Sorry for the long wait. I have had a very busy year, filled with many very long overseas trips and a very tiring job. Hope you enjoy, will edit this chapter a bit after work today and hopefully post the second part sometime this week.

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2026

Ivalu looked at the young girl before her. She was tall with hazel eyes and fiery red hair that reached just below her shoulders. She looked familiar but Ivalu couldn't remember where she recognized her from. The young girl looked up at her and said in a very broken Danish "Please help me"

Ivalu was unsure of what to think, this girl was probably only a few years older than her sons and the girl was there, standing in front of her, nearly crying, in a foreign country and obviously pregnant "How can I help you?" she asked the poor girl. The girl gave her an answer in almost a whisper "My name is Laura Berg and I don't know what to do" the girl – Laura – looked absolutely terrified.

She decided that moment that she would take care of her. As a single mother herself she knew by the look on Laura's face that she was in serious trouble.

Laura was much faster at opening up than she first thought she would be, but what Laura told her shocked her.

Ivalu learnt that Laura who just turned 20, was being chased by some dark wizards and had run away from her home country 3 months earlier and hiding around Europe when she found out she was pregnant. Then she had decided that she had to settle down as she was expecting and as she had some knowledge in Danish, Denmark seemed like the perfect choice and she had found part time job in muggle Odense although she was fired when her boss found out she was pregnant and Laura had joined a mothers-club. Although she refused to say where she was from and tell Ivalu where she had learned Danish, she had to have had some help from a native speaker as her pronunciation of some of the more difficult words was very accurate. And most peculiar was the fact that she knew that there wasn't a very big wizarding community in the capital Copenhagen but rather in the third largest Danish city Odense.

Rose was absolutely devastated, she had been on the run for months. She missed her family terribly, all she had left of them was a picture from a few years before. But more than her family she missed Scorpius, his deep and affectionate voice, broad and strong shoulders, his kind laugh, his feathery touch, the way he looked at her when she would tease him, the ice cold yet warm eyes that made her melt, but most of all she missed his comforting smell, the smell she would never get to smell again.

Rose felt the tears run down her cheeks and felt for the first time since the night she ran away a pair of arms around her. Rose looked at the woman before her, she had let her into her home, offered her a place to stay so she wouldn't have to go to the shelter again, given her warm food, brought her old maternity clothes down from her attic for Rose to wear. And she didn't want anything in return.

Rose had lost her job as her boss found out she was pregnant, unable to pay her rent at the end of the month her landlord who absolutely hated foreigners finally had a reason to terminate her contract. The muggle community had failed her and she didn't want to become a burden on her newfound friends whom she had only known for a few weeks by arriving on their doorstep, Danes were after all generally not as friendly to people they didn't know very well. So for the first time since her arrival in Denmark Rose had started searching for the wizarding community 3 days before finding anyone who looked even remotely like a wizard.

She was so hungry with only 40 kroners left she would soon have to either start begging for money or have to flee again and try to find a place that would hire her. It was like light bulb went off in her head, she knew exactly where to go. She placed all of her belongings in a backpack with an undetectable extension charm and started to walk down the main shopping street in downtown Odense. She started to look closer at her surrounding and all of a sudden things were starting to look less muggle and more magical, she felt the magic around her pull her towards a little street. She decided that no matter who she ran into muggle or not she would ask for help.

She entered the first café she saw and in there she saw some elder people in robes and some younger people in modern clothing with wand holsters around their waists. Rose was completely overwhelmed, there were so many people there. She started to look for a person who could relate to her, someone who looked trustworthy. She found such a person sitting in the corner reading a book, the person had dark hair that reached mid back, dark eyes.

The woman looked up at her suspiciously, although it looked as though she relaxed by seeing that Rose was pregnant 'she must work in law enforcement' Rose thought. Just the person she needed. And right there in the café Rose broke down and cried for the first time since she arrived in Denmark.

She slept for the first time without the nightmares that night. No nightmares of blood running down her arm or a wand to Scorpius's throat, no nightmares where she saw her house in flames and her loved ones murdered.

Rose had never felt such kindness as Ivalu's. Ivalu had managed to convince the minister of Magic to let Rose sit an exam to test her skills so she would be able to get a job at the ministry. The exam was translated into English for foreigners and thankfully there wasn't an oral examination or they would immediately throw her out because she was British. Ivalu had explained to her that this exam the same as the one the kids at Æbleø take their final year like the NEWT in Hogwarts (which she had aced with only O's).

Ivalu had been a lifesaver Rose decided that she would try to become an auror in Denmark as she already had the training in the UK, although she quit and started working in the ministry as an obliviator. Ivalu let Rose sleep in her guest room until after the baby was born and said she would help her find a place to stay after the first month or so. Rose had learned that Ivalu had two sons Mikkel and Alexander that were 4 and 7 years younger than her and that they would be in school when the baby was born 'so there wouldn't be anyone around to annoy the baby' as Ivalu put it.

