O
HADES
Death
It was the most agonising hour of Hope's life. She stopped struggling in the end and let herself go limp. Harry's restraining arm became one of comfort and solidarity instead, but she shrugged him off. She did not want sympathy. She wanted to know what was happening to her mother.
"Let's go up to the cafe," Harry said. "It'll be quiet and we'll look suspicious loitering here. Please, Hope. For your mum's sake. For Teddy's sake."
He lifted the silencing charm. He might as well not have done. She did not say a word as they walked together up to the top floor and Harry sat her down at a table in the corner.
"Do you want a drink?"
Hope summoned some manners with a herculean effort. This was still Harry Potter, Head of the Auror department and hero of The Great War, after all.
"No thank you."
He brought her one anyway, and she sipped it so as not to appear rude. She was grateful that Harry did not try and make small talk, merely pulled a notepad out of his robes and started reading something in it. She noticed, however, that his eyes weren't moving and he barely turned the pages at all.
Eventually, after forty five minutes, Harry looked over Hope's shoulder, his eyes widening, and she turned to see her father hurrying towards them.
He sat down, cast a quick muffling charm around them, and nodded.
"It worked," he said. "She's already improving."
Harry exhaled heavily and gripped Remus's wrist in relief. For Hope, the urge to fling herself into his arms and sob was overwhelming, but something was prickling at her. He had sent her away. He had forced Harry to drag her out of the room, when her mother could have died.
He did not try and hug her either, just gave her a small smile. He must know what she was thinking.
"Won't they realise?" she whispered, pushing past the difficult moment. "What Teddy did?"
He looked around again nervously before replying, even though there was no one within earshot.
"Almost certainly. Ten minutes after you left, Jessye suggested a drug to slow the spread of the curse, one that has been effective in some muggle trials, but she was already showing signs of improvement when they gave it to her. The timing of her recovery doesn't match the expected effect of the drug and of course, it won't account for the curse not being present in her system next time they test her. But she's definitely improving. Her breathing is stabilising on its own, even if she's not awake yet. Right now, that's all anyone cares about."
"Can we see her?"
Hope was half expecting the answer to be no, but her father nodded.
"Of course. That's why I came to get you."
He touched her arm as they got up to leave the cafe but Hope flinched away. She wasn't ready yet to forget what had happened an hour before, even though her conscience was screaming at her that there were more important matters to worry about right now.
Tonks was still unconscious when they entered the room, her breathing easier, her lips no longer blue. Hestia was nowhere to be seen, but Jessye was examining the little golden instrument.
"The magic levels are still falling," she said. "But she's doing better. The drug we used to manage her symptoms seems to have helped."
She smiled warmly at Hope. Healer Phennah, on the other hand, was looking very grave, and kept shooting sharp glances at Teddy. Teddy had never been a good liar, even with the natural advantage of a metamorphmagus, and Hope could not entirely blame Phennah for her suspicions. Her brother had discomfort and guilt written over his face.
How long they sat there, Hope wasn't sure. Her mind was a loop of racing thoughts, as she imagined everything that could have happened, everything that could still happen. Eventually the healer put down her notes and spoke.
"We are going to run some more tests," she said. "I need to ask you all to leave for the moment."
Teddy followed them out into the corridor.
"I need to stay, Dad. Hestia and Jessye are going to as well, and Gran's insisting on waiting overnight. But," he glanced anxiously at his watch, "you'll need to get home."
Remus turned to Harry as Teddy said goodbye and disappeared up a corridor to the left.
"Harry, I'll take my potion as soon as I'm back. It should be fine, but I'm later than usual, with all this. Can Hope stay with you tonight?"
"Dad-"
"Of course she can," Harry assured him. "Hope, just come over by floo you're ready."
Hope stared at him in dismay.
"But-"
"You'll stay with Harry and Ginny," he said quietly. "No arguments Hope, please. Not right now."
O
Hope was bundling her overnight things into an old duffel bag when Remus came up to see how she was getting on.
"You're angry with me."
It wasn't a question. Hope knew she had no right to be thinking what she was. Knew it wasn't going to help. Knew her father was completely exhausted and probably going through the same emotion hell that she was, if not worse.
"Listen-"
"You chucked me out." Her voice cracked as the words tumbled forth. "You threw me out of the room and you silenced me and now you're making me leave the house."
Stop it. Don't be so horrible. Mum could have died and now he's had to leave her because it's the full moon and he's probably only keeping it together for your sake. Do you think for a second that if Teddy were in your position, he would be acting like this?
"Hope-"
"My whole family was in that room and you made Harry drag me away and I had no idea what was going on. And now you won't even let me stay here."
She threw a hairbrush into the bag. Oompa, not liking her irritable movements, dived in after it and cowered in one of her slippers.
His reply was low and sad.
"I was trying to protect you."
"I don't need you to protect me. I can do that myself!"
Her head snapped up in time to see a peculiar expression twisting his face. She could not decipher it at all.
"You are so like your mother," he murmured at last.
But I'm not. Mum is brave and funny and popular and she risks her life every day to make our world a safer place, like Teddy said. I'll be lucky to pass my exams at this rate and now I'm acting like the most awful person in the world because I can't even say how thankful I am she's OK, like a normal human being would.
"Please listen to me."
She met his eye again reluctantly. He looked bone-tired. And suddenly very old. She had never seen him as old before. She knew that her mother was several years younger than him, as were all the Weasley parents, and he had always looked older than his age anyway, because of his condition. But his current, almost faded appearance, as he apparently struggled to stand without the support of the wall, was alien to her. And it was terrifying. His voice, however, was quite steady.
