A/N: Well, I keep telling myself 'I'll update sooner next week' but time seems to keep sneaking up on me an awful lot. I suppose I'm still getting used to the whole working-student schedule. but, well, after weeks of madness, here is the chapter.
It was hardly possible that anyone in Britain hadn't heard about the massive breakout from Azkaban. The news had been splashed on every newspaper, every magazine and every radio news report for the five days that had passed since it had happened and, ever since, a general sense of panic had spread among the wizarding community.
Clearly, the whole breakout had been a very long, very well planned event. Every single one of the dozens of Dementors in Azkaban had simply vanished, leaving the prison completely vulnerable. While the question in many's minds was 'How could they have done such a thing?', the one in Sirius's was simply 'How come this didn't happen sooner?'.
He couldn't honestly say he'd been completely surprised by the breakout as the Dementors' allegiance had been more than questionable ever since Voldemort's return for a whole myriad of reasons. They'd been on Voldemort's side before, after all, – which was always a bad omen since they tended to join whichever side promised to produce more despairing victims for them to feed on – and it was no news that rogue Dementors had been responsible for nearly a dozen attacks on clueless Muggles that year alone. Them disbanding Azkaban had only been a matter of time and the reason why the ministry always kept a couple of aurors at the prison to keep an eye on them – an unfortunate arrangement that time around, as the events of the breakout had sent one of those aurors to St. Mungo's in a critical condition and the other to an hospice, soulless.
In the end of it all, two dozen prisoners had escaped the prison and only two – minor criminals who likely had just used the opportunity to make a run for it – had been retrieved, leaving twenty-two extremely dangerous criminals, all branded with the Dark Mark, out and about – including, as Sirius had predicted, Lucius Malfoy, among other sounding names captured during the Battle at the Department of Mysteries and the one at Hogwarts only a few weeks back.
That said, the auror department, not to mention the ministry in general, was completely swamped – so swamped, in fact, that it had taken the Order five days to find a date and time compatible with most of their members' now insanely crammed schedules (in a way or another, because of the breakout) to meet in order to discuss the matter in question.
So, five days after the breakout from Azkaban at the agreed date and time, Sirius and Mia found themselves in the Weasley's shed waiting for the order's meeting to begin. They were the first to arrive, having gotten there hours to enjoy some as-close-to-normal-as-it-could-get time with the Weasleys, so the waiting part was the same old boredom up until more people started to arrive.
Mad-Eye was the first to get there, limping like never before and grumbling under his breath about Mundungus Fletcher's latest trouble, involving some sort of stealing bender – whatever that meant –, his betrayal on the crew he'd gathered for the heist (cheating them all out of the goods they'd stolen) and a not-so-well-plotted-but-still-successful escape that had resulted on the outlaw's whereabouts being currently unknown. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about already, the little rascal just had to go, cause more trouble, disappear and leave the Order hanging as he parades around with all our secrets!" Mia had overheard the former auror telling Arthur Weasley just as Molly entered the room, hands covered with what seemed to be platters of appetizers.
Only Molly would worry about the catering in a situation like that, Mia thought.
She elbowed Sirius lightly in order to get his attention. "I think I'm going to lend Molly a hand," she declared, her eyes on the Weasley matriarch.
"And leave me here alone with my own boredom?" he asked, dramatically. "Why, you negligent wife. Leaving your husband alone to fend for himself."
She chuckled lightly. "I'm sure you can handle it for a few minutes. And look, Remus has just walked in," she said, pointing towards the entrance of the shed, by which Remus seemed to be greeting Bill Weasley. "Go play with him for a while Mia goes help Mrs. Weasley, honey," she told him in the sweet tone she tended to use when talking to their two-year-old son as she patted his cheek.
He narrowed his eyes at her mockery. "What am I? A toddler?"
Mia chuckled again. "Not really, but you can be just as clingy. And as pouty."
Sirius did pout before he had the chance to stop himself from doing so and then groaned inwardly in frustration. "I'll give you the pout, woman," he mumbled.
She laughed and reached to place a kiss on his cheek. "Go say 'hi' to Remus – we all know how much you like annoying him. I'll be right back," she promised before walking away, towards Molly.
By the time she reached her, the redhead seemed to be distractedly humming some sort of Celestina Warbeck song to herself as she divided the appetizers by several plates on the large oval table resting in one of the corners of the shed.
"Merlin, Molly. Are you running up for the title of the best Order meeting hostess of all time?" Mia asked the other woman, amused.
