This is the chapter I wrote. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I still own nothing.
Chapter Two – Rose
Waking Up
I lay in my sister's arms, sobbing, when it crashed down on me – I couldn't keep doing this. It had been tormenting us all for so long, the way I had broken down since Sirius' incarceration in Azkaban. I needed to get a hold on myself, for my sister, for my children, but most of all, for my husband.
I swallowed, pushing back my tears, and sat up. Even the mention of Sirius had been enough to set me off before. In the past twelve years, I had become a ghost of myself, I realised bitterly. I had lost the thing that made Sirius love me in the first place – my thirst for life.
So, this realised, I threw off my grief and anger, the misery that I had never dealt with, and stood up. Then I looked at my children, remember their births – and how Sirius had held my hand for each one (even though he'd just been tortured by his mother during the twins' birth).
The three of them looked back at me, worried but strong. They were upset, and afraid, but they would do whatever was needed to get their father back.
"Cara," I said softly, "When do we leave?"
My sister stood and placed her hand on my arm. "Are you okay, Rosie?" She, too, spoke softly, as if she was frightened of making me cry again – another thing I had barely realised until today. My own sister had stopped talking to me like a normal human and started talking to me as a fragile child. I suppose, I thought wryly, that that's because I have been acting like a fragile child – for twelve years.
"I'm fine, Cara," I told her, looking into her eyes. The minute we locked gazes, her worried look evaporated and she looked like I had made her day. I knew why; it was because she had recognised the old me, the version of me that had defied Voldemort himself and destroyed two of his horcruxes. "Now tell me, when do we leave?"
She smiled and said, "Whenever you want, Rose. Whenever you want."
It took us two days to arrange our affairs so that we could return – well, some of us were returning, but Cara's twins were going to England for the first time. We had already been in Romania when they were born (a period of time that I don't remember very well, being as I was almost catatonic the whole way through). For every minute of those two days that I was awake for, I was in motion, in action – something that was strange for someone who had literally been catatonic for twelve years. My children, at first, watched me with worried eyes; later, they watched me with confused eyes; by the end of the two days, they watched me with slightly angry eyes. I knew what was bothering them, so I dragged them into my room a short while before we were leaving, while Cara said a tearful goodbye to Charlie Weasley. I'd never told Charlie that I had met him as a child, and never planned on it.
Back in my room, I stared at my children, but finally settled on Will, who I knew would be angriest.
"Get it out of your system," I advised him in a soft voice. "Go ahead, yell at me. I assure you, I won't break down in tears."
He jerked upright and began to pace back and forth in front of his sisters. When he gave voice to his thoughts, they were almost exactly what I had been expecting. "Why are you acting like this now? Is it the chance you'll get back together with Dad? Is it because you have something to fight for, again?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, caught off guard by the last bit.
"Aunt Cara told us about your youth, Mum," Lizzie answered softly, standing beside her brother. I was struck, again, by how much she resembled me, even down to my oddly mismatched eyes, whereas her twin looked more like his father – Tom Riddle.
"What about my youth?" I asked cautiously. There were some things that I had never discussed with my children – the majority of my childhood being one of them.
"Don't be mad at her," Lily added, joining her siblings. Despite the age gap of three years, the twins took their younger sister into their group all the time, and kept her with them. They were close – as close, if not more so, then the marauders had been, before James, Lily and Mary had died, Peter had betrayed us (and died… we weren't exactly sure what had happened that night) and Sirius had been put into prison.
"Yeah," Will agreed. "She just told us how you were when you were young, when you were fighting. First for your lives, then for us, you know?"
I stared at my children, shocked. For a moment, I was unable to tell them the truth – that I had never been strong, always relying on my sister, or my husband, or my friends. Then I came to my senses. "I don't know what she's been telling you, but I'm probably not going to live up to your expectations," I warned them as I opened the door and gestured for them to leave.
"Mum, stop putting yourself down," Lizzie said. "Remus told us how you fought You-Know-Who-"
"Oh did he?" I mused, interrupting. I glanced down the stairs, to where Cara and Remus were waiting with their children, looking guilty, and I sighed. "I think, when we get home, there are some things we should tell you. Lots of things. And they're going to make you hate us."
"Nothing could make us hate you, Mum," Will told me, taking my hand as he lead me down to the waiting portkey.
I laughed cynically. "Don't bet on it."
In a flash of blue, the portkey took the nine of us away, to my first true home.
It was actually two houses, joined, with communal grounds around them. They were lovely houses, large and bright, cheerful. They were all ready, waiting for our families to live in them, to recreate joy and life in them. Somehow, I didn't think it would necessarily work like that.
I was the first to reach the door of our old home. Cara backed away, letting me go first. I knew what she was afraid of – that this would make me relapse into the world of fear and confusion, of barely being able to remember who I was on bad days. I knew it wouldn't – I wouldn't let it.
The door swung open and I walked without hesitation inside, heading for the kitchen that I remembered fondly. I called back to Cara, "Do you remember when we found you and Remus half naked in here, Ca? That was the day after our wedding."
"Oh, gross," I heard Beth say, and I laughed.
"Come in and take a seat, kiddies," I ordered. "This is not going to be pleasant."
Our six children filed in. First came Bethany Rose Lupin, the image of her mother. She was small, with blonde hair – that was not cut short, like her mother's (Cara had only cut it after most of it was burnt off by a dragon) – and blue eyes. But her face held the same lines as her father, so much so that you could see the both of them in her. Then came Dan and James, Cara and Remus' twin sons. They had been born just four months after we moved to Romania, on February 3rd. They were identical eleven year olds, both tall for their age, with their father's sandy-blonde-brown hair and their mother's eyes.