"Hope, seeing someone die is a terrible, life altering thing. It can never be reversed. I was nineteen when a colleague was killed in front of me. I've never forgotten it. Harry and the Weasleys all witnessed death before the end of the war, most of them still teenagers. Neville's grandfather died just after his first year of school. And Luna saw her mother die when she was nine years old. Every single one of them would agree, and they all would have done what I did in that hospital room."
Hope did not reply, but she was thinking of the thestrals, and the haunted expression on her classmate's face as Hagrid explained what they were.
"As for you staying here tonight," he finished. "That is not even open for discussion. You know my reason for sending you away and you have done for a long time."
She had.
"Harry and Ginny will be there for you," he added, as Hope zipped up her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "And I'll be here for you in the morning. We can talk then."
Just apologise. Hug him and say you're sorry and that you're glad Mum's OK and you wish you didn't have to leave but you'll see him in the morning.
He put a gentle hand on the back of her hair and kissed her forehead. She did not react. She did not say anything as she followed him down the stairs and made her way towards the fireplace.
Well done. You might as well call yourself Elodie from now on.
O
"But why did Hestia have the cure in the first place?"
Hope had been talking to Harry and Ginny for a long time, going over the events of the day. A wave of guilt crashed over her every time she thought of her behaviour, and her father, curled up in his wolf form, alone in the cellar, but there was nothing she could do about it now. She would try and make amends in the morning. She wasn't going to leave it weeks and weeks like she had a couple of years ago.
"I don't know," Harry said. "It's not something we were aware of, but she'll have had her reasons. I'll try and speak to her in private tomorrow."
There was a silence. They had already talked most subjects to death. Then Hope plucked up the courage to ask the other question that had been bothering her on and off all evening.
"What did you mean by Strike Two?"
Harry gave her a sharp look.
"What?"
"Strike Two. You said it at the hospital. And Mum said Strike One, I'm sure. When she was talking about the planting of the vaccine back in the summer. What are they, these strikes? Is there going to be Strike Three?"
Harry had recovered his composure. "No, it's nothing in particular," he said vaguely. "It's just terminology Aurors use sometimes."
Hope was convinced this was another attempt to protect her, and it did not improve her mood, but she choked down her feelings. Harry and Ginny had been so kind all evening and being unpleasant never got her anywhere.
"I think I'll go to bed," she said, pushing back her chair. "Thanks for having me."
Ginny got up too and hugged her tightly, arms warm and compassionate, and for a split second Hope wondered if she was going to break down completely. The moment passed even as she acknowledged the temptation to succumb to tears. She wouldn't cry. Not now.
"You're to come and get me if you need anything tonight, OK?" Ginny said, releasing her.
Hope merely nodded and, her outward calm restored, went upstairs to bed.
She barely slept at all and was wide awake by five o'clock. Still feeling guilty from the night before, she pulled on her clothes, scribbled a quick note of thanks to Harry and Ginny, and made her way back through the floo.
A scrap of paper lay on the table in the kitchen. Hope recognised the feather shaped parchment at once, used only by the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix. The Order may not operate officially any more, but a unique, golden thread of trust and solidarity still connected them and always would. The note was brief.
She's doing much better. Awake. Visiting allowed until 6pm. HJ
Breathing a further sigh of relief, she started round the kitchen, shoving some ingredients in the bread-baker and putting on the kettle, pausing only when the hoarse voice came from the doorway.
"You're home early."
She turned. He looked so unwell, despite the tired smile, and her stomach spasmed in sudden panic. Even with the reassurance of family and friends that he was healthier than he had ever been before, Hope had never been able to forget the worries that had plagued her since the age of ten, the fear that her father's life expectancy was being whittled away, slowly but surely, with every full moon.
She hovered awkwardly, wanting to do something for him, but he did not seem bothered by his own state. He read Hestia's note, his own face relaxing slightly, then sank down onto a chair at the kitchen table.
"Please sit down. I need to say something."
Hope hesitated, then did as she was told.
"I'm sorry."
She had not been expecting that, and it did nothing to ease her feelings of culpability. She was the one who should be apologising, surely.
"I'm sorry that what I did yesterday upset you," he elaborated. "I truly am. I know it is difficult to be made to feel you are too young to understand. Sometimes parents do make mistakes, in trying to shield their children from every possible harm that could ever come to them. But in this instance, I believe that what I did yesterday was right. Teddy had minutes to do what was necessary and you know what the consequences might have been. Maybe I could have handled it better, and I am sorry you were upset, but I am never going to apologise for protecting you from something that no fifteen-year-old should have to witness."
Hope acknowledged this with a tiny jerk of the head.
"You're my daughter," he finished, very softly. "There will not be a single day, while I still walk this earth, when I don't try to protect you."
Hope said nothing. What was there to say to that? He reached out and took her hand, and she did not pull away. "Hope, this has been a terrible few hours. And it's OK to be upset. To let stuff out. I didn't, you know. For years and years I kept everything bottled up. Many people would say I still do," he added wryly. "But I assure you I'm better than I used to be. And I'm telling you, it's alright to be upset. You need to be, even. I'm here, for that. You don't need to hide how you feel."
For the third time in the space of twelve hours Hope wanted to break down and sob and be comforted like a child. The tears threatened to prickle as the lines in her father's face creased with concern and sympathy that she didn't feel she deserved.
She forced them back. Eyes bright. Skin clear. Positive expression.
Suit of armour.
"I'm alright Dad, honestly. Just relieved Mum's OK."
He did not believe her, she knew, but he did not insist.
"You and me both."
There was a silence.
"Come here." She felt soothed as he pulled her towards him and she breathed in the familiar scent of his clothes, knowing there really were no ill feelings from her attitude the night before.
You could still apologise. It doesn't change the fact that you were an arsehole.
"Do you want a cup of tea?" she mumbled.
Did actions really speak louder than words? She wasn't so sure. But his tone of voice on replying told her he understood.
