Chapter Eight

A beautiful woman emerged no less than two minutes later heavily pregnant and she stared at her cousin in wonder, not to mention the three boys and two girls she had. "Bonjour, my name is Celeste, these are my brothers Remus and Romulus and Atticus, as well as my dear sister Harriet who turns one today. Mother is pregnant with my little brothers and I'm really excited to meet them." She said and smiled. "I'm happy to be with my family, it was hard for Mother and Father, but they love each other very much and we are very happy. We don't want to leave our timeline though and will be going back soon, we just came to visit. We are part of the same time stream, so you will meet me and all of my siblings, if the fates allow one day." She said and smiled. "Mother can we help Uncle Hugo pull off another prank, please?" Celeste asked and Rose laughed.

"Of course my dear, of course, all the pranks your little heart desires, my first born." She said and a boy tugged on her sleeve.

"I thought I was the first born."

"Yes Remus, the first born of my sons, but not the first born." She said with a laugh ruffling the little boy's hair.

"I'm tired Mother, can we go back now, I want to play with my dolls, that box is boring. We only went there when we had to anyway and it was all dumb grown up games that Mother says I can't know about. You are so young cousin Leo, I'm your age, but not really. Everyone looks so young and is that..."

"Yes and its rude to point at your older family members, my dear." Rose said and tears filled her eyes. "Treasure what time you have left together, for things that seem long go by in an instant." She said and went back into the box with her children.

"I have boxes enough, just keep them safe." She told Draco Malfoy. "I might make more, if someone suggests that there might be a need for such childish things as my toy chests."

"Toy chests! That's what you call these things?" Draco Malfoy asked and laughed, long and hard, nearly bent double. "That's the Weasley spirit, I'm glad my Grandchildren will have it. However I would not wish to overstay my welcome, you are welcome to join us for dinner at Malfoy Manor next week, of course we will be discussing terms for our children's marriage, the typical sort of thing that usually happens." He said and tipped his hat taking the box with him.

"You trust him?" Albus asked and she shrugged.

"Do you?" She asked and Albus laughed.

"Not particularly, but I trust Scorp." He said and smiled at her. "I understand better than anyone, what you did, though the show of it escapes me."

"Well to be honest half of it was done for me." She said and smiled. "I just came up with the idea and supplied the tech."

"Indeed, but then again you must be a genius." Albus said and she shrugged.

"No, I'm not, magic just comes easy to me, I don't understand mechanical things like some people in our family do. They hate me, they tend to combust any time I step so much as a toe outside the wizard realm."

"I see, so you can't ever go to muggle areas, you're the reason behind our keeping our distance."

"I don't see how our affairs with muggles, have anything to do with my own." She said and cracked her knuckles. "Right then you lot, fall in, we'd best be paying our respects, we can't be too long after all."

"Yes Mama." Lulu said and rubbed her eyes. "How much more visiting do we need to do?"

"Not much love, I know how overwhelming everything must be, you had a bit of fun though right?" She asked and her daughter nodded, she smiled and went through the fire with her children and her husband.

She arrived to a study that was filled with black silks, this was the old way of mourning the dead. "Now children, you are going to see your Auntie Lucille, she won't be sleeping, she is going to be dead. You have to be brave and strong, like I know you are and look upon her in the family burial plot."

"I have to see my dead Aunt, why, it seems really weird to force me to do this." Leo said. "I never knew her." He added and Lou put a comforting arm around his brother's shoulders.

"We'll face it together, like we've faced all hardships and what do we do when they give us trouble?"

"We give them double." He said and both boys laughed, that was something that she hadn't intended to pass on to her children. She picked up her daughter, clearly all that emotion had been a bit much for her.

"Are you Mummy's little empath? I think you are." She said and kissed the top of her head. "Do you feel what we are feeling love?" She asked and her daughter nodded.

"It makes my head hurt, but Daddy gives me my special potion when it gets to be too much." She said and Roxie smiled, of course she wasn't sure what potion Silas was giving their daughter but she trusted him.

