Hello everyone!
First of all, thank you to the people who corrected me in the birth of Teddy Lupin. I had looked at my notes wrong. More than anything, I'm impressed that so many of you caught it! Always appreciate the dedication my readers have to the HP series!
No other news from me. As always, read, review, and enjoy!
After her meeting with Remus, she had apparated back home, only to find her mother and father waiting anxiously for her to return. They were settled into seats in the dining room, both clutching cups of lukewarm tea tightly in their hands.
She walked up to her mother, embracing her tightly first, and then her father. Silent tears streamed down their faces as she took a seat between them, placing the leather photo album on the table. "Professor Lupin…Remus…he told me everything," Lavender started slowly, running her fingers along the binding. "I-erm-I'm not quite sure who I am any longer, to be honest with you."
Her mother reached out, grasping her forearm and giving it a gentle squeeze. "You are Lavender Brown," she said cautiously, rubbing her thumb along Lavender's wrist, "but you are also Nora Black. YOU are the same person."
Lavender sniffed, nodding her head. "At first I was so angry. I still am," she started, sending small smiles to her parents, "I want to know what they were like. I want to know what I missed having them alive and in my life." She paused to take a deep breath. "But I don't want to take away from what you've given me." Her tears streamed faster, the beginnings of the wracking sobs hiccupping through her chest.
Her father clutched her shoulder, shaking her slightly as he pursed his lips. "The possibility of having what you could have had was taken away from you so young," he responded, moving his hand from her shoulder to tap onto the book, "I hope you find what you're looking for. But just know, we will still be here as your parents to help you along the way."
….
Lavender had almost memorized the contents of the book in the week leading up to Christmas. She heeded Remus Lupin's word and didn't put into any owl the information that had come to light in the last few days. She didn't want death eaters banging on the door of her parent's house.
She locked herself in her room, staring for hours at the moving photographs of her biological mother and father. She was mesmerized by their chemistry, by their smiles. How they fawned over her as an infant.
She was often ripped in two by the guilt of it. By the happiness she was feeling for finally being able to know them. By the sadness that knotted in her stomach for feeling as if the family she had grown up in wasn't enough.
Her father had kept to his word and had answered any questions she had. They had conversations long into the night on what the first war was like, how did Dumbledore come to recruit Sirius and Haley. He referred to Remus, imploring her to write down her questions for him, whenever the topic of their personal relationship came up.
Her mother, however, was having a very hard time with it. Lavender had heard her crying in the middle of the night, asking her father why she wasn't enough. It broke Lavender's heart, even sent her reeling as to why she couldn't let all of this go.
She just knew, at the pit of her stomach, she needed to find out as much as possible about her family. It was imperative to healing the hole in her heart, the hole that had started to grow at the end of sixth year.
She was lucky, in a sense, that both of her parents were scheduled to work back at the Ministry the day after Christmas. It left slipping off to Remus's much easier without the sorrowful eyes of her mother following her out of the house.
She turned on her feet after fastening her cloak, landing with a thud just outside of the white gate that surrounded the house. With a deep breath in, the cold air pressing sharply against the back of her throat, she made her way to the front door and knocked briskly.
The door cracked, Remus's eye peering out, before it swung wider and he ushered her inside. "Keep your cloak on," he instructed with a smile as he bent down to drop a letter onto the side table closest to him, "we're leaving right off. The people who I'm taking you to see…I haven't seen them myself in about sixteen years. I wrote to them after you left, but they don't know you're coming with me."
Lavender furrowed her brow, looking at Remus with concern. "Who are we going to see?"
Remus grasped her shoulder. "Your grandparents." They turned on their feet and cracked out of the living room.
Her feet slammed for the second time in a few minutes against the pavement, but the scene in front of her was much different. In place of the cozy cottage with the white picket fence was a large, handsome house with white columns that lined the front porch. Just off to the side of the driveway was a rose trellis, the vines that curled up the stained wood were dead for the season.
Her heart thumping against her chest, she lurched forward, following Remus up the narrow driveway to the front porch. She was able to see into the front window, where a Christmas tree twice the size of hers at home sat twinkling toward the street. She spotted marble floors lying in perfect rows just underneath the base.
Remus rapped on the door. There was a muffled commotion on the other side before it was pulled open to reveal an older witch. She was beautiful, her blonde hair pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head. It was streaked with white, though subtly, and a pearl necklace donned her thin neck. There was one thing that Lavender did notice right away…bright, brown eyes. The same color and shape as her own.
"Remus," the woman exclaimed, stepping out of the home to kiss him on each cheek, "I was so very surprised by your owl, I never thought I would hear from you again after the funeral-" She stopped abruptly, the blood draining from her face as she took a step back, finally spotting Lavender over his shoulder.
