Disclaimer: All people and places belong to J. K. Rowling.

Life Had Just Begun

By Terra

Chapter Eleven: Mixed Blessings

The day had finally come. The owl had finally delivered that fateful letter, that long-awaited message that everyone who worked in the Muggle Affairs Department was looking forward to.

"James!" Lily shouted happily as she read the post, "Arthur and Molly had their kid!"

"When?" I asked, as I ate a piece of toast.

"Last night. 'Arthur and Molly Weasley announce the birth of their sixth child and son at eleven o'clock at night on the first day of March. Baby Weasley is yet to be named.' Isn't that wonderful?"

"Probably be in the Prophet in a couple of days, won't it?" Sirius asked, yawning.

"This is wonderful. I'm sure they're very happy with him. What do you think they'll name him?" Lily wondered aloud.

"How about Arthur?" I suggested.

"No, he told me he'd never name a child after himself or Molly. Maybe for a middle name but not a first name."

"Molly wouldn't know who to yell for," Sirius added, his mouth full.

"How about Henry?" Lily suggested. "We could name our baby Henry, James."

"No way. Hate that name," I replied.

"How about," Sirius answered with a hint of a smile, " 'This is the last one'?"

"Ha ha. Very funny," Lily responded sarcastically, hitting him a spoon.

"Well, think about it! Six kids! I don't think you two would want six kids, would you?"

"Well... maybe..."

"And be pregnant six times?"

"Five. They had twins."

"Oh... big difference," Sirius remarked while rolling his eyes.

"I'm leaving," I called out to avert disaster. "I'll congratulate him if I see him there, okay?"

*** ***

"Can't believe it, can you?"

"Unreal! Never thought he would..."

"Always the quiet ones."

"But he was such a bootlicker!"

"All a front! Who knows how long he was doing it?"

"What's Crouch gonna do? After all, we know he was..."

"Quesera trash is what he was! Knowing Crouch, he'll throw him in prison so fast, he won't even know he's there until nightfall!"

"Who's Quesera trash?" I interrupted the mad chatter in the work place. The bubbling rumble quieted down slowly as I took off my cloak.

"Well, didn't you...?" One of my co-workers, a man named William Gladys, began to ask but then corrected himself, "Obviously not since you're asking. Didn't you notice something odd about the Magical Law Enforcement Offices?"

"I don't really pay attention."

"You didn't notice someone missing?" I shook my head. "Nothing caught your attention?"

"Well, you guys talking certainly did. What happened? Who's missing? Did someone die?"

A woman named Doris Greenhill scoffed. "He might as well be! Percy Weatherby's gone, didn't you notice?" I shook my head. "Apparently, the Aurors caught a tip from one of their spies and raided a huge gamut of Death Eaters killing a whole block of Muggles. Percy Weatherby was with them, leading them."

"You're kidding! He works under Crouch in the Magical Law Enforcement, practically worships the guy!"

"I guess that's not quite true. As soon as they caught him, he admitted everything. Proudly. Real hard-core supporter of You-Know-Who."

"Percy Weatherby? He has to be under the Imperius Curse."

"It doesn't look like it. He's the real deal."

Another woman, Florence O'Reilly, added, "He doesn't even want a defense lawyer. I feel bad for his wife. My brother brought her to see him and Percy practically threw her out!"

"Isn't he married to that author? Virginia...?" Gladys asked.

"Virginia Lenore, yeah, that's her. I guess she had no clue this was going on. My brother says she was pretty shocked and horrified by her husband's behavior. It wasn't the nicest meeting he'd ever seen. But, get this, she brought bail for Percy, you know? But he wouldn't take it because 'he's loyal to his Master'. Anyway, before she saw him, some guy begged her to convince them to let him out because he was just a poor man with a wife and tiny kids. Well, she gave him bail, telling him to go home to his family!"

"Wow," another woman, Robin Rogers, gasped, "that's amazing. How did Percy get such a woman?"

A man, George Mill, asked suddenly, "Didn't Arthur Weasley in Muggle Artifacts have a baby last night?"

"Yeah," I answered, "he had a boy."

"I wonder if he knows?"

O'Reilly explained, "He probably does. Mrs. Weatherby was watching their kids while they were at St. Mungo's. An Auror had to stay behind to watch as she went to see Percy. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that an Auror is a bad sign if he's at your house."

"Man, could you imagine? 'Congrats, Mr. Weasley, you have a beautiful baby boy and psycho Death Eater cousin!' I bet he's having the time of his life," Ernie Booth joked sarcastically.

