Chapter 13: Home with a Faerie and the Fallen

"Now what, Hank?"

I looked over at Harry, trying to decide if he was trying to have me say something specific, like 'we need to gather every Auror for a briefing' or if I was headed home to see Melody, but I couldn't tell. He and Ginny had been pretty quiet when I'd told them about what happened with the faeries, not to mention all the shit that had happened when I was at the conference and after the conference, and when I'd mentioned Daphne Greengrass the look on Ginny's face was something I couldn't quite place. It was either surprise or disgust, maybe a bit of both. I filed that away to ask Ginny about someday, someday like never; I could guess she wasn't Daphne's biggest fan, and chalked that up to stuff that happened at Hogwarts that I didn't know about. Eventually, though, they were all staring at me and I knew I had to say something.

"I guess I'm headed home. I'm guessing you told Melody just enough to keep her from blowing up?"

"We did." Ginny nodded. "She wasn't happy about it."

I laughed. "I bet. Um..." I looked over to Reena. "So as ambassador are you going to stay here or..."

"Oh no." She smiled, unnerving me a bit. "I'm staying with you. Cleeva was quite insistent."

"Fuck." I put a hand over my goatee for a moment. "Mel's gonna love that."

"Hank..." Harry was looking at me intently and I realized he was being 'Auror Harry' at that point. "We will need you, and you as well, Ambassador, to brief the Auror Department about your discovery of the Gazer's abduction. Not the lot, just Kingsley and, unfortunately, the Deparment of Mysteries. That'll be fun." He paused. "I will ask that you stay at home and not go anywhere without letting me or Ron know."

I looked at Harry for second. "You're asking, but you're not really asking, are you?"

He sighed. "Not really, no. Sorry."

"It's fine. After how long I've been gone I'm sure Mel won't argue with you. Or I'll Floo you and be sleeping on your sofa for a while. One of those."

As the conversation was in a lull Ginny got up from the table without a word, returning shortly with Harry's Auror robe. She draped it over the back of his chair and sat down. "All I wanted was a nice, quiet weekend without the children but you'll be heading in to see Kingsley. Am I right?"

She gave him a look and I thought if that's what Harry got for just messing up their weekend I was in deep shit when I got home. I may not have Sybil's gift, thank God, but I wasn't that dumb.

As soon as I came out of the Floo, Reena in my arms, I took in the sight and it made me happier than I had been in ages. My three year old son was lying on the floor playing with dragon and Auror figures; surprisingly next to him on the floor with a dragon figure in her hand flying it over the little scene was my mother-in-law. Melody was asleep on the sofa, Virginia in her arms, while my dog Spit was crashed out on his back next to her feet. The two cats, Churchill and Virgil, were sleeping on the top of the sofa. On opposite ends, obviously, as they didn't get on very well. It made me feel happier than I had in ages. Of course my arrival disrupted that little tableu, but I wasn't prepared for the reaction.

"HANK!" Lane dropped the dragon figure, knocking over several Auror figures and pointed at me, horrified. Before I could say a word she reached over and snatched HR to her, rather roughly, causing him to yell in surprise.

"What the hell?" I let Reena out of my arms and looked over to Melody, who had just woken up after hearing her mom yell, looked at me oddly and then I watched her eyes light on Reena. Mirroring her mom's actions she pulled Virginia closer to her, tightly. "What's wrong?"

As Lane gasped like a fish out of water, trying to come up with words, Mel turned to me. "How could you, Hank? How could you?"

"How could I what?" I sat down in a chair and watched as Lane scooted away as best she could on her butt while holding a squalling HR, who had obviously realized that something was wrong. "I don't understand." I felt something light on my shoulder and turned to see Reena. The look on her face was one of embarrassment. "Reena?"

"You know her name?" Lane continued shuffling along until her back bumped up against the wall.

At that moment Nonky popped into the room, a look on his face that told me he expected to fight to protect his family, but the second his eyes found Reena he bowed, mirroring Kreacher's actions when we'd popped into Harry and Ginny's house. I took off my glasses and shook my head. Whatever reaction I'd been expecting after coming home after being gone for so long, and under shitty circumstances, this was definitely not it. "What the fuck is wrong with everybody? This is Reena, she's an ambassador from the..."

