Author's Note: Settle in, this chapter is nearly twice my regular chapter size. Lots of things happen now, as we are in the final arc of this story. Some of what happens has been brewing for a while. There are also lots of cute kiddies in the chapter. MNF

Chapter 30:

Out In The Open

"What was done to her, trapping her, and then keeping her from her sisters, it was — I don't know how some people can be so arrogant and selfish. She's spent almost seven years like that. I mean, I know she's immortal and all, but it's awful." Anwen was tiredly recounting her day with Alice and the Fury, Tisiphone.

"But you think that you know who might be behind this now?" Sirius asked as he undressed and slid into the bed.

"Oh, I do, but there is someone I need to speak with first."

"Who?" he asked as she climbed in and scooted next to him.

"Albus."

"Anwen, I know that you visit him but is it really the best thing for you?" he asked with concern. "Time and again, he's only told you half-truths or lies.

"He won't lie about what I need to know," Anwen said firmly.

"So, what are the Bulgarians doing about Tisiphone? Now that she's in her true form, I don't think she can be held by a mere wizarding prison."

"That is true, and she was released just before we came back tonight. She was going to deal with the fallen one. Rosier has walked the earth for millennia, but her current incarnation will be meeting a rather horrific ending. Tisiphone was planning on reuniting with her sisters, and then together, they were going to deal with her. She'll be banished back to hell unless they know how to destroy her. The men belong to us."

"This man has always belonged to you," Sirius said sweetly. "Come on, let's get some sleep because I can guarantee that our children will want to see their mummy as soon as they awaken. They missed you today."

"I missed them, and I missed you," Anwen said softly before kissing Sirius goodnight.

A&S A&S A&S A&S A&S

Sirius was right, the sun was barely up, and the children were climbing into bed with them. Sirius reached down for his pyjama bottoms and shimmied into them even as Lizzy climbed into his lap. Anwen rolled her eyes at him. Peng deposited Caelum into his mother's lap, and he began a long exhortation about the day she missed in his short life. Harry sat between his parents, and when his younger siblings stopped talking, he began questioning his mother.

"Where did you go yesterday?"

"I went with Auntie Alice and Mister Kingsley to Bulgaria to see an important witness," Anwen explained.

"Oh, I wondered since you left so early. I didn't like waking up without you here," Harry said quietly. "I have nightmares about being left alone."

"Harry, you will never be alone," Sirius said. "Your mum and me, we're going to live a long, long time, and you're going to grow sick of us."

"I don't think I could ever be sick of you, Dad," Harry said, looking at his father. "I could never grow old of Mum. Who would teach me neat things to do in the air?"

"I used to play Quidditch too," Sirius said with a puff of his chest.

"Yeah, but you were a Beater. Mum was a Seeker, and that's what I want to be."

"Then we will need to have some flying time today. You, me, Ginny, and Ron?" Anwen asked the last name hesitantly.

"I'd rather it was Draco," Harry confessed. "Ron has been a right prat lately."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Sport," Sirius said. "I was hoping after we had the man-to-man-to-man with the three of you boys and the three dads, things would be better."

"He stole my biscuits yesterday while Ginny, Julie, and I were having tea." Lizzy piped up, and Caelum added his exclamation point to her sentence with wildly waving arms and a stream of gibberish.

"That was very mean on him. I'm sorry it happened," Anwen said to her daughter.

"Peng gave me more, but it was still wrong."

"Ron says his mum says you're all just being snobbish since they don't have as much money as we have, but that isn't true. Ginny never behaves like her brother, and we treat them the same!" Harry said with a touch of anger.

"Molly," Anwen sighed. The woman had become the bane of Anwen's existence. "I'll find time to visit and speak with her."

"Thanks, Mum. It isn't that we don't want to include Ron, but all he does is disrupt things and act like a git" Harry explained. "He's even worse in our lessons."

"Before you visit Molly, let's talk with Moony," Sirius said, and Anwen gave a quick nod of her head. "Now, I bet Hindsa has our breakfasts ready. Who wants to eat?" Everyone cheered, even the baby, and the family headed downstairs. Anwen reminded Sirius to put a tee-shirt on, as it made Peng blush when he ran around half-dressed. Two hours later, she was sitting with Alice going through her notes, watching the children play in the ballroom.

"Harry told me Ron is still a problem," Anwen confessed to her friend. "He said he'd rather fly with Draco."

"Oh, Ron must be horrible," Alice countered with a scoff. "Draco isn't a great person to hang out with either."

