terrorist act.”

“A what?”

So Harry explained about how one group of Muggles hated another group of Muggles. “They’re like us, except they pick things like skin color, religion, or sexual orientation,” he said heavily. “We pick on blood status. It’s all pretty bad. You could call the Death Eaters terrorists, including taking credit for their crimes with the Dark Mark. The Muggle terrorists also take credit. One of their groups claimed they did it, but that doesn’t help anyone track them down.”

“Is this what you’ve had Teddy working on?”

He nodded and let out a long, slow breath. “I have him following the man we suspect is the head of the terrorist cell in London. He’s an old man, definitely a Muggle. He’s absolutely dangerous, but not to a wizard. It’s a good assignment for Teddy, since he can change his appearance constantly and look like new people all the time. He’s been able to piece some things together, using some of the listening devices George has given us.”

“You’re allowed to use the magic against the Muggles?” Ginny blurted out in shock. It had to be really serious if they were doing that.

“We have been given permission by not only the Muggle prime minister, but our own, as well,” he confirmed as he tilted his head to kiss the underside of her chin. “It’s getting really serious. Today’s attack was not the biggest. The body count is over five hundred, and more than a thousand wounded. Our biggest problem is they don’t always speak English, which means we have to record what they’re saying and get it through the translators. We actually diverted an attack last week because of the intel Teddy gathered, but today’s was no good. The old man was quiet over it, so we think he knows he’s been bugged. We have to figure out who the other leaders are, but they don’t go see the old man so that’s partially on the Muggles to figure it out.”

The next morning started out to be such a lovely day, and then Lily informed her she’d started her period for the first time.

Because of course.

Teddy arrived with Emma not five minutes later, of course, and Ginny begging him to be careful that day, irrationally worried he might be hurt on the stakeout.

“I’ll take her,” James offered as he took the smiling baby from Teddy. “She’s so big!”

It was one of those days. Lily spent a good hour in bed with a hot water bottle for her cramps, Scorpius came over and apologized to Al and Nat about Avery, and James willingly offered to change Emma’s nappy.

She was pretty sure she was going to have whiplash before the day was out.

~*~

Scorpius squinted as he left the house and edged towards Lily. She’d sat herself under a tree and hadn’t moved for closing in on an hour now and no one would tell him exactly what was up with her. He hadn’t talked to her much over the year, just in passing as they saw each other in the common room or at meals, but he felt as protective of her as her brothers did. Lily inspired that feeling in those around her.

She glanced up and the sun caught her amazing copper hair, setting it alight. Her face was pale, paler than usual as he sat down next to her and bumped his shoulder into hers. She was a slight thing, although not as small as Nat. Still, even sitting, he could have propped his chin on the top of her head. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she lied as she picked up a blade of grass and twisted it between her fingers. “I’m just tired.”

He nodded and leaned back against the tree.

“Why did you date her?”

Scorpius fought the urge to squirm in embarrassment. Avery had been a monumental mistake of epic proportions. “Honestly,” he admitted, “I don’t really know. She was pretty and she seemed nice. I thought I liked her, you know? We only dated a few weeks and I didn’t really know her.”

Lily didn’t say anything, simply took his hand and tied the grass around his pinky finger so it was in a pretty bow. It was actually rather impressive she’d managed it without breaking the grass. She pulled another blade of grass and went to work on the ring finger and he let her because it was Lily. Lily could do whatever she wanted.

“I thought my father would be happy with her,” Scorpius said and was stunned to realize it was the truth. He hadn’t thought about it until that very moment, but his father would have been pleased he was dating Avery. She was from a family that was Malfoy approved.

“Why are you trying to make your father happy?”

Honestly, he didn’t know. “I think I enjoy impossible tasks.”

Lily grinned and it was her turn to bump his shoulder with hers. She was so young, so bright, so impish and sweet. Being with her always helped him settle. It was difficult to believe she was already thirteen. She didn’t look it, and in many ways she didn’t act it. “Your dad loves you, you know. I saw it in him. He just doesn’t know what to do with you.”

It wasn’t much in the way of consolations.

“Lil,” he went on gently. “Why are you out here? What’s wrong?”

Her cheeks and the tip of her nose went bright pink as she tied the last blade around his thumb, so he now appeared to be wearing a green ring on each finger. He studied her handiwork, then took her hand with his. “Lily…” he said again with more insistence.

“It’s embarrassing!” she told him with a hitch to her voice.

He wondered what could possibly embarrass her, but then suddenly he knew and he nodded, feeling his own insides twinge a bit in embarrassment. He’d dealt with several years of Rose telling them she had her period and to be nice to her, and on the train he’d come back to find Nat in a state because she’d bled everywhere. Well, it was bound to happen to Lily, too, and as Al had pragmatically said on the train, “It’s just part of life.”

Scorpius looped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Are you feeling okay?”

She rested her cheek against the hollow under his chin and he closed his eyes, drawing in the comfort of simply having her there. She was like warm Butterbeer on a cold day. She always had been.

“I feel weird,” she admitted reluctantly. “Like, I was hurting earlier today, but now I just feel so odd. It’s a definite turning point and I don’t feel ready for that.”

That was an extremely startling thought. Lily was still a little girl! She was… well, maybe not so much anymore. “I can see how that would be weird,” he agreed although he’d really wanted to say it was utterly alarming and he had no idea how to cope with it. She was too young for any of these things!

“Will people look at me funny? Will they whisper about me? Will it always hurt this much?” she questioned without really expecting an answer. “I don’t think I’m ready to grow up.”

“I don’t think anyone is ready for you to grow up, truth be told,” Scorpius assured her as a butterfly flew past them, fluttering on the slight breeze that had blown up. “But I suppose we’re all going to be facing it.”

“Mum was trying to be nice, but with Emma here, and Nat also a mess, it was just not a good day,” Lily said morosely. “I wanted so badly to spare her, but I had to tell her. Now she’s looking at me like I’ve grown a second head and she ordered me to stay near the house! Honestly, what’s that about?”

Scorpius had no idea, but there was a lot going on. The baby was cute, as one would expect with a part-Veela parent. She’d also been fairly good today, only crying for a bit that morning. He’d taken a turn holding her when Mrs. Potter had unceremoniously plopped her in Scorpius’ lap and led Lily upstairs. He was assuming, now, that was when Lily had told her mother her period had started.

Emma had looked up at him, and he’d looked down at the baby, and the baby grinned. He’d only held her for a second, though, before Nat had swooped in and claimed her. That baby was going to be seriously spoiled by the end of the summer. She’d always be in someone’s arms.

“Lily!”

They both turned to see Ginny stepping from the house. She studied them for a moment before coming over to them. Scorpius thought about taking his arm from around her, but Lily didn’t move, so he didn’t push her away.

“Nice rings,” Mrs. Potter laughed as she spotted Scorpius’ hand. “Are you okay?” she asked her daughter, taking her hand. “I’m sorry today has been so rushed and frantic.”

“I’m okay,” Lily promised as she rose up onto her knees and hugged her mother. “It’s really hard getting older.”

“I know it is, Lily-Lu,” Ginny said as she kissed her child’s brow. “Are you ready to come in yet, or is Scorpius helping with everything?”

Lily sat back down and resumed her position of leaning against his side. “It’s helping. He’s explaining to me how he could have been daft enough to date Avery the awful.”

“Was she really that bad?” Ginny asked Scorpius. “She got on Nat’s nerves, I know, and that’s hard to do.”

Scorpius nodded heavily and grinned when Ginny let out a snort of laughter. “She was really pretty but had nothing else to her,” he explained sheepishly. “I feel really stupid about it, actually. When I confronted her about what she’d said to Nat she lied to me about saying it, and then started screaming at me when I called her on the lie.”

It had been really ugly, all things considered. The fact that she accused Nat of lying, when Nat wouldn’t lie to him, had been the last straw.

“Well, we made ice cream,” Ginny told them with a sad smile. “It’s safe for Nat to eat, so it’s not terribly sweet, but I think it’s good. Want some?”

“Yes!” Lily said instantly, scrambling to her feet and taking her mother’s hand to head for the door. “You coming?” she called over her shoulder to Scorpius.

He nodded and waved her off, considering the day he’d had as he gazed down at the grass rings Lily had tied on his fingers. She was such a sweet kid, really more… he didn’t know how to explain it. Nat was smaller than Lily, but Lily was definitely younger and acted like it. She was still a child in so many ways. Nat knew all kinds of things about life that showed she’d seen a lot in her time. Lily didn’t have anything like that. She was all light and sunshine, bright hair and a big smile.

He left the rings on and headed for the door. He was barely through when James thrust the baby into his arms. “Hold her for a second!” he called as he went to retrieve a rag to wipe a bunch of gunk off of his shirt. He cleaned Emma up, as well, as Emma fussed at them.

“What was that?” Scorpius asked, absolutely positive he didn’t want to know.

“She spit up on me,” James grumbled as he took the baby back and held her up, his face splitting into a grin. “I don’t like vomit, you know. It’s good that you’re cute.”

“Here, have some ice cream,” Lily said, handing him a bowl and a spoon. She grinned happily as she took another bite. “It’s a bit like these things Aunt Fleur makes with dark chocolate. I think you’ll like it.”

And truth be told, he did, even though it tasted absolutely nothing like any other ice cream he’d ever had before.


A/N: My latest novel is out at most retailers online: Sarah Jaune Remnants

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Chapter 44: Chapter 41

Author's Notes: Thanks to Arnel for beta'ing

Please check out my novels. Sarah Jaune on amazon. Supporting my work is a great way of paying me back for always finishing my stories.


James crouched down on the sand and studied Caroline with her blonde hair tumbling wildly in the wind and her knees drawn up to her chest. She was in a navy blue one-piece and she wore the absolutely best scowl he’d ever seen on her face. He couldn’t help but grin. “You know you want to come in.”

“I want to sit under this umbrella and read,” she retorted firmly.

This was only their second day at the beach and already she’d refused to go in the day before. “Aren’t you going to swim at all?”

“That water is not warm,” Caroline said with a scowl. “I hate being cold.”

“Everyone else is fine,” James pointed out. It was true. Louis, Al, Nat, Lily, Honor, Rose, Hugo, and Scorpius were all in the water, laughing and splashing about in the waves. His mother had informed all of them that she deserved an award for taking all of them to the beach for the week. He grinned again as he reached over to tuck a strand of her loose hair behind her ear and slid his hand down to cup her chin, wobbling a little bit as he tried to stay on his feet. “Any way I can convince you?”

She ran a hand up to her suit and fidgeted with the strap at her shoulder. She looked… self-conscious. “No.”

“What about a walk?”

Sighing, she shook her head and stared down at the sand.

“Okay,” he nodded slowly and twisted until he could plop down on the towel next to her. He covered his eyes with an arm and let the warm sun soak into his bones, drying the saltwater from his skin.

“What are you doing?”

“Spending time with you,” he answered without looking at her. “That’s the point of going on holiday together.”

She sighed heavily and lay back, as well, pulling out a book which she held over her head to read. She lasted all of five minutes before she put the book down and grabbed a shirt, pulling it on. Curious, James glanced over to see the t-shirt, his shirt, sliding over her head. “Where did you get that?”

“From your bag,” she said quietly as she pulled the shirt down over her knees as she rocked a little, sticking her chin on her knees again as she hugged her knees to her chest. She turned her head, her cheek still on her knees, to study him. “Do you mind?”

He didn’t mind, of course. He’d only brought shirts because his mother insisted he pack them, but they weren’t much use out on the beach. He walked around in his bathing costume until bed, when he put on a clean pair of shorts to sleep, waking the next day to get back into the costume. He had no idea why his mother thought he should bring shirts, but he’d long since learned to not argue with her.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.

She shrugged as her blue eyes continued to meet his. “I don’t like my swimsuit,” using the American word for it.

He nodded slowly and sat up. It was a conservative one, compared to some of the women on the beach, but Caroline was Caroline. “Too exposed?”

“Something like that.”

“So wear my shirt in the water,” he offered as he ran a hand down her back. “It’s not like I’m using it.”

“Why did you even pack shirts when you never have one on?”

He laughed and leaned down to gently press a kiss to her cheek. “My mum insists I pack them.” He rose and held out a hand. “Can we go on a walk now?”

Caroline took his hand and let him pull her to standing. She didn’t let go of his hand as his red shirt slid down almost to her knees. He blinked in surprise, as he knew that particular shirt was getting small on him. Glancing down, he realized just how much he’d grown. It hit him like a tangible wave of magic blasting into him.

“What?” she asked uncomfortably, tucking her hair behind her ear as the wind continued to whip it around.

“Nothing to do with you,” he reassured her as they began to walk. “I was just startled because that particular shirt is almost too small for me and you’re swimming in it. We used to be close to the same size.”

“That was a lifetime ago,” she reminded him as the warm, wet sand passed under their feet. “I haven’t grown in years, and you have.”

James was just thankful he wasn’t going to stay short for the rest of his life. He’d worried about that a few times. “What do you want to do for your birthday?” She’d be turning sixteen in two days. “I can’t believe I’m almost a year older than you.”

“Ten months,” she retorted and smiled for the first time, bumping his shoulder with hers. “You’re going to be an adult in September.”

“Yeah, cause that’s not weird.”

Caroline laughed and wound her arm into his as their friends and family passed out of sight down the long stretch of beach. “It’s going to be weird, you being an adult for almost two full years of our schooling.”

“My aunt Hermione has a September birthday, as well, and she said you get used to it, but I think it’s just going to be weird. I want to play Quidditch, and I could technically leave to play once I’m seventeen.”

She went still next to him, pulling him to a stop. “Are… are you going to?”

He shook his head and squeezed her hand. “I’m not leaving you, plus it would be stupid to not finish since I can’t play Quidditch for the rest of my life. I need to have other skills.”

His mum had set up scouts to come watch him play this coming year. She had the right contacts for it, but he’d already promised her he would finish out his schooling. It was an extra two years of practice, and an extra two years with Caroline. She was probably his main reason for staying, though. He knew it was smart to finish, but he was honest enough with himself to admit she was really the reason. His mum, begrudgingly, told him he would be good enough to get on a team, within the next year. He was trying not to let it go to his head or his mum would make sure he was humbled. She was good like that.

Caroline glanced back towards the way they’d come and fidgeted back and forth on her feet, shifting in the sand. “I want you to stay in school.”

“I will,” he promised easily. “I’m not leaving you.” She needed to hear that again and again.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment. “I’m sorry… I’m being needy.”

James was used to this part of her, though, and honestly she was getting better about it as time went on. Also, the fact was she was telling him what she wanted and that, in itself, was a major improvement. “You’re working on it.”

“Do you like my bathing suit?”

A little thrown, James opened his mouth to say yes, but then shut it as he considered her. Something was wrong. “It’s fine. It looks a lot like Lily’s.” Lily’s was close to the same shade of blue, but hers had tiny pink roses on it.

She closed her eyes and let go of his hand to grab at her hair, pulling it away from her face and over her shoulder. “It’s not… not too…”

“Too what?” he wondered as she gazed up at him, searching him for something.

Her words were so quiet the wind almost took them away before he could hear them. “Too sexy.”

James had no idea how to answer this. It felt like he was walking into a den of dragons. “Did you see what Rose is wearing? I have no idea why Uncle Ron would have allowed that!” Rose’s suit was a bright red bikini. James was forced to conclude his uncle had not actually seen the thing or he would have burned it and forbidden her from going out in public.

“I like her suit,” Caroline admitted reluctantly. “I wish I had the confidence to wear it.”

“But you don’t want to look sexy,” he said and tried to ignore the hitch in his voice at the word. This was a weird conversation, but then again, most of his conversations with her were weird, and it was absolutely ridiculous to see his baby cousin wearing something like she was. It was just not right, at all.

“That’s my problem,” she said unhappily as she pulled at the hem of his shirt. “It’s all wrapped up in him rather than being all about you and me.”

Ah…

“I want you to think I’m beautiful,” she told him, almost angrily now as she gestured to herself. “I want you to think I’m sexy, but if you do think I’m beautiful or sexy, that will bother me!”

It was like packing for the beach. He could make himself happy or he could make his mother happy, and neither would end up totally satisfied in the end. Still, since he didn’t have any hang-ups or bad memories of the past, he’d rather make her happy because her happy made him happy. “I will feel whatever you want me to feel.”

Caroline glared at him and reached up to tweak his nose. “You think you’re so cute.”

“I think you’re cute,” he reminded her, chuckling as he captured her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “If you think the t-shirt changes how I see you, then go ahead and think that.”

Her cheeks flushed as her eyes fell to the sand. “I hate being so confusing all the time.”

“Let’s just keep it simple, then,” he went on as he cupped her cheeks. “I love you, and you love me.” He leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips, resting his forehead against hers. “What brought all of this up?”

She took a moment to answer. “You’ll be an adult soon.”

“So?”

“That means… that means you’ll want adult things.”

“That means adult me will still love you,” he replied simply. “My age isn’t going to change that. Loving you means loving where you are, which is clearly not ready to be seen in a bathing costume, not even by me.”

“Swimsuit.”

“Whatever.”

She hugged him then, wrapping her arms around his bare waist, and he had to admit he liked the feel of her hands on the skin of his back. “What about when you want more?”

They’d been over this more than once, but she was still struggling with this. She was going to have to trust him more than she’d trusted anyone in her life before she was going to let him through this door into her heart. “We wait for you, no matter what I want.”

“I’m scared you’ll get tired of me.”

“I’m scared you won’t give me the chance to prove we’re in this for the long haul.”

She pushed back to stare up at him. “What do you mean?”

Things had been sliding around in his mind, wondering what the future would hold for him. He was just over two months off from being seventeen and suddenly being an adult didn’t seem so very far off. His parents had married when his father was seventeen and his mum only sixteen. It was not something he wanted to repeat, not only because his parents had been forced to marry. His expression must have changed because Caroline’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“I was thinking of my parents,” he admitted truthfully as he stared down at their joined hands. “They had a rough start in life. They were married really young.”

“Why?”

That was quite a question, and one with a complicated answer. He wasn’t supposed to talk about his parents or why they’d ended up forced to marry. “Can we sit?”

It took him a good thirty seconds to collect himself. “I want to tell you something, but I need you to keep it to yourself. Lily doesn’t know yet.”

Rumors had run around the school, but Caroline was more than likely oblivious to everything going on around her. It was how she liked her life.

“Alright,” she agreed as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

So James told her the whole story of his parents’ marriage. He told her about how they’d just survived the war, and when they were at Snape’s funeral they’d been cursed. When he arrived at the point where his dad was used to impregnate his mum, Caroline started crying. He had much the same feelings about it, of course, as he held onto her. “They were practically our age,” he explained hoarsely. “A year older, maybe, and they were having a baby! I can’t even imagine.”

“Hope…” Caroline supplied her name. “Your sister’s name was Hope. I saw her grave at your house. I didn’t want to ask, but I saw and wondered.”

“They lost a child after having been through that horrible war,” he went on quietly. “They still made it. They had each other, they loved each other, and they made it through together.”

She nodded and swiped at her eyes, then at his shoulder where her tears had damped his skin. “I’m so sorry.”

“Do you remember that day I took you up to see Hannah because you were feeling suicidal? That time before you went to St. Mungo’s,” he asked her quietly. This wasn’t the first time they’d talked about it, but he knew it was still a painful topic.

“Yeah.”

“I decided that day,” he went on, pressing his lips into her brow, “that I really didn’t like the person I’d been and that I was done with him. You were facing things I didn’t know how to handle, and my biggest worry was how best to annoy my little brother. I thought… Merlin, I thought about what a selfish arse I was. I thought of all of the things I wanted to change.” He cupped her cheek and she raised her eyes to his. “I wanted to change for myself, of course, because I wanted to respect myself, but mostly I wanted to change for you.”

“Jamie…”

“So when I say the long haul,” he went on evenly, even though his heart had kicked up to triple speed as he studied her weary blue eyes, “I mean the long haul. I know what that means, and maybe what it doesn’t.”

“I don’t…”

“If your dad weren’t even a part of your existence,” he interrupted, “what would you want from me?”

Her tired eyes softened as she leaned up to kiss him. He reveled in the touch she so rarely initiated. “I… I might want…”

The words felt too big to say. He understood that completely. “We have time on our side, you and me. We can take our time and see where we go.”

She turned away as a gull flew by, squawking loudly. “What do you want?”

“I want what my parents have.” It was really that simple.

“What if I can’t give it to you?”

He felt his stomach clench at the thought, but he didn’t relax as he spoke. She needed this reassurance. His parents had spent two years in a hellish war, and it had hurt them badly, but Caroline had spent her first decade under the sick control of her father. She’d never had a day of normal, not until she’d left for England, and even then he’d still messed with her. He could give her time to get over everything. “We can be friends forever. You know that.”

“You deserve more.”

You deserve more.”

She rolled her eyes and glared at him. “I’m no prize.”

“Neither am I.”

“You–” she huffed in exasperation. “You’re absolutely amazing!”

He studied her intently, swiping his thumb gently along her jawline. “So are you. You’re absolutely amazing, and it has nothing to do with your looks or your bathing costume.”

“Swimsuit.”

He laughed even as he kissed her again, this time for a bit longer, pulling back before she could get uncomfortable. “Will you swim if you wear my shirt?”

She nodded slowly and stood, holding out her hand, this time, to pull him to his feet. She was stronger than she looked, and he wanted her to remember that so he held out his hand to her and rose.

“So what do you want to do for your birthday?” he asked her again. “And this time, don’t dodge the question.”

~*~

Teddy shook his head as he continued to present to the Aurors what he’d learned from his surveillance of the old man. They’d been cagey with him, but eventually he’d moved to a new location, one Teddy was sure they thought would not be accessible to anyone, but was easy enough to track as an Auror. Teddy had dressed up as an old man who lived in the flat next door and he’d continued his spying. This time they’d been more careful about how they gave the Muggles the information so as not to tip the old man off to anything.

They’d thwarted another terrorist attack, but that was thanks to the other Aurors who were taking a more active surveillance role. He was, admittedly, a little bored with this assignment, but with a small baby, he understood why they weren’t giving him more. He was often sleep deprived and it took concentration to do their job. With Victoire back in her training, and Emma starting to teeth, he needed an easy assignment.

He headed home a few hours later. Another Auror would stay in the flat next to the old man overnight, pretending to watch the tele way too loudly, while cursing at the Muggle government, and continuing to listen in on him. It was making for long days, but ones as rewarding as he could hope for. They were making a difference. The old man had been part of killing hundreds of Muggles. That was the most important thing.

Victoire would have already picked Emma up from her mum, as this week Ginny was at the beach with the kids, and so he headed straight home. “I am beat,” he said as he kissed his wife and took his wiggling daughter from her arms. He held her tight and rocked her back and forth, reveling in the feel of the tiny person he and Victoire had made together. She already loved him, already adored him. She smiled for him, and reached for him. She was darling. Her blonde hair was sticking up a bit like duckling down, only lighter, and her blue eyes were trusting and happy as he grinned down at her. “I meant to bring home take-out, like I’ve been doing at the surveillance, but I was too worn out to stop. I say we eat a ham sandwich and call it a night.”

“Aunt Angelina saved us,” Victoire explained as she went over to a covered dish he hadn’t noticed on the kitchen counter and raised the lid. The amazing smell of garlic wafted towards him. “I sent her a note earlier today and begged for dinner. She told me to ask whenever I needed it, and with Emma crying most of last night I knew we were going to need it.”

“Bless her!” Teddy laughed as he sat down at the table and they tucked in.

He fell into a bit of a stupor as he ate one handed with Emma balanced on his lap, attempting not to dribble food into her hair. A year before he’d been terrified of what having a child would mean. He’d had a vague notion of it, of course. He’d studied Harry and Ginny carefully because they were a family, one he always wanted to be a part of, but somehow never quite settled into. He knew, deep down, the fault for that lay with him. Ginny had told him they would have had him live with them, but that his grandmother had needed and wanted him. Plus, they’d been so young when his parents had died. Still, they’d have done their very best with him if put to it. Of course with the loss of Hope it would have bene doubly hard, no matter how much Ginny reassured him. He couldn’t imagine what he’d have done if they’d lost Emma. It was absolutely unthinkable.

But with the loss of his grandmother, he’d finally let go of the last of his reserves and had dived in fully to the Potter family. Again, it was all in his own head. To them, he was their child. He’d always been treated that way. Ginny had scolded him when he’d needed it, and Harry had guided him when he was in doubt.

The family in this room was different, though. His wife, his beautiful, amazingly kind and generous wife, was his heart, and the baby on his lap was his soul. They were his everything and he couldn’t imagine doing without them for even a single day. It had rankled a bit when he’d been set the safer task of spying on the old man, but Raeburns had pointed out he was exhausted from having a small baby and they weren’t going to risk his safety, or the mission, because of it.

It was a good call.

“Teddy…”

He glanced up to see Victoire chewing on her bottom lip, studying him. Now that he was looking at her properly, he could see she’d been at her lip a good bit. “What’s up?”

“I want to finish my schooling,” she said slowly. “I’m down to less than a year to completion.”

“Well, that’s good,” he grinned, confused as to where this was going and trying not to show his worry.

She glanced away briefly before her blue eyes flicked back to his. “I was speaking with my instructor today and she noticed I was distracted. I’m tired, so it’s understandable, but… I just…” her gaze fell to her half eaten plate.

He waited for a full minute before he prodded. “What?”

“When we first married, there was no choice but for me to get a job and work,” she reminded him quietly. “It was going to be too much for us to make it without my having a job.”

He remembered that vividly. It used to be that a family could be comfortable on one income. It simply wasn’t the case anymore. Without the money from Harry and Ginny, they would still be struggling just to pay the bills and buy food. Now, at least, they had a very nice cushion and all of Victoire’s student loans were paid off. “Right.”

“So we talked about Emma,” Victoire went on. “How… how much I hate being away from her, and how that’s normal.”

He nodded slowly and finally cottoned on to where this was going. “You don’t want to be a Healer.”

“I do!” Victoire protested instantly, shaking her head. “I’ve always wanted that! But… but, oh Teddy…” she gazed at their daughter who was watching her mother intently. “I’m missing everything to work! I’m going to miss all her firsts.”

“So quit,” he said patiently. Even if they hadn’t had the money, he’d have found a second and third job to make sure she could. He would do that in a heartbeat.

She shook her head and the light caught her blonde hair, making it glow around her. “I’m going to finish. I spoke to my instructors about working only two days a week to finish. It will mean taking twice as long, but then I will be with her more. After I finish, they said I could choose how many mothers I want to take on every month since I’m not in it for the salary.”

Teddy nodded thoughtfully, thinking through her decision to become a midwife Healer as her specialty. She would have all of the training of a Healer, of course, but she would focus on new mothers. “It will put off when we can have our second child if you do, though.”

Victoire blew out a breath and failed to maintain her scowl. “I don’t want another one right now, of course, but that thought had crossed my mind. If I push through and get it done with, we can make the decision when it works best for us as a family.”

“I can quit my job and stay home with her,” Teddy offered. At the moment he knew it would be infinitely better than his stupid stake out job.

“That wouldn’t solve the problem of me missing out on her life,” she reminded him. “Besides, she has the best care with her grandmothers, it’s not that I’m worried about her.”

“You just miss her.”

Victoire’s eyes filled and she held out her arms and Teddy boosted the baby over the table to her. Victoire held her close, and then laughed when Emma started to grab at her chest. “I’m more than a milk factory,” Victoire assured her lovingly, even as she pulled up her shirt to nurse her. She was so stunning to him. This picture of her, nursing their child, was absolutely precious to him.

“You can quit if you want, or put it off for another year,” Teddy reminded her. “Whatever you want to do.”

“I’ll want to work full time once our children are at Hogwarts,” Victoire promised as she slowly rubbed Emma’s tiny back. “I’ll be ready, then. I could go back to school later, of course, but I feel like I can work now, since we have my mum and Aunt Ginny there to pick up babysitting. I was so surprised when Aunt Ginny quit her job at the paper! I thought she’d stay in that for a while longer.”

Teddy knew it was Emma’s birth which had prompted his adopted mother to leave her job. If Victoire hadn’t figured it out, yet, she would eventually. Ginny was ready to move on to the next phase in her life, which was caring for her grandchildren. Speaking of which… “It seems James has a girlfriend and it’s serious.”

Victoire shook her head. “They’re not officially together, but from what I’ve heard it is pretty serious. I keep thinking he’s too young, but both Molly and Fred are seriously dating someone. I think Dom is, as well, but she hasn’t mentioned her in a while.”

Everyone was growing up. Teddy studied Emma’s blonde head. “She needs to stay a baby for a long time.”

“It won’t happen,” Victoire laughed. “That’s how we get suckered in to having another one.”

~*~

Harry sagged into the couch at the beach house and wearily took the glass of fire whiskey his wife handed over. The kids were all up, still, playing a game of Exploding Snap in the kitchen, but he couldn’t face them just then. He needed a stiff drink and to get his mind off of the seven hundred Muggle victims he’d seen blown to bits by the Muggle terrorists. His wife cuddled into his side, wrapping her arm around his waist and burying her face in his neck. “I heard about it from a neighbor who is a Muggle,” she told him quietly. “It’s all over the Muggle news. I’ve heard other countries are sending in aid and offering police support.”

“I made a call today not to intervene with the main boss,” Harry told her blankly. “I knew something was going to happen. We had the information needed to stop it, but when I went to the Muggles we were told to stay out of it, that they’d handle it.”

“It isn’t your fault,” Ginny reminded him gently. “It was their call to make and they made the wrong one.”

Harry drained his glass in one go and set it down on the end table next to the couch, pulling his wife towards him, holding her still beating heart as close as he could to soak in the comfort she had to offer. “Have the kids heard?”

“Not yet,” she whispered as a tear slid down her cheek. “I didn’t want to tell them until you arrived and could answer their questions. I will tell them, though.”

He closed his eyes and nodded slowly. “Hermione and Ron are coming, as well, especially for Rose.”

The door opened and they heard the footsteps of their best friends, along with the kids’ exclamations of surprise.

Five minutes later, they had the kids sitting around them at the large kitchen table. They knew something was wrong.

“There was a bombing today in Muggle London,” Hermione explained quietly to the gasps of all of the children. Harry watched James put an arm around Caroline’s shoulders, as naturally as if he’d been doing so for years. Nat’s hands flew up to her mouth in horror. Everyone was shocked.

“There were a lot of people hurt, and a lot more killed,” Harry continued for her slowly as he thought of the terrible news he had to pass on to them.

Hermione took Rose’s hand and Ron stood to put his hands on her shoulders. “We don’t have a lot of information, yet, but it appears that Andrew was killed in the blast.”

Rose shook her head at the mention of her former boyfriend, the boy who was still her friend. “No… no, I just saw him! NO!”

“Sweetheart,” Hermione went on softly as she enfolded her in her arms. “Luv, his parents and his brothers… they were all killed. They have their bodies. Andrew’s… he’s…” she broke off and shot a pleading look for Harry.

Harry wasn’t doing much better as Lily climbed into his lap and held on, sobbing hard. He rubbed at her back and tried to sooth her. “His baby sister was supposed to be there, but it’s looking like she’s magical. When the blast went off, she used accidental magic to send herself back to her bedroom where a maid found her, screaming hysterically. We’re trying to find Andrew.”

Nat held both Al and Scorpius’ hands as they cried and Ginny gathered the crying Honor into her arms.

“We all know how much you love Andrew, and how sad you are,” Ginny told them. “We… we have lost friends to monsters. We know what that is like, and we want you to know you can talk to any of us about it. When we know more, we’ll tell you.”

“I have to go help,” Nat said through hear sobs. “I can… I can help find him. I’ll know it’s him from his body, even if no one else can.”

Harry shook his head, even though he’d have sorely loved her help. She would have made things a lot simpler. “This is a Muggle investigation, Nat. I can’t get you involved. I’m not even involved.”

His heart heavy, they spent a lot of time consoling the kids and answering questions. Al, especially, had several good ones about how they knew Andrew had been killed.

“Let’s make a fire,” Ginny suggested to everyone. “I think we could all use the warmth and comfort.”

The kids moved mindlessly towards the living room, too numb to do much more than follow orders. They huddled together and vacillated between crying and talking about their lost friend.

His heart heavy, Harry considered going back to the office, but Hermione forestalled him. “There is a small chance he’s at the hospital,” she told him quietly, so no one else could hear. “I can get us clearance to go through, and bring Audrey with us. If he’s in a Muggle hospital, we can get him healed and taken to St. Mungo’s where he’ll get the best care.”

“You don’t believe he’s alive,” Harry told her flatly.

Her expression agreed with him. His whole family had been close to where the blast had gone off. No one around them had survived. “They don’t want us to be a part of it.”

“Well, that was their stupid mistake,” Hermione bit out angrily as Ron came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’m going to fight to get you the authority to intervene next time. You know where the head of the group is?”

“I do,” Harry said slowly. “We have a tracking device on him, one of George’s inventions. We could have him in less than an hour.”

She nodded slowly and closed her eyes. “I’m going to speak to the Minister, but I think we should go try to find Andrew. He’s not a Muggle, he’s a wizard, which makes him ours to care for. His parents are dead. If he made it out, somehow transported himself to safety like his sister, then we need to find him.”

He knew she was right, but with how many people had died, he didn’t hold much hope for it. “Alright, let’s go.”

The wounded and the dead had been taken to nine various Muggle hospitals. Nat tried, again, to beg to come but he told her to stay put. He wasn’t going to ask her to see her dead friend. “Do you want me to call your parents?”

“My dad will be called back to help with the bodies anyway,” she told him sadly. “Just wait, he’ll be contacting you.”

Harry nodded and left for the Ministry where, sure enough, he had a message waiting for him from Curtis Parker telling him when he’d be back in town the next day. Hermione met him at the Ministry with the go ahead from the Minister, and shortly thereafter, Audrey joined them, as well.

It was a grim ride in the Ministry car to the first hospital. They spent over two hours combing through the bodies of the dead, and going through the living who hadn’t been identified. Burned bodies, broken bodies, pieces of bodies… only a lucky few came out with only a few scratches on them. It was a grim night and it passed through one horrible, painful image after another. They found a body in the fourth hospital which might be Andrew’s, except the poor boy had been found in the wrong place.

“He could have tried to get away,” Hermione reasoned quietly as the Muggle techs moved around them. “I say we bring in Nat.”

“I say we check all the hospitals first, and ask Curtis to check tomorrow,” Harry said through a croaking voice as he stared blurrily through bloodshot eyes. “He was one of their best friends, Hermione! I know you want answers for Rose, to give her closure so she can grieve, but we can’t do that to Nat.”

“I agree with Harry,” Audrey went on quietly, hugging her sister-in-law fiercely. “We need to keep looking. I have this boy’s information. If we don’t find anyone else, we can come back.”

There wasn’t much to the body, of course. It was badly burned and in three pieces, none of which the techs were sure went to him. It would be a job for the forensic anthologists to make sure everything was correct.

They went to the next hospital, and then to the sixth.

“Who are you again?” asked the harassed head of the hospital. She was in her late sixties but appeared to be at least thirty years older. Harry couldn’t blame her for that. After what she’d had to see that day, it would have aged anyone.

Harry very carefully used his wand to calm her and plant in her mind they were supposed to be there. They had written permission to do so, but it still gave him the creeps every time he did it.

“Yes,” she said with confusion, but trying to cover it. “Yes, I see. Go ahead then.”

They visited the morgue, first, which was overflowing with bodies out into the hallway. They didn’t even have enough beds to put them, so body bags were lined up in neat rows. They checked every one, at least a hundred, before heading upstairs to the emergency room.

They had to use magic to get into the burn unit, but it was routine at this point. They only had one more hospital to check after this one and Harry didn’t hold out hope they’d find him.

They checked every person and found a boy about the right age with the right hair color. “I can’t tell,” Hermione said quietly. “Harry!”

“I know,” he said as he gazed down at the boy who was hooked up to several machines. If this was Andrew, they could have him healed in a matter of minutes. If this was Andrew, and he wasn’t transferred, he could easily die under the care of the Muggles. They couldn’t deal with burns like wizards could. “I’ll… I’ll go back and get her.”

He couldn’t believe he was going to put Nat through this.

Nat was waiting for him, holding the cloak. Everyone else was asleep, but she and Ginny were sitting at the kitchen table with Ron, waiting.

Nat didn’t speak as she stood and threw the cloak over herself and took his arm. He took her straight to the hospital room and Nat’s gasp was all they needed. “It’s him!”

“You’re sure?” Audrey asked her quickly, even though she hadn’t removed the cloak and couldn’t see the child. “You’re absolutely positive?”

“I’m completely positive!” Nat cried out almost hysterically, her voice muffled under the cloak. “Get him to St. Mungo’s now! He’s fading fast!”

Harry sat Nat in a chair and went to alter the memories of everyone who was involved in Andrew’s care so they wouldn’t miss him, while Andrey transferred him, and Hermione waited with Nat.

They took Nat back to the house before heading to St. Mungo’s.

It was a beaming Audrey who met them in the hall. “It’s him! She was right. We are healing the burns now and working on the internal injuries. I expect him to be talking tomorrow.”

Harry felt himself sag in relief. It was a relief to have saved the one life they could save in the whole mess, but what a life Andrew would go back to.

His parents were dead. His three brothers, including his twin brother, were dead. Andrew was now the duke. They were in for a long, complicated road for him.

“I need to track down some of his family,” Harry told them as he walked away so he could cry by himself.

He took a quick nap in one of the Healer’s offices and went back to his own to get Andrew’s address. He picked up one of the Ministry cars and drove out to Andrew’s home, a large estate out in the country. There he located, to his relief, a great aunt, only in her sixties, who had come to stay with Andrew’s little sister, Claire.

“I know what he is,” she said after a cry of relief that Andrew was alright. “I know who you are. I’m really the only family left. When will he be released?”

“In a few days, I think,” Harry told her. “I’ll bring him home personally.”

It was the least he could do for the orphan, who had just had his life turned upside down.

Back to index


Chapter 45: Chapter 42

Author's Notes: A/N: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

If you haven't checked out my original works, please do, and kindly leave a review. This fanfiction has been a lot of work, a lot of hours, so looking at my other work is a very nice way of paying me back. Just look at how long this story is... also, unlike most other authors, I always finish what I start, so you won't be left hanging.

Thanks again!!

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Harry rubbed at his throbbing temple as the witches and wizards around him argued fervently in the conference room at the Ministry. His head didn’t ache, exactly, but his heart did and it was not a good sign that so much attention was being placed on the poor kid’s life.

His parents had just died. He didn’t need a bunch of adults fighting over it.

“If he wants to stay a wizard,” one man went on fervently, his thin face angry and red with his anger over the situation, “then he will be forced to renounce the title. We do not have nobles in the wizarding world! We discussed this at length.” He finished this pronouncement off, one he’d already made at least ten times, by slamming his fist on the table.

Another woman, someone from Hermione’s office, scoffed loudly. “This isn’t the ninth century, Abner! We can adapt our rules if the child wants to continue.”

“But there will be children born to him who will also be nobles!” Abner practically shouted. “Odds are good he’ll marry a girl from Hogwarts–”

“You’re wrong on that point,” Hermione interjected with a long sigh. “Children of dukes do not marry just anyone. She’ll have to have the breeding that’s acceptable to the title. This particular family he belonged to is very old and very, very well respected. The death of the Duke and the Duchess has caused a major scandal all over the Muggle news. I’ve been reading along with it and people are angry. What’s worse is that they don’t have access to Andrew, so it’s breeding speculation he’s not actually alive.”

The explosion had only been two days before. Harry had checked in on his progress, or rather Audrey had sent word to him that the child would be released the next day. He wasn’t even going to have any lasting scars or marks. Audrey had gone, personally, to check on his sister and to speak to his aunt about Andrew’s condition. The great aunt, Emma, was the much younger sister to the Duke’s father. She’d never married and had never had children. They had their maternal grandmother still living, but she was in the latter stages of dementia and was unfit to care for the children. At the moment, Lady Emma was the only relative who could care for them and she was willing to do so. She’d informed Audrey there were no other male heirs to take the title, at least none she was aware of, and thus had begun today’s argument.

They didn’t ordinarily allow a person with a title, one which could necessitate participation in the Muggle government, to also hold a place in the wizarding world. It was a conflict of interest.

And a brewing headache.

Harry imagined the lack of heirs was partially why the Duke and Duchess had had so many children and in a split second, almost all of them were gone. It was a miracle Andrew hadn’t been killed, as well. He didn’t have the skills to save himself and his accidental magic should have faded completely at this point.

A miracle.

As far as he knew, Harry was the only person in the room to have been orphaned as a child so he decided he was uniquely qualified to speak for Andrew. “He does not have to serve in the House of Lords.”

Everyone paused in their bickering and turned to him. “He doesn’t,” Hermione agreed, “but his father has for a long time.”

“They’re not going to want a child anyway,” Harry pointed out simply. “He’s only fifteen and that’s three years off from being an adult in the Muggle world. I think the best compromise we can come up with for the child is that he will not be allowed to take a place in the Muggle government, at any point, without special approval by the magical government.”

“That’s very sensible,” the Minister said from her seat at the head of the table. Up until that point she hadn’t said a word. “There are a lot of duties associated with his title.”

Abner prodded the table hard, almost as though it had offended him. “Duties that will take all of his time and leave him no room to be useful in the magical world! What are we educating him for if he will not be a part of our world, supporting our economy?”

“Abner, give it up!” Hermione sighed in exasperation. “We have the entire Malfoy clan not working a single day of their lives, living off the interest of their gold! We still educate them!”

Everyone fell silent as they soaked in the implications of her words.

“It’s possible that he will be an asset to us,” the minister said thoughtfully as she folded her hands on the table. “We could use a liaison with the Muggle government. At the moment, we are at a standstill on the terrorism case. They won’t accept our help and our own laws prevent us from doing more. Now that we nearly lost the life of a magical citizen, I can do more, but I am still limited on what I can authorize. We could use the resources of a duke, as I understand they hold great power.”

“He’s also very wealthy,” Hermione added carefully. “I say this because he will not be a drain on our resources. I’m told that the great aunt does not want to manage the estate, which means bringing in outside help, but in order to do that, we have to be sure that we can trust whoever is managing the estate to not bleed it dry. It’s a lot of money and a lot of temptation.”

It was a concern Harry had had all along. “If we put the goblins in charge of it, we know they will be absolutely honest about it, but we can’t do that without Andrew’s permission.”

“Also, it would be difficult for them to handle the struggles of the Muggle world, and the investments in the Muggle world,” the minister said with a slow nod. “I think we should discuss this with Andrew and see what he says. He might not be in a fit state to see to everything, but I agree that with so much money at stake, and a child who is one of us, we need to be careful about how things are handled. I’m assuming there is a Muggle who already handles many of these details.”

“There is,” Harry confirmed as his heart ached. No child should have to do this. Of course, Andrew was only a child for another few years yet. He was, at least, already fifteen. Manhood was going to be thrust upon him now, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it… except Andrew himself, of course. The boy could choose to check out from the world and not accept any responsibility. It would be the simpler course, all things considered, but he couldn’t imagine that he would actually do that.

But Harry didn’t think Andrew would and he was pretty sure his sister, Claire, would be a critical part of why. He had to wonder what would have happened if he’d had a baby sister. What would that have been like? He couldn’t remember ever being anything but an orphan, but he had a few letters from his mother which gave him a picture of her he’d never had before. He could never thank Neville enough for those. He tuned back in when the conversation heated up again, but truthfully his heart wasn’t in it. It was all he could do to keep his head in the game. He still had the terrorists to deal with, an uncooperative Muggle government, and so many people the whole country was in mourning.

He left the meeting less than an hour later and Hermione fell into step next to him. “Rose wants to go with you to the hospital,” she told him quietly so no one else would hear.

He’d already assumed she would. He’d said no to the other kids, not wanting to overwhelm Andrew, but Rose was different. “I’ll pick her up at nine.”

The following morning, with Rose in the seat next to him in the BMW, Harry parked in front of St. Mungo’s, where Andrew would be ready and waiting for them. There was no press, of course. The hospital and the Ministry had kept the boy’s movements a secret. Audrey was waiting for them and led Andrew out to the car. The kid appeared shell-shocked, as well he should. He had, after all, survived a bomb. Rose jumped out of her seat and opened the back door, then skirted around to sit on the other side with him.

Harry closed the door and left the kids alone for a moment as he turned to his sister-in-law. “Are you coming with us or meeting us there?”

“I am coming with you,” she said as he opened the front passenger door for her.

It was a silent ride to Andrew’s big home out in the country. He apparently had a townhome but his aunt and sister were at the country estate.

They arrived at the large gate and Harry pressed the buzzer to signal they were to be let in. The entire staff, plus Lady Emma and Claire, who Harry supposed was technically Lady Claire, were standing out on the gravel drive, waiting for him.

No one cheered or clapped. It wasn’t the right time for it, but they did all offer their condolences and told him how thankful they were he was safe.

Claire threw herself at her brother and he scooped her up, hugging her hard as though she was the only way he’d be able to breathe. Maybe it was true. The little girl cried on his shoulder and Harry saw Andrew’s were wet, as well, so he asked the butler to show them to a private room.

“I will have tea prepared, sir,” the butler told them as Andrew dropped onto a comfortable looking lounge with his sister still in his arms.

He sobbed for a good ten minutes, all the way until the tea came, and then managed to pull himself together.

“I’m sorry,” Andrew managed as he accepted a tissue from Rose. “Thank you.”

“There is nothing to be sorry for,” Aunt Emma assured him gently. “There have been many tears shed in this home in the last few days.”

Claire kept her head on her brother’s shoulder and stuck her thumb in her mouth as she stared out the window, not seeming to see anything. It had probably been hard for the little girl to really believe, until the moment she saw him, that her brother was actually alive and alright.

“We have things to discuss with you, Andrew,” Harry told him as gently as he could. He studied the jaw, which was already firming into a man’s jaw, and his puffy blue eyes. “You are in an awkward position, stuck between two worlds.”

“I don’t want to leave Hogwarts!” Andrew said fervently, sitting up straighter, shifting his sister in his arms as he did so. “I want to continue there! I didn’t ever want to be a duke!”

“But a duke is what you are,” Lady Emma reminded him softly. “Child, I know you did not ever long for this life, but you have a responsibility to the family to uphold the name and the title, passing it along to your son.”

“Isn’t there anyone else?”

The question was breathed out in desperation and in fear. It was clear from Andrew’s expression just how badly he didn’t want his life to be what it was.

But then again, who did?

“Andrew,” Harry went on, pulling the boy’s attention to him. “You can remain at Hogwarts. You can actually be a great asset to the Ministry, if you would like, as someone who can straddle both worlds.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming,” Andrew muttered gloomily.

“You can’t join the House of Lords.”

Instantly, his face cleared. “Is that all? I wouldn’t want to anyway!”

“Your father has always had a seat,” Lady Emma sighed as she patted his arm. “As did my father before him, but you will need to find your own path. I have asked Stewart to move into the house, temporarily, while we sort everything out.”

That was not the name of the man who ran all of the money. Harry glanced to Audrey, to see she was also confused.

“He’s my father’s secretary,” Andrew explained, seeing their confusion. “He’s very good, but what about his family?”

“They are moving in, as well,” his aunt explained. “I’ve sent several of the staff over to help her pack. It’s taking a liberty, since it is your house, but with everything going on, I knew we needed all hands on deck. His wife is expecting again, so I didn’t want him to worry about being away from her, plus their son and Claire get along well as they’re of a similar age. It will be good to have another child around for her.”

“I agree,” Andrew said as he closed his eyes.

“We need to hold a press conference,” Emma informed him. “Stewart has arranged for one reporter to come and interview you, with one camera person. It will stand as our only official comment on the entire matter. Stewart has called in a professional to prep you on what to say and how to answer. It’s a delicate matter, and you were not groomed as your brother to handle these matters.”

“I really don’t want to do this,” he muttered as slouched in his seat, closing his eyes and hugging his sister harder.

Harry let out a slow breath as sympathy washed through him for the boy. “It’s never easy to step into a role you didn’t ask for, and don’t want. It’s not easy to lose parents.”

Andrew’s mouth twisted into a wry grin. “You’ve done both.”

“I’ve done both,” Harry agreed, “and I don’t wish it on anyone, but I have faith in you, and we will be here to back you up the entire time.”

“Speaking of,” Audrey glanced out the door to see a man on a motorcycle drive up into the driveway. “That will be Bill.”

The goblins had selected Bill Weasley to take care of Andrew’s accounts with them, and to liaise with Andrew’s Muggle accountant.

Bill Weasley stepped into the room in a formal suit which showed absolutely no sign of road dust, meaning he’d magically protected it. Harry wanted to ask where the bike had come from, but knew it was not the right time to ask.

“Hi, Uncle Bill,” Rose said as she sprang up to hug him.

“Rosie,” he greeted with a kiss to her brow.

Andrew stood, his sister on his hip, and held out his hand. “Thank you for your help.”

“I am sorry for your loss, young man,” Bill told him gruffly. “It’s a difficult burden placed upon you, but it’s in these times you can really see what you’re made of.”

Shortly after Bill’s arrival, the butler announced the accountant had arrived.

“I have to go, Claire,” Andrew told his sister even as she started to cry.

“Come one,” Rose held out her arms for the little girl. “Let’s go find something to play with.”

“You’ll stay?” Andrew asked in relief.

Rose smiled, but it was forced, and nodded. “I brought a bag, just in case you wanted me to stay. I’ll stay as long as you like.”

“Is forever too long?” he asked weakly as he left the room.

“Would you like us to stay through the press interview?” Harry asked Lady Emma.

She shook her head. “I think we will be fine.” She turned to Audrey and smiled sadly. “You are a doctor if I understand it correctly. Might you have a look at me before you go?”

Harry, Rose, and Claire gave her the room for privacy and Harry went to retrieve Rose’s bag from the car. He carried it in and passed it to the butler, who had apparently been informed that she was staying.

Harry wandered around the large, airy entrance hall for a few minutes until Audrey joined him and they left, heading for his car which was parked just head of Bill’s bike.

Audrey shook her head as Harry opened her door for her. “His mother best not see him driving that. She’ll never let him live it down.”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh as he closed the door and thought of Molly Weasley. It didn’t matter how old her children were, she was still going to worry about them.

~*~

“The press is having a field day with this one,” Ginny told Harry as she spread out the Muggle newspapers and the Daily Prophet over their bed. “A royal in the wizarding world, and a duke who isn’t old enough to drive. Do you know,” she went on as she sat on the bed and propped herself up with some pillows, “I had no idea being a duke was such an important position. I knew of it, a bit, from Hermione, but she didn’t quite convey how odd it was for her daughter to be dating a boy from one of those families.”

Her husband wasn’t listening to her. He’d picked up one of the Muggle papers and was scanning the headline. “Why is Rose mentioned in this?”

“Someone saw her being picked up by Ron yesterday,” Ginny sighed as she studied his scowling profile. “The people from the news were at the gate waiting there to see if someone would come out. It was rampantly theorized that Andrew had died, so after his interview with the first journalist, the story took off. Poor child is going to be hounded for weeks.”

“They’re wondering why he doesn’t go to an English school,” Harry noted as he continued to read the article. “That could end up being a problem.”

Ginny shook her head and gently pulled the paper from his hand. “Harry,” she said quietly and waited until his green eyes met hers. “It’s going to die down very quickly. He’ll be back at school and as long as he gives them nothing to feed on, they’ll move to something else. It’s going to be alright.”

He shook his head sadly. “Nothing is ever going to be right for him again. You don’t just get to move on without your parents like everything is alright.”

Stricken, she grabbed his hand. “I didn’t mean it like that! Oh, Harry, I know his being an orphan and the head of his house is going to be a terrible strain! I only meant the news will forget him.”

Sighing heavily, he dropped down on the bed next to her and hugged her hard, pressing a kiss to her brow. “I know, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to snap. I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately. It makes me remember my own situation. I don’t have parents to remember, or brothers I lost.”

“You have lost a brother,” she pointed out with a small catch in her voice. “I have, as well. When we lost Fred, we lost a big part of our lives. It doesn’t ever get easier.”

She coaxed him into sleeping a few minutes later. It wasn’t hard, as he was exhausted straight down to his core.

They woke the next morning to booklists having arrived and the news that James had been made Quidditch captain.

He appeared a little dumbfounded by it.

“You’ve earned this one,” Ginny assured him with a grin. She couldn’t believe how quickly the summer was moving.

“I didn’t get made a prefect!” Al crowed happily as he shook out his letter.

“Neither did I,” Nat mused as she sat down at the kitchen table and read through her book list. “I bet Rose and Scorpius are stuck with them.”

“Probably,” Al agreed, “poor suckers.”

“Amen to that,” James laughed as he dropped his badge and letter on the counter and joined them to eat breakfast.

Scorpius and Rose had been made prefects, much to Hermione’s joy, and Ginny’s amusement. She’d strongly suspected Al wouldn’t be made a prefect. Nat could do the job, of course, if she weren’t sick much of the time, but as it was she was probably not in the best shape to handle it.

Another owl fluttered in and Ginny took the note, noting it was for James. “I think this is Caroline’s handwriting,” she said as she handed it over.

James ripped it open and scanned through it, grinning at the something, before his brows furrowed. “She said she’s got a surprise for when we get back to school but not what it is.”

“I think that’s why they call it a surprise,” Nat observed with a grin. “I’m sure it will be good.”

“Yeah,” James said, but didn’t sound convinced.

He set the letter down and looked to Ginny, who inclined her head to the back garden. “Let’s go pick some tomatoes for dinner tonight,” she told her son.

“Yeah, alright,” he agreed as he followed her out. The moment they were outside he thrust the letter at her. “Read.”

Ginny skimmed through it, noting it was fairly light with a funny anecdote about one of her cheer mates accidentally dying her hair green, and then onto the surprise. “It looks fine to me.”

James ran a hand through his hair, tousling it even further into a bigger mess, unaware of what he was doing. “Mum…”

She studied her tall, lanky son and the jaw which was setting into that of a man’s. He’d be seventeen in just over a month. It was incredibly difficult to think the baby she’d rocked for months was almost a man… a man in love. “I can’t read your mind, Jamie. You have to tell me what’s bothering you.”

He slunk over to one of the wooden benches and sat down, dropping his head into his hands.

Alarmed by this, she sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulders which still felt painfully thin after his last growth spurt, even though she knew he was a lot stronger than he looked. “What is it?”

“I don’t know what to do!” he blurted out in frustration.

“From this letter?” she asked, completely perplexed.

“She wasn’t good after the bombing,” James sighed as he turned concerned eyes to her. “This letter is all upbeat and positive news, Mum! When we saw her last, she was a wreck!”

Understanding clicked into place in Ginny’s brain as she thought back to that last day on the beach, when they still hadn’t known Andrew’s fate. Caroline had been an absolute wreck. “You’re worried about this complete turnaround.”

“Something is wrong,” James pointed out as he stuck a finger at the letter. “I expected some stuff that was okay, but this is all bubbly, fake Caroline.”

“Well,” Ginny said slowly as she considered him, “why don’t you see if you can go visit her today. You’ll feel better if you talk to her.”

“She’s in training all day, every day, for several weeks,” he reminded her. “They have that cheer camp thing all the way up until we leave for school.”

Ginny did remember now that he said it, although with everything else that had gone on it had quite slipped her mind. “Can you visit her at the camp?”

“I dunno where it is.”

“We can ask.”

“It might be weird if I just showed up.”

He was probably not too wrong on that front, but on the other hand, she didn’t want him worrying for the next few weeks when maybe nothing was wrong. “Let me ask her grandparents what they think.”

She spoke to Caroline’s grandparents, found out what the surprise was, and managed to secure the address to the gym where Caroline practiced. She was assured it would be fine if they went to watch, as many parents watched throughout the day.

So she left Al, Nat, and Lily with strict instructions not to leave the yard, and drove off with James towards the gym, which happened to only be a forty minute drive. She was quite proud of herself for her use of the Muggle maps and roads. Typically she let Harry drive, even though she didn’t like to admit he handled the Muggle car much better than she did.

James was a bit of a wreck by the time they arrived, although he did a good job of hiding it. They parked down the block from the building, as there were a lot of cars out front and Ginny didn’t want to accidentally hit one. It was blazing hot that day as they walked towards the gym in their Muggle best.

“You don’t look like the rest of the mums,” James noted as they entered the huge warehouse and into the waiting room of the gym. They could hear incredibly loud music and shouts coming from the other room, as they followed the hall around to a set of bleachers. Most of them were full, but they found two seats down towards the end.

“What do you mean by that?” Ginny wondered as her son scanned the room to find Caroline.

“I mean you look really young,” he said absently and then pointed. “There she is!”

She, and her teammates, were listening to their coach as he instructed them on something. Off to the side of the mat Ginny saw the surprise resting on the floor, his enormous head propped on two gigantic paws.

James still hadn’t spotted the dog. She waited for the moment when he’d see the dog because surely the dog was hard to miss.

It took him ten minutes before he said, “Woah! Look at that dog!”

The dog was brown and white with a lot of shaggy fur and it had to easily weigh upwards of twelve stone… maybe thirteen. It was a present from Hagrid, or so Caroline’s grandparents had explained. He’d had to get him imported from a breeder in Switzerland who specialized in therapy dogs for wizards and witches. He was the only person in the entire world who served the magical community and Hagrid had put Caroline’s name on the list years before without telling anyone but her grandparents. It took years to even get on the list, and then the man spent an entire year training the dog to deal with a person’s specific issues. Caroline had fallen in love with Hagrid’s dog, Lulabelle, and it had given Hagrid the idea. Also, blessedly, the dog was a magical creature which meant he’d live well over twenty years, rather than ten or less like regular dogs.

Overall, Ginny thought the dog was a most excellent idea for Caroline.

Ginny grinned as she patted his knee. “Say hi to the new dog in your life. His name is Rufus.”

“You… wait, what?” James turned to stare at her, puzzled.

She inclined her head towards the dog. “That’s the surprise.”

“She… she got a dog?”

“It was a surprise for her, as well,” Ginny told him. “Hagrid bought him for her, to help her with her panic attacks.”

James nodded slowly and they watched as everyone broke to get a drink of water from bottles off to the side. A boy James didn’t recognize ran up to Caroline and Ginny was certain her son would have jumped to his feet if she hadn’t put a restraining hand on his arm. The kid was huge, maybe about seventeen or so, with thick brown hair.

Caroline didn’t outwardly show there was a problem, but the dog, who had been watching her, rose and padded over to her, knocking his giant head into her leg. She grabbed hold of his fur and held his head next to her side while the guy continued to talk to her.

“She doesn’t want him to talk to her!” James hissed to Ginny.

“She is handling it,” Ginny pointed out soothingly. “Let her handle it, James! If she doesn’t learn to stand on her own two feet, it will not be good. You can’t coddle her. Besides, Rufus is helping to keep her calm. She’s fine.”

Actually, she wasn’t fine and Ginny knew it. Her face had gone white and she was trying to back off from the guy, who didn’t seem to be taking the hint. James was about three seconds away from jumping in to intervene when Caroline’s coach called to her and she walked over, the dog following her. After a quick word with the coach, Caroline nodded and headed for the gym’s door out to the waiting room.

James was on his feet and striding for it before Ginny could stop him. He reached it just as Caroline opened the door. She stopped in her tracks, a little shocked at the unexpected visitor, but then she threw herself at him and let him swing her up into a hard hug as the dog trotted out behind her. Ginny was keenly aware there were a lot of spectators watching what was going on. “Outside you two,” she told them briskly as she ushered them to the door.

“We can go in here,” Caroline said as she pulled them into a small dining room off the hall, which was mercifully empty.

“Are you okay?” James asked as he cupped her cheeks, studying her expression. Ginny softly closed the door and patted Rufus’ head as the dog sat down on his haunches next to her. The dog’s head while sitting was nearly up to her shoulder. He was absolutely enormous!

Maybe he was closer to sixteen stone…

Caroline shook her head. “We have a visiting team practicing here today and that guy has been talking to me all day! My coach is going to chat with his coach right now. He told me to step out for a bit and get some air.” She paused for a beat as she swayed into him and rested her head on his chest. “I needed to see you today. You have no idea!”

He hugged her again and rocked her gently. “Your dog might eat me.”

Rufus woofed out a bark so low Ginny felt it all the way to her toes. If dogs could grin, though, he was grinning. “Did they make a fuss about allowing him to tag along?” Ginny wondered.

“It’s part of his magic,” Caroline explained as she stepped back from James. “His natural magic makes him accepted anywhere he goes. Muggles won’t question why he’s there. The breeder bred that into them. Unfortunately, he doesn’t work like a guard dog. No one is scared of him.”

“Now that’s a trick,” Ginny said as she studied the girl carefully. She did look worn thin today. “Do you want to skip out on practice? I can get you out of it.”

“I really have to stay, but if you could stay for an hour… then the other team is leaving.”

“We can do that,” Ginny confirmed as they made their way back to the gym.

To her surprise, Caroline opened the door to the gym, then pulled James down by the shirt and kissed him, before she and the dog went back into the gym.

It wasn’t that Ginny didn’t understand what the girl was doing, but she’d been so skittish with James, it was still a surprise to see her openly affectionate. Still, desperate times and all that. The boy who had been hitting on her had been watching and he didn’t look happy about it as she and James sat again.

The practice was interesting, as she’d been told it would be. She’d never seen such tumbling or tricks. They also had a team of smaller girls, maybe about age four, who came in to practice for the hour and they were absolutely adorable.

Finally the hour was up and everyone was excused for lunch. The guy caught up to Caroline, but Rufus intervened before anyone else could. The massive dog body blocked the boy from getting any closer and then physically leaned on the kid until he fell back a step. Caroline took it and excused herself, heading for the door as the kid trailed behind her.

“Why does she have to be so beautiful?” James muttered, almost under his breath, as they waited at the door for her while everyone else streamed past.

He seemed to miss the looks all the other girls were giving him, eyeing him up in a way she, as his mother, didn’t really want to see.

Then Caroline was there, taking his hand and grinning up at him. The guy was right behind her, his face red as he tried to get around the dog.

“Shall we go eat lunch?” Ginny wondered as she realized it would be best to get out of the situation. “I think there is a curry place just up the street.”

They escaped and went to a Chinese takeout in the opposite direction, just in case the boy was that persistent. When she dropped Caroline back off, she had a word with the coach who promised the boy would not be allowed in the gym again, since he didn’t seem to know how to take no for an answer.

James decided to stick around until her grandparents came to fetch her, and Ginny headed for home.

~*~

“I can’t believe she left us by ourselves,” Al said, not for the first time that morning. “She’s never really done that before.”

“It’s not you, you know,” Nat observed knowingly as she lounged back in the grass just outside the back door. It was just the two of them, as Lily was in the living room reading a book on the couch.

He looked at her curiously, but of course he knew what she meant. “Does it seem like she’s gone more off the deep end about Lily recently?”

“She has,” Nat agreed heavily. “I’m afraid I know why, too.”

“You know why?” Al asked in astonishment.

Nat sighed heavily and rolled over to face him. “Some of the stuff I’ve seen when working with your dad, you know… I’m putting the pieces together. That nutter Crabbe is impregnating women and trying to experiment on them. Since she’s fled the country, I feel like she’s come up with whatever it was she wanted to do. Since we know she’s fixed on getting revenge on your dad, it would make sense that she’d target Lily.”

“I don’t follow…” his voice trailed off as his mind caught up to what he hadn’t realized before. “Lily isn’t old enough yet.”

“Exactly.”

“Merlin,” Al whistled unhappily. “I can’t believe she’d be so cruel! But of course she would,” he added bitterly as he remembered their family history with her. “She did that to my mum and Hope died. Mum nearly died.”

“It’s all the same nonsense wrapped up into revenge for her son’s death,” Nat said unhappily. “You can’t really expect more from someone who is so mentally unstable to move on from it.”

“But she left us at home,” Al mused thoughtfully as he stared out into the woods that surrounded their home.

“Well, your house is about as protected as it gets,” she mused as she rolled a bit and cracked her back. “You know what I miss? My chiropractor. It’s completely impractical to see one when I’m staying with you.”

“What’s a chiropractor?” Al wondered as something caught his eye in the woods. Was that movement?

“It’s a doctor that–”

“Hush!” Al shushed her and narrowed his gaze as he stared off towards the trees, to a figure dressed all in black moving through the trees.

It was impossible! That’s what his racing brain told him even as his heartrate kicked up into high gear as fear had him grabbing Nat’s hand and hauling her to her feet.

It had to be someone from the family or a friend or… he didn’t wait to find out. Their yard should have been nearly impossible to find, but nearly impossible was not totally impossible. He pulled Nat hard as she squeaked and ran for the house, pulling her inside and slamming the door.

“What’s going on?” Nat demanded as Al stared out of the window and saw the figure, not approaching the house, but still wandering around as though looking for something. He was large, all in black, his cloak covering his face. “Who is that?”

“I dunno, but we’re out of here!” Al said as he pulled her towards the fireplace and grabbed his wand to light a fire.

“What’s wrong?” Lily asked as she jumped up from her place on the couch.

“Grab your shoes,” Al ordered and Lily ran to get them from the front door, not questioning her.

He pulled out the Floo Powder and handed it to Nat. “Straight to the Auror office,” he ordered and in a second she was gone. A moment later, Lily was back and also grabbing powder. He followed behind a moment later, not waiting to see if anyone would find the house and make it in.

Nat was already explaining the situation to one of the Aurors as shouts went down the hall for his dad to come quickly.

Lily moved into him, shaking like a leaf as he put an arm around her slight shoulders and held on. “You’re okay,” he reminded her. “We’re in the safest place we can be.”

“What if they got in the house?” she whimpered. “Ducky is still there! The owls…”

“They’ll be fine,” he said even though he had no idea if he was lying or not.

His father was there a split second later, demanding information from him. Everything went by in a rush as people around them scrambled to move.

“Come on you three,” his father’s assistant, Daniel, said as he led them back to his dad’s office. “I’ll get tea sent up, shall I?”

“Thanks,” Al said as he settled into a seat in his father’s office, his sister next to him and Nat across from them. They waited in tense silence, barely able to touch the tea that arrived a few minutes later.

Aunt Hermione burst through the door not ten minutes later to check on them. “Are you alright?” she questioned as she hugged Lily hard. “Al, that was such quick thinking to get them out of there.”

“We’re fine,” Al said as he tapped a foot on the ground. “Have you heard from Mum or James yet? They were out for the morning.”

“We haven’t heard anything yet,” Hermione told them. “Daniel sent for me, but I was in a meeting when the parchment arrived. Shall I wait with you?”

“I think we’re okay for now if you have work to do,” Nat said as Daniel poked his head around the door. “Any news?”

“They have the man in custody,” Daniel told them with a forced smile. “They’re bringing him back here shortly. We’ve contacted your mother and she’s coming here to fetch you as soon as she can.”

They watched the man being brought in for interrogation and he looked to be at least eighty years old. Al studied him closely, not recognizing him in any way, and unsure of why he’d have wanted to break into their house.

“There went our unsupervised afternoon to ourselves,” Nat sighed heavily as his mum came down the hallway to fetch them.

Indeed.

Back to index


Chapter 46: Chapter 43

Author's Notes: Thanks to Arnel for beta'ing!

I know I'm slow, but I'm steady...


It was not an easy thing to admit he didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but if he was honest with himself, it was a situation Harry was used to in his life. He’d spent the better part of a year running with Ron and Hermione, trying to chase down Horcruxes when he’d been trying to stop Voldemort from killing everyone. He’d felt like a fraud, and time, age, and experience didn’t mean a thing when facing down his wife or his mother-in-law as they asked him how a senile Muggle man had made it onto their property. The honest truth was they didn’t know, and the poor man was so out of it, he didn’t have a clue, either, not even with help from the Healers to try to clear up his memories. The old man had been returned to his family and they were still unsure as to how he’d made it through.

Their only lead was a Muggle-Repelling Charm hadn’t worked because he didn’t have enough of his brain left to remember he had an errand to run.

It was a sad, depressing thought.

Nat informed him, later, that the new charms they put up around the house shimmered like a rainbow, but all he saw when he squinted at it was something like a heat haze.

He was not sorry the children were heading back to Hogwarts, although in some ways the school wasn’t any safer than their home. Still, it was a place where a lot of adults would be able to look after them.

Ginny was unhappy with him, but she wasn’t saying it. She didn’t blame him, exactly, but he understood full well that the invasion of their home had been a major blow to her confidence in their safety. When it had been just the two of them, she’d been more lenient and understanding about the danger following Harry around like a cloud, but after James’ birth she’d tightened up on what she tolerated. Now with the threat to Lily, a very real threat, she was truly a mama bear. He couldn’t blame her. He was extremely unnerved and took well the message Crabbe was sending to them.

She’d pinned a note to the man’s shirt, after all.

“Nothing is unbreakable. I know all your secrets.”

Crabbe was still out of the country, of course. They weren’t going to be lucky enough to catch her easily. He was horribly certain she’d strike when she was good and ready, and he wouldn’t have any warning.

If she was targeting Lily, though, they had some time. Lily was still too young… at least, that’s what he hoped.

But none of that was going to help with the current situation at hand.

“They’re not going,” Ginny said flatly as she stared Harry down over their bed the morning they were all supposed to go to Diagon Alley.

He wanted to argue with her about their safety, but truthfully all he could think about was losing Lily, and he didn’t have the heart to fight with her over it.

She wasn’t leaving them alone in the house and she wouldn’t let them out of the house, except in the immediate backyard.

“Luv,” he sighed as he flipped back the quilt on the bed so it looked made. “You can’t wrap them in cotton. Imagine if your mother had done that to you.”

It was, quite possibly, the only argument which might work on her.

It didn’t. “It’s not like they need to go,” she pointed out. “You can get all their books and I’ve already sent a note around to Madam Malkin’s with the sizes for clothes for the boys. She assured me they’d be ready for them today.”

“Have you told the kids about this yet?” he asked and felt a little jolt as he realized in only a few short weeks James would be seventeen, and thus a man. He’d legally be able to do whatever he wanted to.

“I told them,” she said confirmed without meeting his eyes. “They agreed.”

“They agreed,” he said slowly as he wondered how she’d managed that. “What did you have to promise them?”

“Not much,” she deflected and then forced a tight smile. “A small party tonight. You’ll go through Diagon Alley on your way home, then.”

It was not a question and he didn’t have it in him to argue. He felt guilty for not having stopped Crabbe, for being the reason Crabbe was going after them in the first place, and for all the other million reasons she should have been caught.

It wasn’t his fault and Ginny didn’t blame him, but she wasn’t entirely rational on the subject either and he knew enough not to argue with a mother.

So he picked up the books and robes needed from Diagon Alley and came home to a party with the entire family present. This year only his children, Louis, and Ron and Hermione’s were going back to school. Everyone else was through at Hogwarts.

It was an odd thing to know they were getting on up there. Fred was thinking of proposing to his girlfriend, and Molly was sure a proposal was just around the corner for her, as well. Dom, who had a girlfriend, was cagey about how serious her relationship was.

All the new people in their family would mean more people to let into their home and while Harry would welcome it, it would also be a stretching of trust to someone new.

That was always a difficult thing and work wasn’t making him feel any better. He had to leave Ginny to get the kids to the train because their Muggle terrorist cell had chosen that particular morning to plant a bomb in one of the London underground stations and they’d been called in to try to locate it.

“What do we know?” Harry asked as he rushed through the offices at the Ministry of Magic towards the Auror offices, Teddy on his heels.

“Not much yet,” Teddy admitted. “We have the information about a bomb but just as they were going to say where it was the listening devices all went silent. I spoke to George already and he says it wasn’t possible for them to be silenced using Muggle technology, but we know for certain this is a Muggle terrorist cell so I’m betting there is a fault with the Extendable Ears. It’s not the first time, but it’s a damn nuisance that it happened now.”

It was true they’d had problems before, but Harry had to admit he couldn’t remember the last time it had happened. It had been a couple of years. “Are we sure there isn’t a magical interference with them?”

“We’ve had no one new in the buildings that we’ve observed,” Teddy said as they entered the Auror offices and headed for the conference room to meet with the rest of the team. They had the bomb scheduled to go off at two which didn’t leave them a lot of time to track the thing down.

“Okay,” he said to the room at large as heads turned from the maps spread over the large table. “Fill me in.”

~*~

“When James said the dog was huge,” Al said as he sat hard into the seat next to Nat, “he really wasn’t kidding.”

“He’s such a sweet dog, too!” Rose mused as she handed Andrew an apple from her bag. “Why were you lot so late this morning anyway? We ended up at the end of the train.”

They had arrived with only a few minutes to spare before the train had departed the station to find Rose, Hugo, Andrew, Caroline, and Honor waiting for them. “You could have gone on without us, you know,” Al reminded her. “Anyway, Scorpius was running later than we were.”

“We had to pick up Louis,” Nat told them. “Your Aunt Fleur was babysitting Emma this morning and couldn’t get him to the train.”

“Why were you late, anyway?” Al asked Scorpius who was ignoring all of them in favor of staring out the window. When his mate didn’t answer, he kicked him in the shin.

“What?” Scorpius asked, startled back to the present.

“Why were you late this morning?” Al repeated.

Scorpius’ face clouded over. “My aunt said she’d take me this morning but she didn’t show up. Mum had to bring me.”

“Oh, wow,” Rose patted his arm sympathetically. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged like it didn’t bother him but Al could see it did. Scorpius adored his Aunt Daphne, but she was a flake when it came to spending time with him. He would have written her off a long time ago, but in Scorpius’ world he really only had one family member he liked and who he knew loved him unconditionally.

But that unconditional love was not attached to someone free to give it. Daphne was a complicated mess, from what Al understood.

“Why didn’t you reserve us seats?” Nat asked as Andrew bit into his apple.

“That was my doing,” Andrew admitted. “I didn’t want to haul all the trunks by myself.”

Nat laughed and shook her head. “You didn’t feel like being a pack mule?”

“Why do all that work when I could wait for Al, Louis, and James to help me?”

They hadn’t said anything about Andrew’s parents or his brothers yet. Al didn’t have a clue as to what he should say to his friend over their death. He hadn’t seen him since, although he knew Rose had gone to see him a couple of times. Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron had even picked Andrew up that morning to take him to the train, just so that he would feel supported.

“His Grace is too delicate,” Rose assured them all.

“His what?!” Scorpius blurted out.

Al knew what it meant and thought for a second Andrew might cry, but then a rueful, but a genuine smile crossed his mouth. “A duke is called ‘Your Grace’ by the people around him.”

“So you’re Grace now?” Al questioned before he could stop himself.

They were all laughing before they could stop themselves and a small bubble of tension burst between them. Andrew started to haltingly tell them of the progress he was making towards taking over his father’s title. “At least the press have left me alone. When I gave them nothing new to talk about they stopped showing up.”

“I heard Rose was in the papers,” Nat commented as the train swayed gently and they heard Caroline’s dog, Rufus, bark in the next compartment. “Goodness, it sounds like a bomb going off when he does that.”

“It wasn’t anything big in the papers, just speculation,” Rose reminded her with a pointed look. Rose had not appreciated the attention she’d received from visiting him. “They made it out to be something it isn’t.” Her face turned a very interesting shade of pink, one that Al knew all too well. When he glanced over to Andrew, he saw his face was also a little red.

Andrew cleared his throat. “Anyway, I think I have everything in order for me to be gone for the school year. My sister was really upset I was leaving, but she’s starting at a nursery school down the road so she can have other kids to play with. Hopefully, that will help.”

“What about her magic?” Nat wondered.

“So far she’s not done anything around anyone but the family,” Andrew informed them, “apart from getting herself out of the blast,” he added sadly.

Al shifted uncomfortably and wished he knew what to say to his friend. Al’s father had lost his parents, but it was when he couldn’t remember them so it wasn’t the same thing. Most of Andrew’s family had died and his life had radically altered because of it.

“So,” Rose interjected smoothly. “It’s probably time we do our Prefects rounds. Save us stuff off the trolley if we miss her.” She, Scorpius, and Andrew rose and left.

“I feel like I’m going to say the wrong thing every second,” Al admitted to Nat as she slouched back into her seat and rested her head against his shoulder. “You okay?”

“It was a stressful morning,” Nat yawned. “Your mum was on edge the whole time we were trying to leave.”

“Why didn’t they go sit with the prefects?”

“I talked with Rose about it and she agreed it would be best for Andrew not to be with the other Prefects for a while. He didn’t want the badge, and I’m not sure he’s not going to pass it on to someone else, but I rather think he wanted to be able to spend time with Rose,” she told him. “If the Head Boy and Girl don’t like it, then they can say something about it, but I doubt they will. Andrew has been through enough and he needs some normal for a bit.”

He was going to say more but he could feel Nat nodding off so he lifted his arm up so her head could rest against his chest and she could nod off. She would, too. She was like baby Emma when she was tired. Within a minute he could tell her breathing had evened out into sleep and she was out.

His mother had been in a state that morning. His dad had been called into the office early on an emergency, which he’s assured Ginny was Muggle-related, but that meant she had to get everyone to school on time. Louis had arrived early enough and they had the car loaded, but for whatever reason, his mother had done everything she could not arrive early to the station. He shook his head and fished a novel from his bag using his free arm. He propped it open on his knee and began to read.

~*~

“It has to be somewhere,” Harry growled in frustration as he gripped at his hair, unaware he was making it stand up even more than it normally did. His senses were on high alert as they were underground at one of London’s normally bustling train stations. The silence was eerie.

“We’ve searched everywhere,” Raeburns assured him. Harry could see the man was just as frustrated as he was. They were all frustrated. Their intelligence from the terrorist cell hadn’t even been wrong before and because of that, they’d been able to get the Muggle government to shut down the trains in and out of London while they searched for the bomb. If they came up empty-handed, as it was appearing they would, the Muggle authorities weren’t going to be able to cooperate with them anymore. As it was the Muggle news media was having a field day with the press that the trains were down.

Harry sighed heavily and said, “Call them all together and let’s go over the message again. We have to have missed something or the bomb was simply a hoax.”

They reconvened with their Muggle liaison twenty minutes later at just before one o’clock. They had just over an hour to find the bomb and stop it, although thankfully they had the trains stopped so even if they couldn’t find it, the casualties should be minimal. “Let’s go over the message again,” Harry said as he took the paper from Teddy. It was odd using paper, but they kept some on hand for when they were dealing with the Muggles. He skimmed it again, for about the hundredth time, before reading it out loud. “Bomb placed on rails for a train leaving London at two o’clock on the–.” He studied it again as something niggled at the back of his brain. “This is a translation from Farsi, right?”

“Yes,” Raeburns agreed immediately. “We had our translators work on it and it’s accurate. The words cut out right as they were about to say where.”

Something simply did not feel right. His Muggle counterpart, a man named Ables, apparently agreed with him. He was a Squib, thank Merlin. The man was tall and built like a Beater. He had short brown hair and dark brown eyes with olive skin. His suit was probably off the rack and barely covered his wide chest. He was not a man who would go to seed in his old age, Harry knew. “Why would they schedule it for two? That’s missed the morning and afternoon commutes completely. If they’re going for maximum damage, I’d have scheduled it for the morning or for five o’clock. Also, we’ve completely tipped our hand with halting the trains and now they know we have them bugged.”

It had been a huge risk but worth it to stop a massive train accident. They’d given the Muggles the locations for a bunch of the terrorist cells and all of those men had been arrested, but Harry wasn’t nave enough to think they had them all or they’d stopped the bombs being placed. They left the old man Teddy had been spying on alone, primarily because he had been a conduit of information, but if the old man was compromised and they’d used him to plant false information, it was going to be a major headache for them.

“We have to continue on until we have searched every inch of the train line,” Harry decided as he rubbed his temple. Most of the Ministry had been pulled for this task, along with much of the London Muggle police force. “The message said it was for a train leaving London, so that doesn’t mean it has to be in London–” his voice abruptly stopped as his words registered and he knew exactly what he’d missed. His heart thudded into overdrive as his vision flashed to his kids on the train heading out of London. “The Hogwarts Express.”

Everyone paled instantly.

“No,” Raeburns shook his head. “It can’t be a magical train! The tracks are warded against such things.”

But all of this felt too horribly familiar and Harry knew in his gut he was right. “It’s the school train. Crabbe is behind this, which is why we had the interference! We have to stop that train right now!”

~*~

James furrowed his brow as the dog, Rufus, shot to his feet and growled menacingly towards the window. Thus far the dog had taken the train ride in good stride, sitting on their feet between the bench seats while Louis rubbed at his back with his foot, having first discarded his shoe. Caroline had sat next to him on the train as soon as he’d stored their luggage and she’d taken his hand, not looking at him as she’d done so.

He didn’t know for sure since he didn’t have a mirror, but from the bemused look on his cousin’s face, he rather thought his grin was bordering on goofy.

Now, he rather expected Louis’ face was mimicking his. The dog, who easily outweighed them, was on his feet and growling so loudly they could feel the rumble through their feet.

It was his last thought before the world around him flashed, boomed, tipped and rolled and everything went black.

Screaming filled his brain as something bit down into his arm, jolting him enough to yell out from the pain of it. He tried to open his eyes but all he could see was black! Panic flashed through him as he realized something had happened to the train, only he had no idea what could have possibly happened. “Caroline?” he croaked out as smoke filled his lungs and burned at his nasal passages. He heard a low grumble and felt the pain again, but this time he could tell it was teeth. It was dog teeth. Rufus was tugging on him. Instinctively, James turned and saw a small glimmer of light and he began to move towards the tugging until he reached a pocket of twisted debris which was larger than the one he’d been in. It wasn’t as dark, and now he could see the fires all around him spreading like… well, like fire. He felt in his pocket for his wand and prayed it wasn’t snapped as he pulled it out and shouted, “Aguamenti!” shooting water towards the fire which was moving towards him. He kept it up until it was forced back and he could see it was the wall of the compartment which had been on fire. Or maybe it was the wall of the compartment next to his, he wasn’t sure. Fear and panic had him turning around, searching for anyone else around him.

His brother and sister were on the train. His cousins were on the train. Caroline… he turned back to the dog and asked, “Where are they?”

The dog was singed around the edges but otherwise appeared unhurt and he snuffled his nose back under the thing which had pinned him. He could just make out the outline of another carriage wall. He tried to lift it with magic, but the whole thing shifted ominously when he tried, so he set it down and shone his wand into the small space. He could see them, then. They were further in than he had been and both Louis and Caroline were unconscious. He couldn’t think dead.

The dog nosed him on the chin and he turned and looked into Rufus’ somber brown eyes. Something inside him calmed. If Caroline was dead, the dog would be freaking out. The dog was calm, so he nodded, more for himself, and crawled back under to see if he could wake them up. He reached Caroline first and she startled awake the second he shook her. Her expression was blank as he pointed her towards her dog to crawl out and he went for his cousin, who was most definitely breathing, but wouldn’t rouse. He had to drag him out. By the time he had Louis free, Caroline was working with Rufus to climb out what used to be the window of the train.

“Fight the fires,” he told her as he hauled his cousin up and over to the window. He nearly dropped him twice as he fought his way clear of the wreckage and deposited Louis away from the train in a patch of grass. All around him kids were starting to crawl free from the twisted train, which appeared to be completely off the track.

James’ heart sank straight out of his body as he looked at the mangled, burning train. Kids were going to be dead. There was absolutely no getting around it. He turned back to their end of the train, which didn’t look as bad as a lot of the rest and went for the window next to theirs. It was where Lily had been sitting with Hugo and Honor and a few other of their friends, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw all the kids already at the window, trying to swing down. “Here,” he said as he reached up for Honor and hoisted her out. It took him only two minutes to get them all free, along with Ducky, Lily’s ridiculous cat. He had no idea where any of the owls were. Hopefully, they had flown away, but only time would tell. They’d all been stuck in cages. The second they were clear, he ran to the back of the train and had to scale the train to get up into the compartment where Al had been.

Theirs, at least, wasn’t on fire. He heard the shouts all around him of the older students fighting the fire, but he ignored it as he dropped down next to Al and Nat. His hands shook as he felt at the pulses in their necks and only breathed freely when he felt the steady beats there. “Al!” he shook his brother and after a minute Al came back to himself. “Al! We have to go help everyone else! Wake up!”

“What happened?” Al asked him groggily as he slowly sat up. His gaze fell on Nat and his brother had the same panic James had had just ten minutes before. “Leah!”

“Mmkay,” she mumbled as he helped her to sit up. She had a deep cut on her head and it was bleeding heavily. “What?”

“We’re on what’s left of the train,” James explained. “It seems like it’s been blown up or something. We need to get you off the train and find everyone else. Where’s Rose?”

“She…” Nat shook her head as if something was rattling around in there. “My ear is ringing. She was… what?”

“She went to do Prefects rounds,” Al whispered and his brother’s terrified green eyes met his full on. “We have to find her.”

“We have to find her,” James agreed as he stood up and hauled Nat up into his arms. He didn’t even feel her weight as he began to climb. “Come on!”

~*~

The train was no more by the time they arrived on the scene. Harry had barely found his footing from the Apparation when he was running towards the kids who were shooting water onto the burning sections. More Aurors, MLE, Healers, and other Ministry officials were appearing all around him, all of them taking over for the kids, shooting water on the flames to stop the train from burning.

“Dad!”

Harry turned and almost screamed in relief as he saw James sprinting towards him, Al short on his heels. “James! Al!” he caught his boys up in a hug, but James pushed him off almost immediately.

“They’re still trapped on the train!” he told his father over the cacophony all around him. “The last three compartments are empty, but beyond that, we don’t know. Lily’s safe,” he said as almost an afterthought as he and Al ran towards the fourth compartment from the back and climbed in.

All around him, without orders to do so, the adults were doing the same. Everyone picked a compartment and climbed in to check for survivors. Harry didn’t let himself think as he worked with his sons to pull out the injured kids from the compartment. The first one they searched all the kids were fine but pinned under debris. They were all first years and too young to know how to use magic to get themselves out.

By the time he had them out, he spotted Lily and Caroline triaging the kids who had superficial wounds, while Hugo directed the Healers to the kids who needed their help. Louis was being examined by Audrey and Harry was sickened to see he wasn’t awake.

“He’s breathing,” James assured him as they went for the next train. “We can’t worry about that now. We have to find Rose.”

Rose…

Hermione was there, of course. He’d seen her arrive just a second before.

They had to find Rose.

“We didn’t check the corridors,” Al said, causing both Harry and James to turn back to see him pointing towards the back of the train. “I’m going to go look.”

“I’ll go with you,” James told him. “You keep going, Dad, and we’ll catch you up.”

But Harry shook his head. “I’m going where you go.”

They couldn’t find the corridor at first. The train had tipped onto its side and it took them a moment to realize that all of the weight was sitting on the corridor, with the compartments on top of that. “I’ll lift it,” Harry told them as they climbed back down. He called out to another a witch he knew was from the Ministry and a wizard he knew worked for Hermione. “We need to lift the train,” he explained quickly as the three of them set to lift the train up.

They were there. Harry’s wand arm trembled as he heard his son screaming for Audrey and his sister-in-law sprinting for the train to pull the three mangled kids out of the wreckage. Before he could even blink, they were gone, transported to St. Mungo’s.

He didn’t cry. James and Al were both crying as they searched the rest of the wreckage. He held it together as he heard Hermione screaming, even though he couldn’t believe Rose would be dead. He moved as if in a daze as they continued to clear the cars. He ignored the bodies which were already draped in sheets. There are too many of them, at least a dozen, by the time they were certain they had everyone out of the destroyed train.

He ran meetings, spoke to the press, fielded parents’ questions as they showed up on the scene, and talked to Headmaster Goldstein about what had happened. Fifty kids were taken to St. Mungo’s and the rest were sent on to school as soon as the Portkeys could be arranged.

Why hadn’t he thought of the Hogwarts Express when he’d heard a train was going to be bombed?

At least eleven children and the conductor of the train were dead because of his oversight. He had been warned of a train being bombed. He’d known it was going to happen, but he’d arrogantly assumed the Hogwarts Express was immune to the attack because it should have been impervious to Muggle interference.

Why?

Why?

“Auror Potter.”

Harry turned to find the Minister of Magic herself coming towards him. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Do we know yet how she was able to bomb the train?”

There was no question of who. They all knew who was behind it.

“No,” Harry admitted as he watched another group of children disappear, heading for the school. “As soon as I figure that out, I will let you know.”

He’d normally have asked Hermione for her insight, but Hermione was with her daughter at the hospital.

“Have you any word on your niece yet?”

He glanced up at his boss and shook his head. “Nothing yet, no.”

He was hoping feverishly that that was a good sign.

~*~

“Have you heard anything yet?” Al demanded for the seventh time as soon as Neville walked into the Gryffindor common room to check on them.

They hadn’t had a feast. The first years had been sorted by themselves and then sent up to the appropriate common room where food had been waiting for them. It did not feel like a return to Hogwarts.

The head girl had died. They’d lost a second year and a sixth year. James was still in shock, having lost one of his friends.

They still hadn’t heard about Rose, Scorpius, or Andrew.

Al didn’t want to shake his parent’s old friend, his professor, but he was about out of patience.

“I heard from your mother,” Neville said quietly, his face serious. “They’re alive.”

“All of them?” Nat blurted out in shock.

“No one else has died,” Neville confirmed. He cleared his throat to get the room’s attention and confirmed what he’d just told Al and Nat.

There were sobs of relief, even though Neville said that several of them were badly hurt and would have to stay at St. Mungo’s for at least a few days.

“This is not what Andrew needed,” Nat muttered darkly as soon as the professor left. “He just got over being injured.”

“But he’s alive,” Al reminded her as he pulled her in for a hug he needed more than she did.

~*~

Harry stared at the tracks in reluctant amazement. It was three days since the bombing, three days since he’d nearly lost his children, and they’d finally moved the rest of the train off of the tracks to see how it was she’d managed to bomb the tracks.

“We don’t know,” he said to the Minister.

“That’s really not good enough.”

“I know that,” he assured her with as much calm as he could manage. “I don’t find it acceptable, but I don’t know what she did to the tracks. Our best efforts have failed to detect it.”

She turned to him and appraised him, the lines in her brows more pronounced. “Then you need to bring in someone who can see what happened.”

Harry nodded reluctantly. He would have to fetch Nat and bring her back to the field when no one else was on the scene. “We do have all the Muggle terrorists. We took over the investigation for the Muggles and rounded all of them up, turning them over to the Muggle authorities. We’re working to track and destroy the rest of the terrorist cell, but we’re confident we have most of them.”

“Not one of them can stay free.”

He fully agreed with that. It had been easy to go around the Muggles after the train was bombed. The Muggles had wanted some of the terrorists left to go free, just so long as they could lead them to others.

It was the work of only a few hours to arrest all of them, including sending people to France, Syria, and Saudi Arabia to snag the rest. There were still a few in another couple of countries, and the permits to catch them were in the works. The magical ministries of those countries had no trouble signing off on Muggles being arrested for bombing a school train.

It was an easy yes.

It was an easy answer for Nat, too. It was dusk when he brought her back to the place where she’d nearly died and she looked at the mangled tracks for a full minute before she’d said, “There’s no light in them.”

She confirmed what he’d suspected, of course. Crabbe had had the magic removed from the tracks, which was something he’d have sworn was impossible to do.

Harry swore under his breath and shook his head. They were back at the beginning.

~*~

“Are you okay?” Al asked Rose the next day, after giving her a huge hug and welcoming her back to school.

Classes had been put off until all the students were back, which meant they weren’t starting until the following day.

Rose was pale but otherwise appeared to be as she always was. Her smile was tight as she moved to sit on one of the sofas by the fire in the common room. “I’m fine.”

He didn’t believe it for a moment. Scorpius had arrived back the day before saying she was fine, but something was definitely not fine. Al sat on one side of his cousin while Nat sat on the other, with Scorpius in the armchair.

Thankfully, everyone was leaving them alone.

Al took Rose’s hand and felt her fingers trembling. “Rose?”

“I was awake through all of it,” she said finally.

The horror of that fully hit Al as he realized just what she’d have gone through. “You felt the train flipping?”

“I felt it flip, and I felt the fire,” she said very quietly. “I thought for certain we were going to burn alive, but then water started raining down and I could hear James moving.”

“Did you try to call out for him?” Nat asked quietly.

Rose shook her head. “My lungs were really constricted and the smoke was bad. I thought… I thought Scorpius was dead for sure. He was so pale, covered in so much blood. I couldn’t see Andrew at all, even though I knew he was right next to me when the train crashed.”

“James put the fire out,” Al explained when she lulled into silence.

She nodded and twisted her hand up into the extra folds of her pants. “It was so bad. I felt like we were going to die at any second. It felt like it took forever for us to be found, and then Aunt Audrey was really scared when she saw us. I’d ruptured a couple of internal organs and I really felt like I was going to die.” She fell silent again and then took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “But I didn’t die.”

Only those at the front of the train had died. They’d talked about it, just a bit. If they hadn’t been late, if they hadn’t all sat at the back of the train, they might not have made it. The only ones really hurt were those in the corridor and those at the front of the train when it had exploded.

“She removed the magic from the tracks,” Nat told Rose. “I checked it out with Mr. Potter last night.”

“Of course she did,” Rose sighed as she sank back into the couch. “That woman is unfortunately resourceful.”

Al wanted to say something comforting like that his dad would catch her, but he just didn’t feel like that was the truth. He had enjoyed working with his dad to help save people. It had felt good, right, to help everyone. He’d been pretty sure he’d want to be an Auror, and he was now surer than ever it was what he wanted to do.

James had been brave, as well, but James was still set on being a Quidditch player. They’d talked about it, just briefly, but it was enough to know his brother hadn’t changed his mind.

Rufus let out a snuffling woof and plopped himself in front of the fire a second before James, Caroline, and Louis sat in one of the other sofas with them. They all studied each other for a long moment before Rose said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay,” James agreed evenly. “Who wants a game of chess?”

Back to index


Chapter 47: Chapter 44

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel!

I knoooooowwww it's been forever but the worst part of my year for my paying work is over with so PHEW! I should be able to make a chapter a month for at least a few months. We're trucking right along.

I hope you like this chapter, and as always thank you for reading and reviewing!

If you'd like to see my other work, check out Sarah Jaune on amazon or come follow me on Facebook and Twitter where I never update either because at least I'm consistent.


Life didn’t go back to normal after twelve people were killed in a mass terror attack. It wasn’t as though the public suddenly forgot everything that had happened and moved onto who the singer, Catia Cadence, was dating this month, and what might have happened to the fourth husband. Harry almost wished the celebrity would marry the next husband already, just to get them off his back.

The press was all over the story, demanding answers to the hardest questions because Harry couldn’t tell them what they wanted to know. He blinked in the flashes of lights and the bulbs going off in his face as he held up his hands and waited them out, refusing to answer a single shouted question.

“I’m going to read my statement and then I will answer a few questions,” he said when silence finally fell.

“Who is behind this?!” someone shouted from the crowd.

Harry glanced mildly towards them, not saying a word until the man faltered and lowered is hand.

He glanced back down at his prepared statement, which was short and to the point. “The Ministry has conducted a full investigation and has concluded the tracks were able to be bombed because the magical protection around them had been removed. We were not aware that this vulnerability was possible. We have taken steps to ensure it cannot happen again and will more routinely monitor these types of infrastructure that have been in place. We do not have a suspect in custody from the magical community, but we have learned that the bomb was placed by Muggle terrorists and they have all been arrested and remanded to the custody of the Muggle police with the assurances that they will not be released. We will monitor the situation. Thank you, and I will take a few questions.”

He ignored the repeated questions of how they’d learned the magic had been removed from the track, and answered instead the question of their suspicions on who was causing the problems. “Isabella Crabbe has been the one leading most of the recent problems. She is currently out of the country and we have not secured permits from the country she is hiding in to go and apprehend her.” He didn’t want to add that even if they were to obtain said permit, odds were good they wouldn’t be able to catch her. She was just too good.

“Has everyone been released from hospital?”

“Yes,” Harry confirmed. The last injured child had gone home the day before, although not back to school. She’d been about to start her first year and her parents, Muggles, had decided to bring her home instead. Harry had spoken to them personally and they’d said they would consider allowing her to attend Hogwarts the next year, but they weren’t ready to send her off just then. He honestly couldn’t blame them in the least. “She went home yesterday.”

One of the rare lulls fell in the reporters just as someone shouted out, clear as a bell, “How did you know the magic had been removed from the tracks?”

Harry considered ending the press conference then, but knew that avoiding the question was going to cause more problems than it would solve. “The only way the tracks could have been blown up is if the magic was removed. We have a few who are skilled at detecting such things. We are the Ministry of Magic, after all. It was confirmed after the crash. Thank you for your time,” he said firmly and took the scroll to leave the press behind to head back into the relative sanity of the inner workings of the Ministry.

“You did well,” the Minister said as she waited for him down the hall.

“I didn’t do well,” Harry told her bitterly. “I missed the fact that she was behind this and the train was the Hogwarts Express. That’s not exactly a stellar job performance.”

She was silent as they made their way towards her large office. They passed her secretary, who pretended not to notice them, and continued to the nicely appointed room. Under previous ministers, it had been all hardwoods and dark dcor. The seats had been hard to sit in and the room unwelcoming. Now it was brighter and more comfortable, something Harry personally appreciated. “Have a seat,” the Minister said to him as she pointed to one of the arm chairs near her unlit fire. She sat across from him and crossed her ankles. “The bombing would have happened no matter who had held your job.”

“Dumbledore would have caught it,” Harry pointed out dryly.

“Yes,” the Minister nodded slowly. “Yes, he probably would have, but he’s dead, and he never wanted this job anyway. I’m absolutely confident that you are the best person for this job. I have no one more qualified and absolutely no one who wants your job. As pissed as they are, everyone still remembers the chaos of what happened with my predecessor and the short time you weren’t in your post. The public wants you there.”

He remembered Hagrid telling Dumbledore, once, that not everyone wanted him to be a teacher. Some people thought him a monster.

It was true in this situation. Overall, Harry had heard nothing but positive messages from the public who still remembered him as a hero and a good leader. Even from a few of the parents who had lost children, there had been nothing but kind words. But not every parent. A few of them blamed him and he’d met with every single couple. He’d let them shout at him. He’d witnessed their tears, their misery, and their anger.

Then he’d told them the story of Vincent Crabbe in the Room of Requirement. He’d told them the story of Isabella Crabbe and what she’d done to him, to Ginny, to Hope. He’d told them about how Crabbe was still out to get him.

Yes, he was the reason this crazy woman had arranged for the bombing of the train, but not why they thought she had. He’d met with the last set of grieving parents that morning and even now Ginny was working on a statement to release to the press about what had happened to them. She was writing out the full story.

He’d asked only one thing of those parents, and every single one had agreed. He’d asked them to keep the story quiet until he could tell Lily because she still didn’t know. He hadn’t told the parents to gain their sympathy, but it had become a byproduct anyway. Harry had been targeted his whole life by crazy psychopaths out for his blood. Even in their grief, everyone else could see that, too.

But tonight he had to talk to Lily and it was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done.

“Are you sure you are ready to go public?” the Minister asked softly.

Harry shook his head. “No, but it needs to be done. She’s more powerful this way and I need to bring it out into the light.”

The Minister nodded and handed over a plate of biscuits he hadn’t noticed. He thought of his daughter as he took a bite and wondered just what the evening would bring.

By the time Harry made it home, Ginny had finished their statement for the press. She passed him a sandwich, which he ate as he changed out of his Auror robes and into regular clothes, and then went silently with her to the fireplace to go to Hogwarts. Goldstein was expecting them.

“I have a room set up for you and I’ve called your children to wait for you there,” Anthony said as he reached out to shake Harry’s hand by way of greeting. His face was grim as he led them out of the Headmaster’s office and down the hall to a smaller room set with a roaring fire and a couple of comfortable couches. Harry took in the sight of his children… all of them. He blinked in surprise as he registered Teddy sitting on the sofa with Lily, his arm around her as she snuggled into him. James stood at the window, his back to them and his arms crossed. Even from across the room Harry could see the rigid set of his shoulders.

“Teddy…” Ginny breathed out. “I’m glad you could make it.”

Harry understood, then. Ginny had arranged it and he realized it was a smart move. Lily would need all of them. She felt things so deeply, so intensely, and this was going to hurt her straight to her core.

“I’ll leave you to it,” the Headmaster said as he closed the door.

Harry turned and sealed the door to keep out listening ears as he heard Al ask what was going on.

“Please sit,” Ginny whispered as she took a seat on the other sofa while James and Al each took an arm chair. His wife’s eyes tracked him as he moved to sit with her, to take her hand, meshing their fingers together.

They had had a tense several weeks, but Harry felt a knot in his stomach loosen at the connection of her hand in his. At the base of it all, there was this. He still had the love of the best woman he knew and he could count on her to be with him through the worst things life could throw at them.

“Something is wrong,” Lily said from under Teddy’s protective arm as she studied their faces, her mouth pulled into lines of worry and fear. “What’s wrong?”

“We have to tell you a story, Lils,” Harry explained gently. “No one is hurt or dead, that’s the first thing you need to understand.”

She waited a beat and then said again, “But something is wrong.”

“Something went wrong long before you were born,” Ginny agreed as her voice cracked and her fingers tightened in his.

Harry picked up on her tension and took the lead on telling the story. “Right after the war we went to many funerals of all of the people who had fallen. Your mum was sixteen and I was seventeen.” He took a deep breath as his pulse kicked up. His daughter’s expression was still confused, but James and Al had cottoned on to what they were about to tell her and neither of them appeared pleased.

“Why are we doing this now?” James demanded quietly, sitting forward to stare at them.

“We have to release a statement to the public,” Harry replied evenly.

James opened his mouth again, but Teddy cut him off. “It needs to be done, James,” the young man told him. “You don’t know what it’s like out there, but this needs to be done and Lily needs to know, now. It’s time.”

“She’s not ready,” Al pointed out with a hard note to his tone.

“No, she’s not,” Ginny agreed. They all turned back to see a tear slide down her cheek. “I’m not ready for her to know, but it’s time.”

Harry studied Lily’s small face and the worry in her eyes. Putting it off was not helping her in any way. “We were very young, Lily.”

“Mum was only three years older than I am now,” Lily pointed out.

Harry blinked as the realization hit him hard. What had Ginny been like at thirteen?

Nothing like Lily.

“I was a different kind of kid,” Ginny told her. “I’d grown up with six older brothers who vacillated between ignoring me, torturing me, and overprotecting me. I was rebellious and stubborn. You’re not.”

“No,” Lily agreed as she glanced up to Teddy who was now in his mid-twenties. She studied him and he studied her and then she nodded. “Alright, I’m ready. Tell me the worst.”

So Harry did.

“We were at Severus Snape’s funeral when someone tried to kill us with a Blood Boiling Hex,” he explained. “While we were in hospital, a woman named Isabella Crabbe used me to impregnate your mum.”

He let the silence ride as Lily took it in. “Why would she do that?”

“Her son died when he set off a fire curse in the Room of Requirement,” Ginny informed her. “She’d had a hard life and the only good thing in it was her moronic son. She was already half-crazy when he died, but this pushed her over the edge. Even though it wasn’t your dad’s fault, Isabella blamed your dad for all of it.”

Lily nodded slowly as though any of this insanity made sense. “This is how Hope was conceived?”

“Yes,” Harry went on with a sigh. “Teddy was an infant at the time, and your mum received an owl from the Ministry informing her we would have to be married.”

Lily’s eyes went wide before they closed tight and she sunk into Teddy even further. “Oh.”

“Your mum was really, really sick. Although we didn’t know it, Crabbe had also poisoned us. She intended for us to lose a child, like she had, and then hopefully die from the poison. Your Aunt Audrey figured it out, though, and cured me. Your mum wasn’t totally cured, and what we didn’t know at the time is that the poison was still in the placenta, which is the thing that feeds the baby,” Harry explained as calmly as his jumping heart would allow. “Your mum and I were married… and then we were burying your sister when she died.”

Lily didn’t make a sound as the silent tears began to rain down her cheeks.

“We were…” Harry turned to Ginny and stared into her beautiful brown eyes. “We were devastated. We’d lost so much. We were still young, although by this point I was eighteen and your mum was seventeen.” He took a deep breath and looked back to his children. Teddy’s jaw was set as he held onto Lily. James’ face was full of rage just below the surface and Harry knew it was hiding a deep well of pain. Al was sad, but quietly so. He was resigned as he sat back in his seat and waited for the rest to be told. And Lily… Lily kept crying, but she didn’t move to them. She stayed where she was, but he suspected it wouldn’t last long.

“Then Crabbe kidnapped your mum,” Harry told her. “She was able to get away and Crabbe went on the run. We’ve been after her ever since, but she’s the reason for all the security. She’s the one behind all of the things that have gone wrong over the last however many years.” He took a deep breath and waited a full two seconds before he let it out. “She’s going to be after you.”

Lily nodded slowly as she took the handkerchief Teddy offered her and blew her nose. “She hurt you two.”

Yes. Yes, of course Crabbe had hurt them, but he’d have taken all of it on again to spare her, to spare Ginny… to spare Hope. “I’m not worried about myself.”

“You’re worried about me,” Lily concluded. A second later she was up and in his arms with her arms around his neck as she sobbed anew. He held onto her and wished he could keep her this small forever. It took a good ten minutes to get her quieted down, but when she was, she stayed in his lap with her head on her shoulder as he explained his plan for keeping her safe. “You won’t be allowed out without an adult, Lily. You won’t be allowed on your own away from the house or school. Aunt Hermione and Uncle George have come up with more Portkey items of clothing that you can activate to get away if you are taken, and you will wear at least one of them at all times.”

Lily was not Ginny and she proved it by saying, “That’s a good plan.”

Harry and Ginny left with Teddy an hour later, after having escorted the kids back to the Gryffindor common room.

“When is the story being published?” Teddy asked as they reached the staircase to the Headmaster’s office.

“Tomorrow,” Ginny told him as her exhaustion spoke volumes through the single word. “I’m so glad the only thing I have to be tomorrow is Grandmum.”

They both hugged Teddy before heading up the steps.

Their whole lives were about to be exposed and it was going to hurt as the wounds were revealed.

~*~

James, Al, and Lily climbed in through the portrait hole and spotted everyone waiting for them in the otherwise deserted common room. Caroline, Honor, Rose, Hugo, and Scorpius all sat around the fire. Everyone’s head snapped around to meet them as James moved to sit with Caroline, barely noticing when the dog shifted to make room for his feet.

They all sat, the silence and tension building, before James started to tell the story. He felt Caroline’s fingers go cold in his hand. She knew the story, of course, but he hadn’t told her about Lily’s part in it.

Actually, he hadn’t known Lily’s part in it until tonight.

When he’d heard his parents needed to talk to them, and they’d found Teddy waiting for them, he’d known what was going to happen. He hadn’t wanted it, but life wasn’t about what he wanted. He’d done his best to stay stoic. He was glad they’d all been there to help Lily’s through it.

Now they would have to protect Lily at all costs.

“She’s my aunt,” Scorpius said angrily as he pushed to his feet and strode over to the fire, resting his forearm on the mantle and leaning his forehead into it. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Lily said. James watched her stand and take his arm, pulling him back to the couches. He could tell Scorpius didn’t want to go, but he followed Lily anyway.

It was such a Lily thing that he couldn’t help but smile, until he remembered someone was out to hurt her.

Why couldn’t Crabbe pick on him instead? Why Lily? Why this sweet kid?

“We’ll look after you,” Hugo promised her. “We’re going to keep you safe.”

“I know,” Lily said calmly as she smiled tremulously at him. “It will be fine.” But even as she said it, tears began to flow down her face in torrents as her shoulders shook.

He was up and out of his chair in a flash, kneeling before her to hug her tightly. He was the oldest here, at least as far as the siblings. He felt it keenly now.

James was turning seventeen in three days. He’d be an adult then. Maybe he should rethink Quidditch and be an Auror instead. He’d be able to protect her better that way.

“I’m scared.”

His eyes jerked back to his sister as she spoke in a whisper.

“I don’t want to be hurt,” Lily admitted with a hiccup. “I don’t… I don’t know how to be strong against something like this. So I’ll be careful and I’ll do what I’m told. I’m happy to stay with someone at all times, but I’m worried that one of you may get hurt if you’re protecting me.”

“No one is going to mind that,” Al informed her quickly. “We’ll all worry about each other, okay?”

They all went to bed a few minutes later but James didn’t know why he even bothered. One of his friends wasn’t there anymore. They had an empty bed in their dormitory and the loss of Jace was something he knew they all felt acutely. James, Louis, and Caroline had all gone to his funeral with Bill as an escort for them. James stared up at the canopy above him and willed himself not to cry. He wanted to stay angry. Anger was so much easier, but it was hard to hold onto when really he was sad and scared straight down to his toes.

He sighed heavily and rolled onto his side. Eventually he slept.

The story didn’t come out, but they had an owl from their parents saying it was coming soon. All of their owls had died in the train explosion, so their parents had given them money to get another one in Hogsmeade over the Hogsmeade weekend in October, but James hadn’t had the heart to tell them none of them were going. Most of their things from the train had had to be replaced, anyway, so everything they had was new. The comforting and familiar were gone. It was only by stupid, blind luck that the Marauder’s Map and his dad’s Invisibility Cloak hadn’t been lost. In his mother’s insanity to get them packed that morning, James had left them on his bed. He’d lost his broom, though, but he had a new one. It wasn’t the top of the line, but he didn’t need top of the line to fly well. That was skill, not a broom.

They’d all decided it was more important to stick around the castle for the Hogsmeade weekend and not give Crabbe any reason to suppose she could snag Lily. Lily didn’t mind, of course. She was so easy going about the whole thing that James was starting to wonder if they were actually related.

If he’d been him, he’d have already left the castle simply because he couldn’t stay cooped up.

His birthday rolled around without much fanfare, which was what he’d asked for. Lily made a card for him, which he propped on his night bedside table, and Caroline gave him a book on Quidditch he’d been eyeing for months, but he went to bed that night as an adult, thankful the big day was over and nothing more terrible had happened.

Then the news article had broken about what had happened to his parents. James hadn’t been sure what he’d expected from the other students at the school, but it was not even close to what really happened. One or two kids had shot him looks of pity or derision. Once or twice it was mentioned by the Slytherins that the Potters had been forced to marry, but it was quickly stamped out by the waves of students who showed nothing but care and concern for them. There was some well-meant pity in there, which irked James, but everyone knew his parents had been a couple before the war. Their love story had even been made into a book which is aunt had informed him was only slightly accurate.

So, when the facts were laid out, the magical community had surrounded them.

The delay in publication of the story had come at the expense of laying out what Isabella Crabbe was doing. The Minister had read Ginny’s piece on their story and had decided that the rest of the wizarding public needed to know most, but not all, of the details of all of her crimes. It wasn’t very long until the rumor was going around that Crabbe’s ultimate goal was to grab Lily. They were right, of course, but it wasn’t proven. Even his parents didn’t know, not for certain, what she had in mind.

However, everyone else took it for the truth and with Lily’s tiny, perfect face splashed all over the covers of every newspaper and magazine, screaming about how this child was being targeted by a psychopath, it was fair to say that the school closed in ranks around her. Lily inspired that sort of thing. Nat was smaller, by a good bit, but Lily was… James wouldn’t say she was fragile, but it almost seemed as though she was simply by her nature. He couldn’t have explained it to anyone, but he knew everyone was keeping an eye out.

To his surprise, this even included the Slytherins, or at least most of them. Some people would always be berks, but most of them understood the risks. They’d all been targeted on the train. They’d all lost house mates to that crazy woman. They were all at risk.

Of course, some still grumbled that they should just hand Lily over to Crabbe so she’d leave the rest of them alone, but those people quickly found themselves unable to open their mouths without making barn animal sounds, so the talk didn’t last long.

Lily held up. She simply held up while the rest of the world went insane all around them. Rose predicted that public sentiment would shift, as it always did, towards blaming Lily or persecuting her for some reason and sure enough the weekend before the October Hogsmeade trip an article came out with disparaging words about Lily. James didn’t read it, knowing it would only make him see red, but Rose said it was rubbish.

The response from the wizarding community was unanimous and swift; they would not take it. Letters to the editor poured in until The Daily Prophet retracted the previous article with an apology. The weekend of Hogsmeade came and it was still bright and sunny out, the perfect day to go out to the Quidditch field and play around, which was exactly what they did. All of them. The entire school showed up to play in fifteen minute pick-up games, organized into teams by Rose and Andrew while the rest of the school cheered them on.

It was one of the best days in James’ life.

~*~

Teddy shifted Emma from one arm to the other as he grabbed a cream puff from the platter Ginny had just set out for the family dinner they were having. Emma made a grab for it but he popped it in his mouth and noisily kissed her cheek to distract her from wanting it.

“Here you go, lamb,” Ginny said as she held out a dried apple slice for Emma to chew on. She had teeth coming in and the chewy apples were her current favorite. She smiled lovingly at the baby and touched her blonde hair gently before turning a steely gaze to Teddy. “Stay out of them.”

He grinned impishly. “I’m the holder of the grandchild.”

Ginny let out a short laugh and shook her head. “I can’t argue with that but stay out of them. You’ll ruin your appetite.”

“I’m too old for that, you know,” Teddy said as Harry walked up and went for a cream puff, only to get his hand smacked.

“You’ll ruin your appetite,” Ginny told her husband. The fact that she didn’t crack seriously impressed Teddy.

Harry sighed heavily even as he leaned in to kiss his wife, only to snatch a pastry while he was kissing her. “Fanks,” he mumbled after popping it into his mouth.

She rolled her eyes and but shook her head. “Unless you’re going to make more, you’re done.”

“Fair enough,” Harry agreed as Emma babbled to get his attention. He took the baby from Teddy and nuzzled his nose into her sweet-smelling neck. “You are the best remedy for a terrible day, Emma.”

Teddy watched his surrogate father holding his daughter and felt the smallest pang that his own parents would never meet Emma, never hold her. It didn’t happen often anymore. He’d felt it more when he’d been a child and living with his grandmother. She’d loved him with all of her heart, and she’d done her best for him. He still missed her terribly and wished like hell they could officially solve her murder, rather than assuming it was Crabbe. They didn’t have any proof, of course, and the trail had long since gone cold.

His grandmother would have loved Emma. She’d have loved to see him married and happy. In her absence, though, he’d grown even closer to Harry and Ginny and it felt like things had fallen into place for him. He had parents, in every sense that mattered.

Before Emma he might have felt guilty about it, but he knew in his heart his grandmother would have wanted him to find this peace in himself. Unconditional love for his child was the center of everything. If something happened to him, or to Victoire, he wanted Emma to have parents who would adore her as much as Harry and Ginny loved him. He wouldn’t want her to feel like she had less.

“When is Victoire off her shift?” Ginny wondered.

Teddy glanced to his pocket watch and noted the time. “She should be here any minute.”

Within the hour the house was full of family. Arthur and Molly sat at the kitchen table, holding hands and beaming at the grown portion of their brood as everyone tucked into their meal. It was a happy meal, which Teddy treasured, because the conversation to follow was not going to be pleasant.

As soon as pudding was served, a hush fell over the crowded table they’d magically stretched to hold everyone except Uncle Charlie, who was still in Romania.

“The press has been digging,” Harry said into the silence. “They aren’t finding much, but they’re still looking. I went to see the kids yesterday to check in on them and they’re holding up. The whole school appears to be rallying around Lily, trying to keep her safe. It’s rather remarkable, actually.”

Teddy didn’t think it was surprising. Lily was Lily… she had that effect on people. His wife was the most beautiful woman in the world, but Lily was… it was almost ethereal. Part of her charm was her unbelievably sweet nature. “I’ve been asked for interviews several times,” Teddy told them.

“Me, too,” Molly pipped in as her sister, Lucy, nodded in agreement.

“I think we all have,” Arthur sighed heavily. “They should know we’re not going to cooperate, but it’s their job to ask. I can’t fault them for it.”

“I can,” Fred muttered darkly. “Dad and I have had them in the shop a couple of times this week.”

“You made them sorry for it, though,” Angelina laughed as she patted her son’s hand. “Growing a second head that whistles shrilly was absolutely brilliant.”

It broke the tension and everyone laughed.

Harry was still smiling as he went on. “The point is we need to stay vigilant. We are going to be as careful as we can, but I want everyone to assume they can be a target. Keep an eye out for anything and try to limit the times and places you can be taken, especially the girls.”

Everyone digested that for a long moment.

“Uh,” Molly cleared her throat and gazed to her uncle. “My boyfriend, Brayden… he asked about getting screened or whatever you want to clear him.”

Everyone stared at her, especially her parents.

“He hasn’t spoken to me about–” Percy began but Molly cut him off.

“He will, Dad!” she protested instantly. “But he doesn’t even want to bother until everyone is convinced he’s not a criminal out to hurt us. He said that seemed like the logical first step.”

“You’re talking marriage?” Audrey asked Molly.

Molly’s face went as red as her hair as she glanced down at her empty plate. “It’s something we’re talking about. I’m in a good place at work, and so is he.”

“Do you love him?” Gran Molly asked gently.

Her whole face lit up as she turned to her namesake. “I really do. He’s… he loves me for who I am, and yet makes me want to be a better person. It’s wonderful.”

Teddy knew that feeling all too well as he reached under the table to take his wife’s hand. She inspired him every minute of every day. It was magical. He was happy for Molly and really hoped the guy was everything she needed. “We should all meet him.”

“I’ll clear him,” Harry told her. Then at a scowl from his brother-in-law he turned to Percy. “I know this goes against the grain, but I have to be sure of him for all of our sakes.”

“Knock it off, Perce,” Bill said before taking a drink of his wine. “You know he’s right. Having already married off one child, I can tell you it’s not easy letting go no matter what the circumstances.”

Emma, who was sitting next to Teddy in a high chair, threw her toy across the table and barely missed knocking over Ginny’s glass.

Everyone laughed, much to Teddy and Victoire’s chagrin as Emma clapped in delight at all the attention.

“But then you get grandkids,” Bill pointed out, “and you realize it was worth it.”

~*~

November blew in with a freak freeze that blanketed the grounds for three days, but thawed again just as quickly after with a scowl constantly on Scorpius’ heart. There had been this girl in Slytherin and she’d asked him out. Bold, but he didn’t mind bold. He’d said yes, though, and he still couldn’t understand why he’d done that.

Something was wrong with his heart. He loved the wrong people, or so it seemed to him. He loved and trusted his aunt, but she let him down time and again. The last time had been the train, but of course if she had showed up on time he might have been killed in the explosion. He kept loving her, trusting her, hoping for things he didn’t know how to express.

And she was never going to be what he wanted or needed.

Then there were his parents. His mother loved him, and his father… he didn’t know. His father was talking about various family connections they could make for him in order to boost the family’s standing in the world. They were well off, but not as well off as they had been before the war. Reparations had to be made for his grandfather, and his father being Death Eaters. Both had served jail time, of course.

Connections… Scorpius was being considered as a prize to be offered up for marriage to some girl in order to set their family back on the right path.

It brought him back to the girl from Slytherin. She was one of the girls from one of the families his father had put on the short list of potential wives for him. He had a few years yet, since this was only his fifth year, but they were already planning.

Always planning.

He was a pawn to his father and his mother was too spineless to step into the game.

And he’d said yes to this girl he didn’t care anything about and didn’t particularly like. She was fine enough, pretty enough, and willing to make out in a broom closet with him. The teenage boy part of him that was just about to turn sixteen enjoyed that aspect, of course, but the rest of it was just no good. He didn’t actually like her and he was starting to hate himself for every moment he spent with her.

His heart was simply not right. It didn’t get love. That had to be the most frustrating thing about all of this was knowing he was missing something in his life and not having a damn clue what to do about it. So he would end it with the girl because it wasn’t going to work out and he couldn’t fake it anymore. He didn’t think she’d be surprised and he was sure she wouldn’t be hurt by it, but it still meant having a weird conversation with a girl he really hadn’t even talked to.

“What’s up with you?” Al wondered and Scorpius jumped, realizing he’d been scowling at his plate rather than eating breakfast.

“Nothing,” Scorpius mumbled as he forced himself to eat. But of course it was a lie.

The Potters and Weasleys loved him. He was sure of that, although Merlin knew why when his family was responsible for a lot of the bad things that were going on in his life. It was his stupid aunt who was targeting Lily, after all.

That was eating at him. He was raw inside with open, bleeding wounds he didn’t know how to sew up. Lily was in danger because of that crazy woman.

“Class.”

Scorpius turned to Nat who was studying him with concern. “Right.”

He let them lead him through the day until the moment between the end of classes and the dinner hour when he broke off to tell the girl he didn’t think it was working out.

She slapped him and he felt like maybe he deserved it. It certainly matched how he felt inside as he trudged up to the common room to dump his bag. He was going to be late for dinner, but he just didn’t care anymore.

He gave the password at the portrait and climbed through just as Lily, Hugo, and Honor were about to leave. “Hullo,” he muttered as he went in to dump his stuff. When he turned around it was to find only Lily watching him. He glanced around, suddenly nervous. “Where are they?”

“I told them you’d walk me down,” Lily informed him simply as she moved to him and took his hand, studying his face intently.

Hers was almost too beautiful, so painfully lovely he had to fight not to look away. Guilt at his family’s part in her pain flooded through in a horrible stew of churning nausea. Nerves shot up Scorpius’ spine as he had to resist the impulse to pull his hand from hers as sweat soaked his palm. “I’ve had a bad day, Lils.” The second the nickname came out of his mouth he wanted to club himself over the head! He had no right to call her that. That was her family’s name for her.

“I can see that,” she said quietly. “Tell me.”

He wasn’t going to. He was going to tell her it was time to go down to dinner and she was only thirteen and couldn’t possibly understand any of it, but the whole thing spilled out anyway and she stood there and listened to him.

The second he finished telling her about the slap, she boosted onto her tiptoes and put her arms around his neck, holding him in a hard hug. His arms went around her and he soaked in the comfort she offered so selflessly.

Everything about her lifted his mood. She was miraculous that way.

Sooner than he’d have liked, she let go and sank back onto her feet. Her hand brushed at the painful mark on his face as she studied it with concern. “She really nailed you.”

“I deserved it.”

Lily shook her head and dropped her hand. Her blue eyes stayed steady on his as her mouth pinched around the corners. “You don’t deserve any of this.”

Her words hit him hard, a straight shot into the chest as he closed his eyes against the grief. He’d given up on his mum, his dad, and his grandparents but his aunt… he couldn’t give up on her. He should because she kept letting him down, but he couldn’t. He needed to hope she’d come through for him.

“She does love you,” Lily whispered quietly. “But I think she doesn’t know how to love herself and she gets lost in that. The trick is for you not to do the same.”

His eyes flew open as he stared at her, his mind reeling. Of course, Daphne didn’t love herself. She was barely functional as an adult most of the time. The only thing his mother had had to say for her sister was her depression ruled her life. She’d tried potions in the past, but they didn’t last. She’d tried therapy, but left soon after.

It felt to him as though his aunt didn’t want to get better and here he was, making mistakes like hers. He’d used the girl from Slytherin and she hadn’t deserved that.

Was he going to be stuck in this pattern or was he going to get better?

“I’m not going to be her,” he said out loud, even though he hadn’t realized he was going to speak until the words were already out.

“I believe you,” Lily said simply. “Are you ready to go eat?”

He nodded slowly and let out a slow breath. His aunt was who she was. She was damaged and she wasn’t changing. He couldn’t do anything about it except make sure he didn’t follow in her footsteps. “Lily… thanks.”

She beamed up at him with a radiant smile. “I’m glad I could help.” She turned to lead the way to the portrait hole.

Dumbstruck, he stared after her as his heart did a slow roll. She missed the full second it took for him to get his feet moving and he was eternally grateful for that.

Stupid… stupid, stupid, stupid! Scorpius berated himself the whole way down to the Great Hall while Lily chatted happily next to him.

He was not going to develop a crush on Lily Potter. Nope. No. No way. She was two and a half years younger than he was for Merlin’s sake! She was Al’s baby sister!

No. Nope.

Damn it.

He followed her in and started to make mental lists for how he was going to not let that happen.

Back to index


Chapter 48: Chapter 45

Author's Notes: I KNOW it's been forever since I posted a chapter. I know. My paying work-life goes in waves of insanity to calm. It's just how it goes. I have plans to write ahead in the next several weeks to keep from going more than a month between postings, but if I don't, then this fall will get entertaining because it's going to be a nightmare.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!

Did you know you can find me on Facebook??? Look for Sarah Jaune (be sure you spell it right) and you can find my author's page. I post updates on my original stores AND fanfiction story progress.


“You have to be joking…” Al said weakly as he stared at the announcement on the notice board that had appeared after dinner the first week in December, declaring that the night before the end of term they were to have a ball.

A ball!

“What?” Nat asked as she sidled up next to him and read the notice. “Oh. Well…”

Scorpius, who read the thing over the top of Nat’s head snorted in annoyance. “Of course, they’d saddle us with something like that! We’ve all had a rough few months, and now this? I didn’t even bring dress robes with me.”

“I don’t have dress robes,” Nat pointed out.

“Neither do I,” Al agreed.

“None of you can read,” Rose informed them as she came up to the small knot of people. “Dress robes not required. Any form of dress is acceptable. See?” she said as she pointed to the fine print. “I think this is mostly the excuse for a feast.”

“But with dancing?” Al asked his cousin. “Who thought up this idea?”

“The Head Girl and Boy,” Rose replied with a sigh. “I just ran into her in the loo.” She brushed at her curly auburn locks and made an impatient motion to the notice. “You don’t have to go. No one has to go, but everyone is welcome which is a nice switch. Most of the time when they throw a ball they leave out the younger students.”

“When was the last time Hogwarts held a ball?” Scorpius wondered.

Rose’s face fell. “I think it was the twentieth anniversary after the Battle of Hogwarts. We have another one of those coming up this May 2nd, but that will only be for adults and the sixth and seventh years.”

They all fell silent. None of them would have wanted to go anyway. Al had lost his uncle Fred in that battle. Teddy had lost both of his parents. It was not a party to celebrate so much as a time to remember.

“Actually,” Al said as he did the math in his head. “It’s only going to be 2022 this year. That’s only twenty four years, not twenty five. The ball will be our sixth year.”

“Which is splendid,” Nat announced gloomily. “They’ll likely make us go and we’ll have to get dress robes for it.”

“What do we do about this ball?” Scorpius wanted to know.

“Nothing!” Al protested vehemently. “Who cares?”

It turned out that absolutely everyone else cared, quite a bit, even if they were all pretending not to show it. The entire school was buzzing like a nest of angry pixies as couples paired off to go and others were left to cry to their friends how so-and-so was going with another girl (or boy).

Al was heartily sick of the whole thing within twenty-four hours.

He had two girls ask him to go with them, but he declined both as the entire idea of having a date made him vaguely uncomfortable. He kept waiting for his friends to find a date, but none of them did.

Days went by and by the time their exams were on them everyone over third year who didn’t have a date was considered the biggest loser in the school.

“We’re all losers,” Rose agreed as she dropped down at the table in the library where they were all studying.

Andrew cleared his throat and they all looked at him. “I have a date,” he told them with a small grimace.”

“How did we not hear about that?” Rose demanded as she poked him in the arm.

Scorpius laughed and shook his head. “You don’t hear everything.”

“It’s Penny, from my house,” Andrew said and they all fell silent.

Penny had been seriously injured in the bombing of the Hogwarts Express and she’d had a tough time the whole year with panic attacks and nightmares. Everyone knew it. Everyone.

Rose patted his hand. They all understood why he was going with her. “Well, you’re still technically a loser since I know you don’t actually fancy her.”

Andrew grinned wryly. “I hear Lily has had twenty boys ask her to the ball.”

Al’s whole body stiffened in irritation as he thought of all the boys she’d already turned down. “She’s still so young!”

“She’s thirteen,” Nat reminded him. “That’s not so young.”

“You know what I mean,” Al replied tiredly. “She just acts so young. She’s not… she’s not… I dunno…”

“Speaking of,” Rose said as she waved.

Al looked around to see his sister heading their way, a silent Honor right behind her, an expression of consternation on her face. “What’s up with you?”

“I have decided,” she said as she stopped at the end of their table, “that Scorpius is going to take me to the ball.”

Silence fell around them.

“I am?” Scorpius finally managed to squeak out.

Al glanced to him and saw his expression was completely blank and turned back to Lily. “You can’t exactly dictate who goes where with you.”

“In this case I can,” Lily said firmly as she took a seat next to Rose. “The boys are simply not leaving me alone and I don’t want to go with any of them. Scorpius isn’t my brother or my cousin, so he can take me. You don’t have a date,” she said to him. It wasn’t a question.

“No,” he managed to reply weakly. Al’s best friend let out a small sigh. “Why not?”

Lily smiled gratefully. “Now, I just need to tell Ella Fitzhugh and everyone else will leave me alone.”

Scorpius waved a hand as she stood and made her way out of the library with her best friend.

“The whole school will know in an hour,” Rose mused thoughtfully. “Ella cannot keep her mouth shut to save her life. That was clever.”

“I could take her,” Al told Scorpius. “You don’t have to.”

To his surprise his friend’s expression froze for a solid second before he relaxed into his seat. “If you take her, none of the other blokes will take it seriously that she’s not available. She can always break it off with her brother.”

“So that leaves me, Al, and Nat as the losers,” Rose sighed heavily. “I feel more loser-ish every second.”

“At least you’ve had people ask you,” Nat muttered under her breath.

Al turned to Nat and saw her staring at her parchment, scribbling away at the essay they had due in the morning.

“Oh, Nat…” Rose reached out for her hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Nat shook her head and snatched up her things. “I’m tired. I think I’ll turn in early.”

Al began to stand, but Rose shot him a look and he sat back in his seat at Nat hurried from the library.

“What was that?” Andrew wondered.

“She’s not had anyone ask her,” Rose told him quietly. “I’ve turned down three boys, none of which I liked even a little, but she hasn’t been asked once. I think it’s getting to her.”

Al stared after her and turned back to his cousin, determination setting hard into his gut. “You’re going to be the loser alone in this, Rosie.”

Rose let out a short laugh and shook her head. “I don’t mind, Al. I think you should ask her.”

“You’re going to ask Nat to go with you?” Scorpius asked him.

All at once, the realization of what he’d decided hit him like a mountain troll and panic set in fast and hard. “Yeah, like as friends, you know?”

Scorpius slowly nodded his head. “Right, like friends.”

“Friends,” Al repeated lamely and then forced himself to shut up before he made a bigger arse of himself.

By the time he had a chance to ask Nat to go with him, he’d talked himself out of it seven times. He finally managed to get her alone after lunch the next day and of course as he stumbled out the words, she rolled her eyes.

Because that was exactly what he needed.

“I’m not going to be your pity date!” Nat told him flatly. “You’d never want to go with me otherwise if you didn’t feel sorry for me.”

Fury, frustration, and sheer bafflement had him shaking his head. “Don’t be daft! I wouldn’t want to go with anyone but you! With another girl it would be terrible and awkward!”

She shook her head and for a moment her strawberry blonde hair dropped to cover her eyes before she pushed it away from her face. “So, it’s okay because we’re friends?”

“Yes!” he agreed feeling relieved that she understood. He didn’t want her to get the wrong impression or to think he might like her that way, even though he did… it would ruin everything if she knew.

Nat was silent for so long that they were interrupted as James stormed over to Al and punched him hard in the shoulder. “What’s this I hear about Scorpius taking Lily to the ball?”

Both Nat and Al turned to look at his fuming older brother and studied his irate expression. “Is that so bad?” Nat wondered.

“He’s two years older than she is!” James pointed out in exasperation.

Al decided to take pity on him. “Lily marched into the library yesterday and informed Scorpius he is taking her to the ball so that all the other blokes will leave her alone.”

James’ face instantly relaxed. “This was Lily’s idea?”

They both nodded.

“Well,” he said more cheerfully. “It’s actually a clever plan. Alright then,” he concluded and walked away.

Al just shook his head as he turned back to Nat. “Come on, Leah,” he said with a bit of cajoling. “It’s not as though I’m the worst date in the world.”

Something on her face shifted to an expression he couldn’t quite understand before she crossed her arms and nodded. “Alright then.”

~*~

Harry and Ginny sat at their kitchen table staring at the small elf before them as the last light of day faded into the horizon. They’d had to beg her to sit down. Polly had arrived in the house, several days before the end of term, and the nerves which were washing off of her were practically visible. “What’s the matter, Polly?” Ginny asked again, very gently as she leaned towards the small elf.

Polly had been coming to help them with the children for years and Harry had to admit he didn’t know how they’d have managed without her. With how complicated Nat’s condition was, they needed all the help they could get. He and Ginny didn’t mind the extra work involved with the child, of course. She was Al’ friend and that was reason enough to help her. Certainly, Harry knew what it was like to impose himself on a family and yet never feel like they minded. The Weasleys had done that for him without a second thought and he was eternally grateful to this day. He’d actually put their lives in danger, whereas Nat simply needed help. She was not a threat as long as her secret abilities to see magic were kept quiet.

But of course, the truth of the matter was they were the ones who were going to primarily care for Nat from here on out. It was impossible for her parents to manage her medical needs for more than a short period. She was no longer needing a feeding line, and they had her diet figured out, but she was still fragile. She might always be fragile. Ron had asked him once if he minded, but as Harry pointed out to Ron, Molly and Arthur had done more for him than they’d done for Nat. It was the right thing to do.

So, they waited patiently and part of Harry hoped Polly wasn’t going to say to them that she didn’t want to come back to their house because she felt like part of the family now.

“Polly?” Harry prompted.

It took Polly another minute to speak. “I… I is wanting to work for you forever.”

Surprised, Harry and Ginny looked at each other, then back to the elf. “Forever?” Ginny repeated. “It’s just us here, you know. We don’t have much to do.”

“I can help out with the whole family,” Polly went on quickly. “I is… I is…” Then big, fat tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “I is going to have a baby. I want to work here when I do. I is still going to be a good worker!” she went on quickly.

Now truly stunned, Harry could only blink in surprise. “I mean… of course, you can if you like. What brought this on?”

But Polly couldn’t seem to stop crying so Ginny scooted around the table to put her arm around her. “Of course, you can stay! Harry will go to Hogwarts right now to arrange things, alright?”

And thus ordered, Harry did just that and arrived at the school during dinner. He waved to his kids as he motioned to Anthony that he needed a word. Ten minutes later they were ensconced in the headmaster’s office as Anthony poured them both a drink. “I have a crying elf in my house,” Harry told him as he swirled the liquid in his glass. “She wants to come work for us full time.”

Anthony’s brow rose as he sat on the edge of his desk. “Polly, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Harry confirmed. “She says she’s having a baby and wants to come work for us.”

“Ah,” Anthony let out a long sigh. “Yes, if she wants to work for you then of course she’s free to. I hate their enslavement but most of them won’t have it any other way.”

“What brought this on?” Harry demanded sharply. “She’s been perfectly fine before this.”

Anthony snorted derisively. “Maybe you can get Hermione to fix this. I hadn’t thought of it before, but frankly most of them just don’t care. They want to serve.”

“What?” Harry asked, completely lost.

“The Ministry needs new elves,” Anthony informed him. “Most of theirs are dying and they need new ones. I’ve been ordered to hand over all new elves, as soon as they’re old enough to leave their mothers to be trained.” His obvious distaste was evident on his face. “I tried to argue, tried to tell them we could ask for volunteers to go! Certainly, I have a few who wouldn’t mind going to serve at the Ministry. But I was informed they wanted the young ones so they could be trained from early on. Some arse in the Ministry is being a right bastard about the whole thing and my appeals do not appear to be making any headway. I haven’t been headmaster long enough to have any real clout, of course, but you do and you can make this go away.”

Hermione was going to have an absolute fit.

“Since Polly hasn’t yet given birth,” Anthony went on cheerfully, “I can sign her over to you without a single thing registering with the Ministry. In fact,” he said as he went to find a form in his desk. “Let me make that official right now and transfer ownership. She can give birth in peace and her baby will belong to your family.”

Hermione was going to have an absolute fit about him owning a house-elf, too, but she’d have to get over that.

“What a mess,” Harry sighed heavily as he signed the magical contract for the elf and all her descendants.

Harry went home first and showed Polly the paper saying she now belonged to the Potters and she cried, yet again. Harry begged her to let them free her, but she flat out refused. He finally managed to secure her promise that if she ever wanted to be freed, she would ask them.

Ginny had tried to give her a bedroom, but she’d insisted on staying the cupboard under the stairs which she’d been using and that had once belonged to Kreacher before his death many years before.

“A baby…” Harry muttered as he used the Floo to contact Hermione. “I need to talk to you,” he told her tersely as she came wandering into the kitchen in her bathrobe.

“Right now?” she asked with a furrowed brow.

“Absolutely right now,” he informed her curtly.

“Come on through, then,” she sighed as she moved to put the kettle on to boil.

By the time he was sitting in their spacious kitchen, Ron had made it home from work.

“I took the day off,” Hermione told Harry as she handed him a cup of tea and she put Ron’s supper on the table. “It’s been non-stop for months and I haven’t had a day off since the start of term.”

He’d known she was working hard, but not quite how hard. “I’m sorry.”

“I am, too,” she agreed as she sat and took a sip of her tea. “Now tell me what’s up.”

He told her, although he regretted he was adding one more thing to her already full plate.

Ron, predictably, found it hilarious that they now owned a pregnant house-elf.

Hermione’s outrage was exactly what Harry could have predicted. “No!”

“Yes,” Harry confirmed. “I’ll fix it, but I don’t know who to go to.”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll take care of it. I might need you to go to the press, of course. You make an impression more than I do, but I think I know exactly who the sanctimonious prick is who decided this was a good idea and I’ve wanted a reason to squash him like a bug for years now.”

Ron patted her hand cheerfully. “You go get him.”

Hermione let out a weak laugh. “It shouldn’t take long. One talk with the Minister, who I think will see it our way, and we should be good, but just in case–”

“Just in case, I’ll be ready to go to the press. Thanks, Hermione,” Harry told her sincerely. “It feels really weird to own someone. I don’t much like it, but it was a way to keep her with her baby, so I wasn’t about to say no.”

“You did the right thing,” Hermione said with a troubled voice. “But you shouldn’t have had to. Maybe she’ll want you to sign her back over to Hogwarts once we have this all straightened out.”

She didn’t want to go back to Hogwarts, as it turned out. Hermione had the entire situation sorted before lunch the next day with the Minister herself going to the vicious prick to let him know his plan to separate the elf families was so far away from human decency that he was fired.

Harry told Polly she could go back to Hogwarts, as they were calling for volunteers to go to the Ministry but she told them she didn’t want to go. It would take several more days before Polly would admit to Ginny she wouldn’t get to spend much time with her baby if she was at Hogwarts, and it absolutely broke Ginny’s heart for her. “You’re with us, now, and you can spend all day and night with your baby.”

Their biggest problem became trying to keep Polly from doing too much. Truthfully, they didn’t need an elf. They had a small house, compared to most houses with a house-elf, and it was just the two of them.

Still, as the elf grew rounder every day, they knew they’d done the right thing. She was happy and glowing and it was worth them being slave owners to see her relax into the family.

Harry sighed heavily and thought about how he was, yet again, the owner of a house-elf.

~*~

Al tapped his leg nervously as he and Scorpius waited in the common room for the girls to finish getting ready for the ball. “This is mad,” Al said to an otherwise silent Scorpius. His best mate had been fairly quiet all week but nothing would budge Scorpius, so Al had stopped trying to get him to talk.

“I’ve been on the receiving end of many hateful glares this week,” Scorpius mused. “If I was anyone else, I think they might have tried to take me out. Your sister is only growing in popularity. That is mad. Your sister is practically a baby still.”

She wasn’t a baby, of course, but practically speaking she was. She was so young and innocent it was just unthinkable that so many of the boys would be at her heels. Still, at least she took it in stride. “I think she’s heartily sick of the whole thing.”

Whatever he might have said to him about his sister was cut short as Hugo joined them to flop into a chair next to them. “They’re still not down yet?”

“What took you so long?” Al asked his cousin.

“I fell asleep,” Hugo yawned.

A second later James pushed through the portrait hole in a pair of muggle jeans and a blue sweater that their gran had made him for Christmas the last year. It was already getting too small. He popped something into his mouth as he strode over and held out the napkin to them to reveal a wad of chocolate biscuits. “Want one?” he asked around a mouthful of sweets.

“Thanks,” Hugo said as he took one.

Al didn’t think his stomach could take anything. He had no idea why he was so nervous, but the whole thing was just mad. “Where’s Louis?”

“He has a date with a Ravenclaw. I forget her name,” James answered. “Anyway, he’s waiting for her outside her common room.”

“Jane,” Scorpius and Al said at the same moment.

James shook his head. “Nah, that was over last year… I think? I dunno. Anyway, he never sticks with one bird long.”

“Unlike you,” Al ribbed him with a grin as he finally reached for one of the biscuits.

“Sometimes you know what you know, little brother,” James assured him with a grin. “I just know. Our granddad was the same way, I am told. I’m just taking after my namesake. Anyway, have none of them come down yet?”

The entire common room was full of blokes waiting around for the girls. It was a little pathetic.

“The party doesn’t start for another twenty minutes,” Al pointed out reasonably. “There’s no reason to be down here.”

“Yet here we all are,” James retorted with a snort. “Well,” he said as he sat heavily in one of the chairs, kicking his feet up onto the table. “I’m going to take a nap then,” he told them as he leaned back and closed his eyes. “Wake me when it’s time.”

Lily was the first down the stairs, dressed in a pretty green dress that Al had seen her talk their father into the previous year. He was certain Lily hadn’t brought it to school, as it would have been destroyed on the train in the fire, but then again it wouldn’t take much for her to send for the dress.

About the only thing none of them had lost were their wands and that had been a miracle.

Al grinned as he shook his head and turned to find Scorpius’ face frozen for just a second, then his face relaxed into his typical smile as he held out an arm for her. “Your prescribed date is ready,” he told her. “You look nice.”

“Thank you,” Lily laughed merrily as she took his arm. She’d apparently talked Hugo into taking Honor, although neither of them seemed to care overly much.

“Come on,” Hugo grumbled as he trudged for the portrait hole.

Next down was Rose, followed by Nat. Nat looked pretty in a pale blue dress and her hair pulled back into a bun. Rose was dressed in deep red, and she laughed as she swatted at James’ feet, knocking them to the floor and startling him awake. “You don’t want to miss this.”

James grumbled as he stood and laughed as Caroline came down in a soft yellow dress covered in blue flowers. “You’re going to freeze,” James assured her with a laugh as he took her hand and grinned at her.

“I can steal this to keep me warm,” Caroline said as she plucked at his sweater.

James’ grin spread as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You look gorgeous.”

She did, too, Al knew, but his eyes kept drifting back to Nat. He wished he could talk like his brother could. He wished he had the words to tell her how pretty she looked. She was staring at her shoes and not looking at them and he fought hard to try to figure out what to say. “You look really nice,” he finally managed to stumble out the words.

It took her a moment to glance up and he couldn’t help but see her smile looked forced. “Thanks. We can go, okay?”

“Sure,” he said and wished again he knew how to say what he really needed to say.

~*~

“Your brother has a crush on Nat,” Caroline said so only James could hear her as they danced together. They weren’t pressed close. That would have wigged Caroline out, but James didn’t mind. He still had a chance to hold her and it was better than he could have expected.

“Yeah,” James agreed evenly. “She has no clue.”

“She has no clue,” she agreed sadly. “I kind of want to tell her, but I don’t feel right interfering when they’re such good friends. It could mess things up.”

“I think it’s better just to let them figure it out,” James told her honestly. “I know Al very well and I don’t think it’ll work out if someone pushes him. He has to do things on his own. Besides,” he told her wryly. “I tried to talk him into saying something once and the second he worked up the courage, she tried to set him up with someone else.”

“When was that?”

“We were on holiday in America,” he said as memories of the rest of that trip filtered in. Nat had discovered a hidden body. It had been a traumatic holiday, although not all of it had been bad.

“I miss America,” Caroline sighed. “Not enough to go back to live, but I’d like to visit again.”

“We’ll go sometime,” James promised and figured it would be true. He didn’t say it to her, but if he made it in Quidditch, there would be plenty of opportunities to travel. He’d want her with him. “I’m surprised you left Rufus upstairs.”

She clutched at his shirt for a moment before relaxing. “I thought about bringing him, but honestly I feel okay right now. I wanted to leave him and… and feel normal.”

“We are normal.”

She snorted out a giggle. “We are anything but normal, James.”

“Well,” he said slowly because he had to agree with it. “We are at least good together.”

She grinned and glanced away. “What’s Louis’ new girlfriend’s name again?”

“I forgot already,” he sighed. “It’s like his third this year.”

“Second,” Caroline corrected. “How he stays friends with all these girls is a mystery to me. He’s just so affable that they can’t stay mad when he breaks it off.”

“What I want to know,” James said seriously, “is why he picks all the homeliest girls.”

Caroline smacked his arm. Hard. “That is not nice!”

“He’s easily the best looking bloke in the school,” James pointed out reasonably. “He’s part-Veela! He could have whomever he wanted, but he doesn’t pick the beauties.”

“What did he say when you asked him?” Caroline wondered. “Or was that when you ended up with a black eye?”

James grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, he decked me and told me his girlfriend was gorgeous. I decided to leave it alone.”

“You are terrible.”

“You know you love me,” he replied easily even though it was still hard for her to say.

She smiled shyly and ducked her head. “Yes, I absolutely do. I don’t always understand why you love me, but–”

He let go of her waist to cup her chin and tilt it up so she could see his eyes. “You’re a brilliant, amazing, talented, giving person and there isn’t a single reason I wouldn’t love you.”

Her tears were all the answers she had as she nodded. She didn’t totally believe him, but she’d stopped arguing a long time ago.

~*~

The day after the kids arrived home, Polly had her baby. Ginny was absolutely certain there was nothing cuter in the world than a baby house-elf, except maybe her own children. Still, it was a tough call. The tiny mite had her mother’s big eyes and ears and Polly named her Teeny which seemed like the most appropriate name for such a small mite. “It was my mother’s name, Miss,” Polly told her as the tiny baby elf slept soundly in her mother’s arms.

Everyone wanted a chance to hold the baby, but Ginny put a firm no to that and said they weren’t allowed to ask until at least a week had passed. Polly wouldn’t say no, even if she wanted to, so Ginny had to set up the boundaries. She’d also been forced to order Polly not to help with the cooking or the cleaning. It was weird ordering anyone when she knew her order had to be obeyed, but it was for Polly’s own good.

Polly had argued that the house-elves at Hogwarts always went back to work the day after they gave birth which left Ginny feeling decided ill and furious. She’d immediately written a terse note to Anthony to inform him of this oversight in the management. He’d written back immediately and told her he’d put a standing order in place that house-elves were not permitted to work for at least two weeks after their babies were born and they’d been cleared by the nurse.

It was stupid, little things like that which Ginny realized she had never, ever considered. She’d been forced to accept she didn’t know all of the things she didn’t know or why she should care about them but this was a major issue!

“Why didn’t we ever think about this?” Ginny wondered to Hermione as they sipped at tea in the lull of a huge post-Christmas meal while all the kids were outside playing in the snow.

Hermione shook her head. “I looked into a lot of this when I was younger but younger me didn’t think about maternity leave or what happens to the families. I honestly was too young to have that perspective. Since then I’ve hit brick wall after brick wall when trying to find anyone who gives a damn about house-elves or what they go through every day. I’ve only managed very basic rights for them.”

“Well, it’s not fixed, not by a long shot, but at least we have Hogwarts and the Ministry covered. The Minister was okay of the maternity leave policy?”

Hermione nodded and grinned. “We spoke with an expert on house-elves health and fitness and she agreed that two weeks was a perfectly acceptable time for them to heal as they are typically over the birth and back to normal within the first three days. The extra time can be spent with their baby, bonding with it. I am wondering if that might not help the house-elves start to gain some autonomy, so that they stand up for themselves.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Ginny said as she glanced over to Polly’s room. If Polly was anything to go by, while she was enjoying spending the time with Teeny, she was going stir crazy and trying to find any loophole in Ginny’s order not to work. “She’s bored.”

“Bored?” Hermione asked curiously.

“To the point where she’s getting a little depressed, I think,” Ginny sighed. “I ended up letting her cook lunch yesterday. She was starting to droop. It was so noticeable that even Harry saw it and commented.”

“Well…” Hermione cleared her throat. She sighed and shook her head. “I mean, I hate to say it but they were born for this. I don’t want them to be slaves, but it was like Dobby would tell us- he just liked to work. It’s not so dissimilar to older people who retire from their job and lose the will to do anything.”

Ginny began to laugh as she thought of her father. “Dad retired…”

“For about a week,” Hermione agreed, grinning broadly. “Then he was right back at it filling in where he was needed. He couldn’t possibly stay home every day and putter around the garden.”

“Mum would end up strangling him, for one thing,” Ginny mused as she thought about her parents. Her dad had honestly thought he wanted to stop until he had. Then he’d seen just what he was missing. Now he worked a few days a week, as needed, to fill in where the Ministry needed him. At other times he would work for George at the joke shop if they were short staffed. Her dad was enjoying his new freedom of not being called out in the middle of the night, while still feeling needed.

“Not to change the subject,” Hermione said as she lowered her voice, “but have you heard if Rose and Andrew are still only friends?”

Ginny’s brow rose as she studied her sister-in-law. “What did Rose say?”

“That they were, but honestly it’s tough to tell with her. She doesn’t want to tell Ron anything because he’ll go ballistic, so she keeps me in the dark, as well.”

“I’ve heard they are just friends,” Ginny confirmed. “I know you really like Andrew.”

“I do, but of course I don’t want her to settle for the first guy,” Hermione replied and then winced. “That didn’t come out right.”

Things were still not perfect or amazing between Ron and Hermione. She didn’t speak of it often, and they’d definitely worked out most of their problems, but the bottom line was they’d been joined together by shared trauma more than real or lasting feelings. “How are things?”

Hermione glanced around to make sure Harry and Ron were still in Harry’s office with the door shut, but she still lowered her voice anyway. “We aren’t fighting and we aren’t having problems. We talk things out now, but part of me knows that if we hadn’t been through what we’d been through, we probably wouldn’t have ended up together. I love him, and always will. I’ve put the work in to fall in love with him again, but it’s not effortless. I have to work to stay in love with him.”

Ginny knew exactly what she was saying. “In some ways, I get that. After having been with Harry for so many years, it can get old and stale. Marriage is like that, but I can see it being harder for you two. Harry and I have personalities that just fit together fairly seamlessly, so even when we have problems there isn’t a major clash. Marriage is always work, especially long term. No one talks about that part. It’s all love and hearts when you’re young. They don’t talk about being so mad at the man you’re now stuck with that you could stab him with a fork.”

Hermione chuckled softly and shook her head. “They really don’t. Maybe we wouldn’t have walked so blithely into marriage if we’d known just how hard it was going to be, but I also feel like a warning would have been nice. I’d have liked to know that it was normal to fall in and out of love with your husband and that some years would be great while others were absolutely terrible. Before I wasn’t as committed as I should have been. I wasn’t putting in the work that was needed. Our therapist really opened my eyes to how I was distancing myself. In a way, Ron is so much better about that than I am. He sees the work and he just goes about it.”

“I also think he never fell out of love with you,” Ginny said quietly and tried not to wince at the look of shame and hurt on Hermione’s face. “No, listen, he’s always been like this. When he committed, he sticks. Except for when he left you on the hunt for the Horcruxes, I’d never seen him abandon something. He’s still a Cannon’s fan, even after all their years of being dragon dung as a team. He’s just a loyal sort. He could have been a Hufflepuff, except he really does have guts.”

“He really does,” Hermione agreed with a sigh.

They both turned as the door to the office opened and Harry and Ron came out laughing. Ron went over to his wife and put his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them lightly as he pressed a kiss to the crown on her head. “Harry was just saying the kids might like some Muggle pizza for dinner, which would keep Polly from feeling like she should cook. I offered to drive into town for one. What would you like on your pizza?”

Ginny grinned into her mug of tea and then winced as she realized Nat couldn’t have the Muggle pizza. Ah, well. It was easy enough to whip one up which would be safe for her.

Back to index


Chapter 49: Chapter 46

Author's Notes: I had a rough, rough week. I lost another child. This story is very personal to me, as I know the pain of losing babies in pregnancy. This is my seventh loss. We named him Mark. So I hope you enjoy, and if you think of it, hug someone you love in Mark's honor. We could all use a bit more love.

Thank you, Arnel, for beta'ing!

As always, if you want to check out my original works, head over to amazon and search for me- Sarah Jaune

Thanks everyone!


Chapter 46

At first it was so subtle Harry wouldn’t have noticed it. He received countless letters to his office every single day, some from concerned citizens, and some from fans all around the world. Typically, he had his assistant, Daniel, handle the fan mail as it was too much for him to deal with and continue to work, but occasionally the letters would require Harry’s attention and he’d be forced to read them. He didn’t send autographs or photos. It simply felt too much like Professor Lockhart’s method for him. Incidentally, he had gone to see Lockhart again since his last visit to the long-term ward. Lockhart’s brain remained as addled as ever, sadly.

But the fan letters that started to arrive in the first weeks in January were so over-the-top it set Daniel on edge. They fawned over Harry’s accomplishments and achievements in life to the point of being almost embarrassing. Every single one of them arrived in a red envelope and was signed with an X that was flourished, prompting Daniel to tease Harry about Ginny having competition for his affections.

They arrived every day, sometimes twice a day, with various themes on the same topic until eventually they began to repeat themselves after almost a month. Curious, Harry decided to examine one of the letters further and realized each of them had a very distinct cursive handwriting that never, ever, made a mistake.

Sighing heavily, he made a trip to Diagon Alley with one of them to present to his brother-in-law. “Can you explain this?” he asked George wearily.

George took only a second to read it before bursting into laughter. “It’s one of our Love Quills alright. It’s the one designed for women to use.”

“Great, just splendid,” Harry grumbled as George went on to explain the idea of the quill.

Essentially, George had hired two authors, one male and one female, to write dozens of love letters so that amorous, but utterly inept, witches and wizards would have a way to express their feelings to the one they love. In theory, it was a good idea… as long as the recipient never realized the letters were a fake. “Really, George?”

George ignored his sarcasm as he frowned down at the letters. “Only thing is, once they’ve written all the letters the quill goes inactive. It’s a once and done thing. If you’re starting to get repeats, then someone has more than one quill.”

“Can you figure out who bought more than one?” Harry asked hopefully.

George shrugged. “On something like this, we don’t keep records. On things which might be dangerous, we always get the customer’s name. A Love Quill can’t exactly hurt someone so we probably don’t have anything unless the customer bought another item with it which was dangerous. I’ll have to ask the staff and check through the records. When did they start arriving?”

Thus leaving George to try to solve the mystery of the writer, Harry went back to the office and was immediately called out to the sighting of a Dementor in Kent since all of the other Aurors were thus engaged, and Harry liked to keep active in the field when the opportunity presented itself, even though the odds that it was a Dementor were nil.

He promptly forgot all about the annoying letters in the process of removing an actual Dementor from an old house where it was feeding off of the Muggle residents until it was spotted by an old witch who lived down the street.

Never a dull moment.

However, Daniel had not forgotten about them and he went down to the Ministry’s post office to ask about the owls bringing in the letters, only to find out the letters were just appearing in the post office without an owl.

That definitely caught Harry’s attention, but without an owl to track there wasn’t much they could do about it. It was decided that the letters would be gathered in the post’s office for a week and then Daniel would collect them to sort through them. The volume of letters was increasing and unfortunately, George had come up empty on who had bought them, although one of the employees remembered a man coming in a couple of times to buy five at a time. At first she’d thought it was a different man, but then after the fourth time she realized it was the same man disguising himself badly. She’d offered to do a sketch, but had no idea which face was the real one. They’d hit a dead end.

And then one of the letters blew up in the post office.

Harry and most of his staff had been in a meeting to discuss the Dementor, which had apparently been hiding in the countryside since the Dementors had been kicked out of England when it happened.

A tremendous BOOM sounded through the floors of the office, practically knocking Harry off his feet. In moments they were all running towards the lifts, which weren’t working, of course. They had to go to the emergency stairs, which were also badly damaged in the explosion. By the time they made it three flights, they ran into someone who said it happened in the post office and Harry knew, in his gut, his mystery letters were responsible.

He was right. They put out fires, pulled out the few people who were burned, and started an investigation. One of the letters which had arrived hours before had exploded. The only reason more people weren’t hurt was because only one wizard worked in the office with two old house-elves and the elves had worked their magic to protect the wizard and themselves from the blast. Unfortunately, it decimated the whole room and knocked out every room around it, injuring dozens.

“This is a mess,” Harry growled in frustration as he ran a hand through his graying hair. “If that had gone off in the Auror’s office…”

“We could have all been killed,” Teddy filled in. “We don’t have a house-elf to protect us. It’s lucky old Jones did.”

Jones, in fact, seemed to only have a few bruises to his knees where he fell when the blast hit.

“It should have been up in my office,” Harry pointed out in disgust. “We only left them down here because it seemed like it was nothing.” They were interrupted before Teddy could say anything else.

“Harry,” Hermione called as she picked her way through the debris. “Do we have any leads yet?”

“We know it’s a man,” Harry informed her grimly. “That’s all we know. I’ll get a sketch artist over to George’s place to get the shop girl to give us any leads, but I don’t think it will help. I doubt he ever went in using his real face.”

Hermione gazed around at the mess and shook her head sadly. “It’s a miracle no one died. We’re going to award the house-elves with a medal for their bravery and quick thinking, but they’ve already said they won’t take them. They think it’s too close to being clothes,” she sighed. “Well, they’ll have them and we’ll hang them in the office with their pictures once we have the place fixed up. Jones can’t stop singing their praises.”

They spent hours combing through the wreckage to find any evidence that might not have been obliterated by the bomb, but found nothing. Harry briefly considered bringing in Nat to see what magic had been used, but dismissed it almost at once. Even if she saw something, she was not trained enough to recognize what the magical signature meant and Harry honestly didn’t know enough about explosives to be of any help, either.

That left potions as the only other hope for figuring out how the explosion had happened. He called in a potions master and set him the task of trying to figure out if it had been a concoction or not.

In that, at least, they had success, but not the kind he’d have expected.

“It’s a Muggle mixture,” the man explained to Harry. “When it’s exposed to oxygen it will explode violently. It’s a pyrophoric chemical. It seems that it was sealed in a fragile container, of sorts. This is just a guess, of course, but there had to be an explosive planted in the letter and when enough of the letters were stacked on top of the others, it broke the container and exploded.”

It fit with what Jones had said. The house-elf had levitated a heavy stack of letters over to the bin and had dropped it in, which had set off the explosion.

“If I had to guess,” the potion master went on, “I’d say that each of the letters had a tiny amount of explosives in them, and that’s what created such a large blast. It would seem the letter-writer was counting on you storing all the letters together.”

“I could have just burned them,” Harry muttered darkly.

“They’re evidence, and you wouldn’t have,” he retorted. “Even I know that much. You’d have stored them together in a large container since you had so many of them.”

He couldn’t deny that was true. It was exactly what they’d done, but most of them were up in the Auror office. This was just under a week’s worth of letters.

The horror of what could have actually happened finally sank in.

“We have more of the letters upstairs,” Harry told the potion master. “Let’s go see if you’re right.”

He was. Every single one had what would later be identified as pentaerythritol tetranitrate in the wax seal of the letters. The fact that it hadn’t exploded when Harry and Daniel had been opening them was a miracle.

“We need a better screening for the Ministry,” Harry told Hermione as a headache built up behind his eyes.

He was supposed to have already left to celebrate Emma’s first birthday, but given the circumstances Teddy and Victoire had put it off for a few days. Emma wouldn’t know the difference, since half her family was stuck at the Ministry either investigating or cleaning up.

“This is going to be a long night,” Hermione replied by way of agreement.

Indeed it was.

~*~

Brayden proposed to Molly the day before Emma’s party and was brought into the circle of the family with open arms as they all met at Teddy and Victoire’s house for the party. He was a nice enough chap, Harry though, with brown hair and eyes, average height and build. Harry had spent nearly two days the previous month grilling him over his past life and ferreting out any secrets he might have. He was clean, at least as much as anyone could be. Also, it was plain to see he adored Molly. To Harry, nothing could be better than seeing how well his niece was loved.

Although the party was primarily for Emma, she did not seem to appreciate it as such and fell asleep in Bill’s arms right before dinner.

“There’s this Muggle song,” Hermione laughed to Harry as Bill took her up to lay in her cot. “Do you remember? It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to.”

Harry did vaguely recall hearing it on the radio when he’d been a child. “Except it’s her party, and she’ll sleep if she wants to.”

“Exactly,” Hermione agreed.

“Well, let’s eat,” Victoire called out to everyone. “She’ll wake up when she does and we’ll have cake then.”

They had a good time getting to know Brayden and watching Emma smash her cake when she eventually woke up.

“It’s probably terrible she didn’t have dinner before cake,” Teddy commented with a laugh as he snapped a picture. “But it’s a special occasion.”

No one mentioned the bombings or the troubles they were having at the Ministry. They had no leads.

Later that night as he sat in bed with Ginny, her head on his shoulder, he reflected that although his work life was very stressful, it was still magically peaceful at home. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she murmured. “I liked Brayden.”

“I did, too, but you already knew that.” He’d told her all about the interview with the young man when it had happened. “They are all growing up so quickly,” he reflected as he thought about his niece and her young man.

“I wish they could stop,” Ginny replied morosely. “I do not need Lily to grow up too quickly.”

They both sat quietly as the enormity of what all of that entailed. Harry’s heart filled with a helpless rage at the thought of what was going to happen if they couldn’t catch Isabella Crabbe. No. He would simply have to catch her before then!

“What are we going to do?” Ginny asked in a small voice that was so unlike her, he could practically feel her uncertainty.

He considered it for a long moment before finally deciding. “If I haven’t caught her before she’s seventeen or eighteen, you two will leave and go into hiding.”

“No,” Ginny said flatly, shaking her head. “No, it won’t work, Harry! Even if we left, there’s no guarantee you can catch her! We can’t stay in hiding for decades. That’s not a life.”

He wanted to argue, but of course he knew she was right. It hurt to know he couldn’t do anything but try to catch her. “I just have to succeed then.”

“I hope you do,” she said tiredly as she squeezed his hand. “If you don’t, we’ll deal with that when we get there.”

~*~

Al stared at all the pamphlets spread out before them on all the careers they could possibly pursue and felt a small shiver of dismay at his prospects. He knew he wanted to be an Auror. He knew that, but he’d already heard from Neville that his grades weren’t quite what they needed to be to qualify. He couldn’t expect his dad to make an exception for him and wondered just how Teddy had managed to get the right NEWTs. With their O.W.L.s looming, of course, he was acutely aware that things were getting serious. Very serious. He had to do well on his O.W.L.s or else… the pressure was absolutely enormous.

Scorpius was deciding between the law and banking. “I don’t really want to travel, actually,” he told Al. “I just think I’d like working at the bank, but the law also sounds good. I mean, I could help keep order when people like my father and grandfather start to cause problems.”

“I can see you doing that,” Rose told him. “I’m going to be a potions master,” she told them all confidentially and absolutely no one doubted it. Rose was going to get O’s on all her O.W.L.s. Come to that, Scorpius likely would, as well.

“We need to get to class,” Rose sighed as she stood up. Scorpius stood up, as well.

Al waved them off. “I’m going to wait for Nat to come down.”

“Alright,” Rose said as the other two left and Al picked up the Auror pamphlet again. It would be good to be an Auror. He knew he’d like the work and he hoped he could be good at it. He knew a lot about what they did from his dad and Teddy, but still… it took him a moment to realize Nat was standing next to him, staring blankly at all the pamphlets. “You okay?”

She lifted a slight hand and rubbed at the side of her nose and then tugged nervously at her hair. “I dunno.”

“What?” Al wondered.

She licked at her lips and opened her mouth, before closing it tightly.

“What?” he asked more insistently.

She shook her head and glanced away. “I want to do something else but… but I just don’t think it will happen.”

“What do you want to do?” he asked, wondering what she could possibly want that she couldn’t achieve. Unless she wanted to play Quidditch, which of course she couldn’t. Brooms still dumped her off when she tried to ride alone. That was quite out of her–

“I want to be a mum.”

It was so quiet that he almost didn’t catch it. Stunned, and a little flustered, he stammered, “What?”

“See!” she said with genuine distress. “I just want to be married, have kids, and stay in one place… not traveling all around everywhere. That’s all I want… and… I just don’t think it will happen.”

An image of Nat older, smiling at him with a black-haired, green-eyed child on her hip suddenly filled his vision and he had to fight very hard not to turn away as his face flushed horribly red.

He wanted that for her. He wanted to be part of that and the thought scared him straight to his toes. He had only just turned sixteen not too long ago! There was no time to think about… about… things!

“I know it’s stupid,” Nat whispered miserably.

“No!” Al managed to blurt out. “No, it’s fine,” he said even though he felt anything but fine at that moment. “We… we, uh… we should get to class.”

She nodded and grabbed her bookbag off the chair. “Let’s go.”

Al took her bag from her and walked silently next to her, kicking himself over and over again for not saying the right thing. The trouble was, he didn’t know what to say! He didn’t have a clue what to do with girls… not for the first time did he wish that he was more like James. All throughout the day it was obvious that something was bothering Nat and Al knew exactly what it was. It was his fault and he needed to try to make it right.

He tried several times that day to bring it up and only gave up when she snapped at him that she didn’t want to talk about it. So he let it go. Almost. He kept brooding on it until it made him irritable.

It was James who finally confronted him.

~*~

Whatever was bothering Al was overflowing into every other aspect of his life, including Quidditch and as the team captain, James just could not have that. Rose was managing her stress over exams just fine, but Al, who had only made the team that year, was struggling to stay focused in practice.

“Alright,” James called out to his team. “Let’s call it for the night. We will practice again tomorrow to be fresh for the game on Saturday. Go change,” he told everyone and then caught his brother’s arm as he walked by. It always amazed him just how much muscle his brother was putting on. Every single day he just seemed to get wider. “Not you.”

“Piss off,” Al muttered as he shook his arm, but not with enough force to actually dislodge James’ grip. At this point, Al could have shaken him off if he’d wanted to, which told James his brother didn’t really want him to piss off.

“We need to talk,” James told him as he pulled him off to a bench away from the muddy, cold field.

Al trudged after him and plopped down to the bench, dropping head to his hands in abject defeat.

“What the hell happened?” James demanded. “You were doing well this year, even with the bomb on the train you kept your focus! What’s up?” He stood over his brother for a long moment but when Al didn’t answer, slowly James sat down next to him. “Al?”

Al let out a long sigh. “I screwed things up with Nat.”

Then his brother told him the story.

Stunned, at least for a moment, James let out a low whistle. “I could have guessed it was a girl, but not this. You honestly thought about marrying her?”

“Shut up!” Al groaned as he elbowed him hard. “Just shut up!”

James opened his mouth to retort, then shut it. He knew that tone well… it was embarrassment and probably for the only time in his life, James just didn’t want to make it any worse. “I think it’s great.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Al,” James laughed and shook his head. “Everyone can see you and Nat are crazy about each other!”

Al shook his head and stared off miserably, unseeing, across the field. “She doesn’t see me like that.”

“Yes, she does.”

“No,” Al retorted angrily. “She keeps trying to get me to date girls that are not her!”

“Yeah, well,” James said darkly. “Girls are cracked. No telling why they do the nutty things they do, but that doesn’t change the fact that she does like you.”

Al shook his head and James decided not to press it. As he’d discussed with Caroline at the dance, it would be best to leave them alone to find their own way. “So what’s the problem with all of this? Maybe she’ll start to like you eventually or you could… I dunno… court her.” James felt like an ass even saying the word.

“Maybe,” Al sighed dubiously. “Mostly I just hate that I made it worse! I keep wishing I could talk like you do!”

Sincerely stunned by this, James glanced away a little embarrassed himself. “You don’t want to be like me.”

“You know what you want with Caroline and how to talk to her,” Al pointed out irritably. “You know how to do that and I don’t.”

He nodded once and then shook his head. “I didn’t always know what to say, but okay I can see your point. It always felt easier talking to her because she always felt like a person who was part of me. Or maybe it just seems that way now.”

“You love her.”

James nodded and felt a grin tug at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, so it doesn’t seem weird to think of marrying her someday, even though I’m not sure she’ll ever be ready for that. I hope she will.”

They both fell silently, maybe both realizing at the same moment just how odd their conversation really was.

“I want to marry Nat,” Al said in a small voice and then dropped his head back into his hands. “What am I going to do?”

James sincerely had no idea. “Just wait it out, see if she likes you back. I think she does.”

Al shrugged. “How do I make her feel better?”

“Short of telling her you’d marry her, I’m not sure there is anything you can do,” James told him ruefully as he ran a hand through his windblown hair. “She’s just not going to believe anything else. Her self-esteem is in the toilet.”

“Why, though?” Al wanted to know.

James didn’t say what he thought. He liked Nat, he really did. She was sweet and seriously smart. She rarely let anything get her down for long and she could fight back hard, which he respected, but she just was not pretty. There was no way to get around it. Her face was just average. Her hair was okay, but her ears were a little too big for her face. None of the other blokes thought she was cute and Nat knew it. After all, she wasn’t stupid. But James just couldn’t say that to his brother. For whatever reason, Nat was attractive to Al and that was all that mattered. “She hasn’t been asked out on a date,” James finally said. “You could ask her out and it might get better.”

“Or it could ruin our friendship,” Al reminded him. “She might not like me and then we couldn’t hang out anymore.”

“You are worse than Moaning Myrtle,” James told his brother seriously. “Get over yourself and get over this. Just wait it out and see what happens. You have a few years left in school to sort it all out and see where this is going.”

Al nodded and tapped his foot a few times before standing. “Thanks… and I’m sorry. I’ll play better tomorrow.”

James watched his brother trudge off to the changing rooms and considered his retreating back for a long time. Everything he’d said to Al had been true. It was going to take time with Nat. He glanced up to find Caroline, all bundled up in her cloak, coming across the field towards him, Rufus trudging along behind her. Instantly his heart lifted. “Hey,” he said as he made to stand but stayed where he was when she gestured for him to sit. As soon as she sat next to him, he draped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed, kissing her cheek. “It’s freezing out here.”

“And yet here you are without a coat,” she pointed out as she grinned up at him, her blue eyes laughing as Rufus found the only dry patch on ground behind them and settled down to sleep.

The tip of her nose was red and James had to fight the urge to lean in and kiss it. “Al’s had a niffler up his arse for days now.”

“I noticed,” she replied as she rested her head against his shoulder. “Did you figure out why?”

And so the story of Nat and the pamphlets was told again and Caroline let out a small gasp as he finished the story. “Poor Natalie! I knew she felt bad about herself, but I didn’t know it was this bad.”

“Do you have any idea why she keeps trying to fix Al up with other girls?” James asked her, realizing he had a window into the weird girl brain and he should use it.

“If I had to guess,” Caroline mused pensively, “it would be because she wants to finally shut the door on the possibility. Hope is painful. If he’s with someone else, then there is nothing to hope for.”

In a weird, twisted way that made a lot of sense. “But she likes him.”

“And she told him that she’s wanting to get married and have babies,” she agreed thoughtfully. “She told the guy she likes her deepest secret, which includes the fact that it’s probably Al she wants to marry… and he just told her it was fine. Poor Nat.”

“Poor Al,” James told her. “He’s beating himself up over it. He knows he messed up and said he wished… well, he wished he could talk to Nat like I can talk to you.”

“If he could he wouldn’t be Al,” Caroline commented with a laugh. “Al’s charm is he is so reserved. I wouldn’t want him to change.”

“But if he could have said how he felt, then none of this would have been a problem,” James replied in frustration. Selfishly, he really hoped this wouldn’t be a problem for the game, but the greater part of him just wanted his brother to be happy. “Keep reminding me it’s not a good idea to interfere.”

“It’s just not a good idea,” Caroline reiterated. “But I get why you want to. I want to, as well.” She paused for a moment. “James?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really glad we can talk like this.”

“Me, too.”

~*~

“This time next year we’ll be learning to Apparate,” Rose said in a voice that only slightly betrayed her panic as she paced their dormitory one evening in March. “Dad told me about Wilkie Twycross and how he taught all of them to Apparate. Is it wrong that I’d hoped he’d died before now so we didn’t have to put up with him?”

“Yes,” Nat answered mildly as she flipped through her notes from their potions class. “Wishing he’d retired is perfectly acceptable.”

Rose sighed heavily and flopped down onto Nat’s bed next to her, covering her face with her hands. “I think if I study any more my brains are going to liquify and leak out my ears.”

Nat knew exactly how she felt. It was not that she wanted to be reviewing right then, but it stuck better when she reviewed every note she’d taken each night before bed. It was her current favorite way to fall asleep. “Cheer up, we only have another two months of this nonsense.” Nat wondered idly where their roommates were, but knew they were probably still in the common room studying.

“It’s not nonsense, which is what makes it worse!” Rose reminded her. “I want to be a Potions Master which means I need an O on my O.W.L. or I can’t do it!”

“You will get an O,” Nat reassured her. “About the only subject you’re rubbish in is History of Magic and you’re still pretty good. You got an E on that last practice exam Professor Binns gave us.”

Rose was silent a moment and then she began to giggle. “Mum apparently got an E on her Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. and Dad said she was so disappointed not to get all O’s! I don’t care if I get an E here and there, just need that O in Potions.”

“No more trying to up Scorpius to be top of the class?” Nat wondered absently as she turned a page and kept reading through her notes.

Rose let out a snort. “It’s a toss up as to who is better and it’s not much of a competition when neither of us cares all that much. Competing against one of my best friends who is so smart that he doesn’t actually have to try too hard to get good grades is just annoying.”

“You’re also that smart,” Nat reminded her. “You also try, which is why I think you’ll beat him. You’re right, though. He’s only trying for an E in everything.”

“Which is the annoying part!” she retorted with a snort. “He’s putting in an effort, but I honestly think it’s only because we’re all putting in an effort. This whole situation with his dad it just eating at him.”

“He’s not stupid, though,” Nat reminded her. “He wants away from the Malfoy name and money which means he needs to be able to get a job to support himself. He won’t throw that away just to spite his father. He wants his independence.”

The whole thing with Scorpius’ father was a messed-up joke, except it wasn’t a funny joke. The elder Malfoy had sent only one letter to his son all year, and it was to remind him that he needed to get all O’s on his O.W.L.’s which had annoyed Scorpius to no end. He’d burned the letter and hadn’t bothered to reply. Nat could understand why. It was like he wasn’t loved, just a means to an end. He was supposed to do his duty to the Malfoy name and not shame the family.

Nat’s parents had both been writing to her every week from their various corners of the world and even though they didn’t understand all the ins and outs of the magical world, they understood the big exams and how important they were. They’d both asked her multiple times what she wanted to do with her life and she’d told them she didn’t know. They’d understand if she said she wanted to be a mum, they really would. They weren’t trying to pressure her into a career but the fact of the matter was that every girl was pressured into that now. It was a sociological phenomenon which had been building for decades by this point. Girls were pressured into going to university to find a career and focus on that. It was fine, as far as Nat could see, as long as there was room for other options. She didn’t like how everyone was being pushed towards university, whether it was good for them or not. Trades were good, so was staying home to raise children, but that was rarely emphasized for anyone who wanted to be ‘successful.’

“Nat?”

“What?” she turned to look at Rose who was studying her curiously. “Nothing, what did you say?”

“I asked if you thought Scorpius could turn it around.”

Nat considered that for a long moment. “I think he will turn it around and I think we’ll be part of the reason why. I think he just needs to see that his life at home is not normal and accept that he can have normal.”

“I hope so,” Rose sighed heavily as their roommates came it. “Honestly, I just want to get this year over with. Let’s finish these exams and get out of here. I’m excited for Molly’s wedding this summer.”

Nat grinned and shook her head. “We’ll look back and think the time flew and you’ll wish we could go back.”

“Not going to happen,” her friend said as she pushed to her feet. “I will never, ever, miss exams.”

~*~

Scorpius tried to pretend he was listening to the girl at his side. She was pretty, smart, and everything a bloke could want. She had brown hair and eyes and a dimple in her left cheek. She had just the tiniest smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She’d said yes when he’d stopped her outside of Herbology to see if she wanted to go out with him towards the end of March and here they were, a month later, and all he could think of was how to get out of this horrible arrangement. It wasn’t that Nylah wasn’t lovely, because she was. She was one of the nicest people he’d met in his year, which was probably why she was in Hufflepuff. She wasn’t a pureblood, but she was close enough that his father wouldn’t have decapitated him for it.

But still… they were in Hogsmeade, drinking Butterbeer while she chatted away happily and all he could think about was that she wasn’t Lily.

She wasn’t Lily.

Lily had a lot more freckles and red hair. Lily’s eyes were brown, but not this plain mud brown. Her eyes were like melted chocolate. Lily was small, while Nylah was nearly as tall as Scorpius. She was all wrong and yet he didn’t know how he’d managed to get himself into this mess… again. Again, he’d made the mistake of trying to force feelings where he didn’t have them.

The main problem was he simply could not have feelings for Lily Potter! He had to get over them. It wasn’t an option because his family would be absolutely horrible to her if they’d ever had anything. Also, Lily just didn’t see him that way. As best as he could tell she saw him as a big brother, which was fine. It was completely fine. It was normal. She was still really young.

But he didn’t want her to see him that way and that was partially how he’d ended up dating Nylah. He hadn’t made the same mistakes with her that he had with Avery, his first girlfriend. He’d kissed Nylah, but only just a bit. It hadn’t been anything like the hot and heavy he’d used before to try to drown out the thrumming in his head that told him he was with the wrong person. He hadn’t even known he liked Lily when he’d been dating Avery… at least he hoped that was true.

He’d get over this crush. He wasn’t going to like Lily forever and fall in love with her! That was utterly ridiculous. He was sixteen and she had only just turned fourteen. They were still very young and had a lot of time. Also, he didn’t think Lily’s parents would let him date her. They liked him, sure, as Al’s best mate, but that was very different than a boy trying to date their only daughter. There was a lot of baggage that went along with that, not to mention the fact that it was Scorpius’ crazy great aunt who was trying hard to kill Lily, or maim her, or whatever she wanted to do! All of it was completely bonkers and the rub was he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. If he met up with Isabella Crabbe he would try to kill her, of course, but the odds of him finding her were basically nil. If Harry Potter couldn’t find her, what chance did he, Scorpius, have?

All of this was complicated by exams he needed to pass in order to get a job so he could break away from his family. He wasn’t thinking about supporting a wife or anything. Nope. No.

“Scorpius?” Nylah interrupted him gently.

He realized he hadn’t touched his drink and took a large gulp to cover the awkwardness. “Yes?”

She sighed and gave him a small, sad smile. “I think we both know this isn’t working.”

It took his brain a moment to register what she’d said and he hated the flood of relief that washed through him at her words. “Yeah, I’m really sorry. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, either,” she agreed with a genuine smile this time. “You’ve been really nice, a good first boyfriend for me. I think we should end it now while we’re still friends, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said as he forced down a sigh of relief. “Want to go back up to the castle now?”

She nodded and they left. He walked her into the castle, said goodbye, and thought they’d be okay.

He slowly wandered up to the common room and only remembered then that he’d promised to get Al some sweets while he was in town. “I forgot them,” he told Al as he plunked down on the sofa by the fire next to his best mate. “Nylah broke up with me.”

“Oh,” Al said lamely. “I guess that’s as good a reason as any to forget.”

Scorpius let out a grunt and tried to keep his eyes from straying over to where Lily sat with Honor and Hugo.

“You’re back early,” Rose commented as she and Nat came through the portrait hole with an armload of food.

“You scored!” Al crowed happily as he helped his cousin unload everything.

“The elves like Nat,” Rose laughed as Nat opened up a container of green stuff.

“What on earth is that?” Scorpius asked as she stuck a carrot into the green gunk and popped it into her mouth.

“It’s called guacamole,” she told him around a mouthful of carrot. “I tried it in Mexico and loved it. I’ve finally convinced the elves I need it.”

“How can you need something that green?” he wondered as he took a carrot to dip and taste like she had. It wasn’t half bad, actually. “It’s spicy.”

“It’s so good!” Nat groaned happily. “It’s also full of fat so it’s good for me.”

“If you say so,” Scorpius agreed and felt lighter, as only his friends could help him feel. He glanced once more at Lily and then put her out of his mind.

Finding a girlfriend to fill that hole was not helping and he wasn’t going to do it again. It wasn’t fair to the girl, and it wasn’t fair to him.