Lane shook her head. "You willingly brought a faerie into the house. She's here for the children!"

"What? Are you...NO. She's not here for the kids. Are you?" I turned to Reena and saw a look of shame cross her face. "Would someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?"

Thankfully Spit didn't give two shits that I'd brought Reena with me as he tumbled off the couch as fast as his little Corgi legs would allow and came over to me, wiggling his butt in his normal 'oh my God I'm so glad you're here pet me pet me pet me' manner. I reached down and petted him for a minute, but then he went over to Reena and licked her hand for a moment until she petted him.

I pointed to Spit. "See, he's not afraid of her. Will someone start talking?"

Reena took a deep breath. "I am afraid their fears are well founded, aren't they, Fallen."

I noticed she'd been looking at Nonky when she said that. "Fallen?" I saw Nonky nod his head, his big elf ears wobbling. "Ok, how about this...You guys stay there with the kids and Reena will stay here and somebody better start talking."

After about five minutes I knew I'd be repeating the story to Hermione Weasley soon, as it was the origin of the house elves. I'd just assumed that house elves were, well, they just were. Like zebras exist and shit like that. Far from it. It turned out that Mel and Lane's fears were actually grounded in reality; a long time ago, like before Hogwarts was even a glimmer in anyone's imagination, faeries and men had lived together peacefully. Faeries, though, didn't reproduce as quickly as humans and some were quite jealous of this, leading a group of them to actually abduct human children to raise as their own, hoping to make them value faeries over humans, specifically witches and wizards. Apparently they thought if they could have a more compliant group of humans, magical humans, they could eventually have the upper hand and eliminate the more 'willful' people or some shit. To me it sounded like something from Tolkien, one of those appendices or something in the Simarillion that was in deliberately difficult language. Probably orcish. The child thefts had gone on for a bit but then it was discovered, Reena wouldn't say how. But it had been discovered, and the punishment was, according to Reena, the most severe punishment possible for her people; the guilty faeries were banished from the realms of the fae and instead of making humans subservient to them it was reversed. The faeries would be forever bound to serve witches and witches, their life forces bound to their families. Real old testament stuff, if you were a faerie, I guess. Ever since then human/faerie interactions were very regulated, but the punishment for stealing a human child was kept in place. That didn't keep the craftier faeries from fashioning bargains that would result in them getting kids, but that was very, very rare.

After Reena had finished speaking I looked over to Melody. She still looked like she wasn't sure to believe the faerie or not but I could tell Lane didn't believe one fucking word. In her disbelief and concentration on the story, though, she'd lessened her grip on HR. It didn't surprise me that he squirmed his way out of her arms, as he was something of a little wiggle-worm. He didn't care that Reena was there, his gran and mom were acting weird and he wanted to see me. He ran over to me and I picked him up, hugging him tightly.

"Hiya, Bud. I've missed you."

"Missed you, Daddy." He turned and looked to Reena. "Are you a real faerie?"

"I am." She nodded. "Want to see my wings?"

"Uh-huh."

She stepped back and with a smile on her face let out her wings, beating them softly, and hovered slightly.

I saw HR's gobsmacked face and then, well, apparently Mel and Lane's warnings hadn't paid off, as he softly said 'fuckin' hell.'

"Hieronymous Robert!" Mel's stern mummy face and tone were obvious, and he melted into my shoulder. "Hank, how many times have I told you? Tell your son..."

"Fine, fine." I lifted his face up with a finger under his chin. "Listen, I shouldn't say those words and neither should you."

He peered up at me. "In trouble?"

I nodded. "We both are."

Lane had been pacing ever since HR had left her arms and now she looked at me coldly, making me remember how she'd acted towards me when Mel and I first got together. "I believe we deserve to hear how exactly you are to be in the company of..."

"Reena. Her name is Reena." I shifted HR over so he wouldn't kick me in the nuts as usual and looked over to the faerie. "I don't know how much I can say, I don't want to get you in trouble and I don't want Harry to get in trouble."

Mel shook her head. "Oh, you're definitely in trouble, Henry. So Harry knows?"

I cringed. Yeah. I was definitely in the doghouse. "He knows everything. I have to go into the Ministry with Reena sometime, probably tomorrow. I really don't know what I can tell you, but it's definitely not something for little ears. Maybe Lavinia can take them for a bit." That made me pause, because I hadn't seen Lavinia yet. "Where is she, over at Ruby's?"

