The Aftermath

Chapter 6

New Beginnings

October 25th 2005

Principal Davids was having a difficult day. Truthfully, he was having a difficult start of the school year. He had been a Principal for a long time—long enough for him to go grey and then bald—but he had just started at a new school. He was not told why the last Principal had requested a transfer, and though he would like to blame it on a certain group of trouble students, he knew he couldn't, because the two that had started this whole mess had only started at this school this year.

The two being Travis and Connor Stoll. They were twins, which, while not necessarily a bad thing, could be catastrophic if they were prone to mischief. The Stoll twins were. They were also problems in class, having ADHD and dyslexia. Davids was also sure that they were kleptomaniacs—he couldn't count how many teachers had come to him complaining that they were missing various valuables. These teachers all coincidentally taught Travis and Connor.

They were a bad influence too. There was another student, Michael Yew, in their year who had been—while having the same learning difficulties; ADHD and dyslexia—a very good student until he became friends with the Stoll's. Michael now played pranks with the twins and got into trouble with the twins. It was exhausting.

If that wasn't enough for Principal Davids to put up with, there had been several unexplainable incidents with the younger students… well, really only four of the younger students, but those four—Teddy Lupin, James Potter, Frederick Potter, and Lily Potter—pulled the other children into their nonsense.

There had been no reason to call the parents until today. It had been handled by the teachers by giving out extra homework, detention, and for the younger ones, being sent to the corner. Today had changed things. As soon as Davids had caught wind of what happened in the school yard at lunch he had ordered his secretary to call the parents of Stoll Squared, Potter Cubed, Lupin, and Yew. His secretary had set up a meeting at the end of the school day, and Davids had prepared.

He knew that parents usually were staunch defenders of their brats, so he had found that he had the advantage if he buttered them up. Davids set out some fruit flavored hard candies, pretzels, and bottled mineral water. While the four sets of parents got comfortable with their free food and drink, Principal Davids would start out with the—few—good things about their child's academic performance. The parents would smile at the praise and relax. That's when Davids would cunningly sneak in how terrible their brat was. Most likely starting with "…but…" and ending with "…so you understand that this meeting is only out of concern for your child. We just want [Insert Name Here] to reach their full potential."

Davids thought he was prepared for anything.

He was not.

It was about five minutes after school had ended that the first knock on his office door came, but before Davids could get up to open it, the person on the other side opened it themselves. Three people filed in to his office, two being the Stoll brothers and another whom Davids assumed to be their mother. She was a tall woman with the same chocolate brown curls her sons had inherited, but that seemed to be all they got from her. Where her sons had sharp and devious features, Mrs. Stoll had a soft, innocent look about her with wide eyes, a small nose, and full lips, with a heart shaped face. She wore a white ruffled blouse and black slacks.

She turned to Davids with a smile, holding out her hand to shake, "You must be Principal Davids; I am Travis and Connor's mother, Alessa Stoll; it's a pleasure to meet you." Despite being annoyed at having his authority undermined when she just walked into his office without being invited, he shook her hand, having trouble denying this beautiful woman anything.

"Pleasure to meet you as well Mrs. Stoll."

Alessa laughed lightly while her sons shared a conspiratorial look and smirked. "Just Miss Stoll I'm afraid." She didn't elaborate, and for some reason when Davids looked at Miss Stoll's sweet smile again it resembled her sons' evil grins. He shook the feeling off and gestured the woman to take a seat to wait for the other parents to arrive.

No sooner had Alessa taken a seat was there another knock at his door. This time Davids was able to say, "Come in!" in a voice that rang with authority and superiority.

Once again a woman came through the door. The first thing that Davids noticed was the baby she had strapped to her front and another's head peeking out from behind her shoulder. Then he noticed that she was holding what appeared to be a violin case and purse in one hand while the other clutched onto Teddy Lupin's hand. Unlike Miss Stoll, this woman's features were sharp: high cheekbones, a strait nose, and intent bright green eyes. She was short and slight, but her presence seemed to fill up the whole room. Davids squirmed in his seat a bit when her eyes focused on him. It didn't matter that this woman was petite and carrying two babies, she was still intimidating.