He just needed to focus on exams and get through the year. If his luck held, the Potters would invite him to stay for most of the summer and he wouldn’t have to deal with his father anyway. They’d all be better for that.

Back to index


Chapter 50: Chapter 47

Author's Notes: Okay, another chapter. Thank you Arnel for your support!

Personally, I'm doing better. Thank you for all of your kind words and support.


After the bombing of the Ministry Harry thought the letters might stop. They didn’t. They still arrived several times a day, but this time without the explosives. Still just appearing in the post office. Still, they took no chances. The letters were intercepted by an Auror as soon as they arrived in the building. Conveniently, they were sent on a regular schedule of every three hours starting at eight o’clock and ending with the last delivery at five o’clock in the afternoon. Harry eyed the stack of red envelopes with a jaded cynicism. “We have no way to stop this since it’s not from owls.”

“No,” Raeburns agreed. “Owls are immune to most things, which is what makes them so good for delivering the post, but they are, at least, visible. I’m betting these are being dropped by a Portkey.”

Harry shook his head and took the stack of envelopes and threw them in the fire. They were all repeats of the same thing and while Harry was sure that whomever was sending them actually did mean them harm, it was unlikely the letters would tell them what they needed to figure out who was sending them. If they had no leads soon he’d taking it to Nat to see if she could figure it out, but they currently had no detectable magical trace on the letters.

Thankfully they had George on the lookout for someone to buy more quills, but since they’d seen an uptick in sales in the week before the letters started to the tune of over a hundred quills, Harry was utterly certain they’d run out of patience before the villain ran out of quills. It was utterly frustrating.

He’d had to tell his kids to stay at Hogwarts for the Easter hols, even though he could have done with some time with them. He just didn’t have the time to devote to seeing them or keeping them safe. With the summer holidays coming up in just over a month, he needed to make progress on the bandit. They were working flat out, tracking down leads sent to them by the public. It hadn’t been Harry’s idea to speak to the press, but the press had heard nonetheless. What was more, the reporter had implored the public to send in their ideas of who it could be.

This had resulted with Harry and the other Aurors had spending months chasing their tails. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were being given tips just to confuse us.”

It was out of Harry’s mouth before he could stop himself. He knew why he’d said it, of course. The public could see evil in the smallest things, and none of them were exactly trained to spot actual danger.

However…

He stared at Raeburns and saw the exact same train of thought pass through the other man’s brain. “Damn…” Harry breathed out.

“We should have considered that before, if I’m honest,” Raeburns said ruefully before calling out for the other Aurors to gather in the meeting room. “I’ll get the bin of tip mail.”

Harry rather thought it was bins, plural, at this point as he made for the meeting room. He was right. It was bins. Seven of them. “We need to sort these,” Harry told the others. “I have a feeling some of these are pranks or possibly sent from the red-letter bomber. I don’t know if we’ll be able to figure it out, but everyone start sorting the letters alphabetically by the last name of the sender and we’ll go from there.”

They weren’t even ten minutes into sorting when Teddy let out a snort. “This one is from Al E. Gator.”

“Come again?” Harry asked as he took the letter from his godson and scanned it. “Well…”

“I have a Dick Tate,” Susan said as she handed over the letter.

Harry let out a long sigh. “Did anyone read the names on the envelopes?”

“Actually,” Teddy admitted reluctantly, “I was tasked with scanning and opening all of them. Since we’ve had thousands, I definitely stopped checking names after the first day unless the tip seemed credible. Mostly, I just wrote down the tip and compiled those in a list for us to check. Come to that, the only weird name I spotted that first day was Doris Shutt but I just thought it was probably an unfortunate marriage.”

“Poppy Cox,” Raeburn sighed as he picked up another.

“Rick O’Shea.”

“Lee Vitoff.”

“Oliver Clothesoff.”

“Alright,” Harry said as everyone laughed at that last one. He rubbed at a headache that desperately wanted to build. “Let’s try to work through this and find all the pun names. I can’t believe we’re seriously doing this. If you’re unsure of the name, put it in a pile and we’ll have someone else review it.”

His report to the Minister that afternoon was not good. She was less than amused at the ridiculous game being played on the Aurors. “Is someone trying to make us a joke?”

“It seems that way,” Harry agreed. “That’s why I’m more convinced than ever that this isn’t Crabbe. She is too crazy to have any kind of sense of humor.”

“I completely agree with that,” the Minister said heavily as she shook her head. “Keep me posted.”

Harry didn’t make it home until close to midnight and was asleep next to Ginny the moment his head hit the pillow.

It didn’t last long. They were awoken less than an hour later by an extremely loud explosion outside the house. “What?!” he grumbled as his sleep-deprived brain tripped over itself, thinking he was dreaming, but only for a second as he grabbed for his glasses and his wand and ran for the source of the noise, heading out of their room and down the hall to James’ room.

The tree just outside the kitchen window was on fire! He scrambled to open the window and cried out, “Aguamenti!” Less than five seconds later, Ginny was next to him, doing the same thing. In moments the fire was out and they both stood there for a full three seconds of silence as Polly called out, asking what had happened.

A team of Aurors was at their house within ten minutes to start the investigation, one which Harry had to deliberately step out of since he was too close to the situation.

“It has to be an owl,” Raeburns growled in frustration. “The owls can get through the Unplottable charms, the Fidelius Charm, and every other protection you have around this place! My bet is we’re going to find the tiny bits of an owl somewhere in this mess. It probably landed in the tree to wait until morning to get in the window.”

Harry had a sick feeling in his stomach that his old friend was right.

“What are we going to do?” Ginny asked numbly as they sat together at the kitchen table, drinking tea liberally laced with whisky.

“All our mail will have to go through the Ministry,” Harry sighed and thought of the headache that was going to cause for the office. He didn’t want to pawn off his problems on the Ministry, but there was little he could do with the kids coming home soon. His bigger concern was someone using the owls to try to find the house. It was a bit of a gamble, but if someone had a broom and enough time on their hands, they could follow an owl to the location, even if they couldn’t get into the location.

“This was supposed to be our one safe place,” Ginny sighed as she stared into her nearly empty mug of tea. “This was supposed to be a haven, and yet time and again people have found a way around the security.”

Harry felt a twist of guilt rip through his gut as he reached over to grip his wife’s cold hand. “I’m sorry, Luv.”

“It’s not your fault,” she reminded him. “I just wish people would stop targeting you like you’re the author of everything! It’s not all on you.”

It might not all be on him, but sometimes it felt like it. “I’ll get the mail rerouted as soon as the Aurors are done here. We’ll be safe after that.”

But he wasn’t sure he believed it, and he had a looming deadline of the kids coming home hanging over his head. Already Ginny had stopped watching baby Emma at their house. She went to Teddy’s place, or to Fleur’s on a random schedule so that there was no predictable pattern to her movements.

After seeing to the mail and dealing with the paperwork involved in the explosion, Harry decided he’d had enough for the day and went home to get Ginny and take her to the beach cottage. There both of them collapsed into bed and slept for going on ten hours.

~*~

“This is seriously cracked,” Teddy said as he changed Emma’s nappy just before bed. “Why won’t people leave Harry alone?”

“I don’t know,” Victoire sighed as she sorted through some clothes, making a pile of items that were too small. “He’s the loveliest person! I don’t get who would be targeting him, or why? What is the point in all these letter bombs? What could he have done that could have set all of this off?”

“People don’t need a reason to be crazy,” Teddy replied heavily as he finished dressing the squirming Emma. She was supposed to be tired, but of course the only people who were tired in their house were Teddy and Victoire.

Victoire shook her head and took the squirming toddler to sit in the rocking chair to nurse her. “Yes, but there had to be something.

It rang through Teddy’s mind as he went to finish the last of the cleaning up after supper. He’d have loved to stay and watch them but if he stayed, Emma would absolutely not relax enough to go to sleep. She’d use him as a distraction, so he was banned from the rest of the nighttime ritual. He set the dishes to washing and put the rest of the kitchen to rights as his mind dwelled on the problem of the red envelope bomber. It felt like whoever was sending them was absolutely mocking them. It felt personal, as though the person might have something against the Ministry. There were a lot of people who had something against the Ministry, of course. It was almost a given that there would be issues. The Ministry was only ever slightly popular, at best, and only then when there was a crisis, but except for the Crabbe issue, which primarily targeted Harry and a few individuals who had been collateral damage, things were running fairly smoothly in the country.

It was true that wages were stagnated, as they were in much of the world. Taxes might be a little too high. Not everyone loved every decision the Ministry made, and certainly there were protests to things such as the house-elves being given more protections, but…

BUT!

Teddy’s mind stopped running so quickly he could have literally fallen over. It was just one small incident, but it had happened just weeks before the red envelopes had started appearing. He felt like jumping out of his skin. He had to go speak to Harry, but he wasn’t going to leave without telling Victoire and goodness knew how long it would take Emma to fall asleep tonight.

It took her hours, of course. Not literally, of course, but the twenty minutes Victoire was in the nursery felt like about seventy hours to Teddy. He quickly explained his theory to his wife, who agreed it was worth looking into, and then headed back to the office where he knew Harry would still be working. It wasn’t yet eight o’clock and Harry hadn’t left the office before ten any night in the last few weeks, save the day he slept through after the bombing the week before.

He found Harry in his office and knocked on the door frame as he came in, closed the door, and sat down. “Why are you back?” Harry asked curiously as he studied Teddy with eyes full of exhaustion.

“What was the name of the man fired for the house-elf regulations back at Christmas?” Teddy asked Harry.

Harry stared at him blankly before he shook his head. “I dunno, Hermione took care of it. I didn’t have…” then Harry stopped and his eyes came back to life as he realized what Teddy was implying. “Bloody hell.”

“That’s what I thought,” Teddy agreed as he leaned forward in his chair. “What if it’s him? He has a grudge against the Ministry, a reason to make all of us miserable, in particular you for setting this off, and he’d know how the postal system here in the Ministry worked. He’d know the procedures of how to plan out ways to hurt or sabotage the Ministry.”

“That’s a really good theory,” Harry said as he stared up at the celling and mulled it over. “We have to watch him. We have to get proof.”

“I can do that,” Teddy said quickly. “With being able to change disguises so often, I can be the one to keep track of him to see if it’s really him. The red letters are still coming multiple times a day, and those just appear, but the hoax tip mail is all coming via owl, right?”

Harry nodded slowly. “Okay, I need to run this by the Minister and think through a plan. You head home and we’ll have something for you in the morning. This needs to be well thought out.”

By the time Teddy arrived at eight the next morning, they had a good plan in place. The Ministry’s records on the man, who turned out to be named Hughes Lovenut, a name which made Teddy certain he’d have lose mind just on principle of having to bear that name, lived in a small village in Wales with several other magical families. One of the witches who lived right next to Hughes was an older witch who worked directly under the Minister and was as trustworthy as they came. It was decided Teddy would go, disguised as a small boy, to visit the woman for a week. She would claim him as a great-nephew, too young for school, who had parents that wanted to travel overseas on holiday without him.

As a small child, Teddy could pretend to play right outside of the man’s house, watching and observing. Also, as a small child, if he was not seen because he’d gone home, no one would think twice about it. It would be assumed he’d been put to bed. Another Auror could take over in the house and watch over Lovenut until the morning when Teddy was back on duty.

“It’s a good plan,” Teddy agreed. “Is Maude taking the week off to spend with her nephew?” Maude Pike was the name of the woman who would play Teddy’s aunt.

“She is,” Harry told him. “She can be a second set of eyes and ears for us. Also, I’ve heard she has a tendency to bake biscuits when she’s bored, so watch your waistline while you’re there. Both the Minister and Hermione have complained about her good cooking.”

Teddy couldn’t help but laugh. He walked into the assignment in high spirits, certain he would be able to find the proof to nab Lovenut in a matter of days.

How very wrong he was.

He posed as a ginger-haired six-year-old, an image he’d pulled from an old picture of Uncle Charlie when he’d been a small boy, complete with freckles and a big, round face. He topped it off with glasses, which he didn’t actually need, and clothes Hermione and Ginny dug out from when Hugo, James, and Al had been that small. He’d been amazed they’d still had things and hadn’t given them away yet, but Ginny said it was harder to let go of the memories attached to the clothes.

And so Teddy spent the first week at the house playing outside constantly, building a fort as close to Lovenut’s house as he possibly could. The man, who was tall, thin as a rail, and toe-headed with flat gray eyes came out several times to look at him. Teddy pretended, at first, to be shy, and then he tried to offer one of the biscuits the wonderful Maude Pike made by the dozens, but was rebuffed with a curt word that too many biscuits was going to make him fat.

Teddy had had to scramble to think of what a child would say, but all he could think to do was shove the sweet, fattening perfect goodness into his mouth and say, around a mouthful of food, that he wasn’t going to get fat.

Unfortunately, if he had to stay with Maude for much longer he was absolutely certain he would. Granted, he could just hide the fat but it would still be there in his natural form.

The problem was no owls left the man’s house and the only mail he received was the morning’s paper. The Ministry continued to receive regular joke tips via owl, and the red envelopes still appeared out of nowhere.

“This is a bust,” Teddy told Harry at Harry’s place the evening of his last day at Maude’s as he opened up the sack of treats the woman had insisted he take along.

Harry groaned as his hand hovered over them. “Dear Merlin, that woman is a menace! Just one…”

“It’s never just one,” Teddy assured him darkly. “No, don’t eat them, Ginny! Trust me, you don’t want to do that to yourself.”

Ginny just laughed and shook her head. “I am absolutely going to pass,” she promised and then eyed Harry as he let out a groan of ecstasy. “That’s absolutely indecent!”

“So is this,” Harry said as he popped the last bit into his mouth and went for another.

“See?” Teddy said as he also took a second one. “So if it’s Lovenut, we have nothing. I saw nothing, except an unpleasant middle-aged man who is not a fan of sugar. That’s not a crime, though.”

Ginny took the bag from the both of them and they eyed her as she took it and put it on the counter. “That doesn’t mean he’s not doing anything. It just means he’s been sneaky enough not to get caught.”

“We have to try something more direct,” Harry agreed. “I’m going to take one of the red envelopes to Hogwarts tomorrow and see was Nat makes of it. I don’t recall if she’s ever seen an old Portkey, so I dug out one for her to examine.”

“Are you staying on at Maude’s?” Ginny wondered as she stuck a bowl of carrots in front of the two men.

Teddy shook his head. “At this point, it would do no good. We have nothing on him. He didn’t appear to be leaving his house, but we can’t be absolutely certain and without more proof than a hunch, we can’t do more.”

“It’s back to the old grind for you,” Harry told him as he reluctantly picked up a carrot. “Good thing, too. I think you gained half a stone in the week you were there.”

Teddy grinned merrily. “It was worth it.”

Harry made good on his decision the next morning, arriving just after classes. He’d sent a note to Neville earlier in the day to have Nat summoned to Neville’s office and when Harry opened the door, it was to find Nat waiting for him in one of the comfortable chairs before Neville’s desk. “Hullo, Mr. Potter.”

“Natalie,” Harry grinned as he often did when he saw her. She was just such an affable child, although since she was sixteen now he supposed he couldn’t think of her as such much longer. “How is the term going?”

“It’s been alright,” Nat said with a small smile as Neville shifted a bit in his seat. Nat glanced to her Head of House, and then back to Harry. “I, uh, had a small fainting episode. I think I was a little too stressed, but I’m better now.”

Concerned, Harry sat down next to her and studied her more carefully. She was a little pale, come to that. “Are you sure?”

“Quite sure,” Nat promised. “Healer Weasley came to see me already, and she’s suggested I take it easier on my studies.”

“Audrey spoke with the O.W.L. panel, as Nat here is what we’d consider a medically fragile case. It’s been decided she will take the exams by herself, untimed, so that she can do her best work. In her practice exams she has not shown a need for more time, but this has been done once or twice in the past when it’s been necessary. She’ll take them here, in my office, where she will have access to food and water the entire time. One of the examiners will be on hand, as will a Healer from St. Mungo’s.”

“It’s a bit of an overkill, actually,” Nat sighed out. “I honestly think I’ll be fine, but I just needed to, uh, not study so much. I need more sleep.”

Harry felt like he was missing half of the story. In fact, he was certain that Nat was lying to him about studying being the root cause of the problem. “Neville?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we have the room for a moment?”

Neville gave him a long, steady look, and then nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll wait outside.”

The moment they were alone, Harry pointed at her. “You’re lying.”

Nat glanced away from him as her face turned bright red. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Concerned flared through him as he studied her small face as the flushed embracement deepened. “Are you in trouble?”

She shook her head. “It’s just a stupid teenager thing.”

He waited a beat, but decided that yes, the only thing that might turn her face tomato red would be a stupid teenager thing, as she put it. “Alright, but you know you can talk to us if you need to.”

He’d remembered all too well wanting to talk to Sirius when things had started to pile up in his fifth year.

Nat nodded once. “So what’s up?”

“Ah, yes,” Harry said as he pulled out one of the red envelopes. “These are just appearing in the post room at the Ministry. We don’t know how they’re getting there.”

Nat stared at the envelope and shook her head. “It’s elf magic.”

Harry’s heart skipped a single beat. “Excuse me? It’s not a Portkey?”

She shook her head firmly. “No, it has the same magical signature as the meals that appear in the Great Hall and as all the laundry. The elves move things from place to place with magic all the time. Portkeys look more… chaotic is the best word. Elf magic looks smooth and natural. There is some weird magic all over the parchment inside, though.”

“That’s one of George’s inventions,” Harry told her. “It’s a quill that writes love letters.” He then went on to explain about the specially enchanted quills.

Nat’s mouth fell open and then she started to giggle. “I’ve seen that before on letters delivered here at Hogwarts! Oh, wait until I tell the others that the love letters are being faked!”

He left her to it and left even more confused than he had been before. Hughes Lovenut did not, as far as the Ministry knew, own a house-elf. The list of families who did was small, including his own, and would have to be checked. But first he needed to go home and have dinner with his wife so she didn’t forget his face. Work could work, at least for a little while.

Ginny, it turned out, had already heard about Nat’s medical scare and Audrey going to check on her. “I had coffee with her two days ago,” she informed Harry.

“Where was I?” Harry asked rhetorically, but he knew the answer. He’d been at work, of course.

“It’s a good thing I’m an independent woman,” Ginny laughed.

Harry took her hands and kissed the knuckles gently. “I’m sorry, Gin. I’m so damn sorry! The whole work thing…”

“It’s fine for now,” she interrupted. “For now, I’m okay with where we are. There will come a day when I will say enough is enough and that will need to be that, but that won’t be for a long time yet.”

“I promise,” he said simply and absolutely meant it, “as soon as you say you’re ready for me to be done I will wrap it up and bow out.”

“That’s all I can ask,” she said. “Also, to go back to Natalie, Audrey thinks it’s a boy thing.”

“Uh… come again?”

“We both think her crush on Al is the problem and why she fainted,” Ginny told him and Harry nodded slowly, as though he wasn’t terribly confused.

“She has a crush on Al…” Harry said and tried not to make it sound like a question.

“Honestly, Harry!” Ginny sighed in exasperation before laughing with genuine humor. “Sometimes I think you sleep through half our conversations! Of course, Nat has a crush on Al, and Al has one on her! How have you missed this?”

Harry wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to have seen, actually. “They’re friends.”

“Yes, they’re friends, but…” she shook her head. “No, never mind. That’s not important. The important part is we think she was more upset about that and not sleeping because of her worry over Al than the actual exams. She’s so smart, so I can’t imagine she’s truly going to struggle with them.”

Harry wanted to ask how Ginny and Audrey had come to that conclusion but decided that way only lay madness and he had enough on his hands already. “Right.”

“Scared Al, from what I heard from Lily,” Ginny said as she sat back and stuck her feet up onto his lap, prompting him to start rubbing at her bare feet. “Lily says he carried her all the way up to Hannah in the hospital wing and wouldn’t leave her side. I really feel for her,” she told him as she poked his stomach with her big toe. “It’s so hard having a crush on a boy and him not knowing.”

“Well,” Harry grinned as he leaned over to kiss her soundly on the mouth, “I know now and even better, I married you which means I never have to be without you.”

But of course he was, since he still had to go back to the office and let the rest of the team know that an elf was getting the packages into the post office.

The elves down in the post office told him that they knew it was an elf sending them but no one had asked the elves what was happened.

Harry decided that Hermione had been right all along and the wizarding treatment of the house-elves was stupidly appalling. He could have learned about how the letters were arriving in the Ministry months before if just any one of these highly intelligent wizards or witches had thought to ask one of the house-elves in the Ministry’s employ.

“I feel like an absolute idiot,” Hermione groaned as Harry explained what they’d found out the next day. “I didn’t think to question them, either! I just asked what happened, and not about the letters and how they were arriving! Of course the elves would know exactly how they were getting here.”

“We’re all idiots,” Harry assured her with a long sigh. “Now we have to figure out who is doing it. I asked and they don’t know who the elf is who is sending in the letters, but we have the owls with the fake tips coming and I’ve decided I’m desperate enough to have someone follow the owl with a return to sender order.”

It was all for nothing, of course. The owl’s letter was sent by I.P. Freely, and it turned out that Mr. Freely’s owl did not know how to get back to him. Or her. Harry had several Aurors try again to follow several more of the owls back to the sender, but the owls ended up circling London, confused and lost. However the owls were getting to London, it wasn’t via any normal routes. Also, it was never the same owl twice. Harry finally put out a call to all the owl shops and mail centers in all of wizarding Britain to see if anyone had seen anything odd.

Finally, they had their first break.

“I have a lead,” Susan said as she came in through Harry’s open office door. “I just spoke to a bloke up in Scotland who says he’s had a couple of gentlemen in to get an owl to London and he grew suspicious because three of the owls haven’t returned yet. The bloke, who was different looking each time, requested to tie the letter onto the owl personally and made quite a show of it.”

“Have any of his owls returned?” Harry wondered as something inside him began to stir.

Susan nodded and pulled out a sheet of parchment from her robe pocket. “One tawny and a snowy made it back from the man the shop owner says rented the use of the owls, but they’re both quite confused and he has been trying to nurse them back into health. He’s afraid he can’t send them out anymore.”

“This has to be happening all over,” Harry mused as he sat back. “He’s Confunding the owls, or something.”

“Most of the regular post owls are typically not vulnerable to tampering. They go where they are sent and don’t go off course, then they return home,” Susan said grimly. “I’m a little mystified that someone would be able to do that to the owls in the first place.”

“What we need to check now is–”

Harry’s words were cut off by Ginny’s horse Patronus galloping into his office and his wife’s words speaking in an urgent tone. Harry was up and out of his seat before he even heard her message, knowing someone was horribly wrong.

“House is under attack,” Ginny’s voice told him. “I have Emma and we’re leaving for the beach house.”

The blood froze in Harry’s veins as people around him began yelling and most of the Auror force assembled to go to his house.

The scene they arrived to was complete chaos and fire everywhere. The woods around his house were burning and immediately the Aurors went to battling the fire and sweeping the area for anyone who might be lurking.

Harry already knew they were gone, but he went through the house and found his wife, his granddaughter, and the two elves gone, as he’d expected. Still, his heart relaxed for a split second only before he ordered Teddy to get to the beach house and verify that they were alright.

They had to be alright!

It took almost an hour to put out the fires and Harry saw, with dismay, that much of the beautiful forest around his house had been destroyed. The house would have burned if they hadn’t arrived as quickly as they had. Ginny could have put it out, of course, but he was glad she’d left. Houses could be fixed, but death was permanent.

“They are alright,” Teddy assured him as he arrived back on the scene and surveyed the damage. “What an absolute mess!”

Harry felt cold throughout his whole body as he moved through and processed the scene. Finally, when they’d finished up and he’d contacted Neville to ask him to work on fixing the trees once he was done with the term, Harry went to speak to the Minister, to tell her of his plan.

“How do we justify that to the wizarding world?” she asked him seriously. “How do I explain granting a warrant to search his home?”

“You say an anonymous, credible, tip,” Harry told her flatly. “That’s exactly what it will be.”

Sighing heavily, the minister nodded. “Well, I can’t argue with that.”

An hour later, Harry smuggled Nat out of Hogwarts under the invisibility cloak. Her classmates were told she’d needed to report to see Hannah, which was not unusual, and Hannah had curtained off a section of the Hospital Wing to make it seem as though Nat was sleeping there. They went first to the Ministry, straight to the Auror’s office. There Harry explained what they were doing and why.

Nat was silent through much of the explanation, but she nodded in agreement.

They used the Floo to get to Maude Pike’s home. Maude was not home. The Minister had personally asked to use her home, and for her to stay at the Ministry while they did and Maude had agreed. No one would know about Nat, except for Teddy, Hermione, and the Minister herself.

Nat put the cloak back on as soon as they arrived in Maude’s house and Harry took her to the window which overlooked Lovenut’s house. Nat studied it silently for more than a minute before she said, “He’s got an elf in there. It’s all over the house. He’s also made a lot of Portkeys. There’s a weird aura around the house that I think… I think it’s a defensive thing for buildings. I’ve seen it before on your house, at Hogwarts, and around the Ministry.”

“That’s all I need to know,” Harry told her as relief flooded through him. Lovenut had a house-elf, one he hadn’t registered. That was all Harry needed to know. He’d have Teddy get her back to school and then they’d move in on Lovenut.

This would all be over in a matter of hours.

~*~

“Thanks, Teddy,” Nat said as Teddy helped catch her as she fell through the Floo into Madam Longbottom’s office.

“No problem,” Teddy replied as he steadied her.

“Everything alright?” Hannah asked as she gave Nat a once over.

“I’m fine,” Nat said with a tight smile as she waved bye to Teddy, who was heading back to the Ministry to deal with Lovenut.

“Al is waiting for you,” Hannah told her and her heart tripped a beat at the mention of his name. “He wouldn’t leave, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him to go.”

“Thanks,” Nat said as she went out into the empty Hospital Wing and pulled back the curtain to see Al sitting on the empty bed she was supposed to be using. “You didn’t have to wait for me.”

Al jumped and she realized she’d startled him. “You okay?”

“I’m okay,” she promised yet again. He wouldn’t believe her. She’d given him quite a fright when she’d fainted on him the week before. She hadn’t slept well for a week because her brain kept tormenting her with all the ways Al was going to be happy without her. It was true, of course. He didn’t need her and he wasn’t going to want to be with her, so she needed to get over it, but her brain just wouldn’t shut off. She knew that it was hormones and puberty, but of course that didn’t exactly make her feel better about the whole thing. So she’d been exhausted, and she hadn’t eaten well, and she’d fainted. He hadn’t caught her and she’d hit her head, which had meant an overnight in the Hospital Wing, but it wasn’t like it would cause permanent damage, of course. Magic was good about healing those things.

Still, he’d been hovering since. Part of her relished his attention. Most of her felt guilty that he felt guilty. It wasn’t his fault that her stupid heart was causing her so many problems.

“Nat…” Al stood and came towards her, scrutinizing her features.

She hated when he did that. She knew what he saw, and she hated it. She couldn’t change how she looked, nor would she try… but this way he was seeing all her flaws up close. “I’m fine,” she said again.

He shook his head. “I hate that my dad keeps asking things of you.”

“He had to,” Nat said heavily. She double checked they were alone and then told him what had happened.

Al was suitably horrified by the damage near their house, but still not ready to let his dad off the hook. “He should find another way.”

“I was under the cloak,” Nat said as she held up the sack that held the cloak. She handed it to Al. “You can give this back to James later. Anyway, no one knew I went there or that I came back except people we can trust.”

“One of these times, he’s going to expose you and you’ll get hurt,” Al muttered angrily as he scowled down at the cloak.

Nat gently put a hand on his arm which was bunched up tight with tension. “Do you honestly believe that, Al? Do you honestly think your dad would let me get hurt?”

“You’re too fragile!” Al exclaimed as his troubled eyes met her.

She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I fainted once. I was being stupid, but this thing with your dad was easy. It was nothing! I just went to look at a house. Seeing the magic takes no effort at all! In fact, I have to work hard not to see the magic! That’s the hard part.”

“I dunno,” he sighed. “It just doesn’t seem right!”

“Let’s go,” Nat told him wearily. “Anyway, your dad had already faced off against Voldemort several times by the time he was sixteen.”

“My dad isn’t you,” Al muttered darkly. “He didn’t just faint.”

Nat almost let the anger win over the comment, but when it came down to it, he was absolutely right. She was not Harry Potter, nor would she ever be Harry Potter or anything like him. So she let it go and grinned up at Al. “On the plus side, at least I didn’t break anything this time.”

He was not mollified. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

“It’s not.”

She fell silent for a moment before saying, “I need to be useful where I can, Al. Your dad isn’t going to let me get hurt. He has my best interest at heart. I want to help! I like feeling useful and like my life isn’t worthless.”

“Stop!” he growled and turned on her, stopping her in her tracks with his anger. “You’re not– you’re– Leah! Come on!”

She bit at her lip and watched him as he struggled to say something, but whatever it was it seemed to have defeated him. “It’s not the job I want, not like you, but if I can help make the world a safer place then I want to do it. You have to understand that.”

“I do, but–”

“Then no buts,” Nat said as she started down towards their common room again. “We have nothing to row about.”

It didn’t feel like he was exactly ready to be done fighting, but he stopped the argument for now.

Nat wondered if this was just how her life was going to be. It wasn’t a bad life, certainly, but it also didn’t feel like it was a complete life, either.

Sneaking around under a cloak just didn’t feel like a full life and she didn’t know what to do about it.

Back to index


Chapter 51: Chapter 48

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing

Please consider checking out my novels on amazon. Sarah Jaune


“I bet Dad isn’t too happy,” Al said as he read through the article on the capture of Lovenut the next morning at breakfast. The ceiling above them was a mottled blue with huge clouds sometimes dotting out the sun. Nat had said, the moment they’d stepped into the Great Hall, that it looked like a storm was brewing.

“He never wants the credit,” Rose agreed as she helped herself to a sausage. “That quote in there about how it was a team effort and the Aurors had all played a major role in solving it… it’s so typical of him.”

Nat glanced around to make sure no one listening before she commented. “I know for a fact it was Teddy’s idea to check out Lovenut. He was the one who put it together, so really Teddy should get the credit.”

“You should get the credit,” Al grumbled as he put away the paper to eat his breakfast. “But on second thought, no. I don’t want you to get the credit.”

“That would be bad,” Scorpius agreed as he took the paper from Al and started reading through as he thoughtlessly nibbled on bacon. He took a sip of his pumpkin juice and then, to everyone’s shock, spit it all over the paper and the group.

“Gross!” Rose sighed as she pulled out her wand and flicked it to clear away the mess. “Something earth shattering had better be in the paper for you to–”

“Look at this!” Scorpius growled as he slammed the paper down on top of the piles of food, soaking in a good bit of bacon grease. He pointed to a small article towards the end.

Scorpius Malfoy’s Engagement Imminent.

“Uh,” Al choked back a laugh. “Forget to tell us something, mate?”

Scorpius glared at him. “This is utter crap! I haven’t agreed to marry anyone!”

“The paper has lied before–” Rose began, but Scorpius cut them off.

“My dad sent me an owl.”

The three of them stared at him. It was Nat who recovered first. “When was this? We didn’t see an owl.”

Scorpius hesitated. He shook his head and some of his dirty blond hair slipped down over his eyes as he stared down at the rest of his uneaten meal. “It was on my bed last night.”

“And it said what?” Al asked sharply.

“That they were talking to a family from Germany,” Scorpius sighed as he finally met their gazes again. “I wrote back and told him no! I have no idea why he thinks I’d agree to this when I’ve told him all along I wouldn’t. I think he’s just trying to get me under his thumb. He cooperated with his father, went along with the arranged marriage to my mother, and look where they are now. I’m not doing it! If I ever marry, it’ll be to a girl I actually want to marry.” As he said this, his ears went a bit pink.

“Have all the marriages in your family been arranged?” Nat asked curiously.

“Not all of them,” Scorpius told her. “My grandfather, Lucius, and grandmother Narcissa arranged that one on their own after meeting… actually, I dunno where they met. Anyway, it was still an acceptable match for them so there was no problem. As long as you pick someone acceptable, then you can do what you like.”

“You won’t,” Rose said firmly. It wasn’t a question.

“Not acceptable to them, anyway,” Scorpius agreed bitterly.

Al saw him glance down the table, and then look away again quickly. He almost turned to see who he’d look at, but decided against it. If Scorpius wanted to keep things to himself, that was up to him and he wasn’t going to pry.

“They can’t actually make you marry anyone,” Nat pointed out reasonably.

“They could stop paying for me to come to school,” Scorpius told her flatly. “That was part of his letter. I had to fall in line or they wouldn’t buy my things for next year.”

“Your aunt has money,” Rose reminded him. “It’s an empty threat. Write to her and tell her you need some funds set up in your name only. It doesn’t take that much to buy books and robes and you’ve said she has a sizable portion, right?”

Scorpius nodded slowly as he mulled it over. “No, you’re right. I’ll send an owl to Aunt Daphne after class. If she doesn’t set up something for me then I’ll have to find another way, but I’m not going along with this.”

“I find it odd they aren’t trying to find an English girl,” Nat said thoughtfully as she forked up a bite of eggs. “They’ve all been English so far, haven’t they?”

Scorpius let out a loud snort. “First off, my family has been disgraced in the wizarding community in England. Everyone knows they sided with Voldemort and then walked away at the final battle. My dad and grandfather both served time in prison. If you’re a fanatical pureblood nut, then you know the Malfoys abandoned Voldemort at the moment he needed them most. If you’re not so fanatical as to have loved Voldemort, then you know the Malfoys were with Voldemort for most of the time through his rise to power. My family is responsible for some truly terrible things. Either way you look at it and no one wants to associate with the likes of me.”

“Plus you’re in Gryffindor,” Al pointed out in amusement. “That automatically makes you a traitor.”

“Too right it does,” Scorpius agreed.

They let the subject drop because it was clearly bothering Scorpius but Al stood with him as his friend scribbled a quick note to his aunt and sent it off in the short break they had between classes.

“The sky is looking worse,” Scorpius noted as they went out to the greenhouses for Herbology.

“I’m telling you,” Nat reminded them, “There is a storm coming.”

A storm ended up being an understatement. They had the rest of that day with only a buildup of clouds but by evening the sky had opened up and rain began to pour down in buckets onto the castle and the wind and lightning intensified as the night went on. By bedtime almost no one had left the common room, preferring to huddle near the fires as the tempest outside continued to roar. Scorpius, Al, Nat, and Rose were huddled up in some armchairs off to the side, jumping every few moments as the loud booms and cracks shook the entire castle while the room lit up in flickering, flashing, eerie glows.

“I do not like this,” Al muttered quietly, even though he knew how it made him sound.

Nat, who was sitting across from him and watching the storm flash, was pale and clearly agitated. “I’ve only ever seen storms like this when stuck in a hurricane or a tornado.”

“When were you in a tornado?” Rose asked from her seat next to Al.

“When I was eight,” Nat told her. “We were in Oklahoma, in America,” she explained. “We ended up in a library to wait out the storm and it was like a freight train was passing close by.”

Al shuddered as the room lit to unnatural brightness and then the crash came again, shaking the windows with unbelievable force.

They all turned as the portrait hole opened and Neville came into the common room. He glanced around and sighed heavily. “It looks like most of you are still up anyway. The storm is getting worse so we’re moving everyone down to the Great Hall to sleep tonight. Please leave your bags here and make your way straight down. Prefects, please check each room and gather up the rest of the students. Escort them down.”

Nerves skittered to life in Al’s stomach as they all followed him out of the portrait hole, past the Fat Lady who was having a whispered conversation with her friend, Violet, about the storm.

They streamed down into the Great Hall to find the tables pushed to the side and squashy purple sleeping bags spread all around the floor. “Come on,” Al said as he moved over to one said and claimed a bag. Shortly after Lily, Hugo, and Honor came over along with James, Caroline, and Louis. Caroline’s dog plodded after her, plopping down next to her the moment she picked a place to sleep, taking up his own sleeping bag. Al thought that was prudent. Even to a dog, the floor of the Great Hall would be cold.

“It’s bad,” James said as he slid into a sleeping bag and the sky above them lit up again and again and again. Down here in the Great Hall, though, the walls weren’t shaking like they had been up in the towers.

“I heard someone say that Slytherin’s common room has flooded,” Louis told them as he sat cross-legged on his own sleeping bag.

Al glanced over to the Slytherins in pity as he saw they all looked extra rumpled, but not wet. The professors could have dried them all off, of course, but the strain was still showing. As much as he didn’t like them sometimes, he wouldn’t have wished that on anyone.

“Ravenclaw tower would have been much the same as ours,” Rose mused. “Only the Hufflepuffs would have been fine, but I expect they didn’t want to single them out to stay.”

A loud crash sounded through the whole building causing everyone to jump and several people to scream in terror. It was the loudest they’d heard yet and it sent several of the teachers sprinting towards the doors while others tried to calm the students down.

“Quiet everyone!” Hannah called out to all the students in a booming voice. “Quiet! Everyone is here and accounted for so we will wait for the Headmaster and the rest of the teachers. Please wait quietly on your own sleeping bag and don’t move around the room. We are safe in here.”

Al knew that was true, as the Great Hall had been rebuilt after the war with the utmost of safety in mind in case the students needed a place to shelter, but the storm roaring around them was not helping.

“Look,” Nat whispered as she grabbed his arm and pointed up towards the ceiling above them.

Al watched in horrified fascination as a branch the size of Hagrid slid across the invisible ceiling and continued on, crashing down onto the ground on the other side of the castle with an intense and deafening crash.

“I do not like this,” Rose whispered into the chaos of the other students. “I really don’t like this.”

“You and me both,” Scorpius said nervously as he patted her shoulder. “We’re safe in here, though. Nothing is going to bring down this building except Dark magic.”

Al glanced over at a squeak from Lily, who had her eyes glued to the view above them. “You okay?” he asked, feeling oddly calmed at seeing everyone else’s panic. Someone had to be calm.

“I’m okay,” Lily said nervously as something else crashed into the castle and she jumped.

“I really don’t like this!” Rose said as she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them.

“Come on,” Louis said to his little cousin as he scooted closer to put an arm around her. “It’s okay, Rosie! We’re magically protected in here.”

“Then why do all the teachers look nervous!?” Rose demanded sharply.

Al glanced around, studying the teachers and realized Rose had seen something he hadn’t. They were all on edge. Also, they were all here. He hadn’t noticed, but all the house-elves had silently made their way into a corner of the Great Hall, away from the students.

That was really not good! All the calm Al had been feeling, or possibly faking, slipped away in a rush. “Oh, no…”

“What could be doing this?” James asked as he kept his hand clamped on Caroline’s as she sat next to his, staring around at everyone. “What could–”

His pause made Al turn to see his dad speaking to Headmaster Goldstein in the doorway.

“Well, shit,” Caroline breathed out making all of them jump. They all turned to look at her. “What?” she demanded in a quiet huff. “If James’ dad is here then all hell has broken loose.”

It wasn’t a phrase Al was particularly familiar with and said with her American accent, it sounded odd, but he understood the sentiment.

If Dad was here, something was very wrong.

~*~

The storm had been building up on the edge of Hogwarts for hours. They’d been notified at the Ministry that morning, but Harry hadn’t thought much of a storm. Actual weather patterns were not something controlled by magic, after all. No one had devised a spell to create a lasting, powerful storm.

When Voldemort had been rising to power freak storms were actually things like dragons, trolls, and Death Eaters. It was never actually a full weather system.

Then the storm had broken and Percy, bless his obsessive soul, had been watching it using every magical means the Ministry had. When that had failed to net the answers he’d wanted, he’d gone to Hermione and together they’d checked the Muggle reports.

But there was nothing. The storm had formed outside of Hogwarts, which the Muggles had noticed, and then had dissipated. That’s what the Muggles were saying. The storm was gone.

But it wasn’t. It had moved over the school grounds and it had stalled right there wrecking the castle, the grounds, and the village of Hogsmeade which had already been evacuated but not without several people being injured. The residents had all realized quickly they needed to leave and had done so on their own.

Percy and Hermione had quickly alerted the Ministry and anyone who could be spared was mobilized out to Hogwarts to try to dissipate the storm. He’d hoped the castle would be able to withstand the worst of the storm, as it had been built and magically enforced to do just that, but this was no ordinary storm and these weren’t any ordinary circumstances.

Somehow, and Harry still had no clue how the crazy woman had done it, Isabella Crabbe had figured out how to control the weather.

This was no small weather charm, or mini storm. However she’d done it, she’d created something which could cause serious damage on the school. Hagrid’s house had been destroyed, but thankfully the big man had already left to go up to the main school. Still he would have had a few small creatures in his home which would be dead, now.

He glanced around quickly and saw his children watching him and he gave them a small nod before he focused on Anthony again.

“–the whole of Ravenclaw Tower fell,” Anthony was saying.

Harry’s mind spun as he realized he’d missed something vitally important in the moment of distraction. He gaped at his old schoolmate. “Come again?”

“I have never been more shocked,” Anthony said in a low voice. “We’d just evacuated everyone down here when we heard the crash! I had the teachers check and double check and every student is accounted for, which is the only blessing in this. We don’t need to lose more students!”

That was a mild understatement. Harry sized up the situation in a moment and knew that this was not sustainable. They didn’t know how to stop the storm and couldn’t protect he students here. If Ravenclaw tower had fallen, more damage could be coming. Harry pulled out his wand, cast his Patronus and sent a message to Hermione to clear all four of the main conference rooms in the Ministry. It was secure and private, which was what they needed. They could let the parents know what happened from there and send kids home who were interested in going. “We’re evacuating,” Harry told Goldstein. “Right now.”

Goldstein nodded in agreement. “How?”

Harry had the answer as he turned to spot the house-elves. He pointed to them.

In short order he had house-elves ferrying kids and teachers to the Ministry in small groups, taking the sleeping bags with them just in case they had to sleep there. Within twenty minutes, only the Ministry workers and a few key teachers remained at Hogwarts as the storm continued to rage around them.

Hermione arrived with the Minister shortly after all the children had been evacuated. “What are we going to do?” the Minister asked Harry.

He looked at her and shook his head. He honestly had no idea.

~*~

“I’m not going with you,” Scorpius whispered hotly to his mother as she tried to plead with him to come home. “I can stay here.”

“They’re sending the children home,” Astoria repeated to her son. “No one will be left here except you.”

Al and his family, plus Nat, had already been picked up by Mrs. Potter an hour before but as dawn was breaking in London, Scorpius, who hadn’t slept a wink, refused to go. “I won’t be the only kid left.”

“Scorpius, please,” his mother said quietly. “I have missed you. Please come home.”

To what? That’s what Scorpius wanted to ask her. What would he be going home to? Would it be a loving father or a caring home? Would it be a pleasant visit? What was there at his house?

He knew he could go to the Potters. Mrs. Potter had already told him as much, but the professors wouldn’t let him leave with her unless his parents gave their permission which was why he was stuck at the Ministry. “I don’t want to see Father.”

Astoria pressed her lips into such a small line that they disappeared. “Do I deserve to be punished for that? His actions aren’t my fault and I am your mother.”

The problem was she didn’t protect him like a mother should. She didn’t stand up for him when his father was bullying him or trying to control his life. She didn’t stand by him when things were getting nasty. She didn’t stop his grandparents from belittling him and his achievements.

If anyone had said even one of the things his Grandfather Lucius had said to him to Al, Mrs. Potter would have torn them limb from limb.

Mrs. Potter was a proper mother. She was fierce and protective. She kept the worst away while still letting them live a life and take some knocks. She was everything Astoria would never be. It wasn’t because she couldn’t be a proper mother. If that were the case, Scorpius would have felt sorry for her and he’d have given her an easier time. No, his mother chose to be the way she was.

She chose to defer to her husband.

She didn’t have to. She could leave. No, she couldn’t get divorced because she was soul-bound to Draco, but she could still leave. Or she could stand up to him. Or… or… or…

But she didn’t. She chose this life.

Nat had gone on and on and on about how abuse victims were subjected and they weren’t responsible for being abused. That was fine. Scorpius understood that. He had sympathy and compassion for a woman in that situation.

But his mother’s life wasn’t in danger. She’d never been hit, not as far as Scorpius had seen, and his dad wasn’t really a violent man. She was emotionally abused. He could accept it and it was hard to break free from it.

But he’d learned something along the way from his aunt and it was a lesson he was never, ever, going to forget.

He could be a victim.

Or he could be a fighter.

His mother was choosing to be a victim of her situation when she had her own money and could leave. She had family she could go to. Even if she was disowned, she could buy her own bloody house!

Her choice, but not his; not his now or ever again.

Caroline was choosing to fight. He didn’t know her full story but he’d seen enough to know she was fighting to get back her sanity and to build a life. He respected that immensely. It wasn’t always perfect, and there would always be bad days for her, but she kept her eye on the prize and she didn’t keep her focus on the past. That was strength like Draco had rarely seen.

It was a strength his Aunt Daphne didn’t have and maybe never would.

And there was the rub. Scorpius wasn’t going to be a victim. Victimhood could be thrust upon a person against their will, at least for a time, but after the initial blow, it was a choice. Even if someone continued to throw curses at him, Scorpius could dodge, duck, block, fight back, or ignore. Unless they were real threats to his physical safety, it was all just words. Just words.

Nat had told him there was a nursery rhyme from America that went like that. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’

Well, sometimes words did hurt. Sometimes they hurt a lot. But their continued hurt was a choice made by the person who heard them.

So Scorpius took a deep breath and shook his head. “Mrs. Potter said I could stay with them. I want to stay with them.”

His mother opened her mouth but both of them froze as someone walked up behind her and Scorpius turned a grin towards his aunt. Astoria glanced to her sister and sighed heavily.

Daphne’s blonde locks fell around her face in loose curls. Her blue eyes were narrowed in on her sister. Her lips were smiling but her eyes were cold. “Baby sister.” Scorpius opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again quickly. It was best not to get in the way of this. His mother would be spitting mad to see her sister dressed like a Muggle, but of course Astoria would never say anything to her. She never said anything to her.

“Daphne,” Astoria said heavily. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see my only nephew, of course,” she answered as she walked over to Scorpius and gazed up at him with a frown. “I don’t think I like how tall you’ve become.”

“I’m not shrinking for you,” Scorpius laughed as he bent to hug her.

“Impudent brat,” she sighed as she smiled a genuine smile for him and patted his cheek. “Give your mother and me moment, sweetheart, and then I’ll get you out of here.”

Scorpius was only too happy to comply.

It took about two minutes of their quiet argument before Astoria stormed off in a huff and Daphne beckoned him to her. “Come on,” she said as she hooked her arm in his. “Do you have any of your things?”

“Only the bag,” he said as he pointed to the one on his shoulder. “Where are we going?”

“To the bank, my love,” she told him calmly. “We’re going to make you an independent gentleman.”

“Can we do that without my parents?” Scorpius asked, unsure of what the answer would be.

“We absolutely can,” she assured him as they waited for a lift. “Then I hear you’ve been invited to the Potters’. We’ll get you to their house after that’s done. I have an appointment in New York in a few hours and I have a Portkey to catch.”

“You have an appointment?” Scorpius asked in surprise. “For what?”

“I…” Daphne hesitated for only a moment as the lift door slid open and they stepped in. It wasn’t until she’d pushed the button for the Atrium and the door had shut again that she answered him. “I have a love of Muggle fashions.”

“I noticed,” Scorpius said.

“So, I started designing Muggle clothing,” she explained with a small smile.

Scorpius took it in for a moment before he nodded. “If it makes you happy.”

“It makes me very happy,” she promised with a small laugh. “I finally feel like I’ve found myself and something I can do. I like the Muggle world. No one knows who we are or where I come from. My breeding is meaningless to the Muggles. Plus, it really makes your grandparents furious!”

He couldn’t help but laugh. His Grandfather and Grandmother Greengrass weren’t exactly on good terms with Muggles. They’d never been Death Eaters, but it wasn’t because they loved Muggles. “A bonus.”

“It’s also built up my gold reserves nicely,” she promised him. “When I received your letter, I knew I needed to come back for this. So we’ll get you set up, grab a spot of lunch, and I’ll drop you with Ginny’s brother at his shop. I expect you can get to their house from there.”

Scorpius said he could.

By the time they were leaving Gringotts, Scorpius’ heart was absolutely skipping in delight. His aunt had given him more than enough for his last two years at school. She’d also ensured he would never have to move home again. It wasn’t a giant fortune by any stretch of the imagination, but it was enough for him to build a life away from Malfoy Manor.

He hugged his aunt one more time as they stood in front of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and he thanked her again.

“Do good for yourself,” she told him as she took his face in her hands. “Do good for yourself, do what you want, and never settle for anything less than true love.”

“You should do that, too,” he told her as she let her hands drop and she took a step back.

“I promise,” Daphne told him as she waited until he’d pulled the door open and entered the shop.

It was Rose’s dad who greeted him with a grin. “How are you, Scorpius?”

“I’m alright,” Scorpius said as he shifted his bag on his shoulder. “Listen, can I use the Floo here? I’m going to stay with the Potters until school is open again.”

Mr. Weasley nodded as he called over to one of the shop girls to mind the store. “I’ll be back in a moment,” he said as he led Scorpius to the fireplace in the back.

Mrs. Potter greeted him with a smile and told him Al was in his room and to take his stuff right on up. Dinner would be ready in a few hours.

And that was that. She didn’t push him, didn’t pry, didn’t ask questions, didn’t nag, and never once made him feel like a worm just for being himself. He wanted to hug her, but didn’t. He didn’t think she’d mind but it felt too weird.

If he ever married, he wanted to marry someone who would be a mother like Ginny Potter.

In return, he’d made the choice to never, ever, be like his father.

Ever.

~*~

It took them the better part of three days to dispel the magic of the storm and in the end none of them could tell whether they’d truly dispelled it or the magic simply wore out. Whoever had cast it, and Harry had a very good idea of who that was, had to have rallied a hundred witches and wizards to get it concentrated. He’d thought it was impossible until he started asking in the villages outside of Hogwarts where the storm had started and he found out that a convention of foreigners had shown up, booking every room within ten miles.

Harry stared at one of the pub owners with a blank expression as she talked on and on. “You know I don’t have anything against these foreign people, but they were a strange lot, they were! All of them wearing cloaks and the like! The one who paid us, though, she were the worst of them all! She gave me a turn, I tell you.”

“What about her?” Harry asked, thankful he’d taken the time to change into a nice Muggle suit. He wouldn’t have made any headway with her in robes.

“She was cold, you know?” she went on. “She weren’t right. Some people are off their rockers but you like them well enough, but not this one. This one was just not right.”

It was probably the best description of Crabbe any Muggle could give him. “Thank you,” he told her as he took his leave.

Now he had to figure out how she’d made it into the country without any of them knowing she’d come. It was supposed to be impossible, but the woman was nothing if not resourceful.

Harry took a short break to go home for dinner and he found his children, Nat, and Scorpius there all laughing and having a good time as they ate and spoke. Only Ginny saw the worry in his eyes, but she knew enough not to say anything about it while the kids were awake.

Only they weren’t children anymore. James was seventeen. Al was sixteen. Lily was fourteen. His son was a man, and he had another on the cusp and he wondered, for just a moment, what his life would have been like if he’d had a stable home to come to.

But of course, he had. He’d had the Weasley’s. They were that home for Nat and Scorpius. Nat’s parents were great, of course, but they were never around. Draco, however, was an ass.

It took them all a moment to notice he was there and the second he saw him, Al pounced. “What’s going on, Dad?”

The father in him wanted to brush Al off. It was on the tip of his tongue to do so. He desperately wanted to protect him, but then he remembered what he’d just acknowledged. This son was almost a man and this son wanted to be an Auror. Al hadn’t really said much about it, but Harry knew what to recognize. He’d seen the same thing in Teddy’s eyes and in the mirror. Al was his mirror in a lot of ways, but not in one area. Harry hadn’t been protected. Dumbledore had stuck him in situations which let him test himself.

Al hadn’t really had that chance and the father in him was extremely grateful, but the Auror knew that was dangerous.

So Harry sat slowly and told them what he could.

“Maybe she’d getting in with a house-elf,” Al said as soon as he’d finished the story. “Their magic isn’t registered.”

Harry’s brain skittered to stop as he realized it was so obvious and yet they’d missed it yet again. “It’s… it’s possible she is using a house-elf.”

“It would be an odd coincidence that the letter nut was using an elf and Crabbe is using an elf, too,” James mused thoughtfully as he popped a grape into his mouth.

It suddenly seemed like a major coincidence to Harry, as well. He’d assumed one had nothing to do with the other. The man had been fired from the Ministry for his treatment of the house-elves, but what if the obvious answer had been that the man had been helping Crabbe all along. But why would he do that?

“I have to get back to work,” Harry said absently as he kissed his wife. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He left and hoped he’d get to sleep in his own bed that night but he wasn’t honestly certain he would.

It just seemed like a terrible coincidence he’d be dealing with the letters, which was extremely distracting and time-consuming, so much so that he missed the movements of a large group of wizards moving in towards the school to set up a storm.

Questioning Hughes Lovenut ended up being a simple process. He spoke to the Minister, who spoke to the legal team at the Ministry, which decided this fell under the same category as when they’d caught Death Eaters. Harry was given access to Veritaserum to use on Lovenut who confessed to having been a spy for Crabbe for several years.

Unfortunately, she’d never told him what she was up to. Lovenut’s price for helping her had been his house-elf. In return for the house-elf, he did as she asked.

Harry then went to speak to the elf, Lolly, who was staying with the other Ministry elves. He’d learned from that mistake. The poor creature was so traumatized by the whole experience of having been Lovenut’s slave, that Harry felt like a villain for questioning her.

She was a tiny thing and quite young for an elf. She wouldn’t meet his eyes and at first she didn’t want to speak to him. “He is master,” she kept repeating over and over again.

“I just need to know,” Harry told her gently, “where you came from before you went to live with Lovenut.”

“I… I is from the house of Crabbe,” she said slowly. “Mistress gave me to Master.”

Of course! Isabella Crabbe was from an old, wealthy house! They would have had a house-elf. “How many elves did Mistress Crabbe have?”

“I… I is not telling!” Lolly cried unhappily.

Harry smiled gently. “Lolly, I just need to know how many. I don’t need to know anything else. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

Lolly shook her head for a moment and then shuddered. “I has two brothers.” She tried to hit herself, but Harry grabbed her hands and stopped her.

“No, Lolly,” Harry told her firmly. “You belong to the Ministry now. I forbid you from hurting yourself. You are doing what the Ministry asked of you.”

When he had Lolly settled, he left to speak to Hermione who also hadn’t been home in days. “So there are parents,” Harry told her as her face showed extreme concern over Lolly’s story. “She also has two brothers. They don’t typically have that many children, do they?”

“Honestly, it’s not well known,” Hermione told him with a shake of her head. “They’re bred like dogs, Harry! One house has a female elf, one has a male, and they get them together a few times so both houses get a new elf. It’s absolutely disgusting! Only the Hogwarts elves are left to themselves to form families, but even that was disrupted by Lovenut for the last ten years. I’ve tried to speak to the elves from Hogwarts but they won’t talk to me about it. They get horribly embarrassed by the whole topic.”

Harry and Hermione fell silent for a long minute.

“I’m very worried about what happened to that elf,” Hermione said in a voice so low Harry almost missed it. “I am keeping an eye on her. I think Lovenut was extremely abusive with her.”

Harry couldn’t stop a shudder. He hadn’t thought to ask Lovenut about that while under the truth serum, but then again he was positive he didn’t want to know. “See what you can do for her. She’s safe here, at least.”

It was small comfort, but it was something.

They sent the children back to school two days later. They’d had to finish the repairs to the school, especially to Ravenclaw tower. Blessedly, most of the student’s possessions had been recovered from the debris and repaired for their owners. It had taken most of the available Ministry staff but everyone had wanted the repairs done quickly.

Moreover, more protections were put up around the school. Harry had gone to Gringotts and had asked to borrow a bunch of their best to work on building up the school.

Still, it didn’t feel like it was enough. He delivered his children to the school and wondered what would happen next.

Also, he wondered if their home was any better.

Still, the children had exams to sit and the end of the term to finish.

Nat sat her exams by herself in Neville’s office, with a Healer present, and food on hand. Everyone else did their exams just as they’d always done at Hogwarts.

Harry spent the time preparing their home to be even safer, which unfortunately meant restricting owls from accessing the house. He delivered the magical mirrors for communication to everyone in the family, including getting one to Charlie. He’d gone personally to Romania to deliver the mirror to his brother-in-law and secured Charlie’s promise that he’d come to visit soon.

Molly and Arthur were the only ones who found the whole situation difficult. “I just don’t know about all of this,” his mother-in-law told him as she held up the mirror. “I just say Ginny Potter and Ginny’s face will- OH! Hullo, darling! Well,” she said as she turned to Harry and beamed at him. “Isn’t that something.”

“Mum,” Ginny said from her own mirror. “Did you need something?”

“No, sorry,” Molly told her with a laugh. “It was an accident.”

“Hermione says the Muggles have a phone which can call people just like the mirrors,” Harry told Arthur who was immediately fascinated.

“Really? The telephone?” he said, having finally learned how to say it correctly.

Harry knew he had him then. So now the whole family could connect with him at any point, as he had a mirror he would keep in his pocket constantly. It was the best he could do, but still it never, ever felt like it was enough.

Back to index


Chapter 52: Chapter 49

Author's Notes: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope your day is going really well, but if you're hiding in your room reading fanfiction because of obnoxious relatives well that's a thing.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing.

If you haven't yet checked it out, you want to look into my book Duplicity by Sarah Jaune. You can find it up for pre-order on most platforms.

Leave a review and tell me what you think. I like presents on Christmas too ;)


“I am so tired of school,” Al groaned in exhaustion as he, Nat, and Scorpius stretched out on the grass just outside the kitchen door of his house. They’d been home only one day and it was not nearly enough time for the exam fug to wear off. Scorpius hadn’t even bothered to go home, and Al wasn’t sorry at all. Scorpius’ parents hadn’t been at the train station and Al’s mum had smoothed the whole thing over. Scorpius had looked equal parts elated and deflated at the absence of his mother but Ginny had simply told him to load up and make sure to help Lily with her trunk.

Scorpius had shot Al’s mum a grateful look and had done what she’d said. Yesterday had been a good day to get home, as the weather was absolutely beautiful for staring up at the sky as big, fluffy clouds lazily drifted through the sky.

It was just the four of them at home with Ginny. James was, at that moment, in a Muggle office somewhere taking a driving test for their car. It was a little pointless since the car drove itself, but his dad wanted it to be legal for some reason.

“It’ll sink in soon,” Nat yawned. “Anyway, we’ll be at the beach by the weekend and that will help.”

“True,” Al agreed as he yawned again and stretched. He knew that the forest around them had been burned, but if he hadn’t been told about it, he wouldn’t have been able to tell. Neville had done some kind of magic on the new trees they’d planted and in the short time between their visits, first when the storm had hit Hogwarts, and now the trees were back to fully grown. Well, they were mostly fully grown. But the forest was back. When Scorpius didn’t say anything, Al glanced over to him. “You okay, mate?”

“Fine,” Scorpius said shortly. He kept his eyes closed as the sun poured down on them. “Just tired.”

“We’re all tired,” Nat agreed as the back door opened and Lily strolled out to plop down in the grass between Nat and Scorpius.

She didn’t stretch out, but started to pluck grass blades which she began to plait together.

“What’s up with you?” Al wondered as he watched his sister.

“Nothing,” Lily told them in a tone that convinced none of them.

That finally caught Scorpius’ attention, it would seem, as he sat up to study her. Al couldn’t work up the energy. He was too exhausted.

“Is something wrong?” Scorpius asked her again.

Lily kept weaving and braiding, even silently moving Scorpius’ hands to hold parts of whatever she was making without bothering to see if he wanted to help or not. It was so like Lily it made him grin.

“I’m worried about Dad,” Lily said finally. “He looks terrible.”

“He does?” Al wondered, not having noticed.

“He kind of does, yeah,” Nat agreed with a sigh. “I noticed last night when he got home.”

He hadn’t arrived back at the house until almost eleven o’clock and he’d looked like he’d slept at the office the night before. Come to that, Al didn’t know for certain that he hadn’t.

He glanced over to his sister to see she was making a basket and she had Scorpius holding it for her. He’d have questioned if Scorpius wanted to hold it or not, but it was such a Lily thing to do that he didn’t bother. “I think Dad’s okay. He’s had worse in life.”

“Yes, but he wasn’t quite as old when he was doing that bit with Voldemort,” Lily pointed out with a small pout. “He’s getting on in years.”

“I mean, come on, Lils,” Al said with a laugh. “Dumbledore was something like a hundred and fifteen years old when he died and he was still fighting against evil. What is Dad anyway? Forty?”

“Almost forty-two,” Lily informed him quietly. “That’s not young.”

“That’s not exactly a hundred, either,” he reminded her evenly. “We could still have a baby sibling if they put their minds to it.”

Lily did smile then. “I’d try to talk them into it, but it’s lovely being an aunt. Emma is napping right now.”

It might have been Emma’s nap that explained Lily’s presence outside with them more than worry over their father. Ever since that morning, Lily had been at the toddler’s side. She and Nat had both had a good time with her, not even letting Al hold Emma once. “Are you going to share Emma at all this summer?”

“I might,” Lily said simply and then she beamed at him and he saw the worry slip off her face. “She’s so cute!”

She was really cute. She also liked all of them, having remembered them from their stay just a few weeks back.

“Your dad is tough,” Scorpius said finally, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. “He can handle it. Plus, he has your mum. She’s not going to let anything happen to him.”

Lily looked up from her work to study Scorpius and Al saw her face relax even more. “It’s true. Mum is looking out for him.”

“I say we just behave ourselves and not cause any trouble for your parents,” Nat suggested, “and then we won’t add to the stress. We can do that easily enough. Mrs. Potter has a list of chores for us, and we’ll get that done after lunch, and then we have the rest of the day to ourselves.”

It was a solid plan, Al decided. They were going to the beach house soon anyway. Nothing was ever wrong when they were at the beach house, even if they overflowed the place with teenagers. His mum just rolled with it. Also, this time Gran was coming with them for the weeks they were there. He always liked it when she came along. She made the best sweets, including ones that Nat could eat with that sugar that wasn’t really sugar. “How old is Gran?”

“She turns seventy-two this year,” Lily told him. “She was born in 1950.”

“Wow,” Al said in amazement.

“That’s still not over a hundred,” Nat said with a laugh. “I really like that about the wizarding world. I like that you get longer to enjoy the family in your life.” Then her face fell as she realized what she’d said. “I guess my parents won’t get that.”

Al reached out to squeeze her hand. “You’ll have us.”

Nat nodded and Lily plucked up her woven basket, holding it up to the light. Al blinked in surprise at the intricate patterns she’d woven into the thing in just a matter of moments. “I am brilliant,” Lily told them with a giggle. “I’m going to give this to Teeny. I bet she’ll really like it.”

And with that she was up and back into the house to seek out the tiny house-elf.

“She’s a bit like a fairy,” Scorpius observed as they watched her go. “Except without all the bad parts about fairies.”

Al could only nod in agreement.

~*~

James stared at his grandmother and tried very hard not to shift back and forth from one foot to the other. “Gran…”

“But what exactly are you wearing?” Molly Weasley demanded of him as she forced him to stand in front of her in the kitchen of the beach house.

James glanced down at his Muggle clothes and shrugged. “They’re just jeans and trainers, Gran.”

“But those trousers are ripped, James!” Molly explained slowly as though he was a bit dim. She fingered her wand and James had to force himself not to cry out to stop her. “If I could just mend–”

“It’s the style!” James protested in exasperation.

“Leave it, Mum,” Ginny called out from the other room. “I bought them that way, even though they look stupid.”

“Mum!” James fought not to roll his eyes. “I need to fit in with the other Muggle boys. If I don’t blend in, we might have trouble.”

Ginny strode into the kitchen and gave him a once over. “Be thankful he doesn’t have the trousers down below his butt cheeks, Mum.”

Gran’s face turned a very interesting shade of puce as she began to splutter in outrage.

James had seen the boys do that, but there was no way he was going to. It looked stupid. It made it difficult to walk, and his mother would kill him. Come to that, he was certain his grandmother would kill him, as well.

Plus, all of his magical friends and family would never let him live it down, so he wore normal jeans with a belt and had an untucked black shirt hanging down over it to cover it up.

He tuned out his grandmother’s outraged speech about young people these days and thought about his evening ahead of him. He was going out on a group date with Caroline and a few of her friends. He wasn’t technically going alone, of course. Teddy would be shadowing them the whole time in disguise to make sure they were safe, but Teddy was cool and he was doing this as a favor to James, which James was going to be certain to repay someday.

He was a bit nervous about the evening, but he was also looking forward to it. He could drive, now, so he was taking the car to pick Caroline up. That was new, as well, but it hadn’t taken him much to learn to drive their vehicle. The thing practically drove itself and he’d been able to pass the Muggle test without any trouble the day after they came back from school. He was going to use the Floo to get back to their house and drive from there, since it was much closer than from the coast. “Mum,” he said when Gran’s tirade paused so she could catch her breath, “I have to go.”

“Right, right,” Ginny sighed as she pulled out some Muggle money from a drawer. “Teddy is meeting you at the house so if he’s not there, wait for him.”

She’d already explained that four times, but James didn’t point it out to her. No sense making her angry now. “Alright,” he agreed as he kissed his gran on the cheek and gave him mum a quick hug. He made his escape before they could say anything else.

Teddy was waiting for him and soon enough they were on their way to get Caroline from her grandparents’ house. The moment she climbed into the car, she turned to say hello to Teddy, who was lounging in the back seat, enjoying the evening. “Thanks for this, Teddy! I really wanted to go.”

“No problem,” Teddy said as James backed the car out of the drive. Or rather, he let the car back itself out. “No Rufus tonight?”

“I’m trying to be normal,” she admitted reluctantly. “I wanted to bring him, but he draws so much attention. I’m going to try to tough it out without him.”

James was curious how it would go, but he didn’t say anything. It was her choice to make. He thought she’d do better with the dog but if she wanted to try to go without him, that was up to her.

He took over control of the car and followed Caroline’s directions to the noisy restaurant where they were meeting her friends.

James glanced into the rear-view mirror and saw Teddy had changed his appearance to be that of a pimply, specky, skinny teenager with dishwater blond hair. He was his usual height, but now the clothes bagged on him making him look even worse. “Wow.”

“I can just play at an arcade game all night without anyone taking a second glance at me,” Teddy told him. “That’s the goal, anyway.”

Caroline laughed and shook her head. “If only people knew what you really looked like.”

Teddy was a big man, at four inches over six feet and nearly fifteen stone. He had thick brown hair, and hazel eyes when he wasn’t changing it around, James knew, but it was not uncommon for him to be sporting other colored eyes, simply because he’d forget to change them back. Now, however, he had to be only nine stone. No one was going to mistake him for the big, tough Auror he was during the day.

“This is it,” Caroline told him and he parked the car in the back of the lot so no one would see Teddy getting out of the car.

“I’ll walk a little behind you,” he explained as James pocketed the keys.

James glanced to Caroline to see if she wanted to take his hand. Sometimes she did. And sometimes she didn’t. This time she did, as she reached out a hand to take his in hers. He could feel the slight tremble. As much as Caroline wanted them to go out with her cheer friends, she was nervous, as well. The girls were all bringing their boyfriends which meant boys Caroline didn’t know or trust. “You’re alright,” he reminded her quietly. “I’m here and so is Teddy.”

She forced a smile and glanced up at him. “I’m alright,” she agreed and they led the way into the crowded restaurant. The building was large and full of tables off to one side, and electronic games on the other side. They paused in the door and Teddy walked in behind them to go find a machine close to the door. “I don’t see… oh, there,” she said as she pointed across the room towards a group of six teenagers sitting at a large table.

“Let’s go, then,” James said as he tugged gently to get her moving. He recognized one of them as Libby. She was a bubbly brunette with blue eyes and a wide, toothy smile. She’d introduced herself to him the first time he’d gone to one of the cheer competitions. “Hey,” he said as he pulled out a chair for Caroline at the end of the table across from Libby so that she wouldn’t have to sit next to the boy on that side. That was just asking for trouble. He held out his hand and introduced himself around to the guys. He learned their names were Ryan, Shane, and Aiden. Ryan, who was as tall as James, was blond with brown eyes almost the same color as James’ mothers, but without the same steady gaze his mother had. This bloke was all mischief, much like his Uncle George.

“It’s good of you to come,” Brit told him, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear. Her green eyes studied him carefully, scrutinizing him as her boyfriend, Shane, draped an arm around her shoulder. Shane was the one sitting next to James. Shane’s brown hair was cut short, and he had a stocky build much like Al’s. His blue eyes held the same interest as Bianca’s and James realized the group had been wondering about them. Interesting.

He turned to study the last couple, Brit and Aiden, who were sitting cattycorner to them. Brit’s chocolate skin matched her hair and eyes, but her face was so striking it was practically something out of a magazine. She had a cool stare as she assessed him, her chiseled features contemplative. Aiden, on the other hand, was just about as pale and freckly as it was possible to get. He could have almost been a Weasley with his mop of curly, red hair, except his eyes were green. His smile was wide and genuine without a single hint of reserve. He was also quite tall and muscular, like all the other boys at the table. In comparison, James was by far the skinniest.

He’d learned a bit about Muggle sports from Caroline, who’d learned from her teammates. Ryan played football for his school, but Shane and Aiden were both rugby players. He’d tried hard to learn the intricacies of that game but Caroline’s understanding was rudimentary and Grandad Weasley had promised to get him a book on Muggle sports as soon as he could find one.

“We’ve heard a bit about you,” Ryan said as he signaled for someone. “Drink?”

“Just water,” James told the waitress when she appeared and Caroline nodded.

In the magical world he could have bought ale, but here in the Muggle world he would stick to water.

“Yes,” Aiden said with a grin. “We hear you are captain of a sport at your school, but no one seems to know anything about it.”

He felt Caroline tense next to him but James stayed relaxed. He’d thought a lot about what he’d say about Hogwarts if he was asked. “It’s such a remote school, way up in Scotland,” James said as leaned back casually in his chair. “It was invented at the school,” he lied evenly. “We have four houses at the school in which we’re sorted. The four houses compete in the sport against each other. No one has heard of it because it’s a school tradition just for our school.”

He felt Caroline relax. “Thanks,” she told the waitress who dropped off their drinks. “Listen,” she said to the table with a small tremor. “I tried to explain rugby to my gran and I botched the whole thing and she still has no idea what it is or how it’s played. Sometimes you just have to see something played to really get it.”

They all laughed as the waitress came back with several baskets of chips and they placed an order. James sat back and relaxed, listening to the conversation and asking questions while deflecting the ones thrown his way when he couldn’t answer them honestly. Overall, it was nice and they all chatted about school and sports which were things James could relate to, even if they didn’t have the same subjects. It was a group of kids, just like him, hanging out.

Of course, he wasn’t a kid anymore. He was a man in the eyes of the wizarding world and that fact alone weighed on him. It was a comfortable weight; one he was slowly adjusting to. It helped him tremendously that he didn’t yet have to pay for bills or look after himself. It was a slow stretch into the role and he wasn’t trying to push for more. Next year would be soon enough. Next year he’d hopefully be picked up by a Quidditch team for their reserves. His mum had gone straight onto the Harpies’ team, skipping the reserves, but she’d been damn good, according to everything he’d heard and seen.

“So, you’re done next year, is that right?” Bianca asked curiously as she sipped at her drink. “Caroline said she graduates next year, but I dunno how that works exactly.”

“It’s advanced,” James said on a whim. “We get pushed through faster so we’re done in our seventh year, which is when we’re seventeen or eighteen. I’ll be eighteen by then.”

“I can’t wait to be an adult,” Libby sighed wistfully, leaning into Ryan’s arm. “Imagine when we can do whatever we want to without our parents telling us what to do.”

James’ lips twitched up as he thought about trying to get out of the beach house that afternoon. “I dunno about that. Today my gran was telling me off for the rips in my jeans. I think some things never stop. I know my older brother still gets told what to do, and he’s married.”

“He also has a daughter,” Caroline told them, speaking for the first time in a long time. “Emma is her name and she’s so cute. She’s a year old now.”

“Year and a half,” James said and wondered how the time had flown so fast. “We were watching her yesterday and she’s starting to talk.”

“I have a sister that age,” Shane told them around a mouthful of chips. “My mum’s remarried and had two more. She’s a bit of a pain now that she’s walking. My mum’s always asking me to watch her.”

James shrugged. “She doesn’t live with us so I don’t mind keeping an eye on her. Anyway, Mum is really the one in charge of everything. She’s stopped working to watch Emma for them.” It wasn’t the main reason his mum had quit the paper, but it was a factor.

“Emma’s mum is a doctor,” Caroline supplied with a rueful smile. “She works a lot.”

“What’s your brother do, then?” Brit wondered.

James had to scramble for the right word, but thankfully it came fast. “Police officer.”

“So, he shoots them and she sews them up?” Aiden laughed. “Match made in heaven.”

“Something like that,” James agreed and forced himself not to shudder at the thought of people being stitched together like clothing. “Anyway, what are your plans after school?”

It was easier to get them talking about themselves. None of them had major secrets to hide.

Shane was in the middle of a long story about his sister and her A Level exam when James noticed a shift. He wouldn’t be able to place what had happened, even after it was all over, but he felt something whisper over his awareness, almost like a breeze down the back of his neck. He glanced over towards where Teddy was playing the video game, to see if his godbrother had noticed anything, only to find Teddy was the source of the disturbance.

Unfortunately, Caroline noticed it at the same moment as James and she let out a frightened squeak.

Four large teenagers had surrounded Teddy and Teddy was having to act as though he was afraid.

Well damn.

“Relax,” James whispered into Caroline’s ear as he shifted an arm around her. “This is Teddy they’re dealing with. He can handle it.”

But while Caroline might be worried about Teddy, James knew her main focus wasn’t on Teddy. She was worried about being hurt. It didn’t matter that there was no way anyone was going to get to her here, she still had to fight the panic.

This was what Rufus was for and the dog did a seriously brilliant job at calming her down. Next time he’d suggest it.

Then the first punch was thrown. He had no idea how it had escalated but one moment Teddy was meekly refusing to hand over his money and the next all four had ganged up on him. James shot to his feet, as did the other blokes at the table, but he really needn’t have worried. Teddy had it well under control. Still, without his wand he was severely hampered.

James strode over and looked down at his godbrother as the manager waved frantically, his ear pressed to the phone, presumably calling for the police.

Before Teddy could answer the other boys from the table had jumped into the fight, pulling the others off Teddy. Fists flew and much foul language sailed around their heads. James grabbed one just as he was about to dive back in and pulled him off of Teddy, only to get an elbow to the gut for his trouble. But it was no worse than facing off with an opposing Beater from Slytherin and he only grunted. He’d have a bruise later, but his mum could fix it. He grappled with the guy, who outweighed him by a sizable amount, until they were both on the floor. James pulled his arm back and then sat on his back, pinning him to the ground.

He glanced to the rest of the fight and saw Ryan and Shane holding one of the blokes, while Aiden had another with Teddy following up and pinning the fourth.

He turned back to the table to see Caroline shaking life a leaf at the table while Libby tried to comfort her. James swore under his breath and waved at a big man standing at the edge of the group. “Hold him, will ya?” James asked in frustration.

Rufus would have helped this situation. A lot.

The second the old man had the teenager pinned, James was up and striding for Caroline. He didn’t pull her to him, which was his instinct. He wanted to with everything he had, but it had to be her choice. She chose it. She pushed into his arms, grabbing hold of him as her whole body shook. He wrapped her up and reminded her to breathe, assuring her she was fine and none of them were hurt.

He didn’t mention they’d be in for a lot of paperwork because of the fight.

It transpired that the group of four had been systematically picking their way through the place, robbing everyone they could get their hands on and demanding their pocket money.

Then they’d gone after Teddy. He’d appeared skinny to them. He’d appeared helpless. Appearances were very deceiving.

Sadly, James’ dad showed up, dressed in his Muggle finest as the police took statements from the people at the restaurant.

Of course, he’d shown up, James thought grimly. That was exactly what his dad did.

His dad went straight to them to check on them and told James just to be patient when James asked if they could leave. Caroline simply wanted to go home and James couldn’t blame her. It was just a stupid fight, one which wouldn’t have happened if the morons hadn’t picked on an Auror disguised as a helpless teenager. James was glad they’d been stopped, but this was going to set Caroline back months.

He felt her hand clench in his shirt. He glanced down to see her staring up at him. Almost as if she’d been reading his mind, she said, “I’m okay.”

He grinned, even though he didn’t think it reached his eyes. “I know you are.”

“No,” she said as she tugged a bit, bringing him down enough so she could gently kiss him. “I’m okay. I was startled and scared, but now that it’s over… I’m okay.”

James felt the knot in his stomach loosen, just a little. “I’m proud of you.”

“I’m proud of you, too,” she said with a small smile. “You don’t run from a fight.”

James had accidentally killed Caroline’s father for her. Fighting a few teenagers didn’t seem to be such a big deal. “Teddy didn’t really need my help,” James admitted, “but four on one just isn’t fair.”

It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t fixed. She was still going to backslide into fear. He’d seen that too many times to think otherwise. But at this moment, everything was okay.

It stayed okay all the way up until he was back at the beach house and his mum had him pull off his shirt to reveal his bruise. Then his gran exploded into a rant he tuned out ten seconds in.

“Mum, please,” Ginny sighed as she dabbed on the ointment to heal the bruise. “You’re sure Caroline is alright?”

“She was fine when I dropped her off,” James promised. “I wouldn’t have left if she wasn’t. Rufus helps.”

“How does Rufus do with Ducky?” Ginny wondered as both of them pretended not to hear Molly Weasley’s continued angry outburst.

James couldn’t help but laugh. “You know how Lily can basically walk all over everyone and they’re happy to let her do it? Lily’s cat learned it from her. She often uses the dog as her personal carrier.”

His mum chuckled. “Well, that’s good to know since they’ll be coming to stay soon.”

James couldn’t wait.

~*~

“The paperwork was a nightmare,” Harry told Ginny as he pulled off his Muggle tie and kicked off his shoes.

She watched her husband with amusement as he continued to tug off the vestments of the Muggle police he’d been impersonating. He was quite handsome in the Muggle suit. She grinned as she thought about what would happen once he finally managed to get it all off.

“What on earth are you smiling about?” Harry asked as he pulled at his cufflinks. “This was two hours of work!”

“I want you naked.”

He paused for a moment and then shook his head, laughing. “Well, I suppose that would make up for my terrible night. Still…”

“Teddy is fine, James is fine, and Caroline is fine,” Ginny reminded him. “It was just stupid teenagers who picked the wrong target.”

“He did look like a skinny git,” Harry admitted with a sigh as he stopped undressing to sit on the bed. He stared at his hands and shook his head. “Honestly, it was nice to have a normal problem with my child. It was nice to not have to worry about him being in danger. It was nice to not have to show up after he’s killed someone.”

“Harry…” Ginny scooted over on the bed and put an arm around his waist, laying her head on his shoulder.

“I hear my son has been part of a fight and my heart goes into my throat thinking he could be hurt or dead,” Harry told her quietly. Then he began to chuckle. “I get there and find out all he did was pull someone off of Teddy and restrain him. It was all so normal.”

“It is nice to have normal,” Ginny agreed as she felt him sigh. “I’ve been thinking about our childhood today. We were so poor! My clothes were all used and my things were all second-hand. I spent more on one pair of jeans for James than Mum spent on everything for my first year at Hogwarts.”

He pressed a gentle kiss against her temple. “It’s very different for us.”

“It is,” she agreed, “but we haven’t let it spoil the kids and I think that’s the most important part. Things aren’t the important part to them. We have this huge beach house and I feel so lucky to have this place to come to.”

“I can spoil you,” Harry said as he angled his mouth to her ear. She felt a shiver go down her spine. She let herself go and move through the moment. The next week they’d have a houseful of teenagers, but tonight it was still quiet, the house not bursting at the seams.

They’d had to magically expand the house so that there was a boy’s room with bunk beds and a girl’s room with the same. “You’re still wearing too many clothes.”

“Stupid reports,” Harry muttered as he started in on his buttons again.

~*~

“Thank you for inviting me,” Andrew told Al’s mum as he arrived through the Floo.

“We are happy to have you,” Ginny assured him as she told Al to show him up to his room. She had Emma on her hip as the baby babbled happily.

“This way,” Al said as he led him upstairs into the newly renovated house. When he’d asked his mum if Andrew could come stay a bit this summer, his mum had said she’d had to think about it. They’d barely been able to fit three boys in the room before and it was the same with the girls.

Now the rooms were bigger than their dorm rooms at Hogwarts with several bunkbeds. James and Louis had both claimed a top bunk towards the windows while Al and Scorpius had picked another bunk. Hugo had picked yet another bunk. It was obvious which beds were still open, as none of the boys had bothered to pick up their stuff or make their beds. “Pick whichever you like,” he told Andrew who was gaping around.

“This house is not this big,” Andrew told him with a laugh.

“It’s been magically expanded,” Al admitted. “My uncle did something with it a few weeks ago. The girls’ room is much the same with a bathroom off it for them. My gran is sleeping in a room down the hall, then my parents and there’s one more guest room downstairs.”

“This is so cool,” Andrew said as he dumped his stuff on the bunk under James’ bed. “Is everyone else here?”

“You’re the last,” Al said. “Caroline and Honor got here about an hour before you did. James had to pick them up in the car since they were bringing Rufus.”

“I am going to get my license soon,” Andrew told him. “I have a driver, but I still want to be able to drive. It’s a big deal in the Muggle world.”

Al had thought about it, but decided he could worry about it next summer. “Everyone is already out on the beach.”

“I’ll get changed,” Andrew said as he grabbed his suit and went for the bathroom out in the hall.

Al decided this was going to be the best summer they’d ever had.

They went down through the kitchen, passing his gran at the kitchen table shelling peas by hand, which she said was relaxing, and out the living room which faced out onto the sand, stopping only when his mother insisted on putting a sunscreen charm over the both of them, stepping over Rufus who was sprawled out in the open doorway with Ducky sleeping on top of the large dog. The cat’s fur had darkened from her pale yellow into a darker yellow, but she still had the appearance of a baby duck about her. If the dog even noticed the cat was there, he didn’t let on.

He never did.

“I’ll bring Emma out in a bit,” Ginny called out to them as they headed down to the beach. The beach wasn’t like other beaches, Al knew. Their beach was completely private and Muggles couldn’t find it, even though it was next to other Muggle houses. They had a wide swath of land in which they could walk and play without anyone being able to find them. Asking to let Andrew in was asking to widen the circle of people who could access their security, but Andrew needed time off like they did. He had so many responsibilities in the Muggle world.

“Hi!” Nat waved from her chair under an umbrella. “Everyone else is swimming.”

“Why aren’t you?” Al wondered.

“I was waiting for you two,” she told them as she put her book down in the chair and headed off into the cool, refreshing water with them.

They splashed around, laughed, played and had a good time. Twenty minutes later his mum came down with Emma, likely to let her dangle her feet in the water but James ran out of the water and took the giggling, happy baby from his mother.

“James…” Ginny said as James began to walk towards the small waves.

“Relax, Mum,” James told her as Emma waved bye-bye to Ginny. “I will watch her.”

“But, James…”

Al watched his brother turn back and heard his words clearly as they were carried on the breeze. “I would die for her, Mum. I’m not going to let her get hurt, okay?”

Al watched his mother waver. She hadn’t ever been overprotective with them, but with Emma it was a whole other matter. “Alright,” she said finally as she watched James go out until the water was up to his knees. He carefully lowered Emma’s feet until they skimmed the waved and she let out a squeal of delight as she kicked at the waves and tried to snatch them with her small hands.

Al studied them for a long time, watching his brother play with Emma as she delighted in the feel of the water. Finally, James hoisted her up onto his hip and waded out a bit more to talk to Caroline and Louis.

Ginny sat down in Nat’s abandoned chair and watched them.

“Aunt Ginny is nervous,” Rose commented to Al as she grabbed hold of his arm to steady herself as a waved knocked into them.

“She is,” Al agreed curiously. “I can’t tell if it’s because it’s James or because of something else.”

“It could be both,” Rose mused, “although James is fine. He’s good with people, always has been. It stands to reason he’d be good with a baby.”

Emma had her head on James’ shoulder as he talked and kept an eye on the waves. Rose was right, James was good with her. It was coming easier to James than it ever did to Al. “He has it so easy.”

Rose snorted and shook her head. “He has some things easy, Al. But let’s not forget that he was an insufferable git for most of his life. He had to get over that. You’ve always been nice. Would you really want to trade?”

Al supposed he wouldn’t. “You think Caroline will marry him?”

“I think it’s going to be an interesting story for them.”

Al couldn’t disagree.

~*~

Ginny sat bolt upright in her bed as sweat drenched her face and her heart pounded a heavy tattoo. She’d had the dream again! She’d been watching Harry carrying a baby that looked a lot like James, only with darker skin, towards Caroline while she sat on an indistinct couch. James was nowhere to be found.

Shaken, Ginny snuck out of the bed, leaving Harry asleep next to her, and made her way down to the kitchen for a glass of water only to pull up short at the sight of Caroline sitting in one of the window seats staring out towards the dark ocean, her dog sitting right next to her.

The girl turned and smiled ruefully at Ginny. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“I had a bad dream,” Ginny admitted, deciding not to tell her about it. She moved over to the other side of Rufus and slowly sat, scratching absently at the dog’s large, soft ears. “It’s one I’ve had before and it always scares me.”

“I have those,” Caroline told her quietly. “But they’re getting less now.”

“Good,” Ginny said in a soft voice. “Do you want to talk about why you can’t sleep?”

She waited in silence, waiting out what was probably extremely painful thoughts for this girl, well, she was almost a woman. She was the same age Ginny had been when she’d been pregnant with Hope. Sometimes it took a while for the courage to build to say the really difficult things.

“With the fight with those guys,” she said finally as she held onto Rufus’ fur. “I had a lot of fear but it went away quickly. I had this… this hope like maybe I’ll get better.”

Understanding flooded through Ginny. “You’re afraid you won’t be able to keep it up.”

“Yeah,” Caroline agreed as her troubled blue eyes met Ginny’s. “James… he… ugh,” she glanced away. “I’m talking to his mother.”

“Forget about that, sweetheart,” Ginny told her tenderly. “Remember I’m a woman and a mother and I want what’s best for you.”

“I’m not best for James.”

Ginny almost laughed. “Are you kidding me?! You’re the best thing for James!”

True shock spread over Caroline’s face. “You can’t be serious!”

“I couldn’t be more serious,” Ginny promised and this time she did laugh. “My son was a rotten git, mostly because of me, before you came into his life! He’s become a good man because of you. You’re the best person for him. You make him want to be a better person, a better man.”

Caroline fell silent again for a long time. “I didn’t expect you to say that.”

“I love my son with all my heart,” Ginny told her sincerely as she reached out to take Caroline’s hand so she’d meet her eyes. “I adore him, but I would not have expected to see today what I saw. My son, who is a grown man now, carrying his niece out into the waves to hold her, protect her, and keep her happy. I couldn’t help but watch in awe at the changes he’s made in himself. Teddy was always good with the little ones, but James was not. He was selfish and sometimes mean. I wouldn’t have trusted him to keep a goldfish alive, but I watched him today with Emma and I was in awe of how much he’s grown. You were the biggest part of that.”

Caroline licked at her lips and glanced out the window. “I want to grow, too. I don’t want to be damaged forever.”

“You won’t be,” Ginny promised quietly. “One day you’ll have a handle on everything.”

“You lived through some terrible things.”

She nodded slowly and considered it. It wasn’t the same kind of terrible as Caroline, but it had to still be pretty bad.

“How did you get out of your dark places?” the girl asked curiously.

“Well,” Ginny said slowly, thinking it through. “The crux of the matter was bad things happened. It didn’t make me bad, and it didn’t ruin me. I could have let it ruin me, but being that destroyed is a choice. It’s not something anyone else can do to you. You do it to yourself.”

“But I didn’t–”

Ginny shook her head and interrupted her. “No, I don’t mean that. You were victimized horribly by your father. You couldn’t stop that and none of it was your fault but you,” she said as she pointed to Caroline’s heart, “your essence and who you are… that can only be destroyed if you let it happen. You have to give that up. No matter what that monster did to you, he couldn’t touch your soul. You ultimately have control over your own soul. I chose not to let that be damaged for good. I chose to get better. People sometimes… well, sometimes they seem to not be able to take a step to heal themselves. I took the steps. Sometimes they were small steps and sometimes I was walking backwards, but I kept fighting.”

“Why?”

“Because life is worth fighting for. It’s never so bad as to not be fixable or worth living. You have to fight for it.”

Caroline considered her words for a long time. “I’m going to do that.”

“I know you will,” Ginny smiled. “We’ll be here to help you when it gets tough. You can do this.”

She felt a bit lighter in herself as she went back to bed. Whatever happened, they would handle it.

Back to index


Chapter 53: Chapter 50

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Please leave a review. I'm sticking to a one chapter a month schedule for now just to keep it manageable since the chapters are so long.. I have a new book coming out in April called Duplicity by Sarah Jaune. Please consider checking it out! If I get enough pre-orders I'll work overtime and post two chapters in a month in April. We have years yet of timeline to go in this story but it's going to be a wild ride coming up in their next year or so...


“I do not know where the time is going,” Ginny muttered as she searched through the dress robes at Madam Malkin’s. “You were babies half a minute ago and now we’re buying dress robes for the Remembrance Ball and it’s been twenty-five years since the Battle of Hogwarts.”

“What about this one, Mum?” Lily asked her as she held up a pale gold dress.

“It’s a bit too festive, Luv,” Ginny pointed out. “We’re glad the war is over, but this is also a memorial to all who died.”

Lily grimaced. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to forget that.”

“It’s alright,” Ginny assured her as she finally found one that stood a chance of fitting Nat. “It’s nice of Scorpius to say he’d take you.” Ginny was starting to think it was more than just nice of Scorpius, but she let the matter rest. He was a nice young man and if he liked Lily… well, they’d deal with it. Scorpius was always welcome, but Ginny wasn’t about to pretend she was overly fond of Draco. “Nat,” Ginny called to her as she held up the dark green dress robes.

Nat shrugged and took them from Ginny. She had been subdued the entire time they’d been shopping. All the boys had already selected their black dress robes and they were sitting off to the side talking while the girls picked through. “I’ll go try it on.”

The problem was Nat was so short everything looked odd on her. There was no getting around it.

“What about this one?” Lily asked, catching Ginny’s attention. Her daughter held up dress robes in deepest purple, with tiny silver stars winking in the fabric. “I love this one.”

“Go try it on, then,” Ginny told her. “It will do if it fits.”

“Mum,” Al called over to her. “Can we go down to the pub and order food? I’m starving.”

Ginny was certain her son was starving. In the two months of summer hols Al had grown almost four inches and gained around two stones. All of them were six feet tall now, but Al was now almost as tall as Teddy and just a bit lighter. He hadn’t stopped eating since he came home. “Yes, alright,” she sighed as James, Scorpius, and Al bolted for the door. Hagrid was waiting outside the shop for them and he’d keep an eye on the boys. Ginny hadn’t minded Hagrid’s accompanying them. It was hard enough keeping track of five teenagers, let alone keeping them safe. Scorpius was the only one carrying his packages, having already bought dress robes and new school uniforms. Al and James had left their dress robes and school uniforms for her and she rolled her eyes in annoyance. She’d leave everything at the shop until they were done with all the school supplies and then come back for them so the boys could carry them home.

“Cowards,” Nat laughed as she came out of the fitting room, shaking her fist at the backs of the retreating boys. “It’s too long, but then everything is.”

“We can fix that,” Madam Malkin assured her as she started pinning. “It fits in the chest, which is more important. Hold still.”

“Those look great,” Lily told Nat as she came out of the fitting room in her own robes.

“You both look wonderful,” Ginny told them and was thankful neither of the girls was likely to grow four inches in two months. She didn’t want to have to shop for them while they were at school.

All of the boys had deliberately bought robes too long for them assuming they’d be growing even more.

Lily danced and twirled around, smiling as the robes flew out to flutter around her feet. When Ginny had mentioned at breakfast they’d be getting dress robes for the ball, which was only to be attended by sixth and seventh years, Lily’s face had fallen. Scorpius had immediately told her she could go with him before his face had turned an interesting shade of pink. Lily had been floating on air ever since.

“I wish I didn’t have to go,” Nat muttered as she went to take off the pinned robes.

“It will be fine,” Ginny called out. Secretly she was hoping her son would get his act together and ask Nat to the ball, but she was starting to have doubts about Al ever making a move. It was difficult to be patient, but she also knew it would be better not to push them. Ginny’s own mum had told her about how she’d desperately wanted to interfere when Ginny had her crush on Harry, but if she had it would have been disastrous. Molly Weasley had been wise enough to know it.

“I bet Al will go with you,” Lily told Nat as she glanced at herself in the mirror.

Ginny forced a smile as Nat pretended like she hadn’t heard Lily and went off to change. Nat’s confidence in herself, when it came to Al, was in the toilet.

They rejoined the boys twenty minutes later to eat lunch and then finished their shopping. “I need to get my wand looked at, Mum,” Al reminded her.

Ginny sighed and nodded. She had completely forgotten, or more likely blocked it out. Al had been flying the day before and he’d collided with one of the new trees, smacking his pocket where his wand was tucked. “Keeping your wand in your pocket like that is a really bad idea.”

“I know,” Al promised sheepishly. “But it’s definitely a little cracked and I can’t manage school if it’s not working properly. I won’t do it again.”

“Let’s go,” Ginny growled and thought of how her own mother would have told her to mend it with Spellotape. Maybe she was spoiling them a bit too much.

They all marched into the small wand shop, all except Hagrid who said he’d wait outside, and Al presented his wand to Ollivander, who was decidedly ancient now. Ever since he’d helped Harry in his quest for the Elder Wand, Ginny had definitely had mixed feelings about the old man. Still, he knew his craft and when the old coot finally died, the wizarding world would be in dire straits.

“What did you do, young man?” Ollivander asked as he examined Al’s wand.

“Er,” Al shifted from one foot to the other. “I hit a tree.”

“I hope the tree hit you back,” Ollivander said smoothly as he ran the wand through some diagnostics. “You have broken this wand beyond repair.”

“No,” Al groaned as he turned to Ginny. “Mum! I’m so sorry! I’ll pay for the new one or do as many chores as you want.”

Too right he would, but she was pleased he’d said it all the same. “Well,” she sighed heavily, “he goes back to school next week so he needs a new one.”

“Let us find one, then,” Ollivander told him.

Nat spoke up. “This one,” she said as she went to a stack of boxes and pulled it out.

Everyone stared at her and her face went scarlet.

“What makes you say that?” Ollivander asked her curiously, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Holly and unicorn tail, twelve inches. Quite strong that wand.”

“I know,” Nat said slowly, and then shook her head. She held it out to Al. “Try this one.”

Ginny could see the moment the wand was in Al’s hand that it was the right one for him. Sparks shot out the end and it lit up brilliantly. Surprised, she turned to Nat. “What was that?”

“Lucky guess?” Nat said weakly and Ginny understood instantly there was something she didn’t want to say in front of the creepy, old man.

“Good thing, too,” James told her with a laugh, intentionally diffusing the awkward moment. “I want ice cream and the shop would have closed if he’d had to try all these wands.”

“Young lady,” Ollivander said, clearly not deterred. “When do you finish at Hogwarts?”

“Uh,” Nat shifted uncomfortably. “I have two years left.”

“What were your O.W.L. results?”

“We don’t have them, yet,” Scorpius told him. “They’re late.” It was a sore spot among all of them, but especially Rose who was extremely impatient.

“Mm,” Ollivander murmured. “Come see me when you’re done with school. We should talk.”

“Right,” Ginny said with a forced grin. “Well, let’s pay for that new wand and go get ice cream.”

Ginny was not going to encourage Nat to work for Ollivander. Absolutely not. She couldn’t leave the shop fast enough or drag them down to the creamery where the kind woman made up a special whole fat yogurt treat for Nat.

“Are you sure I can’t talk you into coming to our house for dinner, Hagrid?” Ginny asked the big man yet again.

“I can’t, Ginny,” he said with a low chuckle. “I have other plans for tonight, but I’m glad we had a chance to catch up. I’ll see everyone back at school.”

“Bye, Hagrid!” the teens called as they waved to him.

“Now,” Ginny said as she pointed to all the bags at her feet and pointed to the trunk of the Hummer. “Let’s get this loaded into the car.”

~*~

“It feels weird being back on the train,” Al told Nat as they settled in for the sixth train ride to Hogwarts. It was currently only him and Nat, since Andrew, Rose, and Scorpius were off doing whatever Prefects were supposed to do.

“We rode the train home in June,” Nat pointed out as she stretched out her short legs which almost reached the floor of the train. She scowled down at them. “I’m going to be short forever.”

“Probably,” he agreed. “But in June it wasn’t going to school. Last year the train was blown up.”

“It won’t be this year,” Nat replied confidently. “The Aurors are out in force, as is the MLE. No one is going to be able to pull that a second time.”

Al’s dad had talked about driving Nat to school, leading the train, so she could keep an eye on it for them but they couldn’t figure out a way to do that without giving away Nat’s secret, so the whole idea had been scrapped.

They both fell into a comfortable silence as the clacking of the train sang to them below their feet.

“Is it weird that we only have two more years?” Al wondered.

“I suppose so,” Nat admittedly slowly. “We’re all going to be adults this year, by the time school is done. I guess we’re going to have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

“You want to be a mum,” Al reminded her. “You know what you want.”

“I have to find a husband for that first,” Nat grimaced as she glanced out the train window, refusing to meet his eyes.

Al shifted uncomfortably. He knew what he wanted to say to her, but he also knew it just wasn’t in him to tell her. “You’ll… you’ll find someone.”

“I could work for Ollivander,” she mused. “If I can see a thread from the wand to the witch or wizard, I could sell them easily. But if I can’t make them, then it’s not quite as helpful.”

“You probably can make them,” Al said thoughtfully. “You’d likely know which wood and which magical element would go well together. You’d probably be good at that.”

“Maybe,” Nat said off-hand. “I dunno. At least my O.W.L.’s weren’t abysmal. I have a good chance of getting a job in the Ministry if I can keep it up through N.E.W.T.’s.”

Al wanted to argue with her about getting to be married and having a family, but he could see she didn’t want to discuss it. They’d all done well on their exams. When it was all said and done, Rose and Scorpius had both achieved O’s in every subject, no surprise, and Al and Nat had split their exams with four O’s and three E’s. Al had been really surprised at how well he’d done. If he’d been honest with himself, he just hadn’t thought he was that smart.

But he was comparing himself to Rose and that was probably not a fair comparison. James hadn’t done nearly as well in his O.W.L.’s, only managing two O’s, so at least he’d beaten his big brother. James, of course, wasn’t bothered. He was going to play Quidditch. None of them had any doubt about it. Scouts would be coming to James’ games to see him and it was simply a matter of which team he would be chosen for. James was just that good. Al was never going to be that good, nor did he much care. He was good enough to play on the house team, which was fine with him.

With James as his captain, of course, they were bound to have more squabbles over Al’s playing, but he simply enjoyed the game for what it was. He liked to win. He wanted to win, but it wasn’t quite the same as with his brother.

“You want to be an Auror,” Nat went on. “You’ll be good at it. You’re a lot like your dad.”

“Maybe,” he said, mimicking her earlier response. “Maybe we’ll both get what we want.”

She didn’t respond, simply stared off out of the train as a light drizzle began to fall onto the windows and the sky darkened overhead.

Whatever happened to them, Al wanted Nat to be his friend, so he didn’t say anything as the train kept rolling along. He pulled down their lunches just as the door opened and Rose, Scorpius, and Andrew tromped back in looking bad tempered and out of sorts.

“Problems?” Nat asked as she took her lunch from Al. Polly had stuffed a hamper full of food for them, all of them quite tasty. Al knew he could get sweets off the trolley but he’d long ago decided to stick with Nat. On a positive note, any baby fat he’d had was long gone. He’d always be bigger and broader, much like his Uncle Charlie, but since he’d stopped eating all the extra sweets, he’d grown leaner. Well, he amended to himself, leaner for him anyway.

“One of the first years decided to set off a stink bomb up in the front carriage,” Rose growled in annoyance. “It took us almost an hour to get rid of the smell!”

“Here,” Al said, handing her a lunch.

“What is it?” Rose asked as she opened the box and groaned. “Polly made us quiche?”

“Yep,” Al said as he handed out the other boxes to the others. “Anyway, who is the first year?”

“Jacob Jordan,” Andrew told them.

It was Al’s turn to groan. “Oh, yeah… I’d forgotten he was hitting first year this year.”

“You know him?” Andrew asked as he sat next to Al.

“His dad is best mates with my Uncle George,” Al explained. “We see their family sometimes. His dad, Lee, and his wife Marianna have four girls and one boy. Jacob is the youngest and he’s a rotten handful.”

“I didn’t want to mention that until we were alone,” Rose explained. “If you give Jacob any attention, he runs wild with it. Scolding him won’t do any good.”

“Are his sisters at Hogwarts?” Andrew wondered before taking a bite of his lunch.

“They’re all in Hufflepuff,” Rose laughed. “You’d know the second oldest, she’s in our year.”

Andrew thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. “Ryan Jordan! Right, the Jordan sisters all have boy names.”

“Alex, Ryan, Tomii, and Sam,” Rose confirmed.

“They all have those blueish-green eyes,” Andrew noted. “They have dark skin and hair, but really interesting eyes.”

“Their dad is black and their mum is white,” Al said around a mouthful of food. “She’s got curly brown hair and the same eyes as the kids. My mum jokes she bewitched her kids to make sure they’d all get her eyes.”

“So Jacob is at Hogwarts,” Rose sighed heavily. “We are doomed if he gets into Gryffindor! He’s the worst little pill, worse than any kid I’ve ever met.”

“We’ll all keep our fingers crossed he makes it into Slytherin,” Al told them honestly. He didn’t hate Jacob. Jacob was just a little kid, only eleven, but he was an obnoxious brat whenever the mood struck him. If Jacob was in Gryffindor they’d have no chance to win the house cup. “If it gets too bad they’ll expel him anyway.”

“Does it make me a horrible human being if I hope he does get expelled in his first week?” Rose asked.

Nat’s brows rose up in surprise. “You’re serious?”

“I think I am,” Rose admitted.

“I don’t think that makes you a horrible human being,” Scorpius told her. “That kid had the look of someone who wanted nothing more than to make trouble. Wherever he goes, trouble is going to follow.”

Al was extremely thankful they made it to Hogwarts without the train blowing up. They waved to Hagrid as he shepherded the first years off to the boats and they hopped in the carriages for the ride up to the school. “Hopefully this year is less stressful than last year,” Al told his friends. They’d be starting to prepare for N.E.W.T.’s so he didn’t hold out much hope, but one could dream.

“Let’s just see what happens at the sorting,” Rose muttered darkly.

To their utter horror Jacob Jordan was sorted into Gryffindor.

Al briefly considered chucking a chip at Andrew’s head. His friend’s expression of relief was so unmistakable that people around him started laughing.

“Cheer up,” James said with a laugh as he leaned over to Al. “You’re not a Prefect. You don’t have to deal with him.”

Rose chucked a chip at James’ head, channeling Al’s thoughts. James laughed as he deftly caught it and popped it into his mouth.

“I don’t like you right now,” Rose told him as Jacob sat down at the table next to another first year and promptly dumped something into the poor girl’s pumpkin juice. “Don’t drink that,” Rose commanded to the girl, standing up to take her cup and swapping it with Jacob’s. She glared down at him. “Go on, then,” she ordered.

Jacob glared up at him for a moment, and then grinned and drank the juice down in one gulp. With a loud pop the small boy was gone and in his place was a toad.

Rolling her eyes, she turned to the little girl. “What’s your name?” she asked kindly.

“Seraphina Essex, uh Sera,” she whispered timidly as the toad next to the girl popped back into the boy.

“Sera,” Rose put her hand on her shoulder and nodded to Jacob. “This boy is never, ever to be trusted for any reason. Do you understand?”

Sera nodded with a squeak, her blonde curls bobbing with the moment. “Alright.”

“Good,” Rose said as she glared at Jacob again. “I am watching you.”

Jacob stuck his tongue out at her as Rose walked away, clearly fuming.

“This is going to be a miserable year,” Al told them all darkly.

Al couldn’t have been more right if he’d been prophetic. Students had their stuff go missing, only to have it appear in someone else’s trunk, or strung up all around the castle on the sconces. School books ended up blank. The potions room was filled with large, unpoppable bubbles. The breakfast food came up tasting of soap. The entire second year of Hufflepuff had their hair dyed pink. The broom shack was raided and all the brooms were laid out on the lawn right under the Whomping Willow. None of the brooms were smashed, but the moment anyone came close enough to try to get them, the tree went into high alert and tried to kill them all. If that wasn’t enough, Al still had a lot of studying to do and all of the ink in the castle kept disappearing.

If it wasn’t all so annoying, Al would have been deeply impressed that a first year was managing it all. There was no doubt about who was doing it, of course. Jacob Jordan was absolutely behind all of it. The only problem was they hadn’t been able to catch him at any of the other pranks. No, he was too clever for that.

It wasn’t as though Jacob minded getting in trouble. He talked back in class, flouted small rules at every turn, and lost Gryffindor every single point any of them earned. He had no friends. He had, in fact, made absolutely every single student hate him.

But Jacob was bloody brilliant. No one could deny this kid was a genius. Absolutely everyone could see it within a second of speaking to him, if he spoke without a rude comment. The kid never did his homework and yet all the first years were grudgingly telling people just how advanced Jacob was in magic. He didn’t need study. He didn’t need practice. Once learned, he never forgot something.

“I don’t think I noticed it when he was small,” Rose growled in exasperation as she and most of the other sixth and seventh years helped remove all of the green paint which had appeared on all of the stone passages overnight. It was such a huge job all the older students had been excused from classes to help the teachers go through and clean it up.

“We didn’t pay any attention to him when we could help it,” Al reminded her. “We would hang out with Alex, Ryan, Tomii and Sam.” They hadn’t enjoyed the small boy. He was a brat of the highest order. Even his sisters couldn’t stand him. They left him out whenever possible. Jacob’s parents hadn’t ever seemed to be able to control him and any time they tried, they’d end up screaming in anger or walking off in defeat.

Truth be told, they hadn’t hung out with them much because of Jacob.

“I just don’t know what to do,” Rose growled in frustration. “He needs to be expelled, but he’s so brilliant!”

“Brilliant is as brilliant does,” Nat sighed as she waved her wand at another spot of green paint. “That kid is a menace.”

“But you have to admit,” Andrew said begrudgingly, “We’ve never seen anyone like him.”

The problem was it was true.

The next day, Sunday, Al wandered over to the Hufflepuff table and straight for Ryan. Her startling eyes met his with a bland stare. She had her light brown hair pulled back in a tail, the curling ends turning in every which way. “Can we talk after breakfast?” Al asked as he knelt down next to her.

“He’s your problem,” Ryan informed him with a knowing smile.

“Come on,” Al sighed. “Take pity and be nice, Ry! We’re getting desperate.”

Ryan popped a bite of sausage in her mouth and considered him carefully. “Alright, then,” she said finally. “It’s nice out today. I’ll meet you down by the lake after breakfast.”

“Thanks,” Al said as he stood and went back to the table. He saw Jacob studying him and Al stared right back, staring him down. To his surprise, Jacob turned away first and went back to eating. He was eating by himself, without anyone close by him. Everyone knew he’d put something in their food if they sat too close so he was always by himself.

Al would have felt sorry for him if he weren’t such a nuisance.

They ended up finishing breakfast about the same time and all met just on the grounds right after breakfast. “Ryan, this is Nat, Scorpius, and Andrew,” he told her.

“I am aware,” Ryan said dryly as she eyed each of them. “We have been in classes together for over five years.”

“I don’t think we’ve really talked, though,” Nat told her as they began the walk down to the lake and away from the castle.

Al kept an eye out for Jacob, but he hadn’t seen him since they’d left the castle and he didn’t think the kid could have heard what Al had asked of his sister. Still, he kept an eye out for him, unsure of what the kid might do to them.

“I suppose not,” Ryan agreed as she stuck her hands in her denim pockets and studied the brilliantly blue sky overhead. Only a few wisps of clouds floated overhead, serving to showcase the bright sky even more. “It almost feels like spring today.”

“It hasn’t felt like spring since school started,” Rose told her grumpily. “Your brother is a monster!”

“Rose,” Andrew hissed out in warning.

Ryan’s lips quirked into a grin. “Oh, Rose is only speaking the truth. I can’t fault her for that.”

They all fell silent until they’d reached the lake and planted themselves on the grass. They seemed to be waiting for Ryan, Al realized.

Ryan picked at a blade of grass and twirled in between her fingers. “It’s been… it’s been a struggle with him.”

“That has to be an understatement,” Rose said bluntly.

“A mild understatement,” Ryan agreed evenly. “Jacob has completely taken over our family. He didn’t speak until he was four, and when he did, he started out with gibberish. It was hard on my parents. He could do magic, without a wand that should never have been possible. He understood how things worked. He was…” her shoulders slumped and Al felt a pang of sympathy wash through him. “He was so difficult! We were all constantly being tormented by him.”

Rose’s face fell as she reached out for Ryan. “You never really talked about it.”

“No, well,” Ryan shook her head and grimaced. “Last time we hung out was just before Hogwarts and he was still so small. But my parents realized he was not really fit to be around people. That’s partially why they stopped inviting people over.”

“Oh, Ryan… I’m so sorry.”

Ryan’s expression was bleak for only a second before her face slid back into one of supreme unconcern. “Alex was already at Hogwarts, and you know how sweet she is,” Ryan said, glancing to Al and Rose, who nodded. “She was such a Hufflepuff. I put on the Sorting Hat and it started to tell me Gryffindor and I just knew… I knew if I went into Gryffindor, Jacob would be there too. So I begged the hat to put me in with Alex. Then I told Sam and Tomii about the hat trick and they did the same thing.”

“You…” Andrew cleared his throat as his eyes narrowed. “You deliberately picked a different house to get away from your brother?”

“It’s going to get worse,” Ryan told them seriously.

“He doesn’t seem mean or malicious,” Nat said hesitantly. “I mean, it’s all pranks but no one is really hurt or lost anything. He hadn’t destroyed anything.”

Ryan nodded and dropped the blade of grass. “He’s bored with classes. They’re a bore to him. He’s going to get in trouble just to keep himself entertained. It’s what he does.”

“What about your parents?” Nat asked.

“They don’t know what to do with him,” Ryan said with a shrug. “They’re at their wits end.”

Al wondered dully why things couldn’t just be simple for them. Why couldn’t they just have a nice, normal life?

“Your brother is a genius,” Nat said quietly.

Ryan considered her for a long moment and then nodded. “In magic, yeah… it seems like it.”

“So a genius,” Nat mused as her eyes gazed off into the distance. “The thing about really gifted children is they’re almost never neurotypical.”

“Come again?” Scorpius asked, clearly just as lost as Al was.

“So, you are what would be considered neurotypical,” Nat explained as she glanced around at all of them. “Someone who is, in general, just an average person. For someone who isn’t, they maybe have special needs or a learning disability or something else. It’s rare for someone to be that smart without a challenge.”

“I mean, he’s not that smart,” Ryan interjected. “If you ask him to do multiplication, he can’t and he’s barely reading.”

“Right,” Nat said slowly. “So he’s good at magic, but he has to learn it from watching someone else do it. He can’t just teach himself from books, which means he’s bored out of his mind without any way to fill it.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ryan said slowly as her eyes swept the group. “I mean, it would be better if he could teach himself and just do whatever he wanted, but he can’t. He seriously can’t read.”

“How did they let him in, then?” Al wanted to know.

“I think Professor Goldstein felt sorry for Mum and Dad,” Ryan admitted ruefully. “I know they had several meetings with him about Jacob. It was something they talked about a lot. But honestly, they shouldn’t have admitted him.”

“What was the alternative?” Nat challenged. “Could they have homeschooled him and challenged him enough to actually turn him into a fully functional wizard?”

Ryan fell silent and then shook her head. “He walks all over my parents.”

“I’ve noticed how alone he is,” Nat went on.

“He’s doing that to himself!” Rose growled in annoyance. “He’s an absolute menace!”

Nat held up her hands. “Yes, I can see that, but he’s not a normal kid. Maybe he’s autistic.” When only Andrew didn’t look confused, Nat dropped her head to her hands. “You don’t have autism in the wizarding world?”

“Uh,” Al shook his head. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“I know what you mean,” Andrew said slowly as he narrowed his eyes. “My… my parents had this friend,” he said as his voice hitched. It always hurt for him to talk about the parents he’d lost. “Their daughter is autistic. She couldn’t speak, though.”

“So, it was profound for her,” Nat said as she patted Andrew’s arm.

“Can someone explain what it is?” Scorpius asked them. “It might only be a Muggle thing.”

“It’s pretty complicated,” Nat told them hesitantly. “But basically if he has problems making friends or connecting with people, that would be something like autism. Also, some autistic people are seriously gifted in one area of their lives.”

“That actually sounds like him,” Ryan replied thoughtfully. “He hasn’t ever been able to make a friend and he’s never really tried. I always thought that was because we wouldn’t play with him, but really he just wouldn’t play. He just wanted to make stuff happen. When we wouldn’t go along with it, he got attention by causing problems.”

“I don’t know exactly what’s up with him,” Nat assured her quickly, “but I do know we can’t keep this up. If he doesn’t get the challenge he needs, someone is going to get hurt.”

Andrew studied Ryan for a long moment before he asked, “What do you think we can do to help him?”

Ryan met his gaze and then she shook her head and looked away. “If I’d known that, I’d have done it already. I just don’t know.”

Al watched her and was startled to see tears pool in her eyes and begin streaming down her face. “Ry… I’m sorry.”

She swiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands and took the tissue Rose fished out of her bag. “I don’t know… he’s my brother, and I love him, but I just don’t like him! I do feel bad for him.”

“Maybe we can start trying to challenge him,” Nat suggested. “If we offer to teach him things, do you think he’d like that?”

“Maybe?” Ryan said as she dabbed at her eyes and then stared down at the grass. “Yeah, maybe. He likes to learn. You might be able to talk him into knocking off the pranks if he gets to learn things.”

“It’s worth a try,” Al said with a sigh. “Maybe we should see what the teachers are trying to do about him. They have to have a plan.”

It turned out they didn’t have a plan. Al asked to speak to Neville and went over everything they’d discussed with Ryan.

“I shouldn’t be talking to you about this,” Neville sighed as he sank onto the edge of his desk and rubbed at his temples. “He’s a student and deserves his privacy.”

“But–”

“But,” Neville held up his hand, “I will say this. We always have a plan for students we feel are going to be a challenge. I think you can come to your own conclusions as to how the plan has gone.”

In other words, badly. Al tapped his foot and nodded slowly. “So if we want to help out a struggling student, you don’t see anything wrong with that?”

“As long as you’re as kind as you possibly can be,” Neville said seriously as he leveled his gaze on Al. “I cannot stress this enough, Albus. You have to be calm or things will get a lot worse.”

So they hatched a plan and found the best students in the school and called a meeting in one of the unused classrooms. It was a group of about twenty sixth and seventh years, plus one fifth year who happened to be a star in Ancient Runes.

“I am not helping him,” said one of the sixth-year boys Slytherins who was particularly adept at Charms, pointing threateningly at Al. “That little git has wrecked everything!”

“He’s wrecking everything because he’s bored,” Nat interjected. She held up her hands. “Who here is Muggle-born?”

Five hands went up.

Nat nodded at them. “I think he’s autistic.”

All five of the students let out a collective breath. “That would explain some things,” one of the Ravenclaws agreed. “My brother is autistic.”

“I’ve never heard of kids like this in the magical world, though,” Scorpius pointed out.

“It might be that a magical brain wires itself away from autism,” Nat explained, “or that the children were hidden away from the world. Or, like in the Muggle world, the rates of autism are going up. To get a kid who is a savant and truly gifted is extremely rare, though, so it makes sense we wouldn’t have seen this before. He might be doing all of this to get attention and cause people problems.”

“Hang on,” the Ravenclaw boy shook his head. “That’s not at all what my brother does! He doesn’t do things to make people mad, exactly. He just doesn’t know better and he wants to see what will happen.”

They all fell silent as what he’d said started to sink in.

Ryan’s face went ashen. “You… you think he’s not trying to get back at us. You think he’s just trying to see what he can do?”

“I think it’s a lot more complicated than any of us can imagine,” Nat assured her. “He’s not totally innocent in this, but at the same time he’s probably not completely guilty, either. I think he needs a challenge.”

“How are we going to manage to teach him when we’re stuck under all of our other work and cleaning up his messes?” demanded the Slytherin girl.

“I was going to propose that if he behaves himself, we’d work with him,” Nat said simply.

“I don’t think he can stick to that,” Ryan told her. “He’s been offered rewards before and he never follows through on his end.”

Nat threw up her hands and shook her head. “We can try or spend the next two years clearing up his messes!”

It was a sign of how bad it was that everyone fell silent to contemplate it.

“I don’t want to keep doing this,” Al told her honestly.

“You’re best at Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Nat said, brightening. “You and Hal,” she said pointing to a seventh year Slytherin. “You two can work with him on that.”

Al glanced over at the towering Hal. He had dark hair and brows over a tanned face. The boy nodded to Al and Al nodded back.

“Let’s figure this out, then,” Nat said to the group. “We have to do something.”

The entire group cornered Jacob the next day before dinner. Ryan brought her brother to the same classroom and Al watched him closely. It was only when Nat had pointed out what they might be looking for did he finally see what he’d missed before.

Jacob didn’t meet anyone’s eyes and he kept fidgeting with his robes, over and over again, one buttoning and unbuttoning it. Then he looked up at Al and stared him down for a full ten seconds before he glanced away.

Al had no idea what Jacob was feeling but he suddenly realized how he would have felt if he’d been pulled into a classroom full of older students who were staring him down with definite hostility.

“We want to help you learn,” Al said as compassion for this small kid pulled him forward. He knelt down before Jacob and tried to put a hand on his shoulder but Jacob shrugged him off. Al tried not to take it personally as Jacob’s eyes, so like Ryan’s, met his for a moment. “We know you’re bored, yeah?”

Jacob shifted from one foot to the other and then shrugged, still not looking at him.

“We’re going to take it in turns to help you learn everything you want to know,” Al explained and then waited.

Jacob finally met his eyes. “Why would you do that?”

“Because we’re tired of you wrecking the castle,” Al said and couldn’t help but grin.

Jacob didn’t grin back. He glanced away and shifted his feet. His fingers continued to play with the button. “I didn’t mean for the green paint to go everywhere.”

Ryan snorted and to Al’s shock, he watched Jacob shrink in on himself. Al shot Ryan a warning look and she turned away, heading for the back of the room. He watched Andrew follow after her and his friend talk to her in low tones. “Look,” Al said as he turned back to Jacob. “Whatever you meant to do, it caused a big mess and that’s your responsibility, right?”

“I didn’t mean–”

Al held out his hands. “Accidents happen, but it’s what we do with those that count. We’re going to use this classroom and we’re going to work with you.”

Jacob shifted again. “Your dad taught you to do a Patronus.”

Al blinked. His dad had taught him that a year before. He’d taught all of them last summer since it was a way to communicate. Only Al had really mastered it, though. His was a huge bear which his dad had found interesting. James, to none of their surprise, had the stag. “Yeah, how did you know?”

Jacob didn’t answer him. “Show me.”

So Al did. The first lesson for Jacob was taken up just like that.

Back to index


Chapter 54: Chapter 51

Author's Notes: Please, please PLEASE consider checking out my novel, Duplicity by Sarah Jaune on amazon, BN and other platforms. It comes out in just over a month in April 2020. It's the story of something that actually happened to me and nearly ruined my life, but slightly fictionalized so the wench doesn't come after me again... share with your friends!

Thanks Arnel for your help and support!


To Al’s utter shock, Jacob was able to produce a thin, wispy Patronus the very first time he tried. He stared down at the first year with his mouth hanging open. “That’s…”

“Stunning,” Andrew filled in for Al.

“You have to think of something really happy,” Al said and tried not to blush as he thought of his own happy memory, which happened to be flying with Nat sitting on the broom in front of him. He’d never admit that to anyone.

They worked on it for another ten minutes, but without a very happy memory, Jacob couldn’t manage to get more than smoke from his wand. “We’ll have to think of a memory for you,” Al said and smiled confidently for the kid. “It’s still excellent and you can keep practicing it.”

“What do you want to learn?” Nat asked and Jacob shrugged.

One of the Ravenclaws took over then and started asking him questions to figure out what it was he knew and where he was short.

It was a start.

They all went to bed that night with a hope for a better next day.

Things seemed to settle down in the castle but only if they worked with Jacob every single day. Rose set up a schedule for the students to work with him so they each had a chance to go to Quidditch practices, perform Prefect duties, attend classes, and other activities which ate up most of their free time. They managed to keep it up for weeks as they sped through to their first Hogsmeade weekend. To Al’s utter amazement, he learned more from Jacob than he ever thought he managed to teach the kid.

Jacob had a way of doing magic which seemed to be almost a dance of innate knowledge merged with utter confidence. Al learned to refine his moves and to sharpen his understanding of concepts because when Jacob didn’t understand something, he seemed to have a knack of asking the exact right question to make Al think and reevaluate. Every single one of the students helping Jacob said the same thing. One consequence of it was all of them were doing better in their classes.

“This isn’t all bad, then,” Al said to Nat and Scorpius as he ate breakfast before their Quidditch match.

“No, I agree,” Scorpius said as he cut up his sausage. “Is Rose okay?”

“She’s fine,” Nat assured him. “James has been on her about the game since she had that injury in practice last week. The scouts will be here today, so he’s anxious for it to go well.”

“I dunno why he’s so worried,” Al told her. “He’s absolutely set to make it onto a team.”

Al was right, of course. Their game was a good one, including a spectacular catch of the Snitch by their new Seeker, Amy, a tiny third-year girl with corn-yellow hair and an impish smile which made Al think of his mother. She was quite a good flier and she’d snatched the Snitch right from under the foot of the Slytherin Keeper.

Al cheered with the rest of his team as they met on the field to lift Amy onto their shoulders. “Party!” Louis called to the students.

“I’ll be there shortly,” James said as a group of adult wizards made their way to him on the field.

Al saw all of them appeared quite impressed. Well, they would be. James was an excellent captain, and a team player, but even they couldn’t have noticed to fail he could score a goal from practically halfway down the pitch. He had quite an arm on him.

Caroline, who had been drifting on the outside of the group, moved over to James and bumped up onto her toes to kiss his cheek. “See you in a bit.”

Al grinned at his brother and then herded the rest of the house back towards the castle. He kept his fingers crossed for his brother, but really it wasn’t as though they had any doubt.

“Life is moving on,” Nat said as they stood by the table laden with food. Parties were much easier with Nat around. She simply had to call the elves and food appeared.

“What do you mean?” Al asked as he dipped a carrot into some dip before popping it into his mouth. He bypassed the biscuits with her to get a plate of the healthier snacks.

Nat stopped and turned to him, staring up at him in a way that his stomach flipping over in a funny way. Her eyes were alight with something he couldn’t quite understand. “You don’t have to eat like I do.”

Ah. She’d noticed. He was hoping she wouldn’t. “It’s better for me.”

“You don’t want to give up the sweets,” Nat said as her gaze finally slipped from his. “You should enjoy them.”

Al patted his flat stomach, something he not really realized had been a problem until it was gone. “This is thanks to eating like you do. Plus, I’ve grown a bunch!”

“Like you needed to be more handsome,” Nat grumbled under her breath and Al felt a spring of hope surge up in him until she deflated it with her next words. “You have all the girls fawning over you this year. You’ll have yourself a girlfriend before you know it.”

Al shifted uncomfortably and wished he knew how to make his heart settle. It was Nat he wanted to date, but she was determined to set him up and he was starting to fear it was because she knew he had a crush on her. He tried so hard not to let his feelings show. He tried to keep himself neutral so she wouldn’t end up pushing him away. Not for the first time he wondered if he shouldn’t just go with someone to Hogsmeade just so she would stop suspecting his feelings.

But honestly, he couldn’t work up the energy to manage it.

“There’s a Hogsmeade weekend coming up,” Nat went on what appeared to be forced cheerfulness. “You should ask someone.”

“There isn’t anyone I want to ask,” Al muttered as his spirits sank even further until it didn’t feel like they’d won the Quidditch match. “We’ll just go together.”

“Rose is going with Hal,” Nat told him. “Andrew is going with Ryan.”

Stunned, he stopped in his tracks. “You’re serious?” His cousin was going to Hogsmeade with a Slytherin?

“Hal is really nice,” she explained as if he hadn’t noticed it himself. Still, he’d have to take a closer look at the bloke to see if he really was as nice as he thought. Then the other thing Nat had said struck him.

“Wait! Wait!!” he pulled her over to the side of the common room, nearly upsetting her plate of food. “Andrew is going with Ryan? Ryan Jordan?!”

“Mhmm,” Nat went on as she glanced away. “I was thinking maybe you had a thing for her so I wanted to warn you.”

Al’s mouth fell open. “I…” he spluttered and then laughed, shaking his head. “No, absolutely not. Ry and I have only been friends.” He had, admittedly, thought her older sister Alex was really pretty when he was younger, but he’d long since moved on from it. However, he must have been blushing because Nat was giving him a funny look. “Listen,” he went on. “You, me, and Scorpius will go hang out in Hogsmeade.”

“Scorpius is on Jacob duty that day,” she reminded him. “He volunteered to take a shift while the rest of us go to the village.”

“Well, just you and me then,” he said and then had a horrible thought. “I mean… uh… unless you have a date, too.”

Nat snorted and walked away in a huff, leaving Al extremely confused.

~*~

James felt like he was floating on air. He could not believe what had happened and might not believe it for the next fifteen years. He made it into the common room and although several people peppered him to tell them what happened, it was Caroline he moved to. He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, leading her to the portrait hole with her dog plodding along behind them and out until they found an empty classroom and he’d closed the door behind him.

“Well?” she asked hesitantly.

James couldn’t form the words as he pulled her against him and held on tight. He sincerely hoped he was telling her news which mattered for their future together, but he didn’t know what the future was going to look like. “They’ve invited me to try for England.”

“What?!” Caroline gasped in astonishment. Getting onto one of the teams was one thing, but getting to try for the national team was on another level altogether. “You’re serious?”

He could only nod, feeling the silky strands of her hair against his cheek. “The other teams said if I didn’t make the national team, I have a guaranteed spot on their reserves, with a chance to try for the main team. But right now, I have an invitation.” It wasn’t an open process, James reminded himself. He had to have an invitation to even be considered. His parents were going to be thrilled. “But the national team means I’d be traveling a lot.”

“So would one of the regional teams,” Caroline reminded him.

“But it means more time away from you,” he said knowing she wouldn’t want to travel around with him.

She didn’t respond.

“We have to talk about this,” he said simply. “I don’t want to be away from you.”

“But this is your dream–”

“You’re my dream,” he interrupted her, reminding her it was true as he pressed a gentle kiss to her temple. “This… this is about us. I can always move up to the national team later, but going back down is more complicated.”

He felt her shoulders begin to shake. “I don’t know…”

“I know you don’t,” James assured her. “I didn’t expect this and I don’t have to decide now. The tryouts aren’t until April. We have time to talk about it, and I wouldn’t make the regular team. The main national team had tryouts a few months back. This is only to secure a spot on the reserves.”

“I need to sit down,” Caroline said quietly.

They moved to sit in chairs facing each other and James kept her hands in his. “This is your life, too. Our lives are together.” They’d talked about this a few times now, but they never made much progress. Truthfully, he would marry her the second they left school if she said it was what she wanted. But he didn’t think she was ready, and he didn’t feel ready. He had money from his parents’ trust fund, but it wasn’t the same as being a man, going out into the world to find a job, and paying his own way. He accepted he would need the trust to buy a home. Because of who he was, he needed a house which could be fortified to withstand attacks. But after that, he wanted to pay his own way. It felt like the right thing to do.

All of that meant he needed time to work and save. He could live at home for a while, especially if he was traveling a lot. His parents weren’t going to mind storing his stuff for a year or so, but if he was honest with himself he wanted a home of his own. He was ready to spread his wings and stop relying on his parents for everything. “There’s no pressure to rush anything.”

She nodded slowly and glanced down at their joined hands. “I… I don’t want to marry unless I know I can… be with you.”

“I get that,” he said as he tried to speak around the lump in his throat. “Even if we never marry, you’re my best friend. I love you. I want to be with you.”

“If you’re traveling around, you’ll meet a load of other girls who aren’t nearly so complicated,” Caroline laughed without a single hint of humor.

“It won’t matter,” he said simply as he gently squeezed her fingers. “You’re the one for me. That isn’t going to change.”

“We’re so young…”

“Do you have a single doubt about your feelings for me?”

She shut her mouth and then shook her head.

She doubted his feelings for her, though. It was always there, in the back of her mind. He ran his fingers along the back of her hand, tracing the delicate lines of her veins. He waited.

Finally, Caroline said, “This is what you were meant to do.” He opened his mouth to object, but she held up her hand. “This is your passion, Jamie. If I can’t cope with it, then that’s my problem. You should try for the reserve team for England and see what happens. I’ll figure out what I want to do from there.”

He felt something in him relax. “If it doesn’t work for you–”

“Stop!” Caroline shook her head and her eyes were determined. “I don’t want to be coddled, James! I want to be strong and able to stand on my own.”

Slightly taken aback, James felt a lopsided grin tug at his lips. He glanced down at Rufus, who was snoozing at their feet.

“Okay, so maybe not totally on my own,” she admitted with a sigh.

James couldn’t help but laugh as he leaned over and gently kissed her. “If you need him to stand up for yourself, then who cares? Think of how you were a few years ago! You’re doing really well.”

She nodded and then sat up straight. “I’m certain. You get on a team and then we’ll figure out what life will look like. The travel isn’t year round, right?”

“No, they have a season. Training is in the fall and winter, then the games leading up to the World Cup are spring to summer. Training will be in England,” James explained. He hesitated a moment before he asked, “Have you figured out what you want to do after school?”

She shrugged and glanced away. It had been a sore spot for her, as nothing to do with the Ministry had sounded appealing. She could work in a shop or for Gringotts but not with Rufus tagging along and she was likely to panic without the dog there.

“Uncle George said–”

“I know,” she interjected quickly. “He won’t mind me bringing the dog in and I can work there, but I’m just not sure it’s the best situation for me. I’ll start applying once I get closer to the end of the year.”

She had her grandparents to rely on, and of course him. She didn’t need to push it to find a job which wouldn’t suit her. “Alright,” he said and grinned. “I was thinking of house-hunting over the Christmas hols. Want to come along?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”

He nearly said that yes, he was Sirius, but decided against it. “It will give my dad and uncles time to fiddle with the security all they want. I really want to be living on my own.”

Her cheeks turned pink as she glanced away. “You don’t need my help.”

James tried to hide his feelings. Part of him was disappointed she didn’t want to be involved, but he doubted it was that straight forward. “I want you to love the house I pick.” When her cheeks turned even redder, he grinned. “What?”

“Nothing!”

“I do not believe you.”

She bit her lip and chewed on it for a moment until Rufus raised his head and snuffed his nose in her direction. She blew out a breath and shook her head, her blonde hair brushing her face. “I… I was think… about… sharing it with you.”

He was thinking about sharing it with her, as well, but blushing wasn’t his primary reaction. James cleared his throat. “That’s the goal, right? That’s what I want.”

“I know.”

“Is it what you want?”

The silence hung heavy between them for a long minute. Finally, she nodded once and then buried her face in her hands. “Part of me wants to and the other part of me is revolted to think about ever doing that again!”

He really didn’t want to be hurt by what she said, so he made the choice not to take it personally. There were a lot of times he had taken what she’d said to heart, but as his mother was apt to point out to him, he said the worst things in his head to the people he loved and trusted the most, namely his mother, and if she took it personally they’d have no relationship at all. “There’s no pressure to do anything but stay friends. I’m going to push for that much.”

She grinned then and leapt up, throwing her arms around his neck and nearly knock him and his chair backwards. “I love you, Jamie!”

“I love you, too.”

~*~

Thunk Al cracked an eye open for a moment, but there wasn’t any light peeking through the tower windows, just the howling, raging wind. Not time to get up… no Quidditch today... blizzard… in late November. Even James couldn’t argue that the Quidditch cup was worth playing in five feet of snow. Whatever that noise was, it was wasn’t worth waking up for.

“Where is it…” a soft female whisper came from the end of his bed.

All right, maybe it was worth waking up for, Al mused. This was the boys’ dorm room, after all. He raised his head up a bit and squinted through sleep caked eyes. He’d been up most of the night reviewing for a potions exam and didn’t want to be awake. A tiny crack of light illuminated a familiar strawberry blonde head which was currently digging through the trunk at the foot of his bed.

“Got it!” Natalie whispered triumphantly, pulling out one of his old Weasley sweaters. She yanked it over her head and looked up, noticing him staring blurrily at her. It looked ludicrous on her tiny frame, almost like she was being engulfed by a large navy-blue bear. In fact, if he squinted one eye… “Go back to bed, Al. It’s early.” She snatched something off the floor, turned and walked softly from the room, closing the door behind her with almost no sound.

Al let his head thump back onto his pillow, trying to make sense of what he’d just seen and deciding it didn’t really matter anyway.

“Al?” Scorpius muttered. “Did Nat just come in and nick one of your sweaters?”

“Uh huh,” Al said, rolling onto his side.

Scorpius sighed. “All right, I’m not hallucinating.” There was a long moment of silence before he drawled, “Do you have any idea why?”

“She probably thought that I wouldn’t say ‘no’ if I was asleep.”

“Ah, yeah,” Scorpius said, yawning hugely. “That’s make sense if you ever said ‘no’ to her in the first place. You don’t even need a girlfriend to nick your clothes. Your best friend does it for you.”

Realizing that sleep wasn’t going to come back now, Al stretched and sat up. “It doesn’t even come close to fitting her. I’m more than a head taller than she is and at least five stones heavier.”

“Girls never make sense,” Scorpius agreed.

“Shut up!” one of their dorm mates grumbled.

A light cracked into the room from the stairs as the door swung open again. “Oh,” Nat began. “I didn’t mean to wake you up. Go back to sleep.”

Al gave her a bland stare as he scraped his hands over his cheeks, trying to rub off the last vestiges of sleep. “Why’d ya nick my sweater?”

“I’m cold,” she said, giving him an odd look as if that should explain everything. She moved back over to his trunk.

“What’s wrong with your sweaters?”

“I have one of mine on, Al. I wanted to layer them so I needed a bigger one.” She began rummaging through his trunk again. “There’s a blizzard out there and it’s freezing in the common room even with the fire blazing.”

Al stood and walked over to look at what she was doing, noting with a shiver that she was right. It was wickedly cold out of his warm bed. “Now what?”

She stood, triumphantly holding up a pair of his thick, woolen socks. “Found them,” she said happily, quietly closing the lid to sit and pull them on over her other socks. They went all the way up to her knees, before she pulled her pants back over them. “Much better,” Nat said happily, wiggling her feet. “You two getting up then?”

“Nat,” Al began and then gave up with a sigh. She was so cute, swamped as she was in his clothes. Who really cared if she took them? “Yeah, we’re getting up. Now get out so I can get dressed.”

“No stealing any of my clothes!” Scorpius called from his pillow, vaguely waving a hand at her.

“Too late,” Nat said as she walked towards the door. “I raided your trunk earlier for Rose before going through Al’s.” The door clicked shut. Scorpius groaned.

Al grinned and looked over at Scorpius who rolled his eyes before asking, “Why are we friends with them again?”

Al shrugged and started to dig out what was left of his warm clothing. “They don’t smell bad if they forget to shower and they never eat the last piece of bacon.”

His best mate snorted. “Right, as long as we’ve got good reasons.”

Al grinned and headed for the bathroom. “Only the best.”

Five minutes later Al and Scorpius trudged down into the common room and towards the fires where Rose and Nat sat studying. “It’s not even six o’clock!” Al grumbled as he flopped into the seat next to Nat, while Scorpius sat with Rose across from them.

“This is a big test,” Rose reminded them. “We need the study time.”

Al shivered as a large gust of wind shook the tower and spewed in cold air. He crossed his arms over his chest. He turned at a noise from the stairs and saw his sister, her shoulders hunched, about to head up the boys stairs. “Oi! What are you doing?”

Lily gave him a grumpy look. Unfortunately for Lily, even when she tried to look grumpy it came off as adorable. “I’m going to get a sweater from your trunk.”

“What is it with you girls?” Scorpius asked incredulously.

“Nat already raided my trunk,” Al informed her staring pointedly at Nat. She studiously ignored him.

Lily yawned and went up the stairs. “No problem, I’ll get one from James.”

Al turned back to the group and the thought of a memory flashed in his head. “You know, that’s how my mum told my dad she was pregnant with James.”

“Come again?” Nat finally looked up at him.

“I remember that story!” Rose piped in with a laugh. “See, Uncle Harry started to put on one of his old sweaters…”

Al sat back and grinned as his cousin told the story of his mum telling his dad the sweater was hers as she’d need bigger ones while pregnant. He glanced over to Nat and his face fell at the intense look of pain in her eyes. She stared down at the book in her lap and didn’t once glance up. If he hadn’t known any better, he’d have said she was about to burst into tears.

“Rose,” Al cut his cousin off.

“What?” Rose asked, and then her gaze tracked over to Nat and she fell silent. An awkward moment fell between them as the fire hissed and popped and the wind screamed a raging tantrum outside.

“Sorry,” Nat said quietly, breaking the silence. “Let’s… let’s get back to work.”

They were interrupted by Lily bouncing back into the common room, bundled up in one of James’ sweaters, an annoyed frown on her face. She sat herself in one of the armchairs and curled her legs up under the sweater as she glared at the fire.

“Why are you awake?” Rose asked, trying to break the tension.

“I had a bad dream,” Lily told them with a long, painful sigh. “It woke me up and every time I closed my eyes I kept seeing this… this dark place. It scared me.”

Al shifted his focus from Nat over to his sister, studying her carefully. “What about it scared you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted slowly as the light of the fire cast shadows on her pale skin. It made her freckles stand out even more. “Ever since we figured out I was the target–”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Al interjected immediately.

“We know, Al,” Lily said soberly. “We know Crabbe is going to come after me.”

“We’re also watching out for you,” Scorpius reminded her fervently. “We’re going to protect you.”

“I know,” Lily said as she leaned her head back against the back of the armchair. “I know I shouldn’t be afraid, but I am. I think the dark room is my fear of her.”

“How often are you having this dream?” Rose asked as she shifted in her seat, pulling her own feet up under her.

“At least once a week,” Lily told her, sighing again. “At least… sometimes more. I am stuck in a dark room, unable to move or cry out. I can’t feel anything, but I can sense someone standing in the corner, watching me and it… it makes me feel horrible and sick.”

Al stood up and moved to her, kneeling in front of her and putting his hands on her arms. “We’re not going to let anyone get you.”

She smiled and moved until she was hugging him hard. “I have the best brothers. I trust you.”

~*~

“The boys are getting ridiculous,” Lily grumbled.

Nat glanced over her shoulder and frowned. She’d been about to put away her clothes in the dresser at the Potter’s when Lily spoke. “What?” She hadn’t noticed the boys doing anything too out of the ordinary. “What did they do?”

“Not my brothers,” Lily waved it off. “Or… well, you can’t tell them just yet, okay?”

“Okay,” Nat agreed cautiously. “What am I agreeing with?”

“So,” Lily said as she flopped back on Nat’s bed, which was the lower bunk in Lily’s room. “I had three boys ask me to Hogsmeade just before the hols.”

Nat blinked. “I mean, you knew you were going to be beautiful.”

“I did,” Lily agreed carefully. “I knew it was going to happen. I saw my picture, the one where you aged me up some, and I could see it. But I just didn’t realize what it was going to be like.”

“What is it like?” Nat wondered. No one had ever been interested in Nat and she’d never been asked to Hogsmeade. She didn’t want to feel jealous of Lily. It wasn’t Lily’s fault she was beautiful and Lily had heeded Nat’s warning that she could be beautiful on the outside, but ugly on the inside. Lily was an angel. She was so sweet.

“It has happened a bunch this year,” Lily admitted. “It was happening a bit last year, too, but less so because I think everyone is afraid of my brothers and cousins. So they ask me out, and I politely decline after telling them I just want to be friends.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Nat said thoughtfully.

Lily shook her head. “Most of the boys are okay with it. Most of them say okay and that’s that, but some of them are starting to act like I owe them a date! Some of them are getting… well, getting mean about it.”

“Mean how?” Nat asked sharply. “Maybe we should tell Al and James.”

“Mean like… like glaring at me or refusing to talk to me anymore,” Lily sighed. “All these boys want to date me. I had one try to kiss me! But I want my first kiss to be special.”

“No one wants to kiss me,” Nat told her and then snapped her mouth shut. “Sorry… this is about you, and not me.”

“Oh, Nat,” Lily sprang up and threw her arms around her. “I’m sorry! I must sound so petty, complaining about this.”

“No,” Nat assured her. “It’s bothering you so I’m glad you told me. I think we need to tell your brothers.”

“I’ll think about it,” Lily said non-committedly. “I don’t want to worry them more than I already am.”

Nat didn’t think that was such a good idea, but she’d keep it quiet for now. It would keep the Christmas hols more peaceful, anyway. “I don’t think anyone will ever want to kiss me.”

If Nat could have smacked herself without looking stupid, she would have! She couldn’t believe she’d blurted that out when Lily had been simply asking for support!

Lily touched her cheek and shook her head. “You don’t know that. Some day someone will.”

Nat seriously doubted it, but she let it go. This was about Lily and not her. “Some day you’ll find a bloke you want to say yes to.”

Lily’s smile was rueful. “I hope so.”

~*~

“You’re serious?”

James glanced over at Caroline and grinned at the look of stunned admiration on her face. “Like it?”

“It’s huge!” she said as her mouth hung open.

“It is a bit much for one bloke,” Louis agreed.

James turned to his father who was studying the house with interest. It was a modern house with a lot of stone and interesting angles. It was set back in the woods away from everything else, had an outbuilding with an indoor pool, and a huge garage for several cars.

“It has good potential. We can definitely make this work,” Harry told his son.

“It’s going to cost a fortune!” Caroline hissed and James shrugged. He had a fortune to spend on a house, so he didn’t really care. He wanted to be happy with the house and he didn’t want to be moving around a lot. He’d always had a home and he’d always been stable. He wanted that to continue. “James…” she breathed out his name.

“Do you like it?” he asked her quietly.

“Well, I haven’t seen the inside!” she huffed out.

The inside was just as spacious as the outside had promised. It had one bedroom on the main floor and four on the second story. This house, unlike most, had a fully finished cellar. The living room flowed into the dining room which flowed into a large kitchen with an island. The backyard was huge with a lot of open lawn, bordered by acres of trees.

“It was owned by a French businessman,” Harry said as they wandered through the space which echoed with their steps. “Now is a good time to buy, too. It’s been on the market eight months and few people move in January.”

“Come on,” James said as he took Caroline around the rooms again, keeping her hand firmly in his. “We’ve looked at a lot of houses,” he said as he stepped into the largest bedroom and pulled her over to the large double doors which opened onto an atrium. “Look at the snow,” he said as they stood in the glassed in room and studied the backyard.

“I like this one…” she said slowly.

“Like it forever?” he asked her carefully.

She took in a deep breath.

“We can keep looking over the Easter hols,” he reminded her. They were going back to school in two days and they’d run out of time to look at more.

She shook her head. “I love this house.”

He laughed. “I love it, too.”

“You can really afford this place?” she wondered quietly.

“I have the gold on hand,” he confirmed. It would eat up much of what his parents had set aside for him, but he’d be earning a good living with Quidditch.

“Okay,” she said with a nod. “Let’s do this.”

~*~

Scorpius walked slowly over to where she sat with her feet up in the alcove, looking out the window onto the frozen ground below. February had been just as brutal as every other month.

A lump formed in Scorpius’ throat as his feet moved without his conscious effort. He’d seen her upset and couldn’t stop himself from following. He wanted to stop. He knew that these feelings he had for Lily were only going to get him in trouble but he couldn’t seem to help himself. He was seventeen! She wouldn’t be fifteen for another few months. But there was something there, something about her, and it was drawing him in like a moth to a flame. He didn’t have a good sense of self-preservation. That was all he could come up with. He wanted to die. Harry Potter would kill him. Al would kill him. He must have a death wish.

But he needed to make her feel better. There was nothing else but that simple fact. “Lily?”

She glanced over at him, her beautiful tear stained face awash in misery. “Hey.”

He sat on the ledge next to her feet. “What happened?” He didn’t really need to ask. He knew what had happened. Scorpius had stopped long enough to tell Al, James and Louis so that they could take care of the berk before he’d gone to find her. He’d wanted to break the boy in half for what he’d done to her, but more than that he wanted to find Lily and be absolutely sure she was okay.

“Nothing…” Lily whispered, drawing her knees up further and resting her forehead on her denim-clad knees. Her long, beautiful red hair spilled around her as if to shield her.

“What did he say to you?” Scorpius probed gently, tentatively reaching out a hand to brush her hair back a bit. It was softer than he could have imagined. It almost burned to touch her again. He wanted to so badly, but he made himself hold back.

She looked up and embarrassment stained her cheeks. “You saw?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, not adding that he watched her more than he should. “Your brothers are taking care of him.”

“Oh,” she closed her big brown eyes and dropped her head again. “This is awful.”

“Tell me what happened, Lils,” Scorpius asked again. “What did he say?”

“He…” her voice trembled. “He told me that I was a tease.”

Rage filled him so fast that he had to clench his fists and bite his lip, trying to regain control. “That’s… that’s not true.”

“It is true!” Lily said pitifully. “I didn’t mean for it to be this way, but… Nat told me that I was going to be beautiful years ago. She… she also told me that beauty is as beauty does and that if I wasn’t a nice person that it wouldn’t matter what my face looked like.” Her watery brown eyes met his. “I thought it would be great! I’d have boys at my feet and… I didn’t really understand what that meant until it started to happen. I tried to be kind, but I couldn’t be with them because none of them knew me. They just saw my face and they only wanted my face!”

Scorpius nodded. He’d been afraid that was what was happening to him too, even though he’d known and liked Lily as a person since she was nine when there was nothing but childhood friendship between them. But she was extraordinarily beautiful as well and only growing more so every day. “What happened today?”

“He… I heard him saying to his mates that he wanted to bag the prettiest girl in the school,” Lily sobbed.

Bile rose up in Scorpius’ throat. He couldn’t stop himself this time. He stood and wrapped her gently in arms. She melted into him and held on. “Why didn’t you hex him?”

“I should have,” Lily said through her tears. “I’ve always tried to turn the boys down nicely but him… he came to ask and I knew why he was asking. I told him I’d never go out with him. That’s… that’s when it got ugly.”

He cupped her chin and turned her face up to look into his eyes. “You aren’t a tease.”

“I’ve never said yes to any of them,” Lily said quietly as she looked at him. “I just couldn’t bring myself to say yes because I couldn’t trust them. I’ve never even kissed anyone.”

Scorpius had to close his eyes and fight off the urge to lean down and kiss her himself. He wouldn’t do it, though. His feelings for her ran too deep and had only been growing. She wasn’t interested in him and if she was, she wasn’t ready for this step. He wasn’t going to risk hurting her. When he opened his eyes again he managed a small smile. “That isn’t such a big thing, Lily. It isn’t like you’re ancient or anything.”

“But lots of boys want to kiss me,” she said miserably. None of this made her happy. “I didn’t realize what that was going to be like and it’s starting to get to me. Nat hasn’t kissed anyone either and she… she said to me a few weeks ago that she expected to go through life without anyone wanting to kiss her. I felt so awful and petty for being annoyed at all these boys when she’d be happy if just one boy paid attention to her.”

Scorpius knew that Nat did have a boy that wanted to kiss her, she just didn’t realize it. “It’s okay to want to be sure that a boy really likes you for you. Your mum is beautiful, too. How did she deal with all the boys?”

“She’s sort of a hex first and ask questions later person,” Lily said with a small, watery giggle. “I used to want to be as beautiful as her.”

“You’re already more beautiful,” Scorpius said and was shocked at how low his voice sounded.

Lily pulled back and looked at him in surprise. “You think so?”

“Definitely,” he promised meeting her gaze levelly. He watched the shift of expressions, the confusion and maybe understanding as they played over her face. “Are you ready to go back and face the world?”

She nodded and hopped down. “I don’t want to face that boy, though.”

“You won’t have to,” he assured her as he slung an arm around her shoulders, trying to keep it friendly. “By now he’s in the hospital wing.”

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Chapter 55: Chapter 52

Author's Notes: My novel, Duplicity by Sarah Jaune is now available on amazon, barnes and noble, and other platforms. PLEASE PLEASE go check it out and buy it! I write this story for love of the genre and to finish it, but I need to make money from my writing. So please, if you enjoy this story, go buy my new book or one of my other ones and do not forget to leave a review. Reviews are critical to us small timers beating the giant amazon :)

Thanks to Arnel for beta'ing!


“How am I supposed to feel about my child having his own house?” Harry wondered to his in-laws as he stared into his tea at the old, battered table he loved dearly for the memories they’d shared around it. The Burrow would always hold a dear place in his heart, even as the house no longer rang with the echoes and shouts of noisy boys running amok.

Arthur patted his arm comfortingly. “Wait until your child has a grandchild. That’s a whole new experience.”

Harry blinked and realized he didn’t have to wonder, of course. He’d already done this with Teddy and Victoire and he was already a grandfather. But with James… it seemed a little more daunting.

“I think it’s because it’s James,” Molly said as she set out a plate of biscuits. Harry knew they’d be sugar-free. Molly had been on a healthy eating crusade since they’d learned about Nat’s condition. Both she and Arthur had both lost a consider amount of weight and Molly had claimed she felt a lot better for it.

Harry pretended to smile and ate a biscuit so as to not to hurt her feelings. It simply didn’t taste the same to him, although he had to admit she was getting better at making them taste good.

“I think you’re right, Mum,” Ginny agreed as she reclined back in her chair. “We all had this image of James being a scamp and now he’s turned into a responsible man.” Her expression was as bewildered as Harry felt. “It boggles the mind, to be honest. I keep expecting him to throw a dung bomb at someone. Instead he has a house, which he plans to move in to as soon as school is out.”

“I worry about him not being supervised,” Molly admitted as she nibbled on a biscuit. “I worry about him and Caroline. She’s a good girl, but she’s been hurt so much. Maybe we should see if Louis wants to move in with him.”

“Didn’t you hear?” Ginny said with a raised brow. “Louis is going to be a Curse-Breaker. He’s leaving for Egypt as soon as the term is over.”

Ginny’s mother blinked. “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. Like father, like son. Still, I hope he settles down here in England. I’m still not happy with Charlie’s decision to stay in Romania.”

“He likes it there,” Arthur shrugged. “He’s not exactly going to be able to work with those kinds of dragons if he moves back here.”

“But still…” Molly’s voice trailed off. Harry studied her hair, which was almost completely gray now, and her lined face which had thinned out considerably. She didn’t really look like she was in her seventies, if Harry was honest. Of course, witches and wizards lived longer than most, but still. He glanced down at the biscuit and decided he might do well to cut back on some of the sweets himself. He was quickly approaching his mid-forties and he wanted to stay in good shape.

“I can’t believe Emma is already two,” Ginny mused as she sipped at her tea. Ginny, for her part, didn’t look a day over thirty. Harry still wasn’t sure how she managed it, except he knew she took better care of herself than he did. He’d have to change that.

“She was so sweet at her party,” Molly sighed happily. “I love being a grandmother, but being a great-grandmother is extra special.”

“But it’s definitely something to get used to,” Arthur pointed out to his wife. “We have grandchildren old enough to be parents, Molly.”

“I think soon we’ll see some more,” Molly went on happily. “Molly and Brayden have been married more than six months now.”

“I was under the impression they were going to wait awhile,” Ginny told them. “She’s still working on her career and they want to buy a house. Molly saw how Teddy and Victoire struggled and although we certainly wouldn’t mind helping them out, we don’t have a fund set aside for them like we did our children. The flat they’re in is not going to hold a baby.”

Ginny’s mother nodded thoughtfully. “It was so much easier back in my day. We were poor, sure, but we were able to get by on just your father’s salary. Now you need two working parents just to make it by. I don’t know why it is so hard.”

“When women joined the workforce it doubled the amount of labor making labor cheaper,” Arthur said as the other three turned to gape at him. “I’m not saying women should stay home, it’s just simple economics. You have an oversupply of workers and then you can pay them less.”

“Well,” Ginny punctuated the word. “That’s depressing. Women need to work! It gives them security and independence.”

Arthur reached over to pat her hand. “I simplified it. It’s a complicated issue and there are many factors. I agree with you, of course. You had a fine career as a Quidditch player and then as a reporter. Now you’re writing a book. Your skills were in demand and you were on a team where you were valued and thus paid accordingly. All of that is good. But not all women can be Quidditch players or even the Minister of Magic, so they have to compete.”

They all fell silent for a long moment. “I think,” Molly said finally, “this means we won’t have as many great-grandchildren as grandchildren.”

“Oh, we’re Weasleys,” Arthur told her cheerful. “We’ll always have a lot of children even if we don’t mean to.”

~*~
March had rolled through England in a never-ending series of raining, foggy days which left Teddy in a funk. It was no good trying to take Emma for a walk or to play outside as it was just cold enough to be uncomfortable for her, and too warm to snow. Still, he’d looked forward to his weekend off. Typically, he and Victoire had to spend more than an hour every month coordinating their schedules so that someone would always be there to put Emma to bed. It was something they’d decided needed to be their job as her parents.

Emma had two sets of loving, wonderful grandparents but she needed her parents. Ginny and Fleur couldn’t do everything. Victoire was currently working an overnight shift at the hospital and he hadn’t seen her, except in passing, in almost four days. They hardly ever went that long but it was starting to pile up on them. Most of the Aurors he worked with had older children at Hogwarts. Only Susan had a small child. When it came to setting schedules, he and Susan took first pick. It was Harry’s rule. Often that meant Teddy took the overnight shifts so he could have time with Emma after sleeping a few hours. He’d get home at six o’clock in the morning and sleep until one, then he’d get his daughter and have time with her until whenever he had to work again.

It wasn’t the life he’d imagined. Victoire loved her job. He loved his job, but they didn’t have family time together like he thought they would.

The problem was he didn’t know what to do about it. They had enough money now. They’d been saving everything Victoire made since he’d taken the money from Harry and Ginny. Victoire was now a Healer and she was paid well. He was an Auror and he was paid better than most in the Ministry since his job was so dangerous. Their house was paid off. They only had a few expenses every month and they didn’t have the time to spend any money on anything frivolous.

He couldn’t buy time.

Teddy studied his precious daughter carefully as she played on the floor with some blocks. The sitting room was otherwise silent, save for the ticking of the old clock in the corner. It had been his grandmother’s, something they’d saved for him. He glanced over to see it was past seven and he should be getting Emma in bed for the night, but as he lay on the carpet, his head propped up to watch her play, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t give away this last twenty minutes with her.

Her little face rose up to meet his and she beamed as she showed him the block she was holding. Then she scrambled up onto her pudgy legs and ran for him, tackling him in a giggling hug as he pretended to let out a huge breath, like she’d clobbered him.

He lifted her over his head and love for her swelled in him so much he nearly couldn’t speak as she laughed and squealed in joy.

The fire sprang to life in the corner and he glanced over to see Victoire step through. Surprised, but delighted, Teddy grinned up at his wife as he set Emma back on his chest where she scrambled off to throw herself at her mother. “You’re home early.”

“Yeah,” Victoire said robotically, alerting Teddy to something being wrong. She swung Emma up in her arms and buried her face in their daughter’s blonde hair.

Teddy was on his feet before he realized he’d even moved. “What’s wrong?”

Victoire shook her head as a tear slid down her cheek and into Emma’s hair. “Later.”

Later ended up being forty-five of the longest minutes of his life later. They worked together to bathe Emma and read her a story. She was so excited to have both her parents there for bedtime that it was hard for her to settle down to sleep, but as soon as she was, Teddy took Victoire’s hand and hauled her to their bedroom where he sat her down and knelt before her. “You’re white as a sheet,” he informed her as he tried not to panic. “What happened?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “It’s been a lot of long days the last two weeks or so. I’ve been… dragging through them, I guess. Today I made a mistake that nearly cost someone his life.”

“What?” Teddy asked reflexively. She was so careful, all the time. He couldn’t believe she would do something like that.

Victoire ran her fingers along the spread on their bed, tracing the pattern of green leaves on the blue background. He watched her fight for control. “It wasn’t the first mistake I’d made, but it was the biggest. I could have killed him,” Victoire finished with a sniff as another tear slid down her cheek. “I’m just s-so tired and worn out, Teddy.”

“Okay,” he swallowed hard and pulled her in for a hug, holding her close as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “Can you get fewer hours, maybe go part-time? I was thinking of talking to Harry about getting fewer hours for a bit since–”

“I’m pregnant.”

Teddy’s brain stopped completely as her words burrowed in to the train of thought he’d been on and completely derailed it. He felt a laugh bubble up out of nowhere and he found himself grinning as he kissed his wife. Elation didn’t even begin to describe it. Panic didn’t even begin to describe it. They were struggling to find time with their one child, plus time together. Things would have to change.

“Teddy…” she pushed at him.

He backed up to see her misery and fear spiked hard, wondering if something was wrong with her or the baby. “What?”

“I…” she swiped at her cheeks as tears kept rolling down. “I’ve just felt so off, so bad for weeks now… it’s not like normal pregnancy so I didn’t think it was! After… after the mistake today, Aunt Audrey pulled me into an exam room and grilled me over what happened and when I said I’d been feeling terrible, she checked everything, you know… that’s how we discovered I’m pregnant.”

“Are you sick?” Teddy asked, unsure of what else it could be.

Victoire looked as though the words were stuck in her mouth. Finally, she held up two fingers.

“Two?” he asked blankly. She nodded. “Two what?” was all he could think to ask.

And then it hit him. Two… two babies.

Two.

“Twins?” he squeaked out the word, shooting his voice straight back to puberty as serious and actual panic began to flood through him.

His wife was sobbing now and Harry’s words, reminding him to step up and be the man when she needed him to be, flooded through him. He gathered her in close and tried, very hard, to wrap his head around having twins.

He didn’t quite manage it. But he made all the appropriate noises and assured her they would be okay. People had twins all the time. If others could do it, so could he. They would figure things out. They had a lot of family to help. They weren’t poor.

But they had complicated jobs. “What about the mistake you made? Are you in trouble?”

Victoire shook her head and he waited while she took a drink from a glass on her nightstand and mopped up her face. “I’ve been overworked and I’m exhausted. I’m run down. For a bit there, I thought Aunt Audrey was going to keep me at the hospital, but she sent me home and I’m home for a week. I’m going to go back for four hours a day, five days a week, for a bit and see how I handle it.” Victoire let out a hitched breath as she stared at him with her red, swollen eyes. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to have twins,” Teddy said with a calm he didn’t actually feel. “You work if you can, don’t if you can’t. Growing two babies is harder, right?”

“Gran did it with three toddlers on hand,” Victoire told him miserably. “I should be able to do this and work.”

“You aren’t Gran,” Teddy reminded her as he cupped her cheek and ran a thumb along her jaw. “Your job is very stressful and you don’t get a lot of consistent sleep, luv.” He hadn’t seen her for more than a few minutes in several days and looking at her closely he could see the utter exhaustion written all over her face. “I’ll go in tomorrow and switch up my schedule so I’m only working during the day. I’m still going to take Emma over to Ginny tomorrow so you can have a lie in. You can go get her when you’re ready.”

When she burst into tears again, he pulled her more fully onto the bed and spooned in around her, cradling her as she sobbed. “I feel l-like such a failure!”

“You are not failing anything,” he whispered into her brow. “You’re exhausted and you need some sleep. Are you hungry?”

She shook her head. “Audrey made me eat something before I left.”

“Okay,” he said as he tilted her chin up and kissed her lightly.

He’d been thinking they’d need a change and life had forced it on them. He hadn’t expected twins, of course. Twins…

Two babies at the same time. Merlin help them…

A wide grin spread across his face as he thought of the possibilities. Would it be two boys, two girls, or one of each?

“I didn’t forget to take my potion.”

“What?” Teddy’s mind blanked as he glanced down at Victoire. Then it registered. “You took it… and it failed?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” she said helplessly. “I take it at work, under the supervision of another Healer. After what Aunt Ginny told me about her pregnancy with Al I didn’t want to risk it, you know? So I scheduled out the appointments to take them and if I forget, someone always comes to remind me.”

A little stumped, Teddy ran his fingers down her arm as he tried to think of an explanation. He couldn’t think of one. “It’s not the end of the world, though. We were going to have more kids at some point.”

“But what if the birth control potion doesn’t work on me?”

That was a whole other thought… “We may end up with a lot of children.”

Victoire poked him hard in the chest. “I’m serious, Teddy!”

“So am I,” he admitted uncomfortably. “We’ll see what happens.”

The next morning, he left his sleeping wife and took their daughter to Ginny, who was delighted at the news of twins and offered to help out as much as they needed. When he told her the birth control potion had failed, Ginny didn’t seem as surprised as he thought she should. “You need to go see Gran and tell her.”

But of course, Teddy couldn’t do that as he had to get into work and tell Harry, who was already there, about the babies.

Harry’s reaction to the news of twins was even more comical than Teddy imagined his had been. He stared at him and then shook his head. “Say that again just once more?”

But after Teddy had explained Victoire’s overall health, his surrogate father, and Victoire’s uncle, turned into the leader Teddy always expected him to be. “Right,” Harry said as he stood up and headed for his office door. “Daniel, tell the staff we need a meeting in five minutes in the conference room.” He turned back to Teddy and clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re going to switch up your schedule.”

It wasn’t until later that afternoon, after he’d told Victoire’s parents, who were elated, that he was able to find the time to stop in and see Molly and Arthur. He sat down with them and told them the news and then said what Ginny had told him to talk to them. “The potion seemed to fail.”

He watched his grandparents exchange a glance, and then turn back to him. Arthur’s old, worn hand was still strong as it rested on his. “We didn’t exactly plan on having seven children, you know.”

Teddy had figured this was what Ginny had meant, but it was still a very scary thought.

“They have things you can do, now,” Arthur reminded him. “Things they didn’t have when we were having children, not until after Ginny was born. I had it done and we stopped having babies. When you’re ready to be done, you can stop. But… uh… the potion just didn’t seem to work on Molly.” His honorary grandfather’s face flushed a bit pink.

Gran, however, was unflappable. “I always wondered if it was just me, but it seems to run in our family,” Molly explained with a small smile. “I have a few cousins who had a large number of children, you know, but it just wasn’t talked about.”

Teddy shrugged as he held up his hands. “At this point I feel like honesty is best.”

Molly grinned then and patted his hand. “I want to tell you something… I never once regretted having them. It was hard and we struggled, but every single child has been a blessing. I’d go back and do the same all over again, but that doesn’t mean my sons wanted to hear anything about any of this from me.”

Teddy couldn’t help his laughter. He absolutely believed that.

Later that night, as they lay together in bed, Victoire almost asleep, Teddy stroked his palm down her arm and rested it on her stomach. It wasn’t the stomach of the woman he’d married. As a girl Victoire had been all angles and taut skin. As a mother, Victoire’s figure had rounded and softened. He loved both versions of her. She was who she was now, and if she followed her mother’s footsteps, she’d thin out again as she aged. However she looked was perfect to him. He scooted down the bed until he was resting his head next to the silky skin of her stomach. He pulled up her shirt and pressed his lips there, letting them linger.

They hadn’t meant to make a baby, let alone two, but it twisted something up inside him to know they were in there, growing and changing every single moment. He felt Victoire’s fingers thread through his hair and he relaxed into her touch. “Teddy?”

“Yeah?”

She hesitated for so long, he finally glanced up to meet her eyes.

She pulled in a long breath as her lashes swept closed over her big, blue eyes. “I think I want to take a break from work.”

Surprised, Teddy sat up. “What?”

Tears forced their way out from beneath her lashes. “I’m so tired.”

“Sweetheart,” Teddy moved back to her side and pulled her in close, kissing her temple. “How long have you wanted this?”

Her answer stunned him. “Ever since Emma was born.”

He was stunned speechless. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We worked so h-hard to pay for my schooling!” she cried helplessly. “I felt like I had to earn it.”

He shook his head. “You didn’t need to finish it out if you didn’t want to.”

“I wanted to finish,” she protested. “I’ve wanted to be a Healer most of my life, but right now… I just feel like I’m missing everything with Emma and now…” her hand settled on her stomach and he twined his fingers with hers over their new babies. “I need a break, Teddy. I spent all day thinking about it.”

“Alright,” he said simply. If she wanted to take time off, she could. They had that luxury.

“I’m sorry!”

“No,” he shook his head and tightened his grip on hers. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I was thinking about how little time we have as a family. We both have to change something or we’ll be watching Emma grow up in photographs taken by someone else.”

She let out a long sigh. “Yes! That’s exactly how I’m feeling. I want to be a Healer… but maybe not just now.”

“Can you take a break?” he wondered, unsure of what the policy was.

Victoire shook her head. “I have to work at least one day a week to keep up my license. But one day a week is a lot easier than six.”

“Alright,” he said with a nod. “Whatever you want to do, I support you.”

Victoire didn’t go back to work that next week, though. By the time the weekend was over, she was on a feeding tube to keep her nourished and the anti-nausea potions in her as severe morning sickness set in. She was officially on indefinite medical leave as the twins were putting a serious strain on Victoire’s body.

“This is not how I pictured taking time off work,” she told Teddy miserably.

After hearing about how miserable Victoire was, Polly, who was the house-elf who worked for Harry and Ginny, offered to come take care of things for them a couple of times a week. Teeny was big enough to be left with Ginny at the house during the days her mother went to the Lupin’s. Typically, house-elves started to work when they were very young but Harry and Ginny had both put their foot down. She wasn’t like a human baby, though. She was walking, talking, and feeding herself already. In fact, she and Emma had a grand time playing together once Teeny learned what toys were for.

“Just sleep,” Teddy told her as he kissed her gently. “I’m off early today.”

It wasn’t how he’d planned to spend his Monday, as he took Emma to Ginny, but he wasn’t going to trade it for anything else. Molly was right about that.

~*~

“I swear this morning could not get any slower,” Nat grumbled as she flopped into an armchair in the Potter’s living room. She stared down at Emma and Teeny who were playing with a dollhouse Ginny had just come home with the day before. They’d been home for the Easter hols for almost three days and James had been at tryouts for England’s Quidditch team every single day.

Today was the day he’d learn if he made it.

“I know,” Al agreed with a sigh as he plopped down to lay flat on the floor next to Emma, who started stacking the doll furniture on his chest. He didn’t even seem to notice. “What if he makes it, Nat?”

“If he makes it we get great Quidditch seats for the rest of our lives,” Scorpius told him from his sprawl on the sofa. “If he doesn’t make it, we get seats for whatever team he does play for. I just hope it’s not the Cannons.”

They all shuddered.

“The Cannons are a lovely team,” Lily told Scorpius as she lightly kicked his foot from the chair next to him. She glanced up from her book and stuck her tongue out at him, making him grin. “Just because they always lose doesn’t mean they aren’t wonderful.”

“I actually think that’s exactly what that means, Lils,” Al told her as Nat saw him glance at his watch. “Caroline and Honor should be here soon.”

“Crash!” Emma shouted as she scattered the furniture off her uncle.

“Hey!” Al growled out a laugh and grabbed her up, tickling her sides as she squealed in delight. A second later, Teeny was in on the action and he had both the elf and the toddler wrestling with him.

Nat stared at them and grinned. “This is really how life should be for an e-l-f,” she said spelling it out.

“Yeah,” Lily agreed instantly. “We don’t need barriers. We need friends.”

The fireplace erupted and first Caroline, then Honor stepped through and sat with them. “Nothing yet?” Caroline asked as she fidgeted. She’d had to leave her dog, Rufus, at home and Nat knew it would be hard for her.

“Nothing yet,” Lily confirmed as she hopped up and pushed at Scorpius’ feet to make room for Caroline to sit in her vacated seat. Caroline had made a lot of progress but they all knew she wouldn’t sit that close to a boy who wasn’t James.

Scorpius scooted over and slouched down onto the sofa as Lily sat next to him and Honor sat next to her.

“We should play hide and go seek tonight,” Lily suggested. “If he makes the team, then great. If he doesn’t, then it’ll cheer him up.”

“We should call–” Al began but stopped as the fireplace lit up again and first Louis, then Rose and Hugo came through. “The others…” he laughed. “I guess we are all impatient.”

“I can’t just sit home and wait!” Rose huffed out as she sat on the floor near the doll house and took a toy pram from Teeny and helped her seat a baby into it. “She should have an elf toy for this house,” Rose said thoughtfully.

“That is a great idea!” Nat explained in surprise.

Hugo, who had been pacing, pointed to the house. “Think Uncle George could get us something like that? Never mind, I’ll ask him.”

The fireplace flared to life again and Nat watched Mrs. Potter come through, dusting at her clothing. She blinked, but didn’t seem too surprised to see her living room full of teenagers. “Have the kids been okay?” she asked them.

“Fine, Mum,” Al confirmed. “You were only gone thirty minutes and there were two of them and,” he paused to count, “nine of us.”

“Yes, alright,” Ginny rolled her eyes and headed for the kitchen. “I just needed to see Victoire for myself.”

“Is she still throwing up?” Al wondered.

“Not today, thankfully,” Ginny called back to them.

It had been a bit of a shock to learn Victoire was having twins, Nat mused, but they’d do alright. She was only a few months into her pregnancy but they hadn’t gone over to see her since she was still stuck in bed most of the time. Nat really felt for her. She’d been sick like that at one point and it had been miserable.

“Does anyone want anything to eat?” Ginny called out.

“We already made lunch, Mum,” Lily told her. “We ate and fed them,” she said pointing to the babies, “right after you left.”

“You cleaned up, too,” Ginny noted with amusement. “I must have done something right as a mother.”

Al and Scorpius had cleaned up since Lily and Nat had cooked. It had been a fair trade-off.

“I wish he’d get home already,” Ginny muttered as she clattered around in the kitchen.

They were all wishing for it.

Scorpius and Al ended up in a game of chess on the floor aided by Emma, who kept trying to steal Al’s chessmen, but they finally managed to end the game.

“He has his checkmate face on,” Nat observed to Scorpius.

Scorpius sighed heavily as he scanned the board. Then he spotted it. “Two moves left.”

“Two moves,” Al agreed. “Want to finish it out?”

Teeny chose that moment to pluck up Al’s queen as the piece let out a loud shriek and protested loudly as the little elf carried it over to the doll house and put it in one of the beds. “I am not a toy!” it screamed in annoyance.

They all fell over laughing.

The fireplace came to life and they all turned as one to see a beaming James spill out of the fireplace. “I’m in!” he hollered as everyone broke into cheers and whoops of joy.

~*~

“Our son made England’s Quidditch team,” Harry repeated for what had to be the hundredth time in the last hour. It had been a long night of hide and go seek with the kids who had wanted to celebrate James’ victory at making the team. Now everyone was at their homes or sacked out in one of the bedrooms after hours of laughing and way too much food. “He made it at eighteen.”

“I think Krum was the last one to do that,” Ginny agreed as she handed him a glass of wine and crawled into bed with him, careful not to spill her own glass. “I can’t recall anyone under twenty in the last two decades.”

“He’s not on the main team, though,” Harry said more to himself than her. “That will help.”

They both understood exactly what he meant. With being on the main team, there was fame and glory and a lot of girls. James was already famous for his last name. He would have some time to get used to it while he was only a reserve. They both liked Caroline a lot and they could see their son was in love with her. “I don’t want anything to mess it up for him,” Ginny said slowly. “I had you when I joined the Harpies. I was already married. I don’t love how backwards England is in a lot of ways, but in how sacred a marriage is, I feel like we have that correct. We’re soul bound and it means something.”

It meant something in other countries, too, Harry knew but it was everything else before the marriage. “He’s going to be traveling with the team this summer.”

“I’ll make sure he’s on his guard,” Ginny assured him. Harry knew she’d seen a lot of questionable behavior in her time as a reporter. The partying, drinking, and sleeping around was rampant at any of the major sporting events. Most of the players weren’t married and they lived it up. Harry didn’t necessarily see anything wrong with it, but if James didn’t join in when he was still single it would make him stand out. But they all knew he wasn’t getting married any time soon and that was okay. “Maybe he and Caroline will figure out they aren’t meant to be.”

“I don’t think that’s what they’re going to figure out,” Ginny sighed as she snuggled back into the pillows. “I can wish it because I think loving her is going to be a lot of work, but I also think it will be worth it. I think she’s going to end up the kind of woman we definitely want for our son. She grounds him, doesn’t puff up his ego, and she really gets him. If he ended up with some vapid fangirl I might have to scream.”

He couldn’t argue with that. “So we have him ‘til the end of the year and then he goes off for intensive training in the run up to the cup?”

“That’s the schedule,” Ginny confirmed. “We have the Remembrance Ball this year, as well. I can’t believe it’s been twenty-five years already.”

“I can’t believe we’re going to have three grandchildren by Christmas,” Harry breathed out as joy filled him yet again. “They’re going to need a lot of support from us.”

“They’ll have it,” Ginny said as she pressed a kiss to his shoulder and then drained the rest of her wine. “Did you get Teddy’s schedule worked out?”

“Yeah, he’s on a regular nine to five shift for now,” he confirmed as he sipped more slowly from his glass. “With no sign of Crabbe, I was able to convince the minister to drop our staffing down to more regular hours. We’ve set up an on-call Auror as needed to hang around until midnight and then head home. Williams actually wanted those hours, five to midnight, as that’s when his wife works.”

“If only all of life could work out that nicely.”

If only.

~*~

Isabella Crabbe stared off into the distance, not really seeing the luxurious beach, the white sands, or the people in the distance. She was oblivious to the sounds of the waves and the salty smell wafting in from the ocean. She saw nothing and heard nothing and it was good she didn’t or the Muggles around her might have died.

She hadn’t thought waiting would be so difficult. She wanted him to suffer tremendously and she didn’t care a wit for the girl, but she was still just a girl. She wasn’t grown and for all her urgency, she wanted a chance for it to succeed. Taking a child meant a higher chance of failure. She’d seen that time and again in her study. Sixteen was really the earliest she could manage in order to have it work. Before that and they all died.

She hadn’t figured out why and the last year had been spent trying to refine it so she could move earlier. She wanted this done with. She wanted Potter to suffer the loss of the child he adored the most, but not by simple death. Oh no. Death was a release in a lot of ways. Death was easy.

There was a special kind of hell in knowing her child had burned to death. Her son had suffered terribly at the end and Potter hadn’t done anything to help him.

She’d thought about burning his children alive. She’d even tried it once, in a fit of temper, but their wards around the house were too good.

But no… patience. Potter needed to live with the damaged, mangled goods. If she’d succeeded in killing Ginny along with their baby when they were young, that would have been enough. But no, she’d survived and she’d been too well protected ever since. He’d gone on to have more children to replace the one he’d lost. She’d never have been able to do that.

So she had to wait. The welp was only just turned fourteen. Two more years of waiting and watching. She’d continue to try to refine her work in an attempt to move sooner.

She couldn’t end the Potter line. She’d thought she might be able to, but it had proved impossible. But still… she could do a lot of damage to the child and end her life in the magical world.

It would be something. Not enough, but a start. Once she’d set that plan in motion, she’d work on phase two of taking the Potter’s children away from him.

One at a time.

Back to index


Chapter 56: Chapter 53

Author's Notes: I know it's been forever. I was literally drowning in masks. For anyone reading this in the future, we're in 2020 in the middle of quarantine and I'm also a seamstress so I have donated thousands of masks to local hospitals, as well as selling them. BTW If you want a Harry Potter mask, hit me up at ecofamilygoods dot com

SO My book dropped and didn't sell well. My last chapter dropped and got only a few comments. I love writing, I really do, but I have to make it count financially to justify taking away from my sewing job.

This fanfiction is getting epically long. It's something like 350,000 words and who on earth has time to read through all that :D I am going to spend more time this summer (It's currently June 1st) writing. I'm ready to get this done. It's still likely going to take another calendar year, though.

In the meantime, I'm mulling over starting a Patreon account and having at least a chapter a month or something in an original story for a tiny subscription fee, say $2-$3 or something. If you're actually reading this, tell me what you think. Harry Potter (OF COURSE) stays free and the Patreon will have none of the fanfiction, but you might enjoy my original works if you enjoy my writing here.

I'll keep you posted on what I decide to do, but I want your feedback! If you're not familiar with Patreon it's a monthly subscription service that helps support artists. In this case, it would be like renting a movie from Redbox every month, and I'd give you a chapter, etc for it.

Thank you again, so much, for continuing to support me!

Most especially to the kind Arnel for all she does!!!


“You’re going to work in a jewelry shop?” James asked quietly so as not to raise the ire of the librarian. He studied Caroline, just to make sure he’d heard her right. She nodded, though, and continued to work on the essay they had due the next week for Transfiguration. James hadn’t been able to concentrate on it. It was May 2nd, twenty-five years since the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-five years since his uncle had died… twenty-five years since Teddy’s parents had died.

He tried, more often than he wanted to admit, to picture what he’d have done back then. He was the same age as his dad. It was an awesome thought. He hadn’t really managed to do anything as impressive as his father and yet James didn’t really think of it as a bad thing. It wasn’t as though his dad wanted him to suffer as he had suffered.

“James?”

He glanced over to her and smiled. “If it’s what you want to do.”

“Nothing else appeals,” she admitted. “I’m not sure it appeals to me, either, but I can keep applying while I work. I’ll be bringing in some money, at least.”

He didn’t know exactly what the financial situation was with her grandparents but he knew it wasn’t good. They’d had to go into debt to fight Caroline’s father for custody of the two girls. He really, really wanted to make it all go away but he knew there wasn’t any way they’d accept that kind of help from him. “How can you concentrate?”

She smiled knowingly at him and his heart flopped over in his chest. “If I have mine done then I can help you with yours the night before it’s due.”

He laughed but it was cut off by a wince as the library shot him a death glare. He didn’t have long before he went off for training. He only had another few weeks with her and then they’d be apart for most of the summer. It was only this summer, though. Well, he hoped it was only this summer. The new recruits to the team were required to spend their entire training time with the team in order to build comradery. James didn’t think sharing a dorm with two other blokes, no new girls this year, was going to do anything but he wanted the job so he would follow the rules. He had a perfectly good house he wanted to go back to. But the only way out of the dormitories was if he was married and there wasn’t a chance of that happening any time soon.

“You look awfully pensive.”

“Just thinking about missing you,” James told her honestly. “I only have a month.”

“It’s weird you’re leaving the day we leave school,” she said thoughtfully.

Truthfully, the two new teammates would be there for several days before he arrived, but they couldn’t make him cut short his education for it. “You sure you don’t want to be getting ready for this thing? I heard Lily say she was going to spend all day preparing.”

“Lily doesn’t even need two minutes to look beautiful,” Caroline scoffed as she made a flourish on her paper. “There, I’m done. It was awfully sweet of Scorpius to say he’d take her. She should be there, of course. It was her parents who helped stop the whole thing.”

It made something between his shoulder blades itch as he thought back to what had happened to his parents shortly after the final battle. They’d been forced to marry, his mother pregnant with his sister Hope. He felt a gentle hand touch his. He smiled at Caroline. “Our last date before I go.”

She nodded and gathered up her books. “It’s not exactly a happy celebration, but I am glad Voldemort is dead.”

They all were.

~*~

Teddy lounged back into his pillows and tried to stay focused on his book. It was the night of the Remembrance Ball and he and Victoire should have been there. It was twenty-five years since he’d lost his parents. But he wasn’t there and he didn’t regret that decision for a moment. Victoire was still too ill to do anything of the sort, not with the feeding line hooked up to her all day and all night. He hadn’t wanted to find a sitter for his daughter so he could go alone, face his parents’ deaths alone. No, he wanted to be where he was. He’d been given the day off, which he’d appreciated. He’d had the whole day with Emma. He’d fed her, changed her, and now she was in bed completely worn out from his need to stay busy that day. Victoire had slept fitfully through the day, as she did most days. The twins were really knocking it out of her.

