The Mutt who Lived
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, Dumbledore/Weasley bashing.
Unable to watch the scene only to be heartbrokenly disappointed again, Lily buried her face in Severus' chest, relieved when her friend comfortingly laid his arm around her shoulders.
However, she quickly turned around upon hearing a voice, which she had not heard in seven years.
"Neville? Where's my baby?" Alice shouted, frantically.
'Thank Merlin, it worked at least for Alice,' she thought in relief. "Alice!" she blurted out and dashed over to where her best friend was sitting on her bed, frantically looking around.
"Lily," Alice said in recognition. "Where's Neville?"
"He's safe at home with Harry," Lily replied, smiling, before she pulled her friend into a bear's hug.
Absentmindedly listening, when Poppy explained to Alice what had happened more than seven years ago, Lily observed how Severus conferred with the head healer, who cast a series of diagnostic spells at Frank.
Finally, Healer O'Brien spoke up. "Mrs. Longbottom, I'm sorry," he apologized to Alice. "I don't have a clue why the potion did not work for your husband. Rest assured that we'll do our best to assess his condition and to closely work together with Mrs. Potter and Mr. Snape to cure him as well. You are free to go, however, provided that you have somewhere to go?"
Seeing Alice cast Augusta a questioning look, Lily hurried to speak. "Mrs. Longbottom will live with her mother-in-law, her son and us at our school."
"I want to see Neville," Alice blurted out, "even if he's… what? Eight? I can't believe it," she added, tears leaking from her eyes. "A few minutes ago, he still was a baby."
"Alice," Augusta spoke up in a firm voice. "First of all, Neville is fine. Secondly, however, Neville has so-far grown up believing that Harry was his twin and James and Lily his parents. Only yesterday, we've told the boys the truth and have assured them that – provided that the potion worked – they were going to have two mothers and two fathers. This won't be easy for you I suppose…" She slowly trailed off.
"That's fine," Alice replied, smiling at Lily. "Thanks so much for taking care of him. I only ask that I'll be allowed to be their mum, too."
"Always," Lily promised, returning the smile. "Now, let's go home." Seeing that Alice cast her husband a hesitating look, she added in a soft voice, "There's nothing that you can do for Frank right now."
"I'll come back to see you in a few days' time," a teary-eyed Alice told her husband, before she hesitantly followed Lily and the others out of the room, in which she had unwillingly spent the last seven years.
HP
Back at the manor, Lily offered Alice an empty room within their own, private quarters, and Alice gratefully accepted, before the two women went in search for their sons.
They found Harry and Neville out on the grounds, where they were deeply engrossed in a snowball fight with their siblings and friends.
'It must be so awkward for Alice, who only remembered Neville as a baby and her own baby at that,' Lily thought, feeling deeply sorry for her best friend, while, at the same time, she was extremely happy to have Alice back. 'Oh well, she might never be the Alice she was at Hogwarts again,' she mused, glad that James introduced Alice to the children. 'She'll make a good addition to our extended family though. We need to offer her some teaching position though to occupy herself and distract her from the fact that Neville is not only her child and that Frank hasn't been cured yet. Oh well, we can discuss this at dinner time together with Minerva and the others,' she decided.
HP
When Lily, James and Alice entered the atrium for Christmas dinner, however, two Unspeakables, who had arrived together with Arcturus, attracted all the attention.
Harry observed how Arcturus unobtrusively waved his hand around the room, wondering what spell the old wizard had cast. He should not have to wait long for an explanation though.
"Don't worry, you won't have to swear a wizard's oath to keep the identity of my colleagues to yourselves," Arcturus spoke up, smirking, as he admitted, "I've placed all of you under a respective charm."
"So are you now going to reveal yourselves?" Sirius asked, impatiently, causing Harry to chuckle. Of course, he knew Raros and Mento, as both Unspeakables were team colleagues of Ra and the Mini Unspeakables.
"Harry, will you introduce us?" Raros addressed him, and Harry agreed, eagerly.
"This is Regulus Black, and this is Fabian Prewitt," he introduced the two wizards, whom he liked a lot. Both of them were very friendly and always ready to answer Hermione's never-ending questions.
"You fucker," Sirius blurted out and was immediately scolded by Uncle Remus and Granny Minerva. "Why in the world did you pretend to be dead?"
"Because Voldemort would have killed me otherwise," Regulus replied, matter-of-factly. "He was aware of the fact that I knew about his Horcruxes. I suppose that you've heard about them."
"Yeah," Sirius admitted. "Grandfather told us all about it."
"Hello Uncle Fabian…"
"… it's nice to finally get to know you," Fred and George addressed Fabian, making Harry realise that his team colleague was the older twins' uncle.
Finally, everyone noticed Alice, and Christmas dinner slowly turned into a celebration party, as all the adults hugged and congratulated her in apparent happiness.
