Rory walked over to Theo's room. The door was open and she sat inside going through a bag on the bed.
"Hi," Rory said. Theodosia turned around to her and they sized each other up for a moment.
"Hi," her mother parroted. "Come in."
Rory crossed the threshold of the room and peered around. She'd helped Ginny and Hermione clean this room over the summer, but it'd still accumulated a fine layer of dust in that time.
Theodosia went back to unpacking her things and Rory stood there. She thought she should say something, but didn't know. what she should say.
"What's it like dating James Potter's son?" Theodosia asked.
She thought over her answer. "Was great until it wasn't."
Theodosia turned around to her.
"Until it wasn't?" she asked.
"We broke up in February," Rory said.
"How long were you together?" she asked.
"Little over a year," Rory replied.
Theodosia thought this over for a minute. "I always assumed that the two of you would end up together. Sometimes it felt like James and Sirius were always in love with each other, but James was, 'unfortunately heterosexual.' James' words, not mine. Although, to be clear. I don't think Sirius ever actually saw him that way. James was definitely as straight as they come. Sirius was more…"
"Indiscriminate?" Rory asked. Theodosia nodded with a chuckle.
"For what it's worth, I hope you didn't break up because Harry is similarly as indiscriminate with your feelings," Theodosia said. Rory shook her head. "He watches you. It reminds me of the way James watched Lily. He was infatuated with her. Even after they fell into domesticity and had a baby. They were blissfully, obnoxiously happy. At least after James pulled his head out of his ass," Theodosia said. "Am I overstepping if I asked what happened?"
Rory thought for a moment.
"We both needed to grow up," she said. "We both deserved better than how we were treating each other."
Theodosia laughed. "Merlin, if I had half the brains you did you probably wouldn't have been born. Though I trust Remus probably warned you off boys like Sirius."
"He never warned me off anyone actually. Dad just wants me to always do what's best for myself." Rory replied.
"Wow," Theodosia said, "you really are Remus' daughter, aren't you?"
"Obnoxiously so some people say," Rory said.
"Good. He deserves that." Theodosia said. "That man was content to be alone and miserable forever. Probably why he was always so content with Sirius."
Rory raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
Theodosia had the look of a woman who just realized she said something that she should not have.
"Nothing. Sorry. I thought you—. Especially with you being with them all the time. I just assumed." She stopped herself and took a deep breath. Again, Rory was startled to see her own mannerisms on Theodosia. "It's not important. Or they'd have mentioned it."
"Mentioned what?" Rory asked. Now she was just bloody curious. "Were Sirius and my dad, like, together?"
"No, no, no, no, no. Not like, actually dating or anything like that. Sirius and I were always together with brief periods of breaking up when he would get bored and decide to feel up some random Ravenclaw in a broom cupboard," Theodosia explained. "Remus and Sirius… It was more like platonic snogging."
Rory was shocked and amused and a little bit delighted. There were several reasons her dad had probably never mentioned this. It obviously wasn't something that would ever come up naturally in conversation. And then there was the fact that her father was a very straight-laced, by-the-book, rule follower. Having a casual makeout buddy was not at all in the arena of things he'd want Rory to know about. For the person in question to be Sirius, who, after too much champagne on New Year's Eve had described himself as "quite the slut" in his youth, was probably a little embarrassing.
"I'm sorry. I didn't intend to give you a negative opinion of Remus or something," Theodosia said.
Rory scoffed. "First of all, literally not possible. Secondly, I'm just a little surprised. He acts like he never did a bad thing ever when he was in school. And now I know he used to go around snogging the school slut."
Theodosia snorted. "An apt description of Sirius to be sure. Remus was never really very interested in being serious with anyone, so I'm sure that was part of the draw. Sirius on the other hand was—."
"A chaotic bisexual," Rory said.
Theodosia laughed again. "Yes. But I'm guessing he's outgrown that. In practice anyway."
"You never know. Once we prove he's innocent he could just go back to his old ways," Rory said with a shrug.
And then she remembered that Sirius might already be out of prison if Theodosia told anyone what she'd seen that night. The uncomfortable tension from before filtered back into the room and silence fell between them again.
"Anyway, I'm glad things have worked out for you," Theodosia said. "I'm sorry you got landed with a shit mum. But at least know that I'd have still been shit if I stayed. And as for Harry Potter. I guess I'm a bit disappointed."
Rory was disappointed as well, but how on Earth could this woman who didn't even know them be disappointed?
"Why?" she asked.
"I suppose I just expected Lily's son to be better," Theodosia said.
