Monday 16th November 1981

Remus and Dora's Flat, 11:00

It was a weird sort of day. Well, maybe Dora couldn't exactly call it that when yesterday had been the same and so had the day before that. Then the day before that. Maybe even all the way back to last week the days had been like this. So, did that mean that all of those days were weird or was that just going to be how the days were going to go now? She wasn't sure what she thought of that. Dora didn't like the feeling in her stomach these days. Like it was sinking and tied in knots all at once. It was hardly a pleasant feeling.

Work helped a bit. It wasn't as bad as she was working. Sometimes she could even ignore it completely. Work was pretty much always on the go. Even Rookie Aurors had lots of work to do. Too much work really but Dora revelled in it of it meant she could put all the weird feelings to the back of her mind. Sort of. There was always going to be that anger, that uneasiness around everything but that couldn't be helped.

But now she wasn't at work and she had no distractions, nothing to do. All of which meant that her thoughts and fears were coming solidly to the forefront of her mind. Which she really didn't want. She needed a distraction. And fast.

Remus, she could talk to Remus, right? Her boyfriend. Her partner. Her whatever he was because partner seemed too weak somehow. She could always talk to him. That was kind of the point, right? The problem was that she didn't even know what to talk to Remus about. It was just the same thing day on and day out. Work. Teddy. Order. Work. The house. It was repetitive and with this kind of strained undercurrent to it. And they all knew what was causing that but neither of them wanted to address it, so they didn't. They were both very good at ignoring things like that. Or trying to, at least. And it seemed to be working this time. Kind of.

There had to be something. Something. Preferably something he didn't know so that they could actually have a conversation. So that ruled out any Order stuff, not that there was much of that anyway.

Teddy? They had already shared everything that he had learned to do recently, he really seemed to be favouring electric blue hair at the minute. It really made him look like he was being electrocuted. Which was cute. And something they had wanted to share with Sirius because he would have found it hilarious but they couldn't and oh... this was not going on the direction she wanted it to be going.

Work. There had to be something in work that she could share. Work! That was it!

"Moody chose me." Dora said quietly.

"Sorry?" Remus asked, shaking his head out of his thoughts.

She usually thought that that was kind of cute, very wolf-like in her opinion, but today she just found it a bit annoying. She had been sitting on this information for a few days now, trying to process it herself and now she went and told Remus and he didn't even know what she was talking about? Come on!

She cleared her throat. "Moody. Um. He chose me. To mentor."

Remus blinked at her uncomprehendingly.

"You know," she said, trying not to sound impatient. Surely, he should know what she was talking about?

"I don't," he said in baffled tone. "Should I?"

Trying not to roll her eyes at him, she replied, "Yes, you should."

He frowned and looked like he was thinking extremely hard. She but her tongue in an effort to say "Don't hurt yourself" because that would just be mean.

"Did he choose you for an assignment or something? Do we even have assignments anymore?"

And he was talking about the Order. Which meant that no, he didn't know what she was talking about. Not that she really blamed him. When talking about Alastor Moody you didn't tend to think about him as an Auror, not when you were an Order Member anyway. So, at least that was forgivable.

"No. For work."

"Oh? What for? Wait, work? As in, As an Auror?"

"Considering that we both are Aurors then yes, work means when we're Aurors," she said in amusement.

His dumbfounded face was quite amusing, after all. It was just the thing she needed to cheer up. Though a smile felt a bit weird on her face. She really hadn't done a lot of smiling recently. It was like her mouth had forgotten how it felt like.

"That's fantastic!" He exclaimed, drawing her into a hug and then he paused and pushed her back a bit. "Wait, that is a good thing, right?"

She laughed at that. Oh, that was a nice feeling.

"Yeah, it's a good thing," she replied giddily, finally letting herself feel the excitement of the decision.

Remus hugged her again. Hugged her tight. Maybe good Things could still happen. Being under Moody was a good thing, wasn't it?

Dursley Home

Petunia sighed heavily as a wail came from upstairs. That was Dudley. It was always Dudley. Harry was a strangely quiet child and Amaryllis (What a name for a child, trust her freakish sister) couldn't cry quite as loudly. She was more like a little kitten, the noises she made. She was proud of the volume Dudley could produce. Just like she was proud of everything her precious son did. But maybe not just after she had set him down for a nap. He had definitely been sleepy so why wouldn't he sleep?

