The Eighth Year Universe
Love Wins
I Don't Have Any Answers
The chapter title is from the song:
Road Between – Lucy Hale.
The Burrow
Sunday the 5th of September
Harry hadn't been invited to Felicity's funeral, which was fine. He understood what Ron had wanted – a quiet burial, something that might make it easier for the kids to come to terms with their mothers passing. The Weasley's were a big family, they supported each other, and Harry understood that.
Still, when he stepped into the Burrow afterwards, Molly tearfully said that Ron really ought to have invited him.
"You and Hermione, you're family too," She had said through her tears.
Harry had tried not to cry then. He nodded and hugged Molly, giving her his condolences and letting her hug him as tightly as she needed to.
"She would have been here," Harry promised, "Hermione, but Sadie's brother's funeral is today too and - "
"I quite understand," Molly cut him off. She released him from the hug and gave him a slight nod, "But thank you for coming, Harry."
Harry nodded and cleared his throat, "Is Ron…?"
He wasn't sure what he was asking, but Molly's eyes filled with tears once more. She shook her head, "He is putting on a brave face for the children."
Harry swallowed and nodded. He stepped through the kitchen into the lounge, which was eerily quiet in a way that it hadn't been since Percy's death. Susan had apologised to Molly for not being here, but that wasn't so much of a surprise.
Susan brought the children around regularly, but things had deteriorated between her and the Weasley's since Percy's death. Harry hadn't seen her around here as much since she had openly started dating Caroline, and he didn't think that was a coincidence.
When Harry stepped into the room, he glanced around for Ron, but he didn't see him. Bill was here, notably without Fleur, and Charlie and Astoria were here, but Will wasn't, so Harry figured he was probably at home with Amber. Blaise was sitting on a sofa, but there was no sign of Ginny, and George and Angelina were both here too. Freddie was sitting on an armchair with Andrea, and Harry managed a weak smile in their direction.
Andrea waved at her dad half-heartedly. Harry supposed Freddie appreciated it, having his girlfriend to support him on a day like this. None of Ron's other children were in the lounge, though.
Arthur nodded at Harry from an armchair, and Harry patted the older man on the shoulder, "I'm sorry for your loss, Arthur."
"Thanks, son," Arthur said with a forced smile.
Bill sighed and looked at Harry, "The funeral was tough."
Harry nodded, "Where are the kids?"
"Ian and Dean are in their rooms," Bill replied, motioning upwards, "And Evie's with Gin. She had a bit of a meltdown when we got back."
Harry ran a hand through his hair, "And…uh…where's Ron?"'
"Outside," Charlie replied, "He's not talking to anyone. It was hardest on him today."
Of course it had been. Harry leant in the doorway and sighed, "Is there anyone this hasn't touched?"
"No," Arthur replied simply.
Harry frowned and looked over at the older man. He did look distraught, but it was more than that – he seemed torn, too.
Bill elaborated, "We weren't the only ones putting people to rest in the family graveyard today."
Harry knew that there was a graveyard in Cambridgeshire that was full of Weasley's, but he didn't realise that other wizarding families lived nearby, and he voiced that opinion out loud.
Arthur shook his head, "It's not another wizarding family, Harry. It's my family."
Harry's frown deepened, "More Weasley's?"
Arthur nodded and looked into the fire, "I was one of four siblings. My youngest sister Darcy married a MacDougall and moved to Scotland. We used to meet up with the MacDougall cousins once a year or so, until the first war….then people started to draw lines and pick sides."
Harry stepped into the room and perched on the edge of Bill's armchair to listen to what Arthur had to say.
"My younger brother, Bilius, we were always close. But he was wild, and he lived life like it was one big adventure, so he…died young," Arthur said. He cleared his throat and sighed, "And today when I spoke to my older brother Charlus…well, that was the first time we had spoken in 45 years."
"I knew about Ron's Uncle Bilius," Harry admitted, "And Ginny mentioned something about an Aunt Darcy, but I never knew you had another brother, Arthur."
Arthur nodded. His eyes were distant, "I grew up in Westley Waterless. It was a manor in Cambridgeshire. We weren't the Malfoy's, but we weren't poor either."
"Neither of us were," Molly said as she stepped into the room.
Arthur shook his head, "No, Molly lived in the Prewett ancestral home in Wales. It was practically a castle."
"Until the Death Eaters who killed my brothers destroyed it," Molly said, her eyes darkening like they always did when she spoke about the war.
Arthur took her hand and guided her to him. She perched on the edge of his armchair, and Harry kept his gaze fixed on them curiously.