Rory always heard Harry being compared to James. But never Lily. This was the first time she'd heard of someone saying Harry wasn't living up to the legacy his mother left behind. Rory realized that this was the first time she'd met one of Lily's friends. That she was getting the other side of things without her dad's or Sirius' perspectives.
"Harry's not bad," Rory said. She knew she didn't need to defend him, but Rory couldn't help herself. Let him be known as a shitty boyfriend, but not as a bad person. On the whole, he wasn't even a shitty boyfriend most of the time. The good outweighed the bad. But the bad times had been exhausting. And Cho was a deal breaker.
"I didn't mean to say that he was. Just that James had this arrogant way about him that I always hoped wouldn't work its way into his children," Theodosia said.
Harry could be arrogant. When he was showered with attention and love, he ate it up. And maybe that was genetic, but maybe it also came from being shoved in a closet to live like Cinderella for 10 years. Any attention felt good. Rory never blamed him for that. And he was brilliant, and he was talented. How could it not go to his head a bit?
"Harry never went out of his way to hurt me. He's just… He's a boy and he's dumb," Rory said. "And I could be quite stupid as well. Like I said. We both agreed we need to grow up a bit."
Theodosia nodded. "Well, none of my business I suppose. I'm only here because I was likely to be killed anywhere else."
Even knowing what she knew about her mother now, somehow it still stung hearing Theodosia say that she wasn't at Grimmauld because of Rory.
"Theodosia," Rory started.
"Call me Theo, please," she said. "It's not as much of a mouthful. It's a lovely name, but mostly my grandfather and my teachers called me that."
Somehow that same line of formality had been drawn with her own name, though she wasn't sure how. She'd gone to the Weasleys for the Quidditch World Cup and somehow anyone who wasn't her peer called her Aurora and everyone else stuck to Rory. She didn't mind it either way, but now that she thought about it, it would be weird for Sirius or her dad to call her Rory at this point.
"Theo," Rory repeated, "I just want to say that I understand why you did the things you did. I don't like or agree with all of them, but I get it. You did what was best for you. And Atlas. So that's something."
"Is that your way of saying I could be worse? Theo asked.
"I guess," Rory said. "You didn't want to be a mum and then I ended up being… Well, a casual predictor of death apparently. You did what you could for me, did what you could for Atlas and you disappeared. And I've always been happy with it being just me and my dad. So I can't really be angry with you for not wanting to be around."
"But?" Theo asked. "That's where this is going, isn't it? But the way I treated Sirius—."
"It's bullshit," Rory said. "He had all of his choices taken away from him. You could've given him that back and you didn't."
Theo seemed to think about this for a moment. "I don't have an excuse that isn't cowardice, Aurora, if that's what you're expecting. I'm sure you're wanting me to be better than I'm presenting myself, but… I'm not."
Rory nodded. "I appreciate your self-awareness at least." She turned to leave, a rock sitting in the middle of her chest for some reason she couldn't explain.
"You should know," Theo said quickly. Rory turned around. "I'm sorry for everything that I've done to you and the way that screwed up by showing back in your life. But I need you to know that I wanted you. I really did. And I loved you. I thought I could be brave and will myself into being maternal, but I just… It wasn't for me. Even if you hadn't been born a seer, I knew it just wasn't my path. You're better off for not having me as a mum."
Rory put her hand on the doorknob, and the knot in her stomach loosened. "I think you're right."
To her surprise, Theo smiled at her. There was no bitterness, no regret, no resentment from her. She'd wanted Rory to grow up safe away from Levi, and that had been accomplished. She probably assumed that Rory would hate her after learning the truth. But Rory didn't. And she didn't know how much hearing that she was loved and wanted by Theo would make her feel better.
Rory walked out into the hallway and closed the door. She felt like she could cry and she didn't know why.
Sirius' door opened and her dad walked out. As he closed the door behind himself, Rory ran up to him and tossed her arms around him. She sobbed.
"What happened?" he asked, holding her tightly.
"Nothing. I'm fine," she said, still crying. "I'm really glad you're my dad, is all."
"Aurora," he said, pulling her away. "What happened?"
Rory shook her head and wiped her eyes. "I just didn't realize I was going to be relieved when she told me that she actually wanted me. That she loved me. It's dumb."
Remus pulled her back into a hug and held her tightly. "It's not dumb, sweetheart. Not at all."
She held him tightly. "I love you, Dad. Everything just feels like it's happening all at once and I don't know how to… I'm just really glad you're my dad."
