Introductions At A Memorial.
"Please promise me that you'll be ok."
"'Mione with everything that's happened don't you think I'd be able to survive moving." Mila says as she works around the kitchen putting dishes and various utensils away. Of course everything could easily be done with magic but sometimes you just had to do things the muggle way.
"Yes, but you're moving countries, Mila and I worry for you." Hermione replies breathlessly on the other side of the computer that had been set up in the kitchen.
They were using Skype, Hermione anxiously watching as Mila moves in and out of the frame as she unpacks. Mila had arrived in the quaint little town of Mystic Falls a couple of weeks ago but had stayed under the radar not really wanting to deal with curious stares and inquiring questions. She had already got enough of that back home, the last thing she needed was to deal with it in a place where she moved to get away from it. She unfortunately knew she would have to get out sometime; Teddy was getting anxious being cooped up in their house.
"Well, it's a little too late for that don't you think?" Mila asks as she pauses in front of the camera. "You will visit right?"
"Of course I will." Hermione hushes any doubt Mila has in her mind about no one visiting. "I've always wanted to go to America, besides it'll give me chance to show Ron more about the muggle world."
Mila grins chuckling slightly before her eyebrows furrow at the thought of her red haired friend. "Where is Ron?"
Hermione sighs worriedly looking over her shoulder. "We've stopped in Singapore to catch a connecting flight to Australia. He's throwing up in the lavatories. Flying airplanes don't sit well with his stomach which strange considering he can fly a broom just fine."
"Maybe it was something he ate?" Mila suggests as she picks Teddy up from his high chair as he starts to bang on the table. "Teddy and I had a great time flying, isn't that right, Teddy?"
Teddy squeals' clapping his hands clumsily together before he holds them straight out and babbles a car sound. Mila laughs knowing he was trying his hardest to be a plane. Hermione's laughter brought the attention to her as Teddy stops and looks at the computer screen seeing her face there. "My-ne, My-ne." Teddy stretches his arms thinking he was reaching for Hermione's real form but all he got was the computer screen.
"Oh, Teddy, I'm so sorry." Hermione apologizes as Teddy gets visibly teary eyed. "I know, I'll be there soon I promise."
Teddy sniffles and turns back to Mila hiding his face in her neck. "Don't worry about it, 'Mione. You know how Teddy gets." Mila says trying to comfort Hermione knowing she was feeling guilty.
Hermione exhales nodding her head as she changes the subject. "What are you going to do about Teddy's metamorphosis?"
"There's a spell Andromeda taught me before I left. She used to use it on Tonks all the time when they had to visit her husband's muggle family. It won't suppress his gift it'll be more like a glamor so that when we leave house he'll look a little like me and not be able to change his appearance." Mila explains as she rubs little soothing circles into Teddy's back.
"Are you going to get help for the house? It looks enormous from what I can see and that's just the kitchen." Hermione looks around where Mila and Teddy stood at the décor.
Mila agrees as she too looks around. The house itself was much too large for two people (one and a half if someone was being technical). The house was made mostly of stone and hard wood on the outside, the inside was light and airy with white walls and light wooded furnishing and large windows. It was two stories, upstairs holding four bedrooms each with their own en suite. The high ceilings and details made Mila think that the house must've been extremely expensive, especially since there was a greenhouse behind the house already filled with plants and flowers.
"McGonagall's sending a house elf to help me. Quinn I think her name is." Mila tells Hermione bouncing Teddy up and down slightly as she moves back to his high chair.
"A house elf?" Hermione stresses shooting Mila a look. "Regardless of the fact that you're using a house elf, who you better treat right so help me, Mila, but don't you think someone will see her?"
Mila's barely able to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. Still after all this time she didn't think anyone would be able to convince Hermione that house elves actually like working twenty-four-seven. "The closest neighbor is a mile or two away. I doubt anyone is going to snooping, Hermione, they won't see Quinn."
Hermione purses her lips muttering a low 'fine' just as her flight was being called over the intercom. "I have to go get Ron. I'll talk to you later, ok?"
"Yes, go get Ron and get to your flight before you miss it." Mila replies smiling.
"Bye. Take care, don't get into any trouble and tell Teddy I love him very much and I'll see him soon." Hermione says rushed as she stands with her laptop in her hands, she lightly jogs to the men's lavatories.
