Monday, March 2nd 1998
"Ronald Weasley," Fabian Prewett said with a smile as he handed the little bundle to Minerva. "Came in late last night to meet us all."
Minerva smiled and took the sleeping baby from him. He had bright red hair like the rest of his family. She rocked him gently and moved the blue blanket around to cover him more properly. "He's a very handsome young man," she said.
"Much like his uncle," Gideon said with a bright smile.
"Yes, I am quite handsome aren't I?" Fabian said. Gideon gave him a look but he just smiled and stuck out his tongue very childishly at his twin brother.
Molly rolled her eyes. She was laying in bed in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. Arthur was standing beside it with a hand on her shoulder and Gideon was sitting by her feet. Fabian brought a chair over for Minerva to sit down, baby still in her arms before bringing over another for himself.
"So, how are you feeling?" Minerva asked Molly.
"I'm okay," she said with a smile. "I'm just glad he is happy and healthy."
"Six boys," Gideon said. "What do you have against girls, Mols?"
Molly smiled. "I would love to have a daughter but my little Ronny is perfect."
"Maybe I should bring the other children into meet their new brother. They're probably awake by now," Arthur said, though he made no move to leave his wife's side. Molly smiled, reached up and put a hand on his on her shoulder. She gave his hand a little squeeze.
"Where are the little scamps?" Fabian asked.
"Andromeda and Ted are watching them," Arthur replied.
"I can go get them for you," Gideon said. "You should stay here with your son."
"Thank you, Gideon," Arthur said with a smile.
"Not a problem," he said, standing up. "Coming Fabian?"
"Yes," Fabian replied, getting up too. The twins walk out of the Hospital Wing towards the classroom the other Weasley children were in.
"I should get going too," Minerva said, standing up. She walked over to the bed and gently held Ron out to his mother. "Let you all have your family moment."
"Thank you for coming by, Minerva," Arthur said.
"Of course," she said with a smile. "Congratulations once again, Molly, Arthur. I should really get going to class now."
"Thank you, Minerva," Molly said with a smile. "Have a nice day."
Minerva smiled and said her goodbyes. She made her way through the Hogwarts halls to her classroom. It was a lot more packed than it used to be. Young children were running around, adults were chatting in hushed whispers, students were sitting on benches talking quietly or doing homework.
The day past by quite slowly and really tired Minerva out. She thought about going up to her private quarters for a nap during her free period but was called in for a meeting with Dumbledore instead. The meeting did nothing to improve her day as she stared down at more names of Order members who were missing. By the end of her long day, Minerva felt emotionally and physically drained. All she wanted to do was curl up in her cat form and sleep. She left the castle, walked across the grounds and Apparated back to Rochester. Not feeling up to climbing up the stairs, she transformed into her cat form and curled up in an armchair in the living room. It didn't take long for her to drift off in the quiet Rochester living room.
"Thank you for the ride, Mrs. Linwood. See you tomorrow, Anne," Lucy called before climbing out of the car.
"Of course, sweetheart," Mrs. Linwood said with a smile. "Goodbye."
"Bye, Lucy!" Anne called.
They drove away and Lucy walked towards the gate. She punched in the code to open the gate and walked up the driveway. She hummed quietly to herself as she walked. A cool breeze washed over her causing her to shiver, even in the sunlight that beat down on her. It was the weird buffer season where it wasn't winter anymore but it was not yet spring either.
Lucy pulled out her key and unlocked the front door with a little mittened hand. Going inside she took of her boots, coat, mittens and scarf before taking her backpack with her to the living room. She threw the bag on the couch and ran off to the kitchen to find a snack. She grabbed an orange, came back to the living room and sat down on the couch to eat her orange. Grabbing the remote, she turned on the television and flicked through the channels until she finally found something she could watch.
Suddenly Lucy saw something moving from the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw a tabby cat sleeping on the armchair a few feet away from her.
"Oh!" she said, getting up and walking over to the chair. "Mum's home."
She reached out a hand and slowly petted the cat. She thought for a second before getting up, grabbing the remote and turning the television volume down as not to disturb her mother. She then picked up a throw blanket and gently put it over the curled up cat. When she was sure the cat was okay she sat down on the floor and pulled out her books to do her homework.
Minerva woke up to find that she was under a blanket. She looked around and saw Lucy sitting on the floor doodling on a sheet of math homework. Lucy saw the movement from the corner of her eye and smiled at the cat.
"Hello!" she said excited, scrambling over to the armchair. "You got home early today. You beat me home."
Lucy picked up the tabby cat and Minerva meowed in protest. Minerva struggled but Lucy held her tightly. "It's okay. I know you like being petted even if you say you don't," she said with a smile. Lucy sat back down in front of her math homework and pet Minerva gently. "I was doing my math homework but I finished it so I drew you sleeping on the couch."
Minerva looked over and saw Lucy's drawing. It was quite good to be honest. She had drawn the armchair and a tabby cat on top of it. Little 'Z's came off the cat to indicate that the cat was sleeping. The drawing went over some of her math problems a little which made Minerva frown a bit.
"I didn't really have a very good day today," Lucy said, leaning back against the couch behind her, "but it's okay. I'm home now so I can do more fun stuff. I finished most of my homework at school while the teacher was talking. They don't really like it when I do that but if they're talking about something boring I have to do something."
Minerva turned her head up at her and gave her a look. Lucy laughed. "You don't like that?" she asked. "Well, you can't say anything because you're a cat right now."
Minerva finally got out of Lucy's grasped and jumped out of her lap. She started walking away when Lucy sighed.
"Oh, okay..." Lucy said sadly. Minerva turned back around and looked at her six year old. She sighed and walked back to Lucy, putting her head on her leg. Lucy smiled and pet the cat on her head. Minerva hopped back up and curled up in Lucy's lap. "Yay!"
