Disclaimer: Nothing familiar belongs to me. Everything you recognize belongs to those who own the rights to it. The USQL and all its teams belong to Rowling and AZScorpions24 whose fic on the league can be easily found on my favourites. With the obvious exception of my various original characters that can also be found in my fic One Letter
Well, I have finally found some time to get to a computer for something other than school, so I suppose that I can continue to update this story. For those of you reading this, reviews make me like any writer update faster. Love ~ Vivi
Chapter Three
Late January...
"When you said that you were coming along for a visit, I thought you were actually going to help me with them." Tempest jerked her head towards the yard where the triplets were playing. She eyed Sean who was currently a lump on her couch.
"Good luck with that." His twin, Sian snorted. "Listen, I'm dropping off a couple files at the Ministry and then have to get a couple papers signed. I can take one of them with me, but that's it. I took the boys last time and Hazel and Gabe before that and it was a mess. Only you can handle more than one at a time, Tem."
"Okay, if it won't be a problem, you can take Flynn with you."
"No problem." Sian stuck her tongue out at her twin.
"I'll take Hazel with me." Ashlyn Tanner said as she gave her wand a flick towards her robes. "I'm checking out a possible storefront in Diagon Alley and before that I'm heading to meet Bubby in Hogsmeade."
"Terrific."
"I'm going to run those errands on your fridge to prove that I'm not worthless. I'll take Gabe with me." Sean stood up and stretched. Tempest opened her mouth and he glared at her. "I can handle one of the Rayne terrors."
"I got to get to practice. Kids, come in here!" Tempest eyed her nephews and niece. "You three are being spilt up and must behave or else." The boys pretended to gulp. At six, they were already smart-asses, just as she and Celeste had been. Well, perhaps, a little worse than her and her twin, but she adored them all the same.
Hazel rolled her eyes at her brothers' antics. "Can I go with Aunt Ash?"
"Hey!" Sian called out.
"I can't help it if she likes me best." Ashlyn stuck out her tongue. "Get going, Tem, or you'll be late."
"See you later this evening." She hugged and kissed each of the little redheads. Unlike most six year old boys, her nephews where still too raw from losing their mother to complain over the obvious affection.
Three hours later...
"She's going to kill me." Sian hurried through the second level of the Ministry of Magic. "Oh, shit!" She announced loudly to the amusement of a few of the Aurors as she came to a skidding halt and tried to look over the tops of the cubicles.
"Are you okay?"
"It's worse than that." She tried to look below the cubicle walls in hopes of spotting a small pair of feet. "I lost my cousin's kid. She's going to kill me. I swear he was there and then I looked away. Oh, she's going to kill me."
"What's he look like?"
"Red hair, blue eyes." She looked up towards the voice and blinked. "Oh." There was a bit of laughter and she looked to the left of the wizard who she could have been describing to meet a pair of eyes the colour of emeralds. She knew exactly who he was. His picture still showed up on occasion.
"Did someone put you up to this?" The redhead asked.
"Sian, what did Temmi say about you loosing us?"
Her eyes narrowed as she followed the voice to her cousin. "Flynn Rayne, I'm telling Tem all about this. She's told you that you have to listen to me."
"Aw, I didn't do anything. I just..."
"No, just, Flynn." Sian ran a hand through her hair not paying attention to the gapping looks on the two Aurors' faces. "Well, there he is. And we better move. I have to get these papers to the embassy."
"Awesome, can I play with Josh?"
"We'll see. Thanks for the offer of help." Sian grabbed Flynn's hand. "Let's go, chaos."
"I thought I was havoc."
"Nope, that's Gabe and Haze is shambles."
"Aunt Winter doesn't like those nicknames." He smirked at the look on his cousin's face. "I don't like her either."
"Flynn!"
Ron stared at the receding pair. "That boy..."
"Looks an awful lot like George." Harry nodded.
"Doesn't matter, we've always had lots of family. They sounded American."
"Your family isn't the only one with red hair."
"That's true." Ron shook his head and put the occurrence out of his mind.
Diagon Alley...
