The Longest War

Chapter 4: A Great Escape

"So, she's a part of the order then? A spy?" Hermione asked her eyes flicking back and forth between Sirius and Remus. Tonks had joined them, bringing with her two cups of tea which Remus had taken gratefully before ordering Sirius to drink his as well. It was Tonks that flicked her wand causing any traces of blood to vanish from both Remus and Sirius before either of them could lift the cups to their lips. She'd planted a kiss on Remus' temple before assuring them both there was no new developments downstairs and leaning against the wall beside the chair pushing Remus back down when he moved to stand and give her the seat.

"Did you know Tonks?" Ginny asked addressing the woman,

"Gosh no, not at all, I was as surprised as any of you trust me" she replied her eyes wide and her head shaking as she recalled the events of the evening.

"Only Remus, your parents and grandparents, Dumbledore and I ever knew before tonight" Sirius provided, his words causing another flicker of confusion within Harry to flame,

"My grandparents?" he asked,

"Mr and Mrs Potters home became mine, as you know, but it also became a kind of safe house for Alora as well. Dumbledore sent her there several times" he explained. It was obvious there was more to the story, far more, yet neither Remus or Sirius wanted to overwhelm Harry with information, and they were still unsure about the extent of information they were now sharing, and with whom it was decided as safe to share it. They were not however going to keep Harry in the dark about her any longer, a fact they'd both agreed upon in the corner of the library, while the healers worked frantically and tirelessly, and strongly conveyed to Dumbledore when the three of them had met in a separate room to discuss how to proceed once Alora had been deemed stable.

It had been a conversation both Remus and Sirius and sometimes Dumbledore too had revisited many times over the years. What to tell Harry, whether to introduce him to Alora, let them meet but it was always deemed too dangerous, the stakes were always too high particularly as the war grew.

And yet, when the latest mission went as south as it could go, an opportunity had presented itself that seemed impossible to allow to pass, seemed bigger than any of them. And considering the information they'd collected the night before, it was time for Harry to be let in on one of the biggest secrets they'd all kept from him.

Sirius had been nervous, incredibly so, although it was balanced somewhat with the shock having Alora in arms reach, something that had not occurred in such a long time. And the fear as he recalled the extent of her injuries, the sliced and mottled skin that had been revealed as the healers swiftly removed robes and clothing. The catalogue of injuries that had been revealed, old and new. The scars he recognised and many, many more that he'd not seen before. A history etched on her body that told all of them a part of her story.

"The Hasting's are one of the oldest pureblood families" Remus began to explain, causing Sirius to shake his head attempting to rid himself of the images and the thoughts. He sucked in a breath and nodded at his friends' words,

"Her mother and mine were the best of friends, growing up together, getting married and having children at the same time" Sirius continued,

"So, you were friends?" Hermione asked and Sirius shrugged,

"We grew up together, went to all the same events, our mothers visited one another a fair bit" he said thinking of the days that felt like a life time ago,

"But once we went to Hogwarts I was sorted into Gryffindor and she into Slytherin things changed"

"They had a rivalry of sorts" Remus offered a faint trace of amusement on his lips,

"…until fourth year" he commented,

"What happened fourth year?" Harry asked quickly, too engrossed in the tale for it to end

They'd been about to sit down to dinner, a fifteen-year-old James Potter had been heading downstairs two steps at a time when a shrill sound caused him to wince and clap his hands over his ears. James had only heard the piercing sound in the house when his mother or father would test the wards out, never had it actually been triggered to wail through the house alerting the occupants to a potential danger.

James jogged down the rest of the stairs hearing his father's voice grow louder from downstairs. His mother had her wand out when he rounded the corner and she quickly gestured for James to meet her in the middle of the room sighing audibly in relief once he reached her. Turning towards the door James spotted his father,

A complicated manoeuvre with his wand allowed Mr Potter to produce what seemed to be a wispy image of their front gate swirling in the air before him. James' eyes widened beneath the frames that tucked over his ears and his mother's grip tightened on his shoulder,

"Dad that's Hasting's from school" but his father had already headed towards the door at a pace his son hadn't seen him move for quite some time and James was sure he hadn't heard him. The image fell like rain before disintegrating mid-air and fear flooded him,

"DAD!" he called loudly only to have his mother call a similar caution of his own name when he wrenched himself from her grip. He sprinted after his father who was quickly heading towards the gates themselves,

"DAD WAIT" an ice-cold panic worked itself through James' chest as he sprinted to reach the gates, to get alongside his father.

