[A/N: Happy Birthday, Neville! Have a bonus chapter!]
Tonks walked into the dining room where Sirius was sitting at the table reading a book. She raised an eyebrow. "Are you reading?"
"I do that occasionally," he said. "Heading out?"
"I'm making my way there," she said, sitting down beside him. "I just had the weirdest conversation with Aurora."
"What about?" Sirius asked.
"I told her that she should tell Remus about her patronus because it was really bothering him that she wouldn't say anything about it. And then she started interrogating me. For instance, she asked how I knew he was upset. And that she'd heard I'd made risotto with him," Tonks explained.
"Oh, right. Because she knows," Sirius said. "Said that she saw your wine and your shopping and Remus' general new ability to take care of himself. So she asked me and I told her."
"Told her what?" Tonks asked.
"That there's nothing to tell because both of you are idiots," Sirius said. Tonks rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't worry. She likes you loads."
With the way Aurora had been talking to her, Tonks couldn't be sure of that. But Tonks couldn't be sure of what Remus thought most days either. Maybe she was just completely incapable of being able to read Lupins in general.
"You know just because you don't admit it aloud it doesn't mean that I don't know the truth or that no one else is able to work out what's going on between the two of you," Sirius said. "And before you say that there's nothing going on, Aurora managed to work it out without you even being in the same room together, so spare me."
Tonks sighed. It was getting a bit ridiculous, pretending everything was normal. But if anyone was working harder to pretend that things were fine, it was Remus. Every time she even thought of trying to have a serious conversation about what was happening, she knew that Remus would probably just bury his head in the sand or redirect the conversation somehow.
"I don't know what you want me to do about it," Tonks said. "If you know what's going on inside that man's head I would love to be clued in."
"If anyone's in a position to figure him out, it's you," he said.
She didn't believe that at the moment. If anyone was good at getting anyone to open up, she was the one constantly blabbing about anything and everything to Remus whenever they talked. Remus, on the other hand, was a steel trap.
A moment later the door opened and Remus walked into the room.
"You're still here," he said when he saw her.
"Was just heading out when I glimpsed the miracle of Sirius reading a book," Tonks said.
"You are so rude," Sirius said. "I thought you were headed to bed as well."
"I was making my way there, but Aurora wanted to chat. About her patronus," Remus said.
Sirius practically lept from his seat. "Did she tell you what it was?" Remus nodded. "And?"
"I promised not to say," Remus said. Sirius groaned and flailed over onto the table.
"Why do you hate me?" Sirius asked.
"It makes sense why she doesn't want to talk about it," Remus said.
"Just tell me we were right and it's because it has to do with Harry," Sirius said. Remus rolled his eyes, but he nodded. "Soulmates. Confirmed."
"Calm down," Tonks said.
"Within the decade, they'll be married," Sirius said.
"Again, calm down," Remus said, "And also Aurora doesn't believe in marriage, so that's a very unlikely scenario even if they ended up back together."
"Fine," Sirius said, "but it is telling."
"It is," Remus said. "But feelings are not static. She's 15 years old. She had a lot of things to work through before all of this. And perhaps your eagerness might be part of the reason she's decided not to tell you what her patronus is."
"I knew you were going to say that," Sirius huffed. "My eagerness is why people love me."
The kitchen door opened again and Harry walked in. Everyone was silent and Harry froze. "Hi."
"Hello, Harry," Tonks said.
There was a palpable awkwardness in the air. Harry could probably sense that they'd all been talking about him. You could always tell when you walked into a room and someone was talking about you.
"I was just going to get water," Harry said.
"Yep, carry on," Sirius said. "But first, Remus had an interesting chat with Aurora about her patronus and-."
He shook his head. "I really, really don't want Rory to hex me. Especially now that we're actually getting along."
"Yes. Getting on well enough that you'll hold seances and whatnot," Sirius said.
"It wasn't a seance," Harry said.
"She did say I was going die," Sirius said.
"Maybe die," Tonks, Harry, and Remus chimed in at once.
The door at the other end of the dining room opened and Aurora rushed in.
"Aurora," Remus started, "I thought you were going to study with-."
"Door," she said, pointing past Harry. They all turned to the door behind him, but no one came in.
"Rory," Harry started, "who is-."
But he stopped. They all heard the knock behind him. On the front door of the house. Tonks and Sirius were both on their feet instantly.
"Expecting someone?" Aurora asked.
There was another knock.
"Why would someone be knocking?" Harry asked. "Anyone who can find this place-."