Rose passed the exam with an average of 97 percent correct which was a record for foreigners as there were 10 pages on the test about Danish magical history which people abroad rarely learnt. She was immediately offered a desk-job until the child was born after which she would start auror training. She accepted the offer.

Ivalu lived in the suburbs of Odense in a 2 storey house with a big garden, Rose however couldn't help feeling like she was intruding and disturbing her private life. Ivalu introduced Rose to various people who would be able to help her find a home for her, Rose was beyond grateful. Rose had been out shopping books to prepare for parenthood when she met an elder witch named Lone who was out shopping with her two grandchildren, the old witch offered to buy Rose lunch when she heard her stomach rumbling. When Lone had learnt that Rose didn't have a place to stay after her baby was born she was quick to tell her about a little house in a small town outside of Odense which was run down but just needed a little loving magical hand.

Rose fell in love with the house at first sight. It looked like home. Something she desperately needed. Lone knew the old lady that owned the house and told her about Rose who was by now 7 months pregnant and in need of a home. The old lady who owned the house lowered the price on the house so Rose could buy it in exchange for being able to tend to the garden once a week. Rose gladly accepted the offer and bought the house with the money from the last few pay checks and a loan from the wizarding bank. She finally had a place to call home after months of being on the run and in the care of others.

Ivalu didn't take the news as well as Rose had hoped "You will be all alone with an infant as a first time single mother, and I know from experience how difficult that is. Laura please reconsider what you are about to do" Ivalu half scolded her. "I very much appreciate what you have done for me Ivalu, I really do. I would never have been able to be where I am right now if not for you. I would probably be selling myself on some street corner just to be able to feed me and my child but you, the wonderful Ivalu Jensen with one of the kindest hearts in the whole of wizarding Denmark helped me when I was at an all-time low." I took her hand and she looked at me worriedly, her face although was that of a teenager was filled with motherly love for her

"You took care of me and stood by me when others would either have completely ignored me or looked down upon me. But no you helped me with my Danish, helped me get a job, helped me get introduced into the whole community, helped me figure out what I'm supposed to do and most importantly you have become one of my closest friends here. I am forever grateful, but I can't keep intruding like this. Mikkel and Alexander haven't said anything but I know they want to come home to their mum and be spoiled and not have to worry about some strange pregnant girl." Mikkel and Alexander had of course never said anything and had always been supportive.

"I promise I will come and visit you every now and again if that makes you feel better. I will even bring my famous pumpkin tart, I know the boys love it." Ivalu smiled at that. "You better come." Rose pulled Ivalu into a hug. "You are definitely the best thing that has happened to me since I came to Denmark Ivalu. Don't forget that. You really saved me" Ivalu pulled Rose into an even tighter hug. Rose felt her baby kicking "Even my baby agrees" Ivalu pulled from the hug and placed her hand over Roses stomach feeling the small kicks. "That girl will become a handful, I can just feel it." Rose giggled, her daughter was after all a Weasley.

Rose continued to meet with the fellow mums-to-be every week an she had gotten quite close to a muggle woman named Mette who was 4 years older than her and expecting twins. Mette was a former athlete as well so they had a lot in common, Mette played handball and Rose played quidditch, both of them were keepers. They often went out jogging before it became uncomfortable for Mette to jog, then they started to read together instead. Then another mum-to-be joined them. Ida was a small bubbly blonde, brown eyed woman who was married to a businessman living in Berlin. Ida's family had been living in Odense for generations so when she found out she was pregnant she refused to not have her child be born in her hometown where her mother was.

Rose always felt a jealous bang in her heart when she heard her say that. Being so far away from your mother when she was so close to giving birth was difficult for her. Rose wanted to have someone other than Ivalu and Lone to talk to about this pregnancy and what to do, not that she didn't appreciate what they were doing.

"Have you girls started your maternity leave yet" Mette asked, currently only 4 weeks away from her do date. "I will be starting in two weeks" Rose said. "But then I think I will be going back to work after Christmas break." Ida looked absolutely flabbergasted. "Laura you can't possibly just take a three month maternity leave. You are going to be alone with the girl, are you not? I think it would be wise to take the full year off." Mette nodded in agreement.

"I am in no liberty to take that much time off. I have to repay my loan and to do so I have to work overtime a few days a week. Even so my workplace has a day-care for mothers like myself and if that doesn't work out my good friend Lone said she would take care of her for me." Rose said frankly. "Either way I have had a lot of practice with children back home as my family is absolutely humongous." She smiled bitterly. Mette and Ida knew that she wasn't talking to her family and felt sorry for making her think of them. "How about I make us some lunch" Ida said trying to lighten up the atmosphere and succeeding.