"As Harry puts it, 'at least with Draco, I know where I stand.' The boy is still angry and likes to push the rules, but he's consistent with it. Moony said that Ron's even getting in the way with lessons. He thinks that it's partly due to the others moving along in their studies much more quickly than he is. Even Ginny is ahead of Ron, and she's younger. It should be interesting when I take some of the classes for Remus while he's teaching Julie and Lizzy. Ron does not like me."

"It can't be that bad, Anwen; his mother did teach him manners."

"Apparently, we are 'mean,' 'too strict,' and 'I'm not as good of a mother as his mum,' to which Harry felt the strong need to defend me. Molly and I are just two vastly different women. She was born thirteen years before me into a country that was recovering from a war. She dreamed of being a mother; for me, it was something I'd do eventually, but had Harry not needed me, Sirius and I could have waited at least another decade before we had kids. I wanted a career. I want to raise my children to be freethinkers who question things and find education exciting. I don't want to be the final say-so in their lives, especially as they become adults. I want them to leave the nest, so to speak, and fly, not rely on me. Molly's worth, at least in her eyes, is how much her children need her. I want to raise my children to not need me. We were never going to agree completely on things."

"You're not wrong," Alice said gently. "I love being an Auror too, and I'm glad I can do both now. However, my mother-in-law had issues with my returning to work. She said it was unseemly."

"Well, your mother-in-law is from a whole other generation from even Molly and has that upper-crusty pureblood upbringing," Anwen said. "I remember being frightened of meeting Fee and Monty because I thought that is what they'd be like. They're another twenty years older than Augusta, but they were the coolest people I'd met in the wizarding world. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like if they'd found me when I was small, and I'd grown up in their care."

"Well, you would have been Jamie's sister, so consider that," Alice said through her giggles.

"Er," Anwen said making a face. "That would be something to get used to."

"Let's get back to this timeline," Alice said, and the two women looked at what they'd filled in so far and went back to the notes they had. They were ninety percent certain they knew who was behind all of it. The only question which remained was why.

A&S A&S A&S A&S A&S

That evening, while the house-elves watched their children, Anwen and Sirius went to the tiny house where Albus Dumbledore lived. The cottage wasn't much to look at, but he was allowed to keep it instead of liquidating it to pay his reparations. Anwen knew Albus hadn't reconciled with his brother, due to the financial disaster, Albus found himself in. Besides Anwen's regular visits, the only other person he usually saw was Minerva, who came by on alternating Sunday afternoons. The other Sundays, she came to the Black's house to play with her honorary grandchildren.

The furniture was old, although the worn leather sofa was extremely comfortable to sit on, and the single wing back looked well used. Albus had a wall of pictures, drawings, and other art projects by the Black and Longbottom children. Anwen always thought it was strange that Molly never allowed her children's projects to come here, at least on a rare occasion, since she had been such a staunch supporter of Dumbledore's. If anyone had reason not to forgive him, it had been the Blacks; and yet Anwen and Sirius were sitting here for a social evening. Albus came in from the kitchen area and put the tea tray down on a Victorian-era coffee table.

"Why don't you sit down and let me be mother?" Anwen said, reaching for the tea pot to make Sirius his cup of sweet and lemony tea. She then made Albus his, which was just a bit sweet with the tiniest bit of cream. Anwen drank hers black. She passed the plate of biscuits around. She'd baked and brought them with her. They were his favourite ones, triple ginger. They also happened to be Sirius' favourite, and she'd left as many at home as she'd brought.

"So, your letter said you have some added information, and you're hoping I can fill in some of the details," Albus said. "Are you comfortable sharing what you have learned?"

"As long as you don't speak with anyone else, Albus. I haven't even shared this with Remus, Emme, and Minerva. I don't know if Alice told Frank; that's how classified this is. We haven't presented any of it to Amelia because I wanted to protect you as best as I can when I do," Anwen explained.

"Goodness," Albus blanched. "I promise I won't discuss this with anyone, save you and Alice."

"Thank you," Anwen said, and she began her tale about what they found in Bulgaria. It took her nearly a half hour to get through what they'd learned from Calliope first, and then Tisiphone and what the implications were. When she ended, they'd all drunk a second cup of tea, and Albus looked pale.

"Why would he…" the old man trailed off, lost in his own mind.

"Albus, I need you to tell me everything you remember about him. I know what his official platform stated and the political agenda, but there must be more. Tom visited Grindelwald while he was missing before he gave himself that ridiculous moniker and became a Dark Wizard. I need to understand who Gellert Grindelwald was a man, as a human, not just as a sociopathic warlord."