"No." Mel shook her head. "She's with Willy today. He was acting rather odd about something when he was here." She shook her head slightly, to focus, and then a cautious look came over her. "So Harry is ok with...Reena?"

"Yeah, he is." I looked over to Lane. "The Head Auror, Harry Potter...if Harry Potter is ok with her I hope you..."

Lane stared at me for a bit and then stopped pacing. "Gwennie, I will take the children with me for the night. Leeky?"

As Lane's house elf popped in the same bowing and shit that happened with Kreacher and Nonky was repeated. After Leeky collected all the stuff for the kids she kissed Mel on the forehead and left without another word. I felt bad, as Reena was in my house as a guest and she'd been accused of wanting to steal my kids. After the courtesy the old faerie Cleeva had shown me I felt like a really shitty host. Mel and I just kind of stared at each other for a moment, unable to figure out what to do next, but thankfully Nonky fixed that. He called Reena 'your Grace' and offered to show her to a guest room. Reena laughed at that, and it was odd, hearing her laugh outside of the faerie lands, as it was something akin to hearing running water laughing, something that gave me a slight twinge, but not in a bad way. More like one of those shivers of happiness that almost feels electric.

"Thank you, Nonky, but I require no housing." She turned to me, slightly worried. "Do you have trees?"

"Yeah, out back in the garden."

"I am sure I will be comfortable there." She turned to Melody. "Your family is under my protection, I am here as an ambassador to your lands. Your husband entered into a bargain with Cleeva, a past Queen, and freely left our lands. His protection was sealed by the bargain."

"You what?" Mel, now free of the kids and Lane, was over to me. She stood in front of the chair, hands on her hips, and shook her head at me. "You made a deal with the faeries? Are you mental?"

I snorted. "I'm pretty sure Daphne Greengrass would agree with you."

"What in Merlin's name were you doing with Daphne Greengrass? Was she at your conference?"

"Pfffft." I blew out my lips in exasperation. "Glad the kids are with your mom. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to tell you everything without cussing."

At that point Reena must have figured out it would be best if we had privacy, as she asked to be pointed towards the garden. I got up and showed her out the back door, chuckling as she squealed in delight at our trees. Once I got back in Mel came over and slipped her arms around my waist, pulling me close.

"Oh Hank, I was so worried. Harry told me there was a problem, but he said you were safe. I...have you been smoking?"

Shit. "Uh, yeah, but after I tell you I think for once you won't mind."

-ooo-

I was wrong. She did mind, even after I told her everything. After all that time away, after being in that damned black box with Daphne Farting Greengrass and all the other shit that happened my first night back in my house was spent in the downstairs guest bedroom. Sure, she wasn't that hacked off about the smoking, but everything else? Quietly livid. She was very glad that I was ok, but I had been married to her long enough to know that her anger needed to run its course. Hopefully by breakfast it would be better.

I'd almost drifted off to sleep when I heard footsteps above me and Lavinia yelling for Melody. As I got out of bed and made my way upstairs I could hear Lavinia talking rapidly to Melody. I found them in the kitchen, sitting at the table, with Melody holding Lavinia's hand. "What's going on?"

"Hank! You're home!" Lavina came over and engulfed me in a hug, which was somewhat awkward because I only had on boxer shorts. I hugged her back and then held her out at arm's length. "So what's got you like this, Vinny?" I looked over to Mel, and saw that she was trying not to cry. "Shit, this isn't bad, is it?"

She laughed. "No, it's wonderful." Almost bouncing on her toes she held up her left hand. "Willy asked me to marry him!"

Whatever I was expecting that certainly wasn't it. The last I knew the two of them had been struggling on how to move forward after Hogwarts, and I recalled a conversation with Lavinia about Willy wanting to go to a Muggle university. "Oh sweetie." I gave her a big smile. "Tell you what, let me go put something on and you can tell us everything."

