Jamie's first awkward conversation with Dumbledore had occurred only a couple of days after their arrival. He had invited her to his office, which she had refused, so they met in Minerva's office. Dumbledore was not accustomed to being denied and he hadn't reacted gracefully. He practically demanded that she share details of the future with him and involve him in her quest. He said there was no way she could possibly be successful without him and that his knowledge would be a unique resource. She had adamantly refused to share even the smallest crumb with him and had even gone so far as to violently throw him out of her head when he tried to force his way in. The only benefit of that conversation was that Minerva's gears were turning. She'd scolded him a few times and hadn't been looking at him the same way since. He'd asked her for a couple more meetings in the following weeks, but she refused each time and used the Marauder's Map to avoid him like the plague.
Through all the chaos, Jamie had neglected to think about what her arrival meant for the younger versions of her friends. Luckily, Hermione had always picked up the slack and came to see her.
"Auntie Mione!" Teddy yelled and abandoned his coloring book. He hugged her legs then dragged her into his room and started telling her about his new toys. Jamie watched from the door. When he tired himself out, they went back into the living room, and he showed her the drawing he was working on.
"He's adorable," Hermione told Jamie. "Lots of energy, though."
"So much energy," Jamie agreed. "You want some tea?"
"Sure."
"Sorry for the mess," Jamie said while making the tea. "I've got about a thousand things to do." She joined Hermione on the couch after almost tripping on one of Teddy's toys.
"Don't worry about it," Hermione chuckled. Neither of them seemed to know how to start, so they sipped on their tea and watched Teddy color for a while. "When's his birthday?" Hermione asked.
"April eleventh," Jamie replied.
"And… the father?" she asked cautiously.
"It's, uh, complicated," Jamie winced. "He died right at the end of the war, less than a month after Teddy's first birthday. We initially moved in with Teddy's grandma, but she'd lost so much and died from Grief Sickness before we'd reached the first anniversary of the end of the war."
"Grief Sickness?" Hermione asked. "She died of a broken heart?"
"Yeah," Jamie said sadly.
"Where did you go after that?" Hermione asked. She'd finished her tea and Dobby popped in to refill it.
"Thanks, Dobby," they said together.
"We moved into the Black ancestral home and fixed it up a bit, but it's in the middle of London and I wanted something a little more isolated, so we moved into an old Potter property in the middle of nowhere. I'll have to take you there some time, it's gorgeous."
"That's nice," Hermione said. The girl was practically vibrating from all the questions she wasn't asking, so Jamie threw her a bone.
"It started at the end of this year," she said, "and it was awful. The day after my seventeenth birthday there was a wedding at the Burrow. Death Eaters attacked during the reception, and we had to flee. Ron was supposed to come with us, but he'd been injured. We lived out of a tent, jumping from one place to another for almost a year before it ended."
"Did I, uh…"
"You survived," Jamie said. "Ron did too; I know he's upset, right now. He made a huge fuss the first time." Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes.
"I don't know what his problem is," she complained, "You obviously didn't mean to come here, and he heard Lady Magic! It's ridiculous."
"Mummy," Teddy trotted over and handed her the page he'd been scribbling on. He'd ignored the outline of lions and had colored the entire thing randomly.
"This is beautiful, Teddy-bear!" she told him.
"For Auntie!"
"Thank you, Teddy," Hermione said. "I love it."
"Mummy, do the paint!" he demanded.
"Can you ask nicely?" she responded.
"Mummy, please do the paint?"
"That's better," she replied, and Teddy giggled and clapped his hands together. Jamie first made six orbs with lumos pingere, then changed the colors from white to red, blue, yellow, orange, green, and purple. She levitated the orbs down to Teddy who took them from her with his own magic. "Watch," she whispered to Hermione.
Teddy took all six orbs with his own magic and poked his finger into the red one and withdrew it, then started painting in the air. It was mostly a random mess, but it was really fun to watch. She'd introduced Teddy to three-dimensional painting early as soon as he started walking. All the paint was surrounded by a thin layer of magic that prevented it from being eaten or absorbed by fabric, so he couldn't make a mess no matter how hard he'd tried. He was also limited by a cube of space that Jamie put up for him, but after he'd turned three, he had learned how to manipulate the cube, so he could zoom in or out of his paintings. She honestly didn't know how he did it, and he wasn't old enough to be able to explain the magic behind it.
