DISCLAIMER: Everything belongs to J. K. Rowling except the Greens, the Crowes and selected locations. I think, anyway.
The Three Broomsticks was crowded as usual, and Harry sat at a small table next to Andromeda. As requested, she was wearing the vivid green hairband that her uncle had sent, and it looked nice on her shiny dark hair, Harry noticed. He squeezed her hand reassuringly, knowing she was nervous.
Andromeda was grateful that Harry was going with her. She trusted Callidus, and wanted to meet him, but it would still be an awkward and unsure first meeting and she was glad of the moral support. She leant against Harry and sipped her cherry juice.
After about five minutes, a tall, skinny, anxious-looking man entered the Three Broomsticks, shoulders hunched. He looked around self-consciously, not wanting to let his eyes linger on anyone he didn't know. This was a man who didn't want to draw attention to himself.
Andromeda, just in case it might be him, brushed her hair back conspicuously with her hand. The movement caught the man's eye. He took in the emerald-coloured hairband, smiled broadly and began to approach. Andromeda elbowed Harry and hissed, 'It's him!'
'Excuse me,' said the man quietly, 'but are you by any chance Andromeda Green?'
'That's me,' she said, grinning. 'Are you Callidus Green?'
'Yes, I am,' said Callidus. 'And this would be Harry Potter.'
'That's right,' said Andromeda and Harry at the same time. 'Pleased to meet you,' said Harry.
'Likewise,' smiled Callidus, then he sat down beside Andromeda. There was an awkward silence. 'Er… did you like the hairband?'
'It's lovely,' said Andromeda. 'Can I keep it, then?'
'Of course you can! Can you see me wearing it?'
Andromeda giggled, taking in her uncle's receding black hairline, speckled with grey. 'I really can't,' she admitted.
'Well, then.' More silence.
'We've just finished our OWLs,' offered Harry.
'Have you really? How did you do, both of you?'
'All right,' said Andromeda hesitantly.
'She did much better than me,' Harry groaned. 'The only one I did well in was Defence Against the Dark Arts.'
'Yes, it's fitting that that would be your best subject…'
'It's my best subject too,' said Andromeda into the silence that followed. 'Though I'm pretty hopeless at Divination.' This led to a much easier discussion about Professor Trelawney, who had been there when Callidus attended Hogwarts. This brought Andromeda to wonder about something else. 'You were at Hogwarts? Didn't you meet up with my father there?'
'I did,' said Callidus, 'but neither of us knew each other. When the Green family lost me I was five years old, and my memories of Emelus were of a tiny child, not a great tall boy like he was. And he was only three. He and Erasmus could hardly remember me. I went by the name Thomas Crowe when I was at Hogwarts, for that was what my adoptive parents named me, and it wasn't until some years after I left that I discovered my true identity.'
'It must have been a shock,' said Andromeda, aware that her words were insufficient.
'More than that, Andromeda, much more. My world was turned on its head, and I had to cling very tightly to prevent myself being flung away from it; it took years to understand that the vague memories I had were of another life entirely, and also that the family I lived with had been truly good to me but did not and could never share the bond a real family did. Or so I thought. Now I realise that the Greens could have found me, could have done more to retrieve me; but they did not.' For the first time, a hint of bitterness tarnished the low, confiding voice.
'But they thought you were dead – how could they know?'
'I mean nothing against your father, Andromeda,' said Callidus, 'because he was a child younger than me, and the Greens did not talk of me to him after my… disappearance. It was the elder Greens, your grandparents, that I still harbour some bitterness against, yet I mean no disrespect to your family. You must understand that I cannot quite comprehend my feelings myself. I haven't a reason for many of the things I think.'
Andromeda made a non-committal sound, or hoped she did.
'If you will accompany me on a walk, I will tell you what I know about the day I became cut off from the Greens.' Andromeda and Harry followed Callidus out of the Three Broomsticks and across the grass-edged paths away from the town. He recommenced his story.
'It was a summer's day, much like this one, when my parents decided to take us on a picnic in the countryside. Outings like these we indulged in many times, as I understand. The place we stopped in was a lovely area – a grassy hill leading down to a strong and silvery river. I have since returned to this spot and cannot deny its appeal. We would eat on a blanket beneath an oak tree which was young when we visited, but is now growing rapidly and will soon be a formidable height.
'From assumptions and information I have pieced together, we had finished our food and were playing by the river, my brothers and I. I cannot remember what happened first, but I was suddenly very cold – among swirling and rushing waters. They closed over my head and I heard screams and shouts. When I managed to surface I could no longer see my family. That I can remember. I was carried, half-drowning, a long way down the river, until I was seen by a woman fishing in the river. She dived in to rescue me. She waved a stick, or what I thought was a stick, like my mother had done sometimes, and the water around me stopped, allowing her to pull me out. I was drenched and terrified.
'What happened after that, I cannot recall much of, but my elder sister Rowan told me what she knew. I was brought into their house by her mother, who immediately sent out owls to all the neighbouring villages telling of my situation. No one came forward. My adoptive mother suspected a family of having lost a child, from things their two younger children mentioned, but the family were severely traumatised and refused to believe that I could still be alive. To this day I cannot understand this.'
They had reached the very edge of the town now, and before them brightly coloured fields stretched like a watercolour painting. They proceeded uphill alongside a fence. Distantly, cows could be seen dotted across the landscape, but closer by was a little wood. 'Shouldn't we head back?' said Andromeda doubtfully.
'Not yet,' said an unfamiliar voice, and from among the trees stepped a tall, tanned, black-haired woman. 'My name is Rowan Crowe,' said the woman, 'and I have things you need to hear.'
Andromeda stepped back and Harry grabbed her. 'There's no need to fear me,' said Rowan, smiling. 'I simply ask that you listen to what I have to tell you.'
'Rowan is my adoptive sister,' said Callidus proudly, as though unaware that this meeting was odd. 'She found out I'd been writing to you. She wanted me to bring you to her.'
But Rowan was walking further into the woods and they followed her doubtfully. Harry was gripping his wand, though not sure why.
'Sit,' said Rowan abruptly, gesturing at tree stumps around her. They did so. Rowan herself was seated and her blue-black robes swept the leafy ground.
Rowan began to speak again. Callidus was still beaming inanely. 'I have long wanted to meet you,' said Rowan coolly. 'I've heard much about you from Callidus here. Callidus calls himself my brother, but his true family abandoned him, or close to it, when he was only five. You are the only Green who knows he is still alive.
'I loved him as my own brother and was deeply shocked when I discovered the truth about his parentage. I am younger than him and was only a baby when he was brought into our home. I adored him as he doted upon me. But he is weak, and could never bring himself to contact the family who left him to drown.
'Now, Andromeda, I will truly punish that family. Did you think you could venture into the forest with a man who was shunned by your own blood, and return unharmed? Andromeda Green…'
Before Harry or Andromeda could react, Rowan Crowe lifted her wand and cried, 'Avada Kedavra!' Andromeda was thrown ten feet across the leafy ground and landed in a heap too far away.