A/N:
WOOT! Hawkie81 you are my hero because I really wanted to post this. I can tell you that Athena will not become a werewolf. When I thought that bit up where Lupin attacks her I did a lot of reading into JK's werewolves. Their wounds are cursed so they don't heal right but it's only the bite that carries the curse, or I could be wrong and got bad info from some fansite. Never wanted her to turn, just maimed a little because...well, that's the kind of luck that Athena has.
However, that's how my Lupin works. If I remember right, when Bill was attacked by Greyback, Greyback was only half-transformed as it wasn't a full moon so Bill didn't turn but had some characteristics like liking bloodied stake and came away with some pretty intense scars. Fleur was awesome in the bit.
So anyways…like I promised, the bonus chapter.
I don't own Harry Potter…
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Bonus Chapter
It had been two months and five days by Bridget's count since her niece had disappeared inside a giant statue of armor. She'd heard about it that Sunday after Athena had been swallowed by the steely contraption. Bridget had been marking finial exam papers for the end of the year in her office at Ilvermorny when Nymphadora Tonks had burst through her fireplace in a roar of green flames.
The normally jovial young woman with the changing hair, never anything mundane but exotic colors, was visibly shaken and sorrowful. There were dark bags under the young Auror's eyes, she looked like she hadn't slept in days and her hair was just the same color as her mother's, Andromeda Tonks nee Black. Bridget started to worry when the young woman threw herself into the chair just there in front of Bridget's desk, no words of greeting and was glaring at the faux-Prussian carpet that covered Bridget's hardwood floor.
"Nym?" Bridget capped her pen and leaned forward over her desk "what's wrong?"
Nym slowly looked over at the older woman with tears forming in her eyes "your mum wanted to come but I volunteered so she could stay at Hogwarts."
Bridget waited but that was all Nym seemed to have wanted to stay right then. A thousand thoughts started racing through the American DADA professor's mind. Were her children safe? Was her trouble finding niece hurt? Why would Minerva McGonagall, her own mother, send Nym when something was so clearly wrong at Hogwarts?
The professor got up from her cushy office chair and came round to kneel before the younger Tonks. Nym was angrily brushing at tears and the snot that was starting to run. Bridget, having had many years comforting distraught youths, as both a mother and a tenured professor, grabbed the box of tissues off her desk and presented to the hurting young woman before her. In Bridget's experience, Nym looked like she was on the verge of a full emotional breakdown.
"Nym," Bridget spoke softly after the younger woman had cleared her nose and was now looking at her again "I cannot help ye if ya dunna tell me what's wrong."
Slowly Nym gathered herself and sat up straighter in the well-worn chair she'd flung herself into. Bridget could see Nym was arranging her thoughts and deciding where she wanted to start the story she'd come here to tell. The professor was bracing herself for whatever was coming and she knew that it was probably devastating.
Nym let out a shuddering breath and started with "Sirius Black was captured at Hogwarts early Friday night by Severus Snape and Remus Lupin after Athena and her friends had confronted Sirius inside the Shrieking Shack."
"What?" Bridget asked dumbly, not sure if what she heard was actually what she'd heard. It wouldn't have surprised her any if what Nym had said was absolutely true, Athena did have that kind of luck after all.
Nym gave a water chuckle and nodded despondently "Athena, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Ronald Weasley confronted Sirius inside the Shrieking Shack after Sirius in his dog animagus dragged Ronald Weasley through a tunnel located at the base of the Whomping Willow," Nym chewed angrily at her bottom lip, giving herself a moment to compose herself before continuing. Bridget's look of surprise had sent her thoughts reeling again "Professors Lupin and Snape followed them in and Athena kept Sirius alive, according to Snape. She convinced Snape that Sirius was worth more alive than dead, not that she would have been too bothered if Snape had killed him."
Bridget smirked "I wouldn't have faulted my niece on that one, no offense."
The Auror's eyes turned hard instantly "neither do I as I plan on breaking Sirius's face the next time I see him. See, as it turns out, Ronald Weasley's pet rat was really Peter Pettigrew in disguise in his Animagus form," actually…Bridget wasn't too surprised about that, she had gone to school with Sirius Black and his cohort "Sirius had seen the Daily Prophet picture of the Weasley family when they won the drawing and went to Egypt on holiday. He recognized the rat as Pettigrew and escaped to get his revenge," Nym gave an angry chuckle, standing suddenly causing Bridget to almost stumble to get out of her way "got any liquor here, Tech?"
"Why do I feel we're both going to need it?" Bridget asked watching Nym rifling through the unlocked drawers in her desk.