"Should we put on robes Silas, I know we have some somewhere." She said and frowned.

"My absent-minded wife, they can use our old clothes, our rooms are this way." He said and lead them down a quiet corridor, in the distance they could hear talking. Angry voices saying different things, anger was easier than sadness after all. She found the room easily enough, she had never visited, but this room was so very Lucille. Everything was tossed about, as she had hurried to pack her things, old toys and different objects scattered in all directions. She had been a whirlwind and she had lived every moment of her seventeen years, with a chaotic sort of energy and informal formality that had honestly never made sense to Roxie.

She found what she was looking for and smiled at her Lulu. "Here we go Lulu, this looks like a pretty black dress and here is a pretty purple ribbons, half your ribbons have fallen out, my wild little girl." She said and undid Lulu's ribbons, she brushed out her hair, before putting on all the proper attire for deep mourning. By the end little Lulu couldn't walk and then she had to get dressed herself, it was easy enough to find a black mourning dress and the proper under and over things. She put it all on, knowing that Lucille wouldn't mind, they had been the same size, but now certain things didn't fit as well as they once did. It took several altering spells until it fit properly and then she had to tie her own wild hair back, before picking up her daughter. "You're a little young, so you don't have to look very long." She said and Lulu pulled at her dress.

"I don't like this."

"Love I know, you only have to wear it today." She said and walked forward, meeting with her husband and their sons, they stared at her open mouthed and she smiled softly.

"How can you even walk in that?"

"Well I thought it may be better to go traditional, although I think Lulu and I might need your help. Grab my hands and walk me forward, take our daughter Silas." She said and the boys did as she asked, it was easier for her to walk with them on either side of her, their small hands in hers and she could support herself on their shoulders if she fell.

She entered the room and made for a glass of wine draining it, as her boys stood to either side of her. The potion only helped so much and she doubted that she would want the memory of what was to come. "Boys, I don't think your father has ever allowed you a cup of wine." She told her sons. "I think that you should drink some at least, to prepare yourself." The hall was silent, everyone stared at her and her children.

"I can't move Mother, I hate this dress." Lulu made her ire known and Silas sighed.

"I know love, perhaps five is a bit young for a viewing, Mother, you made me go to Great Uncle Maximilian's funeral at five, but that was a distant relation."

"Indeed I did and one so young shouldn't have to see such things, come let me hold my Granddaughter, what is her name."

"I can speak for myself Grandmama, I am little but not dumb, my name is Lucille Lavender Knott and I'm this many." She held up five fingers.

"That's a lot of fingers, I have head word of my Grandson's sorting, Gryffindor and Slytherin, I know you will do your house proud."

"I'd rather live a long and happy life to be honest." Leo said and gulped down the cup of wine, his brother following suit.

"Seconded." He said and she sighed.

"What amount of wine would be deemed acceptable, to two such young men?" She asked. "Let Grandmama give you sweets and sit on her lap my little flower." She said and Silas passed their daughter off to his mother Daphne Greengrass.

"What a pretty thing you are." She cooed and Lulu beamed. "Now how about some tea and some stories."

"Can you tell me stories about my Auntie, when she was my age? Daddy too, Daddy tells good stories but not as good as Lou, or Mother."

"Lou?"

"A childhood nickname for my son Lupin, but little Lulu has trouble remembering what to call her brothers." He said and laughed. "Don't you dear, sometimes you call them very bad names and then you have to have a time out."

"That's just when they are mean to me." Lulu protested and several people laughed. "I like pranking them.'

"She hates being pranked though, little sisters are the worst."

"I'd say they are the best as well, I love you Lulu bell." Leo said and kissed the top of her head.

"That tickles, no fair!" She said. "I can't fight with all this on, I can't even move."

"Join the club, of course I had to do something formal, but I think I might have gone a bit overboard." She said eyeing everyone else and what they had chosen to wear.

"Not at all, it seems that you know the right dresses to wear, for all occasions."

