Author's Note: This chapter sort of wrote itself. Thanks for reading. MNF

Chapter 15:

31 March 1981

"Albus says he needs to speak with us," James said as he entered the rear sitting room. Anwen and Sirius were sharing a large recliner, Lily was sitting with room for him on the settee, Alice and Frank were on the couch with Eva and Remus.

"Oh, goody," Anwen said with a cloying tone. The group had just decorated the house for Alfie's birthday. Neville was with his cousins in the nursery and would be spending the night so Alice – who had been working nights all week – could get a lie in tomorrow morning.

"Anwen, we can't avoid him forever," Lily said. She was knitting something, although from her perch on Sirius' lap, Anwen didn't know what it was. Perhaps the world's longest scarf?

"Who says? Look if he wants to meet with us, then he can. I just won't be polite to him on principle. Also, if he says one thing about Violet's birthday, I will get upset." Magic crackled between Anwen's fingers, reminding her family that she kept her magic close to the surface.

"Anwen, he brings up Violet's birthday, we will all be upset," Frank said softly. "We all understand why you did what you did. I think it's kind that you wanted each of them to have their own birthday, even if they are essentially triplets given how we are living now."

"Safer together," Remus said and all of them agreed. Since it was early still, and everyone was home for a change, James invited Albus to come over immediately. He walked through the Floo not ten minutes after his note had flashed in with Fawkes.

"All together, I see," he in a dismissive tone.

"We eat supper together every night," Eva explained. "Even Mum and Claire and Jeff come over to share in the meal. We bring Dorea and Charlus down, it's a pleasant family activity."

"Ah, and the children?" Albus asked.

"Spaced between us," Alice stated. "They move about, because sometimes it's a grandparent or great-grandparent who can get the mushy peas down when someone doesn't want to eat them." The eight friends laughed.

"Stop picking on Violet," Sirius said. "She's cutting a tooth. All she wants are cold foods and frozen waffles."

"Frozen waffles?" Albus asked. James directed him to a chair. There would be no polite tea service tonight, as everyone else already had their after dinner beverage of choice.

"Anwen buys they small, rectangular waffles at the Muggle market and cuts them into strips. The kids gum them while they're teething. Brilliant idea," Sirius answered.

"My first mum did it for my siblings," she explained. "I suspect she did it for me too, but I don't remember. I suppose it's whether I was doing magic yet or not." There was an awkward pause, as no one ever discussed Anwen's birth parents and her early childhood. It wasn't pleasant, and she was often punished by her mother for doing magic.

"So communal living is working for you? It's rare in this day in age," Albus said hesitantly.

"It's not really communal, Albus," James said. "Sure, Sirius and Anwen live in this house with Lily and me but it's their house as much as it is ours. Plus, Aunt Dorea and Uncle Charlus are as close to grandparents as our kids really have. Eva and Remus have their own house as do Alice and Frank, Aurora Waterwing, and Auntie Claire and Uncle Jeff. They're just houses on the family property."

"Is it safe to have all of you so close together? If the protections for the land were broken –"

"Albus, we've talked about this," James said, standing. "This property has withstood centuries of attacks. The buildings can burn, or be destroyed, but we live on an ancient keep. The keep has never been breached. In fact, we have transferred the ward stone into the keep so it's even less likely that it could be attacked."

"I just wonder, with this prophecy and all that it entails if it might be wiser to move the children apart," their former headmaster kept prodding. James was arguing with him, as was Frank. Anwen heard them talking, but her mind drifted back in time to the last conversation the nine of them had engaged in.

"You lied, Anwen?" Albus Dumbledore asked, flabbergasted at the painfully honest girl.

"As I said, it happens all the time at the hospital. Unless you're relying Divination or a maths project on say which month has more children born in it, those few minutes don't matter. I have never put stock into Divination, and as far as I know none of us are doing statistical mathematics. What will matter is that Harry and Violet will not share a birthday."

"That's not even the oddest part of Vi's birth," Sirius threw out and Anwen squeezed his hand hard. Violet's transfiguring herself out of Anwen was a carefully kept secret between the eight friends.

"What do you mean?" Albus prodded.

"I just mean Anwen had assisted in two births in two days while she was in labour herself. That she was awake enough to actively participate was impressive." Sirius dodged another painful grasp to his aching fingers.

"She was impressive," Eva added. "And she's done such a good job taking care of the four of them since."

"Thank you," Anwen mouthed to her friend.

"Well, yes, of course. It's a good thing her magic was under control as well –"

"Albus my magic hasn't been out of control since I was sixteen."

"Well, you were hiccupping bubbles, sis," James threw out.

"That was the baby's magic. As was the summoning of the tangerines. My magic was always under control."

"Anwen, it always must be," Albus said gently. "Even your father –"

"I know what my dad thought about my magic. He and mum always wanted me to use it to the fullest extent I could. I'm still continuing to learn. I visit Perenelle Flamel every week to work on the visualization skills and my astral walking. I can even do spells while I'm 'out of my body' now."

"You can cast spells when you're astral walking?" Albus asked. He'd turned very pale.

"Nothing all that interesting. I can walk through to the nursery and if a child has thrown a toy or their blanket slipped out of their cot I can return it. A bit of levitation or a summoning spell, that's all." Anwen couldn't see why he was getting so upset.

"The implications for the war are –"

"My wife is not a weapon, Dumbledore!" Sirius said sternly.

