A/N: Hello everyone! I know it's been about a month, but at the end of November I started working on final projects for school and have a three week practicum block, so I've been very busy.
I just finished this chapter like an hour ago, so I'm posting it right away so that you don't have to wait anymore.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Old Acquaintances
Monday, May 13th 2024
1:05 PM
"This!" Brogan Wood yelled excitedly as he pulled Ally Weasley by the hand through the brightly lit aisles of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
Ally allowed the five-year-old to drag her towards the direction of a colourful display of magical spinning tops that definitely did more than just emit seemingly innocuous lights as they spun in their boxes. They had spent almost the entirety of the past hour in her father's flagship shop in Diagon Alley, the littlest Wood pulling her from display to display and shelf to shelf as he inspected all of the goods. Ally had the day off of work and had volunteered to take Brogan to Diagon Alley and pick up some items that were still needed for his upcoming sixth birthday party.
Katie had thanked Ally profusely when she offered a few days ago to complete the errands for her, which the younger woman accepted gratefully even though she did have an ulterior motive. With Ally and Xavier's wedding coming up that summer, more and more of the family conversation had been drifting towards her and Xavier. She didn't want Brogan to feel overshadowed or as if he was less important, so she really wanted to help make his approaching birthday special for him. It was also important to her to make sure that she continued to nurture a good relationship with her soon-to-be brother-in-law, and she figured an 'Ally-Brogan-day-out' could only help her case.
They had cleared through the more boring aspects of their to-do list earlier in the day when Brogan was just excited to be in Diagon Alley, and Ally has strategically decided to leave the more fun items of their to-do list for the afternoon when he would predictably start getting bored and maybe even a little tired. The current item Ally was attempting to cross off the list was picking out objects for the giftbags that would go home with the kids that would attend Brogan's party.
With Ally's gentle prodding Brogan had already agreed to some trick quills, some of the non-illness inducing candy, and a pad of paper that turned anything written on it into a secret coded message that needed an accompanying decoder ring to decipher. She had instructed Brogan to pick another smaller thing to go in the bags, and he was taking her last instruction very seriously.
"I'll need to read the instructions first Bro," Ally cautioned as she picked up one of the spinning tops. She had already vetoed several eye-catching items that Brogan had pointed out when she read their instructions and realized that they were either too complicated or marketed to an older audience than the age of the children they were buying toys for.
Her brown eyes scanned the words on the box carefully. The 'hidden' aspect of the spinning tops seemed to be that a little drawing could be inserted into the middle of the top; with five different options being included in the box. The lights emitted from the top would cast a short, ten-second animated version of the chosen image onto the wall -or whatever surface it was close to- and it would even release a series of sound clips that related to the image inserted into the top.
"It seems like it's okay," Ally told Brogan as she took her eyes off of the packaging and gave the dirty-blonde haired boy a bright smile.
"Yay!" Brogan cheered as he reached towards the display and started to grab the correct number of boxes; he already knew that they'd need to put one in each giftbag. He dropped them all into the half-full basket Ally had been carrying around the store, and then they made their way to the check out.
Ally smiled sweetly at the employee at the till, and once the young girl had finished scanning every item in their order, she asked how much it would cost.
"Oh, it won't cost anything for you Ms. Weasley," The cashier replied in a surprised tone, "Boss's orders."
Ally rolled her eyes and pulled out a money pouch, "Please tell me how much it is. I'll explain it to my father later."
"Don't bother Ally," George Weasley called as he came around the corner and slipped behind the till and gestured to the cashier that he'd take over, "You're not going to win this."
"I can be very determined Dad," She replied as she stood up straighter.
George folded his arms over his chest, "So can I. Who do you think you learned it from? Your money's no good here."
"It's not even my money. Katie gave it to me before I could offer to pay for whatever I picked up for her today. Therefore, it's actually Katie and Oliver's money. Does that make it better?"
Her father scoffed, "It might have before, but now they're going to be my in-laws."
Ally sighed and put away the money pouch, "If you keep this up, you're going to end up operating at a loss Dad."
"I can promise you that my business model is perfectly established and that my projections are still on the up-and-up into the next several years. This won't make a dent in our profit margins."
She smirked a little at her father, "Ever wonder how you'd be doing if you hadn't taken Auntie Fleur up on her offer to help you with your business model after she joined the family?"
"We'd definitely not be anywhere close to where we are right now if I'd brushed off her help," George agreed with a small smile.
He stepped out from around the back of the counter with the bag full of items and handed them to Ally. Once Brogan spotted George's legs, he pounced on them and squeezed what he could reach in a hug. George chuckled at Brogan's enthusiasm and patted him on the head.
"So, is Freddie not working today? I haven't seen him yet," Ally asked her father. Considering that Ally had spent the last hour moving through every single aisle in the store, it was surprising to her that she hadn't stumbled upon her little brother in his place of work.
George sighed a little, "He's in one of the development rooms in the back working on a secret project."
"Your tone doesn't sound impressed," his daughter noted shrewdly.
"He won't let me into the room to see what he's working on, let alone to give him a hand with it."
Ally frowned, "That's weird. He used to love working together with you in the development rooms."
"Yeah, well he's gotten older . . . and sneakier. The only thing I could get out of him about whatever it is he's working on is that I shouldn't get involved with it in case the first few tests don't turn out well," her father explained.