She went back upstairs and scooped Dudley out of his cot. His face was all scrunched up and bright red. Definitely like a tomato. Sometimes she still found it alarming how fast his skin could change colour when he cried, she hadn't thought it was normal at all but doctors had assured her that it was. Dudley was just a bit of a dramatic baby. Dramatic? Her Dudley? No, they did not for dramatics. That was just uncouth and Dursleys were definitely not uncouth. And she would Not let her son be described that way.

"You just like to be the centre of attention, don't you?" She cooed as she rocked him. "Just like your father."

But Dudley wasn't calming down. She sighed. Of course, he wasn't. He never calmed down quickly; it was most frustrating. Especially when she planned on doing things when he was asleep. She couldn't stand about here all day rocking him just for him to sleep for an hour! Honestly...

On the plus side, there was always one thing that worked. Humming a lullaby in an effort to keep the wailing to, well, wails instead of shrieks, she brought him downstairs.

A cooing noise came from the room where she had put Harry and Amaryllis in together. Sure, they technically had a fourth room but that was the spare room. For visitors. It wouldn't do any harm for the two siblings to share. Especially when they were so small like this. It wasn't like they knew. At it wasn't as important to her that they got their own rooms. It wasn't like she was going to decorate it to their personalities or anything. Not like her Dudders. She didn't even know them. They just needed a place to be contained and a place to sleep. There was nothing special about that.

Huffing in annoyance, Petunia checked in. Harry was standing up and looking over the bars of the cot they had originally got Dudley but Petunia had decided wasn't good enough for him. It was a good thing they had still had it. Harry wasn't looking at her, he was looking over at the other side of the room, where his sister was.

Yes, Petunia couldn't help but think bitterly. There were two of them. Harry and Amaryllis. What a name. Did she learn nothing from their mother and Chrysanthemum? Amy. Petunia was going to call the child Amy. Still not a particularly good name but it was far better than Amaryllis. Those flowers weren't even that nice in the first place. But of course, her sister had to go and have one of each and have the perfect looking family. She was always the golden child, even when she wasn't the golden child anymore. It was infuriating.

How was she supposed to manage three babies? Two of them basically toddlers? It was insane. Oh, sure, the stiped for Harry and Amaryllis helped. Obviously. But it was still three children under two. And it was just her all day. Vernon worked, she didn't. And then there was Dudley. She never wanted to deprive Dudley of anything. Ever. It just wasn't going to happen. So, it didn't. She still lavished all of her attention on Dudley and just made sure the other two were fed and kept clean and all That. But it was still a lot of work.

She thought she would be able to manage two of them rather than three. Two children were a much better number, in her opinion. Her Dudders and Amaryllis maybe. She had always wanted a daughter. Not that Amaryllis was her child but she would probably be easier than Harry. Girls were supposed to be easier, weren't they? And she was cuter looking than Harry anyway. She didn't even feel bad for saying it. Harry had all this hair sticking up, nothing like the sleek, baby soft hair of her Dudders. He also had those bright green eyes she couldn't stand to look at. Amaryllis had none of those things. Well, okay, her hair was a little messy but those might be curls. And she had brown eyes, not green. Though she already stared at her a funny way. Just like Lily used to do when she was trying to figure something out. It was eerie and Petunia didn't like it. She didn't like either Potter children staring at her. They were freaky.

And what if she was one of those? Those people produced those people, didn't they? So, Amaryllis was going to be one of them. A freak. Just like them. Just like her sister. Sisters.

Petunia's heart hardened. No. She was not going to get soft. She wasn't. These were just children she had to look after and nothing more. It didn't matter that they were her niece and nephew she never wanted anything to do with them in the first place and that certainly hadn't changed now. She had a duty to them and nothing more. At least that was something her neighbours admired her for. The poor older sister having to take on her younger sister's children. Without warning too! Honestly, some people. It did make her feel a tiny bit better about the whole situation.

Speaking of sisters, what about her other sister? Chryssie? Except for that letter she had heard absolutely nothing from her. Petunia would have thought that she would be constantly trying to see these two. They were her niece and nephew too, after all.

Maybe she had a falling out with Lily as well. She wouldn't put it past her middle sister to somehow alienate Chryssie as well. How was she even supposed to get in contact with Chryssie? Did she have a normal house? How was she supposed to find that out?

Silence. Glorious silence. Dudley was finally asleep again. Thank God. She thought that she was going to have to get him another bottle. He was going through an awful lot of them. He was probably going through a growth spurt, he was going to grow up to be so big and strong, just like his daddy. She was going to have to go out and buy more formula. She was running low.