"Exactly," Tonks said, grabbing hold of Harry and pushing him backward. Anyone who could find Grimmauld Place was someone who'd been told its location. She pointed to Harry and Aurora. "Basement. Now."
"Basement?" Harry asked.
"I don't think Aurora showing up shouting about the door before someone comes to knock on it after the two of you conveniently appear here at the same time is a coincidence," Tonks said, now brandishing her wand. "Both of you in the basement."
Remus was already ushering his reluctant daughter to the basement door and Harry followed suit. As Sirius locked the door behind them, they heard the front door open, and slowly someone made their way down the hall.
Harry and Rory both stood at the kitchen door, trying to hear whatever was happening upstairs. They could hear footsteps and voices but weren't able to make out anything one way or the other.
"Do you know who it is?" Harry asked.
Rory shook her head. "Not anyone who means any harm. At least it doesn't feel that way."
"So not anyone on Voldemort's team then," Harry said.
"I think so," she said with a chuckle. She moved away from the kitchen door and reclined back against the stove. "They'll let us out eventually, I suppose."
If they weren't in any danger, he figured they wouldn't be stuck down here long.
"Did you come down to the dining room because you knew someone was coming?" he asked. Rory nodded. "Is everyone else used to you stopping whatever you're doing to warn people of impending catastrophic events, or is that just me?"
"I think everyone is warming up to my weirdness at this point," she replied.
Harry was well used to it by now. Rory tended to predict things in a vacuum or when she came into close contact with something. Multiple times she'd abruptly stopped in the middle of snogging him to inform him of something important like Barty Crouch being murdered or Snape showing up to tell him about his occlumency lessons. He figured leaving in the middle of studying was a lot less disruptive than what he'd experienced with her.
"Why were you downstairs?" Rory asked.
"I was just getting a drink," Harry said. "But I think I walked in on them talking about me. Sirius tried to ask me about your patronus. Again."
"That man is determined," Rory said. "I'd admire it if it weren't so annoying."
Harry knew he shouldn't ask. But he couldn't help it. And he was pretty certain he'd be able to survive any fallout from asking.
"I know you said you would hex me if I ever brought it up again," he said. "But why don't you want to talk about your patronus, at all?"
She frowned but thankfully didn't look like she would follow through on her threat to hurt him.
"Because I am the master of my own destiny, Harry Potter. I am a strong, independent witch whose successes and failures are not dictated by anyone else. And the mere suggestion that somehow, after everything, you are responsible or related to something that is a representation of my very soul is just so... Deflating," Rory said.
That was an interesting word choice.
"Not because I hate you or I think you suck or something, although I definitely thought you sucked at the time," she said.
"I did kind of get that feeling, yes," Harry agreed.
"It's just, I spent so much time trying to unwrap myself from around you. I couldn't even-."
She stopped and looked down at her feet, her cheeks flushing pink a bit.
"What is it?" he asked.
She glanced up at him quickly, and then back down to her slipper-clad feet.
"I wasn't exactly trying my hardest during our patronus lessons," Rory said.
Harry shrugged. He knew that. That's why he'd been on her case the entire time.
"I just assumed you were in your head about everything," he said.
"I was," she said. "But I spent most of those DA meetings just telling myself 'don't think about Harry.'"
"Obviously," Harry said. "We'd broken up and-."
"It wasn't because I was upset with you," Rory said waving a dismissive hand. "I didn't want to produce a patronus when I was thinking about you. I wanted to be able to do it and prove that I could go ten seconds without thinking about you. And I did it. Maybe you gave me a push, but you know what. You started calling me 'Fish' because I could do anything. And I could do anything before we were together and I sure as shit can still do anything now. And then I did..."
"And your patronus had the audacity to be a snowy owl," Harry said.
"So you understand my frustration!" she said.
"Rory, no offense but you have not given me the opportunity to not feel every single ounce of your frustration," Harry said.
She laughed again. Harry couldn't believe he'd ever made himself think that he could ever live without the sound of her laugh in his life.
"You know," he went on, "I did some research on patronuses."
Rory raised an eyebrow. "Independent research? Like on your own?" He nodded. "Why?"
"Well, I had to teach them so I figured I should know something about them beyond just showcasing my natural talent," he said. Rory rolled her eyes in the way she did when she wanted to be annoyed but wasn't actually. "Actually I looked it up afterward. Surely you don't think that I actually had the foresight to lesson plan to the extent that you do."
"Then why'd you look it up?" she asked.
"You didn't want to talk about it. So I looked it up because I wanted to know," Harry said.
"And what did you learn?" she asked.