“I wish I could have met your parents.”

“Me, too,” he admitted. He had met them, in a way. He knew them from stories his grandmother had told him, and from what the rest of the family had said, but it wasn’t the same.

“Teddy?”

He turned to study his wife and worried at the gauntness he saw in her cheeks. She was worn thin, still, even though she wasn’t throwing up anymore. He hadn’t brought it up with her, yet, but he thought he might explore the option of making sure they didn’t have any more children after this. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to discuss it, though, and they had time yet. He actually had thought he wanted four children but after seeing what this pregnancy was doing to her, he knew he couldn’t ask her to do it again.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she ordered as she poked his nose.

He grinned and caught her hand, placing a lingering kiss on her fingertips. They both sighed, though, as he let her hand fall. They were on strict orders not to do anything of that nature while she had the feeding tube.

It might end up being a very long nine months.

“Your parents will live on in our children,” she said simply.

He let the words sink in and slowly he nodded. He knew it was true. They weren’t really gone. Harry had explained to him he’d seen Remus when he’d been about ready to die. He’d told him, over and over, the dead we love never really leave.

“I wish you would have gone tonight.”

Teddy shook his head. “No. I couldn’t do it without you. I didn’t want to do it without you. Besides,” he said on a long sigh. “I am living and they are not. I remember them all the time. I don’t need a ball to remember them.”

“It’s going to be a lot of boring, pompous speeches,” Victoire sighed and didn’t quite hide her mirth. “Uncle Harry is going to be miserable.”

“They’re all going to be miserable,” Teddy agreed. “Harry has to speak.”

He would have to. He was the hero who conquered the dark lord, as Peeves was so fond of singing for some unknown reason. But, of course, when Peeves sang it, it simply sounded like an insult.

Lily had been so excited to go, but then again she was Lily. She was light and life and nothing seemed to suck her down. He hoped the mood of the ball didn’t ruin it for her.

Oh, to be young again.

Well, no, Teddy mused. Even at fourteen he’d known better. No, she was fifteen now. She’d turned fifteen in April. The years were simply flying by. “Did I ever tell you about the day Lily was born?”

Curious, Victoire turned a bit and gave him her full attention. “No, I don’t think so.”

“I was ten,” he mused as he could still picture it. “She was born a little early, only five pounds something. I don’t know if you remember that. I was so nervous to meet her.”

“You were nervous?”

His chagrin must have shown because she made a cooing noise. “You thought she’d replace you?”

“I dunno,” he admitted. “It’s hard to go back to sort out, but I think it was something like that. I was so excited to see her I was begging to go and Grandma finally said I could. When I got there, James threw himself at me for a hug. He was confident and excited. Al was shy.”

“Al was shy for the longest time,” Victoire remembered. “I always wondered if he’d outgrow it.”

He had, and then some.

“I went up the stairs and I was telling myself they weren’t going to love me any less just because Lily was there. They were still going to care about me.” His smile was so genuine, now, it almost hurt. “I opened the door and Ginny held out her arm for me.”

“Aw, Teddy…” Victoire’s tears were evident in her voice.

He felt a stinging in his own eyes. “My mother, the only one I had known in life, was still wanting me. I ran to her and she held me close. I held Lily that morning. She was this tiny thing. She’s held my heart ever since.” He reached over to gently swipe at the tear sliding down his wife’s cheek. “Now she’s fifteen and I have a daughter of my own,” he said thoughtfully. “I have two more on the way. I couldn’t have imagined what life had in store for me, not that day, but it’s been a good life. I don’t think my parents could have wished better for me given what they’d sacrificed.” He closed his eyes briefly before he met hers. “I had parents growing up. They weren’t the ones who brought me into this world, but they did carry me through it. They always have. So, while I miss knowing my parents, I’m proud of their sacrifice and I don’t feel cheated.”

“If one of them is a boy, are we naming him Remus?”

Teddy considered it for a long moment. They’d talked about it for Emma, but it hadn’t ever felt like it was the right thing to do. “Maybe for a middle name. We have to wait and see.”

“We should know soon enough.”

“You don’t want to be surprised?”

Victoire gave him the look and he couldn’t help but laugh. No, of course they weren’t going to be surprised.

“I love you,” he told her simply as he bent his head to press a kiss to her brow. “We’ll do whatever you want.”

Two days later they found out they were having two more girls.

~*~

This could not be happening. James shook his head, trying to understand what the headmaster was saying to Caroline and Honor. He hadn’t wanted James to come to the meeting but Caroline had flat out refused to see the headmaster without James along. The headmaster was bad enough but there was another man along with him, one James hadn’t ever seen before.

“I’m so sorry, girls,” Headmaster Goldstein said again.

“A fire?” James repeated, absolutely certain he’d heard wrong. “They died in a fire?” How could they die in a fire? It was the question screaming nonstop in James’ mind. They could have simply put the fire out, or escaped from the house.

“It’s being investigated,” the headmaster assured them as James came back to himself and slung an arm around both sisters. Rufus had his head planted firmly in Caroline’s lap, but for once she didn’t seem to be panicking. Honor, on the other hand, was sobbing uncontrollably.

Their grandparents were dead.

Where was James’ father? It had to be murder.

“We have more to discuss,” Headmaster Goldstein said. “There are only two days left in the term, so the funeral will happen the day after you get home. The Potters are making the arrangements.”

“I won’t be there,” James shook his head. “I have to be there.”

“You will be,” the headmaster assured him. “I spoke with your coach, told him what happened, and he’s more than willing for you to come the day after. He’s a good man, very understanding.”

“Thank you,” James said automatically, even though he meant it. He’d have quit before he made Caroline face her grandparents’ funeral alone.

There was a knock at the door and Madam Longbottom poked her head in. “You called, Headmaster?”

“Yes, thank you, Hannah,” he said as he pointed to Honor. “I think Honor could use some quiet and sleep in your care. I will have Mr. Potter escort Caroline down for the same in a bit.”

Caroline shook her head. She wouldn’t willingly take anything which might dull her senses. James might have argued with her, but she seemed to be taking things better than he could have imagined.

As soon as her sister was gone, she turned to the man. “Why are you here?”

The man, an older gentleman with kind, gray eyes which matched his silvered hair, didn’t seem in the least offended. James could feel her shoulders shaking as he lowered his arm to take her hand in his, her other hand remained tightly fisted in Rufus’ scruffy mane.

“I am Cameron Bean, her grandparents’ solicitor,” the man explained to James before returning his focus to Caroline. “I’m going to be frank with you Caroline. Your grandparents were in a lot of debt.”

“How much debt?” James asked before he could stop himself.

At a nod from Caroline, the solicitor answered him and James let out a low whistle, sitting back in his seat. “Is she responsible for paying it?”

“I’m afraid so,” the solicitor explained gently. “With the house gone, I can sell the land and pay off a good portion of it, but not everything. I’ve arranged a payment schedule with the goblins. They were very understanding of your age and they are prepared to work with you.”

“How much?”

The monthly amount was more than Caroline would make at the jewelry store. James squeezed her hand but she began to shake badly. “I think we’re done for now,” James said as he stood and pulled her to her feet. “Send the details of the payments to me.”

“No,” Caroline whispered, but her protests were halfhearted, at best. She was in shock and James wasn’t going to put more on her shoulders.

“Yes,” he said firmly to the solicitor. “I’m taking her down to the hospital wing. We can speak later, if you can wait.”

“Of course,” Mr. Bean said as James led Caroline out of the office.

They were nearly to the hospital wing when he pulled her up short and took her into his arms. “I’ll take care of everything,” he promised. The payment would take up his entire paycheck every month, but he had other money laying around, which she didn’t.

“We’re homeless,” Caroline whispered into chest.

“No, you’re not,” he shook his head. “You’ll move into my house. It’ll be empty, anyway. You and Honor can stay there.”

In his mind it was already settled.

“I can’t,” she said as he tugged her into the hospital wing.

In the end he talked her into the sleeping draft and he waited with her until she’d fallen asleep in the bed next to her sister before he went back to deal the solicitor and arrange the payments.

They held the funeral three days later and he moved the girls into his house his last night before he left for training. His parents didn’t love the girls staying alone and Ginny said she’d check in on them often, but it was Caroline’s decision. She was of age and Honor’s legal guardian now. Besides, James would be gone and they could look after the house. The girls could stay at Ivy Run, but it was always crowded even with James gone. Ginny and Harry made Caroline promise to let them know if she needed anything, but James knew she wasn’t likely to ask.

The plan was for Caroline to find a flat for the two of them once she had a bit of money saved up. She could stay, for all he cared. He wanted her there, anyway.

For now, she could keep an eye on his empty house. They’d deal with everything else when the time came. With trepidation he left for training.

~*~

Scorpius used the Floo network to get to Ivy Run and tried not to vomit from his nerves. He’d sent an owl to Mr. Potter and asked for this meeting and had conspired with Nat to get Lily and Al out of the way so that they wouldn’t know he was there.

Harry was waiting for him, not saying a word. Scorpius cleared his throat and held out a hand to shake. “Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Potter.”

Harry shook and eyed him curiously. “Let’s go to my office.”

Scorpius followed silently in his wake. Harry closed the door and waved his wand over it, magically protecting it from eves-droppers. He motioned for Scorpius to sit and he did, while Harry pulled his chair around so that there was no desk between them. He waited patiently for Scorpius to collect himself. “I…” he took a deep breath and tried again, meeting Harry’s green eyes head on. “I’m in love with Lily.” As soon as he said it, Scorpius wanted to club himself with a Beater’s bat. He’d never meant to say that! He’d meant to ask for his permission to date her! “I…” but he cut off when Harry held up a hand.

To say that Harry looked shocked was a mild understatement. “I didn’t know you two were together.”

“We aren’t!” Scorpius assured him. “That’s… that’s what I wanted to ask you about. I wanted your permission to ask her out.”

Harry arched an eyebrow. “You’re in love with her and you’ve never been on a date?”

Scorpius dropped his head in his hands. He’d already made a complete mess of this. “I didn’t need to date her to fall in love with her,” he whispered into his hands. “I’ve been trying so hard not to love her! I’ve been fighting this for over a year and a half.”

“You…” Harry said and Scorpius heard the uncertainty. “Why have you been fighting it?”

“Because she’s two and a half years younger than I am!” Scorpius told him miserably as he looked up again. “Because she’s a Potter and I figured there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that you’d let me date her and because… because she deserves better.”

Harry frowned. “What do you mean better?”

“My family is insane!” Scorpius spit out, trying to force down all the rage and bile that even thinking of his father could induce. “They’re already arranging a marriage for me with someone I don’t even know. If anything were serious between Lily and me I’d be disowned and while I don’t give a rat’s fart–” he froze, looking apologetic, but Harry motioned for him to continue. “I don’t want to drag her into that.”

“But you’re asking now?” Harry said studying him.

“I think… I think she has feelings for me now,” Scorpius told him and felt his heart trip. “I think she feels something and she’s starting to look so unhappy that I’m not returning her feeling. I can’t stand it anymore. I don’t want to keep pretending and I can’t keep hurting her.”

Harry nodded slowly. “So you really came to ask me if you could date my daughter.”

“Yes,” Scorpius answered miserably. “I didn’t mean to say the other bit.”

The older man studied him. “You are not at all who I would have envisioned for her.”

“I know,” Scorpius said and he did. He knew he was just about the last person that Harry would have wanted for Lily and if he said no, Scorpius was going to respect it even if it killed him. “I am not going to cause a rift in your family. If you say no, then that’s it. She loves you all too much and part of what makes her so amazing is that she has you. I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that.”

“What if I say no? What about your feelings?” Harry asked cautiously.

Nausea rolled through him. “I’m going to bury them and try to forget they existed if I can. I hope you aren’t going to say that, though.”

Harry sat back and considered him, his brow furrowed. “You’ve been Al’s friend six years now.”

Scorpius nodded. “Al’s been the best mate I could have asked for. He doesn’t care that my family are almost all complete nutters and that some are downright evil. He doesn’t hold it against me that you and my dad aren’t exactly chums.”

“I always thought you and Rose would get together,” Harry said as he leaned back in his chair, a small smile playing across his lips.

“Rose?” Scorpius blurted out, truly surprised. “No! She’s like a sister to me, same as Nat. Besides she’s going out with someone else and has been for a few months now. Er… please don’t tell Mr. Weasley that, though.”

Harry waved that off as he tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “You’re really in love with her?”

“Yes,” Scorpius answered honestly. “I… she’s just so amazing and sweet and funny and genuine and she’s so kind.” Scorpius bit down on his cheek trying to stop himself from babbling and trying to justify his feelings. Harry had never been anything but nice to him, and he knew that even if he said ‘no’ he’d not be cruel about it. It just wasn’t in his nature.

“She’s also beautiful,” Harry said simply, watching him closely.

“Yes,” Scorpius agreed a little defensively. “But, I’ve liked her as a friend for years now. She’s a lot more than a pretty face.”

Harry rocked back in his chair before letting it back down carefully. “Al wrote and told us about what happened in February and how you went after her.”

“I couldn’t let her be on her own,” he whispered hoarsely.

“You made sure that her brothers were taking care of the idiot who hurt her, and then you went after her?” Harry summed up. “You didn’t want to pound the stuffing out of him yourself?”

“I did,” Scorpius admitted a little sheepishly. “But more than that I needed to make sure she was okay. Al, James and Louis were easily able to take care of him. I needed to take care of her more than I need revenge–” but he faltered at the look in Harry’s eyes. There was grief there as well as something else that he couldn’t quite name.

Harry took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I have to take it back, Scorpius. You are exactly what I hoped for.”

He sucked in a breath hardly daring to believe that Harry had said it. “Sir?”

“Do you promise me that you are always going to put her first?” Harry asked him, leaning forward to look him straight in the eye.

It was an easy promise to make. “Yes.”

“Okay, you have my permission to ask her out, but Scorpius,” he said and there was steel and warning in his tone. “She is just fifteen. Always keep that in mind.”

“I will,” he agreed.

Harry looked off for a second out the window and then back at him. “This has been one of the more uncomfortable conversations of my life.”

Scorpius laughed nervously. “Yeah.”

“I need you to know something,” he said carefully. “I know your dad loves you. I don’t think he really understands you, but he loves you.”

Scorpius waited, not sure where this was going and not sure he agreed. He knew his mum loved him, and that was sometimes enough.

“If you ever need to talk to someone like you would want to talk to your dad, but you don’t feel like you can…” Harry’s green eyes were intense. “My door is always open to you, even if it’s about Lily. No,” he corrected, “especially if it’s about Lily. I hope you and your dad can repair your relationship, but if you can’t I will be here.”

Scorpius felt his eyes sting for a moment and he didn’t speak, not sure he could manage any words.

Harry stood and he followed suit. They shook hands again and Harry clapped him on the back as he led them out of his office. “I believe they’re all out back flying. Why don’t you go join them?”

“Thank you,” Scorpius said gruffly and went out through the kitchen door and down into the yard.

He looked up and saw Al and Nat on one broom and Lily on another. She looked down and waved before coming back to the ground and landing near him. She laughed her beautiful laugh and grinned at him, just a little bit shyly. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

“I wanted to see you,” he told her and watched the pleasure cross her face as she bit her lip.

“Do you want to fly with me?” she asked and he nodded and hopped on the broom behind her, wrapping his arms around her to hold onto the broom. It was heaven and it was torture.

They flew up to where Al and Nat were and they waved.

“Al,” Nat said suddenly. “I’m getting hungry, we need to go down.”

“Are you okay?” Al asked quickly.

“Should we come?” Lily asked.

Nat shook her head, pretending to look pathetic. “No! Scorpius just got here. You two keep flying.”

The others went back down to the house and they continued to fly. Eventually they landed on the grass out back under a canopy of trees and Scorpius took her hand, pulling her down to lay next to him and looked up at the sky. “I want to ask you something,” he said finally, trying to figure out how to say what he wanted.

“What?” Lily asked looking over at him.

He turned his head and then his whole body onto his side with his head propped on his hand. “I don’t know how to say it.”

Lily smiled her stunning smile. “You can ask me anything.”

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. “I really fancy you,” Scorpius said carefully. “I wanted to ask if you wanted to go out with me.”

Lily’s eyes went wide as she bit her lip. “You fancy me?”

“Yeah,” he said getting lost in her captivating brown eyes. “I have for a long time now.”

Confusion crossed her face. “Why didn’t you ask before?”

“Because I didn’t think you liked me before,” he told her honestly.

She studied him, looking suddenly nervous. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?” Scorpius asked perplexed.

“I don’t know how to be a girlfriend,” she said, waving her hand around.

He didn’t want to simply hope that she was saying yes, he needed to be sure. “Do you want to go out with me?”

Lily nodded slowly. “I like you, too,” she admitted barely above a whisper and his heart leapt with joy. “But you’ve had all those girlfriends and I’m just–”

He touched his finger to her lips and she fell silent. “I’ve had three girlfriends and none were serious nor did they last all that long.”

Color completely flooded her face and she covered it with her hands. “Oh Merlin… I told you that I haven’t kissed anyone! This is so embarrassing. I don’t know how to kiss!”

She had no idea that it wasn’t a bad thing at all. He took her hands and slowly pulled them away from her face. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

“What…” she hesitated with a hitch, her voice barely above a whisper. “What if I’m bad at it?”

Lily was fifteen… it struck home yet again. Lily was also Lily, which meant that was a Lily thing to say and worry about. It was what he loved about her, but these two years made a huge difference. It didn’t change how he felt, but it definitely made him mindful of how he acted. He didn’t want to change her. “You aren’t going to be bad at it.”

“I could be a huge disappointment,” she said as her eyes filled with tears. “You have all this experience and I’m just–”

Scorpius bent and carefully touched his lips to hers. His heart soared as feeling crashed through him, turning his insides into a hurricane, as her tentative lips touched his. He didn’t push, didn’t move faster than the gentle brush. “You are never going to disappoint me Lily, and I don’t have a lot of experience.” He pulled back and grinned as he looked into her amazing eyes, the ones that always drew him in.

Lily reached up and hesitantly brushed a lock of his thick, dirty blond hair from his face. “I didn’t think you liked me. I thought I was going to have this crush on you and you wouldn’t feel the same way.”

“Ah,” he cleared his throat. “I’ve been trying not to act like I like you.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t think your parents would approve,” Scorpius explained feeling his own cheeks flush. “Malfoy isn’t exactly a good name.”

Lily frowned. “So why did you change your mind?”

He faltered, but knew she needed the truth. “You can’t get mad,” he began.

“I might get mad,” Lily rebutted, propping herself up to look at him.

“I asked your dad first,” Scorpius said slowly, hoping she wasn’t going to blow up over it.

She blinked in surprise. “You asked my dad if you could date me?”

“I didn’t want to cause any problems,” he explained quickly, unable to stop himself from running his fingers through her hair. “I couldn’t stand being the reason you might fight with your parents.”

“That is…” Lily thought for a moment, “completely hilarious! Who was more embarrassed by the conversation?” Mirth danced out of her as she started to giggle. “Oh, my gosh! I wish I could have seen your faces.”

A reluctant smile pulled at his lips as the tears of laughter poured down her cheeks. “I’m glad this is funny to you.”

Another giggle escaped her as she bit her lip and leaned forward. She glanced at his mouth and back up at his eyes before carefully kissing him. It was so light, so sweet and innocent and yet it made his heart race like nothing else had ever done. Lily pulled back and watched at him, searching for affirmation and he grinned, letting all of his feelings show in his eyes. She blushed again before laying back. “I think it’s really sweet that you did that. I never thought anyone would do that for me, especially not with my dad.”

“I respect your dad a lot,” Scorpius said evenly. “I knew he would hear me out at least.”

“What if he’d said ‘no’?” Lily asked quietly.

He didn’t answer, simply looked at her and she saw it.

Disappointment and hurt flashed across her face. “You wouldn’t have asked me out?”

“I’d have tried to get him to change his mind,” he explained taking her hand in his and linking their fingers together. “You have a great family and I am not doing anything to disrupt that.”

She searched his face. “What’s your family going to say?”

“I don’t have a great family Lil,” he said and tried not to let the hurt slip through. “So, I don’t really care what they say.”

Lily studied him, looking uncertain. Then she sat up a bit and nudged his shoulder with her hand until he was on his back. He watched her, wondering what on earth she was doing. She tucked her hair behind her ear and then carefully laid her head on his shoulder, putting her hand on his chest and cuddling in to his side. Scorpius closed his eyes and soaked in the amazing feel of her head right there, a place he’d dreamed of it being and how it fit perfectly. He ran one hand up her back and the other over the arm that she’d rested on his chest.

“This feels as good as I thought it would,” Lily breathed out, her breath tickling under his chin. “I’ve seen Mum and Dad do this and I always thought…”

“Yeah,” Scorpius agreed, and couldn’t imagine his parents doing this. He was so glad she had parents who actually loved each other.

“I’m sorry about your family,” Lily murmured. “I wish I could make it better.”

“You’re already making it better,” he promised.

She traced her fingers along a line up and down his chest. “I don’t want to be the reason you fight with your family.”

“I’m willing to give up my family for you,” Scorpius said instantly. He would probably have to. They were never going to approve of him dating Lily Potter.

Her fingers froze. “How… how long have you liked me?”

Scorpius closed his eyes and tried to stop his racing heart which he knew she had to be hearing under her cheek. “About a year and a half.”

Lily turned her head to look up at him startled. “That long?”

“Yeah,” he said evenly, cupping the back of her head and kissing the crown of her hair, breathing in her amazing scent. He had no idea what it was, but it was all her. If he had to guess, he’d have said it was a mixture of fruits and flowers. “I didn’t do anything at first because you were so young and I wasn’t sure what I was feeling.”

“And then?”

“And then I didn’t do anything because you didn’t feel the same way about me,” he explained. “I saw all those blokes after you and I wasn’t going to be another one.”

She propped herself up and frowned at him. “You wouldn’t have been, even if I didn’t fancy you.”

“I wouldn’t?” Scorpius asked, completely wrong-footed. “Why not?”

She gave him an amused smile. “Because I trust you; I’ve trusted you for years.”

He would have been less stunned if she’d hit him in the gut. Lily had guarded and protected her heart for years and yet she was offering it to him without a second’s hesitation. The enormity of it was overwhelming and awe inspiring. Part of him wanted to tell her that he loved her, and another knew that there was time yet. This time, this innocence between then, was only going to last for so long and he wanted to soak it in. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

She put her head back down. “You don’t have to say anything. You’ve earned my trust.”

“I’m going to keep it,” he said sincerely. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You might hurt me,” Lily corrected. “I’m probably going to hurt you. That’s inevitable in any relationship, but it doesn’t have to be the end of everything. I’ve seen my parents really mad at each other, but they always work it out.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Scorpius confessed. “My parents don’t do that. They ignore topics and a lot of the time my mum caves in.”

She sighed. “I’m not likely to cave. I can be stubborn. But… but I’ll teach you how to fight fair.” Lily grinned; he felt it through his t-shirt. “That’s something I know more about than you do.”

“You’re going to rub it in?” he asked bemused, but very pleased all the same.

“I don’t know how to snog someone senseless,” Lily commented speculatively. She honestly sounded innocent, which made Scorpius grin. “You’re going to have to teach me how to do that.”

“Not yet,” Scorpius said trying to keep his hormones in control. It was extremely difficult with her body pressed up to his.

“You don’t want to?”

“Oh, I want to,” he assured her. “But we have time, Lily. There isn’t any need to rush.”

Not to mention, her father would kill him. Scorpius wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize his chance of being with Lily.

She sat up again and stared into his eyes, hers so curious and open. “How much time do you think we have?”

Scorpius didn’t answer, just watched her. He knew what he wanted and knew he had a long time to wait if he wanted a chance to get it. She had three years of school left. But it didn’t matter. Lily was more than worth the wait. He’d already waited this long and found that being with her wildly surpassed anything he could have imagined. He cupped her soft cheek and brought her down for another kiss, this one lingering just a bit longer than the others. She rested her head on his shoulder again and they lay there, listening to the birds and enjoying being together.

By the time they walked back into the house, hand in hand, he knew that he could take whatever his father was going to throw at him. Al saw them, but didn’t seem surprised. Apparently, Nat had filled him in. Scorpius looked at his best mate and got a small smile and a nod from him. He relaxed and turned to find Mrs. Potter watching him speculatively. He didn’t know what to say, but didn’t let go of Lily’s hand.

“Well,” she said finally, crossing her arms with a huff. “It took you long enough.”

Scorpius felt his mouth drop as Lily started to giggle. “I…” he still didn’t know what to say.

“Are you staying for dinner?” Ginny asked with a wink.

“That would be great,” he replied.

Back to index


Chapter 57: Chapter 54

Author's Notes: Thank you everyone for taking the time to leave a review! I do really appreciate it. I've set up a patreon account under Sarah Jaune where you can get my original story. It's currently updated every two weeks. I'd love input and feedback and I wanted to keep it as affordable as possible, so it's only $3/month to get access to everything.

This chapter is one I've been waiting for- it's been a long build up but things will start to really move now, although we'll have some lulls and sweet chapters as well.

Please consider going to patreon (you can google to find it) or joining in on facebook under Sarah Jaune.

As always thank you for the support and thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Sarah


Chapter 54

Scorpius wasn’t trying to sneak into his house. It was late when he arrived home, but then it was often late. He’d spent entire summers with the Potters and now that he was an adult, his parents had no legal say in where he went. Still, he’d told his mother where he was going so she wouldn’t worry and he’d said he wasn’t sure when he’d be home. If things hadn’t gone well with Lily, he might have come back straight away to lick his wounds. Scorpius grinned as he moved silently from the fireplace in the parlor towards the open entrance way which would take him to the stairs and up to his room. The house was quiet and dark, save for a single light across the hall in his father’s study.

He did not want to speak to his father just then. He was too happy over what had happened with Lily to want to see the older man. Inevitably Draco would ruin his good mood.

“Scorpius.”

He froze at the foot of the staircase and closed his eyes briefly before turning around to face his father who stood silhouetted in the open door of his study. “Yes?”

“We need to talk.”

Scorpius let out a slow breath and tried to shore up his calm as he waded into what would inevitably be a sticky confrontation. He didn’t say anything as he took a seat in the one across the desk from his father and remembered viscerally his terror from earlier when he’d asked Harry’s permission to date Lily. Only in that case Harry had pulled a chair around to sit with him, not behind a desk.

Mr. Potter’s permission had been so important to him.

Oddly, the thought calmed him. Nothing Draco could do actually meant anything to Scorpius so he didn’t have to fear whatever was coming next.

“We are meeting with your intended tomorrow.”

Scorpius blinked as he tried to take it in. “My… what?”

“Fianc,” Draco clarified calmly. Then he went on to explain who she was, remind Scorpius of a time he’d met her when they were seven, how she was German, and on and on. It was an important alliance for the family and he needed to be ready for the meeting by nine the next morning.

In all of it, his father didn’t even once say her name.

Scorpius had to fight hard for control, but he managed to hold onto it as he said, “I told you I wasn’t going to marry someone you chose for me.”

In an instant his father’s control was gone. It happened so fast Scorpius didn’t even have a chance to react. One moment his father was in his chair, the next he had his wand on him and Scorpius was hit by a flash of light. His chair flew backwards and crashed into the wall, spilling him into the floor as pain shot through him. Another light hit him and this time the pain was so intense he wanted to scream, only his jaw wouldn’t unclench enough to allow even that small noise. The pain let up and Scorpius tried to catch his breath as his father knelt down over him, his wand to Scorpius’ throat.

“You will do what you are told.”

Scorpius didn’t even think. His hand smashed out, breaking his father’s wand as it crashed into his nose. A second later he felt a blow to his face and then another, but Scorpius kicked out hard and sent the older man crashing to the floor. In a second, Scorpius was up and hobbling for the fireplace as the world spun, afraid like he’d never been before.

“Scorpius?” his mother called from the top of the stairs, but he didn’t slow for even a second. They couldn’t follow him to Ivy Run since they weren’t part of the Fidelius Charm. He grabbed for the Floo powder and in a second he was stumbling into the flames.

~*~

Harry bolted up the moment he saw Scorpius fall through the fireplace and onto the floor. “Scorpius!” he said as he knelt at the young man’s side and began to examine him. He rolled him over and gasped at the state of his face, already bruising and bleeding.

“Scorpius?!”

Harry heard Lily’s frantic cry and he held up a hand for her. “No, Lily!” he said, halting her in her tracks as Ginny, Al, and Nat spilled into the room.

“Oh Merlin, Harry!” Ginny swore loudly. “I’ll call for Audrey.”

“Dad?” Al said as he took his sister into his arms. It was out of comfort, Harry was sure, but possibly also to hold her back. “Can we help?”

“Not this moment,” Harry said as he pulled out his wand and stopped the worst of the bleeding. He didn’t dare do more until Audrey arrived to examine the kid… no man. Scorpius was now a man, but just then he looked terribly small and young to Harry. “Can you speak, Scorpius?”

It looked extremely painful, but Scorpius managed to say, “My dad.”

Grief and fury spilled up and over into Harry’s core as he thought of his classmate. However, he didn’t let it show. “Okay,” he said as he motioned for Lily to come forward. “Come hold his hand, Lils. When Aunt Audrey gets here, though, you have to move.”

Lily knelt next to him, as did Al and Nat, as Harry made his way into his study. He had a two-way mirror which connected his directly to the Minister of Magic. Slowly he shut the door and picked up the mirror. He waited a minute for her to join him. “I need to arrest Draco Malfoy.”

Allison MacMillan let out a low hiss. “What happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure yet,” Harry told her, “but it appears he attacked his son.”

Her expression turned instantly to concern. “How badly is he hurt?”

“I think he’s had the Cruciatus used on him,” Harry bit out as he fought hard for control. “He’s shaking with those muscle spasms. I know the signs. I’ll have to get it confirmed by our source,” he said referring to Nat, “but I don’t think there is much doubt.”

“On his own son…”

“I don’t know what happened,” Harry admitted. “I honestly can’t think…” but he let his voice fall away because he knew why. Of course, he knew why.

“Harry?”

“Can I fill you in in person?” he asked her. “I want to get him arrested and then I’ll meet with you tomorrow at the Ministry.”

“I understand,” she said simply. “I’ll hold off the press and make a statement. Do I need to know why he did this?”

“No,” Harry assured her confidently. “It’s a stupid, childish matter. I’d be willing to bet on it.”

He exited his study to find Audrey there and more worryingly, Scorpius was still on the floor. Al sat with Lily on the couch as his daughter cried silently but Ginny and Nat were both absent. Harry moved swiftly to his sister-in-law and crouched down by them. “How is he?”

“Nat said Cruciatus,” Audrey confirmed grimly. “I can tell. He’s twitching just like everyone else I’ve seen who has been tortured this way. He has some internal bleeding, Harry. Bleeding on the brain, but I’ve stopped the worst of it. I want to take him to hospital, but it’s no good. I’ll have to treat him here rather than risk moving him.”

Harry let out a low sigh. “I need to go arrest his father.”

“No.”

Harry turned to Scorpius who had forced his eyes open. “I’m afraid I have to, Scorpius. Your father used an Unforgivable Curse on you. It’s out of my hands.”

Scorpius’ eyes fluttered closed again and he mouthed the single word, “Okay.”

“Do you need something from me?” Harry asked Audrey.

“No, Ginny has gone to the hospital to get what I need and Nat is making up a bed for him. We’re all set here.”

Harry nodded and stood.

Lily’s heartbroken face met his and he held out his arms to her. She was in them in a second.

“Daddy…” she whispered into his chest. “This is m-my fault.”

“No,” Harry promised as he kissed her temple and tried her tears. “And don’t you let him hear you say that, alright?” he whispered in her ear. “He needs you to be strong, Lily. You have to pull it together for him.”

“Alright,” Lily whispered as he let go and turned to the fireplace to head to the office to summon his team.

He arrived into his office and opened the door to find Williams waiting for him. “Draco Malfoy just turned himself in,” he informed Harry. “I have him secured in the interrogation room.”

“Well,” Harry said to give himself a moment to recalibrate. “That makes things easier.”

“He said you’d be in shortly,” Williams explained. “Do you want me to call anyone else?”

“No, not right now,” Harry told him as he started down the hall to where he’d find Draco. “You can be my witness to this.”

“He’s a bit of a mess,” Williams told Harry. “I offered to call a Healer but he refused.”

Harry nodded in acknowledgement and opened the door to find Draco chained to a table. They’d been this way before, except then Harry had gone out to Azkaban to see Draco. It had been a long, long time again before Draco was married. His old schoolmate’s face was a mess. His nose had to be broken and one eye blackened, but his hair was neat and his clothes were clean. Draco had taken some time to fix himself up. Harry wasn’t sorry to see the bruises. Scorpius had faired much worse. Rage swamped Harry again and he forced it down. He had to keep his composure.

Harry sat slowly in the chair opposite from Draco and studied the other man more closely. He looked exhausted and haggard. Harry had no sympathy for him, but it was good to know. “Your son has a brain bleed.”

Draco’s already pale complexion waxed even further. “Is he okay?”

“My sister-in-law will treat him tonight, stay with him at my house,” Harry explained coolly. “She didn’t want to move him to hospital.”

Draco closed his eyes for a solid ten seconds before he opened them again. “I used the Cruciatus Curse on him.”

“I know,” Harry retorted evenly. “Do you want to explain why or do you want to wait for your barrister?”

Draco shook his head. “I have no excuse. I’m not going to defend myself.”

“That is something, then,” Harry said evenly. “It will save your son from having to testify.”

Draco glanced away from him and stared off towards the opaque glass, behind which Williams was watching. Finally, he turned back to Harry. “He doesn’t want me for his father.”

Sadly, Harry knew it wasn’t true. “What makes you think–”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know!” Draco shot back as his expression darkened. “Nothing I say or do means anything to him.”

“You don’t know him,” Harry replied honestly. “You don’t care to know him.”

Draco’s mouth thinned down to a small slit before he finally retorted. “He has an obligation to the family. It’s not fair. He doesn’t have to like it, but we all make sacrifices.”

“What obligation?”

Draco shook his head and turned away again. “I didn’t want to marry Astoria, you know. But it was best for our family. They wanted me to marry Daphne, actually, but she refused to cooperate. Astoria knew her place and I knew mine. The same goes for Scorpius. Our family needs this alliance to… well, you wouldn’t understand.”

“No,” Harry agreed as he sat back in his chair. “I wouldn’t understand forcing my child to marry someone they didn’t love for the sake of blood lines.”

“It’s not just blood lines!” Draco retorted angrily. “It’s money and position and those are two things my family has been sorely lacking since the fall of the Dark Lord. My father left me in an incredibly difficult position and it’s taken me years to secure a bride for Scorpius. Several I’ve considered haven’t worked out, but now I have someone and she’s perfect for the role.”

“So, you told him about this bride when he arrived home?” Harry asked, finally putting the pieces together. “I am sure he didn’t take it well.”

“He refused, as I assumed he would,” Draco agreed as his fury seemed to fizzle out. “I… I can’t explain it, Potter. I saw all the times I didn’t have a choice and my son not accepting responsibility for his family, plus the blasted Daphne having made him independent financially, and I lost control.”

Harry let out a long, slow breath. “Well, I’m about to make your day a whole lot worse.”

Alarmed, Draco’s gaze snapped up to Harry. “What? You said he was–”

Harry held up a hand to stop him. “He was not doing well, but he’s being looked after. No, it’s about Scorpius. He asked me if he could have my permission to date Lily.”

Draco went very still. “You said no, of course.”

“I didn’t say no,” Harry replied with a wry smile. “He’s a good, smart, capable young man who cares deeply for my daughter. Why would I say no?”

His old nemesis stared at him for a long, long time. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not,” Harry shook his head. “You’ve been so wrapped up in what you were doing you missed the fact that you have a wonderful son. I don’t know if that’s because of you or in spite of you.”

“I’m sure you have an opinion on it,” Draco admitted bitterly. His brows drew further together. “You’re… you’re serious?”

“I am never more serious than when it comes to my daughter,” Harry assured him quietly. “I trust Scorpius with my life, because I’m trusting her to him. He’s more than earned my trust.”

“A Malfoy and a Potter,” Draco closed his eyes and shook his head. “My father will disown him.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

Draco didn’t answer immediately. Finally, he asked, “How long will I go to prison for this?”

“I don’t know,” Harry told him. “That’s not up to me. Personally, I think you need therapy more than prison. I’d be willing to suggest it to the Wizengamot if you’re willing to try.”

He glanced down at his chained hands and nodded once. “Astoria won’t speak to me. She says she’s going to leave me if it comes to a choice between me and Scorpius. I’ve buggered this whole thing up, Potter, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“You have to tell your son you are sorry,” Harry informed him. “If he wants to see you, I can bring him to see you. If not, you should write him a letter. Then you need to figure out how to love the son you have, not the one you couldn’t force to do your bidding.”

“I have cocked this up,” Draco said bitterly. “I realized it as he left. I knew he’d run to you.” Gray eyes met green and there were levels of grief and regret in them. “My son ran to you for protection, not to me. He had to run from me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

~*~

“What are you still doing up?” Al asked Nat as she made her way down the stairs to the couch where he sat, waiting for his father to get back from the Ministry. He’d thought everyone was asleep, save his aunt who was stationed in James’ room with Scorpius, monitoring his friend.

Nat, dressed in shorts and an old t-shirt sat down next to him, curling into his side a bit like a cat. “My feet are freezing,” she said as she stuck them under his thigh and poked at his arm until he wrapped it around her.

Al was thankful he was wearing jeans so he didn’t have to feel her cold toes. She was cold all over, though, as he wrapped an arm around her. “You okay?”

“Are you?”

“No,” he sighed. “Scorpius was attacked… by his dad. There is nothing okay about it.”

A moment later he felt Nat melt further into him as her shoulders began to shake gently.

“Oh, Leah,” he said as his heart ached for her. He held her close and let her cry. “He’ll be okay.”

“I know,” she sniffed. “I’m sorry to cry, but I was holding it together for Lily and then… I dunno.”

“It’s okay,” he promised, grateful she’d come to him. He always wanted her to come to him.

Nat swiped at her cheeks and kept her head on his chest. She was still so small, especially compared to everyone else and he was getting bigger by the day, but he didn’t care.

“The curse… the one his dad used. It wrecks up a person’s… aura, maybe? The magical field around them look weird. I checked on Scorpius before I came down and his is back to normal, but that was the creepiest part of this. When I looked at him, his magic didn’t look right.”

Al had no idea what to say to that so they fell silent and slowly he felt Nat relax until finally she was asleep, her soft breath the only sound in the room until his father arrived back from the ministry. He looked exhausted and wrung out, Al noted. He wondered, for a moment, if he really could handle the job of being an Auror, but then he dismissed it. It would be hard and a lot of it would be ugly, but he never wanted his father’s job. The job of the Head Auror was miserable. Al rather thought Teddy would do a good job once he was a lot older.

His dad inclined his head to Nat but Al shook his head. “I have her,” he whispered as he slid an arm under her knees and pushed to his feet. She was so small, so slight, it wasn’t even a struggle. Predictably, she stayed asleep. When she was out, Nat was out. She simply snuggled her nose into his throat and stayed asleep. It wasn’t the first time he’d carried her, although typically it was up the hospital wing.

Silently they made their way up to the girls’ room and Al tucked Nat into her bottom bunk before leaving to speak to his father.

“How is Scorpius?” Harry asked softly once the door was shut, while they stood in the dimly lit hallway.

“He’s okay,” Al told him. “Nat said his magic looked wrong for a bit, but she says it’s better now. What happened, Dad?”

“Draco Malfoy turned himself in,” Harry explained as he glanced to James’ room. “Other than that, I don’t have anything else to tell you.”

Al couldn’t help the sense of relief at the news of Draco being in custody. However… “Is he going to get out?”

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted reluctantly. “Al… he needs help. He was abused by his father and part of me would rather see him get therapy than be sent to jail.”

Outraged, Al felt anger flare inside him. “He nearly killed Scorpius!”

“I’m not excusing him,” his father sighed as he placed a hand on Al’s shoulder and then pulled him in for a hard hug. “But his dad never loved him, and that generational abuse is built up. Scorpius is going to break that cycle. Well, we need to leave it to the court.”

“You weren’t loved as a child,” Al pointed out stubbornly.

“No,” Harry agreed. “I also used the Cruciatus Curse twice. I wasn’t punished for it, but I know what it’s like to lose control.”

“Not on your child.”

“No,” Harry agreed evenly as he let Al go. “Go get to bed and we’ll talk about this in the morning. I’ve done my job, Al, and Draco is actually sorry for what he did. He turned himself in and is willing to go to jail. We will see what happens.”

~*~

Harry watched his son’s retreating back before he pushed into James’ room to see Audrey sitting by Scorpius’ bedside, reading an old novel. “How is he?”

“Better,” Audrey said as she yawned.

“Audrey,” Harry said as he knelt down next to her and studied Scorpius for himself. The boy was pale, paler than normal, but his breathing was steady. “Thank you for all you do.”

“It’s my calling,” she said simply. “Also, I get days off unlike you. Thank you for all you do.”

He shrugged it off. “Do you want me sit with him for a bit?”

“Absolutely not,” Audrey said pointedly. “Ginny is going to take a turn in a few hours. You need some sleep. Besides,” she said as she held up the battered old book, one Ginny had received when she’d been pregnant with Hope. Harry read the cover and couldn’t help the small tug of amusement at Audrey reading the awful rubbish. Matilda Magpie and the Squire’s Son. “This thing is so ridiculous, it will keep me entertained until I’m ready to swap. You get some sleep.”

He wanted to argue with her, but the truth was he didn’t have it in him. So he nodded and rose, leaving the room as silently as he’d entered. He undressed in the dark quiet of his room and slipped into bed and almost immediately into sleep.

~*~

Ginny’s wand vibrated at three o’clock as she’d set it and she reached over instantly to touch it before he could wake Harry. She hadn’t heard him come to bed but she could sense him there. It was her turn with Scorpius so Audrey could have a small kip on the spare bed they’d set up in Harry’s office. She left her room a moment later, padding softly into James’ room to find Audrey staring pensively off into the distance. “Everything alright?”

Her sister-in-law started, turned to her and holding up a scrap of parchment Ginny instantly recognized. Her dream. The dream about James and Caroline, although she hadn’t known at the time it was Caroline. “I’d forgotten I stuck that in there,” she said taking it from Audrey.

“You never mentioned the dog,” Audrey said quietly.

Confused, Ginny glanced up at her. “Come again?”

“You’ve had that dream a number of times, right?”

“Right.”

“You told me about it, but you never mentioned the dog.” Audrey’s expression was frozen.

“I don’t–” Ginny began but she broke off as she glanced down at the words she’d written so many years before.

Dog…

“There was a big dog in my dream,” Ginny said with sickening horror as she remembered again, vividly, the dream she’d had so long ago. “Oh Merlin! In the dreams since the dog went away and I forgot!”

“You say right here,” Audrey said as she jab at the parchment, “It was a dog the size of a small horse, Ginny! What is Rufus if not massive?”

“I don’t… oh bugger, I don’t know how I could have forgotten,” Ginny said as she sank slowly onto the side of the bed, carefully avoiding jostling Scorpius.

“You have to tell them,” Audrey said bluntly. “I dismissed your dream, since you clearly aren’t a seer, but Ginny, this is just too strange to be a coincidence. You have to warn them so they don’t do anything stupid. It worries me that James isn’t in the end of your dream and I really want to know where that baby comes from.”

“But it can’t be true,” Ginny whispered in shock, even though she’d half believed it ever since she’d had the dream. “I’ll… I’ll write to James tomorrow. I’ll warn him. He’s not going to take me seriously, but I have to warn him.”

“Good,” Audrey said as she stood.

“No,” Ginny whispered and her sister sat back down. Pleadingly, Ginny glanced up to her. “No, we can’t change things. Isn’t that what I learned with the prophecy from Harry all those years ago? They can’t be changed.” She sat in the horror of it and had to fight not to be sick. “I am so scared.”

“Maybe it isn’t real,” Audrey said quietly.

“Maybe,” Ginny agreed.

And neither believed it.
“I can ask him not to leave the country,” Ginny said hopefully. “He’s not supposed to, anyway. In my dream the Healers looked to be darker skinned, like South America.”

“It doesn’t mean he was in South America,” Audrey pointed out reasonably. “You said they were speaking English.”

“I did,” Ginny agreed and felt a small sliver of relief. “Go on, go get some sleep. I need to think.”

~*~

The owl James received from his mother was odd. She mentioned about Lily and Scorpius, which was weird but since James liked and trusted Scorpius it was okay. Then she told him about Draco’s attack and how the Wizengamot had quietly met and remanded Draco to inpatient treatment at St. Mungo’s and how Scorpius was going to stay with them for at least the summer since he didn’t want to go home. All that made sense.

Then she’d asked him to be careful, which was not unusual for her but was still a little strange.

Then she’d told him not to eat or drink anything anyone gave him. That tipped it over into strange, but James had George Weasley as an uncle. He never did trust anything anyone gave him, so it was fine. Still, he’d have to reply and tell her she was going round the twist in her old age, just so she’d have a reason to smile.

His letter from Caroline had been worrying. It wasn’t so much what she said as what she didn’t say. She didn’t tell him much about her job, which told James plainly there was something going on there. He wanted to go check on her himself but the team had been given an unexpected full sponsorship to a training camp in Brazil and he was leaving in less than an hour. He’d have to write his father a note and ask him to check in on Caroline and Honor.

His letter from Louis had been short and to the point. He loved Egypt, he loved his job, and he didn’t miss the fog, and he’d met a girl. It was Louis, though, so he expected the girl to be gone by the next letter. Grinning, he penned him a quick reply and sent it off with one of the team’s owls before using his own to send a longer letter to his parents.

He forgot to mention he was heading to Brazil.

Okay, he didn’t actually forget. He simply decided they didn’t need to know since they’d only worry needlessly about him.

“Potter,” one of his teammates called. “Move it, Portkey leaves in three.”

The training camp was held on the same field the Brazilian national team played on and James could honestly say he learned more in one day than he did in his entire time at Hogwarts. It was stunning to watch the players, not just from the stands, but actually hear what the world’s best players had to say on their technique and form. Nothing like this had ever been done before and it was being held quite secret. There were intense rivalries among the nations, but a few countries had been invited to participate with some of the greats who had recently retired.

“Who put this on?” James wondered later that evening as he sat down with two of the Brazilian players, Carlos and Lucas, and one of the Japanese in a bar in downtown Brasilia. They were all exhausted, but also starving from the heavy day of practice and the bar was located in their hotel. Oddly enough they’d been put up in a Muggle establishment, but the Muggles in Brazil didn’t seem to question their strange clothes like the Muggles in Britain did.

These three were also rookies in their first season on their respective national teams and the four of them had hit it off three days before when they’d first arrived. It helped that they all spoke English fluently but James was quickly catching on to Portuguese, although Japanese was still way beyond his skillset. He had no idea how Nat could cram so many languages into her head and keep them all straight.

“I heard it was a private arrangement,” the Japanese player, Kaito, said as he stretched out his shoulder, wincing a bit in the pain. “Your mother didn’t know anything about this?”

“No,” James said, not bothering to explain he hadn’t told his mother. It was odd, but in this world his mother was a lot more famous than his father.

“I saw your mother play once,” Carlos said with a long sigh. “She should have played for England.”

“Agreed,” Lucas said as the waitress brought over their drinks.

James was the only one to have requested water, knowing he wouldn’t play well if he had a beer. “I think she gave it up to have me,” James admitted with a wry grin. “It’s a tough choice for a woman.”

Carlos laughed and groaned at the same time. “You mean we’re stuck with you instead of her?”

Grinning, James picked up his glass and took a sip.

And he remembered no more.

When he awoke, the only thing James could focus on was how badly his head was pounding as wave after wave of nausea crested through his body. Rolling, he felt the soft bed under him and he kept rolling until he hit the floor and crawled towards the loo, the cool tiles of the bathroom scraping along his naked flesh.

He was violently ill for more than ten minutes before he passed out on the bathroom floor.

His next trip into consciousness found him lying, again, in a bed but this time not his hotel bed.

“He was definitely poisoned,” he heard one of them say, blessedly in English.

Then he heard his coach’s voice. “Sabotage of the teams, do you expect?”

James relaxed back into the pillows and realized he didn’t feel quite as awful as he had before. And then his stomach cramped again and he was sick all over his pillow.

James would learn, a few hours later, that several people in the hotel bar had been poisoned just as he had, including a few Muggles. Anyone who had ordered water was given something. He was actually the only wizard to get sick since everyone else had either ordered alcohol or one of those revolting sugar drinks the Muggles favored.

“I can call your father,” his team captain, Marvis Stanton, said later that night. He was about sixty, his hair thick and gray, with the fit body of the athlete he still was.

“No,” James shook his head immediately. His parents were already worried enough about Lily, and thus far it hadn’t leaked to the Magical press… especially since this exercise was supposed to be kept quiet. “It was a Muggle terrorist attack.”

“I’m thankful you weren’t hurt worse,” his coach said with a snort. “If I’d lost Harry Potter’s kid on my watch… your old man would come down on me.”

James smiled weakly and let it go. They’d be going home the next day and he wanted to put the whole thing behind him.

~*~

Harry strolled through Diagon Alley towards the small jewelry shop where Caroline worked. He had been attempting to get down to see the girl since James’ letter, but he’d been caught up in the drama with Draco’s move to St. Mungo’s, Scorpius’ slow recovery, and the investigation into Caroline’s grandparent’s death.

He’d ended up bringing in Nat and she’d said instantly it was Fiend Fire, which Harry was stunned to learn she’d decided to see by taking a drink to the Room of Requirement.

“You did what?” he’d asked in alarm after she’d told him what had burned the house.

“The point is,” Nat had said with her abnormal composure, “I wanted to see it and it was the only safe way I could think of.”

“That fire could have still been burning,” Harry pointed out.

“It’s what I told her,” Al said glumly as he kicked at a stone. “But she told the room she needed to see the after effects of Fiend Fire. It showed her the burned out room.”

“With Crabbe’s son dying in that room it just felt important,” Nat persisted. She then cocked her head to the side and studied the wreckage. “But she did something else, like a bubble.”

“She?”

“It’s definitely Crabbe’s work,” Nat confirmed. “It has her magical signature all over it, just like those curses on the poor women she’s captured. I didn’t really understand what I was seeing at first, but now I can tell who performed a spell if I’m familiar with them.”

The two stared at her as this news sank in. It didn’t officially close the case, and the girls didn’t know about Nat’s magical ability, but Harry could make up some line about someone in the ministry knowing magical signatures. It would be enough, even though it wouldn’t bring justice for the deaths.

Also, his son had been caught in a poisoning in Muggle Brazil. Harry was less than thrilled James had opted not to tell them he was leaving the country, but the fact that his son thought he could get away with it was maddening. Still, he was a man now so Harry decided to keep it to himself. It was James’ life and he had to let him live it. Plus, he didn’t want to worry Ginny. She was already so scared for Lily’s safety, but in the future, he’d send an Auror to watch his son if he traveled. Blessedly, he’d been able to stop the coach from committing to travel for the world cup next month in August. England wasn’t in the game, so there was no reason to go.

All of this was rolling around in Harry’s head as he stopped at the glass front door of the shop where Caroline worked to see her cringing away from a young man leaning over Caroline as she sat at a desk behind the counter and Harry nearly exploded.

Years of practiced restraint kicked in and slowly Harry pulled open the door. At the sound of a chime overhead the man straightened away from Caroline and smiled widely at him. Caliper was his name and it was his father’s shop. Harry had never bought anything there, but they’d picked up Victoire’s engagement ring here and he was passingly familiar with the younger man’s father.

“Mr. Potter,” the man began.

Harry cut him off. “Was he threatening you, Caroline?”

The man instantly bristled as Caroline shrank into her chair even further. It was all the answer he needed.

“No…” Caroline began.

“Caroline,” Harry said quietly as he ignored the man’s loud protestations. “I need the truth.”

She didn’t look up as tears began to slide down her cheeks.

“Did he threaten you?”

She nodded and it was all Harry needed to have the man arrested.

It turned out the younger man had taken a fancy to Caroline and he’d been trying to get her to do things in order to not lose her job. It was then revealed they’d lost a string of young, pretty employees because of the same thing. The old man, who had been semi-retired, backed his son, firing Caroline and filing a suit against the Ministry.

The whole thing was a proper mess and Caroline was out of a job.

“You don’t need a job,” Harry told her as he handed her a handkerchief as she sat in his office, miserably crying. “I’ll pay for Honor’s school things this year and if you need money, you simply need to ask.”

“You don’t understand,” Caroline said as she wiped at her eyes. “My grandparents were in debt, and James has paying for it!”

This was actually news to Harry. “He’s paying for it?”

“Out of his salary for the team,” Caroline confirmed miserably. “I didn’t want him to b-but I would have had to fight the goblins, and I have nothing to give them. I have nothing!”

Harry let out a slow breath. “Right.”

“Please don’t be mad,” she said softly. “I know I shouldn’t let him. It’s why I wanted this job!”

“I’m not mad he’s paying for it,” Harry assured her, surprised she’d worry about it. “I’m not even surprised.”

Her eyes shot up to his and they were as big as saucers. “You aren’t?”

“He wants to marry you,” Harry reminded her firmly. “He loves you.” Harry pulled a chair over to her and sat down. He didn’t take her hand, as he might have someone else, but he made sure she was looking him in the eyes. “He wants to make you part of our family. I don’t know if you will be, but I do know if my son loves you that much then you have to be very special.”

“I’m not.”

There was a world of hurt and abuse in those two words.

“You are,” Harry told her. “You’re never going to like or want a father, but I will be your protector from here on out. If you need or want another mother, Ginny will be there for you always. You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Caroline whispered.

“I’ll deal with the goblins,” Harry told her and held up his hand. “I know James can and he even has enough money in the rest of his trust to pay it off, but the fact is that money is set aside for when he married and being in debt to the goblins is not a good idea. I’ll take care of it. I want you to head to my house and have dinner there, as I know your sister is already there, then you two can head back to James’ place, or stay the night. I want you to tell Ginny what happened. Do you promise?”

After a moment, she nodded.

“Alright, then, you can use the Floo here in my office.”

Twenty minutes later he was walking into Gringotts to settle the debt against Caroline. First, however, he negotiated down the exorbitant interest rate the goblins had forced onto Caroline’s grandparents when they’d been fighting the legal battle against Caroline’s despicable father. Then he’d reminded the goblins they’d gained a considerable asset when they’d been told to seize Donald Baker’s holdings. After that, it was a small lump sum which was once and done and he’d sent a note to James to explain what had happened. He thought about going to see him at training but he knew enough to know having one’s dad show up at work was never a cool thing to do.

~*~

Crabbe grinned as she read through the Muggle tabloid which talked about the terrorist cell poisoning Muggles all over Brazil. She’d hoped Potter would fly to his son’s side, but apparently the stupid man had bought her ruse of Muggles attacking Muggles.

But then, everyone had bought her ruse when she’d set up the training for the ridiculous sport in the first place. It had been easy, so easy, especially since she’d killed several rich men in Saudi Arabia and appropriated their wealth.

Then she’d simply had to disguise herself as a waitress and drug the Quidditch players so they wouldn’t remember anything about the night. She hadn’t done anything to the foreign players, exactly, just a simple forgetting potion in their beers, but Potter she’d needed in her power.

The prostitute had been the hardest part. Who’d have thought finding a girl no one would miss in a city as big as Brasilia would be so difficult? But she’d managed and even now she had the little welp gestating in a secret location in the country, cared for by a house-elf. She wouldn’t survive the birth. The Muggle bitches never did, but it wouldn’t matter. The welp would be damaged and the Potters would be stuck.

It wasn’t the plan she’d originally intended, but it was a wonderful plan, nonetheless. Yes, things were going very, very nicely indeed. The brat was now fifteen. Soon enough she’d be old enough and she’d only be the first.

After her, Isabella was going to go after them all.

Back to index


Chapter 58: Chapter 55

Author's Notes: A chapter early!! Go me! I wrote this yesterday and thankfully Arnel got it back to me very quickly.

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Chapter 55

They sat on the grass in the late August sun, dappled by the trees above as Emma giggled and ran around them, chasing motes on the wind. Al grinned as he watched his niece, her sunny blond hair pulled away from her face, and her blue eyes sparkling. She wore a pink romper thing with butterflies stitched on the front and her face shone with joy and wonder Al didn’t ever remember having. Teeny had fallen asleep on the blanket spread under them, utterly worn out from a day of play.

“You look so serious,” Nat said from beside him as she nudged him with her shoulder. “Why the long face?”

“She’s so happy, so innocent,” Al said and was surprised at how gruff his voice sounded. “She’s just a baby.”

Nat nodded slowly. “This is such a strange way of being. Emma will grow up with Teeny as her friend, always her friend, but Teeny can’t go to Hogwarts.”

Al felt his breath catch in his throat. He’d never thought about it in quite those terms. “If she wants to, I think she should.”

“I agree.”

Emma stopped her spin and turned to them, smiling and laughing. She didn’t have a great way of saying ‘uncle’ yet. It came out something like ‘wunkle’ and Al utterly defeated her, but she knew she was loved. Emma toddled over to him, throwing herself into his arms and giggling as he lifted her overhead and then blew a raspberry into her cheek. She laughed and settled into his arms for just a moment before she was off and running again.

“I can’t believe there will be twins at Christmas,” Nat mused wistfully.

Al glanced sideways to see her expression as she studied Emma. “It’s different having little kids around. This year Emma will care about presents.”

Nat sighed and shook her head, grinning. “I’m so glad I get to be part of your family.”

Startled, Al blurted out, “Why wouldn’t you be?”

It was a stupid question, even to his own ears, but he’d been so used to her being there that he couldn’t picture her anywhere else. He didn’t want her to be anywhere else. She belonged with them.

“Oh, you know,” she waved her hand as if waving off what he’d said. “I could have sat with someone else on the train. It could have been very different.”

“What could have been?” Lily’s voice called from behind them.

Al and Nat glanced back to see Scorpius and Lily walking hand in hand towards them.

“Teeny’s asleep?” Scorpius mused as he sat to Al’s left and Lily sat next to him. “She’s normally a ball of energy.”

“Polly said she’s growing,” Nat told him.

Scorpius had stayed with them since his father’s attack. He’d gone to see his mother and he’d collected an apology letter from his father, but they hadn’t spoken much about what it said. Scorpius was essentially back to normal, but Al couldn’t help worrying over his friend. Word was out about Draco Malfoy being locked up in St. Mungo’s. Al had a shrewd suspicion his dad was keeping Lucius Malfoy away from Scorpius, but if he was he hadn’t said anything and Scorpius hadn’t asked.

“What could have been different?” Lily asked again, bringing the conversation back around.

“I could have sat with someone else on the train that first day,” Nat told Lily. “Then I might not have been here with you.”

“Oh, I think you would have,” Lily told her confidently as she brushed her red hair back as a cool breeze caught it and sent it dancing. “I think this was meant to be.”

Nat shrugged. “You never know.”

Al watched as Scorpius grinned down at Lily and pressed his forehead to hers with such obvious affection, it made something inside Al twist up. He was happy they were happy. He was happy he liked and trusted his sister’s boyfriend. But still… Lily was such a baby still. He’d wondered if Scorpius’ attack would change things for her, but after her initial shock, she’d been back to her same, happy self. It was so obvious she made Scorpius happy that she didn’t let what Draco did ruin anything.

“I can’t believe we go back to school tomorrow,” Lily sighed as she leaned her head against Scorpius’ shoulder.

“I can’t believe we’re already packed and ready to go,” Nat admitted. “Maybe it was James who caused all the chaos.”

“Probably,” Al agreed with a laugh as Emma came over and leaned against Scorpius’ back, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Hey, pumpkin,” Scorpius said as she wiggled until she was clinging to him.

“Wide!” Emma ordered.

Scorpius wrapped an arm around behind him to secure her to his back and then stood up, taking her on a piggyback ride around the yard.

“I am going to miss her,” Nat said honestly. “She’s made the whole summer better. Taking her to the beach house this year was so much fun. We built all those sandcastles.”

“One more year,” Al reminded her. “Then we’re done.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” Lily laughed. “I still have three more to go. It’s going to be awful without all of you there.”

“But you’ll have Hugo and Honor,” Nat reminded her. “It’ll go by faster than you think. I still can’t believe we’re almost done.”

Scorpius came loping back with the laughing toddler as she called for her wunkle to give her a ride.

Al shot to his feet and scooped her off Scorpius’ back, flying her around the yard like she was on a broom.

Point in fact she had a broom Ginny had bought her. No matter what Ginny might have wanted to be called, she was officially Emma’s ‘Gamma’ and nothing anyone said changed Emma’s mind, so they’d given up.

But Victoire had said no to a broom ride until Emma was three, so the broom sat unused in the shed.

Al couldn’t believe they were going back to school already. The summer had flown by. As he hugged Emma to him as she caught her breath, he wondered just what the year was going to bring.

By the next morning on the train, things had already turned a little sideways.

Rose had been made Head Girl, to no one’s surprise. Head Boy was a boy in Hufflepuff named Matt Carlson, so it was so no surprise when Rose was not around when Al and Nat sat in their compartment. What was a surprise was Andrew joining them.

“Hey,” Al greeted him with a handshake as Andrew put his trunk up.

“Hey,” Andrew agreed distractedly as he sat down across from them. “Where’s Rose?”

“Head Girl,” Nat reminded him.

“Oh, right,” he said again as he glanced out the window. “Scorpius?”

“He’s sitting with Lily for a bit,” Al told him. “They’re in the next compartment with Honor and Hugo, although I doubt he’ll stay there long.”

Andrew nodded and then seemed to come to himself. “Right. How is that, having your best mate dating your sister?”

“It’s fine,” Al assured him honestly. “Scorpius is good to her and he gets her. I don’t have to worry about her with him.”

To his surprise, he honestly meant it. Al had worried about what it would be like when Lily started dating, but it wasn’t going to be a big deal with Scorpius.

Andrew nodded and his head kept nodding as he turned to stare out of the window again as the early morning light reflected off his brown hair.

“Andrew…” Nat said hesitantly. “You okay?”

“Hm?” he started and turned to look at them. “Yeah, yeah… uh… Ryan and I broke up yesterday.”

“Oh,” Nat grimaced and reached over to pat his hand. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

He shrugged his shoulders which were starting to fill out, just like Al’s were. “It was for the best. She came to my house and… well… the whole thing overwhelmed her. She can’t handle the whole Muggle part of my life.”

That honestly didn’t surprise Al in any way. He knew Ryan and she wasn’t big into complications. “How’s Caleb doing? Are we going to be in for a rough year?” he asked, referring to Ryan’s brother who had caused them so many problems.

“No, actually,” Andrew shook his head as his blue eyes focused back on Al. “Ryan told me yesterday they’ve taken him to a special school in Australia. It deals with kids like him and she said he’s doing well there. It’s a shame, too, because I learned a lot from that kid and our lessons together.” They fell silent for a minute as the train rocked and swayed.

The compartment door slid open and Rose came in, almost slamming in.

“What’s up with you?” Al wondered.

To his horror, Rose’s face dissolved into tears as she held up a crumpled note in her hand.

“Rose!” Nat gasped as she jumped to her feet and guided Rose to sit down. “What happened?” she asked as she took the note from Rose and scanned through it. Nat growled. “That bastard!”

“He w-was supposed to meet me to say good bye,” Rose sobbed through her tears. “Instead one of his cousin’s handed me that!”

“What does it say?” Al wanted to know.

“Hal broke up with her,” Nat waved the letter in disgust. “It hadn’t been going well, but I thought he wanted to keep going even with you back at school.”

“That’s what he said,” Rose hissed as she took a handkerchief from Andrew. “Thanks,” she told him as she mopped up her face. “I need to get back on duty, but I just couldn’t right now.”

“The Prefects will handle everything,” Nat assured her.

Al glanced to Andrew, who was looking as miserable as Rose was. Then he looked at Nat and felt something inside him clench. He didn’t want to think about having a breakup of any sort with her, but what did he know about anything. No, it was best to wait and see. He… well, he loved Natalie. He didn’t want anything to screw it up for him.

~*~

James had been nineteen for exactly two days when everything changed for him. His team’s coach, Marvis Stanton, called him into his office after practice at the end of a grueling day when the heat had been especially bad for September. He felt grubby, sweaty, and disheveled as he marched into the older man’s cool office. “You wanted to see me, sir?” James asked.

Marvis looked much older than his sixty years as he waved to James. “Have a seat, son.” When James was seated, he continued. “A reporter came to see me about thirty minutes ago to inform me you have a woman living in your house.”

James’ mind blanked. “Right. Caroline Baker, and her sister, but her sister is back at school.”

Stanton’s expression tightened. “You know the laws, Potter.”

“The…” James brain stuttered and then he shook his head. Oh. So that was what was going on. “No, sir! I live at home with my parents. The girls are, well, not renting my house, but it’s something like that.”

A mixture of relief, hope, and wariness filled his face. “You live with your parents?”

“Yes, sir,” James promised. “I’m home every night. You can have them make a statement.”

“I didn’t want to think you’d be flouting the law,” Stanton said heavily, “but I think it isn’t going to matter in this case. The optics are the same, Potter. Can you understand that?”

“Not… no. Not really.”

The older man sighed and ran a hand through his thick, gray hair. James realized this wasn’t the first time he’d done that recently, judging from the state of it. “It will run in the press that a woman, not your wife, is living in your home. If the public turns on it, it reflects badly on the team which means I would have to let you go.”

James’ gut clenched, but he didn’t let it show on his face. “My father can release a statement saying I live at home. His word is trusted.”

“His word is trusted,” Stanton agreed. “I told the reporter I would speak to you and for him to come back in a few hours where you would make a statement. Can you get your father to come and make a statement, as well?”

“Yeah,” James said as he swallowed hard past a lump in his throat. “I just need to warn Caroline the article is coming, then I’ll go get my dad and get back here.”

He showered and changed before Apparating back to his house and he called out as he let himself into the spacious home. Rufus was asleep on the floor of the kitchen where Caroline stood making herself a sandwich. “That’s not much of a dinner,” he said offhandedly as he ambled over to lean against the counter.

“If I’d known you were coming, I’d have made something,” she said with a small smile as she took a bite and then handed it to him. “Hungry?”

“Starving,” he said, even though it was a lie. He was sick to his stomach at what he had to tell her. So he took a bite, handed her sandwich back and then told her about his meeting.

Caroline ate in silence as she listened to him and when she was finished, she held up a finger. “Why don’t we just get married?”

James blinked at her stupidly. “What?”

Her cheeks turned red as she glanced down at the counter and poked at a crumb, pinking it up with her finger and depositing it onto the plate. “It’s what you want… right?”

“I… yeah, of course,” James’s heart leapt as he took in her words. “But… but it isn’t what you want.”

“We could be married by that Muggle pastor your dad knows,” she told him. “Then it’s still legal but it isn’t… you know, it doesn’t…” she fell silent, unable to say.

She wasn’t ready for more than their current relationship. With a soul bond it required intimacy between the couple, at least in the beginning.

James considered her suggestion for a long moment and he wanted it so badly he could have screamed. He didn’t like having to go back to his parents’ house every night. He wanted to be here… with her. He didn’t even know how anyone had learned she was living here. That was actually worrying, come to that. He didn’t want her here alone if someone was watching.

But no, that was stupid. The house was as protected as a house could be. No one could get in or out without them knowing. “Caroline,” he began but she cut him off.

“I have had a lot of time to think,” she told the countertop, still not able to meet his eyes. “I love you and… and you love me. I believe that. I believe in you. I’m not ready for us to do anything more, but I am lonely here without Honor.” Finally, her eyes met his and they were so mesmerizing he couldn’t look away. “I want you here. This works out and then when we’re ready, we can have a soul bond.”

James leaned in and kissed her lightly. “I do love you. If you’re sure–”

“I’m sure,” she promised as she cupped his cheek in her hand.

“Well,” James said heavily. “Let’s go rope my dad into this.”

Fifteen minutes later they were in his father’s office and his father was shaking his head. “Getting married to solve this is–”

It was Caroline who interrupted him. “You said,” she started and then stopped to take a deep breath, but Harry waited. Caroline, who had been holding James’ hand this entire time, squeezed his fingers hard. “You said James meant to make me part of the family.”

“I did,” Harry agreed evenly. “But this is a drastic step.”

“It’s not,” Caroline shook her head. “It’s a Muggle marriage.”

Harry glanced between them. He knew what she was implying, James saw. “Alright,” he threw up his hands. “Alright. Let’s go get rings for you two and get you married.”

“Should we get Mum?” James wondered.

“She has Emma today,” Harry sighed. “I’ll get Hermione to come along as a witness.”

The marriage, done by a Squib who had decided to become a Lutheran pastor, was over in less than ten minutes. “Now,” the man said smiling. “When do you want the date of this union to have taken place?”

James shook his head. “Come again?”

“Well,” the man said waving his hand. “I, uh, forget to turn in forms on time. I’m supposed to turn them in regularly, but I’m known to forget for months on end. The clerk at the office has a soft spot for me because of… well, never mind that.”

Aunt Hermione was predictably apoplectic at the notion of forms not being turned in right away, but James was impressed to see the only sign of her rage was in her bright red face. “Harry…”

“I know,” Harry said as he rubbed at his forehead. “Would middle of July be too far back?”

“No, not at all,” the pastor assured him. “I haven’t turned in any other forms since first of June. I can tell her I found it just now. Here, let me make you a copy.”

And so it was with the marriage certificate in hand and his wedding ring on his finger that James returned to his team manager’s office to tell him the news. Thankfully he’d beaten the reporter by twenty minutes.

Marvis Stanton stared at him, dumbfounded. “This is legal?”

“It is legal,” James assured him with a laugh. “But even if the date is a little fudged, I’m married now anyway. It’s a Muggle marriage, so the reporter wouldn’t have learned of it. Don’t worry, I have a good story worked out.”

James then spent the next hour carefully not lying to the reporter. He and Caroline were private and not ready to be public. They loved each other very much. They would have preferred to keep their marriage a secret. Caroline and Honor did live in James’ house because their grandparents died, but until they married, James had either been in training or living with his parents in their house.

All of it was true. It simply wasn’t the full story.

He didn’t expect the storm he encountered when he went back to his parents’ home to pack up his things. His mother was in tears.

“Mum,” James said as he walked over to her. She sat with his dad and Caroline at the table. Emma wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so he assumed she’d gone home, but Teeny was playing on the floor in the living room with some toys. He watched his father wave his wand and cast the Muffliato charm so Teeny wouldn’t hear them. “I’m sorry! I know you wanted to be there, but we’ll have a real wedding at some point and–”

Ginny waved him off and James sat down next to Caroline who looked stunned. In fact, she wouldn’t look at him.

“Here,” Ginny said as she pulled a scrap of parchment out of a book and passed it to him.

Confused, James began to read and he found himself shaking his head. “What does this have to do with anything? What is it?”

“I had that dream many times,” Ginny told him. “I told Caroline about it, too, one night at the beach house. I had this dream and it was Caroline your dad hands that baby to, James. When I saw her in the hospital that awful day you killed her dad… I knew it was her. Then I let it go because it seemed crazy and in my later dreams, the dog wasn’t in them or if he was, I didn’t recall it.”

Harry cleared his throat. “I hadn’t told your mum you went to Brazil, James. I hadn’t told her you were hurt in that attack.”

“Right,” James agreed slowly and then gasped as he stared back at the part of the dream where he was lying in a hospital bed.

“Did the Healers speak English?”

“Uh, they did when Mr. Stanton was in the room,” James confirmed slowly. “I just don’t… see…” his voice trailed off because he did see. He saw very clearly. Bile rose in his throat and he had to clamp his jaws shut to stop from vomiting all over the table.

“I didn’t tell your dad about the dog,” Ginny said in anguish. “Audrey reminded me of it, but then I decided to keep it to myself. He forgot about the dream and didn’t tell me about you being hurt in Brazil,” she said as she shot her husband a look. “Then today he agrees to you two being married and I wasn’t informed because it was no big deal, but this,” she said as she pointed to the parchment. “It’s a big deal, Jamie.”

“You don’t think it was a Muggle attack,” Caroline said slowly. “You think Crabbe used him to impregnate someone.”

“I didn’t!” James spit out, disgust filling him to the brim. He turned to her and her face swam as tears filled them. Fear. He realized it a moment later. He was afraid of what she’d said. “Caroline, I didn’t! I wouldn’t cheat on you! I–”

“Stop,” she said forcefully and he stopped. Her face was fierce as she went on. “You were drugged, James! It was a Muggle drug of some kind or Nat would have seen the magic in you. She didn’t. The Healers said so. What happened was rape.”

It sat there between them very heavily.

“If it happened,” James said quietly.

“If it happened,” Caroline agreed as she took his hand. “You don’t hold my past against me and I’m not about to hold this against you. If you were unconscious or unable to give consent that’s rape.”

“But with blokes–”

“No, James,” Harry interrupted him. “She’s right. It’s still rape.”

James felt cold all over. “It… it just can’t be true,” he said as he reread the dream before pushing the parchment back to his mother. “It can’t be true!” They sat in silence for a moment when James realized what this meant. “You’re saying… you’re saying I’m going to have a child in seven months?”

“I don’t know,” his mother said honestly. “I don’t want this to be true, but if it is true… everything fell into place, James! It all fell into place without any effort. We have to prepare for it to be true.”

“I’m going to take a week and go to Brazil,” Harry told him. “I’m going to try to find something, but I doubt I’m going to have any luck. We have to wait until April to see what happens. If it happens like in the dream, I will get a call to collect the baby. I don’t know where you are, James, but I do know you need to be careful.” He leaned forward slightly. “You two need to work out what you’re going to do. If you can’t love and care for a baby as a mum and dad, then you decide that now. Your mum and I will raise the baby. No questions asked. You’re young and you have been through a lot.”

“Not as much as you have,” James reminded him.

His father glanced to Caroline. “Not as much as she has,” he retorted and James fell silent. “No judgement on our parts, James. You two head home and you talk long and hard about this.”

James went upstairs to pack a hasty bag full of clothes to get him through a few days and then he left with Caroline to return home.

Rufus was glad to see them. “Let’s take him outside and sit and talk,” Caroline said as James dumped his bag on the sofa. “It’s still nice out.”

James reached for her hand and he was grateful when she took it. They strolled out to the back garden and sat in matched lawn chairs while Rufus plodded around the yard, sniffing at shrubs. Caroline let out a long sigh as she stared up into the fading light of the early evening. “This is not how I expected to spend my day.”

“We’re married,” James said as he glanced down at their entwined fingers and saw the wedding ring glinting on his finger.

“You might have a child.”

“Why would the child’s mother not keep the baby?” James wondered as the bugs sang their chorus.

“That worries me,” Caroline admitted. “I have to admit the whole thing seems cracked. I cannot believe she’d dream something like this so long ago and that it would come true, but I don’t have another explanation for all the coincidences.”

“What if she can’t care for him?” James wondered as the implications of everything settled over him. He might have had sex for the first time and he didn’t remember it. Or she might have used him to magically impregnate someone. Or… or something else. He felt dirty all of the sudden and really wished he could get another shower.

“I think that’s most likely,” she said quietly as she watched Rufus plod back to them and fall at their feet to snore in the grass. “At least we know Rufus is good with kids. Emma rides him like a pony every chance she gets.”

“Well,” James said fairly, “she weighs little more than a feather compared to him.”

“But he likes her,” she reminded him with a small smile. “He likes having her around. When we were at the beach a few weeks ago, he’d body block her from getting too close to anything dangerous.”

“What say you, Rufus,” James asked as he reached down to scratch behind the big dog’s ears. “You want a job as a nanny?”

Rufus chuffed out a breath but didn’t otherwise bother to reply.

James glanced over to Caroline. “We don’t have to decide anything right now.”

“What’s there to decide?” Caroline asked as she turned to him. “If you have a child to raise, then we will raise that child.”

Love for her filled his heart. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Probably best not to say much of anything at this point,” Caroline said softly. “If it happens, we have a lot of time to get used to the idea and work out the logistics. Mostly, I’m worried about you being safe. I don’t know how I’d raise a baby alone, so you have to be okay.”

James didn’t know how to promise it, but he knew he’d try. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she said with a sad smile. “This has got to be the weirdest wedding day ever.”

“Let’s go out and get take out,” James said suddenly. “I’m finally hungry and we can celebrate with a curry.”

She laughed and stood. “Deal.”

The press was in an uproar the next day over James’ marriage and several reporters tried to corner him at practice the next day. His team mates gave him a hard time about not telling them he was married, but James simply shrugged.

By the time the Magical press tracked down the paperwork for James’ marriage it was all set and legally registered. He’d married Caroline on the seventeenth of July… at least, that’s what the record said.

~*~

It was Halloween and they were supposed to have a Hogsmeade trip, but of course the trip had been cancelled due to safety concerns for the students. Instead, the Head Girl and Boy had put together a carnival, of sorts, for the younger students which was to be followed up by the feast that evening.

Scorpius didn’t mind helping out with the silly games for the first and second years. He had Lily helping him and any time spent with her was a good time. “We won’t get to go on a Hogsmeade weekend as a date,” Lily mused as a pair of fourth year boys ambled up. She smiled at them and handed over a ball they were supposed to throw through a hoop.

“Hey, Lily,” one of the boys said with a grin.

Scorpius fought hard against and won out over his impulse to roll his eyes. What felt like the entire male population of the school, well, the older population, had been silently glaring at Scorpius ever since it became public he and Lily were a couple. They’d been a couple for four months, actually, and every day things seemed to get better. They disagreed sometimes and true to her word, Lily had showed him how to fight fair and it was so easy with her. She didn’t try to bully him, push him around, or make him do things. She was too gentle and loving for that. She wasn’t a pushover, either. If she didn’t like something, she said so.

And he waited to see what Lily wanted to do about the boys. Early on he’d said something to the other blokes, warning them off, but after a few weeks she’d told him she wanted to do it herself. Most of the time she did. Sometimes she looked to him. It had taken him a bit to figure out it had to do with how aggressive the boys were. Somehow, she sensed it before anything even happened.

Lily darted a glance to him and Scorpius took the hint. He slid an arm around her waist and grinned at the boys. “Go ahead, take your shot,” he told them.

Sure enough, the boy who had spoken gave him a dirty look before he threw the ball and missed. His face turned red as Scorpius handed him another ball. “Take another try.”

“It’s a stupid game anyway,” the boy spat as he spun and stormed off, his friend trailing behind him.

Lily almost shrank into him.

“What?” Scorpius asked her quietly.

“It’s getting worse,” she murmured as she pressed her face to his chest. She rubbed at a spot on her sternum and put her arm around her. “Be my calm in the storm, okay?”

“Always,” he promised as he kissed her temple.

“Hey, now,” Al called out from the next booth over where he worked with Nat. “No funny business.”

It wasn’t until later, after the feast, that Scorpius found a few minutes to walk and talk to Lily. They found a quiet alcove and they sat, staring out at the dark grounds around them. “What happened, Lils?”

“I’m not sure what’s happening,” she admitted. “I just… I know when the boy isn’t going to be nice. I shouldn’t ask you to deal with them.”

Scorpius waved that off. He wasn’t a Malfoy for nothing. “I’m not worried about that part. I want to know what’s bothering you. You can tell when they’re going to get mean?”

“I… I can,” she said as she bit her bottom lip and looked up at him, her big, brown eyes filled with concern. “I get this feeling in my chest that hurts. It’s fear or something like it. It feels… it feels really bad and I get scared. I hate when they corner me and I’m alone.”

“Wait,” Scorpius said as anger flared inside him. “Boys are cornering you when you’re alone?”

“Well, no,” she said shook her head. “I always have Honor and Hugo with me and they help. But I still have to be the one to turn them down.”

He wished there was something he could do to make the situation better, but short of dueling every bloke who might have his eye on Lily, he was stuck. It didn’t help that James and Louis had left. Now with only Al and Hugo around, no one was feeling like they had to tiptoe around Lily. Added to it, Lily would be at the school without him that next year. Fear and fury filled him as he studied her sweet face and wished he could fix this for her.

“You can’t fix it,” she said, reading his expression. “I’m working on getting better at turning them down, but I’m still not there yet. I have the whole rest of this year to work things out.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Scorpius growled in frustration. “They should simply leave you alone! Maybe we should talk to Professor Longbottom about this.”

Lily blinked and them beamed at him. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

The next day they arranged to meet with him in his office after classes and Lily laid out the history of the last several months and what the boys had been doing.

Professor Longbottom was bright red with anger by the time she was done. “I’ll take care of it, Lily.”

At dinner that night the professor stood and called the room to attention. “I have been told by a student,” he began, “that some of our gentlemen are not behaving as gentlemen should behave. So I am ordering all the boys to stay after the meal so we can speak about how you are to conduct yourselves.”

After the meal, when all the girls had cleared off, Neville and several of the other male teachers went over what was harassment and what wasn’t. “Do you realize you are scaring some of the girls?” Neville asked them bluntly. By the looks of shock and denial on many faces, clearly they didn’t. “You are scaring them. Next time you go up to talk to a girl, look at her expression. Read what her face is saying. I know it’s scary for you to talk to her, it’s difficult, but you can be aggressive or defensive when you’re scared and it’s scaring them. Do you want to do that?”

Of course, no one did. Or, at least, no one admitted it’s what they wanted.

It made Scorpius feel a bit better, but only time would tell if it would help.

Much to his surprise, it did help.

Several of the boys he knew were interested in Lily cornered him over the next several weeks to tell him they were sorry, to tell Lily they were sorry. The fourth-year boy told him it was exactly as Professor Longbottom had said. He’d been scared to talk to her, so when she hadn’t responded, he’d been humiliated and he’d become angry.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Scorpius said one Sunday in November as they sat around the common room fire.

“I’d love to go for a walk,” Al told him cheerfully, then laughed when Scorpius punched his shoulder. “Oh, you meant my sister.”

Lily giggled and said, “Let me get my cloak. It’s getting cold.”

Scorpius watched her go and felt absolute contentment like he’d never felt in his life. It was a little scary because something could go wrong. His crazy great aunt was after Lily, but for now she was safe and they could spend this time being happy.

“You have it bad,” Nat mused from her seat next to Al.

“I have it bad,” Scorpius agreed as Lily reappeared.

“You don’t want your cloak?” she asked as she fastened hers on and took his hand.

He was wearing a Weasley sweater from the previous Christmas. “This is warm enough,” he said, pointing to the royal blue jumper.

“Gran needs to make your next one bigger,” Lily noted thoughtfully. “It’s getting too small.”

He pushed through the portrait hole and held it open while she climbed out. “Are you going to claim this one after Christmas?”

“Oh, yes,” Lily said as she took his hand again. “I’m in need of a new dress.”

Scorpius snorted out a laugh and raised her hand to his, kissing her knuckles. “I love you, Lily.”

Heat flushed to his face as he realized what he’d said. He meant it, of course, but he hadn’t meant to say it just then.

She pulled him to a halt and studied his eyes for a moment. Whatever she saw made her lips part into a mile-wide grin. “I love you, too, you know.”

Joy so profound it could have knocked him over filled him, as he bent to kiss her quickly, and then started to walk again. They walked around the grounds and around the lake, talking about nothing and everything. Scorpius had decided he was going into law. It was something that interested him and he felt like he’d be good at it. He’d have training for a year with the barristers at a firm, then he’d take an exam and he’d be done. In his mind it meant he’d be done and truly established before he was ready to marry… whenever that happened. He didn’t mention that part to Lily, though. She still had years of schooling left. He didn’t know what was going to happen in between now and then, but he hoped they were still together.

Of course, they were young. Of course, this was Lily’s first relationship. There were a lot of things that could go wrong, including having to spend two years apart while she finished school.

“You know Teddy and Victoire did it,” she told him quietly.

Confused, Scorpius turned to her. “Did what?”

“They were together when she was fifteen or sixteen,” she told him as she looked up into his face. She was such a bitty thing, a good food smaller than him, but she had such a presence she left an impression. “Teddy went to Auror training while she finished school. They made it work.”

“How did you know that’s what I was thinking about?” Scorpius asked as a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. He rather liked her ability to guess what he was thinking.

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “I just sort of… feel it in my head. That sounds silly, but it’s true.”

Scorpius leaned down and pressed his mouth to hers, feeling her cold nose press into his cheek as they kissed. He could have kissed Lily forever. He desperately wanted to kiss Lily forever. But all too soon he knew he had to pull back. It wasn’t the time or the place for such things. “I like that you know me so well.”

“I like that you know me so well,” she countered as she raised up on her toes to put her arms around his neck. He ended up pulling her off her feet to hold her tightly against him. “I really do love you, Scorpius. I didn’t know I could feel like this, but it feels… right.”

Yes. It felt right. As he set her down, he finally told her the things in his head he hadn’t been able to say before, not to anyone. “Before I knew all of you, I didn’t have anyone I could count on no matter what. I never felt settled or whole. I never felt like I was worth anything. I love my aunt, and she’s been there for me, but she can’t even take care of herself.”

Lily waited quietly, holding the space for him to speak, holding his hands so he’d feel her support.

“I knew I could run to you, run to your dad,” he said as his voice hitched. “I knew I had family to turn to, Lils.” His gray eyes met her brown ones and they held. “This feels right.”

Her lips quirked in a confident way only Lily could do. “It’s only just started. It’s going to get better.”

He couldn’t imagine how it would get better, but he sincerely hoped she was right. He was going to do whatever it took to see to it.

Back to index


Chapter 59: Chapter 56

Author's Notes: For those who have reviewed, thank you! I try to respond to every review. I very much appreciate the feedback. The story ticks on and I hope you're enjoying it.

If you'd like to support me on patreon, I'd love that. It's $3/month and I post a chapter of a new (original) story every other week. Find me at Sarah Jaune (that's also me on twitter and facebook).

Thank you also to Arnel for beta'ing!


Caroline sat at the kitchen table and studied the last of the falling leaves as a gentle autumn breeze blew through the yard. She let her mind wander, as it often it, off to places far away and things she’d rather forget.

When she’d lived in America they’d had a house bigger than this one, the one James had picked out, but unlike this home, the one she’d lived in had never had a single warm moment. Her mother had been beautiful, but silent and beaten down. Her father… well, he was better off dead and buried, no question about it. Thinking of him and what he’d done to her hurt her still, very deeply, but it wasn’t the raw, scraped, open wound it had been for so long. She’d been through a lot of therapy and all of it had helped.

She used to think it was her fault. She used to feel she’d deserved what happened to her, but everything was different now. James had learned to love her even when she hadn’t been lovable. He’d stuck by her when no one else would have. He’d showed her unconditional acceptance and safety when she hadn’t felt like the world would ever be safe again. With James had come an entire family. Her family. They were her family, now, hers and Honor’s. Even before she and James had married, she’d known she could count on the Potters and the Weasleys for everything. They’d never let her down. They accepted both her and her sister, even though they knew what she’d been through.

Because the truth underpinning all of it was her history didn’t mean she wasn’t worth loving. Her history was part of her, and it mattered, but she was embraced anyway. No. No buts about it. They loved her and embraced her. They did the same for Honor. Caroline treasured all of that more than she could possibly begin to say.

She and James had been married for over two months and they’d been some of the easiest months of her life. She’d felt safe, always, in this house. She wasn’t lonely since she had him home every night, although that would change if he made the national team. But that was a problem for a different day. She didn’t have to deal with nasty boys at school, or bosses who wanted more from her. She never had to deal with anyone or anything.

And it was driving her a little nuts. Her therapist had stressed to her that when things were uncomfortable, she should try to stay there as long as she possibly could because staying in the discomfort would bring strength. She hated that her therapist was right, but it did work. Or mostly it worked. Sometimes she’d still panic and leave, but sometimes she’d been able to stick things out and the panic had gone away. It had been her strategy with her boss’s son, when he’d been hitting on her. She’d tried to deal with him on her own, just to prove she could. But realistically she couldn’t. She needed the job and she hadn’t been able to find anything else, save for working in the joke shop. Mr. Potter, Harry, she had to get used to calling them Harry and Ginny, had saved her and then he’d taken care of the bills.

She needed to be around people again or she was going to fall back into the trap of being afraid of all people, all the time.

All of that had led her to go back to her cheer gym in October, where she was still eligible to cheer for another year, but instead she’d asked for a job and amazingly they’d had one. The coach for the tiny tots class, the three- and four-year-olds, had wanted to go on maternity leave early, but without a backup coach she hadn’t been able to. She wanted to be off for the rest of the year, so Caroline had the job as coach until the woman came back.

For two days a week, Caroline went to the gym and helped the main teacher teach the small girls, and one boy, how to cheer. The pay was pretty terrible, but the kids were adorable and it gave Caroline a chance to stretch her wings and workout in the gym with the teams. It was a definite side benefit as she wanted to keep in shape and she felt safe at the gym.

One of the boys who had been on her team since she’d joined had hit on her the very first night she was back. She’d taught the toddler class at three for an hour and then stuck around until five when her old team appeared. It had been great seeing the girls again and they’d hugged and laughed and chatted too much. Her old coach let her sit in on the workouts and even let her help with some of the newer girls to get their stunts.

Then on a water break, one of the boys had come over to ask her if she was busy later that night. This used to make her nervous. This used to fluster her. This might have sent her into a panic attack. She still felt a fluttering of panic, but she smiled and shook her head before holding up her hand. “I’m married, Bobby.”

He’d been surprised, everyone had, but that was that. It was as though the wedding ring was a magical shield. Except, Caroline had come to realize, it wasn’t a magical shield at all. It was only a piece of metal. What mattered was her attitude over the whole situation. She knew how to protect herself against a Muggle man. She knew how to get away. She knew she wasn’t helpless. She knew she was free and it made all the difference in the world.

She was done being a victim. She’d survived the worst her father could throw at her, and then some. He’d not only been a sick bastard, he’d been a psycho on top of it. He’d put her life in danger and for what? Money? She still didn’t know. She probably didn’t ever want to know. Now she was a survivor and she had to think about the future.

She had her room in this five-bedroom house. It was up the stairs on the left and next to hers was Honor’s room. Across the hall, in the master suit, was James’ room. He had his own bathroom, and she had her own bathroom. Well, she shared it with Honor when Honor was there. She’d laid awake at night, more nights than she could count, thinking about what it would be like to walk across the hall and crawl into bed with James. He was her husband, but currently it still felt like he was her boyfriend. They kissed and it never went further than that. He never pushed for more. In fact, he was always the one to pull back first.

But she hadn’t yet made her way from her room to his. She still barely went into his room, except to clean. He’d told her he’d clean his own stuff but the fact was she was bored and cleaning was at least something to do. She needed a job, a purpose. She just didn’t know what it would be yet.

She was teaching herself to cook and experimenting with a lot of new ideas. She liked the cooking, but hated the cleanup, so she always left that to James.

Her mind flittered back to the day they’d married and the conversation with Ginny.

A baby…

A large part of Caroline’s brain completely rejected the notion that what Ginny had dreamed would come true. But the other part yelled at her that much of it had already come true, so she’d better just get used to the idea. Her thoughts kept going round in circles. Why would the mother give the baby up? Where would James be? How could she do this? Would the baby be a boy or a girl? Had James actually had sex with the woman or had it been something else? He’d been checked over for diseases and he was clear, so they had no answers. But as she’d said to him before, she didn’t hold it against him. It was all horrible and sad. He felt bad about it. She knew he did. He’d apologized more than once and promised he’d never cheat on her.

And she believed him, which surprised her more than anything else. But it just wasn’t in his nature. He’d fallen for her and he’d stayed true this whole time.

She’d already committed to raising the baby. They would figure it out, but she had no idea how they’d tell the world about the baby.

Her mind was brought back to the present with an immediate jolt to her heart as Ginny’s voice came from the fireplace a moment before Ginny stepped through with Emma in her arms.

“The babies are coming!”

The babies… OH. “Victoire’s in labor?” Caroline asked as she jumped up from her seat and hurried over to take Emma. They’d arranged for her to care for Emma during the birth, so everyone else could be there to support Victoire.

“Her water just broke,” Ginny told her as she handed over a bag with Emma’s things. She was potty trained, sort of, but extra clothes were still needed. “I’m heading straight over from here, so if you need us, that’s where you’ll find us.”

“We’ll be fine,” Caroline said as she set Emma down so the baby could run headlong for the dog. “James is off early today anyway, so he’ll be here in less than an hour.”

“Okay, thank you again,” Ginny told her, clearly flustered, as she pulled Caroline in for a quick hug. “I’ll keep you posted when we have babies!”

“Bye Gamma!” Emma called out from her favorite spot, laying on Rufus’ back.

“Bye baby, be good!”

Then they were alone again. “Are you hungry?” Caroline asked her.

“No,” Emma said as she snuggled further into the big dog’s fur. “Want walk!”

Emma’s absolute favorite game was to walk Rufus around the yard. “Alright, let me find your coat and I’ll get mine,” Caroline said with a grin as Rufus finally opened one eye. “You’re going on a walk.”

The dog chuffed in acknowledgement, but waited until they were suitably attired to push to his paws. Caroline clipped on the utterly useless leash and handed it to Emma, who solemnly held onto the end and began to walk. Before the slack could be taken up, Rufus was plodding along after her. Two hundred and fifty pounds of dog led along by twenty-four pounds of toddler. Caroline grinned and opened the door for them to go into the back garden.

They were still out there when James came home.

“Wunkle Jamie!” Emma called out as she dropped Rufus’ leash to run for him.

“Hey,” he called out as he caught her and swung her up over his head.

Something in Caroline’s heart always did a flip when she watched them, the baby laughing in delight, and the man smiling as though nothing could be better than this moment. Then he looked to her and she knew she was going to love him for the rest of her life.

She’d already known it, of course, but moments like this reinforced it. He loved so easily and she always wanted to be part of that. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do to keep this love. Her therapist had warned her about sabotaging herself and early on she’d caught herself doing it all the time. She wasn’t going to anymore. She wasn’t going to ruin something first, assuming it would be ruined sometime later. Things might go bad later, but maybe they wouldn’t and she wasn’t going to miss out on what was great then for what might suck later.

“So do we have babies yet?” James asked as he gave Emma a big, noisy kiss to make her laugh.

“Not yet, not that I know of,” Caroline said as Rufus came over to lean against her hip so she could scratch his ears. “You’re such a good dog,” she told him as she bent to kiss the top of his head.

“Walk!” Emma said as she squirmed to get down. She took James’ hand and moved over to get the leash again. She smiled angelically up at James. “Walk.”

“I guess we’re going on a walk,” James told Caroline with a lopsided grin as Emma tugged him to move.

“I’ll get started on some dinner, then. It might be awhile before we hear about the babies.”

~*~

Teddy knelt on the floor of their bedroom and held Victoire up as she groaned and shifted. She had her head pressed to his shoulder as sweat rolled down her brow. “It’s burning!”

“Almost there,” Alberta, the sturdy midwife who had delivered Emma, said from behind Victoire. “You’re doing beautiful.”

Fleur, who was sitting on the bed, bent over to kiss her daughter’s hair while Ginny sat on the floor holding her lit wand so the midwife could see. Victoire had insisted the lights were all too bright for her and thus they were working from wand light.

Victoire let out a pained gasp which went straight to Teddy’s gut, squeezing her arms around his neck, but a second later he looked down and saw the baby in the midwife’s hands as she let out a small cry. Victoire began to cry as Ginny helped guide her down onto the towel so the midwife could hand her the baby. Her beautiful, sweaty, red face beamed up at him as she leaned against the footboard and cradled their newest daughter to her chest.

Teddy felt his eyes sting as he sat down and studied the little girl, who looked almost exactly like Emma had when she was born. “She’s beautiful, luv,” he told her as he kissed his wife’s brow. “You did so well.”

“One down,” Victoire laughed in exhaustion. “One down, one to go.”

They didn’t have long between the babies. Within three minutes the urge to push was back and Victoire wanted back into the same kneeling position. This time Fleur held the first baby who had already fallen asleep.

Less than ten minutes later both babies were out safely and Victoire was back in their bed, holding the babies on her chest. Teddy knew she couldn’t get enough of looking at them. He knew because he felt the same way as he crawled in beside her to marvel at his children. This felt perfect. It felt right. He couldn’t wait to have Emma meet the babies.

“Names?” Alberta asked as she used a quill to fill out some forms.

They’d talked about names and had them picked out already. They both studied the girls and both immediately named the first one out as Amelia and the second as Olivia.

A knock sounded at the door and after they were bidden to enter, Harry and Bill came in to see their newest granddaughters.

There was nothing better in the world than this.

“I’m going to go get Emma,” Teddy told Victoire who nodded and went back to beaming at the new babies.

As he was leaving, he heard Alberta say, “Let’s get them weighed and then you can feed them.”

Teddy used the Floo to get to James and Caroline’s house and yet again had to shake off the odd notion that his godbrother was married and had his own house. It all seemed so odd to him, but yet it felt right. “Hullo,” he called out and heard a call from the kitchen. He walked in to see them seated at the table with Emma in a high chair. He had no idea where it had come from, but he didn’t bother to ask. “The girls are here,” he laughed as they both cheered.

“That’s wonderful,” James said as he pushed to his feet to pull him in for a hug. “Congratulations!”

Another thing that was weird was James being the same height as him. “Thanks,” he said as he released him and zeroed in on his daughter. “Hi, baby!”

“Daddy!” Emma called out happily as she raised her arms to be picked up. He pulled her in close and snuggled her, smelling the autumn air and her sweet shampoo on her and felt utterly complete.

It was what he told Victoire later that night after Emma was tucked in, after holding both of her sisters. “I feel really good about this. We can stop now.”

Victoire looked up from latching on Olivia and quirked a brow. “What?”

“We can be done now, if you want,” he told her as he finished with Amelia’s nappy. She was fussing and ready to eat, as well, but this double nursing was proving to be tricky. He held her until Victoire could get her positioned correctly and latched on. A moment later both girls were nursing together. “It’s good this isn’t your first time nursing.”

“I was thinking that earlier,” Victoire agreed as she leaned back against the pillows in their bed. She studied him for a long moment. “You don’t want more children?”

He’d given this a lot of thought over the last few months and he knew what he wanted to say. “I don’t want you to be sick like that again. You were in bed for months.”

“I did alright towards the end,” she reminded him. She’d been off the feeding tube for two months and she’d been caring for Emma up until the last two days when she’d said she needed help and Ginny and her mum had stepped back in. But she’d been nine months pregnant with twins so needing help to keep up with a toddler was expected.

“You did wonderfully in the end,” he agreed as he rubbed at her leg. “We have three perfect, wonderful girls. I’m good with stopping here. I can get that procedure done so we won’t have anymore.”

She nodded to herself for a moment, and then shook her head. “I’m not ready to say that, yet.”

Surprised, he could only stare at her. “You want to do this again?”

“I think I want to do this again,” she admitted. “I think I want at least one more. I always wanted a big family.”

“Really?” he asked, amused to find a fact about her he hadn’t known before.

She shrugged and looked down at the girls. “I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t think we’d be able to afford it. Now that’s not an issue. I have decades and decades to work. I don’t have decades to have babies. I work one day a week as a midwife and I keep my job.”

It was the system she’d worked out with the hospital. She worked one of the weekend shifts to give the main staff a break. Best of all, Teddy could work on the weekends, as well, taking off a different day to be home with his girls.

His girls. Four of them, one of him. He grinned and belt to gently, tenderly kiss her. “I’m up for whatever you are up for. But if you decide you’ve had enough, just say the word.”

“I will,” she promised. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

He went one last time to check in on his sleeping Emma, but she was out. She’d probably walked that dog around the yard for over an hour.

Teddy was willing to bet the dog was sleeping soundly, as well.

~*~

“What is that?” Nat asked as she grabbed Al’s elbow just as he sat down next to her at dinner while the noise of the Great Hall clattered all around them.

“Come again?” he said as she took a better look at his elbow. Even through the sweater she could see the green magical light radiating through his clothes. “What are you on about?”

“Did you eat something green? A potion?” Nat whispered, so only he would hear.

“No, I–” his voice trailed off. “Yeah, the potion we made just now in our advanced studies class.”

He and Rose had both opted into the class which delved into more complicated potions which would be needed. Rose wanted to be a potions master and Al an Auror, so they were taking extra lessons with four other seventh years.

Nat turned to study Rose but didn’t see any green in her at all. “What color was it supposed to be?”

“Dark green,” Rose told her as she pushed her hair behind her ears. “What’s wrong?”

“This is very much neon green,” Nat told them as she felt a weird tingling in her fingers, close to where she was touching Al’s arm.

Then, much to all of their surprise, neon green liquid soaked into the sleeve of Al’s shirt.

They all stared at it, absolutely dumbfounded.

“That… was unexpected,” Scorpius said as he studied the spreading stain which began to run down to the bench.

Rose waved her wand and the liquid vanished.

Al turned to Nat, his eyes wide. “We have to talk to my dad.”

“Yeah,” Nat sighed. She hadn’t meant to pull the potion out of Al’s elbow, but clearly she’d just managed to do just that. Somehow. Without knowing how.

Lovely.

They flagged down Professor Longbottom after dinner and within an hour they were seated in his office with Mr. Potter.

“Explain this for me again,” Mr. Potter said slowly. “You pulled a potion out through his skin?”

“I guess so!” Nat sighed as she threw up her hands. “I didn’t mean to do it, but I felt this weird tingling in my fingers and then green goo started leaking out his sleeve.”

Harry considered her thoughtfully before turning to Al. “You didn’t know the potion wasn’t right?”

“I didn’t,” Al admitted. “I felt a little weird afterwards, but we’ve been studying a lot and Quidditch. Come to it, my elbow was aching a bit, but now it feels fine.”

“I wish Rose hadn’t cleared it up, but I’m also thankful she did. That would have drawn a lot of attention.” Harry said as he paced around Neville’s small office. Then he turned to his son. “Can I experiment on you?”

Al shrugged. “Why not?”

“Come around here so we’re facing each other,” he said as he performed the charm to turn Al’s hair green. “Alright, Nat,” he told her. “Turn it back.”

Confused, Nat shook her head. “I don’t know the counter charm.”

“With your hands,” Harry said. “See if you can change it with your hands.”

“That’s not possible,” Nat reminded him. “That’s wandless magic.”

“What exactly was it when you removed the potion from my arm with your fingers?” Al wondered with a grin.

Nat glanced between the three men and then shrugged. She took the Al’s hand but didn’t feel anything. “This is… I think I have to touch your head.”

“Alright,” Al agreed as he sat down on one of the seats.

Nat could see the magic for what it was, of course. She could see it wasn’t right and as her hands drew towards his head, she could feel it wasn’t right. That wasn’t new. She’d been feeling the magic for a while, now, but this felt different. Nat instinctively closed her eyes and rested her hands into his soft hair. The buzzing of the magic was almost painful and instinctively she wanted it gone.

And then it was. The buzzing stopped, both Harry and Neville gasped, and Nat opened her eyes to see Al’s black, messy hair at her eye level.

Al’s grin was almost cheeky. “Look at you doing wandless magic.”

“You want to be careful with that,” Harry said thoughtfully. “You could accidentally undo protections around the castle.”

“Dad, lay off,” Al said instantly as Nat’s face fell. “She’s not going to do anything like that. She’s always careful.”

Harry held up his hands. “I’m only pointing out what could happen.”

“He’s right, Al,” Nat said as she turned back to Mr. Potter. “I know I could cause a lot of problems if I’m not careful. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Good, now,” Harry went on, “you only have another week left until the hols and while you’re home we will work on this a lot more. If you can practice this, practice controlling it so you don’t undo spells, that’s going to be key.”

“I’m going to spend a lot of time with green hair,” Al joked with a grin. “I can see it now.”

The two of them walked slowly back up to Gryffindor Tower ten minutes later. The students were all tucked in already, with only some Prefects out on patrol.

“This is weird,” Nat began as they headed up the stairs. She chewed on her bottom lip as they passed one portrait after another, all of them ignoring them and focused on their own conversations.

Al slung an arm around her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze before letting his arm drop. “What isn’t weird with you?”

“Thanks,” Nat laughed as she rolled her eyes. “I mean… this is big, Al.”

“This is very big,” he agreed. “This is big on a whole other scale of big.”

Then she tripped on her own feet and found herself pressed up against Al’s arms. “Oof!”

“Are you okay?” he asked as he set her upright again.

Suddenly and without warning, tears filled her eyes as she stared down at the stone floor at the nothing she’d tripped on.

“Aw, Leah,” he whispered as he pulled her in for a hug.

“Someone amazing should have this gift!” she told him through broken sobs.

“Someone amazing does have this gift,” he retorted firmly. “Look at all you’ve done! You’re so accomplished.”

“I’m not strong,” she reminded him. “I’m not powerful at casting spells! I’m crap at defensive magic. Dumbledore did amazing things because he was so powerful! I can’t do anything like he can.”

Al rested his cheek on the top of her head for a moment and then set her at arm’s length. His expression was hard and serious. “You’ve been given this gift for a reason, Leah. You. Not someone else. We don’t need another Dumbledore. We need you.”

“If someone finds out–”

“I’m going to protect you.”

He said it with such confidence as though it was already done. “You won’t always be there.”

Al was silent for a moment. “I’m going to always be there for you.”

Nat pulled away and swiped at her eyes. “You’ll get married someday and your wife might not want me hanging around, you know. I have to stand on my own.”

When he didn’t respond, she turned back to see his expression completely closed off.

And she didn’t know why, but she felt the chasm between them as if it were real.

“Let’s get back to the common room,” she said softly as she turned to go.

~*~

They had one day left before school let out for the hols and Rose could not spend another minute of it indoors. “I have to get out,” she told Nat as she closed her books and stared out at the early afternoon sky which was blanketed in gray. It wasn’t terribly cold out, but they hadn’t had proper sun in at least two weeks.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Nat asked as Al continued to scribble away at his transfiguration homework essay which was due in less than an hour. Al was going to have to scramble to get it done but he’d left it late in favor of his Defense homework.

“No, I want to be alone for a bit,” Rose told her as she grabbed a jumper and threw it on over her sweater. She was already in jeans since they were done with classes until they returned in January.

“Be careful,” Nat told her and Rose nodded, heading for the door.

She had a lot on her mind. She’d now dated three boys. Andrew was first, and he was great, but they had turned into solid friends. Next had been Hal and that had been fireworks, at first, but then it had turned weird. Finally, she’d secretly dated the Head Boy for about a month before they’d both realized it was a mistake.

Rose knew her head wasn’t on straight when it came to boys and she was starting to think it was because of her parents. Her parents had been wildly in love when they’d been her age. They’d fallen in love in very difficult times and they’d married before they really knew what it was they wanted. But while falling in love seemed nice, she didn’t like the ups and downs that came with it.

She had goals and plans. She had dreams. She wanted to be a potions master. She knew the Ministry had been looking for one for over a decade now and she wanted that job. It was going to take her years of study to hit mastery and there was no pay involved in it. It was why no one went on to be a potions master. You had to be independently wealthy in order to get there.

Her parents weren’t poor, not by any stretch. They could help her pay for some of the training, which would involve going to Germany on a regular basis to study with the closest master still practicing. The one potions master the ministry used had been fired for stealing and the other had just died. Slughorn was still the only one in Britain and he didn’t take on students anymore. So she needed to be independently wealthy because Portkeys to Germany were going to cost a fortune, unless she moved there and if she moved there, the Ministry might decide she wasn’t truly British anymore and they wouldn’t hire her.

It was all very fraught.

“Rose?”

Rose stopped at the door leading out of the castle and turned to see Andrew striding towards her. His brown hair was a bit disheveled, as though he’d been running his hands through it, and his eyes looked almost haunted. “Hey,” she greeted him. “I’m going for a walk.”

And, she realized, she didn’t mind if he tagged along.

“I fancied the same, actually,” he told her as he caught up to her. “Mind if I join you?”

“No,” she promised as they began a walk towards the lake. “What’s up with you?”

He shook his head. “You first.”

Rose had no intention of telling him anything.

None.

“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted. When he made a noise to go on, she did despite not wanting to tell him everything. “It’s going to cost a lot of gold for me to become a potions master and my parents have said they can supply some of it, but probably not even half of it. I’d have to work for three or four years to save up the money I need.” She sighed heavily. “I don’t mind doing that, but then it’ll take years to get to be a potions master and then I’ll be pushing thirty before I can even begin a career and what if I want children?”

When Andrew didn’t say anything, she just kept on spewing out everything that had been weighing on her. “I’m absolute rubbish at relationships. Well, you know that. My parents had this wild, passionate love and it’s totally fizzled on them. They’re still together because they have to be. I mean, they love each other, but it’s not like my Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. They are absolutely still in love with each other and what if I’m no good at that? Also, what if I can’t find someone who supports my ambition? It’s going to be so expensive!”

She fell silent again as all of the thoughts continued to swirl around in her mind. “I had this dream I’d do great things with my career just like my mum has, but not like her. She puts her work before us all the time. We never came first. It was always Dad who was there for us. I want children,” she assured Andrew. “I’m so excited to meet Victoire and Teddy’s new girls. I love Emma. I don’t think I want to have them as young as Victoire did, but I do want at least two children. But I don’t know how to deal with a husband.”

This time she really fell silent and they continued to walk. “Okay, your turn.”

Andrew sighed and let out a small laugh. “My aunt is fading fast.”

“What?” Rose asked him, utterly shocked. “I’m so sorry, Andrew! Is there anything I can do?”

He shrugged. “Her health is not good. She’s caring for Claire, but really it’s the nanny who is taking care of my sister, and that’s fine. I only have another few months here and then I’ll be home, but Claire will effectively be my child. She needs a parent. She deserves two parents.”

Almost naturally, Rose took his hand and squeezed his fingers. They linked them and kept walking.

“I thought I’d found something with Ryan. I felt… I felt really good with her, but Rosie… she took one look at my big house and it sunk in just what it would mean to be in my world and I don’t know how to find someone to do that!”

“I know,” Rose murmured. “It’s a lot.”

“I need someone who knows the magical me, which includes the magical Claire, and I need someone who can be the duchess! If I select someone from the appropriate circles, I’m going to have to deal with that person not knowing how to deal with the magical side. If I pick a magical partner, I end up with someone who doesn’t know how to deal with the Muggle side. It’s a loss either way, and it isn’t like I can ignore this forever and hope it goes away. I have to marry. I have to produce children, a son, or the line dies out. I don’t have any cousins or distant relatives to take over.”

“You’ll find someone,” Rose told him even though she didn’t believe it.

He stopped, pulling her to a stop with him and he kept his hand firmly in hers. His blue eyes were intense as they studied her. “You walked into my life without a single hesitation.”

“I did,” she agreed. “Which means you can find someone else who–”

“I don’t want anyone else.”

Rose blinked. “What?”

Andrew glanced away from her, out over the lake. “I’m not explaining this well.”

“So explain,” she said evenly, even though her heart had jumped up into her throat.

Andrew grinned and turned back to her. “This is what makes you the best, Rose! I muddle things up and you let me work through them. Okay,” he said and he started them walking again. “In my world we often arrange marriages because it makes the most sense. You arrange a marriage and you walk in knowing what you can expect, right?”

“Right,” Rose agreed. “We have those in some families in the magical world.”

“I want… to arrange a marriage. With you.”

Rose kept walking. She wasn’t sure how because her legs were numb.

“Hear me out,” he went on. “I want to date you again, if you’re willing to try it. If it works out then we’d get engaged, formally, this summer and marry the summer after that. That’s my thought. I’d have someone who can do the duchess thing, or at least learn, and… and you’d have a way to become a potions master because I have a lot of money.”

“Okay, but–”

“And Claire would have a mother figure in her life, or at least a big sister.”

Rose still couldn’t speak.

“Your parents could pay for your first year of the potions master courses, and I’d take up the rest of it after we marry,” he told her. He seemed to be warming to the idea.

“You want to get married?” Rose said slowly.

He stopped her again and this time he dropped her hand to cup her cheeks. She thought he might kiss her, but instead he pressed his forehead to hers. “When my parents and my brothers died and I was lost, you were there. When I needed a friend to just be a friend, you were my friend. My title doesn’t change anything about our relationship and I cannot tell you how big of a relief that is. I trust you completely. I care about you a lot, Rose. I might even love you as a friend already. I want to see if we can make this work.”

Rose felt her heart flutter, but it was the wild tattoo she’d felt when she’d been kissing Hal. It was Andrew. It was calm and nice and warm. It had always been that way. “What would the terms be?”

“We’d have to be faithful to each other,” he said simply. “That’s really the only thing I care about.”

She couldn’t imagine ever cheating on anyone in any circumstance. “That’s fine. With a soul bond it’s pretty much not a thing, anyway. You don’t mess with those.”

“Right, I forgot about that part,” he sighed and his breath tickled her cheeks. “Rose?”

She tipped her face up and pressed her mouth to his. She felt him smile and she smiled, as well. They kissed for a long moment and it felt… it felt like coming home. It wasn’t sparks flying off the walls, but it was lovely all the same.

Unlike with Hal, she felt absolutely safe with Andrew. It might not have been as exciting, but there was something to be said about safety.

When they broke apart, Andrew studied her, waiting on her to say something.

“I don’t want to tell anyone we arranged this,” Rose said finally. “I want them to think we got back together because of the normal reasons.”

“Fine by me,” he said evenly as he took both of her hands again. “Does that mean you’ll give this a try?”

Rose thought about all of the things that could go wrong, or might not work out. She thought about what it would be like to be with this man for a hundred years. But she knew what he’d be like in a hundred years. He’s still be a good, decent, honorable man because it was who he was. He’d faced horrible, life-altering tragedy, and he’d faced it with courage and conviction. He wasn’t too proud to try and he wasn’t too proud to ask for help. He loved his sister and he would love her, even if it wasn’t a wild passion.

Could that be enough?

She thought of her parents and realized that without expectations of a wild romance, she wouldn’t feel like she was being let down if they didn’t happen.

“I’m willing to date until this summer to see if this is going to work,” she told him simply. “I think we’ll know by then if it will. If it does, then we’ll go ahead with the engagement.”

Andrew bent down to kiss her again. “Alright, six months and we’ll see how we feel then.”

“No hard feelings on either side if we decide it isn’t working?”

“None,” he promised and his expression lightened tremendously. “I can count on you, Rose. You can count on me. We’ll always be friends.”

Back to index


Chapter 60: Chapter 57

Author's Notes: I do apologize most humbly for the wait! Real life got in the way and may again for November, but I'm going to attempt to keep it from stopping the next update.

Please consider supporting me on patreon and get access to a free novel as I'm publishing it (which is a chapter every other week). It's $3/month. Search for Sarah Jaune.

Also many thanks to my beta, Arnel!


Chapter 57

“The waiting is killing me,” Harry promised Ginny as a cold December wind blew hard against Teddy and Victoire’s house while he changed Olivia’s nappy and Ginny rocked a fussy Amelia back and forth.

Ginny, thanks to too many years married to him, understood exactly what he meant. Her eyes darted to Emma where she played on the floor and he took his queue to shut his trap.

Their granddaughter was nearly three and she was really starting to pick up on things he didn’t want her to pick up on.

“Here, Teeny” Emma said from the floor, holding out a block to her friend as Harry picked up the squirming baby and settled down in a seat near Emma, propping Olivia in one arm before taking the bottle Ginny held out. She took up her post at the changing table to change Amelia’s nappy.

Victoire had told them to wake her when they needed feeding again, but Harry and Ginny had both decided the parents needed some sleep. Teddy had tried to come back to work and he’d fallen asleep in his first meeting, toppling out of his chair. Harry had sent him home again for at least another few weeks.

They were shorthanded, not desperate. Teddy was worse than useless in this state.

Teeny used her magic to raise the blocks into a tower for a giggling Emma, and then they both burst into hysterical laughter as they smashed the tower to pieces.

It was bliss. This was everything Harry had ever wanted. It was uncomplicated family and his children were happy and safe.

And a messy nappy. Harry glanced down at the pretty baby, sucking away on her bottle while simultaneously filling that clean nappy back up again. “I just put on a fresh one for this reason?”

Ginny chuckled as she picked up Amelia to cuddle before settling next to Harry to feed the baby. “Don’t change her again until she’s done eating. I bet she’ll do more.”

“I remember how this works,” he chided mildly, but only a little. Truth was, he’d forgotten a lot of what it was like to have a baby before Emma was born. Now his baby was fourteen and had a boyfriend.

Speaking of, he had to discuss Draco with Ginny. He was getting out of St. Mungo’s the next day and as far as he knew, he was heading back to Malfoy Manor. He’d been a model patient so he was being released before Christmas. It was not the homecoming Harry wanted for Scorpius. He glanced around the beautifully, but comfortably, decorated living room and sighed as he thought about picking up the children the next day.

It was Al’s last year at Hogwarts. How had the time flown? Just a moment before he’d been changing Al’s nappies and wondering if he’d ever sleep again. He’d have to tell Scorpius his father was out. He didn’t expect the young man to head home anyway, but on the off chance he’d thought about it, Harry had to warn him not to.

He glanced down to see the baby had fallen asleep so he carefully stood with her to change her nappy. Again.

They arrived home just before dinner, leaving Teeny to play since she could pop back whenever she wanted, to find the house smelling wonderfully of treacle tarts and other savory smells, Molly in the kitchen baking with Polly, and Charlie and Arthur both asleep in chairs in the living room.

“Mum,” Ginny said as she kissed her mother’s cheek. “Did we know you were coming?”

“Did we know Charlie was coming?” Harry asked as he kicked his brother-in-law’s oversized shoe. Charlie let out a grunt but kept on snoring, his arms folded over his broad chest and his mouth hanging open slightly.

“You knew neither,” Molly told her, beaming. “I decided I needed a head start for tomorrow’s family dinner so I came over to work with Polly on making the desserts.

“Can I have this now?” Harry asked as he wandered over, eyeing his favorite dessert.

“Yes, this one is full of sugar,” Molly told him as she waved her hand at it. “I made it for you as your Christmas gift.

Harry went straight to grab a fork and picked up the warm pie tin with the potholder Molly held out for him.

“You’re going to get fat,” Ginny said as she eyed him grimly.

“It’ll be worf it,” he told her around a mouthful of the sweet goodness.

“Anyway, darling,” Molly went on as she turned back to her bowl. “I decided the whole meal would be only thing Nat can eat so she doesn’t feel excluded. Oh, I know she doesn’t,” she assured Ginny quickly when Ginny opened her mouth to protest. “But let’s face it, all of us could do with fewer sweets in our life.”

“Not me,” Harry assured her.

Ginny’s brow rose his remark. “Weren’t you telling me, just last week, that you were enjoying how much more energy you have now that we’re eating healthy?”

Harry pointed down at the tin with his fork. “That was before this.”

Laughing, she leaned over to kiss his cheek before pinching it hard. “One dessert and then back to it we go. I want to live a long, healthy life with you.”

The problem was one dessert was almost never enough, Harry knew, even as he dug into the gooey concoction. He’d be craving sweets for weeks after this and having to resist when the other Aurors brought in treats to share from home.

Truth was, he’d put all the Aurors on notice about fitness. Some could and did remain fit while eating anything they liked but Harry, much to his own chagrin, had discovered he was not one of them and neither was Ginny.

It was time to pay the piper and be serious about his health.

Harry heard a noise and turned his head to see his son call out from the fireplace a moment before he stepped through, followed quickly by Caroline. “Hullo!” he called out as James made a beeline for him.

Harry, however, watched Caroline as she skirted around Arthur and Charlie, both of whom hadn’t moved a muscle. She didn’t flee and she stood her own ground. It was very solid progress his daughter-in-law was making. “Are they dead?” she asked as she came to take a stool next to him. Too late, he realized she’d distracted him long enough for James to swipe a finger through his tart.

“Oy,” Harry slid his pie tin closer to Caroline and glared at his son. “I am not sharing with the likes of you.”

“Harsh,” James laughed as he moved over to the other side of Caroline to take the last stool in the row.

“Are you going to eat all of that?” Caroline asked him cautiously. “Aren’t you going to be sick?”

“I just might,” Harry agreed happily. “But it’ll be worth it.”

Ginny rolled her eyes as she sat on the stool to Harry’s right. “Ignore him,” she told James and Caroline. “How was your day?”

“I got a job!” Caroline told them, causing everyone to freeze. Her last job had gone horribly wrong.

“Come again?” Harry asked around a mouthful of food.

James laughed and draped an arm around her shoulder, kissing her temple. “Don’t leave them in suspense. Tell them.”

“I’m going to be training dogs just like Rufus,” she explained happily as she took a carrot from Ginny’s plate. “They’re in high demand all over the world, but the training is very difficult and time consuming. Well, technically Rufus will be doing a lot of the training, but I will have to take the puppy out into public to help it learn all about the world.”

“That sounds wonderful, darling,” Molly cooed as she passed Caroline a biscuit. Harry didn’t exactly pity her, but it was close. It was a sugar-free biscuit, after all. “How many dogs do you train at a time?”

“Just one,” she said as she nibbled around the biscuit. “I get the puppy as soon as it is weened and then I have it for the first year, give or take. If it goes well, then I can keep going with more puppies at a time. Really, the only reason I can do this is because the magic of Rufus will work to train the puppy. It doesn’t pay much, but it’s work I can do from home and… and it’s flexible.”

Harry read the subtext of what she didn’t say loud and clear, as did Ginny. They were all concerned a baby would be dropped on their doorsteps in the next few months. Molly didn’t know anything about it. They didn’t have the heart to tell her, but Harry had warned Audrey since she already knew some of it. They might need a Healer.

“Well, I am so happy for you,” Molly told her as she handed James a stack of biscuits. “You’re looking too thin.”

“Thanks, Gran,” James laughed as he took his stack and began to inhale them.

“I’d tell you to lay off as you’ll ruin your training, but they’re almond flour and fake sugar,” Ginny told him dryly.

“I can tell a bit,” James said between mouthfuls, “but I’m used to Nat’s food at this point. Are they dating yet?”

“No,” Ginny sighed unhappily. “I may go fully gray before your brother gets off his arse. I had a letter from Lily and Nat a few days ago.”

“They’ll be home tomorrow,” James pointed out. “Why write?”

Caroline shot her husband a bemused look and shook her head. “Same reason I suggested we come over to check in before the crush tomorrow. It’ll be too crazy to catch up.”

James flashed her a wicked grin. “Remember your first visit here during a family dinner?”

“Oh, God, don’t remind me,” Caroline covered her face and laughed softly. “I had a full panic attack.”

“Yes, but you do fine now,” Molly reminded her with a loving smile. “I can’t believe all my grandbabies are getting married. Fred next summer.”

“Speaking of,” Ginny said to her. “Lily says Rose and Andrew are back together.”

“Really?” Molly exclaimed, pausing with her wand up in the air. “Oh, I do hope it works out! He’s such a nice, young man, so well mannered.”

This was news to Harry, actually. “When was that?”

“Not too long ago, actually,” Ginny told him. “Hopefully she’s told Ron this time so he won’t have a fit over it.”

Ron happened to like Andrew, although his appreciation for Andrew had grown after they’d broken up.

“Then we have Lily and Scorpius,” Molly sighed as she handed a bowl to Polly. “Thank you, Polly. I really like him, you know. It’s a shame his family is… well, who they are.”

Molly had been hesitant about Lily and Scorpius at first. She’d point out, rightfully so, that Draco could make Lily’s life very unpleasant if he so chose. But after Harry had explained Scorpius’ plan to become completely independent from his family, she’d relented. “I always liked him. Such a sweet boy.”

“Draco gets out of St. Mungo’s tomorrow,” Harry said as the treacle tart in front of him almost lost its appeal. Or it could be the fact that he only had three bites left. Come to that, it really might make him sick.

“Yeah, but Scorpius doesn’t have to see him,” James pointed out as he polished off his biscuits and went for the carrots. “Do we have a dinner plan?”

“What’s this ‘we’ business,” Caroline said as she elbowed him. “We came here to mooch. Anything we get is a gift.”

“Garlic and pesto chicken,” Polly called out as she pointed to the pan in front of her. “Nearly done.”

James groaned happily. “Good, I’m starving.”

Harry, after an entire dessert, was not. It was a pity, too. Polly made excellent pesto.

It wasn’t until hours later that he was able to flop into his bed, still too full from too many sweets to even think about moving.

“I could make you vomit if you like,” Ginny pointed out sweetly as she sat on the bed and then jostled him just to hear him groan in misery. “Serves you right,” she said as she bent to kiss the tip of his nose. “You aren’t seventeen anymore and you can’t eat crap like that.”

“But it was your mother’s treacle tart!” Harry replied miserably. “It’s not crap. It’s absolutely the best.”

“You’re too old for this nonsense.”

She was right, of course. “Gin?”

“Hm?”

He felt her shift off the bed and he cracked an eye open to watch her undress for bed. He still couldn’t get enough of it, even after all these years. Things sagged, she had stretch marks, and toned took a lot of work on her part, but he didn’t care at all. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to him and he knew she always would be.

“Are you going to tell me what you wanted or keep leering at me?”

He grinned and was forced to close his eyes again as his stomach rolled. “I expect I’ll be leering at you for decades yet to come. Get used to it.”

“That’s what you wanted to tell me?”

“No,” his mood sobered. “Nothing on Crabbe. We have no trace from her and I’ve exhausted every lead I can in Brazil without tipping anyone off.”

“Well,” she said after a moment. “We’ll have to wait and see what she does next.”

She hid her anger well, but Harry knew she was furious about Crabbe’s continued dodging of all law enforcement. He was, as well. They would have to wait and see.

By the time he had everyone back home the next afternoon, Victoire was already there with the girls and the happy noises Lily let out left Harry grinning, but only for a moment. He took Scorpius aside and explained about his father. The young man only nodded grimly.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said as he glanced back to Lily. “You’ve always told me I have a home here. It’s good for now. Al and I will get our own place, maybe rent a flat, once we’re done with school.”

This didn’t surprise Harry in the least. He went back to join the others in the living room.

~*~

“Emma,” Nat said as she sat on the floor next to the nearly three-year-old. Everyone was paying attention to the babies. Nat wanted to pay attention to the babies, but not at the child’s expense.

“Hey,” Al sat down on her other side and plucked her up to sit in his lap. Emma laid her head back against Al’s chest and stuck her thumb in her mouth, something she hadn’t done in nearly a year.

Nat glanced to Victoire. “That’s new.”

“Or old,” Victoire sighed as she gazed at her daughter. “It’s been hard because she doesn’t get as much attention.”

“Well, I will give you all my attention,” Al told her as he hoisted her up to blow a noisy raspberry into her belly. “Babies just sit there and don’t do anything. You will play with me.”

Lily joined them to sit on the floor, holding one of the twins. “Aw, Emma, I didn’t mean to ignore you. Come here.” She held out her free arm and Emma scooted over to hug Lily.

“I wanna play hideseek,” Emma told Lily.

“Hide and seek, huh?” Al grinned as he turned to Nat. “I think we can arrange that.”

“You can play in the house for now,” Victoire said, putting a stop to whatever Al had in mind. “It’s pouring rain outside.”

“Alright,” Lily agreed as she stood handed one of the babies to Uncle Charlie.

“Uh,” Charlie began, but a moment later he had both babies, one in each arm. They looked ridiculously tiny in his massive arms, and he looked mightily panicked. “What if I want to play?”

“Uncle Charlie is base,” Lily went on, ignoring his question. “But we have to sneak up to him so we don’t wake the babies. Alright?”

“Right!” Emma yelled in excitement.

“Close enough,” Nat mused as Teeny hopped over to get into the game.

It was amazing how many hiding spots they could find in the house. It was only Teeny and Emma hiding and everyone else trying to find them. They inevitably gave themselves away, too, by giggling when anyone came close. By the time the rest of the family had arrived, they’d worn both Emma and Teeny out and they were sacked out together on a blanket in the corner of the living room.

“Here,” Nat said as she took one of the babies from Victoire after she’d fed them. “Nappy?”

“It should be clean… I think,” Victoire sighed as she sat back. “This is one of the long days when Teddy is gone. My brain is a little like portage right now.”

“I’ll check,” Nat told her as she took the baby to the changing table.

“You’re going to be a great mother someday,” Molly told her as she came over to stand next to Nat, kissing her cheek.

Nat smiled tightly and tried not to think about it. Maybe she’d have someone someday. It seemed like a lot of girls did eventually end up with someone. It might not be the someone she wanted to end up with, but she was still only seventeen. She had time.

That’s what she told herself. Intellectually, she knew it was true. She knew she was still young but seeing how happy Lily and Scorpius were… how happy James and Caroline were… it felt like time was passing her by.

“Such a long face,” Al said as he came over with the other baby.

“Does she need a nappy change as well?” Nat asked as Molly wandered back to the kitchen.

“Yeah, but I have it,” he said as he waited for her to finish. “They’re identical.”

“They are,” Nat agreed but she pointed to the twin he was holding. “But that one is Amelia. This one is Olivia.”

“How can you tell?” he wondered.

She grinned as she picked up Olivia. “Their magic looks different. They won’t have the same magical strengths.”

“That’s amazing,” Al whistled as he set the baby down to clean her up.

It didn’t feel amazing, exactly. It felt normal to her now. It was effortless, like breathing.

“How is your practice going?” Harry asked her as she settled down on one of the sofas.

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “I have complete control of it. Once I realized what I was doing it was as easy as choosing not to pick something up or put it down. We haven’t tried it on anything big or complicated, but if you want me to work on it, I will.”

Harry shook his head and Nat saw his hair was going ever greyer. “No, if you have control then there is no need. Has anything else cropped up?”

“I rather think that’s plenty,” Al said as he sat down with Amelia.

“Quite,” Harry agreed. “But still, we don’t know what the limits of her powers will be.”

“I know my limits,” Nat told wryly. “I can see all the things, do some of the things, and protect none of the things.”

“Well,” Al said as he gently nudged her with his shoulder. “That’s why you have us.”

~*~

Rose was more than thankful her father like Andrew or else he wouldn’t have let her go to his house for the day, even though Rose was an adult and she could do whatever she wanted. Still, it took her a good hour to convince him she’d be fine before she could actually use to the Floo to get to Andrew’s house. It wasn’t like Rose didn’t go to Andrew’s house regularly, because she did. However, most of that had been after they’d broken up.

“Hullo?” she called out as she stepped out of the flames. He’d been expecting her, but admittedly he’d been expecting her an hour before.

“Hey!” Andrew called out from somewhere in the huge, echoing house.

“Rosie!” little Claire shrieked as she ran into the room, her chestnut curls bouncing as she ran. Her blue eyes, just exactly like Andrew’s, sparkled with joy as she threw herself at Rose.

“Hi,” Rose said as she bent to hug the six-year-old with a tight hug. “I’m so glad to see you! I’ve missed you. It’s been forever since the summer.”

Andrew strode him and grinned down at them. “Did your dad give you trouble?”

“A bit,” Rose agreed as she stood and tipped her face up to his for a kiss.

“Gross,” Claire giggled as she tugged on Rose’s hand. “I got a new game I want to show you.”

“Alright, let’s go see it,” Rose agreed as she followed Claire out into the hall and up the stairs to her room with Andrew right behind her.

They played a Muggle game called Pop N Go for almost an hour before Claire decided they’d had enough. “Can we go outside?”

“Sure,” Andrew said as he stood and held out a hand to pull Rose up. “The rain from yesterday is all cleared out.”

They meandered through the halls until they made their way out into the back garden. It was a traditional English garden, all flowers and hedges, but off to one side was a large swing set which had been put up when Andrew’s oldest brother was a baby, and then replaced when Claire was small. She ran for the swings and Andrew and Rose walked hand in hand to sit on the benches.

“Aunt Emma is really glad you and I are back together,” Andrew told her as they settled in and he slipped an arm around her shoulder. He bent until his mouth was brushing her cheek. “It’s so odd, but I actually missed you. It’s only been a day.”

Rose felt a small shiver travel up her spine as she turned to smile at him. “I felt the same. I’m taking it as a good sign for things to come.”

“Me, too,” he agreed as he gently kissed her. “I should have taken you up on your offer to come to dinner at Al’s place last night, but when I arrived home, I could see Claire needed a lot of my time.”

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “There will be plenty of other family dinners in the future.”

“Hopefully.”

Rose shook her head and leaned further into him. “Together or not, Andrew, you’re always welcome at a family dinner. Aunt Ginny has made that perfectly clear to everyone and everyone really likes you. It will be the same with Claire.”

He leaned his cheek against her hair and sighed. “You really have the best family.”

“Apart from there being about a million of them,” she said and then instantly regretted it. He’d lost his brothers and parents. He’d had a large family and now it was just the three of them left. “I’m so sorry!”

“No, don’t be,” he told her as he wrapped his other arm around her. “I don’t want you to tiptoe around me like that.”

Still, she felt a small prickling of tears which she forced down as she turned to him, burying her face in his chest and holding onto him.

They had dinner with his Aunt Emma up in her suite of rooms and Rose knew the woman was not long for the world. She didn’t even know if she’d last until they finished at Hogwarts.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Emma told Rose with a small smile. “I know I look dreadful, but your clever aunt has been to see me and she’s keeping me moving along alright. I am wasting away and I’ll let go at some point, but I’ll be alright for now.”

Surprised, Rose studied her thin, lined face under a cap of white hair. “You’ve seen Aunt Audrey?”

“She’s been coming out once a month to check on me,” Emma told her. “She can’t cure me, but she’s giving me these awful concoctions to drink which help me feel better.”

Rose hesitated and then asked, “Do you know what’s wrong?”

“I have Type One Diabetes,” Emma explained gently. “I’ve had it since I was a small child. It’s not something wizards develop so there is no wizarding cure, but she’s made a potion which helps my body stop deteriorating. I’ve been keeping my blood sugar in check, too.”

“Oh, it’s like that thing Nat has,” Rose told her. “I think.”

“Something like that, yeah,” Andrew confirmed. “Aunt Emma has to have an insulin pump and monitors for her blood sugar, though. It’s more serious than with Nat.”

“Well,” Emma put down her napkin and studied them. “I think there is a little girl in need of her bed and you two can spend some time together.”

Claire wheedled three stories out of Rose but Rose didn’t mind in the least. She adored reading and could have gone all night if it wasn’t bed time.

“When will I see you again?” Claire wanted to know as Rose leaned over in the bed to give her a big hug.

“This summer,” Rose promised. “I’ll be around so much you’ll be sick of me.”

“No,” Claire grinned happily. “I won’t get sick of you.”

“Night, Bug,” Andrew said as he bent over to place a kiss of her forehead. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, Drew,” Claire yawned.

They turned out her light and closed the door before walking hand in hand to Andrew’s rooms. He had his bedroom and a sitting room off of it with several comfortable seats and a couch. “Want to watch some TV?” Andrew asked as he pulled her into the room where a roaring fire was already lit in the hearth.

“I want to talk,” Rose said as she went to sit on the couch and waited for him to join her.

He sat down right next to her and wound an arm around her shoulder. “What’s up?”

“If you want to marry sooner, that’s okay,” Rose blurted out without really meaning to.

He was silent for a second before he nodded. “Because of Aunt Emma.”

“I hate leaving you to raise her alone,” Rose admitted miserably. “I didn’t… I mean… you said she was sick, really sick, but seeing her. Andrew, I feel so badly for her, for all of you. If you feel like you need me, we can make it work.”

Andrew pressed a kiss to her temple and guided her face up to meet his, blue eyes meeting brown. “Let’s wait to see what happens. I like our plan and I think our timeline will be alright, but I love you for offering and I’ll tell you if I need the help or if I think Claire needs you every day.”

“That’s all I want to hear,” she said as her heart swelled with her feelings for him.

Then his lips were on hers, soft and tender as he kissed her. When she thought he’d stop, as he had so many times before when they’d been dating, he didn’t. He kept kissing her, changing angles, and seeming to play with the way they were kissing. She wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but soon enough she was straddling him, her hands were in his hair and his on her lower back and they were both breathless and buzzing when Rose pulled away. She stared at him and he stared back and all she wanted to do was lean back in for another kiss.

“Uh…” Andrew cleared his throat. “Maybe we should watch TV now.”

Rose slowly climbed off his lap and went to get the remote from a side table. She sat next to him and curled into his side as he turned on the TV and began to scroll through the movies on one of the streaming services.

Her mind wouldn’t focus as she agreed to the first thing he suggested. Her heart was tied up in all kinds of knots as the lights flickered around the room and noise filled the space, while Andrew’s hand made slow circles with one of the locks of her curly hair, weaving it between his fingers.

She hadn’t totally thought it through and now she felt stupid for it.

If she married Andrew, she’d be sleeping with Andrew. She’d be… doing everything with him.

She wasn’t ready to do everything with him and yet she’d told him she’d marry him. Part of a soul bond meant the couple had to cement the bond within a day of the marriage. They could marry in a Muggle ceremony, of course, and then they wouldn’t have to do anything. It’s what James and Caroline had done, after all.

Then her mind wandered back to that kiss and heat crept up her neck as she felt herself shifting in closer to press her face more fully into Andrew’s neck.

He let out a small strangled sound. “Rosie… you’re killing me.”

Surprised, she glanced up at him. “What?”

“You know what.”

“I…” she began, but cut off her words as her face flushed even more. She did know exactly what he was saying to her and she was equal parts flattered, awed, surprised, and scared. “I didn’t… exactly… think… anyone would… oh dear.” She glanced up to see Andrew’s grin was wry. “What?”

“Rose,” he sighed as pressed a kiss to her temple. “Do you know how beautiful you are?”

“I’m not,” she shook her head. “I have part-Veelas in my family, you know. They’re beautiful. Or Lily! Lily is stunning.”

“Well, I think you’re beautiful and I prefer you to any of the rest of them, Lily included.”

She buried her face in his shoulder, the smile on her face so broad it was almost painful. She heard nothing but truth in his words and as she’d always hoped, she felt it straight to her toes. “Thank you.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and they fell silent as they watched the show.

Two days later it was Andrew’s turn to come to Rose’s house and Rose nearly sent him a message not to bother.

Her parents were in some kind of argument. They were often in a snit with each other, but today was worse than other days.

“Can you please stop?” Rose groused at her father as he scrubbed at a pot without magic.

Her father shot her a look and went back to washing the pot, so she let it go.

“Do you know what happened?” Rose asked Hugo a few minutes later as her brother kept his face pressed into a book.

Hugo rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to comment.

The dinner was so awkward and silent Rose practically shoveled the food in before telling her parents they were going to see Al and Lily.

“Me, too!” Hugo shouted as Rose dragged Andrew towards the fireplace.

She didn’t even bother to ask her aunt and uncle if she could come over. It didn’t matter if they could or not. They needed out.

As soon as she was in the living room of Ivy Run, Rose sprinted for her aunt, who had risen from her seat at the kitchen table. “Rosie?”

“Thank you for being normal!” Rose said as she threw herself at Ginny for a firm hug.

“Oh,” Ginny sighed as she held on while Andrew and Hugo came through the fireplace. “They’re at it again?”

“Always,” Hugo grumbled.

“Sorry to burst in on you, Mrs. Potter,” Andrew said with an awkward wave.

“You’re always welcome,” Ginny assured him as Rose broke away. “The kids are upstairs playing a game in Al’s room. Go on up.”

Rose took Andrew’s hand as they walked up the stairs. “Whatever we do,” she told him in a quiet voice, “let’s not be like my parents.”

Andrew squeezed her hand and bent to press a fast kiss to her cheek. “Agreed.”

~*~

“What are we doing?” Scorpius asked Lily as she dragged him through an empty restaurant as her Uncle Charlie followed behind, giving them space.

“I told you,” Lily said again, “it’s a date.”

“Uh huh,” Scorpius said evenly. He didn’t buy it for a moment. She was up to something. Lily couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. He grinned to himself as he let her lead him through the restaurant. She was too adorable as she tried to trick him. He heard Charlie snort behind them and Scorpius grinned back at him.

The first day of the hols had been… interesting. Scorpius had already known that Uncle Charlie was, without a doubt, the one least likely to approve of Lily dating anyone. Ever.

That first day he and Charlie had spent a good ten minutes sitting in an awkward, uncomfortable silence while everyone else seemed to disappear into the recesses of the house. With so many people in the home, Scorpius was amazed at how easily everyone could leave them in peace.

Charlie had eventually sat back and crossed him arms. His big, barreled chest rose and fell as he glared at Scorpius. “I dunno about this.”

Scorpius hadn’t known what, exactly, he’d meant by that so he’d waited silently for Charlie to continue.

“Lily is still a baby,” Charlie informed him gruffly.

He thought, briefly, about arguing the point but decided that way only lead to something bad, like Charlie cursing him.

The older man had shifted uncomfortably. “I dunno about this,” he said yet again.

It was Lily who changed everything. She came in and plopped down next to her uncle, pushing her way under his arm so she could hug his side. “Scorpius is even more protective than you are, Uncle Charlie.”

“That is not possible.”

But she’d gone on to explain he was and how well he took care of her.

Scorpius hadn’t even thought about what he was doing as taking care of her. It was just being with Lily. By the end of Lily’s song of praise for him, Scorpius had found himself blushing and staring at the floor. But it had done the trick with Charlie.

He still watched them, but whatever he was seeing seemed to please him.

Scorpius forced his attention back to the present and nearly tripped as he saw who was rising from a table in the back of the restaurant. “Aunt Daphne!” he laughed and he met her halfway, swinging her up and around.

She looked better than he’d seen her in a long time, although she’d looked okay the last time. But this version of his aunt seemed… whole.

“Oh, I’ve missed you,” she crooned as he set her back down. She cupped his cheeks and studied his face. “Your lovely Lily insisted I come see you and I’m so glad she did.”

Scorpius shot Lily an appreciative grin as the four of them sat at a table and a server came over to take their order.

“It’s good to see you again,” Daphne said to Charlie.

“And you,” Charlie said as he watched the waitress walk away.

“Do we have the whole restaurant to ourselves?” Scorpius asked.

“Daddy set it up for us,” Lily beamed from her seat next to him. “Happy Christmas.”

“It’s an excellent present,” Scorpius told her as he bent to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

“So,” Daphne began as she leaned forward. “Tell me all about your relationship! Lily was scant on details in her owl to me. How long have you been together?”

“Since the summer,” he told his aunt as he threaded his fingers with Lily’s under the table. “It’s been the best six months I’ve ever had.”

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Chapter 61: Chapter 58

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“Harry?”

Harry glanced up from his pile of paperwork as sleet beat down on the window in his office. It perfectly matched the dismal early March weather outside. Daniel, who was standing in his door, had told him that Betsy, the witch in charge of the weather, was mad at her husband and thus they were being subjected to the actual weather rather than a bright, sunny day. It was darker in his office than he would have liked and for a moment he had to squint to see the concern on his long-time assistant’s face. “What’s up?”

“I have Philippe Alverez requesting you come to Brazil immediately.”

Harry stared blankly for a long moment as his heart sped up, pounding in his ears. It could be nothing. He could need a consult. It wasn’t often that Head Aurors spoke to each other, but he and Philippe were friends. It could be… not that. Dread pooled low in his gut as he slowly put down his quill and put the stopped on his ink bottle.

Caroline had just received the puppy to raise. The massive ball of fluff was named Steve and so far things were going well.

But no. No, if it were the baby then it would be April. The baby wouldn’t be due until April and this was early March.

His mind wanted to latch onto that but it wouldn’t stick. He grabbed his cloak and swung it on as he made his way towards the Floo. “Let Hermione know,” he told Daniel. “Also,” he stopped and turned to his assistant, who didn’t know anything about the baby or what was going on, but still knew it was something of incredible importance. “Also, send an owl to my sister-in-law, Audrey. Tell her… tell her where I’ve gone and to be ready. She’ll know what that means.”

The moment he was through the Floo he knew it was serious and it was exactly what they had been fearing. Philippe was a large, powerfully built man. His skin was the color of mocha, with thick, wavy brown hair trimmed very precisely. In the last few years it had started to gray at the temples. His expression was neutral but his eyes showed Harry his concern. “Let’s go to my office,” he told Harry as he led him down the hall to his office where he shut the door and indicated Harry should sit. He didn’t go around but sat on the edge of his desk. “I tried to contact your son but he’s out of the country for a game. I didn’t want to put this off by waiting for him, not when we didn’t know for sure if it was you or your son we wanted.

Yet another thing Ginny’s dream had right. James was traveling for Quidditch games. He wouldn’t be home until the end of the week. But at least it wasn’t ominous. He was safe, simply out of the country.

“You were here in the summer, looking for a woman,” the other man said.

It wasn’t a question.

“I’m assuming you’ve found her,” Harry said quietly as he tried to order his thoughts.

“You have a code in your country about sex outside marriage.”

Brazil did not.

Harry thought through what he might be implying. “It wasn’t… it wasn’t what you think it was. My son was drugged, as you know.”

“Oh, I know exactly,” Philippe said coldly. “I need to know what you’re going to do about it. You don’t even seem surprised that I contacted you. You haven’t asked me why.”

Harry closed his eyes briefly and then faced his old friend. “My wife dreamed this would happen.” He paused and pulled in a long breath. “She dreamed it years ago and a bunch of times since then. Details have fallen together just as she dreamed. If you’re asking what we’re going to do about the baby, it depends on the mother and what she wants.”

Philippe cleared his throat and glanced away. “She died shortly after the baby was born.”

Harry sat back in his seat as the words fell as a physical blow to his insides. He didn’t know if the woman had done what she’d done to James on purpose or if she’d been a victim in all of this, but no one deserved to die, not this way. “What… what happened? How could she die? Wasn’t she in your hospital?”

“No,” Philippe said with a shake of his head. “She was a Muggle and she was in a Muggle hospital. She a note in her bag that the baby was James Potter’s son and to contact our Muggle liaison’s office in case anything happened to her. Obviously, there are a lot of James Potters in the world but Dante thought it had to be connected to you.”

Harry closed his eyes and dropped his head in his hands. It was just as Ginny had dreamed! It was exactly what they’d feared. He had a grandson. “Is the baby alright?”

Philippe was silent for so long, Harry finally looked up to see the strained expression he wore. “He’s sickly. He’s very early. I don’t know much about his condition, but I know the doctors weren’t hopeful. We’ve obviously transferred him to our hospital, but I haven’t heard from the Healers about his condition.”

He let out a slow breath and pushed to his feet, feeling unsteady. “Let’s go see him.”

“I need to know what you’re going to do.”

Surprised, Harry turned to the other man. “About what?”

It was Philippe’s turn to appear surprised. “About this baby. With your society–”

Harry cut him off. “I’m going to take my grandson home to my son. He and his wife have already committed to raising the baby if this happened.”

Genuine relief washed over the man’s face. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

“I understand,” Harry said, even as everything inside him screamed that he didn’t understand. He’d already lost and buried a daughter. He didn’t know how to lose a grandchild. “I need my sister-in-law here to get him transported back to England.”

“If it’s possible,” Philippe said solemnly. “Let’s go speak to the Healers and then make a plan from there.”

When they arrived at the hospital, Harry felt the hush of the building settle over him. Unlike St. Mungo’s, this hospital had a peaceful, contained air to it. They were greeted almost immediately by a woman Healer who introduced herself as Angelica Silva. Her English was excellent, but accented and not for the first time Harry wished he could have picked up Portuguese. He’d tried, several times, but foreign languages were not his strong suite.

“We will test to see if he is your blood line, of course,” she said in a low voice as she walked briskly down the hallway. “As I understand it, you cannot have bastard magical children in your country.”

“My son is married,” Harry informed her as they turned down a hallway. “He and his wife will care for the baby. There will be no legal problems.”

She woman stopped and turned to him, her brown eyes full of compassion. “I do not mean to be harsh. I simply meant that if it will be a problem, we can arrange for adoption here.”

“Is he doing alright?” Harry asked.

Her smile was tight. “Let’s confirm the parentage, although I can already tell how this will go. Then, I shall update you on the baby’s vitals.”

She pushed into a room and Harry followed in to see a cot with a nurse sitting by the bed, holding her wand over him. Harry moved, almost in a trance, to stare down at the baby who looked exactly like James and Al had as newborns, only with darker skin and this baby was very, very small. He didn’t even think the baby weighed four pounds. He was in a bubble of heat kept there by the nurse so he was dressed only in a tiny nappy. He reached out slowly towards the sleeping infant and put his hand lightly on the baby’s stomach. He felt the tiny, tiny chest rise and fall as tears began to trail down his cheeks.

Pater conceptum revelio,” Angelica said as she waved her wand over Harry’s hand and a dim light flared through Harry’s hand.

Immediately he was brought back to the moment, more than twenty-five years before, when he’d knelt on the floor of the Burrow and placed his hand on Ginny’s stomach. It hadn’t been the first time he’d touched her stomach, but every other time had been because he’d hugged her from behind. This time had felt so intimate, especially right there in front of her parents. He’d been seventeen and reeling from the news of Ginny’s pregnancy with Hope and being ordered to the Ministry to answer for impregnating a girl he’d very sincerely never slept with.

Molly had said the spell, this exact spell, and the light of Hope’s life had shone through so bright it was nearly blinding for him.

He was going to be a father. He was a father. In that moment, he was that baby’s father and it was his job to see her through, to protect her and keep her safe.

He hadn’t been able to do that. Crabbe had poisoned Ginny and Hope had died and there was nothing Harry could have done to stop it.

Here he was again, with a dimmer light because he was the grandfather and not the father, but still the light of this child’s life shone through his hand and love for this baby filled him to nearly bursting. He’d known he would love his grandchild, even if the child was conceived in rape. He knew he’d never hold it against the baby. He knew a lot of things, at least in his head. But knowing and living it were two separate things. He was going to protect this child with everything he had. “Can I hold him?”

“You can,” Angelica said and Harry didn’t wait. He picked up the small baby and sat in a chair, holding the child on his chest with a single hand while the nurse draped a blanket over him. The Healer pulled up a chair as Philippe hovered towards the edge of the room. “We have him stabilized and he’s breathing on his own, as you can see. He’s not as strong as we’d like, but he’s also holding his own. We would normally send him home, but we have a few concerns.”

“What concerns?” Harry asked her.

“The first is he has thrown up every formula we’ve tried,” the Healer explained. “He’s tolerating breastmilk and has even latched on. Our nurse here,” she said as she pointed to the woman who smiled but clearly didn’t understand what they were saying, “has a toddler who is still nursing and she suggested we try nursing. He did very well with that and we’re reasonably confident he will be able to drink a bottle with breastmilk.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Harry assured her. He knew they had a donation program in England but if nothing else, Ginny could induce lactation and she could nurse the baby. “What other problems?”

“He’s just over one and a half kilograms right now,” Angelica explained gently.

Harry’s mental calculation put that in three-and-a-half-pound range. It didn’t even feel as though he had a baby on his chest. The child’s weight was practically nothing. He’d thought the twins were small when they were born but it was nothing compared to this little guy.

He now had four grandchildren. Three girls and a boy.

“He’s also generally fussy and very agitated when he’s awake,” Angelica went on. “It might be because he is so early, but I wanted to warn you. It’s too early for colic, of course, but I do expect that is coming.”

Harry had dealt with colic before… no. If he was honest, he’d left Ginny to deal with the colicky James which had led to them not realizing for months that she was pregnant with Al. Well, if he and Ginny had to move in with James and Caroline, they would. He wasn’t going to do that again.

“This is the note left with the woman,” Philippe said as he came forward and handed him a folded piece of lined notebook paper. It was in Portuguese but he saw three words he recognized. James Potter and Alex.

“I’ll read it to you,” Philippe offered. He cleared his throat and read out, “If something happens to me, make sure my son gets to his father in England. His name is James Potter. I want my son to be named Alex.”

“Alex,” Harry said slowly. He didn’t know what James and Caroline would think, but he couldn’t see denying the poor woman her one wish. “Tell me more about her.”

“She was a prostitute,” Philippe told him sadly. “But she’d gone missing months back, in the summer. Two of her friends reported it to the Muggle police just before you arrived to look for her. The timing fits. She had no family that we can find so we don’t know anything else. At this point we’ve erased Alex from the Muggle system so no one will ask questions, although we don’t know if he is magical.”

Harry would be able to find out from Nat, but there was time enough for that. Magical or not, he was James’ son and he would need to be protected.

“Alex,” Harry said as he glanced down to the sleeping infant. “Can we get him back to England?” he asked Angelica.

“Normally, I would want him to stay in Brazil for a few weeks but I understand there are major security concerns for your family and I do not want the responsibility that comes with caring for him here when he does not need to be in the hospital,” she went on. “I do know your sister-in-law, Audrey Weasley, so I will be comfortable signing him over to her care. He is not so fragile he can’t go by Floo as long as we secure him to whomever is taking him.”

“I will go arrange for Healer Weasley to come to Brazil,” Philippe said as the baby began to stir.

In short order he’d been changed into a clean nappy and the nurse fed him again.

“Are you sure it will not be a problem to get breastmilk?” Angelica asked him. “I do not want to overstate this. He threw up everything we tried to feed him.”

“We can get donated milk or my wife has successfully breastfed three children. She can have lactation induced and pump.”

“Most men do not know of such things,” she said as she appraised him.

Harry shrugged. He knew a lot of things. Ginny had pumped and donated milk after Hope’s death. They had witches who adopted and lactation was induced. He knew Muggles did it, as well, but the magical methods were more successful. “What else do you need from me?”

“We have a lot of forms to fill out before I can release him into your care. After that, it will be up to your government as to what happens to him. I trust you to handle that.”

Within the hour he and Audrey were taking the Floo back into the Auror office, which was empty thanks to Daniel. They had to travel back to the Ministry through the Floo because it was only the Ministry connected to Brazil’s Floo network, otherwise he’d have gone straight to James and Caroline’s home. He hated putting the baby through this again, as the child had woken and started to cry pitifully, but Harry, who was carrying the sleeping baby, knew it was best to get him safely home. “I’ll meet you at James’ house shortly.”

“Yes, I’ll get the potion and some milk to tide us over,” Audrey told him as Harry tried to comfort the fussing baby as he threw another pinch of Floo powder into the Floo.

~*~

Caroline glanced up to the fireplace from her seat on the living room where she’d been working with Steve on sit and stay. He was coming along nicely, but of course she knew it was all down to Rufus and his magic.

A moment later her father-in-law came through and the sound of the baby had Caroline’s heart stopping for a moment.

It couldn’t be happening now. Not now! They had weeks yet. James wasn’t even home– her brain stopped as she realized that yes, of course it was now. Just now.

Caroline rose smoothly to her feet and studied the baby in Harry’s arms. He was incredibly small. “Oh…” She took a deep breath and knew this was it. This was what they’d talked about. This was the moment. Nervous, she stepped forward as Harry handed her the baby. He was perfect. He was absolutely perfect.

She didn’t even know how she knew the baby was a boy, but they’d always talked like he was and she simply knew. Slowly, she walked over to the couch with the wailing baby who wasn’t wearing any clothes and sat so she could arrange the blanket more firmly around him. “Shh,” she said in a croon. “Shh, I have you. I bet that was really scary, but I have you. You’re alright.”

“I need to get Ginny and then try to track down James,” Harry said from somewhere in the room. “Will you be alright for ten minutes?”

“We’re fine,” Caroline said as she studied the face of James’ miniature. She grinned down at the baby, utterly mesmerized in a way she’d never been before. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. “Shh, it’s okay.”

“His name is Alex,” Harry told her and then a moment later he was gone.

Rufus plodded over to her and stuck his nose next to the baby’s head until the baby’s hand came free and he grabbed a handful of the dog’s fur. Immediately the baby’s wails began to quiet and after a small hiccup, his eyes, blue but clearly destined to be brown, met hers.

Love. It was instantaneous and so unbelievably overwhelming she could hardly breathe. “I don’t know how you got here, Alex,” Caroline told him as she bent her head to place a kiss on his cheek. “But I’m glad to have you here.”

They’d spent a lot of time talking about it. They’d spent countless hours going over it. Caroline had promised James this was what she wanted, even though she hadn’t been prepared for it to actually happen.

Alex’s hand came loose from Rufus and the crying started up again. Rufus nudged at the baby as his big, soulful eyes met Caroline’s for a brief moment. So many times she felt like the dog was trying to talk to her and this felt like that moment. It was as if the dog was saying he needed to be touching the baby. Concerned, Caroline took the baby’s tiny fingers and put them back in Rufus’ fur. The crying stopped again.

Steve, who was sitting next to them with his butt on the ground, let out a low whine.

“What do you two know that I don’t?” Caroline asked the dogs. “Hmm,” she mused as she pointed Rufus down to the ground, while keeping Alex’s hand in the fur. The second Rufus was down, she propped the baby up on the big dog’s back and sat down to hold the baby steady so he wouldn’t roll off.

Instantly, Alex closed his eyes and went back to sleep. She glanced from the baby to Rufus, to Steve who had nosed over to stick his head by Alex’s feet. “Okay, this isn’t normal. I know you guys have magical calming abilities, but this is weird.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she heard the sound of the Floo coming to life as Ginny spilled out, her eyes focused on Caroline. “Where–”

Caroline moved her a hand a bit so Ginny could see the baby. “He stopped crying when he was touching Rufus.”

Ginny moved over to the other side of the dog, skirting around Steve to kneel down. She touched the baby’s cheek and then glanced up to Caroline. No words passed between them, but they might as well have been.

He’s perfect.

He looks just like James.

Are you ready for this?

Caroline slowly slid her hand under the baby and gently brought him up to her chest, resting him against her soft sweater. When he didn’t stir or cry, she let out a slow breath and rose to sit on the couch again.

Again, Rufus rose up and stuck his head near the baby. Caroline arranged the baby’s foot so it was resting on the dog’s head.

“Rufus keeps doing that,” Caroline told Ginny as her mother-in-law sat next to her and ran her fingers along the back of the baby’s hand.

“I don’t know why, but we’ll trust the dog,” Ginny told her. “That dog is very smart. So are you,” she said as she scratched at Steve’s ears when the pup laid his big head against her shin.

“His name is Alex,” Caroline told her even though she probably already knew. “I didn’t hear more. Harry said he was going to get you and James.”

“James is in Russia, right?”

“Japan,” Caroline told her. “Someone should be able to find him. At least he’s safe and not dead! He’s just traveling for work.”

“There is that and you can’t know how relieved I was when I realized why it was just you. Harry will deal with finding James. In the meantime, Harry told me the baby isn’t keeping down formula and will have to be breastfed. I can move in here and breastfeed him or pump and bring over the milk for you.”

Caroline blinked, unsure of what she was hearing. “What?”

“Audrey will be here shortly with a potion to induce lactation,” Ginny explained with a wry grin. “It’ll make it so I can produce milk again. I’ve pumped before and I know what I’m doing.”

Her brain must have been zapped into mush because none of what Ginny was saying made any sense. “But–”

“Sorry, everything feels rushed,” Ginny sighed as she glanced down at the baby. “The hospital in Brazil tried to feed him formula but he threw it up. A nurse there breastfed him and he kept that down. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen with wizarding children. But I’ll take care of that. I don’t want you to worry about it.”

Worry about it… Caroline glanced away as her emotions turned to a jumbled mess. “What happened to the baby’s mother? Do we know?”

“She died in childbirth,” Ginny explained gently.

“Oh,” Caroline let out the word on a shaking breath. She closed her eyes and held the baby. She was really his mother now. She’d been preparing for it for months, but it still felt so new, and yet she loved him already, so much.

But Ginny was going to feed him, not her and it felt… wrong.

They must have a good reason for it, though. There must be something that made it better for Ginny to feed him. Suddenly filled with doubt, Caroline had to fight back tears as she heard Audrey’s voice float through the fire before the woman appeared.

“I have the potion,” Audrey told Ginny.

“I’m ready,” Ginny sighed. “This one hurts like mad, right?”

“Just for about an hour as your breasts change,” Audrey said.

Caroline opened her eyes and her mouth before she even knew she was going to speak. “Why can’t I take it?”

She hated that she sounded insecure, weak, and pathetic. She hated it. But there was no doubt it was exactly how she sounded.

“What?” Audrey stared at her curiously. “You could take it, of course, but–”

Ginny held up her hand and sat down next to Caroline. She put her hand on Caroline’s knee and met her eyes. “Breastfeeding is… it’s a very intimate act. It would be difficult for you, given your past. You might feel… it might make you…”

Then it dawned on her.

Her father.

Her father who had molested her.

Her father who had been ruining her life for longer than she could remember.

“But he has nothing to do with Alex!” Caroline protested as she glanced between the two older women. “I’m… I’m…” she felt the tears as they began to slide down her cheeks. “I’m going to be his mother. I mean, I am his mother now that his is dead.”

“Yes, but–”

She cut Ginny off. “I’m supposed to feed him and care for him.”

“You can feed him with a bottle, though,” Audrey pointed out gently as she moved to sit on Caroline’s other side. “You don’t have to do everything yourself. We’re going to be helping you along the way. You’ve had a rough road and you’re doing so well, Caroline. We don’t want this to be a setback.”

“He isn’t a setback,” Caroline protested as more tears flooded down her cheeks.

Audrey looked as though she wanted to say something but Ginny shook her head. Her mother-in-law put her arm around Caroline’s shoulder and gently hugged her before conjuring a cloth to wipe Caroline’s face. “If you want to do this, you will do this. I didn’t think you’d want to and I didn’t want you to feel pressured. This is your choice because it’s your body.”

“I want to take it,” Caroline said again as she felt herself beginning to calm.

“I have to get the birth control potion for you,” Audrey explained slowly.

Caroline opened her mouth to protest they didn’t need it, but decided she didn’t need to say it. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Audrey repeated as she stood. “You have to take the birth control potion first and then five minutes after you can take the other. I’ll be back shortly.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Ginny said as she pressed a kiss to Caroline’s temple. “This should be a horribly stressful situation for anyone.”

She didn’t know how to explain to Ginny what she wanted to say, but she knew she could say it even if she felt stupid about it. “I… it felt like you were saying I wasn’t his mother.”

“Never!” Ginny promised earnestly. “I can see that love already. I just wanted to spare you trauma. I know you and James aren’t sharing a room yet, so I didn’t know how you would feel about this.”

She felt… right. It felt good.

It felt good all the way up until her breasts started to grow from the lactation potion. “Holy crap this hurts,” Caroline said as she walked through the room while Ginny held the baby. She pressed her hands firmly into her chest as she felt them growing. “Oh, wow.”

Steve, after a nudging from Rufus, ambled over to her and followed at her heels.

“It’ll be bad for an hour,” Audrey said again. “Drink some water. You’re going to need it. If he’s awake and ready to nurse before then, I have a bottle of milk from the donations.”

“I’m going to need new bras.” She glanced over at the baby. “He needs clothes.”

“We’ll deal with all of that once you get him nursing and Harry is back with James,” Ginny assured her. “I’ll get everything you need once they’re here.”

Caroline thought Alex might have woken sooner if Rufus hadn’t been glued to his side the entire time. As it was, he slept past the hour by twenty minutes before Audrey said he had to be awakened to eat. “Go get a button up shirt and take off your bra,” Audrey told her.

Caroline didn’t own a button up shirt, but James had several soft, flannel ones he never wore. She was all too ready to get out of her bra, though. The thing was cutting off her circulation.

“Okay,” Caroline called out as she ran back down the stairs and sat on the couch, taking the pillow Ginny handed her. Alex was wailing in Audrey’s arms, but the moment he was on her chest, he moved to latch on as though he’d been doing it for months rather than a day.

It hurt a lot. It hurt a whole lot. Caroline sucked in a breath and gripped Ginny’s fingers so tightly she thought she might break them.

“Let’s make sure he’s correctly latched,” Ginny told her as she and Audrey worked to make sure Alex’s mouth was open wider which did help lessen the pain.

“You’re doing great,” Ginny told her.

“I have milk leaking out of my other breast,” Caroline said dryly and then laughed when Ginny handed her a rag. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Ginny smiled. “I’ll get nursing bras and pads as soon as I can along with all the things you need for a baby.”

“Okay,” Caroline said with a slow breath out. “You can go now if you want. Audrey, you’re staying, right?”

“I am staying,” Audrey assured her. “I have to make sure this baby feeds well for at least two feedings. If he’s not doing well, we have to move him to St. Mungo’s.”

“I’ll go now, then,” Ginny told them.

They sat in silence as the baby nursed for nearly five minutes before the Floo came to life again and Caroline glanced up, expecting it to be Ginny back to ask a question.

Instead, it was her husband who looked wild-eyed and a little frantic as he stumbled into the room. He moved to her, moved to the baby who was still feeding and fell to his knees as his fingers trailed along the baby’s cheek.

Caroline then realized that James was seeing her practically naked breast for the first time. But it didn’t feel… scary. It didn’t feel weird or awkward. Okay, it felt weird for a moment, but it was gone as she watched his handsome face study the baby.

“You’re… you’re feeding him?” James asked, finally turning to look at her.

“I’m his mother and it’s my job,” Caroline explained quietly.

He grinned as he boosted up to kiss her. “‘Course it is,” then he placed a gentle kiss on the baby’s cheek.

“Where’s your dad?” Caroline asked James.

“I’m over here, giving you privacy,” Harry told her from off towards the dining room.

James glanced to his father and then back to Caroline. She watched Audrey walk out of the room and strike up a conversation with Harry.

“Should I give you privacy too?” James asked her quietly as he kept his gaze fixed on her face. “This is… uhm…”

“No,” she shook her head slowly and reached out her fingers to brush along the stubble on his chin. “He’s your son, you’re his father.”

His expression relaxed as he went back to studying the baby’s face. “He really does look just like me, only darker complexion. Alex, huh?”

“I heard about Alex’s mother.”

Genuine pain flicked across James’ face. “I can’t believe she died having him. I feel so weird about this. Dad said it was something called a pulmonary embolism or something. I thought we’d hear she didn’t want him. I dunno how to feel about this.”

“We find out what we can about her so we can tell him.”

“What do we tell him?” James questioned, yet again. They hadn’t yet come up with a good solution.

“When he’s old enough we tell him some of the truth,” Caroline said slowly. “Then when he’s grown, we can tell him the full truth. We don’t want to lie to him. For now, we don’t have to tell him anything.”

“The papers are going to want to know.”

She knew it and knew it was going to be hurtful if they found out the truth. “Harry?”

“Yes?” he called from the other room.

“What do we have to tell the papers?”

There was a long pause before Harry said, “We have to tell them that you two welcomed a son very early and give his weight and we ask for the public’s good thoughts on the baby’s health.”

It was the truth, Caroline realized. “Alright, that’s what we say. No one has seen much of me. They won’t know the difference.”

“Alright,” James agreed.

~*~

His mother had come back loaded down with clothes for the baby and for Caroline and then had his father haul all the baby stuff from their house over to James’ place.

“We’ll set it up in Caroline’s room, I guess,” James said as he looked to his wife for confirmation before he moved to cot in at her nod. She looked good in her new sleep shirt which was bigger than anything she’d been wearing before.

“Come try this in bed,” Ginny told her as she handed her a U-shaped pillow.

James put the cot down and picked up Steve to put him onto the bed so he could get closer to the baby. They could get Rufus on the bed, but the dog was so huge he took up all the room and Alex was still refusing to calm without one of the dogs nearby. They’d had to dress him in an outfit without feet so his bare foot could be in the dog’s fur.

“There is something to that,” Harry said as he studied them.

“Out, Harry,” Ginny pointed. “The baby needs to feed again.”

“Right, sorry,” he said as he turned to the door. “I’m going to go fetch Nat.” Since James had been thinking along those lines, he didn’t comment. A look from his wife, aunt, and mother said they both agreed.

“He’s used to Victoire nursing in front of him,” Ginny apologized to Caroline.

Caroline’s face was flushed several shades of scarlet. “I… I need to get used to it first and then I think it’ll be okay.”

“Of course, whatever you need,” Ginny said as she helped Alex get latched.

James watched and was absolutely fascinated by the whole process. He felt so unbelievably in love with Caroline and he already loved his son, no their son to distraction. He pulled a pillow over next to her and sat with her, holding his son’s hand as the baby ate.

“It’s a magic all its own,” Ginny told him, beaming at him. “It was the same way for your dad. He loved to watch you nurse.”

James’ grin felt a mile wide before his face fell. “How can I be this happy and sad all at once? I didn’t want her to be dead.”

“I didn’t either,” Caroline agreed.

Ginny took her hand and placed it on his, giving it a squeeze. “It’s life. It’s good and bad. You can’t just live in the bad. Whatever happened, I don’t think this woman meant to hurt you. I think she was a pawn in this. We will mourn her for Alex’s sake and for our own.”

By the time Nat arrived, James was walking the fussing baby who didn’t want to burp and didn’t want to calm.

“Hi, Nat,” Caroline waved from the bed as the baby cried.

Nat pushed her strawberry blonde hair back behind her ears and moved over to James. “He’s… tiny and I need to hold him.”

“Alright,” James said as he handed him to her.

Nat sat down on the floor with the baby on her lap. Rufus started over to her but Nat shook her head. “No, your magic will get in the way, Rufus, and I don’t want to get this on you,” she told the dog, not even looking up as she placed a hand on the squalling baby’s belly.

Rufus lay down, almost nodding as Harry came into the room and James sat on the floor next to his brother’s best friend. “What’s up?”

“He’s… I dunno how to describe it,” Nat said as she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. A moment later a brown substance oozed out of practically everywhere and soaked through the fresh clothes, nappy and down onto Nat’s jeans.

“Oh,” James blinked, having never seen a baby poo that much in one sitting. But then he realized it was continuing.

“Bottle, Audrey!” Ginny called as she began to wave her wand and siphon up the liquid from the baby before depositing it into a bottle Audrey had conjured.

It took a full minute before Nat opened her eyes. “We both need a change,” she said as she began to pull off the clearly ruined outfit the baby had been wearing. “I don’t think you should save this. Burn it.”

“I will,” Ginny said as she took the outfit. “We should bathe him now.”

Alex had stopped crying.

“What was that?” Caroline asked in horror.

“It was something blocking his essence,” Nat told her. “I don’t know how to explain it better than that. It was throughout his whole body. I would have said he wasn’t magical before now. He didn’t have that spark, but I see it now. I see the light of the magic now that whatever that was is gone.”

They all stared at each other, horrified.

“He’s not crying,” Caroline said on a sob. “He was in pain,” she murmured as she knelt down and took up the naked baby in her arms. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” she whispered as she kissed his downy head. “I’m so sorry you were hurting.”

“The dogs knew,” Audrey reminded them. “They knew.”

“Yeah, their magic was reaching out to him, trying to comfort him,” Nat said as she stood and glanced down at her ruined jeans. “Well, it looks like I crapped myself.” She laughed and shook her head. “Worth it. He’s adorable and I’m glad he’s here safely. I was sorry to hear about his mother, but I know she’ll be happy you two are raising him. You should have her body moved here, Mr. Potter, so I can check her.”

“That’s a good idea,” Harry agreed.

“I’ll clear this up enough for you to get back into school,” Ginny said as she waved her wand over it. “We don’t need more of it. I’d take your own advice and burn these. I’ll get you more jeans and have them delivered.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Potter,” Nat said as the woman hugged her.

“Thank you for helping my grandson!”

“Absolutely, any time,” Nat told her as the two of them walked out of the room.

“Let’s give them a minute,” Audrey said to Harry.

James scooted over behind Caroline and pulled her back against his chest while she held the calm baby who stared up at them with his big eyes. “My wife and son.”

“What if Nat hadn’t been here?”

“But she was.”

“But what if she hadn’t?” Caroline asked.

He didn’t know. He didn’t even want to think about it.

“I have the bath drawn for him,” Ginny told them from the doorway, “And I burned that outfit already. Harry is taking Nat back to school. Let’s try to get him settled again.”

“Do you have to go back to Japan?”

“I get paternity leave for two weeks,” James told her as they bathed the baby. “I just need to tell my boss.”

“I’ll stay tonight if you want,” Ginny told them.

“Yes,” James and Caroline both said at the exact same moment.

Back to index


Chapter 62: Chapter 59

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

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“Are you alright?” Al said as Nat came back through the portrait hole and glanced around at the empty common room.

“How did you manage this?” she asked as she walked towards him.

He’d wanted to wait for her in the Headmaster’s office but had been unceremoniously kicked out and assured she’d be walked back to the common room by a member of staff. Seeing her now, he wished he’d protested more. She was walking funny and as she came level to him he saw something was staining the front of her jeans. “Uh…”

“I’ll explain in a bit,” she sighed as she went past him for the stairs. “I need to change.”

She was down in less than five wearing loose cotton trousers and her Weasley jumper. She was carrying the jeans which she promptly tossed in the fire.

“What?” Al said as she turned and practically stumbled towards him. “Are you okay?” he asked as he caught her and pulled her down next to him.

“I’m just tired,” she sighed as she snuggled under his arm and rested her head on his chest. “I’m so tired of her and the ridiculous things she’s pulling. Now how did you get the common room empty at seven o’clock at night?”

“Lily did it,” Al told her. “Still not sure how, but it was agreed I’d wait for you and she managed to get everyone else to head up to their dorms.”

Nat yawned and pressed her nose further into his jumper. “Pretty Lily makes all the boys silly.”

“Not me.”

“Especially you,” Nat laughed. “Only with you it isn’t because she’s pretty.”

He pondered that for a moment and then realized Nat was right. “Well, alright then. So… so…” he wanted to ask. He really wanted to ask but he just couldn’t.

“You have a nephew.”

Something in his heart broke, even as it swelled with so many feelings. “Is he okay? He’s really early.”

“He’s okay now,” Nat promised quietly. She tilted her head up and whispered, so only he could hear, “I fixed things.”

Relief flooded through him even though it was tempered by the knowledge that the bitch had messed with his brother. “The… you know.” He didn’t want to say ‘mum’ just in case someone happened to be listening to them with Extendable Ears.

“She didn’t make it,” Nat admitted sadly. “I may have to see…”

“No,” Al shook his head. “You’ve done enough already.”

“No, I haven’t,” Nat argued back. “I can do more and I’ll be fine. I always am.”

“Except you’re tired,” he pointed out. “Are you hungry?”

She shook her head and snaked her arm around his waist which succeeded in short circuiting his brain enough to stop arguing with her. He opened his mouth to try to say something, anything, but her soft breaths told him she’d already fallen asleep and he couldn’t bring himself to wake her. He was only going to close his eyes for a minute. Just a minute, and then he’d wake her so she could go upstairs to bed.

He awoke two hours later in a position he’d only dreamed about. He was lying on the couch with Nat cradled in his arms, her head on his chest and her arm still around him. He blinked slowly as he stared down at her and couldn’t help but wish this could be his life. Why couldn’t he have this all the time? Why didn’t he have it in him to simply tell her how he felt? Maybe she’d feel the same way. Maybe she would want this, too.

Then he squashed that notion because just yesterday she’d told him that Millie Davis had been checking him out if he was interested.

He wasn’t interested and he’d told her so.

Al closed his eyes and didn’t move. He didn’t want this to end. He wanted to soak in the feel of her body pressed to his side and her breath tickling his neck so it could last him an entire lifetime. Everyone else was finding their someone. Well, not everyone, but it certainly felt like it. He knew Scorpius was seeing long-term with Lily and that was weird. It was just weird. His sister was still a baby, but Scorpius knew that and wasn’t pushing Lily for more. He simply saw the big picture and he wanted it. Al had no doubt Lily was going to be happy to go along with that when the time came.

Then there was James who was married, which was still weird.

It was all weird. Everything was flat out weird.

But James was married to his true love or whatever people called it. It wasn’t perfect. They’d been saddled with a kid through some very shady circumstances. He didn’t even know if they were having sex, although they weren’t at Christmas when he’d gone to their house and went up to use the loo and saw Caroline still had her own room. They’d told Al and Nat about the risk of the baby then and told them they could tell Rose but Lily still didn’t know. They didn’t know how they were going to tell Lily.

Even Scorpius knew because he’d known they’d need Scorpius to prepare Lily for whatever was coming.

Nat let out a slow breath and shifted a bit against him, making him freeze up. He felt so many big things as the firelight danced along the light of her hair, making it look redder in the light. He wanted to stay here forever and never let go.

But of course, that wasn’t going to happen because his sister was standing over them, her brow lifted in question.

“Fell asleep,” Al muttered as he felt Nat start awake.

She glanced up at him in confusion and then went pink as she practically fell to the floor to get away from him.

Yeah, she was totally into him.

“Hey,” Scorpius said as he came around the end of the couch and pulled her up. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Nat muttered as she glanced anywhere but at Al.

“What happened?” Lily asked them.

“I told you, we fell asleep,” Al grumbled as he sat up and ran a hand through his horrible hair, which he knew looked worse than ever.

“No, at home,” Lily clarified as she came around the couch to look at Nat. “You look terrible.”

“I always look terrible,” Nat muttered darkly.

“No, you don’t,” Lily sighed as she pulled her into a hug. “What happened?”

“We can’t talk here,” Al told her. “Let’s go.”

“It’s after curfew,” Lily pointed out as Rose walked into the room.

“I checked the map,” she said as she held the Marauder’s Map and the invisibility cloak.

“How did you get that?” Al wanted to know.

“Nicked it from your dorm just now,” Rose told him. “Your mates up there loved it when I sauntered in to get it.”

Scorpius let out a chuckle. “I’d have gotten it for you.”

“Less fun that way,” she told him. “Anyway, I’m head girl. Let’s go.”

They set off for the Room of Requirement where Al asked for a comfortable room to talk privately. They found a bunch of squashy armchairs. Nat sat alone in one and Al took to pacing around the room as Scorpius pulled Lily down to share one with him and Rose took another.

“We should have asked Hugo to come,” Lily realized.

“You can fill him and Honor in later,” Scorpius pointed out.

She glanced at him and studied him. “You know what’s going on.”

“I know what’s going on,” he confirmed as he kept an arm around her shoulder and took her fingers with his other hand, gently massaging them. “They wanted me to know in case it happened so we’d be able to deal with it. We didn’t want to upset you if nothing came of it.”

Lily’s brow furrowed in concern as she turned back to her brother, who was still pacing. “What’s going on, Al?”

“Nat has more details than I do,” Al told her as he finally fell into one of the seats. “I only heard a bit before she fell asleep.”

Nat sat back in the seat and stared up at the ceiling, which made Al look up as well. It was a weird fresco with fat, practically naked cherubs. “I did not ask for that,” he told the room at large, but the naked babies stayed put.

“Lily…” Nat licked her lips. “See… your mum has been having this dream about Caroline and James, even before she met Caroline. It was of seeing James’ wife and your dad handing her a baby with darker skin. He’s clearly James’ baby but not the woman’s and James isn’t in the dream. But a weird detail is the really big dog in the dream.”

Lily shook her head. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Mum isn’t psychic or anything.”

“She’s not,” Al agreed on a long sigh. “But she had this dream so often it stuck with her. Then James and Caroline suddenly eloped and…” he glanced to Scorpius who cleared his throat and took up the tale.

“Your brother was attacked last summer,” he told Lily gently.

Lily’s eyes went wide. “Attacked how?”

“He was raped,” Rose said bluntly, and Al watched Lily shrink into Scorpius’ side.

“Rose,” Al sighed heavily as he glanced to his cousin.

“There is no nice way to put that, Albus,” Rose told him bluntly as she sat forward in her chair. Her brown curls were pulled back in a messy tail at the back of her head and one sprang free at that moment, causing her to bat it away. “It was horrible and Lily needs to know the truth. I’m not going to coddle her like you two are,” she said as she pointed to him and Scorpius. She turned to Lily and her expression softened. “He was drugged and raped while in Brazil.”

“But… but…” Lily stuttered as her eyes filled.

“The woman who was maybe with James,” Nat continued as she shot Rose a pointed look, “because we don’t know that they actually had sex. We just know she was impregnated, was then probably held prisoner until she gave birth and then she died.”

“Oh, no!” Lily’s hands flew to her mouth as the words sunk in.

“Well, damn,” Rose muttered as her head fell into her hands. “I was prepared to be mad at her forever for raping James and giving up her kid, but I can’t be mad if she’s dead. What happened?”

“Embolism,” Nat explained. “It was a blood clot that killed her. She was a Muggle in a Muggle hospital and they couldn’t save her. She died quickly, but I am convinced she was given that same poisonous something that Isabella Crabbe has been working on for years and…” she paused and took a deep breath. “And tonight I pulled it out of Alex’s body.”

“Alex?” Scorpius asked.

“Is that his name?” Al wanted to know.

Nat held up her hands. “Alex is the baby. He’s so tiny. He was so early, and his whole body was ravaged by this potion or something. It was like a brown goo in him. It… it hid his magic from me until it was gone. I thought he was a Squib!”