"I will. Bye." Mila departs clicking the end call button watching as the screen turned blank. She turns around to face Teddy who's staring at her while he chews on his fist. "You heard that right? 'Mione will see you soon and she loves you very much. But not as much as I do."
Teddy giggles as she picks up and raises him above her head before she brings him back down to place a kiss on his forehead. Mila sighs as she looks around the vast, empty, quiet house. They were going out. Another second in the house and she would throw a tantrum as worse as Teddy on a full moon.
They were late. She hadn't purposely wanted to be late but when it came to her and her family, being late was practically a specialty. Jenna winces when she parks, the tires screeching in protest at the abrupt stop. She ushers Elena and Jeremy out grabbing the brownies she had picked up the day before at the local bakery. Jenna knew that when memorials were held people usually baked all the goods themselves (she would know she gained ten pounds trying to get rid of all the food they accumulated when Miranda and Grayson passed) but she could not bake to save her life.
She's tried. Oh boy has Jenna tried to bake. When she was a little girl in the girl scouts there was a fundraiser and she had to bake two dozen vanilla cupcakes, that was her mission and she told her dad she could do it herself but everything she baked was a disaster and she had no choice but to turn over her bowl and wooden spoon to her father, the only person who could cook and bake. Jenna thinks the disaster of baking and cooking runs in the female Sommers family since her older sister couldn't bake or cook either and from what she could tell neither could Elena. So she decided that she would spare some poor unfortunate souls and get baked goods from a store then deal with her disastrous attempt.
"Looks like the whole town has turned out." Jenna says looking around at all the familiar faces already in the Lockwood house.
"Yeah, well he is –was the Mayor." Elena replies her tone turning docile at the sight of everyone.
Jenna sighs as she looked between the two teenagers. She didn't doubt it for a second that this memorial brought back old memories because she sure felt the heavy weight of her sister and brother-in-laws passing come back.
"Why don't they save it for the funeral?" Jeremy asks as they walked up the steps of the porch.
"That's what people do." Jenna answers her tone gentle. "The Lockwood's were here for us when we went through this. Why don't we make this quick? We'll drop the food off, pay our respects and go. Maybe when we get home we can watch a movie and pop some popcorn?"
"In and out?" Jeremy turns the thought over in his mind knowing Jenna just wanted them to be ok. "Sounds like a plan, but only if we don't have to watch a chick-flick."
"You guys go ahead, I'll be right there ok?" Elena says to them but her head was turned in another direction.
Jenna looks over to see Damon leaning against the railing of the porch. She sighs and shakes her head; she didn't know what the older Salvatore had to do with Elena but what she saw the other night, him kissing her. She didn't think it was appropriate, especially since his younger brother was dating her niece.
Jenna nods her head nonetheless and touches Elena's arm briefly as she and Jeremy walks into the house. Jeremy disappears soon enough and Jenna is left by herself. She finds the food table and places the brownies down smiling kindly when one of the older women smiles at her and focuses on the brownies. Jenna was sure they were going to be a hit; of course not everyone had to know they were store bought.
"Hey, Carol." Jenna greets sympathetically when she comes across the late Mayor's wife. "I am so sorry for your loss."
"Thank you." Carol replies quietly a polite smile on her face. "Thank you for coming, Jenna, I know this must bring back memories for you and the kids so it means a lot to me and Tyler that you're here."
"It's the least I can do." Jenna waves off as she looks around a little uncomfortably. "You and your family were there for us at the time so I hope we can be here for you."
Carol thanks her again before someone else comes up to them offering their condolences. Jenna quietly but stealthily slips away. She smiles at familiar faces and makes small talk to a girl she knew in high school but what Jenna really wants is to get out as fast as she can. This was an in and out mission and yet she couldn't find either of the teenagers that were under her care. Elena, Jenna was sure she could take care of herself and find her way home; in fact she would probably be hanging out with Stefan. Jeremy on the other hand was still a little bit of a loose cannon, especially since he only recently got over his alcohol and drug phase.
"Oh my God, I am so sorry." Jenna gasps as she bumps into a woman. It was a pure accident really, she was looking for Jeremy while walking and just jostled the poor young woman. However Jenna's mortification rose about ten decibels when the young woman turned around with a baby in her arms. She, Jenna Sommers, had almost knocked a young woman and baby down; how shameful.
