Hello everyone! So sorry it's been a minute. Life happens, ya know? Anyways, excited to be posting again. Nothing new here, just writing away!
As always, read, review, and enjoy!
As far as Lavender was concerned, spring break could not come soon enough. Between the increase in DA meetings since Michael Corner was tortured in front of the school and the professors loading on the school work as the NEWT exams approached, Lavender was having a hard time finding time for anything else.
She was thinking spring break would allow her some downtime, but the professors had packed on so much extra work just as the first half of the second term came to close that she thought she would have a hard time getting it done at all.
Sitting on the floor of Remus Lupin's cottage, she was playing with baby Teddy, who was waving around a toy rattle, his hair cycling between blue and red at random intervals.
"And they just cast the cruciatus curse?" Tonks asked, shaking her head as she grabbed Teddy and set him on her lap, getting ready to give him a bottle. He whined at first, upset that he had dropped his toy in transit, but he grabbed at the bottle as soon as he saw it, sucking on it happily.
Lavender nodded her head, leaning back against the couch. "Just…just like that. It was awful." She shuddered, remembering the screams Michael had made when the curse hit him.
Remus shook his head slowly, sipping on a cup of tea as he stoked the fire in the hearth. "Hogwarts sure has changed since I went to school there."
"Hogwarts sure has changed and I STILL go there," Lavender said bitterly, gazing at a burn in the shabby rug that sat in front of the fireplace. She had been spending much of the extra time she had with Remus and Tonks, opting to learn more about her parents and their friends rather than tie up loose ends with her essays. "Do you think it'll get better?" She paused to sigh, wrapping her arms around her knees. "I just can't help, but think about those first years who haven't had the TRUE Hogwarts experience yet."
Remus sighed, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand. "Hope is dwindling in the Order," he said slowly, watching his wife feed their son, "it's much like it was last time. It's just…" he trailed off as Lavender looked at him. "We have less people than we had before." He chuckled humorlessly. "And we didn't have too many people before."
Tonks nodded her head, absentmindedly rubbing the back of her son.
"But enough about that," Remus said suddenly, turning to look at Lavender, "how are you holding up with all this information that has been thrown at you the last couple of months?"
Lavender opened her mouth to respond with a quick "fine," but found that she couldn't. She shrugged her shoulders, tightening her grip on her knees. "I…I feel both whole and broken," she started, "I find myself wondering who I'm supposed to be. If I'm the same person that Lavender is or if I'm supposed to be the same person that Nora is." She sighed. "I wonder if I would be a different person had I been raised by Sirius and Haley rather than my parents."
Remus nodded his head, setting his empty mug on the table next to him. "I would find it extremely unnerving had you not had any of these thoughts," he replied, Tonks smiling at her as Teddy continued to take his bottle, "you've gone from thinking you're Lavender Brown to learning you're Nora Black in a matter of months. I think it's important to know that Lavender and Nora are still the same person, no matter what you may think now. YOU haven't changed."
"Do you think my mother would have been upset learning that I was involved in Dumbledore's Army like I am now?" she pondered out loud, moving onto the next thought that had been flitting through her mind. "I've been thinking about what you said over Christmas break. About how she had been hesitant about being in the Order."
Remus smiled broadly. "Stark raving mad, I dare say," he said with a laugh, leaning back into his seat with ease, "but Sirius would have been overjoyed. Knowing him the way that I did, he would have snuck into the castle himself to be involved in this Dumbledore's Army if he could."
The three of them laughed as Lavender stood up from the floor and collapsed onto the couch. "I think I would like to be in the Order when I graduate," she said offhand. Remus and Tonks exchanged glances as Tonks shifted Teddy in her lap, his eyes getting sleepy as his bottle dwindled.
"Lavender, Dora and I have been talking," Remus started, his eyes fixed intensely on Lavender, "well, it's been in the talks for a few months now-"
"Out with it, darling," Tonks said with a smile as Teddy finally dozed off, his small hands loosening their firm grip on the bottle. Remus smiled back at her.
"What I'm meaning to say is that…we were quite hoping that you would agree to being Teddy's godmother. To be in his life, to-to take care of him if anything were to happen to us." He reached over and grabbed onto Tonks's hand, squeezing it lightly.