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand, "That doesn't sound promising."
"Nope."
"And you're just going to let it take its course?"
"Yup."
"Well good luck with that," Ally replied as she reached for Brogan and peeled him off of her father.
Once George had been freed of barnacle Brogan, Ally took the five-year-old with her and left the building. She directed the little boy towards the café across the street and ordered them lunch. They received their order relatively quickly -which was a blessing since Brogan seemed to be tipping towards a downwards slope and he was starting to get hangry- and once Ally had set him up with his artisan ham and cheese sandwich and snack-sized bag of crisps, they got down to the serious business of eating. As they ate their meal, Brogan chattered on about all of the 'super cool' things he had seen at the shop that they hadn't chosen for the giftbags, and as they finished up their last few bites Ally caught him looking longingly at the small stand of prepackaged cookies and brownies on the café's counter.
"Do you want to hear what else we have on our to-do list Brogan?" Ally asked in an attempt to distract him from the sweets.
He slowly pulled his gaze away from the treats and towards Ally, "What?"
"Well, we need to stop by the quidditch supply store, the book store, and . . . the bakery!"
Brogan's eyes lit up at the word 'bakery'.
"Really?"
"Yup," She replied with a nod, "We just have to look at the quidditch gear and the books first, then the bakery."
Brogan jumped up from his seat, "Let's get going!"
Ally chuckled and much more slowly moved to her feet, "Let's get going."
At the quidditch supply store Brogan excitedly circled the aisles that held the colourful jerseys and posters as Ally went up to the front counter and asked after a package Katie had already ordered a week prior. A bundle wrapped in simple brown paper and string was handed to her relatively quickly, and since Katie had paid for it ahead of time, the errand was completed in less than five minutes.
Ally allowed them more time in the store however, because Brogan had wandered over to the section that sold quidditch jerseys from teams in other European minor leagues and was asking her questions about the logos and insignias he was seeing. While Ally wasn't exactly an expert on minor league teams from the EU, she could at least read the tiny print on the tags of the shirts that labelled the name of the teams and the countries they were from. He developed a sudden fondness for one shirt in particular that depicted a logo for the Breda Boeman. Considering that Brogan couldn't point out the location of the Netherlands on a map let alone the city that housed the magical minor league quidditch team, she figured that the shirt's main draw was the fact that he enjoyed the sheer number of colours they had used to create their logo. She filed this information away for later, she and Xavier had already bought Brogan his birthday present, but it was still good information to have; and gently coaxed Brogan out of the store with the promise of a new picture book from their next stop.
They had barely made it two metres from the quidditch store when they ran into two familiar faces.
"Clark!" Brogan called excitedly as he ran the short distance that separated him from the professional quidditch beater.
Clark Westin turned slightly to where he heard his name being called, and just in time too as Brogan had decided to throw himself at the man and had expected him to catch him.
Thankfully Clark had his professional quidditch reflexes turned on and he was able to catch the young boy, "Hey there Brogan!"
Ally was a step behind her young charge and she smiled at Clark and Clark's companion, "Playing hooky, are we?"
Clark set Brogan down on his feet and then reached to his side to pat his nephew on the head, "Zach is. Mark and I were given the day off from practice. Since tomorrow's game isn't going to affect our standings and is against the lowest rated team in the league the coaches want to give some of the reserve team players a chance to play up. Obviously, they still want to keep in Xavier and our starting seeker as they still want us to win, and Potter's already playing up because there's now a sudden dearth of chasers on our team, so the only players they could really give this opportunity to are the other beaters. I decided that Zach and I needed some manly bonding time, so I kept him home from school."
"And what do you have planned for your manly bonding time?" Ally asked Zach with a soft smile.
Zach grinned at Ally, "We're shopping!"
Ally glanced at Clark teasingly, "Manly bonding huh?"
"We're buying a surprise gift for Mum," Zach added excitedly.
Ally raised an eyebrow at Clark again, but he just grinned at her.
"What's more gentlemanly than buying gifts for the women in your life to show them your appreciation?"
She smiled at Clark, "You're too cute sometimes."
"Yeah, just don't spread it around, might damage my image," Clark retorted.
Ally's smile dropped and she went back to rolling her eyes, "Yes, because having everybody know that you have a big and caring heart is so disastrous to your image."
"I'm glad that you understand-"
"Of course, when The Charity starts to pick up speed people are going to find out that you put so much of your unpaid time into raising money for children from under-resourced communities to be able to play quidditch . . . well that will be very hard for you to spin in any other way than what it is," Ally pointed out.
Clark let out an overly-dramatic sigh, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
She affectionately rolled her eyes at the beater again, but before she could say anything else she heard someone behind her call out her name.
"Ally?"
Ally spun on her heel and stared confusedly at the redheaded woman walking towards her for about ten seconds before recognition kicked-in.
"Maura!"
Once the redheaded woman was within reach, Ally pulled the woman into a side hug. She squeezed the woman tightly in excitement, but hoped she was gentle enough not to crush the three-year-old-girl who the other woman was carrying on her hip on her right side.
"It's so good to see you! Grace didn't mention that you were coming back to England anytime soon," Ally said in a bubbly tone to the pretty woman who seemed just as happy to see Ally, as Ally was to see her.
