Chapter 14

Home is Where the Heart Is

The next day was uneventful with Fred healing up enough by the morning of the second day, Feb 7th that I had determined that he could finish his healing at home with his family. So he and I said our farewells to new friends and staff and headed back to the Row house to await the arrival of the sleigh that was being flown in by Remus. We had not told anyone of the contents of the trunk, not wanting to let anyone in on the discovery till we were safely home.

The main sitting room was already looking very close to its original state with the house elves doing a great deal of repair work to a singed ceiling and walls and replacing cracked panes of glass in the four front windows. By noon everyone was packed up and ready with all their gear up in the rooftop stable. Hugs were exchanged with Amelia, along with a promise from her to join us at the Manor as time and her job permitted.

Remus arrived around half past the hour and Harry, he and Sirius quickly loaded all the luggage first then helped Fred up into the closed carriage of the sleigh, since his walking was still a bit shaky. Once in the sleigh I gave him a potion to help him sleep for the long ride back to the manor.

The trip took about six hours, since I asked that they not try and set any speed record and take it easy so that Fred would not get jostled around and could sleep most of the way, which he did with his head in my lap for over half the trip. We arrived at the Manor right around dinner time to find a car in the parkway for the Manor; it was Molly and Arthur's.

Molly was anxious to get Fred home where she could see to his care, and even though we extended an invitation for them to join us for dinner they wanted to just get Fred home. Honestly I was secretly glad that they had declined the invite, since it was looking to be an evening of explanations as it was. But I did not let them leave until I took one last look at Fred and gave Molly the healing draft I had made just for him, then I turned to George and pointed to my ear. He took off the knit cap to show me a beautifully formed and fully grown new ear. He bent forward to whisper into my ear.

"Mom still can't believe it and now really wants to take a trip to the U.S, after this war is over to see what other advancements the new world witches have made that we haven't been told of here."

I just smiles and shook my head. "Best you be off and get Fred into a bed."

I headed in to see how the rest of my patients were doing. I had left them in Andy's capable hands while I dealt with Fred and had not received any messages of problems so I was sure all was well, but I still needed to do a Healer's duty. Hagrid was up and about and had been helping Will in the stables, teaching him as well as our other students about the creatures we had in the stable and around on the grounds. Ted had taken it upon himself to start lessons on wizarding law, in my absence, since he too was feeling better than he had in ages. As for Griphook, he had been one of the goblins who had delivered the trunk so I know he was doing fine before we got home and I had seen Dean and knew he was doing fine with Ginny at his side, that just left Ollivander.

He had been moved to a room and from what Andy could tell was doing well, but seemed to be withdrawn and depressed, so I took it upon myself to pull rank and insist he let me in to see how he was. In the room, the draperies were drawn and no lights were lit. With a flick of a finger, I fixed that, opening the drapes wide so I could see my patient. After checking him out, I sat down in a chair facing him and asked him what the problem was.

"What do you mean?" was his only reply.

"Andy tells me that you refuse to come out of your room except for meals. Part of the healing process, Garrick is getting out into the fresh air and socializing."

He gave me an odd look then turned and looked out the window. "I'm not needed here. You have taught the children how to make wands and how to use wandless magic. I have nothing that would be of value to your students or to this household."

"I don't believe that. Yes, Sirius has taught Harry, Hermione and Ron how to make replacement wands for their broken ones and yes we have been teaching our students to use wandless magic, but as you well know that is a very advanced discipline and the younger students or those who just don't have the skill level to learn it still need to use wands and in Lavender and Dennis's cases the wands they have been using are replacements, not made for them, since they both lost their in the battle on the Express. So even though Harry and Ron have learned to make wands for themselves, they do not have your skill and years of training required to make a finely crafted tool such as this." I pulled out my wand, the wand I had purchased when I first came to London with my mother for my eleventh birthday. My father's side of the family had lived in the Americas since before they were the Americas and insisted that we had adequate wand smiths that could supply me with a good first wand, but my mother had been raised in England and was of the belief that there were no better wands than those crafted by Ollivander.

