A/N: Okay, so I thought I would be able to finish this before I left for England, but as I leave tomorrow!, alas, it isn't getting done. But I'll have two plane rides to write (although I will be sleeping most of the way to London from New York). Still, I will be traveling a lot and am taking my writing supplies with me. I'll be away for two weeks so don't look for updates before August or even replies to your reviews, but I will reply once I return. Thanks to all who are reading and most especially to J for being the fabulous beta she is!
Chapter 49—Reunions, part II
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place
The years had been unbelievably kind to Sirius, creating a sleeker, more defined adult Sirius. Janet's mouth went dry and it wasn't the result of the wand that was aimed between her eyes, either.
"Who are you? How did you find this place?" Sirius demanded. Hearing that deep gravelly voice again jolted her from her speechlessness. She immediately raised her hands, palms out, showing that they were empty.
"Sirius Orion Black! Put your wand down! It's me, you brainless idiot! I'm wandless, so there's no way that I could hurt you, even if I tried. Really! As to how I found this place, why wouldn't I be able to find a place that I've been coming to for over twenty years?" She added in a much lower voice, "Even if I haven't been here in about fifteen?"
He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing her every feature. "Who are you?" he said much softer than before, lowering his wand.
"I don't know why I expected you to recognize me. But, really, Sirius, I gave you multiple clues. I'm wandless, not saying that I left my wand at home," Janet said with a sigh, her hands lightly slapping the sides of her legs as she dropped them.
"Calliope?" Sirius whispered with such a disbelieving tone that Janet doubted he even believed it himself. She merely nodded until he said it again only slightly louder, but still just as questioning.
"Yes, Sirius, it's me, although I go by Janet now. I recently, as in today, discovered that I've been taking care of something you've been looking for or rather someone," Janet replied.
"Harry?" Sirius said, eyes wide. He gripped her upper arms in his hands and asked, "Where is he? You know where he is?"
Janet felt Harry move behind her. His head popped out around her right side. "Miss Stephens, why can I hear him, but not see him?" Sirius' hands fell to his sides as he stared at the little dark-haired boy.
"Magic, Harry. Sirius, are you the Secret-keeper?" Seeing his nod as he was still stunned at the sight of his godson, she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Then please tell the boy where he is so that he can actually see you and not just my skirt!"
Sirius dropped to his knees and slowly drew Harry into his arms. Placing his lips at one of Harry's ears, he whispered, "Sirius Black lives at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place."
Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon
Mena trailed behind the older woman down a dusty country lane, thoughts jumbled and whirling madly in her head. Fear over not knowing what was to come warred with the excitement of possibly finding a family, her family. Throughout Mena and Harry's lives at Harper Place, the one dream they had shared was finding their family. Now it seemed like both of them had this dream fulfilled. That was, of course, assuming that this woman was correct in her assumption that she was this Ginny Weasley.
"Um, Miss?" Mena said, before biting her lower lip.
"Ginny, you may call me Professor McGonagall or simply Professor. It's what I'm used to. Besides, I daresay you'll be in my classes at Hogwarts soon enough," the older lady stated.
"How can you be sure that I'm this Ginny Weasley?" Mena said, shaking her head and shrugging.
"Because I taught both your mother and your father. Your hair is almost the exact shade of your mother's and just a shade off the majority of your brothers. But your eyes... your eyes are just like your dad's. Arthur Weasley had incredible deep dark brown eyes. Then there's the fact that you're magical," the woman explained.
"But how do you know I'm magical?" Mena asked plaintively. "You said something earlier about accidental magic? But I don't understand."
"When magical children are growing up, their magic is mostly untapped and unfocused. You see, our wands help focus our magic, but still there are times that our magic works without wands. This is most often the case when our emotions are heightened, especially when we're young and don't have as much control. If you're angry or scared, things can happen. Your magic can make them happen."
Mena thought about that for a while. "But I don't know that anything like that has ever happened. Well, other than the time that Harry and I did manage to go from one pier to another in an instant, but what's to say that it wasn't Harry and not me?"
"Oh, you are a thinker. I can't wait to have you in my classroom. Well, if you can't think of a time when you've done something that you couldn't explain, then have you ever seen something that you couldn't?" the older woman asked.
"You mean, like the purple three-story bus that appeared with a BANG by our bus stop one day?" Mena queried, wondering if that was what the woman meant or not.
"Exactly. You saw the Knight Bus," Professor McGonagall replied with a smile.
"But it was during the day," Mena responded.
"No, knight as in k-n-i-g-h-t. It's a form of Wizarding transportation. Muggles don't see it. It just furthers that you are who I say you are, Ginny Weasley. Now, here's The Burrow. This is where your family lives."