After quickly throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt I sat at the table with them, and surprisingly Nonky had even made tea. It was obvious that I wouldn't be going to sleep anytime soon. As Nonky's head bobbled in that way he always did when he was happy Lavinia told us her story. She thought they were supposed to go to dinner with Ruby and Carrick, but when she got to the restaurant it was just Willy. He told her that Ruby had an Auror thing and had to cancel at the last minute. It was then that Willy told her that he'd reconsidered going to Muggle university and had applied for a position in the Auror department. That didn't make Lavinia happy, as she knew what an Auror's life was like thanks to Harry, Ron and even my own little involvement, but he quickly dissuaded her from thinking that was what he wanted. The Aurors have a big support staff, which didn't surprise me as I'd seen lots of people in the office that never went into the field, and he'd applied for one of their researcher positions. Apparently that was one of the jobs that did lots of paperwork checking things, making connections, that kind of stuff. That made her happy, as she realized he wasn't leaving Britain. After dinner they went to a Muggle cinema, some sort of crappy action movie she didn't like which made me slightly proud to think that she'd inherited my love of decent movies. Action movies were fun, but...well, they aren't exactly great moviemaking. Definitely not great date movies. It was after the movie, when they stopped off for coffee and went for a walk that they were in a little park and that's when Willy started telling her how much she meant to him, and pulled the ring out of his pocket.

During the recounting of everything I felt Mel reach under the table and take my hand, squeezing it slightly every now and then, which made her charm bracelet brush against my leg. I was happy for her, and I could tell Melody was as well, but it just felt...weird. It felt like only the other day that I was at Hogwarts and found her walking in one of the hallways trying to get a horse to come closer in a portrait. Where had all the years gone?

After hugging us again, and running off to write her Aunt in Australia, Lavinia left the kitchen almost bouncing as she walked. I looked over to Mel. "I feel really, really fucking old right now."

"Tell me about it." She nodded. "It was bad enough when...never mind." She sighed and leaned into me. "At times it feels like ages ago that you ended up in my flat after that party, but every now and then I remember something and realise that it was years ago. Hank, she's engaged."

"I know, I know. Crazy." I kissed the top of her head. "I know after everything that's happened I..." I turned to ask Nonky for a sleeping draught but stopped, as the little house elf was drying his eyes with his t-shirt. I nudged Mel and lowered my voice. "Did you give him my old Love and Rockets t-shirt?"

"Yes, I was tired of the other one. Come on." She got up from the chair. "I have some in the bedroom."

I tilted my head and looked up to her hopefully. "So the guest bedroom thing is over?"

"Yes, come on."

After being gone that long from home the thought of sleeping next to my wife, in my own bed, sounded wonderful.

-ooo-

It was late when we got up, surprisingly, as I expected Lavinia to still be bouncing off the walls or for Nonky to come in and tell me Lane was there with the kids, but it was quiet. I stumbled around for a bit, but after a shower I felt better. Mel was still a lump in bed, grunted when I prodded her on the butt and I thought I'd get a telling off but she only smacked my hand away and rolled over. After throwing on some clothes I went upstairs, let Spit out into the garden and started the tea. It was while reaching into the fridge for the milk that something caught my eye, so I shut the door and saw the note. Somehow I wasn't surprised that Lavinia had gone to see Ruby.

I had just sat down to tea when the back door opened and Reena came in, looking as bright and perky as a three year old after eating every Halloween candy and following that with a pepper up potion. It was annoying.

"Good morning, Hank! Late night, I saw your lights on very late. Your daughter must have been quite excited."

That made me look at her oddly. "Lavinia's not my daughter, she's...well, it's complicated. We were her guardians while she was at Hogwarts."

Reena shook her head. "Oh no, faeries can tell. She has your magic."

That made me laugh. "I sure hope not. 1.3 percent here. She's all witch."

"No, not that. She...faeries can tell families by their magic. It has colours."

I took a sip of tea. This was sliding into Sybil's territory along with people who wore hippie clothes and did shit with crystals. "So you can read my aura, then?" I looked at her and either she didn't get the joke or I didn't say it right. And then it hit me. "Wait, that's not bullshit? So what am I, glowing or something?"

"No, silly. Not like that. It's just...we can tell. Her colour is similar to yours and your wife's."

"Really?" Something hit me, something that I'd been afraid of ever since they were born. "Um, can you tell with children? Are..."

"No, they're too young."

"Damn. Worth a shot." I took a sip of tea. "So Lavinia's..."

"Is a mixture of you and your wife's. Not a complete mix, more like a shading."