"I hope we can sit down and have dinner soon," Neville whispered to him, and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Can we have dinner now…"
"… We're hungry," they hesitantly spoke up.
"Me too," Dorea added in a firm voice.
"We're going to have dinner now," Granny Minerva promised and tapped her wand against the table for the house-elves to serve dinner.
HP
When it was bedtime for the children, Alice accompanied Lily to their private rooms.
"Did you know Fabian and Regulus?" Lily asked, surprised that Harry had introduced the two Unspeakables to the family.
"They're our team mates…"
"… and they're really nice," the twins replied, grinning.
Noticing that Alice cast her a questioning look, Lily explained that the twins and their four best friends were all Mini Unspeakables.
"Wow, that's fantastic," Alice replied in apparent amazement. "I wonder if I should return to the Aurors, considering that Neville is in good hands and I'm not really needed here."
Lily shook her head. "Don't do that," she spoke up, smiling. "We're happy to have you here, and you could teach at the MAMA. We're still lacking a professor for Ancient Runes, and we also thought about introducing Latin as an elective subject. So far, Remus has been teaching it, but I think he's only waiting to be able to solely concentrate of Care of Magical Creatures. Do you think you could teach one of these?"
"Latin," Alice replied, thoughtfully. "Yes, I think that should work," she added, letting out a relieved sigh.
"Stay here with us, Mum…"
"… Everyone's really nice here," the twins told her, causing Alice to smile.
"Thank you, Harry and Neville," she replied, seemingly happy.
HP
Only when Lily and Alice entered the parlour, to where the extended family had retreated, she noticed that they had another visitor.
"Healer O'Brien," Lily spoke up in surprise. "Do you have any news?"
The head healer of St. Mungo's gave her a sharp look. "We've been conducting multiple tests on Frank Longbottom, and we believe that it might work if you gave him another dose of the potion. Of course, we can't guarantee that it'll work, but I believe that the chances are good. Do you perhaps have another dose of the potion?"
"We don't," Severus spoke up; "however, we can easily brew another dose tomorrow. It should be ready by dinner time."
"That's all I can ask for," the healer replied, smiling.
"Does that mean that Frank will probably be cured by tomorrow evening?" Alice spoke up, hope clearly written in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Longbottom, but we don't know that for sure. We can't make promises. We can only try and see if it'll work," Healer O'Brien replied, sombrely.
"Thank you for trying in any case," Alice replied in a soft voice.
HP
First thing in the morning, Lily and Severus retreated to the potions lab to brew another dose of the concoction that had cured Alice.
In the meantime, James and Sirius took Alice on a tour through the school. When they crossed the park to show her the greenhouses, they heard the children talk behind one of the greenhouses, even if they could not see them.
"Neville and Harry, how do you feel suddenly having two mothers?" a female voice enquired.
"Somehow it's strange to call her Mum…"
"… although she's really nice," two boys' voices replied, slowly.
'Neville and Harry,' Alice thought, inwardly sighing. 'They're good boys, but it's sad to see that Neville doesn't need me at all. I wished that Frank was with me at least.'
"She is nice, and I hope that they'll be able to cure her husband, too," another girl's voice added.
'Hopefully,' Alice thought, grimly. 'It's really nice of Lily and Severus to try so hard. I just hope it'll work.' Even if she felt ungrateful, she couldn't prevent herself from thinking, 'Why did it work on me and not on him? It's unfair. I need him here.'
HP
To everyone's relief, when Poppy administered the next dose of the cure to Frank in the evening, it worked, and the former Auror's mind returned to awareness.
"Where are we?" he asked in confusion, looking at Poppy, Lily, Severus, Healer O'Brien and finally to her, questioningly. "Where's Neville?"
"He's together with Harry," Alice replied in a soothing voice.
She inwardly sighed in relief, when Healer O'Brien explained everything to her husband. She contented herself to lean against him, unable to prevent herself from crying, when Frank gently pulled her close.
She and Frank spent the rest of the evening with Augusta in their room at the MAMA. At first, Harry and Neville joined the Longbottoms together with Inu, however, it was almost bedtime for the eight-year-olds.
Augusta once again described in detail what Healer O'Brien had shortly explained to Frank earlier.
When the children as well as Augusta had retired to bed, Alice finally allowed her emotions to run free and sobbed into Frank's chest.
"You must think that I'm ungrateful," she sobbed. "I'm so happy to have you back, but I have the feeling that we've lost Neville. He's neither a baby anymore nor our son."
Frank soothingly rubbed her back like he had done many times before during the war.
"He seems to be a very happy boy," he said in a soothing voice, "and he's still our son. It must be awkward for him to call us Mum and Dad, considering that that's what he calls Lily and James. I'll suggest to him to just call us by our given names." He remained pensive for a moment, before he continued, "As to him not being a baby anymore, we can have another baby or even more if that's what you want."