The redhead turned around suddenly, a bit startled by the sudden intromission but quickly recomposing herself. "Oh, Mia, it's you. I just thought it would be nice for everyone to have something to nibble on and a few refreshments," Molly said.
"I know, but you really didn't need to put yourself through all this work – mostly, everyone's happy to come by, sit for the meeting and leave just as soon as it's over," Mia pointed out, before reaching for one of the platters of appetizers. "Here, let me help you with that."
The other woman thanked her for the help as she passed the platter to her. "Oh well, it's not really that much trouble. Plus… I'll be seating this meeting out. Arthur says these matters are making me too stressed and, I have to say, I'm starting to agree. You wouldn't believe the headaches I've been getting lately. Well, I suppose this little… courtesy is my way of making up for my absence."
Mia nodded. "There was no need for that – I know what's like being stressed. And between planning Bill's wedding and, well, everything… No one would blame you for skipping this meeting over that. Appetizers or not."
"Well, I suppose the wedding has kept me in a working mood too," she admitted, sighing.
"It's hard to believe it's happening in little more than a week already, isn't it?" Mia asked her softly.
Her heart beat faster for every day they got closer to the date in question – likely, not for the same reasons as Molly's did, she admitted silently. For her, the wedding was the last day she could be certain that Harry would be around as he'd promised Ginny that he would attend it before leaving for his odyssey – after then, he could leave at any day, at any hour… She gulped silently and busied herself by distributing the appetizers by the plates on the table.
"It's hard to believe there is still so much to be done," Molly told her, sighing. "Part of me wishes Bill and Fleur would have waited for…" She stopped herself. "For when things become less… turbulent." She took a breath, then. "But who am I to talk? Arthur and I eloped in times like these – one just doesn't know when it will be over… the war, I mean. If we let it control our lives, we might as well surrender. Better enjoy it while it lasts instead – that's what my brother Gideon used to say to justify his never-ending parade of girlfriends back in the first war." She shook her head, still a bit disapprovingly, but it was hard to miss the nostalgic look on her face.
"It will be over soon," Mia told her, trying to sound more confident that she actually felt.
"Yes, let's pray it does," Molly agreed, trying to put a smile on her face. "Well, I need to go get the refreshments."
"I'll give you a hand," Mia offered.
The redhead shook her head, then. "No need for that. Fred and George are just over there," she said, pointing towards one of the work tables, by which her sons stood, plotting looks on their faces. "I think it's time I put them to work… oh, Elizabeth, it's good to see you," Molly said just as Elizabeth approached them, greeting her back. "Well, you'll have to excuse me now." And with that, Molly retreated to the door, all but dragging her twin sons behind her, protesting, as she passed by them.
Alone with her best friend, Mia turned to her with her brows furrowed. "Well, what do we have here? Arriving to the meeting ten minutes early? Who are you and what have you done with the real Elizabeth Harper?"
"What? It's not like I'm always late," Elizabeth protested.
"No. Only nine out of seven times," Mia observed.
"Two out of three… at the most," her friend corrected. "Oh, if you're just going to stand there and mock me, I'll go talk to somebody else. Sirius is rubbing off on you too much."
"Yes, he's a terrible influence," Mia had to agree. "So, anyway, if I'm allowed to ask, what has caused this early arrival?"
Elizabeth sighed and reached for one of the appetizers on the table, nibbling on it in frustration. "Well, I'm hoping to be able to land my eyes on…" she paused before saying Kingsley's name – they were still adamantly keeping their relationship a secret, after all, for their own safety "… you know who – and by that I don't mean the you-know-who – for more than five minutes in a row. It's been a nightmare the past few days – the guy has barely been able to leave the auror department since this breakout happened. Last night, he came home past midnight and had to leave before dawn. It's mad…"
"Wait, you two are living together already?" Mia asked, surprised
Elizabeth shrugged. "Well, not officially. But he spends the night like eighty percent of the time, so take your own conclusions. Anyway, these past few days – they've been driving me mad, Mia."
She could imagine Elizabeth's frustration. A career as an auror was always a demanding one, especially in times like the current – thankfully, Sirius hadn't picked it for himself or she would certainly be in the same shoes as Elizabeth. I did occur to her that Harry wanted to become an auror too but, hopefully by the time he got to it, things wouldn't be half as hard as they were these days. Not hopefully – certainly. After all, Harry's future depended on Voldemort's defeat.
"It will get better, Elizabeth," Mia told her softly, trying to feel as confident as she sounded.