O
"Remus, for god's sake go home and get some sleep."
Tonks was much better, no doubt about that, even if she was still pale and the colour had not returned to her hair. In the early hours of the morning, the healers had managed to stop the effects of the magical dampening spell, but her MDI was still hovering around forty and they had not yet found a way to bring it up again. No one voiced what this meant, but Hope could tell she was not the only one torturing herself with the alternative consequences, had the cure not been available to them. Phennah had finished her shift, which was a relief. Hope had a nasty feeling the healer knew exactly what had happened after she'd left the room the day before.
"I'm fine," Remus insisted, sinking onto the chair next to the bed. "I want to make sure you're alright."
She glared at him severely.
"I am alright. I'm feeling loads better and you will be alerted immediately should that change. You have no right to worry about me when you look the way you do now. Please Remus, go home."
After twenty more minutes in this vein, Remus did, at last, allow his daughter to escort him home. He refused to go to bed, and instead went to sleep on the sofa, insisting that she was to wake him should anything not be right. Hope stayed in the armchair next to him, pretending to read a book but in reality, however much she tried not to, replaying in her head the events of the day before and every way in which she had failed to act the way Teddy would have done.
Harry paid them a visit many hours later, when Remus was finally awake again, and, having managed to stomach a bowl of soup, looking more human.
"How are you doing?" Harry asked him, the second he was out of the fireplace.
He nodded.
"Fine thank you. Much better now."
Harry eyed him narrowly and then turned to Hope.
"And how are you?"
"I'm good." She made her eyes bright and forced a tight smile.
Harry raised his eyes skywards and muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "Lupins", but then his tone became more business-like. "These are from Ginny," he said, holding out a tin. "Chocolate brownies. She said you are to eat them until you feel better or feel sick. No arguments."
Hope did manage a proper grin at this, as she took the tin with a word of thanks and inspected the contents, realising she was hungry for the first time in hours.
"And," Harry continued, with a meaningful glance at Remus. "I managed to speak to Hestia in private."
Remus sat up straighter. "Did she explain why she had the cure?"
"Yes." Harry looked at Hope and she prepared herself to be sent away, resolving that this time, instead of flying off the handle, she would calmly leave the room with what little dignity she had left.
His words came as a surprise.
"I need your word you won't tell anyone at school what I'm about to say, Hope, not even Dom and Roxanne. You deserve to know the truth - it affected your mother, after all. But I'll be in serious trouble if they find out I've spoken about it to anyone outside the ministry, let alone an underage student."
Hope agreed hastily. "Of course."
"So," Harry said, sitting down. Then, agitated, he got up again. "It was partly as she explained back at the hospital, simply because she felt there might be a need for it. She was right, and thank goodness she did have it. I doubt we'd have obtained it otherwise, and it would have seriously hindered Tonks's recovery, if not prevented it all together. But there is another reason."
He paced up and down in front of the fireplace.
"As you know, Hestia was temporarily moved from the maternity ward to the Magienetics research department at the start of all this. With good reason. There are dozens of excellent mid-healers and maternity advisors, but very few individuals who have experience researching curses, like Hestia does. She wasn't the only staff member transferred but she and Jessye have been the ones staying on well past their expected hours, with Teddy's help, and therefore the ones who have discovered the most about the curse and its origins."
He paused and leant against the wall.
"Part of their work involved studying samples procured from muggle hospitals around the country. Even within the first few weeks, Jessye was beginning to notice things that didn't feel right. When the panic died down in June, and she had time to look into it properly, she was able to confirm her initial suspicions as more than a little unnerving."
"In what way?"
Harry rubbed his knuckles unconsciously against his palm.
"There are too many patterns. Similarities between the research that has been conducted at St Mungo's over the last few years, and the formulaic make up of the curse itself. Jessye noticed in particular because she'd done a lot of the research herself."
"Is that not simply coincidence?" Remus said. "The breakthrough in Magienetics has never been kept secret. Someone could have got a general idea of it, couldn't they? Then started their own research, put it to ill use?"
Harry looked grim. "That's what they thought, at first. Coincidences happen. But when it became apparent that the cure transferred to hospitals around the world was dangerous to someone with magical make up, functioning in the opposite way to the curse itself, Jessye wanted to investigate it further, to see if it followed the same patterns. She was also convinced, as were a lot of people, that the tainted cure was the key to finding a safe, workable cure for everyone, but worldwide wizarding community had ruled that it be locked away until further notice."
Harry was grinning, but there was little amusement in there.
"When have rules ever stopped us before? Order mentality, as Hestia said. Jessye confided in Hestia. Hestia spoke to Kingsley. Kingsley warned her to be exceptionally careful, but agreed to engineer a situation in which they could procure a small amount to work from. He allowed the rumour to spread that some had gone missing, to keep wizards on the alert, while making a public – and truthful– statement that every bit of it was accounted for. We knew nothing of this plan ourselves of course, no one did. But Hestia and Jessye have been studying it in secret ever since."
"And?"
There was no grin on Harry's face now.
"There are some positives. They are making serious progress towards a safe cure, which is excellent news. But as to their first theory, they've concluded it can't be a coincidence. It just can't be. The similarities are too great and too numerous. The development of this Narcoviral curse, and indeed its so-called 'cure', didn't run in parallel to worldwide advances in magical genetic study. It used the St Mungo's break through, if not as a starting point, then at least to enhance it and give the curse the effect The Crow was aiming for."
"But that means..." Remus was staring at Harry in horror. "That means someone from St Mungo's was involved?"
Harry finally sat down properly and ran a despairing hand through his black hair. "I don't want to believe that," he said. "But right now I don't see any other explanation. Hestia's convinced that Jessye is right, and it makes sense. Look at what happened with Tonks. How would The Crow know who to target, if he didn't have the information on which Aurors had tested positive for the curse?"