George watched the boy as he darted into an aisle. He might never have noticed him if not for the flash of red as the boy ducked down. His eyes went from the boy to the man who was obviously looking for the kid. He ran his hand through jet black hair and gave the store a bit of a sweep from the doorway. George smirked as the kid moved quickly outwitting the adult. It reminded of how him or Fred might have acted if they had ever been with someone other than their parents. The door rang and a rather pretty witch entered. A little girl about the same age as the boy was with her. Her hair was a darker red and the thick mass was pulled back with a white headband. She wore a pair of white robes with large multicoloured flowers on them that flashed to new colours from time to time. The little girl looked highly amused with what was being said between the adults before the man disappeared outside.
With a sigh, George moved so he was in the direct path of the boy who was trying to outwit his keeper. "Oi." His smile faded for a brief moment as he met a pair of blue eyes in what was a younger version of his own face. It wasn't possible, but maybe, just maybe it was. "Hi, what's your name?" The boy didn't look like he was going to say a word. "It's okay to talk to me. This is my shop."
"Really?" All of the notion of not talking to strangers seemed to disappeared.
"Yeah. So, what's your name?"
"Gabriel," George blinked. "But everyone calls me..."
"Gabe!" The little girl had found the boy.
"Hey, Haze, this guy owns this shop, like Aunt Ash."
"Cool." The girl grinned up at George. "I'm Hazel." She looked at the boy. "Aunt Ash is threatening to skin Sean alive but she won't do it."
"Mom might."
"Yeah, she still hasn't let Sian forget about loosing the three of us at the embassy."
"There you are. Let's go get lunch, Sian and Flynn are meeting us at that one place you all like."
"Near the arcade?" Gabe grinned at the brunette.
"Yeah, it looks like I"m the only one not to loose one of you three." She flicked her wand around the girl and her robes turned into a simple dress and coat before doing the same to the boy's robes. "Sorry, if they bothered you." Her green eyes widened almost imperceptibly before she smiled, thinly. "Anyway, we've got to get going." Her eyes flashed with what might be anger before she moved between George and the kids. "Gabe, Haze, come on."
George shook his head, wondering what the look was for as well as if it was possible... He gave his head another shake. Celeste had her kid with her somewhere in America and would more than likely never come back to England. He picked up a box that had been knocked from a shelf and let out a sigh. Despite the time he had spent on the idea, he was still no closer to finding out who Fred's Celeste was. Of course, all he had to find her was a few hazy memories of the blue-eyed blonde his brother had dated, the fact that she had given birth on December 28, 1997, that her family lived in or near Finchburg, that she may or not have become a full-fledged healer, and her first name.
"Oi, George!"
George barely stopped a groan from leaving his lips as he turned to the mousy-brown haired male who had called him. Dennis Creevy was both a photographer and reporter with the Daily Prophet and one of the most annoying people George knew. "Afternoon, Dennis."
"That little girl that you were just talking to..." He frowned at the much shorter male causing him to take a step back. "Nothing like that, George." He let out a nervous laugh. "I thought that it might be Rayne's kid."
"What?"
Dennis grinned, clearly excited that George looked confused. Hermione had once announced that the reporter was worse than a little old lady when it came to outrageous gossip. "Howard McGraw reports for this rag in the US. He has this idea that Hazel Rayne is the daughter of Tempest Rayne and not her niece. I got a pic of the two at a Cannon's practice. I think he's on to something."
George barely kept from laughing. "Because family doesn't ever look alike." He almost did laugh when Dennis gave him a nod of agreement. "She never said that she was if that's what you're asking."
"The man who was in here. Black hair, odd coloured eyes, was he with the little girl?"
"Before I answer, why?"
"Hedy Claudel has him as Rayne's long standing beau. The pair have been together for ages despite that he openly cheats on her."
George shook his head. "Who would cheat on her?" He asked thinking about the poster hung in his office and the occasional flush that appeared on her cheeks.
Dennis shrugged. "Anyway was Hazel with him? What did she call him?"
"She was with a brunette, Aunt Ash, and called the man, Sean." George shook his head.
"Aunt Ash? I missed her? Ashlyn Tanner's always great for a shot. Opening a store here in Diagon Alley, no one knows anything about where it is. Sean, huh?" Dennis gave another shrug. "I suppose I should get back out there, see if I can run into Ashlyn."