"I had a falling out with my father when I decided to marry Molly," Arthur admitted, "The Weasley's were a traditional family back then, and the Prewett's were so pro-light that families like mine called them radical. He cut me off, but Charlus didn't mind. Even though I moved away and built this home for myself and Molly here, I stayed in touch with Charlus."
Arthur looked down, "When my father died, Charlus inherited everything, and he offered to buy me a house so many times, but I didn't want charity handouts."
"Neither of us did," Molly agreed.
Harry nodded. He could understand that.
Arthur sighed, "Charlus married a pureblood witch called Luisa. Samson, Charlus's eldest son, was born within months of Bill, and they went through school together."
Bill nodded, "By the time we started school, our dads didn't speak, but Sam and I were still friends."
"Even if he was a Slytherin," Charlie mused, "He was alright."
Arthur frowned slightly, his eyes on the fire ahead of him once more, "When Charlie was born, we named him after my brother because although we were at war then, we still had a good relationship."
Charlie nodded, and Astoria cast a surprised glance his way. He had never mentioned an Uncle Charlus.
Arthur cleared his throat, "Charlus's second child, Humphrey, was born not long after Percy and his youngest, Mafalda. She was born about five months after Ginny, but we stopped speaking in 1976."
"Why?" Harry asked curiously.
"Because of those battle lines that I mentioned," Arthur admitted, "Nobody trusted each other back then, Harry. Voldemort had spies everywhere, and because of the rise in the use of the imperius curse, you never knew if your own brother would turn on you."
Harry had heard similar things about that time – from the likes of Sirius, Remus and Hagrid.
"Molly and I joined up with the Order of the Phoenix as soon as we could, and Darcy's husband refused to get involved in the war at all," Arthur explained, "Back then, you could split wizarding families into three camps. There were the liberals who fought with the Order. The neutrals stayed out of the war, which is the category Darcy and her husband fell into. Then there were the Traditionalists who either actively helped Voldemort or didn't do anything to stop him, and that was where Charlus's branch of the family fell. He had been in Slytherin at school, his classmates had gone on to become Death Eaters, and suddenly, we began to see each other as a threat. We stopped letting our sons see each other, and we put distance between ourselves."
Molly squeezed Arthur's hand as he recalled that time.
"It all came to a head in 1976," Arthur said quietly, "When Percy was born, and we gave him the middle name Ignatius for Molly's father. When Charlus and Luisa asked to come and visit him, we said no and when he asked why I told him I didn't trust him. There was an argument, and Bilius took my side, while Darcy took Charlus's."
Arthur shook his head, "The war ended, but we never tried to make amends. He sent his condolences after the Battle of Hogwarts when Fred… but there was no attempt from either of us to reconcile."
Harry's frown deepened. Arthur scratched his balding head and admitted, "Then today, we met in the graveyard. We were burying Felicity next to Percy and Fred, and he was burying Mafalda, his youngest child. She wasn't even forty years old, and she had died in the Diagon Alley attack."
Arthur sighed, "And Samson was there, burying his daughter and her husband. I had heard that Orla had married a Yaxley, and I was disdainful about it. But when I saw them today, burying Orla, her husband and their two daughters…."
He swallowed and shook his head, "Orla was 26, her daughters were 5 and 7. It made me realise that hate does not discriminate. Charlus has lost a daughter, a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters. He had no airs and graces in that graveyard. He was just devastated."
Molly swallowed and tearfully said, "They spoke some, both apologised, and Charlus quoted the Weasley family motto to Arthur."
"Bono Malum Superate," Arthur recited, "Overcome evil with good. Charlus said that's what we need to do now, and he's right."
Molly wiped her eyes and nodded, "The wars with Voldemort divided us, Harry. We were all so terrified that we cut ties with our families and our friends because we did not know who we could truly trust. The wizarding world was split into dark and light, traditional and liberal, and those wounds never truly healed. People chose sides, and we lost so much."
"But this is different," Harry realised quietly, "This isn't someone dividing us. This is a tragedy uniting us."
Molly bowed her head in agreement, "Which is why Arthur's run-in with Charlus today has me thinking that I ought to reach out to my sister."
"Your sister?" Harry echoed.
Molly nodded, "Gideon and Fabian were my older brothers, but I had a much younger sister – Bethel, or Beth as she liked to be called. She was nine years younger than me, so we were never as close as I was to my brothers because I was at Hogwarts while she was growing up."
Harry nodded and turned his attention to Molly.
