"Breakfast" turned out to be served at two in the afternoon the next day, in a back room at the Leaky Cauldron. The kids were still bleary-eyed and wearing their relatives' pajamas. Their sleep had been restful, though they had each woken at times during the night surprised that they weren't being attacked, or angered by the fact that they were still sleeping in strange beds. Quincy lasted an hour before climbing into bed with Madison.
Rain had blocked out any sun that could have been shining through the pub's windows, but that was just as well, they were all in a rather rainy mood anyway.
As they waited for food to be set out Madison took a quiet interest in the building's architecture and the accents of the servers and customers. Ashing enjoyed the Longbottom's copy of the Daily Profit, where he was surprised to see the announcement of "another potion-induced death" covering the front page. Down the table Jeff perused the very short comics section. Roe took to looking in every extra room on the first floor and checking out all the new places to crawl under or on top of, while Adam looked on amused and with no intention of keeping his brother from causing the pub owners undue trouble.
The food at breakfast turned out to be delicious and familiar enough to be comforting. Adam, though, was not impressed by the coffee, and flat out refused the offered tea.
As was promised they were joined at breakfast by a stranger in maroon auror robes, who tried overly hard to engage them in conversations about their lives. He had little success, as his only topics were Quidditch and joke shops that didn't exist in the states. Eventually he succumbed to discussing the intricacies of children's literature with a suddenly talkative Quincy, who asked him several times where her parents were.
Instead of being helpful Jeff and Madison looked pointedly at the auror, withholding laughter, while he tried to avoid explaining why their parents had fled to South America. He was forced to fluster answers and steer the inquisitive child toward easier topics.
At the other end of the table Ashing was doing everything in his power not to pick every detail of the Second Wizarding War out of Mr. Longbottom's head. Instead he attempted to discuss the room's decorations and his work at Hogwarts.
After their late breakfast the auror informed the kids, rather unfortunately, that there was no possible way to get them back to their house for supplies. Hannah offered to take them to the second hand store for clothes that fit and didn't smell of smoke. She found a few robes they could be seen in public in and they all spent the rest of the evening getting enough supplies to last them the rest of the week.
As they glanced at the new clothes and games in store windows of Diagon alley they were all forced to face the fact that the simple decadence of their previous life had disappeared. Madison felt uncomfortable wearing clothes that she hadn't bought straight off the rack, and though Adam was no stranger to Ashing's second hand outfits he wasn't sure he was ready to give up his ability to buy new games and candy whenever he felt like it. Ashing too couldn't help but drool a little at the stacks of books set out in the window of Flourish and Blotts.
They had no money though. Not a cent from their parents' frozen accounts to spend on frivolous things, and so later that evening when they wandered back to the Leaky Cauldron wearing slightly worn robes they were all slumped, and slightly worried about what was to become of them.
The week wore on, surrounded by borrowed books and games. There was a significant lack of Quadpot, and the radio was on almost constantly, the channels flipping in search of some entertainment. Arguments broke out, and entertaining the younger two became a larger chore than usual.
They all waited eagerly for word from Harry, and in the pit of their stomachs they all waited for word from their parents. Quincy was the only one to say it outright, and each time someone new would take the fall, explaining to her that their parents really couldn't be there right now, that they were busy, but of course they still loved them all very much. They knew that had to be true, despite the silence and the lies, their parents had to love them.
They had to.
The aurors had gotten nowhere during those days. The two captured members of the group that had attacked the house legitimately knew nothing about the person who hired them. They insisted they weren't under the affects of any potion when they attacked, and furthermore they expected some reward for their work, but that was as far as the aurors got. The next day another family member's house was ransacked. Their continued to be no trace of the children's uncle, who was taken the night they were brought to the Leaky Cauldron.
The witch and wizard were set to be on trial for their crimes, and in the meantime Harry needed a new plan to follow his way up the ladder of evil. Nothing had come of the Williamson children. No one had attempted to contact them, no one had tried to attack them. Harry had, at least temporarily, weaseled his way out of explaining to both the U.S. and the Auror Department where exactly they were, and why, but he didn't know how long that would last. It made him slightly nervous, though not nearly as nervous as the rising count of, seemingly random, attacks.
Worst of all if nothing came of any of this by the following morning, he was set to take all of them off to Hogwarts and plead with Headmaster McGonagall to shelter them temporarily. Before that though, he would have to survive his children's Hogwarts farewell dinner with his very upset half-werewolf Godson.
"It's unfair!" Teddy roared from where he stood by the kitchen table. His hair was rotating through a series of violent shades of purple, red, and black. Harry took a steadying breath trying to stay his most irritating auror calm as the argument continued to escalate. The first full moon The Ministry of Magic had faced since the banning of the most important ingredient in the making of the cheaper alternative to Wolfsbane, had taken place a week ago. Support groups were up in arms, Ted rallying loudly among them.
Harry held the Daily Profit in front of him as a lifeboat, trying to avoid reading too many words out of the obituaries where another wizard's murder at the hands of the same ingredient in a different potion was spelled out.
"Yes, it's unfair." Harry agreed. "But there are-" he was cut off before he could continue.
"Sick people, becoming sicker because they can't get what they need." Ted finished for his godfather.
"I was going to say dying, being killed." Harry replied, not looking up from the paper, but also not reading it.
"Really, because I was going to say that last week, Melinda Fairgrove ended up in St. Mungos because she can't get the medicine she needs to make it safely through a full moon. I was going to say that Edgar Eddings was fired last week because he can't afford Wolfsbane, so he missed a week of work." Teddy screamed desperately to the head of the auror department.
"And I'm telling you Ted, I have nothing to do with the Ministry's decision to ban Razorgrass, or the the Slugs, or"
"But you have sway." Ted pleaded. "You could convince them."
"And I will, I promise I will." Harry answered firmly. "But right now I have not just one, but multiple dark wizards using these substances to mind control people, to kill. When this calms down, when we can clean up enough of the mess caused by this we can do something. We're getting closer every day." Harry said thinking briefly about the Williamson kids. "Until then, there's legislation trying to go through that would allow master potion makers to apply for the right to use those ingredients."
"It won't help" Ted sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. The roots of his hair were calming down to a light brown color, but his face still betrayed signs of being upset. "The price of getting the verification, to get the ingredients, and the special shipment process will go straight to the people buying the potion and Merlin knows they can't afford any more than they're paying already."
Harry sighed as well and rubbed a hand down his face. Now that Ted was calming down Harry set the paper off to the side. "It would be a step in the right direction. They are discussing it in a few weeks. I plan to be there, arguing for its passing."
"You should be arguing for a lift on the ban." Teddy argued back with less ferocity than before. "And a few weeks is a few weeks too many." He added. Harry didn't disagree, but watched his godson cross his arms and stare down at the floor defiant, but possibly weary.
"I need to stop dark wizards, Ted."
"And I need to protect the community of people with lycanthropy." Ted countered.
"I know." Harry agreed. They were both quiet, and a voice in Harry's head was saying "I do too" but he couldn't bring himself to say it aloud. Instead he held out an olive branch. "But Ginny asked you over for dinner before the kids go back to school, so can we calm down on the screaming fight, and try for a civil dinner at least?" Harry asked, and to his surprise Ted cracked a smile.
"I've been missing civilized dinners with my extra family." He confessed, his smile faltering with an exhalation of breath.
Harry reached out and pushed a chair away from the table for Teddy to sit on. The young man slipped into it as Harry asked "so how's Victoire?" with a cheeky grin.