It was a rainy, gray Tuesday when a visitor knocked at the Joneses' door. Not a hard, demanding knock, nor a soft, timid knock. If a knock could be polite, but firm, it was this knock.
The Joneses were hardly a normal family-even ensconced in the middle of London as they were-as one might guess if they caught sight of their unusual visitor. He was a tall, thin old man with a beard long enough to tuck into his belt and hair nearly as long. From his purple cloak to his high, buckled boots every bit of him clashed with the busy street. However, the boy on the other side of the door wasn't fazed by the man's odd attire as he squinted through the peephole.
"Is it your father?" Mrs. Alice Jones appeared in the doorway, her younger son propped on one hip and an oddly carved stick in her hand. It was, in fact, a wand. Alice was a witch.
"It's Professor Dumbledore."
"Liam, come here," his mother said with forced calm. "Take your brother for me."
Liam jumped down from the little stool at the door. In the year or so since the Joneses moved in, few of their old friends had visited—in fact almost none of their old friends knew where they were—and so his perch held a constant vigil at the front door. Especially when Papa went out. He didn't quite understand why he and his brother couldn't leave the cramped flat, but he spent many contented afternoons watching the people pass by on the street.
He took his brother without complaint, though he had to wrap both arms around the toddler to keep from dropping him.
"Listen to me, Liam," Alice Jones said, smoothing a hand over his dark curls. "I'm going to make sure it really is the professor. If you hear anything, anything at all that sounds bad, I want you to touch the boot on the mantle. Make sure you have Killian's hand when you do, alright?"
"But you said I must never—"
"I know, baby. I'm giving you permission. Just this once." She leaned down and kissed his curls with shaking lips.
Liam nodded solemnly and retreated to the sitting room.
The clicks from four different locks echoed in the tiny hall. Alice left the chain done up, a nice, sturdy brass thing that would do her no good against the kind of enemies who drove her into hiding, but it might buy her boys some time.
Albus Dumbledore stared at her over half-moon spectacles, his hair and beard curling in the damp air.
"Good afternoon, Professor," Alice said. "Tell me, what is your favorite candy?"
"Lemon drops," the rough voice replied.
Alice sighed. The door creaked mournfully as she closed it to undo the chain. "Come in, Albus. I'll admit, I had hoped you were Brennan." She smiled as she relocked the door. "But it is nice to see a new face."
Liam, leaving his brother standing by the mantle, trotted over as their visitor followed his mother into the sitting room.
Dumbledore smiled fondly at the boy. "Ah, come to see what I've brought you today?"
"Yes, sir."
"Liam," Alice hissed. "What do you say?"
"Please," Liam said, remembering his manners.
Albus Dumbledore patted a few pockets before find the right one, he reached in and pulled out a yellow candy wrapped in white paper. "Perhaps you'd like to try a lemon drop? Quite a rarity in our world," he said with a conspiratorial wink. "It's muggle made."
Liam's blue eyes grew two sizes as he held his hand out. "Thank you, Professor."
"And I know lemon drops are a bit small for someone of Killian's age, but perhaps he'd like a chocolate frog?" Dumbledore said, pulling a purple box from another pocket. "I dare say, he'll probably enjoy chasing it more than eating it."
Alice nodded, brushing strands of dark, unruly hair from her face. "I imagine he will. I'm not sure which of my boys has cabin fever worse."
Dumbledore handed the box to Killian, who turned it over in chubby hands. "There now, young Master Liam, why don't you go help your brother with that while I have a chat with your mother, hmm?"
"Here," Alice said, scooping Killian up and setting him on the couch. "I'll just be over there if you need me."
Liam obediently scrambled up onto the couch, helping his brother with the candy wrapper as his mother and her one-time teacher retreated to the other side of the room.
"I assume you've come because you have news." Alice wrapped her worn cardigan around herself.
"Quite a bit of it, I'm afraid. Not all of it good, but some..." He pulled his glasses off, cleaning them carefully on the sleeve of his robes. The spectacles went back on his nose and were carefully adjusted. He folded his hands inside his voluminous sleeves as he continued, "I'll start with a bit of the bad first, as one leads to the other."
Alice nodded. She clasped trembling hands together.
"It is my regret to inform you that Lily and James Swan were murdered last night," he said in a low, practiced tone.
Alice gasped, then slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes darting to where Liam corralled his brother's chocolate frog on the couch. Tears glistened in her eyes.
"Was it…" she trailed off, her lips pressed tight together and eyes wide with fear.
Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid it was, but that leads to the bit of good news I have for you. Rumplestiltskin is dead. He made a choice last night and it was not your son. It should be safe for you to return home."
Alice swallowed. "What about Emma? Did he…"
"Quite safe. It appears she managed to throw his own curse back at him. It is quite remarkable."
"How? She's only a child."