"I stopped speaking to her in 1977 when she turned 18 and ran off to elope with her boyfriend," Molly confessed, "We all thought she was pregnant, but as it turned out, she wasn't."
Molly shook her head, "It was the height of the war, and she married Fitzroy Mulciber, knowing fine well who he was. Whether she was attracted to the danger or not…I don't know, but I could not reconcile it. She had married a man we all suspected to be linked to the Death Eaters. His father was in Voldemort's inner circle, after all."
Harry nodded, and Molly continued, "Then in 1981, the Death Eaters killed Gideon and Fabian and destroyed our ancestral home."
Arthur squeezed Molly's shoulder supportively, and Molly took a steadying breath.
"Mulciber claimed his father had put him under the imperius curse, and he escaped Azkaban," Molly said with a shake of her head, "I heard from Beth after the Battle of Hogwarts. She wrote to me saying she was sorry for Fred and that…."
Molly's voice broke, " – that she had married Mulciber because she loved him, knowing fine well that his political leanings were extreme. She claimed he had only ever supported the Death Eaters, that he wasn't marked, but I didn't believe her. I found out in that letter that she had a toddler son called Kyler and a newborn called Kenna who had been born a month after the battle and had never met her father because he had killed himself."
With a shake of her head, Molly said, "I never replied to that letter, and there wasn't another after that, but…I saw the name Kenna Mulciber in the list of the Diagon Alley dead, and she was only…."
Molly's eyes filled with tears, "She was only 23, not much older than Fred was when he…died."
Harry crossed the room to hug Molly, partly to hide the tears in his eyes.
Molly smiled tearfully but appreciatively.
"The WWN keeps talking about how we must stand united," Molly said quietly, "And I wonder if that means it is time to mend cracks that have been left open for too long."
Harry nodded and smiled tearfully, "I think that's exactly what it means."
Harry found Ron exactly where he expected to. He was sitting in the orchard just outside the boundary of the Burrow, his wheelchair abandoned by the treeline.
The taller man was sitting against a tree with a cigarette in his mouth. Harry didn't question that. He just sat down next to Ron and kicked his legs out.
Ron sighed and looked up at the bright blue sky, which streamed in through the gaps between branches.
An apple fell from the tree, and Harry grabbed it. He threw it from hand to hand absentmindedly until Ron turned his head to the side and looked at Harry with bloodshot eyes.
"Do I deserve this?"
"No," Harry replied instantly. He shook his head and looked Ron in the eye, "Absolutely not."
Ron vanished the cigarette and ran both of his hands through his hair.
"I fucked up so many times," He said, his voice muffled through his hands, "With Hermione, then with Lilly….and fuck, Harry, I fucked up with Katie."
Harry nodded, but Ron wasn't looking at him anyway. His hands were still over his face.
"And you were all settling down," Ron said. He let his hands drop, and he didn't bother to hide the tears rolling down his cheeks, "You were adopting Teddy and marrying Daphne, and Hermione was with Draco, and Neville was with Lilly…then there was me."
Ron shook his head, "I was just aimless until I met Felicity, then she turned everything on its head. She was…she was…."
"Everything you never knew you wanted or needed," Harry finished.
Ron blinked hard, "Yeah."
Harry sighed and looked up at the sky, "I don't know why life can be so cruel, Ron. I don't know why Death claims some people before their time, but I do know that there's more than one type of love out there in the world."
Ron frowned and turned his head to look at Harry, "What do you mean?"
"Nobody has just one soulmate, and not every 'love' is romantic or sexual," Harry returned simply, "I never thought I would feel anything like what I feel for Daphne for anyone else, but what I feel for Lilly…well, it comes in pretty close."
Ron's frown deepened.
"And if I can feel all that at once, then you'll feel it again someday too," Harry promised his best friend, "This emptiness isn't forever. The pain does fade with time."
Ron nodded and looked down at his hands.
"And remember that night when you had Hermione, Lilly and Felicity in the same room?" Harry said, nudging Ron in the ribs, "And they all agreed your emotional capacity has definitely been upgraded to a tablespoon?"
Ron smiled a little sadly at the memory and nodded.
"There's enough room in there to love someone else one day," Harry said with a smile, "This pain isn't forever unless you let it be. You will always love Felicity, a part of you will belong to her forever, but that doesn't mean you stop living now because that's absolutely not what she would have wanted you to do."
Ron wiped his eyes and looked at Harry, "She told you about the list?"
"She told me about the list," Harry agreed with a sad smile, "You got it after the funeral, I guess?"