“Merlin,” Al breathed out as he studied Nat’s face. She was wrecked by what she’d seen. It was no wonder she’d come back and fallen asleep.

“I… I kept up a smile and a brave face,” she explained quietly. “I could see Caroline was upset and the baby wouldn’t calm. He had this horrible aura around him. It wasn’t right and the poor dogs have this energy that flows off of them. Both dogs were trying to calm the baby, but he wasn’t having it. I sat down with him in my lap and worked loose all the vile filth in that tiny body.” A silent tear rolled down her cheek and then another and Al found himself on his feet and striding over to sit with her, to put his arm around her. She closed her eyes and the tears forced their way out between her closed lids. “Then it was out and it felt horrible and wrong on my skin. I laughed it off like it was no big deal, but I couldn’t wait to burn my jeans.” She sniffed and opened her eyes. “He was calm as soon as the stuff was out of him and it was clear he is magical.”

“She’s… she’s figured out how to make babies… to… so they lose their magic?” Scorpius asked in a horrified stutter.

“It looks like that’s what all the experimenting was doing,” Nat confirmed. “It’s what I told your dad,” she told Al. “He was… he was alarmed but I can’t say he was surprised. I think if that potion had stayed in Alex longer, I might not have been able to clear it out. I might not have…” she turned her face into Al’s shoulder again and he understood viscerally why she’d turned to him earlier.

“But you did heal him,” he reminded her.

“I healed him!” she cried unhappily. “How many more will be infected that I won’t be able to save? She targeted James and I know she’s going to target you and Lily next.”

Al glanced to his sister and saw Scorpius holding her on his lap, her arms around his neck. He didn’t think she was crying, but he couldn’t see her face. Scorpius’ hand was soothing a circling along her back as he held her. “We won’t let it happen,” he told Al. “We’ll protect Lily.”

“What about you, though?” Rose asked Al. Her face was so pale she practically glowed. “If she’s gone after James, she’ll go after you.”

“Maybe,” Al agreed uneasily. “But we have to wait and see. Having a child who is a Squib isn’t the end of the world, of course, but having one who is poisoned to cause it is terrible. But,” he said as he squeezed Nat’s shoulder. “We have Natalie, here, and she can see the problems.”

“But that only helps us,” Nat pointed out miserably. “That crazy woman is hurting a lot of people!”

Al didn’t know how to comfort her. He didn’t know how to make his sister feel better. He didn’t know how to take that look out of Rose’s eyes.

“I haven’t told Andrew any of this,” Rose told Nat. “He doesn’t know about your power or anything–”

“You can tell him,” Nat said instantly. “I know it’s serious with you two this time. I can see it. I know you really would like to have his support.”

“I would,” Rose agreed quietly. “I’ll think about telling him, but I’ll tell him here in the Room of Requirement so no one else will know… I mean, if I tell him.”

“Lily?” Scorpius asked softly as he ran a hand down her hair. “Sweetheart?”

“I’m okay,” she said after a long moment. “I’m okay.”

But she didn’t move from Scorpius’ embrace or turn to face any of them for a long, long time.

When they finally made it back to the common room it was nearly midnight and Al was thankful his brother was okay and his nephew was safe, even as he felt a horrible guilt about the baby’s mother. He couldn’t do anything about Isabella Crabbe!

But oh, he wished he could. Maybe someday.

He’d barely managed to fall asleep when he heard the curtain rustle and felt someone climb into bed with him. Al glanced over to see his sister’s coppery hair. “Wha?”

“I had a nightmare,” she whispered pitifully.

Al grunted and scooted over; thankful she’d brought her own pillow since she was a pillow hog. Her small hand found his under the covers and she breathed out a sigh of relief.

In moments he was back to sleep.

He awoke to Scorpius standing over him as pale shafts of light seeped in through the gaps in the curtains. For a moment, he’d totally forgotten his sister. She used to do this to him a lot when they were little, but it had been quite a while since she’d come to sleep with him. She always said she liked his calm, whatever that meant.

Al glanced over to see Lily was still asleep, still holding his hand. “Nightmare,” Al croaked out as he carefully pulled his hand from hers. “Must have been bad as she hasn’t done this since she was seven or eight.”

Scorpius glanced back out of the curtain and a moment later the door to the dormitory closed. “They’re all gone now,” he said quietly.

Lily let out a small sigh and rolled over, blinking her eyes open.

“Lily?” Scorpius asked as he pushed open the curtains further.

Tears filled Lily’s eyes and she scrambled up and over Al’s legs, not quite crushing them as he grumbled in annoyance. She threw herself into Scorpius’ arms and he kept her lifted off the ground, holding onto her.

“I kept dreaming about her death! I kept s-seeing it! I kept hearing the baby cry in pain!” On and on it went as Scorpius eventually sat down on the side of the bed, holding her against him.

“Shh, I have you,” Scorpius murmured tenderly as he held her.

Al watched his best mate, the man he realized was someday going to be his brother-in-law, and felt… he felt a little nostalgic. It was no longer his job to comfort Lily. If she could have climbed into bed with Scorpius, she would have but of course if they were discovered there was significantly less to explain for her being with Al. It wasn’t his job anymore and Scorpius was doing as good a job as anyone could, probably better.

“You could have woken me up,” Scorpius told her after a long moment. “We could have gone down to the common room to talk.”

“We all needed to sleep,” Lily sniffled. “I wanted to get into bed with you but knew that we’d get in trouble.”

Al let out a snort.

Scorpius shot him a look. “I wouldn’t do anything with her, Al.”

Al held up his hands. “I didn’t say otherwise. She’s just Lily and that was funny.”

“You slept with Nat down on the couch,” Lily pointed out.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Al told her honestly and turned away. “Besides, it wasn’t the same thing since we’re just friends.” But he thought about Nat climbing into bed with him and even if he was on his best behavior, he knew he wouldn’t get any sleep if she was right there with him. Al cleared his throat. “But it’s best not to tempt things, yeah?”

“No,” Lily agreed even though Al was completely certainly she had no idea the subtext of what he’d said. Scorpius understood, though. “I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble.”

“So,” Al said with a long sigh. “Cloak on, go sneak back up to your dorm and get ready for the day Lily-Lu. Anymore nightmares, go sleep with Rose.”

“Rose isn’t calm like you are,” Lily sighed as she stood and went to fetch the cloak from his trunk. “But I suppose it isn’t worth the risk.”

Scorpius opened the door for her, and she walked out, invisible to everyone. He closed the door quietly and leaned back against it, thunking his head against the solid door.

“I’m glad it’s you, mate,” Al told him as he stood up and stretched. “She’s a lot of work.”

“She’s worth it.”

“Didn’t say otherwise,” Al pointed out as he pulled off his sleep shirt and rummaged around for a clean shirt. “Just glad I can hand her off to someone who gets her.”

Scorpius was silent for a long moment. “You know Nat likes you back, right?”

His heart skipped a beat just for a moment. “She tried to set me up with Millie Davis. She doesn’t like me back. Anyway,” he said groping for a way to change the subject. “Absolutely no sharing a bed with my sister before you’re married.”

“I told you, I wouldn’t–”

Al shook his head. “I trust you more than anyone with her, but…” he let the word trail off.

“But,” Scorpius agreed as he ran his hands through his hair before scrubbing hard at his face. “The damnedest thing is she has no idea about that part. At all. Not at all.”

And she didn’t because Scorpius never, ever pushed her, which was why Al knew that Scorpius was the one for Lily. He was exactly what she needed. “You’re going to have an interesting wedding night,” Al snorted and then wished he hadn’t given it any thought because this was his sister.

Scorpius turned his eyes up to the ceiling and let out a long breath. “We have years yet before that happens. She’ll start to realize it eventually.”

Al wasn’t entirely sure about that. “Let’s get breakfast.”

~*~

Harry waited silently while Nat examined the body of the young woman who had given birth to Alex just a few days before. He’d only just managed to get the body before it had been buried and getting her transported to England without a lot of questions being asked had been a monumental pain in the arse, but they’d managed it. She was a victim of Isabella Crabbe, which meant he needed to see the body. Healer Wallace had already examined her and had come to the same conclusion that she’d died from an embolism.

Nat would tell him the full truth. She used one gloved hand to carefully open the woman’s mouth and gaze in. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she continued to study the body minutely. They waited silently for her conclusion.

“I’ve seen what I need to,” Nat said wearily as she stepped down from the stool she’d stood on and pulled off her gloves. Her small face was lined as she shook her head. “It’s definitely Crabbe’s potion, the same one from the other women.” Wallace didn’t ask how she knew that and Harry didn’t offer to explain. He’d come to trust Wallace completely, even if he didn’t explain to Wallace what made Nat so special.

“Alright.”

Nat’s eyes were hollow as she looked up at Harry. “I don’t think she was even fifteen.”

Harry’s heart stopped. “What?”

“By her teeth, I think she was fourteen or fifteen years old.”

Harry swore harshly under his breath as he turned away. The woman, no girl, had looked like a woman and he hadn’t questioned it.

“Are you sure?” Healer Wallace asked her quietly.

“I can’t be positive without x-rays of her teeth, but what I’m seeing puts her at younger than me,” Nat told them in disgust. “She looks older because she’s been living on the streets and living rough for a while now. It ages a person quickly.”

Harry didn’t know how he was going to tell James and wondered briefly if he’d have to. Did James need to know?

Sighing, he knew his son did need to know.

“Nat…” Harry turned back to the young woman. “Thank you for your help.”

“Sure,” Nat said as she pulled off the surgical gown she’d been wearing. “Will you be sending her body back to Brazil?”

“She had no family there,” Harry told her. “We’ll bury her here with the other Potters.”

Nat nodded silently and they made their way from the morgue towards Audrey’s office and the Floo so she could get back to school. Nat was in her final year and should have been studying a lot. Instead, Harry kept pulling her out of school to work for him. “Are your studies going alright?”

“They’re fine,” Nat said flatly. “I am going to pass everything I need to pass except maybe the practical of Defense. I should have dropped that one.”

“Al can tutor you.”

“Al is tutoring me,” she laughed without much humor. “It’s no good. I’m hopeless at it.”

“Well,” he said as they began to walk up the stairs, “you’re brilliant at other things so it all works out.”

He went to see James and Caroline as soon as he had Nat safely back at Hogwarts.

He came through the Floo at his son’s house and saw Caroline on the couch nursing the baby. “Sorry,” he said as he turned away even though he really couldn’t see anything.

“It’s fine,” Caroline assured him. “I’m… I’m getting used to it. You can stay.”

“I need to talk to James, actually,” he said as he turned around to study her face. She had circles under her eyes but that was to be expected with a week-old baby in the house. “Is Ginny still here?”

“She is watching the girls right now so Victoire could get a small break,” Caroline explained as her fingers ran along the baby’s downy dark hair. “She’ll be back later. James took the dogs out back for some exercise.”

“I’ll go speak to him, then,” Harry told her. “Do you need anything before I go?”

“Can you hand me my water glass?” she asked and thanked him when he handed it to her.

She really was making progress and it warmed something inside of him to know she wasn’t going to be ruined by her sick father.

He wended through the kitchen and dining room and pushed open the door to the backyard where James was throwing a stick for the happy puppy. He turned and smiled at his dad. He, too, looked tired but very happy. “Hey,” he said as Steve came trotting back with the stick.

“Rufus isn’t interested?” Harry asked as he closed the door so Caroline wouldn’t hear them. Rufus sat at James’ feet and watched the whole thing with old mild interest.

“I think it’s beneath his dignity,” James chuckled. “He only tolerates it because he knows it’s good for Steve’s development.”

“You’re a good dog,” Harry told Rufus as he scratched at the big dog’s ears.

“You look troubled,” James said as he threw the stick again, showing off with his Chaser’s arm. “Is something wrong?”

Harry didn’t want to tell him. He really didn’t want to tell him. But he was standing with his grown son and he knew he needed to. “Nat examined the girl, Alex’s mother.”

“Oh.” It came out more as a breath rather than a word. “Was it Crabbe?”

“It was, which wasn’t surprising. But there was another unpleasant surprise.” Harry pulled in a lungful of the cold air and told him. “Nat thinks she was fourteen or fifteen.”

James sucked in a sharp breath and turned to face his father; his face gone white. “No.”

Harry nodded sadly. “She was very young.”

His son thrust his hands into his hair and pulled at it and he closed his eyes. “Oh, Merlin… no. Just a kid?”

“This isn’t on you, James,” Harry reminded him. “You were drugged and unable to do anything.”

“That’s no comfort.”

Harry knew it would be. “I’m glad you’re the kind of man who cares about it.”

James turned to look into the house, even though they couldn’t see Caroline through the sun’s reflection off the house. “What do I tell her?”

“The truth, when you think she can handle it,” Harry said gently. “Just like I’m telling you the truth. Even if she willingly participated in whatever Crabbe asked of her, James, she was still a child and thus a victim in all of this. Caroline is going to understand that and she won’t blame you for it. You’re a victim, too.”

James let out a long sigh as he moved towards the house and the dogs fell into step behind him. He pushed open the door and they found Caroline standing in the kitchen putting the kettle on with the baby on one shoulder.

“Here,” James said as he took the tiny bundle from her and cradled his son under his chin.

“Something is wrong,” Caroline said as she glanced between them. “What happened?”

James sat on one of the stools and raised the baby up to kiss his sleeping cheek. His eyes never left his wife as he told Caroline the bad news.

She took it as Harry had expected. She cried and James held her in one arm, the baby in the other. “That poor girl!”

“It would have been terrible no matter what age she was,” James said sadly. “No one deserved to die that way, but for her to be a child still… it’s worse.”

Harry finished making tea for them and then poured them each a cup while he held the sleeping baby. Alex was so small he could practically fit in one of Harry’s hands, but even after only a week, he could see the baby was getting bigger.

“He’s growing already,” Harry noted.

“He’s up almost half a pound,” James told him as he took Caroline’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “All thanks to you.”

She smiled at him, but it was tempered by what they had learned.

Harry didn’t tell them what the potion did. They weren’t ready to hear that part of the story yet.

For now, he had to meet with the Minister and Hermione and fill them in on what was going on. “I have a meeting to get to,” Harry told them. He hated passing off his grandson so soon, but he had work to do. “I’ll come back for dinner so I can spend more time with him.”

He said his goodbyes and made it back to the ministry just before the meeting. The Minister and Hermione were already in the Minister’s office waiting for him when he entered, shutting the door behind him.

“Your summons was unexpected,” the Minister said carefully. “By the expression on your face, I don’t think I’m going to like what I’m about to hear.”

“I don’t think you are, either,” he informed her as he sat in a seat opposite her and next to Hermione. Hermione knew about Alex and odd birth, as they’d warned her months before, but the Minister didn’t. He had a lot to fill her in on.

It took him half an hour to fill her in on all the things that had happened up until that day. She asked a few questions along the way, but mostly she let him speak. “So, you have a grandson.”

“He’s doing well, I just saw him,” Harry told her. “But he wasn’t well when he arrived in England. He was born sickly, but Natalie Parker fixed him.”

“She did what?” Hermione asked quickly.

“This is something I hadn’t told you about,” Harry admitted to his sister. “Nat’s powers have grown again. She can now undo magic, including potions.”

They both stared at him, speechless. “That’s… that’s not possible,” Hermione said finally. “That’s not possible!”

“And yet she does it,” Harry said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve watched her do it. The potion Crabbe used on the poor girl was inside of my grandson and Nat pulled it out of him. It made a mess all over everything she and the baby were wearing.”

Hermione shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

“I haven’t either,” the Minister confessed. She considered him thoughtfully. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

“Honestly, I was waiting to see what would happen next,” he admitted. “But it seems this might be the limit, at least for now. She can undo old spells to a degree, but only if they’re still active. So, for example, she can’t un-mend a bone after it has been set, but an enchantment that’s active on a building can be undone. She doesn’t think she can remove potions if they’ve been in a body for a long time, but I imagine that will be something she learns to do if the potion is still active in the body. But here’s the sticky part of everything.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “She said when she first looked at Alex, she thought he wasn’t magical.”

“Alright,” the Minister said when he didn’t go on. “What does that mean?”

“When… when she pulled the potion out of Alex, she saw his magical spark and knew he was.”

Harry watched as the implications of what he said registered with them.

“She’s trying to destroy the magic in families,” Hermione whispered in horror.

“That’s my conclusion,” Harry agreed. “It took her a long time to figure out how to make sure the babies lived. It killed a lot of the mothers, too. I don’t know if Alex’s mother was meant to die or not, but she was young and a Muggle so it might have been part of why she didn’t make it.”

“This is disastrous,” Minister Macmillan said as she shook her head. “We’re only barely getting back on our feet after two major wars. We can’t have something like this tearing the magical community apart.”

“Right now, I think she’s going to target my family,” Harry told her, “but after that I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t go after everyone. Because it’s a potion, it’s not going to be impossible for her to infect a lot of people. I want to catch her,” Harry told her in frustration, “but she’s not in England and she’s hiding in countries where I can’t go to get her out.”

“Harry…” Hermione put a hand on his arm. “This has all been a major shock for everyone. I don’t even know how to feel about this. My daughter is going to be of age to marry and have children soon. You’ve already been effected by this.”

“But we have Natalie Parker.”

“Allison,” Hermione shook her head at the minister’s words. “We can’t risk Nat helping everyone or we risk her being exposed. Someone that powerful is going to be a target for everyone in the entire world.”

“Nat will want to help where she can and I have no objections if she can do it safely,” Harry told her. “But the fact is that girl can’t manage a shield charm to save her own life and she’s spent a lot of her young years very ill. We have to protect her.”

“Of course,” the Minister agreed quickly. “But if she can help us and stay safe, we need to use her.”

Harry couldn’t disagree. He knew Nat would agree and she was of age now. He had no call not to let her help.

Even when she was fourteen, he still hadn’t managed to not have her help in horrible situations.

Harry excused himself, checked in at the office and learned he didn’t have anything pressing and went to play with Emma. Grandchildren made everything better.

~*~

Caroline heard the baby cry and groaned as she rolled over in her bed. It felt like she hadn’t slept in several years. She breathed out a breath. “Okay, I’m coming baby,” she mumbled as she tried to fumble for her wand to set it to glow.

“I have him,” James said as he stumbled into her room from the hall with his wand lit, setting it down on a bedside table. “Hey,” he said as he stopped at the small cot and picked the baby up, soothing his back. “Shh, it’s alright. I’ll get you changed and then Mummy can feed you.”

She watched James move over to the changing table and change out the tiny soiled nappy for a new one, then fumble his way through trying to do up the snaps on the pajamas again. “Here we go,” he said as he brought the baby over to her and set him down at her breast.

She lay on her side, as she often did since she was likely to fall asleep while Alex nursed. James climbed onto the bed behind her and spooned up to her back, kissing her neck before relaxing back into the pillows. In seconds all she heard was James’ soft breath as he fell asleep and the sucking of the baby.

James hadn’t done this since that first day when he’d sat on the bed to watch her nurse and Caroline found herself wide awake at the feel of his arm around her waist and his breath on her neck. He was sleeping in her bed. With her. Okay, with Alex right there, as well.

How did she feel about it?

Good. She felt good. It felt right. It felt natural and normal in a situation which was so not normal there were few words to describe it. She studied the baby’s relaxed face as he nursed and knew this was what it was supposed to be. With this baby or babies in the future, James was supposed to be in bed with her.

But being in bed with her meant other things. More babies in the future meant other things and she didn’t know how to go about that part. Did she just tell him she wanted to sleep with him? Did she kiss him until he understood? Would she have an utter meltdown if he tried to undress her? Would it be her father she saw instead of James? She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know what to say.

She felt James shift and press a kiss to her shoulder blade. “I’ll move when he’s done. So tired.”

“It’s okay,” she mumbled softly. She was really tired as well.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He fell back to sleep a moment later and Alex nursed on. Soon Caroline’s eyes drifted closed and she also fell back to sleep.

She woke to a grunt from the baby and an arm gone numb from laying on it. She felt James behind her, felt his whole body pressed to hers and for a moment she wanted to panic because she felt everything and this couldn’t be right with the baby right there, but as she turned her head she saw in the dim light of morning that James was still asleep. He didn’t mean to be pressed up against her completely. It was just what happened. Alex grunted again and let out a long, wet fart.

She turned back to the baby and smiled. “Your daddy gets that present.”

“I get what?” James muttered as he shifted away from her and stretched out.

He already recognized himself as daddy and it made Caroline’s insides ache with happiness.

“The diaper he just filled.”

“Hm,” he chuckled as he rolled over to press a kiss to her mouth and then leaned up further to examine the tiny baby who was staring up at them with wide eyes. “I guess it is my job, huh, little man?”

The baby waved a very tiny fist up in the air and James held out his finger so the baby could catch it and hold on. She watched the love and tenderness on her husband’s face and decided that yes, it was time for them to be married in every sense of the word.

Now she just had to figure out how to make that happen without chickening out.

Back to index


Chapter 63: Chapter 60

Author's Notes: This is a chapter a lot of you have been waiting for! Hopefully it's what you expected or better ;) Please leave a review. I reply to all of them.

It's a weird time here, this is posted Christmas of 2020 (Happy Holidays to all of you) but we're in the middle of a plague. I'm so thankful for all of you reading. If you want to support me, you can join my patreon (Sarah Jaune) and read along as I publish original stories. It's only $3/month.

Thanks for everything!

Thanks to Arnel for beta'ing!


James stretched out his legs as he sat in his bed and tried not to think of the sore muscles. He glanced at his schedule next to him and noted it was May 2nd already. He had a game the next day, when Alex would be two months old. He’d wanted Caroline to bring him to the game since he would be starting, but realistically she couldn’t manage the crowds without him by her side. So he hadn’t asked and he contented himself with the progress they’d made. He needed to get to sleep shortly or he’d be a wreck for the game, but he couldn’t settle yet. Alex was asleep again, and hopefully would be until at least three. He glanced over at his wand to see the charm was still active for him to hear if his son woke. Caroline had told him to turn it off, that she’d handle it since he had a game, but he simply couldn’t do it. He glanced over at his open door and off to where his wife and baby slept and couldn’t believe how much their lives had changed.

He had a baby. He had a son whom he loved more than he thought possible. He was only nineteen. His mates on his team knew about the baby, but of course they thought Caroline had given birth to him. They’d taken the mickey when they’d first heard. Still, they had been supportive. When he’d needed time off to be with her, they’d all covered for him and no one said a word about him missing practice. He knew his playing had suffered some in the first few weeks after he’d gone back to work, but now he was getting the hang of functioning on interrupted sleep. Alex typically only woke once a night and it was getting later and later every single week. Soon enough, his mother had promised, he’d be sleeping through the night.

How had he been here already two months? He didn’t know. It felt like just yesterday his father had come to collect him and tell him he was a daddy. He came back to this absolutely miniscule baby he wanted desperately to protect from everything. He wanted to keep his son safe from any harm. His dad hadn’t told him right away what that poison had done to Alex, or what Nat had healed him from, but he understood why his father had put it off. His father was protecting him, his son, from a hard truth. Nat had told them what she’d done after she’d pulled the brown muck from his little body, but it hadn’t sunk in, not then. It had taken his father bringing it up again for him to fully grasp what had been done to Alex. Thank Merlin for Nat. He didn’t know if Alex would have survived with that stuff in him, but he knew how much pain his child had been in and there hadn’t been any way he could fix it. Holding him wasn’t working. The dogs weren’t helping. Nothing helped until Nat had healed him.

And Caroline… he could not love her more than he did now. She’d said she was going to nurse him and she’d done it. It had been… he didn’t have the words for it. It had been stunning to see her feeding the baby at her breast. He’d never even touched her there, but she’d done this for him, for Alex, and he knew now for herself. It was healing her. She was getting stronger for the bound she had with their baby.

He was their baby. He still felt bad about Alex’s biological mother, but Caroline was here and doing the work and she loved Alex with all of her heart. There was no denying she would do anything for him. She was so patient and loving, even when exhausted. She doted on him and thanks to her hard work of feeding him, he was nearly half a stone. He was still small for his age but he was quickly catching up.

He glanced once more to the door and was surprised to see Caroline standing in the doorway, chewing on her lip. She had on a light cotton shirt that snapped in the front to make it easier to nurse and a pair of his old boxers, which she’d stolen for sleepwear. “Is Alex okay?” he asked her, pushing further up in bed and wishing he’d put on a shirt. He’d meant to, since he often went into her room in the middle of the night, but he hadn’t bothered yet.

“He’s fine,” she said as she moved into the room and shut the door.

“But…”

“I told the dogs to watch him,” she explained as she moved slowly to the bed and sat down on the end, staring at him with huge eyes. “Plus, you didn’t listen and your wand is still monitoring him.”

James’ grin was a little crooked as he tried to squash down any thought of why she was in his room, sitting on his bed. His body had a very definite idea of what it wanted, but he hadn’t let his body rule him once in his relationship with her. “Well, I was never one to listen.”

Her eyes dropped down to the spread and she ran a finger along it as her blonde hair fell in a curtain around her face. She’d gained some weight with nursing Alex. Her finger had definitely rounded out, but her cheeks had as well and it only served to make her even more stunning to him. “You do listen, though. You’ve always listened to me. You’ve always put me first. You’ve always… been everything.”

“I love you,” he said simply. There was no other explanation.

“I love you, too,” she replied with a hitch to her voice. Then she climbed over to him on the bed, kneeling a bit as she pressed her lips to his, running her hand along his jaw and into the hair that needed a trim.

His whole system fired to life, begging him to kiss her back, to run his hands along her body, to do anything but passively kiss her with his hands firmly fisted into the covers. He lasted almost two minutes before he pulled back, a harsh breath forced from his lungs. “Okay, that’s enough.”

She shook her and bent in to kiss him again.

“I can’t!” James closed his eyes and turned away. “Sweetheart, I can’t.”

“Why?”

He took a moment to try to steady himself, to try to be the man who she needed and he fought the rush inside him so he could meet her eyes. “It’s too much. I want you too much.”

“I want you too,” she told him quietly with her eyes steady on him. He couldn’t breathe and didn’t move, not even when she sat back and let her hands flutter in the air. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do what?” he asked, though he couldn’t understand how he could still speak coherently.

“I want to be your wife,” she told him and then her eyes fell to hands, still clenched in the sheets. She reached over and slid her fingers along his until he was forced to take her hand. “I want to make love to you.”

All the blood left his head and he shook it, trying to clear it. “Say that again.”

“I’m ready,” his wife whispered. “I’m scared out of my mind, and I can’t promise I won’t freak out sometime, but I’m ready.”

James pulled in a breath, but still felt like he couldn’t breathe. “We don’t need to do this. You don’t need to rush anything. We can–”

“I’ve been thinking about this for almost two months,” she told him. “I want this!”

“But–”

Caroline let out a shaking laugh. “I honestly didn’t think it was going to be so hard to get my husband to sleep with me.”

Instantly chastened, he shook his head. “No! No, I just don’t want you to be hurt. You know how beautiful I think you are, how much I want you.”

She leaned forward to kiss him again and took his hand with her, placing it where he hadn’t been allowed to touch. It was wonderful and terrifying in so many ways.

They had to stop several times for her to get comfortable and she, for some stupid reason, thought he wouldn’t like what she looked like without her top on, but he did everything he could think of to reassure her.

When they finally came together it was the most magical thing he’d ever done in his life and he took no small pleasure in knowing she’d felt the same level of passion he had as they joined for the first time.

When it was over and he held her close, whispering to her how much she meant to him, how much he loved her, he knew nothing but an intense level of love and happiness.

“Are you okay?” he asked her finally as he caressed her back lightly.

“I wasn’t afraid at all,” she said after a moment. She glanced up at him, her blue eyes shining a bit. “It was nothing like I expected and it was wonderful and I was never afraid, just a little unsure sometimes.”

“It’s okay to say if you were, if you are,” he reminded her. “It’s okay to be upset.”

She shook her head. “You made love to me. You made me feel loved. You didn’t hurt me or humiliate me or use me. It’s what it always should be.”

“It will always be this way,” he promised as he pressed his lips to her brow.

They heard Rufus’ low chuffing before Alex’s small cry.

“I’ll get him,” James said as he threw on pants and handed her clothes to her. He went over to her room and found his tiny son had wet himself straight through his pajamas. “Well, I’d be unhappy too, little man,” he cooed to the baby as he carried him to the small changing table to clean him up. “I bet you were cold.”

He carried his baby back to his wife where she still waited in his bed as the dogs followed along behind him to settle along the foot of the bed. “Here,” he said as he handed the baby over and she settled him at her breast. He watched and marveled again that she was here, she was doing this with him, and that their son was safe and growing. “Will you stay in my bed? Will you make this our bed?”

He saw something he couldn’t identify in her eyes and he instantly tamped down on the hurt. He waited for her, as he’d been waiting for her for so many years. “I don’t want him alone,” she said finally as she glanced over to her room.

“Well,” he breathed out the relief, thankful he’d kept his mouth shut, “I’ll go move his cot and his things in here. We’ll all share this room.”

“Are you sure?”

“You are my wife and he is our son,” he whispered as he leaned in first to kiss her and then to lay his lips on his son’s brow as the baby continued to eat. “Your place is here with me, and it’s what I want.”

He rose from the bed and went to move his son’s things. Alex would soon enough be in his own room, and until then they could share. He’d wanted to be in with Alex and Caroline all along anyway, but he’d only had that a few times when he’d fallen asleep with them.

Now he would have it every night and he didn’t think there was anything he wanted more.

~*~

“This might be one of the more insane ideas you have ever had,” Teddy whispered so only Harry could hear him as they unloaded babies into pouches and gabbed toys and nappies for everyone.

Harry didn’t have a single word to say in his defense, except that his son was starting today for the first time and he remembered what that had been like when it was Ginny. She’d been so hopeful, so excited, and the entire family, save Charlie and Hermione, who was still at school, had turned out to cheer her on.

He glanced around at his entire family as he watched Ginny tuck a sleeping Olivia into the wrap on her front after helping Caroline secure Alex. He wished he could have one of the babies, but that wasn’t his reality, not here in the real world. In the real world, he needed his hands free to defend his family at all costs.

“Come now, young lady,” Arthur said to Emma as he held out his hand for the three-year-old. “You hold Poppop’s hand.”

Emma smiled up at her great-grandfather and beamed. “Can I has a lolly, Poppop?”

Arthur cleared his throat as Teddy groaned. “Really?”

“Shh,” Arthur whispered to Emma as he shook his head. “You’re going to get me in trouble?”

“No lollies,” Gran Molly said as she bustled over shoot her husband a withering look, “but I made some lovely biscuits and I have strawberries.”

Harry turned as Caroline moved to his side with the tiny baby in the wrap as Victoire laughed with Molly, Dominique, and Fred’s fianc, Eva. Victoire swayed with Amelia in the carrier on her front while Bill, Percy, Ron and George all stood together, seemingly talking but in truth watching. It was a last-minute surprise for him to have bought the tickets and to make sure they could all make it.

Hermione weren’t here yet, but that wasn’t terribly surprising. She’d said she’d be late and he’d left her ticket for her at the box office.

“Let’s head up,” Harry called out to the group as they headed for the top box. Emma didn’t even make it up a flight of stairs before Fred had hauled her into his big arms to carry her up. Harry was right behind them as she laid her head on her cousin’s shoulder and smiled at him.

She absolutely melted his heart.

They settled in the stands, all of them save Louis and Charlie, and those still at Hogwarts just as the announcer called out the names of the players. He kept Caroline between himself and Roxanne, who was absolutely smitten with the tiny baby and completely ignoring the start of the game.

He smiled and kept his eyes on the crowds and their surroundings, but he couldn’t help the flush of pride as his son streaked out onto the field, waving to the crowds as everyone cheered.

James Potter. Chaser.

He felt Caroline shift in her seat, her eyes trained on James as she beamed to see him play. This was her first time at one of his professional games. How he’d managed to talk her into surprising James for this game, he had no idea. She’d been bubbling and bright the whole morning as he and Ginny had come to collect her and the baby.

Alex let out a small squeak Harry knew all too well. It meant he’d want to nurse. “Did you bring a bottle?” he asked her.

She shook her head and pointed to her bag. “Can you hand me that?” she asked Roxanne who pulled out a blanket.

“I’ll help you,” Roxanne said as she helped cover Caroline.

To his astonishment, Caroline nursed the baby in the stands with only that blanket covering her. He glanced to Ginny, who only smiled. She had a look in her eyes that told him she knew something he didn’t. He sighed and went back to watching the crowds as the game pressed on.

James was the top scorer for their team, but they’d have lost to Greece if the Seeker hadn’t caught the Snitch when she had. Final score was three hundred twenty to three hundred.

They all stood and cheered for James as he swooped in for a midair hug with the rest of the team. It was only then that he noticed his entire family in the top box.

His face lit up as he spotted them and waved, raising his fist in the air as the commentator continued to shout about England’s victory. He broke away from the team and flew over to them, jumping off his broom and rushing up to get to Caroline. “I’m all sweaty,” he laughed, kissing her firmly before leaning down to kiss their sleeping son. “You’re here,” he grinned.

“We wanted to surprise you,” she told him beaming up at him in a way Harry hadn’t seen her do before.

Almost like… oh. Well that would explain Ginny’s smile. He let out a sigh of relief. She was truly on the mend.

“Can you come meet my team?” James asked and then turned to his father. “Can she come down to say hi to everyone?” He turned back to her, scanning her face. “Is that okay?”

“It’s okay, I think,” she asked, biting her lip as she turned to Harry.

“Yeah,” Harry said around a lump of emotions. “Yeah. Bill and I will bring her down to the locker room shortly.”

“Alright,” James laughed and kissed her again. “See you soon.”

They sent everyone else on their way save for Ginny who wanted to come with them and then went in search of the locker room, which was normally out of bounds for everyone except the team. They found the security guard at the entrance, a brawny man of about forty who held out his hand for Harry and waved them through.

They followed the sounds of shouts and cheers down a long corridor.

“Oh, this brings back memories,” Ginny laughed as she held Harry’s hand. “Remember how many times you met me in the locker room?”

“I absolutely do not want to hear about you two in any locker room,” Bill grumbled even as he gave Caroline a wink.

Ginny only laughed. “Sadly, nothing like that. But it was always such a rush to win a game.”

“You could have played for England,” Bill reminded her.

She shook her head. “I wanted children. I didn’t want to be Gwenog Jones and married to the game. I had my fun and I made a good career out of writing about Quidditch.”

“Do you miss that?” Caroline asked her as they rounded a corner and pushed into a celebration.

“Not even a little bit,” Ginny told her as the young woman stopped at the volume of the boisterous men. “But this, I miss.”

Harry watched the trepidation creep back over Caroline’s face. He’d been afraid of this. He almost opened his mouth to tell her they’d go, when James spotted them. “Hey!” he called out in a commanding voice which stopped everyone else. He had his eyes fixed on her. “Everyone shut up a minute so you can meet my wife and son.” He came over and took her hand, linking her to him. “Everyone, this is Caroline and my son Alex.”

Everyone called out a loud hello as the only two women on the team came forward to greet Caroline and get a peek at the baby.

Unfortunately, the noise startled Alex awake and he began to cry.

“Here,” James said as he gently took the baby from the wrap and cradled him against his chest. “It’s okay, son.”

“He’s going to need a bath,” Caroline laughed tentatively as the men began to crowd in.

Harry nearly stepped in to rescue her, but he watched James tuck her into his side as he introduced all the men. Several of them said hi and then zeroed in on Ginny.

“How does it feel to not be the celebrity?” Bill wondered as he stepped over to Harry.

“Pretty damn good,” Harry admitted as he continued to watch James sooth Caroline’s nerves while holding the baby.

James’ captain, Marvis Stanton came in a moment later. “Alright, everyone! Let’s get changed and get out of here.”

“Wait for me,” James told his dad. “I’ll only be two minutes.”

“You won’t be,” Ginny reminded him. “They’ll want to rehash the game.”

James shook his head and grinned as he passed the baby to his mother. “Two minutes.”

It was more like four minutes, but James jogged out of the locker room shortly after he left and swept his wife up into a hug, twirling her around. “Let’s go home!”

Harry left the locker room first and scanned the area and when it was clear, told everyone else they could come out.

He was very glad they’d made the effort to get to James’ game as he chatted with them, telling them he hadn’t wanted to look into the stands because he didn’t think anyone was coming, only to realize everyone had come.

Yes, it was a very good day.

~*~

James woke the next morning with Caroline in his arms, her soft breath on his neck, and a cold nose nudging his bare foot. He glanced over to see Rufus staring at him. The dog’s low grumble sounded before he turned to look at Alex’s cot.

James nodded and closed his eyes, slowly extricating himself out from under Caroline to go and see to his son.

He found the baby, with his dark brown eyes, no longer deep blue, staring up at the ceiling and gurgling happily. James grinned down at him. “My little man,” he said softly as he picked the baby up and carried him from their room, hoping to let Caroline sleep a little longer. He kissed the baby’s soft cheek and inhaled the smell of the recently bathed baby.

It was definitely a coffee morning, James thought as he went to get it started only to find the coffee done and a breakfast left waiting for them on the table. Polly did that some mornings, popped in to see to breakfast, and then left again to help Victoire who unquestionably needed the help more with three small children.

He sat down at the table and took his first long sip of coffee before unfolding the paper and nearly choking on what he saw.

“Potter’s Family Comes Out to Show Support.”

He didn’t bother to read the story, which he was sure was tactless and uninteresting, but he studied the picture snapped of Caroline with the blanket over her shoulder, nursing the baby at the game. “You’re under there,” he told Alex, thankful the cameras hadn’t captured his face.

But then he turned the page and found a close up of the baby blown up and right next to his own. It was the portrait the team had taken for his promotional materials.

This headline read, “No Doubt It’s Potter’s Baby.”

He laughed, despite himself. Alex’s skin, which had been so tan at first, had lightened considerably since his first few days. His aunt had explained it was a bit of jaundice which was normal for babies, but it had cleared after Nat’s healing of him.

He wanted to never tell Alex the truth of his birth, but knew at some point he would. Until then, he and Caroline could easily pass for Alex’s parents. It was the two of them listed on his birth certificate. They didn’t even know what Alex’s mother’s name had been. He glanced down at the baby and found he’d fallen back to sleep in James’ arms.

He scanned the article and was amused to see the catty reporter was annoyed at Caroline for getting her figure back so quickly. If only they knew. He glanced up when he heard Caroline come down the stairs with both dogs following behind her. She stopped before him to kiss him, lingering for a moment as he cupped her cheek. She sighed and straightened and finally noticed what was on the table.

“Oh, bless Polly,” she said as she quickly made herself a plate of eggs and bacon.

“I was thinking the same,” James said as he popped the piece of bacon she handed to him in his mouth. He turned the paper to show her.

“Well, shit,” she groaned as she picked it up. “I was hoping no one was going to take a picture of him.”

He watched her read and studied her beautiful face, the line of her jaw, and the fall of her blonde hair as she pushed it behind her ear. “You did well yesterday.”

She snorted and shook her head, dropping the paper back on the table as she sat with him. “I nearly lost it. It was close. I didn’t think about how it would be with all those men in that small locker room.”

“But you did it,” he told her and didn’t tell her how several of the blokes had told him she was hot. “The girls really thought Alex was cute.”

“He is cute,” she agreed as she took another bite of eggs. “I can’t believe he’s sleeping in this late.”

“It was such a busy day for him yesterday,” he laughed as he carefully shifted the baby. “He had to sleep through his daddy’s first big game.”

“It was very trying for him,” she agreed as she smiled at them both. She rose and leaned over to kiss him, lingering for a bit before settling back in her chair. “I was thinking we should have a soul bonding this summer, after your brother and our sisters are home from school.”

Joy flashed through him and he could hardly contain himself. “You sure?”

“I am absolutely sure,” she said as her eyes met his and he read her thoughts on their loving the night before.

“Thank you,” he breathed out as Alex began to stir again.

“You’re welcome,” she replied with a gentle smile which turned mischievous. “It’s your turn to wash the diapers.”

James groaned but it quickly turned into a laugh. “Fatherhood,” he told the sleeping baby, “is not for the weak of stomach.” His son expressed his disinterest by sleeping through his commentary.

~*~

“I can’t believe we’re done,” Rose said from her seat next to Andrew on the boat facing Al and Nat. “I can’t believe it.”

They were four to a boat as they’d been on their first trip, all except Nat who had gone up to the castle on a stretcher that first time they’d arrived at Hogwarts.

Well, not all of them. Scorpius had flat out refused to leave Lily’s side and had insisted on going back in the carriages with her. It was down to Neville who hadn’t argued, so it was just Al, Nat, Rose and Andrew in the boat.

“She’s going to have to get to school without him,” Rose had pointed out when he’d first said he wasn’t coming with them.

“I’m not sure logic has anything to do with this,” Nat had told her and both girls had rolled their eyes.

Al was shot back to reality as Nat shivered next to him.

“How can you possibly be cold?” Rose demanded as Al hooked his arm around her shoulders and she took hold of his hand to warm hers up. “It’s hot out here!”

“Merlin’s beard, Natalie!” Al yelped as her icy fingers took hold of his. He didn’t let go, simply pulling her in closer.

“Hang on,” Rose sighed as she pulled out her wand and cast a warming charm on Nat’s hands.

“Much better,” Nat sighed, even as she continued to hold Al’s hand, resting halfway between their thighs.

“I still can’t believe Fred and Eva are getting married this summer,” Rose told them as the boat bumped along.

“I can’t believe we’ve all graduated,” Nat reiterated. “How are we not all still in first year? Where did the time go?”

“I’m ready to move on with everything,” Rose agreed as she grinned at Andrew. “I have three years to become a potions master and then I’ll have a job in the Ministry which won’t be as insane as my mother’s job.”

“Cheers to that,” Andrew laughed as he bent to kiss her.

“Seriously, she should just live at the Ministry,” Rose sighed as she glanced around them. “I thought I might cry to be leaving, but this feels good. I’m ready.”

Al wasn’t sure if he was ready. He would start Auror training in a week and he’d be in that for three years. It was the right path for him, he was sure, plus they had another recruit joining him, one of the Ravenclaw girls he didn’t know well. His father was ecstatic to have another girl on the team.

“You and Scorpius still going to get a flat?” Andrew asked him.

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” Al agreed. Scorpius could live with them at Ivy Run, but he’d said he didn’t feel right living with Lily all the time and Al didn’t have a single reason to argue with that. “My Uncle’s flat above the shop is empty so we’re renting that one. It’s already been secured by my dad, as far as I know. You’ll have to come over and we can go for a pint down at the pub.”

“Am I invited?” Rose wondered.

“Boys only,” Al told her grinning.

She stuck out her tongue at him. “That’s just fine, then. Nat and I will go into Muggle London and go shopping without you.”

“No,” Al said and realized suddenly he meant it. Also, he’d sounded just like his father with his stern voice as he’d said it. “Uh…”

“No chance of me going off on my own,” Nat sighed. “I’m going to be lucky if they even let me get a job.”

“Well, Uncle Harry talked to Ollivander and he’s agreed you’d only be making wands and that could be done anywhere,” Rose reminded her. “That would be a job.”

“Sure,” Nat agreed. “It won’t pay much. I can live in my parents’ flat downtown but it doesn’t seem practical. But still, it will be weird if I’m the only one living with your parents,” Nat said as she poked Al’s ribs. “They probably like having their privacy.”

“Please let’s pretend that’s not actually happening,” Al grumbled and fought off the image of his parents as anything even remotely interested in… anything. “Anyway, they’re going to be okay with you being there, Nat. You know they love you.”

“I know that they will want their house back,” she said. “I’ll think of something.”

He wanted to argue but the boats were bumping up against the shore and it was time to get on the train.

It was both the longest and the shortest train ride they’d ever taken back home. By the time he was back in his parents’ house, he was itching to get moved into the flat.

“You could have bought a house,” his father told him as they moved in the last of the boxes. It was mostly his mother’s doing, he knew. There was no way he actually had this much stuff.

Al glanced around to make sure Scorpius was in his room and couldn’t hear him. “He couldn’t afford it,” he told his father.

His dad nodded. Scorpius was going to work at Gringotts but he was starting off as a trainee, which didn’t pay much. He’d move up fast, Al knew. Scorpius had graduated top of their class, right along with Rose, and he had a head for numbers. But without his parents’ help, and just the small nest egg his aunt had given him, he couldn’t spend much.

It wouldn’t have mattered to Al if he’d bought the house and Scorpius had lived with him for free, but it mattered to Scorpius. He’d tried to talk to him about it once, but his best mate had shut it down and said he had to pay his own way.

So they were living above the joke shop in Diagon Alley with the understanding they’d both pitch in in the shop if they were around and his uncles needed help.

What could possibly go wrong?

“I think we’ll give Nat your old room,” his dad told him as he opened up a box. “I’ve started considering how to make a workshop for her out back so she can work on the wands.”

Al thought about Nat’s comments earlier and decided he’d better warn his dad. “She thinks you don’t want her to live with you.”

Harry glanced up sharply. “What?”

“She,” Al shifted uncomfortably and tried to think of how he could phrase this without actually saying anything he didn’t want confirmed. “She, uh, thinks you’ll want your space since, uh, everyone else is gone.”

His dad frowned in concern. “It really isn’t an option. She can’t just move into a flat by herself.”

“Well, I sort of told her that, but she’s an adult too, so she can do what she likes, right?”

His father shook his head as Scorpius came into the living room. “What’s up?” his best mate wondered.

“Did you know Nat wants to find a place to live?” Harry asked him.

Scorpius’ brows rose in shock. “She can’t.”

Harry scrubbed hard at his face. “Right… well… I’ll just get your mother to deal with this.”

~*~

“You’re staying here,” Ginny told Nat gently as she sat her down on a new bed her parents had sent for her for a graduation gift since Al had taken his old bed to the flat.

The poor girl looked miserable. “Mrs. Potter…”

“Ginny,” she corrected. “You’re graduated, you’re an adult, I’m Ginny now.”

Nat blew out a long breath as she stared down at her hands. “You do not want to have me living with you all the time.”

“I’m sitting here, telling you that I do and more importantly, you have to.” Ginny wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, kissing her brow. “I love you like my own child, Natalie Leah. I want you safe and happy. You will stay here until you can get a house we can protect or until you get married.”

Nat seemed to shrink in on herself. “It’s never going to happen! Ollivander can’t pay me much and no one will let me get a job that might actually pay something. I’m never going to be able to afford a house or…” her voice trailed off and Ginny knew what she hadn’t said.

Yet again she wanted to shake her ridiculous son and tell him to get off his arse and make this girl happy. But it wasn’t her right to interfere. “We will look for other work for you that you can do from home. I know this isn’t fair, I get that. If I was in your shoes, I would be furious and I’d have marched right out and done whatever I damn well pleased. But…”

“But you can actually cast a Shield Charm,” Nat finished miserably. “I totally failed my Defense N.E.W.T. It was embarrassing.”

Ginny shook her head and smiled. “You healed my grandson and for that there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.”

“But–”

“No buts,” Ginny interrupted, running a hand along her strawberry blonde head. “Lily won’t leave this house until she’s married. You’re the same.”

Nat shook her head. “But–”

“Stop that now,” Ginny told her quietly. “You will marry someday and it needs to be to a man who can protect you and take care of you.”

“I feel like a burden.”

Ginny slowly pulled in a breath and let it out again before she spoke. “I know this might seem old fashioned or that we’re being over-protective. It wouldn’t matter if you were a boy, Nat. You are who you are and that comes with things that need to be considered. If anyone finds out what you can do, you could be captured and if you’re captured but not cared for properly, you’ll be dead in short order. Your body won’t tolerate it.”

All because of a stupid Egyptian curse… “You could be a boy and I’d be saying the same thing, only I’d have to find a girl to protect you… or I guess a bloke,” she laughed. “Well, whoever you marry needs to be up to snuff.”

Nat shook her head but didn’t argue.

~*~

Isabella Crabbe stared at the Daily Prophet article containing the photo of the baby and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, something was very wrong.

The baby looked content and happy and not a single one of the babies she’d managed to produce was ever content or happy. They were all miserably crying welps who never shut up. Her biggest problem now was the mothers abandoning them and running off when the crying became too much. She’d had to bring in nurses who could take shifts to care for the creatures. She had a few who were past one and they didn’t cry anymore, but they weren’t normal either.

But then that was the point.

What had gone wrong? Why wasn’t this child crying?

She dropped the paper on the table and paced around the room, not seeing the palatial surroundings or the views of the snowcapped mountains beyond her windows.

Potter couldn’t have undone her potion. There was no cure for the potion. No one even knew about the potion, not even to have a cure! Fury roamed freely through her until she could barely see straight.

She’d so enjoyed the thought of sending back that damaged child to the worthless Potter. She’d sent them a damaged child, one who might not live very long. Some of the children she’d been experimenting on lived, but a lot of them died. It felt right and just to give him a child, a cursed child, and wouldn’t it have been so perfect if that brat had died after they’d grown to love it? Or maybe they wouldn’t love it and the crying would drive them utterly insane.

That had been the plan!

She snatched up the paper and watched the baby wave happily as the young woman smiled down at it.

What the hell had gone wrong?!

She didn’t know, but she had to find out. Could she risk going back to England? No. No, it was too risky until she made a play for the girl. She’d try for the middle child, too, if he ever left England, but if he didn’t, she’d have to be content with the girl.

She would simply have to send someone in to snatch the baby. The mother would surely take it out sometime and then they’d have it. They could run tests and then finish it off.

Yes. Yes, that was what she would do.

Back to index


Chapter 64: Chapter 61

Author's Notes: I'm going to be real with you- I got hit with something on Thanksgiving and my brain is working at the speed of smell. It's pretty bad. I'm bedridden most of the time and it's a miracle I even managed to write at all. I've been sick for two months now. SO I tried really hard with this, my amazing beta Arnel tried hard, but this is what it is because I struggle sometimes to string words together.

I know most of you are going to be really unhappy about Nat and Al but ya gotta trust me, it isn't time yet.

But I hope you like it anyway. Please consider leaving a review. I respond to all of them.

Also if you want to read one of my original stories you can find it on *p a t r e o on* Search for Sarah Jaune. No HP there, just my original stuff. I make it very affordable to support me, cost of a cup of coffee (or less if you like fancy coffee)


Chapter 62

“Is it supposed to be like this?” Lena asked as she and Al ran in circuits around a track Al didn’t even know existed in the bowels of the Ministry.

“Dunno,” Al admitted as he glanced over at her. Lena Rice had been in their year at Hogwarts and he could honestly admit he hadn’t ever given her a second thought. He’d had so many other things going through his head, that she wasn’t one of them. Plus, she’d never hit on him which was a bonus. She was tall, at least five foot nine and slim. She had hair just about as black as his and it was short, cut in a bob around her angled face. Her eyes were some kind of blue that didn’t want to settle into one color or maybe they were hazel. He didn’t really know. All he knew is she was keeping up with him on the track and she’d been keeping up with him all week for training.

He liked Lena and had decided almost immediately they’d be friends, which was good since they’d be working together for the next many decades. She was smart, funny, nice, and tough as nails. He wasn’t going to mind that she would have his back.

“How is it that you don’t know?” she demanded in her voice that was lower than most girls. “Your dad is the head Auror for Merlin’s sake!”

“He never talked about what training would be like and I didn’t ask,” Al told her honestly, puffing slightly as he kept up his pace. “I thought it would be cheating to ask since no one else gets to know.”

“That’s what I like about you, Albus,” she said as they hit their third mile. “You have a good sense of what’s fair. Now tell me,” she said with a laugh. “Why haven’t you asked Nat out yet?”

Al felt himself flush, even more than the heat the run was generating. “It’s… she’s… she’s not into me.”

“That’s just crap. I know she’s into you,” Lena informed him with a sniff of disdain, even as her eyes laughed at him. “What are you waiting for?”

He didn’t want to admit that he was afraid of mucking the whole thing up and ruining their friendship. He didn’t want to tell her about how Nat kept trying to fix him up on dates. Nat needed to live with his parents for her own safety and what if he made everything awkward? “Well, who are you dating?”

“No boyfriends right now,” Lena huffed as they rounded one of the corners. “I dated Smitty there for a few months this past year.”

Al nearly tripped over his own feet. She’d dated one of his dormmates and he hadn’t noticed? “Uh…”

“I know, I know,” she laughed as she pushed his shoulder. “You’re always so wrapped up in Nat to even notice which is why I think you’re crazy for not asking her out.”

“What happened with Smitty?” Al wondered, needing to change the subject.

“Pshh,” she blew the sound out through pursed lips. “You know him! He cheated on me with a fifth year Hufflepuff and I dumped his arse.”

Unfortunately, he did know Smitty. “Why did you even date him?”

“He’s a great kisser,” Lena giggled. “I was young and stupid and thought I could change him. But now I’m at least six months older and wiser. Come on, let’s race to the end,” she called out as she took off at a flat run ahead of him.

He quickly overtook her with his much longer legs, but he only beat her by two strides. They were both panting and laughing as they made their way to the training room for their next round of torture.


~*~

“Let me have her,” Teddy said as he reached for Amelia who was babbling happily in the late evening sun as the waves crashed on the beach in front of them. They were at least five minutes late starting the wedding, but he wasn’t about to complain since his daughter had just thrown up all over his wife.

“I have it,” Fleur murmured as she waved her wand to clear up the spit up from Victoire’s baby blue dress.

“Thanks,” Victoire laughed as she pulled out a rag to wipe up Amelia’s face.

Amelia, pink cheeked, chubby, and now over seven months old grinned toothlessly at Teddy while drool kept dribbling down her chin. Toothless for now, but they were coming in soon. They had Fred’s wedding this weekend and James’ wedding next weekend. It was going to be fun keeping the babies happy.

Next to him Olivia let out a squeal of joy and he turned to see his other baby lunging for him out of Nat’s arms. “Really?” Nat laughed as she passed the baby over so he had both on his lap.

“Maybe I should check on Emma?” Victoire said as she turned in her seat.

“Lily has her, darling,” Fleur soothed. “You saw how excited she was to take care of her. You sit and enjoy Fred’s wedding.”

“I know you’re right,” Victoire sighed as she leaned her head against Teddy’s shoulder and turned to grin up at him. “It feels like yesterday it was our turn.”

“It does,” he agreed, kissing his wife softly as he valiantly fought to keep the squirming babies from flinging themselves from his arms. They were just learning to crawl and didn’t exactly like being kept on anyone’s lap.

And they were very willing to tell everyone.

“Here,” Nat took Olivia back and stood up, walking around with her off in the sand.

“Might as well join her,” Al muttered from behind Teddy as he plucked up Amelia and went to follow.

“Those two…” Victoire sighed sadly as she watched them.

Teddy turned to study his brother and the love of his brother’s life. Al was so much taller than Nat and he wore navy blue dress robes he knew were new and yet were already beginning to strain at the shoulders. Nat was dressed today in a sunny yellow dress with flower sort of things on it. Teddy didn’t know what they were exactly and had even opened his mouth to ask Victoire when another baby behind him let out a bellow and he turned to see James rising with his tiny son in his arms.

Well, he wasn’t as tiny has he had been. Alex was now four months old and he was starting to finally catch up to his slightly older cousins.

“You’re alright,” James chuckled as he soothed the baby, walking back and forth.

“Maybe I should head to the house to feed him again,” Caroline said.

“He just finished eating, but he burped and startled himself awake,” James grinned as he soothed Alex’s back and rocked with him.

“It will be fine,” Ginny said patting Caroline’s knee. “If the babies cry, they cry. It isn’t like Fred doesn’t know how this works. He and Eva wanted them here.”

“It’s a good thing they’re running late,” Bill muttered from the other side of Fleur, affirming Ginny’s statement. “With all these babies we definitely won’t get through without a few interruptions.”

Teddy glanced over to the bride’s side of the aisle and saw Eva’s grandparents had already been seated along with her great grandmothers and one brother. She had a sister who would stand up with her as her maid of honor. Fred had picked his best mate from school; a bloke Teddy had only met once for the stag night. Of course, he knew all about Colin, since Teddy had been the one to vet him to make sure he could be here for this event.

It was difficult to keep anything like this secure, but they all knew the risks and everyone was willing to play along. All their lives were at risk and Eva’s parents, who were magical, understood all too well.

“Here, come to Grunkle Ron,” Ron said as he came down into the sand and took Alex from James. Lily had informed all her uncles they were now ‘great-uncles’ and thus ‘grunkles’ and every single one of them had run with it, save Percy who was always too dignified for his own good. But of course, they would since it was Lily. Teddy grinned as the older man rocked the baby expertly. “Sit with your wife James, and enjoy. They’re ready to start now.”

Harry was not sitting with them. He was standing guard, as were a dozen Aurors.

Teddy glanced over to see his Aunt Hermione staring forward towards the ocean, with a silent Rose and Hugo next to her.

It broke his heart to see them broken. They’d mended things for a while, but it hadn’t lasted. Hermione wanted to be Minister, which was fine, but she didn’t seem to have any semblance of how to balance work and family. The current Minister was not at the office twenty hours a day. She worked ten, sometimes twelve, and sometimes in the evenings, but she was home every night. Teddy knew from his odd shifts at the office that Hermione was there all the time.

It left no time for her husband or her children. She was rarely at family functions anymore. Even Percy wasn’t nearly so bad. He wanted to be Minister, as well, but he didn’t keep the hours Hermione did and it showed. He had his wife’s hand in his as they sat together. Audrey was whispering to Lucy, who had her brown hair up in some kind of knot in the back. On the other side of Lucy sat Molly and her husband, Brayden. Brayden’s arm was around his wife and she had her head on his shoulder.

“I don’t even know what to do without three children sitting on me,” Victoire told him and he turned back to her, placing his arm around her and nuzzling into her ear.

“You think about making the fourth one with me when we get home,” he growled just so she could hear.

She snorted out a laugh. “You are a funny man. We aren’t doing that for at least a year. I am so tired.”

“We can practice,” he laughed as he heard the music start. The procession started with the mothers being seated, escorted in by George, then Fred, and then the best man and maid of honor walked in to stand up with the little man who would perform the ceremony. They’d do all of this again in a week for James, but it would be a much simpler affair at Ivy Run in the back gardens since Caroline only had Honor for family. They didn’t need security for that wedding.

He turned to watch Lily in a long, flowing golden gown leading Emma by the hand. She stopped at the edge of the make-shift aisleway and knelt down to whisper in Emma’s ear and he watched his beautiful girl in her puffy white gown move down the seats while very carefully dropping one red rose pedal at a time. Her wispy blonde hair was held back with a red bow and she was so adorable it made his heart melt. At soon as she reached the end, she went straight over to Poppop and Gran, who were in the front and he let out a sigh of relief. She’d done exactly as she was supposed to. Lily scooted around the seats and went to sit in the back with Scorpius and finally it was time for the bride. He rose and grinned as he watched Fred’s face light up with delight.

It was his favorite part of any wedding.

They moved into the house for dancing. Bill had worked to enlarge the living room so they could have a reception, even if it was a small one.

He’d heard stories of Bill and Fleur’s wedding and how it had been a grand affair. Every other wedding since, he knew, had been kept small and private.

“Do you miss the big weddings?” Teddy wondered as he hooked an arm around Ginny’s shoulder and pulled her to his side, enjoying having his honorary mother wrap her arm around his waist.

“Not even a little bit,” she assured him with a poke to his stomach. “You don’t remember Auntie Muriel, do you?”

“Didn’t she die before I was born?”

“Sadly, no,” Ginny sighed.

Teddy couldn’t help but laugh. “Ginny!”

“Well, she was an awful cow. One can’t help wishing for death for awful cows,” she told him without the slightest hint of remorse.

Teddy bent to kiss the top of her head. “You are one of my favorite people in the world.”

“Coincidentally, you are one of mine,” she grinned up at him. “Now, go dance with your wife while your children are sufficiently distracted.”

“She’s dancing with her dad, but I might snag Rosie. She’s looking… I dunno.”

Ginny’s lips pinched into a hard line. “Hermione left already.”

Teddy hadn’t realized, and even though he trusted her he still scanned the room. “Rosie it is, then.”

“Yes,” Ginny pushed him gently. “She needs some cheering up. I’ll make sure Ron knows to get her for the next dance.”

He made a beeline for his little cousin just as the next song came on, a slow ballad he didn’t know. She had her arms around her waist, almost like holding herself together. She looked nice tonight in a pale green dress with her auburn curls pulled back with a massive clip. “Come and dance, Rosie,” he said with more happiness than he actually felt. He truly felt sick for her. Her homelife was falling apart around her.

“You don’t have to,” she told him. Her blue eyes looked to be on the verge of tears.

“Of course, I don’t have to,” he chided as he took her by the shoulder and led her over to the others. “But I want to. Come on,” he coaxed as she let him take her hand. They danced for about twenty seconds in silence before Teddy asked, “Didn’t Andrew want to come with you?”

It would have been easier on her to have her boyfriend there and he was already cleared as far as security was concerned.

“His sister had a recital tonight,” Rose explained. “I actually wanted to go to it, too. Then we realized it was the same night, but she had another one at the end of the summer so I promised I would go to that.”

“What kind of recital?”

“Ballet,” Rose told him and the first genuine smile he’d seen appeared on her face. “She danced for me yesterday and she was really good! She’s still so little, but she’s more graceful than I’ll ever be.”

“Victoire was talking about dance for Emma but she’s still young yet and then Caroline said she wanted to take her to cheer, which I have to admit I know nothing about,” Teddy chuckled.

His cousin’s face finally relaxed completely. “I know both and I have to tell you, I think Emma is more of a cheer girl than a ballet girl.”

“Really?”

“She can try both, but don’t be surprised if she picks cheer.”

It was an idea. She’d be able to start both after her next birthday. Still, it caused a pang. “My baby is getting big.”

“All the babies are getting big,” she pointed out as the song ended. She rose up on her toes and put her arms around his neck for a solid hug. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” he promised and meant it as Ron came over to claim the next dance.

~*~

James wasn’t nervous about his wedding to Caroline since they were already married and, praise Merlin, sharing a bed. Even a year before he hadn’t wanted to even hope that would have been something he could have in his life and he loved her enough to let it be. Sharing her bed was… amazing. He definitely didn’t want to stop, but if she needed it for whatever reason he would because somewhere along the lines of learning to love her, he’d learned that loving her meant putting her first before anything else. It was a constant miracle to him she wanted him and she’d been able to move past what her father had done to her and even to loving a child she hadn’t birthed. He would never take that for granted.

He grinned at his mother who held Alex in her arms in the front. They didn’t have a bride and groom side for this wedding since Honor would be standing up with Caroline and there would be no one left.

It didn’t matter. She was his family now and now she had a large brood of people all there to support her, even Louis who had made it back from Egypt just that morning to stand up with him. It had been months since he’d seen his cousin and best mate and he grinned as he spotted the familiar thatch of red hair, quite a bit longer than it had been in their Hogwarts days, as he escorted Honor in. His sister-in-law was still so painfully shy, it was hard to get a word out of her. Half the time she didn’t even live with them, preferring to stay with Lily and Nat at Ivy Run but when she was at home, he could get her to smile and talk. She adored Alex, which helped.

She had her coal black hair pulled back from her face and hanging straight down. She grinned at him, her dark hazel eyes flashing and he grinned back. It helped to have Louis there. He could relax anyone.

She took her place on her side as Emma and the house-elf, Teeny, in matching green dresses that nearly matched the one Honor was wearing, began to walk down the aisle for the second time. He grinned at his niece and her best friend as she carefully dropped pink flower petals all along. Teeny had her own basket but she kept watching Emma and dropped one every time Emma did. They were supposed to turn and sit with his mum, but Emma bolted over to Honor and took her hand instead and a moment later, Teeny had Emma’s other hand, both of them having dropped their baskets. At his mum’s questioning glance, he shrugged. If they wanted to stand, they could stand.

A moment later he turned to see his beautiful wife standing at the end of the aisle on his dad’s arm. Unbeknownst to him, his father had offered Caroline, and Honor when her time came, to walk them down the aisle. He’d never thought she’d accept, but she had. She beamed at him, her blue eyes full of light and happiness as she walked towards him and his father handed her over to him.

He couldn’t even hear the words being said as their souls were bound, but he felt it the moment they were joined. It was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. It was like the first time they’d made love, only it never seemed to end. He felt a joy and connection to her he couldn’t possibly begin to describe. When they kissed, he felt it in her as well. He felt their connection down to his core.

Then his son started crying and he grinned before breaking the kiss.

Not to be outdone, Olivia joined in shortly followed by Amelia. Everyone laughed as the ceremony broke up to tend to the crying babies.

“Come on, pumpkin,” Caroline grinned as she took their son from Ginny. “You did so well and I bet you’re starving and ready for a new diaper.”

“Let’s go up to my old room,” James said as he put his hand on his wife’s back. He could tell for certain there was no way she could nurse in the dress she was wearing. The top was not meant to come down that way. “I didn’t get to tell you earlier, but you look absolutely beautiful.”

“Thanks,” she smiled as they walked together up the stairs as Victoire settled on the couch to nurse the twins. “She had the right idea with her dress.”

“But it wasn’t her wedding,” James pointed out as he kissed her cheek and pushed into his room to find the nursery his mother had set up there. The room still had a bed for anyone who needed it, but it now boasted a changing table and cots for three babies. The odds that all three would sleep at the same time were slim, but he appreciated his mother’s optimism.

Forty minutes later they rejoined the party. Caroline had told him he could go down without her, but he threw that suggestion out the window. “It’s our wedding and I’m spending the day with you.”

“But you haven’t seen Louis in ages,” she reminded him as she handed Alex to him after he helped her zip up the back of her dress. “I should just change so I can nurse him down there, but the dress is pretty and I want to wear it.”

“Then wear it,” he said as he held the door open for her. “We can come back up here again in a few hours for another feeding and you can change then if you want.”

“I think I might,” she admitted. “We still have to get pictures.”

He’d forgotten about that part. “Hopefully the twins are happy again.”

He found Louis talking to his Uncle Bill outside and he finally had a chance to hug him. It was a side hug, since he held his sleeping baby in one arm, but it felt good all the same. He’d really missed him. He’d only seen him once when he’d been in Egypt for a game in January. “It’s good to see you, mate!”

“You, too!” Louis laughed as he clapped him on the back. “Look at you,” he pointed down at Alex. “I sort of figured you’d marry first, but didn’t expect this.”

He hadn’t told Louis the truth about Alex because it wasn’t the sort of thing one put in a letter that could be stolen. James glanced to his uncle who shook his head slightly. “Right, well…”

“Let’s move a bit further from the children,” Bill suggested and James nodded gratefully as worry stole over Louis’ features.

“What’s wrong?” Louis demanded first of his father and then of James as soon as they were about fifteen feet from everyone else. Everyone knew, of course, except Emma and there was no telling what she’d remember or repeat.

So, James told him the brief story of what happened.

“But…” Louis glanced down at the sleeping baby and then back to Caroline. “But… mate, I’m so sorry.”

James nodded as his throat seemed to be too tight to speak. “It was a trying time, but it brought Caroline and me closer together and I don’t regret my son.”

Louis’ mouth firmed and he needed, his blue eyes meeting James’ head on. “I wondered why you didn’t tell me she was pregnant, only that you had a baby. I thought that was something you’d tell me. Looking back, I thought maybe you were acting odd in January but didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t expect this.”

“He couldn’t put it in a letter,” Bill explained as he rested a hand on his son’s arm. Louis wasn’t quite as broad across as his father yet, but he was getting there. Louis was already slightly taller. “Also, I expect you met in a pub while he was in Egypt for the game and that was no place to share that kind of secret.”

“You’re right,” Louis sighed. “I–”

“Uncle Jamie!” a small voice squealed as a little ball of energy in a green dress barreled towards him and held her arms up. Somewhat behind her was Teeny, twisting her tiny hands.

“I can pick you up,” Bill offered but Emma wouldn’t budge.

James knelt and scooped her up in his free arm as he blew a raspberry into her cheek. “What’s the matter, darling?”

“No cake Gamma says,” Emma told him pitifully. “Me and Teeny wants cake Uncle Jamie!”

“I see,” James nodded seriously as he pressed his forehead to hers. “Gamma said I had to come cut the cake?”

“Yes!” Emma agreed, clearly pleased he understood and would get her what she wanted.

“Can you take Alex?” James asked his uncle, but to his surprise, Louis offered.

“I have him,” Louis said as he carefully took the sleeping baby.

“Alright,” he said as he reached down and scooped up the elf in his other arm. Teeny giggled as he blew a raspberry in her cheek as well. “Let’s go talk Gamma into some cake.”

First, they had to take pictures, which did not please Emma, but were thankfully over in less than ten minutes.

He found his cousin still holding Alex, who was sound asleep even through all the chaos. “Want cake?” James asked as he sat next to him, plopped his piece on a table next to him.

“Thanks,” he said as he attempted to eat one handed. “How do you not drop stuff all over him when you’re eating?”

“Oh, it’s easy,” James assured him. “I drop stuff all over him and the dogs lick it clean before my wife notices.”

Louis burst out laughing, nearly spewing cake everywhere. Alex let out a grunt and then settled back in to sleep. “He is really asleep.”

“I think he’s in another growth spurt,” James told him. “How on earth did you hold off the girls from taking him?”

“Told them they got him the rest of the time and it was my turn,” Louis informed him. “Then reminded them there were two other babies and that did the trick. I held both twins this morning for a bit. It’s difficult with two and they wanted to crawl everywhere.”

James grinned. He’d really missed his cousin. “How is the job going?”

“It’s been alright,” Louis said between bites and James saw there was something there he wasn’t saying. “I’m already read to come home. There is a possibility I’ll transfer back this year.”

“Yeah?” James asked, not wanting to get his hopes up. “You know, we wanted to ask you to be his godfather, but with you out of the country…”

Louis’ expression froze for a moment, then his blue eyes lit with joy. “I’d love that. Yeah, I know it would be hard with me being away, although I hope nothing ever happens to you.”

“Me, too,” James agreed as he studied his son. “But we know it pays to be prepared.”

“What are you two discussing?” Caroline asked as she sat next to James with her own piece of cake.

“That is not the same cake,” Louis pointed out with his fork, pointing towards her.

“No, this is the cake for Nat,” Caroline agreed. “I don’t like all that sugar and I think it disagrees with Alex.”

“I brought home some doughnuts a few weeks back and she had two,” James explained to Louis. “Three hours later, Alex wouldn’t stop crying and he had a horrible night.” At his cousin’s blank look, he said, “Breastfeeding.”

“Right,” Louis agreed, shifting a little uncomfortably. James let it go, though. His sister breastfed in front of him, but he was still a single guy.

“It might not have been the sugar, but I’m not willing to risk it,” Caroline added as she studied their son. “He’s just… he seems a little more sensitive than other babies.”

“Shouldn’t James be eating sugar-free cake then, too? In solidarity?” Louis wondered, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

Caroline eyed him, but smiled and shook her head. “No, he works out so much he can burn it off. When he retires, then maybe we’ll talk about it. Anyway, Louis, how long are you back?”

“Right now, only two days,” he groused as he finished off the last of his cake, “but I’m hoping to transfer back to England this year.”

“Oh, good!” Caroline sighed happily, beaming at him. “We were hoping you’d be Alex’s godfather. I want my sister to be his godmother, but she’s a little reluctant at the moment. Of course, if something happened to us, she couldn’t take him on right now. She’s too young.”

“I would be honored,” Louis promised her seriously. “But please stay safe as unlike this bloke here, I’m not exactly ready to be a daddy.”

James finished his cake just in time for Alex to grunt, shift, stretch and fill his nappy. “That’s my cue,” he said as he took his son from Louis.

Louis laughed and gladly handed him over. “Talk your sister into changing his nappy. I bet she would.”

“Nah,” James held the baby up and kissed his cheek. “I don’t mind.”

And truthfully, he didn’t, although he did snag Lily to help him since he was pretty certain he was going to be in for a mess and kicking legs could make it even worse. Thankfully, as Louis predicted, Lily didn’t mind. Moments after he was changed, Caroline came in to change her dress and feed him again.

“You go on,” Lily told him, shooing him to the door. “I want to sit with my sister while he eats.”

“Alright,” James agreed as he left them chattering and laughing. He closed the door and felt the happiness straight down to his toes. Life was very, very good.

~*~

Andrew studied Rose as they walked through the extensive gardens at his home. She wore a simple sundress today, much as she had for James’ wedding. He’d been excited to bring Claire to the wedding and after an initial bout of shyness she’d started to play with Emma and Teeny, the house-elf. It was Claire’s first time seeing a house-elf and it had taken his sister a moment to get over her initial hesitation. He’d pointed out she was the big girl and could help by playing with them, Claire had been more than happy to sit and play with the doll house. She was getting so big. She’d be seven soon and his aunt was slowing down even more.

“Why are you looking at me? You’re going to trip.”

“You’re so beautiful.”

He watched her face, as he had done the day before at the wedding and noticed, yet again, her mouth twist at his words. At least she wasn’t arguing with him. “Thank you.”

He wanted to ask why she didn’t believe him, but he knew the truth. It didn’t matter if she was beautiful in his eyes. She had to see it for herself. At least she didn’t look down on herself. She didn’t think she was unworthy of love or attention.

It was what he saw when he looked at her mother. He saw a very unhappy woman who didn’t feel worthy of love or attention. But Rose wasn’t damaged by war and years of conflict. Her parents both loved her, even if they didn’t know how to love each other.

He was ready. Alright, he wasn’t quite ready, but he was ready enough to ask her. He’d asked her father the day before. Rose had known he was going to and she’d encouraged him, telling him it would make her father feel better about the whole thing. He hadn’t thought Ron would tell him no, and he hadn’t been disappointed. He’d only asked Andrew about her schooling and Andrew had explained about how he would cover her schooling once they married in a year and then he’d made Andrew promise to be a better husband than he had been.

Andrew hadn’t known what to say. If he agreed, he’d be insulting his future father-in-law. If he disagreed, he was saying he wouldn’t be a good husband.

He went with the truth. “I’m going to love her with my whole heart and put her first.”

It had been good enough for Ron.

Andrew pulled her hand just as they reached a bench and he sat her down before kneeling in front of her. Her eyes softened as a smile touched her lips. “Yes.”

“I haven’t even asked you,” Andrew laughed as he pulled the ring from his back pocket. “I want to do this properly.”

“Alright, be proper.”

He grinned. He couldn’t help it. “Rose Minerva Weasley, I love you. You are my best friend and the person I want to build a family with. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she whispered as she cupped his cheeks and kissed him lightly. “A thousand times, yes.”

He was lost in the kiss for so long he nearly forgot the ring until he realized he was still holding it. “Here,” he said breaking the kiss to slip it on. It fit perfectly, as he knew it would since he’d had her finger sized.

“It’s beautiful,” Rose told him honestly.

“You’re beautiful,” he promised, running his thumb along her cheekbone. “One day you’re going to believe me.”

~*~

“Please relax,” Al told his brother as they made their way into the Muggle pub. He had his hand around Nat’s waist, keeping her close. The man at the door hadn’t believed her age and had given them a hard time until she’d produced the fake ID his dad had made for her, well for all of them, but he’d let the rest of them go. “Mum has everything under control.” The barman hadn’t even questioned Lily or Honor, both of whom had just turned sixteen. He glanced quickly over his shoulder and saw Scorpius bringing up the rear. Good.

“It’s not just Alex,” he heard his brother mutter as he kept Caroline’s hand firmly clamped in his.

Al knew it wasn’t just concern for leaving the baby, although certainly Alex was perfectly safe in his own bed with his doting grandmother watching him. Harry was standing guard somewhere, along with Teddy, Bill and another Auror who had volunteered. Then there was Caroline to consider. Sometimes she didn’t do well with crowds.

James didn’t get a stag night. Caroline didn’t get a hen night. They never had the chance to go out and do anything as normal as have a pint. So, for this, Louis’ only other night in England, Al had convinced his father to let them go to a pub.

To his relief, Al saw Louis already had a large table in a back room. He was glad he’d set his cousin the task of reserving the room. “We’re still waiting on Rose, Andrew, and Hugo,” Al told them. “I also invited my other Auror trainee.”

“You did?” James asked him curiously as Al held out a seat for Nat to sit down.

“She had a really rough week,” Al told him by way of explanation. It wasn’t his business to explain Lena’s endless family drama. “I told her we were going out for a pint and she asked if she could come along.”

“It’s fine,” Caroline told him as she sat. “I like Lena. She’s a nice girl.”

“Yeah,” Al agreed.

“I don’t remember her, at all,” James admitted.

“Who are we talking about?” Louis wondered.

“Lena Rice,” Lily explained after she thanked Scorpius, who had just draped a shawl over her shoulders. Al would have told her to wear something more than that thin dress but he knew it wouldn’t have done him any good. Whatever. “She was a Ravenclaw in Al’s year.”

“Yeah, doesn’t ring a bell,” Louis agreed as a waitress came over to take drink orders.

Nat chose water, which didn’t surprise Al. She’d also already eaten since she couldn’t be sure she’d be able to eat anything. He ordered a pint of whatever lager was on tap and turned to grin at Nat, who wasn’t exactly grinning back. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” she assured him, plastering on a fake smile. Then she turned to Lily and started to speak to his sister.

Alright…

Sighing, he turned back to his brother and spotted Lena wending her way through the tables with Andrew, Rose, and Hugo right on her heels. He noticed, with relief, she was in jeans and some kind of jumper thing. He’d forgotten to ask her if she knew how to dress as a Muggle. Most of the students at Hogwarts did, but it was always prudent to ask. “You made it!”

“Thanks for inviting me,” Lena called out happily as she said hello to everyone.

Louis stood and held out the seat next to her, holding out his hand. “Louis Weasley.”

Lena was tall for a woman and wearing boots, but Al realized his cousin was still a couple of inches taller. He hadn’t really noticed how much he’d shot up while in Egypt.

“I know,” Lena told said, shaking his hand before they both sat while Rose, Andrew and Hugo rounded the table to fill in the remaining seats. “You dated one of my roommates.”

Louis cocked his head to the side and studied her. “Ravenclaw a year behind me, had to be Poppy, right?”

“Right,” Lena agreed as she sat down. “Nice to see you again, Rose.”

“You, too,” Rose agreed as she leaned into Andrew, who had his arm draped around her shoulder. “So,” she looked around at everyone. “I know this is a celebration of James and Caroline, but I wanted to share my news,” she said as she held up her hand to show off something.

Was that a ring?

Much squealing interjected itself onto Al’s brain as he realized his cousin, and his first best friend, was engaged. Engaged. He congratulated them, as did everyone else as the first round of drinks hit the table.

“I feel like an ass,” Lena said as she made to stand as the congratulations died down. Al could see her cheeks were bright red. “I didn’t realize this was a family thing when I invited myself along.”

“Stop,” Caroline told her, grabbing her hand and keeping her leaving. “This is my first night away from the baby and I want you to stay. We married last year in a Muggle ceremony but had our souls bound yesterday, which was the first time Louis could get back to be there.”

“I missed my other cousin’s wedding the week before, but James wanted me to be his best man,” Louis explained.

“Oh, it’s nice you could make it back,” Lena said as the conversation shifted around them.

Al tuned them out and turned to see Nat staring into her glass of water. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, but didn’t answer.

“When were you thinking of marrying?” he heard Lily ask Rose, and his cousin’s answer of the next summer.

“Hey,” he said to Nat again as he reached over to take her hand under the table. He gently squeezed her fingers. “Are you hungry?”

She shook her head and it seemed as though she forced herself to meet his eyes. “I’m fine, Al. Stop worrying about me.”

“Nat, you’ll be my maid of honor, right?”

They both turned to see Rose’s smile fixed on them, but something else was in her eyes. “We don’t want a big party, just one attendant.”

“Sure,” Nat agreed quickly. “I’d be honored.”

“I was hoping you’d be my best man,” Andrew said to Hugo, who gaped at him. “I lost my brothers, but I’ll be gaining one when Rose and I marry.”

Hugo laughed and nodded. “Sure, I can do that.”

“Oh, this is going to be so wonderful!” Lily sighed happily as she glanced up at Scorpius. “We can dance all night at their wedding.”

“You’d think you’d be tired of it, since we’ve had two weddings in two weekends,” he commented as he kissed the tip of her nose.

“Never!” Lily promised dreamily. “When we marry, I want it to be hours and hours of dancing.”

Al nearly choked on his beer. “Lily, you are sixteen!”

“And Rose is eighteen,” Nat pointed out to him. “Your mum married at sixteen.”

Merlin, that was a terrifying thought.

“I’m not talking about now, Albus,” Lily beamed. “I’m just planning ahead and letting Scorpius know what I want.”

“You were going to get whatever you wanted anyway, and just expect him to show up on time,” Al pointed out with a long sigh. He seriously hoped his father wasn’t close enough to hear this conversation. “It’s your wedding. He’s just a necessary accessory.”

Rather than looking affronted, Scorpius only grinned at him. Such was the price of being with Lily and his best mate seemed to be happy to pay it.

Al blew out a breath as the wedding talk picked up again. At least whatever had been bothering Nat was over. She seemed happy enough now and thinking of his baby sister marrying was giving him a stomach ache. Maybe he should lay off the beer for the night.

Then Lena laughed and he felt Nat tense next to him and he realized it was Lena. Lena was the reason Nat was so tense.

“Come on,” he said to Nat as he pushed back his seat.

“What?” Nat demanded as he pulled her away from the group and into an empty corner.

“What’s wrong with Lena?” Al demanded bluntly. “I can tell you’re uncomfortable with her.”

“It’s nothing, Al!” Nat said as she tried to pull out of his grasp. She stopped and looked up at him. “Let me go.”

He did, but as she began to walk away, he whispered, “Please,” and even to his own ears it sounded pathetic. Shoving his hands in his jean pockets, he waited while she turned back to him. “Please tell me, Leah. I hate when you’re upset. If she’s ever been mean to you–”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Nat said as she moved back to him. She worried at her bottom lip and then finally said, “you talk about her all the time. I feel like I’m being replaced and I’m jealous and I’m sorry about it. I mean, I know I’m going to be replaced at some point. I won’t be your best friend forever.”

“Why won’t you be my best friend forever?” he demanded more forcefully than he meant to, but he felt a desperate sickness at the thought of not having her in his life.

“You’ll get married someday.” She sounded exhausted and exasperated all at the same time. She tucked a strand of her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear and stared at the floor. “Look at James and Caroline. Sure, Louis is James’ best mate, but Caroline is his best friend and that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s how it’ll be with Rose and Andrew. It’s already that was with Scorpius and Lily.”

He thought about Nat marrying someone else and not being his best friend anymore and he felt simply sick at the idea. “No.”

“It’ll happen and I thought… I thought maybe it was happening now. With Lena. She’s really pretty.”

“What?” Al asked, confused. When her words finally registered, he shook his head. “No, no way! Lena is a pal! I don’t see her like that, at all.”

Nat studied him for a long moment and then nodded slowly. “Alright. Let’s go back to the table. I think they’re ready to order.”

Whatever he’d said seemed to make Nat relax at the table, but he made sure to talk to her more than Lena. He let out a slow breath as they made to leave the pub. He was helping escort the girls back to Ivy Run and he knew he wouldn’t get a chance to talk to Nat alone.

What a mess. The worst part was he didn’t know how to get out of it.

Back to index


Chapter 65: Chapter 62

Author's Notes: I hope you enjoy. Please consider finding me to support my original work. Sarah Jaune. You can find me loads of places including pa treon

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!


Chapter 62

They were halfway through August and Harry still didn’t know how he was going to send Lily back to Hogwarts without at least one brother there to protect her. He couldn’t even seem to work! He was left staring at his closed office door in the Ministry willing for time to stop.

He’d wanted to ignore Crabbe and pretend life was going on just fine, but his grandson was living proof the crazy old bat was still alive and well and waiting for Lily. When would she strike? He didn’t know and it left him sick and hollow inside without any clear way to stop her. It had seemed like Voldemort had been impossible to kill. He’d had a roadmap, albeit a crazy one with more holes than a leaky cauldron. Dumbledore had done the hard work for him and in hindsight he could see the old man had truly tried to do his best for Harry. Yes, it had been a gamble to leave it in the hands of a seventeen-year-old young man, but Harry had managed to pull it off with a lot of dumb luck and help from extremely loyal and talented friends.

He couldn’t do that now. He didn’t have a clue where Crabbe was holed up, although he knew she liked Brazil. The Brazilian Ministry didn’t have a tight hold on their borders, especially to the north west where most of the country was dense rainforest. They had magical tribes still living there which made it nearly impossible to travel for Muggles, let alone wizards. Venezuela was currently in a horrible state, both for their magical community and the Muggles alive and they had absolutely no security in place to keep a witch of Crabbe’s caliber out of the country. From there, she could easily cross into Brazil because all the countries relied on the rainforest to keep them secure and it mostly did. It was covered in poisonous insects, snakes, jaguars, and a whole host of other nasty beasts of the magical variety including a few thousand dragons in the wild.

Hagrid would be in heaven.

But Crabbe wouldn’t let any of those things stop her and once she was in Brazil, it was a large country with a thinly stretched Ministry unable to patrol or care what might happen to a few stray Muggles.

They hadn’t had word of her in months. There hadn’t been an official spotting of her in much longer than that. He simply didn’t know when she was going to turn up again.

There was knock at his office door, startling him so he nearly toppled his chair backwards before he even realized he’d had it balanced on two legs. “Enter,” he called as Daniel stuck his head in.

“Audrey wants to see you at St. Mungo’s,” he told Harry, looking alarmed. “She sent one of the junior Healers to come fetch you rather than an owl.”

Harry sprang to his feet and grabbed his cloak. He pushed through to see a woman about James’ age waiting for him, her black hair pulled back neatly in a plait down her back. She was in a familiar green cloak all Healers wore and she looked familiar, but he couldn’t place her. “Mr. Potter,” she said with a nod of her head as her cheeks flushed.

“Yes, let’s go,” he said as he led the way to the Floo. In moments they were at St. Mungo’s.

“This way,” the young woman told him as she hurried through the hospital until they arrived at Audrey’s office door. “Go right in,” she said before turning to leave him there.

He pushed in to see Audrey pouring over pages of handwritten notes. Even at a glance he could tell she was frantic and frazzled. “Close it and seal the door,” she ordered and Harry obeyed, more alarmed than he could admit to.

“What happened?”

Audrey’s eyes were raw as she finally met his gaze. “We have another one.”

He wanted to ask what but he waited for her, knowing she was valiantly trying to pull herself together.

“No one can hear us?” she confirmed.

A younger Harry would have been affronted at being questioned on if he could ward the office against magical spies, but he knew all too well nothing was infallible. “It’s as safe as I can make it.”

Audrey flopped down into her office seat and Harry took the one across from her messy desk. She buried her head in her hands. “We have another Alex.”

Harry’s heart stopped as her words sank in. They had another poisoned baby. They needed Nat and they hadn’t yet worked out how to use Nat without exposing her to untold levels of danger. “This one is a trap.”

“This one is a trap,” Audrey agreed as a tear slid down her cheek followed rapidly by another. “The mother already died, Harry.”

“Oh no,” he breathed out as his heart went out to the young father grieving his wife. The baby might not make it, either.

“I can’t think of what to do!” his sister whispered in anguish as she picked up her stack of parchment and dropped them again. “The man won’t leave his baby’s side, not even for a moment since the baby is clearly in pain and upset, but he’s wrecked at having lost his wife and without any way of getting the baby from him, I can’t have Nat heal her! She’ll have that brown ooze come out and it gets everywhere. How do I explain that to him?”

Harry tried to think of how to handle the situation but every scenario he played out involved Nat in the invisibility cloak and she couldn’t do the healing through it. She had to actually be holding the baby and people would know the baby had been healed, leaving Crabbe to know they had help. “You could pretend it’s a potion that heals the baby, but it’s just colored water and… no. Maybe I can try to talk to him, to let you take the baby for a moment. Or we dose him to sleep.”

“Everyone in the hospital knows the mother was poisoned, Harry,” Audrey told him quietly. “Absolutely everyone. It was obvious from the start and they know the baby is poisoned, as well. They’ll be asking why I can heal the baby and not the mother.”

“You didn’t know she was poisoned until she died,” Harry pointed out. “More to the point, it was a midwife who delivered her, correct?”

“Yes,” Audrey agreed slowly. “Yes, one of the midwives but we had another Healer looking in because she was doing so poorly. We had to remove the baby, actually. It wasn’t a vaginal birth.”

Harry wasn’t totally surprised to hear that, even though it was rare for a baby to be born that way in the magical world. “So, the midwife didn’t see it which is natural. They don’t deal with poisons.”

“You want me to throw this at the feet of the midwife?” Audrey demanded as she rocketed to her feet.

He kept his seat and waited for her while she stormed around the room. “What the bloody hell are we going to do, Harry?”

“We are going to find a way to heal that baby,” Harry said simply. He pulled out his two-way radio and called up Teddy. “Are you still at home?”

“Yeah,” his godson answered with a yawn. “The babies are teething something awful. We barely slept.”

“I need Nat snuck into the hospital under the cloak and I need her now,” Harry said bluntly.

Instantly, the younger man’s face hardened. “We’ll be there in an hour. She’s at home? Where’s the cloak?”

“The cloak is in my office at home in the trunk,” Harry told him. Since Al was back home, so was the cloak and he knew Lily wouldn’t want to take it with her to Hogwarts. “One more thing, Teddy. I need you to arrive at the hospital as Gran and have some kind of baked good to bring to Audrey.”

“Merlin,” Teddy breathed it out. “You really need this kept quiet.”

“I really do,” Harry agreed as he signed off and used the mirror to contact Ginny, who promised to pop over to a Muggle shop to grab biscuits for Teddy to bring in.

“I’ll go grab one of Mum’s dresses while I’m at it,” she assured him.

Then, for good measure, he contacted his mother-in-law and kindly asked her to stay home and if anyone asked, to say she brought biscuits to Audrey at work today.

It wasn’t unheard of for Molly to stop by the Ministry or the hospital, even though it rarely happened. He simply hoped it was enough that no one would think much of it.

Then Harry laid out his plan.

It went off nearly flawlessly. Teddy, in the guise of the elder Molly Weasley, showed up with Nat under the cloak and was shown up to Audrey’s office where Audrey, who didn’t have to pretend to be stressed, told her she needed to see a patient and could Teddy/Molly wait in her office or head up to the fifth floor Tearoom. As Audrey took the biscuits, she palmed Teddy/Molly a note with further instructions.

Teddy even played it up by asking Harry what he was doing at the hospital, allowing Harry to say he had to speak to someone.

Of course, that part was true.

Nat nudged his side to let him know she was there and they made their way to the baby’s room where the poor tiny girl was still screaming her head off while her father walked around with her.

In her hand, Audrey had some colored water in a vial. Only her pinched mouth gave her away and unless one knew her well, they wouldn’t be able to tell how stressed she felt.

Audrey was the Healer in charge of the hospital that day. Everything was riding on her and they all knew it. She knocked at the door and entered at the man’s call.

He was a younger man, maybe mid-twenties, with dark brown hair and a two-day growth of stubble. He looked simply awful, as Harry knew he’d look if he had just lost his wife. He had the tiny baby in his arms while she continued to scream in what Harry knew was pain. He hated the delay, but if Nat was found out they’d have no chance of helping anyone else. Her part in all of this had to stay absolutely secret.

“I thought of something to try,” Audrey said as she held up the vial of blue liquid. “I don’t know if it will help, but it will not hurt.”

“I dunno,” the man shook his head. “I dunno.”

“Mr. Blane,” Audrey said soothingly as she stood before him. “Your baby is very sick and we have to try everything we can. I’m very sorry we didn’t spot the poison in your wife. You have no idea how sorry I am. I want to do everything I can to fix your daughter so you can take her home. Where’s your mum?”

“She… she uh,” tears leaked from his eyes as he shook his head. “She took Hailey’s parents to get a cuppa in the tearoom a minute ago.”

Harry breathed out a sigh of relief as the plan was working. They’d had one of the younger Healers go suggest as much to the grieving grandparents and now it would be up to Teddy/Molly to keep them up there for at least twenty more minutes. “I need a few moments of your time, Mr. Blane.”

The man stared at him blankly and it took him a good minute to register the Head Auror standing there. “Harry Potter.”

“Yes,” Harry confirmed. “I’m so sorry for your loss and I want to do everything I can to catch who did this. Can we step outside for a moment to allow Healer Weasley to work? I promise your baby will be safe with her. I trust my children’s lives to her.”

“I… I dunno,” he said again, glancing between them. “Why can’t I stay here?”

Harry hated to do this but he went for the hardball. “My hearing isn’t what it used to be. I want to make sure I understand all the facts and with your daughter’s cries, I am afraid I might miss something or you might not remember what I need you to remember.”

He felt like scum for saying it, for taking this man away from his hurting child, but it was for the baby’s own good.

Mr. Blane finally nodded and handed the baby over to Audrey as Harry led him from the room and closed the door part of the way while the baby continued to cry. Soon it would be over and the baby would be well again. Audrey would have to completely clean her up before handing her back. The experimentation of the brown gunk hadn’t netted them much in the way of answers, but they did figure out it could minutely infect anyone who touched it with bare skin.

They’d worked that out how to handle this problem. Andrey was going to quickly strip the baby and put her on a disposable pad to pull the brown gunk out, wash the baby as best as she could with magic, and then quickly redress the tiny patient.

Harry’s job was to keep the father distracted. “Mr. Blane, when did your wife fall ill?”

“She… she weren’t never right after she got pregnant,” the man said as he ran a hand through his hair. “I think she was working too much. I have two jobs and she worked at The Leaky Cauldron as a waitress. I kept telling her, she needed to take it easier. But she wanted us to get a nicer place, ya know? Well, she was sick a few weeks before she got pregnant. We were surprised because we weren’t trying! But… but…”

Harry waited while the man broke down in tears and he was thankful the man was distracted because he missed the best sound Harry had heard all day.

Silence. The baby had stopped crying.

Harry didn’t know how Crabbe had snatched Blane’s poor wife to impregnate her, but he doubted the baby was biologically related to this man, but he wasn’t about to offer that observation. It didn’t matter if the baby was related to him, she was his wife’s biological child.

“I will be working with Healer Weasley closely to try to find answers,” Harry told him. “But it’s my thought she was probably poisoned just before she became pregnant. It’s going to be a challenge to go back that many months, but I will not let this rest.” He paused as the man swiped at his eyes. “Will you have help with the baby?”

“My mum says we’re going to move in with her,” he told her, “and Hailey’s parents will be helpful. We’ll… we’ll be okay. I want you to find who did this to them! I want–” he froze as he glanced back towards the room and realized his daughter wasn’t crying. He didn’t wait for Harry to say anything, but pushed into the room just as Audrey finished rewrapping the baby up in the blanket. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Audrey’s smile was genuine and relieved. “She’s resting now. It worked, Mr. Blane!” She handed over the little girl and clasped her hands together.

Harry felt Nat bump his arm and he grinned. It was time to make sure she was cleaned off and get her home. “I’ll wait in your office, Healer Weasley,” he said as knew Nat would follow him.

They hadn’t won the war, but they hadn’t completely lost the battle.

He had been frustrated at his lack of progress with Crabbe, but he realized now he needed to be careful what he wished for.

They still had to explain to the other Healers how Audrey had healed the baby without being able to offer any clues as to what they had done. After that, they had to keep Audrey safe from Crabbe’s wrath if Crabbe realized it was Audrey who had cured the baby.

The whole thing was a bloody mess without any good solutions. The only bright spot was Audrey Weasley was not Natalie Parker and wouldn’t be vulnerable in the way Nat was.

~*~

“We’ve had questions,” Audrey sighed into her glass of wine as Harry sat at her kitchen table while Percy prepared dinner in the kitchen.

“I really don’t like the position you’ve put her in, Harry,” Percy told him stonily. They’d had to lock down Percy and Audrey’s house for the first time and clearly it was already taking its toll. “She’s in real danger!”

“I know,” Harry agreed, splaying his hands before taking a sip from his beer. “Believe me, this is not what I wanted to happen! I didn’t want to have anyone in danger.”

Audrey held up a hand when Percy opened his mouth to fire back. “Darling, I wanted it to be this way. We’ve been over this. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed, but I’d rather it be me than that poor girl! It makes the most sense for it to be me.”

“We are doing everything we can to ensure her safety,” Harry reiterated yet again. “I have an Auror on her at all times. She’s being guarded as carefully as we can manage. Unfortunately, with Crabbe able to use house-elves to bypass the security to get into the country, we can only do so much.”

“It means she can get into the hospital to get to Audrey!” Percy growled with barely controlled fury.

Harry honestly didn’t blame him. If it was Ginny, he’d have been furious, too. But Ginny, like Audrey, would still stand up to try to defend someone else. “What would you have us do, Perce? You want us to let that baby be in pain? What if she’d died, too?”

He watched his brother-in-law close his eyes and grip the counter hard. His lined, angled face bespoke of the sleepless night he’d clearly had after their ordeal the day before. As soon as the baby was healed, Harry had taken Nat home and had moved straight away towards securing Audrey’s safety.

Audrey rose and went to her husband, putting an arm around his waist. “This is going to get worse.”

“I know,” Percy said before turning to wrap his arms around his wife. He pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “I didn’t have you during the war, so I didn’t know fear like I do now. I can’t lose you.”

“You aren’t going to,” Harry promised as he stood, knowing he needed to give them space. “I’m going to up the security on the hospital.”

“How are you going to explain this to the rest of the staff?” Percy asked them as Audrey turned to face Harry.

It was a question that was haunting them both but they’d decided on enough of the truth to hopefully keep the rest of the staff safe. “We told the staff that only Audrey and I know the secret of how to cure someone from this poison. We explained that there is a person out there who is doing this and we don’t want anyone else to be impacted.”

“We also explained that the secret to curing everyone is in a vault that will automatically be opened upon our deaths,” Audrey went on. That part had been her idea. “We’re hoping it will keep us from being killed.”

“I really don’t like this,” Percy said again as he dropped a kiss to the top of his wife’s head. “I know this is the right thing to do, but what if Molly or Lucy is taken so you give up the secret?”

“Crabbe doesn’t want the secret out, though,” Harry reminded him. “She’s going to want us silenced, but with the threat of the cure getting out, she will have to be careful to try to find this vault we’re talking about.”

“And she’ll know we know what we’re doing,” Audrey continued. “Too many of the Healers saw what we did and I can promise one of them will talk to the papers. It’s going to come out how the mother died from poison and how the baby was cured. She’s going to know we have a cure and we have to hope she thinks it’s a cure based on a potion.”

Harry’s jaw flexed as he thought about the work they were trying to get done to get the poison to yield something useful, but thus far Crabbe had covered all her bases. The poison, once exposed to air after Nat pulled it from the body, degraded quickly. It took minutes for the sample to be worthless until they left it on someone’s skin to infect someone, but that was asking too high a price. Nat would have to keep pulling the poison out of someone and they’d have to hope the person didn’t become seriously ill and die from it.

“The whole family is in danger,” Harry said bleakly as he tried to fight back the guilt at being the reason they had yet another monster after them. He knew it wasn’t his fault. He knew she was crazy and her being crazy was directly related to her husband’s abuse of her, but nevertheless the guilt stayed lodged in his gut. “We have to be hyper vigilant again. It’s not as bad as with Voldemort, as we only have one woman and whatever henchmen she hires, but she’s still very dangerous and she doesn’t behave like other criminals. She has her own agenda and timeline.”

“She’s going to target Lily.” It wasn’t a question Audrey was asking.

Harry nodded. “I know.”

~*~

“How did they deal with Aunt Audrey curing the baby?” Lily wondered a few nights later as she and Nat lounged on the couches watching Al and Scorpius play chess. The boys were stretched out on the floor on their stomachs, the game between them, with Teeny curled up asleep on Al’s back. She’d been playing for a while, and Lily didn’t know exactly when she’d had enough, but it was pretty cute. She was a lot smaller than Emma now and didn’t take up much room there since her brother was growing into monster proportions.

She, Honor and Hugo were going back to school shortly and she honestly didn’t know how she was going to manage it. She hadn’t felt like this since just before she went to school for the first time and her father had bought Ducky for her. At least she’d have her cat. Even now, Ducky was curled up asleep on her lap, giving Lily a measure of comfort.

“I haven’t heard,” Nat told Lily dejectedly, “but I’m worried about your aunt’s safety.”

“Just focus on your own safety,” Al called out form across the room, alerting Lily to the fact that her brother was already done with the game and stringing her boyfriend along since he could focus on listening to them. Scorpius, however, still thought he had a shot at the game and clearly was not paying them any attention.

Lily chose to ignore Al because it suited her mood at the moment. She was definitely in a mood. Something felt unsettled to her and she didn’t know what it could be but as she stared at Nat she realized exactly what it was. “Oh.”

“What?” Nat wondered as she shifted in her seat.

Lily grabbed at the ends of her long, red hair and splayed them through her fingers trying to work out how to say it. “It’s just… I’m going to be you in two years.”

Her friend’s eyebrow rose in question.

“I’m going to be restricted to the house,” Lily sighed as she sat back with a grimace. “I won’t be able to get a job or anything.”

“You want to start a restaurant, right?”

“I did,” Lily admitted as she twitched her nose back and forth, thinking it through. “I really did think that’s what I wanted, but I’m not sure now. I don’t know what I want to do, to be honest.”

“You don’t have to know right now,” Nat pointed out reasonably. “You have a few years yet.”

“Yes, but it’s my sixth year,” she reminded her. “I should have some idea.”

“What’s your best subject?”

Lily shrugged. “I’m not really brilliant at any of them. I’m not bad at anything, either. I’m getting fine marks in everything.”

“How do you want to spend your days after we leave school?”

How did she want to spend her days? What did she want to fill her time with? She’d thought about becoming a therapist for a short while because she liked talking to people, but realized quickly it wouldn’t do. For one thing, as soon as anyone around her became too emotional, she was instantly overwhelmed and had to escape from them. It was one of the best things about Scorpius, to Lily’s mind. His emotions could be all over the place, but they never overrode hers or made her feel like she was suffocating. Most of the time he was so calm now that they’d been together for a year. Nothing his parents said or did could change their relationship and she knew that was one of his biggest fears all along.

Then she’d thought about working in a shop which might be fine after she was married, but definitely not before. Men would be forever hitting on her and she hated it. It always made her skin crawl in the worst way, even though most of them weren’t trying to make her feel rotten. She had been feeling badly about hating the attention but her mother had pointed out she didn’t ask for the attention and she had a right not to want it.

But Lily would feel a lot better if Al would get off his bum and ask Nat out. She’d tried telling Nat he was interested and to flirt with her brother but Nat wouldn’t do it. She’d tried telling Al just to ask her out already but Al wouldn’t do it. They were stuck and it left Nat feeling like a complete failure as a woman.

Lily shook her head and tried to refocus on what sort of job. “Nothing in the ministry.”

“No, you’d end up crying a lot,” Nat said and Lily nodded. “Although,” Nat mused after a moment, “they might get a lot more done just to stop you from crying.”

Lily grinned and Al snorted.

“What?” Scorpius asked, finally glancing their way.

“I was just wondering how many things would get done if Lily was crying,” Nat explained.

“All the things,” Scorpius said with a grin and refocused on the chessboard.

“Give up,” Lily told her boyfriend. “He has his checkmate face on.”

“Damn,” Scorpius sighed and rolled over. “Want me to put Teeny in bed?”

“Please,” Al told him. Lily watched as Scorpius carefully lifted the tiny elf and carried her, almost like a baby, to the small cupboard where Polly insisted they sleep. Polly was currently with Victoire as Teddy had to work that night and all three kids were sick, but it had been no trouble to keep Teeny occupied while her best friend was too ill to play.

“What were you discussing besides Lily crying?” Scorpius wondered as he flopped next to her and tucked her into his side.

“I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do after Hogwarts but I realized I’ll be kept locked up just like Nat is if Crabbe isn’t caught,”

Scorpius threaded his fingers through her hair and sighed as he leaned in to press a kiss to her temple. “What do you want to do?”

“That’s just it,” she said as Al came back from the loo and took a seat on the other end near Nat. “I don’t even know what I want to do. Nothing sounds appealing.”

“I asked her what she might want to do with her days and that’s when we agreed the ministry was a terrible idea,” Nat explained.

“Hence the crying,” Scorpius said with understanding.

Lily thought about it for a long moment and then finally said, “I like children. I could be a nanny.”

“Not in just anyone’s household, though,” Al pointed out. “We’d have to have it secured and we’d have to totally trust them, plus you wouldn’t be able to take the children on outings.”

That was true.

“You like helping people,” Nat said after a minute. “You always volunteered to help with any of the projects at school. Is there a way to help people as a job, just with… you know, like charity work.”

Excitement flared in Lily’s heart as she thought of it. There were so many ways she’d love to help people. The wizarding world had its share of poverty and issues. Plus, there were Muggles she could help as well. “I don’t think there’s anything like that which would be paid, though,” Lily said as she chewed on her lip.

“I mean,” Al chuckled as he shook his head. “It’s not like you need any money, Lils. You have a huge amount of gold waiting for you, plus a bloke who won’t mind if you don’t take a paid job. In a few years Scorpius will be making a lot of money.”

Lily felt her cheeks warm. She often joked about marrying Scorpius, and she sincerely hoped it was where they were headed, but he hadn’t asked her and she still had two years of school left. It was two years of being away from him. Still, he’d need all of that to get out of his training at the bank and to where he was making real money. She was so proud of him, though. He had a head for numbers and she knew he was going to go far.

“He’s right,” Scorpius agreed as he ran his fingers lightly down her arm. “I just want you to be happy, whatever that looks like. I’ll keep a roof over our heads.”

His words shot warm pleasure all through her as she heard his love for her in everything he did and didn’t say.

“Plus,” Nat said with excitement, “Lily’s being Lily means that every fundraiser will be a smashing success because absolutely no one has the ability to say no to her!”

Lily felt herself blush even further as both her boyfriend and brother burst out laughing.

The fireplace came to life and moments later Honor walked through with a small bag. “I’m spending the night,” she told the room at large. “My sister and your brother are being gross.”

“They tend to do that,” Nat said as Honor dropped the bag and sat down at the chessboard to start replacing the pieces.

Lily was so proud of Honor. Her friend had come a long way from the tall, shy girl who hid behind her hair to who she was now. “What were they doing?”

“Nothing too gross, actually,” Honor explained as she finished setting up the board. “I think they were missing having alone time so I begged Caroline to let me come spend the night. They put Alex in his room for the first time and Caroline is attempting not to have a meltdown. I figured that was a job James could handle on his own.”

“You’re a good sister,” Nat promised as she rose and sat down across from her at the chessboard. “I’ll play and won’t even cry when I lose.”

~*~

“I’ll just move the crib back,” James offered again as he held her in his harms, stroking the hair from her tearstained face. “He doesn’t have to be in his own room.” He still wasn’t sure why she’d decided to move Alex, but she’d woken up that morning and told him they were turning Alex’s room into a proper nursery and he was moving in that night.

Much to James’ surprise Alex had first napped in his cot in the new room and then went to bed in the new room. Caroline had nursed him to sleep in the rocking chair, James had moved him to the bed, and he’d slept through it.

Now his wife was sobbing against his chest as they lay in their bed together and he didn’t know what else to say. So he held her and let her cry it out. The dogs padded in and Rufus even helped Steve jump up onto the bed so the already huge puppy could cuddle on her feet, helping her calm down.

When she finally calmed enough to mop up her face and drink some water, she sat up and hugged her knees, hiding her face in her arms. James rubbed his fingers along her back, feeling the shirt and the ridges of her spine. He hated seeing her so upset. Alex was such an easy baby now. They could keep him in their room. He had two months of light workouts until the next season started to really pick back up. They hadn’t gone to the world cup. It wasn’t worth the risk, and James hadn’t minded since England hadn’t made it anyway.

“Your mum suggested I put him in his own room.”

Surprised, James straightened. “Well, Mum isn’t the boss here. If you’re upset–”

“No,” she turned her head so he could see her red, puffy eyes. “I told her I was scared to have him out of my sight what… what with everything that’s going on. It was making me a little crazy! I… I heard from the cheer gym about a job.”

“Yeah?” James grinned. “With the little kids again? I know how much you liked it.”

Her eyes filled and when she closed them the tears spilled down her cheeks. “Yeah.”

“Hey,” he sat up further and wrapped his arms around the ball she’d made of herself. “You don’t have to work if you don’t want to. I thought you liked teaching the class, but if you don’t want to, then don’t.”

“I want to teach the class b-but I don’t want to leave Alex.”

Ahhh. James finally started to put the pieces together. She’d been reluctant to have anyone mind the baby for her, except him. She’d done it once to go out to the bar, but she’d been nervous the whole night and had woken with several nightmares for a week afterward. “You’d need Mum to watch him so you could teach the class.”

“She and Nat would help, I know it, and Emma will soon be old enough to join. She’ll be four in January and I’d love to have her in my class.”

“I know she’d love to have her Aunt Caroline teaching her,” James agreed. There had been a time when he wouldn’t have left Nat in charge of anyone because she’d been so ill, but she was completely stable now and knew how to eat to stay healthy. She also seemed to be getting a bit stronger on her mostly meat diet. Granted, she was absolutely no help if someone attacked, but no one could attack the house so it was a moot point.

“Your mum said to try Alex in his own room and to see how I did,” Caroline explained miserably. “I got the letter from the gym owner while your mum was here on Tuesday and she had me write back straight off because of course, I want to do it. I’ve been trying to tell you and trying not to panic for three days now.”

James kissed her cheek and nuzzled her with his nose until she looked up and he could properly kiss her lips. “You still don’t have to do this now if you’re this unhappy.”

Her blue eyes looked even brighter with the sheen of tears. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because Alex is ready and I can’t hold him back just because I’m afraid or he’ll grow up stunted and weird.”

James couldn’t help but chuckle. “He’s going to be fine.”

“He is fine,” she said as she wound her arms around his neck again. “He doesn’t need me to sleep near him anymore!”

And the sobbing was back.

James glanced at the dogs, but they didn’t look the least bit concerned by her very radical mood swings at the moment, so he went back to what he had been doing and held her while she cried it out. Eventually, he whispered, “He’s going to get up and immediately want a nappy and to nurse with his mum, Caroline. He still isn’t eating solid food yet. He still needs you.”

“I’m hormonal.”

“No, you’re not,” he lied without a single moment’s hesitation because there was no way to actually fess up to the truth on that one. “You’re sad.” That seemed very safe.

“He’s g-going to go to Hogwarts before I know it and then what?” she sniffled hard as she clung to him. “He really won’t need us and he’s probably going to be in as much trouble as you were!”

There was definitely no way to reply to that one so he skirted around it. “Maybe he’ll take after you and won’t cause trouble.” She snorted. “Alright, but he’ll go off to school with Amelia and Livy, so he’ll have his cousins there to keep him in check. They’ll be in the same year at school, maybe even in the same house.”

“He needs a sibling.”

James blinked. “What?” The conversation had turned in a way he definitely hadn’t expected.

And unfortunately, his wife was still looking miserable as she scooted away a bit so they could actually look at each other. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

And she hadn’t mentioned it to him once. But of course, he also kept that to himself. If he’d learned anything about Caroline, it was to leave her be until she was ready to talk. No amount of cajoling would get her to talk and trying to pry anything out of her before she was ready was more likely to send her into a tailspin. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She hesitated. “I don’t think you actually want to hear this.”

He took her hands and rubbed his thumbs along her soft skin. He grinned even as his brain tried to wrap itself around having another baby any time soon. “I always want to hear what you’re thinking.”

Caroline chewed at her lip for a moment and then nodded, almost to herself. “I… I was thinking that once Alex is one and my potion wears off, I mean, if he’s okay, that we could start trying.”

Alex would be one in March and of course there was no way to reverse the birth control potion anyway. “If he’s okay?”

“If he’s not having any more problems with food since I might have to stop nursing him if I get pregnant.”

He nodded slowly and found he didn’t hate the idea. “I think that’s workable, but we should probably decide closer to January or February, but if you were to get pregnant, it’d have you due during the down time for me for work.”

“I was thinking about that, too,” she sighed and leaned into him. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing is wrong with you,” he grinned as he pulled her down to cuddle on his chest while Steve wedged himself against her back. “You’re perfect and I love you.”

“You’re a saint.”

“No,” he shook his head as he cupped her cheek. “Just a man who loves his wife. It’s as simple as that.”

Back to index


Chapter 66: Chapter 63

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Readers, it has been a struggle. This past month has been very difficult for me, health-wise. I do indeed have lyme disease, plus another tick-borne illness that's extremely serious and potentially fatal. Thankfully it was caught. On top of that, I have a couple of other things going wrong with me and I may need surgery.

All this to say it was a massive struggle to get this chapter written. Please consider leaving a review and please also consider checking out my stuff on that patron of the arts site that's spelled almost like patron. You can find me via Sarah Jaune. It's not much a month, but it does help support my original writing.

But as always, please leave a review. I do read and respond to them. This story still have 2 or 3 chronological years left in it so we're not done yet, but we're in the home stretch.


Nat stared at the still bodies of Al, James, Scorpius, Fred, Andrew, Dom, and Roxanne and shook her head. “I thought it would be easier!”

“It does look creepy,” Rose agreed from next to her as she fixed up another sleeping draught. “I’m glad I’m on potions duty and not your experiment.”

“You ready?” Audrey asked as she came in and surveyed her sleeping charges who were all laid out either on the floor of the Potter’s living room or on various pieces of furniture.

It was the third Saturday in September and all of them had given up their day to be Nat’s practice dummies.

“I used different potions on all of them, apart from the sleeping draught,” Rose told Nat. “I know you can see the difference, but I’m not going to tell you what’s what.”

Nat nodded and studied all of them, watching the ways the potions were moving in the bodies. She knew immediately she needed to go to Fred first. Whatever Rose had given him was not going well in his system.

She had to learn to pull out the other potion and leave the sleeping draught in place or she’d never be able to heal the pregnant women before they could get sick. It was really their only plan. They would have the mothers come in for a screening so Nat could see if they were poisoned and then she could cure them. It wasn’t without its risks. The mothers could be in on the plan with Crabbe, or Crabbe could have them under the Imperius, but of course Nat would see that. They could be ambushed. There were a lot of things that could go very wrong and it left a gnawing ache in Nat’s stomach.

She rested her hands on Fred and closed her eyes, trying to separate the one potion from the other, leaving one in place while removing the other. But her mind wouldn’t settle and, in the end, a greenish brown gunk leaked out of Fred’s skin and he gasped as he sat bold upright.

“Did you give him an incontinence potion?” Audrey demanded as she knelt to examine the sludge.

“Trust me, he earned that one,” Rose assured her with a grin as Fred moaned and held his stomach.

“Some of it was taking effect before I removed it,” Nat said as she focused more and made sure to pull out the rest, giving the poor man some relief. “I messed up. Twice.”

“That’s why we’re practicing,” Audrey reminded her as she waved her wand over her nephew. “Get your focus back and try again.”

She woke up Dom, and half-woke Andrew, but after them she managed to remove the other potions without waking the test subjects up.

Nat sat back on her heels and cocked her head. “I think I have it.”

“We’re going again,” Audrey told her as Fred groaned and flopped back down on the floor. “I’ll give you a calming draught, Fred. What on earth did you do to Rose?”

“What hasn’t he done?” Rose demanded as she walked over and tweaked her cousin’s nose. “He’s known me all my life. Here, this one won’t hurt.”

“I really don’t trust you right now,” Fred assured her. “Just leave me in one piece, yeah? Eva will be mad if I’m unfit by dinner tonight. It’s my night to cook.”

“Your wife will have no reason to complain,” Rose promised.

They practiced for another two hours until Nat could do the magic without any difficulties. She sat back on her butt and stared at her sleeping adoptive family. “I did it.”

“You really did it,” Audrey agreed with clear satisfaction. “Do you want to wake them or should I?”

They held their first clinic to examine women the next day at the hospital and had every expectant mother in the third trimester come through, ostensibly for Audrey to examine. Nat wasn’t in the room with Audrey for her own safety. Instead, she was situated in another room close by, watching as the women walk by the open door of what looked to be an empty room. Nat didn’t need more than a single glance to tell her all she needed.

Unfortunately, it was always too hot under the cloak.

Sighing silently, Nat watched as woman after woman came through for their exam. There were only twenty or so, it wasn’t like they had that many pregnant women in the last trimester, but this was a process she’d have to repeat over and over again until Crabbe was caught.

Only one woman was infected of the whole group and she was so obviously sick that Nat knew Audrey would have no trouble spotting her. Still, she waited because the woman’s husband was with her and she didn’t know if this was some kind of trap.

Besides they had a plan and the plan involved very carefully avoiding Nat being caught helping.

Truth be told, Nat rather suspected this wasn’t going to go on for much longer with her being caught and she’d pretty much resigned herself to it. If she helped a few women and babies live, then she’d consider it a job well done.

But of course she really didn’t want to die. Still, there were causes worth dying for. Taking Crabbe down was one of them.

Five minutes later, she saw Audrey head out of the exam room and towards one of the younger Healers, demanding the Auror on duty. Teddy was tasked with today’s mission, which was fine with Nat. She really liked Teddy. As soon as she heard the unmistakable sound of Teddy’s boots on the tile floor, Nat rose to her feet and moved to the door to wait for him. She followed close behind Teddy and into the exam room where Audrey had already sedated the woman.

“Why can’t I stay with her?” the man demanded of Audrey as he rested his hand on his wife’s rounded stomach. “I’m her husband and this is my baby! Why can’t I stay with her.”

Nat felt her heart clench as she glanced between the man’s hand and to the baby. To her utter shock, the baby was actually his!

What on earth did that mean? The last baby she’d healed had very clearly not been his biological child!

“Hey Karl,” Teddy’s voice was a low, soothing rumble.

“Teddy!” Karl, who was a good half a head shorter than Teddy with light brown hair and blue eyes that were frantic. “Why can’t I stay with her?”

“Because there is a crazy person out there who wants the secret of how we are curing people,” Teddy explained bluntly. It was the story they had all rehearsed. “If you know the secret, then you can be targeted, tortured, and killed. Do you really want that to happen to your family?”

Karl’s eyes went even wider. “What is going on here?!”

“Come on,” Teddy said as Nat heard the reinforcements arrive. They would have six Aurors on the door while Nat healed the woman. “We will wait right outside. I promise you this, if my aunt told me I needed this for Victoire, I’d let her do it in a heartbeat. Your Maggie is going to be just fine and so is the baby.”

The door closed behind them, even though they could still hear voices. Audrey moved to seal the door and only then did Nat remove the cloak and push back her sweaty hair. She didn’t talk, but she didn’t need to. She could see there was no form of monitoring of spying going on in the room and that they were alone. She wouldn’t have come out of the cloak if she hadn’t been sure, and at that point Audrey would have known there was a problem.

Nat hung the cloak over to a chair and moved to examine the baby. It was a little girl and she was already suffering from the poisoning. It wasn’t even that her magic was being hidden, it was that her body wasn’t responding well. Nat motioned to Audrey and made a scribbling motion with her hand like she was writing. Audrey nodded and produced a quill and parchment for her so Nat could make notes.

This baby was going to need a lot of support and she might still need to be removed shortly, even though she wasn’t due for another two months.

Nat handed over what she was written as soon as she had it all documented and moved her hands to the belly. The baby’s aura seemed to flow around her as she pulled and tugged the potion from the baby’s body. She thought about sticking it into the mother’s body and then trying to remove it from there, but instead kept pulling until it was on the skin. Audrey was ready to clear it all away as soon as any of the brown liquid appeared.

It took longer than Nat would have expected to get it from the baby as the placenta didn’t want to give it up, but then immediately she went to mother and within a short time, she had it from her. She did another quick search and then nodded for Audrey before going to a sink to wash her hands thoroughly while Audrey finished cleaning the mother.

Nat took one last look at the mother, then at the baby. The baby was still struggling. Nat pointed again at the parchment. She’d written at the bottom that the baby should be removed soon.

Audrey nodded.

Nat pulled the cloak back on and stood back as Audrey unsealed the door.

She stayed where she was and waited while Audrey explained that while yes, his wife was healed, the baby was struggling and it would be better to remove the baby.

Karl broke down in tears, but he nodded as Teddy kept a firm grip on the man’s shoulder. “I’ll stay with you, Karl. I’m on patrol here today, so I can stay with you.”

Of course, that meant Nat wasn’t going home anytime soon, but that was okay. She followed Teddy and Karl back out into the hall as one of the Healers brought over a couple of chairs for them to sit. Nat noticed immediately that only two of the other Aurors were still there.

“Can you two take my patrol for the next hour? Karl’s baby is about to be born, and I’m going to sit with him.”

“Sure, Teddy,” the older Auror of the group said. “Can we contact anyone for you, Karl?”

“Mine and Maggie’s parents went to America on a holiday together,” Karl told them miserably as he dropped his head into his hands. “I always thought it was great how they get on, but now that I could use them, they’re thousands of miles away.”

“I can get a message to them,” the man, who Nat thought was called Raeburns, said. “I can arrange a Portkey back. They won’t make the birth, but they can be here tomorrow. Just say the word.”

“That… that would be great, thank you,” Karl told him as Raeburns nodded.

“We’ll take a turn around and I’ll put in a call to the Ministry,” the man told Teddy. “We won’t be far.”

They all waited until the other two men were gone and two more Healers entered into Maggie’s room and the door was closed.

“What’s going to happen?” Karl asked Teddy quietly.

“They’ll take the baby out,” Teddy explained slowly as he shifted back into his seat and crossed his arms. “Then they’ll take care of Maggie, wake her up. Is the baby a boy or a girl?”

“We wanted to be surprised,” Karl explained as a sob overtook the man. “How did this happen, Ted?”

Teddy clapped him on the back and shook his head. Teddy knew, but he couldn’t say anything.

“Remember when we were in sixth year?” Teddy told him. “We were mad at Ace for… what were we mad at him for again?”

“He stole a bunch of the girls’ knickers, planted them in our trunks, and then ratted us out like we’d done it.”

Teddy blew out a breath. “Oh Merlin, I’d forgotten about that. What an arse. I wonder what ever happened to him?”

“He’s overseas, last I heard,” Karl explained miserably. “His dad wanted him in the Ministry, but of course no one would hire him. He’s working in Greece or something, but I dunno what he’s doing.”

“Good riddance,” Teddy grunted. “Anyway, Maggie’s knickers were in your trunk, and she was so mad at you.” Nat watched Teddy grin then.

She was starting to wonder if Teddy had forgotten she was there because this didn’t feel like the kind of story she wanted to hear.

“She was yelling at me about it, and we were trying to tell her it wasn’t us,” Teddy went on, grinning. “You just looked at her and said, ‘I love you, Maggie! I wouldn’t hurt you like this!’” He was truly smiling now. “She just froze and then sort of melted all over you.” Karl remained quiet but Nat could see the silent tears streaming from the man’s eyes. “I haven’t been able to be a good friend to you over the last few years,” Teddy continued. “It’s been rough having twins and with how crazy security is for my family, but your Maggie and your baby are going to be okay and we’ll all get to be together to hang out again soon.”

Nat liked that he was trying to promise, but also knew it was probably an empty one. She didn’t see how this would end soon.

The two men fell silent and remained that way for another ten minutes until the door was opened and a Healer popped her head out to tell Karl he had a daughter.

Teddy stood and in the scrape of the chairs, Nat was able to stand without making too much noise or falling over. It was a good thing she was so small. There was no chance of the cloak slipping to reveal her.

“Do you want me to stay?” Teddy asked Karl, but Nat knew the question was for her, as well. She tapped twice on his hand, her signal for no, and when Karl agreed that he was okay, she followed Teddy back down the hallway so he could get her home safely.

Nothing was said until they were back in the empty kitchen at Ivy Run. Somewhat to her surprise, Teddy sat down at the kitchen table and waited until Nat had fetched a glass of water for herself and come back to sit with him. Normally Teddy saw her home and left straight away.

She was starting to feel a little hungry, but she didn’t want to disturb whatever mood he was in to fix herself something. Undoubtably there would be a roast waiting for her to reheat. Polly always left things for her.

Teddy kept his fingers laced on the table as he stared hard at the wooden surface, not even looking at her. “You heard Karl and I were in school together, yeah?”

“I heard everything,” Nat confirmed quietly as she took another sip of water.

“He’s a good man,” Teddy pressed his lips together. “He and Maggie… they’ve been together longer than me and Victoire have. They didn’t deserve this.”

Nat didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. In so many ways Teddy had always been a grown up in her life. He’d never treated her like a small child, but then again, he’d never treated her like an equal. Today it felt like he was treating her like an adult. “The baby is his.”

Startled, Teddy’s gaze shot to hers as his eyes went wide. “You’re serious?”

“She’s definitely his,” Nat confirmed with a nod. “At first I didn’t know what that could mean because I didn’t know Karl. Maybe he could have been in on the plot… I dunno.”

“He couldn’t have,” Teddy assured her with absolute conviction.

“No, and he wasn’t under the Imperius,” she told him as she studied her half-empty glass. “It means Crabbe is changing how she’s doing things. Her process doesn’t take long, not really. You administer the potion, then induce ovulation which doesn’t take long, and then… then…” she didn’t want to finish it, even though she wasn’t squeamish about sex. But this wasn’t sex. This was a woman essentially raping people. “But if she’s not impregnating them and she’s giving them back to their husbands immediately, then it can be the husband’s baby they conceive.”

“Or,” Teddy said slowly. He scrunched up his nose. “I feel odd talking about this with you.”

Nat couldn’t help but laugh. “Go on, then. I’ll tell you what I think of it, magically, and then you can run it by Harry.

“What if she did impregnate them, but the couples were intimate shortly after and it was the husbands who took?”

Nat sat back and considered that, running through everything she knew about the female reproductive system. “There might be a lot of truth to that, actually. First off, the egg selects for which sperm would be best. There is ample evidence for this in the Muggle literature. Also, it’s known that sperm can live in the female body for days. It’s possible… there are a lot of possibilities.”

“What about that other baby where the mother died?” Teddy asked her.

“Not his,” Nat said sadly. “Thankfully, whoever the biological father was isn’t going to make him suspicious that she’s not his. If he never asks anyone to check, he’ll never know.”

Teddy nodded, almost rocking a bit in his seat as though nervous energy was attempting to escape. “I think I’d want to know the truth. Caroline knows the truth and loves Alex fiercely. I think I’d want to know.”

“I’d want to know, too, but then again we know everything of what’s going on here,” Nat reminded him. “Don’t forget the rest of the world is clueless.”

“And without you, we’d have no hope.” His hazel eyes were direct as he studied her. “To think that day you befriended Al and Rose would lead to this. You’re a remarkable young woman, Nat. I hope you know that.”

Her smile was tight. Remarkable or not, if she was attacked, she was dead. “I do what I can.”

~*~

“I’m starting to wish he’d proposed,” Lily whispered to Honor as they made their way down to the common room for breakfast. It was only October but already there was a bite of winter in the air and Lily couldn’t help but shiver as they reached the bottom of the steps where Hugo was waiting.

Her cousin was starting to shoot up now and he was at least six feet at this point, although rail thin. “You two alright?” he asked as he fell into step next to them. “You took an age.”

“I’m trying to be ugly,” Lily informed him primly.

Hugo snorted out a laugh. “Good luck with that.”

“You’re going need longer than a morning to work that magic,” Honor said sympathetically.

“Hi, Lily!” a boy from Ravenclaw called as they descended the steps.

“Piss off,” Hugo called after him, hooking an arm around Lily’s shoulders.

“I really don’t know how I’m going to do this,” Lily said miserably as she leaned into Hugo. “It’s not like they don’t all know I’m taken!”

“I don’t get it, to be honest,” Honor said as she took a seat on the other side of Lily so she was sandwiched between her two best friends. Honor finally had her first boyfriend, who was a Hufflepuff. He was a very nice boy named Scott and Hugo was dating a Slytherin girl named Catie. Lily always thought Catie had been grossly missorted, even from their first year, all the way up until she saw her play Quidditch and then she realized exactly why the hat had put her in that house.

And with all these boyfriends and girlfriends and her best friends had to stay with her at all times. It was a wonder Scott and Catie didn’t tell them all to fall off a broom.

“I feel bad you have to be with me all the time,” Lily said, not for the first time.

“Your life is more important than anything else,” Honor chided her, also not for the first time. “We do alright! Scott and Catie don’t mind joining us in keeping you company.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Hugo said as he piled food on his plate before dropping some on hers. “Eat something or Aunt Ginny will have my head. You’re losing weight.”

It was true, although she didn’t mean for it to happen. It was very overwhelming being back at the school without her brothers or Scorpius there. It was only Hugo now and he did his best but he was one boy against a whole school. Added to that, Al was huge, both tall and wide, while Hugo was only tall.

“Maybe we should bring Steve here for you,” Honor said as she cut up her eggs. “He can keep you calm and help you feel protected.”

“No,” Lily shook her head and suddenly felt even more wretched. “Those dogs are meant to help truly damaged people! What have I had happen to me? A couple of boys have asked me out on dates and it makes me uncomfortable. I do not need Steve.”

“Well, you could keep him for the rest of his training maybe,” Hugo said, already halfway through a plate before Lily had even taken a bite. “Eat, Lily Luna!”

Lily took a bite but was definitely not hungry. She forced herself to take another. She felt eyes on her and realized someone was going to speak to her, even before she glanced up to see one of the seventh year Slytherin’s across the table from her.

“The answer is no,” Hugo said, not even bothering to look up.

A hint of anger crossed his angular face, but he kept his eyes fixed on Lily. His name was Adam Bell and Lily had never liked him, even though he’d been nothing but outwardly polite. He was almost as tall as Hugo, but where Hugo’s hair was auburn, this boy’s hair was deep black. His tanned skin was in stark contrast to practically everyone else who had succumbed to Scotland’s relentless campaign to make everyone as pasty as possible due to lack of sun. “I wasn’t speaking to you,” he shot Hugo a nasty look. “Lily, I was wondering if you’d like to help with my booth for the Halloween festival.”

They no longer went to Hogsmeade. Instead, they had parties every few months and at Halloween they held a carnival of sorts in the Great Hall. Last year, she and Scorpius had worked a booth together.

“I’m already working a booth with Honor,” Lily told him, trying to hold onto her composure.

She felt the fury even though he controlled his features this time. “I’m sure Honor wouldn’t mind if Scott helped her in the booth.”

“I would mind, actually,” Honor piped in with a beaming smile. “Scott would make a terrible fortune teller. Can you see him in a turban and wig, telling fortunes? Not to mention the costume is already made for Lily and no way Scott could squeeze into that small dress.”

Hugo snorted pumpkin juice out his nose as one of the fourth years in their house shouted, “Gross!”

“I’m sure–” he began but stopped when a hand landed on his shoulder and they both turned to see Neville standing there.

“I’m sure Miss Potter said no,” Neville told him quietly. “It’s best to stop asking and respect boundaries.”

With a stiff nod, Adam spun on his heels and walked away.

“She’s not eating,” Hugo and Honor said at the same time to Neville.

Neville’s frown made Lily squirm as she forked up another bite of eggs. “I’m eating! It’s just slow.”

“Keep me informed,” Neville told her friends as he walked away.

Lily went to put her fork down but found Hugo thrusting a piece of bacon into her hand. She chewed on it slowly as her belly churned.

“If not a therapy dog, how about a guard dog?” Honor wondered out loud.

“My dad trains dogs,” the fourth year who’d told Hugo off for spraying the table with nose juice piped in. “He trains them for the police.”

“Like… like the Aurors?” Lily asked as she tried to remember if that was the right Muggle turn.

The girl nodded and her name finally came to Lily. It was Amanda Reber. For some reason, Lily hadn’t thought Amanda was Muggleborn. “Yeah, they’re like that. He has a few puppies right now, but I don’t know if he can give you one. He might be able to tell you where you can get one.”

“Listen,” Hugo rifled through his bag. “Can you write down your dad’s name and address for me? I’ll get Uncle Harry to talk to him.”

“I’m not sure we can bring a regular dog into the castle, though,” Lily cautioned.

“Oh, it’s not like that,” Amanda shook her head as one of her dark curls sprang loose from a long plait. “My dad is a Squib, but Mum is a witch. He just likes training animals. He’ll understand what you need. I don’t know if he can help, but he might know where to point your dad.”

“I just feel bad about this,” Lily said again as yet another boy started over towards their table.

“BUGGAR OFF!” several people all around Lily shouted at the boy who froze. Clearly everyone in Gryffindor was getting annoyed.

“No, he’s my brother,” Amanda said as she waved him over. “If you ask Lily out on a date, someone is libel to hex you,” she told him.

The boy shot her a nervous glance but shook his head. “I need a quill. I broke mine last night.”

Amanda rolled her eyes and dug a quill out from her bag. Very quickly he scurried back over to the Ravenclaw table.

“He’s only a third year,” Amanda told Lily. “He wouldn’t ask.”

“He is really tall,” Honor whistled.

The bell rang and there was a mad scramble to finish the last bits of toast, or in Lily’s case to eat her fourth bite of eggs, before it was time to head off to class.

Hugo made the call, using the two-way mirrors, to Lily’s dad later that day after they were back in the common room.

Unsurprisingly, her father was at the school fifteen minutes later.

Lily sat in a seat in the teacher’s lounge with several of the professors and Headmaster Goldstein shortly after that. Thankfully, Honor and Hugo had been allowed to come along.

“What’s going on?” her dad asked her as he sat next to her, holding her hand. “I thought this was taken care of last year.”

“I don’t know why they keep asking!” Lily said as tears filled her eyes. “Some have asked multiple times and l-last year after Professor Longbottom told the boys to stop, they did for a while, but it’s getting bad again.”

“They aren’t asking her out on dates,” Honor pointed out. “They’re asking her to hang out with them or to help with their projects.”

“Yeah, it’s like they’re just trying to be her friend, but of course we all see through that,” Hugo filled in. “They’re all the same blokes who have asked before for a date.”

“We can’t simply tell the students they can’t ask to be her friend,” one of the professors pointed out.

“It feels…” Lily stopped and closed her mouth. She knew how it sounded and she didn’t want them to think she was crazy. But she knew what those boys were feeling and some of them were not feeling particularly friendly towards her.

Her dad let go of her hand and turned to the room at large. “There is no doubt that Lily is a target because of me. I want to say that I understand. If she can’t feel safe at the school then we will bring her home to finish her education. I do not want to cause undo stress for the staff.”

“It’s not come to that, Harry,” Neville said with a shake of his head. “Lily has just as much right to be here as anyone else.”

“I don’t see that she’s being threatened, though,” the flying instructor said reasonably. “None of the boys have attempted to even touch her.”

Lily could feel the anger rolling off her father and she simply wanted it all to stop. “I want to go home.”

Everyone turned to look at her.

“Lily…” Harry began again.

She shook her head as she began to cry in earnest. “I can’t take it, Daddy. I need to go home for the weekend.”

Harry paused for a beat and she heard the Headmaster say it was fine and she was excused until Sunday evening.

She arrived home to find Scorpius waiting for her. The second she was out of the Floo, she was in his arms and sobbing.

“Shh,” he soothed as he guided her over to a sofa and sat down with her nearly sprawled across his lap as her whole body shook. “You’re safe, darling. You’re alright.”

She didn’t bother trying to explain how it was too much for her and that she simply couldn’t manage school. Scorpius would understand.

“Here, Lily-Lu,” her mother passed her a mug of hot chocolate. “Drink up and take a few deep breaths.”

Lily sipped at the warm, sweet drink and felt herself still shaking from the overwhelming feelings she’d been suffering from. She soaked in Scorpius’ calm, although she could tell he was worried about her.

She listened as her father explained what was going on.

“I don’t want to go back.” Lily told them. “I can’t do it.”

Her parents shared a look before her mother said, “We’ll discuss it tomorrow. We can’t make any decisions when you’re this upset.”

“Would the dog help?” Harry asked her.

“What dog?” Scorpius questioned as he rubbed his hand up and down her arm.

“Honor and Hugo suggested I get a dog like Caroline has, but I am not taking a therapy dog away from someone who really needs it,” Lily explained to her boyfriend.

Not one of them agreed with her.

“I don’t need a therapy dog,” Lily began to cry again. She felt Scorpius’ kiss against her brow and her mother take the hot chocolate from her hands. She clung to Scorpius’ shirt and wept out all the feelings she’d had for the last thirty-nine days since school had begun.

“One of Lily’s classmates suggested a dog for protection,” her father was saying around her. She tuned out what he was saying and tried to focus on calming down.

“Oh, I know Melanie Reber,” her mother exclaimed somewhere further into the conversation. “I actually knew her husband worked with the Muggle police. He might be a Squib, but he has a magical ability with dogs. I think you should talk to him.”

“I think I’ll go now since it’s not late,” Harry said and Lily heard him rise. He bent to plant a kiss on her head. “I’ll be back shortly.”

Lily nodded but didn’t look up. She simply couldn’t.

It took all she had just to be in that moment.

“Oh, Lily,” her mother sighed. “What are we going to do about you?”

Lily didn’t know.

But she woke up the next morning to find her father at the breakfast table. “I have news,” her dad told her as she sat. “First you need to eat. You’re losing weight.”

“Why is everyone obsessing about that?” Lily wanted to know as Nat brought dishes over to the table.

“Because you’ll end up looking like me,” Nat said flatly.

“Girls,” Harry interjected smoothly. “Thank you, Nat,” he said as he took a plate from her. “Both of you sit and eat and put some meat on your bones. Now, Mr. Reber has a contact of a man who raises dogs for protection. They’re great for protection and they’re magical. They’re intuitive guard dogs. I’ll have to bring you to meet the puppy. If it goes well, we can bring the dog home today. Can you go back to school if you have a dog?”

Lily nodded. She knew she was being ridiculous. All the other students went to school without a dog escort. But undeniably she felt a bit better about having a dog with her at all times.

Scorpius went with her and her dad an hour later to meet her puppy. She was tawny color with a black face and the man who was training her said she was six months old. “Her name’s Sera. I’m going to put this gel on your hand and she’s going to lick it off. That will begin the pair bonding between you two so that she’s yours for life. We’ll stay back for a few minutes to let the magic take hold.”

Lily nodded her understanding and held out her hand for the cool gel. Sera’s big brown eyes were watching her as she went to her knees, holding out her hand for the dog to lick. Her rough tongue went for the gel and within seconds she had it cleaned and was licking Lily’s cheek. Lily sat back on her butt and Sera plopped her head down in her lap and let Lily love on her. She felt the connection straight down to her toes. This dog was hers. “I really hope Ducky likes you,” she told the puppy. Ducky tended to rule whatever dog she was around, so hopefully it would be peaceful between her and Sera.

She heard her father asked about her size. Currently she wasn’t too big and Lily could get her arms around the dog, who was back to licking her face.

“She’ll grow another fifteen to twenty pounds, topping off close to one hundred. She’s like a Boxer, but bigger. We’ve found they needed a bit more size for what they’re trained to do.”

Lily heard them continue to talk, but she ignored the older men as she focused on the dog.

“What do you think?” Scorpius asked as he knelt down next to her, rubbing at the dog’s ear.

Lily met his eyes and nodded. He grinned and kissed her lightly. “I’m going to be living in a house of girls.”

She felt herself blush as her eyes dropped down to the puppy. “Ducky has the biggest attitude.”

Scorpius laughed and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her waist. “I’m not going to even comment on that. But I have a few years to get used to it before it happens.”

“Lily?”

She glanced up to see the man studying them and his slight nod of approval. “She’s wonderful.”

“That she is,” he agreed as he adjusted the cap covered his mop of dark hair. “We’re going to demonstrate to you how she will help you. Can you stand up?”

Scorpius scrambled to his feet and pulled her up. Sera immediately sat herself down at Lily’s side, her eyes focused up at Lily. She found she really liked keeping her hand along Sera’s neck.

“Now, young man,” he pointed to Scorpius. “Walk over there and approach Lily.”

“Alright,” Scorpius agreed as he moved towards her. He bent in to kiss her cheek and winked as Sera did nothing.

“Sera is sensing your emotions about him,” the man explained to Lily. “If you are relaxed, she will be relaxed.”

“What about if she’s mad at me, Mr. Quel?” Scorpius asked the man. Lily only just then realized she hadn’t caught the man’s name before.

Mr. Quel shook his head. “No, that won’t do it. She’d have to be afraid of you and if she’s afraid of you–”

“Then I’d want the dog to intervene anyway,” Scorpius nodded in understanding. “I like that.”

“Now, we’ll try this again, come here,” he said to Scorpius as he motioned her boyfriend to stand further away from Lily.

She already didn’t like whatever was going to happen. Mr. Quel let out a shrill whistle and moments later a young man appeared in field right in front of her, startling her. Sera whined for a moment and then let out a low growl.

He was about James’ age, maybe a little older. He was no more than twenty-two or three. His brown hair was cut stylishly short and he wore jeans and a blue shirt that perfectly matched his eyes. He grinned broadly as he studied her closely and she felt his attraction to her straight into her center as he began to stride towards her.

She nearly stumbled back from the assault of the feelings but Sera jumped in front of her and began to bark menacingly in a bark that had to carry on for miles.

“Woah,” the young man held up his hands. “Easy, Sera.”

But Sera wasn’t having it.

“Alright, Lily, call her back and praise her,” Mr. Quel instructed.

“Sera,” Lily said weakly and immediately the dog moved to her as Lily’s knees went weak and she crumbled into the dog, crying hard as she clung to her. It was a mixture of dread at the man’s feelings and relief at the fact that she wasn’t alone anymore in dealing with it.

“Don’t touch her yet,” Mr. Quel commented to either her dad or her boyfriend, she didn’t know. “Tell her what a good girl she is Lily.”

“You’re… you’re such a good girl, Sera!” Lily managed. She sensed, rather than saw, the young man take a step closer as his conflicting feelings began smashing into her brain. She forced herself to look up at him. “Please get away from me.”

Genuine alarm and guilt crossed his expression as he took several steps back and sat down on the grass. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Caleb helped raise Sera from a puppy,” Mr. Quel told Lily as he stepped between himself and the young man. “He trained her, but now that she’s bonded to you, she would die to protect you, even from him.” He squatted down to study her. “You’re safe, Lily.”

She didn’t know why he was saying that, but then she realized Sera was watching Mr. Quel and it wasn’t in a friendly way.

Clearly, she didn’t feel safe. “He thinks I’m beautiful and he thought…” she let her voice taper off, waving her hand back to the young man. She wasn’t going to give voice to the crazy thoughts in her own head.

Silence was the only response from the four men.

Mr. Quel glanced over his shoulder. “What the bloody hell were you thinking?”

“You told me to scare her, Dad!” Caleb said, shrugging his shoulders. “She is beautiful. I’ve always thought so, but the last time I saw her she was like twelve or thirteen.”

Mr. Quel grumbled out something that sounded very much like a curse. “Go on back to the house.”

They waited until Caleb was gone to speak. Lily finally relaxed enough for her dad to pull her in for a long hug. “This is priceless to me, Dameon,” her dad told the man. “I cannot thank you enough.”

“I’d been waiting for just the right person for Sera,” he told Lily. “I can see now she was meant for you. I’m sorry about my son. I didn’t realize your empath abilities would be so strong. Sera will definitely help you with that.”

“Empath abilities?” her dad asked curiously.

Mr. Quel glanced between them. “You didn’t know that’s what she was doing?”

All three of them shook their heads.

“Ah,” Mr. Quel nodded slowly. “She’s reading people’s feelings as easily as if she were reading a book. It’s why she doesn’t like young men hitting on her. Young men don’t just think about a pretty girl. Their brains often move quickly on to the next part of that attraction. It’s what makes her so uncomfortable.”

“But wouldn’t Scorpius… never mind, why am I asking something I don’t want to know?” Harry groaned as he hugged Lily tighter.

“Oh, that’s very easy,” Mr. Quel laughed. “This young man adores her, loves her, and only wants the best for her. Even if he has thoughts that might make Lily uncomfortable, his love shines through first and his love is what protects her. She trusts she’s perfectly safe with him.”

Lily turned to find her boyfriend’s face absolutely scarlet. She disentangled herself from her father and went into his arms. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, darling,” he whispered so only she could hear. “You’re always safe with me.”

“I know.”

Back to index


Chapter 67: Chapter 64

Author's Notes: I know I'm running late on this chapter, life threw me for a loop again on top of the tick stuff going wrong for me. I'll try very hard to get back on track for this coming month.

Please leave a review! I always respond.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing.


James sat on his living room floor, the dogs sprawled out on the rug. They were moving rugs themselves and Alex was having a grand time crawling over them, babbling as his fine, black hair stood up as though he’d been shocked. It amazed him constantly just how much his son looked like him. He grinned as Alex grabbed hold of Rufus’ fur and pulled himself up almost to a standing position before he plopped back down on his butt. Rufus let out a small chuff, but his eyes were closed and James wasn’t entirely sure the big dog had even noticed. He was, of course, very used to it.

Alex was now seven months old now that it was October and he’d more than made up for his rough start in life. He’d begun crawling just a week before and already he was attempting to pull himself up! Pride and pleasure filled James’ chest as he watched his son continue to babble, gently patting the dog’s shaggy body with his pudgy hands.

If anyone would have told James at sixteen that he would revel in being a father at twenty-one, he’d have told them they were bonkers. Yeah, he’d been serious about Caroline at that age. Yeah, he’d wanted to be with her, but he hadn’t expected to marry as early as he had. He hadn’t expected to become a father so soon. He definitely hadn’t expected it to be how it had happened. But here he was and he couldn’t love his son more. Every day he loved his wife more. He was so proud of her for taking the job at the cheer gym. She was really enjoying teaching the little ones the basics. Soon enough Emma would be four and she could join in on the lessons. It was a major step in the right direction for her mental well-being.

James’ gaze swiveled to the fireplace as it roared to life. A moment later a grin stole over his expression as he sprang to his feet to pull his cousin into a hard hug. “Louis!” It had been months since he’d seen his best friend. “You’re back early!”

“I was able to transfer back sooner,” Louis laughed as their hug broke and he held him at arm’s length. “It’s good to see.”

“You, too,” James agreed as he gestured his friend to sit. He turned to find Alex studying them with a distinctly worried expression. “He’s alright,” James soothed as he plucked his son up and sat with him, settling him into his lap. He smoothed back his son’s fine hair and felt Alex’s small head rest against his chest as he leaned back into the sofa. “He’s starting to notice now that there are other people.”

“I had the same look from the twins not even two hours ago,” Louis said with a shrug. His red hair was cut short, nearly to the scalp, but his blue eyes were the eyes James had always known. “Emma remembered me, at least, and that helped the babies get over their fear. It helps that I’m so good looking, obviously.”

“Obviously,” James grinned at their usual joke. Being part-Veela, Louis couldn’t help his looks, but for their entire lives, Louis had never done anything to enhance them. “Did you get taller?”

“Another few inches, yeah,” Louis sighed as he crossed his arms, rested his head back and closed his eyes. “Mum had a fit when she saw me in shorts. She said I looked like a beggar and she hoped I hadn’t traveled like that, so she was horrified, but even more so when I explained all my trousers were around my calves. I donated all of them before I left. No sense in hauling them home. She’s already gone to get me new trousers when I left to visit Victoire.”

“Have you seen Dom or your dad?”

“Dom’s at work, same with Dad,” Louis yawned. “I have one free day before I check in at Gringotts, so I’m making the rounds.”

“Did the travel wear you out, then?” James asked as Alex finally wiggled out of his lap to crawl back to the dogs.

“I was out late last night with a girl I’ve been seeing,” he said with a lazy grin. “We danced and drank the night away, all the way up until my Portkey was leaving.”

James studied his mate and wondered, briefly, if that’s all he’d done, but it wasn’t like it was in England. In Egypt there was no punishment for an out of wedlock baby and they had ready access to birth control potions for everyone.

He’d often wondered what it would have been like to live in a society where it was allowed, but decided in his case it didn’t really matter. The woman he loved hadn’t been ready to share his bed until many months after they’d married. If there had been more pressure on her, he didn’t know if she’d ever have truly opened up. It had been one of the most difficult things he’d ever done, waiting and holding himself back from her, but every single second of it had been worth it to have the relationship with his wife that he had now.

“I couldn’t do what you did,” Louis said, interrupting James’ wandering thoughts. “I don’t want to marry for at least a decade.”

“Well, now that you’re back in England, you have to be careful in how you date,” James pointed out and was met by Louis’ blank stare. “You know,” he went on slowly. “You can’t be with a woman here or you risk being forced to marry.”

His cousin’s blue eyes stayed confused for another second before they widened. “Oh… well, blimey. You think I’ve been… with the women?”

“Haven’t you?” James asked bluntly as he automatically held out a hand for his son, who used him to pull himself up.

Louis pointed to Alex. “I’d be risking having one of these,” he said flatly. “Not doing it.”

James glance to Alex. His son’s chubby face beamed up at him with obvious delight at having caught his father’s attention. He couldn’t help the smile or the love as he used his other hand to steady his son. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“You’ve never been out dancing all night with a beautiful girl at a club,” Louis reminded him. “You also don’t know what you’re missing.”

He nearly opened his mouth to say that while maybe that was true, he also didn’t sleep alone every night, but he shut his mouth. It wasn’t a competition. James liked where he was, and his cousin enjoyed being single. “We’re thinking of having a second, maybe trying in a few months.”

Louis shook his head but his smile was genuine. “I used to think we’d be going out on the town after we left school, but that’s really not your scene.”

“I don’t know if it was ever my scene, but it’s definitely not now,” he admitted. “I like my family too much to willingly leave them all the time.”

“So I can’t talk you into coming out to a pub with me tonight?”

Before James could answer, the front door opened and Caroline walked in, setting her bag down on a small end table. “Hey,” James called out. “Louis is back.”

Alex went wild at the sight of his mother, clapping and babbling up a storm as Caroline came in and swooped him up, kissing him noisily. “My baby! I have missed you!” She sat down next to James who wrapped his arm around her shoulder and kissed her brow. “I missed you, too,” she told James, kissing him softly. “Hi, Louis,” she finally said, without even sparing him a glance. “Glad you’re home.”

“I feel the love,” Louis said dryly and then laughed as Caroline finally looked at him and stuck out her tongue. “Real mature.”

“I try,” she agreed. “So you’re home for good?”

“I am home for good,” Louis agreed, “and I want to take my best mate out for drinks tonight. Can he come play with me?”

James shook his head, even as Caroline shot him a questioning look. He, quite frankly, didn’t want to go. What he wanted to do was get Alex down for his nap in an hour and take advantage of his free afternoon to ‘nap’ as well. Naked. Then maybe do that again after bedtime. Louis might think he had it great being single, but being married was the best thing James had ever done. It beat out Quidditch, even though he really loved his job.

“I think you should go,” Caroline told him as she swept a bit of his hair back from his brow. “It’ll be good to reconnect.”

“I’m happier staying in,” James began and wished he could telepathically let her know he was pining after her without his cousin somehow catching wind of it.

“You should go,” Caroline said again. “You can have dinner here with us and then head out. Does that work for you, Louis?”

“That’s perfect, actually,” Louis assured her. “Mum wants me home for dinner and sadly I’m still living with them since I haven’t yet had time to find a flat.”

Realizing at least once of his plans could still happen, James finally relented and not so gently kicked his cousin out, telling him that it was Alex’s nap time.

“He could have stayed,” Caroline said as she nursed Alex in the rocking chair in the baby’s room. “I could have done the nap routine by myself.”

“I know, but I wanted him gone,” James told her simply as he folded some of Alex’s clean laundry and put it away. He grinned over at his wife. “I’ve been missing you and I think we need a nap, as well.”

Her pale brow rose slightly. “I see… is that why you didn’t want to go out tonight?”

“Mostly, I don’t like having to be away from you when I don’t have to, but it was a definite factor.”

“It’ll be good for you to get out with Louis,” she said in a quieter voice and James knew he needed to leave the room so Alex could fall asleep.

He gave her a grin. “See you in a few,” he said as he left and went to their bedroom to wait.

Hours later, after Alex was back down again, James met up with Louis at a seedy London pub often frequented by both the Muggle and magical community, at least the younger set. James had a few teammates who’d tried to get him to join them at the pub more than once, but it was not his scene, as he’d said to Louis earlier. He hadn’t even walked into Brewed and already he was regretting leaving home.

Louis was standing there, surrounded by beautiful women, as he often was. He smiled, laughed, flirted, and joked. Of course, James didn’t have time to see any of that but he knew his cousin. He also knew none of the very pretty girls were going to get more than a passing glance out of him. Louis had a type, and it was always the plainest girls in the room.

“James!” Louis called out as several of the young women turned to see him coming. He was given several interested looks. “Excuse me, ladies,” he told them as he broke free.

“Introduce us,” one of them said.

“I’m married and have a baby,” James told the woman, a clearly tipsy brunette in those ridiculous Muggle shoes that made her several inches taller.

“That’s okay, sweetie,” she giggled.

James ignored her and walked with Louis further into the pub. “Two beers,” he told the barkeep and didn’t speak until they both had their drinks and had found a small table in the back. “Cheers,” he said as he clinked his bottle to Louis. It was so noisy in the pub he could barely hear himself think.

“You really don’t want to be here, do you?” Louis asked him speculatively as he studied James’ face.

“I really don’t,” James confirmed as he took a pull on his beer. “But I’m here now, so let’s have an hour’s fun and then I’m going home.”

“An hour?” his cousin asked in surprise. “I can’t even get more than an hour of your time?”

“One beer, one hour,” James said saluting him with the beer. “You’re the one looking for a girl, not me.”

Louis grinned and shook his head. “You are right about that!”

“Come dance,” a pretty redhead said as she suddenly appeared at their table, leaning against Louis. She was one of the ones he’d seen earlier with him at the front of the pub.

“Absolutely no one is dancing,” James pointed out to her, but she didn’t seem to notice or care as she dragged his cousin away back towards the group who looked to be having a lot of fun trying to vie for Louis’ attention. Well, almost all of them. One chubby girl in the back with brown hair and glasses was doing her level best not to be seen, which of course meant Louis was going to latch onto her in a second.

Any second now.

But no… she backed away further and glanced around, catching his eye. Her eyes widened and he realized immediately she recognized him. James pointed to the empty seat and a second later she’d scooted around the group and sat across from him. Her smile lit up her face and he saw she had a slight gap between her front teeth. “You’re Lily’s brother!”

“I am,” he agreed slowly. “You know my sister?”

“Yes, I was in Al’s year, but Lily, Honor, and I were all part of organizing the parties at the school last year,” she told him. She held out her hand. “I’m Annie Yarlow.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said shaking her hand. He indicated his head. “Can I ask why you’re here?”

“My Muggle cousin dragged me out,” she shrugged as she pointed over her shoulder to the pretty brunette who had hit on James when he’d walked in. “She doesn’t know what we are, actually. She had no idea who Louis is,” she laughed and it was a tinkling sound like a bell. He grinned, in spite of himself. “Of course, I know who you are and I know Caroline a bit. I heard you had a baby! Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” James said relaxing for the first time since he walked into the bar. He didn’t recall this young woman, but that didn’t mean much. He hadn’t paid a lot of attention to other girls at Hogwarts after Caroline had caught his eye.

“Louis dated my twin sister,” Annie went on cheerfully. “She said he was lovely to date, but of course he’s never serious about anyone for very long. She’s already married, the lucky goose. She met a boy right after Louis and they were engaged shortly after. Anyway, a lack of commitment will work for my cousin but it didn’t work for my sister.”

James opened his mouth to tell her that her cousin wasn’t Louis’ type, when Louis himself appeared at their table, grinning broadly down at Annie. “Hullo, beautiful, where have you been hiding?”

Annie laughed, clutching at her belly as she sat back in her chair. She swiped at her eyes. “You haven’t changed any, have you?”

Clearly chagrinned, Louis’ brows rose as he studied her. “Do we know each other?”

“We were at Hogwarts together and you dated my sister, Jane,” Annie explained.

Louis’ mouth dropped open. “Annie! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you! Even though you and Jane aren’t identical, you still look a lot alike. It’s been, what? Two years?”

“Less, I think,” she said dryly with obvious humor in her eyes. “You made Jane’s year by dating her.”

“I don’t suppose you’d give me a chance, would you?” he asked as he pulled over another chair and sat down. “Would it be breaking a sister’s code to have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

Annie patted his hand and shook her head. “I’m really not into casual dating, Louis, but thanks for the offer.”

“Oh, come now,” Louis said with his most charming smile fixed on. “You’re too beautiful to resist! I simply have to take you out to dinner.”

Genuine amusement filled her eyes and it was clear to James she didn’t take a single word Louis said to heart.

“Annie!” the brunette called over to her huffily. “We’re leaving, come on!”

“I’ll see you guys later,” Annie told them with her wide, cheerful smile in place.

“Wait!” Louis stood with her. “Can I send you an owl?”

Annie patted him on the arm. “If you like, but I’m not going to dinner with you. It was great seeing you again!”

Then without another backwards glance, she was gone. Louis dropped down into his seat and grabbed his beer, draining it in one go. “I have got to get a date with her.”

“You have zero chance of getting a date with her,” James told him sincerely. “She’s wise to your bullshit.”

“What bullshit?” Louis demanded.

James had no idea why he always picked the plainest girls. He had no idea why his cousin did most anything he did, but he knew he liked the chase and the game. He liked to flirt. “She sees right through your flirting. She told me she’s only looking for something serious. Her twin sister is already married. She’s not going to be happy with a few dates with you until you find the next girl.”

Louis gazed pensively towards the pub’s exit. “We’ll see.”

True to his word, James left at the hour mark and arrived home to find his wife reading in their bed. Immediately he stripped off the clothes which held a miasma of cheap beer and even cheaper cologne which some people wore almost as though they needed it to part their way into a room.

“You’re home earlier than I expected,” Caroline mused as she watched him throw on his pajama pants.

“I didn’t want to go in the first place,” he reminded her as he moved to the bed and lay until his head was cradled in her lap. “Please don’t make me go again.”

“You’re being ridiculous, you know,” she told him as she stroked his hair. “You’re twenty-one years old. You’re supposed to like going to a pub with your mates.”

“I don’t mind a wizarding pub,” James admitted. “If he’d wanted to go to The Three Broomsticks or The Leaky Cauldron, I’d have been happy to go for an hour or two.”

“What’s the difference?”

“In a wizarding pub, no one hits on me.”

Her fingers stilled. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“It wasn’t much,” he sighed as he glanced up at her. Still, he had to tell her. “Just someone when we walked in, a Muggle woman who had been flirting with Louis, but of course he passed her up for the plainest girl in the place.”

Caroline grinned at that. “He’s the oddest duck I have ever met. Did he have any luck with the girl?”

“Not even a little,” James laughed as he felt a dog sniffing at his foot. It probably smelled terrible from the pub. “Do you remember that Ravenclaw he dated for a bit? Jane?”

“I do!” Caroline’s eyes went wide. “Isn’t she married?”

“Yeah, but this was her twin.”

“Oh, Annie!” his wife nodded. “Yes, she’s a sweetheart. She’s one of the happiest people I’ve ever met. She’s in her training to be a Healer.”

“How do you know that?” James blinked in surprise. As far as he knew, Caroline didn’t have a lot of contact outside of the family.

“I ran into her in a shop a few weeks back in Diagon Alley,” she told him. “One of those times your mum came and kicked me out of the house for my own good.”

“When did she do that? Wait, never mind,” he shook his head. They were getting off topic. “So you’re friends with Annie?”

“Yeah, I really like her,” Caroline confirmed as she traced her fingers along his jaw. “She asked about meeting up for coffee, but of course that’s hard. Still, we’ve exchanged a letter each in the last few weeks. I told her to let me know when she’s free and I’d try to meet her. Your mum has been insisting I get out and if we meet at a Muggle establishment, I can bring Steve for more training.”

“Huh,” he shook his head then beamed up at her. “I am so proud of you for getting out on your own!”

“Thanks. I’m proud of me, too.”

James leaned up and captured her lips. He had fleeting thoughts of picking up where they left off that afternoon, but she broke the kiss and crinkled her nose. “You taste like beer. Go brush your teeth.”

He could only laugh. This was also part of being married.

~*~

Lily sat in her booth staring into a crystal ball that told her nothing while her dog, Sera slept at her feet while the bustle of the Halloween carnival went on around her. The ball was only a prop, even though it mysteriously started to swirl smoke for no apparent reason. Lily hadn’t ever taken divination, so she really didn’t understand it, but she didn’t need divination for this.

The girl sitting before her was miserable. It practically rolled off of her in waves. It was, in turn, making Lily miserable, but since it was clear the girl needed advice, she adjusted her stupid looking turban and searched her heart for what might help.

“He said he’s not happy with me anymore,” the seventh year Hufflepuff sobbed quietly.

“Were you still happy with him?” Lily asked without knowing why she asked.

“We were fighting a lot, but otherwise…”

“Fighting a lot?” Lily repeated the words as she waited for the girl’s sad brown eyes to meet hers. “What’s a lot? Every week?”

“Most days,” the girl admitted.

Lily breathed in a deep breath and then pretended to look into the crystal ball. “I do not see this guy in your future. I see someone else who respects you more and will like everything about you, not wanting to change you.”

“How… how did you know that’s what he was doing?” the girl gasped.

Lily blinked and had to fight to hide her surprise. It had just come to her without her conscious thought. “You are too special to change, Holly!” she said, deflecting away from the question. “You deserve someone who loves you for who you are and I think there is a boy you’re already close to who wants a chance with you if you’d just give him a small bit of encouragement.”

“You… you don’t mean Caleb, do you?” Holly’s eyes were huge now. “He’s just a friend!”

“Just a friend?” Lily asked her, feeling hopelessly out of her depths but also feeling dreadfully sorry for the poor girl. “Are you sure? Is he acting like just a friend?”

“Well… well, he was… he was telling me that Drake wasn’t treating me well… and how he thinks I shouldn’t change for–” the girl gasped as though something major had just been revealed. “He is saying just what you’re saying!”

“I think maybe you should see if Caleb wouldn’t be a better fit for you,” Lily told him smiling now.

“I will! Oh, thank you!” the girl bounced up and hugged her hard before scooting out of the tent.

Honor poked her head in as soon as the girl was gone. “That was one satisfied customer.”

“She was,” Lily grinned. “Anyone else?”

“Not yet,” Honor said. “I’m going to put up the closed sign and hit the loo. You want to come?”

“I’m alright,” Lily told her. “I’ll just wait here.”

“I’ll tell Scott to keep an eye out, but his table is swamped,” Honor said of her boyfriend.

“I’ll be fine!” Lily said with more confidence than she actually felt. She did have Sera, after all, and so far her dog had been an excellent deterrent to basically everyone who was male except for Hugo and Scott. Scott was such a big bloke he could take a serious game of tug with the dog, who was too strong for everyone else. But Lily liked Scott a lot and knew his feelings for Honor were genuine.

It was an absolute relief not to be someone’s type.

She had no sooner thought it than the tent flap opened and Adam slunk in, plopping himself down into the empty chair.

Sera instantly sat up and vibrated out a low warning.

“I’m a paying customer,” he said holding up a token. Of course, the tokens were actually meaningless, but the booth that collected the most won a prize for the students who ran it. “I want to know what I should do next year.”

Lily stared at him as fear and revulsion began to claw their way up her throat. She threaded her hand into the scruff of Sera’s neck and breathed in the peace of knowing that no matter what else happened, this boy would not be able to hurt her.

But she didn’t have anything to say to him. Her mind was an utter blank when it came to the question he was asking. It was the first time all afternoon she hadn’t had anything to say.

So, she asked the question she really wanted to know. “Why are you doing this?”

Adam’s pale blue eyes regarded her for a long moment. “You can’t possible want to stick with Malfoy. His family is a laughing stock.” He sat back in his seat. “For all that your grandmother was Muggleborn, the rest of your family is pure. Also, you’re also the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. We could make a good alliance. Our families would both gain for a match between us.”

Pure astonishment filled her as she studied the boy she absolutely loathed. “You think I’d be with someone based on their family name?”

“Is that why you’re with Malfoy?” a dark brow rose as his lips formed a smirk.

“No,” Lily said simply. She crossed her arms and sat back, wishing she’d pulled off the stupid turban so she didn’t look quite so ridiculous having this conversation.

“You’re actually telling me,” he drawled as sarcasm dripped from every word, “that you have genuine feelings for him?”

“Yes,” she retorted curtly. She was glaring now and Sera was still growling. “I think you should leave. Take your token with you and leave me alone, once and for all.”

“Or what?” he asked, leaning forward.

It was one step too far for Sera who snapped at him and started barking her head off which was so loud Lily had to fight not to cover her ears. Adam fell back in his chair and scrambled on his hands and knees out of the tent, only to be collared by Neville and the furious Headmaster.

“Good girl, Sera,” Lily crooned for her happy dog as Scott skidded into the tent.

“You okay?” he asked frantically as Hugo pushed in after him. “Blimey, Honor leaves you for two seconds and they’re already on you.”

“I’m okay,” Lily said as she hugged her dog, realizing she’d faced her fears and she was okay even though she’d sensed something dark in him. Adam wasn’t likely to have hurt her here, not physically where everyone in the school would know, but it was chilling to know he had been feeling that way.

He would need watching from here on out. She’d definitely made an enemy.

Her father was at the school two hours later. But then again, so was Mr. Bell, Adam’s father. Lily only knew this because the gossip spread thick and fast around the castle as the two fathers spoke with the Headmaster over the whole incident.

Adam hadn’t hurt Lily. He hadn’t even threatened her. But he’d spoken to her again when he’d been warned multiple times to leave her alone.

She really hoped they’d sort everything out without her. She just wanted to sit in the common room with Sera at her feet while the fire crackled and her friends talked around her. She didn’t want to deal with boys and their drama.

She wanted to be left alone!

“You okay?” Honor asked as she bumped Lily’s shoulder with her own.

Lily shrugged. “I guess I’m as good as I can be.”

They all turned as the portrait hole swung open and Neville came through, looking serious. “Lily, you need to come with me.”

Lily’s nerves jumped into overdrive, but she nodded and stood, Sera following suit as they made their way out of Gryffindor Tower and towards the Headmaster’s office.

“Am I in trouble?” Lily asked Professor Longbottom quietly when they were out of earshot of everyone else.

“No,” Neville told her in a tone that said he didn’t quite believe it.

Nausea rolled in her stomach and she put her hand on Sera’s head as they walked to help keep her steady. What was she walking into?

Was she going to be told she couldn’t have Sera? Would she be sent home again from school? It wasn’t the worst fate, if she was honest, but she knew her parents wanted her to finish. She wanted to finish, but right now it felt like everything was too difficult.

They went up the spiral staircase in silence and she noted that several of the teachers were there along with Mr. Bell, who was an older version of his son, dark haired, light eyed, and with a healthy tan. He was trim in dress robes and his expression was sour as his gaze fell upon her before falling to the dog.

Sera stayed quietly next to her. Lily didn’t like the situation she was in, but no one was going to let her be hurt, so Sera knew her place was to stay silent.

Lily focused her gaze on her father and saw the livid expression clearly in his eyes. Whatever had been said had him furious.

And then there was Adam, who sat in a seat and looked… smug. He looked like he’d won.

It could not be good.

“Miss Potter,” Headmaster Goldstein said, pulling Lily’s attention. “Please have a seat and I’d like for you to tell us again what happened.”

Lily sat with Sera next to her, between her and the Bells, and she recounted what had happened. “When he leaned in, Sera snapped at him and started to bark.”

“The beast bit him?” Mr. Bell demanded hotly.

“Bell,” her father interjected harshly. “If she’d have bitten him, he’d have a chunk missing out of his arm. She snapped at him to warn him off and barked to alert for help.”

“My son,” Mr. Bell flared up for what Lily knew was not the first time, as he moved into her father’s face and pointed a finger at his nose, “would not hurt a fly! That mangy mongrel is a menace!”

To his credit, her dad didn’t curse the other man. “Walk over to my daughter and stand next to her.”

“And risk being bit? No thank you,” Mr. Bell scoffed.

Suddenly, Lily saw what her father was doing. The man was angry at Lily, certainly he wanted her to be punished and not his son, but he wasn’t going to hurt her.

“Go on, then,” Harry said as he stepped aside. “I promise to protect you from the dog if you need it.”

Clearly affronted at the notion he’d need to be protected, Mr. Bell stalked over to her and stood next to her. Sera watched him closely but she didn’t growl.

“Everyone else,” Harry said to the teachers around the room. “Go next to Lily.”

They all did, all except Adam who sat transfixed.

“What are you trying to prove?” Mr. Bell demanded sharply. Lily thought he, too, was starting to catch on.

“Alright, Adam,” Headmaster Goldstein said quietly. “Go next to Lily.”

In this room full of people when he approached Lily, she wasn’t afraid, although she didn’t like the energy coming off of him. Sera stood up and stood between her and the young man, but she only rumbled out a warning.

“Back off, now,” the Headmaster told him wearily.

“So, the dog was only a menace earlier?” Mr. Bell bit out angrily. “It’s a loose cannon!”

“That’s not how these dogs work,” Professor Longbottom told him flatly. “They only go on the defensive when their owner is in danger. Obviously, with a room full of people, Lily was not at risk.”

“My son is not a risk to anyone!” Mr. Bell objected again. “He’s a good student, a good man, and a fine, upstanding member of the community!”

Unlike the Malfoy boy she’s dating. He didn’t say it, but it was near the tip of his tongue, Lily knew. He wanted to say it.

“Your son was a risk to Lily at the festival,” Headmaster Goldstein said with finality, his face grim. “He’s been warned, repeatedly, to stay away from her. She’d told him, repeatedly, that she does not want his attention.

“You cannot prove that,” Mr. Bell said hotly. “You only have her word against his! She shouldn’t be allowed to keep that damned dog!”

“We don’t need her word on this,” the charms teacher said in her soft voice. “We’ve all seen him seeking her out and her attempts to avoid him. I’ve seen it repeatedly, so has every member of staff. He has been warned, multiple times, to leave her alone. The dog did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was protect her.”

“My son is not a threat!”

They all stared at him silently and Lily could tell they were waiting for Professor Goldstein to speak. Lily shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “He didn’t hurt me,” she said, keeping her focus on the Headmaster.

Every eye turned to stare at her.

“Lily…” her father began but cut off when he saw her expression.

“He… he didn’t want to hurt me, exactly,” Lily went on, clearing her throat. “He maybe wanted to and I don’t think he wishes me well, but he didn’t actually hurt me.”

“What are you saying, Miss Potter?”

She studied the Headmaster again. “If you’re considering expelling him, I don’t think that’s fair because people think a lot of awful things and it matters more if they act on them or not.”

“True,” he said even as her father vibrated with anger next to her.

“But he needs to stay away from me,” Lily said finally. She turned to Adam. “You stay away from me, don’t come to my table, don’t come near me in the halls, and stop trying to get me alone or,” she turned back to the Headmaster, “I have permission for Sera to bite him.”

The Headmaster blinked in surprise. “That is a reasonable request.”

“You cannot be serious!” Mr. Bell practically screeched out his protest. “She cannot be allowed to turn that mut on him!”

“Did you not just hear my daughter standing up for your son so he isn’t expelled?” Harry said, rounding on the man. “She’s the only one in this room, apart from you, who doesn’t think he should be kicked out! If he stays away from her, then her dog will leave him alone. It’s as simple as that.”

“Take the deal,” Neville said quietly.

“Adam,” Professor Goldstein said sternly. “Do you understand the conditions of you staying here? Do you understand that if you go near her, that dog will attack and not only will you be expelled, but I will press charges against you?”

Adam almost looked like he was grinding his teeth. “I understand.”

“Then we have nothing more to discuss. Lily, you can go back to your dorm.”

Her father walked her out this time and back to the tower. “You’re nicer than I am,” Harry told her gently as he pulled her in for a hug. “You sure you don’t want to get out of here and come home?”

“At the moment I want to stay,” Lily said with a sigh, “but I’m not sure for how much longer.”

“Anytime you want to come home, you can,” he promised as he kissed her brow and let her go so she could get back to her friends.

It would have been so easy to run away and let her father handle all of her problems. She really liked that method of life.

But she also realized, after she’d brought Sera to school, that doing so meant she never had to stand on her own feet. That didn’t make her brave, it made her feel like a victim. She didn’t want to be a victim. She didn’t want to be scared anymore.

So, for now she was going to stay. She was safe with her dog and that meant she could stay and face the feelings that kept coming at her.

Back to index


Chapter 68: Chapter 65

Author's Notes: My latest novel is going to be done, but at this point it's not going to be published, so if you want to read you have to go check out Sarah Jaune on pa--treon to read it! Another week or two and it's done and then you can read the whole thing in a month for just a few dollars.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing!

My health is still hit or miss although I am getting better overall. I appreciate everyone's kind words, your thoughts and prayers. Please do leave a review! I reply to all reviews.


“My mum’s parents were killed in the second war,” Lena said as she and Al walked through Diagon Alley. They were disguised to look like an older couple in their forties and the game was to see if George recognized them. As far as training went, this beat running mile after mile without stop, but it still felt like an easy assignment. Al had found, to his amazement, he was good at disguising himself. His dad hadn’t spotted him in the halls this morning, but he had noticed Lena wasn’t Lena which had irked Al’s partner-in-training.

“So that’s why you wanted to become an Auror?” Al asked her as they strolled up to the joke shop.

“That’s the main reason, yeah,” she agreed as he held the door open for her. “Well, look at this place!” she exclaimed in a tone as though she’d never been in the joke shop before. Her faked American accent could use some work, but they’d practiced before they’d left the Ministry.

“What do you think Bobby would want?” Al asked her, also trying out the accent he’d heard for a whole summer in North Carolina.

Al spotted both his uncles giving them odd looks and sighed inwardly. They knew. Damn.

George’s brow cocked as he studied them. “Was that really supposed to fool us?”

“Sadly,” Al agreed and since the shop was empty apart from one clerk he pulled out his wand to change himself back. “I fooled Dad.”

“That’s just sad,” George sighed but with obvious relish at the thought of taking the mickey out of Harry. “He’s the head Auror!”

“It’s why he sent me to you,” Al told his uncle with a mock bow. “I guess we head back to the Ministry and try another disguise for another day.”

“You’re Al Potter.”

Al turned to the clerk, a pretty redhead with big blue eyes and a nice smile. She actually did have an American accent. “Yeah.”

“Wow,” she smiled and reached out a hand. “I’m Meghan Scott and it’s an honor to meet you!”

“Uh, you too,” he agreed somewhat lamely. He shot a glance to Lena who was trying very hard not to laugh. “Listen, we have to get back to work, so–”

“Can we meet for dinner later?” Meghan pushed before he could finish his sentence. “I’d love the chance to get to know you better.”

His uncles, both clearly enjoying how uncomfortable this was making him, didn’t step in to stop their employee. So… how to nicely back her off. “I’m sorry,” he said slowly, trying to think of how to phrase this nicely. “I’m, uh, I’m… no. I’m meeting someone else for dinner tonight.”

It was a big, fat lie but he’d go see Nat to make it not a lie. Maybe he could take Nat out to eat somewhere. The second he thought it, he immediately dismissed it. She couldn’t be out in public without a guard and he wasn’t entirely sure she could eat at a restaurant. Her food requirements were pretty strict, but maybe they could have a picnic.

“Oh,” her smile faltered and Al realized he’d completely forgotten where he was and what he was doing while trying to think of what to do with Nat. “Well, if you’re available another–”

“I’m not,” he said with finality.

“Meghan, why don’t you check on the supply of fake wands,” Ron told her kindly. She nodded silently and went into the back of the store. “You two, scram,” he told Al and Lena.

“We’re gone,” Al promised and he turned heel and marched for the door. “Let’s go report back to tell them we failed.”

Lena’s laughter erupted the moment the door was closed. “I shouldn’t laugh,” she began.

“And yet you are laughing,” Al muttered, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched. Every time they were out in public someone hit on him. It was getting old fast. It wasn’t even a magical thing because it happened when they were out in Muggle London, as well. At first he’d blown it off as just a weird fluke, but it kept happening!

“You’re tall, built, and good looking, Al!” Lena said with an elbow into his arm. “Girls just notice.”

“I did not have this problem at school,” he promised her.

“At school everyone could see you and Nat were a thing,” Lena pointed out. “Now that we’re not at school and you’re not engaged or married, they’re probably assuming it’s not a thing anymore. Also, no one ever sees Nat anymore. I’ve only seen her that once when I crashed the party at the bar.”

Al blew out a breath and shook his head. “I’m not that good looking. James is–”

“Married,” Lena interrupted. “James is stupidly, obviously happily married and has been for a while. Even before he married, everyone could see he and Caroline were it. There was no getting James after he fell for her and no one was stupid enough to try. Well, one girl was stupid enough, but that lasted a very short time. I don’t love our laws about marriage and everything that goes into them, but I do like that no one tries to mess with a married man.”

She sounded bitter in a way that Al had never heard out of her. “What’s up?”

She shook her head, chewing on her lip, and then it seemed to burst out of her. “My dad cheated on my mum a few years ago!”

Stunned, deeply stunned, Al nearly tripped over the sidewalk. “You’re kidding!”

“They have a Muggle marriage since my dad’s parents insisted on it and they never had a soul bond.” She was still clearly seething over it. “After the affair, after they decided to stay together, they finally did the soul bond so he couldn’t cheat again but ugh… it still makes me so mad! I’m never marrying without that soul bond.”

Thinking of his uncle Ron, Al shrugged. “Even with the bond, you can have a lousy marriage. You just have to be miserable together.”

“I guess…” she agreed as she kicked at a small stone and sent it skittering. “So… your cousin Louis has moved back, yeah?” Her tone was oh so casual.

“He has, yeah,” Al confirmed as they passed Ollivander’s. Too casual… “Oh,” he whistled it out. “Listen, you can’t have Louis.”

“Excuse me?” Lena spluttered out a laugh. “What?”

“You’re too pretty,” Al said sympathetically. “He’s only into really plain girls.”

She fell silent as they made their way into The Leaky Cauldron and strode through the bar. “Let’s get some lunch,” she told Al as she spotted an open table.

“Fine,” he agreed. They didn’t have to be back for at least another hour.

She didn’t pick up the thread of the conversation until after they’d ordered. “So, he’s still on that kick like he was at school?”

Al shrugged his shoulders. “I heard from James that he went to a bar with him a few weeks ago and he tried to hit on a girl Annie, who was the twin of someone he dated previously.”

“Jane,” Lena sighed it out and then thanked the waitress as she set down their food. “Seriously?”

Al shrugged helplessly. “He’s part-Veela and still stuck on this… I dunno what’s up with him.”

Lena grumbled as she took a bite of her food and then stabbed a chip with her fork. “I’m not even that pretty! I thought… well, I thought maybe.”

Al wasn’t about to comment on her looks, knowing that was boggy ground, but he knew his cousin. “I dunno what to tell you. The dude is cracked. If I thought you had a chance, I’d say go for it, but he’s definitely going for Annie right now and she’s currently not giving him the time of day.”

“Well, damn,” Lena sighed as she took another bite of her burger.

By the time they were done with training, Al was starving again and ready for a real meal. He waved to Lena before heading back to his parents’ house to bum a meal off his mum or Polly, whoever was cooking that night. He walked in to find only Polly in the kitchen cooking. “Hey Polly,” he said as he strode through. “Where is everyone?”

“Mistress Ginny is with baby Alex and Miss Nat is out working still,” Polly said in her high-pitched voice. “She is needing to eat soon.”

Al glanced at his watch and saw it was closing in on seven. “I’ll go pry her away so she can eat.”

He left through the kitchen door and headed towards the small building they’d set up for her work for Ollivander. It was, of course, a lot bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. He pushed open the door to what might be a small garden shed in a Muggle yard to find a very spacious workspace. To the left were all of her raw materials, most of which she didn’t collect herself due to her restrictions on travel. Ollivander supplied a lot of the materials. He had another assistant who was good at collecting the specimens, was excellent with magical creatures, but couldn’t fuse the wands together to save his life. It was working out well for all of them, at least until Ollivander eventually died. The man had to be at least a hundred and fifty by now. Maybe. It was difficult to tell.

Still, Nat would never be able to be in the shop selling the wands. He studied her now as she was bent over the wood, using her hands to thread the two into one. Al didn’t even pretend to understand how the process worked. He’d watched her countless times but each time seemed to be a different process just as each wand was different. She told him that certain magical cores worked better with certain wood. She said she could see which wood was supposed to be matched up with each magical core. It was the part Ollivander had warned her would take the longest to learn. He said she’d create many wands which wouldn’t work properly because she would have to learn the feel of the wood and the magical core.