Dumbledore nodded. "Wiser men than I are stumped by this. It will take some thought, quite a lot of it, I imagine. However she did it, last night she vanquished the Dark One. They are calling her The Girl Who Lived."
Alice turned her back to her boys, swiping at wet cheeks before drawing a shaky breath. "How is she? Did he hurt her at all?"
"Aside from a cut on her forehead, she came out quite well, I think."
"Except that she's an orphan," Alice said quietly.
"Compared to how it might have ended for her, my dear, I would say she is better than could have been hoped," Dumbledore said. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a handful of lemon drops. He offered them to Alice, shrugging when she declined. "I have already taken to steps to see that she is cared for."
"Lily and James had no family to speak of." Alice's eyes narrowed. "You're not thinking of putting her with that wretched Petunia… You are. No, absolutely not."
"I'm afraid the options are limited…"
"What about Ruby? She's the girl's godmother after all." Alice lifted her chin, hand propped on her hips. "Or what about here? Brennan and I could give her a good home. Lily would want her with people who love her."
Dumbledore looked at her gravely, his eyes very sad. "Perhaps we should retreat to a more private location, I'm afraid there's more I have to tell you."
# # #
Alice took her time putting the boys to bed that night, rocking Killian in her arms until he fell sound asleep and lingering as she tucked Liam in. She talked with him, keeping him awake as long as she dared and dreading the moment his eyes closed for the night and left her on her own.
"Mama?" he asked, his fingers picking sleepily at the loose thread of his blanket.
"Yes, my love?"
"Did Dumbledore say when Papa is coming back?"
Alice swallowed, pushing down the feelings that clawed at her throat. "No, baby."
"Why not?"
"Because…" She took a deep breath, taking her son's small hands in her own. She had hoped to put this off for a few days more. Killian was too young to notice, a few days and he would have forgotten all about his Papa, but Liam would remember. And Liam would keep asking. "Because Papa isn't coming home. Papa died today."
Liam blinked at her. "How?"
"Bad wizards," Alice said, her voice breaking. "Bad wizards killed him."
She couldn't tell him the whole truth, not yet. When he was older maybe, if he asked, she might give him all the gruesome details, but not now. Now, he just needed to know that his father was dead.
"So he's never coming back? Never ever?"
Alice shook her head.
Tears welled up in his big, blue eyes and she gathered him up in her arms, muffling his sobs against her shoulder so he didn't wake his brother. He cried until he fell asleep.
Alice was not so lucky. Even after she cried all her tears, she could not sleep. Eight years of marriage meant that she had trouble falling asleep alone even on the best of nights and now, though she longed for the numbness of sleep, it danced away from her. She lay there, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom, afraid to close her eyes. Each time she did her mind told her that if she reached out, Brennan would be there on the other side of the bed.
"Mama?" Liam's voice broke the stillness well past midnight.
Alice propped herself on her elbow. "Yes, baby?"
"Killian can't sleep."
She smiled. "Can't he now?"
Liam shook his head.
She reached out and tousled his hair. "Well, then, what say you and I keep him company in here and see if that helps?"
Her son nodded vigorously.
As expected, she found Killian sleeping soundly when she crept into the boys' room. He melted into her, boneless and grumpy when she pulled him out of his crib and was already back asleep by the time she returned to her room. She helped Liam tuck him in beside her and then held the covers up as he crawled into bed on her other side, pulling him close and burying her nose in his fine hair. The curls tickled.
"Mama?"
"Hmm?"
"Are you gonna go fight the bad wizards that killed Papa?"
Alice swallowed. "I have to. It's my job and now that…" She knew she could say the name now. Should say the name and refuse to live in fear. But it stuck in her throat. "Now that You Know Who isn't after your brother, it's time for me to go back to work." Especially since she had to provide for her family all on her own now.
"Good," Liam said.
Alice sighed, glad that this wouldn't end in another meltdown. Liam had been nearly ecstatic to have her home with him every day for the last year. He was young, but despite her best attempts to hide any injuries, he knew her job was dangerous.
"When I grow up," Liam whispered. "I wanna fight bad wizards just like you. I wanna be an oro too."
"Auror, sweet." Alice chuckled. "And I think you would be very good at it."
She fell asleep like that. Left arm curled around her oldest son, right hand holding her baby's hand. And as she fell asleep, she thought of another child. A little girl she had only seen in the pictures her best friend sent. The best friend she would never see again. She wondered how long it might be before she met The Girl Who Lived.
All those letters and pictures…Alice decided she would save them for later, so that someday, little Emma might know just how much her parents loved her.
She and Lily had had such plans when they found out their children would be born around the same time. It seemed fate when the two babies were born within a day of each other. They thought they would raise their children together. Be each other's family and give their children the family neither of them ever had. But now, letters and pictures were all she had of her best friends. Of her husband.
She swallowed back the tears. She would keep it together for her boys, they needed her now more than ever.