Her deep red hair was up in a high and tight bun, giving her a severe look, and when she offered her pale hand for him to shake her smile was razor sharp. "Principal Davids was it?"

He cleared his throat. "Er—yes. Yes. You would be Mrs. Lupin I presume?"

Her expression was peculiar when she answered. "No, I am Miss Adelaide Potter." Before he could stutter out his apologies, she continued, "You said that there was a problem with my children's behaviour that you wanted to discuss?" She gestured behind her, and when Davids followed it he was sure that his eyes bugged out. Behind Miss Potter were James, Frederick, and Lily Potter, and Michael Yew. Combine the fact that Miss Potter was carrying two infants and holding Teddy Lupin's hand meant that she had seven children. Davids bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something rude—like calling her a scarlet woman.

As the woman stared at him with narrowed eyes he got the feeling she knew exactly what he was thinking, so he hurried on to the main point. He had a feeling that he would not be able to butter up this woman; no manipulation to get her on his side would work. "Today at their lunch break the children went outside and there was a disturbance among the little ones," the four 'little ones' gave him a narrow-eyed glare that was a very accurate imitation of their mother's. "A garden snake was found on the field, and some of the children decided to poke it with a stick. James, Frederick, and Lily told them to stop, saying that they were hurting it. The children asked how they knew, and they said that the snake kept saying so.

"It's nonsense, of course. One cannot speak to snakes, but the imagination of a child is a wondrous thing. Well, a fight started between all the children. That attracted the attention of some of the older ones," Davids inclined his head towards Travis, Connor, and Michael, "who tried to break up the fight but ended up getting in the middle of it. Some of the other children's older siblings got involved, and well…" he spread his palms out in front of him, palms up, "…here we are."

Miss Stoll spoke first, surprisingly. "Why are we here then?"

Davids looked at her incredulously, "Your children were fighting!"

"The why are we the only ones here?" Miss Potter asked with an eyebrow raised. "Because it sounds to me as if Travis, Michael, and Connor tried to stop the spat, and Teddy, James, Frederick, and Lily were trying to stop animal abuse."

Davids puffed himself up, opened his fat gob.

Potter held up a fine boned hand, correcting herself, "Sorry; they were trying to stop reptilian abuse."

"Your brats are delusional!" Davids burst out, unable to reconcile being interrupted by a woman, "They think they can speak to snakes!" He rounded on the three older ones, "And you three are a menace to society! You should be locked up! Before you can do any serious damage!"

Miss Stoll stood, her previously docile brown eyes blazing, "If you think that I am going to sit here and watch you verbally abuse children then you can—" Here she went into extensive detail about where he could shove his head, and many other colorful descriptions that had Miss Potter covering the ears of Teddy, Michael covering Lily's, and Connor and Travis covering James' and Frederick's.

"Now," Alessa Stoll recovered herself, "If that is all you had to drivel on about I think we'll all be leaving. Come along Connor, Travis." She ushered her children out of the Principal's office, Adelaide Potter following her lead. "Thank you very much, Mr. Davids, for wasting our time."

The last two to leave were James and Frederick, who looked back at Davids with anticipatory, gleeful grins before the door shut behind them.

Davids sat dejectedly on his expensive leather chair, staring at the treats he had set out forlornly. All his plans had crumbled in minutes because of two impertinent women—he reminded himself that this is why he had never married.

He had just reached out for one of the lemon flavored hard candies when a foul stench reached him. It smelled of public bathrooms, cow manure, and dung beetles.

Davids cursed.

