Chapter Two
My Child
August 20, 1980
Helen stumbled to the door, Bethany giggling in the background as she continued to throw her cereal on the floor. "Yeah?" she asked swinging the door open. She blinked and took a step back. "Headmaster?"
"Now, now, Ms. Thatcher, no need for the formalities, you are no longer my student," the old man's voice was forcibly amused.
She cleared her throat as Bethany made a loud squeal in the kitchen. "Um…come in, Beth is a little…she's being a brat. I'll be back." Helen said shaking her head and half flying to kitchen as a loud crash was heard. "BETH!" she shouted when she saw the cereal upturned on the floor. Her little two-year-old girl clapped her hands happily. "Merlin, little one, I don't know what to do with you." With a flick of her wand the child was clean from the cereal. Lifting her out of the highchair, Helen brought her into the living room and placed her in her playpen. "Make yourself comfortable," she said to Dumbledore.
"Thank you my dear,"
She swallowed hard and went back to the kitchen. Thanking whatever god was out there that she had magic; she cleaned the kitchen and put the bowl in the sink. "How may I help you?" she asked coming back out.
"Please have a seat, Ms. Thatcher,"
"Helen," she corrected sitting across from him. Helen felt her heart rate speed up. What is he doing here? She thought nervously. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm sure you are aware of the attack on Budleigh Babberton," he said.
She blinked. "Yes, at the beginning of August."
"We have discovered why they attacked there,"
"Of what importance is that to me?"
"They were looking for you, Helen."
She blinked, staring at him. "What?"
His blue eyes were kind but there was no twinkle in them. "Budleigh Babberton was the village you lived in while growing up, correct?"
"One of them,"
"Your house was on Kane and Sable, number 27,"
Helen swallowed hard. "Yes…why are they looking for me?"
"My informant has no knowledge of why, only that they were," Dumbledore bowed his head.
Bethany let out a squeal and banged a toy on the floor of her playpen. Helen glanced at her before looking back at Dumbledore. "Informant?"
He nodded. "The fact of the matter is, there was another attack on the summer village you lived in as a child." Her jaw dropped. "We must take measures to hide you until we discover why they are searching for you."
"W-w-wait, what?" she stuttered.
"We must put you into hiding. For your protection,"
She looked at her daughter in shock. "Ma-ma," the child said before giggling hysterically.
Tears burned in her eyes and she spoke after several moments of tense silence. "When?"
Dumbledore's face turned grave. "As soon as we possibly can, for all we know he might already know you are here,"
"Will I be able to say goodbye to my friends?"
Dumbledore nodded once again. "They shall arrive with myself. Would you like some help packing?"
"No." she declined, standing up. She couldn't meet his eye. "I'll be ready by nightfall." Helen swallowed hard.
"We will merely close up this house. Take only what you need, the house is already provided as will your new identities," Dumbledore stood.
"New identities…"
"Yes." He sighed. "I am sorry, Helen."
Her eyes met him. The words rang true of another night. The night the Order of the Phoenix and the Marauders had rescued her. He had said the same words to her. He was sorry. He was always sorry.
"Good day, Headmaster." Her voice was hollow and cold.
"Good day, Helen,"
She shut the door behind her and shook her head. Why was her life being turned upside down? Her entire family was gone because of the war. She was kidnapped and raped because she had 'amused' some pathetic Death Eater who delighted in torturing her. Her child would always bare the pain of having no father. What made her so special that people kept targeting her? She was nothing. Helen shook her head looking at the living room. Nothing.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
October 31, 1980
Brookstone Village
9:40 pm
Helen walked by the front door for the fifth time that evening and reassured herself that it was locked properly. She hated Halloween, completely and totally loathed it. Originally it had been a fun day to dress up (especially while going to school with the Marauders, their costumes never got old) but her last year at Hogwarts everything seemed to have gone wrong. Her parent's death was on Halloween, closely quartered with the attack that had taken her.
Shivering she backtracked and made absolutely positive that all of the locks were firmly in place (logic obviously not applying because few complex charms and the locks would have fallen away.) Something was wrong and she knew it but didn't know what. Her soul, her instinct was telling her that she should take Bethany and run but she didn't know why.