George shook his head and let out a laugh as he watched the reporter disappear. He frowned slightly as he thought of the little girl. Could she be the daughter of Tempest Rayne? After years of having her poster hang in his workroom, he had to say that the little girl was quite possibly what the woman had looked like as a kid, except for those eyes.
Leaky Cauldron...
"I need to use the ladies' room before we head to lunch." Sian grinned at the three kids and Ashlyn.
"Me too." Hazel announced.
"Boys?" Sian eyed the pair.
"I don't need to go." Flynn grinned at Sian, who had given him a Sickle for his silence on loosing him and let him play with Josh, the US Ambassador's seven year old son, while she delivered her papers and did a few other things for work.
"I'm not a lady." Gabriel went back to telling his brother about loosing Sean in the greatest store.
"We'll stay at that table over there until you get done." Ashlyn ignored the comment before she herded the boys towards an empty table she had spotted near the muggle entrance. Part way to the table, Flynn dropped his Sickle. The pair took off after it despite Ashlyn telling them not to. She hurried after them. "Boys! Flynn, Gabe, please don't do this!" She followed behind the boys apologising to the either amused or irratated patrons that they knocked into.
"Is this what you're chasing?" A warm voice questioned as a matronly woman held out the runaway Sickle.
Ashlyn let out a sigh of relief as the pair came to a halt . One of them grinned. "Yep, Sian gave to to me."
" It's robbery." put in the other.
"Bribery," Ashlyn corrected, happy to know which boy was which.
"No, Gabe got it right. Sian said it was highway robbery that she had to pay me, I was the one who ran away in the Ministry. I didn't, I was behind her the whole time." He grinned at the brunette.
Ashlyn pinched the bridge of her nose. "You shouldn't play tricks on Sian or Sean." She added looking towards the other boy.
He had the grace to flush. "He was busy flirting and he told me we'd go in."
"Now, how do you think this looks to Aunt Winter?" She hated to do it, but they had to understand that not everyone knew how much Tempest gave up for her twin's kids and how far she would go to keep them safe. "Now, Flynn, manners."
"Oh, thank you for catching my Sickle." He gave the woman the grin he always gave Aunt Tempest to charm her out of anger. Gabriel gave her an identical smile.
"I... um..." The woman stared at the pair for a full moment before giving the coin to Flynn.
"Mum!" A female voice called out as a redheaded young woman hurried forwards. "We need to get to... Oh, wow! You're Ashlyn Tanner." She gushed at the brunette as her mother seemed to unable to do more than stare at the two boys.
"Yes, I am." She smiled warmly at the young woman.
"I loved the dressrobes Tempest Rayne was wearing at that ball before she came here. That was yours wasn't it?" The younger woman smiled. "I'm Ginny..."
"Aunt Ash, can we go now!" Gabriel announced drawing the attention of the young redhead to where her mother had been staring. "There's Sian and Haze. I wanna play some games before we have to go home."
"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, but I promised them, lunch and games." Ashlyn knew better than explain further.
"I still don't understand how I'm just Sian and she's Aunt Ash?" Sian announced coming to a stop by the boys. "I'm the one who's really related to you."
"I dunno." Flynn shrugged.
"I'll take the rugrats and leave you to chat for a few. I think I can handle food when an arcade is promised afterwards."
"Those boys..." The woman trailed off.
"The triplets are the kids of one of my best friends." Ashlyn smiled after the group. "Rambunctious but they have a large family."
This seemed to relax the woman, who Ashlyn seemed to really see for the first time. "Lots of siblings." She smiled, causing Ashlyn to notice her and the younger version of her standing to her side and how much they looked like...
"Oh, the triplets are the only kids but their mother's family's one of the largest I've ever been around. They're a really great family." She wasn't sure why she was trying to get this through to the woman who was very likely the triplets' grandmother if her eyes weren't failing her. "I need to get going. They seem to understand that they can push Sian and Sean. It was nice to meet you." She went to walk away but paused. "Oh, here." She dug into the bag on her arm. "I'm having a little pre-grand opening at my shop in a week. This'll get you and any guests you bring with you in."
"Oh, wow." The younger woman smiled.
"I hope I see you there." Ashlyn smiled and hurried to find Sian.
Later that evening...