"It had better or else it's not our time together I'll have to worry about – it's his health. One can only take so much long days and nights," she observed, already in healer-mode. "Head-auror or not, I swear I'll drag him all the way home from the department if he doesn't give himself a break soon."
Mia chuckled. "We both know you're pretty good at handling forced breaks, after all, don't we?"
"It's my second vocation," Elizabeth declared, grinning. "And speaking of overworking fiancés," she whispered, watching as Kingsley stepped into the shed along with Tonks and a couple other aurors.
"Aren't you going to meet him?"
She shook her head. "Let him some here. I can't look too interested, can I? We need to keep up appearances. As far as everyone knows, we're just friendly acquaintances, after all."
"Don't you get sick of it? Having to pretend?" Mia asked her, more out of curiosity than as some sort of warning or advice.
Elizabeth shrugged. "Sometimes. I love him and, sure, I'd love to be able to shout it to the skies but I understand it's risky with him being the head auror and that making him an obvious target. If it were just me, I wouldn't even bother to keep the secret but my kids are the equation – neither Kingsley nor I want to risk them in the slightest. Plus, I've got to say, sometimes this rush of keeping us a secret thing becomes incredibly… sexy."
Mia rolled her eyes. "Of course it does," she said dryly. "Now put your straight face on because Kingsley's heading this way with Tonks and Mad-Eye."
She did as Mia said, almost impossibly so. The deliriously happy expression on her face became a perfectly casual one as she waited for her fiancé to approach.
"Mia, Elizabeth," Kingsley greeted them both cordially, standing strategically behind Elizabeth.
She turned around casually as Mia greeted the group and smiled in the same fashion. "Hello, everyone," she greeted, her eyes shifting to Kingsley just for a second. "I haven't see you all in a while," she pointed out, in fact directing her sentence only to the head auror.
Tonks raised her eyebrows at that for a second but didn't say a word. Mad-Eye was the one to answer.
"Plenty to do, Harper. Do you think we have time to socialize?" the mangled man responded unceremoniously.
Kingsley cleared his throat. "What Moody means is that the auror department has been chaotic as you probably imagine. We are working on lightening everyone's schedules, though," he swiftly provided, taking the hint. "We'd love to stay and chat but Moody and I were just heading to Arthur to have a word with him…"
Mia nodded. "It was nice talking to you," she told the auror as Elizabeth nodded by her side, successfully hiding a smirk.
The two men walked away while Tonks stayed behind with them. "You guys haven't seen Remus anywhere, have you?"
"Last time I saw him, he was by the door," Mia informed her, looking at the place in question and noting that Remus wasn't there anymore indeed. "Sirius was heading there to meet him – maybe they stepped out for a moment. Didn't you see before coming in?"
Tonks shook her head and shrugged. "Must have been behind the shed or something. Oh, well, he's bound to show back up soon, anyway…" she said.
Mia nodded. "How are you doing? Sirius mentioned the other day that you weren't very well. Something about a stomach bug…" she asked, a bit concerned. It wasn't very hard to tell Sirius had told the true, though there were signs of recovery: she did look a bit pale but not as ghoulish as he had described a few days before, and her hair presented a hue somewhere between brown and purple.
"Oh, that," Tonks said, like she'd been caught off hand for a moment. For some reason, a smile covered her face for a single second before she hid it with a fake cough. "It was pretty persistent but I'm feeling better now. Remus ganged up on me with my Mom and made me go with her to St. Mungo's this morning." She made a face about that, seeing as she wasn't a big fan of hospitals because the amount of time she tended to waste there due to her accident-proneness. "Anyway, they gave me a few potions and assured me this… er, bug issue would solve itself with time."
"Hum, doesn't sound like a very thorough diagnosis," Mia observed, frowning.
"Says the woman who hasn't practiced healing in… what? Six years?" Elizabeth pointed out casually. "You don't want Tonks here to give a line to line description of the diagnosis the healers gave her, do you? I don't – I get enough healing jargon at work."
Tonks quietly shot her a 'thank you' look, which Elizabeth replied with a smile, before speaking again. "Long story short, I'll be just fine. I'll save the… er, long explanation for Remus when he interrogates me about it later today," she assured Mia, biting her lower lip sheepishly. "Oh, look, there they are," she announced, waving at her husband as he stepped back into the shed followed by Sirius and a large group of Order members who had, apparently, been socializing outside, among whom were Lulu, Gabe, McGonagall, several other teachers and Amelia Bones.
