Quick warning, there's a tiny bit of swearing right at the end of the chapter. If I'm honest, I don't think I like this chapter at all, but I hope I'm just tired and wrong about that. I'm going to post it and like the last one, hope for the best. It's over 4,500 words right now, and that's after editing it down! So unfortunately I couldn't do what I wanted to, so there will be more of her parents, and the DA meeting will happen in the next chapter.

Thank you to PJO-Blue-cookies, FireFlysandBrokenDreams, SofiaDelPilar, and hoove-print-on-your-heart for your lovely reviews, I hope you like the new chapter!

Chapter Thirteen

Walking, or limping to be more exact, into the tap room, I notice that the room is set up differently to how it has been each time I've visited before.

The tables have been moved around, and seats have been added and removed to allow for more of an exam like spacing, which seems to add some privacy to the large room.

It's obvious that the Leaky Cauldron has closed it's doors to most of the public, although there are still a couple of people at the bar, drinking and slightly slumped over their stools. I wouldn't be completely surprised if the cloaked figure to the left, nursing their drink was in fact the hag who frequents. Seriously, that's what she is! Not joking, or being mean, just stating the fact.

I scan the crowd of parents and students already sitting in the room, and notice that a rather alarmingly large number of them are now staring at me, only a few bothering to try to try to hide it a little.

This is not good, this is scary... Deep breaths, you'll be fine Amelie, you just have to find mum and dad...

Walking through the mass of people sitting around in groups or hugging each other, I can see them off to the side, near one of the corners of the room. They're not immediately visible until I walk past another family on my way over as they were hidden from view before behind one of the pillars.

They're talking to the people on the table next to them, and they seem quite absorbed in their conversation, so they don't look up and see me as I head over, or notice as Albus and Rose bound up next to me and join me in my quick route across to them. The other two are almost as anxious as I am to get to the safety of our parents, as they've never really seemed all that keen on the constant media attention their names and parents lead them to receive.

It's when we make it over there that I realise that the four people on the table next to them are Albus and Rose's respective parents, and that apparently they're getting along quite well. No wonder the other two are walking with me.

When they all turn to look up, almost as a group, I can see in the eyes of the other parents that the connection between us isn't immediately obvious, until mum jumps up and practically tackles me with a giant hug, allowing me to breathe in her familiar perfumed scent. Mum's been wearing the same perfume since I was little and it reminds me of home and flowers and warmth, and gives me some well needed courage right now.

I'm having to lean down so far to return her hug that I can't help but laugh, and she replies by jokingly whacking me on the arm as dad comes around the table and pulls me into one of his famous swaying hugs. When he hugs me, having begun to lose his tan from the summer, its slightly more obvious where my colouring comes from, although I'm still much paler than he is in hair and skin. He pulls back to give me one of his great big dad grins, one full of love and happiness to see me.

'Oh Ames, we've missed you!' Mum says excitedly and slightly nervously, laughing slightly as she tugs me out of dad's arms and wraps her arms around me again as if she never wants to let me go.

'I've missed you too mum, dad, but I think we're causing a bit of a scene...' I trail off when Dad laughs, claps a hand on my back, and half hugs me as he pulls me over to a seat at their small table.

'If you think that, then at least we know you only just arrived, and didn't see that blonde haired boy over there get covered in kisses and cuddles by his mum as she checked him over and practically shouted in French at him she was so happy to see him! He was so embarrassed his ears turned bright red, and he had to be saved by his dad, who by the way as a very impressive set of scars down one side of his face. Looks like he's been through the wars if you ask me!' This comes from dad, who has to speak a little quietly because mum is talking to the others again, trading remarks about each others' children not wanting hugs now we're all grown up, and agreeing to chat after we've all spent some time talking together.

It's obvious from the expectant look I get from mum when she finally turns back to us, reaching over the table to hold my hand, and dad leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest that they know something is up. I mean, why wouldn't they? They got called at a moment's notice to come and see their daughter who's supposed to be at her magical school right now, and walk into a room full of strangers who're meeting their children, many of whom are crying around the room. Oh Merlin's beard this is difficult.

I'm trying to explain... I'm aiming to do it properly, but looking at them now, I don't think I can bring myself to tell them, and they're looking at me now worriedly... What if they insist I give up magic so that I can be free? Should I agree with them if they did? I'm still not an adult in the non-magical community, and I've only been one in the magical one for about four and a half weeks now.