The other woman waved an unconcerned hand; the golden bangles on her left wrist making a tinkling sound as they clinked together, "It was a hastier decision than I would have liked, but Dad needed me here ASAP. So here we are."
"And how are you doing beautiful girl?" Ally asked as she leaned towards the three-year-old who was still attached to her mother's hip.
The little girl smiled sweetly at Ally before shyly hiding her face in the shoulder of her mother's silk blouse.
"She's well," The woman responded to Ally's question, "She was very happy to see her Grandpa and Aunt Grace again."
Ally opened her mouth to say something else, but before she could Brogan loudly interrupted and asked her 'who's this lady?'. She was immediately mortified by her charge's outspokenness, but thankfully Ally's acquaintance found it more entertaining than anything.
"I take it this is Brogan?" The woman asked Ally with a good-natured chuckle.
Ally nodded and rolled her eyes a little, "What ever could have led you to that assumption?"
"You mean besides the fact that he looks just like Oliver and Xavier, but has all the tact of Malcolm?"
Ally chuckled, "Yes, besides those things." The other woman laughed as well and then Ally decided she should formally introduce Brogan before he said something even more mortifying.
"Maura, as you've deduced, this is Brogan Wood-" She was going to complete the introduction but then she remembered that prior to the woman's presence, she had been speaking with Clark, "And this is Clark Westin and his nephew Zach."
Clark glanced interestedly at the woman with Ally. Once his name had been announced the woman glanced at his with shrewd brown eyes and a calculating expression.
"Brogan," Ally began as she made eye contact with the younger boy in an attempt to illustrate to him that what she was doing was the proper way to introduce someone, "This is Maura Monahan and her daughter Stella. Do you remember my friend Grace who's going to be in my wedding? This is her big sister."
She knew that Brogan probably didn't understand the questions she asked him at the end, but she figured she'd throw it out there just in case.
"It's nice to meet you Brogan," Maura told the young boy with a bright smile, when Brogan sent her a bright 'Wood smirk' back, she took her attention off of him and glanced back at Clark and his nephew, "It's nice to meet you too Zach, Mr. Westin."
Clark pursed his lips as he looked at the woman, he was going to tell her that she could just call him Clark, but Ally started to expand on their introduction.
"Clark, this is Maura Monahan. Her sister Grace is one of my really good friends. Her-"
"Father is Sorely Monahan, owner and CEO of Quidditch Weekly magazine," Clark said. He wasn't sure if that was what Ally was going to say, but it was what he knew of Maura Monahan and why he had recognized her name once Ally had first said it.
Maura gave Clark another considering look, her expression hard to read, "And you're Clark Westin. Starting beater for Puddlemere United."
"So, what does bring you here?" Ally asked Maura conversationally.
"To Diagon Alley?" Maura asked, a small smirk playing on her red lipstick-painted lips.
Ally rolled her eyes at her teasing, "To England."
"Dad wanted me to come back to the head office to work on a project with him. Said it couldn't be done over long-distance communication and needed to be done in person. I think part of him just wanted to see Stella again," Maura explained to Ally.
The dark-haired woman nodded understandingly, "So how long will you be here?"
"The original timeline Dad proposed was about a month, but seeing as how we'd need to come back at the end of June for Ted and Victoire's wedding anyway, I think we'll just stay here until after that. I don't want to uproot Stella's routine that much," Maura said.
Clark glanced at Maura interestedly, "Are you friends with Victoire, Maura?"
"More with Teddy actually. We were in the same year of Gryffindor at Hogwarts. We were Potions partners for three years."
Ally noted that even though Stella seemed content in Maura's arms, she did look like she was starting to get a little antsy at being still for so long, "I've probably monopolized your time enough."
"I was the one who spotted you Ally, remember? Stella's just getting a little tired. It's almost time for our afternoon nap," Maura clarified.
"Well, we can't miss that now, can we?" Ally asked Stella as she poked the girl in her side and made her giggle.
Maura readjusted her grip on her daughter and nodded at Clark, and then addressed Ally, "I'm sure I'll see you again in the next few weeks before the wedding."
Ally's eyes lit up as a thought came to her, "You can see me this weekend actually. Katie and Oliver are hosting Brogan's sixth birthday party at theirs this Saturday. Why don't you and Stella pop over? Malcolm, Vic, and Teddy will all be there of course, and I'm sure they'd love to see you. Plus, all of the littler Woods will be there so there will be lots of kids for Stella to play with."
"I appreciate the offer Ally, but would Katie and Oliver be okay with you inviting extra people to Brogan's party?"
"They won't care," Ally replied quickly but truthfully, "They'll just think the more the merrier. So will you come?"
Maura glanced down at Stella, she would like to give her daughter the chance to play with other children while they were in England, and she would like to see her old friends from Hogwarts again.
"Sure, we'll be there."
The two women shared a goodbye hug and then Maura Monahan was strutting away on a pair of high-heeled shoes that even Dom would approve of, carrying a sleepy Stella with her.
"Did you really just invite a journalist to a birthday party that will include almost every member of Puddlemere's starting team?" Clark asked Ally in a tone that clearly said that he thought she'd lost her marbles.
She just rolled her eyes at his tone and pointed out, "Cecilia's a journalist."
"Cecilia's first loyalty is to her family," He retorted.