"Well, looks like this is about to start," Elizabeth stated, sitting down on one of the chairs surrounding the large meeting table.
"Yeah," Mia mumbled, sitting down too. "Let's see what will come out of this."
Order meetings did last an awful lot of time, Harry thought as he peaked through the window of the Burrow's living room, his eyes directed towards the shed. Although he imagined there were bound to be at least a handful of boring moments in those meetings, he often wished to take part on then, if not for anything else, to know first-hand what was being done against Voldemort's advances.
It wasn't that he didn't trust his godparents to pass down the information of what was discussed at the meetings to him but sometimes he did wonder if they weren't softening it all up for him. As aware as he was they were doing everything in their power to make sure he was prepared for the storm that was coming – and he knew he could never repay them for that – he was also aware that they'd like to shield him from everything within their reach.
Harry sighed, then. He knew he's miss their protectiveness somehow… The time for him to leave was coming faster than he'd ever predicted. He'd trained and trained to get ready for any fight, any enemy that might cross his way. Ron had been there by his side all along and Hermione, in her time at her parents' home, had surely spent every waking moment absorbing all the information about Horcruxes she could get her hands on like a sponge – no doubt he could count on them to have his back. They had little more than a week before they were set to leave. And yet he barely had any idea of where to start looking for the Horcruxes.
He'd wasted time, he knew. Maybe irrationally so. But he still couldn't bring himself to rummage through his school trunk and retrieve the little note that had rested within the fake locket-Horcrux he and his late headmaster had found in the cave. It had led Dumbledore to his death nearly as much as Snape had – the headmaster had sacrificed his strength drinking the potion shielding the locket and, no doubt, Severus Snape or any other second-rate Death Eater would have never been any match to a non-weakened Dumbledore. But, instead, Dumbledore hadn't stood a chance. And for what? Nothing. A fake Horcrux and a note signed by some RAB person… He'd have to think of that soon, he knew – the clock was ticking, after all, and time was becoming a more and more precious good.
But in the meanwhile, training, preparing and researching couldn't become all he did. He knew it couldn't. There were other things precious to him that he needed to enjoy before everything changed, like spending time with Ginny or getting to know his mother through her diaries…
That last task had revealed itself to take longer than he'd expected before to the point that he'd ended up dividing it with Ginny and, not as occasionally, Izzy, who would sweep through the diaries and mark the most note-worthy entries for him. He wished he could read and absorb every word himself but, for lack of time, he'd have to leave for another occasion in the future – his mother wrote a lot, he'd come to realize. She could have become a writer at some point – a good one, he thought. He could honestly say that no other piece of writing had kept him half as interested – not even the half-blood prince's, or rather Snape's, potions book.
"Oh, Harry, I think you'll like this entry," Ginny's voice suddenly reached them, bringing him back from his thoughts.
She was grinning in amusement as she sat on the floor, her legs crossed and her back against the sofa where Izzy lounged while trying to fill in the Daily Prophet's crosswords. On Ginny's lap, rested an open book – not so coincidently one of his mother's diaries –, which she'd been reading since the Order meeting had started.
Although he'd intended to do some planning that afternoon – logistics, like what they had to take, how they would communicate when it was time to leave –, Ginny and Ron had quickly changed his plans, mentioning that Mrs. Weasley was getting suspicious of their late secrecy and that, in case she even got wind of his, Ron's and Hermione's plans to leave, she'd stop at nothing to try and keep them from doing so. And since she'd skipped the Order meeting and had been peaking into the room every few minutes, between babysitting Alex and Mary upstairs, it wouldn't be wise to just blatantly discuss their plans practically in front of her… How Ron would ever give her a heads up to his departure, was a mystery to Harry.
Also, the fact that a friendly Quidditch match between the Cannons and some Serbian team (whose name Harry could neither spell nor remember for more than five seconds at the time) was airing on the radio, didn't quite help getting Ron's head in the game. The figurative game, that was, not the literal one as, after all, he was so entranced by the radio commentary that the whole house could explode around him and he wouldn't give it a thought.
"What's it about?" Izzy asked Ginny, putting down the newspaper and the self-filling quill she'd been using to fill-in the words as she shifted her position on the sofa to a sitting one that would allow her to look over Ginny's shoulder and at the diary.
"Well, according to one Lily Evans's words, about a certain black-haired git – her words, not mine – related to one of us here in the room," Ginny pointed out in amusement.
