After Ever After

Hugo always had a gift for gab. In fact, when they were kids, Hugo used to tell tales all the time about himself. He'd do ridiculous, impossible things in them. One that had always been a secret favorite of Al's was a fairytale where Hugo rode a Hippogriff bareback. While Hugo's stories had always been entertaining, what had ruined them as children was his cousin's insistence that they were all true.

Everyone knew they were lies and Hugo arguing the opposite had only lead to him getting throttled by the likes of their older cousins and Al's siblings (most notably, James and Roxanne, who could never stand the ludicrous stories in the first place). Thankfully, age appeared to have taught Hugo to tone down the fantastical elements in his stories. Half the time, Al was even ready to believe what his cousin was spouting. Even so, Al still suspected most of what Hugo told was lies, (just more cleverly woven than those he told as a child).

"–and that's how I beat Valerie Slughorn in a duel while under a langlock curse!"

The children just stared at Hugo, awe and adoration clear on their round faces. Finally, Jack threw up his arms and shouted, "Wow! You're so cool, Uncle Hugo!"

Al rolled his eyes as his cousin preened under the four-year-old's praise. God, this was becoming sickening to watch. No wonder Teddy's kids disliked him. While most of what Hugo was jabbering was pretty reasonable, that story had strayed into fantasy far too much. Al bet if Hugo was telling Teddy's kids stories like that one all of the time, they felt quite insulted. They were magic-born, magic-raised children (unlike his own) and knew what was and wasn't feasible with a wand. Having someone outright lie to you did not endear his or her person to you in the slightest. Shaking his head, Al stood up from his armchair. Looking out the window that was now in view, he grinned.

The clouds from the morning were gone and Al still had four hours until he needed to show up for the evening shift at Frog Prince. With a wide smile, he called, "Hey, who wants to go to the park?"

Laurel and Jack ran from the room, only to return moments later with six pairs of shoes between them. "Let's go!" Laurel shouted, dropping her pile of shoes on the floor.

"Can I stay here?" Lynette asked, eyes glued to her moblie.

Al shook his head, amused. "Sorry, love, but we're all going."

The girl huffed her annoyance, but argued no more (Al suspected she didn't push the issue out of fear of being told to leave her moblie at home). Picking his shoes up from the diminished pile, Al snagged Hugo's while he was at it and then threw them at his cousin.

Hugo failed to catch the loafers, causing one to bounce off his knee and hit him in the chin. Al laughed. Even after all of these years, his cousin was no more athletic than he had been as a gangly teenager. Hugo glared at him. Grinning, he said, "Aw, don't glare at me, Hugo, there's finally some sun waiting for us outside!"

"I guess," he said, a pout beginning to pull at his lower lip.

Al just rolled his eyes. Hugo would thank him when the kids actually went to bed on time for once.

Legs kicked out in front of him, Al let Hugo's chatter about their cousins (something about Roxanne getting married to an American) wash over him as he kept an eye on the children. Lynette was swaying on a swing not too far away; Julie and Laurel were by the sandbox, picking flowers, and Jack–

"Daddy?"

Al turned his head. "Yes?"

"I gotta use the loo."

"Okay," Al said, standing up. Looking to his cousin, he asked, "Keep an eye on the girls for me?"

Hugo waved a hand. "Don't worry, Al."

He scoffed. As if that was possible. "C'mon, let's go," he said, reaching for Jack.

-v-v-v-

Walking back hand in hand with his son, Al first took notice of Hugo. His cousin was talking up a dark-skinned man while petting what looked to be the man's dog. When in hearing range, Al caught a brief bite of their conversation.

"–wow, you lift too? Isn't that something? I bet you look amazing in a swimsuit–"

Al wanted to hear no more. Pressing Jack against his side, he made a pass over the boy's curls and left his hand resting just over the little boy's exposed ear. Jack really didn't need to hear his uncle's god-awful attempts at flirting with the dog-walker. Turning his eyes over to the playground, he honed in on Lynette first. She was just as he left her, swaying on a swing with her nose pressed to her moblie (an appointment to the eye-doctor might be in order soon). In their time away, Julie had moved into the sandbox and was now helping a pair boys dig a hole. Looking over the rest of the playground, he found himself frowning.