Remus, who seemed quite pleased with himself, reached to Lavender and pushed her forward gently. "Marg," he started with a small smile, "I have someone I think you would be interested in meeting."
The woman grabbed onto the doorframe, leaning heavily against it as she looked upon Lavender in shock. "Ral-Ralph," she managed to croak out, "send for Daniel. Straight away."
"What? Why?" a man grunted from the sitting room. Lavender heard him get up from his seat, setting what sounded like the newspaper down onto the side table. When he came into view, she was surprised to see a tall, burly man with a thick mustache. His eyeglasses were perched on the end of his nose, which he looked over to survey the situation at his front door. "Hal-Haley?" he stopped in his tracks, his jaw going slack. He took a few steps forward, his arms hanging at his sides.
"This is Lavender," Remus interjected, his hand on Lavender's shoulder. "Lavender Brown." He paused for a moment to let it sink in. "You would probably know her better as Nora Black. Haley and Sirius's daughter."
The woman let out a squeak before lunging forward, taking Lavender by surprise, and wrapping her arms around Lavender's neck. She was thrown back a few steps as the woman began to sob into the crook of her neck. She looked up, putting Lavender's face lovingly in between her hands. "We-we thought you d-died," she choked out, shaking her head as if trying to wake herself from a dream, "we-we put a t-tombstone n-next to your m-mother's in the g-graveyard."
The man standing just inside the marble-lined entry way had put his hand over his mouth, still in shock.
"Please, please come in, out of the cold. Remus, how did you find her? Why wasn't she brought to us after Haley's death?" she beckoned the both of them in, taking hold of Lavender's hand and steering her toward the sitting room. She sat down on the French-inspired couch and Lavender followed her lead. "Ralph, Ralph darling. Get the kettle of tea out of the kitchen. I just put it on. Remus, do have a seat, please." She turned to Lavender, their hands still clutched tightly together. "My, you look just like my Haley," she breathed out, raking her gaze over Lavender's features. "I see some Sirius too; he was such a handsome boy."
Ralph returned with the kettle sitting on a serving tray with four delicate tea cups. His hands were shaking, the china rattled against the silver of the tray.
"Dumbledore told me in her third year at Hogwarts," he finally answered her question, taking a seat on the other side of Lavender, "I taught there for a year. He felt as though, especially with Haley dying at the hands of death eaters, it would be safer to place her with a separate family entirely."
Ralph held out a steaming cup of tea, his hand still shaking. Lavender untangled her hand from Marg (Mrs. Brams? Grandmother?) and reached out, taking the cup with a small smile. Marg turned to her, studying her features once again. "Tell us about yourself. Seventh year at Hogwarts already, my, does time fly. What-erm-what do you like to do? What are you studying?"
Lavender shrugged a shoulder softly, taking a sip of her tea. It was uncomfortable being the center of attention, especially when she wasn't expecting to be one. "Well, uh, I'm studying charms, transfiguration, divination, and arithmancy. I-erm-like to spend time with friends, watch quidditch matches…" She trailed off, not quite sure what to say next. It all sounded so lame to her.
"Arithmancy," Marg sucked in, beaming down at her, "that was one of your mother's favorite subjects."
"My mother," Lavender said suddenly, turning her head to look at Marg with a questioning expression. "What was she like? To you, I mean. I, I…I don't remember her."
Marg and Ralph looked at each other, memories flitting through their minds. Marg opened and closed her mouth a few times before answering. "She was kind and thoughtful," she responded, shaking her head slowly, "Smart. Beautiful. She was the only student at Hogwarts in ten years to be offered a position in the Law program at the French Ministry of Magic. She declined it, ended up working at a bar in Diagon Alley to stay with Sirius, who was accepted into auror school. That-erm-put a rift in our relationship with her." She clamped up, looking out of the corner of her eye at Ralph, whose cheeks had started to redden.
"That was-erm-that was my fault," he stuttered out, placing his forehead into his hands, "I-I was so consumed by what I thought she lost. Made myself believe that she was a disappointment, because she had chosen something else." He took a dep breath. "It wasn't until she died that I realized my m-m-mistake." His lip had started to tremble. "I blame myself for her death, you know. M-maybe if she w-would have thought of us as an o-option after Sirius was sent to A-Azkaban…" He mumbled incoherently, shaking his head again, but didn't go on.
Lavender understood immediately. The pain so clear on their faces. She squeezed Marg's hand, hopeful that she could begin a new relationship with them. Possibly starting to fill the hole that had been left in their hearts too.