Nym stopped digging through a bottom drawer and looked up at the dark haired woman solemnly "because we are, I haven't finished telling you the colossal fuck-up that bastard who claims to be the head of my house created."
The dread that had come with Nym's statement had stayed with Bridget, there at the pit of her gut as she put away her markings for a later time and called a school elf to bring them something to snack on. Bridget had learned long ago what drinking on an empty stomach could do to a person. She drink, per say, as much as she did when she was Nym's age and had probably had the bottle of good Scottish whiskey that Nym was pouring from in her desk since her first set of twins were a year old.
Bridget had to smirk at the sour look on Nym's face when the younger woman unwise threw her drink back and gulped it down in one go. This whiskey had not been meant for gulping down like it was cheap beer but to be sipped and savored…or it'd burn a hole through a person's throat. Bridget sighed and tugged the bottle away from Nym after she'd poured herself another glass.
"Now, will you please explain what's going on?" Bridget asked as Miffy, her helper elf, presented them with sandwiches and flavored crisps "thanks, Miffy," she smiled to the elf, causing the houself to tremble happily before she vanished "seriously, Nymphadora, what in name of Merlin's socks is happening at Hogwarts?"
Nym sighed and looked up to the professor "told you that Athena saved Sirius from Snape?" Bridget nodded "that Sirius was apprehended in the Shrieking Shack by Snape and Lupin?" again Bridget nodded as Nym tried to remind herself where she'd left off "that Sirius escaped Azkaban because of a newspaper picture of the Weasley family?" once more Bridget nodded "that Weasley's pet rat turned out to be Peter Pettigrew, an unregistered Animagus?"
"Yep, not surprising though, Peter was always seemed like vermin," Bridget scowled "continue…"
"You know that Remus Lupin is a werewolf?" Nym asked, her knee bouncing up and down now as she picked at the seam of her pants, she missed Bridget's look of shook this time "they'd sent a patronus to Madam Bones and she led a group of Aurors to Hogwarts, Alistair and myself included," Nym's gaze was fixed on the seam she was playing with "learned that Sirius had escaped on a condemned hippogriff and that Lupin had succumbed to the full moon while Pettigrew had tried to escape in his rat form," Bridget kept quiet and drank heavily from her glass "Athena…Athena went after Pettigrew and recaptured him and-and," Nym's lip quivered and her eyes watered again as she turned her glare to the ceiling "and caught the attention of Lupin's werewolf…"
"Oh Merlin," Bridget husked out in a horrified gasp, her breathe shuddering; faltering in her chest as her lungs and other internal organs seemed to freeze "is-is-is she…is Athena dea…is Athena alright?"
Nym shook her head as tears fell unbidden down her cheeks "we found where she fled through the forest and where she dropped her wand, and blood but we don't think she was killed by the wolf," Nym looked back to a horrorstruck Bridget "we think that she was…gah!" Nym stood as body wreaking sobs threatened to take her over "w-what do yo-you kn-know about the Knights of Camelot?" she asked with her hands behind her head in attempt to breathe
***Bonus Chapter***
Bridget had only known half remembered rumors and hand-me-down legends about the knights of old. Once Nym had finished telling her what had happed that night, including Hermione Granger's top-secret tale about using a time turner to go back and save Sirius from Fudge, Bridget had asked her fellow DADA professor (he taught the older years) to finish her markings. Then she found her eldest children, contacted her husband, hurriedly packed and headed for Scotland by the fastest means available.
Her youngest children had been thankful to see their parents. The school had been informed there'd been an incident on the grounds but the professors were keeping tightlipped as to what it was. Gryffindor knew it had to do with Athena and her group because none of them had been seen since dinner on Friday. Ginny Weasley was freaking out, her brother was among the missing. Fred, George and Angie were trying to keep the three younger Gryffindors calm but there only so much they could do when they, themselves, were scared witless.
Bridget's mum had been just as happy as her grandchildren had been to see Bridget. After the children had been calmed and put to bed that night, McGonagall had pulled Bridget into her office and showed her a leather bound journal that was embossed with Celtic knots and Nordic runes.
"This opened up this morning," Minerva McGonagall confessed sounding more hopeless and weary than Bridget had ever heard her. She hadn't even sounded like this after losing her sons, brothers and then her husband. It made Bridget almost unwilling to keep touching the book "it was time-locked."
"What is it, mum?" Bridget asked keeping her hands stilled over the leather cover.