The older woman stepped aside and let Mena look at the place. Near the entrance road stood a sign proclaiming the name of the home, The Burrow. Her eyes followed the path from the gate to the house, if one could call it that. Mena was amazed that it didn't fall over actually, seeing as there were rooms or floors that seemed to be tossed on the top and side of the previous ones. It reminded her of the block buildings that Carter and Edward would build in the playroom when they were younger. Harry's buildings were always too neat to be like this, but then he hated seeing things destroyed. Carter and Edward had deliberately built theirs to fall over at the slightest touch.
The squawk of the chickens brought her back to the present. She started to worry what they would think. Would they recognize her? Would they want her? Why was she in the orphanage in the first place? She started twisting her fingers around one another and biting her lower lip. Mena followed the professor as she strode down the path to the door and firmly knocked.
London
Harry followed Miss Stephens out of the Tube station and down the street. He was glad she knew where she was going because he had no clue as to where he was. They crossed a square and stood in front of a row of houses. Harry looked to his left and saw number eleven. Looking to his right, he saw number thirteen. He wondered if the even numbers were on the other side of the street until he noticed number fourteen a little further down on his right. Miss Stephens took a deep breath.
"Harry, I want you to hold onto my skirt. Look only at it and stay behind me. I'm fairly certain that Sirius, your godfather will recognize me, but there's a charm on where he lives and I'm not clear how it will affect you since you don't know where it is, like I do," Miss Stephens said, running her hand through Harry's hair, trying to get it to lay down once again. She took a deep breath once more and stepped through. Harry quickly grabbed her skirt as it flowed behind her as she disappeared out of sight. Holding tight, he stepped close behind her and followed her up what seemed like stairs as they rose in elevation. All around him was white like a blank canvas that his art teacher placed on their easel before they started learning about oil painting. The only splotch of colour was Miss Stephens' blue skirt.
Voices sounded like they were coming through the old radio that Carter had found in one of the storage rooms in Harper Place. It was all crackly and hard to hear. But he could tell that the person speaking to Miss Stephens was a male and wasn't too happy to see them. Harry focused as hard as he could on determining the tenor of each voice, making sure that Miss Stephens was safe. His body tensed in preparation. He refused to let anything happen to Miss Stephens. After all, she was the only mother he had ever known.
It wasn't long until he heard the male voice drop the aggressiveness and start sounding more inquisitive. But it wasn't until he heard his name that he relaxed, instinctively hearing the protectiveness in the male voice. He leaned to his right past the end of Miss Stephens' skirt, hoping that they could see him, even though he could see no one.
"Miss Stephens, why can I hear him, but not see him?" He wanted to chuckle when Miss Stephens responded with the word, magic, but then he thought she probably wasn't joking. When something began pulling him forward, he tried with all his might to pull in the opposite direction, but whatever was moving him was too strong. He switched Miss Stephens' skirt to his other hand, desperately trying to hold onto that anchor. If his heart hadn't been in his throat, Harry was sure that he would have asked what was going on, but as it was, nothing, not even air, seemed to be travelling through that part of his body. When a voice echoed in his head, sounding close to his ear, he froze on the spot, shutting his eyes tight, hoping and praying that this would end soon.
Suddenly, Miss Stephens' voice no longer sounded crackly. "Sirius! Can't you see that he's terrified? Let him go." At this, Harry's eyes flew open to discover that a man with shoulder length black hair had his arms wrapped around him. The man pulled back to look at Harry, giving Harry the first chance to see the man's face. His eyes were grey and kind, not at all like Uncle Vernon's eyes. The man slipped his arms from around Harry to gently place both hands on Harry's face, framing it.
"Oh, you look like your father, James. He was my best friend, you know. Had that same hair. Never could tame it," the man said, tears welling in his eyes. He pulled Harry closer and hugged him close, rocking Harry back and forth. "We've been searching for you for so long. I'd despaired that we would never find you. I was almost ready to give up, but your godmother Alice refused." Saying that name, he pulled back and blanched. "I have to Floo her. I have to let her know or else she'll have my head." He stood up and went inside. After a few seconds, his head popped back through the doorway. "Well, are you two coming or not?"
Completely unsure of how to take this man, Harry followed Miss Stephens in the building.
The Burrow
Molly sent the remaining dishes from the celebratory lunch that the family had for Ron after he received his first Hogwarts letter to the sink to be washed. With several waves of her wand, she had cleaned up the majority of her kitchen. Settling herself at the table with all four lists of Hogwarts necessities, Molly summoned parchment, ink and quill. She started two lists. The first list contained items handed down from the older boys. On the next bit of parchment, she wrote what was still needed from Diagon Alley.
