While You Slept

Lady Countryrose

Ch. 11

The day of the interview had come. With that, the stress of meeting with Barnabas Cuffe and Minerva McGonagall that afternoon for tea. Dorea had gone to each of the children's rooms, and set out their clothes that she wanted them to wear. She even went and grabbed a set for Macbeth to dress into later.

Dorea had decided to have everyone in either a dark shade of red or brown. Having them nearly matched. She told the children to stay inside that day. So they were in the library until noon, where they would have lunch. Then they would start getting ready for the interview.

Charlus was in his study, when Dorea found her. He glanced up and gave her a smile. "Am I going to be giving marching orders too?"

Dorea smiled at him. "You are the centerpiece, my love. We are introducing the children to the world. And I can't do that without you."

There is one thing about the Wizarding World she hated above all. It was that a woman's worth is nothing more than that of their husband. It was one of the reasons, no one listened to her, while Charlus Potter was asleep. She really hated not having a voice. Now she had Charlus back, and she was going to talk once more.

After lunch, everyone went to their own rooms to shower. For Macbeth, he went to the room that he had used before he had moved to the cottage. Once Charlus was clean, Dorea had dressed him in his burgundy dress robes. While she dressed herself in deep blood looking red, making her look ravishing. With some makeup upon her face.

She then went to the sitting room, where she made sure everything was in order. There were some fresh-cut flowers and a tea survey, ready to be used. Along with tea options for everyone. As well as an assortment of goodies and finger foods. Dorea just hoped that everything was in order.

She had gone as far as made sure the wards wouldn't allow Rita Skeeter onto the grounds. It wasn't an easy feat, but she had managed. At three forty, Hermione came into the room. In her lovely looking burgundy suit and cream dress shirt. With a hint of makeup on her face.

"Hermione, you look very lovely. Where are the boys?"

Hermione giggled, "They are attacking their clothes with some house elves."

Dorea could only imagine, James had done the same thing. Back when, they had hosted a lot of yule balls at the manor. She was about to call for an elf when she heard the doorbell. Singling that Barnabas Cuffe and Minerva McGonagall had arrived.

Dorea turned to Hermione with a warm smile. "Could you go to the kitchen and ask the elves for tea and baskets, please."

Hermione gave a smile before she rushed out of the room. Just a few moments before, Barnabas Cuffe and Minerva McGonagall had walked into the sitting room. Dorea had smiled at her guests with a bright smile. She had greeted each of them with a kiss on each of their cheeks and asked them to sit.

"Lady Potter," Barnabas Cuffe started with a harsh look in his eyes. "What is so important for you to call me here to your home? Don't tell me that you're planning to have a surprised gala of some kind?"

Dorea smiled, feeling her cheeks redden from that occupation that he had made. "No, Mr. Cuffe, I am not planning a gala. But I should think of the Yule Ball this year, at the every least. But that is not why I had asked you here today." She turned and called out towards the hallway that was near her. "Charlus, dear, can you please come in and meet a couple of people!"

"Charlus," gasped Minerva in disbelief. "I haven't heard anything about him being awake. Let alone, out of the hospital!"

Within moments, a shadow moved in the hallway, before a figure came into the room. Causing a gasp to sound from the two guest. "Lord Potter," she heard Barnabas Cuffe stutter. "It is good to see that you're out and about."

The newspaper man then turned towards her with a pale look on his face. "Is this the surprise that you wanted me to write about," he asked her. Looking very much like a man that looked lost.

"Not just that, Mr. Cuffe. I have reasons to believe that society had believed us to be dead. I like to fix that, by showing the proof of life, as you will. Plus, with an added bonus for our growing family," she smiled with coy. Like she was taught by the Black family of women.

"Growing family," asked Minerva with a hint of worry in her voice. "From what I remember, Dorea, you don't have added children."

Dorea smiled, "I may not have children to proclaim of my own. But I do have children." She then turned towards the hallway again. "Children! You can come in now!"

Just as the children walked in, a house elf popped in with tea and biscuits, then popped out. Just as the children sat around on another couch. "I would like you to meet, Harry Potter." Her grandson stood up and gave a slight bow. Before he sat back down.

"His cousin, Macbeth Evans." He stood up and bow, and then sat down again.

"And Hermione Potter," Dorea spoke with a heartwarming smile. Causing the two guests to blink at her in surprise. Hermione just sat and bowed her head.

"James didn't have a daughter, did he," asked Minerva.

Dorea smiled, "Adopted daughter, but still part of the Potter family, nonetheless."

