Previously...

Abby and Magdelena meet the Minister of Magic (Kingsley).

We find out that the girls knew Draco from their old life, and that Abby was set to one day marry him.

The girls help the Auror Department with their mission to end the town where they grew up.


I had just found a comfortable position on the sofa when someone was knocking on the front door. I groaned and practically fell on the ground in an effort to stand up. "I swear whoever this is better be worth it," I muttered.

The person knocked a second time before I could get the door open. Looking back, I was sure to curse myself for not checking out the window or even grabbing my wand off of the coffee table. In the moment, though, I was much too tired to do anything. Magdelena was upstairs sleeping, and Dad was at the Ministry for the day. After doing the dishes from breakfast, I had laid down on the sofa in the hopes that I could master the knitting that Molly had been teaching me.

There they were, though. Standing on the porch that Dad had plans to rebuild this weekend were the three visions from my past. I slammed the door shut, running up the stairs as I yelled Magdelena's name.

"Really, Abbygail? You think a door is going to stop us?" Nicholas said from behind me.

"Abby, why are you shouting?" Mags exclaimed as she opened her bedroom door. "Honestly I'm just right here."

I shoved her into the room, stealing her wand from her grasp as I muttered the spells to lock the room. Unfortunately for us, her wand was producing sloppy spells because I was the one using it.

"Bloody-"

"They're here, Magdelena," I rushed out.

She grabbed her wand back when she realized who I was speaking about. "Well those aren't going to do. They're too weak." She doubled up the spells

"Oh, come, now, Magdelena," Tav's voice rang out from the other side. "Do you honestly believe that those little spells are going to last? You must be stupider than I thought."

"What time is your dad getting back?" she whispered.

"Not for hours!"

She frowned, and glanced around the room. "Where's your wand?"

My jaw clenched. "In the living room."

It was then that I saw the panic cross her face. "There's no chance of protecting ourselves if only one of us has a wand."

I swallowed hard as I tried to come up with anything.

"Abby?"

We both froze.

"What's Sean doing here?" she demanded.

"I don't know! If I knew, wouldn't I tell you?"

She rolled her eyes, shooting another spell at the bedroom door.

"Hey, your dad told me that you and Mags were looking a little down in the dumps this morning. I figured maybe you guys would want to go out to Hogsmeade for a little while?" He stopped and my heart stopped. "Hey, why's your door wide open? I thought Charlie just fixed it yesterday."

I could hear footsteps going down the stairs, and Magdelena pulled me further from the door. "Abby, don't-"

"Sean!" I screamed.

"Scream," she finished lamely. "You just gave them his name, if they get away."

Magdelena and I both jumped a few minutes later when there was a thud at the door. Someone wiggled the doorknob and then sighed.

"Abby, Magdelena, open the door," Sean's voice urged. We glanced at each other, not speaking, before he wiggled it again. "You two have to get out of here. Please open it."

"H-How do we know it's you?" I called through the wood.

He chuckled. "You have an immense love for your grandma's lemon cake, Abby, and you can't decide for the life of you what mobiles to get the babies."

Magdelena's lips finally smoothed into a smirk. She winked at me, but I pushed her away. "What's your mother's name?" I asked.

"Anne," he answered immediately.

I sighed in relief and opened the door. He yanked me into his arms the moment I did. "They didn't touch you, right?" he checked. When I shook my head, he looked at Magdelena.

"No," she mumbled.

"Good." He handed me my wand. "Don't answer the door without it, Abbygail," he warned.

Magdelena was frozen, looking at Tav's body on the ground. Blood was smeared all over his face. "What did you do to him?" she whispered.

"A few good punches did him in," he told her. He waved the three wands in front of us. "They're not very good fighters, just duelers, I suppose. Now, come on. We need to get you two out of here." When we got down the stairs, he waved us out the door. "Go to your grandma's, and tell her what happened."

"I'm not leaving you!" I protested.

He argued with me for a moment before Magdelena pointed to the living room where Nicholas was beginning to stir. Sean pointed his wand at him, and a second later Nicholas' head hit the ground again. He glanced between the two guys and us. "Alright. You two stay right here, while I go bring that one down here. If they start to wake up again, just yell, alright?"

The two of us nodded, and he quickly sent a patronus to Dad before running up the staircase.

Ten minutes later, Sean had us sitting on the sofa and he was kneeling down in front of our shaking forms. "It's okay," he promised. "They're not going to hurt you. I'm right here."

Magdelena had her hands on her stomach, and she leaned into me. "I'm so dizzy," she mumbled.

