Tuesday 30th November 1981

Longbottom Manor, 16:00

"What do you even want from me?" Frank exploded, throwing his hands up in the air.

What did she want from him? What did she want from him? Surely even he couldn't be that dense? Had he not been listening to her? Of course, he hadn't been listening to her because if he had he would know what she wanted!

This was his whole problem. He wasn't listening. He wasn't paying attention. He was just preoccupied with what was going on in his head and nothing else. Like there was nothing else to worry about or care about. Except there was because she mattered, didn't she? Except she didn't feel like she did right now.

"What do you think I want from you?" She shot right back.

She wasn't going to help him. She wasn't going to hold his hand. Let him figure it out if he really wanted to. All by himself. That's all he'd been doing recently anyway, thinking all by himself. Spending time alone. He should be used to it by now.

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking!"

"You should already know!"

"I'm telling you that I don't!"

And now they were shouting at each other as well as glaring. When did they start raising their voices? Oh, Alice didn't care. What did it matter? She was annoyed and angry and she was going to show it. Who cared about proper behaviour when you were feeling like that? She certainly didn't.

"You are being deliberately obtuse!"

"You Are being deliberately annoying," he shot straight back.

Her lower lip trembled but she didn't give in. She wasn't going to cry. Not over this. No. Crying wasn't allowed. She was annoyed. She was angry. She was not sad or upset so there would be no tears. No tears whatsoever.

"How dare you call me annoying! How dare you!"

"I call you what you are!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

She was shrieking, she was aware. And she still didn't care. Neville wasn't in the room it was just Frank so she didn't care if he didn't like her shrieking. That was the whole point.

"Oh, now you want me to stop talking?" He sneered. "What happened to wanting something from me?"

"That not what I meant and you know it."

"How am I supposed to know what you mean when you refuse to make sense?"

"I am making plenty of sense. It is not my fault that you are too dense to comprehend."

Both of them made loud, frustrating noises. Alice felt like she had to throw something, anything. Preferably something that would break on impact with something else. Unfortunately, all that was near her were pillows. Very soft pillows. Frank paced back and forth across the room a few times; his expression stormy.

"Can you stop messing around and just tell me!" Frank finally demanded. "As much as you would like me to be able to, I can't read your mind!"

"I don't want you to read my mind," she shot back, there was no way that he was going to guilt trip her. "I just want you to understand!"

"Well, I obviously don't!"

"No. You don't."

"Just tell me already."

Alice let loose another frustrated sound. This one came out a little like a shriek. Frank didn't even flinch at it, just crossed his arms and glared at her. Oh, he wanted her to look like an idiot and say it, didn't he? He thought he'd won.

"You aren't talking to me!" Alice said angrily from the bed.

Stubbornly in the bed, in fact, because Frank, in his frustration had got out of it and started pacing. And it was annoying.

He glared at her and yanked his dressing gown from its hook and angrily put it on. Which looked incredibly aggressive and she was pretty sure he had knotted it too tightly around his waist but she didn't care. Let him be stupid and uncomfortable.

"Maybe I have nothing to say!" He said, tugging at the knot around his waist in an effort to loosen it.

"You never have anything to say!"

Frank never talked about how he was feeling or what was going on in his head. He was once of those strong, silent types. Which she usually found incredibly attractive but not when this personality t4ait turned it into suffering in silence! What good did that do anyone? No good, that's what it did. It did absolutely no good at all except torture all of those who were involved. Which included her. And she didn't like it.

She wanted him to talk to her. To open up. To share things. That was the only way they were going to be able to process everything that had happened. It was the only way that things might get even a little bit better. Just a little bit. Couldn't he see that? Didn't he understand?

They were around each other all the time, worrying and stressing and trying to be the but they never talked. Never. Not properly anyway. They tried to keep things light and happy. And Alice had appreciated it at first. It had been their own little pocket of light in the midst of all the darkness. They had needed that. They really had. They had needed to ignore the darkness and the horrible things happening they they had no control over. But what Alice was coming to realise was that that didn't solve everything. It didn't stop the worrying. It didn't stop the awful thoughts. And talking was supposed to help. So, they should talk. Except neither of them seemed to know how to do that.

"Like you're any better!"

Alice's mouth gaped open. She wasn't any better? She wasn't any better? Excuse him, but she was far better than him at conveying her thoughts. She wasn't the one who went all silent and moody when she had too much on her mind! She wasn't the one who paced and muttered to herself! No! That was all him! Not her!

"Excuse you?"

"Yes, it's always me, isn't it? It's never you!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said coldly.

