Chapter Six: Life Goes On
I disclaim all that is recognized as famous from JKR.
I hope you enjoy it immensely.
Kailey's Point of View:
My feet hit the ground with solid impact. Before I even opened my eyes, I yawned loudly, hopping to pop my ears back to normal.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked me, doing a very poor job at hiding his amusement.
"I'll be better when I can apparate on my own and don't have to deal with Side-Along anymore," I answered, opening my eyes and giving my guardian a look.
July thirtieth wasn't just the day before Harry's birthday this year; it was the day that Remus and I were moving into our new house.
I looked up at the little cottage in front of me and smiled. I had known right away that I would like the house the first time that Remus had taken me. It was made of stone and only two stories high with three bedrooms and a bathroom occupying the top floor, two of them much smaller than the other. A fourth bedroom was on the first floor, but it was as large as the big one upstairs. Remus and I had decided that this one would serve as a library/study room. After all, I didn't need a large bedroom to myself. I teased him endlessly when he chose the other large bedroom, though.
The yard was decent-sized, a little stone fence lining the property. It also provided a visual of where the wards had been put up. We had a Fidelius up, with Keena acting as our secret keeper, in addition to several other wards. One of them, Remus told me, would disturb a scent trail in case any werewolves tried to come after us. He was quite paranoid about such foes, which confused me seeing as the Aconite Solution was so readily available to us.
"Don't wish away the rest of your time at Hogwarts," he cautioned me, flicking his wand at my trunk, which he had just re-sized to its normal proportions. "There's plenty left to do up at the castle."
"I know," I sighed. "But it'll be so much easier when I can just use magic whenever I want."
He chuckled but didn't reply, nodding at me when I went around him and opened the door. He brought my trunk upstairs for me, but I stayed on the first floor, looking around again. The few pieces of furniture were covered in white sheets and the wooden floors were bare. I inhaled deeply before coughing a little and going over to one of the windows and opening it wide to let some light and air in.
It may not have been much, but it would be home.
Creaking on the staircase alerted me to Remus' return and we stared at one another before looking around the would-be living room for a minute.
"Want to redecorate?" he suggested.
"Yes, please."
I gathered up the sheets from the coffee table and small chests from the corners of the room, leaving them in a pile in the middle of the room; they needed to be washed. Meanwhile, Remus followed behind me, flicking his wand at the woodwork to dust it. When I lifted the sheet off of one of the couches we both gasped in horror.
The pattern on the fabric was mustard yellow and rusty orange. It formed a pattern that looked like mice and cat's eyes.
"Can you fix that?" I asked nervously, looking up at Remus in hope.
"We might have to get Keena or Lily in here," he admitted after a few moments. "But let me give it a try first."
He only managed to succeed in changing the colors on the fabric to muted gold and fuchsia.
"We're leaving the sheets on until that's fixed," I said stubbornly as I replaced the covering to avoid dealing with the pattern.
We pronounced the living room passable after he changed the color of the walls from pale brown to pale green. We decided that the fireplace would be fine for now since it was already connected to the floo network. The kitchen was our next target. Again, it wasn't terribly big, but it would do. The table was oak, with six chairs around it. An island separated the dining area from the cooking area, with several cabinets located beneath that counter in addition to around the walls. The door to the refrigerator even matched the woodwork.
I scrubbed the table down by hand while he dealt with the stove and oven. I lifted one of the seat cushions and swatted at it experimentally. A cloud of dust rose up and I sneezed three times in a row. Then I looked at the table.
"Oh," I groaned, looking up at the ceiling.
"What?"
"I got the table dusty."
He laughed at me.
I threw the cushion at his head.
After a brief pillow fight that was followed on a lecture on food-fighting rules, we finished the kitchen by changing the color of the walls from bright yellow to off-white.
"That way I'll know if you get food on the walls," was Remus' reasoning for the color change. I rolled my eyes at him but he didn't seem to notice.
The future library was tackled next. He transfigured the bed into a massive bookshelf that took up an entire wall all to itself. One of the nightstands became a desk and the other became a coffee table. The rocking chair that had occupied the room was turned into a long, fluffy couch, which I pushed to sit along the wall next to the bookshelf and across from the room's largest window. After some brief squabbling over the location of the desk, it finally went to stand next to the smaller window of the room.
"There's no desk chair," I pointed out after we admired the room for a minute or two.
"Oh, right," he muttered, flicking his wand at what had been the footrest for the rocking chair. "Try it out," he suggested, gesturing to it.
I did so, happily twirling in the spinning chair.
"I might study more often if I get to use this chair," I said, making it go faster and faster.