He took the wand and felt its weight, tested its flexibility and listened to its core. "I remember you." A smile came across his face. "This is the only dual core wand I ever made, unicorn blood mixed with phoenix ash in rosewood. The wand of one who would be a healer beyond any we in the wizarding world had seen since the time of the first Merlin."

I stood and took a bow. "Please, don't tell the others that." My badge of office had fallen out of my robes when I bowed and now Ollivander stared at it with his mouth open.

He looked closely at the badge then up into my eyes. "You are the Merlin, or at least part of him."

I sat back down and told him the story of how Sirius and the spirit of the first Merlin were two halves of one soul and how they had joined together once I had brought him back from the other side of the Veil. How I was and am his wife, his Cassian, the healer who had brought the first Merlin back from near death so that he could teach and crown Arthur. He listened intently with his eyes closed then when I was finished, opened them and asked me how it was that he could serve me.

"Just help teach my students to be the best they can be."

He nodded and rose from his chair and offered me his arm.

"For that young child who has proven to be the healer I knew she could become I will do my best, and for the Merlin and Her Mate I will teach you students the true history of magical Britain."

Harry and Sirius had placed the large trunk in the sitting room and then saw to the unloading of the rest of the luggage. So it wasn't until well after the Weasley's had left and Ollivander and I had joined the rest of the family in the dining room that Harry walked over, unlocked it and opened the top. Remus hadn't asked about the trunk until Harry flipped the lid back and the light flooded out. Then came the sound something akin to that of someone apparating, Remus and Nym both pulled out their wands and readied for a fight. Then both dropped them to the floor as the light cleared to reveal James, Lily and Rose. Remus fell back into the chair behind him, Nym just sat with her mouth hanging open and Andy began to cry. Hagrid, who had been standing by the arch leading into the dining room, was now seated on the floor with a room-shaking thud, Ron was the only one to say anything.

He looked from the Potters to Harry, "Bloody Hell Harry, those people look to be your parents and the little girl looks just close enough to be your sis."

"They are my Parents Ron, and this," He walked over to join his family, "and this my sister Rose."

"But Harry how? Your parents are dead."

"I would like to hear an answer as well, if you don't mind." Remus added.

Aunt Viv had just come out from the kitchen. "You really are living up to the prophecies, child." She kissed me on the forehead. I really needed to get some time to sit down and ask her about these prophecies she kept mentioning. But for now there were other things to deal with as Harry began to explain how his parents had just popped back into the world of the living.

So, once again, as dinner was being laid out on the table, Harry, Lily and James went through their tale of how they had been reborn into their clone bodies in the trunk and how due to a mistake in the interpolation of the wards they had been stuck in the estate trunk for the last 16+ years. Once they were finished with their explanation, Remus, who had been skeptical, had visibly relaxed and accepted this James and Lily as the friends he had believed dead all these years. Hagrid had enveloped both Lily and James in a hug and was sobbing like a baby As for the rest, they all just sat and listened without a word, all except Ollivander who was busy examining the trunk.

"You do know that the manor and everything that is in here can be removed and planted wherever the owner wishes?"

We all turned to stare and Harry, James, and Hermione joined Garrick at the trunk.

"You see these runes here on the secondary latches."

"What runes?" Sirius now joined the other at the trunk while Lily and Rose sat at the table.

"What secondary latches. James was looking closely as the spot that Ollivander was indicating.

"Right here. Well, what you do is you take the trunk out to the area you wish to set up the manor and then you rotate the latches." James had started to turn them, Garrick hit his hands away from the latches. "Not here, it would destroy both Manors and most likely kill us all. You first place it in an open field of the proper size, and then rotate the latches to the unlocked positions and apparate out to a safe distance. The trunk will then fold open releasing its contents to the location the Manor is to occupy. Then when you wish to move the estate to a different location you go to the entry gate. It needs to be the Lord of the Manor who does all this, by the way. A built-in safeguard to keep from the residents being stuck as you were in the trunk. Well, you go to the gate and activate the folding spell by placing your hands on the place that is at the center of the gate and wah lah it's all packed back up and ready to be relocated to wherever you wish."

"You mean to tell me that it wasn't my fault that we got stuck in there?"

