Hey, guys!
Once again thank you so much for your constant support, I am beyond thankful! Big thanks to Raven that flies at night, mcurch1992, beetle126 and Love. Fiction. 2017 for their reviews on the previous chapter! Sending you guys hugs and the cupcakes I just made hehe!
Hope you enjoy this chapter! It's a light chapter before things get real dark soon!
"Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand." - Frantz Fanon
"I can't believe you roped me into this!" Sirius hissed as they walked up the pathway to the Burrow, Elizabeth turned to him and flashed him a smile.
"There just kids, honestly whats the worst they can do?"
Sirius turned to her, "Are you kidding me!" he gasped, "If they are anything like their uncles you're going to regret offering to take care of those nightmares!"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and squeezed his hand, she wasn't naïve, she definitely knew that those Weasley rascals were nuts and that she was going to regret this, she wasn't that stupid. She hadn't offered for herself, she had offered so Sirius would come out with her, to get some life into him. It had felt like she was being stabbed in her chest every time she saw his blank face, she wanted nothing more than to see him laugh and smile again, and she knew that Regulus would've as well.
She would take a headache for his happiness any day.
The door opened even before they managed to knock, and dressed up, yet frazzled Mrs. Weasley opened the door with a relieved sigh.
"Bless you both for doing this!" she waved them inside, they stepped inside and were immediately overwhelmed by the homely burrow, enveloped by the warm scent of the house. "I cannot explain how grateful Arthur and I are, it's been ages since we've both been able to have couple time."
Elizabeth flashed her a smile, her heartwarming, "Oh don't worry Mrs. Weasley, they cant be too much trouble."
Mrs. Weasley furrowed her brow at the girl and nodded hesitantly, suddenly unsure about trusting her children with the young couple, "If you say so dear." Before she turned towards the stairs and let out a shrill yell leaving the couple wincing, "CHILDREN!"
The brood came stomping down the stairs, a parade of redheads. Sirius and Elizabeth's eyes widened comically at the identical Weasleys, surprised by their well... similarities.
Elizabeth looked down as she felt a tugging at the hem of her pants. "You're pretty." He looked like the second oldest, Elizabeth smiled at him, already charmed by his cuteness, "I'm Charlie." She held in her bubbling laughter and knelt down in front of him and extended her hand.
"Well Charlie, I'm Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz." She flashed him a joking wink causing a brilliant crimson blush to spread over his full cheeks.
The tallest of the brood stepped forward, his hair longer than Charlies and slightly shaggy looking, his arms were covered in drawings. "I'm Bill." The couple turned to the boy and smiled at him, Sirius moved forward,
"Well chap, nice to meet you, I'm Sirius." The boy hesitantly high-fived Sirius, "How old are you? You look about eighteen!" He joked causing Bill to let out a high-pitched laugh,
"No silly, I'm 9!" Sirius mock gasped, loud enough that Mrs. Weasleys tuts were ignored,
"You're joking! Soon enough you'll be my height!" he winked at the boy, "Bet you're getting all the girls."
Bill shuffled on the spot, a smile plastered on his lightly freckled face despite the blush on his cheeks, "Can you play Quidditch with me?"
"NO QUIDDITCH!" Mrs Weasley bellowed causing Elizabeth and Sirius to wince and nod in agreement.
"We'll play exploding snap." He winked at the boys who laughed, but slowly stopped at their mothers facial expression. Elizabeth slightly nudged Sirius in the side and they both stood up.
"And who might you be?" Elizabeth addressed the third son, who looked up at her shyly and laced his hand through his curly hair,
"I'm Percy."
"Well I'm honoured to be in your presence Percy." She laughed and offered her hand out to him for a high five causing the boy to look up through his curls and give her a sweet smile.
Elizabeth looked up as she heard begin to give them all instructions.
"Fred and George are asleep upstairs, they're one years old, they will wakeup within an hour and then they'll need to be fed, they can walk and talk jibberish, but they're already troublemakers so be careful with them. Bill, Charlie and Percy all have to be in bed by 7:45, lights out by 8:00."
Bill let out a groan, "Mummmmm."