And as defensive as she sounded, she really didn't know what he was talking about. She wasn't trying to hide anything; she was genuinely confused. What was he talking about? What did he mean? Yes, of course it was him! He never talked! She wanted to talk. It was him that didn't.

"Yes, you do! Of course, you do!"

"I do not. Stop trying to start something, Frank. It isn't working."

"Isn't working? Isn't working?" He spluttered. "I'm not trying to start anything. I'm trying to make you see reason!"

If it was possible to get even more annoyed and angry well then, Alice was definitely there now.

"I'm not being the unreasonable one. You are."

That's why she had started this whole... whatever this was after all!

"How am I supposed to know when you want to talk?" He demanded. "You never say anything!"

"I try to!"

"Oh, do you?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Yeah, right," he scoffed, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms.

Her hands flew to her hips, unamused.

"Excuse you, Frank Longbottom."

"I'm not the one who has to apologise!"

"Well, neither do I!"

They glared at each other, neither backing down. Frank made a sort of explosive noise and gave in first. Spinning on his heels, He strode out of the room in a huff and almost immediately Alice turned around to bury her face in her pillow.

"Ahhh!"

Dumbledore's Office, 19:00

"Now, Chrysanthemum..."

"Don't call me that, you, you... idiot!" She snapped out.

Yes, she was aware of how poor an insult that was and there had been so many others at the tip of her tongue (the advantage of living with an incredibly sarcastic Slytherin). But she couldn't use any of them. Even if she was incredibly annoyed. Because it was Dumbledore. You couldn't just swear at Dumbledore. Even if you were incredibly annoyed with him. No matter how tempting it was. But she couldn't do that. It was Dumbledore.

Dumbledore who was now looking at her with this sort of faint look of amusement about him. She scowled and crossed her arms. She wasn't supposed to be entertaining, she was supposed to be intimidating!

He sighed at her and held a small dosh out.

"Lemon drop?"

She glared at him. Lemon drop? Seriously? He was offering her a Lemon drop in the middle of a conversation like she was some sort of child? She was going to have absolutely nothing to do with lemon drops.

"No."

She wasn't even going to be polite about it and it was strangely exhilarating and satisfying. Normally one used their best manners with Professor Dumbledore. Well, he didn't deserve her best manners right now. He actually deserved her worst ones but she managed to stop herself from doing so. She was a well brought up young lady, after all, and she did not want to disappoint her parents. Though she suspected they would not be very happy with the man in front of her either. Especially considering what he was doing!

"Harry. Rylli."

Two simple words. That was all she spoke. Didn't even bother to make them into a proper sentence. There was no need. Before he could even say anything. And he proceeded to still not say anything and sigh heavily! Excuse him? This was Harry they were talking about! And Rylli! The two most important people in this whole mess and he was simply going to say nothing?

"He is my nephew. She is my niece. I have a right to see them."

"Of course, you do," he soothed.

Except that it wasn't soothing her. In fact, it was agitating her all the more. She just wanted him to get on with whatever he was going to say, which was hopefully telling her where Harry and Rylli were, and then she could go and see them.

He had been dodging around the question for weeks now, saying that it was the utmost importance to keep them safe and that they all needed to grieve and process things before anything further had to happen. Something that she wasn't going to let him get away with saying any longer. She couldn't. Harry and Rylli were her flesh and blood. She was responsible for them now. She had to be. Dumbledore had no right to keep that from her. He had no right to determine if she was ready or not. Because she was and he was going to have no say in it.

"Rest assured, they are perfectly well with Petunia," he began.

"Petunia!" She all but shrieked.

He had left them with Petunia?

Wednesday 1st December 1981

Marauder Flat, 09:00

Shouting. So much shouting. And arguing. Lots of arguing. Mixed with an incredibly stupid amount of nonsense. And he couldn't stick it anymore!

"You're all idiots, you know that?" Severus shouted across them all.

Thankfully, that made them all fall silent, albeit while shooting him dirty looks. Well, they were idiots.

"Stupid idiots," he added for good measure.

"Excuse me?" Dora demanded, eyes flashing between colours.

Huh, she hadn't lost control over her abilities like that since they were in school. She must be very worked up then. Something to keep an eye on, if not be outright worried about.

"You heard me," and before she could say anything else, for good measure he added, "Shut up."

Surprisingly, she did. Even if she didn't look too happy about it. Remus' calming hand on her back might have something to do with that.

"Right let's take this one step at a time because that's really all your little brains can deal with right now."

"Be nice, Sev," Chryssie chided, but it was in a tired voice.