Minerva smiled and meowed a little. Lucy smiled. She continued to pet her with one hand and doodling with the other. Minerva sat there for a while feeling pretty relaxed. Lucy did her other homework and watched television. When she finished, Lucy closed her books, picked up the cat and moved to the couch. She sighed as she pulled the cat close to her and petted her gently.
She yawned. "Anne and I had nothing to do at all during break today," she said quietly, "so we just laid in the grass and talked. It was fun, though. Until we had to move because... because stuff."
Minerva looked up at her and meowed questioningly.
"It's nothing," Lucy mumbled, looking away. "Oh, I got my essay on government back and I got a hundred percent!"
Minerva meowed approvingly.
"I'll show you later," Lucy said. She yawned again and laid back on the couch. She put Minerva down and she curled up next to her. "I'm tired. Are you tired?"
Minerva nodded a little, rubbing her head on Lucy cheek. Lucy giggled a little. "I like when you're a cat," she said quietly. "I wish we had a real cat. That stayed a cat all the time. Can we get one? Please?"
Minerva shook her head.
"Ahhh!"
Minerva shook her head again. They didn't need another cat and Minerva knew if they got one, it would be her taking care of it. Lucy definitely wasn't going to help very much.
Lucy yawned again and rubbed her eyes. She talked to Minerva for a little while longer before falling asleep. Minerva fell back asleep a little while later, curled up beside her.
"Lucy? Are you home?"
Lucy opened her eyes quickly and looked around. She rubbed her eyes and shook Minerva a little to wake her. "Ah, yeah," she said. "In the living room."
Minerva was about to transform back into herself but before she could, Raj walked into the room. He smiled at Lucy before noticing the cat and frowning.
"Where did you get a cat?" he asked.
"Ah..." Lucy looked down at Minerva with worry. She still felt a little groggy. She rubbed her eyes and tried to push through it so she could come up with a convincing lie. "I found her outside. It's cold so I let her in."
"Lucy, you know your mother said no pets," Raj said, shaking his head and walking over to the couch. He pet the cat and lifted its head slightly to check for a collar. "Looks like she's not wearing a collar. She might still be someone else's pet though and I'm sure that person is worried sick about her."
"I don't think so," Lucy said with a smile.
"You can't keep her," he said with a small smile, kneeling down in front of Lucy and putting his briefcase down beside him. "I'm sorry but you can't get a pet right now especially without talking with Minerva, Daniel and Nina first."
"Sorry," Lucy said. She yawned and rubbed her eyes again.
"Were you asleep?" Raj asked.
"I fell asleep on the couch," Lucy said. "Today was a long day."
Raj smiled. "It was a long day," he said, tousling her hair. He looked around and frowned suddenly. "Where is Minerva? She's here isn't she? She was supposed to get here early so that someone would be home to watch you."
"Ah, yeah," Lucy said, not wanting her mother to get in trouble. "She's here. I think she's upstairs in her room." Lucy got up and picked up the cat. "I'll put the cat outside since you don't want her here."
"Maybe she'll find her way back to her own home," Raj said, getting up and picking up his briefcase. "I'm going to go get changed. I hope the cat's gone before your mother notices it's here. She won't be very happy."
Lucy nodded. She waited for him to leave the room before racing towards the front door. She opened it, waited a couple seconds and then closed it again. She then ran up the stairs, looked around quickly to make sure Raj was in his room, and then ran into Minerva's bedroom. She set the cat down and Minerva transformed back into herself. Lucy looked at her for a second before bursting into laughter.
"That was so close!" she said between fits of laughter.
Minerva smiled and shook her head. "I'm not sure how much I like how good you are at lying," she said. "And at covering your lie."
Lucy smiled and walked over to bed. She jumped up onto the bed on her back and looked up at the ceiling. "Well, I saved you from being thrown outside," she said. "Didn't I?"
"You did," Minerva said, walking over and sitting down on the bed beside her. She smiled and pushed some of Lucy's hair out of her face. "That was very close."
"Mum?"
"Yes, love?"
"Why can't we just tell Uncle Raj about magic?" Lucy asked. "Nina knows. Why can't Uncle Raj know too?"
Minerva sighed. "I wish we could. Life would be easier if we could but we're not supposed to tell anyone who doesn't justifiably need to know," she said. "That's what it says in the International Statute of Secrecy."
"Who justifiably needs to know?" Lucy asked.
"Significant others, like husbands and wives, family, like stepsons," she said. "I suppose Nina could be counted as a significant other. Even though she's Daniel's not one of ours."
"But Uncle Raj is our family," Lucy said, sitting up a bit. "I count him as my family."
Minerva smiled. "I know, love," she said. "But it's not the same."
Lucy frowned. It was the same to her. She didn't say anything else. She got up and sighed. Minerva put a hand on her shoulder.
"It'll be okay," she said. "Now, come along. It's time for dinner."
Thursday, March 12th 1998
Lucy entered Rochester Mansion with a sigh. She threw her off backpack and it landed on the ground with a loud thud. The sound made Minerva walk into the entrance hall with a frown. She looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Wow," she said, "what's making your backpack so heavy?"
"Textbooks," Lucy mumbled, sitting down on the floor right in front of the door so she could pull off her shoes.
Nina walked into the house, awkwardly moved around Lucy, and closed the door behind her as well. She smiled at Minerva. "Hey, Min. How was your day?"
"It was alright," she replied with a smile. "How was yours, sweetheart?"
"It was good," she replied setting her keys down on the table.
"How about you, Lucy?"
"Eh," Lucy mumbled, getting back up, throwing her shoes on the shoe rack, and taking off her coat as well. After the coat was away in the closet, she leaned down to pick up her backpack with a grunt. "I have a big project due next week and so I had to bring my heavy textbooks home to do it."
Minerva smiled. "Well, are you going to get started right away then?"
"Ah, yeah... sure," Lucy said, in a voice that made Minerva sure that she was definitely not going to do her work until probably a day before it was due. "Right after I change my clothes, eat a Popsicle, maybe watch some TV."
