RA CH 30 Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Another chapter title by FriendofMolly. Thank you for reading this far. Reviews make both of us happy. .
It was the end of August, 2015. Louis Weasley was going to Hogwarts, James Potter was not, and James was not happy.
"Louis is only a month older than I am," said James for about the hundredth time. "It's not fair that he gets to go to Hogwarts this year and I have to wait a full year."
"All the complaining in the world isn't going to make a bit of difference," Ginny told her oldest son. "You were born in October, and you have to be eleven in September to go to Hogwarts."
"Why couldn't I have been born earlier?" James complained.
"I would have been very happy for you to come early," said Ginny. "You were by far the hardest labor I had, three days of the hardest work I ever did, and you were two weeks late besides."
"So I'm stuck taking classes with babies for another year," grumbled James.
"Another year of broom practice," said Ginny with a twinkle in her eye. "Your dad was the only first year to make the Quidditch team in many years. Maybe you can follow in his footsteps and be a first year seeker too."
"Do you think I could?" said James. "I'll practice real hard! Al, will you help me? We can play seeker with the practice snitch so I can get real good!"
"I'll help," said Al with a sigh.
"Great," said James. "That will be good for you, too, when you get to be seeker for Slytherin."
"James!" said Ginny. "Stop teasing your brother."
James shrugged his shoulders, Al shook his head, and Ginny let the subject drop. James teased everybody some, but he really had it in for his younger and smaller brother. It didn't help that James was taller, reasonably tall for having short parents, and Albus always looked shorter, smaller and younger than he was.
Molly and Narcissa continued their every other week meeting. The middle of September Narcissa said, "I just had another real nasty meeting, this one with Lilith Nukpana, Cleo's grandmother, and two other people from their home. They insist on having me hire these horrible teachers, and have left me with a number of just terrible books to use in teaching the children. Godiva, my mother-in-law, and Astoria both are pushing us to defy the laws and Draco's probation and use these books and one of the teachers.
"I told everybody that we cannot do anything other than what we are doing now. Draco is still under probation. For my part I told Lilith, and Astoria, that these books are junk, terrible prejudice Pure Blood trash.
"My Mum, Druella, got mad at me for that. She still believes all the Pure Blood ideas, although she isn't exactly on Godiva and Astoria's side. I'm not sure what happens in the upstairs that those two old women inhabit, but it has to be tense. They are not exactly friends."
Molly asked, as she almost always did, "How are you holding up under the pressure?"
"Our house elves, and their allies, have kept the Dementors away," Narcissa said. "I am friends with all the house elves. Even my Mum's elf Rapier and Godiva's house elf Gritrude get along with me, as do the rest of the house elves. That helps."
"Is Draco still as passive as always?" Molly asked.
Narcissa said, "I threaten to report him, privately of course, if I ever hear him or see him trying to violate his probation. Debby, the house elf who is Dobby's sister, is, from what I hear, rather blunt in telling him that she would personally report him if he tried to violate his probation. I think Draco tries to undermine me, but so far it has not worked very well.
"Draco gets mad at Scorpius, and I have seen them fight. I think Draco does some of it because that's what his father did to him, and some of it because of what Lucius is telling Draco to do.
"Draco has also tried to verbally abuse Cleo, but it does not seem to work. She calls a house elf, for protection, but then she just laughs at Draco. It drives him nuts. She will walk away, and go to the organ, and play some bombastic tune, mocking his yelling.
"Two more years, and Scorpius and Cleo will go to Hogwarts, even if Lilith and Draco do not want them to go.
"How is your family?"
Molly answered, "They are all doing well at the moment. Louis Weasley went to Hogwarts this fall. The only grandchildren left at home are Ginny's three and Ron's two. James Potter starts next year, and then Albus and Rose will be in class with Scorpius and Cleopatra."
"I wonder when they will meet?" Narcissa asked.
"I wonder?" Molly repeated.