"So you think they're still there?" Remus said. "You think a member of the St Mungo's team is a spy for The Crow?"
Harry spread his hands despondently.
"The evidence is solid, but it will be hard, if not impossible, to work out who it is. They are all working flat out. Have been for months now. We can't go in there and start asking difficult questions that may raise suspicions and turn people against each other. It would destroy what little staff morale remains. Kingsley's going to tighten security measures even further within the hospital. I don't know the details, obviously, but even then it's not guaranteed to get us anywhere. Our best chance is to catch The Crow himself."
"Do you have any news on him? You said you thought he used this magical dampening spell for blackmail. Have you had another message from him?"
At this, Harry did look a little more animated.
"I didn't want to speak about this in the hospital," he said. "Not given what I just told you. But The Crow's strike didn't go perfectly for him either this time. His initial intention may have been to send a threatening message, but Tonks played him at his own game. He won't want to draw attention to himself after that."
Hope and Remus merely waited for Harry to explain.
"As I told you, they retreated rather than fighting, and it was the right thing to do. Who knows what this man is capable of, and Dan was not suitable back up in a situation like that. But Tonks wasn't going to miss an opportunity to try and do something. So she fired a metal chip into his neck, ordered Dan to "let the tracker do its job", and dragged him out of there."
"You have him tracked?" Hope cut in eagerly.
"No," Harry said, smiling slightly at her enthusiasm. "The chip is a completely useless object. Reliable tracking spells are incredibly complex and not something Tonks could have produced with five second's notice. But he doesn't know that we weren't planning this all along, that we haven't found a way to monitor his every move. Those who experiment with the furthest boundaries of magic are always acutely aware that there is nothing to stop others doing the same. Tonks wanted to make him worry, and she seems to have succeeded."
Harry shook his head and looked admiringly at Remus. "Quite ingenious, your wife. Quickest thinker I've ever known."
Hope felt a rush of pride, and her father laughed hollowly.
"You don't need to tell me that, believe me! So you reckon that will stop The Crow doing anything for the moment?"
"I'm hoping so," Harry said. "Not indefinitely. He'll realise eventually, I'm sure, that we don't have tabs on him, possibly very soon. But time is precious right now and Tonks may have bought us some."
"It's not over though."
"It's not over," Harry agreed. "You can be sure of that."
oOo
November
Hope wasn't sure how she made it through the month that followed. Her mother remained in hospital and was confirmed to be improving, her MDI back on the rise, and Hope soon returned to school. Nothing felt right. The days merged into a meaningless expanse of time. Lessons passed in a haze of failing to grasp any new concepts at all. Dom and Roxanne were as supportive as they could be, but they had an ever increasing mountain of work to get through and Hope was seeing less of them than before. The girls in her dormitory ignored her as always. There was something sympathetic about their demeanour, even Elodie's - Hope had a suspicion that Flitwick had spoken to them during her absence - but that didn't mean they were friendly. Why should they be? Hope had never quite managed amicable, in the end.
One positive was that Adam did seem to be finding excuses to come and talk to her, and Hope was starting to wonder if Roxanne was right about him liking her. Her own feelings for him had not gone away, but they had been deadened, eclipsed by the terrible events of St Mungo's, the ever present worry about her mother's health, Teddy's job security, the curse in general. And then there was the added dread of the full moon, the second full moon of the month, which would fall directly on Halloween.
The first of November dawned and Hope was out of bed at the crack of dawn. It was a clear day, the sun bright in the sky, perfect for their quidditch practice later, but Hope could not think about that at all. She was one of the first down to breakfast and looked up every time an owl soared through the Great Hall, disappointed but unsurprised when none of them were addressed to her. It was only seven in the morning.
"Come on Hope, we'll be late," Dom said, appearing next to her with her broom under her arm half an hour later. Hope had managed three mouthfuls of cereal. "You alright?" she added, noticing her expression. "You haven't eaten much."
"I'm fine." Dom had enough on her plate at the moment without Hope piling on her worries as well.
Quidditch practice went by in a blur of going through the motions, and Hope hurried back to her dormitory as soon as she could. Missed breakfast post was normally brought up to the dormitories by the house elves.
There was nothing on her pillow or on her nightstand. Hope, starting to feel panicked, traipsed up to the owlery to check the dropped mail pigeon holes.
Nothing for her there either.
She rifled through them again, checking every single one, but there were only a handful of letters and definitely nothing for her.
There had to be. Teddy always wrote to her after the full moon. First thing. Without fail. Surely he never would have forgotten to write on this one.
Dread began to pool in the pit of her stomach. This full moon had always had the potential for nasty consequences. Hope could still remember asking Teddy, many years ago, why Dad felt so ill after Halloween transformations. Mid winter, she had understood even then. More darkness meant longer nights, which in turn meant more moonlight. Halloween, the worst one of all, had confused her, and Teddy's reply, while severely simplified for her seven-year-old self, had hit her hard. The full story, told to her when she was twelve, had been more haunting still. How Halloween night many years ago had been the date of Voldemort's first fall, how Harry's parents had been killed, Sirius imprisoned, their other friend Peter lost forever to the dark side. How their father had spent month after month in exile and isolation during the years that followed. How that night had left a scar deeper and blacker than any bite could have done. And how every year on that day, the wolf was there to remind him of the tragedies of the past.
Hope knew that only one full moon since that night had fallen directly on Halloween. She also knew it had been bad. Bad enough that no one would tell her the details. That had happened before the invention of Wolfsbane, but who was to say this one wouldn't be even worse, now that Dad was many years older?
You'd have heard by now if something had gone wrong.
I should have heard anyway.