I pull out the front page of the Daily Prophet from that day, the one on which my life changed, and begin to unfold it to give to them once I've explained everything I can think of, in case they had other questions. I'm very glad I remembered to grab it on my way out of the door today... Okay, concentrate, and let's do this. Mum let's go of my hand and looks more confused than ever just around the time I realise I've been inner monologuing rather than listening or talking again. I should probably stop doing that.

I open my mouth and begin to try to say something... Anything... To gather the strength to tell them, because as prepared as I might have been with the paper, or excited to see them as I have been all day, all I can think of is their reaction and whether it'll be good or bad. I'm so very scared it will be bad. Terrified in fact.

I open my mouth to try to speak again, Merlin I must just look like a gaping fish out of water right now, but dad stops me by holding up his hands in a symbol of surrender. This is a confusing turn. Am I meant to know... Oh wait, he's talking.

'Ames... Look, whatever is on that, and whatever the reason we've been called here to discuss your 'future within the magical community',' he scoffs at this term and runs a hand through his hair. 'We need to you know that as much as we kid around and joke with you, we're your parents. This might change your life, but we'll be the constant for you through anything you might face. Now you could give that to us and allow us to read it or you could go through a long explanation about it. Or, and this is probably the best option in my mind, you could bite the bullet and be as blunt as you want to. Lord knows we'll understand and stick by you.'

'Unless you're going to tell us that you're one of those Death Eater people from that book about Hogwarts you left lying around the summer of your second year. If you're one of those, we might have to stop inviting you back for the holidays. Of course there's Christmas, but-' Mum jumps in right after Dad finishes up, and has us all smiling slightly.

'She gets it love, no hating the people she's grown up with, or people like herself, or we'll only begrudgingly give her Christmas presents.' Dad replies, only a slight roll of his eyes going along with it, and a slightly long suffering look sent my way. Mum whacks his arm and the tension I feel about telling them leaves slightly. Dad's right. These are my parents, and if I can't be as upfront as I can with the people who ran away to get married as teenagers and have me, then what?

'You can tell us sweetie.' Mum says this quietly whilst leaning slightly into dad, the two of them showing a united front in their support.

'I'm getting married mum. We all are. There's a law that came in which says we have to or we don't get to be witches and wizards any more, and I'm getting married within two months to a wizard I don't know very well, other than that he's a really lovely guy because as much as I love the muggle world, as soon as I first found out Hogwarts wasn't just a joke the two of you had made up, I never wanted to have a non-magical life. I'm sorry that I'm doing this when you'd want me to fight it and to go as far as to give it up so that I could have my own choices, but.. but I just can't.' I've got tears welling up in my eyes, and I'm trying so hard to blink them back that my voice fails me, and my sight is blurry.

I close my eyes and wait for some sort of a response from them, trying not to cry or to ask them not to be disappointed in me, or not to hate magic as I'm so scared they are and will do... And I'm waiting... And still waiting... Now I can feel the eyes of a lot more people on us, which isn't really surprising considering I'm sitting here with my face crumbling, and I'm trying my hardest not to break down into sobs. Why did they need to sit somewhere with so many magical parents around? Ones who already know, and so are watching the reactions of those who don't.

I know that a lot of people were crying before, but it was mostly mothers, and some from happiness and the ones who were just plain crying students... I wouldn't be surprised if not a single person here had ever seen me cry before, or if they had, they'd not known. I'm usually a pull my hair in front of my face and take deep breaths whilst wiping the tears away and hiding my face sort of crier if I'm not able to find a well appointed broom cupboard or my bed curtains are closed.

I can't help the feeling of despair, and disappointment in myself for my parents, but after a few seconds I have to face what I've told them, and I peek through my lashes, after a few blinks to remove the water, and see dad is gone and mum is staring at me with worry, love, and understanding in her face.

I clear my throat and begin to attempt to ask where he's gone, when Dad returns with a bottle of firewhiskey and three glasses. He's silent as he fills them each with at least four fingers of the alcohol, and slides one across to me, one to mum, and then downs his in one.

Mum follows his lead and downs hers, wincing and trying not to choke as it burns on the way down. 'Good stuff. We should take some home.' she murmurs, not taking her eyes off me.

'Now you Amelie,' Dad tells me, with less worry than mum and more determination in his gaze. I pick up the glass and with his further encouragement manage not to die as I swallow it in three gulps.

'Now. Say that again?' he asks, his voice sounding slightly hard.

'well there's this... This law that's been-' I stumble across my words, and realise that on the few tables around us, seating Albus and his parents, now with James and Teddy as well, Rose and her parents, Louis and his, and the Malfoys (of all people), all chatter has ceased, and did so a couple of minutes ago. They're all now trying at least to half pretend not to be listening as intently as they are... Oh my... I'm not even surprised to see James has an extendable ear out, the git.