"Don't mum me Bill, you will listen to Liz and Sirius, just because they're not me or your father doesn't mean you don't show them respect, understood?"
The three boys nodded simultaneously, and Elizabeth couldn't help but giggle into her hand.
"Let me just grab my shawl and we'll be off." The pair nodded, and five minutes later the couple was out, Sirius whom had had a serious expression plastered on his face let a sly smirk make its way up his face as he turned to the boys.
"So What was this about Exploding snap?"
Just as Sirius said these loud wails were heard from upstairs causing the couple to stop mid-step, cringing at the piercing sound. Charlie and Bill looked up at them with identical cheeky smiles on their faces, as if knowing that they were in for a world of hell.
"Maybe we'll erm…" he looked at Liz whose face was plastered with confusion, "You two start the game, we'll fix this up."
10 minutes later
"BILL!" Elizabeth yelled out, her voice laced with desperation, despite the fact he was merely a few meters away, the oldest boy ran over to her, abandoning his game of exploding snap. "Hey, can you please help me put him into the high chair I have no idea how to and he keeps kicking every time."
Bill rolled his eyes and begun to help adjust the chair, "He always does this! He's just fighting between being hungry and playing, or he really likes you."
She snorted, shaking her head.
"I've never had to deal with someone so clingy in my life."
Bill let out a laugh, his cheeks glowing, "Try living with him."
She flashed him a smile and high-fived him as they got a struggling Fred into the high chair, beaming at him. "Well Leuitinent You're a cheeky one aren't you?" she laughed causing the boy to flash her a smile,
"Great observations General Gilmore." He saluted her causing her to laugh as she began to tickle him causing him to thrash and laugh. They stopped when they heard footsteps approaching from behind.
"Come on you lot!" Sirius laughed, levitating the deck of cards onto a shelve and easily plopping George into his high chair, "Time to eat, and then bathtime, stories and then bed!"
Elizabeth's jaw dropped with how easy he put George into the chair, "How'd you do that?" She whispered astonished. Despite her jealousy at his lack of struggle with George, she could help but feel proud at the way he had acted with the boys, and of how natural it all came to him. That despite all his fears regarding a parent, he would be a marvellous one and it was obvious.
He let out a laugh as he looked at her tangled hair, sweaty face and spit covered clothing, flashing her a smirk
"I guess I just have the magic touch." He winked at her causing her to raise an eyebrow at the innuendo, she smirked at him and shook her head with a laugh, "Now your mum left…." He examined the tray that Liz had pulled out of the oven, "Casserole, sweet!"
As the boys helped set the table and Sirius and Liz warmed up the twins puree, Elizabeth couldn't help but watch them all and admire what an amazing job Mr and Mrs Weasley had done with the boys, they were cheeky and funny, smart and well behaved. Molly Weasley was natural with all things Children. One day, if she raised her children the way Molly Weasley had, she would be a very accomplished woman.
"Liz, Siri? Are you two going to eat with us?" Charlie asked as they sat down, Elizabeth looked over towards them and saw that the three boys were seated patiently waiting for them to join them. She stood up and levitated the tray towards the centre of the table, a soft smile on her face despite the silent pleas of her stomach.
"We'll eat after you guys go to sleep." She whispered, running her hands through Percy's curls affectionately, and filled their plates, "If you guys want more just tell me, We're sitting here anyway."
She turned towards Fred who was babbling in nonsense.
"Zoom!" she laughed as she pushed the spoon of vegetable puree into Freds mouth,causing it to dribble down his chin and onto his bib. "Good boy!" she clapped causing Sirius to laugh, shaking his head.
"You know that his going to eat whether you make sounds or not."
She raised an eyebrow at him, "Perhaps I'm entertaining myself more than I'm entertaining him."
"Gilmore that is so lame!" the whole table erupted into laughter, but suddenly they stopped when they heard the sound of apparition outside the door. The two adults paused in motion as their faces paled and looked towards Bill and Charlie, nothing but seriousness laced in his eyes.