McGonagall wiped at the tears leaking out the corner of her green eyes and looked to the painting that served as a door to her quarters "it's where Athena is."
Bridget frowned feeling so very confused "but I thought Athena was in the armor, in the infirmary where the rest of her group is."
"Technically," her mum let out in a broken breath "she is, but she's also somewhere else. I had been in here with Amelia Bones, discussing Athena's…situation, when the journal opened itself up and the first page was addressed directly to me with today's date on it."
"Okay…I'm confused." Bridget shook her head
McGonagall stood and went over the painting to gently run her hand over it "Athena and Hooch found the journal in a satchel in the middle of Heather Valley. It belonged…Bridget," she turned back "it belonged to a courier who fought in the Battle of Heather Valley," now Bridget was way beyond confessed "the satchel hadn't been opened since the battle itself."
"W-what?" Bridget frowned and tossed the journal back onto her mum's desk like it'd burned her "I don't understand, where is Athena, mum?"
McGonagall shook her head "it's not where she is, Bridget, it's when she is," Bridget just gaped at her, hoping this would all make sense soon "she's in 1745, Bridget, she's gone back in time or an avatar of her has…I don't quite understand it."
"That freaking makes two of us," Bridget nearly shrieked as she stood, her accent as thick as it had been when she was a teenager "what the hell is goin' on, mum? Nym, she told me everything, but I still dunna understand any of it! Where's ma niece, mum? Where's Athena?"
The older woman frowned and sighed "the answers are in the journal, Bridget. They are a series of letters addressed to me from Emily Black. She chronicled everything to do with Athena and I'm scared, Bridget, I'm scared to read past the first letter. Not after what I read."
Bridget cracked then and rushed to hug her mother, both women crying freely now "if this is true," Bridget whispered softly, her cheek resting on her mother's shoulder "then you know that Athena will come back to us. She's a fighter, a survivor and she willne give up."
McGonagall's voice cracked as she gasped out "that's what I'm afraid, Bridget, I'm afraid of what she's going to face," the older woman admitted "I'm angry that canna protect her again. I want her home now."
"I know," Bridget said soothingly, gently rubbing circles on her mum's back "but we have to trust in Athena. We have to believe that she's going to make it home."
McGonagall nodded and let out a long breath before pulling away from her daughter "you canna tell anyone else about this, Bridget, I'll tell Danny about it but the children cannot know!"
Bridget nodded and stepped away as she asked "what are you telling them?"
McGonagall sighed and pinched at the bridge of her nose "they know what Amelia Bones has told them and that's it," she chuckled darkly then "I have the feeling though, that Miss Granger, Mr. Longbottom and Harry just aren't going to be satisfied with the bare minimum of knowledge."
"Guess we'll figure out as we go, huh?" Bridget asked feeling a heavy weight settling on her shoulders as she picked up the journal again, determined to know what truth it held.
***Bonus Chapter***
Two months and five days had felt like a lifetime. A clichéd term but for Bridget, it was truthful in a way that no other description could be. She'd stayed at Hogwarts during those two months and had accepted the position of Associate Professor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Technically she was on loan from Ilvermorny for the year because of the upcoming tournament and for the group of exchange students coming over to witness the Triwizard Tournament.
The headmaster of Ilvermorny had heard that Dumbledore and a few in the British ministry was trying to bring the tournament back despite the reasons that the thing had been ended. Ilvermorny wasn't going to be allowed to compete but it would allow them to see how other school were ran (Bridget had choked on her drink when that had been said, people were so going to be disappointed) and to get the chance to meet students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.
Now, because of the influx of students, a slew of extra professors had been hired to even out class numbers. Bridget wondered if Dumbledore had considered that in his great idea to bring back the tournament. She, like her mother, had been upset when they'd found out about the tournament. There was still the investigation into Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black and Athena was still stuck in that freaking armor.
That was something that Bridget had come to hate, loath completely in every sense of the word. The armor had been cleaned of its caked debris and growth of climbing vines to show that it was styled after 16th century plate armor. It had a few adornments of gold or silver but had a very nice plumage of red and white feathers out of top of its helm.
Harry Potter could have told Bridget about every piece of the armor after the summer that he and the others of Athena's group had had. He could have named the style of helm the armor wore and what type of sword it was carrying. The boy and his friends had become obsessed.
Bridget refused to learn about it. She knew what it was, what it was doing to her niece and she didn't have it in her to know more. Bridget felt that it might actually break her soul. So instead, she sat in the Hogwarts in infirmary where the armor had been since it was found and she waited with the most unlikely of companion.