"What I want to know is how could Virginia not notice that her husband was going around killing and torturing people? I mean, she lived with him! How could someone be so dumb?"

Several more times, an unknowing co-worker would step in the office and ask what all the fuss was about and the whole conversation would start all over again. One by one, we drifted to our separate work stations and pondered how crafty Death Eaters could disguise themselves.

*** ***

A few days later, the Longbottom's son, Neville, was born. Since Olivia was very good friends with Lily, we got invited to Neville's birth celebration. Lily was terribly excited since they were old school friends and desperately needed to know what she was going to be in for.

Around this time, our baby finally decided to make its presence known to the world. To our delight, the baby had started to kick periodically and Lily could feel it shift and squirm inside her. We probably drove Sirius to the brink of madness in our excitement over this new development.

"Come here. It's kicking!"

"That's nice."

"Oh, it's doing it again! Over here! Feel."

"No, once is enough."

And then he would quickly find something to do in another room as we squealed with delight.

This was all well and good but Lily had to put aside her nicer clothes for some older, less-fashionable, looser clothes since the bulge made anything else uncomfortable. Lily knew that there was no point in buying most of the maternity stuff because she wasn't large enough to really need the special clothes. However, Lily noted to her dismay that all her clothes were...

"Ugly! These are all ugly! I can't wear these to their house!"

"I think they look alright," I said softly. "They understand you can't fit into anything else."

"I can't wear any of my nice clothes. They hurt too much!"

"Then wear the other things."

"But they're ugly."

"They're not ugly. Look," I called out to Sirius who happened to be passing by, "Sirius, tell us, are Lily's maternity clothes ugly?"

His face betrayed him and Lily started to cry. "He agrees with me! They're ugly."

"Well, they're not going to be on any runway soon," he quickly amended but that made her cry harder. "Can't you just modify your nice clothes?"

"What if I screw up?" Lily wailed.

"Then James can do it, can't he?"

"I can make her clothes bigger in general but her clothes fit everywhere but her stomach," I explained, nervously, rubbing Lily's shoulders, "I don't know how to do specialized Engorgement charms. And her stuff is so delicate, it might warp or something."

"Then call your mum, James," he suggested, leaning against the doorframe, "She must've done it at some point."

Finding no other choice, I contacted my mother on the fireplace. "Mother?"

"James! What's wrong? Is Lily alright?"

"No, everything's fine," I explained quickly before my mother panicked. "It's just... Lily needs some help with something. Can you come over for awhile?"

"Of course. I'll be right there." She Apparated outside the door and I let her in. "What's the matter?"

"It's Lily's clothes. All her nice things don't fit around her... you know..."

"I understand."

"I don't know how to do a specialized Engorgement charm and her clothes are so fancy and I don't want to ruin her clothes."

My mother laughed. "This is not a problem. Where is she? I'll teach you how." I led her upstairs to our bedroom where Lily sat on the bed, sniffling as Sirius offered outfits that weren't that bad in her "ugly" collection but she shook her head at every suggestion.

"Lily dear?" my mother called as she walked into the room.

"Hello, Mrs. Potter," Lily said brighter than before, wiping her eyes. "I don't know why I started crying like that."

"It's perfectly alright. Let's see those clothes you want to alter, Lily. James, come watch." I went in to learn how to change Lily's outfits as Lily went to take out all her clothes. My mother finally noticed Sirius standing by the door, probably to watch as well in case he was ever called on to do this for Lily. "Why, hello, Remus."

I couldn't help rolling my eyes. Exasperated, I corrected her, "Sirius, Mother. He's Sirius. Remus is not even in the country right now."

Sirius smiled weakly. "Hello, Mrs. Potter. How are you?"

"I'm very well. How are you?"

"Fine enough."

*** ***

Once that debacle was over and Lily had some nice clothes to wear, we felt confident enough to go to the Longbottom's celebration. It was a nightmare getting there, however. Their house was not known to Muggle taxi drivers and had a barrier that made Muggles feel that they had something very important to do elsewhere. We had to take a taxi only partway there and then ride a broomstick the rest of the way, feeling very silly all the while.

But we managed without too much embarrassment. When we arrived, Olivia greeted us happily with open arms. The minute we stepped in the door, she began a long string of chatter that only a woman could produce. How Lily could follow and keep up was beyond me.

"How are you two? You look great, Lily! How far along are you? I bet you're excited. I was sure excited when I found out. That's a great outfit! Did you have to do an Engorgement charm or did it come that way? I'm not saying that to be mean or anything but I know how none of my clothes would fit without a charm..." I have no idea how that woman could still breathe and Lily seemed to able to talk just as fast, answering Olivia's questions as fast as she could ask them.