"Are you sure you're sixteen and not six?" he teased.
I planted me feet on the ground and glared at him.
He grinned at me and shook his head.
"Come on; time to fix the basement into your Potions lab."
I hopped off of the chair and followed him to the staircase. The basement door was along the wall where a cupboard would have been placed. I wondered briefly if this would bother Harry at all before shaking the feelings away. Remus flicked his wand and the lights came on. He led me down the stairs and my jaw dropped when he came to a stop.
The walls of the basement were painted white and the floor was smooth, gray stone. A fireplace sat along one of the walls and on the mantle were photographs of my friends, my brother and even my dad. There was also a small pot sitting on the corner of the mantle that I assumed contained floo powder. In the center of the room sat my cauldron, positioned perfectly over some crackling flames which were making the water bubble happily. A long desk lined the wall beside the fireplace with parchment and quills and ink already lined up along with an extra muggle desk lamp and all of my Potions books. On the other wall sat a work table with a stone top, perfect for preparing ingredients, all of the necessary tools already lined up. Along the fourth wall was some shelving with ingredients situated in order of most common usage.
"Is this…is it really…?" I spun around looking at everything. "How did you…?"
"Lily and your father came over and helped set it all up. The ingredients came from Bobbin Apothecaries; Keena mentioned to us that you have a lifetime supply from them?"
"Yeah, ever since the Quibbler went out that one time," I nodded, waving away the detail. "Remus, this is amazing! Think of all the interesting things I could make in here! Oh! I can try to make Felix Felicis or a Polyjuice!"
"What would you need Polyjuice for?" he laughed, giving me an odd look.
"Practice, of course!" I grinned, keeping my mouth shut about how put out I was that Hermione had only let me help prepare ingredients. Besides, I was sure I could come up with some short cuts of my own by now.
"So I take it that you are pleased with your lab?"
"Very pleased; this is the best thing in the world," I spun around once before my eyes landed on the mantle again. "Except, you need a picture up there too, Remus, you are my guardian after all."
He looked ready to protest but I held a hand up.
"Don't worry, Tonks can have a spot too, but not until you at least give her a ring."
I squealed when he shot a jinx off at me that turned my hair purple.
Keena's Point of View:
A very solid thunking sound called my attention to the library. It couldn't be Kaleb or Draco; they were having a chess tournament against one another for the day, somehow using four boards. It couldn't be Aradia; she was with Alianna who was trying to get her to say 'Ali'. It couldn't be Audrey or Lily, since they were at Headquarters all day again. It couldn't be Remus or Kailey; they were setting up their new house and moving in that night. It couldn't be Tonks, she was at work, or Sirius, he was at Hogwarts with Dumbledore doing something to the wards. It might have been James, but I had just passed him in the hallway (I had turned his hair pink a week ago when I heard what he had been trying to get Aradia to say so he was hard to miss).
That left Harry.
I opened the door to the library and looked inside. The thunking didn't halt, so I slipped in through the doorway and shut it softly behind me. I walked along a few rows of bookshelves before I spotted him. He was sitting with his back to the bookshelf, tossing what looked like a tennis ball off of the opposite shelf.
I cleared my throat just as he caught the ball again and he froze, looking down the row at me. He sighed and I raised an eyebrow at him, going forward and sitting down next to him. Neither of us said anything, but he sighed again and resumed bouncing the ball off of the shelf.
"Where did you get a tennis ball?" I asked after a minute of this.
"Found it on one of the shelves."
"Oh," I had no idea why a tennis ball would be in this house. "Care to explain why you're being moody again?"
"Not moody," he grumbled under his breath. "Just annoyed."
"About what?"
"It's Kailey," he muttered. "Not the moving part. Well, yeah, the moving part. But you know about the Prophecy, right?" he whispered the last of it, but I nodded. "Well, she should too, but she hasn't said anything to me about it. It's like she doesn't want to talk about it."
"Have you brought it up to her?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"No."
"Don't you think that maybe she is waiting for you to tell her about it? She might just not want to press you."
He grunted and caught the ball, rolling it around in his hands.
"I just don't understand why she thinks moving away from here is a good idea!" he burst out suddenly. "I mean, she's going to have to spend every day here still anyway since Remus will be doing things for the Order most of the time. There's no point in her just going over there to sleep."
"You know, your dad told me a funny story the other day," I said after a few moments of silence. "Something about one of the house elves waking the two of you up in the living room?"
"It's not what you think," he muttered, turning red. "We just…sometimes we need to talk to each other and then we get tired."
"So you're afraid that by her not being here, you won't have anyone to talk to?" I guessed.