"Your daughter insisted upon it, just the other day..." She stopped and of course that was when the potion wore off and it hit her all at once she crumpled to the ground and cried she then screamed and beat the cobblestones, past caring as everything hit her all at once. Everything she had lost, years had passed, but it didn't seem like years had passed.

"Oh my heart, my dear, my beloved, you never fall apart, I believe you must be overwrought." Silas said, but she couldn't pay any attention to him, instead her magic was responding to her emotions. "Get me inside the black crate, I can't move." She said and Silas did as she told him. She felt everything inside her break apart the instant she was in that crate. Magic, wild magic poured out of her, in a way that she had no idea of how to control, this was the blessing and the curse of someone like her and Silas. Once she could collect herself, she felt exhausted, but she liked the pretty illusion she had created, one might almost believe this one.

"Hello? Hello Roxie?" Lucille asked and smiled at her, she wore the dress she had chosen for this year's ball.

"Lucille?" She asked and Lucille smiled.

"I like this place, I will visit sometimes it will be nice to get away from everything, why are there so many empty portraits though?" She asked and Roxie shrugged.

"I don't know, it's just well...It's what happens sometimes when I lose control of my magic. I knew you had a live ink portrait, did your spirit pass on? I would hope so."

"I don't know it's strange to wake up as a portrait, I'm so sorry Roxie, how could I?"

"I have no idea what you were thinking, but it doesn't matter all that much to me, I'll let you have your secret hiding place for now." She said and stepped out of the box. Some crystal broke, but nothing worse than that and she felt like she could breathe again.

"It seems you have as little of control over your emotions, as the rest of your family." Daphne said. "Such displays are unbecoming of a woman of your station."

"Well it's not like we can help it, after all we are all fire, tempest and emotion. Unless what you taught me is wrong Father." Leo asked and her boys were fighting, of course they would fight at a time like this. They were tipsy if not drunk, overly emotional and were entirely too fond of rough housing.

"Control your children." Someone said and Silas laughed.

"I don't think that would be possible Uncle Alister." He said. "I'm not sure if I have little furies or little tempests, nor do I think it matters over much if my boys fight." He said. "It's good for them, it builds character and they know not to hurt one another too..." He trailed off as Leo hauled off and decked Lou in the face, Lou retaliated quickly and wiped at his lip.

"Had enough, or do you want more brother?" Lou asked.

"No I'm good." Leo said and Lou offered his brother his hand.

"Remember we give anyone who hurts us, double the pain and then we come back for more. Keep your hook up brother!" He said and Leo nodded and did shadow boxing, she laughed.

"Seriously, you have been working hard, I'm glad you had those pensive memories."

"No actually I learned and then I taught them, I find it a good way to go about things, a swift punch to the face, is much better than a spell cast in haste." He said and then they were all crying again, she wished that she could get a handle on her emotions, but she needed something stronger than wine.

"There's a trunk up in...in her rooms, it was meant to be shared on her wedding day...A day that will never come, bring it here Lou be a good lad." She said and frowned. "Unfortunately I think I need to fix your brother's nose, you have quite the temper." She said and cast a couple of spells, to straighten out Leo's broken nose, she left the two black eyes however.

"How do I look, dashing mother?" He asked and did a little dance in his robes.

"Beyond compare my son." She said and smiled at him. "I'd suggest maybe not striking so hard next time."

"What's the fun in that?" Her son asked. "I mean to say honestly mother, I have to keep to first year spells, I'd like to be able to sock some people in the face and cast my nastiest spell if they are mean to me."

"Rules of engagement love, rules of engagement." Roxie said and her son nodded, he knew precisely what that meant, or at least she thought he might. Her momentary concern was stopped when Lou came back with a large chest floating behind him.

"Why did you want such a heavy thing Mother?" He asked and she opened the chest, inside were seventeen bottles of fire whiskey, her father had been setting aside bottles as well as knocking them back all these years.

"Fire whiskey? You gave my sister fire whiskey?"

