Ch 37 Back to School
Saturday morning the Potter and Granger-Weasley families ate breakfast together. Cleo was with them.
"You are going to have to go back to Malfoy Manor after breakfast," Hermione told Cleo. "You and Scorpius are coming back Monday January third, and the Hogwarts Express leaves Tuesday."
"Are we all taking the train this time?" Rose wondered.
"Everyone except Albus and Cleo," Harry replied. "I think they would be safer if they take the Floo, and I think the train is safer if they are not on it."
"Louis told me that Scorpius and I really need to be riding the train if we are prefects," Rose added. "He said that if we do a good job there is nothing keeping us from being head girl and boy our seventh year."
"Do you want to be head girl?" Cleo wondered.
"I would really like Scorpius to be head boy," Rose replied. "He needs to bring honor back to the Malfoy family, and that might help. Of course I would not mind being head girl, but I think it is more important for Scorpius than for me."
Harry did go into work for about four hours Saturday, January first, twenty-twenty-two. They talked about guarding the Hogwarts Express. The older train engine and a few older train cars were going to follow the newer train by about a quarter of an hour, hopefully confusing any wizard or witch who wanted to cause harm to the train. Again the special Range Rover with the train wheels was going to proceed the train down the tracks.
In the afternoon he met with Teddy, and explained what had happened with the Dementors and Albus, and how Cleo had come to rescue Albus.
"It sounds like Jezebel," Teddy thought, "but not on her own. She is rather cautious about using Dementors. I am reasonably sure she is in contact with The Lord of the Dementors, but I have no proof of it. For all that I have learned about Jezebel and her island, there are plenty of things I don't know."
"Why are you so sure it was not just Jezebel?" Harry wondered.
"Because she would not have had a chance to capture Albus if a Dementor had sucked out his soul," Teddy responded. "She has given a few people to the Dementors, but only after she is finished with them." Teddy pondered some more. "Of course, if the people never came to the island I would have no idea what Jezebel and her allies did. So I am not really sure of anything."
Sunday morning the family gathered at the New Burrow in the morning. Everybody wanted to hear about the Potter family vacation. The family was getting large, and so before breakfast Albus announced, "I was attacked by Dementors while we were on vacation. On my own I could not fight them off, but somehow Cleo appeared and together we produced Patronus and fought them. I really don't want to talk about it."
Of course this didn't prevent people from talking about it.
By this time the family was large enough that they opened the wall to the dining room and used three tables. One was for the older generation, Molly and Arthur, Andromeda, Bill and Fleur, Percy and Audrey, George and Angelina, Ron and Hermione, Jean Granger, Ginny and Harry at the table this Sunday, fourteen people.
The second table was for the children who were married and had children. This table included Teddy and Victoire with Maria, Molly and Rich Hudson with their son Kyle and daughter Scarlet, Fred II and Miriam with their son Barack and daughter Issa, and finally Roxanne and Frank II Longbottom with their son Wilkie and daughter Irma, fifteen people.
The last table was for the children who did not have children. This day it included, Louis, Dominique and her husband 'Frank' du la Fontaine, Lucy who was accompanied by Bob Hudson, James, Albus, Ivana Romanoff, Lily, Rose and Hugo, plus little Minerva, who felt very grown up being at this table. Of course at four and a half she was twice as old as the oldest of her nieces and nephews, except for Barack, who was actually a month older than she was. This made a total of twelve people at this table, for a total of forty-one people all together.
At least this is how the seating started out. It wasn't long before Barack was arguing with his parents. He finally went over to his grandmother Weasley and insisted, "I older than Minerva!"
His grandmother replied, "You are almost the same age, Barack."
"I not sit with all the babies," he insisted. "I big enough to sit with the big children, like Minerva." Barack pointed to where Minerva was sitting on a booster seat between her two big sisters, Lily and Ivana.
"Minerva is sitting between her sisters," Molly noted.
"I sit next to Uncle Hugo," Barack countered. He ran over to Hugo and informed his uncle, "I sit next to you, cause you family like Minerva and her sisters."
Hugo looked over at his cousin Fred, who was grinning at him. Fred shrugged, indicating by his gestures that Barack moving was amusing and acceptable to him.
"If it is all right with your parents you may sit next to me," Hugo laughed.
