Louis was barely able to keep himself in the seat next to Lena's bed as he watched her sleep. Sitting opposite him, to Lena's left, was her mother, Ruby. It was the first time Louis had met the woman, and Louis didn't miss the fact that Ruby seemed more than a little skeptical of him. They hadn't talked much, only Louis filling her in on what had happened when they'd been attacked. She'd been at the hospital for hours, but Louis hadn't known because he'd been treated for his own injuries and his sister had kept them separated.
He was acutely aware that Ruby wondered why he was still there, waiting for Lena to wake up, but he didn't know what to tell her. Figuring out he was in love with Lena when it was too late had been a blow. He needed to see her wake up, to see that she was alright… and then what? He wasn't good enough for her, but he thought he probably could be if she wanted to wait… if she wanted to give him a chance.
He didn't know if she did or not. She'd never said anything to him about her feelings and maybe he'd been reading it wrong all this time and she didn't actually want to be any more than a friend to him.
Lena had two older sisters, both of whom had come to check in on her, but both also had families with small children so they hadn't stayed long. He figured out after meeting all of them that although Lena was quite pretty, she was somewhat dwarfed by the two older sisters who were both beautiful. It was interesting, but beauty wasn't something that necessarily appealed to Louis. After all, he was beautiful… and what did that matter? It didn't.
A knock sounded at the edge of the door and he saw his aunt come through, smiling towards Ruby. "I'm going to check on her and if the swelling is completely gone, I'll wake her up. It may take another hour or two, though, which would be completely normal."
"Alright," Ruby said as she continued to hold Lena's limp hand.
Louis moved aside for his aunt and stood at the end of the bed watching the wand work first, and then to his utter relief, within a minute, Lena opened her eyes and looked straight at him, her expression a little hazy as she focused on first him and then her mother when Ruby let out a choked sob of relief.
"Mum," Lena said in a hoarse whisper. "I'm okay."
"She is looking great," Audrey confirmed as she continued to examine Lena. "She's going to be a little tired today, but she can go home in a few hours."
"Is… is everyone okay?" Lena asked hesitantly, meeting Louis' gaze, asking him.
"Yeah, everyone is fine," Louis told her, relieved she had her wits about her still after the knock to the head. "You took the worst of it but then Rick flattened the whole neighborhood. Honor didn't have a scratch on her."
Lena let out a sigh and closed her eyes. "Okay, I may sleep again."
Louis waited until his aunt had left the room and then he asked Ruby what she wanted to eat. When she declined, he simply stared at her until she gave him an order he could get from the hospital. He brought her food, neglecting to get any for himself, and told her he was going to go home to shower and change, but then he'd come back so she could do the same.
For the first time since he'd met her, Ruby studied him with something less than distrust and badly disguised hostility. "Why are you doing this?"
Louis couldn't keep his eyes from drifting to Lena's pale face. Her black hair, which had grown out considerably in the last year, was a bit of a mess around her thin face. "She's my friend and I love her. That's more than enough reason to be here for her and for you," he told Ruby. "I'll be back in an hour."
Although he'd been cleaned up a good bit, he still had blood on his clothes and probably on his skin. He needed a shower.
Maybe food. Odds were good his mother had already left food warming for him at his flat.
But when he arrived home, it was not to find food from his mother, but food from Gran who told him to eat every bite or she'd know. He smiled down at the note and sat down to eat.
Gran Molly would know if he didn't eat it all, and he loved her for it. He felt loved. His family had come through for him and he couldn't say no to Gran's cooking.
After eating, he quickly showered and changed into clean clothes, throwing the old ones in the bin, before heading back to the hospital to find Lena awake again and her sisters there with her.
"I can't go yet," Lena told him as soon as he walked in the door. She looked more than a little grumpy about it.
"She nearly fell over when she tried to stand," Ruby pointed out, trying to be reasonable, but clearly nearing the edge of her patience.
Louis shrugged his shoulders and beamed at her. "Well, then you're not going, but here I am to keep you entertained."
"Shouldn't you be at work?" Lena asked pointedly as she crossed her arms.
"It's Sunday," her oldest sister pointed out. He was pretty sure her name was Chloe. He was sure the middle one was called Olivia, but he was only certain on that because it was also his niece's name. "Anyway, I'm glad you're okay. We were really worried."
