Chapter 6: Remembering
She was very small, probably about three. Small enough to be carried, at any rate. She was kicking the side wall of the staircase as her father carried her upstairs under his arm, and she was shrieking as loudly as she could.
He reached the top of the stairs, opened her door, and dropped her on the floor inside the room. "Things should not fly around when you are angry," he growled at her. "You will stay in your room until you learn to stop doing such... unnatural... things." The door slammed shut, and she heard the lock click outside.
Panting, Helen turned around and ran to her bookshelf. She flung a book across the room, screaming, and the rest of the books flew after it. She kept shrieking, and the books kept flying, until she had to stop for breath – and then there were two loud slamming noises behind her. Helen whirled around and stared in surprise. The books fell to the floor.
There were people in her room. Grown-up people. A man and a woman.
The woman dropped to one knee and spread her arms open. Helen had never seen anyone do this for her before, but she knew what to do anyway. She ran straight to the woman and was engulfed in her first ever hug.
The woman had a lot of red hair. It tickled Helen's nose, but she hung on anyway. She even hung on, though she was a little surprised, when the woman scooped her up from the ground and carried her to the bed, where she sat down with Helen on her lap. The man sat on the other side of the bed, and Helen looked at him curiously. He had black hair and glasses.
"Hello, Helen," he said, smiling at her. "I'm your cousin Harry, did you know that?"
She shook her head and sniffled a little. "What's a cousin?"
The woman hugged her a little tighter. "Poor thing," Helen could hear her saying, "you poor thing." She didn't quite understand – her dad and mum were always saying how lucky her family was not to be poor – but she didn't care what the woman said as long as she kept hugging her.
"Well, then, you can call me Uncle Harry, and this is your Aunt Ginny. You know what that means, right?"
She nodded. "I have an Aunt Angela and an Uncle Matt. They come and visit sometimes. They never bring me presents." She sniffled again. "They bring Chester lots of presents."
Uncle Harry muttered something under his breath, then pulled a tissue out of the box on her bedside table. "Blow. Do your aunt and uncle have any children?"
"No." Helen blew her nose and snuggled into a more comfortable position on her aunt's lap. Uncle Harry crumpled the tissue and tossed it into the rubbish bin.
"If they had children, those children would be your cousins," said Aunt Ginny.
Helen could feel her aunt's voice vibrating through her body. She liked the feeling. "Do you have children?"
"Yes. We have two little boys and a little girl. How old are you, Helen?"
Helen held up three fingers. "This many."
"Our little girl Ruby is just your age," said Uncle Harry. "She has a baby brother named Jamie and a big brother named Sirius."
"No twins?"
Aunt Ginny laughed. "No twins, not yet at least. You can be Ruby's twin if you want. You look a lot like her. Do you want to meet her?"
Helen nodded eagerly.
"All right," said Uncle Harry, pulling a newspaper out of his pocket. "Hold on to this tight, now, Helen. It'll feel funny for a minute – like someone was pulling on your tummy – " He tickled her, and she giggled. "– but then we'll all fall down, and we'll be in my house."
"Like magic?"
Her uncle smiled at her and rubbed her hair affectionately. "Yes, Helen. Very much like magic."
----
It was no surprise, thought the present-day Helen, that she had fallen in love with the Potters so easily. They had been the first people to show her love.
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She spent two blissful hours, that first day, at the house she now knew as the Marauders' Den, making friends with Ruby, being a little afraid of Sirius, and watching Jamie with awe. She had never been close to a real live baby before. He could almost walk, but not quite, and she and Ruby laughed and laughed to see the indignant look on his face as time after time, he tried, and time after time, he fell smack on his nappied bottom.
Her dad – Uncle Harry, as she had called him then – put a minor charm on her before he took her home by Portkey. It ensured she wouldn't tell anyone about the Potters and their visit. Dudley Dursley knew enough to get suspicious if his daughter started babbling about a magical aunt and uncle, and the story was liable to get back to him eventually if she told a teacher or some other child.
Helen didn't mind at all. She would put up with anything as long as she was able to keep her magical family.
----
Helen smiled ruefully. Then there was the period when I thought I had to throw a tantrum to get them to come and get me... Dad just needed to explain it to me, and give me a little scolding to make it stick, and I got over that right smart.
Funny, though, how I still kept losing it and making magic happen until I was five. I guess even being happy part of the time wasn't enough.
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Over the next two years, Helen met the rest of her new family. It seemed that every time Uncle Harry came to get her, somebody new was at the Den for her to meet them. There were a lot of red-haired uncles. Aunt Ginny's parents told her to call them Grandmum and Granddad, the way Sirius and Ruby did.
Helen was always a little in awe of Sirius, who was bigger and stronger than she was. She was used to Chester, who was her size but flabbier, and who yelled if she hit him. If she hit Sirius, he hit back, and he hit hard. It was Sirius who taught Helen how to fight.
Ruby and Helen played endless games of tea party with Ruby's enchanted tea set and taught Jamie how to walk. They also began to finish one another's sentences. Soon afterwards, they discovered that their fourth birthdays were only one day apart. They immediately pestered Ruby's parents for a joint party. The answer, to the delight of all, was yes.
It was at the party that Helen met some of Uncle Harry's friends, who all told her to call them Aunt and Uncle as well, and their children, who all became her friends immediately. There was a glorious game of toy broomstick tag that lasted about an hour, until Brian and Sirius, practicing to be Quidditch players, crashed into each other, and Uncle Fred told Uncle Harry that if Ruby and Helen weren't real twins, then he didn't know real twins. At least, she thought it was Uncle Fred. It could have been Uncle George.
----
Helen roused from her daze. Her father was speaking to her.
"I want you to understand something, girl. This place is tough. There'll be no funny business, understand? I don't want you thinking we'll take you away if you make trouble, because we won't. You're there for at least a year. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," Helen mumbled, thinking of Hedwig and the letter making its way toward the Marauders' Den.
"Good." Her father kept driving, and Helen's mind returned to the past...
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(A/N: Wow. Two in one day. I must be nuts.
Nalini213: I didn't mention this before – great job!
There may be more chapters in the next few days, as I have relatively little work at the moment... but don't set your hearts on anything.
And I would, of course, love more readers and reviewers... tell your friends!)