No news came from Teddy at all that day, and it was another sleepless night and early rise. Even so, Dom and Roxanne were already in the library doing some last minute homework when she got down to breakfast, and Hope, sitting alone, chewed a piece of toast without tasting it, wondering if she should write to Teddy to check. Maybe he had owled but it had gone astray. Maybe he had written the letter but had then been caught up in some work and forgotten to send it at all. Maybe -
"Hey Hope." Natalie tapped her on the shoulder and Hope was jolted out of her thoughts. "This came when you were at quidditch practice yesterday. I forgot to give it to you, sorry!"
She held out an envelope with Hope Lupin written on the front. Hope recognised Teddy's small, rounded writing at once, and reached out a hand, heart thudding deep in her throat.
"You've had this the whole time?" Her voice was strained.
"Yes." Natalie faltered at the expression on Hope's face. "Was it important? I genuinely forgot, Hope. Honest. It was delivered to the common room after normal post hours and I put it in my bag to give to you. But I didn't see you all day and I only remembered just now."
There was not a trace of mockery in Natalie's face. Elodie was next to her, but wasn't even watching, unconcerned and clearly impatient to be on her way, and Hope understood that this was a simple mistake. There was no trick or malice involved. Natalie had taken receipt of a letter and forgotten about it.
It could have been anyone.
But she felt so angry. All that dread and panic. The sleepless night. Wondering and worrying if something had happened, if she was to be met in the morning with more bad news. And the answer had been in the dormitory the whole time.
If you bothered to talk to them at all, you would have asked if any post had come for you. It's your fault as much as hers.
She knew her face had frozen, probably in an unpleasant expression.
"I wasn't keeping it from you on purpose, you know!" There was a bite of impatience to Natalie's voice now. "If it was that urgent you could have asked around."
Precisely my point.
"Yeah," she managed, snatching the letter. "I know. It's fine."
"Freak," she heard Elodie mutter to Natalie as she stumbled away. "Don't know why you bothered at all. I'd have burned the damn thing."
Hope found a secluded corner of a deserted corridor and slumped down against the wall to read the letter. It was quite short.
Hey Dopey,
Sorry this letter's a bit later in the day. Dad's OK though. Worse than usual, I'll be honest with you, and we had a bit of a scare this morning, but he is recovering now. This was always going to be a bad one, given the date. Mum and I will stay with him all day. I'll let you know if anything changes, but otherwise assume all is fine.
Mum's doing much better too. Still on the up since being discharged last week. Harry's insisted on signing her off work until Christmas though, so she's bouncing off the walls.
I'm sorry to put this in a letter but I know you'd want to know and it's not like we can meet up in Hogsmeade at the moment... I'm going to be off work for a bit. Won't go into details here but you can probably guess why. Don't worry about it for the moment. Might come to nothing. I just didn't want you hearing about it from anyone else.
Enjoy the rest of term and we'll be looking forward to having you back at Christmas. Also, some good news to be announced in a couple of weeks!
Love Teddy
Her heart thudded as she read the words again.
Dad's OK... That, at least, was a relief, a huge weight already lifted from her shoulders.
...bit of a scare this morning... That could mean anything. Hope tried to dull her imagination. Teddy said he was recovering now, which meant that maybe it was best she didn't know the details.
...might have to be off work for a bit... That was bad news. Did St Mungo's know what he had done with the cure? They must do. Her father had said that they would almost certainly realise in the end.
...good news to be announced... A real cure? Harry had said that Hestia and Jessye were making significant progress.
Hope wondered if Elodie and Natalie had read this. For all Natalie's genuinely guilty look, she wouldn't put it past them. Even if they had, she supposed it didn't give much away. You would need to know exactly what Teddy was talking about to gage any meaning from it. Then her eyes flicked up to the top of the letter, bringing her further reassurance.
Dopey.
Recent civility or not, Elodie would never have passed up an opportunity to mock her for that particular nickname.
O
Just a week later, the news that Teddy had hinted at was announced by Vector.
"A cure has been found," she said, addressing the school at large after dinner one evening.
It took several minutes before she was able to make herself heard over the storm of cheers and excited chatter.
"A cure has been found," she repeated. "Two cures, in fact. One from our own researchers in St Mungo's and one from a wizarding laboratory in The States. They have both been extensively tested and confirmed as safe for muggles and wizards alike, however -" she had to raise her voice even further over increased hubbub. "That does not mean that we can drop our guard immediately. The cures are being replicated in safe environments, and Hogwarts will receive a dose for each of you very soon. We are not sure which cure it will be, but they are equally effective. As to the roll out of vaccines in the muggle world, this will be significantly slower, for obvious reasons. Please continue to be sensible, and remember this curse is not beaten until the whole world is free of it."
"What's up, Hope?" Dom asked, when they had been dismissed. "It's good news. Even if the muggle world has a long way to go, it's still a positive, and a massive step forwards."
Hope didn't want to share her worries about Teddy. Not yet. No one else in the family knew what had happened in that room at St Mungo's and Hope intended for it to stay that way.
"I know it is! I'm just tired," she said lamely.
"Well, maybe this will cheer you up," Roxanne said. "Hogsmeade will reopen once we've all been given the cure, and they'll be keen to get business up and running again as soon as possible, which means Underworld party will be back on!"
"Fantastic," Hope said dismally. "I'm too young to go, remember?"
"Is that the right attitude?" Roxanne demanded. "I'm already working on a way round that."
oOo
December
"Come on, it'll be great."
"Rox, don't make her if she doesn't want to."
"But she does want to, don't you?"