"Aurora… I will always be your dad. Always, always always," he said. "I love you. More than anyone who has ever lived."
"I know," she said. "You're my favorite person, you know?"
"You too," he said. He kissed the top of her head. "You've been having a tough year, but you're handling it all better than I think I ever would have. I might not have formed the illegal defense against the dark arts club."
"Making a map of the entire school that keeps track of every single person and where they are, every single moment of the day is definitely well above board," Rory said. "Definitely would not be considered an invasion of privacy at all."
"Fair point," Remus laughed. "You're alright?"
Rory nodded and wiped her eyes. "I'll be fine."
Rory was surprised to find herself ready to go back to Hogwarts, but that was probably because she'd had more excitement this last week than she could manage. At least she knew what kind of nonsense to expect from there.
She didn't want to leave her dad, but with the full moon he left after lunch and she wouldn't see him again before she went back to school.
One thing she wasn't prepared for was the choir concert on Monday in front of the Minister of Magic to make Umbridge look good. She'd written with Stephen a few times and, according to Ara, things were going well at Hogwarts with regard to practicing their unapproved songs. Stephen also repeatedly mentioned that he was looking forward to seeing her.
Rory still had mixed feelings about Stephen, not as mixed as her feelings about Harry were, but all the same. It made her feel anxious about seeing him.
Still, she was using the upcoming choir concert as a distraction. Neville and Matilda were sitting with her as she tapped at the keys on the piano and hummed along.
"Is there a reason you're not actually singing the words to any of these songs?" Matilda asked. "Not that your humming isn't delightful."
"I want it to be a surprise on Monday," Rory said.
"Even for us?" Matilda asked.
"Yes. Just in case, we don't want anyone to react as if they knew what was happening," Rory said.
"You're not planning on singing something that could potentially get you expelled are you?" Neville asked.
"My existence is worthy of expulsion as far as Umbridge is concerned," Rory replied.
"Also, of course she's signing songs that could get her expelled. Why else do you think she waited until her dad left to practice?" Matilda asked.
"I thought maybe you didn't want your mum to hear you," Neville said.
"Why would I care if she hears me sing?" Rory asked.
"People tend to fall in love with you when sing, I dunno if you've noticed," Matilda asked. "You're a seer, but have you ever considered that you're also possibly a siren? Maybe your voice is literally enchanting."
"If that were true Umbridge wouldn't be such a cunt to me all the time," Rory said. She went back to the piano and the door opened. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny walked in.
Rory continued tapping away on the keys and held her breath as the others fell into conversation around her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Ginny sitting next to Harry. Rory went back to playing and continued to ignore her mixed feelings.
Neville sat beside her.
"For what it's worth, I still think he sucks," Neville said. "I'm immune to charming Harry Potter bullshit."
Rory chuckled. "I wish I were. You'll have to tell me your secret."
"Helps not to be in love with him for starters," Neville said.
"Again, I struggle there," Rory said. She put her hands in her lap and sighed. "Am I dumb Neville?"
He shook his head. "I know what it's like to be mad about someone when you don't want to be… Or maybe we're both stupid."
"You're not stupid," Rory said.
"She's never going to come around and why would she when she has loads of better options?" Neville asked.
Rory scoffed. "A better option than you? I don't have better options than you. You are the only boy I know who doesn't suck. The only one."
"I suck sometimes," Neville said.
"I can't think of a single instance of where you've been the worst," Rory said. "Everyone sucks but you."
"One day I'll do something to change your mind about that," Neville said.
"Doubt it," Rory said. "You're the best of us, Neville."
"If you say so," Neville said.
"I know so," Rory replied.
"Hey, Rory," Hermione called out. She looked over her shoulder. "Want to try again with Ancient Runes tonight?"
"Definitely," Rory replied with a nod. Before she turned her head back around, her eyes met Harry's, for just a second, before he looked away. She turned back to the piano. She sat her fingers on the keys, but even with the sheet music sitting directly in front of her couldn't remember what her hands were doing.
"If you do want to get back together with him, I will understand, even if I think he sucks," Neville said.
Rory chuckled. "I think for now, I'm better off just being by myself and not even acting on any feelings I might definitely have."
"Very responsible of you," Neville said. "And what about Theo? Mrs. Weasley said she's going to try to get her to come down for dinner since she skipped lunch."
"Going to have to figure out how to be normal around her too I suppose," she said.
"You get on with Sirius well enough," Neville pointed out.