"Go hide upstairs, take Fred and George!" she whispered harshly as Sirius and she waited for them to get up before moving towards the door with their wands drawn. They both jumped, startled when they heard six knocks on the door, causing them to lower their wands slightly, order members always knocked six times, one knock for each syllable of the order. They calmed ever so slightly, but it was not foolproof.
"Who is it?" Elizabeth asked sweetly, her knuckles going white as she gripped her wand tightly.
"Get over yourselves you two, it's just us!" James laughed from behind the door causing them both to sigh in relief.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Sirius retorted Elizabeth could imagine James rolling his eyes in response,
"Mischief managed."
"Lils what did you lose a few weeks ago," Elizabeth asked her chest heaving, and couldn't help but laugh at the memory, and she heard Lily do the same through the door and knew it was her.
"Oh erm... my churro-inity!"
Elizabeth and Sirius let out synonymous sighs of relief, smiles appearing on their faces, They opened the door allowing the soaked couple inside and out of the rain outside,
"Come in, come in!" Elizabeth ushered them in, embracing them at the door and leading them towards the dining table, "Have some dinner, Molly probably wont mind." She then turned towards the direction of the stairs, praying that she would be able to do a Molly Weasley. "Kids you can come downstairs, its all good!"
Slowly the kids clamered down, and Sirius and Liz picked up the twins from Charlie and Bills arms, the two boys sighing in relief, she didnt blame them, the two boys may be small, but they weighed alot. "This is James and Lily, they're our friends."
As the kids sat down they flashed James and Lily hesitant smiles, Charlie looked up at Lily and flashed her a cheeky grin causing the girl to reciprocate.
"You also have red hair." He said, causing her to look up from the delicious casserole and raise an eyebrow,
"An acute observation." She nodded and grinned, his dimples dinted his face and giggled.
"You could be our sister, we don't have one you know." Lily let out a laugh and shrugged.
"Sure why not." She wrapped her arms around Charlie, "Hey brother!"
The kids erupted into laughter over dinner, James and Lily entertaining them whilst laughing and Sirius and Elizabeth struggling to feed the twins and keep them put.
Hours later the group of young adults simulateously fell back onto the couch, exhausted after bathing the entire clan, reading them all stories, searching for monsters under and in every surface of their room and then at last, putting them to sleep and checking on them.
Finally, they could rest, in complete and utter silence. And of course, it was Sirius that broke it, typical.
"How the hell does Mrs Weasley do that every single bloody day?" He breathed out, wrapping his arm around Elizabeth's shoulders and pulling her closer towards him.
"I have no bloody idea," James replied back, shaking his head in astonishment. "I admire that women, my mum struggled with me, I can't imagine five of us."
Lily's eyes widened and let out a cough, "Imagine five of you."
Elizabeth let out a choked laugh and shakily stood up to pile a plate of food, her stomach rumbling loudly, causing Sirius to follow in her step. They moved to the table and all four of them helped themselves to food, James and Lily felt the need to reward themselves with their voluntary help, despite already eating.
Elizabeth couldn't help but feel proud of what she had done, her, with barely any experience with children, managed to take care of five kids all under the age of 10, she thought she deserved a gold star for her efforts. Bloody hell she had taken care of kids for an entire night, and by the end of it figured out the way to get Fred in and out of the Highchair in two minutes. She also couldn't help but feel accomplished, at the fact that she had succeeded in her mission. She hadn't seen Sirius smile in so long, she hadn't seen him laugh in weeks. Despite the headaches, spit, bruises and exhaustion, it was rewarding, and he had smiled.
Just seeing him smile made it all worth it, as long as he was happy, she could deal with anything the world threw at her.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, they looked up so fast that Elizabeth was almost certain she had whiplash, as bad as it sounds, she felt such relief when she saw the Weasleys walk in, and couldn't help the surge of satisfaction she felt when she saw them look around their surroundings appraisingly, obviously having expected the house to have collapsed with them in charge.
"Oh, James and Lily, hello!" James and Lily looked up with guilty expressions as they stuffed their faces with her casserole. The pair swallowed their food before James spoke.