Nina laughed and Minerva gave her a look. Lucy just smiled and headed for the stairs so she could go change out of her uniform. Minerva shook her head as she walked towards the kitchen with Nina.
"You really shouldn't encourage her procrastination," she said as she sat down at the table where she had been sitting before the two of girls arrived.
Nina laughed. "I'm not encouraging it," she said. "Lucy will get it done, don't worry."
Lucy came down to the kitchen a little later in her regular clothes. Nina opened the freezer, handed Lucy a Popsicle and took one for herself. She offered one to Minerva but she turned it down. Lucy sat down at the table next to Minerva to eat her Popsicle.
"So what is this big project you're doing?" Minerva asked her.
"It's for science. We have to research and make a presentation about something to do with the brain and perception," Lucy said. "I'm going to do it on synaesthesia."
"What's synaesthesia?" Minerva asked.
"It's so cool! It's when one sense is stimulated by another," Lucy said. "There are a bunch of different kinds. The most common one is Grapheme-Colour Synaesthesia. It's when a person sees certain letters or numbers with a certain colour."
"Like they might associate the letter 'J' with the colour red and so every time they see that letter written, they see it as red," Nina said. "It is really cool."
"That's interesting," Minerva said.
"Yeah, so I'm doing my project on that. Anne is doing her project on sight. She's researching -"
Lucy was interrupted by tapping on the kitchen window. She looked over to it and saw a small barn owl sitting on the window sill tapping the glass with its beak.
Nina looked over to it as well. "An owl?"
Minerva stood up but before she could say anything Lucy ran towards the window excitedly. She opened it up and the owl hopped in.
"Hello!" she said as the owl looked up at her. "It has a letter!"
"Yes, that's how wizards and witches send their mail. Through the owl post," Minerva explained, walking over to the window.
"That's so cool," Lucy said. She slowly unties the letter from the owl's leg. "Thank you, Mr. Owl."
The owl made a hooting noise before quickly flying out of the still open window. Lucy laughed and then looked down at the letter. It had her mother's name written on the back. Lucy held it out to Minerva. "It's for you."
"Thank you," Minerva said as she took the letter from Lucy.
"Who's it from?" Nina asked.
"Albus Dumbledore." Minerva recognised the writing right away. She ripped it open and read the small note inside.
Urgent. Come at once.
A.D.
Minerva felt her stomach turn. She quickly stuffed the note into her pocket and pulled out her wand. "Something's happened, I must go back to Hogwarts."
"What happened?" Lucy asked. She and Nina were both looking at Minerva with concern.
"I don't know," Minerva said, walking quickly from the room. Lucy quickly jumped down from the window sill and looked over at Nina who shrugged. They followed Minera over to the front door.
"Will you be back tonight?" Nina asked, sounding a little worried.
"I'm honestly not sure," Minerva replied as she put on her shoes. She looked up at Nina and Lucy. She knew she was probably scaring them but she didn't have any answers to give them. "I'm sure everything is fine," she told them reassuringly. "You two stay here, I'll send word if I won't be coming home later tonight."
"Alright," Nina said. "Stay safe."
"I will," Minerva said with a smile. She looked down at her daughter and kneeled in front of her. "Behave for Raj, Nina and your brother. I'll be back as soon as I can, alright sweetheart."
"B-but," Lucy whispered, coming closer to her mother. Minerva pulled her into a hug. "I don't understand..."
"I know, darling," Minerva said. "I'll explain better when I come back, okay?"
"Okay..."
"Goodbye, Lucy," Minerva said, standing back up.
"Bye," Lucy mumbled, still confused as to what was going on.
Minerva gave her one last smile before ducking out the door, walking down the driveway and Apparating to the outskirts of Hogwarts. She quickly transformed into a cat and ran across the grounds. Once she made it to the castle she ran up towards the Headmaster's office. She turned back into Human form and burst through the door without knocking. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, elbows on the desk, fingertips touching, looking very deep in thought. He did not smile when she entered. Instead he motioned for her to sit. Minerva closed the door behind her and sat down in the chair in front of his desk.
"I was conducting interviews for the Divinations position earlier today," he began before Minerva could ask any questions. "One of the applicants had Seer's blood. Her great-great-grandmother was a seer. Her interview was not going very well however and I had very nearly given up on it when suddenly she changed and foretold a real prophecy."
"A real prophecy?" Minerva asked. "What did she say?"
"Yes a real prophecy. About the war," said Dumbledore. "She said, 'Two shall work together to vanquish the Dark Lord. One, a witch, born half muggle, half magical... born through turmoil not long ago... with powers unlike any other... power not confined to a wand but surged through her whole body... and who would choose the winning side of the war. The other, a wizard, approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark them as his equals, but they have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...'"
"Wow..." Minerva whispered. She unjumbled the mountain of words in her head and thought about them intensely. "Who could they be?"
"At the moment I am not sure," Dumbledore admits. "For the witch, I have some ideas but nothing fully formed yet. For the wizard, however... there are two possibilities, I would say."
"Who?"
"The Potter's son or the Longbottom's son. They both have a late July due date," he said, "and both have defied You-Know-Who on three separate occasions."
Minerva sighed and leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms and looked away. "If the wizard that is meant to defeat You-Know-Who is an infant, does that mean that the war may go on for many, many years?"
"I am afraid it may," Dumbledore replied sadly.
Minerva closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "What about this witch?" she asked. "What are you thinking?"
"Well, considering the prophecy did not mention when this girl was born, I have to assume she has already been born," he replied.
Minerva nodded. "Which doesn't give us much to go on."
"Precisely," he said. "We will just have to wait to see."
Friday, March 27th 1998
"This is going to sound weird. Like I'm not complaining," Nina said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a cup of coffee, "but did Lucy sleep in one of your beds last night?"
Minerva looked up from her paper. She was sitting at the kitchen table drinking her own coffee. "No she did not."