"I'll take a guess and say the black-haired git isn't Sirius," Harry said, nonchalant, walking towards his girlfriend and sitting by her side on the floor. He'd gotten use to his mother referring to his father as a 'git' in her journals, among other less flattering names. But, honestly, midway through her sixth year's account, Harry could tell that referring him by such had become more of a stubborn habit than anything else… She had quite a temper, he'd come to realize. Reminded him of Ginny that way – it seemed common knowledge was right when it advised one not to mess with a redhead.
"Nope, not Sirius this time. He does feature a lot in this one, since it starts just a few weeks before he and Mia got together," Ginny observed. "I've got to say, guys, according what's in here, Sirius and Mia got caught a lot snogging in broom closets. It's kind of a running joke, actually."
"Phew, no wonder," Izzy pointed out. "If Harry and I listed every time we caught them snogging around the house or at Hogwarts, we'd be here for a while. And note that Dad's only been around for the past three years. Isn't that right, Harry?"
"I'd rather not think of that," Harry mumbled, looking a bit embarrassed by the matter in question. He looked away, trying to hide the blush worth of a Weasley, and cleared his throat. "Er… weren't you just going to read something from the diary?" he asked Ginny, trying to shift the conversation away from the point where it stood.
"Oh, right," she said. "Here it goes – and brace yourselves 'cause it starts off a bit… strong." She took a moment to look at Ron, whose mind was still seemingly being controlled by the radio. "Don't you want to hear too, Ron?"
"Hum," he uttered dismissively – whatever he meant by that, was a mystery.
"Ginny! Get on with it!" Izzy insisted.
"Alright, alright! Merlin, don't get your knickers in a twist," the redhead said, clearing her throat before looking down at the notebook. "I hate him," she read. "I do, I really do. I hate James Potter! He's such a… As if…"
"Wait. He's such a what?" Harry asked, interrupting her.
"Hard to say," Ginny told him, showing him the page in question, only to reveal the end of the sentence completely scratched out. "Doesn't seem your mother could decide which insult fit him better. Anyway," she said, clearing her throat again before resuming the reading. "As if it wasn't bad enough Dumbledore made him Head Boy (which, he's not as terrible at as I thought he'd be, actually), he also… he… he stopped asking me out. Just stopped!"
There was a general chuckle at Lily's words there – both Harry and Izzy could predict where that was going.
"Phew," Ron mumbled suddenly from his place by the radio, "get grief at because you do, get grief at because you don't… girls. You're all mental, that's what you are."
All three turned to the redhead and Ginny was the first to narrow her eyes at him in annoyance – if there was a foot-in-mouth sort of disease, her brother had to be the most severe case in the bloody universe, she thought. "Weren't you busy being mind-controlled by that radio and listening to your team being used to wipe the floor with, Ronald?"
The other redhead glared. "The game's on recess."
Before Ginny could throw back some acid response at that, Harry interrupted her. "Who's winning?" he asked, pretending to be even slightly interested – he was pretty sure that if he let Ginny start an argument, it would take a while to shut them both up and get back to hearing his mother's words about his father.
"It's a tie, actually," Ron declared as rejoiced as one would be if their team was ahead by a few hundred points.
Izzy sighed nonchalantly. "The Cannons not loosing… the world's really reaching an end."
Ron glared again. "You're one to talk – you don't even cheer for any team!"
"Sure I do. I cheer for whichever wins – never get disappointed that way. Maybe one day I'll find a team worth sticking with," she said.
"Not the Cannons, though," Ginny assured him. "I'd get physical if she even considered that."
"No need. I'd admit myself into St. Mungo's first," her best friend promised.
Harry huffed and cleared his throat, then. "Guys, do you mind? I was hoping we could go back to what we were doing," he said, pointing at the diary in Ginny's hands.
"Anxious, are you?" Ginny asked him, one eyebrow raised.
"Ginny," he said pleadingly. "Please?"
She sighed. Those diaries were important to him – important enough for him to be determined to gather the most important moments detailed in them before he had to leave, no matter how short time might become. She understood why: happy memories made him stronger, family ties, friendly ties… those were things Voldemort would never have or even appreciate. He completely underestimated their power and that would always give Harry the advantage. She hoped that advantage would be enough.