"No, that was you're doing, James. What I'm saying is Harry is the rightful Lord of the Manor; you relinquished that title to him when your first body was killed so until Harry came of age and opened the first set of latches you would still have been stuck."

Sirius had moved to the front windows of the manor and was smiling like a Cheshire cat. "Harry feel up to giving it a try?" Harry joined him at the window. They were both looking at the large open field on the far side of the parkway.

"Hagrid," Harry said. "Could you carry the truck for me over to the middle of that field?"

"Sure thing, Harry,"

Harry closed the lid, put on his coat and followed Hagrid out into the large field. We all stood outside and watched. Lily was holding James's arm and had her other arm around Rose. Hagrid joined us all back on the parkway as we watched. It was hard to see what Harry was doing but a few seconds after he stood up, he was standing between his father and Sirius.

The air around the trunk shimmered and twisted in waves as the sides of the trunk folded down then there was a large pop and we were all hit by a shockwave and dust. When everything had settled back down there stood a beautiful Manor it Gate just a few yards from our own. There were several out buildings as well that Sirius and I had not seen on our visit inside the trunk. A gate house and stable and paddocks for cows, pigs and sheep, Along with a small chicken coop. and a groundskeeper's hut.

"Well now, that's impressive." Sirius put his arm around my shoulders. "Looks as though we won't need to set up any more guest rooms."

"Looks to me as though Harry and Hermione will not need the gardener's cottage."

We all went back into Mawr Manor and finished our meal. It was decided that come morning we would all head over and check everything out at the new and improved Trunk Manor, after all no-one wanted to be tramping around the grounds in the dark. Lily then pointed out that the Gate house and the Grounds keepers' cottage had not been in the trunk so she wasn't sure what other changes there might be.

Harry just smiled. "There was a small inscription inside the lid that said to make this Manor the home you wish it to be, so I did."

So for the night we had more houseguests, not like anyone besides me was going to be doing much sleeping. Unlike the others, I was exhausted; four days in London with a few hours' sleep each night had taken its toll on me. Lily nudged Sirius when it became clear that I was in need of a comfy bed and before I knew what was happening he had me up in his arms and was carrying me off for the night.

I woke to the sound of people moving about outside my door. When I opened the door, I found Harry and Hermione stacking their things in the sitting room while Ron and Lavender helped to take theirs and Harry's things outside.

Aunt Viv and Andy were busy packing up some food in baskets to take with over so that Lily didn't need to have the house elves cook till the poor things were done moving everyone to their new home.

"What is going on?" I grabbed my heavy cloak and boots and headed out to the front parkway. There I found Hagrid stacking the trunks and other things in the horse cart. Sirius was standing in the parkway talking with James and Remus. "I repeat, what is going on?"

Lily came up behind me, "Seems my son is moving himself and his fiancée into the manor while Ron, his girl and Dean are moving into the Gate house, and Hagrid is moving into the Grounds Keepers cottage." She handed me a cup of tea. "We all went over to the Trunk Manor while you were sleeping and Harry has made some major changes. He added rooms for himself and Hermione as well as a dueling practice room and more quarters for the house elves."

Sirius finally noticed that I was standing there and came over. "I didn't want to wake you, after all that was the first good night's sleep you've gotten in nearly a week. But if you're up to it, we can walk over to Trunk Manor now"

Lily smiled. "Sounds like a good idea to me since I need to get back. Rose is already in the Manor exploring all the changes her brother has made."

I looked about me and saw that the others including my Aunt were already heading over, and wrapped my arm into Sirius's, "Fine we might as well".

Just as we were all about to head over Hagrid spotted us. "Oh, before you head over Cassy, could I speak with you and Sirius? It's rather important."

"Sure, Hagrid." The look on his face was one of concern and hope. "I'll meet you at the manor after I take care of this, Lily." She waved and followed behind the cart as it headed across the parkway and down the road leading to Trunk. "So Hagrid, what is the problem?"