"She didn't come to my room either," Raj said. He was sitting beside her at the table as well actually eating breakfast with them today. He had managed to get up at a reasonable time so that he could.
"Wow, really?" Nina said excitedly. "Because she didn't come to our room last night either which means she slept on her own! That's great!"
"I guess her nightmares have finally stopped," Raj said with a smile.
"That's wonderful!" Nina said. She sat down at the table next to Minerva and quickly added, "don't say anything. I don't want to embarrass her."
"We won't," Minerva replied with a smile. Just then Lucy and Daniel came into the kitchen for breakfast. Lucy wasn't wearing her uniform today. Minerva gave her a look. "Why aren't you dressed? Don't you have class in an hour?"
"Nope!" She said happily, taking a seat at the table while Daniel brought over a bowl for himself and her, cereal and milk. He set a bowl in front of her before sitting down and pouring cereal into his own bowl.
"Teacher's convection, so Lucy gets an extra day off," Daniel explained.
"Yeah, the teachers have to go to school but we don't!" Lucy said with a huge smile.
"Well, that hardly seems fair," Minerva said with a laugh.
Lucy shrugged. "They decided to be teachers."
"So, what do you plan to do on your extra day?" Raj asked with a smile.
"I'm going over to Anne's house," Lucy said happily as she took the cereal box from Daniel and began to fix up a bowl of cereal for herself.
"Mrs. Linwood offered to take her for the day so that we could go to our own classes and you guys could go to work without having to worry about Lucy," Nina said.
"That was nice of her," Minerva said.
"Yes, we should make sure to thank her properly when we get the chance," Raj said. He stood up. "I should head out. Have a nice day, all of you."
They all said goodbye to Raj and he headed for the door. The rest of them ate their breakfast for a while.
"Oh and what time are you going to be home tonight?" Daniel asked suddenly. "Nina and I were thinking of going to the movies tonight but someone has to be here to watch Lucy."
"I'll be home by five, if that's okay," Minerva said. "I have a meeting after classes end."
"Yeah, that's fine," Daniel said. "Movies not till seven but we were planning on getting dinner first."
"What movie are you going to see?" Lucy asked.
"The Big Lebowski," Nina replied. "It's supposed to be good."
"Alright, well, I'll be back by five," Minerva said. She folded up her paper and stood up. "I should head out too. Have fun at Anne's, Lucy. Tell her mother I said hello."
"I will," Lucy said. "Bye, Mum."
"Have a nice day, Min," Daniel said.
"See you tonight," Nina said.
Minerva smiled and said one last goodbye before leaving the house. She walked down the driveway down and out of the gate. She was about to get out her wand and Apparated to Hogsmeade when a voice came out of nowhere, making her jump. "So, are we supposed to follow Lucy to this Anne's house?"
"Black!" Minerva muttered. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry, Professor," Sirius said with a laugh as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak off himself and James. "So, are we supposed to follow Lucy or should we follow Daniel and Nina? I would love to see what a muggle university is like."
"You two stay with the house, leave the kids alone."
"Hey, they won't know we're there," James said with a smile. "Besides, we're not that much older than them."
"Yeah, we're only like a year older than Daniel and Nina," Sirius said.
Minerva rolled her eyes, she pulled out her wand and said, "stay with the house. Don't do anything stupid."
With that she disappears. Sirius smirked. "Stupid, us?"
James laughed. "Stupid is a good word for describing you, not so much me."
Sirius smacked James's arm and got back under the Cloak. The two men walked through the gate and up to the house. "James, this mission is turning out to be a lot more boring than I thought it was going to be."
"You thought we would be protecting the house from swarms of Death Eaters every single day?" James asked with a smile.
"No... I don't know what I expected but sitting around all day was not what I thought," he mumbled.
James laughed. "You're an idiot. I thought you, being the lazy ass you are, you would like sitting around all day."
Sirius gave him a look. "Shut up," he said with a shake of his head. He sighed and looked up at the house. "Can we go into the house again, Prongs?"
"I don't think that's a good idea," James said. "We almost got caught last time."
"Yeah but this time everyone is leaving," Sirius replied with a smile. "So we can look around a lot more."
"I don't know, Padfoot..."
"Hey, come on. I wanna learn more about these kids and we're not allowed to talk to them so this is like the best option!"
"Best may not be the right word."
"But we'll do it?" Sirius asked excitedly.
"Fine," James mumbled, giving in. He was also quite curious about Minerva's children and would like to take a look around their rooms.
Lucy, Nina, and Daniel left a little while later. Lucy came out of the house and waited for Daniel to come out too. Daniel held the door open for Nina and then went to close and lock the door. Before he could however, Sirius used his wand to knock the keys out of his hands while the door was still open. He and James shuffled inside while Daniel fumbled for his keys.
Lucy laughed at him. "Smooth."
He gave her a playful glare and Nina laughed. He picked up the keys locked the door with James and Sirius inside. They waited a couple minutes but eventually heard the gate close behind Daniel's car and removed the Cloak. They got to work right away, looking through closets and shelves on the main floor. They found nothing too interesting so decided to move upstairs.
A lot of the rooms were guest bedrooms. Only four were being used by the family. They were the master bedroom where Minerva slept that James and Sirius had already looked through, Lucy's bedroom, Raj's bedroom and Daniel and Nina's bedroom. They decided to go into Raj's bedroom first.
This room had papers and files piled high on the desk and on the floor near it. Other than that it had a few suits hanging in the closet, shoes arranged nicely on the floor of it and a couple personal items in the bedside table drawer. The bed was made properly and everything but the desk was clean.
"Except for the desk, it looks like every other guest bedroom in this house," Sirius said.
"I guess he's just staying with them for a while because of what happened to their dad, you know," James said. "He has his own place in London. I heard them talking about it."
"Do you think it's weird?" Sirius asked as he walked towards the desk and picked up a file. "Just like being a guest in a house that he stays in like eighty percent of the time."