Early in November Harry told Ginny, "I have to spend another week in Switzerland, mostly working on prophecy, but also meeting with a variety of people. Can you get away and come with me?
Ginny replied, "I can get away Sunday afternoon, right after I submit the scores of the Quidditch games."
Harry said, "I know Albus and Rose want to spend a little time with the science people in Switzerland. Maybe you could take them along."
Ginny replied, "They are usually very busy when they are there. We could certainly take them."
Harry spent a productive week with various people. Some of it was with the Crystal Ball. Harry told Ginny and the prophets that he could see things being put in place, with Albus and Cleopatra in the center of some of it. He was reasonably sure that he knew who Cleo was in his Crystal Ball, and who her parents, grandmother, and great grandmother were. It was a lot harder finding out who the Lord of the Dementors was, and Harry was not sure he had traced any lines back to The Lord of the Dementors.
Nausicaa Scheria and her granddaughter, Sibylla Papadopoulos, had some information Harry could not find on his own. Nausicaa said, "The Lord of the Dementors wants Albus dead. He feels that all of the Prophesies about the Wizard to Come are pointing at Albus. Albus wonders if that is true, and so far we have told him that it is possible, but it is also possible that the fabled wizard is a generation or two further along.
"When Albus asks us what he should do, we tell him to keep doing what he is doing. Prophesies are not an instruction book, and overly confident people have a way of letting hubris cause them to fail. So far we think Albus is doing just what he should be doing."
Ginny asked, "What about this Cleopatra girl?"
Nausicaa said, "I am very anxious to meet her. We are having a very hard time understanding the Prophesies about her."
Ginny asked, "Do you still think they are going to get married?"
Nausicaa said, "I think there will be a ceremony, but when the marriage documents are signed they will backdate to when they sang a duet at the music store. As far as the fates are concerned, they are married."
Ginny said, "I keep hearing that. It's CRAZY? What if they meet and don't like each other?"
"If they are successful, great evil will leave the world, Ginny," Nausicaa said. "I wish I could tell you something to make you feel better, but I am very nervous too."
Ginny asked, "Well, how about something easy. How many grandchildren am I going to have?"
"Are you finished having children, Ginny?" Nausicaa asked.
"I'm not sure," Ginny said.
"If you have more children you will have more grandchildren. Should I count Teddy's children?" Nausicaa asked. "I think you are going to be grandparents to Teddy's children."
"Are Teddy and Victoria really going to have a dozen?" Ginny asked.
"It is not impossible," Nausicaa replied. "The future will take care of itself. Take care of yourself, Ginny, so you can live to see your grandchildren and great grandchildren."
Albus spent some time alone with Bishop Apollo Scheria. After some talk about what Albus and Rose were doing, Albus said, "I'm still haunted by killing that wizard. I know I really didn't have a choice, but I wish I would never have to kill anyone ever again."
"If you confronted an evil being trying to kill you and others would you rather many other people died?" asked Apollo.
"I guess I would have to kill the person, but it's a lousy choice," Albus said. "Dad says sometimes you only have a bad choice or a worse one. I sort of understand that, but it still feels bad."
"As long as you are doing your best to be righteous, your soul is in the right place, Albus," Apollo said. "I would only worry if hurting and killing people didn't bother you."
"So I'm only a good person if I feel bad about some of the things I do?" asked Albus.
"You can regret that you have had to make some choices, and not feel you are a bad person, Albus," Apollo said. "From all I have seen, you are a very good person."
The discussion continued along this vein for some time.
Albus and Rose continued to work with the scientists analyzing magical DNA.
From analyzing the Mitochondrial DNA of the Magi it looked like Magi may have originated about 5,000 years ago, and they appeared in most of the races of humans at about the same time. This was a very curious result. It also looked like there were about two hundred special magical genes. No single Magi had more than one hundred and fifty magical genes, at least as far as the current analysis went.
The scientists had a much harder time analyzing the Elf DNA, because it was so different from any earthly mammal. It was clear that only a few genes separated the Goblin males from any Elf, and there were even fewer genes separating the female Goblins from any of the females of the Elf family.