"It's not a problem so to say, rather a favor I wanted to ask. You see my brother Grawp's been living in a cave in the hills, not far from Hogwarts with Fang and myself, and with my moving here now, I was hoping you would let me go retrieve him and bring him here. I found some large caves in the back of your land here and there is more than enough wildlife to keep him fed. "

Harry, Ron and Hermione had told me about Grawp. This was really asking a big favor, but I understood his desire to have his brother where he could keep an eye on him. I looked to Sirius to see how he felt and found that he too was of a sympathetic mind. "Fine Hagrid, you can bring your brother here, but he is your responsibility and if any of ours or Harry's livestock disappears you will have to make good on it." Hagrid looked as if he were going to whoop. "One last thing, how are you going to get him here?"

"Oh don't you worry about that Miss Cassy, I can get him here within a couple of days. Oh, one last thing could you tell Harry that I will be back in a few days?" I agreed and before we had moved an inch Hagrid was gone.

Trunk Manor was truly what Harry had wanted in a home, grand and wondrous on the outside, but useful and homey on the inside. He had divided the manor into sections. There were the public rooms that were large and impressive. There were the private rooms that could be used by the entire family. These included the library, family kitchen and dining room, office, study, training rooms and guest bedrooms. Then there were the private apartments that were arranged like spokes on a wheel around a family sitting room. Finally there were the servant's quarters which Harry had severely upgraded. Adding separate sleeping rooms for each elf, clothing for every elf, and an area where they could socialize away from the family they choose to serve.

Dobby, Winky, and Kreacher were used to this, but Henley, Twinkle, and Donley had to have it explained to them that they were not being dismissed, that they were now free elves and could continue to serve the Potter's if they wished. Clearly they did not understand, after all they and their ancestors had been stuck in the estate trunk their entire lives.

"We serve Harry Potter because he is our friend and a good person and in exchange for our service he gives us a warm bed, soft clothing, and good food." Dobby jumped in with his explanation.

Winky took Twinkle's hand, "Winky was afraid at first, but she now loved Master Harry. You will see he is a kind and loving Master and only does what is best for House Elves. And soft clothing keeps us warm and feels good".

We left the house elves to work thing out among themselves while Harry took us to see the rest of the estate. The Grounds Keepers Hut was, from what Sirius told me, a near duplicate of his hut at Hogwarts. Harry pointed out that it was actually larger with a working loo and shower instead of an outhouse, a large bedroom with its own fireplace and a bed for Fang and a separate kitchen and sitting room.

The stables and paddock had room for about a half a dozen head of cattle, a sty for several pigs, stalls for up to four horses or whatever, and room for a dozen sheep. The chicken coop was separated by a wall from the rest of the stable area and could hold about ten chickens and one rooster. Close by was a small pond for waterfowl and a garden area.

Finally there was the Gate house which had four bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, study, and two baths. Lavender was hugging Harry then Ron and thanking them both for such a lovely home. She dragged Ron off to discuss which room was going to be their sons and which for their daughters and all kinds of plans for their lives after the war.

I couldn't help but laugh as we all walked down the drive back to Mawr Manor. The shields and wards that hid Mawr from the town below now hide Trunk as well which was made clear as Molly and Arthur's car came through the mists then stopped short of the parkway. The Weasley's along with the Lovegood's and Ethan all piling out of the car to stand and stare at the sight before them. Harry and Draco both began laughing at the looks on Molly and Arthur's faces, the twins responded with a joint (Wicked), while Ginny and Ethan came running up to take a closer look and ask questions, and Luna and Xeno just seemed to appreciate the symmetry of the two Manor homes.

Remus headed down to the car to explain as best he could while the rest of us headed in to get ready for classes. It had been an interesting morning and was shaping up to be one filled with questions more than lessons.

After everyone had run off to see Trunk Manor I took the opportunity to pull my Aunt to the side and ask her about the prophecy she kept mentioning.

"That, my sweet, I will let you read rather than explaining it all to you." We walked together to the library. Up on a high shelf on the second tier sat a book of black leather and gold lettering. Viv summoned it down to the table in a back corner of the library. "Here you go, sweetie." The fabled Prophesies of the Black Knight and the Emrys Child. The date inside the cover said 1352. I looked up from the book to my Aunt. "You need to read them then you will understand."