"Anwen, it was so long ago and –"

"We know that," Sirius said. "We know you, and he were in love. We don't care about it. What she's asking might provide the final clue to understanding why EVERYTHING happened. After all the hell you put the two of us through, you owe it to her to tell her what she needs to know." Anwen put a hand on his arm, and Sirius settled back into his seat, not realizing he'd come to the edge of it and was ready to stand. Albus surveyed the couple, and for the first time didn't see the friends they'd been at Hogwarts – she tiny and he defiant – but instead saw the adults who had spent the last five years of their lives trying to unravel a horrific mystery that might have led the entirety of Wizarding Britain into war.

"You're right; I did love Gellert," Albus began. "He came into my life when I was at a crossroads. My parents were gone, and Ariana was my responsibility. I was to go on a grand tour of the continent with my dear friend, Elphias Doge, but I had to remain so that Aberforth could finish his education. Elphias went at my insistence, leaving me home to care for my magically unstable sister. Gellert was," he sighed, "he was a whirlwind of magic, sensuality, brilliance, and I never saw the instability, greed, and madness until it was too late.

"I believed, or I was raised to believe that we all had a responsibility to those around us. I had intended to take the Dumbledore seat in the Wizengamot and study law. I was going to help change wizarding society in much the same way the Muggle world was taking responsibility for the poor and working-class under the direction of Queen Victoria. I knew it wasn't perfect, but there was much the wizarding world could do for those who were poor in our society. I also believed we needed better mental health care so that people like my sister could get help and not just be locked up in St Mungo's."

"I understand that, Albus," Anwen said softly as she reached across the table to the wingback chair he was in and took his hand. "I was raised with similar morals. So, Gellert blew into your life; I know a little something about that. Someone barged into the compartment I was in on my first ride on the Hogwarts Express," she said, looking at Sirius. "It's being in the sunlight for the first time when you've spent all your life in the shadows."

"That is it exactly," he said, patting her hand with his other while she held his. "I had never allowed myself to fall in love or really even looked at a boy. I had so many questions about my sexuality – to be honest, even speaking about it now is quite difficult – but back then, I was reticent to mention it to anyone. In those days, being gay wasn't something anyone spoke about, especially in the wizarding world. So finding Gellert, having him return my feelings, it was quite liberating." Anwen felt so much empathy for her old mentor at that moment. She knew what it was like to cut part of yourself off and hope no one noticed. She'd only lived a year like that; Albus had done it for the whole of his childhood and adolescence.

"I now know that it is unlikely that Gellert ever felt anything toward me, as I do not believe he has feelings like normal people. He is only capable of seeing others as a means to his wants and desires. We are all expendable in his world. I made so many mistakes with him, and when he fled after Ariana's death, I hoped I would never see him again. But, of course, that would not be the case."

Albus went on to share the entire tale. Their relationship, how Albus ignored his siblings and often left his younger brother with his sister. It was clear Albus regretted his impulsiveness and his willingness to follow wherever Gellert would lead him. He realized the blood pact the pair made was a way for Gellert to protect himself, as he must have realized Albus posed the only threat to him. That Tom had met Grindelwald was troubling. If Albus could be carried away by Gellert's charm and personality, he couldn't imagine what would have happened to Tom. Psychologically they were a set of bookends.

"We're going to need to meet him," Anwen said. "What should Alice and I do?"

"First, play up your heritage. He wanted your grandmother as part of his circle, and when she disappeared, he was quite distraught. Show him what you can do."

"Anwen isn't a show hippogriff," Sirius said. "You can't expect her to trot out and perform." Anwen had discovered that people bred and showed hippogriffs much like Muggles did with horses.

"You are quite correct, but her skills are already known to him, so she might as well use whatever tools she has at her disposal. Flattery will get you only so far because he is a masterful flatterer. You present him with facts and information. He may become pliable. If you are correct in your assumptions about how everything has played out, your discoveries will impress him."

"Use my big brain, in other words."

"Yes, because you're the only one who has seen the big picture. Also, let him know that he's caused me pain. Sad as it is, he has never forgiven me for not going with him after my sister's death and for my defeat of him. He is childish and immature enough to still be holding a grudge all these years later."

The trio spoke for a while longer before Anwen and Sirius excused themselves and headed home. That night they were slow in their lovemaking, happy they'd found one another and that their love was something to celebrate.

A&S A&S A&S A&S A&S

August 11, 1986

The Burrow

"Mrs Black, this is wonderful. I've never been to the ballet before, but I've read about it," Ginny said. Anwen and Sirius had given her the book Cinderella, the Muggle version, and then promised her that they'd take her to see the ballet. Anwen had a few friends from when she danced as a teen. They planned to take Harry, Neville, and Susan already. The trio had seen The Nutcracker at Christmastime and had loved it.

"You're most welcome, sweetheart."

"That's quite a gift," Molly said. "It must be nice to have gold to spend on such luxuries."

