"Mum's going to kill me," Frank sighed at the newest bout of trouble their landing had caused, in his own home this time. He had no idea what the implications of that for Harry Potter's story was, possibly the lad and Neville would be spending time together? That seemed to be the theme. Regardless, he'd rather read of that than imagine the scolding his mother was going to provide as he helped Alice pull herself free from the precious potted plants. The rest of their home fared no better.
It was a grand three story in a weathered Victorian design, with pastel shingles along the outside not even faded to time he could hear someone outside shambling around on, a sunroom Lily was blinking painfully inside of, and an attic with a portal window of an excellent view of their entire massive lakefront property he could clearly hear someone going through from the living room.
Reddish-brown dirt now littered the beige carpet, the bright afternoon sun shining in that almost looked like blood he quickly magiced back into place of the carefully designed pot, lest inner spells spill water on the floor next at their due time. The furniture had not been spared, his mother's favorite sofa now had a missing leg from his landing on it he was also quick to repair, but the spell wasn't good enough to hide the blue upholstery had recently been tampered with.
He could see the kitchen beyond, bathed in more natural light with Sirius Black prowling about in his now usual moody way. Frank winced as he carelessly pushed the chair aside his Uncle Algie always sat at and made his way to the back door to the lake beyond. Frank could see the exact counter space he'd landed on, and the ceramic bowl he'd shattered and had yet to fix.
"Hey, it's alright love," Alice placed her hand calmly on his shoulder as he winced for the abundance of noise for the others making their way through his house. "I'm sure whatever destruction we're causing is getting fixed when we're zapped back away."
"We've yet to have proof of that," he snapped, "and somehow, my mum's going to know it was me who did this regardless."
She removed her hand and stepped back, and he winced harder as he heard his own sharp tone well after the fact. "Sorry darling," he apologized at once, offering his hand out and relieved she took it immediately.
"I can understand his nerves!" The older Black shouted from the kitchen, clearly no shame in eavesdropping. "Last two times we ended up at someone's home, it didn't end well for them!"
Frank went paler, and Alice shot him a nasty look. Those were his supposed friends he was so callously speaking of, but he didn't seem to think twice of it as he pounded restlessly, and uselessly they all knew by now, on the back door to be free as the others made their way down the staircase.
The long, narrow walkway allowed them to only come down one at a time, so he clearly saw none of them yet had the book. Quick to zip past them and see the damage they'd done, he also didn't want to admit aloud how he was also making a run from Sirius Black's words before anyone could see.
Alice began to follow, and he had half a mind to tell her otherwise, until he groaned in pain to see what they'd done and the thought of her comfort was almost all that sustained him.
Several of the photos lining the wall had been knocked down, their portraits shaking their head disapprovingly and joining the others still on the wall. Aunt Enid's glasses were a sparkling, twisted mess in the middle of the hallway, though whether she'd done that or someone mistakenly had was a fair debate.
Poking his head in, his room alone showed no clear signs of disturbance, but that could have been due to the fact there wasn't much to bother. His bed remained made with his pillow at the wrong end so that the sunlight could shine on that spot all day, the window open and the same small little tear in the flywire all that marked him apart from the rest of the house.
His insides sunk even lower as he wondered, was this still his room, or Neville's? Which time were they in exactly? If this was his sons, shouldn't there be some defining marker? One could argue, as the lad would be at school there wouldn't, but surely Frank was overlooking something...
Alice came up beside him and took his hand again, he squeezed it and wondered what she was thinking of all this, if she was dreading this mess starting as much as he was. Was Neville finally going to tell what had happened to his father? Name his mother? The two hadn't really spoken much of it, with no reason as they had no way to get a clear answer and fear of speculation stilling their tongues.
From below though, the clear sounds of Lily's voice spelling it out left little to the imagination.
"The Unforgivable Curses?" Alice hissed, so quietly it seemed she feared the walls hearing. "That must be, unrelated to, why we're here."
He didn't answer her, he couldn't find his tongue to say anything.
As Lily got properly started, her tone as always weary and unsure as she read of Snape's most resent foul deeds, Frank continued his way uneasily through the rest of his home. His mother's room next, which definitely showed signs someone had landed in here. The frills along the edge of her bed were crooked by a quarter of an inch, her stuffed hat had fallen to the floor upside down giving the bird an even more severe look than ever. He waved his wand in a vain hope to fix this, and still somehow knew he was missing something.
Alice stayed protectively by his side, her lips pursed unpleasantly as she watched her boyfriend pad around his own home with the same unease he had back in the Marauder's places. As Moody entered his classroom for the first time and they made their way up to the attic, she had to fight off the impulse to take his hand and pull him back downstairs with the others just for a distraction. She would have thought she'd love visiting his home, maybe even getting to see a more relaxed and casual side of him she'd been missing lately surrounded by others he didn't know well, but it seemed more the opposite was happening as they made their way to the last floor.
The two had been listening very intently this whole time to Moody's speech to the class, but thanks to the chapter title were not surprised at the lesson he declared they were having. It made some amount of sense to them after all, they were seventeen and heard use of these as common as the body count in the news, but that didn't make hearing of it being taught to fourteen year olds better. Nor why they were in Frank's house had yet to clear anything up.