"No, that she won't have anyone to talk to," he said softly.
I sighed and put a hand on top of his as he squeezed the ball tightly in his fists.
"She'll be fine, Harry. And you will too. Try not to worry so much, there's only another month left of summer in any case."
I patted the back of his hand and stood up. I began walking towards the door when he called my name. I turned to face him to see that he was standing and staring at me.
"Thank you," he said, his face reddening again. "For always talking to me, I mean."
I smiled at him before going off in search of my daughters. I needed to make sure that Aradia wasn't being taught to say 'snitch'.
Kailey's Point of View:
"And you should see the view from my bedroom window, Harry! It's just like at Hogwarts except it's…calmer, I suppose. Just fields and fields before it all plunges into trees. I can't wait for you to visit! Remus even said that I can help name it once we're ready for that," I paused, my grin fading when I looked over at Harry, who was lying on the grass beside me, staring unblinkingly at the sky. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said too quickly. "Why?"
"You look like someone just stripped your Firebolt and forgot to make it flyable again."
"Sorry, I'm fine."
I glared at him and he looked back at me in annoyed confusion. I huffed and turned my glare on the trees, hugging my knees to my chest.
"What did I do?" he asked and I heard him sit up beside me. I shrugged off his hand when he tried to put it on my shoulder.
"You know, Harry, you've been like this ever since you found out that I was moving. At first I thought it was just because of…Ron's brother, but now?" I shook my head and looked up at him. He was frowning at me but made no move to argue the point. "Merlin, Harry, you were miserable all day yesterday and it was your birthday! Aradia even managed to say her first word! You didn't even crack a smile for most of the time."
"I don't know if I consider 'no' to be a good first word," he rolled his eyes. "Though I suppose it was better than mine," he added, smiling when I couldn't suppress a giggle. His cousin's first word had prompted the telling of his own. "Besides, how do you know it's your moving that has me upset?"
"I don't, Harry," I shook my head. "Mostly because you won't tell me what's upsetting you. I know it's a strange concept, but I am not omniscient."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, effectively messing it all up. He glanced around us for a moment before shaking his head and tugging me to my feet.
"Come on, I don't think we should talk about this out here," he muttered, leading me back into the house.
After glancing in the living room to see the rest of the Hogwarts aged occupants gathered around a game of Exploding Snap, he led me up the stairs towards his bedroom. The two beds were shoved against opposite walls, as far apart as they could possibly be. Other than a few posters of Quidditch teams, nothing was on the walls. Draco would be moving into Remus' old bedroom at the end of the week and I had no doubt that this would coincide with the reappearance of all of Harry's photographs.
I flopped down on Harry's bed and watched as he began to pace.
"Just let it out, Harry," I said after a few minutes of this; I was beginning to feel dizzy.
He threw me a look before sitting down on the other end of his bed.
"Why didn't you tell me about the Prophecy?"
"The same reason I don't tell you everything else, Harry; it might not have been true," I answered honestly, meeting his gaze head on. "And, to be honest with you, I was hoping it wasn't true."
He sighed and broke our staring contest, resuming his melancholy look as he studied his carpet. I scooted forward on the bed and placed a hand on his knee.
"That doesn't mean anything changes, you know."
"Like hell it doesn't, Kailey," he grumbled, but he took my hand in his anyway. "That means I'm dangerous to be near."
"You're stuck with me, Harry, whether you like it or not."
"That's the problem," he raised his eyes to mine again. "I might like it too much. I don't want you to get hurt just because of me."
"I won't get hurt—"
"You don't know that, Kailey," he said firmly, giving my hand a squeeze. "And I won't let you put yourself in that kind of danger. Not for me," he trailed off and looked away from me, letting go of my hand.
I frowned at him, feeling irrational emotion bubbling up inside of me.
"What are you trying to say?" I whispered.
"Maybe…maybe we shouldn't—"
I reached forward and pulled his face to meet mine. He resisted for half a second before he pulled our bodies as close together as we could manage sitting up on the bed. His hand tangled in my hair before I broke us apart.
"Before you even begin to think like that again, let me remind you who else is on Voldemort's hit list," I growled and he had the common sense to look a little embarrassed. "I might even be higher up on it than you, Potter."
"Only for your name, Snape," he answered and I grinned when he resumed kissing me.
It wasn't until there was a knock on the door that we split apart, though now he was lying on top of me and we were a little tangled together. Our heads swiveled to the door and Harry hastily sat up when we realized that Audrey was standing in the open doorway.
"Er, sorry," she stammered, turning red. "The door wasn't shut all of the way and it kind of swung open when I knocked."