"Yeah," Ron replied, his voice breaking, "She wrote it after Evie was born. You know she was sick after, and it was touch and go for a while."
"Pre-eclampsia, yeah," Harry nodded.
Ron shook his head, "So she…she wanted to be prepared, it put things in perspective for her, so she gave me this list of things I should do for her if she died, the things she didn't get to do."
Harry was trying his best to maintain his composure for Ron, but when he slung his arm around Ron's shoulders then, he had a lump in his throat.
"We had done a few things on it, mind you," Ron said, sniffing as he pulled the crumpled piece of parchment from his pocket, "But not Niagara Falls or the Alps. We hadn't gotten around to them yet."
"So, what are you going to do?" Harry asked.
Ron wiped his eyes again and took a steadying breath, "When this is all over…I'm gonna do it, Harry. I'd do anything for her, even though she's gone."
Harry smiled tearfully, "She told me why she wrote the list, Ron, and she asked me to go with you if you needed me because she…" he took a breath, "… she said she knew you would need her help to heal."
Ron let out a sob at that. He nodded and let his head fall into his hands. Harry swallowed the lump in his throat and put his hand on Ron's back as his best friend finally let himself break down.
Blacknot Castle
Sadie was pacing the drawing-room floor. She knew it was a bad time. They were all physically tired after a busy day and emotionally exhausted because they had all cared about Sorenson. It hadn't been easy for any of them to put him in the ground.
But what Lilly had said had struck a chord with Sadie. It was about being honest and upfront for once, not just assuming that everyone knew what was going on in her head through the strange little mental bond the four of them had formed over the years.
"Well, that's never good," Theo mused, motioning at Sadie.
Draco was watching her too. He nodded, "She only paces when she's stressed."
"Or nervous," Hermione added, "Either way, it's not good."
Sadie swallowed and came to a stop. She looked at them with torment in her eyes, "I've kept something big from you three for a very long time."
"Oh, here we go," Draco muttered, rubbing his eyes at the very thought of what could come out of her mouth next.
Theo raised an eyebrow, "Well, you can't be about to tell me that the twins are Draco's because I was there when they were conceived, and he wasn't - "
"Theo, I'm serious," Sadie said quietly, "This is…big."
Theo stopped joking around and nodded, "I'm sorry, Sadie. Go on."
Sadie swallowed again, then took a breath, "I don't talk about my work in the Department of Mysteries, often because I shouldn't. Technically now that it's over, I can talk about it, but there are some things that ordinary people just shouldn't know."
Hermione frowned and glanced anxiously over at the two men. Unsurprisingly, they looked worried too.
Sadie continued, "The portal that I told you about, within the veil…."
"The one you used to save Harry?" Hermione prompted.
Sadie nodded, her eyes haunted, "I knew a lot about it because the Death Chamber was what I specialised in. I spent years working there, studying the veil very closely, and I won't lie and say that there was no personal reason behind that."
Theo had begun to comprehend what she was telling them, Hermione thought because he looked mildly horrified.
Sadie took another breath, "When we learned that it took a sacrifice to go through the portal, nobody volunteered to continue the experiment. The price was that it took some magic and, as such, obviously affected your lifespan. I…I volunteered because it meant that I could do some good in the world, and if I was careful and monitored the amount of magic lost to each trip, I could shorten my lifespan just enough."
Her eyes fell on Theo, who looked tearful.
"No."
"I didn't want to go on without you," Sadie said quietly, "Which is selfish, I know, but I brought Draco back for the same reason."
"This isn't the same," Draco said, his own voice tight, "You've willingly shaved years - "
"Decades," Hermione interrupted. Her tone was even, so it was hard to be sure how she felt about the situation.
Draco swallowed, " – decades off your life so that you can die with Theo. But what about us, Sadie?"
"You will have each other," Sadie began to say.
Hermione cut in before Sadie could finish though, "And what about our children? We might not have explicitly told the younger ones about Theo's condition, but they know, Sadie. They are not stupid. They see that their Pops is weak. They see him go in and out of hospital throughout the colder months. They know he won't live to a ripe old age, and even if they put on a brave face about it most of the time, that hurts them more than I think we see."
Sadie swallowed, and tears filled her eyes.
"And now, you have willingly decided that not only do they lose a father, but they will also lose a mother," Hermione finished.
"Well then, it's a good thing there are four of us, I suppose," Sadie said stiffly. It wasn't entirely effective because of the tears in her eyes.
