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"Lady Black, your presence has been summoned by Albus Dumbledore at the Leaky Cauldron in London…blah, blah, blah." Said Galatea as she read over the parchment in her hands. She balled it up and threw it onto her desk. She'd deal with all of that later.
"You're just going to ignore that?" said a cloaked figure from across the room. Galatea bolted up from her bed and drew her wand.
"Who are you?" asked Galatea, her wand pointed at the silent intruder.
"That's not important right now. What is important is that you go and tell the old codger whats what." Said the cloaked intruder.
"You're a different person than before." said Galatea. This person was built much smaller and the accent was much different.
"No I'm not." Said the cloaked intruder childishly
"Yes you are and right now you're going to tell me who you are right now or I will end you." Said Galatea dangerously
"I'm the same person that was here before." the intruder insisted. She had what sounded like a mixture of a high Remordereian accent and a slight American one. That was a very strange combination given the current political climate between the wizarding enclaves.
"No you are not and I am in no mood for games." Said Galatea her voice dripping with poison. The intruder put her hands up defensively.
"If I tell you who I am you either won't believe me and I'll get in trouble or you will believe me and I'll get in trouble. Either was my ass is cooked." Said the intruder
"Take down your hood." Ordered Galatea sounding every bit the Great Lady Galatea Black. The intruder shook her head.
"Listen I don't want to hurt you but you have to listen to me; it's very important." Said the intruder. Galatea was having none of that.
"Take down your hood now." Said Galatea with an air of finality. The intruder sighed.
"You're going to regret this, I just know you are." Said the intruder. She reached behind her and slowly drew down her hood to reveal first a head full of white hair followed by the tips of very tall ears followed by a very familiar pair of Pettigrew eyes, a long nose, and Galatea's mouth.
"What the bloody-" said Galatea, her wand arm now hanging slack at her side. That was either one of hers or a very good glamour.
"I know you mostly see Claudine and Pietro but it's me, Celeste." Said the intruder. Some part of Galatea, some long neglected primal part knew this as her daughter.
"How old are you?" asked Galatea. It was the first question that came to mind. The girl was short, Persephone levels of short, but that was not unexpected given the genes Puck added to her. She was thin, much thinner than any healthy member of the Remordereian aristocracy was. Her hair was odd and threw all of Galatea's estimates out the window.
"Sixteen, same as you." Said Celeste hoping her mother didn't see fit to mention any of this in the future…present…?
"Your hair." Said Galatea pointing to the long locks that hung around her daughter's face very long and obviously never cut. A part of Galatea, the part that felt like it was old before it's time, was grateful to see that no matter what changes happened women still never cut their hair.
"It's naturally white, or platinum blonde as Beadle decided to call it. The color is odd and I can't dye it because that's low class now a days. Oh well we wear it down now, mostly, though not at parties. Boys cut it pretty short now, well most boys anyway. Beadle says that we're becoming muggles, distinguishing the sexes so blatantly. I think that we're becoming more and more the same, what with trousers and all. Priscilla wants to wear them but then again she always did like muggles. Auntie Portia too, well not the trouser thing, but she likes the foods. Beadle likes the food and the telly and the information highway and living in muggle London and all. Well, all twenty two of Uncle Peter and Aunt Addie's kids like muggle things. I like them enough, I guess. My World is nice. That's on the information highway…why am I rambling…oh Merlin! I'm so obnoxious..." said Celeste running a hand through her hair in frustration. She couldn't help it.
"That-that's quite alright. I-I've never had this sort of extended interaction with one of you…I have so many questions that I know I shouldn't ask…" said Galatea
"And I shouldn't answer." finished Celeste
"Why all the cloak and dagger business? Why not just come out into the open?" said Galatea. Celeste sighed.
"Grandmother Margaretta said we had to. She's around now, somewhere. There's always two versions of her around." Said Celeste without thinking.
"Two versions? Constantly and concurrently in the same plane of existence?" said Galatea. It hurt getting information from a time duplicate that had only existed for a few hours. A lifetime…the pain must have been unbearable.