That made me happy. I'd always considered Lavinia one of my kids, and apparently she thought the same way. "Good to know. And yeah, you were right. Late night. She got engaged last night."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Reena clapped her hands together. "I love weddings. When is it?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. Didn't talk about it. I'm sure we'll find out eventually." Out of the corner of my eye I saw the cats come into the room, make a beeline for Reena and begin rubbing themselves against her legs. She bent down slightly to pet them and then looked over to me. "Beasties love faeries. When I was a tiny thing I used to ride a cat like your grey one."

I looked down to my overly-large grey cat and chuckled, trying to imagine a tiny faerie on his back with a saddle, reins, the whole nine yards. "I bet that was fun."

"It was." She sat in one of the chairs, her legs dangling over the seat. "I've never had a big folk breakfast. What do you eat?"

"Dunno, the usual. Eggs, bacon, sausages, fried potatoes..." I saw her wrinkling up her nose in the universal expression for 'oh gross.' "But that doesn't sound good, I take it?"

"Any fruit?"

"I'm sure there's some here somewhere. Let me look." I went over to the pantry, opened it up, and saw a pair of eyes looking at me. "Jesus, Nonky, don't do that!" I shook my head and knelt down as he'd tried to wedge himself even further into the cupboard. Keeping my voice low I tried to calm him. "Ok, Nonky, why are you in here? Is it because of her?" He nodded his head slightly. "She won't hurt you, Nonky. She's an ambassador and has to be on her best behavior. Right now she's hungry and would like some fruit. I haven't been home for a while, so I don't know. Do we have any?"

That was the trick as he slowly extricated himself from the cupboard, went over and pulled out some oranges, apples and berries from the fridge and a banana from the counter, snapped his fingers and popped away. When I looked back to the table everything was set, every proper knife, fork, properly placed. And the dishes were Mel's best china that we only used on special occasions. Before I could say anything he popped into the kitchen, a clear glass jug in his hands and poured water into Reena's glass, bowed, and popped away.

Not knowing what else to do I pulled a portion of yogurt from the fridge, sat down and pulled a banana from the basket on the table. I pointed the banana towards Reena's glass. "What's with the water?"

She took a sip and a smile broke out over her face that reminded me of when Ron got free food. "It is fresh spring water, clean and crisp. You have to have some."

I did, and it just tasted like very cold water. Couldn't tell a difference, but then again, I'm not a faerie. I just chalked it up as something that usually reminded me of things that wizards got that I didn't, one of those 1.3 percent things. I'd made it about halfway through my yogurt when I saw an owl heading my way out the window. After going over and opening the window the owl did the whole 'take your mail off my foot' hop for a bit until I could lay my hands on it. Unsurprisingly the little fucker scratched me on the hand, somewhat deep, at least deep enough to make me yell at it and for it to fly off in a huff.

"Here." Reena stood next to me, her water glass in her hand. It still looked odd, seeing her that size, as if one of my third year Hufflepuffs wanted to know about their grade. She dipped her finger in the glass, twirled it about a bit, and then lifted her finger out of the glass and let the water drip onto my cut. I stood there and watched as my skin knitted itself back together, which made me think of the freaky spell the Inivisibles use to make people's eyes, ears and mouth seal shut. Thankfully, though, it stopped on my hand. Running a finger over my hand it was like it had never happened, and even if I concentrated I doubted I would be able to see exactly where the cut had been. "Fucking brilliant."

"And we've started out wonderfully." Mel came to the table in her dressing gown, sat down and started preparing her tea. Halfway through she stopped. "Why is the good china out?"

"Nonky. For our guest." I followed Reena to the table, both of us sat down, I took a sip of tea and then remembered the letter. I flipped it over to see the Auror seal on the envelope. "I'm guessing Harry is inviting us to a meeting."

"You just got home, Hank." Mel began peeling an orange. "Is Lavinia still sleeping?"

"Nah, left a note, she went to Ruby's." Opening the letter I began to read and it was as I thought; Reena and I were to go to the Ministry, more specifically to the Minister's office, after lunch. There was a slip of paper attached to the letter giving me a passphrase to say before Flooing over. "I'm psychic. The meeting's after lunch."