"I don't know," James said. "He doesn't seem to mind. He looks like he has a lot of fun playing in the back garden with Lucy or video games with Daniel. He doesn't seem weird."
"How long do you think this arrangement is going to last?" Sirius asked. "I mean, it's been months since it happened and the kids seem okay now."
"Who knows," James said.
"Collins Enterprises," Sirius said, reading the header of the first document in the folder. "That was the dad's company right?"
"Yep."
"Looks like he does a lot of work for it," Sirius said, motioning to the mess if folders. He sets the file down where he had picked it up and looked back at James. "This room doesn't have much. Let's move on."
James nodded and they left the room. They went into Daniel and Nina's room next.
"You know, I would have thought that McGonagall would be like super conservative and make them sleep in separate rooms," Sirius said with a smile as they walked into Daniel's room.
James laughed and shook his head. "I'm pretty sure McGonagall moved in here before she got married to Mr. Collins."
"Mr. Collins. So formal, James. Why not just call him Jay?" Sirius asked with a laugh.
James shrugged. "I don't know. It's just feels weird," he said. "I mean, we never met him. I don't feel right just calling him by his first name."
Sirius nodded. The two boys looked around Daniel and Nina's room. It was not as clean as Minerva or Raj's rooms had been. There were clothes piled on the back of the chair in front of the desk, papers scattered over the desk, books piled on the floor. The bed was made but it was done quickly and messily. They had a lot of comic books on their shelf and a few photographs on the wall. One of the shelves had trophies and awards crammed into it.
"Wow, this kid's done a lot," James said, moving some of the trophies around so he could read them. "Basketball, piano, football, tennis."
"Very accomplished," Sirius said with a smile.
"How does he even have time to do all this stuff? Look! He even has a trophies for playing pool! What is his life?"
"A lot of after school activities, I guess," Sirius replied.
They looked in the closet and found that all of Daniel's clothes had been pushed into one corner of the closet. Nina's clothes took up the rest of the space.
"Wow," Sirius said with a laugh.
"Looks like my closet at home," James muttered.
Sirius laughed. "You two are so whipped. I'm glad that I don't have to worry about that stuff."
"So, you're not going to get back with Marlene this time?" James asked sitting down on the bed as Sirius started looking through the desk drawers.
Sirius shrugged.
"You two are so annoying," James muttered, laying back on the bed. "You're together and then you're not and then you're together again and, oh nope, nevermind. You broke up in the middle of me saying that you were together again."
Sirius threw a pen at James, making him laugh. "What's the deal, man? Do you like her or not?"
Sirius shrugged again.
James threw the pen back at him. "That's not a good answer."
"I don't know, Prongs," Sirius mumbled with a sigh, putting the pen back in the desk drawer and turning to face him. "We can't all be as happy as you and Lily, I guess."
James sat up and gave him a look.
Sirius sighed and flopped down in the desk chair. "I do like her. I like her a lot but I'm not good at that stuff, you know. I don't know how to be a good... boyfriend. God, I hate that word. I'm not good at the romantic stuff. We get together because we're drunk or lonely or sad and then we break up because of something stupid we fought about."
"Maybe it'll be easier when the war's over," James replied with a sigh. "It'll be easier when you both don't have the pressure of the war on you all the time."
"Maybe," he mumbled. He stood up. "So what did we learn about these kids from our snooping?"
"He has rolled up Captain America, Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles posters in his closet," James said with a smile. "He has a lot of the comics too on his bookshelf. He's good at a lot of things, evident by the trophies."
"He's a nerd then," Sirius said with a laugh.
James shrugged. "She has some really fancy clothes in the closet. Probably Indian, they don't look like British muggle clothes."
He nodded. "They're very colourful."
"I wonder if she goes to a lot of parties," James said. "I would love to attend a party. It's been so long."
"Yeah," Sirius replied. "Maybe we can get an invitation from Nina when we actually meet her."
James smiled and got off the bed. "Should we go to the next room?"
Sirius nodded and followed James out of the room and into Lucy's. There were a lot of books, toys and trinkets all around the room. Sirius walked over to the dresser and picked up a small mahogany box. He turned it over and read the engraving on the bottom.
For my little ballerina
Daddy
Sirius turned it back over and opened it. The inside of the box was sectioned off and on the edge of the middle section a small ballerina wearing a pink tutu and in a pirouette position spun slowly. Music emanated through the room. James looked over at Sirius.
"What's that?"
"A music box," Sirius said, closing it up and putting it back exactly where he had picked it up. "Her dad gave it to her. She hasn't put anything in it though."
"Ah, poor kid," James said.
"Yeah," Sirius said. He turned around to look at James. "Did you find anything?"
"Eh, not really. I mean, I don't know what you keep expecting to find," he said with a laugh.
"I don't know, something to tell us about the person the room belongs to," Sirius said.
"Well, looking at this room I would say the person who lives in it is very tidy," James said. "She keeps her room very clean. Maybe a little anal retentive."
"Well, she is McGonagall's daughter," Sirius replied with a laugh.
"I would also say that she loves books and comic books," he said, pointing to the bookcase. "And globes."
Sirius looked at the collection of globes on the top shelf of the bookcase and smiled. He pointed at the giant map on the wall above her desk. "Maybe she wants to travel."
"I want to travel," James said.
"Yeah, see the world," Sirius replied with a smile.
"Go on adventures!"
Sirius laughed. "She also likes Wonder Woman and Batman," he said, pointing to the posters on the back of the door. "I think this is her little nerd corner."
James smiled. "All of the comic books are Wonder Woman comics."
"She also has a lot of trophies," he said, pointing to a shelf where she had crammed all her awards like Daniel had. She had dance trophies, writing trophies and piano and football trophies too. "I guess both of these kids do a lot of extracurricular."
"Well, this is a small, sleepy town. Not much else to do."