Olivia led us into the sitting room where the other guests were gathered, chattering happily with one another. The centerpiece was a bassinet on the table, containing a bundle of blue blankets.

"There he is!" Olivia announced proudly, "Our little Neville. He's a big one, ain't he? Eight pounds! He took forever to come out. He came a week late, you know."

"Oh, he's precious, Olivia," Lily breathed, "Was the birth hard?"

"He took forever. Well, first, I had a false alarm. I had contractions for awhile but after an hour, nothing. So, they sent me home. As soon as we got home, my water broke! So, we had to go all the way back to St. Mungo's and then he took the longest time! Of course, there was that little hiccup but..."

"What little hiccup?" I asked, sitting down on the couch.

"It's taken care of," Frank Longbottom answered, stepping into the room with Alastor Moody as his heels. "He won't be doing that again."

"What happened?" Lily demanded.

"Oh, some Death Eater pretended to be a doctor and nearly led me away to inject some weird poison in me. He said our doctor was with another woman but I saw him going down another hall so I screamed for Frank." She shrugged. "Frank took care of it. No big deal."

The whole room was stunned into silence. Finally a woman I didn't know replied, "Olivia, that's more than a little hiccup."

"You and Neville could have been in real trouble!" A man near her cried out.

"Oh, how stupid do you think I am? I was beginning to think he was pretty odd before I saw Doctor Marshall. I can defend myself," she said with a smile.

Most of the room gave each other looks of disbelief. Those of us who knew what Olivia really did for the side of right smiled slightly to each other. I told you she was a great actress. Nothing fazed her in the slightest.

"Well, it's good you noticed before it was too late," Moody growled. "That was a dangerous position to be in."

"It's over. Everyone should just calm down." Olivia went to the bundle. "Now, who wants to hold Neville?" She picked him up and rocked from side to side.

An old woman with a stern face remarked sharply, "Olivia! You're holding that boy wrong!"

"Am I, Mrs. Longbottom?"

"My goodness, you silly girl. Support the neck, how many times do I have to tell you?"

"Like this?" Olivia asked, supporting the neck more than before.

"I guess that will do for now."

I remembered Mrs. Longbottom from my youth. Always had something to criticize about everyone and always seemed to know what was best for anyone. She was a domineering woman who scared anyone within range. I'm not saying she's an evil, cold-hearted woman but she definitely had a rough and raw edge about her.

Soon, women gathered around Olivia taking turns holding the little boy as the men stood off, voicing their opinions on how well Neville appeared or who he resembled most. Finally, Olivia wanted Neville back in her arms and held him to her.

"Don't grip him so tight, Olivia!" Her mother-in-law ordered sharply.

"Yes, Mrs. Longbottom," she sighed. "Well, I'll put him back in the bassinet for a bit." She went towards the bassinet but tripped. Neville went flying up into the air like a cat. The women screamed but Frank quickly took out his wand and cried, "Leviosa!" Neville was held suspended in midair. This woke him from his doze and he started to scream and wriggle madly in the air.

"Neville!" Olivia cried, plucking him out of the air, drawing him close to her chest in order to comfort him. "I'm so sorry. Mummy tripped over her own feet. Don't cry, Mummy's got you now."

"You clumsy woman!" Mrs. Longbottom screamed, "Don't you ever watch where your feet are going? This is the fifth time you have done that since that boy was born. You'll be the death of the poor dear!"

"Olivia, love, it's okay," another old woman responded, presumably Olivia's mother, "Frank caught him."

"Lucky he did! Who knows what would have happened?"

"Mother!" Frank interrupted sharply, "Leave Olivia alone. She feels bad enough without you informing her of her lack of grace."

"Thank you, Frank," Olivia replied, kissing the now-calm and again slumbering Neville on the head.

Mrs. Longbottom's mouth went into a thin line but she said calmly, "I'm sorry for yelling at you. Just be more careful and watch where you're going."

"I'll take my grandson for a minute, Olivia dear," the other woman offered. Olivia gingerly placed Neville in her mother's arms with a long sigh. Frank leaned down to whisper to the other men, "Those two have been at each other's throats all week. They don't usually get along."

The rest of the celebration continued without any more problems except Mrs. Longbottom's insistence to correct everything Olivia did as her mother told her that she was doing alright.

As we heading home, Lily reflected to me, "Thank goodness your mother isn't that nasty to me!"