I heard the pop of apparition in our garden and assumed it was Lane, bringing the children back, but that thought was quickly dismissed as I saw a fleeting glimpse of fear on Reena's face. Immediately I thought of the WLF and other assholes, but then I remembered the wards around the house and realized it couldn't happen. Reena, though, that was interesting. While running over all the possibilities of who'd popped in the garden I watched as she, well, changed. All the green gossamer looking clothes she wore disappeared, replaced by what looked like normal summer clothes for a third year. Her hair grew longer, down to her shoulders, and her eyes seemed...dimmed.

While I was trying to process what I'd just seen there was a knock on the door and the door opened, which meant it was one of a few people. As soon as I saw him I realized I didn't have anything to worry about as it was only Neville.

"Morning, Boyds, I...oh, sorry, didn't know you had a guest."

"Hey Nev, no problem." I waved him over. "What's up?"

He sat down at the empty spot at the table and looked embarrassed. "I expected you'd be up, with the kids and all. It appears that you've just woken up. Gran would be aghast at my lack of manners."

"Right." I shook my head. "It's us, you've seen us looking much worse." I noticed Reena trying to make herself inconspicuous. "Um, Neville, this is Reena. Reena..."

"I've just moved here." She turned and smiled at him. "Very nice to meet you."

"You too, Reena. Will you be attending Hogwarts this year?" He scratched his head. "Titus didn't tell me about any new students besides the normal lot."

I bit my lip as Reena was definitely not normal. Thankfully she covered, saying that her parents hadn't decided if they would stay in Britain or not."

"Well, if they do have Hank contact me. I'll help with the paperwork." He turned to me. "Dreadful amount of red tape to bring in a student that didn't start with a sorting. Hasn't been done in ages, discouraged, really." He turned to Mel. "Could I trouble you for a cup of tea?"

Mel shrugged. "Sure, help yourself."

"Thank you." He fixed his tea and then turned to me expectantly. "So, Hank, the conference. How was it?"

"Oh, well..." I sat back and adjusted my glasses. "Let's just say that Hogwarts isn't the only institution with some work to do about Muggle Studies. I did meet a very nice couple from New Zealand. Probably should drop them a line soon. Spent one night..." I paused. I knew the whole Potter Adventure Series of books was a sore point with Neville, especially how he'd reacted when I'd read him some of that Snakeslayer shit they'd published. "Well, we stayed up one night with a few drinks and talked about stuff." I saw Neville trying to direct my attention to Reena and realized what he was doing. "It's fine, I'm pretty sure she knows her instructors have a life outside of teaching."

"Of course." Reena smiled and turned to Melody. "Can I take your dog out to the garden? Does he fetch?"

Mel nodded, somehow enjoying the whole farce. "You may, and he does. Be careful, he likes sticks that are twice his size."

"Thank you, Mrs. Boyd." Reena whistled and Spit bundled over to her, wagging his butt. She let him out, looked back and winked at me before closing the door.

After she left Neville looked over to me. "I take it there's more to the story, then? Not about the conference, but the girl?"

I may have slightly panicked for a moment but realized that I had what Ron called the 'Auror card.' He didn't use it often, especially as Hermione could see right through him most of the time, but even if I did end up telling Neville the whole story later he'd understand, as it was, well, the truth. "There is, but it's a Harry thing. A Harry work thing."

"Ah." Neville tapped his nose with his index finger. "Got it. Well, then, the conference? I've heard they aren't the most..."

"Fucking awful, it was fucking awful for the most part." I turned to Mel but she wasn't paying any attention as she was reading the paper. When I turned back to Neville I could see that he was holding in a laugh so I flipped him off. "Let me put it in language we know. I made my voice high-pitched and squeaky. "It was utter pants, I was dyyyyiiiinnnnnnnng."

That sent Neville into a small bout of laughter, as I'd successfully imitated some of the more whiny students' responses to some of the lecture lessons. I know he'd heard that tone many, many times, as had I. Mel bent a side of the paper down, shook her head at me, and continued reading.

With a smile Neville got up from the table. "I look forward to hearing the full version at school. That's another reason I'm here this morning, Titus sent out the instructor letters for this year and since I was planning on seeing you when got back I told him I'd deliver it. Here you go."

I took the letter from him and put it on the table. "Thanks."

He nodded for a bit. "Right, only another week or two and then we'll be back at it. I'll let you two get to your breakfast." He looked at my plate and smiled. "I take it Melody has you on a new diet?"