"You make wonderful casserole Mrs Weasley, I could eat an entire tray!" Lily turned to James and looked at him scandalised,
"James!" she hissed and nudged him, she then looked up and flashed the couple a smile, her cheeks flushing, "I hope you don't mind."
Mrs Weasley let out a laugh and waved them off, placing her shawl on the hanger, "Don't worry about it, dear!" She then turned to Elizabeth and Sirius, the poor things that looked as though they were going to fall asleep into their casserole.
"You poor things!" she gasped and took turned in embracing the two, sympathy on her face, "You look exhausted." She ushered over to the fridge and took out two large trays of food, causing the couple's eyes to widen.
"if I'd known you two would pop by I'd make extra," she nodded towards James and Lily, before turning to Sirius and Elizabeth, "But I know you both have a certain fondness for treacle tart, and as does Lily, you can always sneak some deary and a tray of casserole. You're both young, Merlin knows the last time you had a home cooked meal!" the two looked at her guiltily, cheeks flushing.
"Thought so!" The woman laughed and shook her head fondly and patted them on their shoulders before exhaling fondly, "Were they too much of a hassle?"
Elizabeth laughed and shook her head a smile spreading on her face, "I think Fred was particularly attached to me, but they were all darlings, they all helped out when they could. You've honestly done such a great job, both of you."
The couple held hands and nodded and the group of four with gratitude, Arthur smiled down at his wife, wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer,
"Well we're heading up, you guys leave when you want, or even spend the night, it's up to you!" he spoke cheerfully, James smirked at the pair,
"Nah, as soon as we finish we'll clean up and head off."
Molly opened her mouth to interject before Sirius interrupted her,
"Mrs Weasley, please! You've fed us, It's the least we can do!"
She smiled at them softly, pressing kisses on each of their foreheads and wishing them goodnight. The couple walked off leaving the group to their own devices and wanting nothing more than to crawl into their beds and fall asleep.
After months of working on this spell, Elizabeth finally felt as though she had had a breakthrough, Finally, she had developed an incantation that matched the spells algorithm, developed a plan and aim, now came the most dangerous part of creating spells…testing it for the first time, simultaneously getting the incantation and spell work right, and not getting blown up in the process.
She felt the familiar feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins as she began to collect her items and move towards the experimental area. This moment could change the course of the war, she could do something, create something that would create a significant change to the system. She could bring them one step closer to ending the war.
She took a shuddering breath as she felt eyes on her as she crossed over to the experimental section.
Now Elizabeth did not feel she was attention seeking nor the type to crave being known by everyone, but the thought of this spell being successful made her heart feel as though it'd burst with excitement.
She knew, however, that in order to cast this spell she had to will it to do what she wanted, she had to think of nothing but the spell, nothing but her craving to find Death eaters, but not so much to overload the energy in the ring. She sighed as she placed everything down on the closed-off bench, feeling anxiety in the pit of her stomach.
She looked up as she saw someone approaching in her peripheral vision, and flashed a smile in their direction. It was Mr Croaker.
"Elizabeth." He nodded and stood behind the cubicle, but in front of her. "I saw you walking towards the experimental area and couldn't help but come watch."
She shakily exhaled and looked up at him smiling, her hands trembling slightly as she raked them through her dark locks. "I hope I don't disappoint!" he shook his head and chuckled, "You never could Elizabeth."
he shook his head and chuckled in response, "You never could Elizabeth."
"I'm honoured by your faith in me." She laughed, the man nodded,
"Walk me through the steps you're taking to accomplish your task." She stepped back and sighed.
"Firstly, I am going to clear myself of any inanimate objects, I don't want to have contact with anything the spell could be affected by." She informed him as she did exactly as she was saying, taking off any and all jewellery on her body. She didn't want to risk accidentally injuring herself by transferring the magic onto an item on her.
"The casting of the spell is rather simple, I just need to hold my hand against the object I want to be charmed, and then say the incantation three times through perfectly."
"Rather simple." He nodded, "But those are always the difficult ones." he spoke conspicuously, "Would you like some time to practice the incantation, or just-"
She looked up rather surprised at his offer, and quickly glanced down at her watch, she had an order meeting in ten minutes; it was no matter, this was more important than an order meeting, especially if it was like the previous meeting.