Alice looked up at her husband, giving him a small smile. "Thanks Frank," she replied, as he gently wiped a tear from her cheek. "You're the best."
HP
While the Longbottoms spent the morning in their private rooms trying to get used to their new situation with the help of the Potters and their children, Narcissa and Andromeda made their way to Gringotts.
This time, one of the goblins led them straight to Buckbean's office, where Narcissa's account manager was waiting together with a man, who had an uncanny resemblance to her former husband.
No one, not even Narcissa noticed that an invisible Arcturus followed them into the room, carrying an equally invisible Inu in his arm.
"Ms. Black and Ms. Black-Tonks," Buckbean greeted them, introducing them to his visitor at the same time. "This is Ambrosius Malfoy, a cousin of your late husband," he added, introductory.
"Mr. Malfoy," Narcissa acknowledged the man, who returned a respectful greeting. He extremely reminded her of Lucius, even if he kept his blonde hair in a short cut. Nevertheless, he was unmistakably a Malfoy.
"As I told you before, Mr. Malfoy is here to accept the lordship over the Malfoy family," Buckbean explained, only to add, "It's now up to the ring for the head of the Malfoy family if it will accept Mr. Ambrosius Malfoy as its wearer."
'Oh Merlin, I hope it won't accept him,' Narcissa thought, feverishly, as she observed how Buckbean took the ring, which she had seen on her husband's finger for a long time, out of a small, black box.
She felt anger in a combination with fear, when Ambrosius Malfoy carefully placed the ring onto his ring finger and began to swear his oath. Her anger quickly turned into horror, when a golden glow engulfed the new Lord Malfoy.
"Congratulations Lord Malfoy," Buckbean spoke up, although Narcissa had the impression that the goblin was not happy to greet the stranger as the new head of the Malfoy family.
'We should have integrated the Malfoy family into the Black family years ago,' she thought. 'However, we couldn't know that there was a branch of the family that suddenly became active.' From the corner of her eyes, she noticed a movement at the far side of the room, where to her surprise, an Unspeakable together with Inu appeared seemingly out of nothing. 'If he's together with Inu, it can only be Arcturus, Regulus or Fabian,' she realised in relief.
Inu immediately stood in front of the new lord and began to bark and growl at the man.
"Buckbean," the Unspeakable spoke up, and the goblin nodded in his direction, making Narcissa suspect that the goblin had been fully aware of the Unspeakable's presence in his room. "I am Unspeakable Ra, and I request that the goblins allow me to question Lord Malfoy under Veritaserum."
HP
Arcturus had observed the scene with a combination of interest and disgust. However, when the ring indeed accepted the man as the new Lord of the Malfoy family, he revealed himself – just like previously agreed with Buckbean. No wizard or witch, who was not an Unspeakable, was aware of the fact that Buckbean was working for the Unspeakables as well, and he always cooperated with the Unspeakables.
"You cannot just question me under Veritaserum," the Malfoy head protested; however, without further discussing the matter, Buckbean pressed a button on his table, and two goblins entered the room, whom he instructed to administer one dose of Veritaserum to his guest.
"Unspeakable Ra, you're free to question Lord Malfoy," Buckbean turned to him, as soon as the goblins had apparently spelled the potion into the man's system.
Arcturus turned to the stranger. "What is your name?" he enquired.
"Lucius Malfoy," the man replied, causing everyone in the room to let out a collective gasp.
"Did the Aurors not put you through the Veil?" Arcturus enquired.
"They did."
"How did you manage to be alive at this time then?"
"I previously made Horcruxes and used one of them," Lucius replied, making not only himself but everyone in the room groan in horror.
'Horcruxes. Plural,' Arcturus thought, sharing everyone else's emotion concerning the matter.
He asked a couple more questions, making Malfoy reveal how his soul had travelled to Australia, possessing one or the other animal on his way, where he had possessed the body of Ambrosius Malfoy. Since his host was a Squib, it had been easy to finally overcome him and gain the body for himself.
However, when Arcturus asked what objects he had used for his Horcruxes and where they were hidden, Malfoy could not give a proper response.
"You don't know?" Arcturus asked, incredulously. "Did you obliviate yourself?"
"Yes," Lucius admitted, smugly.
"Buckbean, could you perhaps call Alastor Moody here, considering that the new Lord Malfoy just admitted being a wanted criminal?" Andromeda spoke up in a firm voice.
However, Arcturus knew better. The goblins would never interfere in a matter of human wizards and witches. He only nodded his understanding, when Buckbean declined.
Lucius Malfoy was free to go, and while they knew that he had made multiple Horcruxes, which were hidden in the park belonging to Malfoy Manor, they had no idea what objects they were or where they were hidden within the large area belonging to the dark family.
tbc...
Thank you so very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
Next chapter: "?".