Grandmother Molly stood up, and looked at Barack's parents, who indicated that it was fine if Barack moved. She then waved her wand and Hugo's dishes moved over to be next to Hugo. She waved it again to move the booster seat.
Once that was settled, Molly and Victoire made sure there was plenty of food for each table.
Molly Weasley loved it. Victoire loved it. In the brief period since Victoire had moved in with Teddy she had become more and more her grandmother's partner in managing this growing crowd of relatives.
Harry and Ginny left right after a light lunch, as did Ron and Hermione. All the children living in the Grimmauld Place homes left shortly after.
The girls all headed upstairs to the adjoining rooms of Lily and Ivana, taking little Minerva with them. Rose was going to go over all the clothes and jewelry that the two older girls were going to be taking back to school with them, and to talk about 'girl things.'
Louis, James, Albus and Hugo stayed in the drawing room of twelve Grimmauld Place and talked about Hogwarts, Quidditch, and the like.
Harry and Ginny sat in the library, enjoying the peace and quiet.
Monday after breakfast Scorpius and Cleopatra came to twelve Grimmauld Place through the Floo. Ginny was waiting for them, along with Albus and Rose.
"How was your weekend, Cleo, Scorpius?" Ginny wondered.
"Tense," Scorpius replied. "My father and great-grandmother Malfoy were furious at Cleo for leaving. I think when we said she saved Albus's life it only made them angrier. I think great-grandmother Malfoy is the worst. I don't want to live there after I graduate.
"Albus and I will be married by that time," Cleo volunteered. "I won't be rooming with you, Rose, so you and Scorpius can marry and live in your room until you can afford your own place."
"Better than living at Malfoy Manor," Scorpius muttered.
"I want to talk to Teddy," Cleo told Ginny. "I do not know much about my great-grandmother and the island, and I think I need to know more."
"Me too, if as the prophesies seem to indicate we need to fight Jezebel together," Albus added.
Ginny really did not want to think about Albus and Cleo having to fight Jezebel, but she had to admit that they were probably going to have to, so she nodded her OK. Albus and Cleo took the Closet over to the New Burrow.
Grandmother Weasley and Victoire were sitting at the kitchen table with Sojourner Truth P/W, the Elf who was the manager of the farms around the New Burrow. There was a map of the properties on the table, and it looked like they were talking about what was going to be planted over the next year. Maria was in a playpen, sitting up, rolling over, and just practicing moving. She could stand, but getting into a standing position was not always easy.
"We would like to talk to Teddy," Albus told the group.
"I think he is in the office area upstairs," Victoire replied.
"I saw it over Christmas," Albus noted. "We can go up ourselves."
Albus and Cleo went upstairs to the office area, where they found Teddy looking at a couple of the magical maps.
"Can you tell me about my family, Uncle Teddy?" Cleo wondered. "The prophesies say we are going to have to fight my great-grandmother, and I want to learn all I can before we do."
Teddy headed into a little office area. Albus and Cleo looked around. Two bedrooms had been remodeled into a modest sized conference room with two small offices on one wall. Victoire had the corner office, with two windows looking out in two directions, and glass walls between Teddy's office and the conference room. Teddy's office was similar, except there was one wall without a window, and it was full of maps and other things.
Teddy came out with a rather large portfolio. He reached in and brought out several photographs.
"How did you get those?" Albus wondered.
"It was not easy," Teddy replied. "A little Muggle high tech that was invisible to Magi, and a little magic, and a lot of stealth."
"Was it dangerous, Uncle Teddy?" Cleo wanted to know.
"If they knew what I was doing I would have been killed on the spot," Teddy admitted. "It took a long time to win the trust of the people on the Island and then figure out how to obtain all this information.
"This is your great-grandmother Jezebel Nukpana, Cleo. She is maybe the most perverted, wicked person I've ever met or could imagine. She cuts the heart out of at least one person almost every day, sacrifices then with a glass knife the Aztecs used for sacrifice. She tortures for pleasure. I cannot begin to tell you all the perverted and wicked things she does. She also forces everyone living on the island to do horrible, wicked, perverted things. If you have a chance, you need to kill her. If you do not kill her she will certainly kill you, and everyone you love that she can."
Cleo looked at the photograph. She could see that this was one of her ancestors. Teddy pointed at each person as he talked.