"It's definitely no London," Sirius said with a smile as he walked up to her bookshelf and picked up a box. He pulled it out and opened the cover.
"What's in there?" James asked.
"Ballet shoes, another box, photographs, a journal," Sirius said, looking through the box. He walked over to the bed and sat down. "Now this is something interesting."
"Don't read her journal," James said, walking over and looking into the box.
"Look," he said, picking up a photograph of Lucy in her ballet tutu with Minerva and Jay kneeling down on either side of her. They were all smiling wide and Minerva had her arms around Lucy. "Look how young McGonagall looks."
James laughed and picked up another photograph. "Look at this one, it's really old," he said, flipping the picture over so Sirius could take a look. It was a black and white photograph of a man shaking hands with Captain America. A few other soldiers and the rest of the Howling Commandos were standing around the two. "It must be from the war before Captain America died."
"Wow," Sirius said, taking the photograph from him. "That's so cool. Where do you think she found this?"
"Who knows," James said, picking up the small pink box and looking inside. There were a bundle of letters tied together with a ribbon. He looked at the names on the letters. "Oh man, that guy must be Jamal Collins. He must be her grandfather or something. He was probably a soldier in World War II. These are letters between him and Marie Collins who must be his wife."
"Wow, that's so cool!" Sirius said. "Their grandfather met Captain America!"
"It's cool that they have pictures and letters," James said as he gently put the letters back. "This box must be filled with all the stuff she wants to keep safe."
"She has the journal we saw in McGonagall's room," Sirius said, picking up the black journal and opening it up to make sure it was the same one.
"Minerva must have given it to her."
Sirius sighed and put everything back in the box properly. "Poor kid," he mumbled, putting the lid back on the box and getting up to put it back where he'd found it. "She's only six."
"I know," James said sadly. He shook his head and watched Sirius walk over to the bookshelf. Sirius put the box down. "We should go."
Sirius nodded and they walked out of the room. He and James walk down the stairs and exited the house. This was the last time they would do anything like that again.
Minerva came home at five like she had said she would. She was the first one home. She found Sirius and James and decided to send them home. After she bade them a farewell, she walked back inside and flopped down on the couch in the living room with a sigh. Minerva picked up the remote and clicked the power button. Lucy had showed her how to use it. Apparently they had gotten a newer, higher tech, television while she was gone. Minerva flicked through the channels, found a lot of shows that Lucy liked to watch, until finally finding the news. She listened to the news for a while before shaking her head and turning it off.
She heard the door open and Daniel's voice. "Hey, we're home."
"You three are late," Minerva said as Nina, Lucy and Daniel walked into the living room and said their hellos.
"Yeah, sorry. It's my fault," Nina said. "I needed to talk to one of my professors after class."
"That's alright," Minerva said. She looked over at Lucy who had sat down on the couch beside her. "Did you have fun at Anne's?"
"Yes!" Lucy said with a smile. "We got to hang out all day. We went to the park and watched The Aristocats and played some games. It was fun."
"That's nice," Minerva said with a smile.
Daniel and Nina left for dinner and a movie a little while later and Raj arrived back home a few minutes after they left with dinner. They decided to stay in the living room as they ate. They sat on the couches eating out of the take out boxes and talking. Minerva was happy to be home and away from the worry and stress of the war. She was so glad that she had a place to come back to and forget about the war for a while. Today had been very tiring and it was days like today that she really needed this. She listened to Lucy talk about what she was learning in school, Raj talk about work and just relaxed. Minerva wanted this to never end. Of course tomorrow morning she would go back to Hogwarts and be confronted with the disarray of the war but for now she could sit with her children and thank God she had come home.
Minerva and Raj's relationship was slowly improving. He seemed to be getting back to his normal goofy self around her. Minerva hoped that he was finally realizing that she was here to stay. After dinner Lucy ran upstairs to change into her pajamas leaving her and Raj alone in the living room. They got up and started cleaning up the take out boxes.
"I was thinking," Minerva said, "if you wanted to of course, next Friday Lucy will be gone on a sleepover with Anne and Daniel and Nina will be out all night so I was thinking that we could invite Amelia over for drinks."
Raj looked at her for a second before nodding. "That sounds nice," he said. "It's not going to be the same though."
"I know," she said with a sigh, "but I thought it might still be fun. Get our minds off everything, you know."
Raj nodded again and followed her towards the kitchen. "Minerva," he said. "I feel I owe you an apology."
"No," she said with a shake of her head. "Don't worry about it. I know that you were just trying to protect Lucy and Daniel."
"Still," Raj said. "I didn't have to be a complete asshole about it."
Minerva smiled a little and looked over at him. "You're not a complete asshole," she said as she opened the cupboard under the sink and threw the takeout boxes away. "Just a sometimes asshole."
"Well, as long as I wasn't a complete asshole then," Raj said with a laugh. "The custody thing was stupid. I shouldn't have done that. I was just worried and I didn't want Lucy to be taken away from us. It was stupid."
"It was," Minerva said with a little laugh. "It's okay. I forgive you. Do you forgive me?"
"You have nothing to apologize to me for," he said. "Everyone you needed to apologize to has forgiven you."
"I have a lot to apologize to you for, Raj," she said. "You were here taking care of my family while I wasn't here and I apologize for that."
He nodded. "You don't have to," he said after a moment. "All I really need from you is a real answer. I know you weren't away for two years without any contact at all because of your work as a teacher."
Minerva sighed. She took this as him still not forgiving her. She debated telling him everything. About magic and the war but before she could make her decision the doorbell rang.
Minerva looked over at the clock and frowned. It was quite late for visitors. "Who could that be?"
"Someone who has the gate code," Raj said as he walked towards the door.
They heard thundering footsteps running to the front door. "I'll get it, I'll get it," Lucy called as she raced towards the entrance.
Minerva sighed. She really needed to talk to Lucy about opening the door at night without her or Raj there with her. She and Raj walked into the entrance hall as Lucy opened the door.