Tempest hid a yawn as she flicked her wand causing the dinner plates in front of the triplets to move into the sink to be washed. She gave Ashlyn a weak smile as the brunette gave the kids slices of the cake that Tempest had made with help from Hazel. She would read tonight with Gabe and then before practice tomorrow she and Flynn were going for ice cream in Diagon Alley. Tomorrow after practice, she would meet the three at the park after talking to a witch that ran a magical nanny service. She needed to find actual help. She couldn't expect her friends and family to take care of the triplets when she wasn't able. Celeste expected her to raise the kids, not for it to be a joint effort.
"Temmi, you okay?" Sean asked as he wrapped one his arms around the redhead's shoulders.
She leaned her head against him. "I don't know how Celly did this."
"She had you." He smiled. "You have me." At a snort, he added. "Sian and Ash, too. Sunny's about as bad as me, why don't you have her head this way for a bit. Then you can find the perfect person or people to help you, other than us. Stormi will come along. She can sculpt anywhere. It can be your twenty-sixth birthday present."
"My birthday isn't until April."
"Then tell them to come out here and scope out their uncle as you have been doing." Ashlyn murmured as she paused by the pair.
Her head came up and she smacked into Sean's chin. She rubbed the top of her head. "What?"
"You don't think we didn't notice you in Diagon Alley today?" Sean answered rubbing where her head had connected with him. "That's gonna leave a bruise, Tem."
"You mean when you lost Gabe in the store?" She smirked. "The bruise is the least you deserve."
"Brat."
"Pain in the ass." She replied, moving over to the table. She ruffled Flynn's hair and sent Hazel a wink. "All done, Gabe?" Celeste had made sure that she spent time alone with each of the kids. It was something like what their parents did making sure that in nine kids no one felt left out. Sometimes, it might be her father taking her and her older brother, Augustus, or later on her younger brother, Andrew, and sometimes one of their sisters as well, to a quidditch match. Or her mother taking Celeste and her to work with her when they were little. Tempest wasn't sure if the triplets really enjoyed the outings better when it was one, two, or all three with her. Sometimes, especially since they had moved, she felt that they just wanted to be certain that she was going to be there.
"Yeah." He gave her a small smile. Celeste had never been much of a reader until the last couple months of her pregnancy when she was stuck in the apartment on bedrest. She had been surprised when she moved in with Tempest to find the books both muggle and magical that her quidditch crazy sister had in her apartment. Of course, she knew that Tempest lived to play the quidditch and wasn't really interested in the limelight that came with her talent and love of the sport, but a library of sorts came as a surprise. After the triplets were born, a stockpile of children's books came from the various family members like Misty, who lived to learn and read, and the kids liked cuddling with either their mother or her twin for nightly stories as they got older.
"You two can help Sean with the dishes or go bug Sian in the living room. I suggest scare and hide, she really likes that game." Flynn and Hazel grinned widely and took off towards the room that held their cousin.
"Since when does my sister like that particular game?" Sean asked flicking his wand towards the sink.
"She doesn't." Gabe answered.
"I'll go play and even the odds." He headed out the back door.
"How long until the scream?" The boy asked used to the odd game that Tempest and her younger siblings had started with Celeste to annoy their older sister, Winter. Only Sian had ever been known to not end up with laughing with everyone playing since Sean taught the triplets the rules. Basically, one person or more picked the target, snuck up on them, scaring them silly before tearing through the house and/or yard to hide. The last person found became the new target, being quiet after the first scream was important and everyone whispered when found as the group enlarged to the last person's hiding place was found. Then the sequence was repeated.
"Until Sean makes it around the house." The pair paused, heads tilted in the same way as they waited for Sian to yell out. After the initial sound followed by Sian's grumbling, the house fell silent. "Where to, Master Gabriel?"
"Can we go to the blue room?"
"Sure thing. What do you want to read?"
"Places You Go!"
"Aw, one of my favourites." Tempest summoned the book and they headed to the room with pale blue walls and windows that looked out on the backyard.. They curled up together on one of the overstuffed sofas and Tempest began. She had barely gotten through the first sentence when Flynn, who had been hiding in the room came up to them. Tempest scooted so that he had room and continued reading. Before she turned the first page, Hazel came in. She pulled Gabe onto her lap and Hazel to the empty space. The book ended and was replaced with another Seuss classic, Horton Hears a Who.