"Umm…yeah but don't tell anybody you know, especially not the scary younger version of her." said Celeste
"What scary younger version?" asked Galatea. The only versions of her mother she knew were the argumentative busybody living in South Africa and the wide older woman with the white streaks in her hair that occasionally told her what to do.
"The one that made you, now please stop asking questions and listen to me." Said Celeste practically pleading with her mother. Everyone was going to be so cross with her later.
"I can't help it. You appear out of nowhere in my room on the bloody North Pole, ramble on and on about future, and then expect me to sit quietly twiddling my thumbs while you tell me something about Albus Dumbledore? Listen, I know I shouldn't be asking questions and I was alright with that before you told me that there are two version of my mother constantly in existence and yet somehow never catching up to each other." Said Galatea
"I know it's a lot to swallow but please stop asking. You said it yourself, you should not be asking questions and I said that I shouldn't be answering them. Let's go back to that." Said Celeste
"After what you just said I'm not sure if I can do that." Said Galatea
"I know that it's hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube but you've got to try." Said Celeste
"Toothpaste? Just how far have muggle products permeated our world?" said Galatea
"Completely. Moving on, Albus Dumbledore has summoned you to the Leaky Cauldron. When you get there you're going to be ambushed by the Oder of the Phoenix, his faction recruited from Hogwarts Graduates." Said Celeste
"The same one that left Peter to rot?" said Galatea
"The same; although I'm not sure if rot is the right word." Said Celeste
"Well, abandoned him as a spy then. I'm not sure how Peter's telling it in your time." said Galatea
"Probably the same way he's always told it. You know, I heard from Beadle that Uncle Peter actually did all that in an attempt to impress-" said Celeste
"Gossip later, Dumbledore and his merry men now." Said Galatea
"Right. Well, they're going to pour the truth potion down your throat in an attempt to get information out of you." Said Celeste
"But I regularly consume the antidote to said potion." Said Galatea
"Yes, that's the problem. Grandfather Sirius gets a little overzealous and injures you so you mortally wound him and Dumbledore sends out a manhunt for you. Their Ministry tries to have you captures and you live out your life up here until the day come when you, Auntie Portia, Auntie Celeste, and Auntie Hermione defeated the Dark Lord with duffer Harry fucking Potter." Said Celeste
"I see. Thank you for seeing fit to inform me." Said Galatea in her most calm and collected voice
"You're welcome, mum, but it wasn't my idea." Said Celeste
"Oh? And who's was it then?" asked Galatea
"Berlioz's, but Cassandra Crouch helped and Auntie Portia signed off on it. Goodbye mum, and please don't ever mention this to Grandmother or Timothy." Said Celeste before she stepped into the shadows and disappeared.
"Goodbye." Said Galatea softly, a plan whirring in her head. She went over to the desk and penned a letter to Albus Dumbledore. If they were going to meet it was going to be in a neutral location.
Galatea sometimes amazed even herself. She was currently sitting on a wooden chair in the outside eating area of a muggle café in London sipping a double tall mocha latte and reading the muggle paper. Her long hair and long skirt drew some attention but not nearly as much as the average wizard did when trying to blend in with the muggles.
"Lady Black, I presume." Said Albus Dumbledore as he stood in front of her table. Now she was getting looks and not because of her long black braid or black ankle length skirt. No, it was because of the long haired, long bearded old man in a purple pin stripe suit in front of her.
"Have a seat, Albus." Said Galatea putting a particular emphasis on his given name.
"Thank you, Galatea." said Dumbledore putting emphasis her given name in turn.
"Worried about something?" asked Galatea in a bored voice. From behind her dark sunglasses she let her eyes began to discretely wander.
"No, what makes you say that?" said Dumbledore
"You came with your cast of characters." Said Galatea taking inventory of Dumbledore's people, and she used that term loosely. There was a pink haired woman, a greasy looking man dressed in black slacks and a white shirt, a red haired man in an ugly brown polyester muggle style suit staring at the lighted sign above them, a red haired woman mouthing the names of the drink on the menu, and short bug eyed man, and a man with a large walking stick and a fedora pulled low under one eye standing off from the group looking not unlike a pervert.
