*Epilogue*

Family Reunion

New Name for Lost Things

-Noor Unnahar

The city is forgetting you

Which is to say

You should return home

Family Reunion


"Three up, two across, tap your wand three times just here." Taffy said pointing at the brick wall.

"You do realize how strange that is right?" Haze raised an eyebrow, "I mean this is where they throw out their trash." He said pointing to the 3 bins behind her. She shook her head.

"Just do it." She laughed. He did as she instructed. The brick he touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider – a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for a giant, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. "Welcome," said Taffy, "to Diagon Alley."

She grinned at Haze's amazement as they stepped through the archway. Haze looked over his shoulder as the archway shrank back into the solid brick wall.

"That was amazing." He acknowledged.

"Imagine coming from the muggle world and that is your first step into the wizarding world?" she smiled at the memory. "Alright, let's get me a new wand. Thankfully the ministry is footing the bill, so I don't need a secondhand one. Do you want another one, I think we have enough for two." She asked. Haze looked down at his wand.

"Actually, yeah that would be great. I kind of borrowed this one." Taffy grabbed onto his arm and tugged him toward Ollivander's Wand Shop. Haze glanced down at her hand wrapped around his arm, he was enjoying their newfound closeness and was constantly reminding himself not to ruin it by saying something stupid. She always sought out reasons to touch him now, and he always gave her every opportunity. After all the times spent avoiding each other, it was almost like a switch was flicked and he found his best friend. He tried not to hope for more, but it was difficult. They walked into an empty shops that had boxes lining the shelves all the way up into the ceiling.

"Welcome to Ollivander's, my name is, Chester. Are you seeking a replacement?" A young man said from a ladder on the second level. He began to climb down.

"Yes, for both of us." Taffy smiled eager to get a wand in her hands again. It wasn't long before they handed Chester 16 galleons, having been 'chosen by the wand' as Chester reminded them. Taffy got a Hazel wood with a unicorn hair core, 10 inches and hard flexibility. Haze got an English Oak wood with a dragon heartstring core, 13 inches and rigid flexibility. They both seemed to want to hold it in their hands with a strong desire to cast charms.

"This feels so different." Haze said in amazement.

"Try something easy, do you know 'Lumos', the wand movement is a simple swirl like this," she showed him, the tip of her wand lighting up. He mimicked her with a bit too much enthusiasm as the light nearly blinded them both. "Ok say 'Nox' to turn it off before I have to have Hermione tend to my eyes." She said shielding her line of sight. He obeyed rather quickly.

"That certainly felt different. Like the wand wanted to light up for me."

"Yeah it's like that when the wand belongs to you. I miss my old one, but this one feels great also." She said tucking it away. He wanted to try more spells but put his away also. They began to walk the alley, she showed him all the stores she visited to purchase school supplies.

"I'm a bit hungry." She said to Haze who had taken to holding all the bags. They stopped at the lunch spot called 'SandWitchIt' that Hermione recommended. They sat down and it felt like it had when they first met, except this time Taffy wasn't annoyed or scared of him. She even laughed at his jokes, and they had truly enjoyed each other's company. It wasn't long before it was dusk, and the moon shown high above.

"You want to head back to Grimmauld?" Taffy said as they left Flourish and Blott's. Many of the stores had closed and it was getting late. Haze looked up at the moon, not wanting to be indoors just yet.

"Do you mind if we hang out a bit?" he asked. Taffy looked at the moon now.

"Sure. You quite enjoy it don't you? The moonlight?"

"I do actually." He admitted. "I've been in chains that last two moons, so yeah." He said and she frowned. "It's ok, I understand why, just I missed it." He looked at the moon again, its light reflecting on his face. As Taffy looked at him, her expression was calculating, like she wasn't sure she should say something. "What is it?" he asked feeling exposed. She hesitated.

"Is it so bad, where you come from?" he looked at her now. They had already walked passed most of the stores and wandered down the alley passed the bank. He looked up at the moon not sure how to answer that. He knew he could be honest with her, but he didn't want to open that book just yet as he had worked so hard to close it.

"Most days I miss my family, but to answer your question, for me, it is bad. I don't ever want to go back, I don't know when I'll be ready to talk about it, and I hope that doesn't matter." He looked at her hopeful. She nodded her head.

"Alright," she wrapped her arm around his and she pulled him along as he glanced up at the moon every few minutes. They made idle chatter, mostly Taffy answering more questions as usual.

"So now that you've seen Hogwarts, the Ministry, and Diagon Ally, is there anywhere else you want to visit?" She asked him some questions now.

"Well I'm not really sure what else there is to see. You were telling me about that Pigneedle place?" this elicited a fit of laughter in Taffy. "You know that town by the school" he said as she nearly doubled over to contain herself. He couldn't help but laugh also.

"Oh my," she finally said having caught her breath a bit, "now I'm convinced you're teasing me. Pigneedle? It's Hogsmeade! How on earth did you get Pigneedle from that?" they laughed some more and continued their stroll.

They had entered a small square surrounded by residential homes now, a small well in the center. Haze froze in place, sniffing the air and it was too late. They were here. He turned to her wide eyed and she was startled.

"Haze, what's wrong?" she said and then she felt it, the pressure, the air being squeeze out of her lung, but it was so much stronger now. She fell to the ground, skin on fire.

"Taffy!" he shouted, taking her into his arms, but she couldn't hear him, the ringing in her ears was deafening. He heard them though. Haze turned to see six wolves circling the well toward them, then he heard footsteps.

"Tsk tsk, hello, Haze." From behind the shadow of the nearest building he could see the outline of a tall man, with broad shoulders. He stepped forward to reveal his long black and grey hair that fell just over his shoulders, and his full beard.

"Ambros." Haze whispered; Taffy shook in his arms. "Let her go!" he pleaded.

"Tsk, tsk, is that how you greet your brother?" the wolves circled them, growling. Haze panicked knowing Taffy didn't have long. "Dad misses you, and we've been tracking you for some time. Seems like you've been protected behind the likes of them." Ambros said jutting his chin to Taffy.

"She's mine. Let her go and I'll come home." Haze demanded as Taffy became still. "Let her go! I promise I'll go with you. Please let her go!" he begged. Ambros narrowed his eyes.

"You'll come home?"

"Yes, I'll come home." Haze said looking directly at him.

"Fine." Taffy gasped in his arms coughing. Haze sighed in relief.

"Taffy, Taffy! Are you ok?" he placed his palm on her neck help her to sit. She nodded; eyes watered.

"Let's go brother." Ambros said the wolves growling again much closer to them now.

"Taffy, I have to go. I'm sorry." He said to her quickly and she shook her head. Ambros laughed approaching them.

"No goodbyes, Haze, because she's coming with us." Ambros grabbed Taffy by the arm and yanked her away from him. She screamed.

"No!" Haze yelled, but before he could secure her back in his arms one of the wolves lunged at him, knocking him out.


Hello Readers,

Thank you so much for reading Making an Observation! This project has been such a wonderful treat to work on and it is my biggest pride to date.
As some of you might know, this story is part 1 of a 3 part series. I have been thinking about if I should post [Developing a Theory] here and for now I think I've come to the conclusion not to cross post it due to mature content. Unfortunately I do not have the time to rewrite the mature content. Perhaps one day in the future I might.

As of now, I am regularly posting chapters of Developing a Theory on Ao3. I would love it if you guys checked it out there as the platform is much easier for me to maintain. I will continue to post future projects unrelated to the series on this site so I'm not really going away!

Thank you for following along. Hope to see you on Ao3!

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