My fingers found her pulse, but my hand was trembling so much that I wasn't sure if I was actually counting right. Sean's fingers replaced mine, and then he directed her to lay down on her side. "Try saying the alphabet. Just do it over and over again as slowly as you can," he instructed.

She made it to the letter 'F' for the seventh time when the front door swung open. Sean had his wand at the ready, but dropped it when he saw Dad followed by Bill, Percy, Rick, Arthur, Harry, and Ron.

"What is it? What happe-"

I'm sure it was a brutal scene to them; three men laying on the floor of the living room with blood smattered all over their faces. To me, I was in too much shock to really register just how much damage Sean had done to their once pretty faces.

Dad's eyes went to us, and he rushed to kneel in front of the sofa. "Are you both okay? No cuts, bruises-"

I shook my head. "They didn't touch us."

"Are you okay, Mags?" he asked. He pushed her hair out of her face. "What's wrong?"

"She's dizzy. I think maybe it's her blood pressure."

"Audrey, will be here any second," Percy promised.

Sean squeezed my hand before his other hand snapped out to shoot another curse at Troy's body when he groaned.

Dad's eyes roamed over the three men at that moment. He seemed to be taking in every detail of their appearance. "Tell me what happened," he demanded.

I slipped my other shaking hand into Sean's warm, comforting one. "I-I was stupid, Dad," I whispered. "So stupid. They knocked on the door, and I answered it without checking, without my wand. I shoul-"

"Without your wand?" he repeated. His angry gaze found my face. "Abbygail, what the hell were you thinking? They could have bloody well killed you both! I cannot believe you were so irresponsible! You understand the severity of the situation you and Magdelena are in! I thought I could trust you to be safe while I was away at work! I thought you were smarter than that! You never go anywhere without your wand! Do you understand that?"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" I sobbed. "I'm stupid, I know! I'm so sorry!"

He collapsed onto his bum, rubbing his face tiredly. "Abby, I'm-"

"No! You're right! I am stupid!"

"No, Abby, you are not. You just made a stupid decision. There's a difference. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you. Can you finish telling me what happened? I promise I won't yell again."

Sean moved so he was sitting on the sofa and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, rubbing my arm as he did so.

"I shut the door once I realized who it was, and ran upstairs." I hiccuped a few times, wiping at my face to get rid of the tears. "Mags used her wand and locked her bedroom door. Maybe five minutes later, Sean came inside."

Dad looked at Sean. His eyes went from Sean's arm around me to his face. "Why were you coming over here, Sean?" he asked.

Sean dropped his arm, and quickly moved over so his leg was no longer pressed against mine. "When I saw you this morning, you said they were looking like they could use some cheering up."

"And how exactly were you going to do that, Sean?" he demanded.

"Oh, goodness!" Molly exclaimed suddenly. "What happened?"

I turned my head to look at the door and saw what looked to be the rest of the family coming through the door.

Audrey kneeled down by Magdelena's head. "What's wrong, dear?"

"Dizzy, so dizzy," she mumbled, tiredly.

While she was checking over Magdelena, Dad stood up. "I asked a question, Sean."

"I-I was just-," Sean started.

Bill moved forward, placing a hand on Dad's shoulder. "Charlie, you can interrogate him later. Why don't you just let Abby finish telling us what happened?"

Dad glared at Sean. "Go get Abby and Mags some water." Once the spot next to me was vacant, he sat down.

I bit down on my lip. "Dad, he just wanted to take us to Hogsmeade, I swear. You don't have anything to worry about. Sean's just a friend."

"Finish, Abbygail."

I suppressed my sigh, and nodded. "Umm...well, Sean came inside. I'm not really sure what happened then, since we were in Mags' room. A few minutes later, he knocked on the door, I asked him a few questions to make sure it was really him, and then he took us downstairs. He tried to make us go to Grandma's, but I wouldn't leave him, so he put the three of them together and sat with us. Then you arrived, and here we are."

Sean handed me a glass of water, and sat Magdelena's on the table.

"Thanks," I said, giving him a smile.

Dad glared at him again. "And your side of the story?"

He fidgeted, and handed the three wands to Harry. "I came in, two of them came downstairs. I stupefyied them, took their wands, and then figured it would be too easy to just use magic to make them unconscience."

Dad's gaze went to Sean's bloody hand. A wave of happiness came across his face before he quickly hid it. "I'm sure Mum can heal that for you."

Molly ushered him to an empty chair, ignoring his attempts to wave her off.

"Finish the story, Sean."

I tried not to wince at Dad's steely tone.