"I thought it best." Said Dumbledore in a serious tone. Galatea replied by sipping her latte.
"To do what? Draw attention to yourselves?" asked Galatea as she saw some muggle gawking. Contrary to popular belief they weren't as dumb as people said they were. They had a culture just a nuanced as and wizarding one.
"We're not here to debate muggle fashions, Galatea." said Dumbledore. Galatea took another sip of her latte wondering why, exactly, she even bothered to put on a muggle style shirt, skirt, shoes, and sit there in discomfort trying to endure the almost nudity of a bra and knickers. Every breeze felt like it would blow her skirt over her head.
"Why are we here then, Albus?" asked Galatea. Her eyes traveled again, this time to the blonde man sitting a table away with a coffee in front of him. Even at the distance she was at Galatea could tell he reeked of wealth, it was in the way he carried himself even sitting there looking uninterested up at the world. The careful disinterest of an aristocrat.
"I am going to give you one chance, just one, to tell me everything you know, every part you played, in the resurrection of the Dark Lord." Said Dumbledore. His people looked surprised now; a large black dog was attempting to make its way past the fedora clad man with the walking stick.
"I know nothing and I did nothing." Said Galatea pulling her drink away from him. She wasn't bind, she could see him slowly reaching for it. Inside at the counter the red haired man was tying up the line inquiring about every drink on the menu.
"This is your last chance." Said Dumbledore lowly. Galatea glanced over. The red haired woman was trying to get the man, possibly her husband, away from the counter. The pink haired girl was making her way to them. The greasy man and the fedora clad man were trying, and failing, to hold back the dog. To top it all off people were staring…including the blonde man who was now muttering something under his breath.
"I told you I didn't know anything." said Galatea. Dumbledore's wand could be seen peeking out from his sleeve. Galatea was prepared to scream for a copper, toss her latte at Dumbedore and run away deep into muggle London and let the police handle it. Not her best plan but it would tie them all up considerably and hurt Dumbledore and his people come the day. Before she could put this plan into action the dog broke free of them and made it way viciously to her. Good old dad.
"Whoa boy!" said the man as he went and intercepted the dog. There was a flash of something, unnoticed by those who were not trained to see such things, as the man grabbed the dog.
"Thank you sir, we'll take it from here." Said fedora clad man gruffly said before the dog bit the blonde man.
"It bit me! Police! You ought to keep that mongrel on a leash! I'll sue!" screamed the blonde man. The accent…she placed it at Planter's Circle in Remodere controlled India…
"Get away from me you senile old man! I don't know you!" screamed Galatea as she got up from the table and splashed him with her coffee drink. What a waste of a perfectly good latte. Oh well.
"We're very sorry!" said a small, beat up looking old man. Hmm…that one could hide. Galatea had originally took him for one of the muggle underclass. She'd have to keep an eye on that one.
"Sorry doesn't fix my arm! Police! Constable!" screamed the man theatrically. Now there was a crowd forming. The blonde man got up and began to stumble away from the so called mad dog. Actually, old Padfoot was seriously distressed….almost like he couldn't change back. As the man passed her he something in a foreign langue….the one the servants spoke back in Planter's Circle…those eyes…she decided to follow him.
"Wait!" said Galatea as she tried to keep up with him. Her voice was almost drowned out by the constable's sirens. Now other people were screaming about the mad dog, the existence of leash laws, and legal revenge.
"Not here." Said the man. They walked and walked until there were at another café, this one with a photo of what looked to be a two tailed mermaid or something.
"Who are you?" asked Galatea as they sat down at another outside table at another coffe café. Wow, muggle sure liked their coffee.
"Since Celeste decided to let the cat out of the bag please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste." Said the man discretely mending the arm on his expensive looking suit. He paused for a moment.
"That doesn't tell me who you are." Said Galatea already on the defensive.