'Yes, we heard all that, and we'll get to it in due course. What I want to know however is how you Amelie Cassandra Celia Edwards would ever think we could be capable of being disappointed in us, and don't try to interrupt, I will finish what I'm saying. Amelie, your mother and I made a decision, when we were eighteen years old that we would elope and begin a life together. When you were eleven years old, we made the choice to allow you to go to a boarding school called Hogwarts, and we knew then that we had made the choice for you to have a fantastical future full of more things than we might ever think possible. We made the choice when you were in your third year to allow you to go to some place called Hogsmeade on weekend outings, and we made the choice to spend the time we had with you in the holidays doing whatever we could to ensure that you knew just how proud of you we were, and how much we loved and missed you when you were gone. We made the choice to tell lie to our friends about all of this so that you could abide by the rules of the community you were joining.

We did not do all of that just to have you turn around as a woman, which we know you are in the magical community, and look at you—you are, and think we'd stoop so low as to be disappointed in you or have you say sorry for making the decision to remain within the world you were born to be a part of. We might not like this, we might not agree with it at all, and quite frankly I want to read that law just so I can have something to dislike and burn, but it is obvious to me that you made your choice for yourself this time.

You didn't however, choose magic over us as you might think, and we are not upset or angry or disappointed, because we could never be those things to you. Not really, not over something which is as important as this. Amelie... Since you were born, you've been the one person in the world over your mother who I would willingly lay my life down for, and if the only thing I have to do as a father right now is give you a stiff drink to calm your nerves, lots of hugs, and let you know that I'll always be there for you, then that is what I intend to do.

You've obviously held this back from us, and I won't ask why, nor will I ask anything of you other than that you make your own choice and believe me when I say whichever one you make in the end I will be there for you.'

Silence. I mean... Just... Yeah. Mum has tears in her eyes, dad is hugging her with one arm, and staring at me with the least joking, most serious look I think I've ever seen on his face, but other than that. It's like blood is pounding in my ears, and I can feel my own heartbeat, but all I want to do is hug him.

Within a second I jump up, round the table, and hug him. He stands up and hugs me so tightly I think my ribs are cracking, and I give in to the tears that wanted to fall earlier.

I love my dad. I love my mum. How could I ever doubt that they might be fully supportive of me whatever happened?

Mum pulls me down so that I'm sitting next to her, and draws me into a hug where she tucks me into her and wipes away my tears, and dad downs another finger of firewhiskey before gruffly patting me on the back again and kissing me on the top of the head.

Then mum ruins it all by leaning up over me and kissing dad, and eurgh, sorry but no one needs to see their parents kiss like that, even if their dad had just made an epic speech about how much he cares about them.

I get up quickly and show my disgust on my face by wrinkling my nose and crinkling up my forehead, and mum laughs through her tears whilst dad actually has the good grace to look slightly sheepish, even if he then mutters under his breath about how he didn't have me so that I could judge him for kissing his wife.

Turning slightly away, I see a slightly stunned look on the faces of those around us, before Rose pipes up with 'See dad, now that's what your reaction should have been to me getting married to Scorp, not to threaten to knock 'bloody Malfoy' 's head off!' which makes us all laugh, even mum and dad who have absolutely no idea who this so called Scorp is, let alone why Malfoy would get his head knocked off.

It's relieved some of the after speech shock from the others, and allows me to settle back into my chair with let me tell you the most gratifyingly relieved sigh I've ever had.

For some minutes, I'm wrapped up in my own mind, somewhere trying to process how I came to be this lucky in parents, and somehow trying to think about whether I should tell them that Teddy is my future husband. And then oh, mum's finally managed to remove herself from being plastered to my dad's side, gazing lovingly up at him whilst he ordered us some juices and is now talking to me again.

'-at's his name? And who is he? I assume he's a he simply because I've read that law announcement, and it mentions a divorce after a child and five years, which would suggest a he.' Mum laughs when dad looks away from taking the drinks and gives her a pointed look before half smiling at me and shrugging in defeat.

I'm opening my mouth to answer when she continues to speak, only this time on a different subject. She lowers her voice and leans over the table, so now I'm leaning over as well. I realise she has absolutely no subtlety, when she jerks her head to the side and asks

'Have you met him? The one you're marrying?' I nod, and she continues, ' Is he nice? Is he good looking? I mean, not that it would be bad if he wasn't, but is he interesting? I mean, that boy you wrote to us about when you first joined Hogwarts was the only one I've had to compare your type to really, so does he have interesting coloured hair, or have you grown out of the blue hair phase?'