Shaking it off as nerves, Helen wandered back up the stairs and into Bethany's room. The toddler was fast asleep. With a sigh, she brushed some hair off her child's face and longed for her daughter to see James and Lily's son again.
The small child had only seen her suedo brother a handful of times before Dumbledore required her to go into hiding and Helen truly wished that Bethany had grown more attached to Harry.
Her mind continued to drift and soon shifted on the subject of Sirius. He had been the only one of the Marauders who literally forced their safe house to move because Sirius had attempted to find her.
"He's silly, isn't he, Beth?"
Helen watched her daughter shift, her arm clenching around a particular stuffed animal. Tears filled the mother's eyes as the reasoning behind giving Bethany that particular stuffed animal came to her head. It was a panther, a magical panther with glowing, coal eyes and a white stripe looking more like a snake going up its tale. Like the stuffed animals the Marauders gave Bethany not long after she was born (one animal for each of their animagus forms) this one was of an animagus that held close to Helen's heart.
"He's a protector, Beth. He was my protector when I was trapped," several tears fell own her cheeks and soaked into the fabric on the crib's bed. "When not even Sirius could help me, he did. He kept me alive." A bittersweet smile spread across her lips. Like on many occasions when she spoke to her daughter about the man who saved her, Bethany barely moved. "Severus Snape is a great man, despite his abhorrence for humanity. He has his reasons; don't forget it for a moment…" Helen thought back to before she had been taken and how the Marauders treated him, how they still treated him. "Don't ever listen to them, Bethany. Ever. Snape saved your mother's life…Snape helped keep you alive," A knot twisted in her stomach as more tears trickled down her face.
A loud explosion caused her to jerk and Bethany to wake. There was an ever-present rise of screams that snapped Helen into action. Grabbing her child, she raced across the hall to the fireplace and lit it. She threw a handful of green powder in it but nothing happened. Repeating the action, her fear and franticness grew until she gave up. Bethany was silent, still half asleep but also unhappy about being jerked around. The child opened her mouth to let out an unhappy wail but Helen covered her mouth and raced down the stairs.
"Beth, sweetheart, I need you to listen to mommy, can you do that?" she didn't stop moving until she grabbed the clock off the wall. "I need you to stay quiet while I think. Butter and cheese," she said the password but nothing happened. Cursing silently she set her daughter down, searching for something to do. "Bethany," the toddler looked like she was going to go to sleep again, clutching the panther to her. Sweeping the child back into her arms, Helen ran into the basement and hit a portion of the wall revealing a secret room. "I need you to stay here, understand me?"
"Mam," yawned the girl. "W'a w'ong?"
"Something bad it happening, sweetheart, and mommy needs to go find out how to get you out of here," Helen said casting charms on the small space.
Fear lit in her daughter's eyes. "Mama, I scward, don go." She tried to grab onto Helen but the woman stepped out of reach.
"I love you, Bethany," she said before closing the door.
The hardest thing she ever had to do was to walk away from her daughter screaming in the room. Helen was out of the house in no time, barely grabbing a two-way mirror that she and Sirius had been speaking through for a while. She shouted his name into the mirror but got nothing.
The grown woman stopped short in shock, staring at the burning remains of the village that had sheltered her. Screams and cries rose through the night as a thunderstorm rolled in, almost as if Nature herself was crying in outrage against what was occurring.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Grimmaud Palace
9:35 pm
It was a mad house, and that saying had nothing to do with the ancestry that was involved with Number 12 Grimmaud Palace. It was a mad house for two reasons and two reasons only: first, it was the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and second, Voldemort was attacking the Ministry of Magic. Sirius hopped down the staircase three steps at a time, his robes billowing behind him like a cape in one of those super-hero stories Lily was always telling them about. He met up with James and the rest of their group and immediately apparated to the ministry, the two-way mirror lying forgotten in his room and no one heard the screams that were coming from the other side.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Brookstone Village
10:29 pm
The wind was blowing hard and thunder crashed in the pitch black sky. Lightening periodically lit up the ruined village even more-so than the flames that burned the houses, casting an orange-yellow glow on the hills surrounding them. Along those hills, two people stood alone in the static of magic and hatred that was so thick in the air that even Muggles would have felt it. A magical shield surrounded the two and both were attacking each other. There was a single sound that could be heard over the thunder clashing: the sound of a child's screaming cries, the only other living being in the now destroyed village.