Still, deep down part of her knew she'd never fully understand just how he could be satisfied with getting to know his mother like that – through a bunch of diaries. He didn't have another choice, Ginny knew, but still… She'd grown up with her parents around all her life. The thought of having to get to know them that way… it felt too little. Too faint. But maybe she was wrong, she mused. Maybe that way, he'd gotten to know his mother better than she knew her own – she couldn't honestly say she knew exactly what went through her mother's head and, through Lily Evans's written words, Harry could. It still wasn't the same as the real thing… The real thing was the one he had with Mia.
"Gin?" she heard Harry asking, pulling her away from her thoughts only to see him waving his hand in front of her face. "Are you okay? You went really silent for a while."
"I was just… thinking."
"Want to share?"
She gave him a smile and shook her head before reaching to kiss his cheek.
Harry looked at her in confusion. "What was that for?"
Ginny shrugged. "Nothing. And shut up, Ron!" she told her brother when he started making retching sounds at their very mild public display of affection. "Do I need to go get a pensieve and show you my memories of you and Lav-Lav?" she threatened, glaring at him. "They're pretty sickening."
He visibly gulped at her threat – mentions of his… fling with Lavender Brown still tended to make him awfully uncomfortable. "Oh, look at that. The game's starting again," he lamely said as the Quidditch game's commentary resumed on the radio.
His sister rolled her eyes at his words and turned back to Harry, getting a hold of the diary again. "So, where was I?"
Her boyfriend's lips curled. "My dad won't ask my mom out," he supplied.
"She seemed pretty annoyed about it," Izzy pointed out from the sofa.
"Asking out, asking out," she said, browsing through the page, "oh, here it is." Ginny cleared her throat again and resumed, once more, reading. "…he stopped asking me out. Just stopped! And it's driving me mad! But why? I've spent years wishing Potter would stop asking me out and now he did. Plus, he's not acting like a complete arse anymore and can actually be… nice to have around during our patrols. It's bizarre… simply not normal!"
"Well, that's just confusing," Izzy mumbled.
"Shhhh!" Harry and Ginny unceremoniously chorused.
"This is just getting interesting," the latter said before resuming her heading. "It's got to be some sort of… ploy to mess with my head. Yes, that's probably it. A scheme… some sort of reverse psychology to drive me completely insane, which must be working for me to actually care that he'd stop asking me out. I wish I could actually talk to someone about this – I know if I go to Mia or Elizabeth they'll just over-analyze it and say that the reason why I'm feeling this odd is because I have… feelings for Potter. Which I don't – they're just convinced that, because they have boyfriends, everyone else has to have them too, even if it's the most insufferable, cocky bully in the school. Or was. I don't know anymore. Maybe I should talk to Remus. If there's some sort of ploy involving Potter, he ought to know about it. I know he'll never actually tell me about it but he's not much of a liar aside from when it's about his condition, so I should be able to tell if he's hiding something. Yes, that's right. I'll pull him aside tomorrow and ask him. Potter will be sorry if he's really been trying to mess with my head." Ginny ceased reading and closed the book, then. "After this, she just goes on to list the hallway patrol schedule for the following week."
"That's…" Harry mumbled, half-amused, "that's… interesting."
"Aw, your Mom's falling for your Dad," Izzy said, smiling. "It's so sweet."
"Yeah, except that she's in complete denial," Ginny observed, also amused. "I wouldn't want to be in Remus's shoes when she does… I mean, did – I keep forgetting this has all happened in the past – whatever she was planning to do to him. Or in your father's if, for some reason, she ended up concluding he'd been messing with her head on purpose", she said with a laugh.
Just then, Sirius and Mia stepped into the room, coming from the Order meeting that had apparently met an end while they talked.
"Well, looks like you kids are having a better time than we've just had," Sirius observed. "Lucky you."
"So, what's so funny?" Mia asked. "If we're allowed to know, that is."
"Oh, we were just listening to something from the diary," Izzy stated.
"Harry's mom is freaking out because his dad stopped asking her out every day," Ginny supplied.
Sirius chuckled just as he heard that. "Oh, the big Lily/James breakthrough – believe it or not, that's what led them to get together. Let me know when you reach the part when she flipped and started yelling at him for that same reason and then ended up snogging him – I'd very much like to read that one myself. James was always a bit… hazy with the details."
Mia raised her eyebrows. "I should probably point out that you'd likely be the last person Lily would want reading her diary."
He shrugged carelessly. "I'll let her kick my arse for it in the afterlife – it's definitely worth it. Plus, James always swore she hit like a girl, so… ouch, Mia!" he complained when she shoved her elbow into his ribs.
"Oh, shut up, you had that one coming," Mia told him unceremoniously.
