A lot of people think Dumbledore is trying to cover things up, and I have no idea why.
Anyway, let's see how a meeting unfolds with new faces.
On with the show.
The Leaky Cauldron's private room, July 29th, 6:36 PM.
Harry sat alone in one of the rooms above the Leaky Cauldron; the high-back chair he was slouching deeply into was springy and uncomfortably comfortable to him. He fiddled with the ends of his leather jacket as he looked out the glass window that sat over muggle London, frowning as he did so. After…whatever happened at the Ice Cream Parlour had calmed down and he had stopped shaking so much, the Headmaster and the tall red-headed woman had separated him from Tamsyn and sent her back home before marching him back down to the Leaky Cauldron.
Harry had at least gotten to see Tamsyn off at the door to the Leaky before going upstairs.
He knew for a fact that the Headmaster, some portly man by the name of Herbert Bones, and his sister Amelia Bones were all in the other room discussing him. Harry personally thought it a bit rude, but he had yet to see the other adults to voice his opinion of that just yet. The tall red-headed woman was sitting in the chair just a few feet away from him, reading the book that he saw her reading at the Ice Cream Parlour. She had yet to say a word or even introduce herself before she sat down; just telling the Headmaster that she would watch over him while Dumbledore was talking to the other two people.
"Isn't there someone in my year with the same last name?" Harry thinks to himself with a frown, trying to put a name to the face he sees in his mind. "Something with an S I think? Sansa? Suzie? Something like that. Her last name is Bones, however," he muses as he unknowingly begins to glare across the room.
"Has the window done something to personally offend you, boyo?" The thick Irish accent speaks once more, reminding him of One of his roommates; Seamus Finnegan, as Harry turns to Scáthach.
"What? Er- no?" Harry tells Scáthach who chuckles as she continues to read. "I was just trying to remember someone's name in my year at Hogwarts; it starts with an S, I think," he says out loud, still frowning as he speaks.
"Susan?" Scáthach intones as she turns the page in her book, a small smile growing on her face.
"Yeah! That's her name! Wait- how did you know that?" Harry asks as his eyes narrow at Scáthach as her smile becomes wider.
"Well, I assumed you were thinking about Herbert's daughter, Susan Bones seeing that you just met her father and Aunt," she says offhandedly as she turns the next page in her book, her eyes never leaving it.
"Oh," Harry says as he looks back towards the window. "Why aren't you talking with them?" He asks Scáthach who finally pauses her reading to look at him with something between amusement and queer curiosity.
"My oh my, aren't we just full of questions," Scáthach says with a grin before dog-earring the page she was on, an act that caused Harry to hear Hermione in his head cry out in pain. "I doubt either of the Bones would want me in the room when they were discussing matters of state, seeing I have a long history of disturbing said state," she says with a cat-like grin as she puts down her book and turns to look at Harry.
"Oh," Harry intones before turning to look at Scáthach. Even sitting, she seemed tall; her posture while sitting in the chair was perfect, and her shoulders were relaxed as she oozed confidence just by existing; she was also very pretty. "Though not as pretty as Tamsyn," he ideally wonders to himself.
"That one man with the fake eye said you weren't allowed to come to England, why?" Harry asks with a tilt of his head as Scáthach chuckles fondly at him.
"First of all, that man was named Alastor Moody. He's a very old and well-respected Auror in England, so I don't think he'd appreciate it if you called out his eye like that," Scáthach tells Harry, making the boy shift uncomfortably in his seat. "Second of all, that is a very long story. It is a story of war and topics best left to older men and women, but needless to say, I fought in said war, and I was a bedlam to most English wizards in power. When the war came to an end and we won independence from Magical England, we signed the Treaty of Kilashandra- which states in no uncertain terms that I and the rest of the Fianna were not to set foot on English soil," she says with a chuckle and a shake of her head at the irony of her sitting in the Leaky Cauldron.
"Then, about twelve years ago, the Circle of the Fianna was approached by Bellatrix Lestrange and her gathering of mad men and sadists. They offered us a chance to invade our old enemies, but our old enemy offered us a better deal; one would see the Circle of the Fianna as a recognized army by the Ministry and thus dissolving us of our crimes in their eyes so long as we didn't help Bellatrix. We had our freedom and nothing to prove, so we accepted your Ministry's deal and thus I am no longer a war criminal," she says with a dark chuckle as she looks at Harry, her crimson eyes traveling over his face for a moment before she looks away and at the clock in the room- a tad impatiently if you were to ask Harry.
"Why did they call you a war criminal?" Harry asks, scowling at the term as he tilts his head.
Scáthach chuckles once more. "Now, now Mister Potter. You've already asked so many questions, don't you think it's only fair that I get to ask you one in return?" She inquires of Harry in good nature and with a smile as she places her book on her lap and leans against the armchair.
"Er- sure? Though I don't think I'm very interesting," Harry says with a shrug.
"Where did you get that bruise from?" She asks softly, her smile remaining on her face even after Harry's fall and he turns away from Scáthach, hiding his bruised cheek.