A knock rent the air as she was determining on which list to place the telescope. She stood and crossed to the door. Opening, she was surprised to see Minerva McGonagall standing in her doorway.
"Why, Professor! I wasn't expecting to see you today. Come in, come in. What have my boys done now?" Molly gestured for the lady to follow her and turned to go back to the table, pulling her wand to start tea.
As Molly resettled herself, she pushed the parchments out of the way and noticed that a young girl had shadowed the other woman. The girl, who was frantically twisting her fingers, had red hair almost the exact shade of Ron's. It was then that it hit Molly. Ron's 'vision journal' had chronicled a time when Professor McGonagall would arrive with a young girl in tow and that girl would be Ginny. Could it be that after all this time her daughter, her baby had been found? Her breath caught in her throat, making it impossible for her to say anything.
The girl raised her eyes to look at Molly, allowing her a glimpse of brown orbs that pierced her very soul. Arthur's eyes, she had Arthur's eyes. That was the only thought running through Molly's mind. Everything else was blocked out, the dishes crashing down into the sink, the knitting needles falling into the chair, Professor McGonagall's voice, nothing made it through. She glanced at the clock and noted that the smallest hand pointed toward home. Her daughter was finally home.
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place
"Moony! Moony!" Sirius bellowed. "We have guests! Get down here!"
Footsteps thudded down the hardwood stairs. A man with shaggy greying light brown hair descended, coming to a stop at the foot of the stairs, a look of shock spreading across his face.
"Oh, my. Well, there's no denying just who this is, is there? Harry," he breathed.
"Moony, this is Calliope Stephens and you know who the boy is. Can you take them into the kitchen while I contact Alice?" Sirius asked the man, who nodded before gesturing with his arm toward the end of the hall.
"Stephens? Any relations to Pandora?" Remus asked, following Calliope and Harry down the hallway.
"She's my older sister," Janet responded.
"You don't look that much younger than us. Why is it that I never saw you at Hogwarts?" Remus questioned, missing the wince that crossed Janet's face as he opened the door to the kitchen.
"I didn't attend Hogwarts, Mr..." Janet answered.
"I'm sorry. Sirius didn't tell you my name, did he? It's Remus Lupin. Sirius, James and I were best friends since first year of Hogwarts," the man supplied.
"James? But that's my middle name," Harry stated.
"James was your father, Harry. You look almost exactly like him, except for your eyes. You have your mother's eyes," Remus responded quietly.
The Burrow
Mena followed the professor into the house, feeling very small in the small, rather cramped room. She sat on a long, wooden bench that ran parallel to a table that had obviously seen lots of usage, determinedly keeping her eyes on the sugar dish on the tabletop. She really didn't know what she was supposed to feel like or how she was supposed to act. Harry had been so lucky since Miss Stephens went with him while she was surrounded by strangers really.
Slowly, raising her eyes to look around, she locked eyes with the woman who had answered the door. Tears filled the woman's eyes. A loud crash filled the air. Mena's eyes darted from the woman to the sink, where shards of broken dishes littered the counter next to it. She took in all aspects of the room. Yet, when the woman's gaze turned to the corner, Mena followed her look and paid particular note to the clock there. It wasn't a normal clock. There were nine hands. The young girl stood and came to a stop in front of it, looking closer at each hand. They weren't hands at all, but rather spoons. Each spoon had a picture of someone. Mena assumed they were members of the family since they all had similar shades of red hair. Her eyes focused on the smallest hand, gasping when she saw the face on the spoon was her own. Her mouth moved without any sound escaping. Finally, she regained her voice.
"H-h-how do you have a picture of me?" She interrupted the conversation between the two women with her demand.
The mistress of the house gazed over at her. "Magic. When you were born, we took a drop of your blood with a lock of your hair, combined them with a spoon and a spell to create that hand. Ever since, it's always shown you as you are at that time."
"So then, I am this Ginny Weasley?" she queried, questions racing through her mind so fast that she could barely keep up.
"You are. I'm Molly Weasley, your mother," the woman answered. Mena glanced over at the professor, not sure who she should trust. She longed for Harry and Miss Stephens, but mostly Harry. Knowing that they were not at Harper Place just made her more uncomfortable and uneasy. She wished for something to help calm her and with a pop, a faded old green stuffed dragon appeared in her arms. Mena squeezed it tight. Hearing twin gasps, she turned to see the two women gaping at her in amazement.
"What?" Mena asked.
"Miss Weasley, Ginny, you were wondering if you were magical, well, there's your proof. Bringing that dragon to you- purely magical," Professor McGonagall answered.