*** ***

A few days later, the Weasleys invited guests to their home to see their new-born son, who had been named Robert. As expected, barely anyone from the Weasley side of the family showed up. Arthur had seven siblings, at this point only three remained, the others lost to the streets of Quesera or dead. The two oldest and the two twins were named after lost family members. Bill or William was named after Arthur's late father. Charlie or Charles was named after one of his older brothers. Fred or Frederick and George are named after the first and middle names one of the younger brothers. Little Percy was named after Percy Weatherby, his cousin. I have no idea why Robert was named that for it had no significance to the family.

The atmosphere in the household was a little somber. Percy had been very close to the family and the fact that he was a proud, card-carrying Death Eater was devastating. From what I know, when Arthur and Molly married and moved into Molly's family's farm, the Burrow, Arthur let Percy come and live with them until he finished school. Arthur, a full-fledged wizard, could help him with his summer school work and the Burrow could offer him a decent place to live outside of Quesera. Percy accepted and lived with them for many years until he married Virginia and moved out on his own. So, that betrayal of trust must have cut very deep into Arthur's heart.

The three siblings left were Bilius, a wizard, was the oldest living sibling who worked for a book publishing company. Stuart, another wizard who lived with a Muggle woman, was a postal worker in Diagon Alley. Berenice, the only sister remaining, was a Squib and, by the looks of her lounging in a chair, had not succeeded in life. Molly's family members were numerous and I never caught all their names. They were a rowdy and happy bunch but they seemed to be wary of Berenice with her glassy-eyes and scowling expression. Bilius and Stuart, in contrast, got along with the Roche family very well. Along with the families were Arthur and Molly's neighbours and friends, including us.

But if Berenice was ignored, Virginia Weatherby was avoided by a wide arc. Virginia hid in a corner, sitting on a lonely hard-backed wooden chair, half in shadow and nearly out of the room. It wasn't until Lily and I had been in the house for a few minutes before I even realized she was present in the house.

She looked completely different. I had to take a second glance to make sure it was really her. She was without her notebook, instead staring blankly at the festivities around her. Everyone, in order to be polite, went over to greet her but her responses were monosyllabic and they quickly left the area. She seemed to have shrunken and aged ten years since December. Her entire facial expression was dull and shadowed, as if she had not been sleeping all too well. She was deathly pale and a little green around the gills, to use a phrase. It was like she was a completely different woman.

I went over to her and smiled. She slowly raised her eyes and it seemed to take her great effort to say, "Hello, James."

"Hi, Virginia."

"How are you?" she asked automatically. I don't think she was even listening to herself.

"I'm fine." I wanted to ask if she was alright but that would be terribly cruel. I drew up a chair and sat beside her. We sat in silence, me looking at her, she staring at the wall. Finally, she mumbled, "Lily is showing."

"Yes," I half-brightly replied, "she is."

"You must be happy," she droned in monotone.

"Yes, we're looking forward to our child."

She gave a slight smile and said mostly to herself, "Percy wanted me to get pregnant. He was so upset at Christmas when Arthur called all the women over. Percy glared at me but I couldn't sit on his knee because I wasn't pregnant. All he wanted was a child. A pure-blood child."

"It's lucky that you didn't."

"Lucky am I?" She asked sarcastically.

"You have no strings binding you to him. He doesn't affect you."

She wearily brought her head up to look at me. "Well," she breathed, "I never had his child, did I? And I never shall."

Bill came over to her and touched her shoulder. She shivered and turned around to look at Bill. "Aunt Virginia? Do you want to hold Robert?"

She blinked. "Robert?"

"The baby. Mum's just fed him and everything so people are passing him around."

She shook her head lethargically. "No, thank you."

Bill frowned, clearly unsure of what to do. "You sure?"

"I'm sure." Bill took his hand off his aunt's shoulder and went to play with his brothers and cousins. Squeals of laughter and praises floated from the kitchen where most were gathered around the little boy but only Berenice, Virginia, and I remained in the sitting room. There was silence in the room as we all sat together without any connections. Suddenly, Virginia said, "Robert looks so much like my little Ron."

*** ***

Hours later, all the guests had mostly gone home or to local pubs as Lily and I lingered for a few minutes, discussing affairs at the Ministry or childcare. Before we were about to leave, Lily asked, "Can I hold Robert one more time? I want to practice a bit before I have my baby."

"There's no proper science to holding a baby," Molly said, "just support the neck and you'll do fine." Giggling, Lily took the baby Robert in her arms and walked around the sitting room with him.