Lena nodded and her expression fell. "Go ahead and get back home. I appreciate the fussing, but as an Auror I'm going to get hurt."
Louis saw Ruby open her mouth, clearly to tell her to pick another line of work, but then she closed it again. He knew they'd had that argument more than once because Lena had complained about it bitterly. She hated how much her mother wanted to stop her from being an Auror.
"I can stay if you want to get a little rest," Louis told Ruby.
Ruby was about to tell him no when Lena piped in. "Yes, Mum, please go home and take a break! I'll be fine with Louis here."
"Are you sure?" Ruby asked hesitantly.
Olivia and Chloe stepped in. "Mum, she's fine and you'll only be gone for an hour," Olivia pointed out. She had Lena's hazel eyes but her hair was a light brown that she had in a short, stylish bob that went well with her tall, thin frame.
Ruby studied her youngest daughter for a moment before she bent down to kiss her and then said, "I'll be back soon and I'll take you home with me tonight until you're fully healed."
"Okay," Lena agreed evenly, doing an admirable job of hiding the fact that she didn't want to go back home with her mother.
As soon as they were gone, Lena closed her eyes and let out a groan. "She's going to smother me."
"Maybe," Louis agreed as he went to sit next to her. He hesitated only a moment before he took her hand, which had her eyes shooting open in surprise. He knew he wasn't hiding any of his worry. "You were seriously hurt, Lena. It was really scary. We're all going to fuss."
Her brow rose at that. "You're going to fuss?"
He smiled then as he studied her hand and traced a finger along the veins on the back of her hand. "Yeah, I'm going to fuss. When I made it home, I found my Gran had left dinner out for me under a warming spell. When you're loved, people fuss."
She sucked in a small breath and he didn't look up from her hand. He didn't want to see what she was thinking, not just yet.
"Uh…" she cleared her throat. "Tell me more of what happened."
Louis didn't want to think about it, but he knew it was going to help her to hear of everything again. If it was a blank to her, it would be scarier. Also, he wanted to tell her now while her mother wasn't there to hear the details.
When he finished, she was silent and he finally looked up at her to see her troubled expression. "I'd have been dead without Rick."
"We'd have all been dead without Rick," Louis pointed out quietly. "That was not a fight we were going to win. We might have escaped, but we weren't going to win."
Her fingers tightened and she grasped onto his hand. "Thank you for waiting here for me."
"Of course," he said, knowing it didn't convey any of what he wanted to say. But there would be time.
The door opened and his aunt came back in, this time with a bigger grin. She shut the door and sealed it, locking everyone out.
"What's up?" Louis asked her curiously.
"I was just given permission and Al wanted it passed along," she told them. "Also, that's why he hasn't come to see you since Nat healed you."
"Okay?" Lena said, clearly as confused as Louis.
Audrey let out a small laugh. "Al and Nat were able to adopt a baby. They picked him up today, and he's at home with them now. They've named him Wyatt."
"Wow," Lena said at the same moment Louis said, "Woah!"
This was huge. He knew how much Al and Nat were looking forward to becoming parents, but this was still very sudden. "That's good, then," Louis said. "It's good, right? Is the baby healthy?"
"He's absolutely perfect," Audrey promised happily. "I'm so glad for them! I'm just so glad!" She let out one last happy sigh and then turned to Lena. "Well, let's check you over, and then I want you to have at least two days at home in bed. If you have any more dizzy spells, you can't go to work. You have to be forty-eight hours out from a dizzy spell before you can return to desk duty, and then a week after that you can go back to active duty."
Louis desperately wanted to offer Lena refuge from her mother at his house, but it wasn't done. It simply wasn't done. They had to be married in order for him to do that but even still, it would hurt her mother's feelings and he didn't want to get on Ruby's bad side… not with what he wanted from Lena. Even if he and Lena were never more than friends, he didn't want her mum to think badly of him.
He hadn't always been the best behaved. In fact, he'd behaved appallingly, including taking advantage of people who were vulnerable. He had resolved to do better and he was going to do just that.
"I'll come visit you after work every day," Louis promised. "I'll bring you a curry from that place you like tomorrow."