As everybody was getting ready Harry said, "I have a real treat for you, Ginny, Albus, Rose. We are going to Paris for a brief one day holiday on our way back to England. After a nice dinner at a local Magi restaurant we are going to take the Chunnel train home.
It was a beautiful evening in Paris November 13, 2015. All of a sudden the restaurant where they were was under attack by Muggle gunmen and Magi throwing curses. The magical part of the restaurant was hidden from Muggles, but the Muggle attack hid the chaos of the magical attack.
Four wizards appeared first. Albus's Elf Frerin tried to apparate away with Albus, but Albus was summoning wands, and you could not apparate when someone was in the midst of casting a spell. Frerin immediately attacked one of the four wizards. By the time Frerin got back to Albus there were a number of other Magi, mostly wizards but a couple of witches, attacking. Between the Elves and the other Magi with Harry and Albus they were able to disarm or shield against all but two wizards who were protected behind the rest of the attacking Magi. Albus used two of the wands he held to force each wizard to point to the other one. Albus, in fact everybody, saw the telltale green sign of the Avada Kedavra curse, and although one of the curses missed the other one hit, causing the one attacker to kill the other one.
By the time this was done a large number of Aurors, other Magical Law Enforcement personnel, and Elves had appeared, and the situation was under control.
French Aurors acknowledged Harry as the senior Auror on the scene, and began to secure the scene. The attackers who had suffered the loss of their legs were transported to the local magical hospital to have the legs reattached.
Shortly after the Aurors appeared another couple of people appeared. One announced, in English, "It appears that an English minor has used powerful magic. We have a summons for this young man to appear in court. Blatant, powerful underage magic is not allowed in France!"
Harry said, "My son was attacked, and he was just defending himself."
The French wizard said, "He used a wand. He is not to be carrying a wand,"
Harry said, "He summoned the wands of the first four attackers, and used one of those wands to shield himself from the other attackers."
"No underage wizard can summons wands unless they have a wand, and have practiced with a wand," the wizard said, waving his wand. The wand left his hand, slowly moved over to Albus, and then moved back to the wizard.
"STOP IT!" the wizard said.
"Would you rather I was killed?" Albus asked mildly.
"We are not talking about the attack! We are talking about underage magic," the wizard said.
"If the Elves had been quick enough I would not have had to summons the wands, nor use two of the wands to shield myself from the curse," Albus said. "Would it be better for me to have died?"
"This is very irregular, not normal at all," the wizard grumbled.
"I was born in our drawing room, unlike my brother and sister, plus all my cousins. This is not the first time I have been attacked, and had to defend myself. My whole life has been irregular. I am sorry if that bothers you. It bothers me, but it seems I cannot do much about it," Albus said.
The wizard looked hard at Harry, then at Albus and Rose, and finally at Ginny. "Potter!" he said. "House elf and Goblin DNA, I should have known. Get out of my jurisdiction before anything else happens. We have enough of a mess here."
After some more debriefing, the Potter family did take the train home that evening.
Albus talked to Jack Lewis and Bishop Scheria several times over the next few weeks. The Prophesies indicated that if he stayed paranoid he would probably survive and fulfill his destiny. He just was not at all happy that battles, and killing, seemed to be part of it.
The attack was in the papers, and Cleo kept the newspaper articles in her scrapbook along with everything she could find about Albus Potter. Scorpius sort of knew what Cleopatra was doing, and thought it was really stupid, but he didn't say anything. They had enough problems with his great-grandmothers, and his parents.
The Department of Mysteries wanted to award Albus the Order of Merlin, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Harry and Albus talked a lot about how Harry felt when he was at Hogwarts, and when he and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione were trying to find the things to bring down Tom Riddle.
Dad was living sort of a charmed life, Albus thought, but he sure went through Hell to get here. Albus was excited about his future, but terrified at the same time. Harry was excited about Albus's future, and equally terrified.