Hope did want to, very much. The Christmas party at Underworld Lounge in Hogsmeade was legendary, an end of year celebration that had taken place every year since the club had opened in the early 2000s. Hogwarts students who were of age were allowed to attend, as long as they signed in and out of school and were back by the 2am curfew. Dom and Roxanne, with February birthdays, had both missed out narrowly in their sixth year. Hope was far too young, both for this year and next. She would be allowed to go in her final year.
When you have no friends to go with.
It would be so much fun, a way to let off steam after a difficult year, celebrate the good news that a verified cure was now blazing through the wizarding world and starting to make progress in the muggle world too, and generally have a great time with her friends.
There was, of course, one problem. It was strictly forbidden to go if you weren't of age.
"It's too risky," she insisted. "So many people will be there who could turn me in."
"Hmm, if only you could change your appearance at will so that no one recognised you," Roxanne said sarcastically.
"It's not just that. I'd be hanging around with you two. People are going to wonder who the hell your new friend is, aren't they? Someone's bound to put two and two together."
Roxanne shrugged. "It's not only students who go, remember. You could be my pen pal. Or you could be Dom's Veela cousin who wants to experience the British student lifestyle. They've opened the floo borders with France now, so there won't even be anything suspicious about that."
Hope was starting to feel convinced.
"But don't they have other checks to make sure you're of age?"
"In theory, but they aren't strict about it. They want as much business as possible so they aren't going to care if you're underage as long as you're not a Hogwarts student. They can't afford to get on the wrong side of the staff here in case old Vector bans us all from going, but they'll let anyone else in. Morella used aging potion last year and the bouncer at the door didn't even question her. It was the stamp thing that caught her out. She didn't know about that, but now we do, and you must be the only person who can get round it!"
Hope studied the backs of her hands. She had been experimenting for the last half an hour with forcing inked tattoos onto her skin. It was as easy as changing her hair colour.
"And you're sure the stamp works like that? Fades if you're an underage Hogwarts student but stays in place for everyone else?"
"Yes! Well... ninety nine percent sure..."
"Rox!"
"Look, if not, what's the worst that can happen? You'll just be sent back to school. Morella only got a detention for it. You'd probably get a bit more of a telling off, because Morella was nearly of age. But if you do get in it will be so worth it."
"And Morella got out of school no problem without being caught?"
"Yep. With her invisibility cloak. That one you borrowed last year. Stuck really close to the guys she was with and made sure not to tread on anyone."
"We know someone else with an invisibility cloak," Dom said. She also appeared to be coming round to the idea the more they talked about it. "A much better quality one than Morella's. Someone who probably won't mind you using it, as he'll be able to go to the party himself."
Hope was so, so tempted. But it was stupid and reckless and she had promised her parents over the summer that she would be sensible.
You promised them you wouldn't take a random cure for the Narcoviral Curse. You never promised you wouldn't sneak out to a party.
"Adam will be going," Roxanne said slyly. "His birthday was a few weeks ago."
"I hardly want Adam to fall for a random Weasley cousin instead of me, do I?"
"Yeah, but he'll still be there. Having fun. Drinking. Dancing."
Hope tried not to imagine dancing all night with Adam in a club, but it was difficult.
"Elodie will notice I'm not in my dormitory for sure." Deep down, Hope knew if it had come to that lame an excuse, she was nearly out of them altogether.
"Oh come on!" Dom exclaimed, looking most disappointed in her. "We can find a way round Elodie Carmichael!"
"Please Hope," Roxanne begged. "Even if you were able to go next year we won't be in the country to come and have fun with you. We'll be travelling, and your seventh year is ages away. We'll be old and boring by then."
"I don't think you are ever going to be boring."
Hope was grinning.
"Is that a yes?"
"Of course it's a yes."
O
"Can I borrow your invisibility cloak next week?"
James's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"What for?"
Hope had decided to let him in on the plan, instead of making up a cover story. James had a big mouth. The last thing she needed was him going on about Roxanne's previously unmentioned pen pal or Dom's mystery cousin over Christmas. But he was trustworthy when it mattered, and he loved a bit of mischief.
She told him. When she had finished, his eyes were gleaming.
"Your dad would be proud."
"My dad," she said firmly, "would be as far from proud as it is possible to be. You are not to tell him, or Mum or Teddy or anyone. Swear to me."
"Of course I swear," James snorted. "Solemnly swear."
O
A week later, Hope was glad she'd come, there was no doubt about that. The music was amazing, the club buzzing with life, and she felt more animated than she had in months. It had been so unbelievably easy. With the help of some Weasley products and her own morphing ability, she had faked an odd, clammy sickness late afternoon, well within view of Elodie, and allowed Dom to escort her out of the common room under the pretence of going to the hospital wing.
They had lain low for a couple of hours before sneaking off to the prefects' bathroom to get ready, Roxanne having enough weight within the student body to commandeer it and refuse entry to anyone else. Hope had decided against the veela look on the basis that too much attention was not sensible, and had opted instead for medium height, average build, shoulder length brown hair and hazel eyes, with as unremarkable a face as she could manage.
"You look exceptionally ordinary," Roxanne declared, grinning. "And it's perfect."
Getting out of the castle under the cloak packed tightly between Dom and Roxane had not been a problem. Once down in Hogsmeade, Hope had slipped out of sight, removed it and stowed it in her bag, before greeting Roxanne loudly and cheerfully outside the club, under the guise of Sophie Wood, an old family friend who now lived in France but who would be staying with the Weasleys for Christmas.
Getting past the door bouncer had been easy - she had taken aging potion to be sure, but she doubted it would have made a difference - and then it had been a case of duping the stamp test. Dom went first, held out her hand, and Hope watched closely, holding the image of the stamp firmly in her mind as her turn came. She felt the ink touch her skin and forced the mental image to appear, replacing like for like the pattern that she knew would otherwise have faded from view. The bouncer looked at it closely for several long moments, and for a second Hope was convinced she had been found out, but then he grunted and moved on to Roxanne.