"What are you doing here?" he yelled accusingly as he pulled his own wand from his pocket in one graceful movement when he spied Alora Hastings at his gate. His father had begun what James knew to be dropping the wards around their home paying his son no attention. It was only then that he crashed to a stop as his eyes fell on another body that lay beside Hastings, a sight that knocked the air from his lungs completely and paralysed him. It all made sense in one moment, the way his father had torn from the house,

"MUM!" James yelled, the word ripping from his throat as he began to sprint even harder than before. Finally reaching the grounds James didn't spare a look at Hastings, who was far from his primary concern. He didn't feel his knees tear open as he dropped to them, the gravel ripping his pants and the skin beneath.

"James run and alert your mother, now" his Dad instructed and James didn't pause to wonder why when his father's patronus was already galloping towards the house,

"JAMES GO" it was an order that forced James to his feet, moving to run back the way he had just come. Later, he would marvel at the tone he'd never heard come from his father before, realising that it provided some glimpse into the man his father was at work that James had never before been quite able to reconcile. His father was an esteemed auror, who often had colleagues around the house. James would watch them over dinner, the way they would speak of his father, with a respect and admiration.

It was a departure from the wise-cracking, gentle man that was a greater source of mischief than even James himself – even though his father had framed his son so many times that his mother would never believe it.

"It's Sirius" he gasped by the time he reached his mother. He realised that she'd already summoned her work gear, managing to duck out of the way of the bag James had seen her work from before. There had been several occurrences where Mr Potter himself, or other aurors had arrived at their house in need of healing which was where his mother came in. The woman looked up startled momentarily by her sons report and James saw a flare of panic in her eyes before she refocused. Unsure of what to do, James spun back around on his heel to see his father moving back up the drive with Alora Hastings following at a hurried pace. It was his best mates limp body floating between them however that caused a rock to lodge in his throat.

"Alora was the one who got me to James'…she helped me escape this place" Sirius explained gesturing at the house, his words taking on a bitter tone that was not uncommon whenever he spoke about Grimmauld place,

"You ran away in fifth year" Harry said, recalling the story that Sirius had told him once before. His godfather nodded but elaborated on the details he'd been forced to omit in the past,

"My bags were packed I was ready to leave but one night my father and I got into a row. I can't say I remember that much after the cruciatus curse but the next thing I knew I was at the Potters"

"For a long time, James told us that he'd been at the gates, that they'd been alerted to a breach of the wards and found Sirius at the end of the road collapsed on the ground. The story floating around was that Regulus had helped him to escape that night" Remus added,

"Your brother?" Ron asked and Sirius nodded,

"That's right. Later though Prongs told us that it had been Alora. She'd told him that he couldn't tell us, that it would be too dangerous for me and for her, that it would be safer for nobody to know" he recalled,

"But your Dad being your Dad Harry" Sirius said amusement perking up his tone,

"He felt indebted to her, felt like he owed her when really it was me who owed my life. Your Dad checked on her, made sure she was safe after risking herself helping me…and well James was nothing if not persistent" Sirius said before adding,

"If only your mother were here to tell you" Remus snorted from beside him and the old friends shared a laugh that for a moment was absent of pain, of grief and loss; a laugh that made Harry and the others smile just seeing it.

"I don't know that Lily would have called it persistence" Remus added words lilting in fondness. They'd all heard the story. The one love of James Potter's life and the battle for Lily Evans' love that spanned their school years.

"He continued to seek her out, to disrupt her life as Alora would say" Sirius continued,

"But it was him that she went to when she learned of an attack that was planned against some of the muggleborn students" Sirius explained seriously,

"Her older brother had been involved and she'd heard them planning. She went to James who then went to Dumbledore"

"Didn't Dumbledore know?" Fred asked and both marauders smirked,

"That we still don't know. We know that James made it sound like he'd heard some of the Slytherin's talking when he'd been out under his cloak" Remus explained,

"And Professor Dumbledore didn't confiscate it?" Hermione asked sceptically. Sirius grinned,

"Let's just say Dumbledore was well aware of the cloaks existence by that point"

"So Alora fed you information?" Ginny asked and they nodded,

"That's right, as we all got older the stakes got higher, once Remus and I learned what was going on we all-"