"Yeah, but, Sirius has made an effort every step of the way to be involved in my life because that's what he wanted. Theo is just kind of this person who birthed me who happens to be around now," Rory said. "She also thinks that Sirius is going to die and that pretty much everyone else who hangs around me is going to end up dead as well. It's not exactly the most stable foundation to build any kind of positive relationship on."
Neville thought about this for a moment. "I bet it's going to make dinner pretty uncomfortable."
Rory scoffed. That went without saying.
"But you know who's excellent at diffusing awkward situations?" he asked. He looked over his shoulder and Rory followed his gaze to Matilda.
Sometimes, Rory thought Matilda had been put into her life to take the place of Sirius. Filling in every awkward and uncomfortable silence with commentary and never letting a thought pass through her head unspoken and giving Rory a nudge to follow through on her less popular ideas.
"Hey, Mattie," Rory said. "Come here."
Rory and Neville were helping set the table for dinner. Matilda and Fred were quipping back and forth on the other end of the table, with George chortling along. Compared to Rory and Harry, Matilda and Fred got on famously. There were no hard feelings left between them, but they still mercilessly teased each other.
In addition to Remus being gone this evening, Tonks, who was almost always there, was also absent. She'd left after their chat with Theo that morning to head to the Ministry and then presumably went to her flat to sleep before going back to work.
Rory was a little anxious having Sirius here on his own without the only two people who were generally able to rein him in. That left Harry and Mr. Weasley who, though well-meaning, generally would just let Sirius go off on a tangent because only Remus and Tonks were willing and able to tell Sirius to "Calm the fuck down."
But that's why Rory had her chat with Matilda.
Mrs. Weasley came up from the kitchen with Hermione and Ginny in tow. She fussed at the twins and Matilda and sent them to gather everyone for dinner.
"You sure Matilda's not going to overdo it?" Rory asked Neville.
"Always the possibility of that," Neville said. "But I think we can count on her to act like this isn't a joke for once. She knows how to behave when it's important. Most of the time anyway."
As the others started to pile into the dining room, Rory tried not to watch the door. She was surprised when Theo was the first to enter the room. Even more surprised when everyone else had made their way into the room and that Harry was the last show.
Rory noticed that he made a beeline for the seat at the very end of the table next to her, and then glanced down the table to Ginny, then he sank back in his chair.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm fine," he said. "Just dealing with the consequences of my own actions, as usual." Rory raised an eyebrow. "I just mean, when someone can't take a hint."
"Ah," Rory said with a nod. "You could try—."
"Being direct? Maybe. Would prefer not to take that risk while I'm in a house full of Weasleys," Harry said.
"Yes, better to wait until we're back at school so there are witnesses when Ron kicks your ass," she said.
"Thank you for having zero faith that I could possibly handle this well," Harry said.
"In my experience, handling interpersonal conflict is not really your strong suit," Rory replied.
Harry frowned and she flashed him a smile.
Slowly, the table became silent as everyone began to eat. Glances were exchanged, and eyes darted swiftly across the table between Sirius, Rory, and Theo. People passed dishes by muttering quietly under their breath to the person next to them. The only thing that seemed to be moving with any ease at the table was the speed at which people were consuming wine and butterbeer.
The only people speaking at normal volume were Matilda and the twins, even if they didn't have anything to say other than "Pass the mashed potatoes please."
Rory had told Matilda that if things got too awkward, she'd need to break the tension with whatever topic of conversation she felt was going get people to be normal. Rory felt a stitch of regret after Matilda asked "Anything I want?" but if Rory had to endure another second of this miserable dinner, she might explode.
"Rory, I almost forgot, Fred and George were telling me something about Quidditch that you'll definitely want to hear," Matilda said.
Ron sighed. "You two aren't going to start having a go at her about Chudley are you? She's not as nice about the slander as I am."
Rory nodded in solidarity in Ron's direction. Their mutual love of the league's worst team would always bind them.
"No, no. About School Quidditch," Matilda said.
"Lee's graduating this year," Fred said.
"Quidditch commentator position'll be up for grabs," George said.
"Heard Zach Smith is already asking after McGonagall about it," Fred said.
Rory groaned.
"Yes, that's everyone's reaction to Zac and his involvement in anything," George said.
"But I guess Lee has told McGonagall that you'd be perfect to fill in," Matilda said.
"You would be actually," Ron said. "You know everyone's stats inside and out. I don't even know my own stats."
"Well,—" Rory started, prepared to rattle them off.
"Don't tell me. I know they're not great," Ron said.
Rory conceded this. They weren't bad. Just on the low end of average.
"But you'd be good at it," Ron said. "You're very passionate about Quidditch after all."