"That's amazing," Hermione said.
"Mhm," Jamie agreed. She swirled the last bit of tea around in her teacup. And they watched Teddy paint for a while.
"How'd you do in the tournament last time?" Hermione asked.
"Pretty well, for a fourteen-year-old," she laughed sadly. "This year sucked for all of us, though. Ron got over himself after the first task but then the Yule Ball was a nightmare."
"There's going to be a ball?" Hermione asked happily. "Oh, the dress robes! I should have guessed."
"It should be better this time around." Teddy looked like he was getting frustrated; he kept making little discontented sounds and his painting was full of brown blobs. "I think it's naptime, Teddy-bear."
"I don't wanna!" he cried and rolled over onto his back. "Not done!"
"You always feel so much better after a nap," Jamie reminded him.
"Big boys don't take naps!"
Jamie sighed, "He's about thirty seconds away from a complete meltdown," she told Hermione and smiled apologetically.
"I'll leave you to it," Hermione said.
Cedric stopped by for an extremely awkward conversation about the tournament. She really didn't know how to talk to him. They hadn't been close, but she'd watched him die. She had nightmares about his empty, glossed over eyes for years. It was so intimate. He hadn't come back again, and she was grateful for it.
One night, several hours after curfew, Jamie was enjoying a glass of fire whiskey and looking at the Marauder's Map when she saw a certain pair of redheads heading in her direction. She opened the door before they could knock.
"Breaking curfew, are we?" she greeted them. They smirked together.
"You know us, dear Jamiekins," Fred started.
"There's always new trouble to sow," George finished. Jamie smiled fondly at them. There was no way in hell she was going to let Fred die again. George had been so devastated. He'd become a husk of what he once was, and she hadn't seen him truly smile since the final battle.
"I've missed you guys," she said and hugged them both. "Come sit, there are things to discuss. Do you want tea?"
"We wouldn't say no to you Jamie," George said with a smile.
Dobby and Winky brought tea and biscuits for them to snack on while the twins told her about their new prank idea, then they asked what she had wanted to talk about.
"Well," she began with a mischievous smile, "there are a few things. Number one, I need your help to prank the Yule Ball." They raised all four of their eyebrows and begged for more information. "The Weird Sisters are going to play, but I wanted to include some muggle music as well. Just some classics, things they'll all recognize." They looked at each other and had a silent conversation, then turned back to her.
"We love it," they said together.
After that, Jamie told them about the other hidden passages she'd found, and they told her the ones they knew as well. She floated the idea of updating the Marauder's Map and was pleased with their enthusiastic agreement. She told them that she was going to write Moony and Padfoot about it but refused to tell them the identities of the pair. The last thing they did before Fred and George headed back out was haggle over the terms Jamie's investment until they came to a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Jamie found that talking to almost anyone else she went to school with was incredibly awkward. Minerva (she had insisted) became Auntie Minni to Teddy and had already given him a gift: a plush dragon, the first of his new collection. Luna was 'Auntie Lu' and was the only student that had babysitting privileges (Hermione did not know how to interact with a child; it was hilarious and a little sad). Hagrid, good old lovable Hagrid, acted like nothing was different. He doted on Teddy, and he didn't ask any awkward questions. Pomona had come as a surprise. The woman had been a bit frosty with Jamie the first time around, but she'd been wonderful so far. She loved looking after Teddy as well and had let him join her seventh-year classes. The older students adored Teddy and had started greeting him in the halls.
Two weeks in and Jamie decided that it was time to see the Weasleys. The goblins had called Bill back from his assignment in Egypt to help with the horcruxes, so she needed to speak with him about it. They used Minerva's floo and arrived in the original burrow. They'd rebuilt after the fire, but it had never been the same.
"Jamie, dear!" Molly said as she rushed into the sitting room to meet them. Teddy squirmed out of her grip and ran to her.
"Nana!" he cried as he got to her. Jamie had sent a letter to explain things and thankfully Molly just picked him up and started fussing over him. She sat him down to greet Jamie and Teddy went over to the sitting area to play with the toys Molly had picked up.