"You better," Lena told him as she submitted to another exam by Audrey.
Al finished putting baby Wyatt's nappy on him and brought him over to Nat so she could tuck him against her skin. Aunt Audrey had told them to keep the baby against their skin as much as they could for the next several months to help with bonding and even after only a week with the baby, they both knew that was his favorite way to sleep. They took turns having him against them, but he seemed to favor Al for overnight and Nat for the naptimes.
Nat was attempting to breastfeed him. Nat had so desperately wanted to try to breastfeed him that Audrey had agreed to try, even though she was extremely concerned it could negatively affect Nat's health. To their relief, the lactation potion hadn't done anything negative and it had worked, to some extent, but Wyatt still needed a few bottles through the day to get him through. It was possible her body would catch up soon, but if it didn't, he was still getting that bonding time with her. It made her sleep and eat more, but she could sleep and eat as much as she needed to because she was not going back to work any time soon. Just one week with their new baby and his wife was absolutely smitten and unwilling to leave the newborn.
Al climbed into the bed next to her and watched as she latched him on to feed him. It was such a beautiful sight to him and he knew he'd never grow tired of it. All these months of waiting… everything was worth it.
Wyatt was the calmest baby Al had ever met. As soon as his needs were met, he calmed straight down. He didn't know if he'd keep this chill personality, but it was a blessing right now as both of his parents had to learn to be parents with almost no preparations. They'd talked about it, of course, but they hadn't done anything to get ready for a baby. It had been too painful for Nat, who didn't want a cot or nappies sitting around unused.
Thankfully his mother had been able to quickly gather everything they needed.
Nat glanced over and he smiled, leaning in to kiss her. "Are you okay?"
"Polly is bringing up food," Nat said with a small smile. "I'm good. I'm really…" her eyes fill and he understood exactly what she couldn't say.
They were both so thankful to have their son. He was theirs. It already felt completely real and as though there was no question that he'd always been meant to be theirs.
Al was so grateful to the girl who had given them this gift and he really, desperately, wanted to thank her, but he knew he couldn't. He'd asked his dad about finding her, maybe making sure she had money for the Muggle uni, but his dad didn't think it was going to be possible.
"Knock, knock," Al's mother said from the doorway and just behind her was Nat's mum, beaming.
"Mum!" Nat said, the shock in her voice mirroring Al's. He hadn't thought Nat's parents would be able to get here for another week or more.
"I couldn't wait," Julienne Parker told her as she came through and gave Nat a hug and a kiss. "Oh, he's just beautiful! Look at those little hands!" She beamed and then laughed as she said to Al's mum, "You always forget how little they are!"
"Every single time," Ginny agreed as she sat next to Al and patted his leg. "One minute they're so little you can hardly believe they're real, and the next they're towering over you."
Al shot her a bemused glance, but then turned back to his son and realized that yeah, someday that was going to be true. He didn't know if his son would be taller than him or not. Al was a fairly tall man now, but he knew for certain his son would tower over his mother. Nat was so tiny.
It didn't matter. His son would be whatever he would be, and it was Al's job to love him and support him towards wherever his path was going to take him.
Polly came in a moment later with food and Al helped Nat eat a bit, grinning when she spilled some crumbs on the baby.
He took the tray down when Nat was finished and found his dad and Curtis in the kitchen. "She's nearly done nursing him," Al said after he gave his father-in-law a hug. "She's really glad you're here. We both are."
"This is exactly what she wanted," Curtis told him, his eyes focused on the stairs for a moment before turning back to Al. "You were who she wanted and I knew… I always knew she wanted to be a mother. She always loved the babies and the little children, wherever we were. Thank you for helping her to her dreams."
Al felt the pleasure of his words of gratitude, but it was his dream. "I wanted it, too. She told me when we were… I think we were fifteen and it was exactly what I wanted, too. I wanted it with her and I wanted this. I didn't know we'd be adopting, but I am so, so thankful that we have Wyatt. He's our son and we wouldn't have him if we'd been able to go about this another way. I wouldn't want to miss out on having him."
He had another full week off of work, but with Lena only now just back and on desk duty, they didn't have a lot of spare Aurors running about the place and things were always heating up.