"Interesting," Theo said. They all looked over at her. "Sorry. Just no one in my family has ever had any talent for Quidditch."
"Oh, I don't," Rory said. "I love watching. But I get terrible motion sickness. I even got excused from flying lessons after two weeks because it's so bad."
"She vomited on someone," Matilda said.
Rory shushed her. "I don't play at all. I just follow it closely."
"It's really impressive," Hermione said. "I've read Quidditch Through the Ages twice now and I don't retain any of it half as well as she does."
"Which is saying something since you retain literally everything," Harry said.
"Not literally," Hermione corrected. "People who literally remember everything generally are known to have a condition called—."
"Here we go," Ron said with an exasperated sigh.
Hermione glared at him.
"It was a joke, Hermione," Harry insisted. "It's just not your area of expertise."
"One of the few things," Ron said. She cut another glare at him. "I meant that as a compliment. It's just like what I said about Rory."
"You said Rory was 'passionate' about Quidditch," Hermione said.
"Yeah. And you know pretty much everything else," Ron said.
Rory had never seen someone struggle so hard to get a compliment out in her entire life. Ron was truly an impressive human being. Even stranger, Hermione always found it endearing.
But then again Rory didn't have much room to find anyone strange. All Harry had to do was be polite or smile at her and Rory was always charmed for absolutely no reason.
"Anyway, Rory. Think you'll do it?" Matilda asked.
"You should shadow him at the last game," Fred said.
"I'm sure he'll appreciate your company more than Umbridge and McGonagall's," George said.
"I'm going to have to pass on putting myself in close proximity to Umbridge for no reason," Rory said.
"As long as the curse holds, she'll be gone by the end of the year," Ron said matter-of-factly.
"Well, let's hope for the worst," Rory said. "That would be a bright spot in this year."
"That's quite enough you two," Mrs. Weasley said chastised them. "We've told you enough times that the job is not cursed. And you shouldn't go wishing bad things on people."
In general, Rory might agree with the sentiment, but four teachers in four years was a lot. And also, she had zero sympathy for Dolores Umbridge.
"Umbridge is the woman who works at Hogwarts now," Theo said.
Rory forgot for a moment that Theo wasn't up to speed on the chaos Umbridge had rained down upon them at school.
"Works. Terrorizes," Ginny said. "Same thing really."
Mrs. Weasley shushed them again.
"She made Harry do lines in his own blood. I think terrorize is the polite word to use to describe her," Ginny said.
Rory agreed with a nod.
"Going to have to agree with the kids on this one, Molly," Mr. Weasley said. "Nothing pleasant about that woman in the slightest, even before she started giving the children trouble."
"Did I hear you correctly? Write lines in your own blood?" Theo asked looking at Harry.
"Rory too," he clarified. "She's had it out for both of us since day one."
"She's had it out for you since summer," Rory said, surprising herself.
"Right, the hearing," Harry said.
But it hadn't been the hearing that flashed in her mind. Not just the hearing anyway.
"But as soon as she got to Hogwarts she's been determined to make us miserable. I don't think she even has a reason for why she's so awful to Rory beyond her dad," Harry said.
"What's wrong with your dad?" Theo asked.
"He's a werewolf and she's a bigot," Rory said. She sat her elbow on the and showed the back of her hand to Theo. To Rory's immense displeasure, the pale scars on the back of her hand stood out against otherwise honey-brown skin. "When she made us do lines, the quills made us write in our own blood and the words got carved into the backs of our hands. Harry had to write 'I must not tell lies.' I had to write 'Half-breeds don't belong.'"
Theo's eyes widened in horror as Rory brought her hand down. She picked up her fork and she could swear that the words stung like they were fresh on the back of her hand.
Theo looked over to Sirius. Then back to Rory.
"I can't… I'm sorry," she said shaking her head. "She did that just to antagonize Remus?"
"Seems that way," Rory said.
"Well," Ron started, "you also told her—."
"No," Mrs. Weasley said. "I know what she said and we're not repeating it at the dinner table."
Sirius was chuckling into his wine glass.
Theo looked confused.
"I said some not very polite things to her," Rory said.
"Understatement," Matilda said. "She deserved it though."
Rory would never argue with that. Umbridge deserved worse as far as Rory was concerned.
"Seems like it," Theo said. Her eyes were now fixed on Rory's hand. She seemed troubled, much in the same way Sirius or her dad seemed troubled when Rory told them something bad happened at school. It seemed as though Theo was more maternal than she claimed to be.