September 10th 2005

The first time Alessa Stoll met Adelaide Potter was brief. She was waiting for her boys in front of their school with all the other parents, the still summer-hot sun glaring down at her. The back of her shirt was sticky with sweat by the time Travis and Connor burst out of the entrance doors of the school at a run, a blond boy at their heels. Alessa was slightly surprised that the boy could keep up with Travis and Connor—their father was Hermes, so they were always the fastest runners. The blond boy split off from her boys, presumably to find his own parents, and her twins kept running towards her with big smiles on their faces.

The first thing they did was ask if they could go over to their friend Michael's house.

"I'll need to speak with his parents first," she said, secretly excited that her boys had made a friend, as they tended to get isolated by their peers, "so we can set up a time for me to pick you up."

Just then the blond boy, who Alessa assumed was Michael, came up to them, dragging a woman by the hand. The woman had an amused and pleased expression on her face, and Alessa got the impression that maybe Michael had trouble finding friends just like Travis and Connor. Michael's mother had her red hair in two braids, giving her a young look, and Alessa thought that this woman couldn't be over twenty-five, much too young to have a twelve or thirteen year old son. Alessa concluded that he must be adopted; they certainly looked nothing alike.

"I'm Adelaide Potter," the woman introduced, "Michael's mum."

"Alessa Stoll. Travis and Connor say that they would like to come over; is that alright?" Truthfully, Alessa was hoping that it would be; a break would be wonderful. And since Adelaide only had Michael, it wouldn't be too difficult for her to take care of two more for a few hours.

"Please mum," Michael begged before Adelaide could say anything, bringing out the puppy dog eyes.

"Of course they can come over, and since its Saturday tomorrow, why don't they stay the night? They would have to be picked up before noon though, because Michael has his violin lesson."

Travis and Connor gasped excitedly, staring up at Adelaide as if she was the coolest person they had ever met. Alessa was equally excited, already planning a relaxing evening for herself—a bubble bath, manicure, pedicure, some wine. It would be wonderful. "Yes; how about I pick them up at eleven tomorrow morning?"

Adelaide confirmed and gave Alessa her address, and they went their separate ways. If Alessa had looked over to where Adelaide was leading the boys—a tandem stroller being carefully watched over by four small children—she might have thought twice about loading off her two children to someone already with seven. She might have offered to have Michael over for a sleepover instead. But Alessa was too preoccupied with her thoughts; she was sure she had heard the name Adelaide Potter before.

Well, Alessa decided, now I have a project for the evening. She knew that if she didn't find out where she had heard or read the name before she would go nuts. Maybe it's in one of those newspapers that mom and dad got from England; the Daily Prophet, Alessa speculated.

Alessa would be paying her parents a call tonight—after her bath, while she had a glass of wine in her hand, of course.

September 11th 2005 (10:50 am)

Alessa still felt a little blown when she knocked on the red door. She had spoken to the Adelaide Potter and hadn't even noticed. The woman who had defeated Voldemort, the worst Dark Lord in history. Of course, Alessa didn't really know what the war back in England had been like. Her parents, Steven and Elaine Stoll, were both muggleborn and had moved to America as soon as they were out of Hogwarts. Alessa herself had never gone to Hogwarts—her parents had tutored her while she went to muggle school, as Alessa herself was doing with Travis and Connor. Elaine and Steven had kept their subscription to the Daily Prophet though, to keep in touch with what was happening in the Wizarding World, and would even occasionally take trips to England to buy new books or other magical items. Alessa remembers those trips from her childhood as some of her most joyful memories.

Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to bring Travis and Connor there—she didn't want to test her luck by flying there with Zeus, and the other ways cost quite a lot of money.

The door opened to a tired looking but put together Adelaide, and Alessa felt guilty for not offering to host the sleepover at her place. She knew that her boys could be rambunctious at best, and hyper at worst—came with having ADHD, Alessa supposed.

Adelaide was wearing a simple white summer dress with a tie at the waist. She was barefoot, and her hair was down. "Come in," Adelaide smiled despite the grey crescents under her eyes. "The boys are just finishing their breakfast."