"I'll run it through." She stated, looking down hesitantly, "May I have five minutes?"
He gave her a kind smile and bowed his head. "Take as long as you need my dear."
Elizabeth couldn't help but feel nervous at the thought of casting the spell, she had spent weeks coming up with the perfect incantation, with a perfect Latin translation, she had known what she wanted the spell to mean in English, but the translation into Latin had been hell, she'd needed to use one of the translators to assist her in her task. In the end, the English meaning of the incantation was "Find those marked by the snake."
Soon Elizabeth and Mr Croaker were standing prepared to cast the spell for the first time. Elizabeth took a deep breath and took a step forward, internally wishing and praying that this would work. Her voice trembled slightly and the hairs on her arms stood static. She shut her eyes, and pressed the wand against the large ring, thinking of nothing more than how she wanted to find death eaters, how she wanted to find every single one of them to end the war, how she wanted them to fall…
"Anguis per eosdem insignitur" she repeated it slowly thrice, the ring started glowing a red light from the stone, but she could not see it. She had caught the attention of many around her, as they watched her carefully.
She opened her eyes and separated her wand from the gem, feeling euphoric as the ring had had no bad reactions towards the spell, and a red dot was appearing and disappearing from the centre of the stone. A smile grew on her face and a gleeful laugh escaped her, it worked! It had worked! She had done it!
Saul Croaker looked at her approvingly, "Be careful when picking it up." He instructed her, she nodded and slowly moved forward, to pick up the ring, a slew of excitement rushing through her mind and the possibilities of such a spell working. The smile on her face continued to grow as her hand neared the ring,
And then there was a loud bang and all went black.
"She just has a mild concussion and a laceration to the head, but that should all heal rather quickly." Elizabeth felt her head throbbing as she came to, the smell of disinfectant invading her senses, and bright lights stabbing her despite her eyes were shut. She let out a soft moan of displeasure as she figured out where she was, St Mungos. Bloody brilliant.
"Hey, Lizzie." She turned her head slightly and forced herself to open her eyes, she lifted her hand which felt as though it had been stabbed by hundreds of needles to rub the sleep from her eyes, her head was throbbing and she shut her eyes quickly before once again opening her blue orbs and squinting at Sirius, the white lights blinding her.
"Hey." She whispered, her voice cracking as she strained it, she weakly smiled, "What happened?"
He let out a soft laugh and took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb against her knuckles, "Well from what the frog-"
"Shut up Sirius." She weakly retorted, laughter bubbling in her chest, "He isn't a frog."
He let out a bark of laughter causing her to wince at the loudness, "Sorry." He whispered, "Mr Croaker, told me that something went wrong with the transfer of the spell you were experimenting and it backfired, apparently his theory is that the spell needs to be transferred through a certain type of metal and that the DOM needs to cushion their floors."
She sighed in disappointment, dejected that the spell failed, of course, she would've been surprised if it worked first shot, but the negative reaction didn't happen straight away and led to getting her hopes up, of course. She bit her bottom lip and played with a stray string on the otherwise pristine blanket.
"But I had no clue what he was talking about, just that a spell you were working on failed."
She sunk deeper into her bed, she had neglected to tell Sirius about the spell at first, not wanting to feel pressure at having to perfect the spell quickly, and once she had made several developments, it had slipped her mind. She looked up at him, her cheeks flushing,
"I'm trying to-"
"Knock knock!" a familiar voice echoed through the room causing them both to look up, and Lily peeked her head through the door, before walking in, decked in her healer robes, and her hair falling over her face. "Just had to check I wasn't interrupting anything, even with a concussion I wouldn't put it past you two."
Elizabeth winced as she laughed, Merlin this whole concussion thing sucked, how did James and Sirius deal with it so often during school.
"You poor thing." Lily giggled slightly, scanning the chart at the bottom of the bed, "Anyway, nothing too serious, we're just going to keep you in for observation, and then you can go home and sleep in your own bed, and since I'm a trainee I cant give you a home visit so you have to come in within two days for a checkup!"