The clear shame showed on Jenna's face as she held up her hands in a surrender position ready to apologize profoundly a million times more. "It's alright. I'm fine, the baby's fine. No harm, no foul right?" The young woman asks with an easy smile as she bounces the baby in her arms.
"Still, I am so sorry, I was looking for my nephew and didn't see you-" Jenna cuts herself off; sometimes her mouth had a mind of its own. "I'm Jenna by the way. Are you new here? You certainly don't sound American."
"It's nice to meet you." The young woman replies grinning amusedly at Jenna's rambling. "I'm Mila and this little man right here is Teddy. And yeah, we moved here a couple of weeks ago from England."
"Oh, that's great." Jenna didn't know what else to say. The girl, Mila, looked just a little too young to be a mother; she looked to be around Elena's age maybe a little bit older which was kind of a scary thought now that Jenna thought about it. Maybe she ought to tell Elena to leave her door open when Stefan was around.
"So why did you move here?" Jenna asks curiously.
"A change of scenery." Mila replies switching from bouncing Teddy to rocking him back and forth.
"Well I hope you find Mystic Falls to your liking, even though it does get a little boring here sometimes." Jenna was suddenly taken aback when Mila laughed because Mila was actually gorgeous. And not in the 'oh she's pretty' gorgeous kind of way but the 'drop dead I envy you' gorgeous. And judging by the looks the other girls and women threw her as well as the leering stares from some men they thought the same.
"So, Mila, can I ask what you're doing here?" Jenna asks as they started to walk around. "I mean you've only been here a couple of weeks so you hardly knew the mayor. If I were you I would've stayed home."
"I guess I just find it kind of disrespectful to not attend a memorial for one of the town's most important people." Mila shrugs a shoulder.
"Oh there's that too." Jenna smiles a little embarrassed at her inconsideration.
"Jenna, are we leaving yet?"
Both women turn to the new voice that joins them. Jenna sighs relief that it was Jeremy, now they could put their in and out mission to use. She turns back to Mila to introduce her nephew. "Mila, this is my nephew, Jeremy."
"Oh, hi." Jeremy croaks his mouth suddenly dry as he looks Mila up and down. Yeah, he misses Anna, he misses her a lot but that didn't mean he still couldn't have teenaged guy reactions. And despite the baby attached to her hip Mila was a knockout.
The light wash skinny jeans she was wearing made her legs look even longer than they were and the simple white top somehow accentuated her jungle-green eyes. Her short black hair fell in tight messy waves that just brushed her shoulders. How could someone wearing something so simple look like that?
Jeremy jolts out of his staring by his aunt elbowing him gently in the side. He clears his throat. "I'm Jeremy; it's nice to meet you."
"Likewise." Mila replies the corners of her eyes crinkling when she smiles.
"You guys ready to go?" Elena asks walking up to them smiling at the other girl when she noticed her standing there.
"Uh, yeah. Elena, this is Mila, she moved her recently with Teddy." Jenna introduces and gestures to the little boy looking at them with gorgeous doe brown eyes.
"Hi, oh my gosh he's adorable." Elena gushes at Teddy as she holds out her hand to Mila.
"Thanks." Mila replies as any woman would when their baby was complimented. She freezes for a second when her hand touches Elena's but she quickly schools her features.
Elena's smile fades when she looks at the other girl knowing the exact same look had appeared on her best friends face when she was just coming into her powers. But there was absolutely no way this girl was witch. Elena was just worked up about Katherine showing up to a memorial for the mayor of all places.
"Whoa, is it just me or did anyone else see Teddy's eyes change color?" Jeremy asks a strange look in his eyes as he looks at all of them.
"You know, it was probably a trick of the light." Mila reassures smiling easily. "Sometimes babies have blue eyes when they're born but it changes later on."
"Yeah, Jeremy stop freaking out. Don't you have to take Sex Ed or something at school? You know they hand you a fake baby to look after later on so that you're prepared for the future." Jenna teases turning to Mila. "So we're kind of having a moving thing at home do you wanna join us maybe?"
"Oh, you know I would love to except this little guy is actually late for his nap so we should actually get going right now." Mila says rushed as Teddy starts to fuss just that second.
"Oh yeah, of course. But we'll see each other later maybe?" Jenna asks a little hopeful, she was feeling just a little deprived of talking to someone her age, or close to her age that was a woman.
"Definitely." Mila confirms.
She bids them goodbye and leaves but not before she hears Jeremy lean over to his sister and aunt and say: "I swear Teddy's eyes turned purple or something."