Molly had a hand clasped over her mouth. Slowly, she lowered it. "You had that dragon as a baby. Your brother Charlie saved up and bought it for you. I guess I should have known then that he was destined to work with dragons," she said.
"If I'm your daughter as you say, then can you answer me one question?" Ginny asked, staring at Molly, her eyes watery. "Why? Why didn't I grow up here with my family?"
Molly closed her eyes and pulled her lips between her teeth. "Come sit down. We'll have a spot of tea and I'll tell you a story. Hopefully, that will explain some of it."
Mena crossed back to the table and sat once more. The feelings coursing through her were unlike any she had experienced before. Even when she, Hermione and Harry had dined at Ritz Hotel, she wasn't this uncomfortable in the formal atmosphere.
"I guess to begin, I need to go back ten years. It wasn't long after the war ended when I had a visit from a schoolmate of mine, who was also a cousin of sorts." Molly wrapped both hands around her tea cup and brought it to her lips for a sip. "She came with a warning that someone was after my daughter, you," she said, smiling wryly for a moment at Mena before her countenance turned morose once more. "I didn't believe her at first. I thought the war was over and even so, why would anyone want my daughter? I didn't know the cousin well enough to know whether to believe her or not, so I chose to think that I could protect you all on my own." She took another sip before adding a little tea to her cup and stirring in some milk.
"A couple of weeks later, the person I had been warned about showed up here and attempted to take you. Your brothers ended up protecting you where I couldn't. One of your brothers had to be taken to the hospital and I realized then that I couldn't protect you. Not like I wanted.
"I contacted the school mate who had warned me. She had a plan, a way to protect you. She suggested kidnapping you before Bellatrix could. So we staged a kidnapping and placed you in an orphanage where Andi, the friend who warned me, could watch over you for me. Andi volunteered there, you see.
"However, somehow, Bellatrix discovered where you were and arrived there, attacking Andi, causing her to have amnesia for a little while. But when the Aurors got there, you couldn't be found anywhere. There was no paperwork with your real name or the one I created for you. You had disappeared. Ever since then, we've been searching everywhere for you."
Ginny had tears streaking down her cheeks. So it wasn't that she wasn't wanted, it was to protect her all along. "What happens now?" the girl asked.
"Well, you come home," Molly responded. "That is, if you want to."
Home, Ginny thought. But is it really home? Still, Harry probably wouldn't be returning to Harper Place either, so why should she stay? "I guess so," the girl said uncertainly, hugging the dragon closer to her body.
Longbottom Manor
Alice took the jar of Floo powder down from the mantle.
"Are you sure that you'll be all right with Evan and Christina?" she asked her husband. Frank nodded. "We could always make it a family outing," she suggested.
"Are you implying that you don't trust me with our children?" Frank asked half-jokingly.
"No," Alice drew out the word. "I trust you. I don't know. I've got a feeling..."
"Not another of your 'feelings'," Frank groaned.
"Hey, those feelings have saved us more than once in our Auror careers, don't forget," Alice retorted, hands on hips.
"True, but I'm not out in the field, am I? We'll be fine, Alice. You and Neville go. Go to Diagon Alley, get Nev's wand and robes. Those are the things that wouldn't be easy to get shopping with Evan and Chrissy." Frank kissed his wife before exiting the room, calling for his oldest son to join his mother at the Floo.
Reaching her hand in for a small amount of powder, she tossed it into the grate without looking. A strangled cough jolted her from her thoughts. Looking where the sound came from, she was shocked to see Sirius' face floating in the green flames.
Her eyes going as wide as possible, she tentatively questioned, "I didn't hit you with the powder, did I?"
Sirius nodded with a sparkle in his eye. Normally, that sparkle meant he was up to something.
"You're going to get me back for that, aren't you?" she inquired timidly.
"Actually, today is such a good day that no, there will be no payback," Sirius said.
"Why? What happened?" She immediately started guessing, not letting him get a word in edgewise. "Have they found a cure for lycanthropy? Oh, I know. They discovered Lucius had been lying all along and have thrown him into Azkaban!"
"ALICE! Just come over here and you can see for yourself," Sirius replied.
Neville walked into the room. "Hey, Sirius!"
"Sirius, Neville and I are about to go into Diagon Alley. Can't this wait?" Alice asked.
"Okay, I'll be sure to tell Harry that his godmother would rather go shopping than see him for the first time in years," Sirius responded dryly.
"What? Harry? Harry's there? Move out of the way. I'm coming through," Alice yelled. As soon as Sirius' head disappeared, Alice had the Floo powder flying. "Grimmauld Place," she called.