Mel lowered the paper fully. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." Neville looked as if he'd slightly stepped in it and winced. "I've been eating next to Hank for years now and I have to say that is the healthiest breakfast I've ever seen him eat. I'll be off now, stop into the Leaky sometime."

"Will do, tell Hannah 'hello' for us."

After he left I looked over to Melody. "Did you see what she did? It was like watching Teddy Lupin do his bit. Did I ever tell you what he did in my class?"

"Yes, Hank, he turned himself into you, but that's not important. How long is she going to be here? How will we explain things? It's obvious she doesn't want everyone to know who she really is. I only hope Mum hasn't been gossiping with the ladies from her garden club. I guess it can't be helped. Maybe you could have Harry send over one of his intimidating Aurors to keep her mouth shut."

"Give her a bit more credit than that, love. She was in Ravenclaw. She has to know there's more going on than I made a friend and brought her home. You know, to steal the children." As she didn't respond right away I plunged ahead. "And Reena said our family was under her protection, and that included Lavinia. Get this, Reena can see magic or something, something about colors, and said that our colors highlighted Lavinia's. I know we consider her family and she's always acted the same but..."

"No buts! She is family."

"Jesus, hold on. Her magic is blended with ours. Well, mostly yours. But you get it, right? If you ever wanted to know, there's your proof." I paused. "I asked her about the kids, you know, to tell, but she said they were too young."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Hank, they're very small. Give them time. And it won't matter, either way."

"But it be hard, don't lie, you know it would."

"Henry, I am tired of having this same conversation with you. Stop bloody worrying! It will sort itself." She looked over to me oddly. "Did Reena say what colour my magic is?"

"Yeah, snot green."

"You are hilarious."

I had something forming for a reply, probably one I shouldn't say as it was slightly teasing below the belt, when the Floo roared to life giving me a slight reprieve. Ron Weasley's head danced in the green flames. "Hank?"

"Hey Ron." I went over to the fireplace and knelt down. "What's up?"

"Have you seen that book?"

"Really?" I laughed. "Why don't you ask your wife if she's seen that book. What book? I've got tons."

"One of those books, Hank. Seamus arrested a guy selling counterfeit stuff, odds and sods, and it was in his stuff. Something about a forbidden lion, that ring a bell?"

Oh fuck. It did. "Um, yeah. I saw it in Switzerland, read a bit. How are you doing?"

His lip curled in disgust. "Oh just peachy fucking keen, mate. Hermione just let me see the cover, went over to her Mum's with the kids and took the bloody thing with her. You have a copy?"

"No, sorry. I read a borrowed, well, duplicated copy. It dissolved. Do me a favor, don't read it."

"I don't want to do you a favour, Hank, I want to know what...she's on the damn cover with hardly anything covering her bits and her tits are out there for everyone to see!"

"She doesn't really look like that, Ron."

"Oh, and how would you know?"

"Because we had a torrid fling for a month. Think, Ron, we've been on holiday at the beach."

Ron pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes at me. "So when we were on the beach you were ogling my wife?"

"Jesus, no..." I turned to the kitchen. "MEL! A little help, please!"

She joined us, pulling her dressing gown closed at the top. "Morning, Ron. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"Yes. No, well, not really, just a bit of eggs, toast, bacon and beans." He seemed to slowly deflate. "Could use 'nother cup of tea. Out last night working. Do you mind if I come through?"

"Come on through." I got up, helped Melody up and before we could say a word Ron came through the Floo, still dressed in his Auror robes. I put a hand on his shoulder. "I've just had a bit of fruit, how about waffles?"

He debated for a moment. "I could eat a few waffles." As I called for Nonky he looked over to Melody. "So what's it like playing host to an ambassador?"

Mel froze. "You know?"

As he helped himself to a cup of tea since he knew where everything was in our kitchen, just like I did over at Harry and Ginny as well as his and Hermione's house, he shrugged. "Harry called me in on this. I was supposed to come over to take Hank and her into the Ministry after lunch, so I guess I'm just a bit early. What are you having for lunch?"

"What the fuck?" I shook my head. "We're getting ready to have breakfast and you're asking about lunch? Are you pregnant or something?"