Barnabas Cuffe had brought out his paper and started writing like a man on a mission. Dorea knew that she had something newsworthy for the man in question. After her talk with Remus, she knew that she had to bring her family back out into the world again. She was done hiding and living in the life of ghosts. Yes, her son was still asleep, but she will make a better life for those that were a part of her new growing family.

'I am not just a Potter, a Black, but also a Ravenclaw. I will use my wit and let everyone know. I am still here.'

Barnabas Cuffe asked Hermione, "Why were you given adoption into the Potter Family, if you don't mind me asking?"

She turned to Dorea with a hint of fear in her eyes. Before, she had taken a deep breath. "It's no fault of my parents or I. But we all agreed that I needed a magical family to help me grow. Not just a witch, but also into the new society that I find myself in. I don't want to offend anyone, by saying something that I have no understanding, in the first place."

The newsman smiled kindly at her. "Can you give me an example of what you're talking about?"

Hermione blushed kindly. "I had thought House Elves were nothing more than slaves. But I soon realized that they are needed to serve a family. Otherwise, their magic harms them." Hermione wanted to give a long, educated debate about what was needed to be said. But Dorea had explained that shorter and to the point, was better when dealing with mostly dumb people of their society.

The man raised his eyebrow but wrote some notes down. He then turned towards Harry with a smile. "Harry, how do you feel about having a sister?"

Harry smiled brightly. "I love it, she is the kind of sister I am going to need in school. Someone not afraid to tell me that I need to get my homework done!"

Barnabas Cuffe chuckled, before turning towards the last child in the room. "Macbeth, are you ready to experience a magic school in a few years?"

Macbeth shrugged his shoulders, like Dorea had expected from him. "I don't know, but I do hope that they had good food."

Charlus smiled brightly, "That they do, Macbeth."

Mr. Cuffe then turned towards Charlus with some words that she knew that would be nice for the children to hear. She placed a strong soundproof spell around their couch. Allowing the children to talk among themselves. "Can you tell us, Mr. Potter, about your time on the night of October 31, 1981?"

Charlus sighed, he sat up with a ramrod back, but leaned forward and rest his cheek against a cane that he had been walking around with. "We were having dinner here, just the five of us. Dorea, me, Harry, James and Lily…"

He had taken a deep breath. "As soon as we were at the cottage, we soon that we weren't alone. The Dark Lord was there," his eyes became distant. "Lily rushed inside with Harry. Hoping that the wards on the cottage would prevent him from coming."

Charlus shook his head. "It didn't hold for long. He cut them done, like they were nothing but glass. I yell for James to go, but he stood next to me. All I remember from that moment, was a shield that was brought up by not just James, but myself. Only to have us being blown back, by a well-placed bombarda maxima."

He sighed, "I woke up, not that long ago. Only to find that Dorea didn't have Harry, all because no one wanted to listen to her. I was angry, and I fixed that, while I was laying in a hospital bed!"

It was then that Dorea had found a spark in Barnabas Cuffe's eyes. She knew him for many a year. He wrote things that matter for the Wizarding World. She saw the fire in his eyes when he heard that she had no power in the rights of fighting for her grandson. She would soon find that things were going to change, not just for her life, but all of the Wizarding World.

Dorea picked up her tea. Hiding a smile, while she looked into Minerva's eyes. Each of them knew, from that moment, the Ministry of Magic was going to have a whirl wind of change. Along with a cold chill running down her spine. They were not going to have a quiet life, after the newspaper published the article.

'It is what it is,' she told herself. It was time that the world knew that the Potters were alive and well. That they were going to stay around to see the changes that need to have happened. Before the children enter Hogwarts for their first year.

AN: I wrote this story like it would have been for the Wizarding World. Since they are stuck with Victorian like-minded society. Where women really didn't have rights, unless they were the parent of the child. Men were in charge and ruled the home. If you had read closely, I kind of pointed it out. It was what I understood the background information of the political matter of Harry Potter.

DO I BELIEVE THIS, HELL NO! But as a writer, I was challenged to write this, and I follow through with it. I am a female, who believes that women have the right of their own without a husband to tell them what to do. But in the eyes of lords and ladies, they really have no rights. Because lords were not just head of house, they were accountants, lawyers and everything that governs not just their home but the lands that they own, including the people that live there. History is what it is, I can't fight history. But the future is where it is and open to change.

As for Hermione, I wrote that her parents were the kind that feared magic. I know that they may not have, but they were not very open-minded about it either. She was found in the Weasley's home more often than not. Only to make me believe that they were getting worried about it or Hermione not liking that she needed to lie to them. So, I gave her a Wizard family that would be open to protect and love her.