"Hello, Aunty Amelia!" Lucy said happily.
"Hello, Lucy," Amelia replied. "I'm sorry for dropping by uninvited so late but I really need to speak to your mother."
Lucy opened the door further and let Amelia in. Raj and Minerva walked over to greet her. Amelia's nose and eyes looked a little red and she looked a little flushed.
"Hello, Amelia," Raj said. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said as she took off her shoes and coat. "Minerva, I have some things I really need to discuss with you."
Minerva nodded. "We can talk in the office," she said. "Lucy, it's almost time for bed. Why don't you head upstairs to your bedroom?"
Lucy looked at Minerva and Amelia with a frown and was about to object when Raj spoke first. "Come on, Princess," he said. "Let's leave your mother and Aunt Amelia to get their work done. We can go do something fun up in your room until you have to go to bed."
He held out his hand for her. Lucy looked at her mother for a second before sighing and taking his hand. She said goodnight and walked up the stairs with Raj. Minerva mouthed a thank you to Raj as he walked by. He just gave a little nod.
Minerva turned back to Amelia and motioned for her to follow. She led the way to the office and opened the door. To Minerva's surprise Amelia sat down in front of the desk instead of behind it. She walked around and sat down at the desk.
"Alright," she said. "What brings you here, Amelia?"
"I'm afraid that I don't come with good news, Minerva," Amelia said with a sigh. "It seems I never bring you good news."
"What's happened?" Minerva asked with a frown.
Amelia sighed and looked away. "Fabian and Gideon... they - they were on a mission for the Order and they ran into a group of Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov..."
"Oh no... Amelia," Minerva whispered.
"It was fifteen on two," Amelia spit angrily.
"Fifteen on two?" Minerva asked furrowing her brow. Amelia nodded. Minerva stood up quickly. "Fifteen on two! Of all the cowardly, spineless -"
"Minerva..." Amelia whispered, tears falling down her cheeks.
Minerva took a deep breath and tears filled her own eyes. She looked back at Amelia and shook her head. "They were so young, Amelia..."
"I know," she whispered. "I know."
"They were... they had... everyone's dying."
"I know."
Minerva flopped back down on the chair and wiped her face. "Fifteen on two."
There was silence for a long time. Neither of them spoke. They sat there thinking of the two young men who laid their lives down for this war. Thinking of all the men and women who had done the same. Everyone who was gone. Everyone who had been killed.
Just then there was a knock on the office door. Minerva quickly wiped the new tears off her face and took a deep breath before inviting whoever it was in. Amelia wiped her face too.
Raj opened the door and looked inside. Daniel was standing behind him. He and Nina must have just gotten back from their movie.
"Everything alright?" Raj asked.
Amelia turned and looked at him with a small smile. "Yes," she said. "We're fine, thank you."
"Well, Lucy's in bed but she refuses to go to bed until Amelia comes up and talks to her," he said. "Also, Daniel and Nina are back."
"Hey, Amelia," Daniel said, giving her a little wave.
"Hello, Daniel," she said. She stood up. "Well, if Lucy's waiting just for me I better go talk to her."
She got up and Raj and Daniel moved so she could walk passed them. Raj looked at Minerva with a frown.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Minerva said, giving him a very unconvincing smile. She played with some random papers on the desk. "I just need a few minutes to finish this."
"Alright," he said with a nod. "I'll leave you be."
Raj looked at Daniel who told him he needed a minute. Raj nodded and walked away while Daniel walked into the office and closed the door behind him.
"Was this about the war?" he asked softly.
Minerva sighed and nodded, feeling a fresh wave of tears welling up. He sighed and walked over to sit down in front of her.
"What happened?"
She gave him a look.
"I want to know," he said. "It's my world too now. I have a sister and a... you, in it. So I want to be informed."
She gave him a small smile. "A me?"
"I'm sorry... I still don't know what to call you," he said with a little laugh. "But we can discuss that later. Tell me about this now. Tell me everything."
Minerva took a deep breath and launched into everything that had happened so far, starting long, long ago. She told him about the rise in Anti-Muggleborn ideas, the rise of the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters. She told him about giants and werewolves sacking muggle villages. She told him about everyone who had died. Amelia's parents and grandparents, Hogwarts professors, muggles, Ministry workers, Aurors, friends. She told him about the Order of the Phoenix and the support that they were getting from the international wizarding community. She ended her story on Fabian and Gideon Prewett. She told him about their sister Molly and the rest of the Weasleys. She cried a lot and he moved so he could put a hand on her shoulder. She pulled him into a hug and he tried his best to comfort her.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I - I wish I knew what to say."
She pulled away and wiped her face. "It's okay, Daniel. I just... you've already done more than enough. I think coming home and being with you all and just forgetting about the war for a little while is the only thing keeping me sane right now."
"I'm glad you came back," he said. "I don't think you should try to go through all this alone."
She smiled and put a hand on his cheek. "You are such a wonderful young man. So much like your father."
He smiled. "I try."
She laughed through her tears and shook her head. "So much like your father."
Amelia went up the stairs and ran into Nina in the hallway in front of her bedroom door. Nina saw her and smiled.
"Oh, hello, Amelia," she said. "Uncle Raj told me you were here."
"Hello, Nina," Amelia said. "How are you?"
"I'm good, thank you for asking," she said with a smile. "Lucy's still up waiting for you. Said she couldn't go to sleep without talking to you first."
Amelia smiled. "I'll go talk to her," she said. "I'm sorry for keeping her up so long past her bedtime."
"That's alright," Nina said with a laugh. "Oh, will you be staying the night tonight? I can fix up a room for you."
"No, no, don't trouble yourself," Amelia said.
"It's no trouble."
"That's alright, Nina. I should get home tonight. I'll have to go into work early tomorrow," Amelia said with a smile. "Have a good night."
"Goodnight," Nina said.