After them, my children came in. Lizzie (Elizabeth Cara, after my mother and sister) looked exactly like me, and Will (William Sirius, after my father and husband) looked almost eerily like the young Tom Riddle that I had been married (briefly) too, except for his eyes. But my youngest daughter, Lily Mary Black, the only true daughter of Sirius Black, looked exactly like her father. Oh, she had my face, but she had her father's clear grey eyes, his long black hair, his way of laughing one moment and being serious the next, his intelligence and wit, his ability to love even in the face of adversity…
When they had sat, I suddenly found my voice.
"For twelve years, I am afraid we have been lying to you. We thought it would be for the best, we thought that keeping the truth from you would protect you from the stigma it would bring into your life, but now that Sirius has escaped, I can't keep the truth from you any longer," I started, taking a seat opposite them. I knew I still looked like I had when I first met Sirius, back when I was seventeen, but the lines on my face had definitely aged me prematurely. The scars from the St Mungo's Fire of 1980 also changed my face, but I liked them.
"When Cara and I were born, we were born as the heirs of the White Dynasty, the oldest pure-blood family in the world. The title of this now lies on Lizzie's shoulders, as she is the firstborn child of the firstborn, but that is not the point. When we were born, we had already been foretold. Prophecy stated that we would fight Voldemort, as a healer and a seer. Cara is the seer, and I am – as you all know – a healer. We had been foretold, and here we were, ready to fight."
"But there was a problem," Cara said, her soft voice interweaving with mine, creating a tapestry of events for our children to understand. "And the problem was, our parents worshipped Tom Riddle – otherwise known as Lord Voldemort – and agreed to let him not only become our godfather, but to betroth him to Rose."
The children gasped, turning to stare at me with wild eyes. I swallowed and clenched my jaw.
"When I was twelve," I said in a whisper, "I was married to him. When I was fifteen, I was sent to live with him." For a moment, my throat constricted and the words wouldn't come out. I bowed my head, the old pain and memories resurfacing as they washed over me, but I vowed fiercely that I would not cry – that, for Sirius, I would be strong.
I looked up sharply as Lily wrapped her arms around me and sat in my lap. Pulling my daughter – my one link to Sirius – close, I found the strength to carry on. "I lived with him for two years, before I ran away, causing him to murder our parents and younger brother in revenge. You see, I learned his dirty secret – the reason that he would not die. We have already told you about horcruxes, of course, but his secret was that he had not made the one, but seven."
"What?!" Will and Lizzie burst out. Bethany put their horror into words, saying, "He ripped his soul into seven parts?"
I nodded, gravely. "You can tell no one that you know this; it would put you in grave danger. It would be better if you strive to forget this conversation ever took place. But, if you must know… We managed to destroy two of those parts, but not without great loss on our side."
"Yeah," Cara snorted suddenly as she dropped into the seat beside me. "We lost Rose."
As the children shot us questioning glances (I was right there), I looked down. I was surprised when Remus picked the story up and carried on. "Voldemort kidnapped Rose and, before we managed to rescue her, raped and tortured her – and impregnated her. When we got her back, she was barely alive, and she has never quite been the same since."
"Wait," Will burst out. "You mean that our father isn't Sirius? That it's You-Know-Who – I mean, Voldemort?"
Remus said softly, "It doesn't make her love you any less. But… after that, your mother changed."
As Lily pulled me closer, I sighed. "Sometimes, things happen and people change. It doesn't mean you lost me; it simply means that I have grown into something more."
"We know," Remus told me, placing his hand on my arm, "But it tore us apart to watch the fun-loving, carefree young girl we loved break apart."
I swallowed, but carried on. "So there was the first dilemma; I was pregnant. Pregnant, in love with Sirius, and married forever to Tom Riddle. That was what we thought, at least, until Cara had an unfortunate run in with a bludger and a near death experience, beyond the veil."
"I talked to Mum and Dad," she said softly, "And our little brother Julian – who were all very happy to see me. They had found a piece of old magic that, with a willing sacrifice, would break the bond between them."
"Cara tried to sacrifice herself, tried to die to break our bond. She was only partway successful; the four founders rescued us both from death, and left her magical sacrifice intact – he could never touch me again. With her willingness to die, she saved me from a fate worse than death." I spoke softly, but the love, adoration and true horror of my words were reflected around the table.
"That's the start of our story, at least," Remus said, "And you know about – ahem – Peter's betrayal already, and Lily and James' deaths-"
"And Mary's," I added, softly. "Don't forget Mary."
Remus looked down for a moment. "I couldn't forget Mary."
Silence reigned at the table, until-
"But, if Dad- I mean, Sirius didn't do it, why was he in prison?" Will asked.
"He's still your Dad, Will, no matter if he's your sire. He was there, holding my hand during your birth. He held you, and changed you, and fed you and rocked you to sleep and took care of you. He's your Dad, not that monster. And we have no proof that he is innocent, even though we know it." Remus looked away, still uncertain. "And then there's Peter and Mary's deaths…" I paused and looked out of the window. "I know in my heart that he didn't betray us."
Again, silence fell. This time is was Daniel who broke it, asking, "Well, what are we going to do about it?"
I exchanged amused glanced with my sister and Remus, before answering, "We're going to go to Hogwarts."
"What?" all six of them exclaimed, looking excited. We had been telling them stories of Hogwarts for their entire lives, and I knew how excited they must be to go to the land of pranks, secret passageways and adventures.
"I will be accepting the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor," Remus told them with a grin.
"I will be accepting the post of Flying Instructor," Cara added, barely withholding her glee. I knew she couldn't wait to get back in the air. "Oh, and guest lecturer for Care of Magical Creatures."
"And I will be accepting the less-than-honoured post of Supply Teacher and school Healer – not the matron, who is called Poppy Pomfrey, but the actual trained healer," I explained. "And you will all be coming with us – as students."