The Fall of the Successor
Chapter 1 Homecoming
It was over, training at least, and she was finally going home. Home… Just the thought of seeing her family and friends again put a smile on her face. Yes, Captain Lilian Potter was going home.
It had been four and a half years since she had hugged her family goodbye and Apparated to Fort Hell, as her training class had so lovingly named it. She hurried and finished packing her things. She was not about to waste one minute of the month she had with her family before she left on her first assignment. With the last of her belongings packed, she put a Locomotor Charm on her trunk and walked out of her tent for the last time. Her fellow trainees called out to her and waved their goodbyes. She answered them all with a smile on her face.
At the Apparation point she saluted her trainer, Major Ghost. "You don't really want to leave, Blue, now do you?" he asked as he returned the salute and handed her the travel authorizations and briefing material for her upcoming assignment, then pointed his wand at her trunk and sent it on ahead to wait for her at Arrivals.
"No offence, Major Ghost, but if I never had to see your ugly mug again it would be too soon," she answered with a smile. Major Ghost was a short man, only 5'2" in his boots, and had a drooping, hound dog face. He had told his training class on their very first day, "By the time you leave here you'll be so sick of my ugly mug you'll want to hurl," and with that he had launched into a speech about the importance of why they were there and his expectations.
"No offence taken, Blue. You be good while you're home, you understand?"
"I wouldn't dream of being anything else," she said, adding her famous fallen angel smile. "It's my brothers you should worry about." She saluted him again, turned on her heel, and vanished. It was close to midnight when she arrived at the London headquarters and the place was almost deserted. A tired-looking old woman dressed in a black uniform was sitting at the Arrivals counter.
"Name?" the old woman asked when Lily reached the counter.
"Captain Potter, Lilian Amelia."
"Travel authorizations?" Lily handed her a sheet of green parchment. "Everything seems to be in order. Sign here," said the woman, pointing to an empty line on the clipboard in front of her. When Lily had signed her name, the woman smiled, pointed her wand at a trunk, which then moved over to sit at Lily's feet, and said, "Welcome home, Captain." Lily couldn't help but smile.
She thanked the woman, used a Shrinking Charm on her trunk so that it fit in her pocket, and walked out into the crisp December air. She checked her watch. It was Christmas Day and her family would be excited to see her. She had been allowed to write home about a month ago to inform her family of her arrival. Now, as she reached Grimmauld Place with its thick dusting of fresh snow, she stopped and thought back over everything that had happened since she left Hogwarts for the last time.
…
1 June 2022
Merlin! Mum is going to kill me! It was all she could think about. At seventeen, Lily was, as her family had always joked, a collage of people she loved. She'd gotten her Uncle Ronald's height, her mother's long strawberry locks and willowy figure, her father's eyes and Quidditch skills, her Aunt Hermione's brains, and her knack for mischief from her uncles, Fred and George. She thought there might be something in there from her uncles, Bill and Charlie, but figured her four brothers had gotten to whatever it was first and left none for her.
Her family didn't talk about Uncle Percy very often. It was still a sore subject even all these years after the Great War had ended. Right now, she had more important things on her mind than genetics.
Returning home from her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she knew her mother would be positively furious that her youngest child and only daughter had not only accepted a job, but with the Ministry of Magic no less. Plus, she would be living in the US for at least the first two years while she went through training. She could almost picture the scene that would unfold when she told her family.
Her father could go one of two ways. He could sulk and be quietly angry or, he could tell her congratulations, wish her the best of luck, and be quietly angry. Either way, he would be mad. He hated the Ministry.
Her Aunt Hermione would be slightly miffed that she hadn't taken the job of, as Lily called it, 'resident bookworm', at the Quin Friary, which housed one of the Wizarding world's largest collections of books and was one of the few remaining places where people could come from all over the world and study. It certainly wasn't her fault she got perfect scores in EVERY subject, now was it? Nor was it her fault that she hated looking like a know-it-all and therefore refused to become one of their resident experts.
Uncle Ron would probably have her committed at St. Mungo's because she had turned down the position of Seeker for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch Team. In the area of Quidditch, she had followed in her father's footsteps. She was only the second person to join a house team in their first year in over a century and had played as Seeker, though she was skilled at the other positions as well. She was sure her uncle would say that only someone who was mental would pass up an opportunity like this. The reaction she dreaded the most, however, was her mother's.
Standing at only 5'7", Ginevra Potter was a dwarf compared to her children, but if you got her really mad she made a dragon look like a Pygmy Puff. She could even hear her mother's roar now. "LILIAN AMELIA POTTER, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? HOW COULD YOU EVEN CONSIDER WORKING FOR THE MINISTRY, ESPECIALLY AFTER WHAT THEY HAVE PUT THIS FAMILY THROUGH? ON TOP OF THAT, YOU GO FOR ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS JOBS KNOWN TO WIZARD KIND. I THOUGHT I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT!" At this point her Dad would gather her Mum close and try to comfort her while she cried.
Now, looking out the window of the Hogwarts Express for the last time, she resigned herself to telling her family about her decision tomorrow. Tonight was for celebrating. The youngest child had graduated.
"Lily?" asked the boy sitting across from her. She snapped out of her musings to find her two best friends staring at her. One was a freckle-faced boy of seventeen with the unmistakable Weasley shock of red hair. This was Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron's youngest son. They had been born within minutes of each other and had been thick as thieves their whole lives. The third occupant of the compartment was a brown haired boy the same age and height as his two best friends. Andrew Dukes had come into their lives on that first train ride to Hogwarts. And they had all become instant friends. Around school they had been referred to as 'the trio' by students and teachers alike because they were always together. Now as this last train ride came to an end, they would each begin a new chapter in their lives. While they would still be friends forever, they would be miles apart. The farthest they had ever been from each other since the very beginning.