Al hadn't ever been exactly thankful to have Rick running about England when he'd first arrived, but just now he was very glad. Rick could keep up with a lot of the work load while Al and Lena were off and he was a decent stand-in for Nat.
When he tucked Wyatt in against his chest that night, he was tired but also completely wide awake. He had no idea how that was possible, but he thought it might be that he wanted to soak in every minute with his son before he had to get back to work.
"I know you love your job and you want to get back to it," Nat whispered, almost as though she was reading his mind, "but I'm going to miss you being home with us."
He glanced over towards her, loving her so much that it was a physical ache. "I like my job, but I love you. You want this job," he said, slowly rubbing his hand up and down their baby's back. "So, I'll do the paid work and you can do this."
She smiled slowly. "Yeah, this is what I want. I feel guilty about not being able to heal anyone, but this is what I wanted."
"Don't worry, Rick is doing okay in your place," Al told her. "He's not as good as you are, but he's doing alright and he's getting better."
It was true. Rick wasn't as intuitive of a healer as Nat was, but he was arguably more powerful and with no other options, Rick was quickly making progress in healing the women. They weren't better, but after several sessions over several days, Rick was managing to get most of the poison out of them. Al was fairly certain he'd have it in another few weeks.
It wasn't a once and done thing, like with Nat. She healed a woman and the woman and the baby were healed. Rick healed them, then did it again the next day… and the next. Typically, by the fourth day all the poison was gone.
But unlike Nat, Rick didn't get exhausted. He had so much magic and energy to spare, he could keep going when Nat would have had to stop.
Rick had sent them an owl congratulating them on the baby and telling Al to take his time, that he'd cover things until he was back. Al sent him a note back thanking him and telling him he'd do the same whenever Rick needed it.
No, he hadn't wanted to be a team mate with Rick when he'd first showed up a few years ago, but now he was immensely grateful to have him.
Crabbe studied the Daily Prophet and the headline that said Albus and Natalie Potter had welcomed a new baby to their family via adoption. She grinned, certain that the Potters were livid that this private information had made it into the public sphere, but that was their lot in life and she could only be thankful. They rarely had mention in the paper, and she was certain someone was going to be on the end of Harry Potter's ire.
There was no photograph to go along with the story, but she didn't need a photo. She'd seen what the weakling wretch that the Potter welp had married. She was definitely their weakest link in the Potter clan. She would be the easiest to kill… if Crabbe could get her hands on her and that was proving to be nearly impossible. The Potters kept the girl under guard at all time and despite paying an exurbanite amount of money to many men, they hadn't managed to catch a single sight of her.
Killing Natalie Potter would not be revenge against Potter, though. No, that would be payback against her father and the fact that he had alerted Potter to the fact that she was still alive.
They knew approximately where Albus lived. They'd recently purchased a new home and she'd been able to get the records on the property. Unfortunately, by the time she had the information they had the house under the Fidelius Charm and they'd been able to grab them.
Slowly, she lowered the paper and looked out the window which reflected her face dimly in the fading light. Her preparation for this moment was working. Potter might have wanted to outlive her, striving to simply survive her reign of terror, but she'd seen to it that she would outlive not only Potter but his grandchildren.
She would have her revenge on generations to come and it would be sweet.
It wouldn't be death for most of them. Death was a release, one Crabbe didn't have for herself. She had to suffer everyday with memories of what he did to her… the thoughts of losing her son.
No, most of the Potters were going to live. They wouldn't live well. They would always live in fear. They would always live restricted and without freedom.
And it would go on and on and on, until Potter's great-great-grandchildren were gone.
Crabbe would be able to see to it personally. She smiled at her reflection. She didn't care that she now looked twenty. Her looks were meaningless to her.
But it was the proof she needed that her time spent learning all she could from many, many wise women all around the world.
She was going to be a thorn in the Potter line for centuries.
Author's note: Thank you to Arnel for beta'ing! Please do consider joining me on face book or p atreon under Sarah Jaune. I have to put a space between them because the words get censored, so just put them back together! As I've said, this story is starting to wrap, so go find my other spaces on the big wide web if you want to keep up with what I'm up to.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment if you did!