Nat had yet to make a single mistake. Every single wand she made was perfectly suited. Sometimes a magical core came in without a mate and it sat off to the side to wait for the wood that it was supposed to be melded to was finally collected. She had a whole section on a shelf of things without a match yet. His dad had taken a keen interest in how the wands were made, as had Hermione. Since both of them had been part of defeating Voldemort and that had involved the Elder Wand, it wasn’t really a surprise. But of course the story of the Elder Wand was not widely known. Al knew it was in Dumbledore’s tomb with the hope that his father would not fall in battle to anyone, but would die a natural death and thus ensure the wand’s power would die with him.

If something happened to his father, they had orders to get the wand and conceal it further. They’d talked about it with Nat who thought she might be able to strip the wand of its power, but they had no idea if the wand would attempt to protect itself or not and it wasn’t worth the risk. At the moment, though, it appeared everyone had forgotten about the Elder Wand or had simply decided the story was a made-up legend that didn’t mean anything.

And all of this was left up to him because James was a Quidditch player and wanted nothing to do with defending their world, and Lily was… well, she was Lily. Al didn’t mind the responsibility. He knew it was critical that no one get their hands on that wand.

His brain shifted back to Nat as she worked. Her expression of concentration was so intense he knew he couldn’t say anything to her just then. She’d likely heard him come in, but she’d become good at tuning out everything when she was working.

She had her strawberry blonde hair pulled back in a tail away from her face and small whisps still escaped to tickle at her cheeks. She was so lovely. It took his breath away now to study her. She’d been a small girl when they’d met and now she was a woman, okay a very small woman, but one he absolutely adored with all his heart. He didn’t want Meghan or anyone else like her. He wanted Natalie. He wanted her to be his, but she’d shown absolutely no hint that she wanted the same from him. She treated him in nearly the exact same way she treated Scorpius. He didn’t think dying from unrequited love was something that happened outside of novels, but his heart ached badly for her and he wished with all his heart that he could be with her.

Slowly, he sat himself down on an extra stool he’d intentionally brought out to the shed for moments like this and watched her work. It took her another twenty minutes of silence before she let out a long sigh and set the wand down. When she turned and smiled at him, he could do nothing but grin back like an idiot. “I was going to suggest a picnic, but I’m so hungry I could eat my own hand.”

“What time is it?” Nat asked as she glanced down at her own watch. She groaned and stood, stretching out her muscles. “I’ve been at it too long. Let’s go eat.”

They found only Polly in the kitchen, which wasn’t unheard of. Al’s dad would often go wherever Ginny was to have dinner with her when she wasn’t home. Al thought of Lena’s story of her parents and realized just how lucky he was to have parents who still loved each other and were still faithful. Yes, in their world it was forced with the soul bond, but even without the soul bond the work could just as easily be neglected and they’d be left with a broken marriage. All in all, he knew he was blessed and he was not going to take that for granted.

“It’s getting too cold for a picnic anyway,” Nat told him as he closed up her shed and they headed for the house. “It’s been unseasonably warm for November but the frost is coming soon. I think you’ll have to wait until spring for a picnic.”

“I suppose,” he agreed and wished again he could just take her to a restaurant. Of course, then she might think he was taking her on a date and if she thought that she might feel the need to let him down gently and that would never do.

“Didn’t Scorpius want to come for dinner?” Nat asked as they entered the kitchen and she pulled off her jumper, revealing a green long sleeved shirt underneath.

“I didn’t go home,” Al admitted and then felt guilty. But of course Scorpius knew if Al wasn’t at their flat then he was at Ivy Run mooching dinner. “If he’s not showed up by now then he must have knocked something together for himself. He’d getting good at cooking.”

“Whereas you try to get out of it by coming here as often as you can,” Nat teased as they took their seats. “Thanks, Polly.”

“Yes, thanks,” Al asked and then finally noticed Teeny wasn’t there. “Is Teeny with Emma?”

“Yes,” the elf answered as she floated the food over to the table. “Eat up while it’s warm.”

Al would have told the elf to sit with them and eat but she wouldn’t do it and he’d given up trying. “I have been learning to cook,” Al told her. “I don’t want to eat out all the time or else I have to put up with people who recognize me, so we’re taking turns. I’m not as good as Scorpius is, but I’m not half bad either. Still,” he said on a moan as he took a bite of the roast, “this is so good that I can’t be sorry to come here. Also, I get to eat with you.”

“It’s better than eating alone which happens a few times a week,” Nat told him as she ate her own slice of roast. “I’d feel bad about your parents still having me in the house but it’s so obvious they want me here that I simply can’t.”

“Have you heard from your parents?”

“I heard from Mum last week,” Nat told him. “She’s in France, or she was in France, and Dad is working in Ethiopia. They have a research team going over some human remains from over a thousand years ago.”

They spoke of their day and Nat had a good laugh at George and Ron both spotting him for a fake. He didn’t mention Meghan or her invitation, of course. When he mentioned Lena asking about Louis, Nat clucked in sympathy. “She’s not, like, you know… she’s not pretty like Lily or Victoire or Dominque, but she’s still pretty enough that Louis would have nothing to do with her. I have often wondered what is up with him, but I doubt we’ll ever figure it out. And really, who cares? If something like Jane and Annie attracts him and makes him happy, then good for them. Louis is really one in a million as far as men.”

“How do you mean?” Al asked as he cut up his broccoli.

“Well, men want women who are just as attractive as they are or slightly more attractive. In picking a mate, that’s what men do. Women will pick a mate that’s less attractive, especially if they can provide well.”

He sat back and considered her. “That’s cold.”

“That’s biology and it makes sense,” she told him with a shrug. “Men mate up in attractiveness. They will almost never pick a woman who is not at least as attractive as they are. Louis is a solid ten on attractiveness, so he could have any woman he wanted, but he picks women who are a four or less. It’s baffling, but there we are. It might be that his own attractiveness is so meaningless to him that he doesn’t consider it in others.”

“I don’t buy that,” Al shook his head as he pushed away his empty plate. “If looks didn’t matter to him, he’d pick a girl based solely on her personality and some of the girls would have been pretty. He’s deliberately picking ones no one else really wants to be with.”

Nat held up her water glass. “Your cousin is crazy, but we love him anyway.”

~*~

Rose would have preferred to wait in her room until Andrew came to pick her up for their date. It would have been better than the heavy silence of her parents who barely tolerated each other at this point. They’d been so happy and in love once. Rose knew it hadn’t always been like this. They’d also had several times in their marriage when they’d worked things out and everything had been so much better between them. Those were good, happy times that Rose clung to because what she saw now was nearly enough to make her swear off marriage altogether. The only thing that kept her going was knowing she wouldn’t give up, not like her mum had, and she knew Andrew wasn’t going to give up, either. He was such a good man. He was a lot like her father, but in many ways even more suited to her than her dad could be. Her dad was overprotective to the point of being a little annoying, but Andrew wanted her to test her wings and see where she could go. They both wanted the best for her, but she really felt like Andrew understood what that best was, where her father wanted what he thought was best and those were no the same thing.

And poor Hugo. At least Hugo was off at school and since it was November, he still had many months left before he had to deal with this again for any length of time. He still had a year at school after this one, of course. Then maybe he’d find a place to live after school rather than staying home. It all depended on what he wanted to do for a job. If he picked something which paid well straight off then he could get his own flat or maybe split one with a mate. Certainly, there was always the flat above their uncle’s shop if it was vacant. She rather thought Hugo might try for an Auror or MLE position. He had the grades for it and he was definitely more interested in what Uncle Harry did than anyone else, but he had another year and a half to make up his mind.

Rose’s career choice involved expensive schooling which her parents were paying for, at least right now. She didn’t want to add to anyone’s burden or risk making it worse by asking for money to rent a flat.

Still, as they quietly snapped at each other over food preparations, she wished she’d moved in with Gran and Poppop. At least with Molly and Arthur she wouldn’t have the sniping, but of course she’d have even more concern about her whereabouts and what she and Andrew were up to. It was a trade off, but it was starting to look like a more appealing trade off than staying where she was.

“You were supposed to cook dinner,” Hermione snapped as she threw beans into a pot. “It was your turn.”

“It’s always my turn,” Ron told her harshly. “You’re never home on time to do anything which is why I asked you to take it tonight because George and I had that meeting with the goblins set up for five o’clock!”

“You absolutely did not tell me that, but even if you had, it’s Tuesday and that’s always your night to cook.”

“Please tell me the last time you cooked, Hermione. Please. I’d love to know.”

Rose would too because she and her dad had taken turns cooking dinner every other night for months now and her mum almost never showed up until they were putting the food on the table. She didn’t think her mother had cooked once since Hugo left for school.

She was not, however, getting into the middle of this. She should have just made dinner for them. It would have solved this particular fight if she’d made the meal and kept it warm for them before going out to eat with Andrew.

Where was Andrew? Why had he insisted on picking her up in a Muggle car to go out to eat? Any old restaurant or pub would have done for her. She was tired and annoyed with her parents.

“I cooked last weekend!” Hermione protested.

Rose bit down hard on her cheek to stop herself from saying anything. Her mother had worked all day Saturday and most of Sunday. Rose had cooked dinner on Saturday, while her father had on Sunday.

“You weren’t even here!” Ron growled in frustration. “Look, this is pointless. You’re clearly remembering things that didn’t happen so let’s just drop it and–”

“Rose will back me up!” Hermione interjected quickly, turning to her.

“No!” this time Ron’s voice was a shout. “Don’t you dare put her in the middle of this, Hermione! Don’t you dare!”

Her mother’s face flushed bright red as she spun on her husband and jabbed a finger into his chest. “You just know she’ll back me up!”

“You haven’t cooked in months, Mum,” Rose said, finally having had enough. “You are never home, you’re not a real mother, you don’t contribute, and I don’t know why you’re pretending otherwise.” A horrible, horrible silence fell on the room. “I’m going to go wait outside for Andrew and I think I’m going to move in with Gran and Poppop tomorrow. I’m sorry to stick you with all the dinner duties, Dad.”

She didn’t wait for either of them to reply as she quietly left the house for the cool misty November air. Blessedly, she wasn’t even outside for thirty seconds before Andrew pulled up. He hopped out and pulled her into a hard hug, lifting her off her feet for a moment. When he lowered her down, he kissed her hard. “I have missed you!”

She held on tight, not wanting to let go. “I’ve missed you, too. Let’s get out of here, though, before my mum comes out to yell at me.”

“Why would she do that?” Andrew asked as he opened her door for her before scooting around to get into the driver’s seat. “What happened?”

It didn’t take her long to explain, but by the end of the retelling she was feeling just a little bit sick. “It’s just miserable! They’re miserable!”

“Your mum has given up,” Andrew said simply as he maneuvered the car through traffic. “She’s probably like a lot of Muggles who think that divorce should allowed for whatever reason. I’m Muggle-born so I get it. Most of my friends’ parents are all still married, but with rank you’re expected to stay married. However, a lot of mates from primary school had parents who were divorced. Being forced to stay married can mean one of two things. One, you try your best at all times to make it work, or two you become bitter about being forced to be together and you give up trying. Your dad is one and your mum is the other.”

“We have to be the one,” Rose said as she twisted her hands in her skirt. “I couldn’t stand it if that was my marriage.”

His hand came over to cover hers, squeezing her fingers lightly. “I’m not the giving up type. I know exactly what I’m walking into and that I’m committing to a whole, hopefully long, lifetime with you. That means something to me. I know it means something to you and I trust you to hold up your end of this. We aren’t always going to get along and we won’t always like each other, but if we’re committed to always making it work then we will be fine.”

Rose nodded and turned to stare out the window, running her thumb along the ridge of his fingers as she thought about her parents. “My dad was always there for me growing up. He was the one who was available when I needed him. It was him and Aunt Ginny. I don’t know if my mum really should have had kids, although I think she meant well at first. She just… she never dealt with her scars from the war like she should have.” She took a deep breath and focused on the trees rushing by them, their leaves almost all gone now except for the hardy evergreens that dotted the landscape. “When we have children, we have to both commit to only working forty-hour weeks with almost no exceptions.”

“I am happy to do that,” Andrew promised her. “My responsibilities for the title will sometimes take up a lot of evenings, but I can be around during the day then. The parties tend to come in thick, especially around the holidays and some I have to attend simply because it’s expected. You’ll need to go with me, as well, but there will be plenty of times when I can go alone if you don’t want to.”

“And because I won’t need the income,” Rose mused since she knew Andrew was very wealthy, “I can stop at forty hours without feeling like I’m taking anything from our family’s financial well-being.”

“You can work whatever hours suit you,” Andrew agreed. “If that means you primarily do research from home, so be it. You can consult for the Ministry if they need it, but I know how much you like the idea of inventing new potions. You could devote most of your time to that.”

Hopeful, now, Rose nodded. “Yeah, I could do what suits me.”

He tugged her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers. “You can do anything you want.”

“Well,” she said with a long sigh. “Oh, this is near Gran’s house.”

“Yeah, it’s about ten minutes north of here,” Andrew agreed.

“After dinner, I want to go see Gran and Poppop. I’m going to move in with them if the offer of a room still stands,” Rose told him and felt lighter just saying it out loud to Andrew. “I want to live with them.”

“Hmm,” he groaned playfully. “That means no more sneaking out to make out with me.”

“It does mean that,” she said with genuine remorse, “but it also means you won’t ever pick me up from my parents after one of their fights. I could have cheerfully punched my mum for how she was acting.”

“Aw Rosie,” Andrew said as he pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot. “Let’s just forget them and talk wedding details.”

They waited until they were seated in the dimly lit room and they had their wine to talk wedding plans. “You have the Muggle organizer for the ceremony at your house, right?”

“I do,” Andrew confirmed. When they’d realized the scope of the event they’d have to put on to satisfy a duke’s marriage, Andrew had thrown up his hands and hired a wedding planner who thankfully knew exactly what she was doing. She’d met with Rose once who told her what colors she wanted and then told the wedding planner to do whatever worked in the budget Andrew had set. She still had to find a Muggle wedding gown, but her Aunt Fleur had promised to take her shopping for both her dress robes and the wedding dress that weekend.

The wedding planner had given her the name of a designer and they had an appointment for Saturday morning to get a dress designed and finalized. Truthfully, Rose didn’t care much about the Muggle ceremony. It had to be done for proprietary’s sake, but it was the magical soul bond that meant the most and for that they would have a simple ceremony in the morning at Ivy Run, which was the place where she had the best memories of her childhood. Claire would be at both ceremonies, although his Aunt Emma, assuming she lived that long, would only be at the Muggle wedding. After the magical wedding and a small lunch, they would move to the manor where Andrew lived and start getting ready for the Muggle event which would happen that evening.

Somewhere in there her male cousins had been volunteered to move all her stuff to Andrew’s house for her since not a single one of them would have to get their hair or makeup done.

It promised to be quite the event since Andrew was marrying what appeared to be the commonest of commoners. They’d had a bit of press about their engagement, but since they never made a statement and were rarely seen in public, it had all died down quickly.

“Here’s to us,” Andrew said as he lifted his wine glass. “To always choosing to put our relationship first.”

“I will drink to that!” Rose said as she clinked her glass to his.

By the time they arrived at her grandparent’s house, Rose was mellowed out on two glasses of wine and very good food. Thankfully, they’d finished at a reasonable time so she could knock at their door.

“Rosie!” Molly said as she pulled open the door. “And Andrew, what a nice surprise! Come in, come in!”

“Hey Gran,” Rose said as she hugged her grandmother and held on tight. “Is Poppop still awake?”

“He is,” she confirmed as she led her into the living room. “We were just reading a bit before we head to bed. What brings you two by this way?” she wondered as she resumed her seat in her comfortable arm chair and Rose and Andrew sat together on the couch.

“We were out this way to eat dinner, actually,” Rose explained, “but I was going to pop over anyway and ask if I could still move in here.” She wasn’t nervous they would say no. She knew her grandparents would always take her in, but she definitely didn’t want to explain why.

From the knowing look Arthur and Molly exchanged, though, Rose knew she didn’t have to say why. It was plain to see to everyone in the family. “They’re at it again?” Poppop asked cautiously.

“It’s mostly Mum,” Rose said with a shrug and felt a bit of relief when Andrew’s arm went around her shoulder.

Molly shook her head sadly and stared down into her lap. “I don’t want you to be too hard on your mum, Rosie. She’s had a very hard life. They all have, but she had to do a lot of things no one her age should ever have to do.”

“I think Uncle Harry had it the worst,” Rose reminded her.

“No,” Arthur shook his head. “No, sweetheart, he didn’t. What happened to him wasn’t fair and it wasn’t right, but he was uniquely made to do exactly what he did. He was born to it and circumstances led him to a life where he was up for the challenge of taking down Voldemort. But Hermione… she was always tenderhearted and never a fighter. She loved books and learning. She loved peace and safety. She had guts, anyone could see that, but at her core she was not a warrior and she forced herself to be one when it went against everything in her nature. So, for her, I think it was the hardest of all. Even your dad had an easier time of it because he could be a fighter when needed. You don’t have five older brothers without knowing how to fight, but she was an only child and… well, it just wasn’t the same for her.”

Rose studied the worn and faded carpet which her grandparents had refused to let anyone replace and wondered if she was being too harsh with her mother. Did past trauma get to excuse someone even twenty-five years later when they were adults and able to afford therapy? Rose blew out a breath and shook her head. “I’m not trying to be hard on her, but nor am I going to excuse her bad behavior. She was having a fit tonight that she had cooked dinner for us recently, but she hasn’t cooked in months. I think she cooked dinner one of the nights before Hugo went back to school. Otherwise, it’s Dad and me cooking. I just don’t know why she won’t accept that.”

“I don’t know,” Molly said slowly. “I do know that you’re always welcome here and we’d love to have you and have some help around the place.”

“You can stay all the way through to the wedding,” Arthur agreed. “But I do hope you try to patch things up with your mum.”

“I’m going to try,” Rose promised.

She rode in silence with Andrew, rehearsing everything she was going to say to her mother once she was home again. She was certain Hermione would be waiting to ambush her just as soon as she walked through the door. It was her normal way of handling things when Rose was being uppity. But in this case, Rose had been right.

Okay she’d been mostly right. She shouldn’t have said everything she’d said to her mum because some of it was just mean.

When they finally pulled up to her parents’ house, she saw the single light on in the kitchen.

“I’ll come in with you,” Andrew said as he parked the car.

“No, don’t,” she shook her head and leaned over to kiss him goodbye. “If she’s humiliated, it’ll be worse to have you there. I need to do this alone.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded as she kissed him again. “I love you, Andrew. I’m so glad we’re getting married.”

“I love you, too,” he promised.

It wasn’t in love, love, but it was still strong and true and she counted on it more than she could possibly tell anyone.

When she pushed open the door to their house it was to find only her father there, waiting for her. “Oh, Dad,” Rose sighed as she hung up her coat and dropped her keys on the small table near the door. “What happened?”

She walked over to where he sat at the kitchen table with half a tumbler of bourbon between his big hands. He didn’t speak until she’d settled in next to him. “She went back to work,” he told her quietly. “She was… she was very upset by what you said.”

“I’m sorry if she took it out on you,” Rose began but stopped when he violently shook his head.

“No, absolutely not!” Ron reached out and took her hand in his as his blue eyes remained fixed on her. “I am your father and it’s my job to protect you! She violated that when she tried to put you in the middle between us. I won’t have that Rose, not now and not ever. We’re done.”

Numb shock flooded through her as she stared at her father. “What?”

“We are done,” he repeated harshly. “I’m done trying to make her try when she wants nothing to do with us. I’m done trying to fix this. I’m done trying. We’re going to find a house that has a separate apartment in it and we’re going to move. She will have her own place and I will have mine with you and Hugo, or at least Hugo since I assume you’re set on moving out.”

“I think it’s best,” Rose told him quietly. “I finally felt at peace when we stopped and I asked Gran about moving in. I need some space from her, more than living in the same building.”

“I can understand that,” her father promised. “I wish I could make this better for you and your brother, but I can’t and nothing I’ve tried has worked with her. We’ll remain civil, because I won’t stand for anything else and she knows I mean it. I think if we both have no expectations of each other we can get back to being something like friends.”

Rose let the silence build between them as she thought of all the ways this man had stood for her through the years. “I know you tried your best. I know you always tried and she didn’t or couldn’t, I don’t know. But I love you and I’m so glad I’m marrying a man I love and respect the same way I love and respect you. I’m going to take Mum’s example and go the opposite way.”

Her father’s face fell. “I wish you didn’t have to feel that way, but I can’t blame you for it. It’s been a long time coming. But, I love you, too and I almost think Andrew’s good enough for you,” he told her with a lopsided grin. “I know he’ll take care of you.”

“He will,” Rose agreed, “But more importantly I’ll take care of him just as much as he cares for me. That’s what I want and it’s what we’re going to have.”

“Good,” Ron said with obvious sincerity. “Well, let’s get to bed. It’s been a long, long day.”

She rose and put her arms around her father’s waist and just held on for a long moment. She always had him and for that she was eternally thankful.

Back to index


Chapter 69: Chapter 66

Author's Notes: I just need you to know... it's been a really, really crappy month for me. I got put on strict bedrest for my pregnancy due to bleeding, and then in the middle of all that my husband's appendix broke and I couldn't be there for him because bedrest and he couldn't be there for me because broken appendix and then on Father's Day I lost the baby, so my 8th miscarriage at 11 weeks pregnant, and again I was all by myself because again, broken appendix. I'm still also pretty darn sick with the lyme disease :( :( :(

I think the next chapter will come out on time-ish, but have gentle patience with me as it's been a long and difficult few weeks.

Also I have a basically finished novel up on my pa treon account. Search out Sarah Jaune there to find me. For $3 you can read the whole thing and then cancel your subscription. $3 isn't bad price for a novel. For any who read my book Shelter, this story tells you what happened to Mia's mom.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing for me. I don't know what I'd do without you!


They only had another week until Lily and Hugo would be home from school. One week. It felt like a lifetime to Harry, but his now biweekly dinner with Ron, Al, Scorpius and Andrew was helping to pass the time. Teddy was also supposed to be there, but he was currently impersonating a smuggler and couldn’t make it away.

They sat in the back of the Muggle pub at their usual table as they ate food they probably shouldn’t and made their way through a pint. Harry was missing his Lily-Lu like crazy! As it was, he was only going to have her for another year and a half, maybe a little longer. He studied Scorpius as the younger man laughed with Al and knew they wouldn’t be waiting long to get married. The two of them were meant to be together. It was obvious for anyone who was looking that they just clicked in a way that spoke of permanence. In a way, his children had been as blessed as he had been. It hadn’t taken much for Harry to realize Ginny was his for the long haul. She was everything he longed for and hoped for if he managed to make it out of his war with Voldemort.

When he had, the only reason he hadn’t gone straight back to her was because the world had been in utter chaos and he was needed in the aftermath as they were rounding up the escaped Death Eaters. So many good people had been killed that every able-bodied person had been called into service. Ginny, herself, would have been out there helping to fight if she hadn’t still been sixteen. But of course, then they’d been attacked at Snape’s funeral and all hell had broken loose from there. They’d been poisoned in the hospital and Ginny had been impregnated. They’d been forced to marry a lot sooner than either of them would have liked. He had wanted to marry Ginny, that hadn’t been in question. He’d dreamed about a life with her more times than he could count on those long, lonely nights when they were on the run. He’d also tried hard not to think about a life with her, just in case Voldemort had decided to take a peek into his head.

But then he’d found out he was going to be a father and everything else had flown out the window. It didn’t matter what was going on in the rest of the world. It didn’t matter that he was seventeen and knew nothing about being a parent, let along how to be a good father! His fatherly examples had all died on him, apart from Arthur and although he loved Arthur, he also knew he wasn’t going to end up the absentminded man his father-in-law could sometimes be, nor would he be fiddling with Muggle gadgets at every spare moment.

He’d thought about Hope, dreamed about her, wanted her to be everything she could be in a safe, secure home. He wanted her to have everything he hadn’t been given after his first year of life. He’d thought a lot about how his parents had handled everything. They’d been really young when he was born, although not as young as he’d been when he and Ginny were married. But, just as he wasn’t going to be like Arthur, he also knew he wasn’t going to be like his father, James. James had been wild in school and reckless when it wasn’t needed. James had bullied and he hadn’t been as responsible as he could have been. He had been, for all intents and purposes, a normal teenager. It was not something Harry had ever been allowed to be. Harry couldn’t be irresponsible, not with Voldemort hanging over his head. He wasn’t going to be needlessly reckless with his safety because people were counting on him. Things were just done for a lark. He had a purpose. He’d always had a purpose and it had probably come from his parents’ early deaths.

So when Hope had died, he’d been left feeling adrift. Ginny hadn’t wanted to try for another baby right away and he couldn’t blame her. She’d lost out on her last year of schooling and she wanted to play Quidditch. He’d gone along, even though he’d already prepared himself to be a parent. That was one of those things no one told him about grief. Part of grieving was losing all the plans he’d made and all the dreams he’d constructed for his child. He’d had thoughts of how he would tailor his job around his children so that they would always come first. He’d anticipated taking time off of work to be with Ginny after the baby was born. He’d thought about all the things he was going to do with Hope.

All of those things had been taken from him. He’d had to grieve not only her death but the death of all the dreams that died with her and it was hard. No one told him that would be the case and no one told him how to go about putting his life back together without her in it.

Then when he had become a father and James had been colicky, Harry had failed in an utterly spectacular way. He’d left Ginny to deal with the crying baby all on her own and she’d fallen so ill they’d both failed to realize she was pregnant with Al until she was halfway through her pregnancy.

It had been the wakeup call he’d needed to turn everything around. He’d changed everything from that moment on so that his family always came first.

When Lily had been born he’d been into the groove of parenting and being a fully available father. He thought he was ready to have her out in the world, but nothing could prepare him for what his little girl was going to do for him. He hadn’t realized until she was in his arms a few days after her birth that he’d put off dreaming dreams for her and making plans around her. He’d linked her and Hope in his mind until he didn’t dare open his heart like he so desperately wanted to.

Now, of course, his baby girl was very close to getting engaged. He and Scorpius had spoken at length about when that would happen and they’d agreed it would be in the summer. He was making a little bit of money now, but he would be fully employed by the end of the summer and working to keep things right and legal. It was not a career Harry would have ever chosen for himself but it seemed to make Scorpius happy and Scorpius made Lily happy.

It used to be his job to make and keep her happy, but he was quickly approaching the time when he would be handing off the torch to another man and in a small, very small, way it felt like Hope dying all over again.

At the very least, he had Ron to commiserate with since he was losing Rose that summer and, of course, his grandchildren helped tremendously. Nothing was quite so bad when one had four small ones calling him Granddad.

“Dad, you okay?” Al asked him, pulling Harry out of his rambling thoughts.

“Yeah,” Harry lied automatically.

Ron eyed him skeptically but clearly opted to let it go. “As I was saying, we’re all moved into the new place now. I have the main house for Hugo and Hermione has a small efficiency over the garage. It’s not a big place but it’ll suit our needs, especially since it’s only the three of us.”

“Rose is still enjoying living with the grandparents?” Harry asked him.

It was Andrew who answered, though. “She’s enjoying the calm of it, yeah,” he said, shooting Ron an apologetic look. “Of course, Ron will be happy to know that Gran keeps an extra close eye on what Rose does and what time she’s home, so that’s been a little annoying,” he told his future father-in-law with a lopsided grin.

“Good,” Ron grunted as everyone else laughed.

“Things… things okay with Hermione?” Harry asked him. He now wished they had had a moment alone, but on the other hand the boys needed to know. Marriage was not always easy and it didn’t always run smoothly. They were handling things the best way that they knew how.

It was one of those crueler things about Azkaban, actually. If only one spouse was sent to the prison, the other was left him with their soul bound to someone who was being tortured. It was enough to torture anyone and the spouse was forced to deal with it. Some of them went a little mad, but others had so damaged their own souls that it didn’t much matter where their spouse was.

Harry had tried to talk to Hermione at work more than once, but she wasn’t having it if it wasn’t about work. He’d broached it several ways, trying to make sure she knew he wasn’t picking Ron’s side, but she brushed him off every single time. He’d spoken at length to Ginny about it, who had actually talked to Hermione and they finally had Hermione’s side of the story, not that he could tell it to Ron because Hermione had specifically asked Ginny not to tell Ron.

It was all very convoluted and it felt a bit like they were back in school.

But the story from Hermione was she’d been utterly shocked by what Rose had told her, which from her retelling was that Hermione wasn’t really a mother to her or Hugo and since she was never there she didn’t know why Hermione was pretending to try.

It had, to Ginny’s utter surprise, surprised Hermione. Up until that point she’d assumed she was being an excellent mother who just happened to have a very busy and demanding job. But she had always felt like she was managing the difficult balance of work and home life. Hermione hadn’t realized her children didn’t actually agree with her. She’d simply been assuming that Ron was being a nag because he wanted to get out of the work at home and she didn’t hear otherwise because of Ron’s refusal to let the kids be in the middle of their bickering.

Hermione had cried on Ginny’s shoulder for hours and hours. She’d wanted to have a solid, stable, soaring career and she had, but she’d realized too late that in order to get that career she’d not been able to manage to have the home life she’d imagined. Ginny had told him that Hermione had maybe wanted one or two children but because Ron had definitely wanted them, she’d given in to having two and he’d promised to take the bulk of the responsibility for their care after the initial newborn stage when Hermione had been critical to being home. All of that had gone exactly to plan. They’d had a system where they could both work and since Ron’s hours were more flexible, he could handle things when Hermione couldn’t. It had helped that Hermione hadn’t been as high up in the Ministry when the kids were little.

But then she’d started to move up and suddenly she felt like she was in a race to get to the position she wanted. They’d had the idiot Helminth Smith as the head of the Magical Law Enforcement and he’d done exactly none of the work because with Hermione as his deputy head, he’d known she’d get it all done for him.

It was at this point that Harry realized his own culpability in Ron and Hermione’s situation, as he’d been guilty of shirking things off onto Hermione, knowing she’d simply get them done. He was starting to wish he’d told her to stand up for herself more often, but it was also her responsibility to say no and she never did.

Then Smith had become the Minister of Magic and of course everything was even worse for a while there. Through all of it, Hermione’s hours had continued to mount up until it was not uncommon for her to be in the office fourteen to sixteen hours a day.

She wanted to be the Minister of Magic someday. That was still Hermione’s goal, but she was starting to rethink it when even her own children said she wasn’t a fit mother. While she loved them, she’d let everything else go in the pursuit of her dreams and the harsh reality was she didn’t know if she’d really wanted the children or not. She loved them with all of her heart, but she’d really wanted her career and she’d given in to having children because it was what was expected of her.

Harry could sort of understand where she was coming from and he did readily admit that no one would have been calling her a bad father if Hermione had been the dad and not the mum. Mums were treated differently than dads, at least they were before when their kids had been small. Now, however, Harry made a point of making sure everyone in his department was able to spend time with their children. Children needed a strong bond with both their mothers and their fathers, so he made sure that was a priority. With Susan, he let her take as much time as she wanted with her small children since she was still their only fully qualified female Auror. With Lena coming through training, though, that would add extra buffer to their numbers. They had a few who were waiting to retire and they needed new blood. Hugo had told him over the summer that he was seriously looking to be an Auror and Harry would be glad to have him. Ron had been good as an Auror, but when it came down to it, it wasn’t the life for him and it didn’t drive him in the way that it did for Harry. Ron liked working with George and making money. That suited him better.

“Things are weird with Hermione,” Ron told him bluntly, bringing Harry back to the conversation at hand. “I think we’re starting to be friends again, well, as friendly as you can be with someone you’re married to but split up from. She’s knocked at the door connecting us twice and asked to talk and we’ve talked through some of what happened before.”

“Did she find a therapist?” Andrew asked him as he stuffed a chip into his mouth. “Rose said she was looking for a new one.”

“I think she has,” Ron nodded thoughtfully as he took a swig of his beer. “She was talking like she’d been in to see a therapist.”

“I saw her this morning as I had training over in the main office,” Scorpius told him as he tapped his chip on his plate. “She looked… off, ya know? She always looks so put together but today she just looked off. I said hullo, but I didn’t linger since she’s the head of the department when we’re at work and I’m just a law student right now.”

“I guess I’m the only one who hasn’t seen her since it happened,” Al mused as he paused to let the waitress pass by until they were alone again. “Being married seems… complicated.”

“Your parents are doing a bang up job of it,” Ron told him, pointing at him with a chip. “I dunno what you’re worried about. It’s my kids who are going to be struggling. Sorry about that, mate,” he said, glancing to Andrew. “But at least we’ll be civil at the wedding.”

“I wasn’t worried about you two fighting at the wedding,” Andrew assured him. “I know you two are too mature for such nonsense and frankly neither of you is that selfish. You just don’t work together.”

“We used to work together,” Ron reminded him. “Now we don’t.”

“Rose and I have talked about that a lot,” Andrew said as he finished off his beer. “We’ve gone over what happened and how we plan to work around it so it doesn’t happen to us. Neither of us want to have things fall apart and we’ve talked about all the pitfalls.”

Ron nodded slowly and then said, in obvious reluctance, “Just make sure you’re both ready to have kids when you do and don’t let anyone talk to you into them.”

Al, who had been silently demolishing his third burger, went a bit pink, but Andrew didn’t look in the least bit phased by this. It was, apparently, something he and Rose had discussed. “We want kids, probably two. She wants to be a mum, but she wants to establish herself as a Potions Master first and that’s going to take a few years. The brilliant part of both of our jobs is we don’t need the money, so we can work exactly as much as we want to work. She wants to invent potions, although,” he said with a grin to Harry, “she’s also going to work with the Ministry if something comes up that requires a Potions Master since there really aren’t any right now. We’ve talked about it. She’s insisted we both only work forty-hour weeks, which is fine except for certain times of the year when I have commitments that will take up a decent amount of time.”

“Good,” Ron said, and Harry saw his best friend had also gone a bit red, but it quickly faded as his gaze slid off into the distance.

“How was training this week?” Scorpius asked Al, clearly sensing they all needed a change of subject.

Of all his children, Al was by far the most changed. Al had started out as a scrawny kid with knobby knees and feet too big for his body. He’d topped off, and hopefully stopped growing at six-foot-four and a staggering fifteen stones of what was absolutely solid muscle. He’d been going towards pudgy when he was younger, but with his diet change to go along with Nat’s, he’d slimmed out and then built up muscle on a large scale. He was a powerfully built man, towering over Harry who was starting to wonder if he might not have been bigger if he hadn’t been starved for most of his early years. James was a few inches taller than Harry, but he was lean like Harry was. Al had all of Charlie’s girth and Bill’s height. It was a sight to behold when he was working out. If nothing else, he was going to look like a bouncer if they needed an Auror to look like one. Of course, it also made him stand out in a crowd which could be a hinderance in their line of work, but Al was learning to work around it.

“It was good,” Al confirmed as he finished the last bite of his monumental dinner. “We ran about ten miles today. Lena’s good, too, so we keep up with each other and we’re able to push each other on. Then we had more combat training with Kingsley which is always great fun. He’s a bloody brilliant teacher and so fast that it’s hard to keep up with him. I always learn a lot.”

It was Al that Harry was the most concerned about as far as his children. Alright, that was probably not strictly true. Lily’s life was in danger because of the crazy Crabbe woman, but her future was settled with Scorpius. She would marry a man she loved and live happily ever after with, he was sure, a few bumps here or there. Mostly, she would be happy.

Then there was James who was so happy being married to Caroline, he simply didn’t have to worry about him. He’d worried a lot when James was younger and his default mode had been to be a prat, but Caroline had changed all of that. No, that wasn’t fair to say. Caroline hadn’t once asked James to change who he was. She’d simply been herself and her need for someone to be there for her, to be her friend and then her protector is what had changed James’ life around. He’d wanted to be with her. He’d wanted to be her everything, and on his own James had realized he wasn’t going to be any of the things she wanted or needed if he didn’t radically change who he was. He’d started the change for her, but Harry knew that in the end he’d mainly changed for himself. He didn’t like or respect the person he’d been before. His oldest son was not happy with the man he’d been growing into, so he’d changed. Now he was a husband and a father and he was already a better father, more natural, than Harry had ever been. He doted on his son, who had come to him in what could only be described as horrible circumstances, and James had rolled with it. His wife and his son were his everything. Sure, he had his job, but when practice was over he headed home. He wasn’t out partying at all hours with his team mates, which is something the old James might have done. Louis had complained to Bill that James hadn’t even wanted to go out to a club with him and Harry believed it. James had a standing invitation to join them for dinner every other week, but most nights James refused. He wanted to be home.

Then there was Al who was completely in love with Nat. He was pretty sure Nat was also completely in love with Al, but for whatever reason the two of them couldn’t seem to connect with each other. He’d wanted to interfere more than once, but Ginny kept telling him no, that he needed to be patient and wait for them to figure it out on their own. He was pretty certain he’d be ready to retire before the two of them actually figured it out. More to the point, it was making both of them miserable. The waitress kept coming by to flirt with Al, who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing, and didn’t want her to do any such thing. Thankfully, Nat didn’t know anything about the flirting waitresses or the fact that much of the Ministry, well, at least the MLE, was speculating on if Al and Lena were an item. Harry knew for a fact that they weren’t an item, simply because he’d overheard Lena encouraging Al to ask Nat out on a date. He really wished Al would take her advice and go for it, but doubted he’d get that lucky.

By the time Harry made it home that night, it was thankfully with a mild buzz and no misery over his friends or the fact that his daughter was going to be seventeen in a few months. How had his baby grown up so fast?

“Are you alright?” Ginny asked as Harry stripped off his clothes and flopped into their bed on top of the covers. It was too cold to actually stay there, but he didn’t feel up to moving just yet. He grinned at his wife and couldn’t help but be so thankful life had led him to her. It could have gone so many other ways and it certainly hadn’t been without its share of heartache and pain, but overall, he was so grateful to have her by his side through the good times and the bad.

“I am great,” he promised and he really meant it. If he could sober up enough for it, he could talk his wife into making love with him. If he couldn’t sober up enough, he could still hold her all night long and that was a lot more than Ron would have that night or any other night. Harry reached out his hand to her and their fingers twined together, representing the bond they had so perfectly. They were it for each other and it wasn’t just because of the soul bond, but they were it because they chose to be it every single minute of every single day, through thick and thin.

“How much did you have to drink?” Ginny wondered.

“Enough to not care about how unhappy my best mate is,” he told her before frowning. It wasn’t true, actually. “Did you see Hermione?”

“All the girls got together to talk,” she told him, referring to all the Weasley wives. “She’s pretty miserable, actually. She doesn’t like to fail at anything and she’s realized how far she’s fallen in the eyes of her children. I don’t think she’s a failed mother, exactly.”

“You don’t?”

His wife rolled her eyes. “No, Harry! If she’d been Herman, the head of the Magical Law Enforcement, then no one would have given a rat’s fart how much time she spent with her children. It’s because she’s a woman that she’s getting the guilt trip.”

Harry closed one eye so he could focus on her better and shook his head. “I agree with you, but if I’d been Herman and spent as much time with my kids as she did, I’d feel like I failed as a father. Maybe no one else would have judged me, but I’d be judging myself.”

Ginny nodded slowly as she considered what he’d said. “Alright, that makes sense. The whole thing is a mess anyway. If you’re a woman and you want kids but not a career, you’re stigmatized. If you’re a woman and you don’t want kids, you’re stigmatized. If you’re a woman and you want both, you’re completely screwed because there isn’t a great way to do both without something suffering.”

Harry couldn’t argue with that at all, so he didn’t do more than smile and close his eyes.

“You cannot sleep like that, you’re going to freeze overnight.”

“Come over and keep me warm, then,” he mumbled lazily. “You always know how to warm me up.”

“And you’re definitely too drunk for that.”

“I am willing to try, though.”

~*~

“How was Emma’s first cheer class?” Teddy asked as he changed Amelia’s nappy. The squirming toddler did not want to stay still. He’d wanted so badly to get off work to see her take her first class, but they’d had a sting that required him in disguise and he simply couldn’t get out of it. He had, however, told everyone he was going the next week to see it. It was only an hour on a Tuesday so it wasn’t a major hardship for him to skip out of whatever was going on. Most of the time his days were spent watching people or interviewing them. Interspersed with that was an inordinate and obscene amount of paperwork he could have cheerfully done without.

He was doubly thankful it was Caroline teaching the class. With her aunt for her teacher, it meant that not only was Emma comfortable going to the class but that if Emma used magic accidentally, Caroline wasn’t going to be alarmed or make a big deal of it. She could also cover up any of it that might have slipped out. Thankfully, four-year-olds were the gullible, easily swayed sort and anything Emma would do could be easily explained away.

Emma wasn’t technically four yet. She was supposed to wait until her birthday in January to start the class, but Caroline had pulled some strings when a spot had opened up in the class and they’d been allowed to enroll Emma early. Their biggest problem had been that Teeny wasn’t going to be allowed to go to class with her. Emma didn’t have a concept that the elf was different from her, so different in fact that her appearance in the class would have alarmed absolutely everyone within a ten-mile radius of the gym.

“The class was so cute,” Victoire said with a happy sigh as she sat down on the bed with Olivia to start nursing her. “She was a good listener for Caroline, which helped, and she learned how to do a forward roll and a backward roll. Then they learned a short cheer. She had a great time.”

“It was such a good time she was asleep before I even made it home,” Teddy concluded. He wasn’t surprised the class had worn his daughter out. Even if it wasn’t a tremendous amount of exercise, the excitement alone would have been enough to do it.

As soon as he had the pajamas secured on Amelia, he passed the baby over to his wife so she could nurse her, as well, and hopefully get both of them to sleep shortly. They were already a year old and time just seemed to be going by faster and faster. He lay down on the bed next to his wife and watched the babies nurse as they did every night. “Did Ginny stay with them while you went to the class?”

“No, I took them along,” Victoire said as she shifted a bit. “Can you grab the covers? My feet are getting cold.”

“Sure,” he said as he arranged the blankets all the way up to cover the girls. Of course, both girls flung out their arms to throw off the offending covers. Covers meant sleep and they were not going to sleep. They fought sleep every single night until it stole over them when they weren’t looking. “Was she watching Alex?”

“Yep, and I might have her watch the twins sometimes when I go to the class, but this time Alex has a bit of a cold so we didn’t want to risk getting everyone sick.”

He nodded as he watched her close her eyes. He’d fallen in love with Victoire when he was… how old was he then? Fifteen? Sixteen? It had been around that time. The moment of falling for her hadn’t been a major AH HA moment like he’d been struck by lightning. All he’d known is that one day he’d realized he was in love with her and she was the woman he wanted to marry. Well, not woman, not at that point. She’d still been a girl then, but he’d known. It had been so scary, at first. It was a big thing to get married and they’d been so poor for so long. He thought about it now and realized just how stubborn and prideful he’d been not to take the money Harry and Ginny had set aside for him. Yes, he’d wanted to do it on his own. Yes, that was a notable goal, but in the end it hadn’t achieved much. They’d worked so hard those first few years without either of them making any significant progress and he knew it would have continued on to be the exact same thing if they hadn’t accepted the money. They would have had the student loan debt to pay off to the goblins and the goblins having him in debt to them might have meant he’d have lost his job as an Auror, which would have meant a lot less security for them financially. Teddy frankly didn’t know how others were making it without parents or grandparents to help them.

He knew his grandmother would have liked to help him. He missed her so much at times like this. She’d have loved to know his children, but she wasn’t here. She’d been taken from them too soon probably by Isabella Crabbe. They didn’t know for certain that she’d killed Andromeda. They had pieced together what they thought might have happened and speculated it was her, but they would never know for certain without a confession from Crabbe and Teddy knew they weren’t likely to get it. If they’d had Nat and her ability to read a crime scene at that time, then maybe they’d have had more answers, but she’d been too young and her power hadn’t fully been in.

Teddy had never known his parents or his grandfather or his other grandparents. What he had was Harry and Ginny and grandparents in Molly and Arthur. What he had was the family he’d made with the woman of his dreams. He had Emma, Amelia and Olivia. He had them and he was a happy man.

“Caroline told me she and James are going to try for a baby after Alex is one.”

Teddy turned back to his wife and felt his brow raise. “Really? He’s going to be so little.”

“Mhmm,” she agreed as she shifted a bit on the bed. “I’m going to be ready then, as well.”

Teddy blinked, unsure if he was understanding her correctly. “You… you want to have another baby in, what… March?”

“Well, obviously not in March since it takes nine months to grow them,” she told him with clear bemusement. “I want to start trying in March, or probably April or May actually. I want Caroline to have the full experience of carrying a baby with all the doting Ginny will give her. She’s not had the experience yet and she should, but then we’ll have babies the same age who will go to Hogwarts together.”

Teddy had been absolutely certain just five minutes before that he was okay not having any more children. He’d been very happy with the way their lives were working. They had three great kids and while yes, he’d love and enjoy more, they didn’t have to have any more for him to be a very content man. He studied his wife’s beautiful face and tried to think of how he should respond. He’d told her before that he could be happy and done and she’d told him she wasn’t ready to say that yet. The twins had been hard in the first few months of life. Going from one baby to two babies was a whole lot of work, but they’d had Fleur and Ginny to help out with everything that was going on. They’d also had Polly coming to help cook and clean, plus Teeny who wasn’t a babysitter, exactly, but the tiny elf still kept Emma entertained and safe. The elf could use her magic flawlessly to keep Emma from falling down the stairs or touching something hot. It had worked out brilliantly for all of them, as Teeny really liked playing with Emma and it kept Teeny from being only a house-elf and nothing more. She wasn’t subject to work or servitude while she was still little. Teddy still didn’t know what was going to happen with the elf when she was bigger, but that was a bridge they would cross later.

And here was his wife telling him they were going to have another baby. Well, he had agreed on four. “What if we have twins again?”

“Then we deal with it,” she said simply. “The girls will be just about two when the new baby is born and that’s a good age difference for them.”

He couldn’t argue with that, although having two kids hit the terrible twos at the same time didn’t thrill him, especially with a newborn on hand. “If this is what you want.”

“What do you want?”

What did he want? What did Teddy want in all of this? He liked their life the way it was but he could easily be happy with another baby. It wouldn’t hurt his feelings to have another child, to watch his wife’s body change, yet again, as she grew a new life. He really liked watching her body change and grow round. She was softer now, rounder now, than she’d been as a girl, but it wasn’t the same as when she was far along in a pregnancy. Then there was the tiny newborn life who would be handed over to him to raise and protect.

Did he want to do that again?

Yes, he rather thought he did. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t simple, but he loved his girls and he wouldn’t mind another one. “If we have another girl can we name her Ireland?”

Victoire laughed softly and shook her head. “We will see on a name. I agree I want an ‘I’ name since we have an A, E, and O. We have to stop at U because I don’t know a single U girl name that I could possibly like.”

“How about Ursula?” Teddy suggested. “Oh! How about Uri?”

Victoire scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “Nope, not going there.”

“You never know,” Teddy said, laughing now and trying to hold it in because the twins were just about asleep. “We could name her Unknown.”

“What?” his wife blinked at him stupidly. “No one would possibly name their child Unknown.”

“I met one yesterday,” Teddy said triumphantly. “Granted, it was a bloke, but that was the name listed on his Muggle identification.”

“Did you ask him why his mother hated him?”

Teddy couldn’t help the chuckle that came out. “I did not, but he’s in Muggle custody now, so I don’t think his name did him any favors.”

“That’s just sad… and wrong on so many levels.”

“So no to Ursula,” he said with a nod. He was actually in complete agreement there. “We could do India.”

“Oh, I like that one… hmm,” she mused as she handed Olivia off to him. The little girl didn’t even stir as Teddy carried her over to her cot and settled her in. She was utterly milk drunk and happy with it.

“We could have a boy,” Victoire pointed out as she settled Amelia down.

“We could,” he agreed, but then again they’d already decided to name a boy Remus Harry. “It’s always a possibility, but I rather like the thought of having four girls. It seems fitting.”

Her smile was slow and knowing as she wound her arms around his neck. “You are the best husband a girl could ask for.”

Teddy dipped his head and pressed a soft kiss on her nose, before moving to linger over her soft, inviting lips. “I was just thinking about how you are the best wife a man could ever ask for and I am so blessed to have you and the girls.”

“Are you really okay with having another baby?” she asked and this time he heard the uncertainty in her voice.

“I am, actually,” he said immediately and knew it to be true. He’d already accepted that they might have more children simply because the birth control potion didn’t work well on his wife and he hadn’t yet had things taken care of permanently on his end. Planning one out was just a different way of going about it, rather than being surprised. “I think I really like the idea of waiting until after Caroline is pregnant so we aren’t trying to divide Ginny’s time too much, and as you said so she has a chance to have this to herself. But then after that I am fine with having another baby. I love making babies with you.”

She pushed up onto her toes and threaded her hands into his hair. “I knew you would be up for at least the making of the babies part in all of this, but I’m glad you’re good with it. I really think I need one more to be done.”

He kissed her lightly again and then deeper. “I’m up for whatever life has in store for us, Luv. Whatever that is, I’m in it with you.”

Back to index


Chapter 70: Chapter 67

Author's Notes: I am sorry this is so late! I had minor (HA!) heart surgery (no seriously, I was in and out that day but it was on my heart), my second biggest work event of the year, and a massive amount of other things going on.

On top of that, my beta, Arnel (THANK YOU) emailed me the chapter but it went to spam so I didn't get it and that was like over 2 weeks ago now.

I won't post again in Sept but I should be back to regular once every 4-5 weeks starting in Oct. I appreciate your patience.

One of my books, Duplicity by Sarah Jaune, is up on kindle unlimited FOR FREE if you want to check it out. Please, please, please do check it out if you have a kindle unlimited subscription. I do this for free, but it would be super helpful to get paid for some of my writing.

Sarah


Chapter 68

“How does this look, Mummy?” Lily asked as she worried at her bottom lip, twisting back and forth before the full-length mirror in her parents’ bedroom.

Ginny studied her daughter’s anxious face and wished she could magic the evening away, but there was no help for it. Lily had made her choice to go to the Malfoy’s for dinner and as much as she’d have liked to tell her daughter that no, she couldn’t go to her boyfriend’s house for dinner, she knew she had to let her go. Ginny had spent over an hour speaking with Astoria over tea at a small tea house in Diagon Alley the week before to go over all of the security measures in place on the house, plus her assurances that everyone was going to behave themselves. They would have the safety measures in place to whisk Lily straight back to their house if need be. Astoria had told her that she and Harry could come to dinner if that would make her feel better and it honestly would have, but Lily had for once put her foot down in her Lily way and told her mother she needed to be able to deal with Scorpius’ family all on her own.

Of course, her daughter was right on that score. Ginny could see the writing on the wall, as it were, and she could see that in another year’s time, maybe two, Scorpius would be asking Lily to marry him and with him came his crazy and somewhat violent family. Of all the people her daughter had to fall in love with, she honestly couldn’t have picked a finer young man than Scorpius. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for his family.

Scorpius didn’t want to have dinner with his family. He’d told Lily no when Astoria had bypassed her son and wrote to Lily herself to invite them for a pre-Christmas dinner, but as was likely to be the pattern for their lives, Lily had wanted to go and she’d sat quietly and listened to all the reasons Scorpius didn’t want them to go, the least of which was his grandfather was a murderer who hated the Potters, and then she’d simply said this was important to his mother and they needed to go. And Scorpius had caved.

Ginny was going to have to talk to him about not caving. She was quite possibly the only one immune to her daughter’s expressive face, though, so she didn’t hold out a lot of hope.

So, what was she to do about her daughter who was targeted by an insane killer when she wanted to go to a small dinner party? The only thing Ginny was absolutely certain of was that none of Scorpius’ family was in on what Isabella Crabbe’s plan. Crabbe hadn’t made any moves to reconnect with her somewhat tenuous family connections, and her brother’s actions spoke louder than words. He hadn’t protected his sisters from their forced marriages. He hadn’t tried to save either Isabella nor his sister, Fiona Goyle, after their marriages fell apart when their husbands died. He’d left them for America to make sure his own daughters were safe and didn’t give them a second glance. Actually, Ginny was a little surprised Crabbe hadn’t tried to kill her brother for abandoning them, but it was possible in their family dynamic she’d expected it.

In the end of their tea, Astoria had insisted on at least one Auror coming with Lily so they would feel better about Lily coming to formally meet Scorpius’ grandparents. The one thing that gave Ginny a measure of comfort was her knowledge that Astoria was not the same timid woman she’d been before Draco had attacked and nearly killed Scorpius. Draco’s confinement to St. Mungo’s, rather than Azkaban, had given Astoria the push she’d needed to stand on her own feet and make demands of her somewhat unhinged husband. He’d been out of the hospital for a while now and Harry had met with him twice since. He promised Ginny that he was truly remorseful for what he’d done to Scorpius and he knew he had to make a sharp about face or risk turning into his father. It was something he very desperately didn’t want to happen. Draco had actually told Harry that on the day before his release from the hospital, which showed Ginny how badly the whole incident had shaken the man.

But was it enough? Was it okay to send Lily into the den of vipers, yes, with Teddy there to watch her, but still by herself with only Scorpius?

What was a mother to do about it?

In a normal life and a normal world, she’d tell her to be polite, have a good time, and don’t discuss politics.

But of course, this wasn’t a normal life and there was a very real chance that angry and ugly words would pass through the air that evening. If she was truly lucky, that would be all that would be passed through the air.

“You look beautiful, as always,” Ginny finally told her daughter as she studied her reflection in the mirror, “but more importantly you look dignified and refined, as a lady should. That will matter more in this situation.”

Lily smiled but it was clearly forced. “Scorpius really doesn’t want to go. He’s so worried about my safety.”

Ginny was very worried about her safety, as well, but if anything happened to Lily, then Draco would be going straight to jail, and likely so would everyone else at the table that night. Everyone in the Auror department knew Lily was going to dinner at the Malfoy estate that night, so there would be no way they could do anything to her and get away with it.

But still she worried…

Ginny moved in to hug her daughter, inhaling the sweet smell she’d had since she was a baby. “It’s his job to worry about you, but this will be as safe as anything can be when you’re not home. That’s the best we can do unless we want to stop living.”

Lily’s hug went on until Ginny felt her shoulders relax. “Alright, I think I’m ready to go. I just want them to like me, and I don’t think they ever will.”

Ginny wanted to argue with her that of course they would like her. Everyone liked her. She was nothing but likable.

But this was the Malfoy and Greengrass clan and they wanted a fully pureblood bride of a certain social standing for their son and Lily just didn’t have it because she was part of the Weasley clan. If she’d simply been a Potter before Harry had killed Voldemort, it might have been acceptable. The Potters had money, pureblood, and standing… but no, the Weasleys were the outliers and Ginny grinned to think of it. “Who cares if they don’t like you, Lils? Who cares if they snub their noses at you? Scorpius doesn’t care and he’s the only one who matters. He’s the one you love and want to be with. He doesn’t even want to speak to any of them anymore. You can ignore what they think.”

Her daughter’s big, brown eyes met her and she grinned impishly. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter if this dinner is horrible and they hate me. Scorpius loves me, and I love him, and if they want to be horrible, then we can cut them out of our lives. We’ll have you.”

“You always will, my darling girl,” Ginny promised as she kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Now, let’s go down so Scorpius can tell you how beautiful you are and your father can fret some more about this dinner.”

~*~

Lily stood with Scorpius at the ornate, imposing door of Malfoy Manor and tried very hard to hold as still as she possibly could. She didn’t even know why she was trying to hold still, only that it felt like fidgeting would be uncouth and she desperately did not want to seem uncouth or like a sixteen-year-old child. Just at that moment she was wondering what on earth had enticed her to say yes to Scorpius’ mother when she’d invited her for this dinner. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time to give her a chance to get to know Scorpius’ mother better. It was a chance to meet his grandparents.

But now she was wondering if possibly she’d hit her head on something as they waited for the few seconds it would take for someone to open the door while a chilly December breeze blew at her loose curls and sent them dancing around her face.

“Relax, you two,” Teddy said from behind Lily.

“There is no relaxing until we’re all out of here alive,” Scorpius muttered darkly as his mother pulled open the door.

She had her pale hair pulled up in an elegant knot and she wore tasteful plum dress robes. Her smile was a bit forced, Lily saw with a sinking heart. It wasn’t a good sign if things were already going badly. “Scorpius, Lily, and I believe you’re Mr. Lupin.”

When Scorpius didn’t say anything, Teddy stepped forward to shake her hand. “I am, Mrs. Malfoy. I’ll try to stay out of the way. We appreciate you accommodating us in this way.”

“It is no trouble,” she said as she led them into a sitting room where four older people Lily had never seen before sat on matching settees around a large fireplace while Draco stood leaning on the mantle with a drink in his hand, refusing to turn their way.

“Let me introduce everyone,” Astoria said as she lightly touched Lily’s arm. She was a bit taller than Lily, but just as thin. Years of strain showed plainly on her face as she kept her perfunctory smile in place. “Lily Potter and Theodore Lupin, I would like you to meet Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, and my parents, Oswald and Virginia Greengrass. Everyone, this is Lily and Auror Lupin.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Lily said along with Teddy while Scorpius still kept rigidly silent next to her. His only movement had been to take her hand in his, and she wasn’t heartened to feel how badly it was shaking or how much he was sweating.

She forced down her nausea at making him enter this house again, to face these people. She’d done that to him. He hadn’t wanted to. He’d begged her not to go. But she’d done it anyway and here they were, stuck with this situation where he was terrified, not only for her, but also for himself. The last time he’d really been in the house, his father had tried to kill him. At the rate Draco was drinking, she thought it might turn nasty again.

“I will stand over here,” Teddy told Astoria.

“No, please,” Astoria shook her head, clearly trying to be a good host. “I don’t want you to feel like you’re an intrusion. We all understand that relations between the Malfoys and the Potters have been strained, and naturally they would have concerns.”

“Frankly, I don’t understand it,” Oswald harrumphed from his seat next to his plump wife. They were both gray, now, but Scorpius had told her his darker blond hair had come from his Grandfather Oswald. His grandfather had darker blue eyes, but his grandmother’s were closer to a sky blue. Lily knew that, in their youth, Lucius and Narcissa had both had pale hair and eyes, but now they, too, had given way to age and let their hair gray. Of course, their eyes were still pale and they felt piercing as they studied Lily with her bright copper penny hair and chocolate brown eyes.

She did not fit in, not even in looks, their stares seemed to say.

But that was alright. It was fine. She could handle this. Bravery wasn’t the absence of fear. It was admitting she was afraid and going on anyway. “I am not allowed to go anywhere unguarded, save for school, and even there I am not allowed to be alone. I do apologize for what might seem like a slight, but it is not personal. My parents won’t allow me to visit a shop alone.” She felt Scorpius shift next to her, and she didn’t know if she’d done something wrong or if it was enough, but she’d said it and now it was out there.

“I will stand over here,” Teddy said again and he retreated to the side of the room and to an alcove where he could be seen but was not in the middle of the action.

“Please sit,” Astoria told them, practically begging for them to help her maintain some form of normal. “Would you care for something to drink?”

“I am fine, thank you,” Lily said as she followed Scorpius to another settee, one on the same side as Lucius and Narcissa, who had yet to speak. She had to wonder if that was so he didn’t have to face them or so that they’d be harder to hex, as they’d have to turn to do it. The thought brought on the most inappropriate urge to giggle that Lily had to force herself not to make a sound as they sat. When Scorpius still didn’t respond to his mother, Lily shot him a look.

Finally, he turned to her and said, “I am fine, Mother.”

“Well,” Astoria said as she seated herself in the chair opposite them. “I am so glad you could join us. How was your term at school, Lily? You are in your sixth year, I believe.”

“I am, and it was a good term,” Lily answered and decided they would carry on a conversation without the rest of them. She was determined to like this woman, as she hoped she’d be her mother-in-law someday, and at the very least she wanted one person from Scorpius’ family who was on his side. Lily knew that Astoria hadn’t done a fantastic job of protecting her son, but she’d threatened to leave Draco and she’d actually done it, moved out, for a bit until he’d picked up on therapy again after he’d been released from St. Mungo’s. If Astoria was willing to grow and change, then Lily wanted to give her a chance.

“Do you know what you might do when you’re done with school?” Astoria asked her and something in her eyes wasn’t quite right.

Lily took a moment before she answered, unsure of what she was seeing. “I do not think I will have a traditional job or career. That doesn’t appeal to me. I might focus on charitable organizations and volunteer my time and talents that way. I can organize fundraisers or parties for various groups who are in need across the world.”

Sincere and obvious relief flooded Astoria’s face and if Lily was not much mistaken, she’d just passed a test of some kind. She saw, also, that Virginia’s expression had briefly flashed with surprise before being smoothed out again into haughty neutrality.

“You do not want a career? Not to play Quidditch or some such other… profession?” Lucius asked slowly, speaking for the first time. His voice came out almost as a sneer but it was aging and hoarse, which took out a bit of the sting she remembered from Draco when he’d spoken to her once, years before.

Lily turned to the man and smiled the smile that had never failed to win her a friend or an ally. “I am dreadful at Quidditch. My mother was so gifted, but I have none of her talents and while there are many wonderful jobs one can have, I think my time and talents could be better employed in other areas.”

There. That sounded very grown up.

“Will you live with your parents forever, then?” Oswald asked her sharply.

It was odd that neither of his grandmothers was stepping in to ask questions. It was also odd that he’d ask a question about money. Wasn’t that rude? Lily felt like it was rude and she didn’t know how to answer the question without being rude, herself. She glanced quickly to Scorpius who had turned a brilliant shade of red and looked like he might explode any second. She didn’t understand why he was so upset over this. Yes, it was a bit odd, but it wasn’t as though they’d threatened her. “I do not know how to answer you,” she finally told Oswald simply. “I hope to marry someday, so of course I do not believe I will live with my parents forever, but if I never marry, I am provided for.” She shot Astoria a quick glance and saw her small nod of approval before she let out a small breath.

What was it with these questions? She took in a deep breath and blocked out the negative and nasty feelings emanating off of everyone in the room, save for Astoria. She’d been getting better about it with Sera’s help. Her dog’s strong energy had been helping her calm and it was in moments like this she was so glad her father had bought her for Lily.

“I have heard your cousin is marrying a Muggle Duke,” Virginia said, finally speaking for the first time.

It took Lily a moment to piece together what she was asking of her before it finally clicked into place. “Oh, uhm, technically she’s marrying a wizard who is also a Duke in the Muggle world.” She didn’t exactly understand how the whole Duke thing worked or why it was such a big deal to Muggles, and quite frankly she thought of Andrew as Andrew and not as a Duke, so she struggled to connect Rose as marrying into Muggle royalty, which technically she was. But, of course, it would be seen as a step down to these people, she was sure.

“How… quaint,” Narcissa sniffed. It was an interesting moment to interject.

And Lily was correct. They did not find a Muggle Duke to be important. It was more of a slight or shame. Lily had to force herself not to take it that way. They didn’t understand love or family the way she did and they were to be pitied for it, not taken seriously. She had to keep that forefront in her mind.

“Andrew is a friend of mine,” Scorpius told them through gritted teeth. “We are, of course, going to both the magical and Muggle ceremonies for their wedding this summer.”

Lily kept her expression neutral as looks of pure unadulterated outrage flickered over every one of his grandparents’ faces.

“I’m going to be one of Rose’s bridesmaids,” Lily said through a smile that was supposed to be radiant, but might have ended up cheekier than joyful. “I am so excited for her.”

“Why,” Lucius said finally, breaking the awkward silence that followed Lily’s clearly scandalous announcement, “are we doing this?”

More uncomfortable silence fell and Lily knew Scorpius was going to open his mouth and ruin everything. He was still shaking with anger.

So, she stepped in and she had to hope what she said was going to calm everything down. “We are doing this because Scorpius and I love each other. It’s our hope to marry. Whether you are in our lives after that or not depends on if you can accept that.” Lily turned fully so she could meet Lucius’ cold stare. “You don’t like me for my name and my blood status. You might dislike me on principle for other reasons I can’t even possibly fathom. But I don’t know you and I’m willing to give you a chance.” She paused for a moment. Should she say anymore? Was this enough? Would it even matter what she said?

“You are not”” Lucius began, but Draco finally broke his silence and interjected.

“Enough, Father,” Draco growled, finally turning around to glare at his father. “Scorpius has made his choices and we aren’t going to change him. If you don’t want him to completely cut us off, then we will have to accept her.”

Genuine surprise filled Lily, and apparently everyone else in the room from the look and the rapid mood shift Lily felt from everyone around her.

Lucius rose slowly to his feet. “How dare you.”

It was clearly a threat, but Lily was fairly certain Draco was too drunk to take it as such.

Draco pointed over to where Lily and Scorpius sat, with Scorpius clutching tightly to Lily’s hand. “Look at them! Just look at them! He chose her a long time ago and he doesn’t even want to be here! Tell me the truth,” he said rounding on Lily. “You made him come.”

Lily didn’t want to think she’d made him do anything, but the truth was that yes, she had, so she nodded.

“Do you not see what you’re doing, all of you?” Draco said, tilting a little as he pointed around the room. “We’ve lost! We have no control! The marriage we wanted for him is up in smoke, but you know what else is up in smoke? Us! We are what’s rotten in this room, not her!”

“Draco,” Narcissa hissed quietly.

“Don’t pretend you don’t understand what’s going on here,” Draco growled at her. “You’re all sitting here judging Lily Potter as if she’s dirt under our feet, when the truth is that we’re the dirt under hers. She’s a Potter and in the world today that means everything, but rather than see reality for what it is, you’re holding onto the notion that you still have some sway in society. Well, you don’t.”

Lily felt Scorpius’ hand twitch in hers but he didn’t move otherwise as he watched his father rage against his parents and in-laws. She couldn’t possibly have guessed this was going to happen. She glanced to Teddy to see he was fully concentrating on the fight happening before them. She wondered if, at any moment, she’d be sent back home with the Portkey that was her necklace. Teddy could do it with a single word, as could she and Scorpius. She hoped not. As much as she hated the conflict going on around her, because it was very overwhelming and much of it was directed at her, she wanted this for Scorpius. She wanted there to be healing.

“You would dare to suggest that a Potter has better standing than””

Draco cut his father off again, this time getting directly in his face and splashing them both with whatever the amber liquid was that he was drinking. “Don’t be dense! Who does the Minister want to see? You or Harry Potter? It’s not you! You can’t even bribe your way into her good favor because most of our money is gone! The boy has an actual job, for an actual paycheck, working for the damn goblins because you followed the Dark Lord and we both went to jail and lost everything! Every damn thing is gone now because of you!” he bellowed, practically spewing hate at his father. “Then you,” he said spinning around to glare at Oswald and Virginia, “pretending like you still have the money to throw your weight around, but I know it’s practically gone! We’re all broke, and what that girl was too polite to say to your insolent question was she’s wealthy and if you’re too stupid to see she’s exactly what this family needs then there is no help for you!”

“You need to calm down and sober up!” Lucius roared at his son.

Draco’s expression hardened and his voice dropped. “I might need to sober up, but I can’t because I can’t stand to see the look of hatred and fear in my son’s eyes. I don’t know how you could stand it, either.”

Then he marched out of the room without a backwards glance.

Lily turned to look at Scorpius, who was staring at her, and then towards his grandfather.

“I am leaving this house,” Lucius said. “Come, Narcissa.”

“No,” Narcissa said quietly from her seat on the settee. “I was invited for dinner and I am going to stay. I will see you at home.”

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but with a quick glance towards Teddy, he shut it again and whirled from the room.

After a long moment, Astoria said finally, “I hope we can have a pleasant meal.”

“Yes,” Narcissa said primly. “I may not like the situation, but Draco is correct. Scorpius has made his choice and I do not wish to be cut off completely from my grandson. Also, he is correct that we would do better to align ourselves with the Potters rather than continuing this ridiculous pretense that we have the standing we had before. We do not and to be very blunt, if you want to keep this house, you will need her money.”

Lily didn’t know if she should be stunned, hurt, or laugh at the turn of events.

“Do you really think”” Virginia began to Narcissa, but stopped when the other woman shook her head.

“What is the alternative, Virginia?” Narcissa asked her coolly. “If we cut him off, then both our houses die with us. We have no legacy. Your other child is unlikely to have an heir at this point, and we only have Scorpius. If we want to bring our reputations back, we have to look forward. Lucius wants to pretend we still have the same clout, but it’s been gone for decades now and it’s not coming back, not in the way it was before we were forced to pay reparations to the Ministry. This girl,” she said, nodding to Lily. “She’s beautiful, poised, has nearly perfect pedigree, and she’s wealthy. It was more than we could have hoped for and certainly more than we were getting from that girl from Germany. The only thing she had in her favor was blood lines and money, but they were newer bloodlines than the Potters or the Weasleys and she had the face of a horse. We wouldn’t have been able to take her places. This girl,” she said, again referring to Lily, “she will be a credit to us. Look how she held up against us all.”

Lily stared at the other woman who was giving her an odd stamp of approval and decided she really rather liked her own family much better than this.

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Draco and Narcissa,” Oswald sighed heavily. “I don’t like it, but times have changed. I cannot see this girl bringing shame upon us. Astoria,” he said turning to his daughter. “We should eat now. All this disagreeableness needs to be behind us. Auror Lupin, I do hope you will join us for the meal. No need to stand on ceremony when we’re all going to be family in the end.”

~*~

“Go over this again,” Harry told Teddy as they sat at the large kitchen table at Ivy Run fifteen minutes after Lily, Scorpius, and Teddy had arrived back from the dinner at Malfoy Manor. The table was full that night, with Nat’s parents, Julienne and Curtis, who had flown in to spend the holidays with their daughter, and also Al, Hugo, Ron, Nat, and Ginny. They’d all barely finished dinner before the three weary house guests arrived back from the Dinner of Doom.

“It was mental,” Teddy shook his head, while Lily and Scorpius nodded in agreement. “Draco was absolutely sloshed, but he stood up for Scorpius and Lily and told his father off. You’re still going to have problems with Lucius,” Teddy told Scorpius.

“Don’t I know it,” Scorpius muttered darkly. “I don’t want to wish him dead, but I won’t be sorry when he goes.”

“Wait, let me see if I understand this,” Julienne interjected, pointing at Scorpius with her half full glass of wine. “You went to dinner with your parents and both sets of grandparents, correct?” At his nod, she went on. “This is your father’s father who we are talking about?”

“Yeah, my dad’s father is a bastard,” Scorpius told her. “Actually, my dad isn’t much better.”

She nodded sympathetically. “They filled me in on what he did to you, and I can completely understand wanting to cut him totally out of your life, but it seems like he’s learning from those mistakes.”

“I can’t believe he stood up to Lucius,” Harry said and thought about all the time he’d known Draco. “Draco had always hero-worshiped his father to the point of it being downright stupid. It was one of the things that landed him in jail after becoming a Death Eater.”

“The Death Eaters were the ones who didn’t want Muggleborns in the wizarding world, correct?” Curtis clarified. “They followed that Voldemort bloke.”

“Yes, they were followers of Voldemort,” Teddy confirmed with a shake of his head. “Lucius was always part of that crew. They were fanatical about bloodlines and theirs is one of the ones that goes back quite far, but no family has completely pure blood and if we’re being honest, that just leads to incest anyway, so it should go out of fashion. Draco was a kid when the second war happened and he fell in with the Death Eaters.”

“Do not excuse him by his age,” Ginny told Teddy with a shake of her head. “He and Harry are the same age, and you can see what Harry chose to do with his life. He could have joined up, but he didn’t.”

“But Harry was raised away from all that mania,” Teddy pointed.

“Well, what about Scorpius, then?” Ginny argued back. “He was raised by Draco!”

“Not the same thing,” Harry said heavily. “Also, Astoria is not Narcissa. She had an influence on him that was clearly positive.”

“I think,” Scorpius said slowly, making everyone fall silent around him. “I think that from an early age I saw the contradictions in what my father and grandfather were saying. I saw them say that they were the right way and that people admired and feared them. They were purebloods. But then when we were in Diagon Alley, people intentionally avoided us or sneered at us. Some people even said nasty things to my father and I began to see, even before I came to school, that what they’d done hadn’t earned them the respect of the community. When I learned they’d both gone to jail, I stopped caring what they said. If they’d done something bad enough to go to jail, then I didn’t want to be like them.”

“That’s a hard thing for a child to process,” Ginny told him kindly, gripping his hand with hers where it rested on the table. “I’m very proud of you, Scorpius.”

“Can I just say this?” Scorpius said, and Harry saw his eyes were a little brighter than usual, and his voice was a bit gruff. “I’m really glad I know what a real family looks like because I have it here, with all of you. I was so glad I was going to leave that house and get to come back to a family that actually cares about each other and not just about their standing in society.”

“I will drink to that!” Al said as he lifted his glass and toasted it against Nat’s.

“I want to add my thanks, as well,” Julienne went on, holding up her glass for a toast. “We had such chaotic lives and Natalie really didn’t have a place to land in her life. But then you all stepped in to give her another family to be with, and a safe place to land. Curtis and I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done, and I’m so glad to call you friends and family!”

“To family!”

~*~

“Why don’t we dance?” James asked his wife as he snagged her around the waist and began to twirl with her through the kitchen. Dinner was over, Alex was in bed asleep in his own room, and they had at least an hour until they had to turn in themselves. But then again, turning in early always led to interesting developments. Or rather, it sometimes led to them. Sometimes they were exhausted and simply passed out.

“What are we dancing to?” Caroline asked as she threaded her arms around his neck and kissed the underside of his jaw. “The sound of the crickets outside? Nope, they’re all asleep until the spring.”

“How about the sound of how much I love you?” he asked as he slowly kissed her. He froze as he heard a bang, a curse, another bang, and then a thud. He’d have panicked if he hadn’t heard his cousin’s very distinctive voice letting out another volley of swear words from the living room. “Might have to pause this,” he told Caroline grimly, annoyed at the interruption.

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I’ll slip upstairs and read. He sounds… upset.”

“You okay?” he asked her quickly, studying her face.

She nodded and smiled, but she was out of his arms and up the stairs before he could question her further. Now he was annoyed at the interruption and annoyed his cousin had scared his wife. Alright, she probably wasn’t scared, but she’d looked uncomfortable.

James stalked into the living room and stared down at the pathetic pile that was his best mate on the floor. “What the hell?” he asked Louis as he reached down to haul him up and drag him over to the sofa. “Ever thought of asking before you barged in at nine o’clock at night?”

“What time is it?” Louis squinted at him as his face filled with misery. “Was supposed to see Annie tonight! Was supposed to be a date!”

James let out a long-suffering sigh and sat down next to him on the couch. “Alright, tell me what happened.”

“I dunno what happened,” Louis told him miserably as he slumped down onto the couch. “I picked her up for dinner and I thought things were going so well! It was our fifth date and she’d said she wanted to take things slowly, so we were taking it slow! I hadn’t even tried to kiss her yet, but then tonight…” he closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “Why do I keep doing this, mate? Why can’t I find a girl who will stick?”

“Do you even want a girl to stick?” James wondered. His impression of Louis had always been of a lovable, affable, playboy with an odd bent towards the birds no one else seemed to want. He wasn’t sure that Louis would ever want to get married.

Louis shrugged and opened his eyes to stare up at the ceiling. “Since I’ve been back, I’ve been… ya know, here with you and here with Alex and Caroline. I’m seeing things, ya know? I’m seeing… seeing… things. I’m seeing things, James!”

“You’re seeing things,” James repeated, and wondered if he could sober Louis up enough so he’d actually make some sense. Probably not. He wasn’t that good with potions or charms.

“I’m seeing that what I’ve been doing, yeah, it feels good in the moment and I like it, but then when it ends it just hurts and hurts and hurts.”

James nodded slowly. “It hurts, I get it.”

“No,” Louis shook his head. “No, you don’t know how it hurts because Caroline loves you back! You don’t have to wonder if she’s going to leave you or if you’ll be alone when you die.”

“You’re worried about dying, now?” James blinked in surprise.

“Noooooo,” Louis drawled out the word. “No, but maybe I will die alone and that’ll be because I couldn’t find a girl to love me for me and not my stupid face!”

James stared at his cousin, completely blown away by that statement. “Come again?”

“They only want me because I’m part-Veela,” he spat out angrily. “Then when the magic wears off, because it always does since it’s not real love, they dump me!”

“Uh, I remember that first night you tried to hit on Annie and she was definitely not into you and she very definitely wasn’t under any Veela spell,” James reminded him. “She told you no when you asked her out and you had to pursue her for weeks before she even gave you the first chance at a date.”

“I know that!”

“So what does that have to do with your being part-Veela?”

“I don’t know,” Louis grumbled in annoyance. “My head hurts.”

“Serves you right for getting drunk,” James pointed out. “And crashing into your best mate’s house without asking when he’s trying to dance with his wife.” He might have been nicer about it if Louis’ drunken curses hadn’t scared Caroline. She’d heard enough drunken curses in her life and she didn’t need more. Louis was an ass for doing this when he knew just how it might scare her.

“But Annie dumped me!” Louis told him bitterly. “She told me it was never going to work because she wants something different in her life. She wants someone else… not me. Why won’t any of them stay with me?”

“Let me ask you something,” James said, realizing now was probably his only shot at a straight answer. “Did you find Annie attractive?”

“What?” Louis glanced over at him blurrily.

“Did you find Annie attractive?” James repeated the question.

“‘Course I did,” Louis slurred out the words as he tried to focus on James by closing one eye more than the other. “Why would I want to date someone who isn’t good looking?”

James had no idea what to say to that, so instead he said, “Alright, you need to get home and sleep this off, mate.”

“Can’t I stay here?” he asked, trying to settle in. “It’s comfortable.”

“Nope, you freaked out my wife so you have to go. Come on, up you go. I’ll Apparate you home.”

“You’re a good friend, James,” Louis told him as he wobbled to his feet. “Sorry I scared Caroline. You’ll tell her I’m sorry, right? I won’t come back drunk again. I know I shouldn’t have.”

“I’ll tell her and you’re damn right you won’t. I’ll hex you with bat boogies next time if you do.”

“Promise,” Louis said as he leaned most of his weight on James and let him take the lead.

Back to index


Chapter 71: Chapter 68

Author's Notes: Soooo my story, Duplicity, is up on amazon kind le unlimited for FREE. FREE I say! Author name is Sarah Jaune And not to vague-post, but I might need money for a lawyer because of the book so if you have kind le unlimited please go check it out LOL SOB No seriously, I'm not joking... hopefully it's all nothing.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!


Chapter 68

Things had been very quiet since Nat’s parents had gone back to work, flying off to where ever it was they were flying off to. It was something Nat was used to, and she’d never really thought about it much, but like Scorpius she was more than a little thankful to have a family she came home to.

Alright, so technically she never left the house. She went to other family members’ homes sometimes and sometimes Harry or Teddy would take her to Diagon Alley, but in general she stayed at Ivy Run or went over to hang out at Caroline’s with baby Alex, who she adored beyond reason.

She really wanted a family.

Nope, don’t think about that, Natalie.

Nat bent her head to her work and would not think about the fact that Al had sent her a note saying he and his partner Lena had to do something that night. She didn’t want to be a jealous wench. She didn’t want to think ugly thoughts about Lena, who was a very nice person. She was going to concentrate on this hawthorn wood and the unicorn tale and… the wood snapped.

Sighing, Nat sat back and tried very hard to regulate her breathing. If she was upset, she definitely couldn’t make wands and Ollivander had been very pleased with the quality of her wands. She was making a steady income working for him, granted it wouldn’t be enough to actually support herself or anything. She was paid per wand that sold which meant she had to wait for the wand to actually find the witch or wizard. The only bright spot was she was making so many wands that Ollivander had been able to start sending some of the wands overseas to other wand makers who were in need, but they were not making as much money from those wands when they sold.

She’d offered the Potters rent for her living there, but of course they’d refused. She helped around the house and did odd jobs for them. Added to that, they simply didn’t need money and they considered her family and that was the greatest thing they could have ever given her.

So here she was, working on wands when it was nearly dinner time, because Al wasn’t going to come home to eat dinner with her when Ginny and Harry were out for the evening. Sighing, Nat put her tools down. She had to go in and eat and she knew Polly would have food waiting for her, so she gave in and slid off her stool in her dim work room. She doused the lights and grabbed her coat to face the late January cold snap they were under. The wind bit at her exposed cheeks as she hurried towards the warmth of the house, which she was certain would be quiet save for Polly, when the door was flung open and Scorpius stepped out with a huge grin.

“Hey,” he called as he held the door open for her. “I thought I was going to have to drag you away from your workspace. Dinner is ready.”

“I didn’t expect you,” Nat said as she hurried into the warmth of the kitchen.

“Al said he was bailing on you and I remembered Harry and Ginny’s dinner with the Minister tonight, so I talked to Rose and we decided to eat here. Thankfully Polly didn’t throw us out when we messed up her meal plan.”

“Nothing like that sir,” Polly called happily from the kitchen. She was always happiest when she had a full table.

“We’re here,” Rose called from the living room and Nat glanced over to see Rose and Andrew dusting off their clothes from the Floo. “Gran nearly came over, as well, but Poppop convinced her it would be nice for us young people to have a dinner alone,” she informed them as she came over to grab plates and help set the table. “Thank you for dinner, Polly!”

They were all seated and eating five minutes later and Nat smiled as Rose and Andrew talked about their wedding plans and how many ridiculous things they would have to do for the Muggle portion of the ceremony.

“I keep saying we don’t need to do those things,” Andrew told them. “It isn’t the 1800’s, after all. We can do what we want to, but my Aunt Emma has her heart set on it being as traditional as possible. That’s fine, and all, but we have a lot of security concerns that don’t involve Muggles and that makes everything a hundred times more difficult. We could have people under the Imperius Curse sneak in to the ceremony!”

“Point of order,” Scorpius used his fork to indicate over to Nat. “If someone is under the Imperius Curse, Nat will know in a second and we’ll have a lot of Aurors there to deal with it.”

Andrew shook his head, grinning. “I keep forgetting about that. Your super power is amazing.”

Nat shrugged. It was something, that was sure, but what that something was remained to be seen. She’d been called into the Ministry more than once to take a look at a suspect to see if there was anything off about them. They’d also moved all the pregnancy checks to the Auror office because it was easier to have tighter security there. Audrey had decided to scheduled them for earlier in pregnancy, as well, to lessen the damage to the mother and baby which Nat thought was a prudent idea. Unfortunately, they’d have more than one woman under the Imperius Curse, likely to go back and tattle to Isabella Crabbe about how they were curing the women. It was not a hard job, but it was a stressful one at times. The amount of damage the woman was inflicting on people was horrible, and this was only in England. They were getting reports of sickly babies in other countries and it left Nat feeling helpless that she couldn’t be everywhere for everyone, but she kept reminding herself she could only do so much and she was already doing more than most could or would.

“This is a major event in the wizarding world, as well,” Scorpius went on and Nat realized she’d missed something in her wool-gathering. “I’m hearing all kinds of talk at work about the joining of a high ranking and wealthy Muggle aristocracy to the Weasley family. It’s a big deal.”

“I’m more than a little amused that the goblins have a better understanding of the Muggle world than the human wizards do,” Rose mused as she shot Andrew a cheeky grin. “How does it feel to be a commodity?”

He laughed good naturedly and cupped Rose’s cheek. “I get to be with you, so I do not care.”

An ache deep, deep inside Nat’s chest began to throb. She was so happy for her two friends, she really was. She was happy for Scorpius and Lily. She was happy for James and Caroline. She was happy for them, but a burning part of her wished, with all her might, that someone would look at her the way Andrew was looking at Rose.

Loneliness when she lived in a home with other people was a hard thing.

“What sorts of things will be happening at the Muggle ceremony?” Scorpius asked as he cut into his meat.

Rose began with a list of people who were included, which included several of the royal family, and then went down a list of decorations and the orchestra who would be playing. “Honestly, it’s a lot of fuss but it’s making Aunt Emma happy to fuss over it, so she can do what she likes. I was afraid I would have to pick my gown for the event, but Emma brought in a designer who makes them and we went over sketches. I asked Aunt Fleur to come help and she had some wonderful ideas. The dress should be spectacular, but I’m looking forward to my simple robes for our family celebration here in the backyard.”

It had become somewhat of a tradition to have the weddings either at Ivy Run or at the beach house, but while Rose loved the beach, she said she had too many happy memories of being at Ivy Run and wanted her wedding there, in the back garden.

“So, do we know what Al was up to tonight?” Rose asked the group.

“Apparently James let Al know that Louis was on a bender and hadn’t been seen in a few days,” Scorpius told her as picked up his drink.

Nat blinked. She hadn’t heard that before.

“So, he took Lena into Muggle London to try to find him and sober him up,” he said, finishing the story.

~*~

“My brother owes me big time for this,” Al muttered as he thought about the lost opportunity to have dinner with just Nat for once. He’d been looking forward to this night for weeks now, but here he was trying to track down his wayward cousin in a pub somewhere in London. It would have been damn near impossible to find him, except Louis also had one of their special communication mirrors and he gave James a general idea of where he was. “Thanks for coming with me,” he told Lena. He was surprised when she’d said she wanted to go, but then again this was good fun compared to having to fight dark wizards.

“No problem,” Lena said with a dry chuckle. She’d changed into Muggle jeans, a tight dark blue shirt, and a black leather jacket. She honestly fit straight into the crowd at the pub. Al was also in jeans a shirt, but he still felt like he stood out. “I’d be going home to my flat alone to read. This sounded a lot more appealing.”

“I’m not sure pulling a drunk Louis from anywhere is going to be appealing,” Al pointed out as he scanned the dimly lit, crowded room for his cousin. Louis had not shown up to work that day. He’d learned this from Scorpius, who had said Louis hadn’t even checked in. Scorpius was currently doing a short stint with the goblins to learn their laws, which varied from the magical community, to have a better understanding of how they meshed. The goblins were not exactly the forgiving sort when it came to that type of behavior, but Louis was different. He was, not to put too fine a point on it, beautiful, and in the world of high finance, the goblins understood that a beautiful man could do a lot of things. Added to that, he was a gifted curse-breaker. The apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree, there. Bill had started to teach his son everything he could just as soon as Louis was old enough and Louis had soaked it up like a sponge. There was little about the curse-breaking world that his cousin didn’t know about, Al knew. He was already becoming an expert and it was that particular trait which had enabled him to transfer back to England well ahead of schedule. Now he could travel to other places if they needed him, but he mainly consulted for England and the goblins at Gringotts. Louis had the uncanny knack of being able to talk old widows into letting him take a crack at their family’s secret stashes, for a large fee, of course. The goblins took their cut and Louis took the rest. He was starting to gain a name for himself all over Europe, which didn’t surprise Al in the slightest. His cousin always had been a charming bastard and that wasn’t likely to change. What was surprising was hearing the talk about it at the Ministry. Usually, the banking world stayed separated from the Ministry, but if they had a valuable asset like Louis go rouge… it was not a good situation. He could wreak havoc.

Of course, the only havoc Louis seemed to be getting himself into was all the girls he was chasing. Al seriously did not understand his cousin’s love life.

“There he is,” Lena pointed to a back table where two beautiful women were fawning over a very obviously smashed Louis.

“If their shirts were cut any lower they wouldn’t need to be wearing them,” Al grumbled as he began to push his way through the throng of people, ignoring his stomach which was connected magically to his nose and smelling fish and chips. “Alright,” he said as he came up to the table and the two women turned to him in surprise. “I need you two to unhand my cousin and leave us alone.”

Both looked like they might want to protest, but Al simply stood tall, his arms crossed, and glowered. Very quickly they vacated the booth and left Louis peering up at him blurrily though one eye. “Whatya doin’ here?”

“I’m going to sober you up,” Al informed him as he moved over to take him cousin’s arm.

“Noooo,” Louis moaned, scooting away from Al. “Ya can’t make me!”

“What are you, three?” Al asked him incredulously. “Of course, I can make you, Louis. I’m twice your size.”

“Louis,” Lena said with a cheerful smile as she slid onto the seat next to Louis on his other side. “Do you remember me?”

“No,” Louis shook his head as he stared at her. “Do I know you?”

“We were at school together,” she explained to him as she slid his drink away from him and pulled over some sort of bread which was in a bowl. “We went to another pub a few months back with all your cousin. You dated one of my roommates, Jane.”

“Jane…” Louis sighed and sagged down into his seat. “Jane was just the best! Al!! Albus!! Do you remember how amazing Jane was? She was the best!” he said, emphatically smacking each word with his fist to the table, slurring his words slightly. “Why’d I ever break up with her, Al?”

“Because you’re shallow and flighty,” Al told him dryly as he resigned himself to sitting down and waiting this out. “I need some water,” he told one of the servers who had just appeared at the table. She was a little thing, barely bigger than Lily, with a pixie cut of blonde hair.

“The manager wants this one gone,” the server said and Al realized she’d actually come to boot them out.

“I’m working on that,” Al told her with a smile. “He’s my cousin and I’ll carry him out of here if needed, but I’m going to try to talk him out first.”

She nodded, clearly alright with passing off the task of rousting Louis to Al. “I’ll get some water for him,” she said as she picked up the glass of amber liquid from the table and walked away.

“Albussssss,” Louis said again as he sat up. “Do you know where Lissa went?”

“Who on earth is Lissa?” Al wondered and then wondered why he was trying to ask a question of a drunk. He needed his head examined.

“She’s the love of my life!” Louis whispered pitifully. “The love, the absolute love…”

“I thought Jane was the love of your life?” Al pointed out sarcastically. “You don’t know your heart from your ass, Louis.”

Louis blew out a breath that sounded something like ‘pshhh’ and shook his head. “Look who’s talking! I fancied Nat for a while there, but I didn’t do anything because I knew you had a thing for her and here you are still doing nothing about it! I should ask her out!”

“Ask her out and I’ll break you in half,” Al promised him and paused when he realized he meant it, but then he saw his cousin was laughing and realized he’d just taken the mickey.

“You walked right into that one,” Lena pointed out helpfully. “Louis,” she said as she turned back to him. It was so unfair that even clearly drunk off his arse his cousin still managed to be everything a girl would ever want. “Listen, you didn’t show up for work today which means you’re going to get fired. Whoever this Lissa is, she’s not worth losing your job over. You’ll end up homeless and then no girls will want you.”

“Oh, they’ll want me,” Louis informed her as he leaned in too close to her, his expression falling. “They all want me. You want me, she wants me, even he wants me,” he said as he pointed around the room to a bloke who was definitely checking Louis out.

Lena’s face went just the tiniest bit pink, but she kept her expression neutral. “They might want your face, but you’re not exactly pleasant to be around and so no one will stay.”

“Nope,” he said in agreement. “No one stays! Annie wouldn’t give me a chance and I loved her so, and then I met Lissa. Do you know Lissa?” he asked Lena.

“No, why don’t you tell me about her,” Lena prompted him with a pleasant smile. “Where did you meet?”

“She works at the ice cream shop down from the bank,” Louis told her, clearly happy to talk about this subject. “She’s just a dream… you know? What’s your name again?”

“Lena,” she answered patiently.

“Lena,” Louis nodded and then lost focus. “I met Lissa a few weeks back and it was love at first sight! I just… I just adored her, you know? She is everything I ever wanted and more! I flirted with her, bought ice cream every day even though that much sugar is so bad for me and I was definitely starting to get fat from it.”

Al groaned softly under his breath and rolled his eyes since his cousin was still extremely trim. “Get to the point, Louis!”

“What point?”

Merlin’s saggy y fronts… “Louis, tell me what happened with Lissa.”

“With Lissa? OH!” he said as if the memory had snapped back into place. “I finally talked her into meeting me for a drink today… or maybe it was yesterday. I don’t know. Then she told me we could never be together!”

“That’s really hard to hear,” Lena said sympathetically as she patted his hand. “Did she tell you why?”

“She… she said she’s too old for me!”

Al and Lena exchanged alarmed glances. “How… how old is she?” Al finally asked, not sure he actually wanted the answer.

“Sixty-three,” Louis sniffed. “But who cares about a number when you’re in love?”

“Louis Arthur Weasley,” Al said and was horrified at just how much he sounded like Gran in that moment. “You are nineteen years old!”

“Twenty.”

“Not any better,” Al told him in exasperation. “You are mental, you know that, right? You couldn’t just pick a nice girl, your own age, and settle down? You have to keep picking girls who are absolutely terrible for you?”

Lena, who was clearly trying very hard not to laugh, stood and said, “I’m going to see what happened to the water.”

The moment she was gone, Al leaned over to his cousin. “You have to pull it together or you’re going to ruin your life before it has even begun. Have you been hexed or something? What’s making you act like this?”

Of course, Al knew he hadn’t been cursed or hexed. Nat had seen him at a family dinner only the week before and she hadn’t seen anything in him or she’d have said something. No, Louis was doing this of his own free will and for whatever reason, his free will was mental.

Al heard a gasp from behind him and turned to see Lena glowering at a grinning man who was squaring off with her.

“You think it’s funny to assault a woman, do you?” Lena asked as she threw the glass of water in his face. He gasped in surprise, but he wasn’t nearly as surprised as he was going to be. Two seconds later the man was down on the ground, winded and shielding his face.

“We need to go,” Al said as he stood and he reached across the table to pull Louis to his feet. “Now.”

“Not going,” Louis told him belligerently.

“Walk out or I carry you,” Al threatened, and Louis started to walk. “You okay?” he asked Lena and she nodded.

“You ruined my shirt!” the man on the ground said as he scrambled to his feet. “This is silk!”

“You grabbed my butt,” Lena pointed out to him. “You deserved worse. Should we call the police and see who they haul off to jail?”

“What’s going on here?” a woman of about fifty with short salt and pepper hair asked as she strode over. “Peter?”

It was never, ever a good sign when someone who looked like they were in charge, knew only one of the people in the altercation.

Lena nodded to Peter. “He grabbed my ass. I threw my water into his face and put him down on the ground.”

Peter, who was clearly unhappy with having been bested by a woman, shook his head. “I slipped on the water!”

“She totally knocked you on your arse, son,” a man hooted from nearby.

“We’re going,” Al repeated as he glanced to Lena. “Unless you want to press charges.”

“No,” Lena shook her head and turned to leave.

The man made the mistake of grabbing Lena’s arm and Al reflexively grabbed him by the neck. The man, who was not small, was still no match for Al in height or weight. He quickly released Lena’s arm and Al released the man’s skinny throat.

“Do not come back here,” the older woman said.

“Absolutely no problem with that,” Al promised.

“I’ve been thrown out of better places than this!” Louis proclaimed loudly to everyone in the room as Al dragged his cousin to the door.

What a damn mess.

~*~

Hermione stared out of the window of her small flat above the house she and Ron owned and watched a light dusting of snow coat the grass all around their tiny yard. It wasn’t like the wonderful house they’d owned before. That house had been perfect for them. It had a big yard, space to move, and it was where she’d birthed their children. It had been her house of dreams, a quote from a Muggle novel she’d loved when she was little. She’d never had dreams of being a wife or a mother, those things hadn’t been top of her list. She’d been smart, raised by two educated people, and told she could do absolutely anything she wanted.

When she’d been dreaming about a life for herself, she’d thought to stay away from the Ministry because of how badly it was being run before Voldemort and during his second rise, but a wise mentor had told her that nothing would change if people didn’t change the system. Minister Macmillan had changed the system for better. She’d made the Ministry a good place to work. It was a place where things were happening and lives were changed. They’d revolutionized how everything was done. Hermione had been a major part of making that happen and she was incredibly proud of just how much they’d managed to accomplish in just a few short years.

She could see the change and be proud to be a part of it.

But when she looked at her own life, she knew she hadn’t changed and she was absolutely disgusted with herself. Her therapist had beat it into her head that she was ruining her relationship with Ron and the children, but she’d kept on making the same bad mistakes over and over and over again. There was no growth in her life. There was no progress. She lived with Ron only because they had a soul bond and breaking that soul bond, which could be done if they weren’t in England, would mean she would lose her job. It was not acceptable to do that.

But she’d researched it. Oh, yes, she’d definitely looked into it.

She’d married Ron when they were young.

No. No, she couldn’t lie to herself. Harry and Ginny had been young and sixteen and seventeen years of age. That had been very young. She and Ron had at least been adults for several years before they’d married, but if she was honest with herself, and she was trying to be honest with herself, she’d done it because she was connected to Ron in a way she was only connected to one other human being, and that was Harry.

She and Harry would have made a much better couple. In temperament, they were definitely better suited to each other than she and Ron were, but in the end that didn’t mean they were well matched. Her fussy habits and workaholic nature would have driven Harry batty, just like it had done to Ron. Also, Harry needed Ginny’s stable and steady influence to make him into the family man he was now. He didn’t know how to do that, but Ginny did.

Ron did.

Hermione supposed she ought to have, but she hadn’t grown up in the chaos of a house with seven siblings where compromise and patience were part of everyday life. In her home everything had been neat, orderly, and tidy. She never had to share her toys, share her room, share her anything. She only had to worry about herself. It was one of the things she’d come to realize was a major shortcoming in her life and it wasn’t one she knew how to overcome.

She’d wanted to stop after having Rose. She was already exhausted and too stressed out with work to have a second baby, but Ron had reminded her that having a sibling meant having someone who was there, even when your parents were gone. He was kind like that. He hadn’t pointed out that her neuroticisms wouldn’t be so bad if she’d had a younger brother breaking her toys every other day. In the end, since Ron had promised to take on most of the child rearing duties, she’d agreed and Ron had done exactly what he’d said he would do. He’d cooked dinners, dealt with bed times and mornings, was at least fifty percent of getting the children to Ginny to mind for the day when they were small. Sometimes his work schedule was busier, especially during the holidays and she took up some slack, but he more than made up for it the rest of the year.

And slowly but surely, little by little, as the children needed her less and less, she worked more and more to fill whatever gaps were left in her life and in her marriage.

Things with Ron had always been rocky. They’d fight and then have amazing makeup sex. Then they’d fight, but be too tired from being up all night with a sick child to have the sex and then they just stopped connecting enough to fight.

She’d loved him once, or loved in a way that was possible for a goal-oriented person when they’re twenty. She cared for him, still did. Her soul bond with him made it so she would always care for him. They shared so many things together, including family, history, and trauma. Even now she still found him attractive in a way that made her want to go down and pick a fight, just so they could have makeup sex.

But that was the old Hermione and the old Hermione was a wreck of a human being, one she didn’t really want to contemplate being anymore. She was going to work, she was always going to work too much. She was going to obsess and she didn’t know how to stop that since they still had an insane killer on the loose and the woman was now out killing babies with reckless abandon.

Justifications… always justifications. There was no justification for taking her job home with her, or even not coming home at all because her job was her everything.

They’d had a family dinner just a few weeks ago and she’d made an effort to go. It had been awkward, at first, but she’d relaxed with her sisters-in-law and after two glasses of wine things were going well, right up until the moment that Fleur mentioned helping Rose pick out her wedding dress and wedding robes.

Rose hadn’t asked Hermione. To be fair, she’d have been lousy at picking them out and she didn’t resent Rose wanting her highly fashion-conscious aunt to be the one who went along. No, what bothered her is that Rose didn’t even tell her she was needing them.

Hermione had sat there fuming in righteous indignation, wanting very badly to huff and puff all the ills done to her when it had hit her square in the heart. Her daughter was getting married in less than six months. Of course she’d needed a dress! Hermione hadn’t once even asked Rose about the wedding or plans for it. She’d checked out on all the details as soon as Rose had said they were engaged, and why was that?

Because Hermione was sure Rose was making the same mistake she had and she didn’t want to see that happen to her daughter.

It was sickening. She didn’t know if Rose and Andrew were right for each other because she hadn’t taken the time to really get to know them as a couple. She’d been too busy with too many other things to even consider what her daughter’s marriage would mean.

Her daughter was going to be a duchess in the Muggle world and Hermione hadn’t been paying any attention to the wedding because of her past hang ups. Now here she was, on Valentine’s Day, sitting by herself with a glass of wine and no sweetheart.

They weren’t suited to each other. They were wrong in all kinds of ways, but Hermione was going to be married to Ron until death did they part because of something she thought was a good idea when she was twenty.

She’d had a session with her therapist today. She’d needed it after her disastrous visit with Hugo the previous weekend. She’d said as much to her therapist, who had finally told her she had two choices. One of her choices could be to make lemonade out of her terrible situation. Her other choice could be to wallow in her misery. Clearly Hermione was a champion wallower and it was the choice she’d been making all along.

Her therapist had then asked her how that had been going for her.

She was miserable. Hermione hated everything about her life except her job and her job couldn’t hug her when she’d had a terrible day. She had few friends at work because of how high up she was in the Ministry, and she had no one to confide in. Who did she have to blame for that?

Herself. She’d chosen this for herself and here she was, remembering the confused look in Hugo’s eyes when she’d gone to the school to congratulate him on the award he’d received for transfiguration. He’d stood there, awkwardly, said thanks and told her he’d see her at the end of term.

Hugo hadn’t wanted or expected her praise. He didn’t know how to speak to her. He didn’t want her there.

Hermione took another large sip of wine and jumped when a knock sounded at the door that connected her flat to the main house.

“Come in,” she called out to Ron.

He pushed the door open and held up a plate. “Want something to eat?”

She stared at the plate and tears pooled in her eyes, sliding slowly down her cheeks. “Only if I can eat it with you.”

He studied her for a moment and then nodded. “Come down when you’re ready.”

Hermione gave herself a few minutes to cry and then pull herself together before going down to join Ron at the table. They sat in silence for a moment as they both began to eat before she thanked him for cooking for her. He often did, even though he didn’t have to.

“It’s no trouble,” he always said, even though it clearly was.

“I went to see Hugo last weekend,” she told him.

“I heard,” Ron admitted as he shifted in his seat. “Hugo wrote and told me.”

Hugo wrote and told him… Hugo never wrote her letters, not ever.

And suddenly, just like that, Hermione knew what she needed. “I am a terrible wife and mother.”

Part of her hoped he might argue with her, tell her it wasn’t all bad, but he simply sat in silence and gave her his full attention.

“I used to know how to be a good friend,” she told him, alright she more reminded herself. “I used to know how to do that. I was good at being a friend. Now I’m just… I’m just such a mess, Ron. I just want to be friends with you. Can we be friends?”

“I have never stopped being your friend,” he told her gently.

No, she realized. No, he had not. She’d simply stopped being his friend. She was the one who had failed them both and he wasn’t able to hold both their pieces together. He’d needed her to do that and she hadn’t done it.

“Alright, that’s fair,” she said softly. “I’m going to try to be your friend again so we don’t have this hanging between us. I know I’m not capable of much more than that, but I think I can manage friendship. I’m tired of being my own worst enemy.”

Ron nodded and spooned up another bite of his dinner. “That sounds good.”

She hoped she wouldn’t mess it up, but she was not entirely certain she wouldn’t. Still, it was worth a try.

“Also…”

He glanced up at her, waiting.

“As my friend, you can tell me when I’m messing up and this time I’m going to try to listen.”

He nodded and they fell silent again. This was enough for now.

~*~

Lily kept her hand tight on Sera’s leash and wished she could be out of the school that day. Valentine’s Day in a school full of people who either wanted to be in love or were being jilted by love was absolute torture to her. It felt like every heart was hurting around her and all Lily could think was she was drowning in their sorrow.

It didn’t help that Adam had been dogging her every step for weeks. She’d hoped he’d have given up, but no. Oh, he wasn’t being obvious about it. He was definitely keeping it casual enough that she couldn’t complain to the teachers. But she knew he was watching her. It was her gift and her curse. She could sense that he was keeping tabs on her.

“You okay?” Hugo asked Lily as he stopped beside her in the hallways.

Lily smiled at Hugo and shook her head. “It’s been a long day. I’m so glad it’s almost over. We just have this ridiculous party to go to and then we’re done.”

“I wish they’d have let Scorpius come,” Hugo grumbled. “It would have been better if he could have come.”

Lily had wished the same thing over and over again but they weren’t allowing anyone in from out of the school, which Lily understood. She could have asked to be part of the exception, but she didn’t want to be that girl. She was already that girl with her dog. She needed to manage on her own and ignore everyone else’s feelings.

She’d done okay with Scorpius’ family, and she’d realized after it was over because she was trying to be strong for him, but here at school she only had herself to be strong for and she found she wasn’t good at it. No, she was not holding up well.

“I don’t want you to have to hang out with me all evening,” she told Hugo. “I want you to dance with Catie and for Honor to have some time with Scott.” She really liked their significant others, although it wasn’t always perfect between them. She was wondering how much longer Honor and Scott would be together, but she kept her mouth shut about it. She was not going to interfere with anything because she really wanted to make it work between them, but it was up to Honor and Scott.

Hugo and Catie, his girlfriend from Slytherin, were doing very well, though.

“We’ll figure it out,” Hugo told her. “I don’t think he’ll be so bold as to talk to you when he knows that the teachers will be watching him.”

Hugo had a point there. Lily nodded as she spotted Catie as the tiny blonde moved towards them. “Go have fun. I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll keep an eye on you,” Hugo promised as he wandered off and Lily made her way into the Great Hall to see it was decked out for the holiday.

It was very pretty, but she could imagine most of the boys would find the whole thing utterly ridiculous. Lily liked it, though. She liked the paper hearts in pinks and reds. She liked the glitter and the sparkles. She missed Scorpius badly, but she was coping.

Then she felt the itch on the back of her neck and she had to fight not to turn around and see Adam staring at her. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

A girl she knew from Hufflepuff came up to her, smiling but Lily could see instantly it was fake. “Adam is staring at you,” she said through her tight grin. “I wanted you to know.”

“I can tell,” Lily sighed as she gave the girl, Emily, a small shrug. “He does it a lot.”

“He is so creepy,” Emily told him, pushing her brown hair back from her cheek. “None of us like him! It’s awful that he’s fixated on you, although some of the girls are glad that he’s giving them a break.”

Lily wanted to be mad that the other girls were willing to sacrifice her so much, but honestly, she couldn’t blame them. It really did suck that Adam was such a creeper. She, at least, had Sera to protect her and they already knew Sera would protect her. “It’s fine, I’d rather it be me.”

“And you have Scorpius,” Emily said dreamily, genuinely smiling now. “He’s so handsome and sweet! We all think you’re very lucky to have him, although maybe not his family.”

Lily laughed then and shook her head. “We all have interesting families to deal with.”

“True,” Emily said and the she sighed in relief. “He’s left the Great Hall.”

“Good,” Lily said as she turned towards the refreshments table. “Let’s get something to eat. Those tarts look amazing!”

She’d won for that day, in that time, but she didn’t know how much more of this she could take. She only had another three and a half months left to go in the term and then she could be out of there for the whole summer. She had Rose’s wedding to look forward to and oh, she needed to talk her father into a simply gorgeous gown while she was home for the Easter holidays! She had a bridesmaid’s dress already being made by a designer, but she needed a dress for the rehearsal dinner the night before and she wanted Scorpius to be speechless.

Yes, she would focus on that for now. Nothing else mattered just then.






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Chapter 72: Chapter 69

Author's Notes: It's been noted, by several reviewers, that everyone really wants the story resolved between Al and Nat. To do that, I'm ending the story. So I can do that and since this is my last fanfiction, end my writing in the next few chapters OR I can actually finish the story out to the end like I intended. I want to write what I intended. I want to grow this story in a natural way and sometimes things aren't neatly resolved in a few chapters. Life isn't like that. How many years of this story did we deal with James being an utter prat? Who actually *LIKED* James from early in this story? He grew at the rate he was supposed to, what would be normal an natural for him. It takes time.

So I can rush through the story and end it shortly after Rose's wedding, which is about 5 chapters from now, or we can keep the story going at the pace I intended. I want to hear what you think. I'm not promising to listen as it's my story and I think I'd rather finish it at the rate I intended, but I do what to hear what you have to say. So either review and tell me or PM me.

Al and Nat are going to get together! I promise!! And there will be a lot of fun fluff between them before the end. I PROMISE. If I end it fast, you'll get one chapter of fluff for them and that'll be it. Sooooo yeah.

As always, thank you Arnel for beta'ing for me!


Chapter 69
“How are you feeling?” Victoire asked Louis as he had his head bent over to toilet in their guest bath.

“Like total shit,” he said as he spit something into the toilet. “God, this is wretched.”

“Mmm,” she agreed. “No one said getting sober was going to be easy. I told you taking the potion was going to be hard, but it’ll definitely help with the cravings after a few weeks.”

His only reply was to start vomiting again. Blessedly, Nat had taken off of her work to help with the children since Victoire was required to babysit her brother while he went through this. Normally the process was done at St. Mungo’s so it could be supervised by a Healer, but Victoire was still a Healer and understandably, everyone wanted to keep Louis’ name out of the papers. It was all supposed to be confidential, but things had a way of getting out if one wasn’t careful. They’d decided Louis would stay with them for the month-long sobering process. For this first week he was going to be too ill to go to work, but by the next week he could go in and work a normal day. The only problem was keeping him from going to the pubs, but that’s where her father came in. He would take Louis to work, watch him while he was at work, and then deliver him back to Victoire and Teddy at the end of the day. It would take a full month of the potions to totally rid him of the alcohol and then once that was done, any time he tried to drink his system would see it as a toxin and he’d immediately start vomiting. It was forced sobriety and one of the better potions invented by Slughorn back in his hay-day. Not, of course, that the old man would have ever used it. From what Victoire had learned about him, he only knew how to do things to excess.

But first she had to keep Louis on the potion for a whole month. Often times the person would get sober enough and then they’d quit before the treatment was done. She needed him to stick, which meant getting him in with a therapist, but currently he was refusing to do that part. “Come on,” she said after he’d stopped puking up his guts. “Let’s get you into bed.”

She didn’t say anything until she had him settled into the covers and then she ran a hand over his brow, smoothing his hair back from his face as she studied the man he’d become. “Louis, my love… why are you doing this to yourself?”

To her utter shock, although she’d realize later she shouldn’t have been shocked, he burst into sobs. Victoire lay down next to him and gathered him close, much like she’d done when he’d been smaller than her. “Shh, I have you,” she whispered as she let him cry it out. “I have you, my love. Talk to me.”

It took him a long time to begin to talk. When he finally began to talk, it just about broke her heart. “No one loves me for me.”

“I love you,” she promised him gently. “I’ve always loved you, since you were brand new.” She’d been five when he was born and oh, how she’d adored holding him! He’d been her everything for a time, until he’d grown big enough to walk on his own and then he’d demanded to be his own little man.

He shook his head. “Not you, I mean I know everyone in the family loves me despite how I’ve been acting. Did you know I ruined a night alone between Al and Nat because Al had to come drag me out of a pub? I ruined it! I’m ruining everything.”

“I did hear about that, yeah,” Victoire confirmed. The night had been weeks ago, as it was now March, and she rather suspected that Al’s blowing up at him four nights ago was why Louis had come to her and asked for her help. Even James was fed up with how Louis was acting and it took a lot for anything to annoy James when it came to Louis.

But James had other priorities now, and Louis couldn’t fall back on his best mate to see him through the hard times.

“I keep wanting for them to get together,” he said and hiccupped once. “He was so mad at me, so mad he was pulling me out of another pub. I don’t want to make it so my family doesn’t love me anymore.”

“We love you unconditionally,” she reminded him. “We just might not like you all the time.”

He laughed then and rolled over, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I’m not lovable. That’s what Lena said. I think it was Lena. She told me my pretty face wasn’t enough to make anyone stay if I wasn’t lovable and I think that’s the problem. I’ve always just been a pretty face.”

“Louis… why have you only ever dated plain girls?” Victoire asked, hoping this time she’d finally get an answer.

He sighed and let his hands drop to the bed. “First off… they aren’t plain to me. You have to understand that, alright?”

“Alright,” she agreed. But she’d seen photos of some of his ex-girlfriends and some of them were bordering on homely. “How do you see them?”

“When I look at a person I see… I see kindness in the eyes and that’s beautiful to me. I find that very appealing. If I see a good sense of humor, that’s beautiful to me. I really like smart girls, too. All those things appeal to me. I have this beautiful face,” he said as he waved dismissively at myself, “but… am I as kind as I could be? Am I funny or charming? Am I as smart as others? Or am I just a pretty face?”

Victoire’s heart simply cracked in half as she reached out and took his hand in hers. “You are all of those things.”

He shook his head and pressed his lips hard together. “When I was at Hogwarts it was so easy because I was with everyone who was like me and I… I avoided the conventionally pretty girls because if they were as shallow about their looks as I was, I didn’t want anything to do with them. I had Jane for a while and she was great. She was really good for me, but… I wasn’t good enough for her, Vic. I wasn’t, no,” he said as she shook her head. “You don’t know what was going on in my head and I wasn’t good enough for her. She’s married a really nice bloke and he’s so much better for her than I would have ever been.”

“What happened then?” Victoire asked him quietly. She wouldn’t ask about those inner demons yet. He had time to work through them.

“I went to Egypt and… and I let myself go.” He started to cry again. “I slept with a lot of women, Vic.”

She wanted to say she was shocked, but honestly she’d been expecting something like this. When he’d come back he’d had an STD so she knew something had gone on. “Alright.”

“You don’t even sound disgusted.”

“You don’t disgust me,” she promised him. “I want to know what’s hurting your heart so you never want to turn back to alcohol again, trying to numb it away.”

He licked at his cracked lips and let out a long, sorrowful sigh. He didn’t look at her. She was sure he couldn’t look at her. “I started with others from around the world. Then after I burned through all of them I started hiring girls.”

She did fight back her gasp of shock, knowing she had to stay neutral or he’d clam up and the bottle would go right back to being his number one coping strategy. “I’m listening,” she said and thankfully her voice sounded neutral.

“I… I once ended up in bed with a man, too,” he said after a minute and then he looked at her. “Not like that, but the two of us and a girl… well, I thought she was a woman, but when I sobered up and Merlin…” he started sobbing again and this time it took him another ten minutes to pull it together. “Vic… she.. s-she was a kid!”

“Oh, Louis!” she felt sick inside. Sick for him, sick for that poor girl, just sick.

“I have n-never hated myself more than I did at that moment,” he whispered. “She was fifteen. I was eighteen at the time and the other guy, who had paid for her, was in his late twenties.”

It was enough to make anyone hate themselves. No, the age difference between her brother and the girl wasn’t a lot, but it was still illegal. Actually… she wasn’t entirely sure it was illegal in Egypt. “What did you do?”

“I turned myself into the police, but they weren’t willing to do anything because she and I were close in age. They did arrest the other man, though.”

“How did we not hear about any of this?” Victoire wondered. “I’d think that would have made the papers.”

He shrugged. “I’d have deserved it getting out. I didn’t care, but it didn’t because they didn’t want to expose her and I wasn’t charged. After everything I told her I was really sorry and then I paid for her to go to a boarding school in Alexandria so she could get out of the life she’s been living. She was an orphan and had no other choice but to prostitute herself. She said… she said she didn’t mind and wasn’t upset with me, but I felt like an utter shit for what I’d done to her. I’d been making sure everyone I’d been with was older than me, but the man… he wanted me and I let him get me drunk.”

“How is the girl?” Victoire asked after she tried to wrap her head around everything she’d just learned and decided it was going to take another week to get all the way around it.

“She had another year there and she’s doing really well,” he told her and for the first time he smiled. “She’s written to tell me about it, about how she likes living in the all-girl school because there’s no temptation for boys there. She says she’s going to be a teacher and I promised to help her until she has a job.”

“Good for you,” she told him simply. “You made a horrible, horrible mistake. You committed a crime. You turned yourself in and then when you were let off, you took care of the victim in this.”

She didn’t add that he’d been young and clearly used by the older man. It didn’t matter at this juncture. It mattered more that her brother had taken responsibility.

“I put in for a transfer then,” he told her. “My supervisor knew I needed to get back here, get away from the temptation, so he approved it but it took months to actually go through. That’s when the drinking really started. I used it to numb the cravings for other things and so I could stay in my flat and not feel anything, like loathing myself for what I’d done. I came home and tried to… oh, I had that STD. No wonder you weren’t surprised at what I’d been up to.”

“Mhmm,” she agreed evenly. “You came home where you could hire a prostitute, but with all of us watching it’s harder to do.”

“I’m never doing that again,” he said with such vehemence she believed him. She just wished he sounded that sure about never drinking again. “I came home and tried to lean on James but he has Caroline and Alex and really doesn’t have time for me, so I tried to find girls like I did before, but they weren’t… Annie was good, but she wasn’t taking me seriously.”

“You know why she wasn’t taking you seriously.”

He nodded and squinted his eyes shut. “My head is pounding.”

“I can’t give you anything for it for another hour, but have some water and some salt. Let’s get you hydrated.”

After he’d drunk some, he sat back against the headboard while she sat next to him and he said, “I do know why she didn’t take me seriously. I wasn’t actually serious about her and I think she could tell. I was just looking for a distraction from my pain.”

“Is that what it’s always been about? Have they all been a distraction?” Victoire asked him gently, taking his hand again. “Do you dislike yourself that much?”

“What am I but a pretty face?” he asked her earnestly, finally turning his blue eyes to meet hers. The reflection she saw was not the mirrored twin orbs that matched her own, but ones with a deep well of pain and doubt.

“You are very smart, Louis,” she reminded him. “You weren’t top of your class, but you were in the top five. Did you forget that somehow?”

“No, but it doesn’t feel like it’s that big of a deal,” he said and then frowned. “It is a big deal, but not really.”

“You had nine N.E.W.T.’s!” Victoire huffed out. “You beat Aunt Hermione on that one!”

“That’s not really fair to compare since she was sitting them just after the war,” Louis reminded her, but a slow smile spread over his lips. “But yeah, I did get nine and most were O’s.”

“You are a very kind person, too,” she said. “Nope,” she told him when he shook his head. “You made a mistake and you made up for it, making sure that girl has a chance at a real life, Louis! That’s more than almost anyone would do! Don’t dismiss that. You are kind. You were feeling terrible last night, but you still held Emma and read her a story. You’re a great uncle and a good friend. You’ve lost your way, but you’ll get back there, especially if you stay sober.”

“I want to,” he said quietly. “Lena… Lena told me her father was a recovered alcoholic. He’d done this potion detox. She said I should ask you. She told me she’d sit with me any time I was struggling not to drink.”

Victoire felt an alarm bell go off in her head. “But no dating her, alright? You need to learn to love yourself first and stop using eighty-year-old women as a distraction.”

“She wasn’t eighty, and no dating Lena. She’d just a friend and not my type.”

“Do you even know what your type really is?”

Louis fell silent and then shook his head. “No, I don’t think I do. I can figure that out in therapy, though, right?”

Relieved, Victoire leaned over and pulled him in for a hard hug. “Yeah, you can do that.”

~*~

Al was determined to stand perfectly still and look as serious and professional as possible and not like he was a scared eighteen-year-old trainee-Auror. Which he was.

Louis, who had been causing nothing but problems, was currently in the throes of detoxing and he’d hit a rough stage that required him to be restrained. Normally this was all done in the hospital so that the person couldn’t hurt themselves or someone else, but Teddy was running late today because Louis had had a bad night.

Frankly, Al was so tired of his cousin’s crap, he didn’t really care what happened to him.

Okay, that wasn’t true. Al loved him and did care but damn it, Louis was ruining his own life and that wasn’t on Al’s shoulders. Even as he thought it, guilt began to eat at him. Lena has, very bluntly, pointed out to him that if Louis were happy with his life, he wouldn’t be drinking to excess. He hadn’t known that her father was an alcoholic and her stories about what it was like when he was drinking had been heartbreaking. Her father had lost his job and nearly lost his whole family because of his addiction. Lena hadn’t explained why her father was drinking and Al hadn’t asked, but he understood now how she could be empathetic towards his cousin when he was struggling.

“Albus,” Nat hissed from next to him in the empty exam room they’d set up in the Auror office of the Ministry.

Al jumped and realized he’d completely spaced out for at least five minutes there. “What did I miss?”

Nat sighed. “I said I need to go to the loo.”

“Right,” Al said and cleared his throat. Normally it was Teddy here with Nat to inspect the pregnant women, but Teddy was at home. With Louis.

Hopefully, he would get here soon because Al was woefully unqualified to be guarding Nat if something were to go wrong. Nothing had gone wrong, thus far, Al knew. It was why his father had sent him in to work with Nat, since he knew all her secrets and that she was hiding under the cloak. Al walked over to the door to the loo, which was in the office. It was supposed to be the office of the Head Auror, complete with its own loo, but his dad had hated that it was so far away from everyone else and thus had never used it. Al opened the door and waited until Nat had gone in, then he closed it. No one could see into the room so there was no need to worry about the door appearing to open by itself, except that Nat couldn’t turn the door knobs with the cloak on. She’d tried and she’d failed, so it was up to him. Plus, if someone did just walk in, it wouldn’t look weird if the door was swinging shut when no one was standing there.

It was all a complicated mess, but today they were bringing in a lot of women and some babies from overseas who needed to be healed. The Minister had finally cleared them to start taking foreign patients after the outcry had grown so fierce of their not releasing the formula to try to cure the women themselves.

This was a terrible day for Teddy to be at home, but he was supposed to be here shortly after the exams started and his dad had promised to be close by, just in case. Also, Nat had on a bracelet that was a Portkey. She just had to touch it and say ‘home’ and she would be transported instantly back to Ivy Run. They’d worked everything out so that it was perfectly safe and not a stupid arsed farce to have a trainee Auror in for security.

Granted, he wasn’t the only security, but he was the only security who could be in the room and he had seen the looks of downright disbelief his father had been on the receiving end of when he’d told the whole team that Al was going to be taking Teddy’s place.

It was all a damn mess.

“Done,” Nat called from the door and Al opened it and they both walked back to their places. “This is taking forever. It’s a good thing it isn’t hot in here or I’d be passed out from the heat under this cloak. Teddy normally cools it off for me.”

“How does he do that?” Al wondered.

“No clue,” Nat sighed. “Anyway, hopefully they get started soon. The queue can’t be that long, can it?”

The door opened then and Aunt Audrey came in with the Minister looking decidedly harassed. They shut the door and cast a charm before Audrey asked, “Are we in the clear?”

“Yeah,” Nat confirmed, letting her know there was no one listening by any means.

“We just found a spy in my office,” the Minister said as she took one of the seats and sat down, crossing her legs at the ankles. “Thankfully we discovered him before we said something important, but we had to come here to talk. The door is locked, Nat, so you can come out. The guards know not to let anyone in except Auror Potter.”

Nat pulled off the cloak and Al had to fight back the temptation to smooth her fly away hairs down. Likely he’d just shock himself with the static electricity.

“As I was saying,” the Minister sighed as she turned back to Audrey. “I don’t like the diplomatic fall out that’s going to come raining down on me if I keep their security forces out of the room! Isn’t there something we can do?”

“How are we going to do that when it’s Nat actually healing them and not me?” Audrey pointed out. “You have to tell them that if they insist, then everyone goes home untreated.” She went on quickly before the Ministry could protest further. “I truly get what a difficult position all of this puts you in. I understand that you have enormous political pressuring coming down on you, but we could be doing nothing for anyone else and that would be worse. We have to do what we can, but it has to be done safely and we’re asking Nat to risk her life every time she does this.”

“We could just tell everyone how we’re doing it,” Minister Macmillan began, but Al and his aunt both said, “No!” at the exact same moment.

“It isn’t a good idea,” Nat piped in. “I already have no life as it is and I’d have even less of a life if it was found out. Everyone, all over the world, would be trying to kidnap me to exploit me.”

The Minister rubbed at her brow and shook her head. “Alright, alright,” she sighed. “I give up. I’ll take the heat for this, and we’ll get started on the patients. You have this?” she asked Al.

“I have it,” Al lied smoothly. He glanced at his watch. Twenty minutes and then Teddy would be there.

“I’ll get the first patient, then,” Audrey told them. “Cover back up. We’ll turn away anyone who won’t be seen alone.”

It turned out that no one was willing to walk away from help, even if they had to go in alone. They took infants first since they were already sick and needing help. Al watched his aunt come in with the first baby, closing and sealing the door. “Did you see how I did that, Al?” she asked him. “Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” Al confirmed. “You want me to do that after you bring in the patient?”

“Yes, that’s your job from here on out,” she said as she put the infant down. Al stood by the door and watched Nat as she went to work on the baby, who was so pale and thin she almost looked like a doll. She wasn’t crying so much as pathetically whimpering between huge hiccups.

“She’s very far gone,” Nat told Audrey. “She’s going straight over to St. Mungo’s after this to be hooked up to a feeding tube.”

“Understood,” Audrey agreed as Nat began to extract the poison from her.

Just watching the toxic sludge being sucked out of the baby was enough to turn Al’s stomach, but he didn’t look away. This had happened to his nephew. He wanted to see what she’d done to help Alex. “Where’s the baby’s mother?” he asked his aunt after she’d begun the cleanup.

“She died shortly after the birth,” Audrey told him grimly. “We have a lot of babies here without mothers. It’s going to be a difficult few hours.”

Next in was another infant but this time with his mother. Al locked the door after Audrey, and then watched as his aunt put the woman to sleep. Nat worked first on the baby and then healed the mother. On and on it went as piles and piles of the brown sludge was pulled from the babies. It was revolting, but also heartwarming because when the women were awakened, it was clear immediately that they felt better and even when they didn’t speak the same language, gratitude at seeing their baby feeling better was universal.

Then they had a mother in who had survived when her baby had not and the look on her face was one Al didn’t think he’d ever be able to unsee. She was gaunt and it was clear she didn’t care about herself one way or the other.

Teddy arrived after that one, but told Al he was going to stay and continue to help since they might need him to fill in again since they had literally thousands of requests for this type of healing from all over the globe.

It was a blessing Nat was so far ahead in making wands because this had become her full time, and completely unpaid job.

“You can continue to get the door,” Teddy told him as they led out the next patient. “I’ll keep watch.”

When the next woman came in, Al saw she was still pregnant and looked like she might just give birth just then.

“Hang on,” Teddy said pleasantly, and Al paused in sealing the door. “No, Al, go ahead. I need to examine her first.”

Ah. That meant this one was under the Imperius Curse or something else like it. Nat would have tapped the palm of his hand, which he always kept near her. She would tap once for Imperius Curse and twice if it was something else.

He watched Teddy pretend to exam her and then lift the Imperius Curse from her. It wasn’t something Al could do, so if that had been spotted before Teddy arrived, Al was simply to stop everything and they’d wait until his dad could be fetched and hoped whoever it wasn’t didn’t get violent.

On and on it went, for hours and hours. They broke for lunch and ate in the office with food Polly had sent for Nat and Al, and then were back at it again.

“We still have twelve women to see for today,” Audrey told them wearily as she escorted in another patient. The girl, for she couldn’t be older than fifteen or sixteen, looked sickly and scared out of her mind. Al wanted to say something to comfort her, but she was speaking rapidly in a tongue he didn’t understand.

“You’re okay,” Audrey said soothingly to the girl. “You’re alright, I’m going to take care of you.” She put the girl to sleep and Nat went to work on her.

Al glanced up at the ceiling, trying to stretch out his neck. His feet were aching from standing for so long on the hard floor and he couldn’t imagine Nat was doing much better. Even worse, Nat would be doing this all over again tomorrow and probably the next few weeks.

“Done?” Audrey asked and Nat tapped the table once to indicate she was. It was unlikely someone was going to wake her up and extract a memory from the girl, but they took no chances.

BOOM!

Al dropped to a knee as the whole building shook! His head was ringing from the loud explosion as equipment rattled around them. He caught sight of Nat’s foot as she must have sprawled onto the floor. He was up and moving even as Teddy shouted, “Go!”

Al grabbed her, found her wrist through the cloak where the band was located, and shouted, “HOME!” A split second later the Portkey activated and the tug behind his navel send them spinning towards Ivy Run.

They landed with him half on top of Nat in the living room where his mother let out a surprised shriek. Al pulled the cloak off of Nat and ran his hands over her before cupping her face. “Are you okay?”

“What happened?” Ginny demanded as she ran towards them.

“Are you okay?” Al asked again, ignoring his mother for the moment.

“Fine,” Nat nodded. “I’m fine! It just scared me, that’s all, and my ears are ringing.”

Al’s were, as well. It had been deafeningly loud. “I need to go back to the Ministry,” Al told her.

“Wait!” Ginny said in her very sternest mother’s voice. “What happened, Al?”

“Some kind of explosion at the Ministry,” Al told his mum. “I need to go help.”

Ginny shook her head, obvious fear all over her face. “You won’t be able to get back in. They’ll have sealed the Floo automatically to lock down the security.”

Al winced as he realized that of course his mother was right. He knew that. It had been one of the first things he’d learned in training. “I need to go help!”

“You’ll have to go back to London and get there from the regular entrance or check in at the hospital to see if they can get you in,” Ginny explained. “I know you need to go, but you can’t get back in any other way. It’s why Nat has a Portkey as that can’t be tampered with.” His mother knelt next to Nat and touched her cheek. “You’re already bruising up, darling. Come on, let’s get some ice on that cheek until I can dig up the gunk my brothers use for bruises.”

“I hit the exam table when I fell,” Nat explained as Al gently lifted her to her feet. She glanced over to Al and he could see for himself the bruise was already swelling under her right cheek. “Go on, Al. I’m okay. Go help.”

Al nodded, and headed for the front door. He’d have to Apparate to London and try to get in some other way.

~*~

“What happened?” Harry demanded as he ran down the darkened staircase, using his wand for light. They shouldn’t have lost the lights in the building, as the lights were magical, but something had happened to all the inbuilt magical systems in the Ministry and Harry had a very good idea who was behind it.

Now all he needed to do was to figure out the how.

“We don’t know yet,” Thomas Greggory called out as he jogged with Harry, trying to find the source of the blast. It had to be on one of the upper levels, as it would have been difficult for anyone to get past the main security, but how far up was another matter. Still, he hadn’t seen anything from the Minister’s office and they had no way of getting out of the building now except the Atrium.

“Auror Potter!” a woman called out as she entered the stairs.

“Was the explosion on your floor?” Harry asked her, pausing only long enough to see her shake her head. “Keep everyone on the floor and keep the stairs clear. We aren’t likely to need to evacuate, but if so the tunnels in the basement are an option. Spread that word.”

“Yes, sir,” she called back to him and ducked back into the doorway she’d exited from.

“This is going to be a damn mess,” Harry griped, but was thankful it wasn’t worse. The building was still whole, at least on the upper few floors, and the Minister hadn’t been up in her office because it had been infiltrated so she’d been working from the Auror office for the afternoon.

They had a bunch of pregnant women on his floor, however, who were in desperate need of healing and no way of helping them since Nat had been evacuated. Well, they would be alright for a few days until they could sort things out. Right now, he had bigger problems. The Aurors on duty were dealing with the international nightmare downstairs while Harry and Thomas ran for the Atrium to find the cause of all of their current chaos. Then, hopefully, he’d have reinforcements running down the stairs after him.

He was really glad he’d gone back to the fitness standards of old or they’d all be in terrible shape.

“Off the stairs!” Harry called out as he spotted people trying to evacuate. “The Aurors and MLE will be coming down and we need the stairs cleared. Stay in your offices until we tell you to evacuate!”

He felt like he might be ready to pass out and die and would probably be okay with that when he hit the Atrium and pushed out to see that except for a little bit of dust everywhere, nothing was wrong. He spotted the security guard, who had, likewise spotted him. “What happened?”

“Muggle street level,” the guard explained. “It destroyed the visitor’s entrance, so I can’t get out to check, but I used the telephone Mrs. Weasley had installed and called up our Muggle contact who told me there was a bomb that blew the whole street apart above us.”

“Damn it,” Harry closed his eyes, knowing there was going to be mass-casualties above them. “Thank you, Silas. I’m going to start the evacuations through the tunnels. You stay here until someone comes for you.”

“Yes, sir,” Silas answered.

Harry turned to shake his head at Thomas. “It’s always something. We need to get topside and start helping. But first we evacuate the Ministry and lock it down until maintenance and the building inspectors have gone through to make sure we’re in the clear.” They should be in the clear as the building was underground and designed to withstand almost any attack that could be thrown at them from the Muggle side, but they still had to check.

It wouldn’t have been hard for Crabbe to have a bomb planted and it was an excellent way for her to express her opinion on them healing women. Would anyone want to send someone for healing now after the Muggle street was bombed? He honestly didn’t know and wouldn’t blame anyone for staying away.

“Potter!” he turned to find the Minister, along with Hermione, exiting the stairwell.

“Muggle bomb street side,” Harry explained.

“Oh, Merlin, no,” Hermione’s eyes widened. “So many people work and live above us!”

“We’ll need to go help, but first we have to get the employees evacuated through the basement tunnel. I can’t override the Floo lockdown without the building being cleared, as the fireplaces might have been damaged, and we can’t use the visitor’s entrance.”

“I’ve done a couple of Portkeys and already sent some people out to get help,” the Minister explained. “We’ll start moving everyone down to the tunnels. How did the lights get knocked out?”

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted and it worried him. “It could be a two-fold attack, but as far as I can tell the only damage in here is the lights and the lifts aren’t working. We need to wait for the inspections.”

Harry didn’t wait around to help with the evacuations. The Minister could handle it. He took every Auror and MLE in the building who wasn’t needed for security and used a Portkey to get them outside into an alley a few blocks from the Ministry. There they jogged over to the site of the explosion only to find it was more devastating than anything he could have imagined. He didn’t see anyone he knew, but also knew exactly how to make sure they were allowed to help. They simply had to act like they belonged there.

“Let’s go,” he told his crew. “Stay in groups of three, like I said, and search out the wounded who are still alive. We’ve done this in drills and in real life. If you find someone and can magically get them out, then do it. If you’ll be spotted, signal to the crews that you have someone.”

He’d been working for not even ten minutes when he spotted Al, who had joined Teddy’s crew to search. It made his heart ache to see his boy out here, doing something to help in a devastating situation. They needed more people like Al to make this world a better place and he was thankful to have had a hand in raising him.

“Hey! Potter!” a man called out to him and Harry turned, spotted a man he recognized from the Muggle police force. They’d worked together on the terrorist attacks in years gone by, but it had been a few years since he’d seen the man.

Harry paused and held out his hand to shake. “Melbourne.”

The man nodded as he shook. “Glad to see you here. Let me know if you have any trouble, but after I spotted you I spread the word to let your men work.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Harry promised him.

“I know you will,” Melbourne said grimly as he surveyed the damage. “Haven’t had anything like this in a few years and now this… God. We’ll have lost dozens, maybe hundreds. But,” he turned back to Harry. “I saw your men perform miracles finding people and we need all the help we can get. Let me know if you need my assistance.”

“I will,” Harry assured him as he let his wand slide down his sleeve a bit more as he whispered the Homenum Revelio charm as he began to walk among the rubble.

“I have one!”

Harry turned at the sound of his son’s voice and knew he’d seen the small flash of a marker that meant someone was alive under there. Harry wanted to run to him, to help him, but he and Teddy were already shifting aside the rubble to get to the person. They would soon have to bring in heavy excavation equipment, but for right now they needed to do what they could to get to the people who could be saved and that meant digging by hand for now.

“Potter,” Thomas called to him quietly. “I have one, but it’s down quite a bit. We’ll have to shift the rubble with magic to get to them.”

“Understood,” Harry said as he fully pulled out his wand and cast a net around that would deflect all of the Muggle attention. “It’s up,” he told his team as he kept his eyes fixed on the scene around him, making sure no one could spot what they were doing. He heard another group move in to help shift the rubble, lifting the heavy blocks and moving them over to spots they’d already cleared. It took them a good five minutes to get down to the person, but it would have taken the Muggles at least a day.

“It’s a woman,” Thomas called out. “She’s quite hurt and unconscious.”

“Send her straight to St. Mungo’s,” Harry called to him. They wouldn’t be able to risk revealing to the Muggles how much they’d cleared. St. Mungo’s would patch her up enough and then deposit her in a hospital later that night. “We need to keep moving.”

“Yes, sir,” Thomas called back. “She’s cleared. We’re shifting the rubble back now.”

They worked on for hours that night and pulled out forty people alive from the broken buildings. But they found countless dead. Harry didn’t have an exact number when he finally left in the early hours of the morning when they were certain there was no one left to save, but if he had to guess he’d have said at least four hundred.

He needed to go home, shower, and then show up at the Ministry to go over the security reports compiled for him.

Somehow he had to do that on no sleep.

Crabbe really needed to just die already. The only bright side was that she was now targeting almost every country in the world with her potion, trying to rid babies of their magic. It meant that no country was willing to harbor her. Some day she was going to slip up and he would be ready. Until then, he had to wait and keep fighting her where he could.

Back to index


Chapter 73: Chapter 70

Author's Notes: Okay, well everyone said "keep to the pace I'm going" and it was my inclination anyway, so that's what I'm doing. Look, I'm posting again in December!! Happy Christmas! Hopefully you're well. Covid has hit our house but it's blessedly mild and only one person since we're all vaccinated. What times we live in...

Anyway, if you want to give me a Merry Christmas, please consider check out my books on amazon on my patreon account. Look for Sarah Jaune

Thank you so much to Arnel for beta'ing!


Isabella Crabbe stared hard at the man reporting to her about the bombing in London. “You’re absolutely sure nothing in the Ministry was harmed?”

“As sure as we can be,” he confirmed in his rough voice which always sounded like vocal cords being scraped across sandpaper. “We only have the one source, but he reported things were back to normal by the next day and the Healer was back to healing the bitches.”

Isabella closed her eyes and shook her head. She had no idea how anyone was able to heal the women or the babies but in order for her plan to succeed, she needed that healing stopped. She wanted the world at its knees and she wanted them to pay, all of them to pay, for what had happened to her son. It wasn’t enough to simply kill their children, although that had its own form of satisfaction. No, she wanted to strip from them the one thing they all prized above everything else. She wanted them to suffer the fate of having children who could never perform magic. Soon, very soon enough, she’d be able to say the magical community was dying. She had agents working in every country, giving every woman they could the potion.

It was easy, so easy, to make sure they all received it, too. It was as simple as getting someone into the local pub or magical restaurant. It was as easy as setting up a stand selling drinks in a local market. The potion was colorless, odorless, and tasteless and best of all it was damn near free to make, which was good because she was blowing through Donald Baker’s hidden assets and had taken to kidnapping wealthy old men, taking all their money, and then killing them. As long as she didn’t pick someone from the first world, it went over well. Everyone assumed it was a mob hit or something else related.

No, Donald Baker’s killing had been too high profile, although she did enjoy the image of the eldest Potter brat stabbing him through the neck with a tree branch. It seemed a fitting way for the pedophile prick to go. His bratty daughters hadn’t needed the money, anyway. They’d been taken in by the Potters and one had even married the oldest Potter bastard, taking on that sickly baby she’d foisted on him.

But it all started with that welp they’d named Alex. Alex was supposed to be her first major victim, and instead somehow the bitch Healer Weasley had figured out how to cure them.

Isabella herself didn’t have a clue how to heal them and she’d invented the damn potion! Granted, she hadn’t tried to heal anyone, so it might be as simple as that.

She needed to get the Healer Weasley as so far everyone she’d stolen to examine after their healing showed no signs of how they had been healed. They had no memories of it, so she had nothing to go on.

But Weasley was wily and she hadn’t once been exposed where she could be taken. She’d also ensured her children were just as well protected, as was her husband. She could go after one of the other Weasleys and she still might, but currently the whole family was on hyper alert, waiting for an attack. She’d had a shot at the drunk brat, had had a plan in place to get him the next time he went drinking, but he’d vanished off the radar and she hadn’t been able to get him.

“What do you want us to do?”

Isabella glanced over at the man. “It was good enough to ruin their day, even if we didn’t crack the Ministry. I didn’t expect we would with a Muggle bomb, but it was worth trying to cause them pain and chaos. Can you get more out of the source at the Ministry?”

“The idiot thinks we’re mates and he’s meeting me again next week at a pub. I’ll see what I can get then.”

She nodded and waved him off. It was good enough, at least for now. Her plan for the youngest Potter was in place. She knew exactly when and how she was going to snatch the precious Lily Potter and yes, her aunt would just heal her, but it would still be too late to save her from a fate worse than death. She would make sure of that. She still hadn’t selected the male for which she’d foist the Potter bitch on, but she would make sure he was sufficiently malicious.

Potter would pay.

~*~

Harry studied his grandson, a few days after his first birthday, and marveled again that such an amazing little boy could be in his life. Alex grinned his drooly grin as he carried a toy dragon and toddled over to Harry, holding it out to him.

“What are you showing Granddad?” Harry asked him as he held out his hands to the little boy and hauled him up on his lap to study the plastic dragon.

Alex showed it to him and then promptly stuck it in his mouth to begin teething on it. Harry cuddled him in close, running his hand over Alex’s dark hair before kissing his brow. Olivia and Amelia, who were keenly aware of what was going on when it came to their cousin or to their granddad, came running to him. They were several months older than Alex and it showed in how well they could move in comparison to Alex.

“Uhh!” Amelia demanded of him.

“I’m going to have a lap full,” Harry laughed as he hauled both girls up onto his other leg. When he thought about the horror of what he’d dealt with in the last week, with the explosion above the Ministry, and how many children had died, he knew he was more than a blessed man. He had these children here with him, safe and whole, and nothing on earth could make up for the ones who were lost.

“It’s time for cake!” Emma, who was now four, shrieked happily.

The twins quickly scrambled off of him, but Harry stood with Alex and carried him into the kitchen. Everyone was there, including Polly and Teeny, to celebrate Alex’s big day. It was a day that Harry had doubted would happen. When he’d first seen his grandson, he’d thought for certain they would be burying him very soon.

With that in mind, just as soon as Alex was in his high chair, he went over to Nat and pulled her in for a long hug, kissing the top of her head. “Thank you for my grandson.”

“You’re welcome,” she said as she hugged him back. They both joined in as the sounds of Happy Birthday filled the air.

Everyone had made it, including Rose and Andrew, and a very pale Louis who was into his second week of detoxing. He was still quite ill and hadn’t made it into work, but he was at least on his feet and able to interact.

As the cake was passed around, something with no sugar in it so that Nat could join in, Harry took a bite and thanked Merlin that everyone was getting better at making them taste better. At least Alex seemed to enjoy it.

“How are things at the Ministry?” Bill asked him quietly and Harry jumped, not realizing his brother-in-law had moved up next to him.

Some Auror he was… “It’s getting back to normal. Nat was able to finish with the other healings and she’s moved on to even more patients. We have thousands on the list and we’re prioritizing who is sickest and who is furthest along. Some women and babies handle the poison better, but of course we want them all to be healed quickly.

Bill nodded as he glanced around the room. “She’s going to try for another one of our kids. I just have that feeling in my gut, but I don’t know who or when. We’ll know, of course. Nat will tell us just as soon as it happens, but I’m still very worried. It could be another rape situation for any of them.”

Finally, Harry heard the anger simmering behind his brother’s words, not just the anxiety and fear. “I wish I could stop it.”

“I know you do,” Bill sighed. “Part of me wants to be mad at you for not stopping her already, because it’s supposed to be your job, but if she isn’t in England then there really isn’t a damn thing you’re going to do about it. You’ve arrested people who are poisoning women, only to find out they only saw a middleman, who isn’t actually a real person because they were in disguise and so on and so on. I get it, Harry, I really do. But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to scream and demand why you can’t just fix this.” Bill then clapped him on the shoulder, “but then I remember that you’re not a superhero and you aren’t going to be able to fix everything. I know you’re trying and you’re doing the best that you can.”

“She’s going to have to make a mistake,” Harry said flatly and knew without a shadow of a doubt it was the truth. It was foretold that he’d be able to beat Voldemort and Voldemort had walked into every single trap he’d needed to in order for Harry to have a chance at killing him. And Harry never ever forgot that he didn’t kill Voldemort because of skill, but because of the sick bastard’s own hubris. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. She has to slip up.”

“She will at some point,” Bill said without the confidence to back it up. The truth was, she’d gone this long, it was decades now, and she hadn’t made a mistake. They didn’t know what it was going to take to bring her down.

“Granddad, Papa,” Emma said as she ran over to them. “Mummy says it’s time for presents and you need to come so you can find out what you bought Alex.” Her little face screwed up in confusion. “Why wouldn’t you know what you gave Alex?”

Bill glanced over to Harry, who shrugged. Clearly neither of them knew what their wives had wrapped for their first grandson.

“It’s complicated Emmy-bug,” Bill said as he scooped her up. “You’ll understand when you get married.”

Harry left the party to head straight back to work, along with Teddy and Al. Until they had more information on the bombing, everyone was on full alert and he’d had to pull in others to cover for Teddy so they could be at the party. It was something he did for all of his Aurors, of course. He prized family and wanted all of them to have the chance to watch their children grow up. This time just happened to be his turn.

“I never thought we’d go back to making the recruits help with the work,” Harry sighed as he and his sons stood quietly on the lift.

Teddy nudged him with his shoulder. “Don’t forget, old man, you had me out just as soon as I had the basics down. My ability to disguise myself was used almost right away.”

That was true, although truth be told he saw Teddy as having more ability than Al, even though he was the same age as when he’s started to stick Teddy in the field. “You felt older, if that makes sense.”

“No,” both Teddy and Al said at the same time.

Harry shrugged. “You’ll have to wait until your kids are aging. I think my oldest verses my youngest. Lily is basically the same age I was when I faced down Voldemort and killed him and yet I can’t, for the life of me, even picture asking Lily to do anything like that.”

“Lily is not a good example,” Al pointed out. “She wouldn’t do any of those things even if she was fifty.”

Al had a point there. “True,” Harry mused.

The lift came to a halt and they exited into the bustle of the Auror department. Auror Gregory came straight over with a pile of reports as Teddy and Al veered off to head to their various assignments. “We have the papers prepared for the next round of women to be healed. It’s been approved by the Minister’s office and we are ready to send them out, worldwide.”

“Did you get the word out about how the poison is likely being spread?” Harry asked as he glanced over the revised rules for getting healing. He hated to do it this way but frankly they couldn’t risk anymore lives, especially not Nat’s. As it was, most of his family was in perpetual hiding. Molly and Lucy had both stopped working, which was fine for Molly as she had a husband, but Lucy was back to living with her parents under the Fidelius Charm. Molly’s husband had taken a job he could do from home, which was a blessing. The other girls all had multiple Portkeys on them at all times, just in case they were snatched. It was a nightmare on a grand scale.

“We have sent out the releases to all the governments,” Gregory confirmed. “We’ve had some contact us for feedback and with questions. I’ve explained what I know, but of course that’s not as much as anyone would like.”

“Believe me, I wish we had more,” Harry sighed in frustration. They had one potions master working on it. One. They didn’t have anyone else until Rose was qualified. She was the only one in all of England going for it, and she had a while until she was done with schooling.

The only helpful thing they’d learned from the potions master was that the potion was likely odorless and tasteless before it was consumed, but in the body it started to morph into what it would eventually become, which was the brown sludge. “All we can say is don’t trust anything you’re given to drink. I know that’s going to put the pubs in a bad spot, but we can’t say for sure that the alcohol doesn’t render it inert until we have a sample of it to test.”

That was where the rest of the world came into play. They needed a sample of the potion in its original form to be able to determine how it was being hidden. If they could find it, they could experiment on it.

“Hopefully we find a sample soon,” Gregory said echoing Harry’s exact thoughts.

~*~

James ran his finger along his wife’s brow, down her jawline and to her chin. Five years ago, he could have never imagined that she would be his, that he would be able to touch her, and that they would be living this life. Five years ago, he hadn’t even considered being a husband or a father. Five years ago, he’d been a selfish prat trying hard to grow up so he could be worthy of the girl in his arms. The living room fire crackled as the sun set a few days after Alex’s birthday. Their boy was already asleep in his bed, too tired from a game with the dogs. Steve the wonder dog was now fully grown and fully trained. He would be heading to his new home to work with his new master in a matter of days and then they would have another puppy, just as soon as the next litter was born.

For the amount of hours Caroline had put into training the dog, the pay was lousy, but it was still a large chunk nonetheless. They didn’t need the money, as he had gained a fat bonus from the Quidditch team due to his performance, but it was still nice. He’d asked her what she wanted to do with it and she’d said to stick it in the bank. He’d suggested a few things, but she said she’d splurge on a nice dress for Rose’s wedding when the time came. The time was coming fast, too. They only had until June and it was already March. He’d need a tux, but his aunt had informed him that he and all the other men would be able to rent them.

It seemed a little unfair that men could rent their fancy outfits but a woman had to buy one new.

“You’re preoccupied,” Caroline commented.

“Stupid things, too,” he admitted with a grin as he pressed a light kiss to her temple. “I was thinking about renting a suit for Rose’s wedding and how you have to buy a dress.”

“You could buy a tux, but honestly I’m not sure when you’d need to wear it again. I can wear a fancy dress to other occasions, rather than dress robes.”

He hadn’t thought of it that way. “True. Well, I don’t have to worry about it until May.”

“Right,” she agreed, snuggling further into his arms. “Louis looked better tonight.”

They’d had Louis over for dinner that night, which had involved James going to Victoire and Teddy’s house to get him, bring him back, and then take him back once they were done with dinner. They’d served no alcohol, of course, but even so Louis’ eyes kept drifting over to where they kept the wine. “He couldn’t have looked much worse. He looked like death warmed over at Alex’s birthday last weekend. But it was good.”

“I was thinking,” Caroline said as she smoothed her hand along his shirt, over his stomach. “I was thinking,” she repeated slowly, “that maybe we should get rid of all the alcohol we have until he’s through the worst of it.”

James didn’t drink often, mostly because any kind of drunkenness set Caroline off into a tailspin, but he did enjoy a glass of wine now and again. But tonight, while Caroline was putting Alex was asleep, Louis had told him what had sent him over the edge. He’d told James he could tell his wife, but James hadn’t wanted to. He didn’t want to upset her. “He told me why he was drinking.”

She sat up and stared at him. “Really?”

James nodded as he studied her blue eyes. “He said I could tell you, but I don’t really want to. I think… I think you’re better off not knowing, except to say he’s not a danger to anyone but himself.”

Caroline cocked her head to the side, her blonde hair sliding over one shoulder. “Alright,” she agreed quietly. “I trust you. If there comes a point where you think I can hear it, then I want to know, but I trust you.”

She lay back down and he was grateful she’d taken it this well. She’d come a long, long way in just a few years.

They lay silently for another few minutes before Caroline said, “I needed to take the potion for birth control today, but I didn’t.”

“Oh.”

They’d discussed it a few times, but they said they’d wait for when Alex was a full year.

“I do have a month-long potion, though,” she said quietly. “Audrey brought it over during Alex’s party. I just haven’t taken it yet.”

Alex was getting to a great stage now. He was sleeping well through the night and he was starting to play well. They were into a great groove with everything. On the other hand, the thought of his wife’s body changing a growing a baby was not unpleasant. It was, quite frankly, the exact opposite. “In the end, the bulk of it will fall on you,” he said thoughtfully. “Plus, we will be getting a new puppy soon. I’m happy with how things are, I’m happy waiting, but if this is what you want, then I can be happy with that, as well. It’s your choice.”

He felt her shake her head. “If you don’t want it””

“I didn’t say that,” he interjected, reaching for her hand. “I’d be very, very happy to get you pregnant right now, but pregnancy and newborns… it’s a lot. You’re in a good place, but only you know if that’s what you want to do. You tell me because most of it will be on you.”

She hesitated only a moment. “I want another baby now.”

He didn’t ask her if she was sure, because he could hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes. He bent down to kiss her and slowly deepened it until they were both breathless. “Well,” he said as he broke away long enough to scoop her up. “I think I am up for the challenge.”

~*~

If someone had told Ginny when she was sixteen that she’d happily be a grandmother, watching her grandchildren, she’d have said they were off their nut. She’d sworn she would have kept up working up until she was too old and creaky to move, but life hadn’t turned out in the way she’d wanted. She’d never expected to marry at sixteen and she’d never expected to be on lockdown, yet again, worse than when Voldemort was active. Their only saving grace is that they had Natalie. Nat could see concealments, disguises, curses, and any other manner of nefarious thing that might be used to get to them.

Of course, Nat couldn’t do a single thing about those concealments, disguises, curses, or other manner of nefarious thing, but tell someone. But that was a minor problem that was easily overcome.

What wasn’t so easily overcome was how isolated all of them had become in the last few years. Ginny used to have friends she would see on occasion. She wasn’t at risk for being kidnapped and magically impregnated. She’d taken the yearlong birth control potion, as had every single married female member of their family save for Victoire and Caroline who were both still breastfeeding and could only take the month long potion. There was no way to induce ovulation in someone who had taken it.

No wait, that wasn’t completely accurate. Victoire had become pregnant with Emma while on the potion. She had no idea about Dominique, but Dom was with her girlfriend and so there was no chance of pregnancy accidentally. She kept expecting Dom to say they were getting married since they’d been together since Hogwarts but so far they hadn’t made that commitment yet. It was possible she wanted to avoid the insanity which was going to necessarily surround Rose’s wedding to Andrew. That was going to be a mess, no doubt.

But what else could she do? They had to have the public ceremony at Andrew’s estate in the country, which was going to be safer as the Aurors could go in and perform all the protections they wanted without tipping off the Muggles. Andrew would simply have his staff sent home for the hours it would take. Still, it wouldn’t be enough.

“So, we really can’t go to a shop?” Lily asked glumly as they waited for Al to bring all the dresses Fleur had selected from all the various Muggle shops. Al would give them a once-over to make sure they were fine and then when he arrived, Nat would take a look at them before they even brought them in the house. She didn’t have a clue how Crabbe would be able to get at Muggle dresses from Muggle shops but they weren’t taking any chances. She’d wanted Harry to do this, but he was at work, which was a regular situation now since the bombing. Ginny had put her foot down about Nat healing women more than three days a week, overriding Nat’s protestations that she could do more and work on wands in the evening. Ginny had initially been ignored, but all of that had changed last week after Nat went in for healings five days in a row.

Nat had come home so tired and worn thin on that fifth day that Teddy had escorted her home. They’d no sooner made it into the door before Nat keeled over in a faint. They’d called Audrey, who had rushed over and realized Nat’s blood sugar was dangerously low. It had taken food and some coaxing and then the whole next day in bed to get her back on her feet. Now, blessedly, Ginny had her way and Nat went in to heal Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only unless there was a one-off emergency.

But of course, that was neither here nor there as far as their current predicament.

Lily had been home from school less than a day and most of that time had been spent with Scorpius. She didn’t blame her daughter or Scorpius for wanting that time, especially since Scorpius would have to work all week long and there wouldn’t be a lot of time for them until the evenings. But it was Sunday and they had major decisions to make concerning the fashions to be worn at the wedding. Fleur had deemed every single dress she’d selected to be appropriate for the Muggle side of the wedding in June, which meant the girls could select from them whichever they liked.

“Al is here,” Nat said as she rose.

“I’ll go help him,” Scorpius said as he followed her to the door. “Wow.”

Ginny glanced over the young man’s shoulder and winced. “That’s a lot of dresses.”

“Some help, please!” Al called.

Scorpius turned to Nat who smiled. “There’s only dresses, nothing else.”

“Right, well, then here we go,” he laughed as he went to haul in what had to be a hundred dresses from the yard.

Lily, being Lily, wanted to try on absolutely every single dress and then she wanted to show everyone the dress to get their feedback, which she was then apt to ignore based on how she felt about them.

Natalie looked through all the dresses in her size, picked out three she liked the best, tried them on with just Ginny and Lily, and picked one from that. “It’s not terrible,” Nat said as she studied herself in the mirror.

“You look lovely,” Ginny promised her, meaning it. Nat would sparkle in the gown. “I’m sure you’ll have many people asking you to dance.”

Nat snorted and shook her head, grinning as Lily slipped into yet another dress, this one the palest of yellows. “Not with this one around.”

Lily stuck out her tongue and then twirled in the dress. “You only want Al to dance with you, anyway, and Scorpius isn’t going to hand me off to anyone who isn’t family, so it doesn’t matter what I look like.”

Ginny knew she had a point there. Of course, it was too dangerous for Lily to be with anyone who wasn’t family, but she knew they were going to have a very tricky time enforcing that. Ginny rather suspected Scorpius was going to propose this summer, but she also knew he would wait until after Rose’s wedding since that was consuming everything right then. They would have another year until Lily was done with school, at any rate, but Ginny was alright with her daughter marrying immediately. The fact of the matter was she was having a hard time not simply ordering Al to marry Nat just so neither of them could be trapped into a marriage with someone else if they were captured by Crabbe.

Fury licked in flames in her stomach as she remembered no other society in the world, at least that she knew of, had the regressive laws that England did towards marriage and purity. She’d been talking with Hermione about making the yearlong birth control potion standard medical care for the women since so many were being poisoned, but the Wizengamot had deemed it unnecessary since they had a cure for the poison, even if the cure was an almost nineteen-year-old girl which they didn’t even know about.

“Mama?” Lily asked hesitantly, and Ginny shook off her ire, knowing Lily had picked up on it. Sera had sidled over to Lily, sticking his head under hand to start soothing her.

“I’m just mad about all the security procedures,” Ginny admitted. It was the truth, but not the whole truth. “I wish I could have taken you shopping without having to go through all this fuss.”

Lily studied her for a moment and then nodded. It wasn’t the absolute truth, since Ginny hated shopping, but she did wish they could have a normal life without the risk to their safety. She knew exactly how her own mother had felt during the war, and Molly Weasley had been forced to send Ron, Harry, and Hermione off on their own to hunt down Voldemort’s soul.

“Let me do up your zip,” Nat said as she moved around Lily to get it. “Then you can go wow Scorpius some more.”

Lily ran down the steps, came back up, changed into something else by the time Nat was changed again and this time Ginny followed her daughter down as she showed off a midnight blue dress. She immediately caught the confusion in Al’s eyes when he spotted Nat in her jeans and jumper. “Where’s your dress?”

“Up there,” Nat told him pointing upstairs.

“You picked one already?” he asked slowly and she nodded. “But you aren’t going to show us?”

Ginny could hear the actual hurt in his voice and wished she could explain to her son exactly what to say to make this girl go run up and try it on for him.

“It’s just a dress,” Nat said, not looking at him as she picked up Ducky off the sofa and sat down to stroke the cat. “It’s just me in a dress.”

“Come on, Nat,” Lily tried to cajole her, but she stopped as she studied Nat. “Alright, then, you’re stuck with me trying everything on, then.”

Scorpius looked a little dazed at all the outfits. “Just as long as I don’t have to pick a favorite, because almost every one has been my favorite.”

“Which ones didn’t you like?” Lily paused, studying him.

“That neon pink one with the ruffly things,” he said, making vague gestures at his sleeve to indicate the tule.

“Oh, yeah,” Lily giggled as she skipped towards the stairs. “That one was terrible.”

Ginny sighed and went back up the stairs to unzip this dress. She should have insisted Fleur come for this.

~*~

The Easter holidays had come and gone too fast for Harry, who had barely any time with Lily, although she’d still somehow managed to talk him into three dresses in the short amount of time they did have together.

“You are a sucker,” Ginny had groused at him.

Yes, he was, but it wasn’t like he had more than one child trying to get a bunch of clothing out of him. His sons were all out in the world paying their own bills and Nat, whom he had insisted on buying her dress, as well, hadn’t even seemed to want the one she’d chosen.

“I could have paid for it,” Nat said as the three of them ate dinner the night that Lily went back to school.

It was quiet in the house again, since Scorpius wasn’t there, either. He’d spent every free minute of the last week with them. Harry understood completely Scorpius’ devotion, even if it meant Harry was no longer going to be the first man in Lily’s life. It was how it was supposed to be, he knew, even though it wrenched at his heart. So, he’d paid for three dresses for Lily and one for Nat. “Nonsense,” Harry said as he cut into his steak. “You’re not getting a lot of wands made because you’re working for free at the Ministry. The very least we can do is buy a dress for you.”

Nat hesitated a minute and then said, “Well, I appreciate it.”

“We know you do,” Ginny promised and the meal proceeded on quietly as it was wont to do when it was just the three of them.

When Al and Nat were still in school and it had been just the two of them, things had also been quiet, Harry knew. He and Ginny had no problem speaking about almost anything in front of Nat. She often had insightful thoughts to add to a conversation, but just now it was quiet born of missing Lily, who was a chatty ball of energy, plus the sheer number of women and babies, sometimes orphaned babies, coming through the Ministry every other day.

Harry would have wanted Nat to heal more often, because they had that many requests for Healing, but the day she’d passed out had been a scary one. She hadn’t had a low blood sugar in years, not with the special diet Audrey had put her on. She’d been so stable it was difficult to remember just how sick and fragile her body had been for a few years. But her episode brought it all back in stark relief and Harry knew Ginny was right to insist she only heal three days a week and take breaks in between. They would be back at it tomorrow with at least fifty patients, he didn’t know how many, but she could typically get through fifty in a day.

Fifty women a day, times three days a week, times fifty-two weeks in a year was pushing eight thousand people and it was still no where near enough. It just wasn’t. Crabbe was working triple-overtime trying to poison the whole world, which Harry figured was exactly her plan. They would be lucky if they ever made it through everyone.

“I’m going to turn in early,” Nat said as soon as they’d cleaned up from dinner. It wasn’t even eight o’clock but Harry couldn’t blame her. They started early the next morning.

“Good night,” Harry and Ginny said together as they watched her trudge up the stairs.

When they heard the door to her room close, Harry glanced over to his wife and saw the same concerns he had written all over her face. “She’s not the happy girl she used to be,” Ginny sighed as she hung up the towel she’d used to dry her hands. “I just don’t know what it’ll take.”

“Do you think it’s her situation with Al?” Harry wondered.

Ginny shook her head, surprising him. “No, I don’t think it is. I think it’s all the isolation and all the sick people. She’s pined after Al for a long, long time and that’s never been the thing that pushed her over the edge. But she left school where she had a decent amount of freedom and her friends around her constantly, to come back here and be either stuck in this house or at the Ministry caring for people who are closing in on death. She’s sent how many babies straight over to St. Mungo’s to be hooked up to feeding tubes since she started this?”

“It’s typically at least one a day, but often more,” Harry admitted. The hospital had been forced to open up a wing just for the infants and they’d brought on more staff from Germany, France, and Switzerland to help with the overload of patients. He contemplated what that had to be doing to someone who was only nineteen and he realized that of course Ginny was right. “What can we do about it?”

“I think we should insist that Al and Scorpius eat here at least a few times a week,” Ginny said after a moment’s thought. “I can also see if Rose can come some more, but of course once she’s married that will die off as it should. But we could have a night where all of them could have dinner together and you and I aren’t here. Then she’d have her friends, at least for a little bit. She spends so much of her days here by herself.”

“She goes over to Teddy and Victoire’s house,” Harry pointed out. “She’s also babysat Alex more than once.”

Ginny inclined her head in clear agreement but walked over to put her arms around his waist. “While babies are wonderful, they’re no substitute for an adult interaction. You have to remember what it was like when James and Al were little, and even after Lily came along. I was so starved to talk to an adult that I was practically vibrating from it.”

Harry did clearly remember just how much Ginny had missed out on while raising their kids. “You’re right. And even when she’s at the Ministry, surrounded by people, she’s under the cloak as though she isn’t even there.”

“Yes, that’s it exactly,” Ginny agreed. “I just wish we could give her more normalcy, but with her limitations on magical protection, she’s practically begging to have someone attack her.”

Harry wished it were as simple as being able to say that no one knew what Nat could do, but of course that was no guarantee. “I will speak with Al tomorrow at work and make sure he knows he’s to come to dinner more often. I think he wants to, but I also think he gets home from training and wants to go straight to sleep.”

“You didn’t have that when you were a trainee,” Ginny pointed out with a grin.

He shook his head, grimacing. “By that point I was so used to being hungry, exhausted, and overworked that training, what little they did, felt easy and simple. They just assumed since I’d killed Voldemort I must know what I’m doing. What a load of rubbish that was. I had to learn everything the hard way.” He let out a heavy sigh. “I do push my trainees hard, but I push them because I want them to stay alive and make sure they know everything they need to know. I don’t want them to have to learn everything in the field.”

“It’s a good way of working it,” Ginny assured him. “But maybe simply grab him and bring him with you after work. Then he can’t forget. I’ll send Scorpius an owl and maybe speak to Rose about them coming over once a week.”

“I think that’s the best we can do,” Harry said as he pressed his lips to the crown of her head. She had a few silver threads woven into the red, but it only added to her appeal to him. Grinning, he pulled her in tighter. “Let’s get ourselves off to bed and to sleep early. Us old folks need all the rest we can get.”

Ginny poked him in the side. “Speak for yourself.”

“Alright I’m speaking for myself,” he agreed. “But I think you’re babysitting tomorrow so Victoire can work.”

“Yes,” Ginny agreed. With the staffing shortages and all the babies, Victoire was helping out more when she could arrange childcare. She then yawned.

“Alright,” Harry said guiding her to the stairs. “Let’s get to bed.”

Back to index


Chapter 74: Chapter 71

Author's Notes: Thank you everyone for reviewing! As I've said before, if you want to support my writing you can support me on patreon or check out my books on amazon. Sarah Jaune is my penname.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing!


It was too hot for the end of April. It was all Nat could think as she finished dressing in shorts and a tank top. It felt like it was August in Egypt rather than England! Thankfully, it wasn’t supposed to last, but it was currently making her miserable. The only decent thing was wizards had magical air conditioning and she wouldn’t roast while she was minding Alex for Caroline, who had a class to teach at the cheer gym.

But Alex liked to be out in the backyard, especially with their big dog, Rufus and the new puppy, Daisy. Caroline used to take the dog with her to teach, but she’d started to leave the dogs home with Alex and whomever was minding him. Nat liked the dogs, so she didn’t mind, but today she was hoping Alex would only want to be outside for a few minutes before he realized it was too hot.

Sighing, Nat tied her strawberry blonde hair back in a tail and headed for the stairs. Ginny was going to deal with the twins today so Victoire could take Emma to the cheer class. Generally, they switched off who went where every week, so last week Nat had been with Amelia and Olivia who had, unbelievably, slept through the whole time Nat had been there.

“You ready?” Ginny asked as she pulled her own hair back in a short tail. “I heard from Victoire this morning that the girls already took a nap, so I’m not in for as easy of a day as you had last week.”

Nat smiled and shook her head. “I did want to play with them, but I can’t say I minded having over an hour to read. With Alex it’s always exactly the same thing every time. He naps from ten to eleven and then from three to four. Honestly, if he didn’t look exactly like James, I’d have thought he was Al’s kid. Neither James nor Caroline is that regimented.”

“I think this just means that Al’s children are likely to be like James,” Ginny laughed, sneaking an arm around Nat’s shoulder. She pressed a kiss to Nat’s temple. “You’ll be in for it.”

Nat felt her cheeks flush as she shrugged. She knew Ginny wanted her and Al to get together. She didn’t make a secret of it, but she didn’t know how to respond to Ginny’s comment. “I can’t wait to see what Lily’s children will be like.”

Ginny burst out laughing. “Oh, yes… that will be something.”

They parted ways not two minutes later, Nat for Caroline and James’ place, and Ginny to Victoire and Teddy’s.

“I’m here,” Nat called as she dusted the soot from her clothes. She heard the scramble of tiny puppy claws and moments later Daisy was jumping up on Nat’s shins. “Down,” Nat commanded, holding her hand out to the puppy, who immediately sat. She was a good puppy, but more excitable than Steve had been and she needed a lot more commands to get her to behave.

Moments later Rufus plodded in, make a low noise and the puppy instantly fell flat on her belly, staring up at the big dog who sighed as though he found this whole puppy business a lot of bother. He hadn’t been this way with Steve, so Nat imagined that Daisy was just more energy than the dog was used to. But of course it could also be that Daisy wouldn’t be suited to becoming a companion dog. Only time would tell.

“I’m here,” Caroline said coming from upstairs. She sounded harassed.

“You okay?” Nat called up.

“Alex’s diaper exploded everywhere,” Caroline called down. “It was all over the crib!”

“Do you want me to clean it?” Nat asked, about to head for the stairs.

“All done,” she said as she toted her son down the stairs. She kissed Alex’s cheek noisily and the baby giggled furiously.

Nat stared at her friend and a slow smile spread over her cheeks until she was grinning so hard she might burst with it. Was there a bit of longing? Yes. Was there a bit of jealousy? Yeah, just a little. But the joy overshadowed everything.

“What?” Caroline asked, stopped at the end of the couch.

“You’re pregnant,” Nat squealed as she lunged for Caroline and pulled her into a tight hug.

“What? You’re… of course you’re sure! Oh wow! My period isn’t due for another week!!!”

They fell together with the baby on the couch, laughing and crying. “I can’t believe it,” Caroline whispered when they finally fell silent. “I was hoping, but when I didn’t get pregnant last month I started to think maybe I wouldn’t… but wow. Everything looks good?”

Nat nodded, catching her hand and squeezing. “The baby has a very bright light. I can’t promise anything but right now it looks great.”

“I can’t wait to tell James, I” oh my class!” Caroline kissed Alex one last time, bid him to be good, and then sprinted for the door.

“It’s just you and me,” Nat told Alex who gave her a grin which contained only his four teeth. “What should we do?” she asked as she set him on the ground. She watched him steady himself, turn to Rufus, who rose and moved to the baby so Alex who grab his hair, and then slowly walk towards the back door and the back garden.

Nat grinned bemusedly and shook her head. She glanced over to see Daisy was still where Rufus had put her after she’d jumped on Nat. “If you can walk like the civilized, you can go outside and run. Don’t knock over the baby.”

Apparently, don’t knock over the baby was a thing Daisy heard often because she slowly rose and moved at a more sedate pace to the door, waiting for Rufus to guide Alex out of the house after Nat opened the door. Once they were clear of the exit, Daisy bounded out and ran to start chasing a squirrel. Oh yes, they were going to have a very fun time training the puppy while Caroline was pregnant, but oh… another baby. She couldn’t wait! If she wasn’t having her own, she was thankful to have these children to love.

~*~

James’ day had been rough. There was no two ways about it. He’d made a major blunder out on the pitch and his coach had already been in a foul mood. He’d taken all of it out on James, which was fair since James had made a stupid, rooky mistake, but then he’d told James he was out for the next game. He’d wanted to protest, but honestly he wasn’t going to mind sitting out the game. He’d still have to go, to be there in case he had to be rotated in for an injury but the overreaction said more about his coach than it did about him and his ability.

Still, it rankled to be so easily sidelined when he was one of the better players they had. He wasn’t the best, at least not yet, but he was up there in the top three. He knew with a lot of hard training he could get to be their best Chaser, and it was only a matter of time.

“You okay?” Heather, one of his teammates, asked from behind him.

James glanced over at her and shrugged before grabbing the last of his stuff from his locker. “It’s fine. I made a mistake, I’m paying the price.”

“What he did was unfair,” she said grimly. “There was no need to be that harsh.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he promised as he closed his locker and turned. “I’m going to go home, where my son will be ecstatic to see me, my wife will be waiting to hear me complain over it, and then this whole day will be a memory.”

She nodded and gave him a small smile. “Right, I keep forgetting you’re a dad. You’re so young.”

“When it’s right, it’s right,” was all James said as he walked away. He tried to be friendly with all his teammates, but he had the distinct impression that Heather had a crush on him and it was making him nervous. He didn’t want to have to deal with anything personal on his team, and frankly it was insane for her to even consider something like that. It was against the law and one could not simply mess with a soul bond without serious damage to the soul of the people involved.

Alright, it didn’t actually affect person who wasn’t married as their soul was not bound to someone else, but it was still an arrestable offense and Heather could be thrown in jail if she tried to push anything. So far she hadn’t done more than single him out to talk to him, but it was already making him uncomfortable enough to try to avoid her.

The only positive in the situation was that when he’d told Caroline about it, she hadn’t reacted badly. She’d listened to his concerns and then gave him tips on how to avoid the situation and discourage Heather. He’d been trying all of them, but so far she wasn’t taking the hint. He’d thought about discussing it with his coach, but since the man was being such a berk, James knew he had to keep it to himself.

Yes, they weren’t doing well this season. It was primarily due to injuries on behalf of both of their best Beaters, but it was not the worst season they’d ever had, either. They were slightly ahead of middle of the pack and were likely going to make the playoffs, even if they didn’t win the cup. None of their teammates were going to make the national team. Even James knew his chances weren’t good this year. He was still growing as a player.

Sighing, wanting to put all of this behind him, he Apparated home and unlocked the door to hear Alex’s delighted shriek. “Da!!!!”

And really, there wasn’t anything better than that in the whole world. Nothing could compete with being loved so fully and James didn’t need to worry about Quidditch just then. He dropped his stuff at the door after kicking it closed and moved to scoop Alex up for a loud kiss. “Oh, I love you,” he whispered into his son’s neck before he blew a raspberry there so the baby would giggle with delight. “Were you good for Mummy today?”

“He was an angel as always,” Caroline said as she came over from the kitchen. Daisy raced ahead of her and plowed into James’ legs. If he weren’t used to the puppy’s rough antics, he’d have been knocked flat on his back.

“Down!” both James and Caroline said and the puppy dropped down to the ground, whimpering.

“I do not think she’s going to be a therapy dog,” Caroline said with a long sigh as she studied the puppy. “I’m going to write to them and let them know we’re making no progress. She’ll make a fine pet, but she’s simply too excitable to calm someone down who has anxiety.”

“I agree,” James said, even though he hated to think they weren’t going to be able to raise her for the full year. “Still, it’s better to get her adopted sooner.”

“I can always see if Hagrid is ready for a new dog,” Caroline commented as she leaned into him, letting the arm that didn’t hold Alex wrap around her waist. James kissed the top of her head and held his family, soaking in the amazing feeling of being home where there was no pressure.

“How was your class?” he asked as he moved them over to sprawl on the couch.

Caroline curled into his side and smiled a smile he didn’t exactly know how to interpret. She leaned up and kissed the underside of his chin, even as Alex squirmed to get down. He’d have fallen off the couch if James hadn’t caught his shirt and Rufus hadn’t been there to body block him from the tumble. He watched the dog carefully snag Alex’s shirt and lower him to the carpet so his son could crawl off for his toys. “We really have the best nanny dog out there.”

“Yes, we do,” she agreed, sneaking her hand up his chest to rub at the stubble on his chin. “Nat came to watch him and she told him something.”

“Oh, yeah, what?” he asked, still watching Alex since Daisy was sneaking over to him. He needn’t have worried. Rufus grumbled at the puppy and she settled back down to watch, even though he knew she’d be up again in a moment.

“She said I’m pregnant.”

It took a long moment for the words to sink in before joy, elation, and a healthy dose of panic filtered through James’ chest, but the elation won out and he grinned as he kissed her deeply. “That’s…” he tried to speak, but found himself choked up with feeling so much all at once. “Wow.” It was all he could say, he kissed her and then pulled her to himself, not sure how his chest was going to contain all of the feelings he had at that moment. “We’re going to have two kids. Wait,” he hesitated. “She only saw one in there, right?”

“Only one and she said the baby’s light looked really bright and strong.”

Relief coursed through him as he pulled her in close. He almost, almost, said something about her maybe taking time off from teaching her classes, but he shut his mouth. She needed those classes. They made her happy and kept her from being stuck in the house all the time. They both took a risk when they left the house, but at least if she was poisoned, Nat would know and would heal her. So far the crazy Crabbe woman hadn’t been out to kill them directly. It was possible it could happen, but so far she hadn’t.

So far…

He made a decent amount of money. He could hire security for her or he could see if Teddy could always be available to take Emma to her classes. Yes, that was a better idea. He’d ask his father to switch Teddy’s schedule around so his brother could be there to watch both Caroline and Emma. He’d talk to Teddy, make sure he knew, even though Teddy was already protective of Caroline.

“Are you worrying?”

James let out a small chuckle. “Yes, but no more than usual.”

“Teddy is at my classes every week. He’s been the one bringing Emma since October.”

James craned his neck to study her. “Are you a mind reader, then?”

She laughed and boosted up to kiss him soundly. “No, I just know you and… and I told him it made me feel better that he was there, so he arranged it with your dad.”

He kissed her temple. “I’m so… this is good. Alex is going to be a great big brother and you’re already a terrific mum.”

“I like being a mommy,” she said, grinning at her American use of the word. Her face sobered as she studied him. “I didn’t know I would since I didn’t have good parents, but it’s been the best thing. I’m so glad you never gave up on me.”

“Never,” he promised. “You never gave up on me, either.”

“And I never will.”

~*~

“Come on,” Victoire told Amelia and Olivia as she grabbed at their hands and tried to lead them over to the table for dinner. “Gamma says time for dinner.”

June was already upon them and it felt like she was melting from the heat, even though no one else seemed to even notice.

“You okay?” Teddy asked as he came over and scooped up both girls, making them giggle like mad. “You look a little flushed.”

“I’m hot,” she grumbled as she followed him to the table where Al, Nat, Scorpius, Rose, Andrew, Louis, James, Caroline, Alex, Emma, Arthur, Molly, Harry and Ginny were already sitting. They’d tried to get Teeny to sit at the table but Polly was getting fussier about such things and wouldn’t let her daughter join in. It was alright for Teeny to play, but she wasn’t allowed to be included in anything else. On top of that, Teeny was almost full grown for a house-elf and while she liked playing with Emma, it was clear she was quickly outgrowing the preschooler’s games and was starting to ask for work. It was hard to watch, but Victoire had known it was coming and was trying to let it go. She wasn’t going to cry over it. Nope.

Alright, she’d cried a couple of times, but Teeny was Polly’s child, not hers.

She’d been out of sorts all week and even though she loved her family, she hadn’t really wanted to come for dinner. She knew it was to help Nat feel better, feel less isolated, but all she’d wanted to do was burrow down with a good book in her quiet room. Instead, she was here trying to fight hard against her bad mood.

She saw Teddy incline his head and James and Harry both stood and took a girl from him, settling them down into their high chairs.

“Get started, we’ll be back,” Teddy said as he pulled Victoire out the back door to the garden. Great, just great, now she’d be extra hot.

Teddy stopped her under the shade of a tree and felt her forehead. “You’re not running a fever. What’s up with you?”

“I told you, I’m hot,” she practically growled as she turned away from him. “Being out here is making it worse so thanks for that.”

She felt a cool blanket settle over her and knew he’d done the magic to cool her off. Hunching, she shook her head and refused to look back at him. “Maybe I should just go home. I’m in a rotten mood.”

“Hey,” he said as he lightly wound his arms around her waist and bent to kiss her neck. “If you want to go home, then go ahead, but I wish you’d tell me what’s bothering you. It’s not like you to be upset over the heat.”

“I don’t know what’s bothering me!” she cried in exasperation and then truly began to cry.

Teddy gently turned her around and held onto her while she let herself cry quietly.

“Maybe my period is finally going to come back,” she muttered.

She felt him nod. “The first one after Emma was difficult.”

“Uh…”

Victoire and Teddy both turned to see Nat standing there, looking at them. Her expression was a little pinched.

“We’ll be in soon,” Teddy promised.

“It’s not that,” Nat hesitated.

A sick feeling filled Victoire’s stomach as she studied Natalie’s expression.

Nat held her gaze and Victoire knew… she just knew what she was going to say.

“Your period isn’t going to come back…” Nat said somewhat lamely. “Not for another long while. I… I didn’t know how to tell you. You were so cranky when you got here.”

Victoire closed her eyes and let her head thunk against Teddy’s chest.

“You’re… you’re… oh…” Teddy said quietly as his arms tightened around her. “Well, I guess we probably could have predicted this happening again.”

“The baby looks great. It’s only one this time. Uh… I’ll go back in, now,” Nat said awkwardly as she turned and quietly went back in the house.

Victoire held on tighter to her husband and shook her head. They were going to start trying again, maybe in another month or two, assuming she had her period back.

She hadn’t had a period since… she didn’t know how long. What was nine months before the twins were born, anyway?

“Are you okay?” Teddy asked carefully. “This is what we wanted.”

“I am,” she said and she was okay. She was just still feeling very out of sorts, even if she was no longer baking in her own skin. “Are you?”

“I’m good,” he promised as he pressed his face to the hollow at her neck. “I’m not the one who has to be pregnant.”

“You’re just the one who has to deal with a pregnant wife and three daughters.”

“You know,” he said with a small chuckle, “I have to learn to deal with it because when they all hit puberty our house is going to be a real laugh.”

Victoire gently swatted him on the shoulder and shook her head. “At least it isn’t twins again.”

“Agreed.”

She let him lead her back into the house a few minutes later and they settled down to eat with everyone else. Teddy brought her a huge glass of ice water, which she really appreciated, while everyone kept shooting her worried looks, even as they ignored her outburst to focus on talks of work and wedding plans.