When Alessa walked into the kitchen-dining room, her eyes widened impossibly. There were two babies in highchairs with the same red hair as Adelaide, four five to six year olds, Michael, and Travis and Connor. "Oh Lord," she breathed.

"Hi mom!" Travis and Connor said in unison, and waved.

"Good morning," Alessa turned to Adelaide, "They weren't any trouble were they?"

"Oh no," Adelaide looked at all the children fondly, including Travis and Connor, "they fell asleep at about ten-thirty."

"So they didn't keep you awake?" Alessa asked slowly, looking at the bags under Adelaide's eyes.

"No, they didn't keep me awake."

A thump came from the living room, along with footsteps. "Hey Adel, I've got the day off today so I thought we could do someth—" A red haired man came into the room, wearing robes and holding his wand to himself, getting rid of the dust on his clothing. He looked up and saw Alessa. "Oh… this is…" he looked at his wand desperately, as if it could provide a good excuse, "… just a stick. And I'm wearing… a Halloween… costume…." He winced, obviously knowing this was a pathetic explanation—especially when Alessa had seen the dust disappear.

"Don't worry," Alessa brought out her own wand, "I'm a witch."

Alessa turned to see Adelaide's reaction, but found her looking unsurprised. "Travis and Connor told me that they were wizards when they saw one of my spell books." She said simply.

The man coughed deliberately, "My names George Weasley."

"Alessa Stoll," she paused, looking him up and down, then said, "Unmarried."

George grinned, "Me too."

Adelaide smirked and went back to the table, letting Alessa and George have some time to get to know each other. After the break up with Angelina Johnson, Adel was happy that George was showing some interest in someone else.

She sat down and picked up a piece of toast, slathering it with blackberry jam, and caught what Travis was talking to Michael about, "…Camp Half-Blood is awesome! Some kids stay there year round, but me and Con only go for the summer. There are strawberry fields and arts and crafts and archery and a bunch of other activities."

"There's a campfire too, and some of the cabins sing. We roast marshmallows too!" Connor added to what his brother said.

"Can I go?" Michael asked eagerly

Travis and Connor exchanged glances, "Well, it's kind of exclusive…"

"Don't worry Michael," Adelaide smoothed down his flyaway hair, "I had already planned to send you there this summer."

Travis and Connor looked at her with wide eyes. "Really?" Michael looked up at his mum.

"Mmm-hmm," Adelaide hummed. "I think you'll like the campfire sing-along, since you have such a wonderful voice, and you might like archery—I think you'll be one of the best archers at camp." She looked at the Stoll twins meaningfully, and they nodded, their eyes still wide and excited.

Adelaide looked over to where George and Alessa were standing. George's ears were slightly red, and Alessa was grinning wickedly.

July 1st 2006

Adel led Michael up the hill and towards Camp Half-Blood. She had left George and Alessa—who had already brought Travis and Connor to camp—with Teddy, James, Frederick, Lily, Simon, and Sofia, so she could be alone with Michael when she explained about his father. Michael had been angry at first that she hadn't told him that his father was a god, but when she explained that it would make his scent stronger to monsters and that it would make the likelihood that he was attacked greater, he had accepted it.

"Do you know who my dad is?" He was asking now.

"Yes." Adel wanted to tell him who it was, but she knew that she had to wait for Apollo to claim him. It was frustrating. "He brought you to me using the Mist to confuse mortals."

"He brought me to you?" Michael sounded awed.

"Yes. He broke the Law to make sure that you were safe."

"Then he must have cared for me," he muttered to himself, and Adelaide pretended not to hear. "You said that he had to claim me. When will he do that?"

"I don't know," Adel admitted, then looked at the sky, "but if it isn't soon then I'll kick his ars—butt."

Michael grinned at his mum, "You can swear in front of me mum, it's not like I don't already hear it and more at school."

"Shush you." She laughed.

They were at the Big House now, and Adel knocked on the door. When it opened a pudgy man with purple eyes and a sour face demanded, "What do you want?"