Elizabeth groaned in disappointment, causing Lily to roll her eyes, "Hey be grateful you get to sleep in your own bed tonight! I am running on 36 hours of caffeine." Sirius opened his mouth to speak when Lily's pager went off causing her to groan as she looked down,
"This will probably be Mrs Windlefield," she placed the chart down, "Her diarrhoea got too out of hand for her to deal with at home so she decided to grace us with her lovely smells."
The couple laughed as they watched Lily drag herself out of the room. Elizabeth looked up at him and ran her thumb over his knuckles, his cheeks flushed and guilt present on her features.
"Poor thing." She snorted lightly, once again wincing at the pain it caused, "Anyhow." She took a deep breath, feeling as though she was going to regret this later on. Sirius sensing it was important cast a muffiato on the room.
"Thank you." She whispered gratefully and took a deep breath, unsure of his reaction. "I'm working on a spell that would, in theory, be on your body and would inform you when you are close to a death eater, it tracks people who are marked by Voldemort. "
His jaw dropped, "That's amazing!" he gasped, "That would be a massive help to the order and the Aurors! That's so- Liz! Holy shit I'm so proud of you!"
She smiled softly, beaming that he felt proud of her, she knew he always was, but hearing it verbalised meant more to her than he'd ever know. She couldn't help the sadness that welled in the pit of her stomach at the disastrous afternoon. She didn't really want to talk about it, she felt so disappointed that it had failed that she felt as though she could cry. Remembering that she missed the order meeting she glanced up once more, licking her lip and clearing her throat,
"How was the meeting?" he looked down, a dark look passing over his face that she was familiar with, and felt dread coil in the pit of her stomach, oh no, something had happened… "Sirius?" she whispered, feeling scared, her voice trembling, "W-What happened? Who?"
"Cardaroc Dearborne." He shook his head angrily, teeth clenched, Elizabeth gasped, feeling tears well in her eyes and shock grace her features, she couldn't believe it, Cardaroc had children, he had a wife, she had never met her but… Anger burnt her insides, Yet another member of the order picked off and killed because of the war.
"I- I can't believe it." She whispered, shaking her head in dismay, Sirius squeezed her hand and ran a hand through her hair.
"He went missing two nights ago and they still haven't found his body, they're unsure if he's dead or…"
"Or what?" she whispered, Sirius took a deep breath in and leant against the bed,
"I reckon his being held and tortured, but some people reckon he defected."
"Defected!" Elizabeth gasped, pushing herself up, uncaring of her concussion, and wincing at the pain. "Are they crazy?"
"That's what we thought." Sirius muttered venomously, jaw clenched, "He's got kids, a wife-"
"I can't believe they would think that!" She whispered, "He has every reason to fight with the Order in this! What could Voldy offer him that we cant!"
Sirius looked up at her, "Some are saying the death eaters threatened his family, but his not the type to give in that quickly."
Elizabeth leant into his embrace, unbelieving of the world they resided in and buried her head in the crevice of his chest.
"But I can understand him if he did...if anyone threatened you…"
She looked up sharply, ignoring the throbbing of her head, "Don't speak like that! I would never want you to- don't you dare!" she muttered venomously,
"I like to think I'd do what you want of me, but in that moment, I'm not sure." She shook her head and inhaled his unique scent.
"Just stop talking like this." She whispered, her voice muffled by his grey jumper, "Just hold me and let us pretend that nothing is wrong, for a moment, let it just be me and you."
So that is what they did.
Oh no! Of course, I can't let you guys have a super light chapter, if I ever do, you know something is definitely up! Down below is your customary sneak peek!
Voldemort stood up to his full height, seemingly towering over the pair, his red eyes glowing with anger and his hand tightly clamped around his wand.
Our favourite villain is back! I wonder who was unlucky enough to spend their day with him, hmmmmmm. *strokes imaginary beard*
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and please don't forget to favourite, follow and review! Reviews are like churros and honestly just yum.
Lots of love and kisses,
Ruby xx