Now that was something she was dreading. Taking all three children out to go to the shops. How was she even supposed to do that? She didn't have enough car seats! Nor enough space in her car! That was something else she was going to have to address. Maybe Vernon would pick some up on his way home...

No, he wouldn't. He was quite firm on the whole children being best left to the women. Real men didn't do that sort of thing. Well, she would just have to go out when he came home. She would delay dinner for a half an hour and do that. It would mean leaving the babies with Vernon but she would make sure they were changed and settled before going. They wouldn't give him any bother.

Sewers, 17:00

Peter sighed happily as he returned to the sewers. He never thought that he'd ever feel pleasure going into them. But then again, he would have never even dreamed that he would ever be living in the sewers. But it was cold outside of them and strangely warmer amongst the pipes despite it being almost constantly damp.

He did that every day now. Went out during the day, even when it was frosty and just walked around, eating, whatever. As long as he was outside. It kept him sane. Somewhat. And then he went back down the nearest sewer when it got dark. What happened a lot more quickly as each day past. It was November, after all. When? Peter still wasn't sure. He hadn't quote got brave enough to try and get a hold of a newspaper. Because why would a rat be trying to get a newspaper? To read? Ha! And obviously he couldn't ever risk becoming human. Even if this was a solidly muggle area from what he could gather. No, it wasn't worth the risk.

It was never going to be worth the risk. Not even when he got to those places in the pipes where a grown man could stand. Because apparently muggles actually came down here to do work. How disgusting. He could hardly believe it but he had heard Lily, or had it been Chryssie, talk about it once. Muggles really were disgusting.

But that wasn't something to dwell on right now. No, what he had to think about was he next step. Or steps, rather because he doubted, he could do anything in one step. He could think properly now that he had a more constant source of food, even if the food was mostly unpleasant it was still good and his stomach was still full at the end of every day. Which was a nice change. But he couldn't be like this forever. No. Even thought it would keep him alive it was not exactly a pleasant way to live. It was damp. It was dirty. It was disgusting. And he didn't even know what was g9ijg on in the outside world. The Wizarding world and that was just intolerable.

Peter settled up against the corner where he had made himself a sort of nest. Which was comfortable. He had found all sorts of soft scraps in bins. It was amazing what people threw out. It was also amazing what his teeth could chew through. Enough of that, though. He couldn't let himself slip. Not now. He had been so good. He needed to continue being so.

Which meant he needed to think.

Longbottom Manor, 18:00

Was it weird that everything had changed and get nothing had changed all at the same time? That wasn't ridiculous or stupid or anything, was it? Because it felt like it should be.

Frank rubbed a hand over this face and tried to get rid of that thought. There was no point in dwelling over something that couldn't be fixed. Right now, anyway. It was best just to get on with things and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Except that he couldn't do that, could he? Not just like that, anyway. Who could just jump back into life like nothing had happened? Not when so much had happened and he wasn't even sure what normal life was supposed to look like. He was just supposed to go back to learning how to manage the Longbottom Estates just like that? Though, even that was giving him some grace. Considering the fact that his parents, his father really, had told him that there were no expectations for him to return to the political side of being a Longbottom. Not when he felt so unsafe. Which was something. He was still expected to do some work however, like managing accounts and the like. Except he couldn't even focus on that! How could he?

James. James Fleamont Potter. He was gone. Dead. Murdered. Killed. Gone. Gone. Gone. Every word was like, and be really didn't mean to sound all mushy here, someone stepped on his heart. Names, annoying, pestering, earnest, funny James was gone. And nothing, nothing was going to bring him back.

He didn't get to see the end of the War. Didn't get to celebrate. He was one of the reasons the War was over. Frank chuckled to himself. He could just see James puffing up his chest when he found that out. He would have been insufferable about it.

Except he wasn't here to be like that. He. Wasn't. Here. He was never going to be here again. Ever. He was never going to laugh or joke or pull pranks or fight or do anything ever again.

What was Frank supposed to do with information like that? His heart ached even thinking about it. He hated it. He couldn't fix it. He couldn't pretend that everything was okay because everything was not Okay. It was never going to be okay again. People were gone and not coming back. Ever. And there was nothing that would change that. And he missed them. These were people he missed. That he wanted to see again but he couldn't. And he didn't know how to deal with that.

Was this what it was going to be like now?