"Hi, Robert. Hel-lo, Robert. How are you doing, Widdle Ickle Robert? You're a cute one, aren't you? Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Are you going to make little friends with my baby? Yes, you will. Yes, you will, you will!" Lily twirled around with the infant in her cradled arms, cooing at him.

Virginia was still hiding in her corner on her hard backed chair. She had scarcely wiggled during the entire celebration and barely ate a thing. As Lily twirled past her, Virginia looked up and stared at Lily. For the longest time, she followed Lily's every step, scarcely blinking.

Gradually, she raised her head towards the ceiling until she was staring straight at it. Her eyes opened wide and she squeaked out, "Oh my God..." Suddenly, she snapped her head back to face the room and said in a voice unlike her own. It was strong, dark, and sinister. The type of the voice that clearly enjoys the suffering of others. Her face had even changed, glowing with renewed strength. She was full of life and excitement. Smiling slyly, she replied, "Yes, wonderful, isn't it? My ancestor built it. Built for me, the true heir! Look at it!" She snapped her head back up at the ceiling and her expression changed back to horrified and frightened, close to tears. This voice was small and girlish and very, very frightened. It also sounded weary and defeated. "No," she gasped, "I don't want to look. Don't make me look!" She snapped back to the room and her face shifted to the vicious face. She laughed a high, cold laugh and mocked, "Oh, don't you understand? You have no will power of your own! If I say look at it..." her head seemed to be dragged up by an unseen hand as she hissed, "then you look up." Again, she transformed into the frightened personality, which cried, "No! No! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Back and forth, back and forth. She changed from the innocent little girl named "Ginny" who was about to die to an evil man named "Tom", who seemed to be using her as bait for another man named "Harry". Through this bizarre one-woman show, we found that "Ginny" loved "Harry" but "Tom" wanted to kill "Harry" after finishing off "Ginny". "Tom" spent most of the conversation mocking "Ginny", telling her how she could have saved herself if she had been allowed to tell; "they" would have believed her. He went on to say how her family would curse her dead body and think her a monster forever and how her love will die because of her stupidity. When "Ginny" screamed that "Harry" will not come, "Tom" reminded her cruelly that "Harry" will come but not because he genuinely cares about her but because he's friends with her brother. "Ginny" spent most of the conversation screaming, weeping, or begging forgiveness of "anyone who finds this" and of "Harry".

During this whole spectacle, Lily stood frozen on the spot. For some reason, "Tom" always stared at Lily's position first before slinking around in the chair. The younger Weasley children, besides Bill who seemed to have a better understanding of the situation, thought she was in the middle of telling a story and kept clamoring for the beginning. Arthur ordered the boys to leave the room as he tried to rouse Virginia from her trance. He shook her, yelled at her, even slapped her but she paid no mind... or rather "Tom" and "Ginny" paid no mind.

Finally, as "Ginny" wept and muttered "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" and as "Tom" described how his strength was returning and could "feel himself escaping", she let out one, final sob before slumping over, unconscious. Arthur took a deep breath and sent Virginia upstairs with his wand. Finally, he muttered, "She's not well at all."

"What just happened?" Lily demanded.

"We don't know," Molly explained. "Apparently, she's been doing that a lot. The medi-wizards say it's stress and she just needs some time away... from everything. There's nothing anyone seems to be able to do for her."

"She needs time to heal from all this," Arthur added. "She needs to get her bearings back." He sighed and shook his head, looking very tired. "I'm sorry you had to see that. She'll get through this. I just know she will."

With definite unease, Lily handed Robert back to Molly as Arthur went upstairs to perhaps explain what happened to his sons. In silence, we got on the rented Couplet (tm) Broom and flew home.

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: I can hear you screaming from here and I haven't even posted it yet. Yes, I know that the Weasleys' sixth son is named Ron. He's one of the main characters. Robert is Ron for the time being. Later, he will change into Ron. You'll see, it'll all work out. The part with Ginny and Tom are very close to the last chapter in "A Very Secret Diary" by Arabella at sugarquill.net. It is one scary fic, it nearly gave me nightmares. A must-read for any Harry Potter fan. Anyway, that part's dialogue and description is based on her version which I believe is probably close to what happened so I used it. Go check out her fic! It's great! Before you leave to go check that fic and her other fics (she does an excellent Hermione-centered series called "Hermione, Queen of Witches" which I highly recommend. She writes with a Ron/Hermione bias, by the way, in case that's an issue with any of you. Read her fics!), review this one! Tell me what you thought! E-mail me at destinyplot@lycos.com. Please, if you do a review, leave an e-mail so I can write back without hunting you down. See ya later!