"No," Draco said coolly, "No, you don't get to do that because you know that those six kids have favourites, and it's not Hermione or me, not for any of them. We weren't here when they were little, we were working, but you two raised them. Theo, you taught them, you guided them, in school and at home and Sadie, even when you went back to work, you toed the line between work and family better than we ever did."
Hermione nodded and wiped her eyes hastily.
"They need you, both of you," Draco said quietly, "And now they're going to lose you both, far too young and….they're going to lose Hermione or me too."
"You don't know that - " Theo cut in.
"Yes, we do!" Hermione snapped, "Everyone is talking about the prophecy like it's vague, but it isn't! One of us is going to die, whether that's 'silver eyes crying through the wind' or the light fading from 'the golden one'. In fact, both of us might die, which leaves you two."
Guilt and deeper emotions were swimming in Sadie's eyes. It was plain to see that she hadn't really thought about all of the consequences. Although, to be fair, she hadn't been aware of the prophecy when she began travelling through the portal in the veil.
"I'm sorry," Sadie admitted, she blinked and her tears streamed down her cheeks, "But I lost you once, Theo, and I had to face the future without you, and I can't do that again, I can't, not for decades after you're gone."
Theo sighed and pulled Sadie into a hug. He looked at Draco over her shoulder and understood why the other man seemed so tense.
This wasn't just about Sadie's mortality or Theo's. It was about everything. It was about their family, children, and how they would manage after they were gone.
Hermione rubbed her hands over her face in an attempt to hide her tears, but also because she was beyond exasperated.
"If this is us speaking the truth rather than skirting around subjects because they hurt too much to talk about…." Hermione trailed off.
Draco shook his head, "Hermione, don't - "
"Don't what, Draco?" Hermione snapped, "Don't state the thing we all know but that we are all avoiding? The prophecy is in your name, but it is about me. It's the 5th of September. We have just over two weeks until the autumn equinox."
Draco took a step towards his wife, but Hermione stepped back.
"Don't," Hermione said quietly – brown eyes locked onto blue, "Don't hug me or look at me like that and tell me it's going to be okay because it isn't, and we need to start preparing for that now. Silver eyes crying through the wind, all that means is that you will be there and whatever happens to me, you're going to see it."
Hermione took another step back, and they could see she wanted to pace as her mind reeled.
"From everything we've deduced about the prophecy, whatever happens, is going to happen in the Department of Mysteries, so the 'spirits door' is the veil," Hermione looked at Sadie, "It's a literal link to the spiritual world, after all."
Sadie just nodded in response.
Hermione held up another finger, "We know it's going to happen on the autumn equinox because of the line about the last embers of summer when darkness falls."
She held up another finger, "We know that Draco and I are both going to be there. But we don't know who the 'raven girl' is, and we don't know what is going to draw us down to the Department of Mysteries, but whatever it is, it won't be good."
"I think I might be the raven girl," Sadie admitted quietly, "If you believe everything my father told me, then the Cauldwell's are descended from Rowena Ravenclaw. We ended up in America somehow, but our family surname traces back here, eventually."
Hermione looked over at Sadie with a frown.
Sadie sighed and shook her head, "The prophecy might be in your name, Draco, but it isn't just about you. It's about your family, and that includes Theo and me. I think…I think maybe it's about all four of us, and we can't deny that my father is not linked to everything that's going on either."
Draco nodded and perched on the edge of a nearby armchair.
"There's a meeting about that on Tuesday morning in the Auror office, which myself and the Head of the DMLE are chairing so…it's big," He admitted, his eyes on Sadie, "But I'll tell you anything they find out."
Sadie nodded and rested her head against Theo's chest.
"He did it," She said quietly, "If Sorenson thought so, then I believe him."
"And we believe in you," Draco promised.
"Even when you do stupid things that mean you're going to get taken away from us too early," Hermione said, her eyes on Sadie's.
"I'm starting to think that none of us are going to survive this year anyway," Sadie whispered, and the terror she felt came through loud and clear.
Theo wrapped his arms around her tightly and rested his chin on the top of her head, "We're Black-Nott's, which makes us survivors. We are not about to let some prophecy or a rebel group, potentially run by your father, defeat us."
Sadie sighed, and Hermione looked at Theo like she didn't quite believe it.
"I mean it, Hermione," Theo said, his sincerity coming through, "I would fight to the last breath for every one of you, and I know you feel the same. We've gotten through everything else that life has thrown at us, and we'll get through this too."
"For once, listen to the eternal optimist," Draco said, giving Theo a slight nod.
Maybe hoping for the best and preparing for the worst was the only way to get through the next two weeks.
- TBC -