"We would be more than honored," Tonks said, turning her gaze toward Lavender, "you mean so much to both of us. You're family to me, you're family to Remus. We've already asked Harry to be his godfather. We-"
"Yes," Lavender replied excitedly, nearly leaping off the couch. "Yes, yes, Merlin." Her heart swelled with happiness as they beamed at her. "I-I couldn't even fathom…I would be so honored…" Her eyes filled with tears as she looked on at them.
There was a sharp knock on the door that interrupted the moment, Tonks and Lavender turning to Remus with furrowed brows. "Are you expecting anyone, darling?" Tonks asked as she stood from her seat, headed toward Teddy's bedroom to put him down for a nap. Remus shook his head in reply as he got up from his own seat, headed toward the door.
Lavender heard it crack open, the hinges squeaking. "Are you going to let me in, Remus?" a woman's voice exploded over the threshold, "or shall I stand out here in the cold all afternoon?" Remus let out a laugh as he opened the door further, allowing the woman to step into the home.
"Mary!" Tonks cried out as she entered the living room again, "what are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until the summertime from the United States?"
The woman, whom Lavender recognized to be Mary MacDonald, pulled her shoulder length brown hair into a ponytail at the base of her neck. She looked nearly identical to the pictures Lavender had seen of her from the photo album Remus gave her. Mary's hair was streaked with gray and her eyes had small wrinkles that creased when she smiled, but her long face and bright blue eyes were still young.
"Oh, my mother sent me an owl requesting I return for Easter," she replied, "for someone who is always looking forward to me returning to America, she sure wants me back often enough-" She stopped, spotting Lavender for the first time.
Lavender stood up, her hands wringing in front of her. "Erm-hi," she started awkwardly, shuffling her feet against the wooden floors of the living room.
Mary's face paled, her jaw slacked as she turned to look at Remus, who merely smiled at her. "This…this isn't…it can't be…I thought…" She swayed on the spot, stumbling over to the nearest chair and collapsing into it. "She died, Remus," Mary croaked, her head in her hands as she continued to stare at Lavender. "She died sixteen years ago."
"We only thought she had," he replied, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Mary, meet Nora, also known as Lavender. Lavender…"
She strode over, holding out her hand. Mary shook it softly, her jaw still slacked. "You…you could be her twin. Her eyes…her hair…" She stopped, surveying Lavender's features with wonder. "I see Sirius in there too. It's uncanny. How…HOW…"
"Haley put her into hiding merely days before she died," Remus explained, a smile now creeping on Mary's face as she shook her head.
"That TOERAG," Mary exclaimed, slapping her thighs as she let out an exuberant laugh. She stood so quickly from her seat that Lavender had to take a step back, but Mary wrapped her arms around the blonde so quickly that Lavender didn't have time to react. "Come here, you!" She sobbed lightly as she squeezed Lavender, who was trying to hug Mary back, but had become trapped. "I just…I never even thought…WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" She rounded on Remus, slapping his arm playfully.
Remus and Tonks laughed as Teddy let out a squeal from the bedroom. "Dumbledore."
"He's a toerag too! Talk about taking a secret to the grave."
The four of them went quiet as Mary continued to survey Lavender, their hands interwoven tightly together. "Your mother was my best friend," she said quietly, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "she…she was the best person I've ever known."
"She was that for many people," Remus said softly, "Merlin willing, you'll be able to get to know Lavender just the same. She's quite alike Haley in many ways.
"AND!" Tonks piped up, a broad smile on her face, "she has just agreed to be Teddy's godmother."
Mary cheered, squeezing Lavender's hand tightly again as a flush creeped up her cheeks. "You'll be a wonderful godmother," she exclaimed, "Lily and James were your godparents…Merlin, they loved you. Lily spoiled you more than her own son, I think."
"And now I'll get the chance to carry on the legacy," Lavender said with a grin as the others chuckled.
"Teddy is a lucky boy," Mary replied, her grin still reaching her eyes. "You are all lucky to have found each other. I'm…I'm so happy that you're alive. I'll be returning to America soon, but please do keep in touch. I would like nothing more than to get to know you better."
Lavender realized, as she was becoming a member of the friend group her parents used to hold, that she would like nothing more as well.