FGHFGH
"Shh!" Sean put his finger to his lips as Sian and Ashlyn, who had been dragged into the game, came down the hall towards him. They peered down at the four redheads asleep on the pale blue and white striped sofa.
Sian darted down the hall towards the front door and grabbed the camera that Tempest had kept in her bag since the triplets were born. She snapped a quick picture of the scene. "Should we leave them?"
"I would say yes, but Tem has practice tomorrow and her neck will be killing her if she sleeps like that." The two females stared at Sean in surprise. "Why don't we each grab a kid and move them to their rooms before waking her?"
"Wow, who would have thought that you'd grow up." Ashlyn shook her head.
"I think I liked you better when you were in love with me." He replied to the shock of his sister.
"I think I liked you better then, too." She snickered at the look on his face. "Actually, I just had a crush."
"I'm sorry that I was a jackass." He grinned. "You've always been too good for me."
Ashlyn flushed lightly as she took up Flynn. He murmured as he wrapped his arms around the brunette. Sean picked up Hazel with ease. The little girl curled into his arms. He sent a smile at his still shocked twin. Sian hadn't been around when Tempest sat the often sparring pair down for a chat on acting like adults. Shaking her head, she went to gather Gabe. He clung to Tempest, waking the redhead.
"I got him." Tempest bit her lip, when the little boy curled into her upper body.
"Mom," he murmured.
"I gotcha, handsome."
Sian followed her cousin up the stairs to lay him down in the room that he had decorated with help from Tempest, just as his siblings had some control in what their rooms looked like. Flynn's was almost exactly like Gabe's but Hazel's was a bit different. Considering that none of the three knew what the others looked like, it had surprised Sian a bit. She watched Tempest press a kiss to Gabe's forehead. Her cousin checked on the other two giving them kisses as well.
"How long?" Sian finally asked as they entered the kitchen.
"They always called both me and Celly that when they were little and less so when they got older and could tell us apart better, but since..." Tempest bit her lip and looked out the window over the sink for a moment. "Since Celly's death, they all call me that on occasion. I don't know what I should do."
"They know the difference. It just surprised me, Tem."
"Why did you think that McGraw thinks Hazel's ours?" Sean butted in as he heading to grab an apple from a bowl next to the sink. "He heard her calling Tem mom at one of the Bombers' practices."
"Hey, that reminds me. I thought I saw that mousy lookin' photographer today while we were in Diagon Alley." Ashlyn said as she pulled a stool up to the kitchen's bar.
"When Sean lost Gabe in..."
"His dad's shop?" She stuck her tongue out at Sean. "Well, uncle's now."
"Shit, why don't you three ever tell me anything?"
"I suppose that I'm going to have to take the bludger on this one and talk to Mr. George Weasley."
"Why would you do that?" Ashlyn's eyes darkened.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"He never answered Cel's letter that's why."
"Ash, you don't understand." Tempest said quietly.
"What's to understand? Those babies don't need a foolish male who ignores them."
"His twin had just died." Sian tried to intervene.
"Five years ago."
"I don't think he ever read the letter." Sean announced.
"What?" All three females looked at him in confusion.
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Sian rolled her eyes.
"No, it makes sense. If I was to die like Celly's Fred did and one of my exes showed up..."
"Actually, by the sounds of it, it was more serious than your exes. Maybe when Mindy was living with you." Ashlyn snickered at the dark look this earned her from the male that she now saw as something like a brother.
"He did send Cel away to keep her safe, so she had to mean a lot to him." Tempest nodded in agreement. "You wouldn't want to read that, a month later."
"But years?" Sian questioned.
"What is something happened to the letter?" Sean shook his head. "How many times have you drenched a letter and couldn't read it all?"
Tempest flushed. "Okay, you got me on that, but hasn't everyone done something like that?"
"Exactly." Sean nodded.
"If the idiot I shared a womb with is right, then he may know little or nothing about," Sian motioned towards the upstairs, where the children slept.
"Spectacular." Tempest murmured.
I hope that anyone who reads this will leave me a review, so I know that I should post
the next chapter.