“So,” James said as they finished and before dessert was served. “Caroline and I have an announcement,” he said as Ginny started to squeal with delight. His gaze of love was so touching that Victoire felt herself tearing up again as she studied her cousin. He’d really grown into such a fine man and she’d never have predicted he would or could. “We’re going to have a baby in January.”

Pandemonium filled the room. Teddy shot her a look, but she shook her head. She wanted Caroline to have this all to herself.

But as soon as the celebration died down a little bit, Caroline looked at her, eyebrow raised. Victoire shrugged and Caroline grinned. “Go on, then,” she told her.

Since Nat looked like she was about ready to burst, Victoire gave him. “Uh… Nat just came outside and told me I’m pregnant again.”

There was a moment of stunned silence and then more shouts and congratulations filled the room.

“You’re about two weeks behind Caroline,” Nat told them. “Really close.”

“They’ll be able to go to school together,” Caroline grinned as she pulled Victoire into a hug. “I’m so glad.”

And, yes, Victoire realized she was, as well. She still had to process it some, but it was good. A new baby was always a good thing.

By the time they made it home, she was ready to drop from exhaustion. It was always this bad in the beginning, only she hadn’t known she was six weeks pregnant because she hadn’t had a period and hadn’t seen Nat in about a month so she’d had no warning there was a baby growing.

“Go on up, get a cold shower, and get into bed,” Teddy ordered. “I’ll get everyone ready and bring the twins in to nurse when you’re ready.”

She did just that, letting him get all three girls ready for bed while she cooled off and then dressed in her loosest, coolest nightdress before climbing into the sheets. She was nearly asleep when Teddy came in with all three girls. Olivia came over to nurse immediately, but Amelia took a moment to get settled. Teddy held Emma up so Victoire could give her a kiss goodnight before he carried her to her room for a story and cuddle.

Normally she participated in the nighttime routine more than supplying her breasts, but she really didn’t have it in her that night. By the time Teddy was back from getting Emma settled, both toddlers had fallen asleep and Teddy was able to move them into their own room.

He came back and she watched him change for bed. He was in such great shape. He spent a good amount of his time in the field, since he could so easily disguise himself, so he took extra care of his body, getting up early to work out and making sure he stayed fit. Ever since Emma was born, he’d taken to wearing boxers at night, just in case he had to get up with one to the kids, so that was the sight that greeted her as he climbed into bed with his perfect body to cuddle up to her.

Victoire shape was currently a little lumpy and round, jiggling when she walked. A few years before she’d have been so upset by it, she wouldn’t have wanted him to see her naked, but since she had a lot of proof that he still wanted her, she’d learned to let it go. She didn’t have to understand it for it to be true.

“You okay?” he asked her as he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “This is what you wanted, right?”

“I just… for once wanted to plan it out,” she said and her statement rang so funny to her she started to giggle and then couldn’t stop until she was crying from mirth. “We are ridiculous,” she hiccupped as she lay with her head on his chest. “I wanted to have a planned baby and tell you myself when we were both prepared! It’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” he assured her as he grinned, pressing his lips to hers. “It’s never stupid to want something like that. Maybe we will get that someday, but maybe not. You still don’t want me to get that procedure, right?”

She thought about it for a second before shaking her head. Did she know for sure that she wanted him to not be able to give her more kids? No. Four kids was a lot, but she didn’t know if she was done yet. She just didn’t know. “No, I’m not sure.”

“So maybe next time,” he told her as he nuzzled in closer, kissing her softly on the cheek before moving to the spot just behind her ear.

Oh, yeah, he wanted her.

“If you’re too tired, just say so,” he whispered.

If he’d asked her half an hour ago, she would have definitely been too tired, but she felt her love for him flowing through her. “If you do all the work, I think I’m good.”

He chuckled then, the feeling rumbling through his chest. “You just want to be worshiped, but I think I can handle that.”

“I’m the mother to your four kids,” she added with a grin as his mouth moved on her neck. “I have earned it.”

~*~

Lena was meeting with Louis and Al was going to spy on them. He’d have felt badly about it if he weren’t so worried about Lena. His cousin was a mess, but he was, admittedly, the most handsome of all of them and it wasn’t like Lena was exactly resistant to his charms. Added to that, she had an alcoholic father and her own baggage to deal with. So, he took the Invisibility Cloak and made his way into the tea shop where she was meeting him.

If Louis weren’t a mess Al would have left it alone. He loved his cousin and Lena was a good friend, but he didn’t trust that Louis wasn’t going to do something stupid to break Lena’s heart. What he’d do if Louis was making a move, he didn’t know, but he figured he could think of something. Louis had been sober for months now, thankfully. He was in therapy. He was getting help for all of his issues. But he wasn’t there yet.

He’d seen the look on Louis’ face when James had told everyone at dinner two nights before that Caroline was pregnant. He looked like he’d been sucker punched and his whole world was upside down now. It didn’t make a lot of sense to Al because James already had a kid, but maybe adding in a second made the whole thing so much more real. James was a husband and a father and he’d moved on from whatever it was Louis was right then.

Alright, he was just like Al… single and working. It wasn’t that Al didn’t want to get married and have kids. It was definitely appealing, although he had vague thoughts about finishing his Auror training first. He still had two years to go for that, or thereabouts. He and Lena were both working extra hours to move through training. They might knock off a few months or maybe up to a year. They had to pass certain exams, and they didn’t necessarily have to study for those so much as be involved in the situations which would make it possible for them to pass.

He didn’t, however, think sneaking into a Muggle tea shop to spy on his friend and cousin was going to count towards his training. Still, as he’d predicted, Lena was there early with a seat in the corner. He could spot her easily through the glass front of the shop. She’d cleared away tables to give them more space and she had her back to the wall so she could watch the door. Louis appeared at the end of the street and Al watched him as he shuffled towards the door in a very well-made Muggle suit. He had to be roasting hot in the thing, but Louis didn’t appear perturbed at all. Al made it through the swinging door with Louis and dogged his steps until his cousin fell into the seat across from Lena, dropping his head to the table.

Al stationed himself against the wall where no one was likely to run into them and studied his cousin. Louis looked… outwardly he looked like the kind of bloke any woman would want. In fact, several heads had turned his way when he’d walked in. But his eyes were still haunted. It wasn’t like when he’d been drunk. Drunk Louis’ eyes were dead. This Louis was feeling things and clearly didn’t want to.

“Are the cravings bad?” Lena asked gently.

Louis shook his head and sighed, sitting up a bit. He would have answered but a server came over and asked for their orders. He waited until she’d walked off before he said, “No, there are no cravings. It’s all gone. What I’m craving is the oblivion of the drink. I miss feeling numb.”

It was what Al had suspected, but still hearing it was hard to take.

Lena nodded in understanding. “Do you want to tell me more about it?”

He shook his head. “I did something pretty unforgivable. I don’t want to tell you.”

“Louis, I’m not going to stop being your friend,” Lena said lightly. “I lived through my father being a mean drunk and I forgave him. You have no idea what he did to me, to my family.”

“Tell me,” Louis begged quietly.

“This is about you, not me,” she reminded him.

“But if you tell me something… maybe… maybe I’ll feel like I can tell you.”

Al wondered what she was going to say to that, but he waited, still as a statue. He felt bad about spying now. He didn’t want Lena to say anything to Louis that she didn’t want Al to know.

“He beat me,” Lena said finally, meeting Louis’ gaze as he stared at her in horror. “He’d beat me, then he’d heal the worst of it, and then he’d do it all over again. Same with my mum and my sisters, but I was the baby so I got the worst of it. They were gone off to school by the time his drinking really picked up and I bore the worst of it.”

Louis closed his eyes and to Al’s shock he saw a tear slide down his cousin’s cheek. “And you forgave him?”

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I haven’t forgotten and I don’t exactly trust him, but I forgave him because that’s for me, not for him. I don’t want to stay angry for the rest of my life. He… he was a few years older than your Uncle Harry, you know. He was Muggleborn and he was hunted by the Death Eaters. He wasn’t brilliant at magic or super smart. He’d already fallen in love with my mother and they were married when Voldemort was reborn. My mum was pregnant when the Death Eaters found them. He ran, leaving her behind because she was born to magical parents so he thought they’d leave her alone. Instead, they killed the baby. They just… tore the baby from her. Then they went for him and despite being pretty useless at magic, he killed two on them and managed to get my mum to the hospital where they patched her up. Dumbledore helped them hide, then. He helped them leave England. He was… he was never the same. Neither was my mother, but she handled things in her own way.”

The two of them sat there in silence while Al felt like throwing up all over the inside the cloak. He should not have come! He should not be hearing this! He nearly tried to leave, but Louis’ words stopped him cold.

“I had sex with a girl who was a prostitute, I mean a girl, not a woman. She was fifteen.”

Lena blew out a breath and sat back and, Al noted, she made sure no one was listening to them. Thankfully no one was in the busy, noisy tea shop. “Oh wow. What happened?”

“This guy… he wanted me but I wouldn’t just sleep with him because I’m not into blokes, so he hired her for the two of us to share. I’d been sleeping with a lot of prostitutes by then, but he gave us both a lot of alcohol and after a while and… well, let’s just say I did things with him I would never have done sober.” He stared down at the table. “I didn’t tell my sister that part, but I told my therapist.” Lena reached over and took his hand, squeezing it hard. He kept on without looking up at her. “When I woke up and realized there was no way she was an adult, I turned myself and him into the police. They didn’t do anything to me since I was eighteen, but they arrested him because he was twenty-eight. I made her she was taken care of. I sent her off to a boarding school. I took care of her.”

Louis’ face was so bleak, so broken, it took everything in Al not to look away. He couldn’t believe he’d wanted to spy on them. There was no way Louis was here to try to make some moves on Lena, when it was clear he was struggling just to get through each day.

Now all Al wanted was for this to be over with so that he could leave and forget it ever happened. Louis didn’t want him to know, and Al completely understood why. He would have his father wipe his memory if he could without revealing what he knew.

Lena’s next words shocked him. “Have you forgiven yourself?”

Louis’ eyes went flat. “No, and I don’t think I should.”

“Do you think the girl is still upset with you?”

He hesitated for a moment before he shook his head. “No, she’s thankful for the chance to get out of poverty. She’d told me she expected to be killed by some man before too long. Now she has a chance.”

“What can you do to help others like her?”

Confusion clouded his gaze for a moment before it cleared. “You think I can help other girls?”

“Not personally, no. I know you can’t afford that, but can you maybe start an organization that pulls girls off the streets and gets them into an education?”

Al really liked her idea, but he didn’t know how they’d fund it. They had money, sure, but not that kind of money. That kind of money would be in the millions to really make an impact. Most people couldn’t even afford to send one child to a boarding school.

But maybe if Louis could do something, maybe he’d start to forgive himself.

“Listen,” Lena began quietly. “I know you blame yourself and you have definitely played a part in this. You did something you should never have done, no question about it. You were also used and abused by a guy a decade older than you and he definitely knew better. He wanted you. He groomed you and he used you. Did you do something wrong? Yes, you did. But you tried to make it right. You’ve done what you can. Most of the blame rests with the other guy. You have your share, but you do not need to be holding onto blame that isn’t yours. Let that go and start to forgive yourself.”

“My therapist keeps saying that,” Louis admitted as he ducked his head. “He also… he says…”

“What?” she prodded gently. “What else is he saying?”

“That… that what he did to me was kind of like rape.”

Al’s forced inhale was only masked by Lena’s sharp gasp. “Oh. Oh wow.”

A silent tear slid down his cousin’s cheek. “I just want to forget it all. I want to drink and forget and never remember it.”

Now both of her hands were clutching his and she held him even tighter. “Do you agree with what the therapist said?”

Louis shrugged. “I agreed to it at the time, but I didn’t want to. I was just so drunk… when it was happening all I wanted was for him to stop. Just stop… but he kept… I don’t want to go into the details but I mean, I could have hurt him. I could have stopped him.”

“Is that what you’d say to a girl who was too drunk and having sex with a guy when she just wanted it to stop?” Lena asked him pointedly.

Louis shook his head and then frowned. “No, and that’s what my therapist said. But I’m a guy! It’s different.”

“He was older and he made sure you were too drunk to really fight him,” Lena retorted with a shake of her head. “It’s exactly what it sounds like and you have to deal with it that way.”

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t, but you should talk to them about it. You should talk to James! He’s going to understand.”

Louis gave her a funny look and Al realized the same thing. Lena didn’t know about Caroline’s past. How would she know James would understand?

Lena sighed. “I went to school with all of you. I know Caroline. I don’t know her well, but I know her. I’ve put the pieces together with how she behaved all those years. No, I’m not asking for any details. They aren’t any of my business. You need to talk to him, or talk to Victoire.”

“They’re both pregnant,” Louis told her. “I don’t want to do anything to upset them.”

“That is bullshit,” Lena said with a narrowing of her eyes. “You just don’t want to admit it because you’re embarrassed.”

Al thought for a second Louis was going to stand up and leave, but his cousin simply said, “That’s not it.”

“You don’t want to admit what was done to you.”

“Who would?” Louis said with more force. “Do I want James to know I’ve done that with a guy? No, I don’t! It’s…” he stopped and then closed his eyes. “Yeah… embarrassing, but more of… why didn’t I stop it?”

“You were eighteen.”

“I was a man. I was old enough.”

“Tell James. Tell him how much it’s hurting you. Let him help you.”

“He’s not going to know what to say.”

“I think he might surprise you. He does live with someone who has dealt with this.”

“But she’s a girl,” Louis whispered.

“It doesn’t make what was done to you less horrible because you’re a bloke,” Lena countered as she sat back. “It was still just as horrible.”

Louis nodded. “Maybe… maybe I’ll go see James.”

They stood up and left a moment later, but Al held still against the wall, not able to move yet.

He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to move again.

Back to index


Chapter 75: Chapter 72

Author's Notes: The chapter got too long, I'm sorry! I will have another up in a month. Don't hate me... also leave a review and tell me how much you dislike me right now... I can take it lol Just remember I almost never leave them on a cliff like this...

Go check out my books on amazon (Sarah Jaune) or find me on pa treon under the same name. Same with Faceboo k.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing!


“I am so glad we are done with this year,” Lily exclaimed to the whole house. Ginny smiled at her as she twirled a bit and then fell onto one of the armchairs. “I wish Scorpius could have come to the station. Work is so lame.”

“You are a spoiled brat,” Ginny called over to her, trying not to laugh.

“It’s so true, I am,” Lily agreed with a giggle. “We only have weeks until the wedding and oh, Mummy, I don’t have to deal with that annoying Adam again for the whole summer!”

Ginny frowned as she turned away from the mail she’d been sorting. “I thought he wasn’t bothering you anymore.”

“He doesn’t say or do anything to me,” Lily assured her, “but he does stare at me whenever he can get away with it. It’s creepy and I’m ready for a break from it. Is Nat out in her workshop?”

Ginny nodded and went back to the letters. “Yes, she has some things to finish today as she has to be at the Ministry tomorrow.”

“Poor Nat,” Lily said as she picked up Ducky. “Come on Sera,” she said to her dog who had been laying at her feet, “I want a shower and then I want to do nothing until dinner tonight. I’m so tired of exams.”

They were having the whole family over for dinner that night, partially as a welcome home for Lily, Hugo, and Honor, but also as a last minute chance to go over the safety measures they were putting in place for Rose and Andrew’s wedding. Nothing would matter here for the soul bounding at Ivy Run, but at Andrew’s ancestral home, there was definitely going to be a security issue. The only blessing was Andrew was extremely wealthy. His father had invested in some kind of Muggle company many years before. Apparently, it was a store that was available on the internet. Nat had tried to explain it to her, so she understood enough to know they shipped things to people, although she didn’t know how the Muggles could ship so much the next day. In any case, it left Andrew’s family extremely wealthy and he’d been able to completely redo his home with the latest in security, at least to a Muggle standard.

It wasn’t going to do anything against a wizard. But that was a problem for tonight and for Harry’s team. Andrew would be able to pay every single Auror, plus a decent number of the MLE overtime to stand guard that night. There was no hiding the event was happening. Everyone in England knew about the wedding of the duke of… come to that, Ginny couldn’t remember what his title actually was. He was simply Andrew to her, the boy who was so kind and funny and made Rose happy. That was all that mattered.

Ginny glanced over to Polly, who was working at the stove. “Do you need any help, Polly?”

“No miss,” Polly answered quickly. Teeny had decided she was going to live with Victoire and Teddy as their house-elf and Ginny admitted she’d cried over it. She’d wished, fervently wished, Teeny would have chosen to do anything else, but it was what she wanted. She’d said to Ginny that they needed her and she was going to live with them. The only comfort she had in the whole situation was that Teeny hadn’t even bothered to ask Teddy or Victoire if she could live with them. She’d simply packed up her belongings and moved in.

The next time she’d seen Victoire, she’d been clearly flummoxed over the whole thing. “Suddenly I don’t have to cook or clean anymore and she’s absolutely refusing to budge on it! I want to complain, but mostly I just want to sleep, so I’m letting it go for now.”

Two more grandchildren. Ginny was so excited for the prospect, but there was still an ache in her heart that her babies were growing up so quickly. James would have two children before much longer and Teddy would have four.

She glanced up the stairs to where she could hear Lily humming and knew her baby girl was going to be married in about a year. Scorpius was planning on asking her this summer. He’d already talked to them about it, but they both agreed Lily would be ready. She was seventeen, after all, which was older than Ginny had been when they’d married.

Her mind flew back to finding out that she was pregnant, when she’d never even been with a guy in that way, and how much Harry had stepped up. When she’d lost Hope, giving birth to her too early up in their bathtub, she’d felt like she might never be happy again, but when it had come down to it, she’d been able to live again. It had taken awhile, but she’d gone on to play professional Quidditch, which she’d thoroughly enjoyed, and then she’d had James. They’d planned for James and Lily, although they had not planned on Al. Al’s pregnancy had been a total shock and Harry had been checked out for much of James’ early life.

She was just grateful that Victoire wasn’t dealing with that. Teddy was a fantastic father and he was present at all times, but of course he’d had parents who loved him. His grandmother had adored him and he’d always had Harry. Harry didn’t have anyone, so when James was a difficult baby, Harry hadn’t known what to do.

“You okay?”

Ginny turned to see Nat standing next to her in the kitchen. She must have really been deep in thought to miss Nat coming into the kitchen. “What? Oh, yes. I was just thinking of the new grandbabies and how everyone is growing up too quickly.”

“It doesn’t feel all that fast to me, but then again I don’t have a lot going on,” Nat told her with a sad smile.

Ginny pulled her into her arms and rocked her back and forth. “Your day will come, luv. You deserve to have all the happiness in the world.”

Nat let out a sigh and then pulled away from her. “Well, what else needs to be done before the family descends upon us tonight?”

They were having their typical end of the school year feast. It was so strange to think that this was the second to last one they’d have until Emma went to Hogwarts.

“Miss,” Polly said, grabbing her attention.

She turned and saw the house-elf wringing a dishcloth. “What’s wrong, Polly?”

“I is… I is…” Polly’s nerve seemed to fail her.

“She’s going to have a baby,” Nat filled in.

Surprise flashed through Ginny as she glanced to Nat. Nat just shrugged. “You knew?”

“I figured she’d tell you when she was ready,” Nat said with a shrug. “It’s hers to tell.”

“Well,” Ginny gave Polly a big smile. “I’m very happy for you, Polly. When is the baby due?”

Polly gave Nat a glance and Nat said, “I think a month. I’m not as familiar with house-elves. I can’t remember what it was like when Teeny was born.”

“I is liking Teeny’s father,” Polly said quietly. “I is going to see him at Hogwarts.”

“Do you want him to come here to live with us?” Ginny asked gently. “I can arrange that.”

“Oh, no miss! No!” Polly protested instantly. “I is liking him much better at Hogwarts when I can come home.”

Nat bit back a very obvious snort and Ginny had to fight hard not to laugh herself. “Well, I can certainly understand that.”

~*~

Al could not stop thinking about what he’d heard Louis say. It had been eating at him constantly to the point that he knew he was going to get an ulcer if he couldn’t stop it. He’d tried pushing himself harder in training, and that did help him sleep better, but it didn’t do much to ward off the words of what Louis had said. It didn’t help erase what Lena had said about her father. He figured James had to know most of it, though, which was why he’d arranged to meet his brother at his flat while Scorpius was over with Lily. Since Lily had arrived home last week, he’d not seen much of his best friend, but he understood. He also, admittedly, would have seen more of him if he hadn’t been trying to work himself into exhaustion every night.

“This had better be good,” James said as he came through Al’s door without bothering to knock. “I’d much rather be kissing my wife than staring at your ugly mug.”

Al gave him a weak smile and James paused, really studying him. “Alright,” James said, sitting across from him. “What’s wrong?”

“Did Louis talk to you about what really happened in Egypt?” Al asked him hesitantly.

James’ brows went up. “He has told me things. What did he tell you?”

“He told me nothing,” Al admitted miserably. “I went to spy on him and Lena because I was worried about what he’d do to her. I think she’s developed feelings for him, but he is not good for her.”

“Are you good for her?”

The question caught Al so off guard he could only gape at his brother. “What? No! It’s not like that! She’s… she’s a really good friend, that’s all. She knows how I feel about Nat.”

“Why is it that only Nat doesn’t know how you feel about her?” James wondered wearily as he sat back in his seat. “Why can’t you just nut up and tell her?”

“I’ve tried to, several times, and she turns it around to set me up with someone else!” Al shot back angrily. “I should just give up on her but… I can’t. I’ve tried and I can’t.”

“So, there’s nothing between you and Lena?” James asked pointedly.

“She’s my Auror partner,” Al said with the shake of his head. “I feel protective over her like I do for Rose and Lily, only she’s not nearly as helpless as Lily is.”

James considered him, tapping a foot, then he nodded. “So, what was this about? Why did you spy on them?”

“Like I said, I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t doing anything to her. I dragged him out of so many pubs and it was all about the girls, and some blokes, who were hitting on him. I don’t trust his judgment and I’m not sure she could say no to him, but…” Al swallowed hard and he remembered what all he’d heard. “Louis told Lena about the man and what he did to him.”

James’ eyes narrowed. “He would not want you to know that.”

“I don’t want to know it!” Al assured him miserably. “Almost as soon as I arrived and heard how they were talking, heard it wasn’t a date, I wanted to leave! But they’d have figured out I was there if I had so I stayed and he told… he told how the guy raped him. Well, he didn’t call it that, but Lena convinced him that’s what it was and she’s right. It was rape.” Al dropped his head to his hands and fought hard to control his breathing. “It’s been eating me up and I don’t know how to deal with it. I feel so guilty for spying on them and I feel really badly for how nasty I was to Louis when he was getting drunk!”

James let out a long sigh and pushed to his feet. He came around the coffee table and sat next to Al, draping an arm around his shoulder. “I don’t think you should tell either of them that you were there. That would only hurt Louis more. It might be a good idea to talk to a therapist about it.”

“I don’t know who to talk to,” Al admitted.

“I have a therapist,” James told him. “He’s really good and totally vetted by Dad.”

Al leaned back to study his brother. “You have a therapist?”

“Yeah, I do,” James promised with another long sigh. “Sometimes what happened to Caroline overwhelms me and I need someone to talk to. I only see him once every few months, but if something comes up, I make an appointment and get in to talk it out with him. It’s been really helpful. Caroline had a therapist for a while, but she hadn’t wanted to go and see her since before Alex was born. Now with the pregnancy, even though she’s happy, I nudged her into making an appointment and she’s back to going regularly.” James paused for a moment, then went on. “After Louis told me what really happened, I went to see my therapist again, so he’s going to know the story. What he said to me was I just needed to treat Louis the same way I’ve always treated him, and to support him as he deals with this. Being an alcoholic… it wasn’t a choice. It was Louis’ way of dealing with a lot of pain. He didn’t just have the pain of the rape, but the pain of knowing he’d done something to a girl. I have that guilt, Al. Alex’s birth mother was just a young girl. I don’t know how she ended up pregnant, but she was pregnant with my son, so while I didn’t do anything consciously, I’m part of why her life ended. No,” he said when Al began to protest. “I know logically it doesn’t make any sense, but logic isn’t all there is. I feel guilty. I feel responsible. I feel the weight of being so happy with my wife and son when her life had to end for that to happen.”

Al nodded his head slowly. “So, therapy.”

“I’ll give you his name. You should make an appointment.”

“Thanks, James.” Al hadn’t been sure how this was going to go, but he hadn’t expected this. James was definitely a changed man.

James pulled him into a hug. “I love you. You’re my little brother, and I’m always going to be there for you, but don’t spy on people anymore or I’ll kick your arse.”

“I won’t,” Al laughed in relief. “I love you, too.”

James let him go and clapped him on the shoulder. “Why don’t you come home with me and play with Alex. You know that always makes you feel better.”

It did. However… “Daisy loves me too much.”

“Daisy was picked up yesterday by Hagrid,” James told him. “She’s out of the therapy dog business. I’m not sure when we’ll get another puppy.”

He went to play with Alex, enjoyed his nephew’s antics and a good meal with family, then he came home and wrote to the therapist to make an appointment.

It was only two days later that he was sitting in his first appointment with Healer Preston. Al sat down and started off talking about what happened with Louis, but finished the session laying out his feelings for Nat and how he didn’t feel like he could say anything to her. All of it ended up being a lot, and Healer Preston told him he was coming back in the next week to continue this.

He hadn’t said much to Al about how to deal with it, yet, except that he needed to remember that if he could have done differently, he would have not spied on his cousin. But also, if he hadn’t spied on his cousin, he might have continued to judge him too harshly for the alcoholism.

It was a lesson Al knew he needed to focus on. He didn’t know what was going on in anyone else’s life and he shouldn’t be judging them too harshly.

So, he made an appointment for the following week which wouldn’t interfere with any of the wedding preparations. He wasn’t in the wedding party, as Hugo was the best man, but he knew he was going to be called on to help.

“Thank you,” he told Healer Preston at the end of their session as he shook his hand. “I really needed this.”

“You’re welcome,” Preston told him with a firm shake. “Send me an owl if you need me sooner.”

Al nodded and left and decided to go see Nat. Nat was the maid-of-honor for the wedding and maybe it was pathetic to continue to hang onto feelings for her when she didn’t have any for him, but no one had ever said he wasn’t pathetic. Plus, she was one of his best friends and she didn’t get to leave the house. He knew she was feeling lonely and isolated.

When he arrived at his parent’s house, it was to find that it looked like a ribbon factory had exploded. He gaped at the mess on the table as Nat glanced over to him and grinned. “Oh, good, come help me tie these.”

He couldn’t help but grin back. Yeah, he was pathetic, but she made him happy, even if she was only his friend.

~*~

Ron stared at his daughter and tried very hard not to burst into tears. She was so beautiful. She looked so much like her mother, so much like his own wedding day, but Rose was her own person, and as she smiled up at him, he knew his heart was going to burst. She was getting married to Andrew in a matter of minutes. In minutes he would walk her down into the early morning light and give her away to a very good man, one he knew would take care of her. He’d spent several nights with Andrew over the last several months. They’d met at restaurants and pubs and he’d talked to the young man about all sorts of things. The first few times they’d met, it had been awkward as hell, but by the fourth meeting, they were both learning to trust and open up.

Andrew told him about just how much Rose meant to him, and how much he loved her. The light in the younger man’s eyes had been absolutely genuine. He’d worried, at first, that they were more like friends who had decided to marry, but in the last few months, Ron had decided he must have been mistaken because there was no doubt how much Andrew was in love with his girl. The way he looked at her when she came into the room told him everything he needed to know.

Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Ron had eventually opened up about all the ways his own marriage had failed so completely. He’d told him all the ways he’d felt like he had failed as a husband and a father. For once, he felt like maybe his mistakes could be a guidepost for how to not be married. He felt like Andrew had taken him seriously.

Ron still loved Hermione, but she didn’t love herself and she didn’t really want to try. A few times a year they still ended up in bed together, usually when the pull of their soul bond started to tug at them. It was never a pretty thing. Sure, it was a release of sorts, but it wasn’t the love-making he wanted to be sharing with her. It simply reset the clock as to when he’d need to do that again. He knew from his father that being intimate wasn’t required as long as the couple was physically close and touching a lot. He said there were plenty of times with his mum that led to them not being together, sexually, but that tug was not there, not in the way that Ron and Hermione were experiencing it.

He’d heard stories of Voldemort and Bellatrix… he absolutely could not imagine what that would do to Bellatrix, who was bound to her husband. Yet she’d betrayed it. Her soul really must have been black.

But no, he had to focus. Today was the best of the best of days. Rose was dressed in white, her hair pulled back away from her face with the curls a bit more orderly down her back. Nat, who was her maid of honor, was dressed in a light blue dress, and Andrew’s little sister, Claire, who was now eight, was dressed in a very puffy white dress with a blue something that matched Nat’s dress, tied around her waist.

“Are you ready?” Ron asked her as he kept his focus on his girl and not on his wife, who stood behind her in a pale green dress.

Rose nodded and moved to him, letting him pull her in for one last hug when she was still completely his girl. He kissed the crown of her head and whispered, “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” Rose promised. “Now let’s go get me married!”

He grinned and escorted her down the stairs. Ginny waited at the door and she directed first Hermione, who was escorted to her seat by Hugo, then she sent Claire out, then Nat.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves. He hadn’t even been this nervous at his own wedding, but that was probably because he knew now what he didn’t know then. He didn’t ask her if she was sure. If Rose hadn’t been sure, she’d have said something, but still he longed to ask.

Then he thought about doing this all over again in a few hours at Andrew’s house, only in that bloody awful Muggle suite with the thing around his neck that made him feel like he was choking constantly. Give him good, old-fashioned dress robes any day!

“You’re up,” Ginny said to them. “I’ll scoot down to my seat and as soon as I’m in, the music will change and it’ll be your turn.”

He watched his sister go and then whispered, “Are you sure we have to do this twice?”

Rose laughed and grinned up at him. “Oh, yeah, we definitely have to do this twice, but this morning is just for us. It’ll be fun, Dad. You’ll see.”

“I guess I will,” Ron said as he heard the music change and he began to slowly walk his girl to the man at the end of the aisle. He watched Andrew’s eyes light with joy as he caught his first glimpse of Rose and it was to Andrew, he focused, because he needed Andrew’s joy and reverence to help him remember that this was the right thing, the best thing.

“You are so beautiful,” Andrew whispered to Rose as Ron handed her off and he watched Rose’s cheeks flush with a happiness so full it practically lit her from the inside.

Ron went and sat with Hermione and to his surprise, she reached over and clutched at his hand. He glanced over to see the tears in her eyes, so he simply patted her hand and held on. He needed it as much as she did, after all, and she’d reached out. He wasn’t going to slap her away.

The officiator began to speak of love, union, and the joining of souls. He listened as he outlined the joys and responsibilities of the soul bond and then asked if they were ready for that commitment. He watched as they both agreed and then the bond, which was always beautiful to behold, was placed around them. “You may now kiss the bride,” the man told them and he watched Andrew lean slowly into Rose, taking his time, drawing her in for a very slow, sweet kiss.

On one hand, Ron hated that, on the other, he absolutely loved Andrew for showing that kind of care and concern for his girl. Rose deserved that and so much more. Cheering erupted around him and he turned to tell Hermione something… but his eyes saw hers were haunted and filled with too many emotions, so he simply pulled her in for a hug and kissed her brow. “That’s our baby.”

“That’s our baby,” she agreed with a hitch.

~*~

“Come here,” Andrew called to her and Rose moved into him as they entered their new room at his estate. He kicked the door shut and she giggled as he pulled her against him, then pulled her over to the bed.

“Andrew…” she laughed as he tugged her down on the bed. “We really don’t have time for this. We have to get changed for… ohhhh.” Her head fell to the side as his lips skimmed her neck and his hand crept up in a way he’d never done before.

“I’ve been waiting to touch you for years,” he croaked out in a hoarse whisper. “I need to touch you. God, that pull…”

She knew exactly what he was talking about. The moment their bond had formed, it had felt like he was the center of gravity for her. She’d already longed for him, but this was a new kind of longing, a longing that ached through her bones.

Rose didn’t say another word as he pulled down the zipper of her dress and slowly tugged it off of her, leaving her in only some lacy white knickers. “Rosie…” he whispered reverently. “So beautiful… I’m so glad you’re mine.”

His mouth found hers and he kept up kissing her until she’d managed to tug up his dress robes and throw them to the side.

He made her feel beautiful. In a room full of gorgeous women, his eyes were only for her. “I love you so much,” she whispered, unsure if it was loud enough for him to hear.

“I love you, too,” he promised fervently. “I didn’t know I would fall so hard in love with you, but I have. I need you so much. Please Rosie… let’s take this moment.”

She studied him and then turned to the door to see he’d locked it. She nodded and grinned. Hopefully everyone would get the message and give them space.

~*~

“Aren’t we supposed to be getting ready?” Al grumbled as he paced around one of the rooms set up for them to get ready.

Nat, who was already in her second dress for the Muggle ceremony, only shook her head. She had watched the bond form between Rose and Andrew and how it had been pulling them together and she rather suspected the second ceremony was going to be late getting started.

“You don’t know what it’s like being a newlywed,” James pointed out as he finished changing Alex’s nappy. “Here, take your nephew and go for a walk. We’ll find you if you’re needed.”

Nat almost said Alex might spit up on the tux and then shut her mouth when she realized they could simply use magic to remove it. Sometimes those simple things were lost to her.

“Do you want to play a game, Claire?” Nat asked the girl as she twirled around in her dress. This one was a royal blue with a white bow at the waist. Aunt Emma had picked the colors for the Muggle ceremony. Actually, according to Rose, Aunt Emma had done most of the work to this event. Sadly, the woman, who Nat had seen when they arrived, looked to have no more than a few months to live. Her body seemed to be failing her quickly.

“Noooooo,” Claire sang out as she continued to twirl.

Al, who had ignored James, sat down next to Nat with Alex, who immediately squirmed off Al to climb on her and snuggle in. He was clearly tired, but there was so much excitement going on around him, she knew they’d never get him down for a nap.

Hugo and Honor came in followed by a couple of servants who were pushing carts of food. “We found lunch!” Honor told them happily. The girl had changed so much in the last few years. She had really blossomed out of her shell. “Where’s Lily?”

“Bathroom,” James and Scorpius said at the same time, pointing to the door that led off the room.

Moments later Teddy came in, carrying Amelia and Olivia and trailed by little Emma and a pale Victoire. She watched her cross over to sit next to Caroline. “This can be the puking couch.”

Caroline grinned and held up a glass of something bubbly. “One of the maids gave me this when I said I was going to throw up. It’s made from ginger.”

“Is it working?” Victoire asked, peering into it.

“So far,” Caroline told her, handing it over. “Give it a try.”

“Nat…” Lily called from the bathroom.

“Are you okay?” Scorpius asked through the door.

“My zip is stuck,” Lily called out.

Nat stood and walked to the door, only then remembering she held Alex, passed him off to Scorpius, and pushed through the door to help Lily finish dressing.

“You’re like a game of pass the parcel,” Scorpius told the baby while Al and James laughed.

The Muggle ceremony was excruciatingly formal. They’d all had to have lessons upon lessons about how to behave. The king and queen were in attendance! It was the most ridiculous spectacle Nat had ever attended and the level of Muggle and Magical security was unbelievable. It was the once in a lifetime kind of event that sadly Rose would now be attending on a regular basis. She did not envy her friend, not that, but she did envy her happiness and marriage. Unfortunately, the press was going on and on about how young the two of them were and what was the rush to marry? They didn’t understand the magical world or how it worked, how it really worked, for Rose and Andrew. Yes, Rose was so happy. She knew Rose was in love. She practically glowed with it.

Alright, to Nat she did glow with it. It was obvious she and Andrew had sealed their bond in the time they’d slipped away, but she was happy for her friend even if it was a bit weird to know that her friends had just had sex. But it was good they’d already sealed it. By the time this whole thing was over it was likely to be early tomorrow morning and they might not feel up to doing much of anything but falling asleep.

When they were pronounced husband and wife, she watched Andrew lean over kiss Rose in the proper kiss the etiquette woman had told them they had to use. Lights and cameras flashed all around them, a few even blew up which made Rose wince. The amount of magic in the room was definitely interfering with all of the Muggle electronics. Andrew had told them they didn’t typically have problems with the magic and the lights in the house because it was such a big house and only two people using magic, but she suspected that when they eventually had children, things were going to change.

Nat clapped along with everyone else and then took Hugo’s arm to proceed towards the antechamber where they would wait for the guests to clear towards the ballroom before they could come back in for pictures.

Frankly, she was ready to go home and get out of the shoes which were pinching her feet.

“You okay?” Hugo asked her as they walked down the aisle.

“My feet hurt,” Nat grumbled even as she kept a smile plastered firmly on her face for all the Muggles to see. She knew they all wondered what on earth she was doing as the maid of honor to the new Duchess. “We have to remember to say ‘your grace’ from here on out.”

“Bullocks that,” Hugo laughed as he led her to the room they were directed to. They had two Aurors standing by there and Rose and Andrew were once again locked up in a tight embrace. Nat couldn’t see if they were kissing or not, but turned back to Rose’s brother and waited for the rest of the family to join them.

“Food for you,” Audrey came in with what Nat recognized as a beef jerky stick. “Eat up quick.”

Nat nodded and took it from her, eating so she could continue to feel alright until it was time for dinner.

Pictures took over an hour. It was miserable. They couldn’t even stop to use the loo because someone had to go with them at all times. The Aurors were being absolute sticklers about it. All of them had Portkeys to get them home if something happened to them, but no one was taking a chance because they could still get kidnapped by a house-elf. Crabbe had used house-elves before and she could again.

Thankfully the king and queen had left, so that let up on a lot of the Muggle security around the house. Now they only had to deal with the Aurors.

“This is the longest day ever,” Hugo said as he poked at his dinner with his fork. She was sure he wasn’t using the correct fork, but she like Hugo all the more for it. Nat had obsessively made sure she picked up the correct fork while Hugo had refused to relinquish his salad fork from the first course, claiming he was still using it. “The food isn’t half-bad, though.” He eyed her steak, which was definitely bigger than his. “You going to eat all of that?”

Nat had to bite back a snort. “If I pass my food over to your plate, at least three women are going to fall over in a dead faint. Fill up on sweets during the dancing. You can definitely have my portion of cake.”

Hugo let out an abused moan. “When I marry, I’m going to insist on a lot of really good food. She can have everything else, but that’s what I want.”

“I think that’s a reasonable stand to take,” Nat assured him as she cut into her steak.

The ballroom was massive. It could easily have held five hundred or more people, which was good because there were at least four hundred in attendance. She didn’t know all of the nobles who were in attendance, but she saw at least one prince. She’d always been fascinated by the social structures in societies, but she had to admit it was quite a different thing to be part of it.

“Dance with me?” Al asked as he came over to her. She’d seen him dancing with some girl she didn’t know, so she supposed she was a Muggle.

“Sure,” Nat agreed as she took his hand. “You looked good with that girl,” she said, hoping her voice sounded level.

“What?” Al asked, confused, then his face darkened for a bit before leveling out. “Oh, yeah, she’s one of Andrew’s Muggle cousins. Margaret or something.”

“You didn’t even get her name?” Nat asked as he pulled her into the dance, grateful for the hours of lessons they’d put into this evening. She saw Lily and Scorpius dancing and they both looked beautiful.

Al shrugged. “She asked me.”

“Ah,” Nat said and then let it go. She let him lead her through first one and then another dances.

The only interruptions happened when others in the family cut in to dance with her. Fred, who was a very exuberant dancer, kept her laughing through their whole dance. “Go back to Eva,” she said at the end of the dancing, grinning from ear to ear. “Your wife is better equipped to put up with you.”

“Shows you what you know,” he winked as he took her hand. “She told me I was exhausting her.”

“That I can believe,” Nat said as Lily pulled Scorpius over towards her.

“I have to pee so bad,” Lily told Nat, grabbing her hand. “I cannot do that in this dress. You have to come.”

“Do we have the Aurors?” Nat asked, glancing to Scorpius.

“Al is getting one,” Scorpius told her. “He’ll meet us over by the hall.”

Nat nodded, waved to Fred and let Lily lead her towards the far side of the ballroom. She grinned as she saw Andrew holding Rose close, when he kissed her brow. Oh yeah, they were going to be just fine.

She spotted Al waiting for them with a burly Auror she had seen many times at the Auror office name Raeburns. He was an older man, but Nat knew Harry respected him implicitly. They walked with Raeburns in front, leading, and Al taking up the rear, with Scorpius.

“One moment,” Raeburns said as he went in and did a sweep of the room. He came out, motioned to Al, who did a second sweep. It seemed silly, but if two of them did a sweep, then they might catch something the other had missed. Also, Nat rather suspected it was so neither could try to pull something.

Al came out and held the door open. “It’s clear, in you go, but make it fast.”

Lily bounced into the room and turned her back to Nat. Nat was too enamored with the room to really pay her any mind. There was a sitting area out here with couches and the carpet was so plush, Nat really wanted to kick off her terrible shoes. The actual toilet was on the other side of the room behind a wall with a beautiful landscape on the wall that created the toilet and sink. She turned back to see Lily still waiting.

“Just pull it up,” Nat told as she squared off with the zipper from hell. It had been truly stuck before.

“I can’t, it’s too many layers,” Lily pleaded. “Nat I’m about to pee my pants!”

“Alright,” Nat said as she pulled the zipper down and let out a small sigh of relief when the dress came open. She let it drop and Lily quickly stepped out of it, rushing to the other side of the wall. Nat would have preferred to lock the door, but knew that no one was getting in through the guys outside. She heard Lily’s groan of relief as she finally started to pee, so she picked up the dress and draped it over an armchair and sat down, pulling off her shoes and rubbing at her aching feet.

A magical explosion of lights suddenly ricocheted through the room. Nat let out a scream, she scrambled to her feet even as another wave hit her, knocking her over, this time from the sound. Chaos exploded around her as she fell back against the cushions and closed her eyes, trying to orient herself. Her vision was ruined from the lights!

Yells and screaming filled the room around her as she felt someone pick her up, touch her bracelet, her Portkey, and yell, “Home!”

Nat didn’t even have to process that Al had sent her back to Ivy Run before she’d fallen onto the living room carpet at her home with the Potters.

She lay there, stunned, for a full minute before she realized something had gone very, very wrong, and sick dread sank through her as she realized the magical explosion had come from where Lily had been!

Nat scrambled to her feet and wished she could get back to that bathroom, but knew if she went, she would only be in the way. Her teeth began to chatter and she sat down on her favorite spot on the sofa and began to cry, hard.

“Mistress Nat!” Polly called, coming out from where she slept. “Is you okay?”

For a moment, Nat almost asked her if she could find Lily, but then stopped herself. Polly was pregnant, and she didn’t know what kind of situation she’d be sending Polly into if she went. “They took Lily,” Nat cried. “I… I think. I think they took Lily!”

Polly’s big eyes went even wider. “The bad lady?”

Nat nodded. She closed her eyes and tried to stop the tears, but the loud crack from the house-elf Apparating startled her into opened her eyes to see Polly was gone. “No! NO! Polly!” she called out frantically. “Polly, I order you to come back!”

She waited, hoping that would work, but nothing happened. Where was she? Where could she have gone to? Was Lily okay? Shouldn’t she be back by now?! She began counting as she paced. Counting, counting, counting…

When she hit four hundred sixty three another massive crack rent the room and Polly appeared with Lily, who was lying motionless on the floor.

Nat took one look at Lily and nearly screamed. She was alive, but… oh Merlin it was bad. It was so bad. “Polly, I need Audrey right now!”

Back to index


Chapter 76: Chapter 73

Author's Notes: I have had an insane month of travel for work, and I'll have another insane month for work in April, but May should be smoother sailing. Please leave a review. If you can, go find me on pa treon and support me there. It's not much money but every little bit helps and you get access to my other work. Or you can check out my novels on amazon. I have one that's free with kindle unlimited. Sarah Jaune is the name.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing


Lily’s body was so badly discolored by poisons, Nat almost didn’t know where to begin. There was spell damage, on top of that, but the poison that was quickly seeping into Lily’s heart was what caught Nat first. She knelt down on her, laying her hands on her, and began to pull with all of her might until the poisons began to ooze and smoke from her skin. She was still only clad in her bra and panties and those were quickly being soaked with various colored potions. It was so bad, so all consuming, and Nat could only be grateful Lily was unconscious and unable to feel anything from what had been done to her. She was pale, paler than Nat had ever seen her, and Nat could see, could feel, that her life was in the balance.

She hadn’t been aware that Polly had left again, even though the noise should have penetrated, but she was aware of Audrey’s appearance at her side, followed quickly by the room filling with others. “Stay back!” Nat called to them as Audrey rushed to her. She heard Sera, Lily’s dog, barking her head off but thankfully the dog didn’t get close to them. “The poison is leaking everywhere, including into the air.”

Nat was having to fight hard not to inhale it, but Audrey waved her wand and removed it just as fast as Nat was pulling it from Lily. Some of it was stubbornly trying to stay in her friend, but Nat focused hard and pulled, finally getting the last of it from her. “Get rid of the clothes,” Nat told Audrey. “It’s in them and we still have more to do.”

Audrey nodded and went to work with her, pulling off curses, and working as Nat described the damage. It was only as Lily began to stir and whimper that Nat’s hearing turned back on and she could hear Ginny’s quiet sobs from her spot behind the sofa.

“Okay,” Nat said as she studied Lily’s naked form one last time, just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. “Okay, that’s it. She’s coming around.”

“Get me a blanket, please,” Audrey called out and someone threw one to her. She held it out for Nat to hold. “I’m going to levitate her, make sure there isn’t anything left under her body. Be ready, Harry.”

“I am,” Harry said, his voice a hoarse croak.

Audrey used her wand to raise Lily up and Nat studied under her, checking everywhere. “All clear,” Nat told her and Audrey moved her over to the sofa where Nat draped the blanket over her.

Nat felt herself start to shake as she sank onto the floor next to Lily, grasping her cold hand as she closed her eyes against the flood of tears that just wouldn’t stop. Lily would have been permanently maimed by what had been done to her. It wasn’t just the poisoning, which Nat had come to expect, that would have rendered her babies unable to perform magic. No, Lily would have been utterly damaged above and beyond. She didn’t know if it would have killed her, but she would never have been the same.

“She will know, now,” Audrey said quietly as Sera scrambled around the couch and stuck her nose into Lily’s face, sniffling and whining.

Nat glanced up to Audrey as she watched the Healer continue to examine Lily. “What?”

“She will know what you are,” Audrey said gently. “She will know we have an Augmentum Imaginari, one who can see and channel magic. She will know.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” Al swore, then went off on a further rant.

Nat hadn’t even realized Al was there, but when she looked up, she realized not only was Al there, but Scorpius, as well. “She’s okay,” she told Scorpius. “I wouldn’t lie about it, she’s going to live.”

“What about…” Scorpius stopped, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “Was… was she impregnated?”

Nat realized that in the face of Lily’s possible death, that hadn’t registered with her. Nat couldn’t stop ovulation, not once it was induced. It was nearly instantaneous. Also, she couldn’t pull semen from Lily’s body. It was there and it couldn’t be stopped. “I can see ovulation has been induced,” Nat said carefully. “That’s all I can tell you. We have to assume Crabbe did more.”

Scorpius nodded, his lips compressed, but his expression resolved. “Right. I’ll… I’ll go and get the ring I bought for her.” He turned to the side and Nat’s gaze traveled along the same path to see Harry, who was simultaneously looking like he wanted to murder someone and throw up at the same time. “Mr. Potter…”

Harry nodded, “Go. Go get it. I’ll get it arranged. How long until she’s awake, Audrey?”

“Any moment now,” Audrey told him gently.

Nat sat back on her heels and watched Ginny smoothing down Lily’s hair as Lily began to stir. Nat curled into a ball as everything hit her. Lily was pregnant. Or rather, Lily would be pregnant in the next several hours, once semen met egg. That part wasn’t instant, it took a little while for it to happen. Scorpius and Lily were going to be married in the next hour or two. Lily was going to have a baby. She was seventeen and she was going to have a baby. Scorpius was going to raise a baby that wasn’t his.

What a fucking mess.

She felt arms surround her, scooping her up. She turned her head into Al’s neck, knowing it was him by his scent as he carried her to a chair and sat down with her in his lap, letting her cry out all of the unfairness of everything. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! They’d done so much to try to keep Lily safe! Now… now everything was a mess and she didn’t know what they were going to do!

“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Al whispered into her hair.

But it was a promise he couldn’t make and he couldn’t keep, not unless she never left the house again. That might be what her life looked like from here on out. It was grim to think about, but it was a definite possibility.

Crabbe would know. When Lily wasn’t maimed or dead, Crabbe was going to know.

“If we keep Lily under wraps…” she heard Audrey saying. “We could maybe put out a story that she’s too ill to be in public.”

But she didn’t hear anymore because Ginny was crying and Lily had woken up and she was crying, and Audrey was gently explaining what had happened to Lily. She watched as they wrapped Lily more securely in the blanket and led her up the stairs to get some clothes on.

“They have to get married,” she whispered to Al.

“Yeah,” Al whispered back heavily. “I know.”

~*~

Scorpius stood in his and Al’s flat and stared down at the ring he’d bought for Lily. It was a solitaire diamond in a platinum band in a shape he knew she liked because he’d had her look at pictures and tell him. He’d been planning on proposing in a few weeks on the beach or in the garden at Ivy Run. He still wasn’t entirely sure where, as he thought he had another few weeks to come up with the perfect plan to ask her.

The perfect plan…

Scorpius let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and studied the ring. He had the matching wedding band, along with the one for himself, in another box. He’d bought them ahead of time, figuring he might as well, never dreaming he’d be using them so soon. He’d expected a big wedding, just like Rose had had today at Ivy Run. Lily would have wanted all the fuss, the frills, and the fancy to go along with it. He didn’t really care for any of those things, but he wanted Lily to be happy and remember their wedding day.

He loved her so, so much. He wanted her to be happy.

She wasn’t ready to be married and frankly, he didn’t know if he was, either.

Why hadn’t he gone into the bathroom with her? Why hadn’t he sent Al in with her? Would it have made any difference, any difference at all, to what had happened tonight?

She could have died… he’d seen the look on Nat’s face, on Audrey’s face… he’d seen just how serious it was. It wasn’t just the normal horror, no. Isabella Crabbe, Scorpius’ crazy aunt, had set out to hurt Lily worse than anyone else. This wasn’t just the normal vindictive level of crazy. This was so much worse.

Scorpius closed his hand on the ring, grabbed the box that held the wedding bands, and then packed a small bag of clothes. He assumed he would be taking Lily to the beach house. They would be soul bound, which meant they would have to consummate their marriage within a day. How was he going to do that with her being traumatized? She was poisoned! He felt sickness wash through him, yet again, as he tried to fight back the tears.

There would be a baby. That was another reality that was hammering at his head, trying to get his attention. Scorpius gave himself a moment to think about it before he pushed it to the back of his mind. He would have nine months to get used to being a father, especially the father to a baby that wasn’t his. He’d known it was a possibility, but somehow… somehow he’d assumed they’d be able to shield Lily from this. He thought they’d be able to keep her safe and protected. A flame of anger flickered to life in him, but he quickly stuffed it back down again.

The only way to keep Lily totally safe would have been to keep Lily totally locked up, and that wasn’t much of a life. Crabbe had been working for decades at this point. She hadn’t been stopped and maybe she never would be. They’d taken a risk, what had seemed to be a small risk, but it had been a risk and they’d lost. Lily had lost.

Thankfully, they had Natalie. Lily would be okay. She wasn’t going to die. She wasn’t going to be sick for the rest of what could have been a short life. She was having a baby, and no matter who the father was, Lily would be the mother and that was all that mattered. He’d love the baby because it would be Lily’s.

It had to be alright, because he was getting married just as soon as he made it back to Ivy Run. He took one final shaking breath and went for the fireplace.

He made it back to relative calm, compared to what he’d found when Harry had told him to get back to Ivy Run. Nat was comforting Lily’s dog, Sera, but Sera was all bent out of shape about what had happened. Ginny was still upstairs with Lily, probably getting her cleaned up and dressed. He’d seen her naked on the ground but there had been absolutely nothing sexual about it. All kinds of potions and poisons were oozing out of her every pour and all he’d felt was the terror that he’d never get to see her smile again, never see the joy that was her natural state.

Would she still have that joy after what had happened to her? Would she be alright? Would she be a shaking mess who didn’t want to be touched tonight? Maybe he should try to get a Muggle marriage arranged with her… then they wouldn’t have to consummate it tonight.

But no, they needed it done quickly because the baby registered with the Ministry. It might take a few days to arrange things with the Muggles. He wasn’t entirely sure how all of that worked. But he would just hold her tonight and then in the morning, when things had calmed down, then they could make love.

Making love with Lily… if he was honest it was something he’d dreamed about more than he wanted to admit and he’d tried, often, to keep it to a minimum. He and Lily had only kissed and held hands. They’d done nothing else because Scorpius had never wanted to risk Harry and Ginny having a reason to tell him he couldn’t see Lily anymore. Not only that, but he respected Lily too much to push her and she’d never given any indication she’d wanted more than that kisses they’d shared. She’d never tried to push for more, so he’d taken his cue from her. Now… now they were going to”

“Scorpius?”

He glanced up sharply when he heard her small voice at the top of the stairs, her mother by her side. He didn’t wait, but bounded up the stairs to her, scooping her into his arms.

“I’ll give you a few minutes and call when Harry is back,” Ginny said softly as she went down the stairs, leaving them alone.

Well, almost alone. Sera had broken away from Nat and had run up after him, but she was sitting quietly at Lily’s feet.

“Let’s go into your room,” Scorpius said, as he guided her down the hall and into her bedroom. He gently put her on the bed and sat next to her, keeping his arms around her. Sera sat at her feet, her head in Lily’s lap. He kissed her temple and thought about the day they’d gone to get Sera. The dog trainer’s son had been thinking… well, thinking lascivious thoughts, one could say, about Lily and it had scared Lily quite badly. Sera had nearly attacked the man who had trained her because of how he’d made Lily feel. Now, here they were, and they were going to be married shortly. “I have something for you,” he said as he pulled out the engagement ring.

Lily stared at it for a moment before she whispered, “It’s beautiful. It’s exactly what I wanted.”

“I was hoping,” he said as he held it out. “This isn’t what I’d planned, and it isn’t what you’d planned, but will you marry me tonight, Lily?”

She let out a small sniff. “I hate that you’re being forced into this.”

“Oh, sweetheart, no,” Scorpius shook his head and clung to her. “I want you through the good and the bad. I want you. I love you. Sometimes life doesn’t go to plan and we have to adjust. This is an adjustment.”

“I won’t be going back to school.”

That hadn’t even occurred to him, but no, she wouldn’t be going back to school. She would be home with him, wherever home ended up being. That was another detail that had to be taken care of and soon. They could live at the beach house for a while, certainly. No one was using it consistently, but they’d want their own house. “I’m sorry about that.”

“I’m not,” Lily said and then she giggled. “I’ll be sorry not to see Hugo and Honor every day, but Merlin, I was really starting to hate school. I wanted to be done.”

“Well, that’s something then,” he said, his heart lightening at the sound of her laughter, but it dropped when he remembered what he needed to talk to her about. “We… Lily we have to consummate the marriage. Are you going to be okay with that? If you aren’t, we have to get a Muggle marriage.”

She was quiet for a moment and then she held out her left hand and wiggled her finger so he could slide the ring on. It fit perfectly, as he knew it would. “I think it will be fine. I, uhm, I didn’t exactly know how it all went, but Mum explained it to me just now. I mean,” she ducked her head into his shoulder and he could hear the embarrassment in her voice. He studied the shirt and pajama pants she was wearing and waited for her to collect her thoughts. How odd that she’d be getting married in her pajamas while he was still in his dress robes. Or maybe she’d want to change, he didn’t know. “I mean… well, you love me and you want me and I love you and I want you and we’ll… we’ll get through it. It will be alright, won’t it?”

He considered her words carefully before he replied. “I’m hoping it will be more than alright. I’m hoping you will enjoy it quite a lot, as I’m sure I will enjoy it. It’s an important bond between a husband and a wife. I want you to be happy, Lily. If that means we need to wait, I need to know now.”

“No,” she replied instantly. “I’ll be alright. I am a little scared because I don’t know what’s… I mean, I know but it’s still new. So that’s a little scary.”

“I understand,” he told her, and he did. It was a little scary for him, as well. “We will learn together.”

She nodded and fingered her shirt. “You know, I thought I’d want this big, fancy dress when I married,” she told him, almost like she’d read his mind from a moment before. “I had all these plans and ideas… but truthfully, when it came down to it, when I came out of it and knew I’d nearly died,” her big brown eyes were swimming when she looked up at him. “When I realized what had happened, when Mummy explained it, all I could think was I was so blessed I would have you to be there with me. I never doubted for a second you’d be here. I know this isn’t what… what either of us wanted. But I knew you’d be here with me through it. Always.”

“Always,” he agreed, a little choked up himself.

“Your parents are going to be so mad,” Lily whispered.

It was only when she’d said it that he remembered that yes, he had parents, and yes, they were going to be thoroughly angry with him over eloping. If they ever found out their first grandchild wasn’t a Malfoy by blood… well, he just had to hope the child looked like Lily because he was never going to tell them. Everything about their marriage would make them mad. The Malfoys only ever had one child and they intentionally arranged it so it was always a boy. Doing that ensured that the fortune wasn’t split up or divided and the name was always passed on. Lily wanted at least four children, but she was thinking more, and he knew he’d do whatever it took to keep her happy. His mother might understand the kind of yearning for children, more children, but he knew his father wouldn’t.

He hadn’t thought of them and hadn’t even considered inviting them to the ceremony. “Your parents are now going to be related, through marriage, to the Malfoys.”

Lily grinned up at them. “I think that’ll hurt your father more than it will hurt my parents.”

“Agreed.”

“The baby isn’t going to be yours,” Lily said as she took his hand and linked their fingers.

He thought about it for a moment and then realized that it didn’t matter. “The baby will be yours, and that will make it mine. Our child will never, ever, feel from me that they aren’t mine. I will love them with my whole heart and I will die to protect them. I’m claiming the baby as mine, Lily. It’s a choice and I’m making it.”

Lily nodded and Scorpius heard Ginny’s call that the man from the Ministry was there to perform the ceremony.

And so, with Harry, Ginny, Al, Audrey, and Nat in attendance, Scorpius and Lily were married and their souls bound. When the bond was formed, Scorpius felt the tugging desire he’d always had for her intensify to such a level, he didn’t know how he didn’t just burst out of his skin trying to get to her. From the look in her eyes, he knew that Lily was feeling the exact same way and it only added fuel to his fire.

Or maybe it wasn’t the look in her eyes, maybe it was the connection that had been forged between them. Truthfully, he didn’t know or care. He only knew he wanted her.

Shortly after the ceremony, Harry and Ginny bundled them off to the beach house, without Sera or Ducky, and told them they’d send Polly with food in the morning.

The second they were through the Floo, Scorpius’ mouth was on Lily’s and she was kissing him back just as fiercely.

“I feel like I’m on fire!” Lily panted as he swept her up and made straight for the master bedroom. “Hurry! Oh… Scorpius… this…”

“I know,” he said, feeling the desperation within himself building. “I feel it, too.”

He had been so certain she’d have been timid and shy their first time, maybe tearful, but instead she couldn’t keep her hands from him and she reveled in his mouth as it traveled all over her body. He couldn’t say the first joining was exactly smooth sailing, as it hurt Lily for a moment, but then they found their rhythm in the dance as old as time and they flew together, breathless and so in tune that Scorpius knew it was the most beautiful moment of his life.

Afterwards, in the glow they created together, he held onto her and breathed her in, trying to get his heart to come down from the sprint it was doing. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered, her lips pressed to the skin of his chest. “I love you so much. That was… I never knew.”

“I didn’t, either,” Scorpius admitted. “It’s beyond description.” They had made love and Merlin, he hoped they’d be doing it again shortly. “Are you sore?”

She hesitated for a moment and then nodded her head. “I’m a bit sore, but it’s not too bad. I think I’ll be okay in a few hours.”

He pulled her in closer and laid his lips on the crown of her head. “I’m sorry to have hurt you, even for a moment.”

“Life is sometimes painful and that was worth it,” she reminded him before falling quiet again. Eventually, she said, “It’s going to be painful every time I have a baby, but it’s so worth it.”

He thought of the children they would have, the one who would be born in the next nine months, and knew it was going to kill him to watch her go through labor. “Are you still set on four?”

“At least four,” she giggled. “After number four, I’ll decide on number five.”

He laughed softly and hugged her tightly to him. “Well, we’re starting young.”

But even so, he was still thankful he had months to get used to the idea of a baby coming.

~*~

Nat sat staring into the empty fireplace as midnight passed around them and the wedding day winked out of existence. She’d done her fair share of weeping and she’d done her fair share of shaking her fist at fate. It was so appalling to know that Lily and Scorpius were being forced into something they weren’t ready for, along with having a baby now, one that wouldn’t be Scorpius’ baby. He’d handle it. He would be a good father to the child and he’d love it because it was Lily’s baby, but that didn’t make it right or fair. They had to stop Crabbe, but they were no closer to doing that now than they had been a decade before.

Also, it shouldn’t be on Harry to stop her. The whole world knew what she was doing and she was attacking the entire magical population of the world, trying to render all of the new babies with the poison that would make them not magical anymore. It should be on everyone to stop her!

But that wasn’t how the world worked. They saw Harry as some kind of amazing super hero who should be able to do all things, even when everyone else couldn’t manage them. How was that fair or right? It wasn’t. It just wasn’t and it left Harry feeling like he’d failed, when really every magical law enforcement officer was failing.

What did that say about the rest of the world?

Nat didn’t know, but she did know she and Lily weren’t going to be allowed out much, if at all. They’d had one last great day with Rose for her wedding and that would be that. There would be no more Quidditch games at the stadium, no more trips to the stores, no more meals with friends at a pub, nothing. Nat wasn’t even sure they’d allow her to go to the Ministry anymore to heal the women and babies, but if she didn’t do it, no one could. They were still no closer to coming up with a cure for the damn potion that made the babies lose their magic.

Alright, one couldn’t actually lose their magic. It would be impossible to do that. It was probably why so many babies died in Crabbe’s experiments while she was trying to perfect it. She could get rid of the magic, but the magic was tied into the baby’s life force, so without the magic, the baby’s life force was gone and thus the baby died. Everyone human had magic in them, Nat could see it, only most of the magic was so faint that they were Muggles without the use of magic, at all. If she gave the potion to a woman who was going to have a baby who would be a Squib, Nat assumed the baby would die because it was being cut off too much from the magical source for life. It was a theory, though. Nat didn’t know all the ins and outs of it. She was starting to believe she was correct, though, based on what she was seeing.

Crabbe had found a way to make it so the baby couldn’t actively use the magic, for magical babies, suppressing it enough that they came out as a Squib. But it was at a terrible cost. Some of those babies still didn’t make it. Some of the mothers didn’t make it.

“Leah?”

Nat glanced up to see Al coming to her, dressed in some of his old flannel pajamas and a worn shirt. He’d stayed the night at his parents’ house, not wanting to be alone in his flat, without Scorpius, and also, she assumed, because his parents were very upset about what had happened to Lily. “Hey,” she said as she moved the blanket covering her legs so he could sit next to her. Nat leaned into him, leaned into his strength, and fought the urge to cry again. Al had been holding it together for all of them, and it wasn’t fair to put her emotions on top of his. Lily was his sister, his baby sister, and he’d been at the door to protect her.

No, it hadn’t only been on him. He wasn’t even a full Auror yet, but she knew the guilt was eating him alive.

Al put his arm around her and held onto her. “I can’t sleep, either,” he told her. “I just keep hearing the explosion and knowing something went terribly wrong. I made it to you in seconds, sending you home, and then we were trying to find Lily, but she was gone.”

“I made it back here and Polly heard what happened and she left before I could tell her not to,” Nat sniffed. “I mean, we needed Lily back, but I have to assume Crabbe would have sent her back. I think. She wants us to know what she did to Lily, but I put Polly and her baby in danger…”

“Polly made her own choice and she was safe doing it,” Al reminded her, yet again. “It isn’t the same for house-elves. They have the abilities that we don’t. She was fine.”

“But she was fine only because Crabbe wanted Lily to get away,” Nat said as she closed her eyes. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot. If she hadn’t wanted Lily to get away, Lily wouldn’t have. She knows the security weaknesses of a house-elf. She knew we could get to Lily. She didn’t even bother to take Lily’s Portkeys away from her. She still had the earrings and the necklace. She’d have known they were Portkeys.”

Al fell silent and then he let out a long sigh. “You’re right. She let Lily go.”

“Now Lily is going to be a mother… Al… it’s just… she’s only seventeen.”

“I know,” he agreed. “I keep thinking about what would have happened if she didn’t have Scorpius. She’d… well, we have no idea who she’d have been married to, or if there even would have been a bloke. She might have just been left as a social pariah. We didn’t really have anyone else she could have married and been safe with.”

That hadn’t occurred to Nat until he said it, but Al was right. He was right that Lily would have been left alone and it could have been terrible for her!

“So…” Al began and then stopped and cleared his throat. “So, I’m saying this now, okay? There’s no arguing with me on it.”

“Alright?” Nat said, wondering where he was going with it.

“So… if this happens to you, you and I are getting married.”

Nat froze for a full ten seconds before she turned on him. “Absolutely not! I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself for me!”

Al’s jaw was set tight and he shook his head. “You are one of my best friends and I love you. If you get taken by her, then we are getting married. There is no discussion on this, Leah! I can’t see you married to some brute, not when you need to be taken care of.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but saw in the set expression on his face that he was serious and he wasn’t going to budge. “You… you deserve to find the love of your life, Al! You deserve happiness.”

“So do you,” he told her simply.

She wanted to argue with him, tell him she wasn’t going to get to marry the love of her life… well, unless she was kidnapped and poisoned by Crabbe, but she decided not to go there.

“I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t,” he told her flatly. “I just won’t. So that’s it. If you are kidnapped, we will get married. The end.”

She wanted to point out that they’d have to have sex and he probably really didn’t want to do that with her, but she kept her thoughts to herself. She was too tired to argue with him. “I’ll… I’ll just make sure I’m never at risk so it doesn’t happen.” Then, because she really needed it, she changed the subject. “Did Rose know what happened?”

Al closed his eyes with grief and nodded. “The explosion was so loud, it shook the whole house. She knew what happened and we sent a message that Lily was alright. But the whole house was cleared of all of the guests. It’s a great way to start marriages for all four of them.”

Nat closed her eyes and shook her head. “She just ruins everything. Every damn thing. Can you sleep here with me on the couch? I’m so tired but…”

“Yeah,” he agreed quickly. “I’ll stay,” he promised as he pulled the blanket more securely on their lap and held her tight as she tried to relax.

~*~

In the aftermath of Rose’s wedding, Ginny didn’t know how to move on. She’d always suspected something like this would happen to Lily. Lily probably had been her main target all along. She’d spent most of that first night absolutely horrified that Lily had been impregnated, just as Ginny had been so long ago. Of course, she’d been impregnated by Crabbe using Harry, so it had worked out alright. That had absolutely backfired in Crabbe’s face. But she had learned from it. She’d seen that Harry and Ginny were happy and she’d moved on to using random men that the Ministry may, or may not, be able to track down and force into marriage. They’d had more than one magical girl forced to marry a man they didn’t love because of that sick bitch, but others had simply left the country to live in places that were more tolerant.

For at least an hour in the middle of the night after the wedding, she’d fumed that Harry had even been in the Room of Requirement when Vincent Crabbe had died. She’d come to her senses, of course. It wasn’t Harry’s fault and it wasn’t strictly on him to stop the woman, but now that Lily had been attacked, it was harder to see sense.

She was really starting to appreciate just how sane her own mother actually was, even though, at the time, she’d thought Molly Weasley was cracked and extremely overprotective.

Ah well, live and learn, unfortunately.

Now she was going to be getting three grandbabies in the next year… three in a year. She didn’t know if Lily was going to handle it, although she suspected her daughter would be a good mother. She was fantastic with her nieces and nephew, so it stood to reason that she would be wonderful with her own children.

Today, though, she had other worries. Harry had been investigating the place where Lily had been taken. Polly had been able to give Harry the directions to get there, and he’d immediately sent a team of Aurors, but of course Crabbe was already gone. That hadn’t been a surprise, as they were always five steps behind. He’d wanted to bring Nat to the sight, to see if she could see anything, but Ginny had put her foot down and refused. She wasn’t going to risk the girl’s life just for this, not when it probably wouldn’t help much. She’d have been in danger for very little gain.

Harry had, wisely, seen that his wife’s emotional state was such that pushing it wasn’t a good idea.

And Ginny was right, when it came down to it. There was no reason to risk Nat’s life over it.

But today… oh, today. Today, the Malfoys were coming to dinner, or at least Draco and Astoria were. They were coming to Ivy Run. They were going to be allowed into the protections of the Fidelius Charm.

Ginny still didn’t know how she felt about it. On the one hand, they would be let in but because they wouldn’t be the Secret Keeper, they couldn’t let anyone else in, not unless their current Secret Keeper died, and it wasn’t like that was likely to happen since Bill was their current Secret Keeper.

On the other hand, Malfoy had been a nightmare all through school and he’d actively hurt his son. Yes, Draco had received help for his problems and he was doing much better.

But mostly, they shared family now… she was family with Draco Malfoy.

Ginny thought she’d come to terms with it, but it turned out she actually hadn’t. And tonight they’d all have dinner together at Ivy Run.

Harry had gone personally to Malfoy Manor to let them know that Scorpius and Lily had eloped. He hadn’t told them anything else, but Draco had jumped to the conclusion that Lily was pregnant.

Since that was the truth, or would be true shortly, Harry hadn’t bothered to argue with him. It looked bad from all sides, even though neither of them had done anything wrong.

But Scorpius had told both Harry and Ginny that he didn’t ever want his parents to find out that the baby wasn’t his. They’d all promised. The secret would be kept between all of them and they’d just pray the baby looked like Lily.

“They’re here,” Nat said quietly, and Ginny turned to her to see Lily and Scorpius coming through the Floo. She hadn’t seen her daughter in the last week, but they’d spoken through the Floo a few times so she’d known she was alright.

Sera ran over to her, whining to be petted and loved and Lily dropped down to do just that. “I missed you, too,” she told the dog in a singsong voice. “We won’t be apart again. I’ll take you to the beach house tonight, both you and Ducky.”

“Can you call Harry, please, Nat?” Ginny asked her. “Nat?” She glanced over to see Nat staring at Lily and Scorpius, her mouth gaping open. “Natalie?!”

“I…” Nat shook her head and Ginny glanced back to see Scorpius kneeling next to Lily, his arms around her as she loved on the dog. “The baby… the… the baby is his.”

“What?” Ginny asked, uncomprehending for only a moment before it hit her. “How is that possible?!”

The squeak in her voice must have caught Lily and Scorpius’ attention because they both turned to them and Lily called out to ask what was going on.

Nat moved swiftly over to them and stared down at Lily and a huge grin broke out on her face. She turned to Scorpius and laughed as she said, “The baby is yours!”

He look dumbfounded and shook his head. “How can that be?”

“I mean,” Nat beamed, even as Ginny watched her blush. “I guess your swimmers moved faster than the other bloke’s.”

“What?” Lily asked, glancing between them. “I don’t understand.”

“The baby is Scorpius’ baby, Lily,” Nat said simply. “It’s his! I can see it!”

Lily sat down flat on her butt and then burst into tears that Ginny knew were happy tears and she sent up a silent plea of thanks to the universe for helping this to happen. Of course, that also meant that her daughter and Scorpius must have gone immediately to bed together when they’d arrived at the beach house, but Ginny decided to push that thought from her mind. This outcome made it all worth it.

Of course, Draco and Astoria arrived at that moment with Al, who had been waiting for them outside. The knock at the front door signaled their arrival and she heard Harry running down the steps to get the door.

“Help me up!” Lily said as she wiped at her eyes quickly. “Do I look okay?”

“You look perfect,” Scorpius promised, beaming at her.

Ginny would have loved the baby because it was Lily’s, but she wasn’t going to even pretend she wasn’t relieved that the baby was also Scorpius’. She took a deep breath and put on her hostess face to greet Draco and Astoria.

The dinner was awkward from the word go. They talked about the weather, about Quidditch, about the Ministry, but except for a brief congratulations to the newlyweds, they didn’t mention it at all. Ginny rather suspected that Astoria had threatened Draco to within an inch of his life that if he caused trouble, he would be in a world of hurt. They suspected, but it hadn’t yet been confirmed, that their grandchild and access to the child was on the line. Ginny knew Astoria wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.

“We would like to offer you the Manor,” Draco said to his son as they finished dessert.

Scorpius paused, glanced to Lily, who wore a tight smile, but otherwise didn’t say anything. “That’s very kind of you, but it’s your home and you have a lot of years left to live. I would rather you keep it. Maybe one of our children would like it in the future. I think Lily and I will live somewhere else.”

Draco nodded and to Ginny’s relief, he let it go.

Just before they left, Astoria pulled Ginny to the side and asked, “Is she pregnant?”

Ginny nodded, trying to keep her expression neutral.

Astoria closed her eyes as a tear slid down her cheek. But she was smiling. “Alright… you’ll… please keep me updated on how she’s doing. I know my aunt is causing trouble and Lily needs to be protected, but please write to me and if things are happening, like a baby shower, please include me.”

“Of course I will,” Ginny promised and knew Lily would want that, as well. “We, uh, might not include your parents or Draco’s.”

“No!” Astoria agreed firmly. “No, indeed. While they aren’t working with my crazy aunt, they’re still not to be trusted. But… oh, I am so looking forward to being a grandmother.”

“It’s the best thing in the world,” Ginny promised her. “I will make sure you’re included.”

Astoria hugged her tightly and whispered, “Thank you,” before she broke away to head to the door.

Overall, it definitely could have gone worse, but the day had turned out to be a good one and when Harry and Al learned the baby was Scorpius’ it only improved from there.

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Chapter 77: Chapter 74 Part ONE

Author's Notes: Everyone... look, I get how long it's been. I get it! I was going to be gone in May for a long road trip anyway, but then April 27th I got my first migraine of the pollen season and that was it. I'm now 42 days in of MY HEAD POUNDING!!! The last two days have been not a total loss, though, so yay?? *THUD* Seriously, I threw up from my head hurting so badly. It's been a freaking nightmare.

So this is a short part one to tell you I didn't die (even though I felt like dying more than a few times) and I'll get the second part up in the next week or two. Please dear Jesus let the trees stop spewing forth so I can think again...

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing

I am sorry... you can take it to the bank that I really wish my head had been in a place where I could have actually written in the last six weeks. That would have been SUPER.


“We gather together to celebrate the life of the beloved Emma Holmes, an amazing woman who…”

The Muggle minister’s voice droned on and on as Rose sat with Claire in her lap and Andrew’s arm firmly around her shoulders. It was a bright, pretty day outside of the large cathedral where the funeral was being held, but inside it all felt bleak.

She and Andrew had been married for three weeks, only three weeks, and Aunt Emma hadn’t even made it through them. The blast at the wedding had definitely been a strain on the already frail woman. It was so stressful she and Andrew had opted not to go on a honeymoon. Alright, it wasn’t only the blast. It had also been Lily’s kidnapping and subsequent marriage to Scorpius which had sealed it. They hadn’t felt good about leaving Emma and Claire by themselves at the house. It hadn’t even been two days after their wedding that they saw how quickly Aunt Emma was fading. It had hit them all very hard, but especially Claire, who kept losing everyone around her. She was still a little girl, only eight, and she’d already been to more funerals than most people five times her age.

Claire sniffed softly and clung to Rose, shifting a little closer.

There were dignitaries, or whatever the Muggles called them, in the church. There were other royals in the church. There were a lot of people who would see Claire sitting in Rose’s lap as a serious breach of etiquette, but quite frankly Rose just couldn’t give a damn. She kept her arm around the little girl and continued to tune out the minister. It didn’t really matter what he said. She was going to remember Emma for being Emma. That’s all that mattered.

Her parents were at the funeral and seemed to be getting along. Several of her aunts and uncles had come, as well, along with most of her male cousins and her brother. They were, of course, the only family Andrew and Claire had since he’d lost everyone else in the bombing in London so many years ago. Family was such a precious, precious thing and it was nearly impossible to comprehend that Andrew and Claire, and now Rose, were the only Holmes left.

Everyone else was gone and life was simply too fragile. She let the tears silently fall as she continued to hold onto Claire and wished she could hold onto Andrew in the same way. As the duke, he had to stand up and keep a stiff upper lip about everything. He sat rigidly next to her, his eyes fixed ahead as the man before them spoke in words that might as well have been the droning of a bee.

She didn’t touch him. He’d asked her not to last night. Last night she’d held onto him as he’d yet again cried for the last adult in his life who had passed on. Even knowing it was coming, it hadn’t made it any easier. He’d told her last night that he wouldn’t be able to keep it together for the public if she touched him, so she’d kept her hands to herself, except to hold his as they’d walked into the church. She longed to hold him again tonight but she understood completely that he had an image to maintain and as his wife, as the duchess, it was her job to help him get there.

The rules were stupid, though. It was why she’d pulled Claire onto her lap and held onto her. She wasn’t her mother, not really. Claire remembered and missed her mother terribly. But she was someone Claire loved and relied on and that was very important to both of them.

Besides that, the current wife of the heir to the throne, the youngest one at least, was very apt to pull her children onto her lap and Rose was more than happy to follow her lead.

She felt everyone stir around her to rise and sing a song. Rose put Claire down to stand with her but Claire put her arms up and Rose obliged, hoisting her up into her arms.

She heard a few faint comments from behind but ignored them as the nattering of useless insects. She didn’t need anyone’s approval. She was a damned duchess. She was at a funeral for a woman she loved and it was a mere three weeks after her wedding. She could do what she wanted.

There was a reception held after the service, but they left the majority of the people at the reception to go to the graveside first. She, Andrew, and Claire were in the backseat of the car by themselves as they drove to the graveyard. Claire leaned into Andrew now and he whispered words to her as the car moved smoothly down the country lanes.

Would this day ever end?

That was the refrain running through Rose’s mind as they watched as the men lower the coffin into the ground and later when she stood at the reception eating food that she could barely taste and thanking people she didn’t know or care about for coming to the funeral.

Claire lasted about an hour at the reception before she asked Rose if they could go home. Rose nodded and took her hand, going to Andrew. “I am taking her home,” she told her husband.

He gave her a look, which she understood perfectly. They had one magical security guard with them and he was telling her to take him. She smiled and shook her head. “I’ll get one of my uncles to come with us or maybe my dad.”

“Alright,” he agreed as he bent to kiss her cheek. He plucked Claire up and held her for a long moment before kissing her temple. “I’ll see you both at home.”

Rose managed to get her father and uncle Bill to accompany her back to the house and to wait for Andrew to arrive home with their security. They had three men who rotated every eight hours who kept a watch on their home. They weren’t able to completely lock the house down because it was a Muggle home and that made everything significantly more complicated than either of them would have like. They feared for Claire’s safety.

But their home was actually a famous Muggle estate and everyone was likely to notice if it suddenly disappeared off the map. Things like that were annoying. Very annoying. Rose had suggested finding someplace smaller and quieter to live, but frankly that would be noticed, as well, by the Muggle press and they didn’t want anyone noticing them since they were magical and hiding it in plain sight.

Added to that, they had Muggle servants and none of them wanted them to suddenly be without a job.

“I’m going to get something to eat,” Uncle Bill told Rose as they entered the big front entrance. “The food there was terrible.”

“It was gross,” Claire agreed in a small voice. “I didn’t want to eat it.”

It had been all fancy foods. Rose hadn’t felt like eating it, either, but that was mostly because her stomach was in knots over the funeral.

“I’ll get the cook to make up a tray and bring it up to your sitting room,” Dad told Rose who nodded in thanks.

“We’re going to get out of these fancy dresses and maybe watch something,” Rose agreed as she took Claire’s hand. “Thanks for coming.”

“Anytime,” her dad promised as he kissed her brow. “Go on, we’ll be up in a few minutes.”

By the time they arrived back in the sitting room in their most comfortable lounging clothes, her dad and uncle were up there with the food. Both of them had done away with their Muggle jackets and ties.

“Come here, pumpkin,” Uncle Bill said to Claire as he held up a plate with her favorite sandwich on it and a few biscuits. “Cook sent this up for you.”

Claire, who had always liked her Uncle Bill, moved over to sit next to him, cuddling into his side as she slowly began to eat.

Rose made herself a plate and sat next to her father, crossing her legs on the sofa. “I’m really thankful you and Mum came and that Mum stuck it out with Andrew. It’s a lot of pomp and fuss right now.”

“Your mum was happy to do it,” her dad assured her as they both dug in. “It’s been a hard few weeks all around and this was a way she could be helpful. We’ve all been left feeling helpless as we have to keep taking the blows as they come.”

Rose stared down at her sandwich and then took another bite, thankful for the good food and that she didn’t have to prepare it. “I’m supposed to go back to school in two days and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to concentrate with everything that’s been going on. First Lily is taken and then she’s married and having a baby… now Emma… poor Emma. I knew it was coming but it still doesn’t make it any easier to take. I was hoping she’d be able to pull through for a little while longer.”

Her dad reached over to squeeze her hand gently. “It never gets easier. It isn’t supposed to, but we do learn how to walk through it and keep going even when it feels hard. You’ll go to school tomorrow and maybe you’ll be great at it, but maybe you won’t. You try your best and eventually you’ll be good at it again because that’s who you are. You’re going to be an amazing potions master and you know Emma wanted that for you. You’ll be able to achieve a dream she was hoping for you. It will work out.”

Rose nodded and then at Claire’s request, put on a kid’s show she liked. Within twenty minutes, Claire was asleep.

It took hours for Andrew and her mum to arrive back at the estate. Rose was utterly exhausted as she hugged her mum, thanking her for her help, and then saying goodbye to her parents and uncle.

She spent a lot of time with Andrew that night simply quietly holding each other, their tears mostly spent by then. “I don’t know how to process any of this.”

Andrew pressed his lips to her brow and rubbed his hand up and down her back for several minutes before he began to speak. “When my parents died… my brothers… I thought, well, frankly I thought I was dead too, at least for a while. While I was in that Muggle hospital there was a lot of pain. It wasn’t until I was found and moved to St. Mungo’s that the pain was actually managed and I realized I was alive. Then I learned they’d all died and suddenly I wanted the pain back because it consumed everything but somehow it didn’t hurt as much as missing my family. Even with Claire being alive, it wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t. Then you were there, sitting with me, listening to me, letting me cry; you’ve always been there, Rose. I don’t know what I would do without you. It’s always been you there, Rose,” he told her simply, turning his face until his gaze met hers. “I need you to know… I love you. I’m in love with you and I can’t not tell you anymore.”

Rose felt her heart nearly trip out of her chest. Feelings she didn’t know she had were swimming up as she studied his shattered eyes. They’d had so many things to deal with over the last few months and even in the last several weeks. This wasn’t the married life she’d expected, but it was turning out to be a good life. Time was precious and they didn’t have it to waste. They could have lost Lily. They could have lost other people when the explosion happened! Instead, they’d had the place magically rebuilt to make it look like nothing had happened but a loud noise.

They’d been given a chance and she was taking it. “I love you, too. I’m so in love with you. I didn’t know I would be or that I’d want to be, but you’re safe with me and I’m safe with you.”

She knew that, at least, was not going to change.

Back to index


Chapter 78: Chapter 74 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Okay, here is part 2. I might split them into two parts and post twice a month for the next few months just to make my life simpler. Thoughts?

Anyway, my head stopped pounding thankfully.

Thanks to Arnel for beta'ing!


“We have the Americans calling for a meeting,” Daniel said after a cursory knock at Harry’s office door. “They want you to come to America.”

Harry looked up and felt his brow rise at the request. “Did they give any indications as to why?”

“Not for the meeting, only that they need the secrecy. They sent the request through the Minister’s office already and she’s given the nod to you going. Mrs. Weasley is getting the forms signed now.”

“I guess I’m going to America,” Harry sighed, not liking the interruption or the prospect of being so far from his family. They’d had a lot of challenges, traumas and upheavals in the last several weeks. First Lily was captured and molested by that foul wench, then she was married, then Andrew’s aunt Emma died. Her funeral had only been ten days before and it was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

They were finishing up the final touches on making a house secure for Lily. She and Scorpius would be moving in there in the next several days if Bill deemed it done and secure. He was also going to have several of his Aurors go through and try to get in along with Polly, who had just had her baby boy that she’d named Skip. If the house-elf spotted any holes in the security they would go immediately towards fixing them. Polly had, inadvertently, become an expert in secure housing.

He didn’t want to go to America, but he had a job to do and the Americans didn’t call unless they had a good reason. They didn’t like playing together when they could do things on their own if they could help it. Oh, he had a good relationship with the American Head Auror, Louis Kingston. Well, a good relationship would be a stretch. Louis’ only son, Samuel, was murdered and Nat had found the body when they’d been on holiday in North Carolina. Louis and his wife had been on their own holiday in North Carolina when someone from the magical mafia had snatched and murdered the boy, leaving him on a beach where they assumed the body would be found months later. Instead, the magical protection around the body hadn’t been washed away by a hurricane. The year had been a quiet year for the major storms so it had been Nat who had spotted the body which had been magically hidden. At the time they hadn’t questioned him too closely about how the body had been found, but later Louis had asked for a meeting with Harry and he’d questioned how Nat had done it.

Harry hadn’t answered, which Louis hadn’t liked, but he also didn’t push because there was no way that tiny girl who hadn’t even been in America at the time he was kidnapped could have killed his son who was five inches over six feet.

But he had a lot of respect for the man who was the head of the American Aurors. After his son’s death, he and his wife had adopted three magical orphans from Ethiopia and he had a solid reputation with the Aurors all around the world.

So, he’d go and see what Louis wanted. Harry swung on his cloak and headed for the Floo in the Minister’s office which would connect him to America at their main headquarters in New York.

He arrived in the American office and was immediately taken to Louis’ office where he greeted the tall man with dark brown skin with a hardy handshake. “It’s good to see you again,” Harry told the other man. “How is your wife? How are the kids?”

“Hattie is doing well,” the man said in his nearly impossibly deep voice as he spoke about the wife he clearly adored. His face held that mixture of grief and joy that only a parent knows when they’ve lost a child. “She’s found her way again after Samuel’s death. You know how I told you we couldn’t move on without… without having his body, without knowing what happened to him. It was what we needed. Well, she couldn’t move on until she had the children to raise. They’re all in school now, of course, but she’s volunteering at a magical preschool near our home and that’s helping her, as well. She’s one of those ones who was meant to be a mother.”

“How old are the girls, now?” Harry asked, remembering they’d adopted three sisters.

“Desta is sixteen and thinking she wants to be a Healer,” Louis said, practically beaming with pride. “Amara is fourteen and she’s not sure yet, but she loves animals so I expect she’ll focus on magical creatures, and Zuri is almost twelve and right now she says she wants to be a mama just like Mama Hattie.”

“I think that’s probably what my daughter will end up doing for a while,” Harry told him. “She’s just married and is expecting her first.”

“I’d heard about the marriage but not the baby,” Louis told him. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Harry said as he fought against all of the conflicting emotions yet again. He was so thankful the baby was healthy, Lily was healthy, and the baby was actually Scorpius’, but he was also absolutely furious about the fact that the rest of Lily’s childhood was stolen from her and she was forced into marriage.

But then again, she’d had Scorpius to marry, hadn’t she? She’d had someone who loved her and wanted the best for her. He didn’t like to think about his baby girl as a married woman but he was getting over it.

Slowly.

Maybe very slowly.

The British laws had to change and soon. He had Al already telling him if it happens to Nat that he’s going to marry her. It didn’t surprise him that Al would say such a thing, as he knew his son loved Nat, but it was heart wrenching to know that they had to have a plan in place just in case. But really, with Nat being as fragile as she was, they needed to keep her safe.

“Yes,” Harry said, finally managing to speak about Lily and remain calm. “She was, uh… caught up in Crabbe’s net.”

Instantly, Louis’ face took on an ashen hue as he stared at him gravely. “Is she alright?”

“She’s alright,” Harry said. “She’s been healed and her husband is the father of her baby, although he was prepared to be the father even if not by blood. I couldn’t have asked for a better son-in-law. He adores Lily and he’s good for her. But she was kidnapped from my niece’s wedding and poisoned. Crabbe let her go, let our house-elf Polly retrieve her and we were able to heal her as we’ve been doing with others.”

Louis considered him for a long moment before he spoke and even when he spoke, it was in a clearly measured tone. “You have an Augmentum Imaginari working for you.”

Harry kept his expression carefully neutral, something he’d worked hard on over the last many years and shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I have no intention of that information leaving this room,” Louis told him firmly. “Things started to fall in place when one was located at the school this past year. He’s a powerfully magical brute, possibly on the order of Dumbledore himself, but he’s still developing. I’ve worked with him a few times as his interest is in being an Auror, but he’s going in his seventh year in September so I have a bit to wait yet. Then he’ll need training, but right now he’s working for us as a sort of intern and the hospitals have asked for his help with our poisoning. He can see the infection in the people and tell the Healers so they know how to treat the mothers, which means sending them to you.”

Harry considered him for a moment. “Can anyone hear into this room?”

“Not possible,” Louis told him with finality. “This room is a vault.”

“Maybe your newest recruit will only be able to see what is going on,” Harry said cautiously, hoping he was making the right call. “Maybe… maybe someone else with the ability could remove the offending poison from the person with their hands.”

Louis sat back in his seat, truly thunderstruck. “That’s not possible.”

“Then consider that this person is small, weak, medically fragile, and is pretty terrible at all defensive magic,” Harry said finishing it out. “What would you do?”

Louis’ eyes solidified into understanding. “So possibly my kid is just like Dumbledore, or will be one day, but yours is… not. Hypothetically speaking.”

“Hypothetically, yeah,” Harry agreed. “Powerful, but very powerless at the same time.”

Louis scrubbed at his face hard. “I understand. Alright, I fully understand why the women have to come to you and why you’re making it so difficult. It isn’t your sister-in-law, Audrey Weasley, healing the women.”

Harry closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “Maybe your new Auror will develop the talent. It’s possibly it could be taught to him, but I’m betting that’s not the case. He ended up with a lot of magical abilities in all of the standard areas along with this one where he could see the magic. He’s going to be great, a legend in his own right. With Nat… it’s like she missed every single standard talent but has a massive control over the magic that’s already been cast. If it’s cast, she can see it, undo it, move it, pull it, dissolve it… whatever. She can stop it. She just can’t cast it.”

“That’s absolutely fascinating,” Louis said in clear awe. “Of course, it’s also terrifying. She is defenseless.”

“Yes,” Harry agreed and hoped, yet again, he’d made the right call. “But that doesn’t answer why I’m here. It can’t be just to speak about your Augmentum Imaginari.”

“No,” Louis said and this time he smiled. “We’re about to send a team into Argentina to raid Crabbe’s factory.”

It was Harry’s turn to sit up and pay attention. “You found it?”

“We have found it,” Louis assured him. “We have a couple of Potions Masters who are quite gifted. It’s a husband and wife duo who work nearly non-stop and I asked them if there was any way they could use the poison Healer Weasley had given us to analyze where the ingredients were coming from. That’s not usually possible but sometimes they’re able to use a Muggle technology, along with the magic, to find the region where a plant was grown. We had hit after hit come from a region in Argentina but we’ve been struggling to narrow it down. We’ve had Healer Weasley continuing to send us samples and we were finally able to narrow it down to about a ten-mile area. From there we put in Aurors to monitor the activity around the farms.”

“Wait,” Harry held up a hand. “I’ve had nothing but trouble with the Argentine government! They won’t let us into the country!”

“Well, we have an in with their Head of Magical Law Enforcement,” Louis told him with a grin. “She’s my wife’s brother’s wife.”

“That’s… well.” Harry felt himself grin. “Maybe you can stop production of this stuff for a little while. She’ll set up some place else, of course, but we’ll get a small break.”

Nat could get a small break. That would be a relief for everyone, not just for Nat. So many people were being poisoned that there was no way the girl could possibly keep up to heal them all and it was definitely weighing on her.

“We’ve asked for and received permission for you to be a part of the raid, after the fact of course, but you’ll be allowed into the country to inspect what is found,” Louis told him and Harry could tell he knew how much that meant to him.

“Thank you,” Harry said as he tried not to choke up. “This means… she nearly killed my grandson, Alex, and she could have killed my children. I appreciate that you pulled strings to get me in.”

Louis nodded and didn’t add that Harry was part of the reason he and his wife had closure of their son’s death. They both knew and it didn’t need to be said.

Louis had Harry wait in one of the conference rooms with him and a few others from their ministry while the raid happened. They had real-time feedback from one of the Aurors as they breached the security and arrested everyone. As far as raids went, this one went shockingly smoothly. It helped that Crabbe’s poison factory was being run by intellectuals and not fighters. She had security in place but only three men and they were all neutralized in the first few moments. The potions students she had mixing up the brew were easier to take as they all gave up immediately.

Within seconds of the raid happening, it came out that they were students who had been kidnapped by Crabbe and were being forced to work for her to create the evil brew.

By the time Harry arrived in the lab in Argentina, the American Aurors had everything under control.

Crabbe was not there and she hadn’t been there in weeks. They were being held and forced to work, but she didn’t need to be on hand to keep it going. Her goons were able to make that happen. It was frustrating not to have her captured, but it was heartening to know they’d closed down her factory.

Or it was until one of the students said they had heard her speaking about other locations making the poison, although no one ever mentioned where the other locations were.

Harry wanted to hit something. They weren’t going to stop the poison being distributed. They had only slowed it down for a short time.

The best part was knowing the kidnapped students, all of whom were from India, would be returned to their families and their families would be offered protection to keep the teenagers from being taken again.

“I wish we had more,” Harry said to Louis as they spoke later that afternoon back in his office. “I am grateful for this small victory, but we’re not close to catching her.”

“We will catch her, though,” Louis said confidently. “We have a lot of people looking out for her and she won’t be able to hide forever. We need to continue to work together and we will bring her down. She’s attempting to destroy the whole world.”

Harry could only nod as his throat was suddenly tight.

“I’m going to speak to the student about his Augmentum Imaginari skills, see what we think he can do. If we think he can be trained to heal people, we’re going to push for that. We need it and he’s not helpless, plus we’d be able to protect him.”

“Keep me posted,” Harry said as he stood and extended his hand. It was difficult thinking about opening up his world and trusting more people but frankly, they didn’t have much of a choice.

~*~

“Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?” Ron asked his wife as they squared off, not for the first time, in the kitchen. She had always had a tendency of closing herself off when she was upset, which was partly what doomed their marriage, but things had been steadily improving. With Rose’s marriage and the death of Andrew’s aunt, they had pulled together more to help Rose with her new family. Not to mention they’d had Hugo home for the summer, even if he was going to be heading back to school soon.

Of course, Hugo was hanging out with Al and Louis at the moment, right when Ron could have used the buffer to keep Hermione from reverting back to old type.

“It’s nothing,” Hermione said as she finished up the dish of stew she’d been preparing. “Just some things at work.”

Ron wanted to rage at her. The urge was simply overwhelming at some points. She was closing off again, had been for a few days, and now it looked to be complete. “You know this is why we would have divorced if we’d been able to,” he bit out before he could stop himself. “You and your crappy attitude.”

Hermione froze where she was and then very slowly and deliberately went back to stirring the pot. “Well, if it’s so crappy, you can leave.”

“No,” he said and knew he had to push on. “You’re going to tell me what’s bothering you so that you can get out of your terrible mood so we can enjoy the last few weeks we have with Hugo at home. We will soon have no children living in our house and frankly I don’t want to live with you if you can’t stop behaving like this.”

“I’m not the one who picked this fight!” Hermione shouted back, her face going blotchy from temper. She nearly threw her wand as she slammed it to the counter. “I just want to eat and be left alone!”

“This,” he said pointing at her. “This is why we don’t work!”

“We never worked, Ron!” she hollered back and then to his utter shock she broke down in tears, sank to the floor and hugged her knees.

Ron stared down at her, completely baffled. She never cried or broke down like this! “Hey,” he said, feeling very wrong-footed as he stepped towards her and sank down to his knees. “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to shout at you and make you cry. I’m a stupid arse, you know that.”

She shook her head but held up a hand, indicating he should be quiet, so he sat down next to her and waited for her to find her composure again. Every minute of waiting felt like an absolute eternity as she pulled herself together. Finally, she reached up behind her to the counter and groped until she found her wand. She conjured a handkerchief first to mop up her eyes and then a glass of water. “We have the statistics in for the birth and death rates,” she said finally. “I’m not supposed to talk to anyone about them.”

Ron didn’t completely understand what that would have to do with anything but he nodded like he understood. “I won’t say anything to anyone, Hermione. You can count on that, if nothing else.”

Her eyes brimmed and spilled over again but the wracking sobs seemed to be gone. “We’ve lost tens of thousands of women and babies, maybe as many as eighty thousand women and probably just as many babies… to Crabbe.”

Ron physically couldn’t hold himself up and he fell back into the cabinet behind him as he gaped at her. “Come again?!”

“If she’s not stopped,” Hermione went on as the tears continued to rain down, “she’ll kill about two hundred thousand people by the end of this year. Nat simply can’t keep up healing them and some don’t have the resources to get here even if she could. The magical community is being decimated!”

He found that he simply had no words. The magical world was not large, not by any meals. They only had roughly five million witches and wizards in the world and losing that many… well, losing even that many Muggles to one deranged psychopath was completely insane! “I didn’t realize it was so many.”

“We didn’t know until we figured out how to detect the deaths and now the magical officials in most of the world have gone back to investigate and we’re getting better numbers,” she said as she thumped her head back against the wood. “Some of those women were forcefully impregnated and might have wanted an abortion anyway, but she seems to have learned from that. In counties where abortion is legal, she only targets the women in relationships and forces them to get pregnant by the men they already love. It’s only in countries like England that she resorts to rape and other vile methods.” She reached over to grab Ron’s arm. “You can’t tell anyone about this! We are in serious trouble for a lot of reasons over this.”

His confusion must have showed on his face because she went on without him having to explain.

“We were already in a demographic spiral down,” Hermione told him softly. “We need women have somewhere in the average of 2.1 children in order to keep the population stable, but in almost every country we’re averaging less than two. That was alright while we were still dealing with the overall population being large, but now it’s starting to get serious. China and Japan are in freefall and they don’t have enough young workers to come in and run their government! They don’t have enough people to fill out the Aurors that they need. We have less than four thousand magical people in the British community and we need a good five hundred of them to keep the Ministry going and keep up with the school.”

Finally, the pieces clicked into place. “You’re saying that we have too many people who will be retiring soon and not enough people to take over the jobs needed.”

“Yes,” she said gravely. “America and France are about the only first world nations who have enough babies being born, but with the way Crabbe is killing them, that’s not going to be the case.”

“And it won’t matter for twenty years because we’re talking about these children that should have been there to take a job, but now they’re not,” he said slowly, feeling his way through the problem. “We could have entire classes at Hogwarts that aren’t there. A whole dorm with no students because they couldn’t survive the poison and even if they did, she makes them unmagical.”

“Not only that, but the mothers who would have worked are no longer going to be in the workforce because they’ve died,” Hermione finished, her eyes red and her expression raw. “And really, it doesn’t matter about the workforce, it truly doesn’t! People are losing their family and that’s what counts most, but if she keeps going…”

“We die out as a species,” Ron said as it finally sunk in. “The magical community will be wiped out.”

She nodded, pressing her lips together hard. “We won’t be able to recover from this. We’ll lose all our best teachers, our knowledge, everything. We won’t be able to keep going as we have been.”

Ron blew out a breath and shook his head. “I’m glad you told me.”

“You can’t tell anyone,” she said urgently. “Harry doesn’t know and I don’t want him to! He holds enough guilt over what that beast has done.”

“I won’t say anything,” he promised. “But you need to keep talking to me. I know I can’t fix it, but I can help you by making sure you’re not carrying the burden alone.”

Hermione reached out her hand and he took it, squeezing her fingers. “Thanks. I’m sorry for… well, for everything. Thanks.”

~*~

They didn’t go to a pub, which is what they’d have done before Louis stopped drinking. It was something that would have seemed natural and normal, Al thought. He’d go out with his mates to a pub and they’d have a pint and they would hang out. That’s what blokes did. Only now, they didn’t, and now that he looked at it from the eyes of Louis’ sobriety, he realized their whole society put a lot of unnecessary pressure around what someone put in their mouth.

When they’d gone to America all those years before, when they’d been in North Carolina, they’d gone out to a Muggle restaurant and Nat had ordered an omelet and the woman had asked her if she’d wanted pancakes or waffles with the omelet. Nat had told the woman that she didn’t eat those and she only wanted the eggs. The woman then told her the pancakes were free so she should take them, but Nat had said again that she didn’t eat pancakes.

The woman had exclaimed in frustration, “Who doesn’t eat pancakes?!”

It was the same around alcohol. If he were to go to someone’s house for dinner they would automatically offer wine. All parties included alcohol. It was what was done.

But now that he looked at it from Louis’ perspective, he realized just how insane that was and that they didn’t need to be pushing addictive substances on people at every turn.

In any case, they were out for a run which was definitely better for them than pub food and beer.

“It’s been good,” Louis said as he, Al, Scorpius, James, and Hugo ran along through the woods on the rutted trails. “Therapy has helped a lot. Lena’s been great, too,” he said as he glanced over to Al.

Al knew Lena had been continuing to help his cousin, but after he’d overheard what he had, he hadn’t tried to step into it again. It wasn’t his business. “That’s good.”

“How is Caroline?” Louis asked James as they sprinted up a hill.

Al didn’t have any idea why running through the woods at five in the morning while it was drizzling was fun, but this had come to be one of the best things he did in the week.

“Throwing up some,” James said as he jumped over an exposed root and kept going down the hill. “Nat knows if the baby is a boy or a girl but Caroline doesn’t want to know and has forbidden me from finding out.”

Al knew all about that because Nat, who was very amused by the whole thing, had told him. Teddy and Victoire were, unsurprisingly, having another girl, but she was sworn to keep quiet about what Caroline was having. It was driving his mother batty as she wanted to know, but Nat was a vault.

“I can’t believe I go back to school in two weeks… without Lily,” Hugo said suddenly, clearly bewildered. “I haven’t been without Lily in… well, forever.”

They all glanced to Scorpius, but he simply shrugged and kept running. Al had tried to talk to his mate about it, but they all knew it was a touchy subject. Lily was alright, their baby was alright, but she was quite young and this had all been a big shock.

Scorpius wasn’t talking about it and they all had to respect that.

“Come on, let’s pick up the pace,” Al told them. “I want to fall over and die when we hit the end of the trail.”

James smacked him on the shoulder and took off running. “Loser buys breakfast!”

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Chapter 79: Chapter 75 Part One

Author's Notes: For the next few months, I think, I am going to update in two parts per chapter. Frankly, with how busy my work life is, I just need to have shorter chunks to complete in one go.

Please consider supporting me on pa treon. Sarah Jaune... Even 1 month is a help!

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing.


Chapter 75

They had a home. It was something Scorpius could still hardly believe, but Lily had money her parents had set aside for her, so they had a home. Al had money, as well, but when they’d spoken about moving in together, Al had commented that the two of them didn’t really need a whole house to themselves. It had seemed sensible and then they wouldn’t have to keep a house clean. Added to that, maybe Al would get married one day and his wife would want input on the house she lived in. Maybe he’d even get his act together and marry Nat.

Okay, probably not. That didn’t look like it was ever going to happen.

But now Scorpius and Lily had a home and they had that home because it wasn’t going to be the two of them for much longer. They had months yet, as she wasn’t due until April, but the time was already moving quickly.

When they’d first married it had been such a rush. He’d looked down at her broken body and feared the worst, that she wouldn’t come back from it. He was afraid he’d never get to kiss her again, hold her again, or love her again. She was his everything and she was so pale, so still, laying there on the floor. But she’d been okay thanks to Nat and he’d needed to marry her. He wanted to marry her. It wasn’t even a choice for him. He’d literally needed to marry her or he wouldn’t have been complete. Their time together, as husband and wife, had been a lot of passion until the pregnancy had really taken over, and then there was still passion but tempered by his Lily’s need to sleep. Some days she was already asleep before he made it home from work.

He'd spent a lot of nights holding her close and rubbing her back while she snoozed quietly there in his arms. She was better than any of his house mates from Hogwarts. She never snored.

Her stomach was still flat but they’d already had the baby checked over a few times by Lily’s Aunt Audrey and so far, the baby was looking good. He’d been so stunned when Nat had said the baby was his.

Stunned and relieved. Very, very relieved.

It was the relief that was shaming him, relief that was holding him hostage. He shouldn’t have felt so relieved at the baby being his baby. He should have been okay with the baby no matter who the father of the baby was. He’d told Lily that he was happy with the baby because it was hers and he’d thought, at the time, that he’d truly meant it. He’d thought he was happy right up until the moment when Nat said the baby was his and the relief had told him what a massive liar he was.

He hoped that he’d have loved the baby no matter what. He hoped he’d have been a good father, even if the baby hadn’t been his. He knew he would have tried but now he had to wonder how much of that was actually a lie he was telling himself and honestly, he didn’t know. The knowledge was killing him. Added to that Lily’s empathy powers seemed to be on high alert with the pregnancy and she knew something was wrong with him. He didn’t know how to explain.

He just knew they had a house now and he had a wife, a dog, and a cat, and a baby on the way and he didn’t know how to tell Lily he wasn’t the man she thought she’d married. He wasn’t the man he thought he should be.

And maybe part of that stemmed from the fact that he’d never had a father worth speaking of… or to for that matter. His father was a waste of space at the best of times and actively harmful at others. He hadn’t ever done anything with Scorpius except try to mold him into the kind of human being that Draco’s father would respect.

It was a vicious circle and while Scorpius understood on the deepest level that he’d broken out of his family’s circle of abuse and violence, part of him didn’t know what to do now. Yes, he’d stepped off the train and he was on a new path, but it almost felt like his way was not set. He didn’t know which direction to take, what would be best, for everyone involved.

His father had spent his entire life trying to lick the boots of Lucius Malfoy and all it had ever done for him was to get him kicked, over and over. Boot lickers were never respected. Lucius had wanted a son he could be proud of, but even if Draco had been that kind of man, there was no guarantee that Scorpius’ grandfather actually had that level of feeling in him. He was actually certain the old man did not, in fact, have it.

Yes, he’d heard the stories of his grandmother trying her best to save her son in any way that she could. She knew she’d spared Harry Potter’s life and Scorpius could only be grateful for that, but she hadn’t been the one Draco had been trying to impress all these years and it wasn’t her that his father had wanted Scorpius to impress.

His father and mother were showing up tonight for a family dinner party which would include all the Potters and Weasleys. It was a situation that Scorpius was eminently comfortable with but that his parents would not be, and he doubted very much that Lily’s grandparents were going to be happy to have the Malfoys in the same room. And still he couldn’t invite either set of grandparents to his home. He wasn’t entirely confident one of them wouldn’t try to sell Lily out to Crabbe as both sets were extremely pissed about the baby. Well, they were upset with the fact that they’d had to marry because of the baby, and to give them credit they’d worked out what had happened. He’d had a very angry owl from his mother’s father about he should have left the Potter brat to the fate that Crabbe was serving.

Honestly, he was extremely thankful he now had an excuse to never see the old codger again. Lucius hadn’t yet made any threats but Scorpius’ mum had warned him not to go out with Lily because she didn’t know what Draco’s father might do.

It was all a bloody nightmare, these men that Scorpius had sprung from, and now he was going to be a father and he didn’t know how that worked. He had Harry. Merlin’s beard, he was thankful for that. He’d already relied on Harry more than once when things had come up and he knew he would again in the future. He also had Arthur Weasley, who was the most patient, caring man Scorpius had ever met. He’d never once held Scorpius’ family against him, even though he had every cause to. He’d simply folded Scorpius into the family and he’d treated him like another grandson, which included his wisdom and advice when needed.

One of his statements to his various grandsons had been for them to take up running together and it had been one of the best things for Scorpius to work out some of the tension.

Scorpius arrived back at the dark blue house with white trim after his run with the blokes and stared up at the rambling two story home that Lily had fallen in love with at first sight. It was in the style the Muggles called Victorian. It had been built sometime in the 1890’s and was absolutely massive. It had nine bedrooms, a conservatory which had its own pond, two turret rooms, three parlors, and many other features Scorpius had probably missed.

The house had been a steal of a price because it had been falling down and there was no way anyone would be able to repair it without a lot of money, but that didn’t factor in magic. It had taken Lily’s father and uncles about three days to repair the whole house and then another three days to get the wards in place so they could move in.

Lily absolutely adored the huge house. She was having so much fun picking out paint colors and furnishings. Her Aunt Fleur had been over practically every day to help Lily with those finishing touches and the home looked amazing.

There was an entire parlor dedicated to a cat tree. He’d come home and couldn’t believe it when she’d showed him the walkways, the climbing nooks and hiding spots for Ducky to run and play. Ducky was in heaven and happily in her parlor.

Sera had a run outside she could access at any point through a large dog door off the downstairs laundry room. The house technically had two rooms to do laundry, one on both floors. The home was not as large or as grand as Malfoy manor, it was true, but it was still quite large and frankly it didn’t feel like an oppressive prison to Scorpius.

That was not something to take for granted.

His parents hadn’t yet come to the house, but they had seen them again since the wedding. It was more often than Scorpius had seen them in the last few years but his mother desperately wanted to be in their lives and to be in the baby’s life. She was fighting hard to keep the peace and she’d told Scorpius she would leave his father at home if that’s what Scorpius wanted.

It was hard to turn off the emotions from what his father had done to him, but Draco had gone to therapy and he was definitely improving. It wasn’t as though Scorpius couldn’t see the progress in him and he wondered what it said about him if he wanted to keep holding that grudge and not let go of the past.

Should one hold the past against someone forever if they were trying to change? He didn’t think so and that made it even more galling for him because he was holding his past against himself. But mostly he thought that if he had simply told Lily what he was feeling he wouldn’t still be holding onto all of this guilt.

But he didn’t know how to tell her. He had tried a couple of times, but then she’d get upset and start crying, and he’d console her and end up not telling her.

It was a mess.

Sera lumbered around the big house from the back and wagged her way over to him, looking for a scratch behind the ears. “Hey,” he said as he gave the dog some affection. If Sera was outside it meant Lily was actually up, something that was hit or miss most mornings now. It was still quite early. Scorpius had about an hour until he needed to be at work, but it appeared he would get to see his wife before heading into the office.

Lily opened the door for him and smiled as he walked up the steps to her. “Good morning,” she said as he leaned in to kiss her lightly. “I felt better this morning so I started breakfast. Do you want to get a shower first?”

“Yeah,” Scorpius agreed as he straightened. “I’ll be back down in ten minutes.”

They sat and ate breakfast together, which was not something they’d done in the last week, and Scorpius decided to try again to tell her what he’d been feeling. He just had to figure out how to do it. “Hugo was talking today about how much he’s going to miss you at school.”

“Yeah, he said he and Honor were going to come over and hang out today before the dinner tonight,” Lily told him as she cut into her egg. “Or Honor said that she was going to drag Hugo over here,” she amended with a small smile. “I doubt he’d have thought of it on his own.”

Scorpius had to admit he probably wouldn’t have. “It… something that’s been bothering me, Lils… it brought it up to me.”

She slowly lowered her fork as her eyes began to water. “I knew something was wrong.”

Scorpius had to fight hard against the urge to stop because he knew it was upsetting her. He had to tell her. “My dad is crap.”

Lily blinked and her eyes cleared. It wasn’t what he’d meant to say but it had the effect of startling his wife enough that she forgot to worry over what he might say. She gestured with her hand, a clear signal for him to go on and she waited for him to compose himself.

“We’ve talked about the fact that I haven’t had a good father, so it’ll be a learning curve to learn how to be a dad,” he said and she nodded as Sera nosed up to Lily and laid her head in her lap. “Well…” this was the hard part. He took a deep breath and blurted it out. “I was relieved when we learned the baby is mine!”

There! He’d said it. He waited and watched her and she looked… confused. “Why wouldn’t you have been relieved?” Lily asked slowly. “I know I was relieved.”

That wasn’t what he’d been expecting to hear. “It’s… well… I wanted to be okay with the baby no matter what.”

She nodded slowly. “I see. You are concerned you might not have loved the baby as much if it wasn’t your baby.”

“Yeah,” he admitted quietly. “I was worried about that.”

Lily shrugged and picked up her fork. “Maybe you would have, maybe you wouldn’t have. Maybe I wouldn’t have loved the baby as much if the baby hadn’t been yours. We aren’t going to know and I’m glad we don’t have to find out. It was a bad situation,” she said consolingly, reaching her free hand over the table to take his. “We made the best of it and it worked out. I can only be grateful. But if you think about Alex not being Caroline’s baby, I still think there is the capacity to love there.”

Scorpius finally took a bite of his eggs and considered Alex, who was now his nephew. Did he love Alex less for how he’d been born? No. It wasn’t Alex’s fault and why hadn’t he spoken to James about how he was feeling over the whole thing? That would have made a lot more sense than wallowing in his angst and misery! James knew exactly what all of this was like and he adored his son. It didn’t matter to anyone that Caroline hadn’t given birth to the boy.

Scorpius let out a slow breath and grinned. “I’m going to try to leave early today so I can help with the plans for tonight.”

“It will be great if you can,” Lily told him. “But if you can’t, don’t worry. Gran is coming over early and so is Polly. Between them the whole thing is taken care of.”

~*~

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Chapter 80: Chapter 75 Part Two

Author's Notes: Please consider joining my pa treon account (Sarah Jaune) and supporting me. I have several completed stories you can only read there.

Thank you for all of your reviews! I am reading them and responding when I can.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing


James closed his locker in the team’s locker room and sighed. Today had been absolutely brutal for practice. They shouldn’t even be practicing, since the World Cup had just finished, but his coach had decided to bring everyone in and put them through their paces one last time before tryouts for the team. It was something he could have cheerfully done without, but he did want to keep his job so he suited up and joined in. Resting his head against the cool locker, he closed his eyes and took a moment to breathe. He wanted to get home. Every fiber of him was ready to go home and hug his wife and his son, but the moment he left the locker room he was going to have to get home, gather his family, and turn around again to leave for the party at his sister’s new house.

He was ready to be done with people today and instead he would have to face Scorpius’ parents, and truthfully, Scorpius’ dad scared him a bit. Draco was definitely unhinged, or at least he had been. He didn’t know that he wanted the man around his family, but now he was related to the bastard by marriage and there was no help for it. He had to give him a chance, but his father had assured him that if Draco made even one wrong step, he would be out and there would be no coming back from that.

Scorpius’ mum seemed like she was a good sort. She had never abused her son, although she’d also never stepped in for him, either, at least not until he was older and pushing to get away from everyone else. James honestly didn’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand, he knew she was also a victim in this and he did not want to victim blame, but on the other hand, how could the woman not stand up for her child? Or was that still victim blaming? From yet another angle, James could look at the whole situation and see how Draco had been victimized and abused by his parents and grandparents and since that was the case, should he not be given the grace to grow, go through therapy, and change? Should he never be given another chance?

The whole thing was a mess and James was very thankful he didn’t have to deal with it in his parents. He would have had to if Caroline’s parents had lived, but sadly her mother had been murdered, along with her grandparents, and James had killed Caroline’s father. It hadn’t taken him long to process that one and be glad.

Alright, it had taken a few years. Even if he knew it was the right thing to do and there was no other choice, it didn’t make it any easier to take a man’s life and not think on the ramifications of it.

But years out from it, he was glad Donald Baker was dead and never coming back to hurt another person, especially Caroline. She was healing and growing from the experience and while he would wish it all away, if he could, he also knew that in some ways she was a stronger person for having survived it. It didn’t make it better or right, only that she had scars and she’d learned to live with them.

She was growing in other ways, too, James reflected with a grin as he pushed off from the locker and headed for the door. In another few weeks Caroline would hit the halfway point in pregnancy and she was already beginning to show. He absolutely adored her tiny baby bump. He knew it was probably weird, but he couldn’t help how much he enjoyed cupping her small belly. She was already feeling the baby move, but he couldn’t as yet. He’d seen the baby when his aunt had done pregnancy checks and the baby was amazing looking!

Now if only Caroline would agree to finding out if they were having a boy or a girl… he laughed softly and shook his head. He’d almost broken down and asked Nat what it was, but he knew she wouldn’t tell him. She was honest to a fault and she definitely wouldn’t say anything to anyone. James had even asked Al if she’d told him but no, she was keeping everyone in the dark just as Caroline wanted.

Since Alex had been a surprise in every possible way, he figured they could handle not knowing what the baby’s sex was beforehand. They’d already picked out names for the baby. If it was a girl, they were going to name her Alice Hope and if they had a boy, they were going to name him Asher James. They’d talked about it and decided they wanted to use all ‘A’ names for their kids. Well, Caroline wanted to and James had no strong objections. Alex’s birth mother had picked his name, but he liked the name anyway. They’d been debating on Anthony, but had decided on Asher instead. Andrew was also a strong contender, but James hadn’t yet asked Rose if her husband might not want a junior and in any case, it could get confusing at family gatherings.

James pushed open to door to the locker room and immediately spotted Heather. She had apparently showered, because her long brown hair was still wet. She was fit, as all of them were, and about medium height and the build of an athlete. Her blue eyes fixed on him and she smiled. She was standing with another one of their teammates who waved and said, “I’m off to talk to coach.”

“See you, Ben,” Heather told him.

She still made him uncomfortable, but she hadn’t tried to flirt with him in the last few months so James was starting to relax around her. “You did well today,” he told her as he began to move towards the exit. He was less than thrilled when she fell into step next to him.

“Same to you,” she agreed casually. “Any fun plans this weekend?”

“Quiet time with the family,” he told her vaguely. It was true… or rather, he hoped it would be true and they would have quiet time with the family. He didn’t think they would end up in a screaming match that evening with Scorpius’ parents, or worse yet, an actual fight. Come to that, they’d have two Aurors and almost all of his uncles in the house. It would be stupid for Draco to pick an actual fight and apart from everything else, Draco wasn’t stupid. So yes, it would be at least a night that wasn’t violent. “What about you?”

“Oh, not much,” she said indifferently. “I might go see my family if they make it into town, but that’s not certain yet.”

“Well, I hope you do,” he said as they hit the outer door. “Family is important. I’ll see you at tryouts.”

“Yeah, see ya,” she agreed as he walked away to Apparate home.

He arrived back at his house to find Alex in his nappy, sitting on the dog, yelling baby nonsense at the top of his lungs, and Caroline tying her shoes. “Here,” he said as he moved towards her, bending down to get the shoes knotted. She could still do it, of course, but he didn’t mind helping.

The dog, who appeared to be asleep, let out a small chuff and then fell silent again.

“How was your practice?” Caroline asked him as she watched him finish with her laces.

“Good, but hard,” he sighed as he putted through the last knot. “I’m glad we will have an excuse to leave early and come home. Are we bringing Rufus with us?” James asked as he rose and plucked his son up. Alex let out a laughing squeal as James tossed him gently onto his shoulder and went to grab the clothes Caroline had laid out for him on the sofa.

“I think we will,” Caroline said hesitantly. “I might want him there since it’ll be more than family.”

“It’s what I was thinking,” James told her as he said the toddler down and began the intricate dance of trying to force clothes on what amounted to a bucking hippogriff. “Having him there is just fine and it’s only a twenty-minute drive over to Lily and Scorpius’ place. We can take the car.”

“Alright,” Caroline said as she stood and he grinned over at her, appreciating her figure. “What?” she asked with a knowing smile as she tilted her head and put her hands on her disappearing waist.

“You,” he told her easily. “Just you… you’re gorgeous.”

She rolled her eyes but her grin was wide as she went to grab the nappy bag. “Alright, let’s get out of here. I’m starving. Honor is already there; she went over about twenty minutes ago.”

“Alright,” James said as he finished dressing Alex.

Strapping Alex into his car seat was always a struggle, but it helped having Rufus in the car. The big dog would stick his nose in Alex’s face and his calming aura flowed into Alex and helped keep him still long enough so James could fasten the belts. It wasn’t as though they could get into a car crash. Magically modified cars weren’t capable of crashing, but the police could still see in and it was not done in the Muggle world to have a baby not in a car seat. Besides that, the straps on the car seat kept Alex from roaming all over the car while they made the trip over to Lily’s home.

And was her home something… it had looked terrible when they first bought it several weeks back, but the family had come together and quickly they’d redone or repaired everything that needed doing. He was fairly certain his aunt had been helping Lily to decorate.

He studied the huge Victorian and knew they’d be coming here much of the time for family gatherings. They needed a massive house to hold everyone now that most of his cousins were marrying. He pulled the car to a stop and Sera ran over, wagging her tail as she waited for Rufus be let out. As soon as the dog was out, the two pups went for a romp in the grass before coming back to wait for James, who had unstrapped Alex. He set the boy down and watched as Alex toddled after Rufus, grabbing his fur and babbling constantly.

The dog led him slowly towards the house, Sera on the other side of him. Just then Emma came running around the side of the house, her blonde hair flying behind her. She had on a pretty pink dress and sparkling pink shoes. “Uncle James!” she yelled as she flew towards them. “We in da back! Come play, Alex!” she told her cousin as she went to take his hand and lead him around the house.

“You go in,” James told Caroline. “I’ll walk him around and see who is back there.”

“Alright,” Caroline said as she went up the steps, Rufus following her, clearly sensing Caroline’s unease. For a second, he considered following his wife, but she waved him off and he took the hint. She wanted him to follow the baby.

James walked slowly behind Emma and found Teddy and Harry in the back garden which now housed a massive playset for the kids. Amelia and Olivia were on a smaller plastic set with a slide while Emma left Alex and ran up a large slide towards a wooden playhouse.

Sera continued over to the slide with Alex and settled herself at the bottom of it where she laid down and closed her eyes, barely moving when Amelia slid down into her, crawled over her, and ran back around to climb the small ladder again.

“Hey,” Teddy called out from his seat near the play sets. “Grab a beer and pull up a chair.”

James watched to see what Alex would do, but rather than going to the slide, he moved over to the trucks in the sandpit and climbed in to start digging.

He went over to his father and clapped him on the shoulder, taking the beer his dad held out. “How’s it going?”

“We’re doing alright,” Harry told him as James sat down with him. “We’re waiting on Draco and Astoria to get here, but Lily said they won’t be here for another hour at least. They’re coming for dinner and not staying long, at least that’s the impression I was given.”

James sincerely hoped so. He didn’t want to have to deal with the man for too long. He wanted to enjoy his family and the evening. “Is anyone else here?”

“Roxy and Gwen are here,” Teddy told him as he stretched out his long legs. “Gran and Granddad, obviously. Bill and Fleur, Percy is here, but Audrey is running late. George and Angelina, Ron and Hermione, Honor, Hugo, Al and Nat.”

“We’re here now,” Brayden said, coming around with Molly, her hand in his. “I think Rose and Andrew just arrived with Claire,” he told them as Harry stood up to hug Molly.

“I’m going to go in and see if they need help,” Molly said as Brayden took a seat. He had his brown hair cut short, at the moment, and as James studied him, he saw his eyes, the same brown as his hair, looked tired.

“You okay, mate?” James asked him.

“Work,” Brayden told him with a long sigh. Brayden worked in the Department of International Magical Cooperation and while he was still a junior in the department, he was tasked with dealing with a lot of the paperwork that was coming with all the women who were seeking medical treatments in England because of Crabbe. “The stories I’m hearing… and I can’t just approve everyone.”

Teddy reached over and patted his back. “You’re doing what you can. She’s doing what she can.”

Brayden nodded but they fell silent on the matter and Claire burst out of the house and ran towards the play set. “Hi!” she called with a wave towards them but ran towards Emma and the bigger playset.

“We’ll talk more later,” Harry told Brayden, who acknowledged him with a nod.

~*~

Teddy had set up a silent alarm to alert them to when Draco and Astoria arrived and as soon as the alarm went, he was up and moving towards the house, right along with Harry, leaving Al and Brayden with the kids. James was on edge about Draco’s visit. Teddy could tell because his brother kept constantly looking towards the house. He didn’t mind leaving his kids in Al’s care. Al was good with his nieces and nephew and all the kids liked Brayden, who could be a character when he wasn’t exhausted from work.

They made it into the house even before they rang the bell and he was at Victoire’s side when the bell sounded.

“Here we go,” Scorpius muttered under his breath as he squared his shoulders. Teddy glanced over to see Lily with a genuine smile on her face. He could only marvel at her. Lily walked over with her husband, taking his hand, Sera following behind her.

Draco and Astoria’s arrival ended up being absolutely anticlimactic. They came in quietly, greeted everyone, thanked everyone for the invitation, and then accepted drinks. Teddy stood with Harry, Arthur, and Bill making small talk with Draco while Astoria went into the kitchen with Molly, Ginny and Lily and helped put the finishing touches on dinner.

“So you’ll have seven grandchildren in the coming year?” Draco asked Harry.

“Yes, seven,” Harry agreed. “It seems like just yesterday that Emma was born, but she’ll be five this coming January when the other babies come along.”

“And Lily is due in April,” Draco commented. “Their baby will have cousins just about the same age. That will be nice.”

Yes, it would be nice, and yes, this was really, really weird. He was talking to someone who had been branded a Death Eater when he was still a child. Teddy had to force himself not to think about that. “I was the oldest of the group, with Victoire a few years behind me. I wouldn’t have minded having family who was about the same age.”

Draco cocked his head to the side and considered him. “You’re more related to me than you are to Harry, but yet he’s your family and I am not. It’s strange how things work out.”

Teddy hadn’t thought about that. Technically his grandmother had been the sister to Draco’s mother, Narcissa. Of course, a lot of the older magical families were related in one way or another, but this one was definitely… odd. “Harry helped raise me after my parents died,” Teddy said by way of not answering. He didn’t know how to respond to that, exactly, except to state the truth. “He’s the only father I’ve known.”

“And I was in jail,” Draco said absently as he glanced over towards the kitchen, then back to his son. “You and Teddy are actually cousins, and yet I’d never even considered it.”

Scorpius shifted uncomfortably. “Well… we’ll have to pay more attention to family.”

“Indeed,” was all Draco said and then he fell silent as the kids stormed into the house and yelling in only the joy that kids could bring.

“Excuse me,” Teddy said to the other men as he went to round up his children and help settle them in their seats at the table.

Dinner was a noisy, boisterous affair, as it often was. It might have been awkward, but none of the children had any idea that it was supposed to be awkward with Draco there, so they kept up their normal, happy chatter, and soon enough the adults had followed along until everyone had relaxed, even, it seemed, Draco and Astoria.

“We have an announcement,” Fred said, clanging on his glass and grinning over at his wife.

“Please tell me I’m going to be a grandmother,” Angelina said, pointing her fork at her son. “I am done with waiting.”

“You are going to be a grandmother,” Eva confirmed, absolutely beaming with happiness as the table erupted in cheers.

“When are you due?” Gran asked Eva as tears of joy ran down her face. “Just imagine! I’ll have eight great-grandchildren soon!”

“I’m due in May,” Eva told everyone as she turned to Lily. “We’ll be due about the same time.”

“That’s great,” Lily told her, clearly happy about it. “I’m so glad we’ll have so many children growing up together.”

Truly, life didn’t get much better than this.

“A toast,” Louis said, standing up and holding up his glass of water. “To family, old and new and very new,” he said, glancing around at everyone.

“To family!” they all called back.

~*~

Al had volunteered himself and Nat to watch the kids outside after dinner so that the adults could take a break. Truthfully, he just wanted some time with Nat and knew this was an excellent way to get out of helping with cleanup without being scolded by his mother.

Alex, who was getting tired, had reached up for Al to hold him while Nat pushed Amelia in a toddler swing. Olivia, Emma, and Claire were all playing in the sandbox, but clearly Amelia and Alex were about ready to drop. Alex was playing with Al’s shirt collar and was growing heavier by the second, so Al knew his nephew was about to pass out.

“It went better than I thought it would,” Nat mused as she continued to push Amelia, talking in a low voice so the other girls wouldn’t hear. “I wasn’t sure if we would have any drama, but it seemed unlikely.”

Al hadn’t known what to expect when Scorpius had told him they were all having dinner with his parents. For as long as they’d been friends, Al really hadn’t hung out around Scorpius’ parents. He’d met them a few times, but he’d never spent any appreciable time in their company and tonight had been an experience, for certain.

Overall, he really like Scorpius’ mother. Astoria Malfoy was a very nice, if somewhat reserved woman, but she’d made a real effort to interact with everyone tonight and it showed that she was trying. Draco had seemed almost drugged, although Al doubted he was. He’d been subdued and on his very best behavior. If Al were to place a bet, he suspected his father had spoken to Draco beforehand and had warned him to behave, but when he’d asked his dad, Harry had promised he hadn’t. He didn’t think his father lied to him, so he’d have lost that bet. Still, it had worked out and for that, Al was grateful. He didn’t want Lily’s family situation to be stressful.

“Do you think he’ll continue to behave himself?” Al wondered and realized he’d set it out loud.

“I think so,” Nat said slowly. “I think he knows he’s going to lose everything if he doesn’t. He doesn’t want his son to disown him. I’ve heard his father has stopped speaking to him, and I think he gets the sting of that and doesn’t want it on both sides.”

Al had heard that story, too, from Scorpius. Lucius was still so upset about Scorpius marrying Lily that he was holding Draco accountable and both his mother and father weren’t currently speaking to him. “They will probably change their minds at some point.”

“I don’t know whether to wish for that or not,” Nat mused as she slowed the swing, having noted that Amelia had fallen asleep in the seat. Thankfully it was one that had a full back and straps so the little girl could sleep there safely. “If they were my parents, I’d rather they didn’t speak to me.”

That was true enough, but it was what Draco was used to, so he likely didn’t see it for the dysfunctional disaster it truly was. “Is Alex asleep?”

“Yeah,” Nat confirmed as she went to sit on one of the ladder rungs while Al continued to stand, swaying with the little boy to keep him asleep. “So… another baby.”

“Yeah,” Al said with a grin. “Fred is going to be interesting as a dad.”

“Yes, yes he is,” Nat laughed and shook her head. “At least he has Eva to balance him out.”

“I wonder when Molly is going to want one,” Al wondered and then raised a brow at the look that crossed Nat’s face. “What?”

“She told us they’re going to wait at least another year or two,” Nat told him with a shrug.

“But why that look?”

Nat hesitated for a moment and then shook her head. “I’m just… I’m just a little jealous, that’s all.” She looked ashamed of herself and glanced away. “I don’t have the options they do and I wish I could have it. I wish I could just casually say, oh not yet. I mean, I get it with Rose. She has another two years of school left and then she wants to work for a bit to get established. It makes sense and she’s only nineteen. It isn’t as though she’s very old. Molly is only twenty-three, so she has a lot of time yet, as well.”

Al could hear it, even though she hadn’t said it. He knew her too well. “But?”

“But,” Nat continued as she stuck her tongue out at him. “I just wish they would get on with it. These are the babies I get to have,” she said, pointing around at the children. “I’m enjoying being an honorary aunt.”

“You’ll have your own family someday,” Al told her and nearly said he’d make sure of it personally, but just that second James came out the back door and called out to them and the moment was lost.

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Chapter 81: Chapter 76 Part ONE

Author's Notes: Is this working for you? Do you like having them split in half? I admit, it's easier on me.

Please, please consider going to pa treon and supporting me there! It's not much money, and you get access to a bunch of my original works. Search for me- Sarah Jaune

Thank you so much to Arnel for beta'ing

Leave a review, let me know about the formatting


Chapter 77

Isabella Crabbe’s plan was not going how she’d hoped or wished, or at least she was reasonably certain it wasn’t. The plan had, inadvertently, given her information she didn’t know she’d needed, though. When she’d planned, so many years ago, to take Lily Potter and destroy her in the cruelest way, she’d been only thinking about revenge against Harry Potter and taking his favorite child from him. Actually, in truth, it had begun when she’d poisoned and impregnated Ginny Weasley just after the last battle, but that had also backfired on her. Harry and Ginny had truly loved each other and that horrible woman, Audrey, had figured out that Ginny had been poisoned and she’d saved her life.

But she hadn’t saved the baby and that had its own form of sweetness to it. They’d mourned the baby. Sources close to them, the few she’d been able to find who could be convinced to talk, had told her that Ginny had mourned deeply. Then they’d been made to forget that they’d spoken of it at all.

Isabella didn’t always kill. Killing left a messy trail and she didn’t always want that trail to be found, but when she did want it found, she was sure the finding would leave a mark.

When her first plot for revenge hadn’t worked in the way she’d wanted, she’d stewed and plotted and thought and brainstormed and attempted and trialed… and finally she’d figured out what she wanted to do.

Isabella had been raped until she was pregnant and then when pregnant she’d been forced to marry the bastard, Crabbe Sr., who had raped her. The same thing had happened to her sister. It had all been in the service of making more pureblood, magical babies, and that was the problem. Magic was the problem. They didn’t need more magical babies. Frankly, they didn’t need to survive as a species. She’d set her sights on focusing on removing the ability to use magic once and for all.

It had taken years of research, years of trial and error and years of letting vile men rape and pillage so she could test her theory. She’d killed a lot of women and babies in her time until she’d come up with a potion that was odorless, colorless, and tasteless and could be slipped into anything else and still be stable enough to work. She’d spent gobs of money, mostly other people’s, to finetune the process and to make sure that she had what she needed to erase magical babies from the planet.

There wasn’t supposed to be a cure. There wasn’t supposed to be a reversal. If the children survived, and a good number of them didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to use the magic they were born with.

But something had gone wrong. Somehow, someway, Potter had figured out a method for reversing the damage that was being done to women. As far as she could tell, his son’s brat was healthy and strong. If the poison was still working in the welp, he should have been sickly and pale at the very least. He should have been dead, which was the plan she’d had when she’d kidnapped Potter and used him to impregnate that prostitute in Brazil, but no… the brat was fine, or at least as fine as she could tell. He did have an aunt who was a Healer and was, ostensibly, the one healing everyone from Crabbe’s poison. It was what they’d told the public, of course, but Crabbe knew for a fact it couldn’t be the healer because there was no way to counteract the potion. There was no cure. Nothing a Healer could do would change or save a woman or the fetus.

And yet, they were curing women.

She’d tried to sneak women in to learn what was going on, but none of that intelligence ever paid off. They always discovered the plants and the women were hidden away from Crabbe so she couldn’t question them.

She had kidnapped several women who had been treated to interrogate them, but they were all put to sleep shortly after they saw Audrey Weasley and they knew nothing afterwards. Crabbe had killed several of them out of pure spite even though she doubted Weasley ever learned how.

No, it wasn’t a Healer doing this, but that didn’t negate the fact that the women and children were being saved. So, how were they doing it? Crabbe had been trying to figure that out for over a year and she felt like she was no closer to discovering how they were doing it. She knew Potter was involved, but she couldn’t fathom how someone would be able to stop the poison.

But someone was stopping it and Lily’s Potter life was proof of it. They had a way to stop all poisons that couldn’t be a bezoar because she’d intentionally made her potion immune to it. Her potion wasn’t a poison, perse, it was a block to magical receptors in the body. A side effect was the person given the potion would get sick and sometimes die, but that didn’t mean it was a poison. She’d tested it multiple times and a bezoar never helped the woman.

But just to be sure, she gave Lily Potter the potion, many poisons, and a few things that couldn’t be rid from the body without extreme measures and yet she’d learned from intercepting Lucius Malfoy’s owls that Lily Potter was alive and well and most definitely not sick.

She should have been dead, and yet she lived.

How was Potter saving everyone?!

A knock sounded at the door of the room she was temporarily using as her office in the home she’d taken over from the couple she’d killed months back. “Enter,” she called and she turned to find her righthand man standing in the door, a scroll in his hand. “News?” she asked.

He nodded once. Even his gestures were always brief, sometimes too brief. He never spared words when he could help it. “The plant contacted us.”

Crabbe waited a moment then let out a painful sigh. If the man weren’t so damn useful, she’d have killed him already, but as it was, he was the smartest man she’d ever met and he had a knack for keeping all the details straight. When one was attempting to eradicate an entire population of magical beings, there was a lot of organization that went into the process.

The man had come to her, which was not the way she normally worked. He’d been a one-time associate of Donald Baker, but unlike Baker he wasn’t a degenerate perv and it made working with him considerably easier. Baker had been a narcissistic, egotistical, self-aggrandizing prick who had only been useful for his money. However, he’d been connected and one of those connections had resulted in her current right-hand man.

He didn’t come with money, but he also didn’t come with an ego the size of America. Normally she liked weak men who would happily give into their baser natures. It made them easier to control.

But this man had come with something better, something she fully understood and appreciated.

Her right-hand man wanted revenge in the worst possible way and he was willing to do anything to secure his revenge. She didn’t have to work to control him when his aim was exactly in line with hers and she let him poison whomever, however, whenever he wanted.

He’d already destroyed several lives, including ending the life of the woman he’d been supposed to marry. She’d left him for his younger brother, who arguably had more magical talent. She was dead, his brother was a widower, looking to remarry.

The new wife would die the same way.

That was fine with Crabbe. She needed this man on her team and if he needed to focus some of his anger, that was something she could respect. “What did the plant say?” Crabbe asked, forcing the issue.

Honestly, she wondered if it was the magic the woman left him for or his lack of conversational skills.

“They haven’t made any progress on getting closer,” he answered succinctly. “Every time they push, the target backs off noticeably. They are concerned with losing ground.”

Crabbe did not want to hear any of this, but she couldn’t say she was surprised, either. She’d always known this was a long shot, but the plant was distantly related to her on a branch that was always likely to be more sympathetic to what she’d been through when she lost her son. Added to that, the plant didn’t want to be targeted by Crabbe and was willing to cooperate to ensure that didn’t happen to their family.

If bribery didn’t work, and often it didn’t, threats usually did. “They need to keep trying. I want to see some progress on that end before the end of the year.”

The man nodded and then held out the scroll. “More owls were intercepted between the Malfoys and the Greengrass family. Both sets of grandparents have been cut off by Scorpius Malfoy. We won’t be able to use them to get to Lily.”

Crabbe had been afraid of that, but of course it was not a stretch to think he’d have cut them off. Crabbe would have cut them off, as well, simply for how annoying they could be during dinner. “Are we having any luck on Draco or Astoria?”

“None,” the man answered shortly. “They are refusing any comment from any of the sources we’ve tasked with answering questions. They simply say they are happy for their son and his new wife. We’ve made no inroads there.”

It was the most the man had spoken in a very long time and she took a moment to consider it. “Very well. We’ll keep on the plant with the other source, try to see if we can get more information on the other project. I do not like how badly this has gone.”

The man hesitated for a moment and then said, “They have to have someone healing the women. If it’s a person, we have stop them.”

“The question is who and we can’t get that without the right person telling us all their secrets,” Crabbe fumed as she strode over to the window and looked out onto the lower slopes of the Andes mountains. “Thus far I can’t get to anyone due to their security and those I can secure to question do not know who or what is happening. We are left in the dark with no way to find other answers.”

It was absolutely infuriating to her that she had come so far, so quickly, and was stalled here. Their only silver lining was however they were healing the women, they couldn’t keep up with the demand and volume that Crabbe was producing. She was working to poison the entire magical population and they were on track to achieve that in the next two or three years. It all depended on their supply chain remaining intact here in South America and the governments continuing to not play nicely with the British or American Aurors.

But she had something the Aurors lacked and that was money and pure spite.

As she’d already realized, bribery went a very long way, and if it didn’t, threats would usually do the trick. No one here wanted their wife, sister, or daughter to be poisoned. If she kept them from being poisoned, then they were happy. If they were given money along with their females remaining free from the poison, so much the better.

When someone didn’t play along with her scheme, he found his wife in a world of hurt and a new child he might not have actually fathered planted in her belly.

Yes, she held all the cards in this situation.

Of course, in the end, all of them would have to be given the poison. They weren’t going to leave anyone to reproduce and keep the magical lines alive, but that could wait until they had a sufficient stockpile secured in a location that no government or Auror would ever be able to find. It had to be enough, also, to combat the person healing the women.

Soon. Soon it would be enough.

~*~

Somehow Al had made it through his first year of Auror training. It was September, school was back in for Hogwarts and he was not there. Again. Last year had been weird, he had to admit that. He’d been going back to school for so long that not going back was definitely something else, like missing out on a chore he had done every day of his life. Maybe it was like not brushing his teeth. Yeah, that could be it.

Al shook his head and commanded himself to focus. He was back in school, only it was Auror school and Auror school didn’t get summer hols. No, indeed, he didn’t even get weekends half the time. If things were going badly, and often they were, Al and Lena were brought into the Ministry to observe and take notes on what was going on. They were there, according to his father, to learn how things were done.

Realistically, though, he and Lena were there to fetch tea and make sure they had a record of everything that happened. He felt like a secretary whenever this happened, but since he knew most of the other Aurors had all gone through the same thing, it wasn’t like he could complain.

His dad hadn’t done any of this, of course. He’d come out of the war as a hero and he’d gone straight in to be an Auror. He’d barely been trained. Instead, he and Uncle Ron were thrust straight into the mix of things and had to learn as they went along. “We could have easily been killed,” his dad would say with disgust. It was why he insisted on the training for the new Aurors. They had three years, that had been standard, but under his dad’s control and in conjunction with the Americans who were equally as mental, they’d upped the hours of training in those three years to make them even more intense.

And finally, his dad had managed to get the Aurors their very own Room of Requirement. Oh, they didn’t call it that. It was called the training room, very dismissively, if anyone asked about it, but it was a near perfect replica of the room at Hogwarts. Only theirs was specialized for Aurors, which meant the room tried to kill them. Often.

He and Lena had advanced to using the room now that they were done with their first year. Most of the summer had involved going into the training room, feeling woefully unprepared, and learning that no, it’s actually worse than that.

Al had really thought that after a year of study and physical training that he would have been at least mildly competent in real world scenarios, but no. No, he would get in there and within minutes, but he and Lena would have red paint splattered all over them indicating that they’d taken a fatal hit and died. It was absolutely brilliant. Completely. Just what he wanted to do nearly every day.

In fact, he’d already died twice that day and was looking forward to a third time any moment now.

“Duck!” Lena shouted just before the both of them were hit with the light that meant they’d both been killed.

Al glanced down at himself in disgust and shook his head. “Let’s go break for lunch and regroup,” he told Lena as she waved her wand at first herself and then him, removing the paint.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” she said wearily. “I swear the room gets faster every single time we come in here.”

“It’s definitely faster,” Al complained as he walked with her to the door. “If they’re trying to demoralize us, they’re doing a banging good job.” Al pushed the door open to absolute chaos. It was so out of place that for a moment he froze, unsure of what to do, then he sprinted for their trainer and asked how they could help.

“Just stay out of the way for now,” he barked and Al nodded to Lena, moving off to the side to watch as people yelled and scrambled.

“What could have possibly gone wrong in the thirty minutes we were in the training room?” Lena wondered as she sidestepped to where they put their things. It was supposed to be a desk for them, but it was more like an end table. They didn’t even rate chairs. She grabbed her bagged lunch and opened it, pulling out a sandwich.

Since they weren’t going to be allowed to help anyway, Al did the same. “Dunno,” he said after he took a bite of his own lunch. “Nothing we’re going to do but wait for someone to announce what’s going on, though.”

They didn’t have new recruits that year. There were no new trainees for the Aurors, so there was no one below Al and Lena in the Aurors. Al had almost hoped they would get someone new in, but no one had qualified.

To be fair, they’d only had one application, but he wasn’t fit to handle the job.

“Alright!”

Al looked up at the sound of his father’s voice and quickly shoved the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth. He needn’t have worried, though, as his dad didn’t even bother looking their way.

“I have a bit more information and we’ll be mobilizing in a matter of minutes,” Dad told the assembled Aurors. “The Americans have let us know they were hit hard in New York and would like ten Aurors to come and assist. I have chosen who is going based on several factors, most of which includes flexibility to be gone for at least a week.”

“What happened?” Lena asked, but so quietly only Al could hear her.

It was exactly what Al wanted to know, only he was smart enough not to ask any questions.

“Do we have any more details yet?” Teddy asked.

“We are still working on the report of a massive explosion at their Ministry with people still in the building,” Harry told them. “They have enough people to search but they’re looking for more security while they do so. That’s where we are coming in. I believe the French, German, and Australian Aurors are also sending people. It’s going to be a huge undertaking and they need to be able to focus on search and rescue while not worrying that more attacks might be coming. After I call your name, if you need to be excluded, come and see me immediately so I can arrange a swap.”

Then he read off the names and not one of them wanted to miss out on the assignment to America.

“You two can take off for the rest of the day,” their trainer said to them. “We won’t get more done. Be ready to go in the morning. I’ll leave instructions for you.”

“Alright,” Lena said as she grabbed her bag. “Let’s go get some ice cream from Diagon Alley,” she said to Al as they headed towards the door. “Summer is over and it’s going to be too cold soon.”

Truthfully, all Al wanted to do was head home and fall flat on his face, but he hadn’t had a chance to hang out with Lena in weeks so he agreed and they headed for the exit.

The whole Ministry was buzzing with the news of the attack of America. It wasn’t as though there were many details to be had, but it didn’t stop anyone from speculating on what might be going on.

Primarily, everyone was concerned that if the Aurors went to America, and someone attacked them in London, they would be in serious trouble.

But when their ministry had been attacked, the Americans had sent Aurors immediately. So, Al thought this was only right.

“You’ve been lost in thought,” Lena said and Al realized he’d missed the entire trip to the ice cream shop. They were standing just inside and the man was waiting to take their order.

“Chocolate,” Al told him as he pulled out his coins and paid for both of their ice creams. He went over to a table and slumped down with his bowl of ice cream and poked at it. “I just hate feeling like I’m rubbish at our job.”

“We’re both rubbish,” Lena pointed out. “Also, it seems like everyone else expects us to be this level of rubbish. I take comfort in that.”

Al felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips. “It’s just… with my dad…”

“You aren’t your dad and your dad doesn’t want you to try to be him,” Lena reminded him pointedly. “You’re your own man and you need to do your own thing. But aside from that, he wasn’t trained properly. He’s told us that before. He wants us trained and he warned us it would be really hard. But we’ll get there.”

Al nodded again and took a bite of his ice cream. “I guess I get to wait and someday it’ll be us flying off to America to help.”

Back to index


Chapter 82: Chapter 76 Part TWO

Author's Notes: First off, thank you to Arnel for beta'ing!

Thank you to everyone who leaves a review. Thank you to those who have bought a book or supported me on patre on (I have to spell that wrong or it gets flagged).

I am traveling the next several weeks on a trip I have desperately wanted to take for many years now, and some of it involves crossing over into Canada where I may or may not have internet. I'll write, but I may not be able to post until I'm back Oct 1st. I'm just not sure! But I'll have something for you then, if not before. I'll try for before.

Let me know what you think


“I’m home,” Teddy called out and heard various shrieks and screams as three little girls ran pell-mell for him, grappling onto his legs as he continued to walk towards the kitchen where he could smell dinner cooking. “I have little badgers hanging off my legs,” he growled down as his girls who giggled and clung tighter to him. “Hi, luv,” he said as he walked over to Victoire who was seated at the counter writing on some parchment. It wasn’t actually hard to walk with the girls hanging off of him, but he made sure to give it a good grunt to send them off into more giggle fits. He bent and kissed his wife’s cheek and then her mouth when she turned her head to smile up at him. “How are you doing?” he asked, rubbing his hand along the swell of her belly.

“Mostly fine,” she said with a long sigh as she leaned her head against his chest. “Nap time today was not as long as I wanted.”

“Who didn’t want to sleep?” Teddy asked, glancing down at his girls. Immediately all three raised a hand to indicate they didn’t want a nap as they giggled uproariously. “Mhmm,” he mumbled as he tried not to smile at their impishness. “Do you want to nap now?”

“No,” Victoire assured him as she picked up her quill and continued to write. “I have a report due for work tomorrow, though, so keep them occupied while I finish it.”

“I can do that,” Teddy promised as he glanced over to Teeny who was preparing dinner. The dynamic in their home had changed a lot over the last year. Teeny had, at one time, been Emma’s playmate and friend. While Teeny would still play with the girls, she was now a full-grown elf and didn’t want to be playing all the time. She wanted to work. She liked to work and when she’d asked if she could come and work for them, he’d been a little concerned with how it was going to go.

He wished she could have had a different life, but ultimately Teeny had chosen what she’d wanted. She willingly accepted a salary from them of one galleon a week, which was absolutely terrible and very low, but she wouldn’t take more. On the flip side, she took off to see her mother and new brother when she wanted and she regularly went to work other places as the mood struck her. It was working out but it had been working out informally for the last year.

Right around when Emma turned three, Teeny had started to help with the household chores and she’d also started to help with the cooking. She’d wanted to help. She’d also started teaching Emma how to do small things, which worked out beautifully for them. Emma and the twins were now doing simple chores around the house that they were happy to do because it was Teeny asking, now Mummy and Daddy.

“Do you need any help, Teeny?” Teddy asked the elf as she continued on with dinner.

“Nope,” Teeny asked with a cheerful wave. “I am on track.”

Another thing that was heartening about Teeny was her lack of formality. She wasn’t bothered with it the way her mother was. It was good to see. He hoped, at some point, she’d accept more pay for her work but as she told them, she didn’t need much and they provided whatever she did need, so more money wouldn’t be helpful.

“Alright you three,” Teddy said as he reached down and scooped them all up into his arms. “Out we go!”

He was outside with them for only five minutes before Harry came through the back door. After the initial round of, “Granddad!!” that required hugs and attention, the girls went back to playing with only occasionally calling out for them to watch.

“Any news?” Teddy asked his father as he watched the girls.

“It’s not good,” Harry told him seriously. “I’ve had word that they’ve lost at least a dozen of their Aurors.”

Teddy’s heart sunk as he took it in. He knew a lot of the Aurors from around the world, simply because there weren’t that many of them. In total there were likely only two or three thousand Aurors worldwide, so they were generally a tightknit group. “Any word on what happened?”

“It was a fanatical faction from Saudi Arabia,” Harry said with absolute disgust. “You know they have that weird relationship between the Muggle governments, right?”

“Yeah,” Teddy confirmed with a nod. “The Muggles want their oil so they play nice with the government, which is essentially a terrorist dictatorship pretending to be a monarchy.”

“Close enough,” Harry agreed as his mouth twisted into a grimace. “They’ve been having some squabbles recently because of the fact that they keep sending their most radical citizens out of the country. Apparently, that’s not limited to their Muggle radicals and they deported about forty psychopath wizards to America and Canada. They formed a new terrorist group that we’re only now hearing about because the wizards didn’t know about them and their Muggle FBI didn’t bother to share it.”

Teddy’s brain had to process the FBI part, but he knew of them, of course. They were a Muggle version of the Aurors and in America they were supposed to share the information between the Muggle and Magical agencies, just as they were in Britain. Unfortunately, no law enforcement agency did well at sharing, the Aurors included. “So, the FBI knew about them and didn’t say anything?”

“They knew about them for two years and didn’t say a word,” Harry told him bitterly. “They might have a hundred people dead because they didn’t say anything.”

Teddy closed his eyes and shook his head. It was one thing to be careful with one’s information, but it was another to keep secrets so closely that people ended up dead. “Damn it.”

“I’m not sending you,” Harry told him flatly, “But I want you sitting in on my decision process.”

Teddy opened his eyes and turned to study Harry more closely. “Why, what’s up?”

Harry let out a long, slow breath. “Right now, you’re in the thick of raising young children, but look at our Auror force.”

Teddy let his raised brow be his answer. He didn’t know what Harry was getting at.

“We have plenty of people who are in their fifties and sixties, and many who are older than that,” Harry pointed out to him. “My plan is to stick with the Aurors for another twenty or thirty years,” he said without inflection. “That’s the plan, and currently it’s what the British magical community wants.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming from you,” Teddy said slowly, not sure he wanted to know where it was coming from.

“But,” Harry said on a long sigh as he glanced over to the kids, “I need a successor. The only two who are in the age between you and me have both turned me down. I didn’t consider either of them a strong candidate to be the Head Auror, as neither has the temperament for it, but since I don’t have the temperament for it, either, I didn’t want to exclude them. They both said no. They value being able to leave work at work.”

“I value being able to leave work at work,” Teddy reminded him as he pointed to the girls. “I have them to consider.” Then he shut his mouth because he knew Harry had been put in the same position. He’d had to consider not only Teddy, but James, Al, and Lily, as well. “It’s not my goal to take your job. Don’t you think Al might want it?”

“I don’t know what Al might want,” Harry admitted honestly. “I haven’t spoken to him about it because I can’t yet see if he or Lena will be solid Aurors. Right now, they’re both acceptable in their training. If they keep on their course, they’ll end up being fine Aurors who don’t stand out. Maybe that might mean one or both of them will have the temperament to take control and be the Head Auror in all its political glory, but right now I don’t even know that they will make it through. You’ve made it through and you’re much better than an adequate Auror.”

Teddy heaved out a long sigh as he considered his options. He was committing to being the Head Auror. He wasn’t even committing to more work as an Auror. If he read it correctly, Harry simply wanted him to shadow Harry so he’d have a good idea of what it took to be the Head Auror. “Are you concerned you won’t be able to finish out to retirement?”

“At this point, anything can happen,” Harry reminded him darkly. “We didn’t lose the Head Auror in America, but we came very close to it. He was feet away from someone who did die. If something happens to me, there needs to be someone who can step in. There are a few older Aurors who can do so and they would if needs be, but they have all said that it should be in the hands of someone younger and frankly all of them have faith in you.”

“All of them?” Teddy asked him, very skeptically.

“All of them,” Harry returned seriously which gave Teddy a moment of pause. “All of them know you have a lot on your plate with having a young family, and none of them want you to have the job now, but in twenty years when your children are all grown, that’s a different story. Merlin’s beard, I don’t want it to come to it, but I would be foolish to not plan ahead. Right now, you’re my top choice. If we have a super-star come along in the next few years, I know you’ll be ready to step back and let them take the lead.”

Harry was right about that. Teddy didn’t have his own ego as forefront when it came to his job. He liked his job and he felt like he was good at it, and a solid asset to the team, but he’d never wanted to rise up the ranks so far that he would have a target placed on him. “I’ll shadow you for a while,” Teddy said finally. “I’ll see what it means to have the job and, in a few months, I’ll let you know if I feel like it’s the right fit for me. That’s the best I can do right now.”

“It’s all I’m asking,” Harry assured him with a long sigh. “Come give Granddad a hug, girls,” he called out to the children. “We’ll have them over for a sleep over sometime,” he told Teddy. “Let you and Victoire have a night off soon.”

~*~

Lily hadn’t planned out much of her life, at least not until that point. She’d been going along with the natural rhythm of school and accomplishing what she could there. She tried to pick a career path because it was what was expected of her, even though she never really had a solid lead on what she would have liked to do. At first, she’d thought about running a restaurant, but when she’d seriously looked into how much time and effort it would take, she’d quickly realized that she wouldn’t have a life outside of running the restaurant and that wasn’t what she’d wanted with her life. Then she’d considered charity work, and she still thought that would be the best use of her time. She could devote as much, or as little, time as she wanted to projects she felt would be worthwhile and pass on anything that didn’t strike her as something she would be good at accomplishing.

She hadn’t seriously considered a job with the Ministry or in a shop. She didn’t know what else she might want to do with her life. Rose was happy as could be with her job training to be a potions master and there was no doubt in Lily’s mind that Rose would be good at it. Honor was seriously considering a job with the Ministry. Hugo had opted to work with his dad and uncle in the joke shop once he was done with school.

Lily was having a baby and not a career.

She glanced down at her small belly and then back out at the late morning sky which she could watch every morning from the back garden solarium. It was her favorite room in the house, or at least it was for now. She rather expected the baby’s room to get first pick when she was done, but for now it was still a work in progress.

When everything had happened at Rose’s wedding, Lily had struggled to process all the changes in her life. She’d been married to Scorpius only a few hours after the trauma and the bond between them had been… powerful. It had been a driving factor in what had happened, often, over the week following their nuptials. She’d never truthfully considered sex before it had happened, and then it had and she’d had to come to grips with what it meant. Learning her child was actually Scorpius’ child, as well, had been such a relief to her. She’d desperately hoped it would be so, but she’d been preparing herself for it to be someone else’s. He’d married her to save her. In the end, though, she liked to think their love won out.

Now they were married and had been for months at this point. They were still getting used to living together, to living in this big house that her inheritance money had paid for, and to the changes that were soon to come their way. For a while, Lily had been worried she’d miscarry like her mother had, but Nat had promised Lily many times that Lily was completely healthy and had no lingering side effects from her brief kidnapping.

At least, she didn’t have any physical side effects. She definitely had some mental ones. She didn’t remember any of what had happened to her, but waking up in the way she had… well, it left scars. Lily rubbed at her small stomach and tried to put the pieces together in her brain in a way that could make sense to anyone, but she knew it didn’t even make sense to her. She was so happy about the baby. She was happy being married to Scorpius. She was happy to be out of the school which was nothing but stress to her.

Yes, she was still desperately sad and felt like something had been stolen from her. She wanted, very much, to go back and try to redo what had happened, but at the same time she didn’t because she didn’t want to lose what she had now. All she could do was move forward and hope things would even out.

Her mother had arranged for therapy for Lily. A therapist came every week, sometimes twice a week, to the house and talked to Lily about what she was feeling and how she was coping. The therapist gave her tips on how to deal with her empathy and her levels of anxiety. She talked about eating right, getting exercise, and always communicating with her family.

It was helping. Lily could see it was helping, but it felt like the progress was so slow. Still, it was progress.

She was having a girl. They’d only found out a few days before but both she and Scorpius were very happy with news. Lily had cried. She would have cried over learning they were having a boy, as well, but she was so happy. Her parents were thrilled, even though they had many granddaughters already. She still didn’t know what Caroline’s baby was, but if she had to guess she suspected it was a boy. Time would tell, as Nat was keeping quiet on what the baby was.

So far, they were considering the name Lorelei.

Sera, who was laying at her feet, nudged her ankle with her nose. “Yeah,” she said to the dog absently. “I like the name, too.”

They were building their dream one brick at a time. Their home was essentially done. They were starting their family. Lily had decided that she was going to raise their children for a while and then maybe do something else later. Scorpius was going to be in for a large pay rise just after the baby was born. But they would be fine until then. The money her parents had set aside had been more than enough to buy and redo the house and they could comfortably live off of Scorpius’ pay with one child. After he was done with his training, he would earn considerably more and she wouldn’t need a job. They were blessed in a way that a lot of families weren’t. She didn’t have to get a job.

The only sour note in their lives was Scorpius’ parents. His mother had been happy at the news of a granddaughter, but his father was less than thrilled. He’d hid it enough so that they didn’t have to talk about it, but Lily had sensed it and when Scorpius had asked her, she’d had to tell him that Draco hadn’t been pleased to hear the baby was a girl.

He wanted one grandson to carry on the name and not dilute the fortune, which was hysterical since they’d lost most of their fortune a long time ago. There was nothing to dilute.

Lily wanted many children. She liked the way that Teddy and Victoire’s family worked. She wanted that for herself, except she didn’t want the pressure or demands that Victoire had to still work some to continue to be a Healer. Oh, it worked for Victoire, but it wasn’t going to work for Lily.

She had her own ideas about her own path and she was done trying to please anyone else and do what was expected of her. She was going to do what was best for her and her family and anything else would have to fall away.

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Chapter 83: Chapter 77 Part ONE

Author's Notes: First off, for everyone who has lost someone to the virus, I want to let you know how sorry I am. For those who have survived, but aren't ever the same, you are also in my thoughts and prayers.

Arnel, thank you for beta'ing!

I am currently on a road trip and wrote this while I was in Canada, but now I'm in Vermont of a day and have enough wifi to post.

Love to all of you! Please consider finding me on patreo n OR buying a book from amazon- Sarah Jaune


Chapter 77 “ Dedicate chapter to those who lost their lives

James landed his broom at the coach’s whistle and grinned at the Keeper, Miles Shawes, who landed next to him. “That was good,” James told him. Miles had made a seriously excellent save against one of the reserve Chasers, who had definitely improved his game over the summer. They had one Chaser who was looking to retire in another year or two and James was confident the new bloke would be ready to step in when the time came.

A brisk breeze swept through the stadium, cooling James’ sweat-soaked hair. It was nearly Christmas and they were well into their season, but the weather hadn’t yet turned cold and it made practice go smoothly.

“Good game,” the coach called out, his voice magically magnified. “Head for the lockers to clean up and then we’ll have a team meeting before everyone leaves.”

James headed off with Miles and the other blokes to get a shower before returning to the team locker room where they held all of their meetings. It wasn’t uncommon to have a meeting after an intense practice, whether that was a good practice or not, but something tickled at James’ stomach as he walked in to find the coach waiting along with most of the rest of the team, already silent.

“Are you aware of what is going on in the wider Muggle world?” Coach asked them as soon as the whole team was settled.

The team collectively shook their heads, all looking equally bewildered as his coach let out a long sigh. “News came in as we were in the middle of practice that a virus is spreading in the Muggle world.”

James, who only had a vague idea of what a virus was, glanced over at his other teammates and saw some clearly understood what that meant, while others, like himself, remained in the dark.

“What it means for us,” Coach said shortly, “is that we will not be able to hold matches where Muggles will be exposed to us, in any way. They are beginning a quarantine measure as we speak and mandating people to stay in their homes.”

One of the Beaters said exactly what James was thinking. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” the coached told them soberly. “The Muggles do not have the ability to cure this disease and it’s killing a lot of people.”

“Is there nothing we can do to help?” the Seeker asked in a quiet voice.

Coach faced her and shook his head. “That’s not up to me to say. It’ll be up to the Ministry, but right now there is nothing we can do. We have games scheduled that would be noticed by the Muggles, at least the groups arriving for the games would. Until that is sorted, we’re going to be rescheduling or shuffling locations about to places where Muggles are unlikely to see us. If they haven’t sorted this by the time the World Cup is on, we’ll move that to the stadium in Montana that doesn’t have anything around it for hundreds of miles in all directions. I’ve heard that from the overseers already when they sent out notices.”

“So does this mean anything for us?” James asked, wondering what they were going to do about practices.

“No,” Coach assured him. “Just try to come and go without being spotted, if you can.”

It was with this brief ringing through his ears, James left the meeting, only to find Heather waiting for him, her blue eyes huge with alarm. “Can you believe it?” she asked him in a quiet voice. “It’s so scary!”

James wasn’t particularly scared or alarmed. Typically, Muggle diseases did nothing to the Magical community and vice versa, but what did alarm him was Heather, yet again, seeking him out. He understood that some people wanted to get close to him because of his father, but thankfully he hadn’t run into that on the team.

Except, possibly, in Heather’s case.

Sure enough… “Has your father said anything about it?” Heather asked him in a voice, he imagined, she thought was all too appealing in its helplessness.

It wasn’t, though. It simply rankled. “Nope,” James said with a tight smile. “I’ve heard nothing until this meeting. Excuse me, I want to get home.”

He left her, then, not caring if he was rude or not. He really didn’t like it when people treated him like an extension of his father. Honestly, he didn’t know how Al stood it.

Granted, James was often compared to his mother who was an amazing Chaser in her own right. So, it wasn’t like he didn’t have some family comparisons going on. Still, he preferred to be in his mother’s shadow over his father’s any day.

He arrived home to find his mum there with his wife and son. “Did you hear the news?” his mum asked the second he was through the door.

“Yeah,” James assured her as he picked up the toddling Alex and bent to kiss his wife. “Coach let us know and that there would be a change to game schedules from here on out. Have you heard from Dad yet?”

“Nothing but a note to say he was going to work late,” Ginny sighed. “I came over here for a bit of company while I was waiting and to tell Caroline, but she’s already heard from the cheer gym that all classes are cancelled. It’s looking serious for the Muggles.”

If Mum hadn’t heard from Dad, then things had to be very serious at work. Normally, he’d have taken the time to fill her in on something this serious, if he had the option.

James sighed and took Alex with him to the kitchen. “Well, let’s start dinner and try not to worry about it too much. We can’t fix it.”

They waited through dinner but when his dad didn’t contact them, his mum went home and they put Alex to sleep and settled down on the couch to read. James briefly stroked his wife’s belly, but then settled in with his book.

He wasn’t reading long before there was a knock at the door and he heard Louis’ voice call out before his cousin opened the door and stuck his head in. “Is this a bad time?”

James stared at his cousin’s expression and shook his head. “No, what’s up?”

“The news…” Louis said as he came in and flopped down on one of the chairs opposite them. “It’s all over Diagon Alley today. The Muggles are shutting everything down as they try to figure out what the virus is that’s making everyone sick.”

James pulled his wife closer almost by reflex as Caroline made a disheartened sound. He glanced at the smoldering fire and wished his father would come through and tell him what was going on. “Have we heard anything about magical people catching it?”

“No,” Louis told him with a frown. “I’d wondered that so I went and asked Victoire, but she said that everything she learned about it today was that it was Muggles only. That happens, you know. We don’t catch… uh… I think she said chicken pox and they don’t catch dragon pox. It’s something like that. Victoire had a better explanation, but it was something like that. She said that St. Mungo’s was looking into it right now, but the first thing they did was determine that the magical community was immune.”

It was a relief. James hated to admit it was a relief, but there he was… relieved. His family was all going to be safe. But the Muggles… “Are people dying?”

“Yeah,” Louis confirmed sadly. “Yeah, that’s what prompted the government response. They had a, what do they call it when a bunch of people get sick?”

“A pandemic,” Caroline offered as she rubbed absently at her stomach. “It’s called a pandemic, and you mean the one back in 2020?”

“Yeah,” Louis agreed, pointing to her. “That’s the one. Well, they had that and locked down and the country was none too happy about it, but this one is apparently a lot more deadly and it’s killing a wider range of people so the government sent out the order to shut down completely until they could get a handle on it.”

James shook his head. “What pandemic?”

“It wasn’t talked about much in the magical world,” Caroline told him. “It was easy for us to skirt around the Muggle precautions without any trouble. I only knew about it because we had a Muggle neighbor who talked endlessly about it when she saw us outside.”

“I didn’t know anything about it,” Louis admitted with a wry smile. “Victoire told me about it today. I didn’t even really know the word as it isn’t something we deal with.”

James let out a loud sigh and wished his mother would give him a clue as to what was happening. Until someone contacted them, they would sit and wait. Or likely go to sleep and read about it in the paper the next day.

Sometimes having family in the Ministry was absolutely useless.

~*~

Harry was absolutely swamped. Half of the team he’d sent to America to help out after the attack were back, full time, in England. He’d taken Teddy on to shadow him and it had worked out better than Harry could have possibly imagined. He’d continued to push his trainees, Al and Lena, and he was attempting to keep his marriage alive when he only saw his wife two or three nights a week.

Now they were dealing with a Muggle plague of sorts and Harry did not feel right about it, in any way. He’d voiced his concerns to the Minister that it was just too neat of a plan, but she’d pointed out that the Muggles had pandemics on a semi-regular basis and he should just let them get on with it, while he focused on how to keep the magical population from running afoul of the Muggle laws. Of course, that wasn’t actually Harry’s job.

Harry’s job was to be a paranoid bastard like Mad-Eye Moody and see a hex in absolutely everything. He owed Moody his life. He owed Moody a lot more than that. He’d been someone that, as a child, Harry had respected but thought just a bit cracked. Now he knew that Moody had the right of it and it was better to think that way than to be sorry later. He’d learned that when body parts started to show up at Hogwarts. He’d learned that lesson when he’d missed the fact that Crabbe had placed a bomb on the train tracks that would see the Hogwarts Express pass over. He’d see it in the blown train, in the mangled bodies of children, in the fear of not knowing if his own children had survived.

He'd learned his lessons.

It made him ask questions. Just then, he was trying to find the origins of the pandemic so he could see if, possibly, it was connected to their problems with Crabbe. It seemed highly unlikely. It wasn’t as though she’d know how to engineer a Muggle virus, not in the way she could create a potion or a curse, but it seemed too neat and tidy and that made him want to ask the question.

Could Crabbe be behind this? If it was Crabbe, how had she managed it? Obviously, she had money, but was it the kind of money that could buy off Muggle scientists who would have the capacity to create something like this? In his talks with Hermione and Audrey, they both concluded that the answer was no and that the sort of skill needed to create something like this would have been held only in the governments of some of the more advanced countries. If he asked the Americans about it, he’d be skirting the edge of going against the Minister’s edict to drop his inquiry, so he’d asked the next best person he could.

He'd called Nat’s father, Curtis Parker, and asked his opinion on the whole thing. Curtis had been silent a long moment and then asked if someone could fetch him from his current location in New Zealand. They’d locked down the country and he couldn’t get out, but he wanted to get home. Julienne, Nat’s mum, was in France and reporting on the story, Curtis had told him. She wasn’t likely to want to leave, but Curtis had sounded… odd.

Harry had asked Teddy to get a Portkey to go get him and his godson had been gone, now, for almost three hours. It shouldn’t have taken long to get him back. He’d cleared it with the New Zealand Ministry beforehand and they’d had no problems with them extracting a Muggle to aid them in an investigation.

Alright, so Harry was completely flouting the ‘no investigating’ edict from the Minister.

He had a feeling and he needed a Muggle who was fully in the Muggle world to help him interpret what he was reading in their papers. As Harry well knew, the papers could lie.

“We’re here,” Teddy told him as he barely knocked at Harry’s door and pushed it open. “Aunt Hermione caught me before I could leave and told me I had to take him for an exam at St. Mungo’s before I brought him into the Ministry.”

“I’m fit as a fiddle,” Curtis assured him as he held out a hand for Harry. Like Harry, Curtis’ hair was starting gray around the temples and his blue eyes had a few more lines than the last time he’d seen him, but he was still the same man he’d met so many years before. “I read the writing on the wall about the pandemic weeks ago and started to isolate myself from other people. We were seeing the news about a mysterious illness beginning to kill people but it was sporadic enough that most people didn’t pick up on it until it hit like a tidal wave. I remember the pandemic of 2020 all too well.”

“I barely did,” Harry admitted sheepishly. “It was five years ago and it barely made a blip.”

Curtis shook his head and smiled sadly. “It would have been a bigger problem for me if you hadn’t been able to fetch us from wherever we were in the world. We didn’t have to wait for quarantines or border restrictions.”

“Ah,” Harry nodded and realized that yes, because he could get them, they didn’t have to fuss over the Muggle rules. “Close the door, Teddy. Did Hermione ask you why you were fetching Curtis?”

“She didn’t have to,” Teddy said as he shut the door. “You know her. Absolutely nothing gets by her unless she wants it to. She told me to tell you to be discreet.”

“So, you’re worried this isn’t a naturally created virus?” Curtis asked him as he dropped into a chair, his worn jeans stretching over his thighs. “Do you have anything to go on?”

“Not a damn thing,” Harry admitted with a long sigh as he fell into his own seat and Teddy took the one next to Curtis. “But I have this nagging feeling in my gut that she’s behind it.”

He didn’t need to elaborate on who. They all knew who he meant.

“She’s done insane things before,” Teddy said slowly. “Her main point has been attacking the women, but she’s done other things.”

“Let me tell you what I know so far,” Curtis told him, folding his hands together and sitting forward. “I’ve been trying to figure out where patient zero came from, but it’s a damn sight harder to do that with the way we travel around. It’s safe to say it’s not somewhere very poor, as it would have concentrated in those areas before spreading worldwide. We would have had a bottleneck of people infected who could only infect those they saw daily. In a wider world where air travel is common, we could have the first infected person catch a flight in Heathrow, infect the entire flight, and then when it landed in Paris, every single one of those people catches another flight to somewhere else to start the next round of infections.”

“Alright,” Harry said slowly, trying to remember what it had been like living in the Muggle world. “I remember that a bit, I think. One kid would have a cold and then suddenly most of the class would have it.”

“Exactly,” Curtis agreed with a nod. “Your patient zero is that kid and rather than keep him home from school, his mother might have dosed him with medicine and sent him anyway, thus felling half the class who then took it home to their homes and infected everyone there. Then one of the dads has to go to work still, so he takes the illness to work and infects several adults there, who take it home to their kids and maybe infect another school.”

“Wow,” Teddy blurted out, sitting forward. “That’s how it works?!”

“That is how it works,” Curtis confirmed. “Some viruses or illnesses don’t infect other people well, some do. To keep it simple, we’ll say that this new virus spreading around is extremely infectious. We haven’t seen numbers like this in a long time. On top of that, it’s quite deadly, as well. We’re losing people of all ages. In the last pandemic, it was generally the elderly or the sick or those with other medical conditions. Now we have babies who were otherwise healthy who are dying, along with people in their twenties and all the way up through the elderly.”

“I hear a but about to come out of your mouth,” Harry said as he studied his friend.

“But,” Curtis said pensively. “I’ve seen what it looks like and it looks exactly a typical virus. I’m not a virologist, but I can’t see any type of magic in it. It’s very average.”

“So that means it’s not been created?” Teddy asked with confusion.

Curtis shook his head. “I didn’t say that. It could very well have been made, but I don’t think it’s magic.”

“Why would she want to cause this much chaos?” Harry asked rhetorically as he rubbed at his head, feeling the lines of his scar under his fingertips. “I mean, if she did go through with this. Why?”

“Ah, well,” Curtis cleared his throat and shifted. “As to that, there is a very simple answer.” When they both waited, staring at him, Curtis let out a grunt. “Money.”

There was a long beat of silence. “Come again?” Harry questioned as he straightened in his seat. “She could make money from this?”

“Oh, yes,” Curtis assured him grimly. “If she has a cure to the virus in her possession, she can stand to make herself the richest woman on the planet. She sells that to the Muggle world and she’ll be set for life.”

“Which would give her the resources to keep making that damn potion she’s giving to magical women,” Teddy said with a disgusted grunt. “Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant.”

Indeed.

Now they had to figure out if it really was her.

~*~

Back to index


Chapter 84: Chapter 77 Part TWO

Author's Notes: I am entering my worst, absolutely worst, work weeks. Think tax seasons for accountants. I'm still working and writing, but scheduling may be a little off. I'm enjoying the two part chapters as it's easier to get them out faster, so I hope you are, as well. Theoretically I will be able to post part one of chapter 78 by the end of the month, but it may go into the beginning of November.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

If you want to see more from me, please check out my patreon account. Sarah Jaune


“Dad!” Nat squealed with delight as she threw her arms around her father and held on tight as he lifted her into the air.

“My girl,” he said with very obvious affection.

It made something squeeze tight in Harry’s chest to watch the two interact. His own girl was younger than Nat, and already having her own baby. He didn’t get to pick her up and swing her about anymore. He didn’t get to do a lot of things he thought he’d be able to do with her. He had hoped to have a lot more time with her as his little girl. Instead, he’d needed to hand her over to Scorpius to keep her safe, to keep her whole. It had been the right decision and he didn’t regret it for a single moment, but he had pangs, now and then… alright, more often than he wanted to admit. He didn’t have his baby girl anymore.

Yes, he had granddaughters now and they were an absolute joy. He had more of them on the way, as well. He was going to be surrounded by a lot of little girls who even now run to him and throw themselves in his arms. But it wasn’t the same as his own little girl. “Well,” he said, pasting on a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, “Let’s get dinner and talk through everything.”

Harry had spoken to Curtis earlier and they decided they had to get Nat’s help on looking at the virus, to confirm it wasn’t magically made. “We’re going to take you to the hospital tomorrow,” Harry explained to Nat. “Audrey has a sample of the virus separated and we need to make sure there isn’t any magical tampering in it.”

“What will you do if it is magical?” Nat asked him curiously as she cut into her steak. “I mean, you can’t find her or stop her.”

“It’s a good question,” Curtis said, turning to him. He thanked Ginny for the glass of wine before she sat next to Harry. “How do you handle it if you figure out it’s a magically made virus?”

Harry took his wife’s hand under the table and ran his thumb along the back of her hand. He wasn’t sure if he was trying to sooth her or himself, but it was probably a combination of both. “If it’s magically made, then we can intervene,” Harry told them carefully. “With what Crabbe is doing to women, it’s mostly magical women, so we don’t have as many hoops to jump through. There are stricter laws to intervention in the Muggle world. We have cures to diseases they have but we can’t offer them up because the cure is magical. That kind of thing just isn’t done. It puts us at risk for exposure, which is something we do not take a chance on.” He took a deep breath and studied the ceiling for a moment. “However, if she’s doing this and we can prove it’s a magical virus, then we have a chance to intervene. We can work on a cure and if we can make that cure look enough like a Muggle medicine then we can get it out to the world.”

“You don’t seem convinced,” Curtis said thoughtfully.

“He doesn’t know how to prove it’s a magical virus without me,” Nat told her father and Harry nodded. Nat’s sigh spoke volumes to what had been going on the last few years. “They need to protect me and we can’t have it seen as though they have an insider source of knowledge on magic that otherwise wouldn’t be detectable.”

“Ah,” Curtis said shortly. Harry knew he understood and appreciated Harry’s reticence on exposing Nat. “This is quite the dilemma,” he said after a moment. “We have millions of people dying and likely to die from this virus, but if we expose Nat, she dies.”

“I’m willing to take the risk,” Nat told him honestly, “But if she goes hard after me, I’m likely to be dead soon and then they’d have no way of healing the women who are being poisoned.”

“We’ve had this argument before, many times,” Harry assured Curtis. “She’s an adult and has control over her own life, but her abilities make her literally irreplaceable.”

“Not to mention,” Ginny said with a short kick to his shin, “That we love Natalie and want her to be safe.”

“That goes without saying,” Harry told his wife with a grin. “But there are some practicalities that have to be put aside when we’re dealing with family. I have to send Teddy out into the world constantly where his life is at risk. I don’t want to, because I love him, but it’s his job. I will have to do the same thing for Al in a few years. It’s all about weighing the risk verses the rewards.”

Ginny rolled her eyes and grabbed her glass of wine, taking a large swallow. “I know you’re right, but I don’t like it.”

“No one likes it,” Nat told her earnestly. “I don’t like it.”

Harry went to bed that night with Ginny in his arms and wondering what, exactly, the next day was going to bring.

It brought a dour Hermione who met them in the private area of the hospital that Audrey had set aside so Nat didn’t have to remain hidden. Even though the area was supposed to be secure, he still brought Teddy along with them. He didn’t know how Hermione had learned about what they were doing, but she simply shook her head when she saw him and didn’t say a word.

“I have the sample set up with a Muggle microscope,” Audrey explained to Nat. “We have it isolated so you can see it.”

“Alright,” Nat said as they all walked into the room with the virus. The microscope, itself, was inside of a magical bubble that Harry knew was used to keep Muggle contaminants isolated from the room. But they eye pieces for the microscope were sticking out of the bubble.

It looked odd; very, very odd.

Nat must have thought so because she let out a small giggle before moving over to see into the eye pieces.

Harry held his breath and felt like Curtis was doing the same at his place next to Harry.

Nat straightened and turned to them with a grimace. “It’s magical.”

“Damn it!” Audrey exclaimed at the same time Hermione said, “Seriously?!”

Teddy, who was standing by the door keeping an eye out, let out a long sigh. “Does that mean it can infect magical people?”

That was a very good question, but when Harry turned to Audrey, she was shaking her head. “We’ve tested it. It isn’t jumping to magical humans. We observed it first in people we knew were accidentally exposed, and then when that failed to net any results, we tested it on a few volunteers. It’s been repeated all over the world. If you’re magical, you can’t catch it. I only have it in that bubble because Curtis is here and he’s at risk.”

“I appreciate that,” Curtis assured her. “But this opens up a whole other can of worms.”

Harry crossed his arms and stared down at the floor and tried to think of what they could do, but Audrey didn’t seem as stuck as he was at the moment.

“How magical is it?” Audrey asked Nat as she went to study the sample herself.

“It’s very subtle,” Nat assured her. “I don’t know much about viruses, but I’ve seen them on slides before and I’ve never seen them with magic in them. This one has something. I can’t even begin to tell you what it would make the virus do.”

It was Hermione who responded. “That’s not on you, Nat. We have to figure out, now, how to tell the world it’s magical. We have to figure out how we figured it out without you.”