"See," Roxanne hissed, as she was admitted too. "Simple!"
They had been here for two hours already, and time was flying.
"Let's get another drink," Roxanne said, as they paused in their dancing. She signalled Hope and Dom over to the bar. Seeing that James and Adam were there too, Hope's heartrate accelerated.
"Hey Sophie," James said, shifting up to make room for them. "It's been ages since I last saw you. How've you been? How are things in Paris?"
Hope smiled. James might be arrogant at times but his solidarity meant a lot when it came.
"Not bad," she said. "Not quite as fast with the cure rollout as you guys, but we're allowed to travel if we've had it, so that's why I could come over. Roxanne told me all about the party so I thought I'd come and check it out."
"Definitely! It's the best one around." James indicated his friend. "This is Adam by the way."
It felt very odd to be introduced to someone who had been occupying her thoughts for over a year now, and Hope's stomach gave the usual pleasurable jolt as she shook his outstretched hand.
The five of them made idle small talk as they waited for their drinks. James then became very interested in talking to a pretty, dark-haired Hufflepuff seventh year, and Roxanne, winking at Hope, pulled Dom off to the bathroom. Feeling a rush of confidence, Hope turned to Adam.
"Do you want to dance?" Then, as he looked hesitant, added hurriedly, "Just - just for fun, you know. I have a boyfriend and everything." She certainly didn't want Adam to get any ideas about 'Sophie's' intentions – that would make the situation overly complicated.
Adam agreed, looking more relaxed, and they headed over to the dance floor. He seemed to know a lot more of the songs than Hope did, but Hope tried to sing along anyway, thankful that the music was very much 'dance around like an idiot' and not slow and romantic, à la Celestina Warbeck that Granny Molly was so fond of.
"Ooh you're having fun, I see!" Roxanne's dark eyes sparkled as she came towards them half an hour later. She seemed to have drank quite a lot in the time she and Dom had been absent. Her words were slurring slightly and Dom gripped her arm tightly as she stumbled.
"She's got a boyfriend," Adam blurted out. Dom raised her eyebrows and Roxanne looked a little confused. "Yeah," she sniggered. "Yeah I know. Soph, you coming for another drink?"
"Um. Yeah. Sure. In a minute."
"Sorry," Adam said, hanging back and looking very uncomfortable as they made to follow Dom and Roxanne over to the bar. "Sorry. That was really embarrassing. I - err. It's just, I kind of like someone, and she hangs out with those two all the time. Might be another cousin actually." He screwed up his face for a moment. "No," he said. "Not related. But you know - good friends, and, err..."
An enormous bubble of joy was swelling inside Hope's chest. That was definitely her. She kept her face politely inquisitive. "So you didn't want them getting the wrong idea and telling her you were here with someone else?"
"Yeah." Adam seemed heartily relieved that she had cottoned on so quickly. "Yeah. Kind of. Don't tell them though," he added, clearly horrified at what he had done. "They might tell her."
Hope couldn't resist this opportunity.
"But if you don't tell her and they don't tell her... how is she ever going to know that you like her?"
Adam screwed up his forehead. He didn't seemed to have thought of this. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, Hope did not say anything more on the subject, but she floated round on a cloud for the rest of the evening, dancing with anyone who came near her and singing gibberish at the top of her voice, two in the morning coming much too soon.
Back at school, Hope relayed her conversation with Adam to Dom in whispers, as they climbed back up to Ravenclaw tower, deliberately lagging behind and letting the others from their house go ahead. They had already planned that Hope would sleep on one of the common room sofas under the cloak until early morning, then return to the dormitory sporting a still ill but recovering pallor.
Hope cast a quick glance around as they came through the doorway to the common room. It was deserted.
She pulled off the cloak, still laughing, let her morph fall away and turned back to Dom. "And it was so funny because-"
She stopped short at the look on Dom's face. Dom was staring over towards the other side of the room, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Hope, already fearing the worst, turned around. Professor Flitwick, unnoticed on her initial scan due to his tiny stature, was standing by the wall observing the two of them, his arms folded and his expression stern.
Crap.
O
Flitwick was surprisingly nice in the end, if a little resigned. "You are hardly the first underage student to try sneaking out to the Underworld Christmas party, Miss Lupin," he said, regarding her from behind his desk the following morning. "To my knowledge, you are the first person to get away with it, presumably because you are a metamorphmagus. I have to confess I never foresaw that as an issue."
Because Teddy would never have done something like this. Hope finished the sentence for him in her head, but was grateful that he didn't say anything of the sort, merely rested his chin on his fingertips and surveyed her gravely.
"These rules are in place for your own safety and what you did last night was reckless, especially in the current climate."
Hope nodded dutifully.
"You will do a week's detention in the new year."
She had been expecting far worse.
"And... I will be writing to your parents today."
Hope's head jerked up. "Professor," she protested feebly. "Professor, please. Please don't tell them!"
"Hope, you cannot seriously think I have any choice in the matter," the little man sighed. "While you are at this school, the staff are responsible for your safety and welfare. You are not of age, not even nearly of age, and you were out of the castle all evening and for most of the night without permission. It is therefore my legal and moral obligation to inform your parents."
O
"How did he find out?"
"How do you think?"
The smug smile on Elodie's face that morning had been the confirmation.
"Bitch."
"I'm an idiot for thinking it would be that simple," Hope groaned. "Like she was ever going to buy that I was spending a night in the hospital wing on the evening of the Christmas party. I bet she went down to visit me, acting all concerned, before bed, and when she had confirmed I definitely wasn't there left it as late as possible to tell Flitwick, to get me into maximum trouble. Bet Natalie was in on it too."
"Double bitch."