Blake Fraser was a bastard of a man. Bridget knew this and could never understand why her mum had given Athena too him and had taken Athena away from Bridget after having her for three years. That had been a low blow and despite what her mum states, Bridget and Danny could have handled the extra child and had been happy to. There was never an extra strain and Athena had never been a burden.
Bridget had been surprised when her cousin had stumbled through her mum's office fireplace, looking pale and worried and demanding to know if it was true about Athena. Rumors had been circulating that Athena had encountered a Knight of Camelot and that she hadn't been the only one.
It had been confusing, his concern for Athena given what McGonagall had said about Athena's time with the insensitive and egocentric wizard. Even McGonagall had been taken aback by her nephew's worried demands. All he would say when asked was…
"I never wanted her dead!" he'd cry or "I've got ma reasons, back off afore I start bitin'!"
So, they'd let him stay and like those who took up watch over the armor, he sat and started at the armor for hours…waiting. Waiting for the random cries of pain that echoed from the heart of the armor to let them know that Athena was still alive. Waiting for it to open.
Bridget sighed and shook herself from her reminiscing. She gave a little prayer to whatever divine that would listen that today would be the day. That today would be the day that the armor opened and spat her niece out, safe and whole. Bridget had already known what had happened to Athena because of Emily's detailed (sometimes she wished they weren't as detailed) letters but Bridget still had hope.
Beside her in a comfortable and plush chair, Blake grunted in annoyance as he glared at the armor and turned back to the magazine he'd read through for the third time that day. It'd been the only noise in the room since Madam Pompfrey had hurried off to deal with a very pregnant potion's professor and one neurotic potion's professor, the pair of them went hand-in-hand these days. Bridget figured the woman would pop near the middle of the school year.
The stillness of the infirmary was broken suddenly, like the shattering of a glass against a rock wall. A harsh cacophony that echoed and rebounded but instead of the tinkle of glass it was the grating of metal upon metal. Bridget watched in horrid fascination as the chest of the armor folded outwards like someone had taken a muggle can-opener down the center and then pried the metal open.
Blake moved first, dashing across the space to catch the pale contents that staggered out and started to collapse. The teary eyed man caught the teenager and gently carried her the rest of the way to the ground, where the girl struggled to breathe. Bridget was there beside them in the next instant and gaped at her niece.
The girl was so much taller than she had been the last time that Bridget had seen her. Bridget wondered if the girl could look her mother in the eyes now given how too short the girl's ripped and tattered pants were. Athena's black hair had gotten longer than Bridget had ever seen her wear it and there were braids to keep it back out of her face.
There was a thick but pale scar near the corner of Athena's mouth on the left side, near directly down from the gash in her eyebrow. It was short and went off the bottom of her jaw. Bridget gasped, as she continued her inspect, as she found the wide banded tattoo around Athena's right forearm where her shirt sleeve had been torn away. It was a Celtic warrior's knot that wrapped the entire way around Athena's muscled arm, inked in dark green, gold and shadowed with black and grey.
It was Blake who made the biggest discovery and the most horrifying one. There were three rows of gills just underneath Athena's ears, the set on the left side going through another tattoo. This was one was three large golden crowns with blue diamonds at the center that stacked in a pyramid. The gills would explain her breathing problem, Bridget decided, watching the gills working to draw in the non-existent water to pull the air out.
"What hell, lass?" Blake demanded when Athena's sharp green eyes snapped open "what the fuck have ye gotten into this time?"
"Need-need ta see the-the Lady," Athena croaked with a voice harsh from disuse "I need ta get ta the lake," she grasped at Blake's shoulders, pleading with him "must see the Lady of the Lake."
Frightened comprehension snapped over the man's face and he nodded "tis a long way to lake, lass," he spoke softly "I can carry ye, can ya last that long?"
Athena shook her head, gasping for air for hungry lungs "nay," she confirmed "but get-get me to the window and I-I-I can fly."
Blake ignored Bridget's protest as he picked the girl up and marched over to the big picture windows that looked out over the lake. Bridget watched in disapproval as the man laid Athena on a nearby bed and then used his wand to bust the window out. He turned back when all the glass was gone and heaved the bird that had taken Athena's place out of the castle.
The pair of them watched as the bird struggled to gain height before diving head-long into the darkened waters of the lake. Before hitting the water she transformed back and then disappeared beneath the waves. When she was gone, the two adults looked at each other.
"You get your mum," Blake nodded and jerked his head towards the window "and I'll head for the lake."
"Coward…" Bridget muttered as the pair of them rushed out of the infirmary