"It's fine," I squeaked, blushing, though I was incredibly glad it hadn't been one of the other adults. Or my little brother, for that matter.
"Well, anyway, Professor Black wants to see you two; something about checking if your robes for the wedding fit," the blonde witch finished quickly before turning on her heel and heading away from the bedroom as quickly as possible.
Harry and I glanced at one another and I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one resembling a fire engine at this point. We headed downstairs to the living room, carefully not touching one another the whole way there. Currently, the living room resembled Madam Malkin's shop, even Madam Malkin was there. Sometimes it was hard to forget just how rich the Potters and Blacks were.
The couches had been removed from the room and racks of robes lined two of the walls. Two makeshift dressing rooms were placed side by side, one labeled 'Wizards' and the other labeled 'Witches'. There was some muttering from behind the Witches' dressing room, but Tonks and Alianna were combing the racks at the moment.
"Harry, your mum already picked out your robes; you can go ahead and get into the dressing room," Tonks said once she noticed our presence. "Kailey, the color theme is the same as my hair," the metamorphmagus added, nodding her head which was currently crimson.
"Okay," I nodded, coming to stand beside her and Alianna. "So what are we looking for here?"
"Bridesmaids outfits," Alianna answered, bouncing on her toes.
"But these are all gold?"
"Well, Keena will be the one wearing the crimson," Tonks replied as though it were obvious.
"In Wizarding weddings, the bride doesn't wear white," Alianna replied to my look of confusion. "That's a muggle thing."
"Really?" I frowned, cocking my head to the side. "That's weird."
"Well, sometimes a muggle-born will wear white because that's what her family expects, but usually she doesn't. Lily wore green," Alianna informed me. "Mum wants to be able to wear her mum's wedding jewels, and they all have rubies in them. She says that Potter women almost always wear them; they get passed down mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, since they usually only have sons. In grandmum's will, though, they were passed down to Keena instead since James and Lily hadn't married yet."
"So will they pass down to you then?" I asked curious, smiling at Alianna's excitement.
But she frowned.
"I'm not sure; maybe I'll wear them, but I think they should stay in the Potter name, don't you?" she shrugged. "After all, it's been that way since before their name was 'Potter'."
I shrugged in reply and began pawing through the gowns that they were looking at.
"What color are you going to make your hair, Tonks?" I asked, glancing up at the slightly older witch.
"Keena asked me if I would just go natural," the Auror stuck out her tongue. "Just to make sure I didn't clash or anything. Not that I would ever do that on purpose, but I understand."
"What's your natural look, Tonks?" Alianna asked, looking up at her godmother in curiosity. "I'm sure it's pretty!"
Tonks gave Alianna a small smile before sighing and closing her eyes. Her hair lost its crimson color, morphing to deep, dark brown and lengthening to half way down her back, becoming wavy in the process. Her features sharpened in a way that reminded me a little of Draco, but it looked softer on her. When she opened her eyes they were gray.
"You're so pretty, Tonks!" Alianna squealed.
"Thanks squirt," Tonks blushed, though she shifted back to her previous look after a moment anyway.
"Why's your hair so long that way?" Alianna asked, tilting her head to the side.
"I haven't gotten a real haircut in years," Tonks laughed. "Don't need to when I can control my looks like that."
"Oh, look at this one," I murmured, pulling a gown out to show to the other two.
"Good pick, Kailey," Tonks nodded. "It'll probably look good on all three of us," she added, taking the gown from my hands and flicking her wand at it. Two more appeared and I just barely caught them before they hit the ground. I glared at her but she only shrugged at me. "Let's try them on then."
After trying on a grand total of five dresses, we finally settled on one that would look good on all three of us. Lily was to be the matron of honor, but she and Keena had already picked out a dress for her in a slightly paler shade of gold. Alianna and I stuck around to watch as Keena went back and forth into the little cubicle of a dressing room as she tried dress after dress.
"I don't know what you two think is so funny," Keena grumbled after she caught me and Alianna giggling at the looks of annoyance Tonks and Lily were trading.
"It's just you said that this wasn't as big of a deal to you anymore," I shrugged while Alianna nodded beside me. "But now you're acting like a normal, overly anxious bride."
"You and dad are already married mum, I don't think he'll care too much how you look," her daughter added with a slight shrug.
"He might not, but I'd like the pictures to come out nicely," Keena muttered, accepting another gown from Lily while Madame Malkin fussed around looking for another gown for her to try on. "Besides, he doesn't have to worry about what he's wearing the way I do."
"Is he wearing any traditional Black colors?" Tonks asked curiously while Alianna and I traded confused glances.