"Are you Mr. Chiron?" Adel asked in confusion. She thought that Chiron was a centaur.

"Do I look half horse to you?" The man asked rudely. "I am Mr. D."

"Oh yes!" Adel remembered what Apollo told her about one of the gods being punished at camp. "You're the god of wine!"

Michael looked at her like she was crazy, "This is Dionysus?"

"Yes boy, and what of it?" Mr. D growled, his purple eyes flashing threateningly.

"Excuse me," Adel said indignantly, "my son has just learned about the gods, so this is all very new to him. He doesn't need your attitude."

Dionysus seemed to ignore her. He looked piercingly at Michael, saying, "It's not hard to figure out whose brat he is. Looks just like all the other runts of Ap—"

Adelaide slapped him.

"You will not be the one to tell my son who his father is." She said frigidly, staring the god right in the eye.

She felt him in her mind, spreading insanity. But she clamped down her Occlumency barriers with a vicious snap, and he took a step back in surprise. Though she knew that he could easily shred through her Occlumency and infect her mind, he didn't. He looked at her with something as close to respect that he would probably ever get. "Who are you then?"

"Adelaide Potter, and this is my son, Michael Yew. We would like to see Mr. Chiron." Mr. D raised an eyebrow at her name.

"I am Chrion, child," a voice said from behind her. Adel and Michael both turned and saw a centaur. Before Adelaide could say anything a golden lyre hologram appeared above Michael's head.

"Apollo's my dad?"

"Yes," Adel smiled. "Why don't I get you sorted out in your cabin while Mr. Chiron explains things to you?"

Michael nodded.

Chiron looked at her curiously as she picked up Michael's violin case, suitcase, and backpack. "Child, how did you cross the barrier?"

"I would assume it's because I'm a witch." Then Adel walked away, towards the cabin that looked golden in the sunlight.

Will Solace looked up from his guitar when there was a knock on his cabin door, "Come in!" He called, wondering who it could be. Certainly not one of his siblings—they would just open the door.

A red haired woman came in, laden with bags. "This is the Apollo cabin right?"

Will nodded dumbly. This couldn't be a new sister could it? She was too old for one, and two, she looked nothing like the rest of his siblings.

"Is there a spare bed for my son? He just got here."

Will pointed to the bunk beside him. "What's your son's name?"

"Michael Yew. I'm Adel Potter."

"William Solace."

There was silence. Will was still staring at Adel. He had never seen a parent of a demigod come into camp and get them comfortable. They usually said good-bye at the border. This was bizarre.

"Oh!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed suddenly, and Will started. She reached into the backpack she had been carrying, her hand going impossibly deep, and pulled out an intricately designed quiver, then handed it to Will, who was so stunned that he automatically took it. "I got one of those for each of your siblings. It holds many more arrows than appears possible."

"Th-thank you," Will stuttered. He would have objected to the present, but his mom had always told him to accept kindnesses and to thank them by passing on that kindness to others. And he really did need a new quiver. Plus, after he had just seen Mrs. Potter's arm practically disappear into a small backpack, he was inclined to believe her when she said that the quiver would hold lots of arrows.

"Can you play me a song on your guitar?" Adel asked with a warm smile, obviously trying to set him at ease. She picked the perfect way to do it, because if there was one thing Will was comfortable doing it was playing music.

By the time Michael entered Will was just finishing his second song, and Adel was clapping.

Will watched Mrs. Potter go and hug her son. She kissed him on the cheek and patted his hair down, ignoring the fact that Michael was blushing cherry red. She reminded him to IM her often and to give the other quivers in his backpack to his brothers and sisters. Then she left, saying good-bye to the both of them, and leaving Michael fidgeting in the middle of the cabin, his hands stuffed in his jean pockets awkwardly.

"Dude," Will broke the silence, "your mom's awesome."

Michael smiled, "Yeah, I know."