"She'd only drink wine, she agreed to get drunk with me, when we married." She said and sighed. "Well she'll never try it now, so I'm opening a bottle." She said and opened the oldest bottle, she poured a large glass into a tea cup and knocked it back.

"That's my kind of woman." Someone said and several people laughed.

"If you would care to share a glass, remember that I've long ago bound myself to Silas and so I don't particularly feel like celebrating my wedding day, such fripperies seem rather pointless at any rate." She said and knocked back another glass. "Well we have an old saying in my family, celebrate birth, weddings and wakes. Then party in the meantime, for we all have but one life to live. To my friend Lucille Astoria Knott, known to her friends in Ravenclaw tower as Catclaw and Kit. I could not protect you from the horrors of war, nor could I save you from the tender mercies of death. I will always cherish the times we shared and mourn your loss. However I know no one who I love would wish for me to waste my life away, crying a river of tears every day. To Catclaw and to the Knights of Lagarde, those of us that yet survive." She said and drank.

"You were Largarden?" Silas demanded. "Seriously my sister was part of Largarden?"

"It was a great time, the best years of my childhood, my friends were true and we gave as good as we got. Of course names should not be spoken save mine, I'm Moontooth."

"Were they all in Ravenclaw?" Silas asked and she laughed.

"Now that would be telling, do you truly think that some of the girls in my tower would have any interest in pranks?" She asked. "That seems so long ago now, a world away and a time that seems so distant."

"It hasn't been that long my dear, you know that right? That it hasn't been that long?"

"It seems so very long ago now, nights spent sneaking about the castle, planning mischief and daring pranks, running away from Peeves." She said with a laugh. "Of course I was always the most serious minded, when you got me out of the library, long enough to prank my cousins, your sister considered it to be a grand time." She said and smiled, pressing back the compartment, as a pensive popped out, as well as a letter.

"Mother what is that?"

"A message in a bottle, for me from your Auntie." She said and dove into the pensive, she was bombarded by everything her friend had experienced in seventeen short years, the good and the bad, all of it was in this pensive, with no filter whatsoever. She blushed as she saw her staring at her cousin Lysander, a look of longing upon her face that was now unmistakable. They had both died, because they couldn't live without the other. She cried as the memories played, she could spend hours in here, days or years and then she was on her best friend's bed.

"I don't want you to blame yourself for what is to come, you saw the moment the Unspeakable came to me and told me what I must do for my brother. Poor Lysander, I am uncertain of what he knew, or didn't know. Let no one part another, like we were parted, my friend do not blame yourself, it had to be this way. Drink on your wedding day for me, or drink before that happy day, just so long as you don't get lost in the bottle like your father."

She smiled then and came back with a bottle of fire whiskey. "I'm going to share this bottle with my brother tonight, one of the last few nights we will have together. Live your life to the fullest, leave everything to chance and the fates, Moontooth if you don't change our world, regardless of what man might have you in future, your children will."

She watched as Lucille took the bottle to her brother's rooms and they got drunk together laughing until the early hours of the morning. No wonder he'd been so cross when she'd disturbed his rest. She left the pensive and gasped as the world came back around her, she shook herself and tried to get accustomed to all the new memories inside her head. She saw that there were two pensives on either side of her and she gathered up the memories, casting them from her head, she could always go back to the pensive. Those memories would always be there and pensive memories could live on for generations, long after the one that used them were gone. Everything was jumbled together, for only a moment, before she let them go into the two different pensive. She then poured herself another drink and stared around her wild eyed, she knew everyone in the room and they were strangers to her at the same time.

"Let the memories settle, I almost went in after you, what did she...What did you see?" Silas asked and she stared at him, before she started to cry again, she remembered his baby fingers, how he and his sister had taken their first steps together, everything and it was all too much.

"Mother, are you alright, you have that look in your eye, the one you say is bad." Leo said and she frowned, trying to shake everything her friend had been, from her head. She couldn't tell the difference between her and what Rose had experienced and she knew instantly what she had to do.

"Obliviate." She said casting the spell at herself and then darkness came.