"He doesn't like the way silver robes look on him and he knows that I'm wearing red, so no, I don't think so," Keena answered. "He's just wearing your average dress robes; just dark colored with an accented hemline."
"What are the traditional Black colors?" Alianna asked once her mother was back in the dressing room.
"Silver and, well, black," Tonks replied with a shrug. "The Potters are gold and crimson if I'm not mistaken?" she glanced at Lily who nodded.
"Very Gryffindor," I grinned.
"There hasn't been a Potter in any other house in centuries," Lily shrugged. "That might just be because there have never been many of them living at once. The Blacks, though, well, they're family is much more widely spread and since their last name is a color…" she shrugged again and Alianna cocked her head thoughtfully.
"Do all of the families have colors?"
"The really old ones do, yes," Tonks replied. "I heard a rumor that the Dumbledores were purple and turquoise once, and Professor Dumbledore does wear a lot of purple."
Tonks changed her hair briefly to match the colors of Dumbledore's family, giving herself a long beard to match. Alianna giggled and I smiled, shaking my head.
Keena's Point of View:
Aradia's first birthday dawned wet and gray. I was woken up by crying over the baby monitor which seemed fitting in a way. After a glance over at my husband, who was still sleeping, I got out of bed and stretched before heading upstairs to see to the baby. By the time I arrived, Sparky had already calmed the little birthday girl down.
"Good morning, Mistress," the elf piped up happily. "Little miss is just having a bad nappy is all. Sparky is having fixed it already."
"Thank you, Sparky," I smiled, holding my arms out to take my baby girl. "And a very happy birthday to you, little one."
She let out a stream of babble, inserting the word "no" in quite a few times. I laughed and shook my head at her.
"No? It's not a happy birthday? Well, of course it isn't, your daddy is still asleep," I nodded importantly and she shrieked in delight. "Should we tell daddy no more sleep?" I asked, heading towards the stairs to go back to our bedroom.
"No!" she crowed happily. "Da-ee no!"
"Daddy no?" I grinned, hoping she was about to say her second word.
"Da-ee no," she trailed off back into incoherent babble.
I smiled at her again before catching another sound as I walked along the corridor. Someone in this hallway was crying. I frowned, looking around and seeing that my old bedroom was the closest room. I called for Sparky and asked her to bring Aradia to Sirius. Once the elf and the baby were gone, I knocked gently on the door before pushing it open.
I was greeted with the sight of Audrey, hastily wiping her face with the backs of her hands. She sniffed and looked up at me before breaking down into tears once more. Without a word, I entered the room fully and took her into my arms. Neither of us said anything for a long while, not until her crying had calmed down.
"I loved him," she whispered finally. "I know I'm young, but really, I did. I think we could have…we could have gotten married. Had a family and…and g-grown old together."
I had no idea what to say. Here I was, preparing to celebrate my daughter's birthday before celebrating my year-old marriage with my husband. What could I possibly say to this grieving lover?
"What should I do, Professor?" she asked, leaning away from me to look me in the eye. "How can I make this right?"
"I don't know if anything will ever make it right, Audrey," I answered softly. "Time will heal it a little but the best thing that you can do is to keep living and to keep fighting. And believe that good things will come to you again."
"Do you think they will?"
I placed a hand on the side of her face and smiled at her.
"Of course I do. And you should too."
"Professor, did you lose anyone? In the last war, I mean."
"My parents," I answered with a nod. "My father died after a raid in Diagon Alley when I was sixteen. My mother died a few years later when Death Eaters attacked the old Headquarters."
"Where were the old Headquarters?" she asked quietly.
"Here," I replied with a sigh. "But both of them would be proud of us for continuing to fight. To continue to defend all who we love, because why else would we fight?"
"Giving up seems like it would be so easy," she murmured before glaring at the wall. "But Percy would never have stood for that. Hard work and determination; that's what he lived by so that's what I will live by," she sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes again. "Besides, there's always something to live for, right?"
I nodded at her and she managed a tiny smile.
"Keena!"
The shout caused Audrey and me to jump up. I sprinted to the hallway, Audrey on my heels. Sirius shouted my name again and the two of us took off sprinting down the hall, other members of the house joining us as we went.
"Sirius, what? What is it, is everything all-?" I paused in the doorway after I slammed the door to our room open. Sirius was sitting on the bed, holding a giggling, babbling baby on his lap.
"Mama!" she shrieked out, giggling happily when she saw me gasp and cover my mouth.
Mellowing out the extreme drama in spirit of the impending holiday season! So if I don't update before, happy Hanukah, merry Christmas, or whatever else you may celebrate or do! Much love to you all!
:-D