"My first grandchild," she said with her hand over her heart. "How are you, Jamie? Come on, hun, come have some tea." Jamie knew that arguing with the woman was pointless, so they moved into the kitchen and sat at the table with tea. "This can't be easy for you."
"It's been... odd," she admitted. "There's this huge barrier between me and everyone; Ron and Hermione for instance. We went through so much and now... they aren't my Ron and Hermione. And they never will be. It's much easier with adults." Molly reached out and rubbed her arm.
"And Teddy? He seems like such a wonderful lad."
"It's been really hard on him," Jamie told her surrogate mother. "He knows that something has changed but I don't think he can process the idea of time travel. His entire family doesn't know him anymore. And he keeps asking for his cousins, who haven't been born yet." Molly was about to respond when the back door opened.
"Uncle Bill!" Teddy cried and ran to the man. Molly had obviously shown him the letter, because Bill scooped Teddy up into his arms like he'd done it a thousand times.
"Hey kiddo," he said with a smile.
"Uncle Bill, where's Vicki? Why isn't she here? Why's your face different?" he babbled.
"Why don't you help Nana out in the garden, Teddy-bear?" Jamie said as she walked over to them and rubbed his back while Bill held him.
"Okay!" he said and off they went.
"Smooth," Bill said with a smile.
"Ninety percent of parenting is learning the subtle art of redirection," Jamie told him.
"Look at you!" Bill laughed and gave her a hug. "You're all grown up."
"Yeah," Jamie chuckled. "It's been weird."
"I bet," he said as he took a seat at the table. He poured himself a cup of tea and topped off Jamie's cup. "So, I assume you're the reason that I got called back?"
"Yeah," Jamie said, feeling a bit guilty about pulling him away from whatever he was doing. She put up a few advanced privacy wards before continuing. "I need your help. What did the goblins tell you?"
"Not much," he said. "They're being very tight lipped about the whole thing."
"Did you read the article about what Lady Magic said to me?"
"I did," he said with raised eyebrows. He didn't mention the wards, for which she was grateful. As a curse-breaker, she was sure that Bill had recognized the less-than-legal spell she'd cast.
"I hate to burden you with this, but I can't do it alone and I can't pull Ron and Hermione into it again. I mean, they're fourteen," she set her teacup down and took a deep breath. Bill was patiently waiting for her to continue. "Our favorite Dark Lord made horcruxes." Bill raised an eyebrow but remained calm.
"Horcruxes? As in more than one?" he said.
"Yes," she confirmed. "The good news is that I know where they all are, and I have a way to destroy them."
"And the bad news?"
"One of them is in Gringotts. My previous method won't work again, so the goblins are looking for some legal loophole to get me into the Lestrange vault."
"How did you get it last time?" he asked, and Jamie averted her gaze.
"We sort of, um, broke in?" she grimaced while Bill's jaw dropped.
"You broke in?"
"Yeah... then we rode out on their dragon... it was a mess," she admitted. "Not our smartest decision but it was war, and we were fugitives. What else were we supposed to do?"
"Where are the others? And how are we going to destroy them?" he leaned forward and clasped his hands together.
"The goblins will be making a trip to Hogwarts next weekend to harvest the basilisk I killed back in my second year. The fangs still have venom in them," she explained. "As for their locations, there's one in Hogwarts, one in the ancestral house of the Black family, the one in Gringotts, and one in Little Hangleton. The latter is the only one I didn't retrieve myself, so I don't know what kind of enchantments protect it. The others shouldn't be a problem; I killed the diary horcrux in second year, he didn't make the snake a horcrux until after his resurrection, and the one that was in me is gone."
"You were a horcrux?" Bill asked softly. He looked mortified at the very idea.
"Yeah," she said and pointed to her scar.
"How did you get it out?" he leaned forward.
Jamie took a deep breath, "The final battle took place at Hogwarts. He'd already taken over the ministry and had a good deal of control within the school itself, so he didn't have a problem getting into the wards. He threatened to kill all the students if I didn't hand myself over, so... I did. He used the killing curse on me, I died and met with Death in limbo, then my soul was sent back to my physical body while the sliver of his soul went on and I played dead until the right moment. Tom and I dueled, and I won."