Helen braced herself as another gust of wind threatened to topple her over. Her long hair was now sheered short, caught by a stray slashing hex in her battle with the man across from her. Her dark brown eyes were alight with fire and anger whereas her palms were literally blazing with it; the slender wand in her hand was sparking.
The man, a young adult, was rather tall with dark-brown hair that was dancing wildly with the wind. His sharp hazel-green eyes burned red with ire and a gash was on his forehead, bleeding from an attack the woman had sent at him. He was clothed in dark robes that hung open just slightly; his shirt seemed was a creamy white and he wore thick dark black-brown boots that were made out of dragon hide. His palms were glowing with the same type of anger he felt, his wand's tip shining brightly.
The wind let out a loud howl as the young woman dogged a blast of magic sent at her by the man. "Is that the best you can do?" she taunted tossing a flaming ball of fire at him.
He dove out of the way and landed hard on the ground. "I've done much worse to you before," he threw back. "How's my child doing?"
She snarled at him. "She is my child you bastard!" she sent a body-binding curse his way.
He side stepped the hex, an evil smile on his face. "Can't have a child without a father, Helen, even you know that,"
Letting out a cry of rage she flung an Entrails-Expelling-curse his way. It looked as if it was going to hit him when he ducked at the last moment while sending an unexpected curse her way. The spell hit her full-force and she flew back, her spine slamming into a tree. She let out a gasp and slid to the ground, making a splash in the mud.
His evil chuckle hit her ears. "I bested you before, what makes you think that you can over take me this time?"
To her horror the man of her nightmares, Evan Rosier, made his way towards her in the slinky-stalk she had grown accustomed to in her stay in Voldemort's prison. "You must know now Helen, I own you," his ebony wand flicked her way and she was bound by invisible ropes that she had no strength to even fight against.
Her child's wails grew louder as if the child knew the terrible fate in store for her mother.
Rosier knelt down in front of Helen. His hand traced her cheek and she wrenched it away. Firmly he gripped her chin between his fingers. "You. Are. Mine." He growled before pressing his lips to hers.
Tears spread down her face as he kissed her. Helen pulled against the bonds but she knew from experience it was futile. His hand drifted down over her body before hiking up her skirt. "Stop," She pleaded as he came up for air.
"Never," He hissed, drawing his nails down her thy leaving four long red marks with tiny beads of blood pushing through.
There were several loud cracks and he jerked away from her, whirling around. The closest crack was right behind him and they saw it was Wilkes, a death-eater she became acquainted with almost three years ago when she was Rosier's personal 'toy.'
"He wants you now. Said you had your fun. He dropped the anti-apparition ward."
"I heard." Rosier said staring at the town as lightening lit up the sky again.
Gold and purple-robed Aurors were flooding the town, checking for survivors as red-robed Order of the Phoenix members raced up the hill towards the three people.
"Fuck, the Phoenix bastards." He whirled around to face her. "Where is my child?" Fear coursed through Helen's body. He kneeled down in front of her, his hand around her throat. "Where is she?"
"She's not your child." Spat the woman.
"Rosier now!" Wilkes shouted sending a curse at the first of the red-robed Phoenix members cleared Helen's shield that had encompassed the fighting field.
Rosier's wand twitched and cuts appeared all over Helen's body. She let out a cry of pain, gasping for air as the blood fled from her body through each part of sliced skin. "You will tell me."
Helen mustered up the largest glare she could manage. She spit at him. He growled like on of his werewolf-friends. Wiping the spit from his face he slapped her across the face. Her cheek slammed into the tree trunk. Splinters dug into her skin and the cheek split open. A gasp of pain escaped from her lips.