He walked over and stood beside her at the stove. They were standing close, but not touching. Rory looked down at her feet again.
"From people who cast the snowy owl as their patronus, you can expect them to be insightful, intelligent, keenly perceptive. Naturally perspicacious," he said. "I did have to ask Hermione what perspicacious meant, but I do think you fit that bill. Wouldn't you agree?"
She shrugged. "I guess."
"For what it's worth, I really think the owl can be chalked up as a coincidence," Harry said. He didn't think it was a coincidence, and from the way Rory shrugged, he suspected that she didn't think it was either.
But this was as far as the conversation was going to go. Even suggesting that this was not a coincidence would change the tone of things from awkward, but friendly, to uncomfortable. Besides, she'd told him that she didn't want to get back together, that she didn't know how not to be jealous and angry and irrational. Harry didn't even know if he knew how properly communicate well enough to avoid issues like this in the future.
Logically, Harry knew that time apart, time alone, was going to be good for both of them.
But he missed her. He didn't have time for logic when it came to Rory. He loved her. She loved him. They could figure out the rest later. So what if it was this same cavalier attitude that had landed them broken up in the first place? There was no need for logic if they had each other.
Rory was nothing but logical though. Which was good since Harry was pretty well known for not thinking things through, ever. And because he did love Rory and he did want her back, he knew he had to think this through. He had to make sure they were both clear-headed. If they were destined to be nothing more than friends, then things would land that way. Right now though, as he watched her stare down at her feet, a tinge of pink in her cheeks, her curly hair hardly tamed by the blue scrunchy meant to be holding it back, all Harry wanted to do was bring his fingers to her chin and tilt her towards his. He wanted to look into her gray eyes and he wanted to kiss her.
Upstairs, they could hear Sirius shouting suddenly. They both looked to the stairs.
"Maybe it's Snape. That always gets him yelling," Harry said.
"Don't think so. My skin would've crawled if it was Snape," Rory said.
Harry managed a laugh at this, happy that if Snape was good for nothing else, he could be counted upon to ease the tension between them via their mutual dislike for him.
"Speaking of Snape," she said, "did you ever talk to Sirius and my dad about what you saw during your last occlumency lesson?"
He shook his head. He wanted to talk to them about it, but he also found the prospect of talking to Rory's dad slightly terrifying. Not to mention, she had a very optimistic perspective about how the conversation would go. Maybe if she'd seen the memory herself, she'd be more dubious.
"Do you ever avoid having a conversation because you're afraid of how it will go?" he asked.
"I think the state of our current relationship is because of us being afraid to have difficult conversations," she said.
"Good point. But, if I'm being honest, I think Sirius might be more avoidant of hard conversations than we are," Harry said.
"Genetic then, I suppose," Rory said.
"Genetic?"
"You said so yourself that a lot of the times, I could have just talked to you when I was upset and I actively chose not to," Rory said. "You weren't the only one who struggled with communication. Everyone sucks here."
They both sucked for sure, but it was still weird to hear her admit it aloud.
"At least we both know we're the worst," he said. She nodded. "I'm glad we can get along now after all... This."
"It did take us a while to get here, to be fair," she said. "I mean, it was literally just yesterday."
He laughed. "I'm still glad for it."
"Me too," she replied. She smiled up at him and Harry looked away quickly. When they were dating, Harry spent so much of his time just staring at her, admiring her face, her existence. Not much had changed.
The kitchen door opened, startling them both. Tonks stood there.
"You two alright?" she asked.
"We're fine," Rory said. "What's happened?"
"Come upstairs. There's someone to see you," she said.
Rory shared a glance with Harry and they followed Tonks up to the dining room. Her dad was waiting just at the top of the stairs. She went to speak, but then they notice the person who'd walked into the house.
Harry could recall only having seen a photograph or two of Theodosia, but even if he hadn't, this woman was unmistakably Rory's mother. She had the same small build as Rory, and although her skin was slightly darker and her hair was shorter and more tightly coiled, you could see their resemblance.
Theodosia smiled, and Harry winced because it reminded him so much of Rory.
"Hello, Aurora," she said. "I'm-."
"I know who you are," Rory said quickly.
Theodosia nodded. "Of course you do."
"How did you get here?" Rory asked.
"I think we would all like to know that as well," Tonks said. "If you would be so kind."
"How else would I know? Dumbledore," Thedosia said. "I'm sure you've put together what my brother is up to by now."
"Yeah. Thanks for the heads up about that by the way," Rory said. "Definitely not information we could've used ages ago."