"No, but…have you considered how dangerous she is?"

"Me? Dangerous? Albus my whole life is about protecting children and healing them. I've taken an oath to do no harm. I'm not dangerous!"

Anwen was broken from her memories when she realized people were yelling around her.

"You've never told us how Tom found out about the prophecy, Albus," Lily said. "How did it happen?"

"I was overheard." Albus realized it sounded a weak excuse, even to his ears.

"But by whom?" James asked. "It must have been someone that didn't raise any alarms. I happen to know you have eyes in the back of your head, which means you could only seem that way if you have personal wards and protection spells around yourself at all times."

"I do not think it would do anyone any good for that person's identity to be learned." Albus sat back in his chair.

"The way you're acting, it must be someone we know," James suggested.

"James, I am not going to share the name. Now, tell me about Mr Pettigrew; I'm surprised he's not here with you," Albus said trying to change the subject.

"We see Peter, but he doesn't come around here much anymore," Remus answered. "I meet up for lunch with him, let him in on the Order business but he's afraid to come over. Says we're a magnet for trouble."

"If your friend is worried about the enchantments, perhaps you shouldn't all be living –"

"Peter isn't afraid of the enchantments not protecting him," Sirius interrupted. "He's afraid of pissing off James or me. We caught him watching Lily breastfeeding Harry. He was trying to see her breast. We gave him a talking to."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lily asked, horrified.

"I didn't want to upset you," James answered. "I want to go back to this prophecy. What does it mean that the dark lord will mark him as his equal?"

"Volde-" the group groaned, and Sirius growled. "Tom," Albus said correcting his language, "will somehow choose one of your sons and mark him in some way."

"Why are you excluding Violet?" Anwen asked. "I'm not saying that it couldn't be one of the boys, but why not our daughter?" Sirius gripped his wife around the middle, hoping she wouldn't launch herself at the old man.

"Well, it does say 'he'," Albus answered.

"And nowhere in history has the male singular pronoun been used to signify a generic individual, even a woman," Anwen said sarcastically. "It's the nineteen eighties, Albus, it is just as likely to Violet as it is Harry or Neville."

"I suppose, but both boys are so strong in their magic," Albus continued.

"You want strong in their magic, Vi has them beat," Lily said. "She caused all the cups of tea to fall over so Anwen would feed her the other day."

"She did what?" Remus asked. "Little imp."

"It wasn't quite so dramatic," Anwen said. "I'd fed her the solid food, but she wanted her milk and Lily and I were finishing our after lunch cuppa. She tipped our teacups over in her frustration."

"Remarkable," Albus said. "Perhaps we should test her –"

"No!" Anwen said firmly but coldly.

"Anwen, I will in no way hurt her –"

"No!" she repeated a bit more loudly.

"Your daughter may be remarkable, Anwen."

"My daughter is remarkable," Anwen sneered as she spoke. "My daughter is so remarkable that she wasn't born, she Transfigured herself out of me."

"How did –" Albus queried. The energy in the room changed, and the family knew that Anwen was building up the magic in her.

"I don't know," she all but screamed. "I wish I did. My labour had stalled, and I wasn't sure how I was going to walk Eva through a caesarean when Violet just appeared on my chest, afterbirth on the floor."

"Why have you not said anything before?" Albus asked, befuddled.

"Because I knew you'd want to test her. I didn't want to put her through what you put me through." James reached out for his sister.

"What are you talking about?" he quietly asked her.

"The tests he put me through. It was about six months after I came to live with you. Daddy was out somewhere with you three boys, and it was just mummy and me at home. Albus came over, and he did something to mummy, sent her out of the room for a long time." Anwen explained. She then angled her body toward the man who did the tests. "You probed my mind, my magic, you forced me to do spells I didn't know. Then you told me not to tell my parents. I was a little girl and you wanted me to lie to the people who had rescued me," Anwen was crying hard, hiccupping the last few words out.

"Why didn't you tell me?" James and Sirius both asked.

"I didn't want you to know," Anwen said through gasping breaths. "I didn't want you to think me some oddity or something."

"Did he ever come back?" James asked Anwen, but she was curled into Sirius' protective embrace. James stood and looked at the old man. "Did you ever assault my sister again?"

"James it wasn't an assault. I was trying to understand exactly what she was did when she had one of her explosions of magic. I had to probe the depth of her core to see how powerful she'd be," Albus attempted to make the others understand.

"You did it when our father was away, and our mother was otherwise occupied. Clearly Dad was against whatever tests you wanted to do. No wonder Anwen didn't want to tell you anything about Violet. Get out, now."

"James don't be hasty. I promise I will not test Violet." Albus said calmly.

"I don't want you near Anwen. I'm not sure I want to work with you anymore, but I will wait to make that decision until cooler heads can prevail here. Please, leave," James said, trying to get his anger under control. When Albus made no movement toward the Floo, Remus stood and went to the old man.

"I believe you were asked to leave," he nearly growled, letting the wolf rise up. Albus had never seen this side of Remus, and hastily stood and walked out, the wolf stalking after him.

The family rallied around Anwen, who now was emotionally spent. After well wishes, Sirius carried his wife up to their room, kicking the door shut.

"Tell me what you need," he whispered as he helped her undress and then hastily tore away at his own clothes.

"Promise me you'll never leave me," she whimpered.

"Never, my love, never." He sealed his oath with one made with his body, and the unity they found in each other.