"Maura's not going to do anything to take advantage of the situation. Besides, she's been editor-in-chief of the New York division of Quidditch Weekly for the past four years, she hasn't been involved in anything as basic as staff writing for articles in quite a while," Ally replied, "And even if she did want to publish some gossip that could hurt the team, she's got enough dirt on Nadia Cassano's baby daddy to last her until the kid starts Hogwarts at least."
Clark scoffed, "Does everyone who knows Malcolm Wood from school have gossip about him?"
"Why does it worry you?" Ally asked with a raised eyebrow, "You're usually the main creator of publishable gossip when it comes to Puddlemere players."
Clark frowned, "Maybe I'm trying to turn over a new leaf?"
"Then I'm very proud of you . . . but you don't have to worry about Maura Monahan, she's more trustworthy than a rock. She wouldn't betray any of us," Ally assured him.
Both Brogan and Zach had gotten bored with the adults' conversation before Maura had left, and they had spent the time chattering away as only young boys could. Their attention spans had their limits though, and soon Zach was trying to pull his Uncle Clark away so that they could get on with buying Tabitha a present. The pairs parted ways with a cheery goodbye, and Ally grabbed Brogan's hand so she could pull him along to the next store they needed to visit. They popped into Flourish and Blotts to pick up another package Katie had ordered earlier, and spent about twenty minutes picking out which picture book Brogan wanted, as Ally had promised him a new one. They were exiting the book store and about to head towards the bakery when Brogan decided to stop in front of a different store front.
"Baxter!"
Ally glanced at the front façade of Ollivander's 'Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C', and patiently replied to Brogan, "Yes, Bro, Baxter works here."
"Can we go in?"
"We don't need to pick up anything here."
Brogan pouted at her, "I wanna see Baxter."
Ally sighed but knew that there probably wouldn't be a problem with them dropping into the shop for just a few moments.
The bell above the door tinkled lightly as Ally pulled it open, so both Baxter and Blair Ollivander were made aware of their entrance just a few seconds before Brogan barrelled into the tiny store. The wandmaker and his apprentice were surprised to see Ally and Brogan, but they were pleased to see some familiar and happy faces during one of their slower seasons.
Baxter cheerily asked his cousin what had the two of them out and about, and Ally replied with a quick explanation about them completing some errands for Brogan's upcoming birthday party.
"Ah, and what do you want to get for your birthday this year Brogan?" Baxter asked the five-year-old curiously.
Brogan, who was mostly preoccupied with gazing about the little shop that was filled with thousands of boxes of wands, answered readily, "A wand!"
Ally sighed and looked at Baxter as if to say 'you get to handle this one'. Thankfully, the proprietor of the shop had a lot of experience explaining to young children why they couldn't have wands yet.
"You'll have to wait a few more years until you can have one of these, I'm afraid," Blair Ollivander told Brogan, "But I'll make you a deal. The exact day that you turn eleven, you can come to the shop and get your wand, alright?"
Brogan nodded enthusiastically; he was still young enough not to realize how long five years was.
Ally glanced down at the counter Baxter was standing behind, a familiar wand was resting on an unrolled sheet of parchment.
"You still have Auntie Fleur's wand?"
Baxter nodded his head, "Yeah, she still doesn't want anything to do with it, and I wanted to study it a bit longer. The theory that veela hair could infuse any wand with it's fire-resistant abilities could be ground-breaking if we could prove it as a rule and not an exception."
"How would you prove it as the rule?" Ally asked interestedly.
"I'd need to run more fire-resistant tests on more wands with veela hair cores to prove that it applies to all wands with those cores."
Ally pursed her lips, "So essentially you'd need to throw more veela-core wands into the fire to see if they are flammable or not."
"That's the basics, yes," Baxter replied.
"What's Aunt Fleur doing for a wand in the meantime?"
Baxter waved off her concern, "Uncle Bill forced her into the shop last Monday after she relinquished her wand, so she could find a temporary one. She left with a phoenix feather core one. It's not as powerful as this one, but it's better than nothing, which was good enough for Uncle Bill considering that they had spent two hours in here trying to find one that would work for her."
They had a few more minutes of conversation before Ally voiced that she and Brogan should get going and allow Baxter to get back to work.
"It's actually time for Baxter's break," Blair commented from where he stood on the other side of the small shop, he had been pointing out to Brogan a poster that held all of the different types of wood that wands were made out of.
Ally smirked at Baxter, "Really? Why don't you join us on our last errand then?"
Baxter, who had already started to wrap Fleur's wand back up in the paper, glanced idly up at Ally, "Sure, where're you off to next?"
"The bakery!" Brogan announced excitedly as he slid over to where Ally was standing.
Baxter's face fell a little and he immediately tired to back-track and get out of it. Neither Brogan nor Ally would let him, and the trio left the shop soon after with Brogan riding on Baxter's back as the little boy had guilted him into both that and going to the bakery.
The bakery wasn't a very far distance away, so Baxter didn't have time to think of another way to back out before Ally was holding the door open for him and Brogan to enter. Once inside the shop Baxter knelt down and allowed the five-year-old to slide off his back so that he could wander around and look through all of the glass cases that held an assortment of pastries and treats. Ally asked Baxter to keep an eye on Brogan while she spoke with someone about Katie's cake order.