“Then we figure out what it’s doing and how to stop it,” Audrey assured her. “The fact that you can see it’s magical is more than the rest of us can see.” She turned back to Hermione. “I wonder if we ran it through…”

She kept going but it was too technical and as often happened with his sisters, he tuned them out. They had to come up with something for them to go on. Harry’s job was the implementation.

“We could just come at it from a Muggle perspective,” Teddy told Harry thoughtfully. He glanced over to Curtis. “Maybe we can come up with something that would pass under their notice for the oddities.”

“You clearly don’t know the internet,” Curtis said with a short laugh. “Nothing gets by people. If there is an irregularity, the internet sleuths will sus it out.”

Nat shook her head but grinned. “He’s right. You two don’t know the internet. It has to look absolute legitimate or the Muggles won’t buy into it. We need them to accept what we’re saying at face value.”

“That doesn’t leave us with many options,” Harry pointed out. “We need the magical world on board so we can get a cure made quickly. If we have the entire world working on the cure, we have a good shot of getting something done and made quickly.”

“Yes, releasing it to the magical world makes sense,” Nat agreed. “And just tell them you know it without saying how if you don’t want to. You’re already doing that with the poisoned women.”

By the end of the day, they didn’t have to say anything. Harry contacted the head Auror in America, Louis Kingston, who had the young man there with Nat’s same ability look at the virus. He saw the magic, as well, and the Americans announced to the world that the virus was magical and they needed to figure out a way to cure the Muggles.

It should have been as simple as that, but within hours of the Americans announcement, they had to move the young man, Patrick Hassel, to a safehouse. He was attacked at school and managed to kill three of Crabbe’s henchmen, or men they assumed were her henchmen, but it was deemed to be unsafe for him to remain at the school.

The school was primarily concerned for the safety of the other students, and not Hassel’s welfare. He had handled himself admirably. Auror Kingston admitted Hassel to the Aurors early, waving the requirements for school, and said they would start his training now.

“We have another Dumbledore,” Teddy said with a whistle as he read the report Kingston sent over to them.

“It appears we do,” Harry agreed with a grin. “Hopefully, he’s just as wise as Dumbledore.”

“You have to make a lot of stupid mistakes before you can get there,” Teddy reminded him. “Lots and lots of stupid mistakes… but still, having someone else that powerful will only aid us.”

People had thought, at one point, that Harry might be like Dumbledore. Right after the war they’d looked to him to be the same type of leadership and power. But Harry had never been that powerful and he never would be that powerful. He was only an ordinary man with a lot of tenacity and a decent amount of power in defense. At one time he’d wanted to have that level of power. He’d, naively, thought it would make everything easier to be awed and revered for that power. He’d have been able to stop every bad person who came through their world.

But as everyone always said, with great power came great responsibility and in the end that had the potential to lead to more problems. Dumbledore had had his share of problems and his great power hadn’t stopped him from being harassed by the likes of the Ministry during Harry’s fifth year. It had kept people either in awe of him or afraid of him or jealous of him… sometimes all three at once.

“I’m glad it isn’t me,” Teddy told him, echoing the exact thoughts that Harry, himself, was having. “But I would like to meet him.”

“I was having the same thought,” Harry admitted and pondered that for several days while the most brilliant minds in the magical world came together to figure out just how a virus had been turned magical and better still, what they could do to solve it. By the end of the first week, they had many dead in the Muggle world and no good answers.

The virus could be obliterated with magic by relatively simple means. It only needed fire and it was gone or alcohol to kill it with Muggle forms of purification. But that didn’t help them, in the slightest, when it came to curing the actual body of the virus or stopping it in its tracks.

“She’s going to be coming up with a vaccine,” Curtis explained as they continued to try to work through the problem. “If she’s going after the money, and we have to assume that she is, then a vaccine sold for every person is going to be the way to go about it. There are untold amounts to be made from it and since people are losing their children, they’re going to be willing to pay anything to get the cure to keep them safe. If she has the vaccine already, then it couldn’t have been too difficult.”

“I think our biggest problem is that we don’t have vaccines, as it were,” Harry admitted grimly. “So none of our best thinkers really has an understanding of them unless they were Muggle-born.”

They were sitting around a conference room in the Ministry with a few of the older witches and wizards who had retired and were brought back in to help brainstorm. Hermione was coordinating with many of the other ministries across the globe and everyone was trying to get there. In a situation like this, it could have been very easy for the person who came up with the cure to hoard their knowledge and try to claim riches or credit. It was something they’d all worried about that first day, but the magical community had absolutely astonished Harry in the cooperative effort that each and every person was bringing to the table.

It was possible, even probable, that someone was hiding what they were doing, but a network had been set up by a Swiss chap to facilitate communications between everyone, which meant sharing any ideas or breakthrough that came their way. The parchment was practically steaming with all the notes that were being scrolled through for the researchers.

It wasn’t hard to see why. By now everyone had seen the Muggle papers and now even the magical papers reporting on all of the dead… especially the children. It wasn’t something any good, decent human being could stomach with any kind of conscience. Ministries and governments had given their staff full leave to ignore other projects to focus on this problem and many different private companies had done the same. If there was a person who had ability but no resources to research, the funding was found.

“We still have nothing,” Nat said later that night as she read through what all had been done. “We still don’t know how to cure the people or prevent it from spreading.”

“We don’t, yet,” Harry agreed as he tried valiantly to hide his bitterness. He wanted there to be fast, reliable answers to all of their problems and for them to have a solution before millions of children, all over the world, had to die. He thought of his grandchildren and what it would do to him to lose them to an illness he couldn’t see or fight. It was a helpless, enraging sensation and he wanted to stop it for everyone.

He knew what it was like to live in fear for his children. He knew what it was like to lay in bed and stare up at the ceiling, unsure of what the next day might bring and if someone was going to harm his kids.

He knew what it was like to have his child harmed, targeted… it was the worst feeling in the world, absolutely beyond description. He didn’t want anyone else to feel that way.

But there simply wasn’t much he could do at that moment.

The next day brought something rather unexpected. Daniel knocked at his office door and told him he had a visitor and in walked Louis Kingston, the American Head Auror, followed by a beefy youth. He was about six feet tall but probably a good fifteen stone of solid muscle. His hair was brown and cut short and his eyes were a piercing blue that reminded Harry vividly of Dumbledore’s gaze. But it wasn’t his appearance that had Harry taking note. The power that radiated off of the young man was palpable. He’d only been in the presence of magic that intense when he’d known Dumbledore and it hadn’t made the impression on Harry when he was younger that it did today.

This kid was… unbelievable.

“Louis,” Harry said holding out his hand to shake. “It’s good to see you again. I take it this is Patrick,” he said turning to the young man and holding out his hand. It practically vibrated from the power radiating off of the young man’s skin.

Patrick’s grip was firm and solid as he met Harry’s eyes. “It’s Rick, sir. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Rick,” Harry agreed. “It’s good to meet you, as well. Please have a seat,” he offered to the two as he also resumed his seat. “What can I do for you two?”

Kingston suddenly looked decidedly nervous. “Recruit Hassel requested this meeting with you,” Kingston explained slowly.

Powerful, or not. Well-connected or not… it was not actually done for a magical recruit anywhere to request, and be granted, an audience with a Head Auror from another country. Harry knew Kingston knew this and saw the man’s discomfort. Why had he brought him? He’d have had to jump through more than one hoop to get Rick Hassel here and for what? Why had he agreed to the young man’s request?

Hopefully, this wasn’t a sign of bad things to come. If Kingston was already cowering under Hassel’s obvious power, there were going to be major problems for the young man in the future. He needed to have boundaries, respect, and the ability to stay in the lines of proper society. Hadn’t Voldemort, himself, been someone who flouted the rules, time and time again, and thought that the world’s edicts were beneath him? What if they had another one just like that on their hands and Harry could already tell they would have one hell of a time trying to control him.

Kingston needed to say no…

Rick’s next words stunned him into silence. “I saw a picture of your girl who is just like me.”

Oh.

Suddenly, Kingston’s clear anxiety made a lot of sense. He’d asked Kingston not to tell anyone about Nat or her abilities and here he was, bringing Hassel to see him because Rick had figured it out. Yes, that would make anyone uncomfortable.

“I want to meet her,” Rick said carefully. “I think if she and I work together, we can enhance the virus to make it easier for our researchers to come up with a cure.”

Harry let out a long sigh and sat back as he studied the young man. “Do you understand what you’re asking of me?”

Rick glanced to his boss and then back to Harry. “I saw a picture of her in a paper. It was from your niece’s wedding. The magic is something I can see in the mirror and it comes out of the page, even in a Muggle photo. I don’t know if she can do that, but I can. I could see it and I brought it to Auror Kingston, asking him for this meeting. I think, maybe together, we can make it work.”

Harry shook his head. “That’s not what I mean,” he explained carefully. “She’s not like you. She’s not able to defend herself.”

A small look of irritation flicked over the young man’s face. “I do not want her harmed! I will keep her secret and guard it with my life. I want to work with her. It’s possible that, together, we can do what needs to be done.”

Harry studied the man across from him, his still youthful face, his beard which didn’t quite need to be shaved daily yet, and the obvious power… he wondered if he had the brains that Dumbledore did, or simply the power, and he didn’t know; not yet anyway.

But he believed him. “I’m trusting you with her life,” Harry said, pointing at him, “which means we do this my way.”

Back to index


Chapter 85: Chapter 78 Part ONE

Author's Notes: It is suspected that I have a concussion. My brain is slooooow. I'm trying. Here's part one and I'll get part two done this next week, I promise!

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing.

Happy holidays everyone.


Chapter 78

“Lily?” Nat called out as she entered the fireplace of Lily’s sprawling house. Nat glanced out at the stunning view of the fall leaves which were just beginning to turn for the season. It was only the beginning of October but an unseasonable cold snap had started the change early.

“One minute,” Lily called from somewhere near the kitchen. Nat used that moment to remove the dust from her clothes and light an actual fire in the grate. The house was so large it was difficult to heat and Nat knew Lily wouldn’t keep a fire going in every room. But they needed to talk and the cold was seeping into every fiber of Nat’s body.

A moment later Lily’s cat, Ducky, came sauntering out from the cat room, which Nat had found extremely amusing. Lily had so many rooms that she’d been able to dedicate a whole room to places for the cat to climb. “Hullo Duck,” Nat said as she bent to scratch behind Ducky’s ear. Ducky purred loudly and then turned and left just as quietly as she’d come.

Sera’s clacking nails told Nat that Lily was on her way and a moment later, Lily came through the archway of the kitchen holding a tray with tea.

“Lovely,” Nat said as she came around to sit while Lily set the tray on the coffee table. “I’m freezing! This cold is only supposed to last a few days, but I can’t wait for it to be gone.”

“I know,” Lily agreed as she poured them each a cup of tea. “I was just saying to Scorpius that even with the house well insulated against the cold, it still feels drafty!”

Nat waited until Lily was settled before she said, “Alright, lets discuss the Halloween party.”

“No,” Lily replied with a big smile. “I know that’s why I said I wanted you to come over, but actually it has nothing to do with that.”

Confused, Nat could only stare at her. Lily had sent her a note asking her to come around to discuss throwing a massive Halloween bash at their house that year. Lily’s house was huge and it could accommodate everyone in the family, so they were swapping over to using Lily and Scorpius’ place for the legions of family. It wasn’t traditional to do anything on Halloween, but Lily had said in her note that she wanted to start something and asked Nat if she’d like to help. Nat had always liked the big Halloweens at Hogwarts, so she’d readily agreed. “Well… then what did you want to talk about?”

Lily fiddled with the hem of the sweater she was wearing. Nat could see the baby girl floating around in her stomach. She glowed so brightly and it was good to see. Alright, it was also a little bittersweet, thinking about her friends all getting to become mothers when Nat wasn’t likely to get there. Even if she did marry, at some point, her cycles were a bit wonky and well… she wasn’t going to think about that right then. She was going to enjoy her friends’ children and love being an honorary ‘aunt’ of sorts in the family. Lily’s baby was currently sleeping and it was sweet to see the baby growing and developing. She was a powerful little one, as well. All the babies who were magical glowed with a light of power, but this little one had something extra about her. Nat hadn’t told anyone about it. She didn’t want them to know ahead of time and treat the baby differently. Also, there were a lot of babies being born and they didn’t need a competition.

Odds on the baby would have a single magical ability that was making her stand out, rather than something extra like the boy from America that Harry had been talking about.

“The thing is…” Lily hesitated. “It’s about Al.”

“What about Al?” Nat asked curiously. They both turned as the fireplace flared and Al tumbled out. “Nat, Dad needs you at the Ministry.”

“What?” Nat questioned, wrongfooted at his sudden appearance. He didn’t look exactly right, either. He was holding the invisibility cloak out to her, but his eyes were definitely strained. “What’s wrong?”

“Is everyone okay?” Lily asked in alarm as she studied her brother.

Al waved his sister off. “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine Lils. It’s just some Ministry business that we need Nat for.”

“It’s not just some Ministry thing,” Lily shot back. “I can tell! Something is wrong.”

“It’s…” Al hesitated and then shrugged. “She’s going to meet the American bloke who is like her, but he’s more like Dumbledore. I’m just worried for her safety, Lily. But she’ll be protected, you know, it’s just me worrying.”

Nat glanced to see Lily open her mouth to argue, shut it again, consider her brother, and then nod. “Alright. I’m going to host a Halloween party. You’ll tell Lena I’d like her to come, won’t you?”

“Sure,” Al agreed absently as he held out the cloak again. “Come on, we need to get going.”

“Alright,” Nat sighed as she grabbed the cloak. She hated using the Floo with the damn thing. It was hot and awkward. She often tripped, but Al knew that so he went first and she followed immediately after, falling predictably into his arms while he stood at the fireplace waiting for her.

“It’s safe,” Al whispered as they arrived. “No one else is in the room, which was the plan but we couldn’t guarantee it.”

Nat squeezed his hand through the cloak and then let go. She knew what to do and it was to silently follow along behind Al to whatever meeting space they were going to.

It turned out they were going to one of the Minister’s private rooms. She wanted to ask, but when he hit the button for the Minister’s floor on the elevator, Nat knew. She’d been to that meeting room before and apart from the Auror’s private room, it was the most secure in the building. The only problem with the Auror’s room was it was inside of the Auror office, which was teaming with people. The minister could empty her outer office without arousing too much suspicion, making her meeting room truly private.

Nat didn’t ask questions, didn’t say anything at all, until she followed Al into the room and spotted the boy. She guessed he was technically a man, at seventeen, but she knew for a fact he’d only just turned that age. She couldn’t help but stare at him as he stood off in a corner, speaking to the Head Auror from America. It had been a long time since she’d found the remains of the man, Louis Kingston’s son, but she would never forget the boy and what he’d looked like. He’d been a skeleton, but she’d known. She’d been able to put a face on his son and she saw a lot of that face in the aged man before him. He was a tall man, although not as tall as his son. He was powerfully built with a wide, broad face and the deep brown eyes and skin that spoke of his heritage as African from probably only a generation or two back. He was a powerful man, but it had to be said, it was nothing compared to the power radiating off of the seventeen-year-old Patrick Hassel. She’d heard stories about Dumbledore and she thought she could have imagined what he’d have been like. She’d seen powerful witches and wizards in her years in the magical world.

But it was nothing compared to what she was seeing now. He glowed with a light so bright she almost wanted to stop being able to see it. It was pulsating off of him in waves that rippled out father and faster than any other magical being she’d ever encountered. It was interesting, because he didn’t yet have control of what was spilling off of him. She wondered if he knew that. She also wondered just how powerful he actually was and if he’d sense her under the cloak, but he fixed his gaze on Al and didn’t once glance her way.

She knew the cloak was one of the Deathly Hallows. She’d heard the stories and the legends. She’d seen the power of the cloak, but admittedly she’d never seen another invisibility cloak so she had nothing to compare it to.

She wondered what the power of the three Deathly Hallows together would have looked like. Then she wondered why she was wondering about that when they had pressing issues and Al seemed to be stewing next to her.

Oh right, Dumbledore. This kid was going to be the next Dumbledore if he ever figured out how to keep his power inside. What she knew about Dumbledore is that he was a very contained and reserved man and she was still staring at a teenager, so he had time yet.

As long as he didn’t go rouge.

She really had to stop thinking.

“Natalie.”

Nat turned to see her father was in the room and she was surprised enough that she grinned, even though he couldn’t see her. She hadn’t realized her dad would be here for this. But she didn’t speak, because she realized she’d been wool gathering and missed whatever instruction she was supposed to have heard. If they needed her to do something, they would repeat themselves. It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d zoned out.

“Cloak off,” her dad told her.

Nat pulled off the cloak and she saw his grin. She heard the boy’s small intake of breath and she turned to find him staring at her.

“That’s incredible!” he said in clear astonishment. “Where did you get that cloak? I can sense things through every other cloak!”

Harry turned to him and smiled. “It’s been in my family for a long time. Rick, I’d like you to meet Nat and you met my son earlier. I don’t think I explained it, but my son and Nat have been very good friends for a long, long time and I thought she would feel more comfortable meeting someone new with both her father and her best friend here.”

Nat kept her smile fixed in place, but had to wonder at what Harry was going on about. Nat had no problem meeting new people and going new places. She’d been raised from infancy to do just that. Still, Harry would have a point so she didn’t say anything.

“Hey,” Rick said with a wave to Nat. “Can I see that cloak?”

Harry nodded for her to hand it over and she did, watching the way his magic interacted with the material. Interestingly, the cloak seemed to soak up some of the magic coming off of him, making it glow a little brighter to Nat. Curious.

“This is really cool,” he said again and then handed it back to Nat. “Well,” he said to her as he finally looked her up and down. “Yeah, your magic looks just like it does in the picture I saw of you. Can you do that?”

“No,” Nat told him. “I can only see the magic in the actual person or thing. I can get glimpses of what someone would have looked like as they age from a picture and I can see a person’s face on their skull, but my father is a scientist that does that work, so I think I have that ability because of some training.”

“You can look at someone’s skull and see their face?” Rick asked, his brow raised in astonishment.

Auror Kingston cleared his throat and it was in not quite a steady voice that he said, “It was how she identified that it was my son who had died.”

The young man fell silent at that. It was a hard memory for Nat, but she couldn’t even imagine what it was like for Mr. Kingston. Nat felt Al’s hand touch hers and she gripped it for a moment, sending him a grateful smile, before she let go and refocused on Rick. “Do you know your magic is spilling off of you in waves?”

“I…” he hesitated and then asked, “What exactly do you mean?”

“It’s flowing off of you into the air,” Nat told him as she studied it more closely. She moved around him and extended her hand, feeling the magic trying to connect with her. “You’re losing a lot of your magic, all the way out to here. It’s just dissipating after it leaves you if it doesn’t connect with something. You didn’t sense that?”

“No,” Rick admitted quietly. “I see the magic I have in the mirror, but it just looks like a bright haze around my body. I see the magic of others, as well. Usually it’s less bright, but yours is different. It’s almost a different color. I have it, as well.”

“Can I have a piece of parchment, please?” Nat asked Harry and he pulled some out along with a quill. Quickly Nat sketched a stick figure and then turned and studied Rick more closely before drawing what the tendrils were doing. “When you touched the cloak, you gave it some of your magic,” she told him as she showed him the picture. “It’s fine, as you have a lot of it, but I think you’d be even more powerful if you managed to keep it closer to you.”

Louis let out a small snort. “I’m not sure he needs to be more powerful.”

Rick grinned over at his mentor before turning back to Nat. “He has a point.”

“I think what she’s saying,” Curtis told him, “is that if you let the magic out like that, you may unintendedly imbue things that weren’t supposed to be imbued. That’s the correct word for it, right?”

“Yes,” Harry agreed.

“I do mean that,” Nat confirmed, then she hesitated, not sure how to say what she was wanting to say next. She noticed Al pick up the parchment and study it and she waited. He was so good at strategy. She wondered if he’d spot it and see the flaw.

He did. “Mate, so here’s what I’m seeing,” Al said as he walked over to Rick. “With all this coming off of you, you might work a spell and have all this extra magic mess things up. Maybe I’m wrong, but how is your control when you’re doing something really big?”

Rick hesitated and then glanced to Kingston. It was Kingston who answered. “If he’s doing something complicated, the control can slip and the spell can go a little wild. Sometimes it’s overdone, sometimes it just misses the mark. We weren’t sure why. You think this might be it?”

“Did you mean to give the cloak more magic?” Nat asked him curiously.

He looked genuinely stunned for a brief moment. “No,” Rick admitted sheepishly. “I didn’t even realize I had. I thought I could see my magic as it is, but obviously I can’t see as much as I thought I could.”

It was a small comfort to see the humility in him. If he didn’t have any, he could turn deadly… fast. Likely there wouldn’t be any way to stop him, either. “I can’t see any of my own power,” Nat said quietly. “I can see what I’m doing. I can see the workings. I can see the magic in others, including babies who aren’t yet born.”

“Wait,” Rick held up a hand. “You can see the magic in a pregnant woman?”

“Yes,” Nat confirmed with a small smile. “I can even see the baby and what it is doing in there. I can see it all.”

“Wow,” Rick said as he let out a whistle. The same sentiment was echoed by Kingston. “I can’t do that,” Rick told her. “I can see a woman is pregnant after a while, but only because the magic of the baby increases her own and I have to compare it to what she had before.”

“You each have your skills,” Harry told them. “I’m hoping that, together, you can work to give us a better picture of the virus and what we are dealing with. We need to know how to tell the Muggles to kill it.”

“But first,” Kingston said as he glanced between them, “I think they’re going to need to figure out how the other works. I personally want to know if Hassel is transferring power to other objects, be they magical or ordinary.”

“That’s a good idea,” Harry said as he studied him. “Let’s start with something that’s not magical. Curtis, do you have any money on you?”

“I do,” Nat’s dad confirmed. He pulled some coins from his pocket and handed them to Rick.

Nat watched and saw the magic flow in through the coins, but then out again before dissolving into the room’s atmosphere. She had to wonder if others were feeling the aura coming off of him. “Are you feeling his energy?” Nat asked, glancing around at everyone. Everyone, including her father, nodded.

“It almost feels like a vibration,” Curtis told her.

Nat glanced over to Al and waited. He hesitated only a moment before he said, “I can feel the power. It’s clearly there.”

“It’s because of how much is pouring off of you,” Nat told Rick as she turned back to him. “In some ways, that might warn an opponent not to mess with you, but with that it also means you lose the element of surprise.”

He considered her for a moment and then closed his eyes, his brow furrowing and his jaw scrunched up. She watched him and then watched his energy and very, very slowly she saw the trickle of power start to pull back. “Yes,” she whispered. “That’s doing it.”

But the second he let his breath go, it was back to pouring out. “That’s hard work.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s sustainable,” Nat agreed as she pondered him.

“That thing you did with Snape…” Al began and then he stopped and turned to his dad.

Harry smiled ruefully. “Occlumency, which I was rubbish at. Actually, I’m still rubbish at it, but yes. That might do it. Do you have someone who could train him?” Harry asked Kingston.

The Auror nodded. “Yes, I do.”

“Well,” Harry said as he picked up a mirror. Nat realized, with a start, that it was one of the mirrors Hermione had enchanted for them a long time ago. She had hers… somewhere. Come to that, she didn’t know where it was. It was likely still in her old school trunk. “Whose is that one?”

“Mine,” Harry assured her with a long sigh. “I had Hermione make it for me after that one time in Brazil.”

“Ah,” Nat and her dad said at the same time. They all remembered that time she was kidnapped. It was the beginning of her major health crisis. She felt Al shift next to her and she glanced over, smiling sadly at him. It had been such a bad time for all of them, and he’d been there through it. His green eyes met hers and she knew he was remembering it, as well.

Rick cleared his throat and Nat turned back to see him holding the mirror. The magic was going straight into the mirror but some was leaking out again. Interesting. “It’s not all staying in the mirror,” she told them. “Some is, but not all of it.” She focused again on Harry. “Do you have anything else that’s powerfully magical in the room?”

Harry hesitated for a moment and then said he did. To her surprise, she pulled out the Marauder’s Map, which was just a blank parchment at the moment. He handed it to Rick and sure enough, all the magic went straight into the map. “Alright, so the more powerfully magical an object is, the more it sucks up the magic,” Nat told the group.

“What is this?” Rick asked the room.

Al held out his hand and then activated the map. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

“Woah,” Rick said in awe as the map came to life. “Is that Hogwarts?”

“It is,” Harry confirmed. “My dad and his friends made it when they were at school. It shows everyone in the school. I’ve kept it here in case of security issues.”

“I did have it,” Al told Rick. “It was dead useful for sneaking around, but honestly by the time we were getting set to leave, it was safer for Dad to have it. We had too many close calls and we weren’t sneaking out.”

It wasn’t safe for Nat and it wasn’t safe for Lily. That’s what Al wasn’t saying. And, realistically, James was the only one who used it to sneak about. The rest of them weren’t as interested.

Nat hated to admit they’d been boring, but it was true.

“So can I see what you can do?” Rick asked Nat.

“Yes,” Harry said as he pulled out a vial of green liquid. “Al, you ready to do the honors?”

Al let out a snort and shook his head. “This is why I was actually let in on this meeting.”

“No,” Harry assured his son unconvincingly.

Nat grinned, watched Al drink down the liquid which was just a mild sedative. She touched his hand and began pulling it out through his stomach and out of his skin before it even had a chance to take hold.

“Wait!” Rick said as he circled around her. “Wait, wait, wait! That was… what the hell just happened there?!”

Nat turned to him, keeping her hand on Al in case he swayed. Not that she’d be able to hold him up as he was massive, but it made her feel better. “What did you see?”

“I saw him drink it and then there was this energy shift in him… no, I guess it was a magical shift, and then the green liquid started to come out of his skin.”

“Huh,” she said as she studied Rick. “You couldn’t see it moving through his body?”

“No,” Rick assured her. “I could see and feel you doing something, but it just looked like a white haze as things moved around.”

“I see the green liquid going down into him, and then I watch it as I pull it through him and out,” Nat said simply. “It’s how I cure all the women being poisoned. I see the poison and pull it out.”

Rick’s mouth dropped open and then he laughed. “Alright, that’s seriously impressive. I can’t do anything like that! I can’t move the magic that way. I can see it and sense it, and to some degree I can manipulate it, but I need my wand to do that. You just… with your hand! You didn’t even use a wand!”

“And that,” Harry said slowly, “is why your silence on what she can do is absolutely vital.”

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Chapter 86: Chapter 78 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

If you can, please go support me on patreon. Sarah Jaune. It would mean a lot and you get more of my writing there.

I am still trying to stick to a schedule. I appreciate your patience.


Ginny was grateful to have Al home for dinner, but she had to admit she was sorry for the reason. Nat had met Rick that day and she could tell just by looking at her son that he’d followed Nat home because he was absolutely jealous of what had happened between Nat and the other boy like her. Nat seemed utterly oblivious to the fact that Al was pining over her as she continued to discuss the whole situation with Harry and her father. They had another meeting with Rick the next day, but after comparing their magic for a while, Harry had called a halt to the whole thing when he realized it was dinner time and Nat would need to get home to eat.

“I didn’t manage to get any work done on the wands,” Nat told the table at large. “I sent an owl to Ollivander and told him I might need some extra time, but he said I have him so well stocked that he’d started to sell to other wand makers just to make room.”

“I’m really pleased you found a job that suits you so well,” Curtis told his daughter. “I was wondering what you were going to do with life.”

“Well,” Nat said as she suddenly found the peas on her plate very interesting. “It wasn’t a job I envisioned, but it’s something I’m really good at. Thankfully, I can work from home.”

She saw Curtis open his mouth to ask her what job she had wanted and then close it again. Nat’s shoulders were hunched and it was clear she didn’t want to speak of it.

“Well,” Ginny smiled at everyone at the table. “Who wants seconds?”

Ginny waited until she was alone with Harry in their room before she asked the questions she really wanted to ask. “What is the kid like?”

Harry paused in undoing the buttons on his shirt to stare at her. “You mean Rick?”

“Yes,” Ginny said, trying not to be impatient that he hadn’t read her mind. She inwardly grinned at herself. She’d been married a long, long time at this point and sometimes it felt like Harry should intuitively know exactly what she was thinking at all times, but sadly that was rarely the case. To be fair, she didn’t always know what he was thinking, either, but she still had an easier time of it.

Harry paused in what he was doing to sit on the bed, looking at her but not really seeing her. “Ricky is incredibly powerful.”

“Nat said as much,” Ginny agreed, by way of a prompting to please add something she hadn’t already heard. “He has magic just spilling out of him.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed with a slight grin. “Meeting him is an experience because everyone can feel it. It’s like being around a live wire, as the Muggles say.” At her blank look, he shook his head. “The point is, it’s… uh, it’s like static shock constantly when you’re around him.”

“Ohhhh,” Ginny breathed out, finally cottoning on to what he meant. “Wow… that would be uncomfortable.”

“It can be,” Harry agreed as he stood back up again and resumed getting ready for bed. “But if you’re not right next to him, it’s not so bad. I can tell he didn’t like knowing that all of his magic was spilling out of him. He didn’t realize it until Nat saw it and pointed it out. I imagine he’ll try really hard to get that under control in the next few years.”

Ginny waited until he’d pulled on his nightshirt before she asked, “Do you trust him?”

Harry waited a long beat before he shrugged. “He passed all my tests, including the truth serum. He has no current intention to harm Nat or anyone else. But he’s so powerful… I can see that going badly at some point.”

As Ginny lay next to him, staring up at the ceiling and listening to his soft breathing, she wondered if it would be someone they knew, or thought they knew, and trusted who would be their downfall. It all felt so tentative, even though they were doing everything in their power to keep their whole family safe. Still, she couldn’t live her life like Mad-Eye Moody, worried that every single napkin was out to get her or her family.

Or maybe, just maybe, Moody had the right idea… all the way up until the moment he was locked in the trunk.

~*~

Rose stepped out of the fireplace into Andrew’s locked office and breathed out a sigh of relief when she spotted her husband at his desk. It had been a long day. She’d missed putting Claire to bed and she was going to sleep for only a few hours before she was up again to keep going on the project of figuring out how to stop the virus from spreading and killing the Muggles.

Andrew glanced up as she used her wand to clean off the soot. The dim light of the lamps cast shadows throughout the room and made him appear just as tired as she felt. They hadn’t had a good day in their house in over a week. “Hey,” she said with a small smile as he pushed back from his seat and rounded the desk to pull her into his arms.

His kiss was brief, but then he simply held onto her and she felt the stress and exhaustion begin to quake through her as she melted into his embrace. She was so, so tired, and yet she needed this man and for him to be here, doing just this, until the trembling subsided into something manageable.

She wondered if the staff had cleaned the office today between ten and noon, as they did every week, but then noticed that yes, the carpet had fresh marks from the vacuum. It was odd having Muggle staff and keeping them in the dark about what was going on. Their plan was to keep the staff on as long as they wanted, but when they wanted to move on or retire, replacing them with magical staff. With this office being connected to the Floo, it was off limits to the Muggle staff except those two hours every week. Everyone knew not to use it at that point.

But it was one more complication they didn’t really need in their lives. Still, the staff was loyal and loving and she didn’t want anyone to leave who didn’t want to leave.

“Come on,” Andrew said gently as he flicked his wand to extinguish the lamps. “Let’s get you to bed.”

She let him lead her through the house towards their room. She wanted to tell him about the progress they’d made, none, and the hours they were working, too many, and the pressure they were all under to make things happen, which was intense. She wanted to tell him about learning today that she would be working with Nat and Rick to try to come up with a solution for the whole thing, even though she was only in her second year to become a potions master. She wanted to talk to him about the professors above her who were extremely put out that she was getting what they saw as preferential treatment because they didn’t understand about Nat and the secrets around her. All they knew it she was being sent to work with Rick, the ‘wonder boy’ from America, and she might end up with all the glory for solving the whole thing.

She didn’t want the glory, fame, or recognition for this. She just wanted to sleep and as he began to undress her, her body decided that it didn’t need to talk. She just needed him and his touch. She turned into him and pressed herself against him, wanting to feel more of that tug that they’d been missing this past week. They hadn’t gone a week without making love, and this week had been so bad that they had missed every chance. “I need you,” she told him quietly.

She heard him suck in his breath and knew he’d been feeling it, as well, but likely holding back for her sake. “You’re dead on your feet.”

She smiled up at him, “I’ll sleep better after.”

It was all the encouragement he needed to bend his head towards her, kissing her gently, before running his lips over her neck and to her shoulder which he bared for his mouth. “I have missed you this week,” he told her.

They undressed slowly and made love the same way, not the fiery passion that had been most of their time together as newlyweds, but slow and tender and so beautiful it brought tears to her eyes. As she lay in his arms after, deliciously drowsy, she knew she’d been missing this more than she’d ever expected. Their soul bond had been crying out for this time and attention.

Her shaking was gone. Her fatigue stayed, but she knew she would be able to sleep now. “I love you,” she whispered to him.

“I love you,” he assured her. He pulled her in even closer, his warm skin melding to hers. “I hate seeing how much pressure you’re under. I know how important this is, but it’s still hard to watch.”

They both understood completely. Their staff had all been quarantined here at the house. Some had moved their families into the house, just so they didn’t have to be away from them. Food was delivered to the door and left there to be collected. The whole staff assumed Rose and Andrew were both working in the house and they had no idea that Rose left every day. Before she’d made a pretense of driving off in one of the cars to go to her classes. Then she’d park the car in a rented garage and Apparate away. Now, she had to pretend to be holed up in the house even though she left it constantly.

Poor Claire was desperately missing her classmates, but she had friends here because several of their household staff had children and they were all now living in the large manor.. They were all able to play together and to attend virtual classes over the internet. Rose had contemplated just hiring a private tutor for all of the children, and she still might, because she didn’t think they were getting all they needed from the virtual school.

They had money. They had a lot of money. It was something she was still trying to get used to, and she wasn’t sure it was going to sink in for a while. She had never been poor. She’d heard stories from her dad and Aunt Ginny about how they’d been very poor as they’d grown up. She’d heard about books that had to be taped together and never having new robes.

She’d heard all about it, but except for favored pieces of clothing passed down by cousins, Rose had always been given new clothes. She’d always had new toys at Christmas and new books when she wanted them. New books had never been a problem.

But compared to what she had now, she had grown up quite poor. It still amazed her just how grounded Andrew was with his level of wealth, but she’d quickly figured out why… they didn’t live above their means. In her new role as Andrew’s wife, she’d been to a few estate parties before the pandemic had shut things down. She’d met a lovely American lady who was the wife of an earl, and she’d spoken about how she’d not grown up in anything like the British society, but she was the child of a billionaire, so she knew what it was to have money. She’d been very interested, to the point of a little nosey, about Rose and her background, but she hadn’t pressed Rose.

Before the pandemic there had been a lot of speculation about Rose and just who she was, who her family was, and why on earth Andrew would choose someone like her.

She feathered her fingers lightly along the skin of his chest and couldn’t help but smile sadly. They had a bond that they’d formed many years ago through friendship when he was not going to be the Duke, through the tragic loss of his family, and also through the magical world. It might have been a true statement that strategically, their marriage made a lot of sense. Rose understood both the magical and Muggle worlds, and when they’d first spoken of marriage, it hadn’t been for love.

But now she deeply loved this man and it had everything to do with his character and his kindness. “I was thinking about work,” she told him and she felt his fingers still on the skin of her lower back.

“What were you thinking?” he asked her in a low voice.

“I was thinking I’d rather work for myself,” Rose said with a long sigh. “Since we don’t need me to earn an income, and I’ve seen just how much a workaholic can damage a family, I think I’d rather only take on projects that interest me or work consultant work for the Ministry, which I can always say no to doing.” She leaned up so she could meet his eyes and said quietly, “I am determined to not be my mother.”

“You’re nothing like her,” Andrew assured her as he leaned up to press his lips to her forehead. “Alright, you’re just as smart as she is, but you aren’t alike in temperament. But,” he said with a long sigh, as she lay her head back on his shoulder. “I want you to be happy and you want to be a potions master. What you do with it after that is up to you. Find what makes you want to work.”

“You only have the estate,” she said as she let out a small snort. “I know that isn’t exactly what you wanted to do.”

“It’s not so bad,” he promised with a small chuckle. “I keep making more and more money, and that’s always a bonus. I’m pretty good with that part of it.”

She nodded and closed her eyes. “I can’t do anything about my training schedule. I have little to no control over that or how much I have to work right now while they’re trying to cure the Muggles. I wouldn’t want it any other way, actually. My Muggle grandparents had to move in with my parents just to keep them safe and I know that hasn’t been easy on anyone. We need a cure, but after we find it, I’m going to take a few days off. I hate not getting home in time to tuck Claire in bed.”

“She has missed you, but she understands perfectly just how important the work is and no,” he said, forestalling her protestations, “she isn’t just like you or Hugo. Your mum had something important happen damn near every night of your lives and that went on for years. This is a crisis. It’s not the same.”

“It feels like it’s the same,” she admitted ruefully.

He shifted a little, something she’d come to realize meant he was a little uncomfortable. “She asked me tonight when we were going to have a baby.”

Rose wasn’t the least bit surprised the question had come up. Claire adored Victoire and Teddy’s girls and she’d said, more than once, that she wanted a sister. Technically it would be a niece, but it was technical. “I’m sure you explained I have another year and a half of school and then I need to get my career off the ground.”

“I did,” Andrew agreed and he let out a long sigh. “Honestly, while I wouldn’t mind it if we had a baby, I’m not sad to wait. I want more time with you and I don’t want to split my attention away from Claire. She’s been through so much and it’s been so hard on her. Losing Aunt Emma was just another thing to pile on. Maybe she’d love to have a baby in the house, but then again, maybe she’d realize she’d lose all of our attention when a new baby comes. It would likely be best to wait until she’s in Hogwarts full time.”

Claire was eight and so they had another two and a half years to go before she’d board the train on September 1st. Rose would be twenty-two when that happened. “We’ll see,” she said. They were still so young and right now she just didn’t feel like she had the headspace to add a child. “I want to enjoy our family as it is now.”

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Chapter 87: Chapter 79 Part ONE

Author's Notes: First off, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Second, if you can, please go support me on Patreon or find me on Facebook Sarah Jaune

Third, very important, thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!

Fourth, holy crap this story is long... leave a review okay? This is a behemoth lol


Chapter 79

Harry didn’t have the time to spend watching Nat and Rick try to figure out their magical abilities. He didn’t have the time to devote to sitting around while they compared notes and attempted different things. He didn’t have the time to do much of anything. He was the Head Auror, in charge of an entire department, and Isabella Crabbe was not their only proverbial ‘bad guy’ on the loose in England. He had so many irons in the fire that it sometimes felt like he was being pulled in five hundred different directions.

He'd directed Teddy to keeping Nat safe. Al hadn’t liked leaving Nat alone with Rick, but his son was still in training and training took priority. He couldn’t keep pulling Al away or the other trainee, Lena, would start to wonder why. It looked like favoritism, even though it was anything but.

“Talk to me,” Harry said as he barged into Hermione’s office with a mild headache brewing and a bad temper to go with it.

She didn’t talk to him, simply handed him a scroll for him to read. She probably did that on purpose, knowing it would annoy him the most. But no… that wasn’t Hermione’s way. He read through the reports they were getting and saw, as he’d feared, that several Muggles had been tortured in their flat just outside London.

All the Muggles were stuck at home, of course, and unable to leave or even get help. They were easy targets and some wizards had definitely decided to take advantage of that. “Bugger it all to hell,” Harry swore as rage wanted to swamp them. “They’re alright?”

“Yes,” Hermione said quietly. “The neighbors heard something and called for the Muggle police, who showed up and it was enough to scare off whomever attacked them. They’ve already been treated at St. Mungo’s and had their memories wiped. We had the scene cleaned as quickly as possible. I know you normally like to see these for yourself, but we couldn’t risk it with the pandemic raging. We had to get the Muggles out quickly.”

He let out a long sigh and nodded. “I’ll assign someone to the case,” he told her as he glanced towards her window, which wasn’t a window at all, of course. It reflected his mood perfectly as a gray sky and heavy clouds appeared in the sky. In reality, of course, it was blisteringly cold outside just then but the sky was as blue as a sapphire in the sun. No one felt right about enjoying the view when so many were dying.

“Harry,” Hermione said quietly, “I’m going to be working with Rose, Nat, and Rick in about an hour.”

He nodded. He’d heard as much. “Maybe you’ll make some progress with them.”

She shrugged her shoulders and she looked, just then, about as run down as he felt. “Maybe we will and maybe we won’t, but I do know that we have to keep trying. I am grateful my parents can live with us and that they’re safe, but it’s a blessing most don’t have and this needs to end soon.”

“I know,” Harry assured her quietly. “You’re saying we need to catch Crabbe so she stops doing all these stupid things that keep us chasing our tails.”

Hermione, his sister in all but blood, held out her hands. “That’s not going to happen. She’s just too well protected and I’m hearing noises from the Muggle world that a vaccine is about to come out. That will be her, of course. Oh, it’s terribly expensive, just now, but it will get cheaper,” she told him as the scorn and sarcasm dripped out. “I don’t know what she put in that vaccine, but I’m sure it will cure the Muggles… then I don’t know what it will do afterwards.” She leaned forward. “We need that vaccine.”

Harry’s brow rose and he considered her. “You want us to get someone to buy it so we can study it?”

“Yes,” Hermione said simply. “We need someone, a well-connected Muggle, to get it for us. I’ve already spoken to the Minister about this, thinking it would be easy enough for the Muggle Prime Minister to get his hands on it, but she’s not going for it. Susan has, rightfully, pointed out that the Muggle Prime Minister is quite busy at the moment and we really can’t interfere.”

Susan MacMillan was a good woman. She’d been a great leader, so far, and nothing had corrupted her, which Harry thought was practically a miracle, but she did have her limits. “Is she opposed to us trying?”

“No,” Hermione assured him. “But we need a lot of money to do it and someone who has Muggle connections to get their hands on it.”

It took Harry a moment to piece together just what she was asking for and it turned something in his stomach. “I see… you don’t want to approach him about this yourself.”

“I can’t do it, Harry,” Hermione told him quietly. “Rose barely speaks to me as it is and yes, I know I’ve done a lot to deserve that. I get it. If I ask her to put her husband at risk, I’m risking everything with her. If you ask her, she may still say no, but at the very least she isn’t going to question your motives for asking.”

Andrew was a duke. Andrew had buckets and barrels and castles full of money. Andrew would have the connections they’d need in the Muggle world to get their hands on one of those vaccines.

“But Crabbe is going to know he’s not a Muggle,” Harry pointed out to her.

Hermione shook her head. “We just need him to get someone to get it for us. That’s all we need.”

Harry considered his options as he went back to the Auror office to assign someone into finding the idiots who attacked the Muggles in London. It wouldn’t be hard to do because, fortunately, most criminals were stupid and bragged about their crimes. This attack went to his department because of the nature of the attack, but it wasn’t some dark plot, thankfully.

No, Harry had other dark plots and so he found his niece in the room they’d marked off for the work for Nat and Rick and asked Rose to come into his office.

Harry laid out the idea as though it was his own and that it had just happened to occur to him.

He thought, for a long, horrible moment, she was going to call him on his dragon dung, but she was clearly just as tired as he was because she accepted him at his word. “I don’t know if he knows anyone,” she admitted, “But I’ll have him come talk to you later.”

It was the best he was going to get, so Harry let it go and went to observe the progress with Nat and Rick, which amounted to not much of anything as far as he could see. The two of them were able to accurately describe the virus to Audrey, who was taking careful notes but as far as he could tell, they weren’t any closer to coming up with a cure.

Andrew came and knocked at his door at nearly eight that night. He’d kept it propped open, as he was still working and they had only a skeleton crew of Aurors there, but he liked to keep the door open in case one of them needed something.

When he glanced up at the sound, he saw his niece’s husband standing there in a Muggle suit and tie. “I was in Zoom meetings all day,” he told Harry.

“What meetings?” Harry asked, his brow furrowed.

“They’re video meetings over the internet,” Andrew explained with a long sigh as he came in and sat down. “It’s damned difficult to keep the laptop from being zapped by all the magic in our house, but we’ve managed to get one to work. Only while I’m on the video calls, it often shuts down.”

“That would be annoying,” Harry said as he tried to keep his amusement off of his face. It wasn’t funny, not really, but Harry was so bloody tired, he was nearly punchy. “Who were you meeting with?”

“Various businesses,” Andrew grimaced. “I happened to invest in several companies that are heavily involved in health care, so things are volatile right now. Rose came home and explained what you were looking for. I was going to come tomorrow, but she assured me you would still be at work.”

Harry had to fight back the guilt of that. “It’s a nasty habit all around, and if I had small children at home I’d be really beating myself up, but as it is, Ginny came to the office to have a quick supper with me before heading back home. Anyway, do you think you can get it?”

Andrew’s mouth screwed up in obvious distaste, but he nodded. “It’s her, Harry.”

Harry froze for a moment. “How do you know?”

“Because,” Andrew said on a long, bitter sigh, “The cure is coming out of Brazil and it’s a company I’ve never heard of, but they’re calling themselves Vincent Laboratories.”

Harry stared at him, horrified and curious all at the same moment. “You… you’re joking.”

“I’m not,” he assured Harry. “I was having an argument with my financial team all day about why we weren’t going to invest with them. They were adamant that it was the best thing, but when I heard the location and the name, I knew it had to be her. How many times have we had to talk about Vincent Crabbe’s death in the last several years? He’s the catalyst for this whole mess. Then Rose came home right as I was arguing yet again, and the Floo shut off the laptop again. She explained what you were after while I was rebooting and I told the financial team that if they wanted my investment, I needed a sample of the vaccine to prove it works. I need the actual vial in my hand.”

Harry shook his head. “She’ll know if you’re asking for it.”

Andrew waved that off. “She isn’t going to know anything. I’m well hidden behind several shell companies that would take a Muggle hacker months to untangle. Only a very select few even know it’s me, and it won’t be my financial team asking for the vaccine. It will be another team assigned by a separate team, assigned by someone else who reports to the financial team. This would be coming out of R&D money that one of my holdings would be offering to her.”

“I only understood about half of what you just said,” Harry admitted with half a grin.

“Basically, I have a lot of money and it’s diversified into a lot of different pots to do different things to try to keep growing the money,” Andrew explained as he sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I don’t want to be tied to all the money. If I am, it makes us a target in the Muggle world. If the Muggles think, ‘oh that duke bloke maybe has a million pounds’ then they’re not going to think, ‘let’s kidnap his sister for ransom.’”

Harry considered him for a long moment. “It’s been a long time since I was in the Muggle world, but when I was, a million pounds was a lot of money.”

“It isn’t a lot of money anymore, thanks to inflation,” Andrew assured him with a slight shake of his head. “For someone who has an old estate, like I do, if you don’t have that much you can’t even keep the household running for a year. My dad was good at business, and he kept things going well, but it was starting to look like we were going to have to do house tours and rent out the estate.”

“I’m sensing there is a major ‘but’ in there somewhere,” Harry told him.

“But then my dad died and Bill came along side me to help me learn to manage the estate and all of my holdings,” Andrew explained as he finally sat back. “No one talks about Bill’s ability to manage money. He tells me he manages all the money for the family, but that it’s all invested in the magical world. Well, my family was already invested in the Muggle world and Bill had been wanting to give that a go. It turns out he was good at it and when I took over, I realized I had a sense for it that was even better.”

There was no bragging in Andrew. Harry had always marveled at that about the young man. Even when he was named duke, it was not something that he took excess pride in. Of course, he’d become the duke at the loss of his father, mother, and all his brothers. Only his sister had survived, and Harry knew Andrew would have given anything to get the rest of his family back. It simply wasn’t possible, though, and he’d made the best of it. “You have a lot of money now?”

“I have a lot of money,” Andrew said quietly. “I’ll get that vaccine for you if it’s available to be acquired.”

That would have to be enough for now.

Harry left his meeting with Andrew to go to the Minister’s office and let her know what Andrew had learned about the maker of the vaccine, then he went home to fall into bed and sleep for four hours before getting up to do it all over again.

It took Andrew three days to get his hands on the vaccine and when he had word that they’d be able to get it, he’d asked if Teddy would go in with the Muggle team, posing as Muggle security.

He’d hated to do it, but he sent his godson in and was rewarded with three vials of the vaccine to study. Audrey went to work on it immediately with Nat, Rose, and Rick. Rick was now on permanent loan from America, as Auror Kingston had already gone back to New York. They’d put Rick up with Al at the flat in Diagon Alley, since he didn’t currently have a flatmate, and so far, his son hadn’t killed the American teen, which Harry took to be a good sign.

“Anything?” Harry asked after the first day.

“We know this much,” Audrey told him grimly. “Anyone who takes this vaccine is going to be very sorry. She’s put magic in it and it’s a nasty piece of work.”

“It’s some kind of very slow acting poison,” Nat explained to him, her eyes sad and clearly exhausted. “It’s along the same lines as what she gave to Ginny when she lost baby Hope, as near as we can tell,” she said as Harry’s insides went cold. “But the vaccine itself does work on the virus that’s killing people now. I’ve separated the poison from the vaccine part and we’re trying to work out how she did that now.”

“Do we know how long it would take the poison to kill someone?” Harry asked, glancing between them.

It was Rick who answered. “No clue, but slowly,” he told him.

“That’s really the best we can say at this point,” Audrey agreed sadly. “We know it’s in testing which means they will want to see how people do. It’s already too late for some people unless we can get ahold of the test subjects and cure them.”

“I’m working to teach Rick how to do that,” Nat added quickly. “It’s not as easy for him to do, but we’re making progress. Al keeps coming in to volunteer after he’s done with training.”

Harry was sure that Al was not coming in to volunteer to train Rick, but to keep an eye on him. Still, Harry kept that bit to himself. “Alright,” he said as he tried not to pace. “Keep me posted.”

They were going to have a problem on their hands if that vaccine went live in Muggle communities, but currently most of the governments were making it go through safety testing. Primarily it was the Americans they were looking towards to get approval with their CDC or whoever it was that tested the things.

Harry went back to his office and contacted Louis Kingston and told him what they’d learned so far. It was never comfortable kneeling on the ground to communicate via fireplace, but it was quick. He watched Kingston’s face harden as he nodded. “I’ll get our president to contact the Muggle president. Can you get Audrey to work up some fake paperwork showing the poison?”

Harry hesitated for only a moment and then nodded. “I’ll get something to you as soon as I can.”

He didn’t go straight back to Audrey, but went to find Hermione who would be able to fake Muggle documents easily, as it was something she regularly did. “I have a contact at our health office here in London,” she assured him. “I met him back during the last pandemic. I can get the documents to him and he can send them over to the Americans. If the Americans say it’s unsafe, at least two-thirds of the world will stop human testing which is what we need. We need to buy more time.”

“I need to update the Minister and then I’ll let Kingston know to expect the test results to come from the Brits,” Harry said as he made his way towards the Minister’s office.

By that evening in London, they’d managed to alert the world to the problem with the vaccine. Thousands had already been injected into arms and all of those people were going to need to be treated, but they had time for that. It turned out to be a complicated, but well studied poison that any Potions Master could deal with. That left Nat free to continue dealing with the actual virus and the vaccine that did work and not with putting out fires that the vaccine trials had started.

Things were, quite possibly, looking up.

~*~

“What do you mean they’ve stopped the trials?” Isabella Crabbe asked quietly as her second in command stood in her office overlooking the Madeira River in the town of Porto Velho.

“They found the poison,” the massive man explained bluntly.

“There is no way they could have found the poison that quickly,” Crabbe insisted coldly. “It was well concealed and would not have become a problem for at least a year.”

The man, never one to speak when he didn’t have to, shrugged.

Fury filled Crabbe’s chest as she quickly considered her options, knowing none of them were good. “Who, exactly, found it?”

“The Americans,” he told her. “They released the press brief on their picture box.”

And it was then that Crabbe knew that the American boy must have seen the poison. “We need to kill that kid.”

The man waited. They’d already tried. It hadn’t gone well. He didn’t say it, but Crabbe didn’t need him to say it.

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She’d been counting on the money they would make from the vaccine. She could, of course, release the vaccine without the poison, but really what was the fun in that? She could kill off all the Muggles while she damaged all the magical people. Who wouldn’t want to hit two birds with one stone?

Sighing heavily, she turned back to the man. “Tell them we’ve found the impurity in the vaccine and we will be remaking it without it.”

“You want us to remove the poison?” he asked her, a look of surprise on his face.

“I want the damn money!” she shouted at him, banging her fist. “Have that bloody fool we hired call the Americans and tell them we found the problem. Tell them to scrap the first batch and we will have more ready to go in a few weeks. Then tell the potions masters to make it correctly this time.”

“Alright,” he said and he left.

One way or another she was going to get the money she needed to continue her plan. It hadn’t gone the way she’d wanted so far, but soon enough the Potter brat would be dead. She hadn’t been seen in public in months and that, at least, was sweet enough revenge.

For now.

~*~

Back to index


Chapter 88: Chapter 79 Part TWO

Author's Notes: I am in Florida, celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary, and still I wrote a chapter for all of you! I deserve reviews for that lol

My travel schedule for my paying job goes quiet from now until March, so maybe that means more regular posting, but maybe not. I'm not sure yet. What I can say is I am trying. If you want to support me, patreon is a great way to do so. Sarah Jaune. Even if you sign up for one month and then cancel, it's still something. I'm also on facebook, same name.
I have posted the first book in one of the series I've written FOR FREE on patreon! It's up now and will likely stay up for the rest of January 2023. Please go check it out. If you've never used patreon it's super easy.
Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing and for rereading the story and pointing out that I need to bring that drawing up again now that they're almost twenty. It was so long ago that I forgot lol


“What sort of game is she playing?”

Al glanced over to Rick who was sprawled on the sofa in the flat they now shared and knew he was continuing a conversation they’d started hours before but never finished. They’d been rooming together for weeks at this point, trying to give Rick time to get used to his powers in a way that would allow him to help heal, just as Nat did, but also to work through how to cure the sick Muggles. Just that day they’d heard that the maker of the Muggle potion, no vaccine, Al reminded himself, had said they’d worked out the problem and would be releasing a new vaccine that didn’t have the poison in it. That wasn’t what they’d said, but that was the general meaning.

Al stared at the shabby wallpaper that had probably been from well before his uncles’ time in the flat above their shop and shook his head. “I think she’s so unhappy she wants to destroy the whole world.”

“And she’s in Brazil, hiding out?” Rick asked him. This part seemed to stick with him as Britain had a good relationship with Brazil, at least on the magical side.

“She’s hanging out in some rural place and it’s a big country. No one knows where and if they know, they aren’t saying. We can’t just storm the whole country and grab her.”

Rick shook his head and then tossed a ball up in the air, catching it before tossing it up again. It was some sort of trick that no longer worked, but had been left to rattle around the flat for years on end as not one of the single men who had lived in the flat had ever followed through on the thought of throwing it in the bin. Al’s grandmother would be appalled but his mother would have simply been resigned and thankfully Gran never came to the flat, likely because she had when Fred and George had lived here and she still wasn’t over it.

Rick tossed the ball again and Al thought that it had once been a ball that would fly all around the room, bouncing off everything it hit and wreaking havoc, much like what his uncles had been like all on their own, just tiny Bludgers.

“I should go try to find her,” Rick said quietly and Al knew immediately he was picturing himself the hero by chasing down Isabella Crabbe. It was a thought Al had had more than once in his daydreams and fantasies. Unfortunately, there was a big old pile of practicality and common sense that came with it, most of which he’d gained because he didn’t have Rick’s abilities and couldn’t actually track Crabbe down… or do anything about her if he did.

“No, you should not,” Al told him despite not wanting this bloke hanging around England anymore, and especially not around Nat. It would solve all of his problems if Rick went off on a wild hunt for Crabbe.

The truth was he’d come to like Rick, who was a good guy and funny when they weren’t doing the serious work. He didn’t actually want Rick to be killed. “Listen,” Al said to him. “I get it, I really do. I’d like to kill her for what she’s done to my family, but she’s been able to stay safe this whole time when the best witches and wizards in the world have been hunting her down. People in England assume it’s my dad, but my dad… well, he’s not the most powerful wizard and he can’t do that. We have others, others who are more skilled, and they haven’t been able to find her.” He held up a hand to forestall what he knew Rick was going to say. “You’re going to be one of those people, but right now you’re still learning and frankly if Nat can use your power better than you can, then you have a long way to go.”

Rick snorted out a laugh. “God, she’s such a little thing! I do not think I’ve ever seen a grown adult who is smaller who didn’t have something in their DNA. Are her parents that short?”

“No,” Al shook his head and wondered how much Nat would want him to say. The truth was, though, she was open and honest about what had happened to her. “She was stuck in an Egyptian tomb when she was younger and she was cursed from it. The curse had a lot of years to cause damage and her height was one of the things effected.”

Rick held the ball and didn’t throw it up again. “That’s absolute shit. I didn’t realize. I saw something in her that didn’t look right but I didn’t know what it was.”

He didn’t look over at Al and Al didn’t look over at him. It was a hard thing for Al to think about, knowing she’d suffered for so long because of what had happened to her. “She used to be even more clumsy, because of the curse. It’s getting better, but she used to fall all the time. She kept getting hurt.”

It was something that Al had grown used to without realizing just how insane it was to grow used to something like that.

“It’s pretty amazing what she can do,” Rick said after a minute. “I’ve learned a lot from her. It sucks I can’t teach her anything, like how to protect herself.”

Al had to agree with that, although it hurt his pride some to admit it. He wanted Nat to be safe and that meant being able to protect herself. But she wasn’t any good at it, and no amount of work on her part could make up for her lack of abilities in that area. “Best we can do is keep to our own studies and become Aurors and make the world as safe a place as we possibly can.”

Rick nodded and then cleared his throat. “That girl you’re training with… the tall one with the short, black hair… what’s her name?”

Al eyed him for a moment and then felt a huge rush of relief as he realized why Rick was asking. He’d been hovering on the edge of worry that Rick would develop feelings for Nat, but it appeared as though he’d been worrying for nothing. “Lena Rice, but she doesn’t know why you’re here.”

“Of course not,” Rick sighed heavily. “Has she asked about me?”

Al had to pause to decide whether he should tell him the truth or not. As far as he knew, Lena had gone on a few dates with his cousin Louis. Or maybe it hadn’t been dates, as Al wasn’t actually sure. Louis was a steaming pile of dragon dung when it came to relationships and he’d warned Lena, telling her not to get attached. Louis was a recovering alcoholic, but he wasn’t so far into his sobriety that he was yet to be trusted. Lena understood that, as she’d lived with an alcoholic father and Al didn’t think she was likely going to want to take that on for the long haul that was a marriage and a soul bond.

However, Lena hadn’t really said much about Rick except to ask who he was and Al had given her the standard line his father was feeding all those who didn’t need to know.

Rick was here as an American training with them for a short time.

It was not common but also not unheard of for Aurors to go and either train with or train other Auror teams around the world, especially those who shared a language. “She asked who you are and I told her what my dad said to say,” Al told him, deciding on honesty. “She didn’t say anything else.”

Rick let out a small groan. “Well, that doesn’t sound promising. Of course, I’m not staying here, but still…”

But still…

The fireplace flared to life and his mother poked her head through. “Al, I need some help at home!”

~*~

Ginny’s evening had been going just how most of the evenings had gone since the pandemic had hit. She was used to being left without her husband because of work, and frankly she didn’t mind it now that the children were grown and out of the house. She was used to Harry coming home late and being too exhausted to even smile at her. She was used to eating alone or with Polly when she could convince the elf to sit with her. Polly had given birth to her baby just three days before, so she’d been allowing Ginny to help her some with baby Skip, but it wasn’t much more than she’d allowed when Teeny had been born.

Still, cuddling the tiny elf was a joy all its own and he’d been born on the first of January, which surely had to be a good sign. Very soon she’d have two more grandchildren and that would be a joy all its own.

Most nights Nat came home, ate something, drank a big glass of water and went to bed and Ginny hadn’t had any idea that tonight would be any different for her. Nat had come through the Floo and she’d fallen, which she hadn’t done in months.

That was the first sign.

Then she’d slurred her words as she’d greeted Ginny.

That was the second.

Then last, but absolutely not least, Nat had burst into tears and started spilling absolutely everything she’d been bottling up for at least three years.

Audrey had shown Ginny the spell to check Nat’s blood sugar levels many years before and it wasn’t as though it was difficult and she’d forget because she’d used it a lot in the first few years she’d known the girl, but frankly Nat had been so stable for so long that it took her a moment to remember, to grab Nat’s arm, and perform the spell. When the color purple flared on Nat’s arm, Ginny knew she was in trouble.

When a person’s blood sugar is low they can often become irrational or belligerent. Nat was rarely either, but in this moment she was giving it her best effort.

“No!” Nat shrieked as she stumbled and fell to the floor of the kitchen. “No… nooooo.”

She had been slurring her words the entire time she’d been home, but it was getting worse.

“No, I can’t…” Nat said, batting away Ginny’s hand. If she didn’t get food into her quickly, things were going to get ugly, but Nat was refusing to take a bite of peanut butter she kept on hand for these emergencies.

“NO!” Nat said, starting to sob as she lay down on the ground.

Ginny knew she couldn’t wait so she sprang to the fireplace and tried first to find Audrey, but her sister-in-law wasn’t at the hospital, at home, or at the Ministry, as far as anyone knew. It likely meant she was with Rose in a secret location working on a potion, but that didn’t help Ginny just then.

Desperate, she prayed her son was at his flat and she was rewarded when she spotted him and the boy, Rick, sitting in the living room. “Al, I need some help at home!”

She must have looked crazy or desperate… or possibly both because he sprang up and just as soon as her head was out of the fireplace, she was falling backwards to get out of the way so he could get through.

“What’s wrong?” Al asked, but she didn’t wait to explain.

Instead, she hopped up to her feet and sprinted for the kitchen. “HELP ME!” she said as she found Polly standing there, trying to talk to Nat, the baby in her arms.

Al skidded down to the ground and plucked Nat up off the floor, cradling her on his lap, much like she was the infant. “Leah, sweetie, shhhh.”

Nat turned into Al but kept crying. She pushed at him weakly as Ginny tried, yet again, to get her to eat something. She closed her mouth and shook her head.

“You have to eat now,” Al told her gently. “Come on, open up for me please.”

“No,” Nat whispered but it was less angry and one of her hands came up to clutch at the sweater Al was wearing.

“Open up,” Al told her and she let out a long sigh and then opened her mouth.

Ginny spooned in a bite. Moments later the shaking began and Ginny knew they were making progress. Nat’s irrational cries, which weren’t just a blood sugar problem but a result of the curse which had lingered in her for so many years, quieted and she was freezing now, which meant they were on the other side. Al kept his arms around her, rubbing at her back and whispering encouragement to her as Ginny kept spooning in the peanut butter.

Ginny absolutely hated peanut butter. She had no idea why so many Muggles liked it, but Audrey had prescribed it specifically since it had so much protein along with the carbs. It was something that would raise her blood sugar but not spike it.

It took them nearly half an hour until Nat was limp in Al’s arms. Ginny checked her blood sugar again and let out a small breath when she saw it was, while not as green as she’d have liked, at least a solid teal.

“She can’t be alone,” Al noted when he saw the color.

“Nope,” Ginny agreed as she turned to study her son.

He watched her for a minute and then said, almost defiantly, “I’m going to stay with her tonight, watch over her.”

“Okay,” Ginny said without any inflection and was secretly amused that her son looked surprised, like she didn’t know or understand him.

Al stood, not even making it look awkward that he still had Nat in his arms, and headed for the stairs. He was such a big man, now, this little boy of hers, but he moved with care and grace when it came to the love of his life.

Nat would need to eat again when she woke up, so Ginny followed with beef jerky sticks, which they’d found to be the easiest for her when she’d had a bad episode.

She left the jerky with her son in Nat’s room, him sitting on the floor with a book, and went to her own room to settle for a moment. She quietly closed the door, moved to the bed and sat, staring at the dresser in front of her.

The test for blood sugar ran along the lines of the rainbow. Purple was low, green was good, and red was high. Any kid after a birthday celebration and cake would be running red, but for Nat it was critical that she stay in the green to yellow range. Even orange was too much for her. With what she ate, and eating regularly, she shouldn’t have been able to drop low, but sometimes with hugely stressful situations, it dropped.

This situation with the Muggles was too much stress for her and something had to change. Yes, Nat was powerful in her own way, but she had so many limitations and they hadn’t been working within them. She’d given up making wands to work full time with Rick at the Ministry.

That clearly was too much and she’d need the day off the next day, maybe the day after. She needed to let Audrey know what happened.

Ginny lay back on the bed, her feet still dangling, and promptly fell asleep.

~*~

Al found the picture in the book somewhere around two in the morning. She’d put the picture in between the pages and he studied in now, amused to see it again. Way back when Nat had nagged James into drawing a picture of the four of them, Scorpius, Rose, Nat and Al, from left to right. She’d nailed how tall Scorpius was in comparison to Rose, but she’d made herself taller than she actually was, and he was pictured as slightly shorter than Scorpius, rather than several inches taller. Al had shot up, much to everyone’s surprise, since his mother was short and his dad wasn’t that tall.

His uncles ran in two varieties, tall and skinny, or not as tall but beefy. Al had thought he’d be the shorter and beefier kind, while James had gone to tall and solidly muscled from Quidditch. Instead, Al was taller than everyone, topping out at the same height and weight as Teddy.

Of course, Teddy being Teddy, he liked to take the Mickey with Al and every time they were next to each other, he’d make himself taller and wider. But they were the same size when Teddy wasn’t messing about.

His mother had started an interrogation squad trying to figure out who had given them Skele-Gro.

He studied Nat more closely and thought she was a lot prettier now than she had pictured in this drawing. Of course, it could have just been James’ hand not being good enough. He didn’t know if his brother still drew anything, but he hadn’t heard of him putting quill to parchment in a long time. He had a nearly two-year-old son and another on the way, and kids had a way of eating up time.

He was going to be twenty soon. They all were. Rose and Scorpius were both married, although only one had been planned, and here he was… hopelessly in love with Nat and absolutely no closer to doing anything about it.

He wanted to tell himself that twenty was young and he didn’t need to be married right then. They had time. He should finish his training anyway… maybe if nothing happened before that, he’d just take the risk and tell her after his training was done. Maybe she didn’t feel the same way he did but then at least he’d know.

Who was he kidding? He already knew she didn’t have feelings for him. She’d tried to set him up on countless dates, although thankfully she hadn’t done that in a long time, not since he asked her to stop.

But it would be good to know and even if she didn’t feel the same about him, she’d be nothing but kind. He’d hate that, but they’d get over it. He still had another year and a half of training to go… maybe something would happen.

Nat let out a small groan and Al moved swiftly over to her, unwrapping the jerky before she’d even had a chance to open her eyes. “Eat,” he told her and waited for her to open her mouth. She chewed and he propped her up to get her water, eventually just sitting behind her on the bed so he could lean her against his chest and keep feeding her.

“You shouldn’t have to do this for me,” she whispered into the dim light of the room.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” he promised and couldn’t resist the temptation to drop a soft kiss on the top of her head. “Just keep eating.”

He checked her blood sugar again thirty minutes later and when it showed green, he let out a sigh of relief.

“I need to pee,” she told him, her eyes barely open.

“Okay,” he agreed and felt his cheeks pink. She’d have been mortified too if she’d been awake, but she was really out of it. He carried her in the bathroom and left her there, waiting for her to say she was done, and then she insisted she couldn’t sleep in her work clothes and he fetched her pajamas for her, turning around so she could change. He carried her back to the bed and tucked her in.

“Don’t leave me,” she asked softly.

“I won’t,” he promised as he tucked her in. Then he made a pallet on the floor with some extra blankets and pillows and dowsed the lights, falling into a fitful sleep around three.

Back to index


Chapter 89: Chapter 80 Part ONE

Author's Notes: First part, all nice and happy... thank you Arnel for beta'ing.

Please go check out my Patreon account, Sarah Jaune. I have the first book in one of my series FREE for another week or two! You can join for a very low fee and read the whole rest of the series, then cancel after one month :D It really does help support my original works.

I know this story is long and drawn out, but I'd always planned on this going until Al is about 21 and he's 20 now in the timeline so there isn't much left to go. Then I'll likely hang up my fanfiction hat for a long time, so if you like my stuff consider following me on facebook (Sarah Jaune) and/or the patreon. We have months of writing yet, but it'll go by fast.

As always, please leave a review even if it's to yell at me that Al and Nat need to get their acts together already lol


Chapter 80

Teddy awoke with a start, unsure of what had startled him awake, but then felt his wife’s freezing cold foot on his bare calf and relaxed. He turned his head slowly to see her blue eyes watching him. “Why are you up?” Teddy asked thickly, clearing his throat as he tried to clear away the sleep. He squinted at the clock and saw it was just after three in the morning.

“I’m in labor,” Victoire informed him quietly.

Teddy’s heart gave a single jolt, but then he relaxed and grinned. “Yeah? She’s decided to come today?”

“Looks like,” his wife agreed. “My water hasn’t broken yet and the contractions aren’t very regular, but they’re starting to pick up.”

Teddy leaned in and tenderly kissed her, lingering over her lips and her cheek, brushing his fingers along her cheek and through her hair. Merlin, he loved this woman. He’d loved her for so long, and yet it never felt long enough. He’d thought he’d known what it was to love her when he’d been eighteen, but hadn’t understood then, not really. He didn’t know this bone deep love that would be wound between them with strands of memories, kisses and their children’s laughter. “I’ll go ahead and let everyone know,” Teddy told her.

She brushed her fingers along his chest. “Alright, I don’t know if they need to rush or not, but… oh wait,” she paused and he twisted so he could take her hand, letting her squeeze his through the contraction.

He silently counted in his head and noted the pain lasted a good forty-five seconds and then he audibly heard the pop of her water breaking. He didn’t need her to tell him what that meant. He’d been through two other labors with her and when contractions hit that level, things were starting to move. “You good?” he asked when she relaxed her hand.

“Yeah,” she panted quietly. “Maybe…”

He grabbed for his wand and waved it, cleaning up a lot of the water that had just spread all over the bed. “I’ll tell them to move fast,” Teddy promised as he grabbed for a pair of trousers and a jumper. He called for Audrey first and then for Fleur and finally Ginny.

Audrey arrived just as he stepped away from the Floo and they made their way upstairs to find Victoire on her hands and knees, rocking in the bed. “Alright, my darling girl,” Audrey told her as she helped her to strip out of her wet underpants. “Let’s see how you’re… oh, you’re already crowning.”

Teddy stopped and looked and sure enough, there was the baby’s head.

“Owwwww,” Victoire let out a low moan and he quickly moved up on the bed, getting up near her shoulders. “Hold me up,” she told him.

“Okay,” he said as he scooted around so she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and rest her head. He held her up through another two contractions, one on top of the other. Ginny rushed in followed quickly by Fleur and a moment later the baby slid out into Audrey’s hands and he felt Victoire sag into him, crying softly. “Luv,” he laughed softly and felt his own tears as he gently helped her down onto the bed on her side so Audrey could hand her their baby girl.

“She’s beautiful,” Victoire whispered reverently as she kept her eyes fixed on their baby.

The baby had let out several annoyed squawks, but at the sound of her mother’s voice, she’d quieted instantly and focused in on Victoire.

Teddy scooted down until he was lying next to them, the baby between them. Victoire looked up at him and smiled and he leaned in to kiss her. “Thank you,” he whispered reverently, in awe of her and the gifts she’d given him. Then he leaned down towards the baby and named his daughter, “Welcome to the world, Ireland Genevra.”

Ginny let out a snort and then laughed. “Well, at least Ireland is a lovely name.”

Teddy looked up and grinned at his surrogate mother. “It’s only fair.”

“Yes, I have Olivia Fleur,” Fleur agreed as she kept her arm around Ginny. “Oh,” she said as she squeezed her hard. “We have another bebe!”

He didn’t move as his aunts and mother went to work, magically cleaning the sheets and taking care of Victoire. He lay stroking his baby’s cheek and her head which was still a little damp and sticky from birth. The mothers had warmed the room, though, so he was a comfortable temperature for the baby.

“Let me clean her up and get her in a nappy,” Audrey said as she moved over behind Victoire and reached out to take the baby. The moment the baby was out of Victoire’s arms, she started screaming her head off.

Victoire was not a novice mother, so normally she didn’t worry about a bit of fussing, but she glanced in distress towards the baby as Audrey quickly cleaned her. She made to move, but Teddy stilled her. “I have her,” he promised as he rose up and went to the baby. “Sweetheart,” he whispered, getting in close to Ireland’s head. “Hey,” he said and she turned towards him, snuffling pitifully. “Very soon Mummy will have you and then everything will be alright. We just need to make sure you don’t pee all over us.”

Ireland seemed to consider him, and before she could make up her mind about what she thought of this situation, she was all clean and this time Teddy picked her up to take her back to Victoire. In the short time he’d had his back turned, Fleur and Ginny had completely changed Victoire and cleared up the rest of the mess from birth. She held out her arms and he gave the baby back to her. Ireland seemed to completely relax again, rooting her face into Victoire’s chest.

“You might have a mummy’s girl on your hand,” Ginny told him with a grin.

“It’s only fair,” Victoire said as she helped the baby latch on to nurse. “All the others have been very attached to him.”

“She’s right,” Teddy agreed with a smile of remembrance as he watched them. “Except when Emma was about a year old. She had about a month when she didn’t want anyone but you.”

“Oh, yeah, that was fun,” Victoire agreed. She held out her hand for him and he climbed back into the bed, snuggling in with her. He should have been exhausted, but he was wide awake.

“We’re going to let you sleep for a bit,” Audrey told them. “We’ll go rest downstairs, so call if you need us. I’ll check on the baby in an hour or so.”

“Alright,” Teddy agreed as they dimmed the lights. He watched his wife and he watched his smallest daughter and saw the moment each fell back into sleep. He nearly picked the baby up to burp her, but knew it would startle Victoire awake if he did, so he let them sleep, keeping watch until he, too, drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, he carried Olivia in while Emma and Amelia walked to his room to meet their baby sister.

“Mummy,” Emma said as she walked in to see Victoire sitting in bed, holding the baby. She stopped at the edge of the bed and boosted Amelia up before clambering up, herself and crawling over to Victoire. He wanted to ask her to be careful, but he saw that Emma was being careful. She studied the new baby and then said, “She has brown hair!”

“It looks like it,” Victoire agreed as Teddy sat on the edge of the bed, still holding Olivia. “It might not stay brown, but it is right now.”

“She wittle,” Amelia commented as she picked up Ireland’s hand and then dropped it.

Teddy also wanted to say something about that, but he knew from long experience that he had to pick his battles and the baby of the family was going to be petted and poked and prodded. A lot. “Remember we talked about being gentle?”

“Uhhuh,” Amelia agreed and then pointed to herself. “Me-uh gentle,” she assured her, butchering her own name in a way that always made him smile. “Come Wivvy!” she said to her twin.

Olivia shook her head and buried her face in Teddy’s neck. His heart clenched as he held her tighter, soothing her with his hand on her small back. She was getting so big, but even still she felt so small in his arms. “Livy isn’t ready yet.”

“Do you want me to hold you?” Victoire asked their daughter. Olivia shook her head again and tightened her arms around Teddy’s neck.

“She wasn’t awake,” Teddy explained to Victoire, who nodded. Even if she had been awake when the other two were hopping around to see the new baby, Olivia may have still reacted like this. She was slower to warm up than her gregarious twin.

“Well,” Ginny said coming into the room. “What do we think of our new baby?”

“She’s pretty,” Emma told her. “She got brown hair!”

“I did see that,” Ginny agreed as she moved over towards them, running a gentle hand along Olivia’s back, adding comfort, but not commenting. “Who is ready for breakfast?”

“MEEEEE!” came the two shrieks of Emma and Amelia. Teddy chuckled when he saw that Ireland didn’t even stir at the noise. She was already used to chaos.

“Do you want to go with Gamma for breakfast?” Teddy asked Olivia, but she shook her head. “Alright, two little monkeys down to eat. I’ll bring Olivia down when she’s ready.”

“Alright,” Ginny agreed as she took the girls hands and walked them out.

Teddy stood and moved around the bed, climbing in to sit next to Victoire. He tried to settle Olivia onto his lap, but she was having none of it, insisting on resting on his shoulder. They’d been through this before with her, so they didn’t comment and instead spoke of other things that weren’t of much consequence. It took about ten minutes before Olivia squirmed down to sit in his lap, her fingers firmly in her mouth. It took another ten minutes and Fleur bringing up breakfasts on a tray before Olivia moved further.

“Ireland needs breakfast,” Olivia told Teddy as she reached up with her damp fingers to grasp his chin so he’d look at her.

“Mummy gave her breakfast,” Teddy promised her. “Remember how baby eats?”

She nodded and then reached for a piece of bacon, which she daintily started to eat from.

Olivia didn’t talk as much as Amelia, which they’d started to notice when the twins were about eighteen months old. But when she did speak, it was a lot clearer and easier to understand than her sister. Victoire said, not without some truth, that Livy couldn’t get a word in edgewise between her sisters, but that when she actually had something to say, she wanted to make sure she was understood.

Amelia sometimes just chattered about absolutely nothing and didn’t really care whether the people around her were listening or not.

He heard a rap at the door and glanced up to see Harry and Bill in the doorway.

Olivia squealed and stood up, tottering a bit on the bed while Teddy grabbed the back of her pajama shirt to keep her upright. “We have a baby!” she told her grandfathers with a lot of enthusiasm.

“I see that!” Bill told her and he came over and plucked her up, giving her a loud, smacking kiss. “Papa!” she said to Bill and pointed. “She has brown hair! Did you see, Granddad?” she said as she turned to Harry, who was grinning at her. “It’s wike yours, Granddad, but not gray.”

“She’s a totally different kid with them,” Victoire said under her breath. Teddy had to agree. She was always a bubble of energy with her grandfathers, and he didn’t know why, but he was glad for it. They always helped her to feel special, which he knew was probably part of it.

“I would hope she wouldn’t have my gray hairs,” Harry grinned as he bent in to tickle her. “What’s our new baby’s name?”

“Ireland,” Olivia told him proudly, amazingly pronouncing it correctly.

“I bet,” Harry said to her as he studied her, “that you’re going to be a wonderful big sister.”

Olivia seemed to consider this for a moment and then looked back at the baby before she nodded slowly. “Yes,” she said finally.

That was it. Just yes.

Their first day as a family of six went very well. Teeny, who had stayed on with them to help them out, was now a full-grown elf. She still played with the girls a bit, but mostly she managed the household for them. She accepted wages and took days off, but she rarely left except to see her mother and new baby brother. She wanted to be with them. As she’d explained it to Teddy, in her elfin way, they were her family and this was where she wanted to be. Teeny was very excited to meet the baby and promised them that she had the running of the house all set. He only felt a little guilty over it, but honestly it seemed to make her happy. Victoire had been encouraging her to find something she liked to do besides work, but so far that hadn’t resulted in anything.

He'd hoped maybe she would be a different kind of elf, and in some ways she was, but she was still an elf and that was that in Teeny’s mind.

Ireland wasn’t even twenty-four hours old when Victoire said, “I want to do this again.”

Teddy paused in the act of pulling off his robe and studied his wife who was nursing the baby, she on her side with the baby snuggled close to her. She didn’t even take her eyes off the baby as she spoke and he knew that Ireland would enjoy a lot of her mother’s undivided focus. “We are not picking a ‘U’ name,” Teddy said flatly. “I did a search at the library and there are no good names that start with ‘U’,” he assured her.

“That’s fine,” she agreed softly. “We can move on to something else or pick another vowel name. I was thinking maybe Beatrice next time.”

He left his t-shirt on along with his boxers, knowing his odds of getting up in the middle of the night were high, and crawled into bed with her. It was just after ten but they were both ready to get to sleep. He almost said they might have a boy, but at this point he thought it might just be easier to only have girls. He already knew what to do with girls, after all. “I like Beatrice,” he agreed. “But then if we have a Beatrice, we’d have to have another or she’d wonder why she was the only one without a vowel name.”

“Hmm,” Victoire mumbled as she bent to kiss the baby’s soft head. “I think you might be right.”

Teddy softly stroked the hair away from her face and leaned up to kiss her brow before dropping his lips to the baby.

Wherever they went, they were going together, and he knew he’d never regret any child they had. So, if that’s what they ended up wanting, they could have two more.

~*~

“Caroline is about ready to pop,” Lily told Scorpius after he’d helped her into their car and had come around to the driver’s side. He’d already opened the baby seat door for Sera and she had her nose pressed up against the window, leaving her usual imprint on the glass.

They’d all stopped in for a short time to meet baby Ireland, but Lily hadn’t expected to see Caroline.

“James said she was due a few days ago, but Nat said it looked like it would be another few days,” Scorpius said he reversed the car so he could turn it around. He glanced over at his love and smiled, reaching over to take her hand and bring it up to his lips. “We still have until April, but I’m getting really excited to meet her.”

They’d learned the baby was a girl from Nat and had decided on the name Lorelei Hope. It wasn’t a name Scorpius had ever heard, but Lily had read it in a book and had fallen in love with it. Hope was, of course, for her big sister who hadn’t made it. Scorpius was simply happy to be having a healthy baby with her. When he thought of how close he’d come to losing her, nothing else mattered. She would be close to eighteen when the baby was born, depending on when the baby was born. Maybe they’d share a birthday.

He focused on the road again and let his mind drift as he drove them back home. He’d had a few things in work that needed his attention, but nothing urgent. He was out of his training, now, and making good money which he’d started investing with Bill’s help. He’d talked to Andrew about his own holdings, and he knew that in order to save his ancestral home he was going to need to build up a decent amount of capital. He didn’t ever want to live in the home, and neither did Lily, but it was part of his family’s heritage and maybe one of his children would want it at some point. Or possibly it could be repurposed for something else once his parents were gone. He didn’t know.

He did know that his father’s father, his grandfather, was very annoyed that the baby was a girl and that they hadn’t selected to do something about that.

That simple, angry statement which had come in a letter to him, had told him a lot about his grandparents and their priorities. He’d asked Harry to put a block on their house so his grandfather wouldn’t be able to write to him again and it had been bliss for about a month until Lucius had figured out a way around it.

His mother was ecstatic about having a granddaughter and his father… he’d been happy after he’d learned that this was not going to be their only child. It was, Scorpius knew, progress even if it was sexist and outdated progress. Draco wanted someone to carry on the Malfoy name and line.

Scorpius had mused to Teddy that having all girls was an excellent thing, and Teddy had laughed and reminded him that at some point he was going to have four teenage girls who all had their period at the same time.

He heard a soft murmur and glanced over to see that Lily had fallen asleep, her hand still in his. She was so beautiful that he wanted to watch her sleep, but he had to focus on the road. Technically he couldn’t crash the car, as it was magical, but a police officer could still see him not paying attention to the road and that wouldn’t do.

His mind continued to drift and before he knew it, he was pulling into their driveway.

He saw a woman stand from the porch and his heart clenched to see her face. He hadn’t seen her in years. At this point, he’d even lost count at how long it had been.

He parked the car and turned off the engine before he squeezed Lily’s hand. “Wake up, luv. Aunt Daphne is here.”

~*~

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Chapter 90: Chapter 80 Part TWO

Author's Notes: I am actually on time posting this chapter! You should thank me by leaving a review lol

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I know this is long and drawn out and we have another year or two of timeline left to go, but I'm starting to feel it... we're in the home stretch. If you want to keep up with me, find me on face book at Sarah Jaune. I don't post often, but I'm there.


Scorpius’s aunt was dressed in a flawless Muggle linen suit that was cream colored and she had an emerald green scarf around her hair, tied under the chin. It flapped a bit in the breeze as he let Sera out first and their dog wandered over to sniff at Daphne, allowing her to scratch behind the dog’s ears, while he helped Lily out of the car.

“You’re doing well?” Daphne asked as they walked hand and hand towards her.

“Yes, thanks,” Lily assured her as she let go and stepped forward to hug his aunt. “How are you?”

“I am charmingly wonderful,” Daphne said in an obvious lie as she turned to hug Scorpius. “I had to go track down your father, Lily, so I could get in here.”

Harry wasn’t their Secret Keeper, of course. It was Bill. At Scorpius’ raised brow, Daphne waved him off. “Yes, yes, then I tracked down Bill Weasley who ran me through a million tests before he let me read the secret. You do not want to be found.”

“No,” Scorpius agreed. He studied her closely and saw she looked absolutely terrible underneath the scarf. “What’s wrong?”

She hesitated only a moment and then finally said, “I need a safe place to stay for a bit. I was hoping I could stay with you.”

“Of course,” Lily agreed before Scorpius could open his mouth.

He had a lot of complicated feelings about his aunt, namely that while she probably had loved him the best of all the adult family members he had, she was so self-involved and flighty that he’d almost never been able to count on her. For all intents and purposes, the Potters and Weasleys had been his parents. They’d been his family. When he’d needed someone to count on, he hadn’t been able to count on her.

But he had to admit, she looked dreadful and unlike his aunt, he wasn’t flakey or flighty. He didn’t want to be that kind of person. If she turned to him, he wanted to be there for her. “Yes,” he agreed, even though it made something inside of him twist. “Come in. Tell us what happened.”

Daphne didn’t tell them what happened that day. She asked to freshen up, so he’d taken her bag and shown her to a guest room that was at least marginally furnished. When she hadn’t come back thirty minutes later, he went to check on her and found she was asleep. It would have to wait.

“Something is very wrong with her,” Lily said as he came down and told her she was asleep. “She seems… broken, somehow. I don’t know, but she’s in trouble. She might be in danger.”

Scorpius scrubbed as his face and shook his head. “I would hope that she wouldn’t bring danger to my house where my pregnant wife lives, Lily.”

They looked at each other and knew that the other was thinking it. She just might. It really depended on what was going on. Also, realistically, no one was going to be able to get her while she was in their house. There was no way into the house unless the person was family.

“Do you think she told my mother she’s here?” Scorpius asked as he settled in next to her on the couch, putting an arm around her shoulders and tucking her in close.

Lily shook her head and he felt some of her bright hair tickling at the underside of his chin. “We’ll just wait to see what’s going on.”

She still wasn’t awake when they went to bed that night, but Scorpius found her at the table early the next morning as he came down to get himself breakfast. He had to be at work in an hour. He spotted the breakfast she’d already made and raised a brow.

“I took the liberty,” she told him with a small smile. She was dressed in lose, comfortable clothing and she had her blonde hair pulled up in a tail that was clearly an afterthought and she had shadows under her blue eyes. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” he said as he served himself some of the breakfast and sat to eat. “I have about an hour if you want to tell me what’s wrong.”

When she didn’t answer, he glanced up to see her gazing towards the window and a lone tear trickling down her cheek. Scorpius sat back, his food forgotten and studied her. She still looked so young, despite being in her mid-forties. Finally, she swiped at the tear and then turned to him with a small smile. “I’m not sure you have enough time for me to go through everything, my darling. We can talk later.”

Odds were good she’d be gone later. “Give me a moment,” he told her as he rose and went to the fireplace. He contacted his boss, who he knew would already be in his office, and told him that his aunt had shown up unexpectedly and there was some kind of crisis. He promised to be in as soon as possible and his boss had agreed. Scorpius didn’t have any client appointments that day, so he could easily make up his work by staying later. “Alright,” he said as he came back to the table. “I have all the time in the world now.”

“Imagine you at an office,” she mused as she watched him tuck into his breakfast. “I bet your father had a fit over that.”

“He did,” Scorpius confirmed. “At least, I’m told he did. I refuse to discuss it with him.”

“And you marrying Lily?” Daphne asked quietly. “What did he think of that?”

“Also unhappy, I’m sure,” he said with an unconcerned shrug. “But in that I also don’t care what he thinks of me or my wife, as long as he is polite to her.”

Daphne fell quiet for a moment before she said, “I did something very foolish.”

If he were honest, Scorpius wouldn’t have thought she’d do something foolish. It was more likely that she’d have said exactly what she thought to the wrong man and they’d have taken offense to it. “I’m listening.”

“I met a man in Italy,” she explained quietly as she used her fork to prod some of her eggs, but didn’t actually take a bite. “He was handsome and charming. He was clever and interesting and very wealthy. We became an item.”

Scorpius blinked back his surprise. As far as he knew, his aunt hadn’t willingly given any man any attention in all the years of his life. She’d been hurt, badly, by a man when she was young, although she’d never discussed it with him. He’d overheard things his mother had said through the years and he knew how to read the signs. He’d actually thought she’d moved on to women with how much she didn’t trust men.

“He…” she cleared her throat. “He was the first man I’d been tempted by, at least in a very long time. I thought… well, I thought he might be the one.”

“What happened?” Scorpius asked as a mixture of dread and curiosity filled his insides.

“I… married him,” she said as she finally looked at him. “I married him, impulsively, in a Muggle ceremony and we went on a long honeymoon and then when we came back, he went back to work at the company he owned.”

“What does he do?” Scorpius asked her, absolutely sure it wasn’t what the company purported to do.

She shrugged. “It’s something with Muggle medicine, I don’t know. I didn’t understand that bit. He was a wizard, but he was Muggle-born and his family has owned the company for a long time. They’re actually based out of America.”

This was not sounding promising, especially since they were in the middle of a Muggle pandemic.

Daphne slowly put the fork down and stared at her plate. “He didn’t really need to work, you know. It was just something he said he liked to do, something to keep busy. He had enough money that wasn’t necessary. I didn’t question it much until two days ago.”

“He’s part of the poisoned vaccine plot,” Scorpius realized with horror. “How did you find out?”

“I walked in on him having a meeting with Aunt Isabella,” Daphne said quietly as she closed her eyes. “She didn’t recognize me, but I knew it was her at once. I apologized, walked out, and then I quickly packed a small bag and left.”

“Did you tell Harry about this?” Scorpius demanded quickly.

She shook her head. “I didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing anything,” she told him. “You can have him come here to talk, but I remember how tight security always was around his family and I knew it would be the same for you. Scorpius… I don’t know if my husband would have hurt me, but I do know I c-couldn’t stay with a man working with that crazy bitch.”

The tears were coming quickly, now, so Scorpius rose and retrieved a tissue for her. “Thank you for coming to us. I’m… I’m so sorry. Of course, you can stay as long as you need.”

She let out a mirthless laugh as she shook her head. “That might be forever, my darling. I’m not going to be safe in the world if my husband turns on me. He’s a very wealthy man. I thought… well, I thought I’d finally found love.”

“You might have,” Scorpius reminded her as he perched on the edge of the table. “He truly might love you and you love him, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a little crooked when it comes to business or making money.”

“After the childhood we had I just can’t do that anymore,” Daphne told him. She closed her eyes and sucked in a big breath before blowing it out. “There, now, I’m alright. You go on to work and maybe ask Harry to come see me. I’ll tell him what I know.”

“What’s your husband’s name?” Scorpius asked her curiously.

“Anthony,” she said quietly. “I called him Tony but no one else did. His full name is Anthony Bugatti.”

~*~

Harry almost couldn’t believe the coincidence of Daphne’s story. After leaving his daughter’s house, he’d gone to visit Andrew and he’d learned a lot about Bugatti.”

“It says here,” Andrew said, reading from a website, “That the Bugatti family emigrated from Italy over a hundred and fifty years ago and as soon as they were in America, set up their business. They had money, family money, and they fell in with a type of mob scene in Chicago.” Andrew glanced up at Harry and shook his head. “I didn’t know any of that. I only knew that their pharmaceutical company, Salute, was a powerhouse in the industry.”

Harry let out a long sigh and tried not to let the tension headache win. “But they’re not someone you’ve wanted to do business with?”

“Actually, no,” Andrew admitted with a grimace. “I’ve not seen any hint of corruption from them. Well…” he shook his head ruefully. “Every single large corporation has corruption. It’s just a matter of where and how much. They’re all profit driven, which means that someone is getting taken at every moment, but I didn’t hear anything that alarmed me about Salute.”

“If Bugatti is meeting with Crabbe,” Harry said quietly, “and she’s going to Italy to meet him, then we can get her.”

Andrew gave a small shrug. “I imagine with Daphne doing a runner, her husband’s going to tell Crabbe not to come back. He’s going to be really, really confused as to why she left.”

“Do you think he knew that Isabella Crabbe was Daphne’s aunt?” Harry asked, even though he knew Andrew wasn’t going to know. “It’s just such an odd coincidence.”

“I don’t necessarily believe in coincidences and this one seems like it’s a bit too much to bite,” Andrew pointed out.

Just as he said it, the pieces clicked together in Harry’s brain. “Well, damn it. If he knew, it meant he was going to use Daphne, probably at Crabbe’s request, to get to us.”

“Are you sure she hasn’t already?” Andrew asked in alarm.

“I’m sure,” Harry let out a frustrated growl. “I’ve known Daphne a long, long time and I know that the only person she loves without reservation is Scorpius. She’s rather terrible at showing it, sometimes, but she wouldn’t ever betray him.”

Andrew gave a nod and Harry wondered if he believed him or not. “I’ll keep digging and I’ll try to find out where Bugatti is right now. If he’s still in Italy, you might be able to send someone to watch his house.”

Harry took a measured breath and let it out. “I need you to be careful,” he told him and then held up his hand when Andrew would protest. “You’re not a spy, you’re not even a government employee, and I am asking you to put your life at risk. I’m risking Rose and Claire, as well, and I would be devasted if something happened to any of you.”

“Same will apply to last time,” Andrew promised him. “I have people who hire people who hire more people and so on. This isn’t going to come back on us. I’ll make sure the family is shielded.”

Harry nodded and gave his nephew-in-law a tight smile. “I’m having to use every resource I can against this woman. I am glad I have you as one of them.”

~*~

Louis stared down at his newest niece and grinned as she smiled in her sleep. Her facial expressions kept shifting, so he figured she was dreaming. He had no idea what a baby who was only a week old might dream about, but she seemed happy about it.

“Uncle Louis,” Emma said, grabbing his attention as she stood next to him on the sofa, putting bows or ribbons in his hair.

He needed a haircut, Louis knew. He’d needed one, oh, probably four months ago, but he just kept putting it off and putting it off, which meant that when he sat down around his nieces, they had to make him pretty. “Yes, baby?” he asked Emma, attempting to move his head to look at her, but her little hand held his head still, indicating that she was still hard at work and he shouldn’t move.

“Mummy says we are going to have more babies,” Emma told him.

Louis felt his brows raise, but then again he couldn’t say he was surprised. “Did she?”

“She said she wants lots and lots more babies,” Emma assured him as he felt a tug at his hair and he tried not to flinch. “I thought I wanted a brother, but I think I like just having sisters.”

“Sisters are very nice,” Louis lied smoothly. Alright, to be fair, his adult sisters were excellent now. Victoire had helped him walk through his sobriety and Dom had been unfailingly supportive of him as he’d struggled to come to terms with his past. He’d finally told all of his family what had happened to him. It had been beastly telling his dad that a man had taken advantage of him, but his dad was maybe the most understanding of all of them. He’d gone out of his way to be supportive and to keep checking in on Louis.

“Aunt Dom and Aunt Gwen,” Emma began, referring to Dom’s partner, “came by yesterday and they let me do their hair up pretty.”

“I bet they did,” Louis agreed with a grin. His hair was going to be a wreck by the time Emma was done, but she did enjoy doing it. Maybe that was why he hadn’t gone for a haircut yet.

“Emma,” Victoire said as she came into the room, the twins trailing behind her. “Uncle Louis’ hair is beautiful, but maybe you can stop now.”

“I’m not done,” Emma informed her primly. “He’s not ready for the ball yet.”

“Are you going to a ball?” Victoire asked him with a smirk as she settled down on the sofa and the other girls clambered up. “I didn’t realize.”

“Apparently we are having a ball here in about ten minutes,” Louis informed his sister seriously. “I’m not dressed appropriately, but at least my hair will look nice.”

“Indeed,” Victoire agreed as they both tried valiantly to hide their laughter.

Teddy walked in, stopped, and burst out laughing which he had to quickly hide with a cough so as not to hurt Emma’s feelings.

Teddy was the smart one; he kept his hair short at all times.

“Well, uh,” Teddy said as he fought to keep the tears of mirth from escaping, “Teeny says dinner will be ready in five minutes.”

They ate and talked, laughed and enjoyed. Louis watched his sister and brother-in-law. He watched his nieces and helped with the messes. He took all of it in, every single moment, and he wondered if he’d ever have these moments with a family of his own. He’d been single for a long time now. It was actually the longest that he’d been single, but he needed it. He had a good report with Al’s Auror partner, Lena, and he’d thought she might be developing feelings for him, but he’d made it clear to her that he wasn’t interested and needed some time to himself. She was a good sort, though, so she’d stayed his friend.

Part of him wanted a family. Part of him liked the routine and the noise. He liked the love he felt in this home and all the homes of the rest of his family, but he wasn’t sure if he was in a place, yet, to do much about it. Theoretically it would have been nice to have children at the same time as James and Caroline, but for that he’d need a wife and that was not happening right now.

Dom had asked him if he’d donate when she and Gwen eventually had children. They’d decided Gwen would be the one to carry them. They weren’t ready yet and Louis told her he had to think about it, but he thought he might do that for them. It was one small thing he could do to show his family love and care as they’d loved and cared about him.

Dom and Gwen had also talked about adoption and they were exploring that, as well, but as far as he knew they had to be married to adopt and the two hadn’t yet done that. They’d been together for a very long time, so he expected that to happen soon.

At least one good change had come to the magical society of England. Back in the days of his grandparents, gay couples weren’t allowed to marry or adopt, but about fifty years ago the law had been changed and now all couples were allowed a soul bond and the rules on adoption were written that the couple had to be married. That was it, so there was no need to change that rule.

“How’s work going?” Teddy asked as he cut up some food for Olivia. “Is Uncle Bill making you work too much?”

“It’s been good,” Louis began and then paused as he heard the fireplace.

Teddy was up and moving towards it. He saw Aunt Ginny speaking to Teddy for a moment and then Teddy came back with a big grin.

“We have another baby on the way!” he told everyone. “Caroline’s in labor.

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Chapter 91: Chapter 81 Part ONE

Author's Notes: I put up a different novel (my first novel) Shelter for free on my patreon account (Sarah Jaune). Please go read and leave a comment! If you like the book, the rest of my work can be accessed through the account for a very low fee (you can join for one month only and binge). If nothing else, please go find me on Facebook and give me a like. It helps.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing.

Please do leave a review if you read.


Chapter 81

James could not stop staring at the baby in his wife’s arms. He was absolutely gorgeous, just as Alex had been, only he was a good bit bigger and stronger than when Alex had been a newborn and he was staring at them calmly, not in pain. It was a relief beyond words to know that his child was safe and whole. Nat had already looked at him, mostly to reassure Caroline, but she’d confirmed he was as healthy as could be.

He could see Caroline in their son’s features, but only really in the mouth which looked like her. Otherwise, he looked exactly like James and Alex. James pressed a kiss to his wife’s temple and murmured his love for her and then bent to kiss his son, yet again. He wanted to hold the baby, but Caroline had done all the work to get this little one here safely so he wasn’t going to ask until she was ready to let go.

It had been two hours and apart from letting his aunt check the baby over, she hadn’t let him go.

“Alex is up,” Nat said as she came into the room with Alex on her hip.

“Hey,” James said as he held out his arms for his son, who was suddenly looking very shy. They’d tried so hard to explain to Alex what was going to happen, but it was hard to comprehend for a boy who wasn’t yet two. “This is your brother, Asher,” he explained as Alex cuddled into his side and studied the baby. Rufus, who had been laying like a moldering old rug on the ground, grumbled to his feet and came over to stick his massive head into Alex’s side.

Alex reached for Rufus, as he often did, without thought and his body relaxed into James as he set his head on James’ shoulder. “Mummy,” he said in a very small voice. Despite all Caroline’s attempts, Alex was sticking with ‘mummy’ rather than the American version, ‘mommy’.

“Oh, baby,” Caroline reached out her free hand to cup his cheek. “Alright, come here,” she instructed and she nodded to James. “Go ahead and take him,” she said, referring to the baby.

He set Alex on the bed so he could take the baby and a moment later, Alex was clasped tight in Caroline’s arms as she crooned to him about how much she loved him.

“There now,” Caroline told Alex. “Everything is just fine. Are you ready to say hi to your baby brother?”

They made it through their first week with a new baby, although James wasn’t entirely sure he remembered most of it. Asher was a very content baby, generally, but he set them on a schedule of nursing every two hours for exactly forty minutes, then he wanted to be winded, have his nappy changed, then sleep for an hour and ten minutes.

Then he repeated the process.

“Nursy time!” Alex screamed when Asher started to fuss one morning after he was just a week old.

It was so familiar a pattern that even Alex had it down. He clambered up onto the sofa next to Caroline and grabbed a cloth to help catch any dribble and hopped his way over to his mother to give it to her.

“Thank you, my love,” Caroline said as she took the rag from Alex.

Alex flopped down on his bum and then scooted off the couch and ran for his toys.

“This is very different from when I was learning to nurse Alex,” Caroline mused as James sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. They’d finished breakfast, but only just, and it was nearly eleven. Alex was still in his pajamas, but he had at least been put in a clean nappy. His mum would be over in a bit to help, James knew, but right now everything was calm.

“It’s very different,” James agreed with a big grin. “I was afraid to even look at you when you were nursing Alex. Now… well…”

“Stop,” she laughed as she pushed lightly at him with her shoulder. “That is not what I meant!”

“Is it because we only have one dog this time and not two, or you giving birth, or our helper yelling things like ‘nursy’ and ‘poopy’ at the top of his lungs?” James asked as he tried not to laugh.

She giggled and shook her head. “No, well, all of that, but…” she paused and her gaze softened as she focused on him. “I’m going to bed with you tonight and not wondering and hoping if you’re going to fall asleep in my bed.”

“You hoped for that?” James asked curiously. He hadn’t realized. Sometimes, when Alex had been a baby and they’d still been in separate rooms, he’d help out with Alex and fall asleep on her bed. He tried not to, but it had happened.

“I liked it,” Caroline admitted. “God, I was so timid back then. Now…”

“Now,” James said with exaggerated weariness, “You just tell me to strip down right now and- oof!” he laughed as she elbowed him. “Ten points for you not disturbing the baby when you did that maneuver.”

His mother’s arrival through the Floo stopped him from saying anything else to make his wife blush.

Ginny eyed him skeptically. “You’re up to no good,” she said, even as she picked up Alex who had sprinted headlong into her leg.

“No,” James lied, just as Caroline said, “Yes.”

His mum smiled. “Well, at least you’re both smiling. It’s good to see. Come, my darling,” she said as she kissed Alex’s cheek. “Let’s go get you dressed.”

~*~

Harry stared at Daphne across his daughter’s kitchen table and wished, not for the first time, that it was anyone but Daphne Greengrass who had given him this lead.

He had a long and complicated relationship with Daphne that had absolutely nothing to do with going to school with her. He’d known who she was, of course. She was one of the Slytherin girls, a pretty blonde with blue eyes that always looked like they would have frozen him in place if he’d come too close. He’d never tried to get close to her. He’d never tried to get to know her. He’d actually never really spoken to her about anything of substance, classes together didn’t count, until he’d met her in the role of being Scorpius’ aunt.

She wasn’t what he’d expected after he had met her. She was a damaged, fragile woman who was the best Scorpius had had most of his childhood and that was a sorry statement, to be sure.

“Your husband has gone missing,” Harry told her simply. “It’s been over a week since anyone has reported seeing him.”

She nodded miserably and tapped her fingernail absently on her tea cup. “He has houses everywhere around the world. He could have gone… well, he could be anywhere.”

“Did you think of any other locations he could be, besides the ones you gave me?” Harry asked her gently, trying to keep his tone even. She shook her head and silently swiped at a tear. “I gave you every place I could think of. I’m sure… well…” she let out a mirthless laugh. “I really thought I’d finally found love and Tony was a man I could trust, but if he was using me all along then he wouldn’t have told me every hiding place he had.”

Harry had considered it for a long moment and then shook his head. “Are you absolutely sure your Aunt Isabella didn’t recognize you?”

“I’m sure,” Daphne confirmed quickly. “I wouldn’t have recognized either except that she looks exactly like my grandmother, Beatrice Fudge. My parents have pictures of her at about the same age and the resemblance is striking.”

“Your grandmother has passed, though, correct?” Harry asked, just needing to verify she hadn’t made a different mistake.

“My grandmother died before we went to school,” Daphne assured him. “I remember her, though. You don’t easily forget someone that beautiful. She had dark brown hair in her youth and blue eyes, about the same color as mine. She was stunning. Aunt Isabella was the same and she looked to be the same. I don’t think she’s letting herself age, maybe out of spite. She and I looked like we could have been born at the same time.”

That was interesting. Harry had been having everyone search for her based on a sketch done from Nat’s description of what a seventy-year-old woman would have looked like, not someone in their forties. “Alright, that’s actually really helpful. She’s been coloring her hair?”

“I assume so,” Daphne agreed. “It was the same rich brown I remembered from the photo I saw of her, father, and Aunt Fionna. But it’s the eyes. It was like looking in the mirror.”

“If she’d have recognized you,” Harry said slowly, trying to work through this, “Do you think she’d have let you walk out?”

“I don’t know,” Daphne said reluctantly. “I don’t know her, but also,” she hesitated and then shook her head. “If she knew who I was and that I was in the house, the only thing she could hope by not alerting me is that I would lead her here.” Her eyes went wide. “Well, damn.”

“That would be my conclusion, as well,” Harry said evenly. “But she can’t get into the house even if she comes here, so it’s not like it matters. Lily doesn’t need to leave and she’s perfectly happy to stay here while we’re assessing what’s going on.”

Daphne rubbed at her temple and shook her head. “I was just afraid for my life and I didn’t think! I should go.”

“You should stay,” Harry said firmly. “First off, because if you leave you are likely going to end up dead and that will devastate your nephew. Second, you’re the best lead we have to finding your husband who can, in turn, find your aunt. We just need more time and more information.”

“I truly don’t know anymore,” she assured him earnestly. “I wasn’t married to him for very long and ugh… now I need to get divorced from him or he can come here and start demanding things.”

Harry hadn’t thought about that and realized that she was right to worry, even though legally there was nothing he could do. They weren’t soul bound, which was a relief, but they were legally married and the English wizarding community took that seriously. “He can’t demand to see you and I can arrest him based on what you’ve told me,” Harry reminded her. “He would be foolish to come here.”

It turned out that Anthony Bugatti was a foolish man.

He showed up in England and the Aurors he had stationed to watch the man’s London townhouse arrested him just as soon as he put his bag down.

“This is utterly outrageous!” Bugatti bellowed at Harry just as soon as Harry walked into the interrogation room, where he was shackled to a chair. Only one Auror was standing guard and Harry nodded at him to go ahead and leave the room, closing the door behind him.

“Hello, Mr. Bugatti,” Harry said evenly as he pulled out a chair at the table and sat down across from the man. He was a bit older than Harry, maybe by a few years. His rich, brown hair was liberally sprinkled with flecks of gray that were the exact same steel color of his eyes. He was average height and a medium, but clearly fit build that bespoke of a lot of time working out. His suit was probably a very expensive Muggle suit, at least that’s what Harry assumed, as it had probably looked nice before he’d been arrested in it. “My name is Harry Potter.”

“I know who you are,” Bugatti spit out. “Every god damned wizard on the planet knows who you are!”

Harry shrugged. “It seems rude to assume that. You were read your rights and you have been made aware of why you are under arrest.”

“I don’t know anything!” Bugatti hissed. “I’m just a business man! I haven’t done anything wrong.”

He wondered, briefly, just how far Bugatti would spin out that lie. He spotted the wedding band on the man’s ring finger and wondered if that had meant anything to him. Poor Daphne. “Wonderful,” Harry smiled evenly. “Then tell us how to find Isabella Crabbe and once we have her in custody, things will go smoothly for you.”

“I don’t know who that is,” he said enunciating every word. “I’ve already told the Aurors that I don’t know who that is! I want to speak to my lawyer!”

“We are bringing your lawyer in,” Harry assured him. “It’s taking a bit to get him here, as he was in Australia, but I have been told he should be here by tonight. But because of the nature of the crime you are being accused of, I do not have to wait for your lawyer to be here. I do not need anything, at all, to question you about someone who has enacted genocide on the world if you’re accused of aiding her. I’m sure you can understand our position.”

“I don’t know who that is!” he shouted, finally losing his composure as his face went beet red. “I would never kill people! I create medicines for the world!”

Harry studied him and could see how Daphne could have fallen for this man. He had to be careful because he didn’t want him to know it was Daphne who had reported to him, but at the same time he didn’t know how else to get what he wanted without giving Daphne away. “You have been doing business with Isabella Crabbe.”

Anger was still fierce on his face and then his expression froze and Harry knew he had to keep his own expression neutral, even when he wanted to kick himself. Bugatti knew…

“Daphne,” he whispered. “Where is my wife?”

Harry’s brows rose and he stared at the man. “We are speaking about Crabbe.”

“I want my wife, god damnit!” Bugatti bit out coldly. “She disappeared on me and then, what? She came here? She told you that”” and then he stopped because he realized he’d just been about to admit that Crabbe had been at his house. “I’m not speaking to you anymore. I won’t speak unless I get to see my wife.”

“You will speak willingly, or we will make you,” Harry said quietly. “You have no choice on that. I’m waiting for the potions masters to bring the truth serum.”

Real alarm crossed his face and he shook his head. “I have rights!”

“That’s such an American thing to say,” Harry told him with faint amusement. “But even in America, if you’re helping Crabbe, you’ve lost all rights. Veritaserum is the kindest thing we could do to you and you should be grateful for it. Every other person even suspected of aiding her is being treated harshly.”

He heard a knock at the door and saw one of the potions masters entering with Teddy and Rick. Harry hid his surprise at the young, American Auror’s appearance in the interrogation room until he realized that this was likely Teddy’s doing.

They had Rick on loan from the Americans. They didn’t have to hide just what Rick could do. It was well known he had these special abilities. Rick stopped and studied him for a moment. “Knock him out,” Rick said without inflection.

“No, wait!” Bugatti flailed, truly panicking now as he tried to break his bonds.

Rick turned and left and Harry knew he was going back to get Nat.

“Do it,” Harry told the potions master.

“Dreamless sleep it is,” the man confirmed to Harry as he pulled out a vial of purple liquid from his satchel and moved towards the man that Teddy had put in a headlock.

It didn’t take much to dribble it down his throat and within moments Bugatti began to relax.

“We can take it from here,” he told the potions master. “Go ahead and leave the truth serum for us, just in case.”

The man pulled it out and handed it to Harry. “I need it back if you don’t use it. It’s inventoried.”

“Understood,” Harry agreed as he pocketed the small bottle.

“I’ll be back,” Teddy told Harry and knew Teddy was going for Nat, as well.

Harry waited until Rick and Teddy were back in the room, the door closed, before he cast Muffliato on the room.

“It’s too hot under this thing,” Nat grumbled as she pulled off the cloak when Teddy had stationed himself right in front of the door. She tilted her head to the side and looked at the man curiously. “I… I actually have no idea.”

“It looks like a curse to me,” Rick said to her as they both studied the man.

“I agree, it does look like a curse but I’ve never seen anything like it!” Nat told Rick, clearly flummoxed as she pushed back her sweaty hair.

Rick let out a grunt that was almost a laugh. “Alright, that makes me feel better. When I didn’t know what it was I thought I needed your expert help.”

Nat shook her head. “No, it’s nothing I’ve seen before. I wonder,” she squinted and walked towards him, reaching out her hand. She paused before she touched the man and then took a step back. “Oh, no… that’s very not good. Come feel, but don’t touch him.”

Rick did what she did but his expression went to alarmed very quickly. “He’s going to explode.”

“Excuse me?!” Harry barked that out louder than he meant to.

“No, I mean,” Rick held up his hands to halt Harry from ordering them out of the room. “If we touch him, he’ll explode. He’s… he’s like a Muggle bomb.” Rick turned to Nat. “Do you think she planned on him coming here for me?”

“I would say so,” Nat said with a long sigh. “There’s a lot that’s been done to this poor sod, but right now all I can see is that anything might set him off. We need Bill,” she said, turning to Harry.

“Alright,” Harry said slowly. “I am going to evacuate the entire ministry and get Bill. You’re going home.”

“No, I should stay,” Nat told him absently as she continued to study the unconscious man. “I’ll need to tell Bill what I am seeing.”

“You are going home,” Harry ordered without any room for negotiating. “Bill will speak to you there and then come here to deal with this.”

Nat let out a small huff and then shrugged. She bent to scoop up the cloak she’d dropped, tripped on it and would have hit the floor if Teddy hadn’t caught her. “Thanks,” she said as she threw the cloak back on.

“You’re taking her home and then going home yourself,” Harry told Teddy. “You, too, Rick. Go find Al and Lena and tell them I said to scram.”

“I don’t like this,” Teddy said to him.

Neither did Harry, but hard things were reserved for the boss and Harry was the boss.

~*~

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Chapter 92: Chapter 81 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Thank you for everyone who is reviewing! I know it's getting insanely long. If you can, please join me on either Patreon (Sarah Jaune) or Facebook.

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing!


Clearing the ministry used to take a solid twenty minutes but after the explosion that happened a few years before they’d worked through clearing the building in under ten minutes and Harry was pleased and encouraged to see that today they managed it in less than seven minutes. They had set up emergency Portkeys all through the building to transport large groups and it was simply a matter of the alarms being triggered and the groups gathering to leave, ensuring that no one was left behind.

Harry had been forced to evict the Minister. She was not happy with him, but she went and convened with Teddy at a secondary office they kept in Gringotts for just such an emergency.

Bill showed up ten minutes after the alarms went off trailed by another man Harry didn’t know but had seen around the bank. “This is Vick Stephens,” Bill told Harry as he studied Daphne’s erstwhile husband who was still slumped in the chair.

Harry stuck out his hand to the stocky black man. His hair was shorn close to his scalp and his eyes, which were closer to hazel than brown, fixed on Harry for a moment as he shook his hand before he refocused on Anthony Bugatti. “The boy said he’s a bomb.”

Harry assumed he was referring to Rick and nodded. “Did you speak with him?”

“He came with Teddy to the bank before heading to his flat,” Bill explained as he pulled out his wand, but he hesitated and stepped back. “I’m going to have Vick take point on this, Harry. He’s significantly better at this than I am.”

“Go ahead,” Harry said as he watched the man examine him. He didn’t remove his wand for a long time but when he did, he didn’t do much with it before he shook his head and straightened. “Anything?” Harry asked him as helplessness threatened to overwhelm him.

This was the part of being the boss that Harry seriously disliked. He had all his plans in place for if something happened to him. His family was provided for. His children knew he loved him. He had Teddy ready to step into his shoes, if needed and he would have advisors for the first year or so to help with the transition. He’d done his best to be a good husband and father. He’d done his best to be a good man.

It meant sending everyone away when their lives were threatened and handling it himself. He hated having to involve Bill in it, but he was essentially the highest human at Gringotts and there was no way Harry was going to risk a goblin’s life in this matter. He sometimes felt like he hadn’t learned anything in his years at this job, but he had learned that at the very minimum it was wrong to put the others in the magical community at risk when it was a human problem.

Then Hermione walked into the room.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Harry asked her, utterly exasperated with her. She had her graying curls pulled back in a tight bun and she had her reading glasses on their gold chain that was always around her neck. “You were ordered to evacuate!”

“I outrank you,” Hermione told him with a tight smile. “What’s going on?”

“You do not outrank me when it comes to security,” Harry reminded her grimly. “Get out of here!”

“Let it go, Harry,” Hermione said on a sigh. “I’m not leaving and I might be able to help. I spoke with Rick before they left the Ministry and I have a good idea of what he saw,” she told him and he knew that meant she’d also spoken to Nat. “He said it’s like the man has been turned into a bomb.”

“Essentially, that is correct,” Vick told her, not bothering to look back.

“Do you know Vick?” Bill asked her and she nodded. “Alright, what I’m seeing is that if he dies, he’s going to blow up. That’s all I’m getting right now.”

“Agreed,” Vick said as he straightened and sighed. “If we use any major spell on him to free him from the mind control he’s under, he’s going to blow. This is one hell of a curse, Bill.”

“Peruvian?” Bill asked and Vick nodded. Bill let out a long string of curse words and scrubbed hard at his eyes. “Damn it!”

“Peruvians used curses?” Harry asked, never having heard of that.

“Yes,” Hermione answered for them. “Their ancients were the absolute at destructive curses. It’s why you’ve never heard of it. No one has been able to crack how to break their curses without completely destroying the entire area where the curse was placed. It meant that all the hidden treasures were lost in the process. The explosions were so hot that it incinerated everything.”

Harry glanced between Hermione and Bill. “But… if this is ancient magic, how in the bloody hell did Crabbe recreate it?”

“I have no idea,” Bill admitted miserably. He glanced over to Vick but he wasn’t answering. “The truth is no one knows how to take this curse off. Rick might be able to. It’s possible his special brand of magic could work, but we’d be risking his life for a possibility and absolutely no guarantee that this gem of a human is innocent and not in league with Crabbe.”

Harry felt a small rushing in his ears as he tried to work through what on earth they were going to do with him. It was simultaneously horrendous to leave a man, who might be innocent, under a spell and a curse that was going to kill him, and equally as appalling to put a very young man’s life at risk to try to remove a curse that could kill them both and even if he did manage to safely remove it, the man might then be found guilty and put to death. Crabbe’s associates were now under international law and nothing could save him if he were found guilty.

“Do you have any ideas on how to remove it?” Hermione asked quietly.

“I don’t,” Bill said quickly. “I can think on it, but I’ve thought about those curses for years now, ever since we were trained to spot them. They hide a vast hoard of treasure that I’d like to have been part of recovering and I’ve never had any luck with it.”

They waited a beat, waiting for Vick to say something, but he shook his head. “I don’t, but there’s a woman… she’s an American scholar I met many years ago and this sort of thing is her life’s work. Her name is Glenna Schlager and I believe if this man has a chance, at all, it will be from her.”

“I’ll get in touch with her,” Hermione said quietly. “Where is she studying?”

“She’s based out of Boston,” Vick told her, “but she could be anywhere in the world. You will have to try to get her information from the Americans”

They watched Hermione leave and Bill’s scarred face scrunched as he considered the other man. “I feel like I’ve heard of her. I thought she was German.”

“I think she was German,” Vick agreed with a dry chuckle, “but she decamped to America during the war and hasn’t forgiven them for that. She’s a Muggle-born Jew.”

“The war?” Harry asked, absolutely confused. “What war was…” then his voice trailed off as he realized what war he must be referring to. “World War II?” At their nod of confirmation, Harry let out a whistle. “I mean, we live a long time but how old is she?”

“I think she’s only a hundred and forty or so,” Vick answered with a shrug. “Give or take a decade.”

“So… quite old,” Harry said as he considered the matter before looking at Bugatti and wondering, yet again, if it was even worth trying.

Then again, the man might explode in the Ministry, killing all of them, so it was a moot point. If he wasn’t killed then, he’d have to be kept in isolation for the rest of his life and somehow Harry thought his very powerful and wealthy family was going to object to that.

An odd sense of sadness filled him as he thought of Daphne’s face and wondered if this man had actually loved her or if he’d used her. She’d been targeted by the Death Eaters when she was young because her parents were complying in a way they wanted and she’d never recovered from it. Why would her first real shot at love end in such a spectacularly bad fashion?

“You okay?” Bill asked him quietly.

“Daphne’s going to be devasted by this,” Harry told him.

Bill’s quirked brow reminded Harry that his bother-in-law didn’t know the whole story. “Scorpius’ aunt?”

“This,” Harry told him with a nod towards Anthony Bugatti, “is Daphne’s husband.”

Bill let out a low whistle and Vick glanced between them, clearly confused. “Am I missing something crucial?”

“My son-in-law’s aunt is married to this man,” Harry explained quickly as he carefully pulled out a chair and sat before realizing what he was doing. It wasn’t as though sitting in a chair was going to set off the curse! He internally rolled his eyes at himself and shook his head.

“Oh,” Vick said with understanding. “So this is a family matter for you.”

Harry had not considered that until he mentioned it, but damn if the man wasn’t right. He was now related to Bugatti by marriage and that meant he was about to either be part of saving the man or watching him blow up.

Of course, if he blew up, then odds were good he was going to take Harry with him and that did seem like something family would do, especially the weird in-laws. His in-laws were Draco and Astoria Malfoy and despite having years and years to get used to the fact, it still never really sunk in.

There was a sound at the door and Harry scowled at Rick as he came back in. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I was bored at the apartment,” Rick told him, referring, he assumed, to the flat he and Al shared. “Al went to your place to hang out with Nat and I figured I’d be better off here where I can help.”

Harry rose and was on the point of ordering him to get out when Hermione appeared behind him with a very old woman. She was short with iron-gray hair and thin wire spectacles. She had on deep green robes and she walked in without any hesitation or sign of her age, even though it was written in the lines on her face. “I’m Glenna Schlager,” she said to the men in the room with a low, raspy voice.

“Thank you for coming,” Harry said as he walked around to shake her hand and introduce himself while the other men did the same.

The old woman nodded in greeting before turning to Rick. “Why do we have a child here?”

Rick, rather than looking offended, grinned.

“This is Patrick Hassel,” Harry explained. “He’s an Augmentum Imaginari,” he explained, referring to the magical ability he and Nat shared, “on loan from America and he was just leaving because his boss will kill me if I get him killed.”

“An Augmentum Imaginari?” Glenna sniffed as she eyed him. “He can stay,” she said with finality. “I may need him.” She pulled out a wand and moved over to the man. “What do we know?”

Harry considered the man’s handsome face and sighed. “A few days ago my son-in-law’s aunt came to see me, to tell me she was back in town. I found out later that she was running from her husband, this man,” he said, indicating Bugatti. “I didn’t even know she’d married, the aunt, I mean. Her name is Daphne and she’s my age. Anyway, to make a long story short she spotted her husband and Daphne’s aunt Isabella Crabbe in a conversation in their home in Italy. She left immediately.”

He wondered if any of that actually made sense because as he finished, all he felt was confused.

“You’re related to Isabella Crabbe?” Glenna asked with a small chortle. “Oh, if the papers knew that!”

“I think they knew,” Harry said and then realized he honestly didn’t have a clue. He hadn’t spoken to a journalist willingly in years. Most of the time he punted that off onto Hermione.

“They know,” Hermione told her. “But it’s through marriage and she’s been estranged from her family for a long time so no one brings it up. She’s her own problem and not theirs.”

Glenna nodded and turned back to the man slumped in the chair. “How did you know you could knock him out?”

“I told them,” Rick said quickly.

“Alright,” Glenna said slowly, not turning to look at Rick. “How did you know you could safely knock him out?”

“Well…” Rick hesitated and then shook his head. “Honestly, it was instinct. I could see something was wrong immediately, but I didn’t know what. I just knew that he was dangerous and sensed that him being awake made the risk greater. Dreamless Sleep Potion really only shuts the brain down. It doesn’t do anything else to the body, so that felt safe.”

She nodded as she pulled out her wand and began to chant a spell in a language that Harry had never heard before. She kept it up for at least ten minutes before she beckoned to one of the chairs and sat when Bill pulled it out for her. “He is under the curse you suspected,” she told Bill and Vick. “I have never, not once, seen it on a living human being.”

“Do you know how to help him?” Harry asked her quietly. What he really wanted to ask was how they were going to get out of this, all of them, alive.

Glenna let out a long sigh as she sat back in her chair. “Can we transfer this onto something else?” she asked Rick. When he hesitated, she added quickly, “Don’t think, just answer.”

Rick nodded slowly. “You mean you want me to move it from him onto something else?”

“I’m not asking you to do it,” she corrected. “I’m asking if you think it can be done.”

To Harry’s surprise, Rick nodded. “Yeah, it’s not anchored to him.”

Harry could only guess at what that meant.

“If it had been me,” Glenna mused with a small smile. “I’d have said that the Dreamless Sleep Potion would have been enough to set off the curse.” A clear unease settled between them as they considered that. “But you knew it wouldn’t, even if you can’t explain why. This curse is unstable, which is why it was used by the ancients and why we’ve never managed to break the curse. We aren’t going to break it, now, but I think maybe we can transfer it over to something we don’t mind blowing up.”

“That seems extremely risky,” Vick told her. “We’re risking all our lives on this maybe.”

She huffed impatiently and shook her head. “The Egyptian curses, they all have staying power. They will stick around where they were placed and persist for eons because they are stable. Frankly, I found them very boring which was why I went off to study the Peruvians’ handy work. I liked their style much more. I’ve seen the aftermaths of when a curse was triggered and I’ve seen them still in place. There aren’t many left that are active, primarily because they’ve all been set off. They’re unstable.”

“But transferring it to something else could destabilize it enough to set it off,” Bill pointed out.

“Yes,” was all Glenna said.

Which was extraordinary in itself.

“We can move him out of the building, right? We brought him here while he was cursed.” Harry turned back to the man and waited for Glenna’s answer.

“Yes, we can and should move him out of here. He, alone, could destroy not only the ministry but an entire block of London surrounding it,” Glenna assured him. “This man was sent in here as a weapon and they were likely hoping you’d use Veritaserum on him or if you’d tried to remove the Imperius Curse that would have done it, as well. I think that would have set off the Peruvian curse and it would have blown everything.”

“Well damn,” Harry said as he let out a low whistle. That’s pretty much exactly what he would have done. It would have been procedure.

“Should we wake him?” Bill asked her as he considered the man. “I can move him, but it will be harder with him asleep. No, wait…” he shook his head. “If we travel with him through the Floo, it’s likely to set it off, isn’t it?”

“Correct, same with a portkey,” Glenna told him as she made to stand once again and waved off Vick when he offered to help her. “No, I have this, but I appreciate it all the same. You,” she said, turning to Hermione.

Harry hadn’t really looked at his sister-in-law since the entire crisis started, but now that he was looking, he didn’t like what he saw. She was quiet, which was always a bad sign, but more to the point she was pale and drawn, the skin around her mouth pulled tight as she tried to hold everything together. She didn’t want to be here. He could see that as clear as day.

“Can you arrange a Muggle car for us to take us out into the country? We’re going to need a very large area that’s uninhabited.”

“That’s a little difficult to do in this country,” Bill pointed out before Hermione could answer. “We have almost no places that aren’t inhabited.”

“Nonsense,” she waved that off. “You have that abandoned dragon reserve up in Wales. No one can get in there.”

Harry had no idea what she was talking about and when she looked to Bill, he also shook his head.

“It was… it was a place where the ministry was testing things for the war,” Hermione explained quietly. “It’s closed off to everyone because there are still unexploded traps and curses there. It’s dangerous.”

“He’s dangerous,” Glenna pointed out. “And worse still, we can’t take him through the magical veil that protects the old sanctuary, but these two,” she said as she pointed to Bill and Vick, “along with this young man will be able to remove the protections enough to get us through. Then you will close it after me and I’ll either come out with this young man alive or we’ll set off all the traps in the sanctuary with the explosion.”

“I don’t want to be rude,” Harry said, knowing he was going to be rude, “because I appreciate you risking your life for this, I really do, but what if all the explosions destroy the protections around the sanctuary and just blow everything to hell and back?”

“If that happens,” Glenna told him with a small twist of her lips, “Then it happens. We’re either going to blow up this building, blow up a square mile outside of this building, or try to blow everything up in the sanctuary.”

“I have a question,” Hermione asked her with a small tremor in her voice. “How did you know about the sanctuary? You were in America during the war, weren’t you?”

“I settled in America,” Glenna corrected. “I came to England, first, to help with the war efforts against Grindelwald. I was already studying curses and I was part of the program to find weapons to use against him. I also helped the Muggle government. I was very angry about what Hitler was doing. After I’d done my part, I left. I didn’t like the damp or the cold, here. I live in Arizona where it is hot and sunny all year long.”

“But… you…” Hermione let out a small breath. “Alright, I’ll find us a car.”

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Chapter 93: Chapter 82 Part ONE

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing

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Chapter 82

Nat couldn’t settle to save her life. Her nerves were on edge as she paced around Teddy’s house, which was where they’d ended up after Harry had kicked them out the Ministry. Nat hadn’t even paid close enough attention to where Al was taking her as he’d led her from the room with the poor man who she now knew was Scorpius’ aunt’s husband. Merlin, this was complicated. When she finally realized she was in Victoire and Teddy’s living room, it was just to have Al tell her to stay put and then he was gone again.

Victoire looked alarmed, but didn’t say much because the children were running around her. “Hold the baby,” she’d said as she passed Ireland over to Nat and left the room, likely to contact Teddy.

She needn’t have bothered, though. Teddy showed up less than ten minutes later much to his children’s delight, but the pinched look on his face told Nat that things were not going well at the Ministry.

Then Al was back and he brought Daphne Greengrass with him, her face pale and her hands shaking. “I’m sorry to intrude,” Daphne said to Victoire. “I’m not sure if you remember me.”

“I do,” Victoire told her with a small smile. “It’s nice to see you again, Daphne.”

“You have a lovely home,” Daphne told her but Nat could hear that it was robotic.

She was a shell of herself, more than at any point Nat had seen her. Admittedly, Nat hadn’t met her often in the years she’d known Scorpius. He was probably still at work. “Where’s Lily?”

“She’s asleep,” Al told her. “I left her a note, but told her to stay home. I know,” he said, holding up a hand when Nat opened her mouth. “She isn’t going to want to stay home, but she’s too far along to travel by Floo and she still doesn’t know how to drive. I let Scorpius know what was going on, using the mirrors. He’s going to head home soon and I said we’d keep him posted.” The mirrors… they didn’t use them often, even though they’d had them for communication for years and years, but sometimes they came in handy. She’d have suspected Scorpius would have kept his at home, but apparently, he’d taken it with him to work. Interesting.

“Why did you bring us here?” Nat asked just as Amelia and Olivia clamped themselves onto Al’s legs, one on each. It wasn’t as though they could talk freely with the children around.

“I told him to come here,” Teddy told Nat simply. “If someone were going to use this as an opportunity to try to get to you, they’d know you were at home at Ivy Run. I’ve also told Ginny to leave, she’s gone to stay with Lily. The newer homes are just as protected as Harry and Ginny’s house, but their location is not as well known to anyone outside of the family. Now,” he said as he surveyed his family grimly. “I need to get back to Gringotts to speak to the Minister and give her an update. I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll keep you updated as I know.” He turned to Daphne and his face softened. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but your husband is definitely under the Imperius Curse. That doesn’t mean he’s innocent or that you can stay with him, it just might mean that Crabbe needed him controlled to get him to come to England. But there is hope and if anyone can save him, Harry and Bill can.”

Victoire, who hadn’t said much of anything up until this point, rushed over to her husband and into his arms. “Is my dad okay? Is Harry?”

“I don’t know anything,” Teddy admitted as he brushed a kiss over her blonde locks. “I’ll tell you as soon as I know something.”

“You are not going back to the Ministry,” Victoire said forcefully, glaring up at him.

“I’m not going back,” he promised and Nat could tell he meant it, even if he didn’t want to. “They need me alive and whole. I have to stay with the Minister.”

“Alright,” Victoire said as she led Teddy away for a private kiss.

Nat glanced down at the sleeping baby and sighed. Her stomach was in knots and she knew it was going to be bad. That man, whether innocent or not, was likely to die very soon in a horrible way and he might take out a bunch of people with him, including Harry. She glanced over to Al and saw him pacing the living room, the toddlers still attached to him, talking into his mirror. She focused and heard Scorpius’ voice, then Lily’s. Scorpius must be home now. Then she heard Ginny ask a question and Al answered, never once being slowed by the nearly two stones of toddler planted on each leg.

The Floo came to life and moments later, Rose, Andrew and Claire were standing in the living room

Emma squealed happily and ran towards her and finally Amelia and Olivia abandoned Al in favor of their new favorite cousin.

“Take it up to the nursery,” Victoire told all the children. “Claire, do you have this?”

“Yep!” Claire assured her as she herded the kids towards the stairs and up to the large play room they had with toys.

“What’s happening?” Rose asked as she surveyed the room once the bigger children were gone.

Nat was the one who spoke up, knowing she had to write the narrative so someone didn’t accidentally blurt out her secret in front of Daphne. “I was visiting Al at the Ministry,” she told them and knew everyone but Daphne would know what that meant. “Daphne’s husband was arrested and brought in for his association with Crabbe. Rick went up to look at him and came back and told us he’d been turned into some kind of bomb, but Rick didn’t know what kind. We were told to evacuate.”

“Teddy came along a moment later and told me to come here,” Al said, picking up the story. “That’s about all we know.”

“Teddy is going to be at Gringotts in a room they have secured for the Minister if she has to evacuate the Ministry,” Victoire explained to Rose and Andrew. “Your mum is probably with the Minister.”

Rose’s expression fell as she closed her eyes and shook her head. “There is no way she’d have left Uncle Harry to deal with this on his own. She’ll be with him.”

Andrew drew an arm around Rose’s waist and pulled her in close.

No one knew what to say, as they knew Rose was right. Hermione wasn’t going to get out of things.

“Technically, Dad can force Aunt Hermione to leave,” Al pointed out hesitantly. They all looked at him and he shrugged. “Okay, no, so she’s never just listened when he’s told her to do something. I just meant he could force her out as he’s in charge of security.”

It felt hopeless. They waited and made food to feed the children. Al and Andrew took the kids outside to run some of their energy out while Nat kept the mirror handy to contact Scorpius and Lily in case they heard from Teddy.

Daphne sat numbly in a chair in the corner, staring out into the world as they waited. Nat lost track of time in her thoughts about what the man had looked like. He’d been under the Imperius Curse, she was sure of that. He wasn’t completely in control of his actions, but what did that mean for Daphne? The curse on the man was like nothing she’d ever seen before. She’d never gone to a Peruvian tomb or seen any of their ancient magicals work. She was glad, now, that they hadn’t as she was unsure that it wouldn’t have just blown up on them. How on earth had Crabbe learned how to do the curse and to put it on a person? People were unstable and magical people used magic to get around. It could have gone off at any point!

“How does your husband travel?” Nat said, turning to Daphne.

She startled the older woman and it took Daphne a moment to focus on Nat before she could answer. “He will travel by Floo, but if he was trying to get into England unnoticed, he’d have taken their Muggle plane. He has a few of them. He wouldn’t have a Floo to enter here that someone wouldn’t have been monitoring.”

Nat thought about how much they had tightened international travel by Floo and knew there was no way that Anthony Bugatti could have arrived without alerting someone in the Ministry. All international Floo transport had to go through the Ministry. There was no exception to that rule, not even for the Minister. The rules had been laxer in the past, but with everything that was going on, they tightened security and removed all access. “If he used a Muggle jet, then he had a chance of making it here without the wizards knowing, but Harry had his name and he’d have put him on the Muggle terrorist watch list or something.” There was a list for wizards that the Muggles were to track if they traveled by Muggle means, but she couldn’t remember what the name was exactly.

The Floo lit up again and Fleur came through, followed by Dominique, her partner Gwen, and then five minutes after that, Louis.

“Do we know anything about Dad yet?” Louis asked as he paced around the room, his hands shoved in his pockets.

“No,” Fleur answered tightly as she sat next to Nat, who had passed her the baby to help calm her. Fleur snuggled the girl up, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“I’ll go outside with the others,” Louis offered on a long sigh. “Someone tell us as soon as you hear.”

Nat helped Teeny and Victoire get food prepared while they waited, almost entirely in tense silence. Daphne eventually stood to help, telling them she had to be useful or she was going to go spare. They waited.




Nat nearly screamed when Harry’s stag Patronus showed up in the living room and spoke, with his voice, telling them they had a plan and they were going to enact it now but it would be many hours before they knew anything.

“What does that mean?” Fleur demanded, yelling at the stag that was fading away before their very eyes. “Uhh!” she closed her eyes and then began to shush the baby, who had woken in all the commotion.

“Waiting sucks,” Nat said quietly to Victoire as they stood together in the kitchen.

“It’s what it means to be married to an Auror,” Victoire told her with a long sigh. “Get used to it now.”

Nat opened her mouth to argue she wasn’t going to marry an Auror, but she shut it as the men came back in with children who claimed to be starving.

~*~

It took them four hours to drive to Wales in the large vehicle Hermione had been procured for them. Harry drove half the way and Bill the other half while he and Vick traded off watching the sleeping Bugatti for signs of impending doom. The large, black SUV moved magically through the traffic, which was putting Harry on edge, but Rick assured them that it wasn’t doing anything to the magic around the man’s cursed body.

“We’re entering Wales now,” Hermione said quietly from her perch in the front seat next to Bill. He noted his brother-in-law’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel and he couldn’t blame him for that. One false move and they might blow everything up. They were all very quiet, knowing just how serious all of this was.

“It should be another thirty minutes,” Glenna said from the back seat, finally breaking the tense silence from the rest of the group. “It’s been a number of years since I’ve been there, but I remember the way.”

“If that was World War II,” Rick said to her thoughtfully, “That was like… what? Seventy-five, eighty years ago?”

“It is eighty-one years,” Glenna told him. “I last saw it in 1945, young man, before I left for Arizona.”

“I haven’t been to Arizona,” Rick told her, managing a conversation when the rest of them were all too uptight to do more than small talk. It was probably his youth and inability to see just how serious everything was, but that was unfair. Rick could actually see the curse and how volatile it was. Maybe this was his way of coping. “I lived in Maryland before I went to school.”

“I have been to Maryland when I went to Washington DC,” Glenna said, the words coming out with their slight accent telling of her European birth. “It was a funny state. They have their flag on everything.”

“Yeah,” Rick agreed sheepishly. “It’s pretty ugly, too, but everyone in the Muggle world loves it. Anyway, have you been the Grand Canyon?”

Harry tuned them out and focused on the road, watching as Hermione directed Bill to turn off the main road and onto another one that was clearly magically concealed. He would have missed it if he hadn’t been looking, and he was magical. Once they turned, though, he saw it was well maintained.

He thought about his meeting with the Minister, which had been brief as they needed to move. He’d sent the Patronus to his wife and to Victoire to let them know what was going on, but he thought of Minister Allison Macmillan’s face as he told her the situation and that they might have to blow up the dragon reserve in Wales. She, just like Harry, had never heard of the reserve which begged the question of how Hermione had learned about it, but Hermione’s explanation was she’d read it somewhere.

If there was a person who was likely to have gone through and read every obscure old document in the Ministry, it was going to be Hermione.

“Up there,” Hermione said, pointing to a rolling field of green grass ahead of them.

“This is the reserve?” Harry asked curiously but Hermione shook her head.

“This is an illusion,” Hermione explained as Bill parked the large car. “We need to go ahead of us for a few minutes and then take down the wards surrounding the place.

“I can feel them,” Bill said as he unbuckled his seat belt.

Rick, who was leaning forward in his seat, looked absolutely mesmerized. “I can see them! Wow!”

“What does it look like to you?” Glenna asked the kid.

“It looks like…” he tilted his head a bit and then laughed. “I can see the world beyond the veil, which is scarred and lifeless. It has a bunch of unexploded things in there, but the veil itself looks like a soap bubble, only with more colors.”

“Hm,” Glenna nodded thoughtfully.

“Let’s get to work,” Vick said on a grim sigh. Harry had learned that Vick had a family, as well, and he knew the man didn’t want to die today but they had a plan for that.

Harry waited in the SUV with Hermione while Bill, Vick, Glenna and Rick went around and pulled down the veil. It took them a solid hour before Harry began to see what was beyond the veil, but by then it was getting dark and he knew he wasn’t seeing the full scope of horror of just what the old dragon reserve had once looked like.

He’d seen the preserves, the ones that were still in use. They were always well kept, thriving with living plants and creatures too small to annoy the dragons. They had the dragon keepers themselves, of course, living in protected areas of the preserves. He saw the remains on some of the homes, but mostly it was charred foundations and fallen stones. What on earth had they been doing here?

“We’re ready to move him,” Bill said, startling Harry back to the present. He hadn’t even seen him approach.

“Alright,” Harry said as he exited the SUV and with Bill and Vick’s help, they moved the man onto a stretcher they’d brought with them before all four men grabbed a pole to start carrying him. It was not fun moving the man without magic but it wasn’t worth the risk.

Hermione followed behind them carrying a golden vase that was magical and old, about three hundred years, but not so valuable that anyone would cry foul if the thing was blown up.

Glenna, who waited for them in the preserve, had been very specific about what they could use to transfer the curse.

“I can stay to help,” Rick offered again after they’d set the man’s body on the ground and Hermione had placed the vase next to him. “I might be able to help contain it.”

“No, no,” Glenna waved off the offer as she had before. “Put up the protections we talked about before and then drive, at least five miles away. I expect Rick will be able to feel when it’s done, no matter what containment we use. When he says it’s safe, you can come back to check on us.”

It was not the first time they’d gone over the plan, and as with every other time Harry loathed the plan and respected the woman completely for what she was about to try. Rick had suggested a few ways to move the curse, but Glenna had no ability to move the curses like Nat could. Rick was having to tell Glenna how to do something that only one person on the planet could do, at least that they knew of, but she couldn’t be there to help. She’d come up with something on her own and said it was the best she could, but Harry knew in his gut she was simply offering to die for the rest of them.

He hated himself for letting her, but he was going to do so anyway. She wasn’t married, didn’t have children, and had no other family. They’d been Muggle Jews in World War II in Germany. She was the only one to survive and she’d carried that with her. It made him doubly sick to think of what she’d been through, but she’d quietly reminded him that she knew what sacrifice was and then she’d pointed out that she maybe had another ten years left of life, while he had another hundred.

So he let it go.

He stepped back with Hermione while Bill and Vick quickly put the wards back up and then they were in the black car, driving away as dust swirled in the darkened space behind them, shining in motes from the taillights.

“We can stop here,” Hermione told them as Bill pulled over at the main road, onto a patch of dirt. “Harry, can you send a message to the Minister and let her know it’s safe to get back into the Ministry?”

“I’m going to wait until we can get a team in to sweep,” Harry told her and contemplated who he wanted to handle that. It could be Teddy, but he wanted Teddy to stay with the Minister until this was over. “I’ll get Raeburns to conduct it and report back to us.”

After Harry sent the message to Raeburns, he turned to see Rick staring out the back window, watching the dark sky behind them for something that only Rick would be able to see. “You okay?”

“She shouldn’t be there alone,” Rick said in the tone that only someone who was so young could possibly use. “I could have helped.”

“And you could have died,” Harry reminded him. “To her, you are a child and there is no way she would let you risk cutting your life short.”

“Let’s be real,” Vick said as he shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable. They didn’t know how long they’d have to wait. “All of us are children compared to her. I admire her courage and her bravery.”

Harry knew he had a point, but before he could say anything, Rick jumped in his seat. “Holy shit…”

Harry spun around to try to scan the sky but he didn’t see anything. “Take us back!”

~*~

Back to index


Chapter 94: Chapter 82 Part TWO

Author's Notes: One cliffhanger down, another to go, but I did promise to get this one up quickly and I followed through so please consider finding me on f acebook and following me :D Sarah Jaune...

Anyway thank you Arnel for beta'ing

If you can support me in other ways my books are available on the major retailers under the same name as above.

If you can't, please leave a review. Those are FREE and I like them!!


James had a sleeping Asher on his shoulder as he paced back and forth across the living room while his wife sat on the sofa. They had put Alex to bed hours before, but they still didn’t know anything about his dad or Uncle Bill and if they were okay.

There had been many times in his life that he’d hated his father’s job and resented the hours Harry had been forced to put in at the Ministry, but as a child he hadn’t fully appreciated just how dangerous the job really was, and now he was faced with a lot of uncertainty.

They’d nearly gone to Teddy and Victoire’s house, but Alex had a cold and they didn’t want to risk spreading it around to the rest of the family when everyone was already stressed. James treasured the solid weight and warm breath of his tiny son as he held him in his arms and held onto the hope that things would be okay.

Thankfully, Al had brought over a mirror so they could quickly get news if something happened.

“We need one of these just for us,” Caroline said into the silence and he glanced over to see Rufus with his big head in her lap. She was staring at the mirror, willing it to come alive, even though they both dreaded what they might hear.

“We do, yeah,” James agreed. He wanted to say he’d ask his aunt Hermione to make him one but they didn’t know if she’d gone with Harry and Bill to where ever they were going. No one had been able to get ahold of Uncle Ron and it wasn’t like Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione were always on the best of terms.

Poor Rose was likely going out of her mind with worry about her mother, not knowing one way or the other. They knew Teddy was safe but they hadn’t heard from him, either, at least from what Al had said so they didn’t know where Hermione was.

“I think,” Caroline said slowly as she studied the mirror, “that I’m glad the only stressful thing you have to deal with at work is pissing off the coach and that annoying woman who keeps hitting on you.”

James scowled at the mention of his teammate, Heather, and her latest antics to try and get in to see him when he was changing. He’d actually stopped changing in the locker rooms and was coming home dirty because it was getting ridiculous.

He’d filed a complaint with management but they were slow to do anything and he couldn’t exactly quit because he had a contract. He knew it wasn’t the same thing, at all, because it wasn’t like she was going to overpower and assault him, but he knew if it was the other way around the management team would have taken her complaints seriously and he’d have been fired that day.

And rightfully so.

No one should be harassed like that at work! He’d hated having to tell Caroline any of this crap, but he also didn’t want her to ever feel like he was hiding something from him.

“I could just quit,” he said, not for the first time.

“You love the game too much to quit,” Caroline reminded him quietly as she ran a finger along the dog’s ear. “You’d go crazy if you were at home all the time. If you didn’t do that, you’d need another job.”

He would as they needed the money. They didn’t have a lot of expenses, as the house was paid off, but they still had to eat. “I could do something else.”

“Well, tell your boss that,” Caroline told him with an understanding smile. “Tell him to get her to leave you alone or you’ll quit and do something else. Uncle George would definitely hire you on.”

“He would,” James agreed. That offer was always open and Fred wouldn’t mind a partner in keeping the business running once Uncle Ron and Uncle George were ready to retire. Problem was they weren’t likely to want to retire for another few decades. But they didn’t need that much money to keep going. A job with his uncle would be enough.

But he could do other things… couldn’t he? The problem was he’d really only ever entertained being a Quidditch player and because his mother played professionally, he hadn’t ever thought it was out of his reach. “I could switch teams.”

“You could,” she agreed as she closed her eyes. James paused and studied her for a long moment. She was tired. Hell, they were both tired. Asher was an easy-going baby, but he was still a baby and still not sleeping well through the night. They would have months, yet, before he would.

But Merlin, she was beautiful. Maybe others thought she was, maybe they didn’t. He didn’t really care about that. When he looked at her, he could see his years with her when they were not even friends but still he was drawn to her. He always had been and he knew he always would be. She and the boys were his life and what a life it had been so far. First Alex came along from that whole mess in Brazil after he and now this thing with Heather was starting to blow up. She just kept trying to get alone with him.

The fire flamed to life and James glanced over to see Louis come through the fireplace. His cousin looked tired as he dusted himself off and James felt his brow raised when he saw the pink sparkly bow in Louis hair.

“I couldn’t wait there any longer,” Louis told them as he walked over and held out his arms. “Mum was driving me mad. Hand over my namesake.”

James handed his son to Louis. They’d named the baby Asher Louis and his cousin had been very pleased. “Mate… was Emma doing your hair again?”

“What?” Louis asked, confused, then his expression cleared and he groaned as he went over to sit with Caroline. “I thought I had them all. Pull it out, would you?” he asked Caroline.

She smiled slightly as she gently unwound the band. “It’s cute.”

“Those girls are a menace,” Louis assured them with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m so glad you have boys.”

“You love every minute of it,” Caroline retorted as she poked his shoulder.

Louis chuckled but then closed his eyes and leaned back, the baby resting on his chest.

“I could have taken the bow out, you know,” James told him as he went to sit with his wife.

“Not bloody likely,” Louis said. “You’d have yanked it out. Caroline is nicer and she has long hair so she knows how to take those things out.”

“Maybe our next baby will be a girl and he’ll have to learn,” Caroline mused and James shot her a wicked grin. “But then again, maybe I’ll just ask Emma to decorate her Uncle James next time we see them.”

James groaned as Louis laughed.

The mirror flared to life.

~*~

It felt like an eternity before Harry, Bill, Hermione, Vick and Rick made it back to the dragon preserve. They drove flat out to get back while Rick was up on his seat, glued to the skyline. “It doesn’t look good,” he said once but that was all the kid would say.

The large SUV skidded to a halt just outside the preserve but before they could jump out, Rick shouted for all of them to wait.

Harry glanced back at the kid but whatever Rick could see, he didn’t see it. They’d put the wards back up and the wards had held, making the vista before him the one he’d seen when they’d driven up the first time. It was rolling hills of green for as far as the eye could see, which now that he thought of it was mental because it was still winter and everything should have been covered in snow. They’d had a mild winter, but he’d passed snow covered fields on their way here. “I’m getting old,” Harry muttered to himself as he waited for Rick to tell them what they were supposed to be seeing.

“I don’t know what happened,” Rick said finally as he continued to scan the veiled area. “It’s almost like… like maybe there’s smoke concealing everything.”

It was fully dark then, save for the moonlight that streamed down on them, giving off enough light with the headlights that Harry would have sworn he’d have seen deer grazing in the fields if the whole thing wasn’t a magical trick. “Is it because it’s dark?”

“No,” Rick answered without hesitation. “Something isn’t right but I don’t know what it is and I don’t know if we’re going to be able to find out without taking the veil down and clearing out whatever is in there.”

Bill drummed his fingers on the car in a loud tattoo as he considered the area before him. “If she was okay, she probably would have come out.”

“Could she take the wards down?” Vick questioned doubtfully. “She had us put them up and we’re pretty good at it. She might not have been able to undo them or if she could, it might take a good bit of time.”

“She could be hurt in there,” Hermione added quietly. “She might not be able to get through to get help.”

Harry did not miss the fact that no one mentioned Bugatti or thought he was still alive. That was telling.

“We have to make a decision,” Bill said as he smacked his palm on the leather. “Do we risk taking the wards down or do we wait?”

“I don’t know that waiting will make a difference,” Rick told them as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “If something is going to come out of the wards when we take them down, then it’s going to come out of the wards when we take them down today, tomorrow or next week. It’s unlikely to lose strength. I think I’m seeing smoke, but I honestly just don’t know because I’ve never seen anything like this. Maybe it’s a poisonous gas cloud or maybe it’s nothing.”

“Alright,” Harry took a deep breath and let it out. “Hermione, you’re going to drive away with Rick and continue to monitor the situation. I will stay here with Bill and Vick, and we will take down the wards and see what’s happened.”

He almost expected Hermione to argue, but she nodded her assent. “It makes sense.”

“You don’t think I should stay and tell you what I’m seeing?” Rick asked with the bravado that only the young could manage with a straight face.

“No,” all three men said at the exact same moment.

“Fine,” Rick huffed as he sat back and crossed his arms. “Just put a bubble over your heads before you do anything, okay?”

“We can do that,” Harry agreed as he exited the car and let out a small shiver. The air temperature around them had dropped precipitously in the last hour. He turned back to Hermione and said, “I’ll shoot up green sparks if you can come back and red if you should drive like hell away from here.” She did not look amused, but she agreed and he watched Hermione turn the car around and drive off before he turned back to the men. “I should have given you both an out.”

“No,” Bill said without fuss.

Vick shook his head and then cast the charm to give himself the bubble which would allow him to have clean air.

It wasn’t a charm Harry used often, but after the Triwizard Tournament it was fixed permanently in his brain.

When they were sure Hermione and Rick were far enough away, Bill and Vick went to work on the wards. It only took a few minutes before the smoke began to roll out from the wards and they could see that the already scorched landscape was even crispier.

Harry began immediately to douse the flamed with his wand, shooting water at all he hotspots he could see. He didn’t see Glenna immediately, not with the steam from the extinguishing fires or the smoke from those still burning, but after a solid five minutes of fighting the fires, he spotted a weird mirage about a hundred feet away.

“What is that?” Bill asked, clearly spotting the shimmering light just as Harry had.

“I don’t know,” Harry told him as he moved carefully through the hot, soggy landscape while Vick brought up the rear behind them. “Is that her?”

They fought more fires as they moved towards it and it was only as they approached, they saw the melted puddle of the golden vase in a molten pool just outside of where this bubble, almost like an iridescent bubble gum bubble was ballooned off the ground.

Before any of them could react, the balloon almost seemed to pop and Glenna, who was on the ground covering the other man, glanced up at them, her skin a rose-colored red and her wispy hair askew. “I think it worked,” she coughed and didn’t protest when Bill picked her up in his arms and began to walk with her back out of the carnage.

Harry and Vick stared down at Anthony Bugatti and wondered if the man was still alive. He wasn’t moving and he didn’t appear to be breathing, but that didn’t mean much.

“Stretcher?” Vick asked cautiously. “I mean, she said she did it, right? She transferred the curse to the vase and it blew everything to hell and back.” He pointed around at the absolute devastation around them. “I still have no idea how she might have managed that, but I am impressed that she’s alive.”

“Have you seen that kind of protection before?” Harry asked as he indicated the man on the ground. “What was that bubble thing?”

“I haven’t seen it in use, no,” Vick admitted. “I’ve heard of it being used, but it’s something that fell out of favor years ago because it would only protect against some magic and not others.”

“Come again?” Harry asked, turning to him. “How would that work?”

Vick pointed to the vase. “See the curse was coming from an object and not a person. If I remember correctly, that was the key to that bit working. If the spell was coming directly from a living creature, the protection is useless. I actually would have thought that the transference to the vase would have negated it, but I don’t know. It’s all very old magic no one uses anymore because we have shield charms that protect against everything.”

That was a point. Harry started to open his mouth to ask another question when Bugatti moaned.

“Well, damn,” Vick said on a long whistle. “Stretcher it is.”

~*~

“Why is she going to the hospital and not me?” Daphne demanded as Nat shifted nervously from one foot to the other.

Teddy hadn’t been thinking when he’d arrived back at his house and told everyone that Harry was alive and so was Bugatti and he need Nat at the hospital immediately.

For a long moment, Nat truly thought Teddy would wipe her memory but Teddy smiled and shook his head sadly. “Nat’s is trained in Muggle forensics. Her father is world famous for it. We need her specialty to see what was done to his skeletal structure and to make sure it’s really him and not someone using Polyjuice. It turns out that they aren’t an exact copy with Polyjuice and Nat can tell that with a bone scan.”

That was such absolute rubbish that Nat almost expected Daphne to protest, but she seemed to deflate and nodded her acceptance.

“I’m going to take you back to Lily and Scorpius’ house,” Rose said kindly as she shot Nat a look of horror that clearly reflected Teddy’s explanation. “You need some tea and some rest. We know he’s alive and being treated. Everything else can wait for the Healers to see him. Our aunt will see him personally and she’s the best, isn’t she, Victoire?”

“She’s absolutely the best,” Victoire agreed as she also shot her husband a sideways glance and he shrugged.

I mean, as far as dragon dung stories went, it was… something.

As soon as Rose and Daphne were through the Floo, Victoire turned to Teddy. “You are a terrible liar.”

“I am a terrible liar,” Teddy agreed as he pulled his wife into a hug and then passed her off to her mother. Fleur was beside herself with relief. “Let everyone else know through the mirrors. Nat, do you want Al to come along?”

“Yes,” Nat said without giving herself time to think.

“I have the cloak,” Al told her as he went to retrieve it from a corner. “You staying here for now?” he asked Andrew as he jogged down the stairs.

“Claire fell asleep,” Andrew told them. “All the kids are fine and crashed on the floor of the playroom in a heap.”

“Leave her there,” Victoire told him. “You and Rose can sleep in the guest room.”

Some family left, relieved, others stayed, and Nat knew that because they were family, the support was always there and that was the important part.

“I’m ready,” Nat said as they went through the Floo to Audrey’s office where they could hide Nat in the cloak.

It wasn’t usual for an Auror in training to be there, but at the same time he was Harry’s son, so none of the busy Healers questioned Teddy as he took them along the corridors to the room where Bugatti was in isolation. Nat spotted Rick standing outside of one of the doors, pacing back and forth. When he spotted Teddy, he sagged in relief. “I don’t know what to make of him.”

“Is he in there?” Teddy asked, pointing at the door and Rick nodded.

Teddy pushed open the door and all of them entered to find Hermione, Audrey and Bill examining the man who was laid out flat on the table.

Nat walked over and studied him. There was something there. It was the Imperius Curse, yes, but under that was a hint of almost inky blackness that filled his veins. Nat looked around and when she saw it was just them, she said quietly to Rick, “Do you see the black?” She didn’t take off the cloak, knowing someone could walk in at any moment.

“I see it’s something,” he told her quickly. “It doesn’t look right. It doesn’t look like before, though.”

“No,” Nat agreed. “The curse is definitely gone, but it’s… something. Well, I’ll try to pull it out and see what happens.”

“Is that a good idea?” Audrey asked Nat as she continued to examine the man.

Nat had no idea, but figured it wasn’t going to help to leave it in him. It was not right. She didn’t know what kind of not right, but it wasn’t okay. “Stand back,” she said and waited for them to comply. First, she went to his head and placed her hand there, removing the Imperius Curse. When he didn’t wake up, she knew things were very serious.

“Have you started?” Hermione asked her.

“She hasn’t,” Rick told them. “She just took off the Imperius Curse. Do you want my help?”

“I don’t know yet,” Nat said as she touched the man’s bare arm and began to pull the black gunk towards her. Slowly she pulled, and slowly it moved, although it felt like it was anchored to the man, and slowly she dropped it from him into a bucket that Audrey had conjured for her. When she finally had the last of it out, she took a step back and felt a little light headed. Two arms caught her, even though she was still in the cloak and Al held her against his chest while she caught her breath. She watched the man and waited to see what would happen.

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Chapter 95: Chapter 83 Part ONE

Author's Notes: Please consider supporting my original work on pa treon You can find me there or on faceboo k at Sarah Jaune

Leave a review or go find me and shoot me a message and vote on what you want Daphne to do. I am open to suggestions!!

I do not own Harry Potter

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!


Chapter 83

Harry watched the black slime ooze from Anthony Bugatti and hit the container that Audrey had collected. She quickly sealed the container with a magical bubble and stuck it off to the side as they watched the man and waited to see what would happen.

Nothing happened. Audrey checked his vitals and said he seemed fine, but still asleep. “I could wake him,” she offered but she didn’t look convinced that was a good idea.

“No, let’s put a guard on him and make sure he’s restrained,” Harry said after a long moment, just waiting to see if the man might stir. “While I want answers, if she poisoned him, he might need to sleep to recover and frankly all of us are exhausted and could use a break.”

“Agreed,” Bill said with a sigh. “I want to get home and I’d really like something to eat.”

“I’ll set up a guard and then head out,” Teddy told Harry. “The sweep of the Ministry is done and the Minister has been back in. I’ll update her and then we’ll all get some sleep.”

Harry nodded his confirmation and watched the teams disperse. Before Rick could leave, he turned to the young man and said, “You did a great job with all of this.”

Rick flashed him a cocky grin and shrugged. “Thanks.”

“I appreciate you stepping in to do what, uh, others can’t,” he said as he noted the door was still open. It wouldn’t matter that he didn’t say Nat’s name, thought. Rick would understand.

He shrugged that off. “It’s better that I do it.”

They both knew what he meant.

“I’d like to have you over to my house later this week for dinner,” Harry told him and Rick stilled. They both knew that meant letting Rick into the secret of where the house was and how to find his family. It was a huge mark of trust that Harry didn’t give out easily, but he’d come to know Patrick Hassel and he knew he was a good man. “Also, we always have a big dinner while the kids are home from school for the Easter hols, if you’d like to join in. That’s a few weeks off, but it’s always a good time. This is our last year of doing it, at least for a while. We only have the two left at school,” he told him, wondering how the time had flown. Of course, Lily should have been with them, but instead she was about to have a baby.

Rick nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’d like that, thanks.”

Harry clapped him on the back and then headed for the door. He had a load of paperwork that would need to be filed to discuss this debacle, but it didn’t have to happen that night. He was going home to hug his wife, hopefully eat until he was about to burst, and then fall flat on his face for a solid eight hours before having to do it all over again tomorrow.

He arrived home to food, thank you Polly, and his wife’s concern that she used to cover up her ire at him for keeping them in suspense of his status on life for hours on end. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair and he held onto her in their kitchen.

She let out a huge sigh and then maneuvered him over to the table to eat. “I already sent Nat up to bed,” she told him. “She was here almost an hour ago.”

Nat didn’t have people to instruct or plans to make and Harry was not sorry she’d been able to get to bed already. He ate automatically, not sure he actually tasted anything, and then went to pass out.

The next morning, he awoke to Ginny’s hand on his arm. “You have an owl,” she whispered and he glanced at her through one eye, unable to make out her expression without his glasses. “Come on,” she said as she handed him his glasses.

Harry sat up as she opened one of the curtains, letting a lot of sunlight pour into the room while dust motes danced in the streams of late winter morning light. She handed him the letter and he scanned it quickly. “It’s from Audrey.”

“I already read it,” she told him and he glanced up to see her retrieving clean clothes for him. “You need to get to the hospital. “I woke Nat and she’s getting ready. You might want to take her.”

“I’m not sure we need to,” Harry said as he grabbed the trousers she held out. “I don’t want to put her at risk and she’s done all she can for Bugatti.”

Ginny nodded and leaned against the wall, watching him dress quickly. “Whatever you think. I think she looks peaked and should stay here anyway.”

“Then definitely she should,” Harry agreed. “She can have an easy day and if we need her, I’ll send Al for her later. I don’t want her to overdo it.”

Harry had a short word with Nat about his plan if he needed her later and then went straight to the hospital where he found the guard still in place at Bugatti’s room. Rick was waiting outside the room for him, along with Thomas Gregory. The Auror looked at Harry and he noted that Gregory’s sandy colored hair was rumpled, as though he’d had his hands in it a few times that morning. “You alright?” he asked his old friend. Gregory had been an Auror with Harry a long time, now, and although Gregory’s light hair didn’t show the gray like Harry’s black hair did, the lines on his face matched Harry’s, giving away the age and toll the job took.

“Yeah, didn’t sleep well,” Gregory said and at Harry’s raised brow, he shook his head. “Nothing like that. We had my granddaughter last night and she wouldn’t settle. It was a long night of walking her.”

“That will do it,” Harry agreed. “Babies are a lot harder at our age.”

“Too right they are,” Gregory agreed. The other man inclined his head towards the room. “He hasn’t said much this morning, only asked after his wife. We have the Veritaserum ready and waiting. We ran it through one of the Healers in training who volunteered, so Rick could observe the effects on a willing subject.”

“I saw what it’s supposed to do,” Rick agreed. “If he’s fighting it or has a way to fight it, I think I’ll be able to tell.”

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Harry said as he moved to the door and pushed in.

Bugatti was sitting up in bed, but he looked furious at his restraints and he glared at Harry the entire time as the Healers forced the truth potion down the man’s throat. He shuddered once but he watched the man’s eyes and they went vacant, gray eyes. He didn’t look like the extremely wealthy business man now, but Harry supposed the hospital did that to everyone. He was dressed in a gown and his hair was disheveled.

He'd heard Muggles say that the clothes made the man, and he had come to the conclusion that while it wasn’t exactly true, it did help camouflage a lot of sins.

“What is your name?” Harry asked him.

“Anthony Bugatti.”

“How old are you?” Harry asked, realizing he hadn’t actually verified his age.

“Forty-six,” was the answer that came and when he glanced back at the other Aurors in the room he was given a nod.

“You were working with Isabella Crabbe,” Harry went on slowly. “What did you do for her?”

Bugatti didn’t answer.

Harry turned to Rick who shook his head. “It’s still working.”

If it was still working, then Bugatti didn’t have a truthful answer to give to that question. What on earth was going on there? “Did you meet with Isabella Crabbe at your home in Italy?”

“No.”

Harry’s heart clenched in a spasm of fear because if he wasn’t lying, then that meant that Daphne had lied and currently Daphne was staying with Lily but… no. No, that wasn’t possible. Daphne had also been given the truth serum before Harry had let her into the secret of how to find their house and Daphne had never, not once, wanted to betray her nephew. It would be a long game on an epic scale if she had been playing this whole time.

Which meant that somehow Bugatti didn’t know who he met with. “You were meeting with an older woman in your office at your house and your wife walked in. It was the day she packed up and left for England. Do you know her name?”

Bugatti didn’t answer for a long moment but when he did he simply said, “I saw no one.”

What on earth was this?

“Why are you in England?”

“I want to see my wife.”

Harry shook his head. “How did you know your wife was in England?”

Bugatti stayed silent then said, “I don’t know.”

Harry heard Rick’s very low muttered voice, “What the hell?”

A knock sounded at the door and a very exhausted Audrey opened it, beckoning Harry out of the room. “Are you getting anywhere with him?” she asked as she rubbed at her tired eyes.

“No,” Harry told her. “He said he came here for his wife but he didn’t know how he knew Daphne was here.”

Audrey leaned back against the wall and sighed. “We finally figured out what that black sludge was that was pulled from him,” she told him. “It was a memory potion that self-destructs every memory of a person.”

Harry waited a beat, sure he hadn’t heard her correctly. “Come again?”

“It’s absolutely beastly to create, costs tens of thousands of pounds in ingredients,” Audrey explained. “I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out, at all, but the one ingredient was so rare that it narrowed it down to five potions and we eliminated it from that. It could only be a memory potion because he’s not dead.”

“How does that work, though?” He asked, trying not to get frustrated. This was supposed to be his closest lead and if what she was saying was true, it had just slipped straight through his fingers!

“She put one of her hairs in the potion and it wipes out his ability to speak about her,” Audrey told him. “But then it was… well, it was pulled from him so my assumption is it also pulled all her memories from him and they plopped out in the bucket.”

“Absolutely brilliant,” Harry growled in frustration. He truly did not need this, but on the other hand it also meant he didn’t have to waste his time interrogating the git any longer. “What the hell do I tell Daphne?”

Audrey hesitated a moment. “He might have worked with Crabbe willingly. That’s a possibility. He’d still be the same person, so he might go do it again if given the chance. But right now, he’s a blank slate. She’s going to have to decide what she wants to do.”

“Well, damn,” Harry growled and then let out a short huff of a breath. “Thanks, Audrey. Go get some sleep. You did well.”

“I dragged Rose into it, too,” Audrey told him with a small smile. “She’s not even done with her training and she’s already remarkable.”

Harry was glad for that, as they needed the help, but he had to think about that later. He went back into the room and asked, “Is he still under?”

“Yeah,” Rick confirmed immediately.

“Right,” Harry studied the man. “Will you hurt your wife, Daphne?”

“No,” Bugatti answered immediately.

“Will you let anyone else hurt your wife?”

“No.”

Harry considered his next question before he asked it. “Will you hurt Harry Potter or his family?”

“No.”

Intrigued, Harry then asked, “Will you help someone to harm Harry Potter or his family in any way?”

“No.”

“Are you going to harm anyone if you leave here?”

“No.”

It wasn’t enough for him to ever allow the man to be near Lily, but at the same time, he didn’t have a good reason to hold the man.

“Have you committed a crime against Harry Potter or his family?”

“No.”

“Have you committed a crime against the British Ministry?”

“No.”

“Have you committed any illegal acts on British soil?”

“I drove too fast in my car.”

“Anything else?”

“No.”

Harry studied the man for another moment and then shook his head. “We can’t hold him,” he said, voicing his thought out loud. “Keep him here and keep him under guard. I’ll bring his wife, if she wants to see him.”

Harry had no idea what Daphne would do, but she had to be given the facts as he had them. When he arrived at his daughter’s home, he found Lily, Daphne and Ginny there to greet him. Sera wagged her tail and sat for an ear scratch from him, but quickly retreated to lay by the crackling fire in the kitchen.

“I just made tea,” Ginny told him as they all settled around the kitchen table. “Do you want some?”

“Thanks,” he agreed for his wife and he smiled at her as she handed it over.

“Well,” he said as he turned to Daphne. “Your husband has woken and I just interrogated him under the truth serum.”

Daphne’s eyes continued to meet his but he noted her hands were clenched hard around her mug. “What happened?”

“It’s complicated,” Harry admitted before taking a sip of his tea. “The fact is that we are going to let him go. We have nothing to hold him on, apart from Muggle speeding and I’d be done in for that, as well, if anyone could catch me. He admitted to no crimes here in Britain and I can’t ask him about what he’s done overseas, unless it directly pertains to Crabbe and he doesn’t remember her.”

Daphne stared at him and then shook her head. “He definitely knows her.”

“It would seem that Crabbe gave him a potion that she either forced on him or he willingly took. The potion was specifically tied to Crabbe so that he would not be able to…” Harry paused and then rethought about how he had to explain it, since the potion was not exactly as he was describing. “He basically can’t remember her anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Lily asked him as she shifted in her seat. She was only a few months off from having her baby and she was already getting big. “Does that mean he’s innocent or guilty?”

“It means we don’t know whether he participated in this willingly or not,” he answered, but it was to Daphne that he looked. This was her husband and her fight. “Crabbe is good at forcing people into things. It’s possible she did just that. She’s also good at making powerful alliances with greedy people. It’s possible she didn’t have to force your husband. Right now, he doesn’t remember but he is still the same person he was before she took her memories of him. If she was able to corrupt him before, she will be able to corrupt him again.”

Daphne sat back in her seat and her eyes were bleak as she studied him. “What do you think I should do?”

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted reluctantly. “I did ask him, under the truth potion, if he loves you and he says he does. He says he doesn’t want to hurt you. But I can also tell you that I will never allow him into the secret of this house or to have access to Lily.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” Daphne agreed almost absently. “I don’t… I honestly don’t know what to do with this.”

“You don’t have to decide now,” Harry said and then he drained his tea. “I have to get back to the hospital and I can take you to him, if you like. Or you can take some time to think on it and I’ll arrange a meeting for you later, if you choose.”

“Or,” Ginny said gently as she reached over to place a hand on Daphne’s wrist, “You can disappear from him and never be forced to see him again. You aren’t without resources and we can help make that happen.”

Daphne smiled at Ginny, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I think… I think I want to see him. I think I need to speak to him before I make up my mind.”

“Alright,” Harry said with understanding. He had expected as much. “Take what time you need and then we’ll go.”

Back to index


Chapter 96: Chapter 83 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Please, PLEASE consider going to patreo n's website and check out my page. Sarah Jaune. It's a very minimal fee, but you get access to ALL of my original novels. Please :D

I've been in and out of internet access, so I'm sorry for the delay!

Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing


Harry went into the hospital room before Daphne and studied Anthony Bugatti’s face as the man studied him right back. When he stepped aside to reveal the man’s wife, he watched Bugatti and was disappointed to realize he had no idea what the man was actually thinking.

He smiled for his wife, but it was clearly forced. It could have been because he was restrained in a hospital bed, or it could be due the fact that Daphne didn’t move towards him.

“Go ahead and leave us,” Harry told the Auror guards. “I’ll stay.”

Bugatti shot him a dirty look, but then turned back to Daphne. He didn’t speak until the door had closed behind the backs of the retreating Aurors. “I don’t know what happened,” he said to Daphne, clearly choosing to ignore Harry.

That was fine with him, of course. He stepped back and watched, wanting to get a better read on the man.

“You tried to kill a bunch of people after teaming up with my psychotic aunt,” Daphne told him quietly, her only movement, the twisting of her hands around her small handbag. “You know how she is! I told you about her.”

Bugatti shook his head slowly and for one single moment Harry almost caught a read on him. “No,” Bugatti croaked out the word. “They keep talking about her, but I don’t know who she is.”

“That’s a lie,” Daphne whispered, taking a step back.

“No!” Anthony shouted out, fighting to sit up in the bed. “Please, Daph! I don’t know anything! Please!”

Daphne hesitated and then glanced to Harry before looking back at her husband. “I don’t know how to trust you.”

Anthony kept focused on her, pleading with her. “Please give me a chance! I came to England to find you! I didn’t know what happened or where you’d gone.”

“How did you find me?”

Anthony blinked and then shook his head. “I… I don’t… know. Why don’t I know?”

“It’s because she told you,” Harry added quietly. “She told you where to find Daphne.”

Anthony glanced down at his lap for a moment as he flexed his restrained arms. “Did I work for her?”

It was not the question that Harry had expected. “I don’t know. You did things for her, but whether you did them of your own free will is up for debate. We may never know.”

Finally, the man focused on Harry. “You asked me if I was going to hurt anyone and I said no, but how do I trust that?”

Harry let out a long sigh and wondered if the man was playing him or playing Daphne. Or maybe, just maybe, the bloke was sincere and he’d had his life ruined by Crabbe along with damn near everyone else on the planet. “You said it while under truth serum. You can’t lie and we were sure you weren’t lying and that you were fully under. I suggest that if you don’t want to fall prey to Isabella Crabbe again that you lock yourself away and maybe never trust any drink you didn’t make yourself.”

Daphne hesitated for a moment before she said, “Unlock his cuffs please. I want a word alone with him.”

“Alright,” Harry agreed immediately. He’d told her it was her call and he’d abide by it. He had to let the man go that day anyway as they had nothing to hold him on.

He left them alone a moment later and went out into the hall, only to find a messenger from the Ministry striding towards him with a piece of parchment. “Daniel,” he said to his assistant as he took the note and scanned quickly. Harry let out a long sigh. “Thanks,” he told the other man. “Let the Minister know I’ll be back shortly to deal with it.”

“Will do,” Daniel told Harry with a small nod of sympathy before he turned and left.

Harry turned to the guards and instructed them to wait, letting them know that Bugatti was free as soon as the hospital staff cleared him. “Tell his wife I had to go to the Ministry and she can find me there if she needs me.”

If it wasn’t one thing, it was another, but at least today’s catastrophe wasn’t as serious as it could be. Rick had been practicing magic with Al and Lena and somehow he’d managed to melt the training room, which was now unusable.

This was the one thing Harry appreciated about Nat’s powers. They weren’t showy. Harry could only imagine what Dumbledore’s teachers went through when he was first at school.

~*~

Al stared at the wreckage of the training room and tried very hard not to laugh, because it definitely wasn’t funny and he had no idea what his father was going to say.

He and Rick had sparred many times in the last few months and there was no question that Rick was the more powerful wizard. It wasn’t even something that bothered Al anymore, as there just wasn’t anything he could do about it. After the first few weeks of being around Rick, he’d realized he had a valuable opportunity to train with someone like Dumbledore and he’d be a moron not to take him up on it. Lena would get involved sometimes, but in general she’d stand back and moderate the duels or she’d work on other skills. She was very talented, but when it came to combat, it wasn’t her strength. She was better at concealing and stealth and no amount of work was going to turn her into something she wasn’t.

The day had been one of relief. They’d all had a bit of sleep and the Ministry was still standing and he and Rick had both been in a good mood, so when Rick had suggested they spar, Al had been all for it. They’d begun as they normally did with physical sparing. It was the thing that Al could help Rick improve, as Al was a good bit bigger and stronger than the other man and more than that, he was quick. Once they’d warmed up for half an hour, they’d set to trading spells and somewhere in there, Rick had shot a spell at him that had surprised Al enough that he’d thrown up a strong shield and the whole thing had blown up into a firework display that melted everything around them.

Thankfully Lena had left to use the loo and hadn’t been caught in the backfire. Also remarkable was that Rick wasn’t hurt, either, from his spell gone wrong.

Al shook his head as Teddy grilled them both on what had happened. “I really don’t know,” he told his godbrother. “The only thing different was how surprised I was. I expected him to feint to the side from spell and rather than doing that, he fired back and I blocked.”

“It was a really powerful shield,” Rick told him as they, along with half the Aurors in the department, stood there looking at the carnage of what they’d done.

Before they could say another word, his father appeared in the doorway and his steps faltered as he took in all the melted bit around them. “What on earth…” his dad said under his breath. Al only knew what he’d meant to say because he knew him so well.

“The spell rebounded off his shield,” Rick told Harry with a helpless shrug. “I honestly thought he knew it was coming, but he didn’t and the power he put behind the spell just sort of magnified the whole thing. I think I didn’t get blasted because I instinctively moved the energy away from myself, but the rest of the room was roasted.”

Harry scrubbed at his face and shook his head. “Alright, you two start figuring out how to put the thing back together. I’m glad no one was hurt.”

Neither Al nor Rick had any clue how to put the room back together, but they did go down to the Magical Accidents office and had someone come up to advise them and once they had spells to undo what could be undone they set to work.

It was while they were working that Rick told Al he didn’t want to go back to America, at least not anytime soon. “The American Auror team is just… it’s different,” he told Al as they worked. “They have so many people because it’s such a big country and it feels really impersonal. Here everyone knows everyone else and it’s more of a tight unit.”

“Your boss will not be happy if you don’t go back,” Al pointed out as he attempted to undo the melting of the foam mat, but instead made it vanish. “Well damn.”

“I think we’re going to have to clear out most of it and put in new things,” Rick told him with a snort. “I’m not having much luck either.”

“I’m sure that’s in the budget,” Al grimaced. “But back to your boss…”

Rick shook his head, “No, he won’t be happy, but I dunno. I didn’t feel like I had a choice. I was plucked out of school to go do this and everything since then has been dictated to me. Staying here was the first thing that was really all my decision. I could have gone home, but getting the chance to work with Nat and learn from her… I learned a lot. So,” he shot Al a sideways glance, “When are you going to make a move on her?”

“Not talking about that,” Al told him with the shake of his head. “It’s complicated.”

“I’m not sure it is,” Rick said, but let it go when Teddy came in to check on their progress.

Al went to see Lily and Scorpius that evening because Nat was there and he’d heard from Nat that Scorpius was worried about his aunt. “You okay, mate?” he asked Scorpius just as soon as they had a moment to themselves.

“I had an owl from Aunt Daphne that they’re staying in London for a bit and she’d let me know what she decides to do,” Scorpius told him miserably. “I just don’t know what to think about any of this, Al. She’s always been a loner because of the abuse she endured and… and I really think she loved him.” Scorpius glanced over to the living room where Lily was sitting on the sofa with Nat, her hands on her large belly. The look in his pale blue eyes said it all. Scorpius had been given a family with the Potters. He had Lily, the girl he’d loved for years, and even if they were very young, it didn’t matter. This was it for them.

“She’s always gone her own way,” Al said, referring to Scorpius’ aunt. “You’ve never known what she was going to do next, but she has a good head on her shoulders and she’s always landed on her feet. I think you have to trust her.”

“But if she loves him, he might be able to lie to her,” Scorpius pointed out as his gaze went back to Al’s. “She’s not going to be totally rational about him.”

Al silently agreed with that but didn’t really want to say it. “Dad had him take the truth potion and he said he didn’t want to hurt anyone. If he can be manipulated again, then that’s what’s going to happen but at least for right now I think Daphne is safe from him.”

They didn’t have a chance to say more before Rose and Andrew came through the Floo.

“Where’s Claire?” Nat asked, as they noted Andrew’s sister wasn’t with them.

“She was playing with her friend and didn’t want to come,” Rose told them with a grin. “She said we were boring and Catie’s mum didn’t mind. She thinks we’re just having a quiet night in our room, though.”

Al shook his head as it hit him that they were still in the middle of a huge Muggle pandemic and they were only now beginning to roll out the safe vaccines for the Muggles. All of Andrew and Rose’ Muggle staff lived in the house and couldn’t leave, including Catie’s parents. It had been a blessing for both Catie and Claire that they lived in the same house or they’d have no one to be with.

They all sat down to eat dinner a few minutes later and conversation swirled around them as it had when they’d been back at school. Very soon the last of them, Honor and Hugo, would be home from school for good and they would have even more voices around the table.

They would also have a baby very soon. Al could imagine his sister as a mother, but at the same time she was only just about to turn eighteen and it felt like she was so, so young. They all were. Still, James and Caroline had managed, without any warning, when Alex had been brought to them and if he’d have been forced to place a bet, he’d have been certain that Lily could do a much better job at parenting than James.

But James had been surprising him, all along. He was a great father and he absolutely adored his sons. Al glanced over to Nat and suppressed a sigh. He wanted that for himself someday.

~*~

“Lily is in labor.”

Scorpius glanced up from his desk and gaped at Al, who was standing in the doorway, an inpatient hand tapping and his face grim. He couldn’t have heard him correctly. Lily wasn’t due for another month. “What?”

“Her water broke and you weren’t answering the mirror!” Al told him hurriedly. “Let’s go!”

Scorpius shot out of his desk chair, toppling it backwards until it hit the floor. “Is she okay? Is the baby okay?” he asked as he hurried towards his brother-in-law and they ran for the Floo.