Amelia walked towards Lucy's door while Nina went into her own bedroom. Amelia knocked on the door and heard a little voice say, "come in."
Amelia opened the door and smiled at Lucy. She was laying on her bed reading a comic book waiting for her aunt.
"Hi! I thought you might not come," Lucy said, sitting up and putting her book down.
Amelia smiled. "Of course I came," she said, closing the door behind her and walking to sit down on the bed in front of Lucy. "You asked me to come so I came."
"What were you talking with Mum about?"
"Oh just some boring stuff. You wouldn't be interested," Amelia said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Uncle Raj said that you and Mum had work to do but you don't work at Hogwarts," Lucy said. She thought for a minute. "I didn't think you did."
"No," Amelia said with a smile. "I'm a judge on the Council of Magical Law but I would like to eventually become part of the Wizengamot, the highest court of law in our world, and maybe eventually become Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Wow," Lucy said. "I like law. I think I might become a lawyer when I grow up."
"Really? That's wonderful," Amelia said. She put a hand on her heart. "Following in your aunt's footsteps."
Lucy laughed. "Um, so, if you don't work with Mum at Hogwarts and you guys were just talking about boring stuff," she said, "why did you come so late at night?"
Amelia raised an eyebrow at her. "Hmm, I think you may be a little too smart for your own good, little one."
"I'm in year seven, Aunty Amelia. I am smart," Lucy said. She frowned and crossed her arms. "And I know that something is going on but no one wants to tell me what that is."
Amelia sighed. "What do you know?"
"I know that Mum has a lot of meetings for someone who's just a teacher and that she comes home very tired all the time. I know that the Headmaster of Hogwarts comes here for late night meetings with Mum and that she was talking with Nani and Aunt Daisy really quietly so no one else could hear when we were in Scotland for Christmas. And I know that everyone I've met from the Wizarding World pretends to be happy when they're actually sad. I know that you're doing it right now."
Amelia raised an eyebrow at her again. "Wow, you are very observant," she said. "Maybe you should think about becoming a detective."
"What's going on?" Lucy asked, not letting Amelia distract her. "Why is everyone sad?"
"We're not sad... we're just... I don't know, sweetheart. It's just not a very good time in the Wizarding World right now," Amelia said.
"That's what Mum said. Times are tough," Lucy replied. "But why are they tough?"
Great, Amelia thought. She had wanted to avoid the hard stuff. This was not avoiding the hard stuff. What could she tell this little girl? That people were dying? That the Wizarding World was in shambles? No. This was a six year old girl who had just lost her father a few months ago. She couldn't tell her about the war. Lying felt like a good option. Parents do it all the time, right? She didn't know, she wasn't a parent and this right here was why.
Amelia sighed and took Lucy's hand in hers. "Okay, Lucy. I'm not going to talk to you like a baby. Times are tough. It's hard to understand why. It's hard for adults to understand why. We're trying to figure it out and I wish that I could give you a better answer than that but that's all I've got."
Lucy frowned but nodded. She thought for a minute before asking, "is it like the Great Depression? I read about it in one of Daniel's old textbooks."
Amelia smiled. "Kind of," she said. The depression part, definitely. Though this was very much more like what came right before the Great Depression. You're a really smart kid."
"Thank you for talking to me like a grown up," she said. "Everyone treats me like a baby because I'm small. Even at school. My teachers still talk to me differently than other students, even though I have the highest marks in all my classes."
"Some people don't understand," Amelia said with a small smile. "They're no fun but I will always treat you like an adult. I don't like it when people condescend to children."
"Me neither," Lucy said with a smile.
"Also, if you're really interested in law, next time I come over I can bring you some of my old law books," she said.
"Really? That would be awesome! Thank you."
"Of course," Amelia said with a smile. "I would love to inspire someone to come into my field."
Lucy smiled. She got up and hugged her. Amelia smiled and hugged her back.
"Well, love, I should probably get going and you should probably get to sleep. I can already see a lecture from your mother for keeping you up too late in my future."
Lucy laughed. "Okay," she said, getting back into bed. "Goodnight, Aunty Amelia."
"Goodnight, love," she said, getting up and giving Lucy a kiss on the forehead before leaving the room.
Amelia walked down the stairs and found Minerva and Daniel still in the office. She said goodbye to them and they also invited her to stay the night but again she declined. She told them that she could show herself out and headed for the door.
"You're leaving?" Raj asked, walking into the entrance hall from the kitchen as she put her shoes on.
Amelia looked up and smiled a little. "Yes," she said. "It's quite late. I should head home."
"It's too late to be driving for an hour into London," he said. "Why don't you stay the night?"
Amelia shook her head. "No, I really need to go," she said. "I have to go into work early tomorrow. I have a lot to do."
"Still working weekends, I see," he said. "That hasn't changed much."
She smiled and shook her head as she walked over to the closet and pulled out her coat.
"I won't ask what you and Minerva were talking about," he said, leaning against the wall, crossing his arms, and watching her put on her coat, "because I don't expect either of you to give me a straight answer but I did notice that you were both crying so I hope that everything is okay."
"We're okay, don't worry," Amelia said, not looking at him.
Raj didn't say anything. He just watched her.
Amelia zipped up her coat, looked up and smiled at him. "Well, I should head out," she said. "It was nice seeing you, Raj. Sorry again for dropping by so late."
"That's alright," he said. "You're always welcome here."
She smiled, said goodbye and headed out. Raj locked the door behind her and headed upstairs to his own bedroom. He noticed Lucy's bedroom light still on and walked over to it.
"You're still awake?" he asked, opening the door and looking over at the bed. To his surprise, Lucy was not awake. She was fast asleep with her blanket half off the bed and her comic book on her arm. Raj smiled and quietly walked towards the bed. He picked up the comic, a Wonder Woman one of course, and set it down on her bedside table. He fixed the blanket around her before walking back to the door, turning off the lights and leaving the room.