Oh Merlin mum stop! Stop! I'm in shock. I take back everything I said about loving her. James Potter is sitting so close since he took the chance to scooch his chair closer earlier, that judging by his laughter, he can hear all of this. Just when I think I can deny any memory of that first anxious letter home where I'd tried to write about the good things that had happened, and not the fact that my dorm mate had stolen half my things and made me sleep in the hallway twice that week.

'Yeah, he had a weird name too didn't he? His surname was like a flower or something. Didn't hear from her for two weeks, and then the first letter was crammed full of how lovely he'd been and how handsome she thought he was. Thought I'd have to go round and sort him out, or remind her she was only eleven for a while then, until she admitted that he wasn't even a pupil there any more, and do you remember how much you laughed? You fell off your chair and nearly wet yourself!'

Oh... Merlin... God... Zeus... Whoever can hear me, please make them stop! I'm right here, shaking my head like crazy and trying to get a word in edgeways to make them stop.

'I seem to remember none of that, and I seem to remember that the two of you value your tongues, and I have a wand and access to some very unsavoury spells.'

'Believe me Ace,' Dad calls me Ace sometimes because he only wanted the one middle name so that those would be my initials. 'I would rather know that you weren't getting married to anyone, so to be honest, I'm just humouring your mother because the more she wonders about blue haired people, the less I have to think about who you're actually marryi- Lupin! That was it Lupin something! Or something Lupin! HE accidentally introduced you to those nice Scamander twins you're friends with.'

'Teddy, his first name was Teddy, do you remember? The one we saw in Diagon Alley the summer after Lily joined the school, and she wouldn't go up to them because she was scared of that cousin of hers, that girl. Wasn't he someone famous or something? He flies on a broomstick for work I think?'

Please. Please. If there is anyone out there make them stop before Teddy hears any of this, which he no doubt has. They'd begun by whispering, but now they were just talking quietly, and if James has told him to listen out at all, no doubt he'd hear this all.

'Excuse me?' Okay, I'm dead. It happened. I died and went straight to hell. Teddy is talking to my parents. If I'm not dead, please just kill me now. I mean, most peoples' parents wouldn't decide to deal with such a thing by making fun of their daughter or cracking jokes, but unfortunately that is my parents' way of dealing with things, so my life is now hell.

The Potters and Weasleys around us are all laughing, or trying not to laugh in the case of Harry who's diagonally across from me on the table next to us, and Teddy is leaning partly across the table to see my parents, who are smiling at him.

'Oh, hello, you must be Harry and Ginny's son, sorry, were we being too loud?' Some might think mum was being sarcastic or something when she said this, but she was perfectly serious, she's so English sometimes. Tea can solve almost any problem, and an apology about anything is never too far away. Both things she handed down to me to be honest.

'No, not at all, I just...' Teddy's looking at me with slight amusement in his eyes, and something else, maybe recognition or interest and looking infuriatingly pleased with himself, as... well he should be frankly, with his hair now being brown, and slightly in his eyes, eyes which are cobalt blue today and that lovely half smile which makes his face light up. Damn genes, bet that's not even his real jaw line or something. 'Well, I just thought I'd heard my name, and I guess Amelie mentioned me? I'm Teddy Lupin.'

He says this with now quite a serious face, as if that half smile was just for me, which makes me feel a little giddy, and shouldn't because I should be slightly more immune to him, what with becoming his wife and all. It also makes me wonder how much of it he caught, and whether he thought they were mentioning his name so excitedly because I'd told them who he was in relation to me... And them I suppose as well.

'Oh fuuuuuuuuu-' Dad quickly puts his hand over mum's mouth so she can't finish the obvious swear word, and swears in French instead. I have to admit, that was my fault because when I was ten and jabbed my big toe, I swore in French and German, but informed them that it didn't count if it was another language. Something Dad adopted as his own philosophy to avoid a swear jar mum once set up.

'What my lovely wife means to say is that it's lovely to meet you Teddy, and that when Harry and Ginny here told us about how you'd be joining them, they called you Ted, and you don't have blue hair right now, so we had no idea to make the connection, although why you... Amelie? Why would you have mentioned him?' Dad and mum turn to me with an equally assessing look on their faces.

'Teddy... Teddy Lupin is my fiancé. I'm getting married to Teddy.' I say, my eyes darting between the two of them and Teddy who now looks like he's going to kill James, and James who looks like he's about to be murdered.

Silence again.

'Well... well shit.' Dad doesn't bother to stop Mum from swearing this time.

Well shit indeed.