Sean nodded. "I went upstairs to check on Abby and Magdelena, and that's where the third one was."

He continued talking, but I had noticed something in Nicholas' pocket poking out. I stood and started to go near him when Arthur stopped me. "Abby, they aren't incapable of hurting you still," he explained.

I ignored him, and reached out, snatching the paper from Nicholas' unconscious body. I unfolded it and at that moment it seemed to really hit me. "You bloody bast-"

"Abby, what-" Dad was at my side, pulling me away.

"You just can't leave me alone, can you, Nicholas?" I shouted. "You have to bloody track me down! How the hell did you even get this? Why can't you just go away? Why! Why, Nicholas? It isn't even your baby! Just leave me alone!" I screamed. "You had no right to look at my files! No right at all, Nicholas!"

Dad eased me away after taking the hospital paper from my hands, and passed me to Bill and Fleur. "Take her upstairs until this is all sorted out."

"Come on, Abby," he said quietly, putting an arm around my shoulders.

Fleur squeezed my hand, but stayed quiet as we walked up the staircase. Bill directed us past the blood smeared on the floor in front of Magdelena's room quickly and shut the door to my room behind us.

"Why don't you sit down, Abby?" Fleur suggested.

"Try to get some rest," Bill agreed.

"That's what I was trying to do before they showed up!" I exclaimed. "I thought they were gone! I thought I was safe!"

He made me sit on my bed, squeezing my shoulders as he knelt down to eye level with me. "Abbygail, you are safe here. None of us will let anything happen to you, the twins, Magdelena, or her daughter, do you understand that?"

I choked on my words as the tears came, "But they came. They were so close to-"

He shook his head. "They weren't because Sean was there. Someone will always be there, I promise you. And once we figure out how they got past the enchantments, we'll be able to modify them so no one ever will again."

Fleur took my hand in both of hers, and she sat down beside me. "And until you and Magdelena feel safe, I can come 'ver with Victoire each day," she suggested.

"I couldn't ask that-"

A knock on the door had me jumping and nearly screaming before Bill patted my knee. "Come in," he said.

Angelina pushed the door open. Behind her stood George, Fred, and Alicia. "We wanted to check and see how you're doing, Abby."

"I'm fine."

She nodded. "Mind if we come in? They're doing auror stuff down there, and Molly started cooking everyone dinner with Ginny and Hermoine."

"That's fine."

George flopped onto my bed. "We're going to need more than 'fine', Abby dear."

I ignored him. "How's Magdelena?"

Angelina and Alicia sat down at the window seat Dad had put in for me. "She's resting. Audrey and Percy are with her, making sure her blood pressure goes back down. Audrey said she must have gone into shock when she saw them."

I nodded. "I feel bad for leaving her like that. I shouldn't have acted like I did."

"It's fine. Besides, your yelling roused that Nicholas bloke awake," Fred informed me.

"Gave Charlie a good reason to knock him unconscious again," George continued.

"That's not what we want to talk about though."

"No, not at all."

"We want to know what's going on with you and Sean."

"Whatever it is has Charlie all riled up."

Fred grinned wickedly at me. "So what is it?"

I felt my face heat up. "Nothing. Nothing at all!" Fleur laughed, causing me to glance at her with wide eyes. "Not you, too!"

She held her hands up in defense. "It 'ooks 'ike Sean 'as eyes for you."

"He doesn't! We're just-"

"Just friends, yes," Bill teased. "We're not Charlie, Abby. You can't use that excuse and a quick 'really, Dad, just friends'."

"Think about their wedding!" Alicia said, suddenly giggling. "The speeches will always include some version of how he saved Abby when she was a 'damsel in distress'!"

George and Fred's eyes lit up at that.

I nearly growled, and began pacing again. "Sean and I are nothing! I have no feelings for him at all! We're friends, that's it! I don't think about him like that at all! We have nothing! He's just my dad's friend's son. That's it!"

"Thanks for clearing that up." I twisted towards the doorway to see Sean standing there. He stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. I should head home. Bye, Abbygail."

"No, Sean, please wait!" I pleaded as he started down the hall. "Sean, please! I'm sorry!"

He turned back around. "'Sorry for what? There's nothing to be sorry about. You're right, we're just friends because of our dad's."

"No, I didn't mean it like that. Sean, I just meant that were just friends. Everyone seems to be getting the idea that we're more than that. I was trying to clear things up."

His green eyes never broke from mine. "Why would they think that?" he asked. Something in his voice told me he already knew the answer to his question.

"I-I don't know."