He was worried about her. She didn't smile anymore, though that was hardly something to be expected right now, but she also always looked tired and she was listless. There was no spark.

"Being nice had got us nowhere. It's time to be blunt."

"Blunt and being cruel are two different things," Remus pointed out, an edge to his voice.

Severus took a deep breath. He was not going to stoop to their level and start arguing. He was trying to stop everyone from arguing.

"Trying to sort you lot out isn't cruel. It's the best thing for everyone's sanity."

"You're the insane one," Dora muttered petulantly.

"Can you just shut up and let him talk," Chryssie said in exasperation.

"You were arguing just like the rest of us!"

"Well, now I'm not so shut up!"

"Hey, don't talk to her like that!" Remus butted in.

"I can defend myself, Remus!"

Severus didn't know whether to be happy that there was some life returning to Chryssie's eyes or be frustrated that she started up yet another argument.

"I will put silencing spells on all of you," he threatened.

Surprisingly, that actually shut them up. He wasn't sure whether it was because they were finally tired of arguing or because they knew that he would make good on his threat but he really didn't care.

"Can I talk now?" He asked sarcastically. None of them replied. "Well?"

"Thought you were going to put a silencing spell on us if we talked?" Dora snarked.

Sometimes he really wanted to wring her neck.

Longbottom Manor, 10:0

Alice sighed heavily and rubbed at her eyes. Frank gave her a look of concern but she ignored him, not because she was annoyed at him anymore (she wasn't) but because she was trying to process the letter she had just read.

She set the piece of parchment next to her breakfast plate but then thought better of it and picked it up again. Not to reread it - That would do nothing except drive her crazy. Okay, maybe she would reread it just one more time. No. The words didn't change. Not that she expected them to but one could hope. Not that hoping got you much these days.

Her mother really knew how to scold, even though a letter though what Alice was being told off about how, she really couldn't tell. It was interleaved with social gatherings, how other people were doing, querying after Neville, whether he was favouring the Longbottoms (he wasn't, he was favouring her but still) and querying delicately about her health (read, was she going to get pregnant anytime soon). It was a lot to take in. She felt like she discovered something new every time she read through it.

Eventually, as it was giving her a headache, she put it down and looked across to Frank.

"Just my mother," she explained her behaviour.

"Ah."

Somehow, he managed to make that sound sympathetic. Before he could say anything else, an end interrupted them.

"Mistress Alice's mother be calling the floo-fire," he squeaked.

Alice sighed heavily and gave Frank a long-suffering look as she got up. She knew better than to keep her mother waiting.

"Mother," Alice said in exasperation as she knelt down by the floo.

"Don't mother me," Celia snapped. " Not when you haven't responded to my letter yet."

"I just got it this morning," she said tiredly, dealing with her mother always made her tired. "We have just finished breakfast."

"At this hour?" Celia sniffed disdainfully.

Alice glanced at the clock. It was half ten.

"Yes. It is the weekend."

Why she felt like she had to defend herself when she was a grown woman managing her own household she didn't know. Her mother always managed to bring this side of her out. She didn't like it but she couldn't help it. How else was she supposed to respond to her mother?

"I didn't think that the Longbottoms had such poor habits."

Alice bit her tongue so she didn't snap before replying, "It's just me and Frank this morning."

"Hmm."

She still didn't sound too impressed so Alice decided to move the call along.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Do not rush me, Alice," Celia scolded and Alice just sighed.

She had to sit through small talk (which her mother didn't let her get a word in edgeways), gossip (which she had no interest in), Witches Weekly updates (really?) and finally, inquiring about them and the Longbottoms in general. Which was a two-sentence answer. Then her mother was ready for what she actually called about, apparently. Alice tried not to let the impatience show.

"When are you stopping this 'in hiding' nonsense."

It always amazed Alice that her mother, who put great emphasis on manners and propriety, could be so incredibly blunt. It was odd.

"It isn't safe yet, mother," Alice tried to explain yet again. "We do not want to put ourselves at risk."

"Stuff and nonsense. It is perfectly safe now. Even all of the celebrations are over."

That last bit was said particularly spitefully. Her mother had been of the opinion that she and Frank should have held some grand celebration for Voldemort's defeat. Especially since they had been actual targets of Voldemort himself. Apparently, that was a good thing. Alice shuddered. Being on that list was no reason to celebrate. Even if he was gone. Just ignoring the fact that they were still not safe and they had lost some of their dearest friends. No, Celia hadn't cared about any of that. Just about parties and social status. As usual. She was never going to change. Alice didn't hold much hope for that.

Obviously, they had held no such celebration. And her mother was going to hold it against her for the rest of her days.