"Right. Sorry, that's from a song. My name is Beadle Bard Pettigrew and I come to you from the not too distant future…and Cambridge University." Said Beadle Bard not quite sure why he mentioned that part or why he was even there. He had taken care of his mission; he stopped Sirius Black from turning back into a human and blowing the statute of secrecy out of his stupid animagus arse.
"Why are you here?" asked Galatea looking him over. He was taller than Peter and Addie, older than Celeste had been when Galatea had last saw her, same Pettigrew eyes as the rest of his family…and much more confident looking than his father.
"Well, you see, my parents needed a male heir so after my father spent a few years as a rat he found Harry Potter abandoned in London and raised him as his own. That didn't work out when the truth got out so then my parents made me and here I am; the male heir. Then, of course, my mother either go involved with fertility magic or something because she's been having babies ever since. There's twenty two of us all together, twenty-three before but then one of us died. So anyway I got older and went to Hogwarts where-" started Beadle Bard before he was cut off
"I didn't ask for your life story, I just want to know why you are here, now, in the present." Said Galatea
"Oh, umm, sorry again. You see, I'm here because Sirius Black was about to destroy the statute of secrecy by turning into a person, and I use that term loosely, in front of all those muggles and the café's security cameras." Said Beadle Bard
"That's all. No message from the future?" asked Galatea
"Umm…not now, no. Umm…yeah…this is weird…you look different." Said Beadle Bard looking his cousin up and down. She almost passed for muggle but that wasn't it. She was younger now and not bad looking, she actually looked a lot like Tim would if he wasn't half fey.
"Well yes, I'm sixteen now. I need to know, where, exactly, do I go from here." Said Galatea. Dumbledore was going to be very, very angry after this and angry people were often unstable.
"Oh, well, you see…I don't know, home I guess. I mean, I'll know what happens when I get back to the present and all but yeah, I wouldn't go near the Ministry or any of it territories. I'd hide from him but somewhere where it doesn't looke like your hiding. I mean, I hid from my family in Cambridge and London and they still don't know I'm hiding." Said Beadle Bard nervously
"Is there any reason that I should know as to why you're hiding from the Pettigrew family?" asked Galatea a million scenarios running through her mind.
"Well, it's not really your problem. I just don't want to spend my life in India, you know? I mean, mum and dad went there and never left and they just kept on having baby and baby after baby and there's so many of us and I can never just be alone and then Tim had to go and…umm, forget that last part." Said Beadle Bard. Galatea nodded. She had so many questions for the man in front of her but she knew not to ask them.
"Well, I'll let you go then. Umm…give everyone my best, I guess." Said Galatea, her mind buzzing like a bee hive.
"I will…goodbye, Galatea." said Beadle before he got up and disappeared into the crowd. Galatea sat there for a moment longer before a manic sort of panic set in. She had to get out of there. She had to go somewhere far, far away from the Ministry. She had to go somewhere familiar….she knew just the place.
"Nothing says good morning like handful of crystalized pineapple." Said Portia as she laid down in her bed. The sound of Harry brushing his teeth could be heard from the bathroom.
"Anything to wash the taste of bicarbonate of soda out." Said Harry before he spat into the sink. There were definitely some things the muggles did better and tooth polish was one of them.
"Amen to that." Said Portia she propped herself up, balancing the bowl on her stomach. She paid no mind the sugar she was getting onto her underclothes and the bedspread.
"Must you eat in the bed?" said Harry taking off his housecoat. He turned around and rooted through his drawers for his combinations and stockings. Great, more of Portia's things had invaded his space. Even when he was little and living with the evil muggles he had never had to share his space.
"Yes, I must. If you have such a problem with it then have one of the maids come in and put a new bedspread on…or better yet give your wand a wave." Said Portia cheekily as she got more sugar on the bed intentionally. What did he care, they had an entire staff devoted to taking care of them.
"What, and risk undoing whatever enchantments are on the bedspread? No thank you, besides, it's the principal of the matter." Said Harry as he buttoned his stockings to his combinations. Well, he hoped these were his stockings. Portia's were mostly silk, right?