'Where's Laurel?' he wondered. A sick feeling beginning deep in the pit of his stomach, Al swung Jack up onto his hip and held him close. Hugo had to know. He'd told him to watch the girls. Coming up beside his cousin, he asked, "Where's Laurel gone?"

Hugo paused mid-sentence. His eyes scanned the playground and the surrounding park. "Uh, the loo?"

Al frowned. "I would have seen her going in on my way out, don't you think?"

Hugo shrugged. "Depends on when she went in."

His previously steady heartbeat picked up a tempo close to that of a pixie's. Hugo was not taking this seriously. Clutching Jack all the tighter, Al took several staggering steps toward the playground. "Lynette!" he shouted. "Lynette!"

The girl, now on her feet, hardly trotted two steps toward them before Al was towering over her. He knew he must look half-mad, but he couldn't bring himself to care – no matter how much it might scare his daughter or son. "Lynette, I need you to go to the loo and check to see if Laurel is in there."

"Yes, Dad," Lynette agreed before running past him.

Stalking the perimeter of the playground, Al barked Laurel's name every few paces, hoping beyond hope that she'd pop out of a bush, or jump down from a tree branch to ask him what's wrong. But she didn't. 'God, why would she?' Al asked himself. His daughter would never worry him like this if something hadn't happened!

"Dad! She's not there!" Lynette yelled as she raced over to him.

That familiar feeling of the earth giving way beneath him overtaking Al, he asked, "Are you sure?"

"I climbed over the stalls and everything, Dad!"

Taking a deep, painful breath, Al handed Jack to Lynette. "Take your brother and go stand with your Uncle Hugo, alright? Daddy – Daddy has to go get Julie."

Tears glistening in her big blue eyes, Lynette bravely nodded her head. 'Gryffindor, for sure,' Al thought absently as he turned his gaze on his watching daughter. Julie knew something was happening, but had yet to move from the sandbox.

He wondered if fear is what kept her frozen there. Putting on a smile that was far too wide to be true, he approached the little girl. Crouching down beside his daughter and the little boys she had been playing with, he asked, "Have you seen your sister Laurel?"

Trembling in his grip, the girl gave a mute shake of her head.

"When did you last see her?"

In little more than a whisper, she said, "Before we finished our tower."

Al glanced around his shoulder. A knee-high tower with a stick poking out of the top helped him to calculate an estimation of time. That tower couldn't have been finished more than ten minutes ago. His little girl hadn't been missing that long ('Thank God!'). They would find her. She couldn't have gotten far. All he needed to do was–

What did he do? What did he do?

"Al?" Hugo asked from behind him. "Al? Are you okay?"

He looked up at his cousin.

Hugo winced. "Sorry, that was stupid of me. Look, we'll find her, okay? Lynette just called the Muggle Aurors."

Al blinked. "She did?"

Wearily, his cousin nodded. "She's a sharp one. Do they train kids for this kind of stuff now days?"

"Maybe," Al replied as he got to his feet, Julie right behind him. "Muggle school's really something."

Hugo gave a weak smile as Lynette staggered over, Jack hugging her arm in such a tight hold that she had no choice but to drag him along by it. "Daddy," she called. "They want to talk to you."

Nodding, Al took the Moblie from his daughter.

"Hello? Yes, this is her father. My name? Alvin Lawson…"

-v-v-v-

The next two hours passed like a movie on forward with the occasional play thrown in the mix to see the important scenes played out in excruciating detail. In no time at all, a couple of police officers were at the park. They interviewed everyone, Al, Hugo, the children, other people's children and their parents. Even the stupid dog-walker Hugo had been chatting up before Laurel's absence was interrogated.

Thankfully, half an hour ago, Al had been able to reach his and Rose's movie-night babysitter, Ellie. The young woman had been thoroughly shocked by the news and more than willing to take the rest of the kids home for him so he could continue to look for Laurel alongside the police. It did nothing to stem the ache in his heart, but Al did feel less frazzled now that he knew his children were safe in his home being watched by Ellie. Unlike Hugo, Ellie knew a thing or two about watching children, and the last thing he would have to fear is her losing one of the girls or Jack.