"How did that happen?" Harry asked the curiosity flooding his veins,

"That is a story perhaps for another time Harry but it came down to the fact that I believed it was Regulus who had done what Alora had and I wanted to stop him from getting into his own trouble. James had to tell me in order to stop me going after my brother on one particular occasion" Remus nodded appearing too, to be lost in memory,

"The information that Alora ended up having access too helped Dumbledore immensely and ultimately she chose to stay, she knew she could make a difference and she wanted to help end the war" Sirius continued,

"For her sister and then for your Dad, and us, and eventually for you and Elodie. It drove everything she did, every choice she made" Sirius recalled distantly,

"So, you couldn't be together" Ginny asked a sadness to her voice,

"No…not until the war ended, and you all know how that went" Sirius nodded, lifting a hand to scrub over his face. The small melancholy sigh from Ginny lingered in the air for a moment, leaving Harry for the first time to ponder the choices his godparents, his godparents…still a strange, foreign thought...had been required to make alongside his parents. How the prophecy, his birth and then Elodie's, an event that hadn't existed in his story ever before, must have complicated matters and the-

Harry's mind froze suddenly.

"Do you…do you have a daughter?" Harry asked the shock slamming into him with a force that stole his breath, as hard as he imagined what being sideswiped by the knight bus might be like. For a moment the world spun as Harry was unable to fold this new possibility into his mind. The events of the last twelve hours had already done more to unravel and shatter his understanding of the world, of Sirius, of his parents than anything had before – with the exception of Hagrid dropping the news of his wizarding ancestry and giving his cousin a pig tail before sweeping him off to Diagon Alley.

Sirius turned towards him quickly having been in the middle of answering a question from Hermione that Harry had missed completely. At the aghast expression on his godson's face Sirius was quick to shake his head,

"No, I do not Harry" he quickly corrected,

"Alora is married to Elodie's father" Sirius explained, speaking slowly to ensure that Harry understood. Harry might have felt the prickle of irritation at the tone, hating when adults spoke to him as if he were a naïve child, if his mind hadn't been reeling from all the new information. For the first time in a long time, since before Sirius had entered his life really, Harry felt the twinge of being untethered, of not belonging, of an uncertainty that cut to his core. The feeling that had enveloped his childhood – it had been dampened, overtime, by Ron and Hermione, then the Weasleys, then Remus Lupin and finally Sirius Black. His family, his anchors that created sense out of the maddening world around him.

Harry was finding however that the sense of comfort and certainty, that feeling that he had some sort of grasp of the axis of his world, of his story and his place in the world was shattered by merely the presence of a woman he'd never before met or knew of. Alora Lestrange.

"I know her" Ginny piped up from where she still sat beside him. It took Harry a moment to realise that she was speaking of Elodie, Alora's daughter, recalling that they were in the same year. From the short glimpse he'd gotten at Alora the two looked incredibly similar, Elodie a younger reflection of her mother.

"She's actually quite nice for a Slytherin" Ginny added and both Fred and George smirked as they watched their younger sister's eyes widen as her neck snapped up to look at Sirius,

"Not for a Slytherin…I just meant…well it was just that…I mean" it was Sirius' turn to laugh at Ginny's fumbled explanation before he reached both hands out in front of him to reassure the young girl. They ignored a blistering Hermione who likely knew she was outnumbered in the room, even as they all caught Ron pat her arm soothingly despite the satisfied smirk on his face.

"For a Slytherin is very accurate mini molly…when did you meet her?" Ginny sent a glare towards Sirius at the name only receiving a smirk in response which she ignored as she answered,

"We've spoken before in classes and everything, but I sat next to her all year in defence against the dark ar- oh" Ginny's words trailed off as everything clicked into place in her mind and she turned to Remus who remained seated in the chair across the room. He smiled softly and Ginny realised that her old professors seating plan may not have been as random as he'd originally led the students to believe. Sirius laughed,

"Nice work Moony"

"Technically Harry, she would be your god sister" Remus offered quietly and Sirius nodded,

"James and Lily were Elodie's godparents and we were yours" his godfather added and Harry gaped,

"My parents were her godparents?" he repeated as he had done many times through-out the night as if the words were not true until he himself had spoken them aloud,

"Not that she would know that I suppose… I think Narcissa Malfoy is officially named" Sirius mused a twinge of sadness tinting the words,

"but Alora wanted it to be James"

Hey guys, continue?