“I dunno, I was with Dad at a meeting when the mirror went off and Mum was trying to get ahold of you. Dad sent me here to get you,” Al told him as Al stood back at the fireplace. “Go on through and I’ll tell your boss. I’ll be through shortly.”

It felt like it took forever to get through the Floo network, but when he arrived at home he found Daphne and his mum waiting in the living room. “They’re upstairs,” his mum told him quickly as she stood from the sofa. “Audrey says she is fine and so is the baby. You’re supposed to go up.”

“Alright,” he agreed with a smile that didn’t quite feel authentic. He wanted his wife and baby to be safe and he was excited for the baby to be here, but at the same time he did not feel like he was ready for the baby to be here.

But when he saw Lily’s face, her cheek’s flushed and her lips pressed together in pain he found he could only focus on her and that moment.

“She’s doing really well,” Audrey assured him as he moved over to her side, throwing off his dress robe onto the dresser as he went. He was down to slacks and a shirt and it still felt very overdressed for having a baby, but he didn’t want to waste more time in getting to her.

“Hey,” he whispered as he pressed his lips to her damp brow.

He thought maybe he’d have hours yet before she had the baby, but less than ten minutes later their daughter was born with a bright, full mop of copper hair. They named her Lorelei Hope after Lily’s sister, the one who didn’t get to live. He watched the baby on Lily’s chest and felt tears pricking his eyes as he studied the tiny, tiny baby in her arms.

“She’s gorgeous,” Ginny whispered to them. “She’s just perfect, Lily. You did such a great job.”

Scorpius finally had a chance to hold his baby about ten minutes later and he carefully carried the baby down to the waiting family. “This is Lorelei,” he told everyone, not even sure he was taking in all of everyone who had crowded into his living room.

He glanced down at her to find his daughter looking back up at him with blue eyes that he thought might just be like his and unexpectedly a tear slid down his cheek. He had married Lily in what felt like a whirlwind. His love for Lily had only grown and intensified, but he’d felt so usure of how he’d be as a father. His own father was absolute crap, even though Draco was standing there with Harry, both of them watching him.

But he loved this little girl with all his heart and soul and he knew, straight down to his toes, he was going to do a better job than his own father had. He had to. He glanced over to his father and met Draco’s eyes for only a moment before someone else distracted him and he ended up passing the baby off to his mother so she could hold her granddaughter.

“I always wanted a girl,” she whispered to Draco so only he could hear. “I wanted you to have a sister, but this is more wonderful than words. Thank you.”

He gently hugged his mother and then let her go, watching as his baby was passed around. He didn’t have long, knowing he’d need to get Lorelei back up to Lily in a few minutes, but he gave the women in the family space as he moved over to his father, Harry and Al who were off to the side.

“Congratulations,” Al told him with a grin.

“I can tell you now, that’s exactly how Lily looked when she was born,” Harry told him. “She was just that small, as she also came early.”

“She has blue eyes,” Scorpius told them. “She looked at me and…” but he let the statement go because he didn’t know how to finish it.

“Yeah?” Harry asked with a grin. “Maybe she’ll keep them, but they might turn brown. We’ll have to wait and see. Ireland was born with all that brown hair, but she’s already going blonde.”

Draco cleared his throat and all three of them turned to face him. Scorpius felt himself tense, unsure if he wanted to hear what his father was going to say. His father had been better in the last eight months, but it didn’t mean he was someone Scorpius trusted.

“Well,” Draco said after a moment. “I am glad she’s here safely. I was a little worried as I know it’s early for her.” Scorpius waited, usure if his father was done or if the other shoe was about to drop. “Lorelei means powerful, I believe. It’s a good, strong name.”

Scorpius waited but it seemed Draco was done. “Thanks,” he said after a minute. “She’s already made a powerful impact on us, so it seemed fitting. We gave her Hope as her middle name,” he said, turning to Harry and seeing the spasm of grief on his face. “We wanted to honor her sister, as well.”

To all of their surprise, Draco clasped a hand on Harry’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Well, it’s a lovely name. I can see Ginny at the top of the stairs, so I expect it’s time for the baby to go back up.”

Scorpius soaked in every single moment of the rest of that day and into the night. Lorelei definitely had a feisty personality and she didn’t let them slack on anything. Gran told them later that Ginny had been exactly the same way, and although he absolutely loved Lily for who she was and how she operated, he wouldn’t be sorry to have a girl who might just curse a bloke who stepped out of line.

“Oh, sweet girl,” Ginny cooed as she supervised Scorpius learning to change nappies while his daughter screamed at the world. “You’re going to be eating very soon.”

“Turns out you’re starving her,” Gran chuckled as she folded cleaned linens. “I always said, Ginny, that you were spared with having Lily. She was always the sweetest baby.”

Ginny laughed while Scorpius focused on fastening the nappy on correctly. She was so small they’d had to get special nappies for her, but despite how tiny she was, she had a powerful set of lungs on her. “There,” he said as he pulled down her night dress and didn’t bother to fasten it before scooping her up and taking her to the bed for Lily to feed. The moment she was in Lily’s arms, she quieted and began to nurse.

“Maybe I should change her,” Lily said, not for the first time.

“Absolutely not,” Ginny told her without a moment’s hesitation. “Audrey wanted you to rest in bed as much as possible for three days. You are going to do what you’re told and we will handle everything else.”

Gran finished folding the last nappy from where she sat on their bed and then reached over to pat Lily’s hand. “Your mother is right, Luv. Just let us fuss over you. This little miss is going to learn soon enough that getting her nappy changed won’t be the end of everything. She’s just new and doesn’t know yet.”

“How did you deal with Mum screaming when you had six other kids?” Lily asked Molly. Scorpius settled gently on the bed next to her and held out his finger to Lorelei, loving how she instinctively grabbed for his finger.

“Oh, that wasn’t too bad,” Molly told her. “It’s harder when you only have small children, but I had your Uncle Bill and he was, what was he when you were born?”

“He was ten years older than I was,” Ginny told her mother.

“Yes, that’s right! I had this big, strapping boy who would hold her and walk the garden with her when I was dealing with one mess or another. It’s why she always had a soft spot for him, but of course then he went off to Hogwarts and that was hard. But I still had Charlie. He wasn’t quite as good of a minder, though.”

Ginny burst out laughing so hard that Lorelei startled. “No, he wasn’t! I learned all the ways I could get in trouble from him and just as soon as he was gone, I had the twins.” Her smile stilled for a moment and Scorpius knew she remembered Fred, but the memories were sweet, now, and he knew she was alright when the smile was back in full force. “We teamed up together, along with Ron, to make Percy’s life miserable. It was such good fun.”

Back to index


Chapter 97: Chapter 84

Author's Notes: This is the one, the big one, the one you've all been waiting for...

If you haven't done so already, please go follow me on faceboo k (Sarah Jaune) and consider supporting my original work on patreo n (same name!) All my stuff is on patreo n so you can read all of my work.

I am not going to post another chapter in July (at least I don't think I will). I'm traveling and it's difficult to get this done while I'm on the road. I'll go back to half chapter after this.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing

PLEASE consider leaving a review or sending me a PM on faceboo k


Chapter 84

“You okay?” Al asked Nat as she rocked the tiny Lorelei who was fretting and fussy.

Nat knew she must have a funny look on her face, but this baby was emitting magic at a serious rate and it was like holding a buzzing cellphone constantly. Of course, she couldn’t explain that to Al, as he’d never used a cell phone and had no idea what it would mean. “Yeah, I’m good,” she smiled down at the baby as she continued to rock. Lorelei was only a few weeks old, and she was still quite small, but she did have an opinion on everything. Currently her opinion was that, even though she was clearly exhausted and she was fed and she was dry, sleep was for the weak and they were torturing her. Scorpius couldn’t even think of going back to work because this little peanut was bound and determined that neither of her parents were going to sleep ever again.

Actually, they were sleeping just then, or at least Nat hoped they were. It was her and Al’s turn to watch the baby so they could get a solid two hours of sleep without worrying. They’d cast a Silencing Charm on the room and they weren’t going to disturb them until the two hours was up.

They were all taking turns doing this. In her three weeks of life, Lorelei had attempted to stay awake for the whole thing. Even Gran said Ginny hadn’t been this stubborn, but if Nat had to guess, she imagined it was the magic in her that was keeping her awake and Nat honestly had no idea how to quiet it so Lorelei could relax.

She hadn’t told anyone yet that the baby was powerful. It felt weird to say it, if she was honest. There had been many new babies born to the family and all of them had various magical levels, but it was in a certain range. On the low end had been James’ son, Alex, but he’d actually gained power in the short years of his life as he’d continued to heal from his traumatic entry into the world. On the higher end, at least before Lorelei had come screaming into the world, was the very shy and reserved Olivia. She wasn’t one to speak around most people, but when she did speak it was clear and it showed just how intelligent she was. She was definitely going to be a smart and powerful witch when she was grown.

But then there was Lorelei and frankly she wanted Rick to see her to get his take on the baby. He’d been at family gatherings, so she was hoping Harry would include him again tonight for their dinner with Hugo and Honor, who would be home for the Easter hols that afternoon. She hadn’t asked, though, but maybe she should have. They would be having the dinner at Lily’s house, only because it was the only place that could hold everyone, but Lily was doing absolutely nothing for it. She really couldn’t, as the baby took up all her time and attention.

But she could ask Al… “Is Rick coming tonight?” she asked, trying to sooth the baby even as she made her nerves jitter.

Al shot her a look that she couldn’t read and he nodded, but before he could say anything else, Rose, Andrew, and Claire came through the Floo.

“We are here to help!” Rose told them as she came over to smile at the baby. “I know we don’t need too much help with Polly and Teeny doing the cooking, but I hate to leave all the work for them. Victoire said she’d be along about now, so Claire will play with the littles while we get everything going. She is so sweet,” Rose cooed, even as Lorelei fussed some more.

“Here, I’ll take a turn,” Andrew said as he held out his arms. “I haven’t held many babies since Claire was little, but I had a knack for it.”

Nat passed her over and had to resist shaking her hands out to get the feelings out of them. “Sounds good, I’ll go help in the kitchen.”

“She’s still so little,” Claire told her brother as Nat left with Rose to see where they could help. Al followed along with them and soon enough they were all helping get dinner on the table.

Forty minutes later most of the family was there, including Honor and Hugo.

Nat hugged both of them hard as they came in to say hi. “You’re almost through!” she said with a laugh when she saw they were both looking exhausted. “This last bit is definitely brutal.”

“It is,” Hugo agreed as he ran a hand over his face.

He had an odd look in his eyes that Nat couldn’t interpret but Honor filled them in. “He’s going to ask Catie to marry him.”

All the cousins who were close enough goggled at him. “Really?” Rose asked with a barely restrained squeal as she rushed for her brother and forced him into a hug. She was a good bit smaller than him so he had to bend to her, but the smile on his face said it was true.

Hugo and Catie had been together for quite a long time, now, although Nat couldn’t remember exactly how long it had been. She thought maybe going on two years. Honor had dated on and off in that time, but she’d been single for most of the last year after her last relationship had gone south in a not so fun way.

“Congratulations, mate,” Al said heartily, clapping him on the shoulder. “Is she in your year? Are you both done?”

“You were going to join your dad at the joke shop, right?” someone else asked.

“Actually,” Hugo hesitated, shifting a bit. He glanced between them. “Yeah, she’s in my year and done soon. I’m going to get a ring while I’m home and I’m going to have dinner with her parents, talk to her dad, but I think I’m going to apply to be an Auror.”

They all stared at him and then pandemonium erupted as questions were fired at him and the fathers heard what was going on and more questions were asked.

Moments later Rick was there and he was being introduced to Hugo and Honor and Nat really, really wanted to get his opinion about Lorelei but Rick was having none of it.

He was absolutely smitten with Honor.

Nat blew out her breath and knew she had to bide her time.

She finally cornered him after dinner, pulling him away from everyone else.

“What?” Rick asked quietly, clearly annoyed that she’d pulled him away from helping Honor clear the table.

“Did you see the baby?”

“Which baby? They’re everywhere around here.”

She would have laughed, but it was honestly true. “Lily and Scorpius’ baby.”

“No, I only caught a glimpse of them as they headed up the stairs,” he answered, but finally she had his attention, or more likely his curiosity. “Why?”

“There is something different about that baby and I want your opinion.”

She had him then and she knew it. She asked Scorpius if Lily would bring the baby down again, but he simply shrugged and said she was probably going to be up there all evening. She didn’t know how to ask him, didn’t want to alarm him, but she didn’t know when they’d have another chance. “I… want Rick to see the baby, maybe hold her.”

Scorpius’ brow rose and she knew if he didn’t trust her implicitly, he’d be seriously questioning her motivations. “Is something wrong with her?” he asked softly.

“No!” Nat assured him quickly. “No, nothing like that, it’s just… she’s uhm,” she really didn’t know how to say it. “She has a lot of magic running through her and I wanted Rick’s opinion. Would that be okay?”

“I…” Scorpius hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah, let me go check with Lily and if she’s good with it, I’ll bring you two up.”

They went up to see the baby a few minutes later and Al absolutely wouldn’t stay behind, but Nat couldn’t say she minded. When they pushed open the door, it was to a small, well-lit sitting room with several large sofas spread in a sort of U patterns while the last rays of the setting sun filtered through the tall trees outside and into the large, picture windows. Lily sat with the baby on one of the arm chairs and while she looked as beautiful as she always did, she was also clearly exhausted. It told in the bags under her eyes.

“Hey,” Rick said with a small wave. “I’m Rick and”” his words cut off abruptly as he actually caught sight of the baby. “Holy shit,” he whispered, just loud enough for Nat and Al to catch the drawn out words.

“Yeah,” Nat said as she forced a smile for Lily. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It isn’t… it isn’t like you,” Rick told Nat as they both stepped towards the baby.

Nat nodded. “She isn’t like you, either. That’s not it.”

“Can one of you please tell me what’s going on?” Scorpius asked as he moved around them to kneel next to Lily. “You’re scaring both of us.”

“Nothing is wrong, exactly,” Nat assured them but didn’t think it sounded reassuring. “Can he touch her hand?” he asked Lily.

“Why?” Lily asked with very wide eyes.

Nat let out a long sigh and then decided to come clean. “I want to see if he feels the buzzing coming off her.”

“The what?” Lorelei’s parents both asked at the same time as Al exclaimed, “Excuse me?!”

Nat shrugged her shoulders and glanced to Rick, but he wasn’t any help because he hadn’t experienced it yet. “It’s, uhm… it’s like waves of energy coming off her skin. It feels like it’s vibrating.”

“It’s vibrating?” Scorpius said as Lily’s eyes filled and tears flowed over.

Now she felt terrible. She really, really hadn’t known how to approach this! Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything, but… no. No, if this was her child, she’d want to know. “Please don’t cry,” she said to Lily as Scorpius put an arm around her shoulders. “She’s fine! She’s healthy, it’s just a lot of magic. I wanted Rick’s opinion on it.”

It took Lily a moment to compose herself, but when she did, she nodded to Rick and he approached and took Lorelei’s little hand between two of his fingers. He let out a low whistle. “Yeah, I’m feeling it. I imagine it’s a lot stronger for you.”

“It probably is,” Nat agreed since she tended to feel things through her hands better than he could. “But it’s just a lot.”

“So you’re saying she’s powerful?” Al asked them, glancing between Nat and Rick.

“That’s my best guess since I see it as a power signature,” Nat told them, glancing between them. “I’ve never seen a person like this. Rick’s magic is intense, likely maybe Dumbledore intense, but it’s in a different way that I can’t exactly explain.”

“I am going to go get your dad,” Scorpius told Lily, pressing his lips to her forehead. “Let’s talk about this with others.”

Scorpius ended up coming back with Harry, Ginny, Bill and Audrey. “Explain it again,” Harry told her after she’d given a halting account of what she experienced, “But this time compare it to the other children.”

“Well, it’s really Olivia that’s the closest, but nothing like this,” Nat told them. “Livy is very powerful, but her power is sort of on the same level as Bill,” she said as she pointed to the man, “it’s powerfully magical, but not too out of the ordinary. It looks different on a baby or small child before they start using a wand.”

Harry studied her for a long moment and then nodded. “Alright, is that what you see, Rick?”

“Honestly, she sees all of this better than I do, but in general I know what she’s talking about and I can sense it, to some extent, as well.”

Harry ran his hands through his hair and gripped at it hard while Bill studied the baby. “Let me hold her a moment, Lils.” He picked up the baby and smiled down at her open eyes that were direct in looking back at his. “I wish we still had Dumbledore.”

“I wish I’d have been able to meet him,” Rick admitted with a grunt. “It would have helped a lot.”

“What if…” Audrey hesitated and then glanced over at Harry. “What if she sees your memory of Dumbledore?”

He gave a helpless shrug. “We can try, but it’s my memory, not his, so it’s”” he stopped and then let out a short laugh. “We have a few of his memories stored, actually. She can go into his.”

~*~

They didn’t put her and Rick into the memory until the next day and Harry was not anxious to go into the memory of Dumbledore. The old professor’s Pensieve had eventually made its way to the Ministry and was stored by the Minister. It was rarely used, mostly only now for judicial matters to prove innocence, but as memories could be selected it was also not the most reliable tool for that job. He personally liked the truth serum and he didn’t have the best memories of his trips into the Pensieve.

When they’d retrieved the stone basin, it had still contained Dumbledore’s memory of speaking to the child Riddle before he’d gone to Hogwarts and that was the memory that would be best. There were a few others, but as those two were some of the most powerful wizards they’d had in the last hundred years, it was also a memory of a powerful wizard before he’d begun to use a wand.

Harry had to fight back a shudder as he didn’t want to think of his newest granddaughter as being on the same power level as Voldemort, but she came from three ancient magical houses.

“Alright, I’m not going to explain much about this,” Harry told them. “I’ll just say this is Dumbledore going to visit a student to tell him that he’s a wizard.”

“Alright,” Nat agreed as she reached out to touch the surface of the Pensieve. Soon enough Harry stood there with Nat and Rick as they watched Dumbledore tell Riddle that thievery wouldn’t be tolerated at Hogwarts and that all the stolen items had to be returned.

He pulled them from the memory a short time later and Nat shook her head. “They looked like Muggles to me, magically speaking. I couldn’t see anything.”

“Same,” Rick agreed apologetically. “But… that was Voldemort.”

“That was,” Harry agreed, now out of ideas. “You didn’t see any powerful students like Lorelei at Hogwarts while you were there?”

“Not like that,” Nat told him as she chewed on her lip.

Rick shifted back and forth on his feet before he said, “Listen, since we didn’t see anything, I’m going to take off. I’m meeting up with Honor in Diagon Alley.”

Harry waved the young man off and let out a breath. “Right, well, cloak back on, Nat. I’m going to take you to my office and we can pretend you’ve just come through.”

They’d done this a few times, as it let Nat visit the Auror office without causing too much of a stir. She silently followed him under the cloak and was thankful to get to throw it off fifteen minutes later as he led her to where Al and Lena were training.

“Hey,” Lena called out with a smile and a wave. “We’re just about done and then we’re going to get lunch.”

“This is actually good timing,” Harry said as Teddy walked in with some parchment in his hand. “Because,” he said with a grin to the two trainees. “You two are being promoted early to Auror.”

They stared at Harry and then at Teddy as he handed them the parchment, which turned out to be certificates.

“What?” Al asked, clearly dumbfounded as he stared at first his father, then his godbrother. “We… we still have another few months at least, right?”

“You’re ready,” Teddy told him. “We’ll keep up some training from here on out, but it’s the same sort of thing the rest of the Aurors do. You two have both been working overtime and it’s paid off.”

Lena let out a laugh and jumped up, hugging first Al, and then Nat. “Oh, this is amazing! Thank you, sir,” she said, sobering a bit as she turned to Harry, but she couldn’t tone down her smile. “You won’t regret this.”

“See that I don’t, now,” he said to the three of them, “Why don’t you three go on and get something to eat, maybe down at Diagon Alley. Nat should be safe with two Aurors with her. Al, your mother is going to want to throw a party in a few weeks. I think it would be nice if you came, too, Lena.”

It was more than a party invitation. It was an invitation into the Potter’s inner circle and they all knew it. Lena beamed with pride.

~*~

Nat ignored the pain in her stomach, which came on gradually as April waned into May. Her cycles were always random and she’d long since learned to ignore them, but she hadn’t had one in several months and she assumed that is what was going on. Her body was gearing up for yet another miserable period. She had work to do. She didn’t have wands to make, oh no. Ollivander had bought all the wands from her he was going to for the next several months, which meant she didn’t have much money. That was alright, as she didn’t have a lot of expenses and it gave her time to try to figure out what was up with Lorelei.

Rick had finally asked Harry about staying in England and working for the British Ministry and predictably, the Americans were unhappy and it was causing tensions. Harry had the added problem of adding a foreigner to the rank of British Aurors. Yes, the Brits and Americans were close allies, but that didn’t mean they shared everything.

It was finally agreed upon that Rick would work for both, but he stationed in England. He’d told his American boss that he’d fallen in love and he wasn’t leaving.

How Rick and Honor had fallen in love in a week was beyond Nat, but it seemed to be true. James, who thought of himself as being responsible for Honor, was not completely happy with how things had turned out, but he’d begrudgingly accepted it.

Honor was a lovely person, but just like Nat, herself, she wasn’t beautiful. She’d been awkward and large for her age when she’d been younger, but she’d trimmed out and grown into her face as she’d grown up. She was cute, in her own right, but she wasn’t the same kind of beautiful that her sister, Caroline, was. So if Rick said he’d fallen for her, Nat knew it wasn’t just lust talking. Of course, Rick wasn’t exactly handsome himself, so maybe it was, as she’d known from so long ago, that like attracted like.

Rick had helped with Lorelei, but as he didn’t sense as much as she did, and he wanted to actually be an Auror, so he had to work, she was left to her own devices to comb through the records and try to find what was happening with the baby. She rather thought it was nothing, but she’d still been attempting to try to find records of parents to powerfully magical babies, to see if there were some similarities.

So she couldn’t just stop for her period, even though it hadn’t come. The pain just kept getting worse, too, and she knew it might mean she’d miss the party for Al and Lena that was supposed to happen the next day.

But that next day came, bright and early, and Nat was in incredible pain. She didn’t even bother to tell Ginny where she was going. She stumbled to the Floo and took it to St. Mungo’s. She was still in her pajamas as she landed in the Floo used by the Healers. Thankfully, no one was there to see her awkward fall or her stumble towards Audrey’s office. She wasn’t in, but the door wasn’t locked so Nat pushed in, closed the door and tried to sit on the chair in front of her desk to wait.

Instead she passed out and didn’t feel it when she hit the soft carpet.

She came to with Audrey standing over her, her lined face grim. “Oh, Natalie…”

Nat glanced around and realized she was in one of the hospital beds. “What happened?”

“I’ve given you medicine for the pain,” Audrey told her quietly. “But I had a look and… it’s not good.”

~*~

She didn’t know how she made it home or how she made it out into the garden to sit on the bench facing Hope’s grave. She was numb. Just… numb. She heard something and glanced over to see Al walking towards her from the house in jeans and a red long sleeve shirt, rolled at the sleeves. He looked so tall, so strong… so whole and healthy. She couldn’t face him, and she turned away.

“What’s the matter, Leah?” Al said just loudly enough for her to hear and his use of his special pet name for her is was stopped her from walking away. “I know something is wrong.”

The tears that she’d managed to hold in for the last few hours since she’d passed out in Audrey’s office now streamed silently down her cheeks as she stood still, unwilling to face him, her arms around her waist, trying to hold in the pain that threatened to erupt at any moment. The warm breeze kissed her cheeks, but there was no comfort to be had. “Nothing worth fretting over. We’re supposed to be celebrating your advancement today and it came wait.” She didn’t know if that would stop him, but she had to try. Today was about him, him and Lena and in a way Rick as he was also given permission to be an Auror.

She heard him walk towards her and willed herself to stay strong. “Leah…”

His voice, the concern she heard, everything that was him did it and she broke, sobs wracking her body as though they fought to break her, to shatter her. He pulled her into his arms and then sat on the bench nearest Hope’s grave, pulling her down into his lap. He cradled her, running a hand through her hair and rocking her as though she were a child.

A child… something she would never have. She had to tell him, Nat knew. He was her best friend and he’d be hurt if she kept it from him. Fighting for control she got the tears settled back and she started to speak, whispering into his chest because she didn’t have the courage to meet his eyes when she told him.

“I’m never going to have a family, Al. I met with Audrey today. She says that there’s too much scarring and that even if I can get pregnant, I’d probably just miscarry over and over again.” It amazed her, in an almost detached way, that her voice didn’t shake more. She didn’t tell him about the pain or her fainting. He didn’t need to hear about that.

Al seemed to freeze. “There’s nothing she can do?”

“No,” Nat assured him. “There’s no fixing it. I was cursed for years and it did a lot of damage. We knew that, but I didn’t worry about a wonky cycle before now. I was just thankful for it.” A fresh sob nearly escaped her, but she fought it back. “I never had much chance of having a family anyway, but this is the last nail in the coffin. No bloke will want me now.” She laughed, but it was a bitter, hollow sound. “Not that they wanted me before, but this is just going to seal the deal.”

His hand tightened, almost painfully in her hair. “Don’t do that, Nat. Don’t. Why are you always so hard on yourself?”

“It’s not being hard on myself when it’s true. I’ve never been asked on a date, never been kissed… I’m twenty bleeding years old for Merlin’s sake!” She scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands, barely noting that his arms stayed strong around her, keeping her steady. “Everyone else is married or engaged or about to get engaged except you. I’m tiny, clumsy, weird… and I can’t even have a baby. The one damn thing I wanted out of my life and I’m never going to get it! I just wanted a home, a family, a husband who loves me and to be stable in one place! I didn’t want to be famous, or rich, or powerful or well thought of… I just wanted to be the one cooking supper and kissing her husband hello and changing nappies and…” but she couldn’t go further along that line. “Well, it was stupid anyway. I should have aimed for rich and powerful. That was at least achievable with my powers. I should have given up the notion of kids when I figured out no one was ever going to want to date me.”

“Nat…” Al began, but stopped and she knew he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry,” she told him sincerely. “You just caught me at a bad moment. If you’d have gotten here an hour later, I’d have been okay and able to laugh it off.”

“You shouldn’t laugh this off! It’s not like you were told you’ve got a cold.” He cupped her cheek and gently turned her head so she was looking at him, into his amazing green eyes. It didn’t help. “You can adopt, you know. It’s not like you have to be pregnant to have kids. Any… any man who can’t deal with that isn’t worthy of you.”

It hurt. It hurt in ways that she couldn’t begin to name for him to say that to her when the only man she wanted was him, and he was so far out of her reach that it wasn’t funny. “It’s the other way round, Al. I don’t seem to be worthy of any man.”

“Stop it!” he growled, suddenly furious. He put her off his lap onto the bench so he could stride off. She could see him shaking with rage. He turned back to her, a hard, blazing look in his eyes. “You’re worth everything, Leah. Every damn thing! How can you not see it?”

Nat stood too, shaking and realizing vaguely that she hadn’t eaten in a while. The pain had been too much and what had Audrey said about the pain medicine? Something… there was something there, but she couldn’t focus. She’d need to eat soon; she could already feel the buzz in her brain from her blood sugar dropping. “If I were worth a damn to any man, then someone would have noticed, Al! They’d have said ‘hey Nat, would you fancy going to dinner with me?’” She tried to stop herself, but her control was slipping right along with everything else. “I’m sick, plain, and awkward and no one is ever going to want me! No one is ever going to want me enough to want to come home to me every night!”

Anger more intense than she’d ever seen flashed into his eyes as he strode towards her. He got straight into her face, vibrating from his fury, but she was beyond caring. She was too tired and too dizzy to fight this fight any longer. He could be as mad as he wanted. It wouldn’t change…

Then he took her face between his big hands and he kissed her.

Her brain spun to a stop as sensation flooded through her. She felt her body ignite with a fire and at the same time felt completely at home, as though this was where she was meant to be. She wanted to ask why he was kissing her, but she couldn’t seem to stop them long enough to ask that important question so she put her hands on his chest, and up to his shoulders and followed his lead as he molded her body to his. It was better than she’d ever imagined a kiss would be. When their lips finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against hers, breathing hard. She looked at him, but couldn’t speak. Her vision was going a bit hazy around the edges. His eyes were closed, though, so he couldn’t see the questions she wanted to ask.

“Everything, Leah,” he whispered. “You’re worth everything to me.”

“I am?” she mumbled, sure that this must be a dream and as soon as she ate she’d wake up and find that she’d made an arse of herself. Again.

He kissed her again, slowly, and she responded. She couldn’t not respond to him. “I love you, Leah.”

“I know,” she said. She knew he did. He’d told her often enough.

“No, I mean... I’m in love with you.”

She shook her head, her muddled brain telling her it wasn’t real. “That’s not possible.”

“Why not?” He asked quietly.

“Because you’re way out of my league,” she mumbled, trying to remember the details of why that was so. “Al, I’m…” she reached out a hand which he grasped in his much large one.

He swore softly. “When was the last time you ate?” He didn’t wait for a response but scooped her up into his arms and took off with her towards the house. She let her head drop against his shoulder, not able to keep it upright anymore. “Mum! I need food for Nat.”

She knew things were going on around her, but it wasn’t until after they’d tipped nearly a full glass of tea down her throat that her brain started to kick back in. “Walnuts,” Al said, putting a bowl in her hand. She ate without opening her eyes. Her ears were still ringing and they would keep ringing until she had herself stabilized.

“Why was she crying, Al?” Ginny asked.

“Can I tell her?” Al asked and Nat realized vaguely that he seemed to be speaking to her. She must have nodded or said something because he took her response as a ‘yes’. “She saw Aunt Audrey today and found out she can’t get pregnant.”

Ginny gasped. “I knew something was wrong, the moment I saw her but she wouldn’t talk about it. Oh, Nat…” Nat felt a hand run through her hair, a gentle, feminine hand. “I know how much you want a family, but… you know it’s not the end. You can adopt.”

“I told her that,” Al said.

“Audrey said can’t adopt if not married,” Nat mumbled around a walnut. She was exhausted from her dizzy spell and she realized vaguely that she was freezing as well when she began to shiver. She felt Al grab a throw and pull it over them. Was she still on his lap? She thought she might be because the side touching him was warmer.

“So we’ll get married, then,” Al growled, although she thought he sounded unsure. “Unless you don’t love me back. I think from that kiss”” but he let off when his mother gasped.

She cracked an eye open. “‘Course, I love you. I’ve always loved you.” She sighed. “I’m still cold.”

He shifted her on the couch and cradled her closer in his arms. Ginny must have tucked the blanket in around them because she felt instantly better, cocooned into his warmth. Al was always warm. “Are you in love with me, Nat?”

“Mmhmm,” she mumbled, snuggling in, finally feeling like she was getting some of herself back. She was really sleepy. “I’m a wreck, Al. You don’t want to be dealing with me for forever, do you? Catching me when I trip and shoving food down me. I’m broken.”

“You’re not broken,” he told her.

“I am,” she breathed out, fighting back a yawn and losing, not realizing just how tired she sounded.

She felt him shift a bit and press another walnut to her lips. She ate it instantly. “I want you just how you are.”

“Al, maybe you shouldn’t press this,” Ginny said gently. “You know she’s not really with it right now.”

“It’s the best time to press it. If she can’t launch a full-scale defense, I’ve got a better shot of her saying yes.”

“You’re not in love with me, Al,” Nat managed after she’d swallowed the nut. “You can have anyone you like.”

“I want you, Natalie!”

She heard Ginny sigh. “Don’t do this right now. She’s ready to pass out. Wait until she’s had a bit of sleep.”

“Listen to your mother,” Nat agreed, tucking her freezing hands into the warn underside shirt sleeve, next to his bare arm. She hardly noticed him gasp at the icy touch. “She knows you can do better than me.”

“That is not what I meant at all, Natalie Leah Parker!” Ginny growled. “You and Al are perfect together. You always have been.”

Nat pried one eye open. She really wanted to sleep. “It’s such a mum thing that saying a person’s middle name that means you’re in big trouble.” She felt a tear form and flow down her cheek. “I want to be a mum. I want to get mad sometimes and be able to yell at my kids using their middle name and then laugh with their dad afterward. This hurts so much.”

“She always says exactly what she’s thinking when she’s like this,” Ginny said softly, but her voice firmed with determination. “Nat, you’re going to marry Al and adopt kids with him. That’s final.”

“I didn’t say yes,” Nat argued pitifully. “I can’t marry Al. He’d have to see me naked and what if he laughs?”

Nat felt Al freeze and Ginny let out an exasperated groan. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this… I am certain that the last thing he’ll be thinking about when he sees you naked is laughing.”

“You sure?” Nat murmured.

“Positive,” Ginny said firmly.

“And I have to marry him?”

“Yes. Your mum and I agreed on that point years ago.”

“You did?”

“Yes. It was clear from the first moment I saw you two together that you were meant to be.”

Nat yawned again. “Okay.”

“Take her up to her room, Al. She’s clearly exhausted.”

Nat felt him lift her, taking the quilt along but she was asleep before he even reached the steps.

~*~

Nat’s eyes fluttered open and felt someone’s arm around her waist. She turned and found Al watching at her. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, you agreed to marry me so I figured I could lay here with you for a bit.” His face held a tenderness that she didn’t often see.

“I what?” she asked, momentarily confused before all the memories flooded back in. “Oh, my gosh! Oh no, did I really…” She covered her face with her hands, beyond humiliated.

“Here, eat this,” Al told her, pushing a jerky stick into her hands. “Come on. We don’t need you passing out again.

She could feel the flames of embarrassment licking up her face. She couldn’t believe what she’d said to him! But she ate, knowing she was going to need to face the music. Thus far when she’d acted stupidly he’d forgiven her, so hopefully this time would be the same. “I’m so sorry for what I said. I… I didn’t want to burden you with any of it.”

“Which bit?”

“All of it,” Nat admitted, taking the last bite before sitting up. She needed to get away from him if she was going to think clearly. “I’m not going to let you marry me, Al. I know why you’re doing it and I can’t.”

He sat up behind her, and put a hand on her back. “Why do you think I’m doing this?”

“You’re trying to save me again,” she told him simply even as the pain dug at her, clawing at her heart. “Like when I didn’t have a date for that ball. You can’t marry someone out of pity! That’s just wrong.”

He let out a breath that spoke volumes towards his frustration. “I didn’t want to go to the ball with you out of pity! I wanted to go with you because I fancied you, but I couldn’t ask you.”

She turned her head and eyed him skeptically. “Why not?”

“Because you didn’t fancy me!” He growled.

She’d fancied him for years. “How do you know I didn’t fancy you?”

“You didn’t flirt with me or act like other girls did when they wanted my attention,” he said.

“You’re my best friend. Was I supposed to throw myself at you?”

“You were always trying to set me up on dates.”

Nat shrugged helplessly. “I wanted you to be happy, and I could tell you didn’t like being single.”

“I wanted to be with you,” he told her quietly. “That’s why I was unhappy being single.”

He’d never lied to her. She had no reason to doubt him, but still… “Al, you’re really good looking and I’m… not.” She met his eyes straight on, needing him to accept that she knew the truth. “People throughout history are typically attracted to similarly attractive people. There are always variants, of course, but trends have shown””

She was cut off when his hand went over her mouth. “I’m not a trend, you know.” Nat could hear the annoyance in his voice but his eyes were steady on hers, open and honest. “I think you’re beautiful, Leah. I’ve always loved looking at you. In fact, I’ve often had to stop myself from staring at you.”

Her breath caught as she searched him, trying to see if he was being honest. She only saw truth. “Why would you only tell me that you love me now? Why not before?”

Al’s jaw tightened for the briefest of moments and he swallowed hard to continue to meet her eyes. “You were wrong that no one wanted you. Even if I made an arse out of myself, and you didn’t love me back… well, you’d at least know that someone wants to be with you.”

“Oh,” Nat said, and the tears began to pool again. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to badly, but it just didn’t make sense. “Anyone… Al, you could have anyone. Why on earth would you want me?”

He leaned in to kiss her, his lips gentle and warm against hers and she leaned in despite herself. When he spoke it was as though a dam had broken loose and all the things he wanted to say for a while came spilling out. “You’re so smart, and funny, and caring. You give to everyone, you know so many really interesting things… you love my family and not because they’re famous because that doesn’t mean anything to you, but because you can see how amazing they are and the fact that there are about a million of them doesn’t even faze you. You give me courage, and you make me feel needed. Your touch can set me on fire and I laugh most when I’m with you. When I’ve had a bad day, a genuine smile from you always makes me feel really good. I want to be with you all the time and I never get tired of being with you. Even though it makes no sense because you’re so tiny, you fit best in my arms. No one else fits perfectly like you do. All of my favorite memories involve you and me…” He studied her as he talked, and he rubbed his brow. “How can I convince you?”

Nat shrugged her shoulders. She wanted to believe him so she reached for his hand, which was wonderfully warm against her frozen fingers. “I want this to be real.”

He was staring at their linked hands and a grin spread across his face. He met her eyes again. “You always warm your cold hands and feet against me.”

“Er,” she hedged, knowing it was true. She knew she shouldn’t, but… “I do?”

“There have been a lot of times when you stuck your cold feet on my legs to warm them up.” He pulled her hand to his lips with a shy smile, leaving a lingering kiss there.

Her breath caught at the amazing feeling and the intimacy of the gesture. “How does that prove you’re in love with me?”

“Do you do that with anyone else?”

She shook her head. “No, but if I had a brother I’m sure I would.”

His ‘check mate’ face flashed over his features and she blinked. He had won, but she couldn’t yet see how. “Who does Lily warm up on?”

“Scorpius, but””

“What about my mum?” Al asked, not waiting.

“Your dad, but””

“See?” He said triumphantly.

“No, Al! That just proves that I love you… although if you think about it, that’s really twisted. But your mum does that to her brothers all the time,” Nat reminded him. “She thinks it’s funny.”

His expression didn’t falter. “And what do my uncles do to her when she tries to put cold hands on their cheeks?”

“Well,” Nat tried to think back. “I think the last time was George and he backed off and told her that she had a damned husband to warm her cold hands and he got that enough from Angelina…” Her brain seemed to freeze.

Al quirked an eyebrow. “What does my dad do when she hugs him and puts her cold hands up under his shirt onto his back?”

“He…” her breath caught and she got it. She finally got it. “He usually swears in surprise and then pulls her in to warm her up.” Her hands flew to her mouth as his point finally clicked into place. Oh sweet Merlin… Check Mate.

His expression held such tenderness that she felt stupid for ever having doubted it. “Have I ever pushed you away?”

She shook her head and spoke through her fingers. “No… oh…” she couldn’t speak, but it didn’t matter.

“Do I ever complain when you nick my sweaters or socks?” He probed.

“No. Never, you don’t unless to tease me in fun.” She understood it now. “Al… I love you, I love you so much.” She reached out for his cheeks, shifting up to her knees so she could kiss him, marveling that she could, that he wanted her to.

“I love you too, Leah. Forever. It’s always been you.”

After a few minutes they broke apart and grinned at each other, feeling happier than either could have imagined. Then another thought skittered in, sending panic flooding into her stomach. “What about””

He knew what she’d been about to ask. “The very last thing that will be on my mind when we’re naked together will be laughing.” He kissed her soundly and stood up. “In fact, we’re getting married tomorrow so I don’t have to wait too long to see you naked.”

“You’re not missing much,” Nat grumbled as he pulled her to the door.

“Let me be the judge of that.”

Nat pulled back. “Why do you want to get married tomorrow? Don’t you want to date or something?”

Al’s lips quirked. “Is dating going to change anything?”

“Well, no, but we can’t get married tomorrow. My mum is in Australia for that thing and it will take at least a few days to get her here. I can’t even remember where Dad is, especially since the Muggles are still in quarantine,” Nat said as they walked down the stairs, hand in hand. She stopped on the bottom step and he turned to face her. She still wasn’t eye level to him, even though he was on the step below her. Nat looked up and studied him, still feeling a pull to protect her heart, even though he’d always kept her safe. “Al…”

He bent slightly to kiss her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’m going to love being able to kiss you any time I want,” he whispered into her ear. “I’ve dreamed of this for years. Tomorrow might be a stretch, but next weekend is probably do-able.”

She laughed nervously. “Al…”

“Don’t, Leah,” he said gently, cupping her cheek. “You make me happy. You’re the one I love. I think you’re beautiful. Whatever else is going through your head, those things are the most important facts and anything else is irrelevant.”

But something was important. “What about kids?”

A huge grin spread over his face. “I told you; we’re adopting. However many you want, that’s how many we’ll adopt.”

“What if I want twelve?” Nat asked skeptically.

He kissed her again as he pulled her into his arms and swung her down from the step. “Then we’re going to need a really big house.”

“We’ll need some place to live,” Nat said suddenly, stopping. “I guess we could live in your flat. I don’t fancy sharing my parents’ tiny flat with them when they’re in town… oh, but then we’d need to kick Rick out.”

“We’re buying a house,” Al said firmly, pulling her behind him. They rounded the corner into the dining room where, much to Nat’s chagrin, most of the family was sitting, staring at them. She’d forgotten about the party, which had clearly been shifted to Harry and Ginny’s house. “She said yes.”

Cheering erupted from all corners and Nat was soon inundated with more hugs than she could possibly count.

“It’s about time,” Rose whispered into her ear before she was whisked off into Harry’s arms, and then Fred’s.

Dinner what chaotic. The celebrations lasted till well after midnight, although the ones with babies only stayed till around 9pm. It was decided that as long as they could get Nat’s parents back into town by the following weekend that the rest of the family could make it on Sunday for a wedding.

“The only problem is Charlie,” Gran Molly said. “We’ve sent an owl already, but””

“When did you do that?” Ginny asked curiously.

Gran laughed. “Oh, right before we ate. I used your owl, by the way, darling. Don’t fuss when you can’t find her.” Ginny rolled her eyes.

“Ron, Arthur and I will track down your parents,” Harry assured Nat. “We’ll finalize everything shortly.”

“And I’ll get the information for you about adoption,” Audrey assured them. “It’s smart to get that paper work started since it is likely going to take a few years.”

Nat sighed, knowing that her dreams to become a mother would be on hold but Al squeezed her hand reassuringly. They would have a lot of time together, which was a blessing as well. She still had one concern. “I thought marriage licenses took weeks. I remember filing with Rose for hers months before the wedding.”

“Ah, well,” Granddad Arthur said with a small chuckle. “I’m rather high up in the ministry, and Harry is… well, he’s Harry. We can pull some strings to make it happen.”

“You two,” Ginny said suddenly, looking at Al and Nat. “Go away and spend some time together. You both look like you need it. We’ll handle things around here and get most of the nitty gritty out of the way. It’s a good thing you’re not fussy, Nat. We wouldn’t be able to do this if you were.”

Al didn’t need a second invitation and he had Nat on her feet in a second while Rick told them he wouldn’t be home for a while, as he wanted to spend more time with Honor.

“Be good!” Gran called as Al pulled her to the fireplace.

She and Al used the Floo to his flat, which Nat had always liked; it was so cozy and so male. There wasn’t a fussy thing in the room that hadn’t been put there by Nat or Lily. Al sat and pulled her into his lap, instantly locking his lips to hers for a slow, heated kiss. He pulled away reluctantly and gently stroked his thumb along her cheek. “You are so beautiful.”

She rather thought he needed his eyes checked, but refrained from saying it. He clearly believed it. “Do you think they might have slipped you something?” The thought popped out before she could stop it and she regretted it instantly.

“Natalie!” Al exclaimed in frustration.

“I’m sorry!” Nat said looking away as her cheeks flushed. “You know… I’ve never even been called pretty and here you are telling me I’m beautiful? It’s a little bit much.”

He cupped her cheek and waited till she looked at him, into his emerald green eyes. “I’ve wanted to tell you that for years, you know. There are a lot of things I’ve wanted to say to you.”

“Like what?” she asked tentatively.

“Like…” he took a deep breath, clearly steeling himself for what he was going to say. “Like when you told me that your dream for your life was to be a wife and mother… I wanted to be your husband and the father to those kids.”

Nat’s eyebrow rose. “We were barely sixteen years old! You’re telling me you were thinking that at sixteen?”

Al’s cheeks flushed a bit. “It surprised the hell out of me, too. Here I was trying to be supportive, we haven’t even sat for our OWLs and I suddenly couldn’t breathe at the thought of you marrying another bloke.”

“I felt so stupid, you know, looking at those career pamphlets,” Nat confided quietly. “Everyone else had these high and lofty ambitions to do great things with their lives and all I wanted was a family and to stay put. I felt like I was such a disappointment.”

“Who says that having a family isn’t a great thing?” Al questioned seriously. “My gran did it and she loved it. I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

She leaned in to put her head on his shoulder and traced the patterned weave on his shirt. “That’s probably a good thing, since you’ll end up having to pay for us to live. I haven’t exactly been raking in the money working for Ollivander, although he isn’t stingy, but it’s only part time and barely enough to cover rent on a flat… if I were paying rent. Your parents won’t accept anything.”

“Yes, speak of that,” Al said reflectively. “We have to decide where we want to live.”

“Why do you live in this flat, then, if you could be in a house?” She’d asked him that before, as he had money the same as his siblings, but he’d always deflected the question away, never answering.

He ran his hand up and down her back slowly as he spoke. “Well, it’s what Scorpius could afford when we first got out of school since he wouldn’t take anything from his family and then after he and Lily got married… I dunno; it was comfortable. I thought moving into a house would be lonely, I guess. I didn’t want to be rambling around a big house by myself and I… well, I guess I hoped one day we’d pick out a house. Together.”

Nat sat silently, trying to soak this all in. Was this really happening? “I know why I didn’t tell you, Al, but… you’re so brave. Why didn’t you say anything to me years ago?”

Al was quiet for a long time. “I had to beg the sorting hat to put me in Gryffindor. It wasn’t going to, so maybe I’m not all that brave.”

“You’re an Auror and your dad says you’ve got nerves of steel,” Nat reminded him quietly. “Even when you’re afraid you always move forward. You couldn’t ask me on a date?” Then a thought struck her, as hysterical thoughts are wont to strike at 1am. “I’m getting married next week and I’ve never been on a date!”

She heard Al sigh. “We’ve been on several dates. We’ve been to the ball and to the weddings. You’ve always been my date.”

Nat thought back to those times, longing for it to be real. “I guess they count since you fancied me.”

“I wanted my first date to be with you,” Al admitted sheepishly. “It didn’t feel right that it would be anyone else that I’d go to the ball with. I didn’t ever want to kiss anyone but you either…”

Nat wished for it as well. “I suppose that was always a bit unrealistic.”

“Not so much, though,” he said. “I only kissed Ella once and Amanda twice. I’ve kissed you more in the last few hours and I did with them total.”

“Really?” she asked. “I sort of thought they’d… want more.”

Al’s eyes were steady on hers. “They did, I didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked again. “Did I really do such a great job of hiding my feelings that you didn’t know?”

“If they knew, no one told me,” Al informed her. “Rose wouldn’t tell me if you fancied me or not. I think my mum may have known, but she never clued me in. Every time I’d pluck up the nerve to ask you on a date, you’d tell me about another nice girl that I should meet. It was uncanny in how it was timed.”

Nat was quiet for a long time, enjoying the warmth of his embrace while she thought back. “I think… I think if you finally started to date someone then at least I’d have to give up my stupid feelings for you and accept that you weren’t going to love me back.”

“Leah, this is crazy,” Al said with frustration. He let out a long, slow breath. “I’ve loved you for years! Why is that so hard to accept? I didn’t want to ruin our friendship when it seemed like we could never be anything more than friends.”

She sighed heavily and tried to fight back a yawn. “I dunno, Al. I guess I’ll get used to it. You’re not lying; you wouldn’t ever hurt me…”

“Come on,” he said, standing up with her in his arms.

She snorted. “Why are you always carrying me?”

He cocked his head to the side, amused. “‘Cause I can and I love that I can.” He set her gently on her feet. “Let’s get you back home and so you can get some sleep. You’re going to have lots of shopping to do tomorrow.”

“Not lots,” she told him. “It’s just the dress.”

“I remember all the complaining from the girls about the dress shopping. It’s going to be a lot. At least your boss is understanding and will give you the day off.”

Nat snorted. “Yeah, since I’m basically unemployed and only doing research on Lorelei. Plus, we should tell Rick it’s okay for him to come back.”

He laughed as he kissed her goodnight before throwing Floo powder into the lit grate. “I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon for lunch with Mum.”

A/N: If you didn't already, please scroll back up and read my full author's note. Thanks! ~Sarah

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Chapter 98: Chapter 85 Part ONE

Author's Notes: First off, thank you for all the reviews! I was in a very remote part of northern New Mexico with zero cell reception so I would get the email notifications when I went to town, but didn't have a chance to reply. I've replied to all of them now. I'm so glad you liked the last chapter.

Second, find me on the book of face- Sarah Jaune
or patreo n where you can read some of my full original stories FOR FREE. Same- Sarah Jaune. If you join up, it's pretty cheap and you get my full body of original work.

Third, thank you for reviewing! We're about one year until the end in their timeline, give or take. Thank goodness because half a million words is LONG


Chapter 85

“How about this one?” Ginny asked, holding up yet another dress for Nat to inspect as Nat tried to appreciate that she was allowed in a shop. Alright, she was allowed in a shop because Hagrid and Ron were standing just outside the empty shop keeping an eye on things, but it was something!

“No,” Madam Malkin said dismissively. “She’s too small. Something with that much material will swallow her whole. Here,” she said, handing Nat another garment. “Go try that one on.”

Nat sighed and took it into the dressing room. It felt like this was the four hundredth set of robes that she was about to try on and none of them had looked good on her. She was doing her best to be dutiful and not complain about them, but it was disheartening to say the least.

She heard the door to the shop tinkle as someone came in. “I have the information, Nat,” she heard Audrey say. “I’ve also let the woman from the Ministry know that you and Al want to adopt. She’s going to send you an owl to get an initial meeting set up.”

Nat finished zipping up the dress and walked out. Their faces said it all. This one wasn’t the right dress either. She fought to hold back tears as the dress maker held out yet another garment. “I think we’re going to just go for the least bad, if you know what I mean.”

“We’ll find something!” Ginny said firmly. “If not today, we’ll keep looking. Rose said she’d help tomorrow if we need it.”

Nat held up the new dress, which was simple satin, that didn’t look like much on the hanger. “All right.”

She went to try it on and didn’t even look in the mirror this time. It was getting down right depressing. If she weren’t so short or had any curves at all this wouldn’t be so painful, but she was four-foot-nine and only ninety-three pounds… there wasn’t a lot out there to fit her.

She sighed, steadying herself and walked out. No one moved or said anything for a full minute while Nat fidgeted. “If it’s that bad just tell me!”

“You… you look amazing, Natalie,” Audrey assured her.

Ginny stood and walked over to hug her, tears in her normally dry eyes. “You look beautiful! This is the one!”

Nat turned to look at herself in the mirror, but it just looked like her in a white dress. She didn’t feel like it was the one but then again, nothing had felt totally right. “You’re sure?”

“Positive,” Ginny said. “You don’t like it?”

Nat shrugged. “I just look like me in a dress. It at least fits, though.” She didn’t want them to argue about it, though, so she said. “Okay, I’ll take it.”

“No, Natalie, if you’re not happy with it, then we’ll keep looking,” Ginny told her firmly.

Blowing out a breath she turned to the mirror to study herself. The simple satin dress had tiny pearls along the hem and the top of the bodice. It was nice… she looked okay in it and she was comfortable, so it wouldn’t be a pain to wear it for several hours… “It’s good.”

Ginny’s face showed her concern. “Nat… I think you look amazing in this dress. What do you see?”

“I see me in a dress,” Nat answered, unsure of what to say, as she cocked her head to the side.

“It looks great,” Audrey said gently, coming up onto her other side.

Nat turned to her. “Okay, then. Sold.”

“Nat, if you’re not”” Audrey began, but Nat cut her off.

“I’m good with this dress. It’s the best of the lot, by far. I’m getting hungry, so let’s be done and go get lunch.” Nat moved off to the changing rooms. “I want to hear about the adoption process in the wizarding world.”

She bought the dress, which took nearly every galleon she had, and they left to go home where Al would meet up with them for lunch.

“Basically, the adoptions are done through a magical version of foster care,” Audrey said, gazing down at the parchment through her reading spectacles. “Any magical children who get bumped into foster care here in England get instantly turned over to the Ministry of Magic. They have implemented a method for tracking those children and the Muggles don’t know what’s happened, just that they’re too overworked to handle the extra children and they’re being routed through a private agency, which is our Ministry.”

“Why do you they do that?” Al asked, spearing a green bean with his fork.

“After the war it was implemented to try to prevent another child like Tom Riddle,” Ginny told them. “I remember when they started it. Your dad was called in to testify to what it was like growing up with the Muggles. It was decided that Muggle parents weren’t bad, but the added strain of adopting a magical child might push them over the edge.”

“I’m still not entirely certain I agree with the legislation,” Audrey told them wryly. “But they did add in a clause a few years after that if the Muggle adoptive parents were deemed to be open and accepting to magic that they could adopt a magical child. Most magical children, though, come through the Ministry of Magic. That includes magical births that would otherwise go up for private adoption.”

Nat stared at them in confusion and Al voiced her question. “How do they manage that?”

“They have a registry set up at the Ministry, a lot like the one Hogwarts uses for school lists, that lets the Ministry know if a magical child is up for adoption when the baby is born.” Audrey told them, taking a sip of her wine. “Then a team from the Ministry sets out to investigate the adoptive parents. They interview them and if they feel the couple can handle it, they let the adoption proceed and let them know there are resources if they need help. If they feel that the couple will not be able to cope with a magical child, they halt the adoption, modify the couple’s memory and look for magical parents to adopt.”

“That’s… wrong,” Nat said flatly.

Audrey shook her head sadly. “It’s actually working. The number of abused magical kids going into the Muggle foster care system has dropped dramatically since they put the legislation in place. Magical parents don’t get scared if their kids accidentally blow up the couch, whereas Muggle parents are understandably terrified.”

“So what will this mean for us?” Al asked.

“Well, you have to be married for the Ministry to certify you,” Audrey told him. “The head of the department is willing to start the paperwork today because you’ll be married shortly. You will be interviewed and if that goes well, then when children become available you’ll have the option to parent them. However, just like normal foster care they could still go back to their parents. On the rare occasion that an infant comes through the agency, that adoption usually proceeds quickly.”

Nat’s stomach twisted as she thought about her health. Would that be an issue?

“How many foster families are there?” Ginny asked her.

“Not many, only two right now. There isn’t a lot of call for them so,” Audrey said gently, “you two could be in for a long wait. They do, however, work with agencies around the world. England’s success has led to reforms worldwide and for all the problems we have in a lot of areas politically, this one is one where agencies everywhere cooperate beautifully. Sometimes children in other countries need a home and if they don’t have one, the call goes out.”

Al leaned over and kissed Nat. “Sounds good, then. How did dress shopping go?”

“Okay,” Nat hedged. “I got one. How about rings?”

“I haven’t had time yet, but I’m going to go after work,” Al told her as he sat back in his seat. “So, what’s the dress look like? Or am I not supposed to know?”

“It’s white,” Nat said helpfully, taking a bite of her chicken.

He quirked an eyebrow and looked to his mother and aunt. “What am I missing?”

“We think it’s lovely and she looks great,” Ginny told him. “Nat said she looked ‘okay’ in it, but isn’t in love with it.”

“Ah,” Al said shortly. “You didn’t want to keep looking?”

Nat shook her head. “It was too depressing. Nothing fit.”

Al frowned but didn’t comment further. “When would be the interview with the Ministry?”

“Before you answer that,” Nat interjected, staring down at her plate. “I have to ask,” she said as calmly as she could, “Will my health be an issue for them?”

Audrey shook her head. “No, and it’s all down to Polly.”

Nat glanced over to Polly, who was in the kitchen, her son Skip playing at her feet with some toys. “What?”

“When you adopt, you’ll have Polly in the house,” Ginny said quietly, reaching over to squeeze her hand. “Most of the time you’re doing very well, but when you have a baby, you will have to stop working and Polly will be there as a backup. She’s already said she wants to.”

She really, really wished she didn’t need a backup but she knew she did, so she nodded. “Thank you,” she said as she glanced up at Ginny.

“Absolutely.”

~*~

“They named him Jonah George,” Louis told James and Caroline three days before Al and Nat’s wedding, having just come from Fred and Eva’s home. He’d come over just after he’d heard the news of the baby, but it was pushing it for how late it was. Alex was already in bed asleep, but the baby wasn’t down yet. “Eva is good and the baby is cute, but she’s going to miss the wedding. Fred said he’d see how she was doing on Saturday, but Eva’s parents said they could stay with her so she wants him to go.”

“You know,” Caroline mused as she continued to nurse the baby. It was something she wouldn’t have done in front of him, Louis knew, when it was Alex, but with Asher she was more confident and definitely healing. “On the one hand, I am not shocked at how Al and Nat hooked up, but on the other hand with how long it took them to get here, it also feels odd. I expected more fireworks or something.”

“They’re getting married in just under a week of being together, though,” James pointed out as he stretched out on the sofa next to his wife while Louis sat across from them in their big chair, his feet being squashed by Rufus. “Actually, it’s decent timing as I’ve heard the Muggles are being let out of their quarantine now that the vaccine is widely available.”

“Did Andrew really have something to do with that?” Caroline asked Louis. “Your dad is helping with his finances, right?”

“He is,” Louis agreed with a small shrug, “Although truth be told Andrew seems to be a natural all on his own. He took the lessons Dad gave him and he’s branched out. I spoke to him about setting up a charitable foundation to help with trafficking and he’s interested.” It was something Louis was passionate about, especially after his own past, but he didn’t have the funds or resources to do much. The girl he’d hurt, the one he’d sponsored to go through school, was finished and had her teaching certificate. She was back in her community making a difference, but that was one life. Still, as his therapist pointed out, it was better than not doing anything at all. He did what he could.

But with Andrew, he could do more. He knew Lily wanted to be involved in charitable organizations, possibly in hosting parties to raise funds, and he’d mentioned such to Andrew. It was possible that in a few years, when Lily didn’t have any small children at home, they could get something going.

Then again, it was Lily and she was quite young. It might be fifteen or more years before she’d be ready to take on such a task. Louis wasn’t going to wait for her, but try to get things off the ground with Andrew now, especially since his cousin-in-law was willing.

“How was your date with Lena?” James asked casually.

Louis shot him a look as saw his best mate was grinning down at his feet, not looking at Louis. “It wasn’t a date. We go out to dinner every few weeks.”

“You pick up the tab,” James pointed out.

“She didn’t start earning any real money until a few weeks ago!” Louis sighed in exasperation. “It’s not like they pay trainee Aurors well.”

“Let it lie,” Caroline said and it took Louis a moment to remember that was an American expression.

Louis pointed at James. “I don’t feel that way about her. She’s been a good friend.”

A very loud silence fell heavily on the room.

“Leave it, James,” Caroline said again, quieter this time. “It’s his business.”

It wasn’t what she said, but the way she said it that caught Louis’ curiosity. “Wait… is he going to say something I don’t expect him to say?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Caroline told him with a smile. “Now, the baby is asleep and I’m going to take him up. You two have five minutes before I want my husband upstairs to help get Asher settled.” She rose smoothly, the baby still cradled in her arms and went up the stairs.

Louis waited a full beat, then two, just to make sure she was gone. “Alright, just tell me.”

James let out a long sigh and rose. “Lena is in love with you, mate. You’re stringing her along.”

With that, James left the room as well.

Louis felt… he didn’t know what he felt, but it wasn’t good. He genuinely liked Lena as a person and as a friend, but he just didn’t see her that way.

Then again, his dating choices hadn’t been exactly the sanest. He could admit that now. He stood by the fact that girls who weren’t what one might consider the best looking were often the sweetest, loveliest girls he would ever meet. But then he’d gone off his rocker and tried to date someone old enough to be his grandmother and that, he could admit now, had been a cry for help.

He’d just been too drunk all the time to verbalize it.

But Lena… oh, he did not want to hurt her. He didn’t want to break her heart! He didn’t want to sacrifice their friendship and now that he knew… but no. James was right to tell him. He didn’t want to string her along. It would be like Al and Nat all over again, only this time with the feelings actually one-sided.

Rufus raised himself up. It looked like a lot of effort. Then he stuck his big head in Louis lap and his soulful eyes met his and peace swamped through Louis in a way he didn’t feel when he wasn’t with this unbelievably huge dog. He ran his fingers through the dog’s soft fur and along his silky ears. “What should I do?”

Stop running.

Stop hiding.

Stop fighting.

Stop hating yourself.


It wasn’t as though the dog had any answers, but his calm definitely helped Louis think and he knew all of those things were a problem. He was a flawed man, one who had made many mistakes and who had done many things he wished he could take back. But some of it, he wouldn’t, because it had led him this far and had shaped him into a better, stronger person.

Some day he wanted what James had. He wanted a wife and children. He wanted love and a family. He saw how his Uncle Charlie had lived and he’d thought, at one point, that would be his fate, as well, but he knew now that it wasn’t the right path for him. He didn’t do well on his own.

Case in point, as soon as he knew Fred and Eva’s baby was safely out, he’d headed for James.

But James had his own family and now it was time for Louis to go, dowsing the lights on his way out.

He didn’t know what he was going to do about Lena, but he wouldn’t do anything right now. He had to think about it, long and hard, because she was a good friend and she’d been there for him.

He was going to try very hard not to hurt her.

~*~

“Are you nervous?” Rick asked Al as they made their way through the Ministry down towards the Minister’s office.

Al was getting married in two days and no, he absolutely was not nervous. Nope. Okay, he was a little nervous because he did not want to mess things up on their wedding night, but any chance he’d had to get Nat alone, he’d spent kissing and holding her. It almost felt like he was making up for lost time and he was starting to think he might not make a total mess of it. “No, I’m glad.”

“Good,” he said as they rounded a corner and Rick followed Al’s lead as he’d never been down this hallway and into the outer chamber of the Minister’s office. Al hadn’t been in this room in a few years, but he’d been here often when Kingsley had been Minister. Al was glad Kingsley was going to make it for his wedding. It didn’t feel right not to include him, and he’d only seen him sporadically over the last few years. Kingsley had been working towards locating Crabbe, but not in any official capacity for the Ministry. He’d never married and had no children, so he wasn’t tied down and could travel if needed. Al didn’t know how they were financing his travels, but something his Uncle Bill had said led him to believe that Andrew might be contributing.

It was funny, thinking about his cousin’s husband, a man who had been his friend for many, many years, as being extremely wealthy. Rose had been forced into a new wardrobe when she was around the Muggles and Al always wanted to laugh at the fancy outfits she wore. Oh, it wasn’t anything showy. His Aunt Fleur called them tasteful and understated. He was pretty sure Scorpius’ aunt had been helping her with her clothes as that was her job with the Muggles.

But no, this office had transformed just as surely as Rose, who now almost never wore jeans. She wore slacks. What on earth did that word even mean? Al didn’t even bother to glance at all the photos which the Minister had decorated with. He tried to ignore the flowers but whatever they had in the vases had a powerful smell and it made him want to sneeze.

“Do you have a message for the Minister?” the secretary, a woman about sixty with short gray hair and blue eyes asked from her desk.

“Yes,” Al agreed as he came over with the scroll to her.

“Wait here,” she instructed and was up and gone before Al could tell her they didn’t need to wait. Al slumped down onto one of the couches and noted it was a lot more comfortable than the one Kingsley had furnished the room with years before. There were throw pillows, too. Al glanced around and saw that Rick was staring at a photograph in a frame on a bookshelf full of old books and knickknacks. “What’s up with you?” he asked Rick. “You thinking of throwing Honor over for that duck?”

That snapped Rick out of his stupor. “Who is this?”

“I dunno, mate,” Al shrugged helplessly. “I imagine it’s a family member to the Minister.”

“I need to know who this is!” Rick insisted as he pointed back at her. “It’s important.”

“Alright, alright,” Al said, holding up his hands. “We’ll ask her when she comes out. Why does it matter?”

Rick turned back to the photo and shook his head. “It’s Lorelei.”

Al’s gut clenched. “That’s very definitely not my niece.”

“Same energy.”

Al blinked in confusion. “What?” And then he remembered. “You can see someone’s magic in their photo? I’d forgotten since you never talk about it! Wait, why can’t you do that with a portrait?”

“I have no idea,” Rick admitted. “I could have just gone to Hogwarts to see Dumbledore’s portrait.”

“Mate,” Al blew out an exasperated breath. “The Daily Prophet will have thousands of pictures of Dumbledore you could look at!”

Rick turned slowly to him and then let out a snorting laugh. “Merlin, I am a flipping idiot.”

“We all are,” Al assured him. “It’s not just you.”

The door opened and the secretary came out smiling. “She said you may leave.”

“We need to ask her something, actually,” Al interjected quickly. “It’s actually… uh… it’s really important. It’s to do with Rick’s special ability.”

Rick picked up the picture and held it out. “I just need to ask her a few questions about this person.”

The secretary shook her head. “She is quite busy. What do you need to know about her?”

Al finally caught a look at the woman in the photo. She looked quite old and wrinkled and the photo was in black and white. “Well, her name and who she was would be helpful, but I’m not sure if it will be enough.”

The woman hesitated for a moment and then said, “That’s Hilla Gleam. She was the Minister’s great-great Aunt and if the rumors are to be believed, she was an extremely powerful seer, but that wasn’t known until after her death. Her husband forced her to keep her abilities a secret, as Grindelwald would have tried to capture her. She died before Grindelwald, unfortunately. The history books don’t have a lot to say about her.”

“Ah,” Rick said as Al’s heart constricted painfully.

It was not going to be easy for Lorelei.

“Thanks,” Al said and after putting the frame back on the shelf, he pulled Rick from the room. As soon as the door was closed, he said, “We need to go tell her.”

~*~

Lily studied her sweet baby’s face, her blue eyes piercing as they met Lily’s, as Scorpius rubbed her back and people talked around her.

A seer.

She had been worrying for weeks now about her daughter and just what the magical energy might mean, but now that she knew… it didn’t make her feel any better. If she was as powerful as Nat suggested, then her daughter would be tormented by visions. True prophecies would be lost to her, of course. They would go to the Hall of Mysteries and Lorelei wouldn’t remember them, but she’d have the same sense of people and dread of what was to come that Lily had been dealing with… only it would be worse for her child. She would know more.

“Hey,” Scorpius caught her attention and she glanced up at him, registering that everyone had fallen silent. “We’ll get her a dog, just like Rufus. We’ll ask Caroline to train one just as soon as she can.”

She knew she’d missed part of the conversation, but her family had made a connection that Lily hadn’t. Caroline had come over with her boys and the dog the week before and Rufus had glued himself to Lorelei and Lorelei had slept calmly. She’d assumed it was just the natural magic of the dog calming the baby, but what if… “What’s happening with her right now? Is she hurting?”

“I doubt it,” Bill told her gently. “Her body is made for this gift, Lily-Lu.”

“But then why won’t she sleep?” Lily asked everyone in the room.

Nat blew out a breath and scrunched up her nose. “Alright, let me try something.” She came over and put her hand on the baby’s stomach. She closed her eyes and a moment later, her very alert baby just slumped in her arms and went straight off to sleep.

Nat held out a hand and waved it frantically and to Lily’s surprise, Rick raced over and grabbed her hand, swearing loudly as he shut his eyes.

Then Rick began to speak and it was not his voice. It was deeper, rougher and terrible to hear! If she could have put her hands over her ears, Lily would have done it!

“The broken woman will not fall until the rise of the dark orb and her last tie is gone from this earth. The blood will run freely in the streets. The seas will rise into a wall. The dam will break and she will show herself for who she really is. The one to end her will do so without aid or help and her scars will tell of the victory.”

Nat let go and Rick’s knees hit the carpet. Many, many, many expletives that began with the letter F poured from his mouth as he shook out his hands and dropped his head to the carpet.

“What the hell was that?” Harry asked quietly. “Was that a prophecy?”

Lily looked down at her daughter and then to Nat, who didn’t look drained. “What did you do?”

“I syphoned off some of her power to try to give her a little relief,” Nat told her with a wry grin. “I wanted her to sleep. It worked, a bit, but it started to come back immediately as I can’t do much, but I didn’t know how to channel it.”

“Are you okay?” Al asked, as he crouched down next to her, running his hands along her hair. “You look okay.”

“Oh, yeah, I feel fine,” Nat assured him as she smiled up at Lily’s brother. “It was bad until Rick took it and I pushed it into him. I ended up being a conduit.”

Al tenderly kissed her and shook his head. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” came Rick’s muffled voice from the carpeted floor. “No one worry about me.”

Lily’s mum, who had been quiet through this whole thing, let out a snort. “You finally saw a picture of Dumbledore and confirmed you have the same level of power that he did. No one is worried you can’t handle a baby’s magic.” But she moved over to help him sit up. She studied him carefully and said, “I think you’ll be alright after I get a few biscuits into you.”

“Probably,” Rick agreed as he glanced over to the baby. “So, I gave out Lorelei’s prophecy? I remember what I said, which I didn’t think was possible. Why would that happen?”

“The real question,” Ginny said slowly, “Is what did it mean?”

a/n: Did you read the note above? If not, go back and read it. ~Sarah

Back to index


Chapter 99: Chapter 85 Part TWO

Author's Notes: I know it's been an age... I had a major work thing for the paying job, but it's mostly done. I'll try to get the next part up shortly, maybe another week or so.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing! Please consider following me on faceboo k. I almost never post, so it's great lol


They’d set Hermione to trying to decipher the prophecy, but honestly no one was giving it any thought because Al was marrying Nat today.

He knew he wasn’t going to worry about it for at least a week or two. They weren’t going to solve it, anyway, without a miracle.

“Are you ready?” Harry asked as he knocked at the door of the guest room in Scorpius and Lily’s house where Al and Scorpius were getting ready. He’d seriously considered who he wanted to stand up with him, because at this point he felt like he had a lot of people who could, but in the end it was Scorpius. He’d not been able to do the same for his brother-in-law when he’d married Lily. It had been a rush job, but he wanted that now for both of them.

“Ready,” Al agreed with a grin for his father. He was so ready to marry Nat, although what Scorpius, James, and Andrew had told him the night before as they’d hung out for a sort of stag party had him a little concerned.

All of them agreed that once the bond was formed, he was going to want to get Nat alone and naked. Fast.

He already wanted to get her alone and naked and he didn’t think he’d be able to take it if that feeling was magnified. He definitely didn’t want to hurt her. He’d confided in his dad later that night because he’d remembered his mum had been sick with her pregnancy with Hope and his dad had assured him that while, yes, it was there, it wasn’t going to turn him into a raging hippogriff.

Today he was going to focus on Leah and how much he loved her and that everything he did was going to have an effect on her so he’d better have it all together.

But no pressure.

“Let’s go,” Harry told him with a huge grin as he clapped him on the shoulder. “She looks beautiful.”

Al knew that Nat didn’t like how she looked, but by the end of the night he was going to convince her that she was everything he wanted and no one else compared.

He walked down to the living room where most of his family sat and waited and moved to the front of the makeshift aisle before turning to wait with Scorpius next to him. His stomach was in knots so tight that he didn’t know how he managed to pull in one breath after the other. He knew he was holding on for that moment… he just wanted to see her.

Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long. He saw the dress first and it was white with a lot of beading around the long skirt and square cut neckline and thin straps. His gaze swept up as he waited for her dad to walk her down the steps and then he saw her face. Her hair was pulled back with some sort of beaded something that was sparkling and her face… her eyes.

Everything.

He was never, ever going to forget this moment… that moment the knots untied inside him and everything fell perfectly into place.

It felt like it took forever for her father, Curtis, to walk her over to him, but at the same time it also felt like it was exactly perfect, exactly right. Nat looked up at him as she stepped closer and took his hands and hers trembled just as his did, so he gripped them tighter, holding on as everything swirled around inside him. The little man who performed the weddings spoke words and Al heard them, tried to take them in as he promised his life to Natalie Leah Curtis, who would now be Nat Potter, but his ears had a pleasant buzz and when the vows were sealed and they were bound, he leaned in to kiss and he felt it… he felt exactly what his best mates and his brothers had told him.

But he also felt this exquisite ache straight down to his toes that was his love for the woman before him and he wasn’t afraid any longer of rushing her or hurting her. He was going to be exactly what she needed. He could feel in the core of his soul exactly what it was he needed to do for her. He’d always been that for her and he was going to be that for her now.

“You are the most beautiful woman in the world,” Al whispered against her mouth before kissing her again, raising his hands up to her cheek to gently cradle her face, barely hearing as his family and her parents cheered around them.

She almost shook her head, an instinctual denial, but she held back. She didn’t believe yet and maybe it would take time, but she’d believe because it was what he believed and he never lied to her. Al just had to help her see herself through his eyes.

He leaned his forehead against hers and looked into her eyes. “Let’s go eat something, dance, and then get out of here.”

She laughed a little and nodded. “Yeah, alright.”

They didn’t have cake, since it wasn’t something she could eat anymore, but he didn’t mind and neither did she. They had each other and he had to stop himself from kissing her nonstop.

“Uncle Al…” Emma cried out as she twirled in a circle around him so that her dress billowed out around her.

“Hm?” Al asked, not really looking down to where the little girl was dancing. He only had eyes for his new wife.

His wife.

It was the thing he’d been longing for since he was… he didn’t know how long. Maybe fifteen? Maybe sooner? It had been a long, long time coming and now they were finally here.

“Here!!!”

He finally looked down and realized he must have been ignoring whatever Emma wanted to say to him, because she’d grabbed his pants and pulled him to a stop, thrusting up one of the fake roses she’d been playing with.

“You have to give the bride a flower!” she insisted.

“Okay, squirt,” he agreed, taking the flower to make her happy. She promptly forgot them and ran to where Claire was dancing so they could spin together.

He turned back to Nat and simply looked at her, marveling at her. “Can we leave now?”

Her cheeks flushed to nearly as red as the fake rose he held, but at her single nod he knew he wasn’t going to be able to extract them as quickly as he wanted, so he took a deep breath and started the ritual of making their escape.

They’d looked at a few houses over the last week, but they hadn’t yet settled on where they wanted to move, so like everyone before them, they were going to the beach house and he couldn’t say he was sorry. Some of his favorite memories were of the two of them on the beach and in that house.

But he hoped they’d have their own place soon, a place they could build on together.

He took her hand and headed towards his grandmother, who studied him for a moment before pointing towards the fire. “Go on, then,” she said, causing a few people around her to laugh.

Al did not hesitate, but yelled a quick goodbye to everyone before taking Nat over to the fireplace. “I’ll be there to catch you,” he said as he took a pinch of Floo powder.

“Alright,” she said as he went through and sure enough, when she came through a few seconds later, she fell right into his arms, but that was absolutely perfect because it was where he wanted her anyway.

Al lowered his mouth to hers and scooped her up, heading towards the bedroom they would be sharing until they had their own place. He gently lowered her to the bed and propped himself above her, studying her. “You’re so beautiful,” he told her again, pressing his mouth to hers before she could protest.

“The spell,” she said, reminding him that they needed to use the birth control charm, which they’d been granted permission to use by the Ministry. Nat’s health was not good enough to take the potion and she’d thrown it up, violently, when she’d tried it. It was a miracle she hadn’t been injured more from it.

Al pulled out his wand and performed the spell, which he’d practiced just the day before, before tossing his wand onto a bedside table. He studied her as she studied him and he grinned, “We’re married.”

“We are,” she agreed as she bit as her lip. Every single time she’d ever done that it had driven him just the littlest bit mad, so he acted on impulse and bent his head, nibbling there himself. “Al…” she whispered breathlessly.

“I know,” he breathed out as he tried to keep his focus on her. “Slow and steady, alright? We have all night.”

She nodded and he went in to kiss her again.

They took their time and it was a challenge for him to hold back, but she was so small, so delicate that he kept the pace easy and light and when the first time was over, she cried but he knew it wasn’t pain.

“I just feel so much,” she told him as he held onto her, stroking the soft, soft skin on her back. “I’m o-overwhelmed in a good way.”

And maybe a tear or two stung in his own eyes. He’d wanted this moment for so long, and it was finally here…

And it was more than he could have ever imagined.

~*~

“James?”

James tried, very hard, not to roll his eyes and hit the gray lockers as the voice behind him registered. He was the last into the locker room because his boss, Marvin Stanton, had needed to speak to him after the practice, and this was the reason he’d tried very hard to not be in here alone.

Heather wouldn’t leave him alone. Oh, she hadn’t done or said anything overtly in the last few months, not since he’d complained to the coach about her near harassment of him, but he still didn’t want to temp anything getting out.

He wasn’t going to risk getting a shower. He’d just go straight home to his wife and his sons and try very hard not to wish ill on the woman behind him.

It was nearly a week since his brother’s wedding and they were in the runup to the World Cup still. It had been difficult taking the time off to watch Al get married, but it had been important to be there for his brother and for Nat. So he’d done it, but now he had to focus. He was playing for England and the World Cup.

Sadly, Heather was an alternate for England, so he hadn’t been able to rid himself of her for the rest of the season.

They weren’t going to make it to the World Cup. England was good this year, but there was no beating the Aussies this season. Their team was on fire, and he was pretty sure that while they’d beat Colombia’s team in a few days, he didn’t like their chances against South Africa, which was their next match up assuming South Africa tromped on the Americans, which was extremely likely given the fact that their star Keeper was out for the rest of the season.

“I’m going home,” he said by way of an answer as he slammed the locker door, clenching his hand around the towel he’d been about to use, and turned, ready to tell her off, only to find she had her wand trained on him. “What the””

It was quite possibly the stupidest thing he’d ever done, but James chucked the towel at her face and it caught on her wand before flying over her head. His instincts, born of dodging Bludgers professionally for years now, kicked in almost instantly and he rushed her, grabbing her arm as an unknown spell flew past his face and they crashed to the floor. She was strong, though, and fought him, kicking out while James yelled out, hoping someone would hear them and come running.

“What is this?!”

James heard the Marvin’s voice above him just as he grabbed the wand free from her hand and slammed into her stomach. “She tried to attack me!”

Other blokes from the team came in and for a moment James thought they’d come after him, but in seconds they had Heather restrained in ropes, sitting on the floor with her back against the lockers.

“Go wait in my office,” his boss told him firmly. “I’ve sent for the MLE and they’ll want to question you, but you don’t need to wait here.”

James was not entirely shocked that his Aunt Hermione showed up in the office thirty minutes later, as she was the head of the MLE, but he was surprised to see his dad with her. “What’s happened?”

“She’s dead,” Aunt Hermione said quietly. “She had some kind of poison in a water bottle. When she asked for a drink, it killed her in seconds.”

James could only stare at them. “What?”

“She had a note in her pocket from Crabbe,” Harry told him. “A note for me.”

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Chapter 100: Chapter 86 Part ONE

Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the delay!!! I finally got covid for the first time and I had about 5 days in there where I just couldn't think enough to write. Thankfully I wasn't too sick and I've mostly bounced back.

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Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing.

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Chapter 86

Al didn’t know when his mother had procured the large deck chairs that looked more like a couch with a large footrest, but he was doubly thankful to have them as he stretched out on one, Nat’s head on his chest, as they watched the waves crash lazily over the shore. He ran his fingers along the bare skin of her arm and studied the top of her head more than he looked out to the sea. It wasn’t that the sea, which was stormy and gray that day, wasn’t beautiful.

But he had this time with her and he didn’t want to waste it looking at a bunch of water.

Nat let out a long, long sigh and shifted to look up at him. “You’re staring at me again.”

“Mhmm,” he mumbled as he bent and kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re the only thing I want to look at, remember?”

She shrugged in a way that if he didn’t know her as well as he did, he’d have assumed was dismissal, but he could see it was her self-consciousness coming through.

He’d taken her at her word when she’d said she’d always loved him and for him, it had felt natural to fall into moving their friendship into romance and kissing. But he’d laid in bed the night before and thought about so many things and he’d realized, a little belatedly, that she still didn’t totally believe him.

It had been on his mind all morning, through breakfast and now into this peace and time when it was just the two of them. They’d be looking at houses to buy later that day, but for now it was their own little world and he didn’t know how to bridge that gap between what she felt and what he felt.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” Al asked her quietly as he continued to run his fingers over her skin. He watched goosebumps erupt there as she turned more fully into his side, her soft breath feathering the skin of his neck.

He had to force himself to focus because just then he really wanted to pick her up and carry her back inside for some privacy.

They’d had to take a break after the first time because she’d been sore, but it was something his aunt had warned him about and she’d given them something for it. Nat had still needed two days before she was ready to be intimate again and he’d found the wait hadn’t chafed because he’d wanted her to enjoy it. Thankfully, the second time had been pain-free, and now he was starting to understanding just why his brothers and mates were very happy to kick them all out and be alone. He wanted her constantly. He’d always wanted her constantly, but now it was an ache in his gut that was shaped like her. He didn’t mind her being the center of his everything, but he also knew he had to reign everything in because of her health. He didn’t mind that either. He just wanted her.

But he was also twenty and a newlywed.

He came back down to reality when he felt her small finger poke him in the rib. “You’re not even listening to me.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, completely meaning it as he boosted her up to kiss her, then using his palm he slid her thigh over, scooting her onto his lap. “I was thinking about you, even if I wasn’t listening.”

She’d be able to feel that it was true from her perch and from the way her cheeks pinked, he knew she could. “Albus…”

“Natalie,” he whispered against her lips. “My Leah.” He paused, looking at her, studied her brown eyes as he tucked a bit of her strawberry blonde hair back from her face. “My Leah,” he said again as he watched the flicker of emotions playing across her face.

“The bond…” Nat began as she leaned back against his arm, letting him support her weight. Her eyes dropped down to his shirt as she rested a hand there. “It feels like being part of another system. We make up this whole new, I dunno, I guess it’s like a new entity. I can see the magic moving between us, even now.”

Al considered what she’d just said and then asked slowly, “Is my magic going into you?”

She considered, twisting her lips up a bit as she thought. “I don’t think so, maybe it’s a new magic that’s created in the bond, and that magic is what goes between us, binding us together. We don’t really take magic from someone else.”

“You took some out of baby Lorelei,” he reminded her. They hadn’t talked much about that moment, but it had been interesting. She’d removed the baby’s magic rather than a spell or a potion.

“Well, that was just a small siphoning off to help her sleep, but I didn’t want to keep that in myself or I’d be seeing visions,” Nat said and then grinned up at him sheepishly as she said, “It wasn’t very nice to stick it into Rick.”

“He can handle it,” Al told her dismissively, sure it was the truth. “But the magic between us… something is bothering you.”

“It’s not exactly bothering me,” she told her, her gaze flickering up to his, which he kept fixed on her. She let out a huff. “Fine! Alright, I’m just concerned I’ll drag you down or…”

“Nope,” Al said with the shake of his head. “You’re very powerful, Nat. In your way, you’re way more powerful than I am.”

She let out a small sigh and then ran her hand up his chest and over to his shoulder, still not looking at him.

He liked when she touched him. He really liked when she focused on him. “You just need to go to the gym more and then you can have muscles bigger than mine. You’ll be big and powerful.”

Nat pinched at his bicep, but she was smiling now as she again met his gaze. “You think you’re so amusing.”

Al laughed as he skimmed a hand up her side to cup her jaw, drawing her in for a kiss. “You could do that, but I like you how you are. I like you just how you are.”

Her breath against his lips was a small sigh. “But why…”

“Why do I like you how you are?” he asked, pulling back to make sure he had it right.

“Never mind,” she said as she bent in to kiss him again.

She’d done this a few times, giving voice to the fears and doubts and then blowing it off like it didn’t matter and most of the time he’d let her lead on this, but it was not going away. She didn’t know how to believe in herself, even though she could feel through the bond and from his body just how much he loved and wanted her.

“The first day you held Emma when she was a newborn,” Al told her, breaking their kiss and cupping her cheeks, keeping her focused on him. “It was the Easter hols and we’d just made it home. I’d gone to put your stuff upstairs and while I was up there, Teddy and Victoire had arrived with the baby. You were standing just outside of the kitchen and you were rocking her and you looked up at me and smiled… Leah, it was the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen and you’d given it to me. You were so happy, so full of joy. The sun was coming in through the windows and it lit up your hair and you were happy. I knew in that moment that I had feelings for you. I didn’t know what to do with them, but I knew they were there.”

A silent tear slid down her cheek and he rubbed at it with his thumb. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he promised her. “When I told you if you were taken we’d be getting married, it wasn’t because I was being noble or selfless. I was telling the love of my life that I was going to be the one who was there for her. I didn’t want you with anyone else. I need you to be safe like I need to breathe.” Al waited until he was sure she’d had a moment to take all of that in. “I love you. I’m so in love with you it’s like my heart is walking around outside of my body, kept constantly in your pocket. And I love you for all that you are, all that you were, and all you’re going to be.”

She swiped at her own tears and he had to shift to keep her from tumbling backwards. “I don’t know why I keep thinking that you can’t just because I’m… I don’t know, so unconventional looking, but it’s stuck there,” she told him, pointing to her head.

“I don’t see you as unconventional looking,” he told her simply. “You have a thin, elfin face and a cute, little nose, and brown eyes that tell me stories even when you don’t say a word. You have very soft pale red hair that sometimes curls and sometimes doesn’t. You have a mouth that I want to be constantly attached to.” She let out a snorting laugh then. He traced a finger along her brow and down her cheek. “You are the most beautiful woman in the world to me, and that’s because I love you. You’re going to be a hundred and fifty at some point with wrinkles all over the place and you’re still going to be the most beautiful woman in the world to me. And it’s because I love you.” He kissed her again. “Remember how you were throwing up and pasty white after you tried to take the birth control potion?”

“Yeah…” she said, making a face at the memory. He’d been there, helping hold her up while they’d tried to clean her up and clear out the potion. “You’re going to say I was beautiful then?”

“Yes,” he said simply. “You looked terrible, but you are still beautiful, even then. You’re going to have to go back to healing women tomorrow and it’s going to knacker you and you’ll still be the most beautiful woman to me, even when you’re exhausted and cranky and pale.”

Nat leaned forward, resting her head up under his chin and tucking her arms down by his side. He rubbed at her back and wondered if maybe this time he’d been able to get through to her. But even if he didn’t, he’d keep trying. She had to believe it for herself, and nothing he could say was really going to change that, but he wanted to keep trying. He didn’t think it felt good to doubt being loved and he’d come to realize that even though she felt like her parents loved her, they’d also left her on her own for most of her childhood.

She hadn’t said as much, but after their wedding, when her parents had gone back to their own lives, she’d made a comment about wondering when she’d see them again. It had occurred to him, then, that her parents really honestly and truly were just not an active part in her life and she didn’t count on them. Then because they were bonded, he’d felt what that actually felt like to her. And it was a little bit lonely. She wanted to belong, and she did belong, but not to the parents who had given her life.

His dad’s stag Patronus showed up on the front porch.

“Woah,” Al said as Nat raised her head.

His dad’s voice came through quickly, “Please come to the Ministry. We’ve had an incident. Everyone is safe, but we could use you both. Cloak on for Nat.”

~*~

Harry was not happy at the turn of events with Heather and her death, but he also couldn’t say he was completely surprised that this woman who had been harassing James for years, was a plant for Isabella Crabbe? Not surprised.

“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” Harry asked his son, the question finally spilling out of him as he paced in the conference room. Al and Nat had arrived moments before and she’d been taken to examine the body of Heather, which had not gone to St. Mungo’s, but was instead in a sealed room in the Ministry, just in case the poison was something very nasty.

“Honestly,” James said as he ran a hand through his hair, “I thought I had told you. I definitely meant to tell you,” He admitted to Harry and then fell silent as the door opened and Teddy entered, followed by Al and presumably a cloaked Nat.

Al was not on this case, but Harry had told them Al was there as moral support for his brother. He was a full Auror, now, but this case was going to have top priority since not only had a valued Quidditch played decided to go out in a blaze of glory while trying to attack James Potter, but that Quidditch player was one of a small handful the Minister had recently given an award to for her excellent charitable works on behalf of the Wizarding world for the Muggles.

Apparently, Heather had been working in women’s shelters many hours a week for years on end. The Ministry had thanked her.

Harry was now wondering if that might not be where Crabbe was getting some of her experiment victims. The Minister was not happy at being made to look a fool, but it wasn’t as though anyone had known.

“Honestly, I didn’t realize I hadn’t told you,” James reiterated, bringing the conversation back full circle as the door closed and Teddy sealed it so Nat could pull off the cloak. Her face was bright red, something that Al noticed immediately as well.

“Let’s get you some water,” Harry said as he conjured a glass and then filled it. “Sit and drink.”

“Are you okay?” James asked her as Al guided her into a seat.

Nat chugged the water down and waved them off. “It’s bloody hot under that cloak, but I’m fine. We didn’t cast any cooling charms today.”

“That’s my fault,” Teddy said apologetically. “Sorry about that. I’ll make sure we do tomorrow before you heal people.”

“It’s okay,” Nat said again as she turned to Harry. “I’ve never seen that poison before, but it’s not spreading outside of her body. She can be processed like normal, maybe get Rose in to try to identify it.”

“Alright,” Harry said as he took a seat. “What else can you tell me?”

Nat hesitated and then glanced over to Al, then back to Harry. “She wasn’t under any kind of control. She acted of her own free will.”

Harry had been hopeful, but not surprised that she’d been a willing player. “We’re checking into her financial information, trying to see if she was getting money from somewhere, but she was paid well as a Quidditch player, so nothing is standing out just yet.”

“She had the birth control potion,” Nat told them slowly. “But she wasn’t married.”

That was interesting. “The year one?”

“Yeah,” Nat confirmed. “It’s not a stretch to say that Crabbe could have given that to her. It’s also not a stretch that she could have picked it up in another country while traveling for work. I don’t suppose that potion is checked for in medical screenings for the players.”

Harry didn’t know but he’d have doubted it. That would have been something that was more likely to be overlooked by the Healers on duty for the teams. “Alright, anything else?”

“No, I think that’s it,” Nat told him.

“You two go on home, then,” Harry told them and said for James to do the same. “We’ll let you know if there’s something else, and I know you have an appointment with Bill in an hour to discuss houses.”

“Let me cool you first,” Teddy told Nat before they covered her and left.

When they were gone, Harry turned to Teddy and they both sat, wordlessly staring at the letter that Crabbe had left for Harry, delivered by the dead hands of Heather.

“It seems straight forward enough,” Teddy told him as he reached over and took up the folded bit of parchment that they’d already determined was nothing but parchment. “She’s demanding you hand over Lily and if you don’t, she’s going to keep killing women.”

“But she’s already killing women,” Harry said sadly as he studied the flat surface of the conference room table. “She’s killed millions of Muggles with a pandemic that we had to work hard to keep her from profiting from with the cure. She’s still poisoning magical women to make their babies not magical, keeping those babies sick. We still only have Nat to try to heal them although I’m still hopeful Rick can make a difference, but so far he hasn’t been able to.”

“As soon as they have a baby for them to adopt you know she’s going to want to turn her focus there,” Teddy told him quietly. “She’s always wanted children.”

“I know and I don’t blame her for that, one bit,” Harry assured him. “But I can’t stop this by handing Lily over. She won’t stop.”

“No, she won’t, and you can’t hand Lily over because you wouldn’t hand anyone over,” Teddy reminded him. “But we have to have some kind of break or we’re just going to keep spinning our wheels. She wants you to put in the Daily Prophet when you’re handing Lily over.”

Harry had considered that and had come to his conclusion. “I’m going to ignore it. She’s going to keep doing what she’s doing, but she was going to anyway. We double down on security, which includes making sure Al and Nat’s new home is secure, and then we keep hunting for her. Kingsley said when he was here for the wedding that he’d made a few contacts, but he doesn’t have anything concrete yet. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Teddy let out a long sigh. “I’m going to go with Hermione to notify Heather’s parents of her death, at least officially. It’s leaked out somehow.”

“No, I’ll go,” Harry told him. “Well, you should come along. We need a united front on this one when we tell someone their child was trying to murder someone else.”

Then he stopped and looked at Teddy. “She was trying to murder my son.”

“Yeah, she was,” Teddy agreed.

They found Heather only had her father left and when he was told what had happened he shook his head. “Figures,” was all he told them and then he let them search her room where they found folders and folders of evidence that Heather had been stalking James for years and a journal entry that explained that Crabbe had promised her James in exchange for helping Crabbe with information, but that Heather hadn’t been providing enough information and Crabbe had threatened to have James killed if she didn’t deliver the message and attempt to kidnap James.

It had all gone wrong and she’d taken the suicide pill that Crabbe had given her.

It was a sad, stupid end to a life.

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Chapter 101: Chapter 86 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Thank you for joining me on patreo n!! I really appreciate it. You can find me there at Sarah Jaune and you get access to ALL of my original works as well as a new chapter every two weeks.

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Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!


Nat shifted silently under the cloak while Teddy led in another woman to be healed. She’d been married almost a month now and they had a house they’d moved into the day before and she was definitely feeling the exhaustion, even though she hadn’t had to move anything. She’d been there to tell all the men where she wanted everything, though, and she’d needed to set up the kitchen and get clothes put away and… Ginny and Gran and Hermione and Fleur and several other women had been there to help, but she was still really tired.

Al had picked her up and carried her off to bed to stop her from trying to organize everything.

She had a house. She had a home and it was all hers and Al’s and she didn’t ever have to move if she didn’t want to. She was going to be able to stay in one place! It felt like everything should just be put away and maybe then it would feel real and permanent.

Nat knew she was being ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t even have a workshop set up at the new house to make wands and it didn’t much matter because she’d made so many that Ollivander couldn’t take anymore. She still wasn’t totally sure how she’d managed to make so many wands while she was healing the women and the babies, but it likely had to do with how isolated she’d felt and how miserable she was not having Al in her life.

She’d done that to herself, of course. She had encouraged him to find someone, anyone, just so she could stop wondering when he finally would. She still couldn’t believe he wanted her. It still seemed like a dream that he loved her. He told her all the time. He showed her. He definitely wanted her. She blushed hard, something she was trying to stop doing, as she remembered last night when he’d…

Yes, he definitely wanted her. She just didn’t understand why.

“She’s ready,” Audrey said quietly and Nat moved over to the woman to heal her.

It was like this all the time, all these women and their poor babies. This one was… wait… Nat stared at the baby, unsure of how… “Is she Muggle-born?”

“No,” Audrey answered immediately. “She’s a witch from Canada, why?”

“The baby isn’t biologically hers,” Nat told Audrey. “It just threw me off for a minute.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Teddy asked as Nat started pulling the poison from the woman.

“It means the baby isn’t related to the mum,” Nat explained. “She used someone else’s egg to have this baby.”

Teddy shot them both an alarmed look. “How on earth would someone do that??”

Nat listened to Audrey’s explanation, gave a little clarification, then declared them both to be healed. “That baby isn’t going to look anything like her,” Nat said to Audrey before they woke the woman. “It’s going to be a shock.”

“That isn’t ours to deal with,” Audrey reminded her. “You heal them. That’s all you can do.”

She knew it was true, but it still weighed on her for a bit. Generally, people wanted biological children and she understood why. It was a hardwired evolutionary instinct to pass on one’s genes to the next generation. But she and Al weren’t going to be able to do that and although she was alright not passing on her DNA, she did regret not passing on his.

And she wanted to be pregnant. She hated to admit it, since there was nothing she could do about it, but it was an experience she desperately wanted to have.

She glanced over to the door when it opened and saw Al slip in, closing it behind him. “Are you swapping out for Teddy?” Audrey asked her nephew.

“I am,” Al agreed with a small smile. “Nat was exhausted last night, so I told Teddy I wanted to take the second shift here so I could get her home as soon as she’s done.”

“I’m alright,” Nat said from beneath the cloak.

He grinned in her direction. “You’re better than alright, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t tired. There’s another six women and then we are going home.”

He led her from the secured room in the back of the Auror’s office two hours later and she had to admit she was dragging. He seemed to sense it, because he kept his pace slow and even as he walked towards his father’s office. As soon as he had them in the office and he’d greeted his father, he sealed the door, he reached for the cloak and pulled it off. “Oh, Leah,” he sighed as he studied her exhausted eyes. He didn’t say more, but swept her into his arms. She didn’t protest as she pressed her face into his neck. “Let’s get you home and into bed.”

“You don’t need to come back,” Harry told him, his concerned green eyes, just like his son’s, met hers.

“I have some things to finish, but I’ll get her settled first and then come back here. Polly should be moved into the house now and she will have something ready for her to eat.”

He carried her through the Floo, something he’d become adept at doing recently, and took her straight upstairs to their room.

Everything was put away Nat saw as he set her on the bed and knelt to remove her shoes. She wanted to tell him she could manage, but she wasn’t sure she could. “I’m going to nap while you’re gone,” she said around a yawn.

“Eat this first,” he said as he pulled a jerky stick from the drawer of the table next to the bed. He propped himself over her, watching her as she slowly chewed, and then he pressed his lips to her forehead. “You’re perfect.”

She let out a snort.

“Absolutely perfect,” he repeated again as he nibbled his way down the side of her neck to her collarbone. “We’ll talk about how perfect in more details later. If you need something, call for Polly.” He leveled his gaze on hers. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered and then popped the last bite into her mouth, grinning as she chewed. He kissed her quickly and then left the room.

She was asleep soon after she swallowed the last bite.

He insisted they eat in bed with trays. “It’s our house, we can do what we want to,” he said when she claimed she could get up. “Plus, the house is too big. We’d have to walk for ages to get down to the kitchen.”

“It’s not that big,” she retorted mildly. “Lily’s house is too big.”

“True,” Al agreed as he settled next to her, both of them propped up with pillows against the headboard as they dug into roasted lamb. “But still, six bedrooms…” he grinned over at her. “We’ll have to fill those rooms.”

“That could take a while,” she reminded him. Maybe she was reminding herself. Maybe she was consoling herself.

She felt his fingers on her cheek and she glanced over to see him studying her. “It will happen, though,” he told her quietly.

There would be babies who needed to be adopted at some point. There might be older children, as well, but that was rare, thankfully, since it was harder for older children to lose their parents.

As much as she wanted children, she also knew she was getting children that others had to give up for whatever reason, and that was always difficult and painful. But that’s how adoption went… it was a mixed bag of good and bad, like a lot of things in life.

“I know you wish you could be pregnant.”

Nat’s eyes flew back to his. She did want it, very, very badly. “I don’t want to miscarry.”

“I don’t want that, either,” he agreed quietly. “I know what it did to my mother. I don’t want us to have to go through that.”

They were being very, very careful. The spell had to be cast once every twenty-four hours to be effective. Al cast it on her every morning at the exact same time, sometimes when she wasn’t even awake if she’d had a rough night the night before.

Sometimes she wished he would forget, but then she’d remember Hope’s grave and she knew she didn’t want that. Maybe things could be okay, but if they weren’t she and Al would be destroyed and she didn’t want to deal with that level of grief.

So, they would wait until the moment was right and then they’d adopt. They had their last interview set up for the following day, at the Ministry, but it was a formality at this point. If a baby was born who needed a home and the other parents didn’t want the baby, she and Al could be asked.

An owl pecked at the window.

Nat glanced over to see it and recognized Hermione’s owl. Al must have realized the same because he went to retrieve the scroll tied there. “Thanks,” he told the owl who took off immediately. Al closed and secured the window and brought the scroll over to her. “It’s for you.”

Nat opened it and scanned through it quickly, then paused as she studied the very detailed diagram of her family tree. It went back five generations and she slowly went through and scanned all of them until she saw a name at the bottom, many lines over from her, but still there.

Five generations back…

“Does… does that say you and Rick are related?” Al asked her carefully as he read over her shoulder.

“Very distantly, but yeah,” Nat confirmed as she ran her thumb over his name and then back to her own name, which was now joined up with Al’s. “You aunt dug back and found this? Why would she do that?”

“It’s the sort of thing that would stick with her,” Al told her with a laugh. “She’d see two very rare magical powers that are passed down in one family and she’d want to know how two unrelated people could have them. You’d be a puzzle and she’s never been good at letting things like that go.”

Nat considered the family tree and saw how few forks were on her parents’ lines. In this case, it was her mother’s side of the family. “I’m so glad you have a big family.”

“We have a big family,” he reminded her. “You’re part of it, and we’re going to do our part to make it even bigger.”

She really, really hoped it was right.

~*~

Rick found his distant relationship with Nat to be very funny. Harry had been the one to tell him about Hermione’s research and he’d laughed for a solid minute. “Seriously, what were the odds we’d both have this magical ability show up? I haven’t had any of it in my family and she’s only had it once in the family since before our ancestors split? But it happens now, and basically within a year of each other being born? It’s crazy.”

It was definitely something to consider and even more interesting, as far as Hermione could figure out, Rick wasn’t related to Dumbledore in any form, which meant going back twenty generations.

But he didn’t have much time to consider any of this as they were still dealing with the death of the rogue Quidditch player and the levels she’d gone to try to get into his family.

She’d been pestering James for years, which Caroline confirmed, as she had a good recollection of all the times James talked about her, but James also admitted he might not have always told Caroline everything as he often tried to push it away or forget what happened.

The Daily Prophet was having a field day with this, skirting around accusing James of cheating on his wife, but staying just inside the line of keeping everything above board. James and Caroline had been forced to come into the Ministry to have their soul bond examined and it was determined that it was as it should be, magically speaking.

Harry had no doubt that his son had been faithful to his wife. James had begged Harry to take him to cheerleading competitions when James had been sixteen or so.

In a casual relationship, that was not something a boy would willingly do. Then again, the competitions had proved to be amazing and they’d all gone to several after that.

But the Ministry took soul bonds seriously and he’d hated that he’d been forced to drag them both in to have it checked. Ginny had stayed with their grandsons, Alex and Asher, while they were gone, something his wife loved doing, but she was spitting mad that they’d accused James of being unfaithful.

Caroline had been nervous going into the Ministry, since it was done in public and everyone knew why she was going in with James. It was a mess.

Nat’s reaction to the whole thing was to roll her eyes. “I can see when that happens. It hasn’t.” But of course they couldn’t say that to anyone but the Minister and it hadn’t been the Minister making the call. It was some upper-level bureaucrat whom Harry barely knew, which Hermione had claimed was the problem. Harry hadn’t bothered to learn the bloke’s name and kiss his arse, so the man had targeted Harry’s son.

It was so typical.

Rick had told Harry the same thing about magical bonds. “You can see when they’ve been messed with,” he told Harry. “I don’t see much of it here in England, because you punish people harshly, but in America it’s maybe one in every ten couples. The magic flowing between them is mangled, depending on what’s gone wrong.”

At the end of a very, very long day Harry had gone to Lily’s house and he’d hugged his baby girl for a long time, letting her essence sooth him in her very Lily way.

“You look tired, Daddy,” she told him as she gazed up at him, taking in his every feature.

“So do you,” he commented as he saw the bags under her eyes.

Scorpius came down the stairs with the baby, her coppery hair a cap that would soon only be matched in brilliance by the turning of the autumn leaves. Her hair was baby fine and curled gently around her face, but it was her eyes, which had melded into Scorpius’ silvery-blue which fixed on him. She looked so, so serious. She often did.

Lorelei’s cousin, Ireland, was only a little older, same for Asher, and both babies smiled and giggled all the time now. Lorelei’s expression was already one of someone who had seen too much.

“Come here, my darling,” Harry whispered as he took the tiny girl and met her stare directly on. Silently, he promised her that he was going to make sure she didn’t have to see too much… to know too much.

But of course, he knew he couldn’t promise that. He didn’t have any control over what was going to happen to them. Lorelei was a miracle already. She wasn’t what Crabbe had wanted her to be and Harry was certain that through his youngest grandchild he’d been given the key to ending Crabbe.

Naturally, it was a prophecy and thus incomprehensible until it was all over. Such was the plague of Harry’s life.

But none of that was Lorelei’s fault and Merlin, did he wish he could ease the worry he already saw in her young eyes.

They were nearing September and another school year. Hugo and Honor were finished with school, and they wouldn’t have anyone else in the family in Hogwarts for a few years yet.

Audrey’s Patronus, a large dove, soared into Lily’s living room and spoke. “Harry, I need you at the hospital. Someone dropped off a baby.”

~*~

“Madame…”

Isabella Crabbe glanced over to the young man standing in the doorway of her office, although truth be told it wasn’t much of an office. They had to keep moving in order to not be caught and it was getting exhausting.

She was currently in a posh hotel in Sri Lanka but they would need to leave for Ghana in a few days. She had contacts there and resources, ones which could hide her for a while.

She’d planned so many, many things, but few had worked out. She’d bamboozled that idiot Anthony Bugatti to get access to his Muggle pharmaceutical company, only to realize too late her niece was married to the idiot. She’d tried to silence Daphne, but Potter had intercepted the idiot before he could do any harm.

She didn’t know if he was dead, not officially as Potter hadn’t released anything, but she did hope she caused them more than a little trouble with the curse she’d leveled on the moron.

Sadly, she’d not managed to siphon much money from him before she’d lost control of Bugatti.

Realizing she’d ignored the young man standing in her door, she glared at him and asked, “Yes?”

“There’s news of one of the Potter children,” he said as he came forward with a newspaper.

Crabbe scanned it quickly and saw it was an announcement that Albus Potter had married Natalie Parker.

Parker… Parker… then it hit her. Curtis Parker, the odious Muggle who helped identify that she wasn’t dead. She’d once had Natalie kidnapped when she’d been with her father in Brasília, but the Brazilian Aurors had managed a rescue before she could get there to claim her prize. Her underlings had been forced to scatter when they realized the Ministry was breathing down their necks. She’d tried also to have her snatched from Diagon Alley, but the attempt had failed and she’d given it up as a waste of resources.

While she wanted revenge on Curtis Parker for his part in uncovering her faked death, it wasn’t worth the price.

Now, however, she had a lot of money thanks to her manufactured pandemic and vaccines, even if the new vaccines were harmless to the Muggles. Maybe she could try again for Natalie. It would hurt one of Potter’s children and it would be revenge on Curtis Parker.

Maybe she’d have the same Peruvian demolition curse put on the girl. That would be great fun to send her home with it. Maybe she’d survive… maybe Bugatti had survived… but maybe she wouldn’t and that would also be excellent.

“Thank you,” she said as she studied the paper. She glanced to the mirror and saw her reflection. She was sixty-two years old now, but thanks to some magical concoctions, she didn’t look a day over thirty.

She had learned a lot things from many people in her years of travel. She’d learned how to heal damages left by her wretched husband and halt the ravages of time.

She would be young and healthy enough to see this through, even if it took another two hundred years. Some day she would have her revenge.

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Chapter 102: Chapter 87 Part ONE

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

If you want to keep up with me after I'm done writing fanfiction (which this one is heading towards the end), please come find me at face book or on patreon under Sarah Jaune. Patreon is a fan funded site that allows me to make a little money on my original stories. It's very inexpensive and I have all my work on my page, so you can read through everything. It's monthly, cancel any time.


Harry rubbed hard at his eyes, wishing his day would just end. A very sickly baby girl had been dropped off at the Ministry, clearly suffering under the weight of the poison Crabbe was giving out. But there was no mother, no father, no explanation, just a baby dropped off on the magical threshold of the hospital for the guards to spot.

“Merlin’s beard, if we didn’t have posted guards…” Harry muttered as he paced the hospital corridor while Nat, Rick and Audrey saw to the baby. He couldn’t even see the portraits of the disapproving Healers who were glaring austerely at him for keeping them away. “Shut it,” he growled at one old man who eyed him through a pompous-looking monocle. “If that guard hadn’t been there that baby would have died so you can piss off!”

The man bristled and said something along the lines of, “Well, I never!”

“I bet you haven’t,” Harry agreed darkly as he kept pacing. He had Aurors out trying to find the mother, who would surely die soon if she hadn’t already, but it was not so much trying to find a needle in a haystack as trying to locate one particular butterfly throughout the whole world. The baby was likely of Indian descent, although it was hard to tell with infants. It was Nat’s first impression when she saw the baby, but it had been a brief comment and Nat had gone straight to work.

Harry couldn’t stand to watch it this time. He’d been holding his granddaughter not twenty minutes ago and now he was wearing a hole in the ugly flooring of St. Mungo’s while waiting to make sure the baby lived.

Life was never, ever fair, but it felt especially cruel at this moment.

“She’s okay,” Audrey said, stopping him mid-step.

He hurried quickly into the room and quickly resealed the room so Nat could come out from under the cloak. He hadn’t called anyone else to be in on this healing, only Nat, Al, and Rick, and the weight of what wasn’t said hung thickly in the room as Nat ran her hand gently over the baby’s thick cap of black hair.

Now that she was healed and sleeping peacefully, he thought maybe Nat might have missed the mark on where she was from, but he waited.

“She’s a Squib,” Nat told them quietly. “It’s an absolute miracle she made it,” she whispered as Al put an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “She shouldn’t have made it.”

“But she did,” Audrey reminded her. “You saved her.”

Nat waved off the praise and cleared her throat, turning back to Harry. “I’m still going to say Indian or possibly Pakistani or Tibetan origins. I think somewhere in that part of the world, but I think also she’s half Russian.”

Harry waited a full twenty seconds while his brain processed that information. “How do you come to that conclusion?”

“No idea,” Nat admitted grimly as she pushed her messy hair back from her face. “It’s just a hunch from seeing so many faces, especially so many baby’s faces, over the last few years as I’m pulling out the poisons. But that’s who you’re looking for. I can’t tell you whether the Russian is the mother or the father, but that’s my best lead for you. I hope you find her soon.”

“This has been a lot of help,” Harry told them quietly. “You can head on out and get some sleep if you can. We will let you know if we find the mother.”

“I can stay,” Rick told him. “I can bunk in a bed just in case she is found. I can’t fully heal anyone but I can do some of it until Nat can get here.”

Harry glanced over to see Audrey nodding. “Yes, let’s do that,” Audrey agreed as she stifled a yawn. “We’re all beat. I’m going to stay here and monitor the baby for an hour before I turn her over to someone I trust. She should be fine, now, but with her being a Squib… she didn’t have the magical reserves that a magical baby would have to survive. I just want to be sure.”

“Let’s get you home,” Al told Nat, but he waited while Nat once again smoothed the hair on the baby’s head while the baby slept deeply, as she would because Audrey would have put her to sleep for her own comfort. Nat then turned to Al and took the cloak, putting it back on before they left.

Audrey showed Rick to an empty room and left him to sleep while Harry waited with the baby. He studied her face and marveled at the difference Nat had made in the poor child’s life. She’d been writhing in pain, in agony, when Harry had arrived. She was shriveling in on herself by the minute and her skin, which was now a dark bronze, had been ashen, almost to the point of gray. Harry touched a finger to the little girl’s hand and smiled when her fingers automatically curled around his.

As soon as Audrey was back in the room Harry left to help aid in the search for the mother.

~*~

Teddy bit hard on his cheek to keep from cursing loudly as they located the woman in the morgue in Essex in a town called Colchester. She’d been found with her stomach cut open and the baby taken.

As Nat had predicted, she was Indian, and at first she appeared to be a local Muggle woman who had the Muggle police baffled.

Harry woke Rick to go with him to see the body and it was Rick who said she was magical. It had to have been a magical person who brought the baby to the hospital, but they had yet to figure out how the baby had been dropped off. It looked like Apparition to Rick, but he simply couldn’t be sure that it was because there was a lot of magic that was just outside of the hospital and there was no residue of it on the baby, at least not that he or Nat had seen. It could have been a house-elf. That was a trick Crabbe had used before, but Nat could spot house-elf magic and she’d have mentioned it. As yet, Rick couldn’t differentiate between the two.

“She didn’t have any ID,” the police officer told them as they stood around a kettle that had stopped working the moment they’d entered the room. The office had poked at the kettle a few times before shrugging it off as a bad job.

“Has anyone reported her missing?” Harry had asked the Muggle policeman, an older man by the same of Sam White. His hair, contrary to his name, was still quite dark, but the lines on his face aged him a good decade north of Teddy’s godfather.

“We haven’t had anything come through so far,” White told Harry, all while ignoring Teddy. White hadn’t really wanted to cooperate with Harry, but had accepted the Muggle injunction from Scotland Yard which Hermione had arranged because Harry was the one who was in charge of the baby in London. White had ignored Teddy and Rick, likely due to their age. He understood it in Rick’s case, as the kid was barely of age, but he’d bristled when Harry had said Teddy was his number two in their office.

“We’re not sure she’s been in England long, as she might be here traveling or on holiday, but she also might be a local that no one took note of,” White continued as he rocked back on his heels and let the chaos of the police station race around them.

“I’ll have people look on my end,” Harry told him as he skimmed their preliminary notes. He glanced up to White and then inclined his head towards Teddy. “I know he looks young, but he’s married and has four little girls. He’s thinking of that baby and her poor mother. He’ll be a good asset for you.”

White let out a small sniff, but Teddy saw him back down. “How old are your girls?”

“My oldest is five, the twins are almost three, and the baby is just about ten months old,” Teddy told him simply. “My wife and I have been together for about a decade.” How long he’d been with her, and yet it felt like a day. Would it ever feel like it had been ten years? He didn’t think so. He was pretty sure even when they were together eighty years, he was still going to say all the days had rushed by too quickly.

“Well, you don’t look it,” White told him, but he handed Teddy the folder to read.

He continued to ignore Rick, but that was fine. Harry had claimed Rick was the medical technician who was going to come to get a swab to make sure the baby did belong to this woman, and White had seemed to buy that.

Teddy was going to have to ask someone to explain that Muggle term to him at some point. It seemed to have worked well. Teddy had been at a complete loss as to explain why they’d needed Rick there.

“I’ll get back to you as soon as we have something,” Harry told him while Teddy finished skimming the scant notes. “We should have the DNA in two days, but the baby looks like the mother, so I’m betting it isn’t a coincidence.”

“I tend to agree,” White told him as he wordlessly took back the folder Teddy handed over. “Keep me posted and I can reach you by this number?”

“Yes, it isn’t a mobile,” Harry told him. “I don’t have one at the moment. It was broken, so that landline will be the most reliable way to reach me. You can leave a message there and I’ll call you back as soon as I get it.”

“Alright then,” White said as he shook Harry’s hand, although Teddy could see the man thought it was odd that he didn’t have a mobile phone. “Let’s get this solved.”

They walked out into the early dawn hours as a light drizzle blanketed the streets around them. For as early as it was, delivery lorries were making their way slowly past the station while a few pedestrians hurried by, huddled in raincoats, not bothering to look around at the three men as they sheltered under their hoods.

“When do you think George will have a mobile available for us?” Teddy asked suddenly, remembering his honorary uncle’s plan to get one that would work for witches and wizards.

“He’s still running into trouble with them being useless in shielded magical buildings like the Ministry,” Harry told him. “He isn’t sure he’s going to be able to get around it, but he’s still attempting it.”

“I’ve had cell phones catch fire when I was too close,” Rick told them.

Teddy and Harry stared at him for a moment before Harry said, “Come again?”

“Yeah,” Rick confirmed as they walked towards the alley that was sheltered enough to allow them to Apparate back to the Ministry. “Before Nat helped me stop spewing out so much magic, it happened all the time. I had to avoid Muggles or risk their phone catching fire in their pocket. It sucked.”

By the time they arrived back at the Ministry with the faked swab, the sun had risen. “We need to find this woman’s family so they can come get the baby,” Harry said as they headed for his office. They didn’t speak again until they were behind a closed and warded door, even though the Auror office was mostly deserted at this early hour. “Teddy, I want you to go to the records room and find out the name of the parents and Rick you can head back to your flat and get some sleep if you want. I think we’re done with what we need you for, at least for a few hours.”

“Alright,” Rick said, barely stifling a yawn. “I’ll sleep a few hours and then come back. Is Nat on for healing today?”

“I think she was supposed to, but it might have to wait. I’ll wait until Al comes in and gives me a report. If she doesn’t come with him, then we will postpone until tomorrow to allow her some rest,” Harry told them both.

When Rick had gone, Teddy turned to Harry and said, “It’s Tuesday.”

Harry stared at him for a moment before he nodded. “Right, cheerleading for Emma. Just go check the records on the baby and then once you get the name, you can head home for a nap before you take her.”

“Will do,” Teddy said as he headed towards the lifts to head down to records. When he made it to the room he was unsurprised to see no one on duty and the doors locked. It was bloody early, after all, but Teddy’s wand to the door with a muttered password had the door unlocking for him and he pushed into the room. It was a small antechamber that led off to a Quidditch stadium-sized room full of records of magical births going back a thousand years, possibly more.

Thankfully, he wouldn’t need to have to search out this new baby’s birth. It would have recorded on the scroll in the front room and the parchment would be waiting to be filed by the clerk later this morning. Teddy moved over to the machine and saw the baby they were looking for straight on top. It listed the mother’s name as Emma Gupta. With that they had a name for the poor woman who had been murdered and the father was… Teddy stared. It was blank.

For a moment his tired mind couldn’t register what he was seeing but then his thoughts clicked together and he realized it meant the baby hadn’t been conceived here, in England, and that the father wasn’t magical.

It didn’t always happen this way. Often times the scroll would be able to name the father, but sometimes a foreign Muggle father wouldn’t register. The mother’s name always, always, appeared, but the father’s… it was less certain.

Emma Gupta… it was a common enough last name, but the first name might suggest she was born in England and he had to find out more. Without being able to locate the father, he was going to have to track down her family and let them know they had the baby.

Teddy scrubbed at his tired eyes and glanced glumly at the stacks that lay hidden behind the door. He’d try once and if he failed, he’d leave it for another of the Aurors to do when they came in.

In theory he knew how to summon the parchment he wanted, the one that would tell him about Emma Gupta, but in practice he had only succeeded once and every other time he’d had to get the clerk to call it up for him.

Teddy put the scroll back down so it could be filed properly, once the baby had been named, and went to face off against the records.

The room was enormous and filled with shelves upon shelves of filed birth and death records. Teddy raised his wand and did the complicated wand motion and then gave it a little flick, just as he’d been shown, before saying “Accio Emma Gupta.”

It wasn’t a simple summoning spell, because honestly that wouldn’t have worked. There could possibly be a hundred Emma Guptas in the room and he’d never know if he had the right one. But somehow the wand movement combined with him focusing on the Emma he wanted would do the trick.

And when nothing happened, he figured it had been a failure like every other time.

He’d actually turned to leave when the scroll came out and smacked him on the back of the head. Teddy tried not to yelp, but he was sure he now had a paper cut on the back of his neck as he turned and caught the paper. He studied it for a moment, his brow furrowed as he looked through the names.

This was going to be interesting. Teddy held his wand to it and made a copy before he left the scroll in the tray for the clerk to file away.

As he left the archives, the clerk, a woman of about sixty with long, curly salt and pepper hair and a kind smile waved to him. “I was wondering who was back there. Did you find everything alright, love?”

“I did, thanks,” Teddy told her as he held up his copy. “The baby on top was dropped at the hospital this morning. We’re trying to find the family so she can be picked up.”

“Very good, then,” the woman said as she moved around to study the parchment. “Hopefully she has a name soon, so I can get this filed. Best of luck locating them.”

“Thanks,” Teddy said as he left and went to pass this mess off.

Emma Gupta had no siblings and no parents. She had grandparents who lived in London and a few cousins spread around the country.

Someone would be sent to speak to the grandparents, likely someone in Hermione’s department, to let them know that Emma had been killed.

Then they could proceed from there.

Teddy went straight home and fell into bed next to his wife, finding baby Ireland nursing in her sleep. He studied his wife and his baby and closed his eyes in grief as he thought of the poor woman who had been found dead on the street, the baby cut from her.

He didn’t think, after that thought had settled in, that he’d be able to sleep, but he was so exhausted he managed to drop off and didn’t wake up until Emma crawled into bed to tell him it was time to get up and take her to cheerleading with Aunt Caroline.

Teddy groaned and stretched and peered through one sleep drenched eye at his oldest child. She was no longer a baby. She was starting to look like a big girl and it was hard to imagine that soon enough he’d be sending her off to Hogwarts.

Well, it wouldn’t be soon, but he was close to halfway there with her. “Come here,” he told her as he pulled her in to cuddle and he kissed the top of her head as she put a hand on his face and rubbed at the stubble there.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“When we have another baby, can I have a brother?”

Teddy grinned and buried his face further into her hair. “I love my girls, though.”

Emma let out a small, impatient sound, that was almost an exact replica of the same noise that Gran Molly made. “Mummy says it’s your job to make the boy and I just wants to know why you haven’t.”

“Well,” Teddy said, trying to wade through the quagmire his wife had neatly dumped him into, “I don’t really have a choice.”

“Mummy said you do.”

Teddy let out a sigh and said, “How about we get curry take away for lunch?”

“Yay!” Emma said, bouncing up. “Let’s go!”

If only all life’s complications could be solved so easily.

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Chapter 103: Chapter 87 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

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Please also consider leaving a review :D


Harry glanced up as Hermione marched into his office, her expression set in stone, and closed the door. She sat and he studied her features, including the lines that were beginning to show around her mouth and nose. It was more noticeable that afternoon due to how tightly she was clearly wound.

“It didn’t go well,” Harry said, not needing to ask the question. Hermione had gone, in person, to let Emma Gupta’s grandparents know that their granddaughter had been killed and her baby was in the hospital. He didn’t know if she’d gone alone, but he assumed not because when he’d offered to go with her, she’d turned him down.

Hermione let out a small huff and shook her head. “They’ve disowned her. They’d disowned her a few years ago when she took up with a man they didn’t approve of and Emma ran, leaving the country. They didn’t even know she was back in England. They want nothing to do with the child and they don’t even know she’s a Squib when they rejected her. When I explained that Rick had seen she was a Squib, they doubled down on being unwilling to take her. I asked for the contact information for family members, but the three in the country wouldn’t take her either.”

It was a sticky problem. Most magical parents did not want a Squib for a child, even if they were a biological child. A thought quickly floated into his brain, wondering if Al and Nat might adopt the baby, but he just as quickly dismissed it. There would be a lot of other people who would be asked because it was their turn to decide.

“Any luck on identifying a father?” Harry asked her, wondering if that would even be possible.

“We’ve asked a few of her friends, ones who have come forward from our appeal to the public, but none of them knew she was back in the country or that she was expecting. We have absolutely no leads to go on,” she concluded, running her hands over her robes to smooth them out. “What about on your end? Any idea how she made it to the hospital?”

“We took Nat over to look at it, but she said a human had to have dropped the baby there, and it isn’t a magical signature she recognizes, so we’re stuck unless she runs across the exact person who did it,” Harry told her with no enthusiasm. “Yet another Crabbe mystery we’re unlikely to solve. I honestly don’t get why someone would kill her to steal the baby and then dump the baby at the hospital. What was the point?”

Hermione shifted in her seat and then said, “Some people are desperate for a baby. It happens, but this had to be a magical someone who was desperate for a baby and who could tell that the baby was about to die.”

“If that’s the case then we have to worry about someone doing this again,” Harry pointed out grimly. “Just what I wanted to hear.”

Harry put it aside later that afternoon as he was going to have dinner with James and Caroline. He needed a good dose of the love his grandsons could give him and he enjoyed the tussle he had with them on the rug. Alex was very into the game, but Asher was only starting to cotton onto the play wrestling.

Rufus the wonder dog tolerated the whole thing, but kept a jaundiced eye on her charges as Harry played and Harry didn’t take lightly that if he did one thing wrong, the dog might just eat him.

“Dinner is ready,” Ginny called from the kitchen as Caroline walked in to pluck Asher up into her arms.

“Come on, Alex,” she said to her son.

“Grandpa come!” Alex told him as Harry rolled over to climb to his feet, something that was getting more difficult as the years moved on.

“I am coming with you,” he told Alex as he took the little boy’s hand and they walked together to the kitchen.

They didn’t discuss anything more than Quidditch, cheer, or the boy’s achievements as they ate dinner. Ginny was nearly done with her Quidditch book that she’d been working on for a few years and they had a publisher ready to go when she was through, but there was some pushback as she was refusing to do the press that was usual for a book launch.

“It’s just not practical,” Ginny told them when James asked her why. “We have security concerns and frankly, I just don’t want to open myself up to anything. I’ve told them they can have one reporter write out questions and I’ll answer them but that’s it.”

“They wanted to send her on a thirty-country tour,” Harry told them with a small grin. “I said go, but she’s not having it.”

“I am not missing out on my grandchildren for three months when I don’t actually care if I sell any of the books,” Ginny said as he tickled under Asher’s chin and the baby giggled merrily.

His grandson’s brown eyes suddenly, and without warning, reminded Harry of the baby still at St. Mungo’s without parents of her own and no family willing to claim her. He forced himself back to the here and now, where he was supposed to be focused. “You do care if they sell, but you don’t care if you make any money.”

Ginny shot him a small smile. “Yes, that’s probably more accurate. Well,” she said with a brighter smile for the children. “I think we have a mango for dessert.”

Alex let out an excited squeal and Asher joined in, even though he was too young to know what it was and had barely started eating solid foods.

The next day ended up being the first good day for the Aurors they’d had in a long, long time, although it didn’t feel like it would be good news at first.

The Muggles had located the baby’s father. Harry had a phone call from the Muggle policeman and phoned him back just as soon as he had the message.

“You found the man?” Harry asked him in astonishment.

“Turns out he is her husband, but they were married in Russia and she hadn’t changed her name,” White told Harry. “He went back to Russia because his father fell ill, but he didn’t want to stay long because his wife was close to giving birth. When he went to their flat and found her gone, he called 999 and reported her missing. We were able to piece it together from there. He’s a wreck,” the older policeman told Harry. “I have the flight records that say he came back just this morning, so I don’t think he could have done it to her personally, but he could have hired someone. He’s asking after the baby.”

“Alright, what’s his name?” Harry asked, ready to write it down.

“It’s Nikolai Petrov, but let me spell it for you,” White told him.

Harry copied it down and told White he’d send a car to pick Petrov up and bring him to be interviewed in London and to see his baby.

“Thank you,” Harry said as they finished up their conversation.

Now he had to see if Nikolai was a murderer or not.

He had one of the Aurors pick the man up in a Ministry car and bring him to London to a Muggle building that was kept by the Ministry for meetings such as this, although usually it was meeting with parents of Muggle-born children.

The moment Harry and Rick entered the room and saw the red, swollen face of the man, he felt his heart clench in sympathy, but he had to be thorough. His hair was a pale shade of brown but his eyes were deeply blue, made even more startling by how red and bloodshot they were from crying. He was probably in his mid to late twenties but it was difficult to tell. “Nikolai,” Harry said as he held out his hand. “I’m Harry Potter.”

Nikolai blinked and his eyes flicked upwards to the faint scar on Harry’s forehead. “Nik… I go by Nik,” he said in heavily accented English. “I… I know who you are.”

Harry glanced over towards Rick who said, “Squib.”

“Yes,” Nik agreed as he pointed to Rick. “Yes, that’s the English word for it. Please,” he said turning back to Harry. “Is… is my baby okay? They said she was, but they’re Muggles and they don’t know magic.”

“Your baby is fine, now,” Harry told him quietly as he took a seat across from the man. “Your wife and baby were poisoned by that poison being spread all around the world.”

Nik’s brow furrowed as he shook his head. “No, not that can’t be. She was not sick when I left a week ago. She was fine, but that poison makes the women sick, yes?”

“It does, yes,” Harry said as he glanced over to Rick, who shrugged. They hadn’t brought Nat along with them because it was quite a safety risk to bring her outside of the Ministry. Now that they knew they could move Nik into the Ministry, they could have Nat examine him.

However, and it was a big however, Nik wouldn’t have been able to Apparate the baby to the hospital.

“Do you know who might want to hurt your wife?” Harry asked Nik.

He watched the man knuckle away another tear before he nodded his head. “Her grandfather said he would rather see her dead than married to me. I think he meant it. I didn’t want to come back to England, but we couldn’t stay in India where we had been living. They weren’t great about her marrying a Squib either.”

Harry nodded slowly and then said, “We will take you to see your baby, but it has to be supervised. We have to make sure you aren’t the one who hurt your wife. I know that’s hard to hear, but””

“No,” Nik shook his head. “I want you to be careful. I’ll do whatever it takes to get my daughter. I’m happy to wait as long as I can see her.”

“Do you have any family who could help you?” Harry asked him quietly. “Do you know anyone in England?”

“My sister and her husband live in Scotland,” Nik told him. “They should be here soon.”

Harry went out and explained to the Aurors that they were to take him to see the baby and then he went back to the Ministry to ask Emma Gupta’s grandparents to come into the Ministry for an interview.

They weren’t able to arrange it until the following day, but the older couple had barely walked into the conference room before Harry knew the pair was guilty. It was so obvious that he didn’t need Nat’s confirmation that it was the grandfather’s magic that was part of the magic to get the baby to the hospital.

They confessed in under an hour. They only wanted the baby to die, but when they’d contacted someone who could get the poison for them, they hadn’t realized that they’d been putting a target on Emma’s head.

“I gave Emma the tea with the poison,” the grandmother told Harry with a defiance in her eyes that chilled Harry to the bone. “But it didn’t seem to be working fast enough. We’d left it late into the pregnancy. We complained to the man who sold us the poison.”

“It was him,” the grandfather told Harry, his lips pinched together. “He tracked her down and killed her. He cut the baby out and left it with… with Emma’s…”

And there, for the first time, the old man faltered.

“When he told us what he’d done, I sent him to make sure the baby was dead,” the grandmother explained, continuing the story. “But he didn’t,” she went on as she turned a glare on her husband. “He took it to the hospital and now we have a Squib for a grandchild, all because she had to marry that filthy Russian Squib.”

Harry was not sure how he kept his temper, but he left the room and let Teddy take over to begin the arrest process on these two psychos and to find out how they were able to buy the poison.

He was going to the hospital to tell Nik he was free to take his daughter home and end the day on a happier note.

~*~

Louis shook his head with a grin as he drank his coffee while Honor finished telling himself, Rick, and Lena the story of her boss at the Apothecary in Diagon Alley. It was nearly ten at night, and they were closing out a Muggle pub near Honor and Lena’s flat, but it was the first chance Rick had had to see Honor in days. Louis didn’t know much of the story, as Rick couldn’t speak about it, but he knew it had been a rough few days based on the look on his friend’s face.

He might not have come to know Rick as he had if it weren’t for Lena needing a flatmate and Honor wanted to get out of her sister’s house. It had made sense for the two to move in together as they had known each other through Al and James’s family for a few years now.

Lily had told Honor she could move in with her and Scorpius in that big house, but Honor was absolutely done living with newlyweds. Well, at least until she was one herself. Louis glanced to Rick who was studying his girlfriend with a soft smile and wondered how long it would be.

He didn’t look over at Lena. He didn’t want to see what was on her face. He still hadn’t managed to find the words to tell her that they couldn’t be together. Every time he tried, something lodged in his throat so he couldn’t speak.

He’d spoken to James about it, and James had unhelpfully asked him why he thought that maybe there was a reason he couldn’t say the words.

And it didn’t help that any time they were getting together after work like this, Louis was included in the group.

Lena drank coffee with him, even if the others had alcohol.

He didn’t want to think about her support there, either.

He absolutely didn’t want to hurt Lena, not for anything. She meant too much to him.

“So then I said,” Honor went on, reaching over to take Rick’s hand, “I didn’t mix them up…”

Louis smiled appropriately, but his heart just wasn’t in the story and he couldn’t concentrate. He stared down at the dregs of his cup and wondered if Lena would still speak to him if he told her that he didn’t have feelings for her.

He was starting to think he couldn’t have feelings for anyone.

He’d been sober a long time now, and the further he moved from his drinking days, the further it felt he moved from the heart and feelings which used to beat wildly and react irrationally and emotionally to life. He just didn’t have that anymore. It felt like everything was numb and Lena was no exception.

He jumped when he felt Lena’s hand touch his for a brief moment. “Sorry, what?”

“You must be ready for bed,” Lena told him with a sad smile. “We were just saying we are ready to turn in.”

“Right,” Louis agreed as they all rose to head towards the door.

“I’ll see them back to their flat,” Rick told Louis.

And for the first time since they’d started meeting up like this months before, Louis shook his head. “I’ll come along. I could use the walk to clear my head, hopefully I’ll sleep better, as well. I sat on my arse all day at work today. I could use the exercise.”

He walked silently with Lena while Rick and Honor walked ahead of them, holding hands and laughing about something else that Louis didn’t catch.

Louis didn’t see the ambush before it was too late, but Rick did. He must have because he reacted several seconds before Lena and well before Louis knew they were in trouble.

From out of nowhere, men in cloaks appeared on the street, surrounding them and firing off spells, all of them aimed towards Rick.

Rick had forced Honor down and put some kind of shield on her as Lena worked whatever Auror magic she’d been taught to help Rick fight off their attackers.

Louis, who knew he was not equipped for this fight, ducked down by Honor and did what he knew was the best plan. He called up his Patronus and sent it for his uncle and his cousin Teddy. Louis considered, for a moment, grabbing Honor and Apparating away, but he knew there was a good chance one of them would be hit when her shield went down. He fired off hex at one man and knew he hit him, but primarily he focused on reinforcing the shield around Honor.

If Honor was protected, Rick would get them through this.

If Honor was hurt… well, it wasn’t something Louis wanted to think about. He shot another hex and hit someone else, but it seemed like the wizards attacking them kept getting reinforcements. As soon as one dropped, four others stepped in to take his place.

Where were the Aurors?!? This sort of magical battle was going to cause one hell of a mess with the Muggles because they were in the middle of a Muggle street! Their only bright spot is that it had been late and the street had been practically deserted.

“No!” Rick shouted and Louis glanced up just in time to catch Lena as she fell back into him, blood spurting everywhere from a wound to her head.

“Lena!” Louis cried out as he heard Rick’s explosive furry and felt the waves of magic washing out from around him. Muggle car alarms from every direction started to shriek violently before they went wonky and slowly faded into silence.

But it wasn’t silent for Louis as he lowered Lena to the ground and started sealing up her wounds using his shaking hands and the magic he’d been made to learn before he’d ever been able to step into a tomb.

Basic magical aid was essential, and he could stop the bleeding. He did stop the bleeding… but her eyes were closed and her breathing labored and she didn’t open them, even when he shouted her name through the haze of fear and blood rushing to his own head as he willed himself not to pass out.

He pushed her bloody hair back away from her face and called her name again. He knew he spoke out loud, even if he couldn’t hear it because he saw Honor shouting next to him, and he couldn’t hear her either. Maybe something Rick had done had damaged his hearing.

He didn’t know.

But he looked down at her pale, slack face, and wished desperately she’d open her eyes and speak to him so he could tell her… what?

And suddenly Louis realized he wasn’t numb anymore. He was terrified, heartsick, and desperately certain he loved her.

And maybe it was too late.

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Chapter 104: Chapter 88 Part ONE

Author's Notes: We are quickly going to end this story. Okay, so by quickly I mean probably another 4 months or so... let's be real. If you haven't already followed me on Face Book on at Paetreon, please do so. It's Sarah Jaune. Patreon has all of my original work and I'll keep you somewhat updated on writing. I'm not sure if I'll continue with fanfics after this story. It's been a beast, and I don't want to lose touch! So go follow me.

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!!!


Chapter 88

“Let me look at you,” Victoire scolded Louis as he sat on an examination bed in St. Mungo’s hospital forty minutes after the explosion.

“I’m fine,” he told his sister, who had rushed in personally to see him when she’d heard he’d been in a fight out on a Muggle street which had resulted in Rick blasting the whole street nearly to bits. Louis hadn’t wanted to be examined at all, but Victoire wasn’t giving him much of a choice. She’d arrived two seconds ago and had immediately dragged him into a room. “Who is watching the girls?” he asked, suddenly remembering that Teddy had showed up on the street.

“Mum is with them,” Victoire told him as she ran her wand over him. “She wanted to come to see you. Be thankful I won that battle.”

Alright, he had to admit he’d rather have his sister than his mother at that moment. His mother was likely going to overreact to what were essentially minor injuries. It was just how she treated her youngest child. His sister healed something and he barely felt it as his mind went back to what he’d realized when he’d been holding Lena on the street. “I love her.”

“What?” Victoire asked sharply as she stopped what she was doing to stare into his eyes.

His blue eyes were a near mirror image of hers and he wondered what she saw when she looked at him. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud… or maybe he had. He needed his big sister just then. He needed her to tell him what to do, because he really and truly didn’t want to screw this up. “Lena… you know how she’s been my friend. How she’s been helping me with staying sober and all that.”

“Yes,” Victoire said quietly as she sat on the bed next to him and took his hand. “Tell me.”

“She’s been… she’s been a strong, steady friend. She’s been there for me when James couldn’t be,” he said and immediately felt guilty even saying it. “I know James has had a lot going on and he has two children. His family has to be his priority, but when I was still drinking, I didn’t know how to get past the fact that I felt like I’d lost my best mate and my cousin. He didn’t want me around when I was drinking because it scared Caroline, which I get,” he assured her hurriedly. “I was an arse. There’s no question about that. But then I finally sobered up, thanks to you, and things were still different… I felt…”

“Lost,” Victoire supplied quietly.

He was relieved she understood and he nodded. “I did feel lost. I wasn’t part of James’ inner life anymore. It was Caroline. It was Alex and now Asher. Lena has been there for me through all of it and although she’s never once said anything or put any pressure on me… I sort of thought maybe she always had a crush on me.”

His sister was quiet for a moment before she asked, “Are you sure that she did or could this be a little bit of arrogance since so many women fall for you?”

Louis felt his throat tighten just a little as he remembered her still form on the ground next to him. “I think… I think she really does care for me. And I think it was even worse than that. I think I kept that in the front of my mind because then I wouldn’t have feelings for her.”

His sister let out a long sigh and shook her head. “Your self-destructive tendencies coming back to get you.”

“Yes, but also no,” Louis told her miserably. “She’s too good for me and I don’t want to ruin what we have.”

“Oh, Louis,” Victoire whispered as she pulled him in for a hug. “That’s for her to decide. That’s not up to you. You can’t only fall in love with people who aren’t going to love you back and you can’t keep trying to keep people away who do truly love you. You’re a good person and you deserve to be happy.”

He really didn’t feel like that was true. “Can you go check on her, please?”

“Yes,” Victoire agreed as she leaned back and kissed both his cheeks.

The wait felt like an eternity and when the door finally opened, it wasn’t Victoire, but James who poked his head in. His cousin’s relief was immediate and James rushed over to hug him in a firm, hard hug. “I came as soon as I heard! Your dad is here, too, but he spoke to Victoire who assured him you’re okay, so he’s gone to check in with Dad. He said he’ll be here in a bit.”

“It’s just scratches on me,” Louis said miserably as James pulled up a seat. “I stayed down with Honor, trying to keep out of the way so Rick could do his thing and Lena”” his voice cracked and James reached over and squeezed his wrist quickly. “She was fighting, too. I knew if Honor was hurt that Rick would lose his mind, so I focused on Honor since she’s the least experienced fighter. I wasn’t even worried about Lena.”

“You called for help immediately and they arrived moments after she was hit. Al brought Nat to the hospital and they went straight to Lena to see if Nat could help her,” James told him quietly.

It made him feel better. It wasn’t a guarantee that Nat would be able to help. There was no coming back from the dead, after all, but if it was some kind of spell damage, Nat might be able to remove it easier than the Healers. Rick had tried, but he wasn’t as good at doing that kind of magic as Nat was. “You should be home,” he said suddenly, realizing how late it was and that James was here with him rather than with his family. Louis scrubbed at his face. “I appreciate you coming, but I don’t want to keep you out! Caroline must be worried about Honor.”

“Honor is already at our house,” James assured him. “Rick sent her to us just as soon as she was cleared to go. She’s safest at our place, especially with Rick being busy as an Auror. I left Caroline and Honor drinking hot chocolate and both of them telling me to come. I wanted to,” he told Louis quickly, “but I also wouldn’t have left if they’d felt unsafe. I knew you’d understand that.”

And just like that, Louis did understand. He understood completely where James was coming from. Caroline was his wife. Honor was his sister-in-law. He had a duty to them that went beyond any other relationship in his life. But he’d still wanted to come.

Louis took a slow breath and finally said, “I’m in love with Lena.”

Then to his utter horror, tears filled his eyes and streamed down his face.

“I know,” James said with calm understanding. “And I’ll wait here with you until we know how she is doing.”

~*~

Nat was utterly spent and didn’t even feel a little bashful about settling herself in Al’s arms so he could hold her up.

They’d saved Lena. She’d been hit by a nasty hex that had to be a variation on a Stinging Jinx. But instead of one sting, it was like the hex was a nasty and pernicious ant that spread its venom all over Lena’s body. Blessedly, she’d been knocked unconscious shortly after being hit by the hex or she’d have been in a tremendous amount of pain. As it was, it had been absolutely maddening for Nat, who had to tackle each knew welt by itself and the damn things kept multiplying! In the end, she’d stolen some of Rick’s magic to finally banish the things, but it had left her fuzzy and dull.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Harry admitted as he stood speaking to Bill, Victoire, Audrey, and Rick.

“But she’s out of the woods,” Victoire said with a long sigh. “I need to go tell Louis. He’s worried sick and he wants to see her.”

“She’s not going to wake for a while,” Audrey reminded her. “Make sure he knows that. She had a concussion from the knock to her head, so I’m keeping her out until that’s fully healed.”

“I’ll tell him,” Victoire promised as she left the room.

Bill sealed the door again and Nat turned her head so her nose, which felt cold, was pressed to the warm skin of Al’s neck.

His arms, which were around her, tightened even more. “We need a blanket,” Al told the room.

Audrey didn’t miss a beat as she snatched one from a shelf and wrapped it around Nat, helping Al tuck it in around her.

“Thanks,” Nat mumbled and that was the last thing she remembered.

When she woke later, very groggy, it was to find herself alone in a bed in the hospital. She blinked and sat up, but the room was fuzzy.

“Hang on,” she heard a voice and realized it was Uncle George.

He lit the lamps and gave her a small smile. His vibrant red hair was touched with silver and the lines around his eyes were even deeper, showing the years of merriment, along with the years of grief. “It’s all hands on deck just now. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay, but I’m hungry,” Nat told him, knowing she needed to get it out there before she became useless.

George rose and brought over a tray she hadn’t realized had been sitting on a table. “Al said you would be, so I’ve been keeping this warm for you. Also, I have some water.”

“Where is Al?” Nat asked, curious and also a little hurt that her husband had abandoned her.

George cleared his throat, but he looked… pleased? Nat couldn’t tell what the older man was thinking. “About an hour after you fell asleep, he was called away to meet someone and that’s when they called me in to wait with you. You’ve been sleeping about five hours now and it’s almost daybreak.”

“He had to meet someone?” Nat asked in confusion. “At the Ministry?”

“No, here at the hospital,” George told her. “Eat up and we’ll move along.”

Nat knew she must still be groggy because absolutely nothing was making sense to her right now. But she ate, knowing that was the best thing she could do, and she drank a bunch of water. When she felt awake and steady, she told George she was ready to go and he handed her the cloak.

They left the small room that was near Audrey’s office and walked down a hall that was often used when babies were brought into the hospital. Nat’s heart sunk. Had another baby been hurt? Why hadn’t they woken her up?! George stopped at a door and it opened before he could knock. Teddy grinned at them and silently ushered them into the room.

Nat came in and scanned the room, spotting Al asleep in one of the rocking chairs with a bundle on his chest. As soon as Teddy had the security in place, Nat pulled off the cloak and wordlessly, Teddy took it from her.

Nat went over to the baby and scanned the little boy. He had almost no hair, but what he did have was light brown and she could see he was healthy. She shot Teddy a confused look and asked quietly, “Didn’t he need to be healed?”

“No,” Teddy told her and at their words Al began to stir. “I’ll leave you three alone. We’ll be right outside.”

She didn’t notice Teddy back out of the room, taking George with him. She watched Al close his large hand around the baby’s tiny back and a tinge of something… some kind of magic passed between Al and the baby, so quickly that she’d have missed it if she hadn’t been focused on them. “Al,” she said quietly, so as not to wake the baby.

He blinked a moment and then he looked up at her and grinned. “Hey, you’re awake. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m good,” she promised as she waited for him to explain why he was here when this baby wasn’t sick. Where were the parents? Were they sick? Was Al on guard duty?

Al stood, carefully holding the baby and motioned for her to sit down. He’d had a lot of experience with his nieces and nephews and it showed with how easily he could move with the baby. “Here,” he said, holding out the baby to her. “Take a look at him.”

Nat did look and she tried to harden herself at the same time. He was a cute baby. Alright, he was a squashed newborn, but he was still beautiful. They were all beautiful in their own way, but none of them were hers, so she couldn’t think too much about it. “He looks healthy. I see nothing wrong with him.”

Al was studying her as she glanced back up at him and the oddest experience came over his face. “Didn’t anyone tell you?”

Nat shrugged helplessly. Then she glanced back down at the baby who had stretched in his sleep and felt her heart melt a bit. The poor baby was in here without his parents. It might make her sad not to have children, but it wasn’t this baby’s fault.

She turned back to Al when he knelt in front of her. He cupped her cheeks and he was grinning. “Leah… he’s ours.”

Nat couldn’t have possibly heard him correctly. “What?”

“He’s ours,” Al told her quietly, joy filling his entire expression. “He was given up for adoption by a Muggle teenage mother. The Ministry went for him as soon as the forms were filled out, which the mother had already done. There weren’t even Muggle parents lined up for him. She hadn’t told anyone she was expecting, she just went to the hospital to have him and she wanted to leave. He’s Muggle-born just like you are. They brought him here to the hospital about an hour after you fell asleep and they came to find me to tell me it’s our turn.”

Nat felt herself begin to tremble all over. Tears of grief and relief and joy and hope and love began to pour down her cheeks. Al bent in closer, holding onto her as she held the baby. It took her a long time to pull together her composure. “He’s really ours?”

“Yes,” Al promised as he kissed her tenderly. He grinned down at the baby and brushed his fingers along his soft cheeks. “I’ve done one bottle and two nappies already, but he’s likely going to want another bottle soon. I’m glad you’re awake for this. I tried to wake you, but you wouldn’t stir.”

All at once she had the horror of thinking about sleeping through her baby’s cries and panic set in. “Al””

“Nope,” Al told her, shutting down her panic. “I will be there and if I’m not there, Polly will be there. You may need to stop healing for a while. I know how you might hate that, but pulling the magic from that many people exhausts you.”

Nat glanced down at the baby and was absolutely captivated by his tiny face. She could see what he would be in every stage and every place. But… “What will we call him?”

“You know my vote,” he reminded her. He’d wanted to discuss it, but she’d flat out refused because they didn’t have a baby yet to name. He’d wanted Willow for a girl and Wyatt for a boy.

And this little one was a boy. She could just… tell. No one had to tell her. She simply saw it. “If you get Wyatt, I get Albus for a middle name.”

Al groaned, but she could tell his heart wasn’t really in the protest. “I guess I can live with that,” he teased as he studied the baby. “Wyatt… welcome to the family.” Then he looked up at her and said, “I’m so glad you are now a mum. You’re going to be the absolute best.”

Nat didn’t think that could possibly be true. She’d been absolutely conked out when the baby had arrived at the hospital. But she was going to try her best. She was going to try to be the absolute best she could be for this baby. She sent a silent message of thanks to the girl who had given birth to him and had taken care of herself enough to get healthy baby into her arms. She would do her best for him always. And Al was right. That might mean she’d have to stop healing women. “Does anyone else know about him?”

“Dad knows, so does Aunt Audrey, along with Teddy and George,” Al told her. “We’ll get him home and then tell everyone. It’s more important to get him safely out of here and then we can celebrate.”

She nodded and focused on the baby again. He began to stir and whimper and she could feel immediately that he was hungry. “Bottle,” she said to Al.

“I’ll make it now,” he told her as he kissed first her lips and then the baby’s forehead. He beamed at both of them. “This is the best day after being one that was pretty terrible.”

“It’s a new day,” she reminded him and wondered if the sun was even up yet.

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Chapter 105: Chapter 88 Part TWO

Author's Notes: Thank you to Arnel for beta’ing! Please do consider joining me on face book or p atreon under Sarah Jaune. I have to put a space between them because the words get censored, so just put them back together! As I’ve said, this story is starting to wrap, so go find my other spaces on the big wide web if you want to keep up with what I’m up to.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment if you did!!

Thank you also to everyone who helped me out on the technical issues for SIYE. It's appreciated!


Louis was barely able to keep himself in the seat next to Lena’s bed as he watched her sleep. Sitting opposite him, to Lena’s left, was her mother, Ruby. It was the first time Louis had met the woman, and Louis didn’t miss the fact that Ruby seemed more than a little skeptical of him. They hadn’t talked much, only Louis filling her in on what had happened when they’d been attacked. She’d been at the hospital for hours, but Louis hadn’t known because he’d been treated for his own injuries and his sister had kept them separated.

He was acutely aware that Ruby wondered why he was still there, waiting for Lena to wake up, but he didn’t know what to tell her. Figuring out he was in love with Lena when it was too late had been a blow. He needed to see her wake up, to see that she was alright… and then what? He wasn’t good enough for her, but he thought he probably could be if she wanted to wait… if she wanted to give him a chance.

He didn’t know if she did or not. She’d never said anything to him about her feelings and maybe he’d been reading it wrong all this time and she didn’t actually want to be any more than a friend to him.

Lena had two older sisters, both of whom had come to check in on her, but both also had families with small children so they hadn’t stayed long. He figured out after meeting all of them that although Lena was quite pretty, she was somewhat dwarfed by the two older sisters who were both beautiful. It was interesting, but beauty wasn’t something that necessarily appealed to Louis. After all, he was beautiful… and what did that matter? It didn’t.

A knock sounded at the edge of the door and he saw his aunt come through, smiling towards Ruby. “I’m going to check on her and if the swelling is completely gone, I’ll wake her up. It may take another hour or two, though, which would be completely normal.”

“Alright,” Ruby said as she continued to hold Lena’s limp hand.

Louis moved aside for his aunt and stood at the end of the bed watching the wand work first, and then to his utter relief, within a minute, Lena opened her eyes and looked straight at him, her expression a little hazy as she focused on first him and then her mother when Ruby let out a choked sob of relief.

“Mum,” Lena said in a hoarse whisper. “I’m okay.”

“She is looking great,” Audrey confirmed as she continued to examine Lena. “She’s going to be a little tired today, but she can go home in a few hours.”

“Is… is everyone okay?” Lena asked hesitantly, meeting Louis’ gaze, asking him.

“Yeah, everyone is fine,” Louis told her, relieved she had her wits about her still after the knock to the head. “You took the worst of it but then Rick flattened the whole neighborhood. Honor didn’t have a scratch on her.”

Lena let out a sigh and closed her eyes. “Okay, I may sleep again.”

Louis waited until his aunt had left the room and then he asked Ruby what she wanted to eat. When she declined, he simply stared at her until she gave him an order he could get from the hospital. He brought her food, neglecting to get any for himself, and told her he was going to go home to shower and change, but then he’d come back so she could do the same.

For the first time since he’d met her, Ruby studied him with something less than distrust and badly disguised hostility. “Why are you doing this?”

Louis couldn’t keep his eyes from drifting to Lena’s pale face. Her black hair, which had grown out considerably in the last year, was a bit of a mess around her thin face. “She’s my friend and I love her. That’s more than enough reason to be here for her and for you,” he told Ruby. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

Although he’d been cleaned up a good bit, he still had blood on his clothes and probably on his skin. He needed a shower.

Maybe food. Odds were good his mother had already left food warming for him at his flat.

But when he arrived home, it was not to find food from his mother, but food from Gran who told him to eat every bite or she’d know. He smiled down at the note and sat down to eat.

Gran Molly would know if he didn’t eat it all, and he loved her for it. He felt loved. His family had come through for him and he couldn’t say no to Gran’s cooking.

After eating, he quickly showered and changed into clean clothes, throwing the old ones in the bin, before heading back to the hospital to find Lena awake again and her sisters there with her.

“I can’t go yet,” Lena told him as soon as he walked in the door. She looked more than a little grumpy about it.

“She nearly fell over when she tried to stand,” Ruby pointed out, trying to be reasonable, but clearly nearing the edge of her patience.

Louis shrugged his shoulders and beamed at her. “Well, then you’re not going, but here I am to keep you entertained.”

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” Lena asked pointedly as she crossed her arms.

“It’s Sunday,” her oldest sister pointed out. He was pretty sure her name was Chloe. He was sure the middle one was called Olivia, but he was only certain on that because it was also his niece’s name. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re okay. We were really worried.”

Lena nodded and her expression fell. “Go ahead and get back home. I appreciate the fussing, but as an Auror I’m going to get hurt.”

Louis saw Ruby open her mouth, clearly to tell her to pick another line of work, but then she closed it again. He knew they’d had that argument more than once because Lena had complained about it bitterly. She hated how much her mother wanted to stop her from being an Auror.

“I can stay if you want to get a little rest,” Louis told Ruby.

Ruby was about to tell him no when Lena piped in. “Yes, Mum, please go home and take a break! I’ll be fine with Louis here.”

“Are you sure?” Ruby asked hesitantly.

Olivia and Chloe stepped in. “Mum, she’s fine and you’ll only be gone for an hour,” Olivia pointed out. She had Lena’s hazel eyes but her hair was a light brown that she had in a short, stylish bob that went well with her tall, thin frame.

Ruby studied her youngest daughter for a moment before she bent down to kiss her and then said, “I’ll be back soon and I’ll take you home with me tonight until you’re fully healed.”

“Okay,” Lena agreed evenly, doing an admirable job of hiding the fact that she didn’t want to go back home with her mother.

As soon as they were gone, Lena closed her eyes and let out a groan. “She’s going to smother me.”

“Maybe,” Louis agreed as he went to sit next to her. He hesitated only a moment before he took her hand, which had her eyes shooting open in surprise. He knew he wasn’t hiding any of his worry. “You were seriously hurt, Lena. It was really scary. We’re all going to fuss.”

Her brow rose at that. “You’re going to fuss?”

He smiled then as he studied her hand and traced a finger along the veins on the back of her hand. “Yeah, I’m going to fuss. When I made it home, I found my Gran had left dinner out for me under a warming spell. When you’re loved, people fuss.”

She sucked in a small breath and he didn’t look up from her hand. He didn’t want to see what she was thinking, not just yet.

“Uh…” she cleared her throat. “Tell me more of what happened.”

Louis didn’t want to think about it, but he knew it was going to help her to hear of everything again. If it was a blank to her, it would be scarier. Also, he wanted to tell her now while her mother wasn’t there to hear the details.

When he finished, she was silent and he finally looked up at her to see her troubled expression. “I’d have been dead without Rick.”

“We’d have all been dead without Rick,” Louis pointed out quietly. “That was not a fight we were going to win. We might have escaped, but we weren’t going to win.”

Her fingers tightened and she grasped onto his hand. “Thank you for waiting here for me.”

“Of course,” he said, knowing it didn’t convey any of what he wanted to say. But there would be time.

The door opened and his aunt came back in, this time with a bigger grin. She shut the door and sealed it, locking everyone out.

“What’s up?” Louis asked her curiously.

“I was just given permission and Al wanted it passed along,” she told them. “Also, that’s why he hasn’t come to see you since Nat healed you.”

“Okay?” Lena said, clearly as confused as Louis.

Audrey let out a small laugh. “Al and Nat were able to adopt a baby. They picked him up today, and he’s at home with them now. They’ve named him Wyatt.”

“Wow,” Lena said at the same moment Louis said, “Woah!”

This was huge. He knew how much Al and Nat were looking forward to becoming parents, but this was still very sudden. “That’s good, then,” Louis said. “It’s good, right? Is the baby healthy?”

“He’s absolutely perfect,” Audrey promised happily. “I’m so glad for them! I’m just so glad!” She let out one last happy sigh and then turned to Lena. “Well, let’s check you over, and then I want you to have at least two days at home in bed. If you have any more dizzy spells, you can’t go to work. You have to be forty-eight hours out from a dizzy spell before you can return to desk duty, and then a week after that you can go back to active duty.”

Louis desperately wanted to offer Lena refuge from her mother at his house, but it wasn’t done. It simply wasn’t done. They had to be married in order for him to do that but even still, it would hurt her mother’s feelings and he didn’t want to get on Ruby’s bad side… not with what he wanted from Lena. Even if he and Lena were never more than friends, he didn’t want her mum to think badly of him.

He hadn’t always been the best behaved. In fact, he’d behaved appallingly, including taking advantage of people who were vulnerable. He had resolved to do better and he was going to do just that.

“I’ll come visit you after work every day,” Louis promised. “I’ll bring you a curry from that place you like tomorrow.”

“You better,” Lena told him as she submitted to another exam by Audrey.

~*~

Al finished putting baby Wyatt’s nappy on him and brought him over to Nat so she could tuck him against her skin. Aunt Audrey had told them to keep the baby against their skin as much as they could for the next several months to help with bonding and even after only a week with the baby, they both knew that was his favorite way to sleep. They took turns having him against them, but he seemed to favor Al for overnight and Nat for the naptimes.

Nat was attempting to breastfeed him. Nat had so desperately wanted to try to breastfeed him that Audrey had agreed to try, even though she was extremely concerned it could negatively affect Nat’s health. To their relief, the lactation potion hadn’t done anything negative and it had worked, to some extent, but Wyatt still needed a few bottles through the day to get him through. It was possible her body would catch up soon, but if it didn’t, he was still getting that bonding time with her. It made her sleep and eat more, but she could sleep and eat as much as she needed to because she was not going back to work any time soon. Just one week with their new baby and his wife was absolutely smitten and unwilling to leave the newborn.

Al climbed into the bed next to her and watched as she latched him on to feed him. It was such a beautiful sight to him and he knew he’d never grow tired of it. All these months of waiting… everything was worth it.

Wyatt was the calmest baby Al had ever met. As soon as his needs were met, he calmed straight down. He didn’t know if he’d keep this chill personality, but it was a blessing right now as both of his parents had to learn to be parents with almost no preparations. They’d talked about it, of course, but they hadn’t done anything to get ready for a baby. It had been too painful for Nat, who didn’t want a cot or nappies sitting around unused.

Thankfully his mother had been able to quickly gather everything they needed.

Nat glanced over and he smiled, leaning in to kiss her. “Are you okay?”

“Polly is bringing up food,” Nat said with a small smile. “I’m good. I’m really…” her eyes fill and he understood exactly what she couldn’t say.

They were both so thankful to have their son. He was theirs. It already felt completely real and as though there was no question that he’d always been meant to be theirs.

Al was so grateful to the girl who had given them this gift and he really, desperately, wanted to thank her, but he knew he couldn’t. He’d asked his dad about finding her, maybe making sure she had money for the Muggle uni, but his dad didn’t think it was going to be possible.

“Knock, knock,” Al’s mother said from the doorway and just behind her was Nat’s mum, beaming.

“Mum!” Nat said, the shock in her voice mirroring Al’s. He hadn’t thought Nat’s parents would be able to get here for another week or more.

“I couldn’t wait,” Julienne Parker told her as she came through and gave Nat a hug and a kiss. “Oh, he’s just beautiful! Look at those little hands!” She beamed and then laughed as she said to Al’s mum, “You always forget how little they are!”

“Every single time,” Ginny agreed as she sat next to Al and patted his leg. “One minute they’re so little you can hardly believe they’re real, and the next they’re towering over you.”

Al shot her a bemused glance, but then turned back to his son and realized that yeah, someday that was going to be true. He didn’t know if his son would be taller than him or not. Al was a fairly tall man now, but he knew for certain his son would tower over his mother. Nat was so tiny.

It didn’t matter. His son would be whatever he would be, and it was Al’s job to love him and support him towards wherever his path was going to take him.

Polly came in a moment later with food and Al helped Nat eat a bit, grinning when she spilled some crumbs on the baby.

He took the tray down when Nat was finished and found his dad and Curtis in the kitchen. “She’s nearly done nursing him,” Al said after he gave his father-in-law a hug. “She’s really glad you’re here. We both are.”

“This is exactly what she wanted,” Curtis told him, his eyes focused on the stairs for a moment before turning back to Al. “You were who she wanted and I knew… I always knew she wanted to be a mother. She always loved the babies and the little children, wherever we were. Thank you for helping her to her dreams.”

Al felt the pleasure of his words of gratitude, but it was his dream. “I wanted it, too. She told me when we were… I think we were fifteen and it was exactly what I wanted, too. I wanted it with her and I wanted this. I didn’t know we’d be adopting, but I am so, so thankful that we have Wyatt. He’s our son and we wouldn’t have him if we’d been able to go about this another way. I wouldn’t want to miss out on having him.”

He had another full week off of work, but with Lena only now just back and on desk duty, they didn’t have a lot of spare Aurors running about the place and things were always heating up.

Al hadn’t ever been exactly thankful to have Rick running about England when he’d first arrived, but just now he was very glad. Rick could keep up with a lot of the work load while Al and Lena were off and he was a decent stand-in for Nat.

When he tucked Wyatt in against his chest that night, he was tired but also completely wide awake. He had no idea how that was possible, but he thought it might be that he wanted to soak in every minute with his son before he had to get back to work.

“I know you love your job and you want to get back to it,” Nat whispered, almost as though she was reading his mind, “but I’m going to miss you being home with us.”

He glanced over towards her, loving her so much that it was a physical ache. “I like my job, but I love you. You want this job,” he said, slowly rubbing his hand up and down their baby’s back. “So, I’ll do the paid work and you can do this.”

She smiled slowly. “Yeah, this is what I want. I feel guilty about not being able to heal anyone, but this is what I wanted.”

“Don’t worry, Rick is doing okay in your place,” Al told her. “He’s not as good as you are, but he’s doing alright and he’s getting better.”

It was true. Rick wasn’t as intuitive of a healer as Nat was, but he was arguably more powerful and with no other options, Rick was quickly making progress in healing the women. They weren’t better, but after several sessions over several days, Rick was managing to get most of the poison out of them. Al was fairly certain he’d have it in another few weeks.

It wasn’t a once and done thing, like with Nat. She healed a woman and the woman and the baby were healed. Rick healed them, then did it again the next day… and the next. Typically, by the fourth day all the poison was gone.

But unlike Nat, Rick didn’t get exhausted. He had so much magic and energy to spare, he could keep going when Nat would have had to stop.

Rick had sent them an owl congratulating them on the baby and telling Al to take his time, that he’d cover things until he was back. Al sent him a note back thanking him and telling him he’d do the same whenever Rick needed it.

No, he hadn’t wanted to be a team mate with Rick when he’d first showed up a few years ago, but now he was immensely grateful to have him.

~*~

Crabbe studied the Daily Prophet and the headline that said Albus and Natalie Potter had welcomed a new baby to their family via adoption. She grinned, certain that the Potters were livid that this private information had made it into the public sphere, but that was their lot in life and she could only be thankful. They rarely had mention in the paper, and she was certain someone was going to be on the end of Harry Potter’s ire.

There was no photograph to go along with the story, but she didn’t need a photo. She’d seen what the weakling wretch that the Potter welp had married. She was definitely their weakest link in the Potter clan. She would be the easiest to kill… if Crabbe could get her hands on her and that was proving to be nearly impossible. The Potters kept the girl under guard at all time and despite paying an exurbanite amount of money to many men, they hadn’t managed to catch a single sight of her.

Killing Natalie Potter would not be revenge against Potter, though. No, that would be payback against her father and the fact that he had alerted Potter to the fact that she was still alive.

They knew approximately where Albus lived. They’d recently purchased a new home and she’d been able to get the records on the property. Unfortunately, by the time she had the information they had the house under the Fidelius Charm and they’d been able to grab them.

Slowly, she lowered the paper and looked out the window which reflected her face dimly in the fading light. Her preparation for this moment was working. Potter might have wanted to outlive her, striving to simply survive her reign of terror, but she’d seen to it that she would outlive not only Potter but his grandchildren.

She would have her revenge on generations to come and it would be sweet.

It wouldn’t be death for most of them. Death was a release, one Crabbe didn’t have for herself. She had to suffer everyday with memories of what he did to her… the thoughts of losing her son.

No, most of the Potters were going to live. They wouldn’t live well. They would always live in fear. They would always live restricted and without freedom.

And it would go on and on and on, until Potter’s great-great-grandchildren were gone.

Crabbe would be able to see to it personally. She smiled at her reflection. She didn’t care that she now looked twenty. Her looks were meaningless to her.

But it was the proof she needed that her time spent learning all she could from many, many wise women all around the world.

She was going to be a thorn in the Potter line for centuries.

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Chapter 106: Chapter 89 Part ONE

Author's Notes: Thank you Arnel for beta'ing!

Please consider either leaving a review or go join me on patreon/facebook (Sarah Jaune). I post there every other week with original work. Thank you for your support!


Chapter 90

They were setting new traditions, for which Teddy was extremely thankful. They’d had everyone together at Lily’s place for Christmas, because her house was the biggest, but now it was January and they were all going to take turns rotating between houses for a family dinner for whomever was available. It was nice to set special occasions for Lily’s house and certainly Lily liked to throw the parties, but it wasn’t fair for her to have to shoulder all the meals.

So, they were splitting it between everyone who had a house. He and Victoire had taken the first dinner for January because it was both Emma and Ireland’s birth months. His oldest was six and the youngest was now a whole year.

“What else?” he asked as he, Teeny, and Victoire worked in the kitchen while the girls played in the playroom with Claire supervising. Rose and Andrew had taken a weekend long holiday over to France, just the two of them, and Claire was staying with Teddy and Victoire while they were gone. Rose’s parents would have happily taken them, but Claire had asked to stay with the Lupins because she’d have someone to play with. Apparently, Hugo wasn’t nearly as much fun as his four girls. To be fair, Hugo had started his Auror training so he was busy and exhausted all the time. Teddy was glad to have his younger cousin on the team and he was finding the young man to be smart and steady. In places he lacked talent, he made up for them in hard work and diligence. He was very smart, capable, and analytical and he knew it was going to be an asset to the Aurors.

“Start on the sprouts,” Victoire told him as she pushed a piece of her blonde hair off her face. She was dressed in these tight black pants that her mother had found in a Muggle shop and a plum colored top that molded nicely to her body. The pants had a funny name the Muggles used that Teddy couldn’t quite remember, but he didn’t need to know the name. He only knew he very much liked the look of them and he’d asked his mother-in-law to pick up more the next time she was in London shopping. “Focus, Teddy!”

He jumped when he realized he’d been focused… but not on the sprouts. He shot her a grin. “I am focused.”

She waved the peeling knife at him. “Sprouts!” Teeny giggled. She was a fully grown elf now and she had a certain elf she liked to visit. He worked at the Ministry. Teddy didn’t know where that would go, but he liked that she was happy.

They had dinner well in hand by the time the family started to roll in. He hugged Gran and took Poppop Arthur’s hand for a hard shake before taking their coats. Most of the older generation had arrived before the ones with small children started to trickle in, but that was to be expected. It took a lot more work to get the kids out of the house than the adults.

He hugged and cuddled babies as first James’s family arrived with Honor and Rick in tow, and then Fred’s and then Lily’s. Lorelei reached for him from Scorpius’s arms and he plucked the little girl up, snuggling her in for a kiss on her soft, red curls. She had the most intense, silvery blue eyes he’d ever seen on a child and he hugged her tight, knowing even now she saw too much for someone her age.

Ireland ran straight for him and he bent and picked her up so she could babble at her cousin. They were just about three months apart in age and already they were chatting away at each other in a language only the two of them could understand.

Sometimes they included Asher in their conversations, but sometimes they didn’t. Asher, who was also a year, gravitated toward George and Eva’s son, Jonah, who was only eight months old… but also walking. He’d started cruising at Christmas and now he was up to full on sprints.

He watched Asher and Jonah run towards Rufus the wonder horse and shook his head at the dog’s patience.

“I can’t believe he’s already walking,” Scorpius commented as he helped Lily out of her coat. “They’re in for some serious trouble,” he said on a laugh.

Ireland had begun to walk, but she wouldn’t walk if someone would carry her and often times Emma was more than happy to haul her around. “They’re all growing up quickly,” Teddy agreed. “Come in and get a beer. Lily, do you want some wine?”

“No, I’ll just get some water,” she told him with a sweet smile. “I’ll see if Victoire needs any help.”

Ginny came over with Harry and they each took a baby from him, carrying them over to where Asher and Jonah were playing. He didn’t see Alex, so he assumed the boy had already scooted off to the playroom where Claire was still holding court. He’d have felt bad about asking her to do so, but she so obviously enjoyed being the boss of all the little kids that he let her have her reign.

“How’s it been?” Teddy asked Scorpius as there was a quick knock at the door and Louis opened it, followed by Lena. This was another new change to their dynamic. Louis had asked for Lena to be let in fully and so she had been. Now she was part of their security and Louis brought her to family gatherings when she could come. They weren’t together, although Teddy knew that’s what his brother-in-law wanted, but he could still see the shy wonder on Lena’s face at having been allowed past all the security measures to hang out with them.

She’d get over it soon enough.

“It’s going well,” Scorpius said as he grinned at Louis and Lena. “How are you two doing?”

“Fine,” Lena said as Louis said, “Good.”

“Who isn’t here yet?” Scorpius asked.

“Just Al and Nat and the baby,” Teddy told him, “Roxy is working but will be here in an hour, Rose and Andrew are in France, and Molly and Brayden are having lunch with his parents for their anniversary, but will be here when they can.”

“So, we have almost the full crew then,” Scorpius said with a grin as they began to move to the door. Before they’d made it even five feet, it opened and they turned to see Al and Nat coming in, the new baby in Nat’s arms and Al’s arm around her, keeping her steady.

“There they are,” Teddy said with a laugh as he moved over and helped keep Nat steady while Al extracted her from her coat. “How is he doing today?” he asked, peaking into the soft, thick royal blue blanket to peer at baby Wyatt.

“Good,” Nat said as she beamed down at her son. “He needed to eat and a new nappy just as we were about to leave.”

“That’s why we’re always late,” Teddy assured her with a grin. He didn’t offer to take the baby, although he would have been happy to. Nat was still a brand-new mother and he knew she felt the need to hold the baby most of the time. Victoire had speculated that it might be because she hadn’t had the experience of a pregnancy, but Teddy suspected that Nat would have been that way even if she had given birth. She’d been longing for, dreaming for, and hoping for this baby for years now and she wasn’t willing to give up moments except to Al. “Come sit down. Do you need some water, Nat?”

“Yes, please,” she agreed as he led her over to a big stuffed chair and came back with water.

Everything was going very well. They would eat dinner, have cake and ice cream, and after all the children were tucked in, he was going to peel his wife out of those very nice, tight pants that molded perfectly to her very pretty”

“Earth to Teddy,” Harry said, grabbing his attention. He had Olivia in his arms, her head rested on her granddad’s shoulder and two fingers in her mouth.

Teddy smiled for Harry, but focused on Olivia. “You okay, Livvy?”

She nodded, but turned her head into Harry’s neck. “She wanted to be held,” Harry told him, rubbing a hand along her back. “Did you hear what I asked you?”

“I completely missed it,” Teddy told him with a smile. “What’s up?”

“Victoire said to call everyone to the tables, we’re ready to eat.”

If he weren’t an Auror, Teddy would have missed the look that Nat shot Victoire when she finally saw his wife. It was a look that made his heart flip straight over in his chest because it was one he’d seen nearly two years before, one hot, summer day.

But he didn’t say anything and neither did Nat when she caught his eye and he shook his head.

Later. It could be discussed later.

When Molly and Brayden arrived, he was thankful he’d done just that because after cake and ice cream, when the kids were bouncing off the walls and the adults were cleaning up, Molly announced she was pregnant and due in early August.

They toasted the new baby and he kept quiet until he had a moment to pull Nat away from everyone, just to confirm it.

“She’s pregnant?” he asked her quietly, knowing she’d know he meant Victoire.

Nat’s mouth flattened into a thin line that he realized was her trying very hard not to laugh. “Twins. Identical again, but she’s very early on.”

Well.

He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Alright, I’ll let her know later,” he told Nat as he bent and kissed her cheek. “I appreciate the heads up.”

He was in a daze for a good ten minutes as the thought of twins, again, ran through his mind, but the bottom line was he loved his children and he was going to be very happy with two more.

When they finally had everyone settled down, Teddy did peel his wife out of her very fine pants and loved her slowly and tenderly, thinking of just how much she’d given him over the years.

After, when they lay together, skin to skin, he told her. It wasn’t every day a man was able to tell his wife she was pregnant and he was going to savoir the moment.

His wife was quiet for almost a minute before she snorted out a laugh. “You know, I had a dream last night that I was pregnant with kittens.”

“Come again?” he asked, sure he couldn’t have heard her correctly.

“I had a litter of kittens and the girls were so thrilled. Dreams are weird. I’m glad it’s just two more babies.” She tipped her head up to grin at him. “Six children, Teddy.”

“Yeah,” he said as he pressed his mouth to hers. “It’s going to be fun.”

~*~

“What has she done now?” Harry asked Teddy as he took the parchment his godson handed him as he strode into the room. It was almost the end of January and the temperatures outside were absolutely frigid. They were looking at an average all time low for London that year if it kept up.

“She’s set off two explosions,” Teddy told him grimly. “One was near Rose and Andrew’s place, which could have been a Muggle issue, but we investigated because it was within half a mile of their home. That was yesterday. Today, she set off an explosion within half a mile of James and Caroline’s house.”

“What?” Harry asked as he jumped to his feet. “Are they alright?”

“They’re fine,” Teddy assured him, but Harry knew the anxiety over his son and his family wasn’t going to go away until he saw them in person. “I checked in with Caroline. James was already at work but he’s going to get home as soon as he can. She and the boys are fine. Honor stayed home from work and Ginny went over there, as well. The house is protected. Even if she’d set the explosive on their doorstep, it couldn’t have done anything.”

He let out a long sigh and then said, “Alright, tell me about the explosions.”

The next day they had an explosion near Molly and Arthur’s place. The day after that, it was near Ron and Hermione’s home. The day after that, it was outside of Harry and Ginny’s home.

It made it to every single family member except Lily and Scorpius. Then the bombings stopped.

“Either she doesn’t know where Lily and Scorpius live,” Harry muttered as he skimmed through the reports, “or she’s trying to lull us into a false sense of security there and make us think Lily’s home is completely secure.”

“It could be either or none of those things,” Teddy said wearily as he dropped into the chair closest to him at the conference table with a long sigh.

Teddy’s house had been targeted the week before and they’d actually been able to hear the blast from inside the protection. It had scared Harry’s granddaughters, which left him feeling enraged and helpless.

They’d set up surveillance around the houses, but a half-mile radius around a house was a lot of ground to cover and they hadn’t been able to spot anything.

But things had been quiet now for four days and he had to hope this was just a show from her.

She was telling him that she knew where everyone was, except perhaps Lily, and maybe she was having them watched.

They had been driving to dinners at each of the houses, but from here on out they’d all need to use the Floo and that meant leaving the dogs at home. It wouldn’t make Caroline or Lily happy, but they had to be cautious.

It was not easy taking an infant through the Floo, but he and Ginny had found that strapping the baby up in a carrier did make it significantly easier.

Someone would have to go to Teddy’s to help get all the girls through.

This was turning into a logistical nightmare and he felt like they were all becoming prisoners in their own homes. Caroline hadn’t stopped teaching at the cheer gym and Emma still went for classes. Several of the women in his family worked, of course, but most of them had to take extreme measures to ensure their own safety.

He heard a knock at the conference room door and looked over to see Hermione. “Can I speak to you?”

“Sure,” he said as he nodded his head to Teddy. “Just me or can he stay?”

“Teddy’s fine,” she said as she closed the door and leaned back against it. She looked simply worn out. She’d had her own home bombed, as well as Rose’s, and the Muggle press were all over the bombing of a duke’s estate. “We’ve had word that a mysterious illness has hit one of the African countries.”

“Alright,” Harry said as he gestured to a chair and they all sat to hear it. She wouldn’t be telling them this if it wasn’t relevant.

She took a deep breath and grimaced. “It’s in Kenya, but it’s spreading. It’s causing boils to form on people. The Muggle doctors were at a loss, so magical Healers were sent in and it’s from a magical bug that shouldn’t be able to live in Africa.”

“A… bug?” Harry asked slowly. “Like an insect?”

“An insect,” Hermione agreed. “I contacted Rolf Scamander and he and Luna are already there. Thankfully their children are at Hogwarts because the bugs are multiplying rapidly. They’re supposed to only be found in a small pocket of the rainforests of Bolivia. There is a specific magical fruit that they eat to live and it’s what makes them toxic. They don’t kill people, but the boils are very painful and can take months to go away, even with magical treatments.”

“How did she get them to live in Africa?” Teddy wondered, asking the same question Harry had.

Hermione spread her hands wide, which was the answer they always had about how Crabbe did anything. “We are trying to contain them. It’s become an international effort with the Kenyan magical government because they understand just how vital it is to stop this quickly. We’re sending in resources and we can hopefully get it contained. I just wanted you to be aware that she may spread it to other places.”

Harry let out a long sigh. Just what they needed… more problems.

He went home to his wife and held her tight. “I just feel like we can’t catch a break.”

“I agree,” she said quietly as they swayed together in the kitchen. “We just have to keep rolling when things are unsteady.”

~*~

James studied his brother as Al held his son, Wyatt, and marveled at just how easily this seemed to be for Al. Granted, he had a lot of practice with nieces and nephews, but it still made James smile to watch.

The men, James, Al, and Scorpius, were sitting together in Al and Nat’s living room while Alex, Asher and Lorelei played in the rug with some toys that Al had dug out of their parents’ attic. Teddy and Victoire were supposed to bring his girls over for an impromptu Valentines dinner, but just as Teddy made it home from work, Amelia began throwing up so they’d bowed out.

The ladies were in the kitchen, but not cooking. Polly was cooking and she’d told them all to sit and enjoy some time while the men played with the children.

“It’s weird to think that we’re here,” Al said as he studied the kids. “We were all kids ourselves just yesterday.”

“It does feel like it’s been moving faster and faster,” Scorpius agreed as he reclined back in his seat. “Lily is starting to make noises about having a second, but then she has a night where Lorelei doesn’t sleep because she’s having visions, and she changes her mind.”

James thought about his baby sister, who was still a baby herself at only nineteen, alright, soon to be twenty, and shook his head. It was easier thinking of Al having just had his first baby. But Lily and Scorpius were good parents and they were in a rough place with their daughter. “How has she been?” James asked as he studied his niece. She was playing with the boys, but she was also playing off on her own. She’d brought along a doll and she moved between the doll and what the boys were doing with blocks.

“It’s been a rough week,” Scorpius admitted as his expression fell. It had to be so difficult to watch his child suffer when he couldn’t do anything about it. “We had Rick come over and he was able to get the prophecy out of her. It was almost plaguing her. It was nonsense, too, but Rick took it to the Ministry anyway. Whatever she was seeing, it didn’t sit well with her, but she couldn’t express it.”

She wasn’t talking in words yet. She had a few simple words, like Mumma and Daddy and dog, but she couldn’t yet communicate what pictures were going through her mind on a regular basis.

“I’m sorry Nat can’t help,” Al told him quietly. “She feels badly about it.”

“No,” Scorpius waved that off. “She was always fragile, Al. We’ve always known that. Rick does an okay job at it. When he shows up now, Lorelei knows she’s going to get relief and she’s almost pushing them into him. It’s going okay. He’s just busy so sometimes it can take him a day to get over to us. It’s not Nat’s fault, and if we didn’t have either Nat or Rick in our lives, she’d have been forced to suffer.” Scorpius closed his mouth and shook his head, clearly overcome with emotions.

Lorelei stood and walked over to James with her doll. “Thank you,” he said as he took the baby doll from her. She frowned at him, scrunching up her nose and shaking her head until he held the doll correctly, then she climbed into her father’s arms and hugged him before settling into his lap.

Alex and Asher hadn’t noticed their cousin’s desertion of them and toppled the block tower town while yelling ‘crash’.

Lorelei pointed to Wyatt, then stuck her fingers in her mouth and said, “beebee.”

“Yes, he is,” Al agreed. “Do you want to hold him, Lorelei?”

She made a sound that was almost a yes, as she scrambled out of Scorpius’ lap and went to sit next to Al. He pulled a pillow up next to her small body and then set Wyatt’s head on the pillow with the rest of his body in her arms. She started to talk to the baby and she beamed at all of them.

“You’re brave,” James told him with a wry smile. “I’d never have let Asher hold a baby.”

“She told you off for holding her doll in the wrong way,” Al pointed out.

James couldn’t help but laugh. It was true.

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