"Yes, Clayton?" she replied to her cousin. "You know everyone's going to be mad when you tell them right?"
"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm going to wait until tomorrow when everything settles down to tell Mum and Dad. I'll tell the others once I get Mum and Dad to understand the reason I chose what I did. Don't worry; it won't interfere with tonight's festivities. You'll still get to gorge on Gram's five star cooking."
"I appreciate that," he said with a grin, "but I was just going to make sure you know that I support you two-hundred percent."
"If you need any help talking to your folks, let me know," said Andrew. "I could come over for moral support."
"Thanks both of you, but I need to do this on my own. There will actually come a day when you can't fight my battles with me, so I guess I'd better get started on fighting them by myself." They sat in the silence for a moment thinking back over the battles they'd fought during their time at Hogwarts.
"Do you remember that first train ride?" Lily asked with a grin.
"I'll never forget it. The three of us were minding our own business, in this very compartment I do believe, and that group of second year Slytherins started bothering us because of who your parents were," said Andrew.
"And all three of us casting the exact same jinx at the exact same time, taking them all out in one shot," added Clayton as he started to laugh.
"Those were the days. We were so carefree and innocent. And to think that they told Professor McGonagall that we attacked them! Why the nerve of it all. How can three first years take down seven second years? It's positively absurd," added Lily.
"And when McGonagall called us into her office…," Clayton broke off laughing.
"And said that we should at least try and behave…," now Andrew was laughing.
"But that she highly doubted we could, seeing as the majority of our 'little trio' were the 'spawn and blood relations of some of Hogwarts' finest mischief makers'," Lily finished with a proud smile. "Lucky for us, we earned more points than we actually lost. Thank Merlin they didn't catch us wreaking even half the 'mischief' we got into. No doubt they would have expelled all three of us that first month."
"We made Uncle Fred and Uncle George look like choir boys," said Clay. "And in return, your uncles have given us a never ending supply of pranks and whatnot," said Andrew. "Blimey! I gonna miss that place."
"We all are," said Clay. Lily looked out the window again.
"We'll be arriving in a couple of minutes," she said without looking away. "Well, at least we get two weeks before we leave for training," said Andrew breaking the silence.
"Only two, eh? Well I guess that means goofing off all summer is out," said Clay dejectedly.
"They just sent the letters this morning at breakfast, Clay. I didn't want to think about only having two weeks before I have to leave for two whole years. I would have told you otherwise," said Lily. What she didn't say was that at the end of those two years she might have two more years for the advanced program if she was accepted.
"And it's not as if we can't write to you, Clay," added Andrew
"Actually, I won't be able to," said Lily as she looked at her hands which were folded in her lap.
"WHAT!?" Clayton and Andrew were shocked. They couldn't believe that they were hearing this.
"Because of everything that happened last year, I'm going into a specialized program and one of their guidelines is no outside contact due to how difficult it is. I won't even have you to talk to, Andrew. I just found out right before we left school. That's why I almost missed the train."
"I thought you were saying goodbye to Aaron and that that was why you were late," said Clay.
"Do not mention that name in my presence again," Lily said in a threatening voice.
"But I thought…" Whatever he thought went unsaid when Andrew elbowed him in the ribs. He gestured for Clay to look at Lily. She had gone white as a sheet and her eyes were glowing red, which meant one wrong move and you were a dead man.
"I didn't mean to upset you Lily, honest," said Clay.
"Just drop it, okay? We're here." Sure enough, the train was pulling into Kings Cross Station. The group exchanged one last hug, collected their things, and went to meet their families. Lily and Clay had no more than stepped off the train when they heard a familiar voice in the crowd.
"Oy! They're over here. Hurry up you lot!" A tall man who could pass as an older version of Clayton was making his way towards them.
"Good to see you too, Uncle Ron," said Lily with a smile as she hugged her uncle. Ron Weasley hadn't changed much over the years. The only sign of age was the gray in his hair and the laugh lines that looked as though they had been chiseled into his face.
"Hey, what about me, Dad?"
"What about you, boy o' mine? Why should I waste time on you when I can hug this beauty right here," Ron asked then grabbed his son up in a bear hug. Just then, a small army of people descended on the pair with hugs and kisses, "Welcome Home" and "We missed you."
"Time to go everyone," shouted a tall man with black hair and a lightening bolt shaped scare on his forehead. "We're being expected and it's best not to keep our hosts waiting."
The family began to make its way out of Platform 9 and ¾ and the train station and into their cars to head for the Burrow.
…
The party was held in true Weasley fashion. The house was overflowing with people, there was enough food for all of Hogwarts to gorge themselves for a week, enough noise to wake the dead, and Fred and George had brought fireworks which they set off over the pond.
Today they celebrated to honor another generation of Hogwarts graduates… all nine of them.
When the party began to wind down about 2 A.M., Molly Weasley, the family matriarch, took up a spot at the door so she could kiss every one goodbye. The Potters bid farewell and headed back to number twelve Grimmauld Place. Lily was so tired when they arrived that upon reaching her room, she did nothing more than collapse on her bed and sleep. She was blissfully unaware that her brothers had been home for almost a week and of what they had done.