Jenna snorts rolling her eyes while Elena slaps him lightly on the arm. "You're just seeing things, Jeremy. No baby in the world has purple eyes."
"I thought we talked about this, Teddy." Mila lectures as she paces back and forth as he sat in his high chair following her with his eyes. "You weren't supposed to use your metamorphism, and I know that you can't help it. It's an emotion thing but you have to work with me, Teddy."
Mila sighs as she stops pacing watching him watch her. It was a close run in with that boy Jeremy seeing Teddy change his eye color. The spell Andromeda taught her only lasts a couple of hours before it wears off and someone has to re-cast it. She huffs slouching against the island in her kitchen, today was somewhat of a success, sure they had only gone to a memorial but it was a step up in the right direction rather than staying home all day.
Mila was able to introduce herself to the late mayors' wife who would now be the stand in mayor as well as Sheriff Forbes. She was most certainly not dumb when it came to this town. She's been here a couple of weeks already and she could see the vampires crawling in practically every dark corner of town. Thankfully they had been taken care of before she and Teddy decided to venture out of the house and into public eye.
The other girl though, Elena, she was something else. She along with the two Salvatore's, Damon and Stefan looked like they were in the center of everything and that's exactly where Mila did not want to be. When she touched her hand Mila had felt something, almost like there was something attached to her; like a spell. But it was silly, what person would create a spell with an innocent girl; Mila was probably still paranoid even after all this time.
She admits her recovery wasn't exactly how she had hoped it would be. The war was over, Voldemort was defeated, people were dead and Hogwarts was crumbling. For months on end after the war it had felt like nothing was going to get better, like nothing was ever going to be the same again and how could it not? Voldemort destroyed hundreds of lives including hers; even from the dead he still haunted her. She still had nightmares and woke up in the middle of the night with the constant fear he was going to walk through the door. She looked over her shoulder so many times when she walked that she created a strain in her neck.
It hadn't gotten better until she started to look after Teddy. He brought her out of the dark place she was in. And she decided she wanted to make his childhood so much better than she could have ever dreamed of for herself. If that meant leaving everything behind to move to a new country then so be it. So long as he was safe and happy, that's all that mattered to Mila now, Teddy's happiness.
Mila's head suddenly snaps upwards as she felt the wards she put up around the house shift. Someone has entered the house, but that was impossible with the amount of wards she put up, it would've taken an average witch or wizard at least two days to take them down. She spins around taking a defensive stance in front of Teddy with her wand already out tightly gripped in her hand.
"Mistress." Mila was greeted with as a small house elf standing in front of her. "I apologize! I should have given you warning."
"It's alright, really." Mila rushes hoping that the house elf wouldn't attempt to hurt herself. "You're Quinn, right?"
"Yes!" Quinn squeals excitedly nodding her head up and down. "Quinn is thrilled to be serving you, Mila Potter, the savior of our Wizarding World. When mistress McGonagall told Quinn she is to be working for Mistress Potter, Quinn didn't believe her. But here Quinn stands, in your presence, so grateful."
Mila grimaces as Quinn starts to cry. She's forgotten how emotional house elves could be. "You know, Quinn there's a greenhouse in back and it's looking just a little over grown and I would love it if you could maybe sort that out."
Quinn stops crying almost immediately and looks up at Mila with her tennis ball eyes. "Of course, Mistress! Right away." She disappears in a shimmer of smoke.
Mila lets out her breath and relaxes her muscles. She didn't particularly like giving orders to house elves which was why she moved out of Grimmauld Place and away from Kreacher leaving him to take care of the house much to Hermione's chagrin. But she kind of needed Quinn's help with how large the house is, hopefully Quinn's emotions will calm with time.
Mila turns around to see how Teddy is doing only to see him nodding off. His eyes which have turned a dark blue color to show how tired he was were blinking groggily at her. "Oh, Teddy, I'm sorry it's been a big day for you and you haven't even had your nap yet."
Mila picks him up releasing him from his high chair and walks up the stairs to his room which was right next to hers. As soon as she places him in his cot his sleepy eyes shut and he falls right asleep. She smiles gently down at him and looks out the window at the surrounding forest. There was something different about Mystic Falls. Mila didn't know what it was yet but she had a feeling she would find out very soon. She only hopes she would be prepared enough to keep Teddy safe.