From the light streaming through the windows in the house, I was able to make out his jaw clenching and unclenching. "Really, Abby?"

"Sean, I-I..."

"I need to get home."

"Sean, wait! Please!"

He looked up tiredly. "What, Abbygail?"

I glanced back at the group watching us before stepping out of the room and over to him where they couldn't hear me. "Sean, I'm trying," I whispered. "I don't know what it's like to have a crush on someone, or to have a healthy relationship. I grew up with the mindset that I would never have a decision to make."

"I understand, Abbygail. You don't have to. You're right, we're just friends."

I bit down on my lip. "You're right," I agreed. "We are just friends, but that doesn't mean that these feelings I have for you are the proper feelings to have for a friend." That seemed to catch his attention. "It's been two months since I met you, and I'm realizing that, despite what I said at first, I want something more than a friendship."

He shook his head, tugging on his short, dark hair with his hand. "You need to get some sleep, Abby. You've already had a long day. We can talk when you've rested."

This time it was me shaking my head. "Just, wait here for a second." I went back into my room, and pulled open the drawer to one of my nightstands. I took out the diary before carrying it over to him where he was standing in the doorway now. "Take this and read it, please."

"What is it?" he asked, looking down at the simple, black cover of the thick book.

"It's my diary. I've written in it every night since the day I got it. It's the only thing I took with me when I came here."

He started to hand it back. "Abby, I can't read this. It's private."

I pushed it back into his grasp. "Just read it. I...I wrote a lot of it when I was still in Germany. It will explain things better than I ever could in a conversation."

He glanced from the diary to my eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Abbygail?" Charlie called as he came up the stairs.

I gave Sean a quick hug. "Please read it, and bring it back to me as soon as you can."

He hugged me as tight as my pregnant belly would allow before squeezing my hand. "You're dad is going to kill me one of these days, I know it."

I laughed softly, and pulled away to sit back on the bed when I heard dad coming down the hall.

"Sean? What are you doing up here still?"

"Abby was just lending me a book," he explained quickly. "It's about some rare dragon in South Africa."

Bill leaned down to whisper in my ear, "You do know that I'm going to have to talk to him about how easily he can come up with lies." My eyes went wide as they connected with his. "I'll wait till Charlie's not around," he promised.

"South Africa? Oh, the Ranginy?" He glanced at the diary. "Huh, I don't think I've come across that book yet."

"Just have it back to me whenever you can, Sean," I said. I turned my eyes to Dad's. "So what'd you need? I'm sorry for how I acted down there, Dad. You were right to yell at me, too. It was stupid of me to not take my wand when I answered the door."

Dad moved into the room and Sean was able to slip down the staircase with no more questioning. He nodded. "It was, but I shouldn't have yelled at you. Everyone makes mistakes." He looked me over. "You're sure you're okay?"

"A little shaken up, but that's all."

He nodded again with a sigh of relief. "I sent an owl to McKenzie and asked her if she'd stop by when she had a chance to check on Magdelena, but Audrey is taking good care of her." His eyes swept around the room at his siblings and their wives. "What were you guys talking about before I came up here?"

"They were just telling me that Grandma's cooking dinner," I interrupted Fred from whatever torture he was about to relinquish on me. "Do you know what she's making?"

"Stew, and she had Gin run home and grab a few loaves of bread." He glanced at Bill. "Why do you look so smug, Bill? Did I miss something?"

I jumped up, taking his hand. "Dad, I was wondering if you could look at my door? I noticed it was creaking more than it was before. Do you think the hinge is loose?"

"Oh, Abby, we can fix that anytime," George said, a hint of teasing in his voice. "I was wondering why Bill looks so smug, too."

Fred nodded. "Surely that's more important than that old door."

Dad looked between all of us and then at Bill with a sigh. "Alright, Bill. Out with it. What's going on with y-"

"Oh!" I gasped.

His eyes snapped to my bent over frame. "Abby? What is it? What's wrong?"

"The babies both kicked!" I exclaimed.

Bill snickered. "Sure."

I shook my head at him. "No, I swear they did!" I fumbled around for Dad's hands and pressed them against my stomach where the babies were kicking up a storm. One was nearly to my ribcage and the other was in the middle of my big belly.

He grinned. "They are!"

Bill sobered up at that. "They are?"

They ushered me to sit down and then everyone was trying to feel the babies; that was how Grandma found us ten minutes later. She berated us for not getting her sooner before she laid a hand on my stomach and felt one of the babies kick.


Thank you to RavenclawDoctorSilveo for the reviews! You'll have to wait and see ;)