"I had my reasons," Theodosia said.
"Well, I'd love to know what they are, unless they're the reasons your brother gave in which case your reasons suck," Rory said.
Theodosia scoffed. "Do you really think there's no correlation between you suddenly coming into these gifts of yours and You-Know-Who's return?"
"Correlation does not equal causation," Rory said. "And if one is a side effect of the other, it's pretty well established that I'm the side effect of Voldemort."
Theodosia visibly winced at the name. "Have you told Sirius that he's going to die yet?"
"Maybe die, and she did tell me, thank you," Sirius said.
"She predicts death and you behave so cavalierly about it," Theodosia said. "When Levi made me see that you were going to attract all these things, this evil, death-."
"Sorry, can I just," Harry chimed in. Theodosia looked over at him for the first time. "Rory has predicted a lot of bad stuff. But most of the time she predicts things like 'Professor Umbridge is going to be a jerk while she's observing Snape's class today.'"
Theodosia looked him over. "You look like James."
"I get that a lot," Harry said with a shrug.
"I appreciate that given your relationship with Aurora, you want to defend her curse-"
"She's not cursed," Harry jumped in. "Being able to predict the future basically means you're going to predict death because, well... Everything and everyone dies. It's just an inevitable fact of life."
Theodosia seemed unconvinced.
"How did you know about Sirius?" Rory asked. "How did you know about the prophecy?"
"I know about it because you did," she said. "That's how I know it's a curse. Even with an ocean between us, I was still endlessly haunted by visions."
"Fine. I get it," Rory said, exasperated. "You're freaked out by me, so you want nothing to do with me. But what about Sirius?"
"Sirius?" Theodosia asked.
"You saw Peter Pettigrew murder all those people. You knew he was the reason Voldemort found Harry and his parents. Whether or not you wanted to stick around me, you were content to let Sirius sit in prison for the rest of his life even though he was innocent?" Rory asked.
After finding out that Theodosia had known Sirius was innocent, Rory cared about little else regarding her mother. She only wanted to know why she would let Sirius sit in prison for something he hadn't done.
"Things were easier that way," Theodosia said as if the answer were obvious. "Besides, no one was predicting his death before you came back into his life. I'm sorry if you've had a difficult life-."
"I've had a great life. Don't think that just because you decided to dip out that I got some consolation prize of a life," Rory said. She wrapped her arms around her dad defensively.
Theodosia softened a bit. "Apologies. I didn't mean to imply there was something wrong with your upbringing. Only that our absences were likely a significant complication for you."
"No offense, but your return has made it infinitely more complicated," Rory replied.
"I believe you. And I'm sorry. But think of things from my perspective," Theodosia said. "I was young, scared. I was uncertain about motherhood to begin with. And then I started to see things. To know things. And then you were born and Levi started going on about some rubbish our great-grandfather was always on about. He was odd. 'Uncanny' my grandfather called him. But he was a seer. And a legillimens."
Harry and Rory exchanged glances.
"Did he know Cygnus Black?" Rory asked.
Theodosia smirked. "Picked up on that all on your own I see. Yes, they were friends. More than that some say. My great-grandfather, Rylan, was particularly gifted, but naturally, most people take divination to be a bit of nonsense. The Black family was especially dubious of it, but Cygnus didn't haven't any talent for divination."
"I'm sorry," Sirius chimed in, "but what the hell are you on about?"
"Cygnus Black was a legillimens," Rory said.
"Didn't you know?" Theodosia asked.
"Does it sounds like I knew that?" Siris asked. "Why would that even matter?"
"Because Rylan Goldfinch and Cygnus Black founded the Servants of Pythia," she replied.
Tonks sighed now. "I knew you were going to say that and I still wasn't ready to hear you say it out loud."
"I'm still confused," Rory said. "These guys died, what? Over half a century ago? Voldemort had barely graduated from Hogwarts then. And if they were so hush-hush about divination and all that, how did they manage to form an entire cult?"
"Aurora's right. These are all excellent questions," Tonks said. "But as the neutral person in the room, I'm going to go ahead and say that the tensions are running a little high. So, I'm making an executive decision."
"Why do I get the feeling I'm about to be removed from the conversation?" Rory asked.
"Because you are. You're less hostile when you've had sleep," Tonks said.
Harry couldn't disagree there.
"However, we're tabling the conversation until tomorrow. In the meantime, Theodosia, we'll get you settled in for the evening, and tomorrow you can explain yourself when everyone has clearer heads," Tonks said.
She looked to Sirius and then Remus who nodded their approval.