"Hi, can I help you?" A man asked her as she walked up to the counter with the cash register on it.
While Ally began discussing the particulars of Brogan's birthday cake, Baxter and Brogan had drifted to the opposite side of the shop and were busy discussing the merits of different cookies.
"Chocolate chip!" Brogan answered readily when Baxter asked him what his favourite cookie was.
Baxter chuckled and pointed to the array of cookies in the glass case in front of them. There were simple chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, along with about a dozen other types of cookies that could be classified as 'chocolate chip'.
"Which ones would you like?"
Brogan's tiny face scrunched up with concentration for a few moments before he pointed to the section of the case that held the triple-chocolate chip cookies.
"Of course, you do," Baxter replied with an affection smile. It was obvious to him that Brogan had inherited his older sister's fondness for chocolate. Cecilia would have gone straight to the most chocolate-y item in the bakery as well.
"Are you ready to order Red?"
Baxter's head snapped up and he discovered Bakery Girl standing directly across from him, behind the glass partitions. Her bright blonde hair was styled in a smooth pixie cut, and her lips, which were pulled up into a smirk, were painted a dark blue. The collar of her work uniform was folded down, and Baxter's eyes wandered to the hint of tattoo ink at her collarbone.
"Uh . . ."
"Cookies!" Brogan supplied helpfully when Baxter didn't immediately respond to the employee's question. To punctuate his statement, he poked the glass just in front of where the triple-chocolate chip cookies sat.
Bakery Girl's heated gaze shifted from Baxter. She glanced down at the five-year-old and placed a calm smile on her face, "Of course Kiddo. How many would you like?"
Brogan pointed out the number of cookies he wanted by labelling who they were for, "One for Baxter, one for Ally, one for Xav, one for Cee-Cee, one for Louis, one for Mummy, one for Daddy, three for me-"
"I think two will be quite enough for you Mister," Baxter said quickly before Brogan could really get started.
The young boy pouted but didn't try to argue with. He seemed to realize that he was lucky enough that Baxter had offered him two.
"So, nine triple-chocolate chip cookies then?" Bakery Girl asked Baxter as she grabbed a pastry bag and tongs. Her words were benign but her stare was penetrating and it made him start to feel hot.
Baxter nodded and had a hard time getting the words out of his mouth as she locked eyes with him, "Yes please."
She gave him a wink, breaking the heat between them but oddly enough not tamping down the energy suddenly buzzing through him, and then started to collect the cookies. It took a little longer than normal because Brogan had to point out exactly which cookies he wanted -the ones with the most chocolate chips- and she was just finishing up as Ally walked back over to the group.
"I see Brogan found something to order," Ally commented to Baxter with a chuckle.
"I limited him to two cookies, but he insisted on getting one for everybody else in the family," Baxter explained wryly.
Ally sent an indulgent smile down at the little boy, "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"All set," Bakery Girl told Baxter as she folded down the lip of the pastry bag and handed it out to him.
Baxter took the bag, but before he could ask the cost, Ally began speaking to her.
"Thank you. You're Ophelia, right?"
Bakery Girl glanced at Ally in surprise and nodded her head slightly, "Yes, but I prefer Lia."
Ally inclined her head at her, "How's Rosalind doing? I don't think I've seen her since graduation."
"She's doing well," Lia replied in a tone that was much quieter than the previously flirting tone she'd been using with Baxter, "She got married three years ago and has a two-year-old, so I don't really see much of her."
Ally smiled in response, thanked Lia again, and then grabbed Brogan's hand and began to drag him with her towards the cash. Baxter blinked in surprise at Lia, and it looked like she wanted to say something to him, but before she could he heard Brogan calling his name and telling him to catch up. Since Baxter was still holding the bag of cookies, he had no other option but to comply.
After paying for the cookies the group of three quickly left the shop, Ally handed Brogan one cookie to start with, and then held the bag out to Baxter so that he could take his.
"Thanks . . . so how do you know Bak–Lia?"
"Oh, I don't really know her. But since I was head girl in my seventh-year I did know the names of pretty much all of the students," Ally replied unconcernedly as she rooted around in the bag for the cookie that had the most dark-chocolate chips in it.
Baxter frowned, if Ally had known Bakery Girl from their time at Hogwarts that meant that he should have known who she was as well, "I didn't recognize her from Hogwarts."
"That doesn't surprise me," She replied with a blasé shrug as she took a bite of her cookie, "Ophelia was a year ahead of you in Molly's year, and she was in Slytherin House, so I doubt you ever really crossed paths with each other. Plus, she looks really different now, I'm fairly certain that her natural hair colour is closer to a dark auburn."
Baxter wasn't quite sure what he thought of all of this new information on the relatively unknown woman who'd been flirting with him for the past few years. He took a delicate bite of the cookie Brogan had kindly picked out for him.
"Who was that Rosalind person you were talking about?"
"Rosalind Key, she's Oph–Lia's older sister. Rosalind was in my year at Hogwarts."
He nodded his head at this information, Ally's recognition of Lia made a bit more sense now, "Were you friends with her?"
"Godric no," Ally replied with a shocked tone, "She was a massive bit-" She stopped and glanced down at Brogan who, although mostly occupied with eating his cookie, was still within close hearing distance.
"-Bit of work."