"Tom?"
"His real name, Tom Marvolo Riddle," she supplied. "A half-blood bastard from the Gaunt line."
"Well," Bill said and exhaled deeply.
"Yeah," Jamie chuckled. "And even after the war ended, things didn't really get better. The muggleborns that weren't caught and killed by Tommy's ministry had fled and never came back. The economy was in shambles; there were talks of the French or Irish government coming in and taking over before I got shunted through space and time. It was awful." They drank their tea for a while and Jamie listened to the giggles coming from Teddy and Molly outside.
"Teddy's a cute kid," Bill said.
"He's the best thing I've ever done," she smiled. "You and he had a really special connection."
"What did he mean about my face?"
"You got scratched by a werewolf during one of the earlier battles. You weren't turned, but you had some nasty scars. And Teddy's dad was a werewolf, so he gets restless on the full moon. We used to spend them with you and your family. You calmed each other down," she finished. Bill nodded.
"And Vicki?"
"Your daughter," she said softly.
"I have a daughter?" Bill asked with a goofy grin. Jamie couldn't help but laugh at how excited he was.
"She's beautiful," Jamie said. Bill refilled both of their cups and cast a warming charm on them.
"You really died for us?" he asked.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "And I'd do it again, but hopefully I won't have to."
"What happens when all the horcruxes are destroyed? Will he die as the last one is destroyed?"
"No. He currently exists as a gross wraith thing in a tiny homunculus body. I was entered into the tournament by a death-eater-in-disguise as a way to kidnap me at the end and use my blood in a ritual to restore his body. Since I know exactly when and where he'll be, I was just going to let things play out. As long as all the horcruxes are destroyed by the third task, I can kill him and be done with it."
"Wow," Bill said. "Death-eater-in-disguise?"
"Mad-Eye Moody. I believe there was a recent break-in that was labeled a false alarm?" she asked, and Bill nodded. "Not a false alarm," she informed him.
"Have you told anyone?"
"Unfortunately, I need him. He's the one that modified the cup into a portkey, and I don't know when he does it. There's also... there's a small issue regarding who is and isn't trustworthy. I have to tread lightly for the time being."
"... okay," Bill said after a brief pause; he was waiting for her to clarify.
"I don't think I can tell you yet," she said. "It'll come as a shock, a big shock."
"Dumbledore?" he asked, looking a little smug when her eyes shot open.
"You know?" she asked, leaning towards him on instinct with her jaw hanging open.
"When I started looking into curse breaking, I was in my sixth year. I had mentioned it in a letter and mum was furious. She wrote to him about it, and he called me into his office for the most awkward conversation I've ever had in my life," Bill admitted. "It was so odd. He kept going on and on about the dangers of dark magic, even if you're studying how to undo them. He said it wasn't worth the risk to my soul," Bill sat back and shook his head a bit. "It was so biased and narrow-minded, and he wasn't being subtle about it. I've been wary of him ever since. The goblins don't like him either."
"Yeah," Jamie laughed, "they were very vocal about that." She sighed in relief and sat back against her chair with a little smile on her face. "You have no idea how good it feels to have someone else who doesn't think Albus Dumbledore hung the fucking sun." Bill laughed and nodded.
"So, what do you need from me?"
"I don't know what kind of protections are on the Little Hangleton one, and the ancestral Black home is riddled with dark objects. I'm Heir Black, so I should have access, but it'd be dumb to go in without backup. The other thing is... well, I'd like some support on the day-of. Even with six extra years of knowledge and training, I just, I don't want to face him alone... again," she finished. She was a mother now, and her days of rushing in without a plan were long over.
"And you won't have to," Bill reassured her and reached across the table to squeeze her hand.
"Thanks Bill," she said, squeezing his hand back.
"Are you at all worried that he might change his plans? Your arrival from the future is national knowledge now."
"A little," she admitted. "But he put a lot of work into getting me in the tournament. Plus, like Dumbledore, Tom is arrogant. And he's predictable. At the most, he might bring back-up." Bill nodded his agreement.
"When do we start?"