Though, Al was wondering if he shouldn't have gone home with them. It would have given him the chance to grab something from Laurel's laundry so the police dogs could be brought in. Things appeared they'd be going that route quite soon, too. The police had paused things for the moment and were re-grouping so they could have everyone on the same page when they expanded the search perimeters in five minutes time.

Beside him, Hugo said, "I think we should call the Aurors."

Al's gaze snapped to his cousin. There was something frightfully serious about the other's face. "What?"

"I know, I know, you don't want everyone knowing your kids are Uncle Harry's grandkids, but we'll just use your alias. I'll say you're a mate of mine who went to school abroad. No one will question a thing, a lot of my friends are foreign-born or foreign-educated," Hugo half-explained, half-cajoled.

It still sounded like a bad idea to Al, but… Laurel was still missing. Al pondered what Rose would have wanted. She would have wanted Laurel back – even if it meant the end of their peace in the process. It was difficult to accept, but the more people and resources they had invested in finding Laurel, the better their chances were going to be in finding her. Taking a deep breath, he whispered, "Okay."

Hugo's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. "What? Really?"

"Yes!" Al snapped. "My daughter is missing!"

Realizing that he ought to get moving before Al could change his mind, Hugo nodded. "I'll, uh, go disaparate behind those bushes, alright?"

"Fine! Just go!"

With nothing more to say, Hugo meandered with false casualness over to the bushes behind the playground. A faint pop later, Al relaxed. It wouldn't be long now. Soon, he'd have two worlds looking for Laurel. With both of them on the hunt, Laurel would come home.

She had to.

It was very late. Far later than Alvin had any right being awake, but tomorrow was Rosemary's birthday. He wanted everything to be perfect for her – even if it meant re-doing the frosting of her cake a half a dozen times so it was just the right consistency. He made a pleased noise as he turned the cake on its pedestal, satisfied to not find a single uneven stroke in the melon-green frosting. Now all he had to do was create a few clusters of roses here and there along the edge of the cake and place the crown-wearing marzipan frog in the dead center of the cake.

"Daddy, what are you doing?"

Alvin jolted, knocking over the cake-pedestal in the process. "Damn!" he exclaimed.

"Uh-oh," Laurel whispered.

He wanted so very much to be angry with his daughter, but he could see she was holding her water glass. She'd just popped down to fill it. How could he be angry at Laurel over an accident? Alvin sighed wearily and looked toward the remaining cake he had cooling by the oven. Thank God he'd thought to bake an extra after he threw out the first one. Turning his attention toward his daughter, he said, "It's fine. Daddy has another cake."

Laurel nodded, but still glanced between him and the mess curiously. "Is that for Mummy?" she asked.

"Yes," Alvin answered. "I've been working on her cake for a few hours now. I want it to be perfect."

Setting her glass by the sink, Laurel clambered up onto the counter beside Alvin. "Mummy won't care if it's crumbs, though. She loves everything we give her."

Nodding, Alvin replied, "I know. It doesn't change that I want to give her the very best cake that I can, though. I love her."

Criss-crossing her legs in front of her, Laurel leaned forward and asked, "Because you love Mummy, her cake has to be perfect?"

"Everything I give and do for your mother has to be as close to perfect as I can manage because I love her," Alvin corrected.

Laurel's expression turned to one of awe. "I hope I'll marry someone like you, Daddy. It'd be nice to have someone who loves me as much as you love Mum."

He grinned. "You will," he assured. "There's a person like that for everyone in the world."

Smiling back, Laurel leaned against Alvin's arm and asked, "How did you know Mummy was the one you wanted to be with forever?"

Brushing a hand through his daughter's hair, Alvin thought of Rosemary. The way she beamed at him and him alone. How it struck his heartstrings and filled him with an all-encompassing love for her and her alone. "She made me feel like I was the only one in the world who mattered. She would look at me and… I could feel it. She was the one for me," he said.

"Wow."

Kissing his daughter's forehead, Alvin soaked in her marveled expression. He wasn't the least bit surprised that it was Laurel who understood what he was saying. She'd always had something about her that ran a little deeper, a little stronger, than her siblings when it came to understanding things as vast, beautiful, and heartbreaking as love.

Just a couple of more chapters, guys! Are you excited for that or a little sad?

Thank you all so much for reading :)