Hope stroked Oompa with her index finger and Oompa nibbled her fingernail.
"Are your mum and dad going to be cross?" Dom asked nervously.
Hope couldn't even answer that question. They were going to be furious. Angry that she was adding to their worries on top of everything else they currently had to deal with. The worst part was that she had been looking forward to Christmas, unfortunate circumstances aside, with both Teddy and her mother guaranteed to be at home for the full holiday and her father suffering no lasting effects from his most painful full moon in years. It would have been a nice family Christmas and she'd had to go and ruin it.
Roxanne wound a strand of blank hair round her finger, looking troubled.
"Hope, I'm sorry I made you come."
"You didn't make me," Hope assured her at once. "I wanted to come. You know I did. It was my choice and it was totally worth it."
Was it worth it?
She supposed that would depend on her parents' reactions.
O
"…of all the stupid, ridiculous things to do."
"I was just having a bit of fun."
"You were out of the castle, in a night club, until two in the morning, when you're barely fifteen!"
"With a load of other students. It's not like I did anything bad. I didn't even drink."
"Oh come on, Hope. Is that really true?" She flushed under her father's piercing stare as he spoke for the first time. Bending the rules was one thing. Lying to her parents was another.
"Didn't drink much," she amended. This, at least, was true. She had been having too much fun finding out that Adam liked her to bother with going up to the bar.
Her mother glared at her for a long moment, and then shrugged.
"What's done is done, but as you have had a fair amount of celebration already, you can stay behind when we go to the New Year party at George and Angelina's next week."
"What?" Hope felt a wave of dismay and fury. "NO! Mum!"
She had been looking forward to this one so much, after the depressing event of last year's - indeed, the events of the last year in general. The whole family would be going, even Teddy and Victoire, and everyone was keen to meet Fred's now not so secret girlfriend Alison, who was staying with him over Christmas. And it would have been her last one with Roxanne and Dom before they went off travelling.
Then who will you hang out with?
"That's so unfair!" she raged. Her mother raised her eyebrows.
"How is it unfair? Punishment is an automatic consequence of breaking the rules. That's a standard agreement and you know that fine well. So please tell me how this is unfair?"
"Well, for one thing, everyone knows Dad and his friends spent plenty of nights running around Hogsmeade during their last three years at Hogwarts."
The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. They hung in the air, and her parents exchanged an uncomfortable look.
"It's not the same," her mother said at last, after a stiff silence.
"Exactly!" Hope was well aware that she was on perilously thin ice, but fury at herself for ruining what should have been a lovely time with her family over Christmas and an equally lovely time with her friends over the holidays was loosening her tongue. "It's at least a hundred times more stupid than what I did. I just wanted to have a bit of fun with my friends while they're still at school with me, and I have to be punished for that? Dad broke the rules every single month, he actually put people in danger and he got away with everything."
Remus flinched as though Hope had physically hit him.
"Get upstairs," Tonks snarled, snapping completely. "Get upstairs and don't come down until your prepared to speak to us in a civil manner."
Shaking, Hope left the kitchen, not daring to look directly at either of them.
O
She waited until her mother had gone off on her evening run, knowing that by the time she had pounded out ten miles along the beach, all her anger would be burnt out and they would be able to have a normal conversation.
The situation with her father was far more complicated. Hope was now feeling sick every time she thought of what she had said. However willing he was to talk about other aspects of the Marauders' time at Hogwarts - James was especially fond of requesting stories from his school days - this was the one topic that was always skirted around. The Animagus transformations, the full moon escapades, the first steps that would eventually lead down the murky road to tragedy. Tragedies. Plural. Weren't those tragedies precisely why her father suffered so much every Halloween full moon, the very reason she had been so worried about him back in November? After everything that had happened since the summer, Hope knew that, regardless of her own inner turmoil, throwing such a delicate subject in her parents' faces had been an inexcusably low blow.
She crept downstairs ten minutes after her mother had left. Her father was seated at the kitchen table, reading a paper. Hope remembered doing this all those years ago after her night in the cellar, feeling just as nervous, equally afraid of seeing the suppressed anger and disappointment in his eyes. Except back then, it hadn't really been her fault, she hadn't understood what she had done wrong and he hadn't truly been angry with her. This was her fault, she definitely knew what she had done, and she was pretty sure he was furious with her, under his usual mask of collectedness.
He looked up as she entered the room. His smile didn't reach his eyes, but his tone was as serene as ever.
"Your mum and I have had a chat. You'll be grounded for the entirety of the holidays, but if you stick to it, you can still come with us for New Year."
Hope felt this was more than she deserved.
"OK," she said in a minute voice. "Thank you."
She couldn't bear that smile. It was so different to his normal one, so forced, so lacking in warmth.
So apologise. Be nice for once in your life. Say sorry.
"Dad, I'm- I'm sorry. For what I said."
He had evidently not been expecting this, and she couldn't blame him for the surprised double take. She could probably count on one hand the number of times she had apologised in front of her parents over the last few years. But she knew that saying it now had made a difference. His face had softened noticeably.
"It's alright," he sighed, after a moment's silence, folding up the newspaper in his hands. "You were absolutely right about putting others in danger. We did. I did. Repeatedly. Nothing excuses it. I'm ashamed of it and I always will be. As for the 'getting away with everything', as you put it-" He focused on creasing the last fold between finger and thumb before looking up at her again, and after his previously controlled air of calm resolve, Hope could not have been less prepared for the sudden bitterness in his face, the haunted flicker in his eyes, the rawness of his voice. "I can assure you, Hope, that I was punished in kind. I paid the highest price of all. In the end."
He got to his feet and left the room. Hope stared after him mutely, a sickening swell of guilt and misery rising like bile in her throat.
Not worth it at all.
OOO