He paused, felt his belly for a few seconds and pretended to be greatly relieved. "No, thank Merlin. You had me worried there, Hank. What would Hermione say?"

"I'm sure she would be pleased." Mel swatted him with a tea towel. "Honestly."

"Ah, she does say that a lot, especially when I'm thick."

I laughed. "So you hear it a lot, then?"

"Funny, funny. I didn't come over here to be insulted, I came for breakfast and to ask you about that bloody book."

"You mean breakfast and lunch and to ask me about that bloody book."

Mel took a look at the two of us. "Morons. The kitchen is full of morons. I'm going to take a shower and then go get the kids."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "It makes sense, knew something was off here in the house, too quiet. Merlin knows ours make a hell of a ruckus." He looked around for a bit and then leaned over to me. "Is she here?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she's...oh. No, not here here, she's out in the garden with the dog. Would you like to meet her?"

"Sure. Why not."

I asked Reena to join us and when she did she looked like her faerie self instead of a third year student. When I introduced her to Ron he nodded and gave her a little half-bow, surprising the shit out of me. Mel told us goodbye as she went over to the Floo, and then Nonky informed us that waffles were ready. We all sat at the table and when Reena said 'thank you, Fallen' Ron looked at me oddly. Thankfully he remembered to chew before asking.

"What's all this Fallen bit?"

"Hermione's gonna lose her shit. Fuck, might even make her hair go straight when she hears this. Tell you what, maybe I...crap. That's not fair." I looked over to Reena, her eyes wide and a big syrupy smile on her face. "Never had waffles, I take it?"

"These are wonderful! Crispy, but full of butter and this stuff." She poured a bunch of syrup on her plate, making the waffles swim.

"Glad you like them." I looked over to Ron who still seemed confused. "Ron, what would your wife do if I told you I know how house elves came to be, and why they have to be bonded to a witch or wizard."

"Really." He sat back in his chair, fork resting on his plate. "For real?"

"For real, really." I turned to Reena. "If this is something you're not supposed to tell, please tell me now so I don't fuck everything up. I don't want to get you in trouble."

She shook her head and took a big drink of milk. "Oooh, I haven't had moomoo since I was tiny, I'd forgotten how good it is! This isn't freshly skimmed from the pail, but it is good. Sorry, the Fallen story? It isn't a secret or anything, I thought everyone knew that. Wizards and witches used to know the story, perhaps they've just forgotten."

"Great. Ron, do you want to call Hermione and see if she wants to come over? You can use the phone."

Ron eyed the phone warily. He'd used it before, obviously, but it wasn't his favorite means of communication. "Nah, got a better idea. I'll listen and then save this for when I want to survive one of my episodes of stupidity like the time I gave Hugo and Ginny's boys some fireworks. You can guess how well that went. After I tell her she'll forget all about my mess up."

"Right." I nodded my head, and couldn't keep the sarcastic tone out of my voice. "I'm sure that'll work great, Ron. Just great."

He shrugged, happily accepted another waffle from Nonky and slathered butter and syrup onto it. "So, Ambassador..." He stuffed a bite into his mouth and started his questions. "Whatsh th sthory?"

A/N: Hello. Yes. Not dead. Me or this story, apparently. I struggled for a bit because sometimes to my own detriment I have a lot going on simultaneously in the ProfM stories, and it takes a while to get back into them.

At one point today I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to line up children's ages, dates, etc and finally just said 'fuck it' and began writing. So, if you see that I've made one child three when at the same date/time in another story they were two, please just roll with it. Put it this way, if I was publishing this for money, etc, I'd have an editor who would point this out and then we would laugh, go to a nice bar and the editor would pick up the tab as we drank and talked books all night. Since that's not the case, eh, it is what it is. The story's the thing, though, right?

I have to admit I was embarrassed when I looked at when this was initially published and realized it had been ages. I don't know if I've ever taken this long to finish a story. For those who have been waiting, ever so patiently, thank you and I apologize. My schedule should be clearing up enough to be able to write somewhat frequently, so that should help. Time and the Moon is done, only this and Lady Black Lord Potter still listed as WIP, so that should help. (I do have another story rolling around in my head that's a next gen piece that doesn't figure into any of my other stories, but I'm trying to finish the WIPs first.)

As always, thanks for reading and review if you wish. Or as Hank says, smoke 'em if you got 'em.