Frank cast his eyes around at all of the tipped over boxes, the window open letting in a stiff breeze, and shifted his weight restlessly as he once again went to raise his wand and put everything right, then stopped quite suddenly.
The lesson was going along in the background, Ron offering up the Imperius curse first, but what had caught Frank's attention was a photo that had tumbled out of one the highest stacked boxes. He'd never gone threw these himself, his mother had expressly forbade it, but now for the first time he regretted listening to her so keenly as he laid eyes on his dad. He only had a few scattered memories of him in his earliest youth, laughing together mostly as his mother fondly scolded the pair. Her scoldings had only grown worse after he died, the Killing Curse he knew, performed by a Death Eater callously in the middle of the street while Frank had been right next to him.
He rubbed his thumb carefully over the photo, his dad and Aunt Enid laughing at some long forgotten joke, a fanged gerbil in his hands. Was this why they'd been placed here? The Unforgivable Curses mocking him back what he'd lost?
Alice knelt beside him to help sort out the photos as Moody finished demonstrating the effects of Imperio on the spider, and he paused at a picture of what must be his Uncle Algie meeting his mum for the first time to look back towards the doorway in surprise of Neville first being mentioned offering up an answer.
"Merlin I hope my mum never shared this with him," he whispered as he gathered them all up now, trying to ignore how tight his throat was. Looking at the array of life around him frozen forever in these photos made him well understand why his mum kept these tucked away up here. What good would it do to see these all the time? He didn't really regret this foray though, now he knew where they were if ever he did want to see them again.
Alice helped him pack it all away again carefully before sitting in the open window sill with him, the two huddled together for warmth and each other's presence as Neville gave such a bad reaction to seeing the physical effects of the Cruciatus Curse being put on the spider. It didn't seem fair that the one time he'd been shown to take initiative and offer up something for class he needed Hermione to step in and tell the teacher to stop traumatizing him.
Lily's voice quavered as she forced out the last curse, and Harry dwelling on it. What Moody was saying, it shouldn't even be possible, and yet Harry had survived, because of her. She only hesitated a moment before glancing up, and eerily looking right at James Potter.
He was leaning almost casually in the kitchen doorway, the other Marauders scattered around closer than they'd allowed themselves last time but still awkwardly avoiding each other. He wasn't looking at them though, but at her as well, his bright hazel eyes looking darker than she ever could have imagined as he pictured this all as well as her. It took little effort to give him green eyes in her mind, to see her own son's gaze looking to her for an answer for all of this. She still had no idea what she'd say to him, to either of them. How she longed for this not to be true, but growing more used to the idea all the time this was inevitable...
Alice managed a wobegon smile for Moody realizing he'd traumatized Neville and coming over to offer him a word of comfort after class like that, she wished half the DADA teachers they had were so aware of the students. She sniffled softly that couldn't have been her, the chapter title had come and gone in explanation and the two were left with more confusion than ever why Neville seemed so alone in the world.
Frank released her hand and wrapped an arm around her shoulder instead, still not wanting to cut off the air coming in despite the chill as they next heard of Neville actually happy once more, this teacher stepping in and giving him a positive memory now in encouraging him in a subject he was good at. It wasn't as much as they could ask for, but at least of some comfort he wasn't forgotten by everyone.
The story kept on track with Harry though, of course, and the two managed a watery smile for each other, not bothering to hold back laughter the Potter boy resorted to making up his homework for such a useless class. The two even couldn't help playing along at points and started suggesting their own bad predictions, Alice laughing so hard she nearly toppled backward out the window as Frank suggested Trelawney getting a frog in her throat and not teaching classes for a bit.
He kept a steady hold on her, and the two subsided to listen again as the twins were once more mentioned up to something suspicious, but that passed with hardly more explanation. Then Hermione was back, and finally revealed why she'd been darting off to the library so much.
"SPEW?" Alice giggled. "She really couldn't come up with a better name than that."
"I've heard one never can figure out all the problems with names they chose, it's good to bounce the idea off of others," he shrugged.
Both being purebloods, they had no idea what Hermione's real problem was. Alice even had a house elf at her home, though Frank's line had died out two generations ago, his mum still spoke fondly of the little thing. So far Hermione hadn't been able to hold their attention on the topic, all she'd been saying was how mistreated they apparently were when neither of them had heard any such thing, even what had been done to Winky made perfect sense to them. They listened with only mild curiosity as she wrangled her friends into her new club, minds still on Neville and their own future.
James let out a blasting sigh of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding, finally tearing his gaze away from Evans to look on at Sirius. He looked all too pleased with himself at the news he'd sent Harry about heading back to the country, and James wasn't going to deny in that moment how thankful he felt at the idea as well. He still had a bad feeling about this Tournament being around his kid, he was going to need Sirius.
The two shared yet another look of understanding, but Sirius flinched and looked away first. James dithered on the spot, he wanted to go talk to him along with Remus and Peter, at least clear the air, but then Evans was winding up the last of the chapter, and he knew the boys in that dormitory weren't the only ones in for a restless night.