This confused Baxter, "Then why did you ask about her?"
"Because I'm about to marry a celebrity and I have to start being polite to everybody, even if they were the bane of my existence at Hogwarts."
"Was her sister that bad?"
Ally shook her head, "No, I was exaggerating. She was a bit of work, but she never really bothered me personally. My friend Grace Monahan did not get along well with her though, but that had something to do with bad blood between their families from something that happened between their pure-blooded ancestors like a hundred years ago."
"Lia's a pureblood?"
"Yeah, all the Keys are, or at least that's what Rosalind claimed. She hung out with all of the high society purebloods during school, so I'm assuming she was telling the truth. Of course, Anastasia Knott would probably know more about that than me . . ." Ally's sentenced had left off in a musing tone, and Baxter figured that their particular conversation had come to an end.
As they walked away from the bakery and back towards Ollivander's, Baxter glanced back at the large store, his mind now whirling with all of the new information he had learned.
3:30 PM
"Deprimo!" One of the first-year-trainee auror's yelled as he ran from one end of the classroom to another.
"That doesn't count!" Another trainee from the opposite team yelled, "He hasn't made it to the whiteboard yet!"
A few of the other trainees who were on the same team as the first trainee started to yell back, and in the mayhem, Trainee O'Toole slid over top of one of the tables –slipping right in between two of his team members that were sitting at said table– and sprinted to the whiteboard before the trainee he was up against had the chance to circle back.
"Densaugeo," O'Toole announced just a second after he slapped the circle drawn on the whiteboard.
The opposite team's runner slammed his hand down on their square on the whiteboard a few seconds later. Even though the runner was clearly out of breath, he called out as loudly as he could, "Deprimo. It's Deprimo."
Despite the fact that O'Toole had made it to the whiteboard before the other trainee, his team could still lose if he gave the wrong answer to the question. Since the runners from both teams offered different spells as answers, they turned to look at Auror Donaldson and Auror Lupin for the correct response.
"The right answer to the question is . . ." Jilly paused for dramatic effect, sometimes she liked teasing their trainees just a little bit, "Densaugeo."
The team that had chosen O'Toole as their runner cheered, while the other half of the trainees groaned and groused. Some of the members of the opposite team even scrunched up some paper into balls and threw them at their runner.
"I thought it was the right answer," The other trainee muttered as he slumped down in his chair at the front table.
"Who's our next pair? Remember, it needs to be someone who hasn't had a turn yet," Teddy asked the group before they could start mocking each other.
Both teams picked a new runner, and they both went to the starting point near the door. They room went deathly silent as they waited for Jilly to announce the next question. The minute her sentence ended the pair of runners took off and started to run in opposite circles around the room until they got to the wall opposite the whiteboard. Once they were there, they were to run as fast as they could to the front whiteboard and place their hand on their correct team's shape. It was only once their hand was in the shape that they'd be able to blurt out their answer to the question. If they did any of the steps incorrectly, they would have to circle back and start their run to the whiteboard from the back of the room once more.
When Teddy and Jilly had first explained the review game to the trainees, several of them looked as though they were doing all they could to hold back some eyerolls. It was obvious that they thought the 'game' was childish, but the experienced aurors knew that their competitive spirts would come out eventually and that soon they'd be at each other's throats. It only took about ten minutes for them to be proved right.
They had been playing the review game for the past hour at least, but since the intention was to get all of the trainees a chance to get some practice and review in, they were going to keep it going until the end of class so that everyone could have a few chances at being the runner.
The current pair had just hit the board and yelled the same answer, but one team had gotten there first and was announced as the winner. While Jilly got the next pair set up at the starting point, there was a knock on the door. The trainees near the door opened it and Auror McKenny stood on the other side. He asked if her could borrow Auror Lupin for a bit, and Jilly exchanged a glance with Teddy that said that she had everything covered.
Auror McKenny took Auror Lupin down the corridor and towards one of the conference rooms, "Orrell Combs is back and would like to talk to you. He's had a breakthrough in his outlining for his next story and he has a few more questions that he hopes will help him create the framework of the plot."
Teddy knew that he didn't really have any other option besides to agree, so he just nodded his head at what McKenny was telling him and then walked into the conference room where the acclaimed author was already waiting.
Once they got their greetings out of the way, Orrell got down to business.
"I know that aurors are permitted to use the killing curse when it is absolutely necessary, but how often does it actually occur?"
It was an odd question to start out with, but Teddy figured that Orrell really was in the middle of planning details of his book for him to be so focused as to not even attempt a segue.
"We are instructed only to use it as our absolutely last resort, and aurors are only given permission to use it after being fully certified field agents for two years, at the least. Everyone goes through a psychological evaluation before they're allowed to be certified in it's use, as well," Teddy explained.
Orrell wrote down every single word Teddy said, "Anything else? Are you always authorized to use it once you pass the first time?"
"No, authorization can be taken away at any point if a certifiable claim of excessive force is placed against you."
Orrell looked up at Teddy thoughtfully, "So any claim of excessive force can potentially get your authorization taken away from you?"
"Claims need to be verified, but all claims are looked into and authorization is given a pause while that process is in motion. Psychological evaluations also need to be passed again after a claim has been completed, even if the claim was proven untrue," The metamorphmagus clarified.