"To be honest, one of my closest friends from ballet school is dancing the Fairy Godmother role and has secured us a box for a matinee. Since there is room, we thought Ginny would enjoy going. Alice and I decided that Lizzy and Julie aren't quite old enough, although we're thinking maybe at Christmas they'll be old enough."

"So, you've invited Neville and Susan? Is there a reason that Ronnie wasn't included?"

"We gave Ron the option of coming at Christmas, but he chose to not go because he called the ballet stupid. Arthur was there and tried to talk Ron out of his attitude, but he was unable to. If Ron would like to join us, he's quite welcome."

"I don't want to go to the ballet," Ron piped up from where he was eating another slice of cake. "The boys wear tights like Ginny wears when it's cold."

"Yes, well, it really is more for girls, isn't it, Ronniekins," Molly said while cuddling him to her chest and patting his head.

"Well, I can't wait, thank you again, Mr and Mrs Black," Ginny said with her best manners.

"Yes, thank you, Anwen and Sirius," Arthur said. "I'm sure Ginny will enjoy her day with you."

"Here, Ginny, this one is from me. Mum took me to Diagon Alley to pick it out for you," Harry said, handing her the box he'd wrapped himself. It had three different types of birthday paper, half a roll of Spellotape, and two different bows: one on each end. She looked at him with a serious look, and then Harry smiled. No one had a good reason for why these two could talk with each other this way, but it didn't appear to be doing any harm to either, so Anwen, Sirius, and Arthur chose to ignore it.

"Ginevra, speak out loud. It's rude to share thoughts with Harry. I don't know what you're saying," Molly snipped, and Ginny looked horrified that her mother had yelled at her.

"All I did was thank him for his present," Ginny said with tears in her eyes. Then, hurt and frustrated, Ginny looked to Anwen, who gave her a sympathetic look.

"Anwen, can you help me in the kitchen, please?" Molly said although it didn't sound like a request. Anwen looked at Sirius and then Harry, who now looked hurt as well.

"Sure, Molly," Anwen said, leaving Caelum with Sirius. Lizzy was at his feet, playing with Julie and Luna quietly. The two women walked toward the house, and Anwen counted to one hundred to maintain her composure. Once inside, Molly began yelling.

"How dare you rub it in our faces that you have fancy friends who gift you tickets to the ballet and then dangle them in the face of MY daughter. I know we can't provide her opportunities like this, but you do not need to make us feel poorly about it. I also don't like that you encourage Harry and Ginny to share this silent talking. How do I know that it's Harry and not whatever voice it was that was screaming a few months ago. It's dangerous. You shouldn't encourage it."

Anwen looked at Molly, red in the face, eyes bulging, and hands clenched at her side. Rather than yell back at her, Anwen hugged her.

"Molly, I had no idea you felt like this," she said. Of course, it was a lie; Arthur had told them as much, but Molly needed to have her feelings acknowledged right now. "We should have asked you before we gave Ginny the gift, and I'm sorry."

"You never ask; you just give Ginny everything and ignore Ron," Molly said, and Anwen released her. Whatever feelings of goodwill Anwen had were now gone. Anwen cast a privacy bubble and then took a deep breath.

"Molly, for five years, we have tried to accept your points of view and opinions. I can say that I rarely have agreed with you, but you were welcome to your thoughts just as I have been welcomed to mine. However, I will not let you assume that we have treated Ron unfairly. He has been given the same opportunities as any of the other children; in fact, I would say that Harry and Neville have gone out of their way to give Ron what he wants because they are tired of his over-reactions and temper tantrums. The reality is that if Ron does not feel included, it is his own fault. We have spoken with Arthur. The boys and their dads have spoken together, and yet nothing changes. Your youngest son is a horribly spoilt little boy with no sense of what anyone else wants or needs. I would advise you to do something about it while he is small because he won't have any friends if it continues.

"As for my husband and I spreading our money around and shoving your circumstances in your face, I never have. I came from a family without much, and my parents abandoned me when I was no longer a money-maker. Since then, money has meant little to me. Sirius and I live in the Potter Manor because it was the safest place for Harry when he was little, now it's our home, but we pay for everything ourselves. We don't use the Potter money, and as for the Black monies, the family was haemorrhaging funds right and left before Sirius took over. As they grow, our children will know the value of a Galleon. Harry bought your daughter that gift because he earned money by helping in the gardens and greenhouses at home. He was so proud of himself for earning the gold and selecting it, and I am sorry that I missed Ginny opening the present.

"And lastly, it is Harry speaking to Ginny when they silent speak. Ginny knows the difference. I'm going to go gather my family up and head home. After that, you can decide how you want to approach our future interactions." Anwen pulled the Silencing Charm down and walked back outside to find Sirius and discretely make their exit.