"Never,"
He cursed. "Anytime today, Rosier!" Wilkes shouted as some of the purple-robed men cleared the field of fire he had used to cut of the Phoenix members.
"Not without that brat!" Rosier exclaimed jumping to his feet. "What was her name?" He kicked Helen in the side.
Wilkes ducked the first of the onslaught of curses that would fly to them. "ROSIER!"
"Accio child!" It was quite obvious the Death-Eater didn't know whether or not the spell would work.
She was nauseated when she saw all the macerated children from her town flew towards Rosier. Helen's head rolled to the side and vomited as the naked, burn, cut, and decapitated bodies hit Aurors and Phoenix people on their way to Rosier.
"FUCK YOU, ROSIER!" Wilkes was sent to the ground by one of the bodies.
There was a wailing cry and to her horror she saw her two-year-old child loose her cloak on the way to the man who sired her. "You can have your turn later." snarled Rosier. He had been knocked off his feet from the dead children. "There you are," he grabbed the only alive child and looked at the crying child. "What's her name?"
"Bethany…fight Bethany, fight." She gasped as tears poured down her face. Her two-year-old looked at her incomprehensively, the pudgy little face screwed up in a horrible sob.
"Bethany…" He had the gall to smirk at the baby. The smile on his face was sinister and frightening to the young mother. "The Dark Lord will love you…" he said standing up.
"He's got a kid!" a voice shouted.
"Bethany…child, Beth fight…." Helen begged her daughter.
In that moment two things happened. Wilkes (who had stood up and killed three people) was hit from behind with a sickly green light. He fell to his knees, his eyes still wide open. The second thing was her daughter preformed accidental magic except Helen wasn't too sure that it was accidental this time. Bethany had stopped crying, her eyes focusing on her mother who was slowly bleeding to death. In a bright flash Rosier found himself on the ground again, his head bleeding. Bethany had landed on the ground and let out a cry before she crawled towards Helen.
Any other moment Helen would have been amused at the sight of her daughter crawling. Her daughter, who at nine months went from crawling to walking, was moving towards her as if she had digressed in age. "Ma-ma!" the little girl clung to the torn clothes with her tiny little hands.
"Sshh, it's all right, Beth…it's all right." She wanted to hold her daughter, she wanted to comfort the girl but she was unable to do anything but speak as Bethany got blood all over her hands.
"Ma-ma urt." She said pointing at one of the many cuts that was oozing blood.
"Yes…yes mama's hurt." Helen said softly, her eyes straying to Rosier. He was fighting Moody and a few others. "I need you to do something for me, Beth." The large brown eyes of her two-year-old looked up at her. "Be strong, Beth….be—"
"HELEN!" there was a cry from the field and she looked up weakly.
Rosier had taken Moody down…how the hell did he do that? Averting her attention to a person running towards her, Bethany let out a tiny squeal. "Padfoot, damn it man!" came another shout.
"Sirius…" she whispered.
"Pa'oot," Bethany looked towards the man as he fell to his knees beside the two women.
"Padfoot, are you—dear Merlin….Helen…shit…" a familiar face came towards her. There was a flick of the wand and she crumbled forward as Sirius Black took her daughter from beside her. "Easy Helen,"
"Rosier?" she ground out, her breaths shallow as James Potter tried to heal the cuts.
"Dead…the Aurors took him out." Sirius was the one that answered as Bethany squirmed in his arms, determined to go to 'ma-ma.' "Take it easy, Helen, we'll get you patched up in no time…"
"Take care of her, James…please…" Helen whispered as she slowly slipped unconscious from blood loss.
"Shit," James rose to his feet. "LILY!" he shouted lifting Helen up with him.
His red-haired wife raced towards him. He hated the look of horror on his wife's face as she looked at their mutual friend. "Merlin, James is that Helen?"
"I need your portkey to Hogwarts, I can't stop the bleeding." He said, fear clear in his hazel blue eyes.
Sirius was debating about staying or coming but he didn't get to make the decision because Lily grabbed his hand and put it on the portkey she wore around her neck. "Bethany needs someone to watch her," was the only explanation before the portkey lurched them forward.