"Anyway," Harry said, clearing his throat. "How did the meeting go?"
Sirius groaned and shrugged before sitting down on one of the armchairs in the room. "Boring, as usual. No big news, really. The aurors are not getting any closer to catching the Death Eaters on the run, Bulgaria's sending their prison security specialist in a couple of weeks to create some sort of unbreakable wards to make sure there aren't more breakouts and, in the meanwhile, France, Ireland, Germany, Portugal and… I don't know, a bunch more countries have lent the ministry a few of their aurors to help ours guarding the prison – apparently, Amelia Bones had to call in every favour owed to her and to the ministry to get that. They're afraid to get involved in our war." Sirius sighed, then – and who could blame, them, really? War was messy and deadly – no one in their right minds would want to get involved in it. "Long story short, things are bad. There's nothing we can do about it. So, what use it there to worry more than usual?"
His words did sound practical but they didn't at all mirror his feelings – he wished they did. He was aware that there were over twenty Death Eaters, not mention hundreds of Dementors, more on the streets and that was far from a little thing… it put them miles farther away from safety. It was all a bomb, a big bomb, and all signs showed it was going to blow up very soon.
"So what?" Harry asked. "We just stand here and wait? Let those Death Eaters just be on the loose and hope they'll do something stupid and get caught?"
"We're all open to suggestions if you have something better planned, kid," Sirius replied in a calm tone – he'd expected Harry to ask such things. The kid was, after all, a fighter. It was a gift and a curse at the same time.
"There really are no clues of where to start looking?" Ginny inquired a few seconds later.
Mia sat down on the arm of the chair her husband was settled on. "There are clues, Ginny. Only they're impossible to follow."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry inquired. In his mind, that made no sense at all…
Sirius sighed. "It means what it means, kid. It's pretty clear that those guys are all probably hidden in one or several of the many, many houses belonging to their families. But here's the thing you've got to know about dark wizards' houses: they're better protected than the ministry itself. Wards, traps, you name it…" And he'd gotten a pretty bitter taste of just how dangerous those could be one year before when he's so stupidly had gone after Wormtail to the Riddle Manor and ran into an authentic minefield surrounding it. Shaking his head at the thought, he resumed speaking. "Honestly, why do you think my father turned Grimmauld Place into a bloody fortress?"
"Not just to keep the Muggles away. That's for sure," Izzy mumbled.
"Izzy's got it right," he declared. "Those people have got plenty to hide and little desire to be transparent – even with a warrant from the Wizengamot itself, the aurors wouldn't be able to get a toe into their property unless those bastards wanted them to. So, if have any brilliant plan to get around that and search every one of these homes that may or may not be harbouring those blokes, please feel free to share with the class."
Harry looked down for a second and pursed his lips together in frustration. His godfather did have a perfectly valid point – if those places were half as protected ad Grimmauld Place… they just didn't stand a chance. "Well, that sucks," he said after a few seconds of silence.
"Yes, it does," Sirius agreed.
"You know we can't fix everything, Harry," Mia said softly. "If we could, well, it would be just too easy."
"Easy wouldn't hurt," Harry mumbled. "I could really use easy. A lot."
"It's not how it works, kid," Sirius told him.
"So, what now?" Izzy inquired.
"Now?" Sirius asked. "Now, I suppose it's time for us to head home, don't you think? Hopefully, if that's not asking too much, we can have a calm rest of the day when we get there. The rest can wait for later."
Her husband's request for a calm evening was indeed asking for too much, Mia concluded later that day when she heard the house's doorbell ringing just as she'd finished putting little Mary to sleep – which would have been quite a problem if Mary's room, as well as Alex's, weren't shielded so they hear loud sounds that might disturb their sleep.
Who would it be at that hour? She thought, making her way down the stairs on her own, since Sirius was busy reading Alex a bedtime story and likely oblivious to the doorbell's sound. It wasn't very late – only half past nine in fact – but the fact that someone was at their door at all, especially when they weren't exactly expecting anyone, was odd on its own – after all, most people they knew used the floo when they came by. Showing up at someone's door these days was simply too much of a bother with the need for security questions, codes or other ways to verify one's identity… it would be too risky to simply ignore that process and let a potential impostor into their house.
When Mia reached the floor below hers, Harry and Izzy were standing on the hallway, both already clad in their pyjamas and looking down the gap between the stairways with eyebrows raised.
"Did someone right the doorbell?" Izzy asked when she heard her mother approaching.