I tucked the book into my sleeve and headed out to see to the new class schedule first, figuring I would read it when I had some free time. The rest of the day was spent in explanations, introductions, and lessons. With the addition of Lily, James and Ollivander the class set up changed allowing some of us to drop off some of the class load. Remus would now be overseeing Defensive arts, Sirius would be teaching Runes, James would be teaching Transfiguration, Lily would be in charge of Potions, Cissy would be teaching Herbology, Andy would be teaching Charms, Ollivander would teach History of the magical world, Ted was teaching Magical Law, Arthur covered Ministry policy, Hagrid when he returned would teach Care of Magical Creatures, and I would cover Alchemy and the Healing arts. The kids joked that we had a better staff than Hogwarts.

By the end of that first day I finally got a chance to sit down and pull the book out of my sleeve. Sirius joined me in the large overstuffed chair. "So what that?"

"You know how my Aunt Viv keeps making comments that the prophecies are true?" He nodded. "Well apparently this is the book of prophecies she keeps referring to."

"Well then, let's take a look." He flipped the cover open and began reading out loud the introduction to the book.

"In the year of our lord 1352 the seer Ygrain Eleen Emrys made a SERIES of prophecies that have been compiled in this book. They are known as the TALES of the Black Knight and the Emrys Child."

In total there were twelve prophecies all started the same with the lines (The Black Knight and the Emrys Child, Phoenix Reborn and Phoenix Chosen) they would then go into the prophetic verse. The first had to do with the Man known as the child who would stand against the dark and with the aid of the BK and EC would drive the dark to ground and with his light destroy the dark. Freeing the world from it tyranny. The second said that the BK and the EC would join and the Merlin and his Cassian would be reborn in them and through their union would be born the new line of the Merlins to lead the Wizarding world into a new Age of Enlightenment. The third was the one that really clinched it for us both. It said that the BK and the EC would be forced apart by Father and Fate, their love then torn asunder. His fate led to death and hers to the seat. But she being a child of Will and Healing would not let Death take him and that with the aid of the Man Beast and the Man known as the Child she would pull him back through the Veil to join as one and help bring peace to the land.

Sirius closed the book after the third and hugged me close. "Nice to know that we will win this war."

I just laid my head on his shoulder to let it all sink in. "Well, apparently we are going to have more than one child. "

"Yes apparently, you know what Cass I think that maybe we should finish reading these after we have saved the world. What do you think?"

I nodded and flicked my hand sending the book back to its place in the library. "I know that there are others who would love to know their fate, but honestly I have always believed in making my own fate and that putting too much faith into prophesy can lead you to being overly confident which then leads you to make foolish mistakes."

Sirius hugged me tight and with the book and its contents now out of sight we turned back to other matters that were more down to earth and important to our everyday lives.

More than just the class changes were made in the days after Trunk Manor's relocation to the field across the parkway. Harry had decided that since his parents were still alive and since he was now head of House Potter that being head of House Black as well… just did not seem right and with Ted's help he relinquished the title back to Sirius. Kreacher though asked if he could remain with House Potter since for the first time since Master Regulus's death he had friends. Sirius for the first time showed affection to the little fellow and gave him a scarf and a pat on the head telling him to go where he wished with the blessing of House Black.

The other changes that were made due to the adding of Trunk Manor and its added out buildings were that the two cottages that my elves had rebuilt, the Gardeners and the Gamekeepers were now without residents, this though would not be for long. I really didn't mind the house guests but with the open cottages well it just made sense to put them to use. At dinner a couple nights after Harry and the others had moved over to Trunk, Remus asked if I could see my way to letting Andy and Ted move into the Gamekeeper's Cottage since it was close to the Gate House and since they would soon be needing to turn either his study or Andy and Ted's room into a nursery. As for the Gardener's Cottage, since it was close to the manor and had two large bedrooms I offered it to Cissy and Draco. With Malfoy Manor gone and most of their assets seized by the goblins till it could be worked out on what would be paid in compensation to the victims of Lucius's crimes, it only made sense, after all with Sirius once again Head of House Black he needed to see to the welfare of his cousins. So with that all settled we were left with Aunt Viv, Ollivander and Susan as our remaining guests in the main house.