They landed in Hogsmeade and James changed into a stag. Lily, having done this before with her husband, held Helen in place as she climbed onto his back. They bound towards the school leaving Bethany crying for her mother in Sirius' arms. Sirius was standing stunned for several moments before he began to walk forward, realizing the child was putting tiny handprints of blood all over him.
"Come on Beth, lets get you cleaned up." He said softly.
Helen had been the person to slap sense into him during seventh year. She was also the person who stood up to him about Snape. His grip on the girl tightened causing the quieted child to let out a squall of displeasure. Forcing himself to calm down, Sirius entered the castle as four people raced by him, one on a magic stretcher and two in wheelchairs, magically altered mind you but they were wheelchairs none the less.
"Mr. Black!" the voice of his old Transfiguration teacher caused him to stop. "Where are you—" she stopped short as he turned around, the toddler squirming to get down instantly saying 'wauk, wauk.' "Miss Thatcher?" the fear in the woman's eyes caused him to swallow hard.
"Only ones we found alive. Rosier…." He whispered the hated name.
Everyone in the Order knew what happened to Helen when she was captured by Voldemort almost three-years ago and how broken she was when they rescued her. The hardened look in McGonagall's eyes caused him to take a step back despite himself, habit of when he had attended school.
"He was going to take her…" Sirius' blue eyes drifted down to the fighting child in his arms.
"Wauk!" the little girl demanded pinching his arm.
"Fine!" he said setting her on the floor.
The child wobbled for a moment before glaring defiantly at the two adults.
"Go to the hospital wing, have Lily or one of the others clean her up before examining her." The old woman said with pursed lips.
Without a word he held out his hand and Bethany took it. Together they began to walk to the hospital wing. Lily had taken the child away from him the moment he entered. Sirius didn't know how long he watched the hustle of the hospital wing before James touched him on the shoulder, causing him to jump.
"Sirius, Helen is asleep. You need sleep." He said quietly.
"Bethany?"
"In a crib next to her mother, come on Sirius, go get some sleep. I'll wake you if anything happens." Reluctantly Sirius left, taking refuge in an old classroom they had set up for people with nowhere to go.
"How is he doing?" James turned around as saw Lily balancing Harry. She had pulled her hair back and their child was playing with it despite his heavy eyes. "The little tyke refused to go back to sleep."
He held out his arms and Lily gratefully handed him over. "He's in shock. I've never seen him so speechless before." They moved towards the back of the infirmary, where their friend lay somewhere on the boarder of life and death.
"Sirius is a fool to deny his love for her." Lily said shaking her head.
Harry let out a tiny cry of glee pulling on James' hair. Lily sighed as they reached Helen's bed. The brunette was seemingly asleep but the cuts that covered her body were still pulsing red, the worst of them wrapped in bandages.
Lily's tear-filled emerald eyes looked at him. "He cast a spell that prevented them from healing her completely."
"Does that mean?" James feared the worst as he untangled Harry's hands from his black hair. He didn't want to hear the answer but he must.
"They give her no more than a week before she bleeds out."
James sat with a thump beside her bed. Harry looked at Helen and then back at his father. He was a smart child, even for a four-month old.
He sighed. "Yes Harry, Helen is sick." The question seemed to be in his child's eye. He was supported by James' arm but was squirming. "No, Harry….she won't be getting better."
Harry blinked at him incomprehensively with his large green eyes.
"James," Lily's voice drew him away from his son's eyes. His wife slid down on the bed beside him.
"How can you handle this so calmly, Lily?" he asked trying to swallow the emotion that were building up in his throat. Helen was dying. After all they had done to protect her since her rescue they had failed. She was dying. One look into Lily's eyes he realized she wasn't calm. In fact she was close to a break-down. "Merlin, Lily, I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," he whispered as they both fell into a hug. Harry squealed but soon quieted.
He felt his wife's tears soak into his shoulder.
"It's not fair." Her shoulders hitched with sobs. "It's not fair, James. Why her? What the hell does He want with her?"
That same question had plagued his mind as well. "I don't know, Lily." James swallowed hard. "I just don't know."