"Seems that way," Mia told her, trying to sound perfectly calm. "It's probably nothing."
"Just seems a bit odd," Harry told her. "We're not exactly expecting anyone."
"People don't always announce themselves before going somewhere," Mia observed just as the doorbell rang again. "Now, don't be nosy, you two. Just go back to whatever you were doing," she told her eldest children before resuming descending the stairs, that time, only stopping when she reached the ground floor.
Kreacher was already there, trying to climb on a chair he'd clearly dragged all the way from the dining room in order to reach for the peephole. Feeling a bit of compassion for the old house-elf, Mia approached him and touched his shoulder. "It's okay, Kreacher, I've got this," she told him.
Kreacher nodded in return, then, and stepped away from the chair. "As you wish, Mistress." And then, he disappeared with a 'pop' to Merlin-kne-where.
Pulling the chair away from the door, Mia reached for it and looked through the peephole only to find herself staring at a less than happy Nymphadora Tonks. She reached for her wand in the pocket of her robes and used it to tap the door, temporarily removing the sound shields from it. "Tonks, is that you?" she asked.
"Yes," the other woman replied in a shaky tone before proceeding to prove herself. "I… I… my name is Nymphadora Tonks. I'm married to Remus Lupin and I'm an auror… People seem to think I'm bad enough of a cook to give myself f…" she paused and, to Mia's disbelief, sobbed loudly"… food poisoning…"
Mia opened the door, then, without a doubt that it was really her. "Come on in," she told the metamorphagus immediately, helping her inside and closing the door firmly behind them.
Tonks looked truly terrible – her eyes red and swollen indicating she'd been crying for a while, her hair fully brown again and her face looking so down it seemed like she was in pain… Mia immediately feared the worse.
"What happened?" she asked straight away. "Is it Remus? Is he hurt?"
Tonks managed to shake her head at that, indicating he wasn't but couldn't quite form a sentence afterwards. "I… he…"
"You should sit down," Mia told her, engulfing her and pulling her towards the chair that Kreacher had thankfully left behind. She was shaking, Mia noted – she wondered if it was for whatever reason that had put her in such a state or for the fact that it was unusually cold outside for a summer night. The Dementors, she thought. They were the ones behind that cold. Suddenly, that brought a startling thought to her mind. "Did you just walk here, Tonks? There's a bunch of Dementors on the loose, not to mention fugitives – you shouldn't walk around alone… especially in this state…"
"No, I… I apparated," the metamorphagus mumbled in a rather detached tone. "Elizabeth… she told me it was fine for now…"
"Elizabeth?" Mia asked confused. What did Elizabeth have to do with anything? Odds were the Elizabeth Tonks was talking about wasn't, well, their Elizabeth. "Nevermind, let's get you downstairs to the kitchen so you can have some tea to calm you…"
"Tonks?" she suddenly heard her husband's voice asking behind her. Mia turned around and saw him rushing down the stairs towards them. "What's wrong? Is it Re…?"
"Remus is fine," Mia interrupted him. "She managed to tell me that much."
"Oh, thank Merlin," he mumbled, relieved.
By the other woman's side, Mia used her wand to summon a blanket from upstairs and wrapped it around the other woman's shoulders just as soon as it reached her. Tears kept falling slowly down her cheeks, which seemed awfully out of character for Tonks, who was undoubtedly not a crier. That could only mean a thing now: something bad had happened.
"Tonks," Sirius asked her softly, reaching for her shoulder with his hand, attempting to offer her some comfort. "Tell us what's wrong. Where's Remus? Why isn't he with you?"
"He…" she gulped and took a deep breath. "He left…" she whispered, the tears falling more furiously as she said that.
There was a silent pause, then, during which Sirius and Mia simply looked at Tonks in disbelief. "What do you mean 'he left'?" he asked cautiously.
She shook her head slowly, senselessly. "He just… left…"
"What happened? Did you have a fight?" Mia inquired, unable to believe Remus would leave his wife just like that.
Tonks shook her head. "No… I mean, yes, but… I told him I…" She took a long breath, then, as the scene replayed in her head. Remus's reaction, his words, him storming out… It hurt like a dagger through her heart
"You told him what?" Sirius asked.
She gulped, then, and closed her eyes for just a second. "I'm pregnant."
A/N: Well, this didn't come as a surprise of you - cheers for those who guessed the nature of Tonks's condition (in my defence, I was way too tired to try and make it less obvious). that said, I hope you liked the new chapter :D Feedback is very welcome. Review!