"This is your grandmother, Lilith Nukpana. She is totally subservient to her mother. She is no threat except that she will do everything her mother tells her to do, no matter how wicked or perverted.
"This is your mother Annatole, your Father Orwant, and your sister Natasha. They live ten months on a sailboat, but are required to spend over a month a year on the island. They are good people, and you were taken away from them so you would not be raised by good people. Jezebel thought that they could turn you into a wicked person, or at least something other than a good person, by having you raised by Lucius Malfoy. Fortunately for us everything seems to have been arranged well before you were born, before Lucius was sent to prison.
"Your sister is a very nice child, but there is nothing in her personality or, from what I can gather, in the prophesies, to indicate that she would be a threat to Jezebel."
"How am I going to confront my great-grandmother?" Cleo wondered.
"I don't have a clue," Teddy admitted. "If we tried to attack the island we would lose hundreds, maybe thousands, of Magi. I do not have a clue how the confrontation is going to come about, but your father, Albus, is almost sure it will happen."
"That is probably why we have been practiced dueling," Albus thought.
The three Magi spent some time going over who was on the island, and what they were like.
There was nothing unusual about the trip back to Hogwarts, which should have been reassuring to Harry, but wasn't.
After New Year, Teddy and Victoire spent time getting into their new routine. Teddy did spend part of each day with Dan VanLente or Harry or another Auror going over the maps and other information about the island of the Pirate Witch Queen. Most of the Aurors were from North America, and were stationed reasonably close to the location of the Island.
Victoire was in full mother mode. A newborn really does not take much time, except for the constant changing of nappies and feeding. A older baby is awake much more, and Victoire spent time playing with the Maria, along with studying her healing text books. She also spent plenty of time with her grandmother Molly, slowly becoming a full partner in running the New Burrow.
The end of January Harry appeared at the New Burrow with an older man. They arrived just before lunch, and Molly invited them to stay for lunch.
"I will get Teddy," Victoire volunteered. She handed Maria to Harry, who giggled at Teddy's daughter. Victoire ran upstairs, and a short time later was back with Teddy.
Harry then made the introductions. "Dennis MacGraw, I want to introduce my mother-in-law, Molly Weasley, my god-son and foster-son Teddy Lupin, his wife Victoire, and Maria Guadalupe Lupin. Maria is Teddy's daughter by Rosa, who was a witch from Jezebel's Island.
"Everyone at this table knows about Jezebel, and the island. Not everything, of course, but enough. You do not have to worry about keeping secrets here."
"I had heard that Rosa was one of two Magi who were sent to capture Cleopatra," Dennis thought. "They never came back. Jezebel was furious! She sacrificed their children, tortured them, I heard."
"I saw it," Teddy confirmed. "I cannot describe how awful it was. I know I let a couple of people know, but that information was supposed to be very confidential."
"I escaped from the island almost twenty years ago," Dennis responded. "I've been trying to help the Aurors and others figure out how to get rid of that evil ever since. It is just that recovering from the curses, and some physical injuries, has taken a very long time. I still do not consider myself recovered."
"Maps can only tell you so much," Teddy explained. "It really helps if you know the area the map represents. With the magical maps it even helps if you know the people the maps display. Dennis spend over ten years on the island. He was off the island on a mission for Jezebel when he escaped. As far as Jezebel knows he was killed, or may have been killed."
"I have to stay hidden, for a number of reasons," Dennis confirmed. "It has not been easy."
"We want Dennis to stay here, hidden, and help me watch the maps," Teddy informed the group.
"We have the room," Molly replied. "We may want to remodel the third floor. It is set up to take care of Charlie, and since he died we do not need a sick ward up there."
"I really just need a bedroom," Dennis suggested.
"Nonsense!" Molly exclaimed. "You at least need your own bathroom, and a room where you can read and visit with people. You are welcome to use the living areas of this house, but all adults need their own private space.
Over the next month Granger and Grunt remodeled the upstairs so the one area was not set up to take care of a dying family member, but there was a modest apartment for Dennis.
Meanwhile at Hogwarts school continued as usual. Fifth-year was O.W.L.'s, so students were concerned about taking the Ordinary Wizarding Level's tests. This of course included Albus and many of his classmates. As a result, the first three months of twenty-twenty-two were mostly taken up with study.
2021