The author nodded interestedly and continued to take notes, "But everyone knows how to use the killing curse . . . so what happens when one is used even if the auror did not have authorization for it?"
"Immediate life imprisonment in Azkaban, the sentence is the same even if it is a failed attempt to use the killing curse without authorization. The rules are very clear and very explicit."
"With the intent to cut down on inappropriate use of deadly spell force, I assume you need strict rules."
Teddy nodded in agreement, "Yes, although a lot of people forget that the killing curse isn't the only spell out there that can cause death. There are other dark spells and curses that could end up killing someone, as well as mixes of spells that could have a similar end effect. In fact, there are a lot more spells out there that cause very painful injuries that could lead to death if not treated, than there are that could kill someone instantly."
"So, this is where a knowledge of counter-curses would be crucial?" Orrell questioned.
"Yes, along with healing spells. Sometimes the first medical responder to an incident is an auror, and it is important for them to attempt to provide magical medical first aid once the area has been deemed safe."
Orrell started to flip back through his notebook, "Didn't you say that your fiancée is a healer?"
"Yes."
"Does she keep you up to date on dark arts healing?"
Teddy smiled to himself, "You have no idea."
Orrell nodded to himself once more and began to make more notes. Whatever reminder he was writing for himself, seemed longer than what they had just been speaking about.
"Are there any situations in which the other two unforgivables could be used by aurors?"
The metamorphamgus shook his head, "No. No one receives authorization for the Imperious or Cruciatus curses."
His reply was short and firm, and Orrell realized that there wasn't much room for discussion.
"So, what kind of spells are allowed to be used by aurors that could be deadly?" He questioned.
Teddy went on to describe a long list of offensive spells aurors had permission to use, as well as a description of the damage each spell could do and what types of scenarios would call for which spell. Orrell's quill went flying over his page, only to pause every once in a while, when he would ask Teddy a specific question about how being a metamorphamgus might affect a certain situation they were theoretically discussing.
After about an hour Orrell seemed to be out of questions for the time being, and Teddy escorted him out to the lifts. Instead of leaving in the next lift, Teddy doubled-back to his shared office with Jilly, Kurt, and Hayden. He wanted to double-check with Jilly that everything had ended alright with their trainees. He did find Jilly standing by her desk organizing some papers, and Kurt and Hayden were also there slogging through even larger stacks of paperwork.
Teddy and Jilly had a quick recap about how their trainees review went.
"And thank Caleb for the suggestion of the review game, it definitely got the trainees involved and thinking," Teddy told Jilly.
She nodded her head, "I'll make sure that I do. He'll be happy to hear that he was able to help."
"So, who's the most promising trainee out of the group?" Hayden asked curiously as he signed a piece of paper with a flourish.
"Trainee O'Toole," Both Teddy and Jilly replied at the same time.
Hayden and Kurt both looked up at them with surprise.
"Really?"
"Not only is he more competent than his older brother, but he's also more competent than the rest of the trainees. I'm afraid he'll have a lot of work ahead of him to get out from under his brother's less-than helpful shadow," Teddy told them.
The metamorphmagus knew a thing or two about trying to make a name for himself as an auror while living under a shadow. Several shadows actually.
"Well, we're done for the day," Jilly replied with a smile as she collected a few files that she was going to take home with her. She glanced at the two aurors who were not on trainee babysitting duty that day, "What are you two up to anyway?"
Kurt sighed and closed up the open file he had been working on, "Well since we have yet to discover anything more about how the Holmwoods may be connected to the case Louis handed over to us, we are back to working on notifying victims of Azkaban releases."
Whenever a convicted criminal had completed serving their sentence and was about to be released from Azkaban, any person who was a victim or listed as a complainant against the criminal would be notified before the criminal's release. According to regulations, victims could not be notified more than a week prior to the criminal's release.
"Most of the cases we've been through today were for physical or sexual assault. We've been writing letters to the victims, but for a lot of these cases it just doesn't seem like enough. We have to use the department's standard 'We are writing to inform you that so-and-so has completed their so-many years sentence and will be released on this day. Your restraining order from before the sentencing will come back into effect at this time. You have one month to complete the paperwork to get an extension of this restraining order. If you do not get an extension, the retraining order will run out on this-date'. I mean how comforting is that?" Hayden complained.
Kurt nodded his head with matching irritation, "Letters are just so impersonal. I mean I know that the victims have already noted in their files which method of communication they would prefer, but they do that after the sentencing which may occur after a lengthy trial. The last thing these victims want is to spend more time with an auror. They all pick that they would prefer to be notified by letter, and then five years go by and out of the blue they get this carbon-copy fill-in-the-blank letter telling them that the person who assaulted them is going to be back on the streets again."
"Yeah, that's a rubbish part of the job," Teddy sympathized. He'd had to write his fair share of letters before in the past as well. Being assigned to do so never seemed to get any easier.
Hayden nodded and then grabbed a new file, "Well you guys have a good night, we'll be stuck here wondering about the efficacy of a justice system that only requires five years in Azkaban for someone who is convicted of sexually assaulting someone else."
Teddy rooted around on his desk for a file that he still needed to complete some paperwork on, and once he found it, he was planning to call it a night.
"Uh, Ted, is this normal?"
Teddy walked over to Hayden's desk, "Is what normal?"