"Which is?" asked Portia sitting up and brushing the sugar from her camisole. She went over to the dresser to find a corset.
"Which is that I don't think we should be wallowing in our own filth." Said Harry as he pulled some trousers on and a light button down shirt. Portia made a dismissive noise as she attempted to close her corset over pregnant belly.
"Haven't you ever heard the expression, 'filthy rich'?" said Portia she turned her back to Harry. Harry loosened the strings and she finally got herself into it.
"I'd rather not do the filthy part, if I do say so myself." Said Harry as he knotted a tie around his neck. Portia rolled her eyes, a taste of married life and he went and turned into a grown up. She went over to the wardrobe and got out a light blue silk summer dress fringed with lace.
"Ugh, aren't we magical?" muttered Portia to herself as she stepped into this blue and lacey monstrosity. She couldn't wait for moving patterns to come back in style, lace was boring.
"What?" asked Harry absently as he thought of things he'd like to do that day. Probably catch a matinee, that was always fun.
"Nothing." Said Portia turning her back to him. He had only just finished buttoning her up when there was a knock at the door.
"Yes?" said Harry and Portia at once. It must have been important, the servants usually waited for them to emerge before bothering them.
"Sir? Ma'am? There's somebody here to see you." Said the servant girl in what they identified as a mainland accent. The way ministry territory people spoke was strange to them, not that it would matter so much come the day.
"Who?" asked Portia as she slipped into her blue silk shoes, completely useless for most activities.
"Lady Black, my Lord." Said the servant timidly. Harry and Portia stopped what they were doing as the heard the servant make a nervous noise.
"We'll be right down." Said Harry. He and Portia finished dressing and made their way downstairs more quickly than Addie would have approved of. There, in their parlor, was a very tired looking Galatea lounging on their couch and sipping a purple, sparking tea.
"What? No hello?" said Galatea spitting tiny sparks and explosions as she spoke. She didn't care; she needed the pick me up. It had been a very trying day.
"Hello, Galatea." said Portia before sitting down next to her cousin. After a moment Harry did the same. She didn't look alright.
"Not that we don't like your company but what, may I ask, are you doing here?" said Harry fearing that they would have to go on another wild, whirl wind adventure. Not that he didn't like their adventures but he was enjoying his holiday.
"I've decided to hide in plain sight." Said Galatea simply as if she were discussing the weather. She reached out a gloved hand and took a chocolate biscuit as if nothing was wrong.
"What do you mean?" said Portia with a million more questions running though her head. She and Harry resisted the urge to pour themselves some tea; it didn't really look like the calming kind.
"I have been paid a visit by one Albus Dumbledore and he seems to think that I am up to something." Said Galatea
"But you are; you always are." Said Portia not quite getting it.
"Yes but he doesn't need to know that. He seems to think that I was the one who brought the Dark Lord back when I merely pointed that crazy Crouch man in the right direction and did nothing to stop him." said Galatea leaning back into the couch, the green silk of her dress against the red leather of the couch looking vaguely festive.
"Guilty by omission, or something like that, I don't know." Said Harry waiting for Galatea to get to the point already.
"Well anyway I've decided that for the time being I'll be hiding in plain sight to throw him and his stupid Order off my trail. My so called father will continue to live in my London estate and I'll just be here with you two." Said Galatea. She reached into the bag at her side and tossed some tiny boxes and suitcases onto the floor.
"Where's Timmy?" asked Portia
"He's with his father in America, a bit of a short holiday. He'll have to spend his birthday there too I'm afraid, until Dumbledore finds something else to busy himself with." Said Galatea looking pained at the mention of her son.
"We have no choice in the matter, do we?" asked Harry in a loosely bad mood. He didn't mind having Hermione come over later, that was planned. This, however, was not. He hadn't realized it before but he liked being alone with Portia, really liked it, it was like they were the only two people in the world here in this estate and now Galatea with her over bearing self was here.
"Do you ever?" drawled Galatea looking just a little bit better. Harry gave a heavy sigh and summoned someone to make up Galatea's rooms. There was nothing he could do now.