"This file is sealed and the note on the front says that it's only to be opened by Auror McKenny," Hayden said as he lifted up the file and showed it to Teddy, and Kurt who had glanced up at it from where he sat at his desk.
Kurt answered before Teddy could, "Yeah, it happens sometimes. I had one last week that was sealed and only Auror Weasley could open it. I guess they do that when it involves confidential information and the victim has made a request that the original case auror be the person to complete the follow through."
Hayden nodded with pursed lips and offered it to Teddy, "Drop this off at McKenny's office on your way out?"
"Sure."
The metamorphmagus collected the file he'd been looking for and then grabbed the sealed one. It didn't take him long to get the McKenny's office, but when he did get there, he noticed that the door was warded shut. Teddy tried knocking but Auror McKenny didn't answer. He figured that the other auror must have just stepped out of the office on another matter. Teddy didn't want to leave the file in McKenny's mail box in the case that it did contain very sensitive information, so instead he took it to Kingsley's office where all sensitive files were to be stored until the corresponding auror was able to retrieve it.
When Teddy knocked on the office door, this time it opened.
"Shouldn't you be calling it quits for the night?" Kingsley asked as he opened the door and spotted the metamorphmagus.
Teddy explained that Kurt and Hayden had been going through release case files and had found a sealed one for McKenny. He went on to explain that McKenny was not in his office, so he brought the file here.
Kingsley nodded approvingly, "I'll keep a hold of it until tomorrow when McKenny gets back in. He got a note a little while ago and had to travel to check-up on one of his confidential informants. It'll give the victim one less day, but only McKenny will have the spell that unseals this so it's the best we can-"
The head of the Auror Department's words stopped as he inspected the file. It was a darker colour than most of the other files, which indicated that it had been created more than two decades ago before they switched to a new and slightly different supplier. Kingsley ran his thumb down the magically sealed end of the file and frowned. The number of sealed files that McKenny had from over two decades ago was a very short list. There was only one that he was aware of.
Kingsley pulled out his wand, and despite claiming a moment ago that Auror McKenny was the only person who could unlock the spell, he tapped the file's lip with the tip of his wand, muttered a few words that Teddy couldn't hear, and opened up the file.
"How'd you do that?" Teddy questioned, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"McKenny was working on this case while I was Minister of Magic. He was the lead but I had a special interest in the case and I was told the spell to unseal it when it was created. My name would have been on it, but I wasn't technically working for the department at the time, so McKenny's was the only one written on here," Kingsley explained as his eyes started to drift across the open file.
Teddy was far enough away from the file that he couldn't read the words written on it, "So it's an older case then?"
"Yes . . . and I need to go inform the victim immediately."
Teddy automatically stepped to the side of the hallway, "I'll get out of your way then-"
"Actually Ted, I'd like you to come with me," Kingsley told him.
"Why?"
The older auror handed the younger one the unsealed file, "Read it."
Teddy took the file from him, and his gaze didn't need to skim past more than just the name of the victim before he started to understand Kingsley's request.
"Kathryn Penelope Bell-Wood."
A/N: Will you look at that? We actually found out more information about Lia! Now who saw this coming? Sorry about the cliffhanger at the end, but I needed to end it here because the next chapter needs to be set up a certain way.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter! It seems whatever was wrong with FFN the last time I updated has been fixed, because I am now getting emails about updates and reviews again (Knock on wood). So, please feel free to send me your thoughts in a review or PM, I should be able to see them now!
Next Chapter: We will see a bit of the kiddos at Hogwarts, spend some time at St. Mungo's with Victoire, and yes, we will come back to the topic of the cliffhanger.
Next Update: I am about to get started on the chapter once I post this, so I'm hoping to have it up before Christmas.
Thanks again to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!
BIG thank yous as always to:
CrackHeadBlonde, Bebe17, TeeChamblissful, Shruthi, Guest (1), TheProphetBVB, jwjanjanwongg, liverpoolss, Guest (2), Manydifferentfandoms, Gnool, Guest (3), Potterhead192007, and Dthea33.
CrackHeadBlonde: We will have to wait a few chapters for the France trip, but we will get there and it will be lots of *fun*.
Bebe17: I'm glad that you like the subplots. I know that there are a lot more than an actual novel would have, but there's so many fun people to write about it makes it very difficult to reign it in.
Shruthi: You're welcome. Hopefully this chapter finds you at a good moment as well.
Guest (1): Yes, thank you Ginny for doing the Lord's work, who knows how long it would have taken if it was up to James ;)
TheProphetBVB: Sometimes these chracters can be infuriating.
jwjanjanwongg: Wow, crazy dream. I will add your suggestion to a list of one-shot ideas, but to be honest there's so many on the list and so much to do for this story, I'm not sure if it'll get done.
Manydifferentfandoms: I'm glad you had such a visceral reaction to the last chapter ;)
Gnool: Feel free to ship whoever you want.
Potterhead192007: I think Daria had already realized that Charlie's family was a little odd, she was probably happy to have an explanation for it once the shock wore off!
Dthea33: I have a big list of one-shots that I need to write, I'll add it to the list.
I hope everyone enjoyed this update,
Please let me know your thoughts, questions, or concerns,
I really hope that everyone is doing well and being safe,
Until next time, DFTBA!