"Nowhere. I fell, that's all," Harry quickly says, changing his answer in the span of a breath as he squirms in his seat uncomfortable with the question.
"A fall?" She inquires with a raised brow; even though Harry couldn't see it, he still nods his head as he glares defiantly out the window. "Now, Mister Potter-" Scáthach begins with a soft sigh. "-It's a rather bad start to our acquaintanceship if you lie to me," she intones to Harry, her eyes narrowing at him.
"I'm not li-" Harry tries to defend himself but with the door to the room opening, both Harry and Scáthach turn to see the headmaster standing in the doorway with a smile on his face. "Headmaster Dumbledore," Harry quickly says, hoping to escape the uncomfortable conversation with Scáthach as quickly as possible. "Am I going to get to go home soon?" He inquired to the headmaster.
A shadow of something passes over Dumbledore's face as he looks to be momentarily considering his words. "No, Mister Potter. I…don't think that you'll be returning to your Aunt's home for the rest of the summer," he intones toward Harry, almost as if he was choosing his words carefully, as he walks into the room; his eyes avoiding Scáthach.
Harry blinked, shock running down his spine at the words as hope and excitement bubbled in his chest. It must have shone in his eyes, as he could see that both Scáthach and Dumbledore had different reactions. Dumbledore fought a frown from consuming his face as his eyes were full of regrets, Scáthach however looked amused more than anything with a soft resolve shining in her eyes.
One week later.
A week. One glorious week free from the Dursleys. One week of no chores, one week of getting fed a full meal at every meal time, one week without yelling or screaming or being called names. Sure, he had to have minders checking on him every now or then, but Harry didn't really mind seeing that he was given free rein to run around Diagon Alley so long as he wasn't out after dark or ventured off the main street. Which were small things to ask of him, in Harry's opinion.
And the best thing? He got to see Tamsyn every day.
She apparently didn't live too far away from the Alley and could easily walk to the Leaky Cauldron. They normally just stayed inside catching Harry up on his homework that he was forced to ignore over the summer thanks to his Aunt. With Tamsyn's help and tutelage, Harry was able to get a majority of it done before the week was up. In their spare time, Harry and Tamsyn did much of the same when they first met last week, wandering around the Alley and eating Ice Cream. They talked a lot too, mostly about the future and what they wanted to do when they graduated from Hogwarts. Tamsyn wanted to become the Minister of Magic after traveling the world for a bit, perhaps even teaching at Hogwarts for a few years.
Harry didn't know what he wanted to do when he was older, only that he wanted to get away from the Dursleys; though he didn't share that with Tamsyn.
Harry had also told Tamsyn the reason why the Aurors and Dumbledore had shown up that day last week. They thought Sirius Black was after him, but when Harry told Tamsyn this she didn't seem surprised by it. She was completely calm- apart from the dark look in her blue eyes. But she blinked and it was gone before a smile replaced it.
"Don't worry, Harry. As long as you're with me, I won't let anyone hurt you, okay?" Tamsyn had told him, her smile never falling away or reaching her eyes; but still, Harry believed her.
They were currently in Harry's room over the Leaky Cauldron, doing the summer reading for their respective years. Tamsyn read up on curses and counter-curses with bright eyes as Harry read the introduction about hexes, jinxes, and dark creatures. They both pause at the sound of loud clambering footsteps charging up the stairs; both Harry and Tamsyn look at one another, confused, before the door to his room bursts open.
"Harry!" the familiar voice of one of Harry's best friends calls out as the door crashes open. Harry turns to see the bright red hair and freckled face of Ron Weasley.
"Ron!" Harry calls back in pleasant surprise as he smiles as he places his book to the side. "What are you doing here? I thought you and your family were in Egypt for the summer," he says as he gets up from his chair that sat across a small table from Tamsyn with a tray of tea and biscuits. Harry chooses to ignore the snarling angry look Tamsyn gives Ron as he storms into the room.
"Dumbledore got a hold of Mum and Dad a week ago and asked if we could come back a bit early and let you stay with us," Ron says with a large grin, causing Harry to blink in surprise at his words. Dumbledore had spoken to Harry about him staying with other people and not just in The Leaky Cauldron, but he never said who. It was a surprise, to say the least, to know that Mrs. Weasley agreed, seeing that he had known Ron for less than a year.
"But why?" Harry asks, his confusion clear on his face as his face scrunched as he is unable to come up with a good reason. But as Ron opens his mouth to answer, a voice like thunder calls down from the hallway.
"RONALD WEASLEY!" the voice yells in a tone that reminds Harry of a coming storm; the tone of the voice is like a crack of lightning that causes all three children to flinch in fear. "HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU NOT TO LEAVE MY SIGHT!?" the voices yell as heavy footsteps lead to the room before the door swings open with force. "Well, young man? What do you have to say for yourself-" the short redheaded woman says with her hands on her hips before she abruptly turns to Harry. "Harry, dear! There you are, oh look at- you're a picture of James, how are you deary?" she says with a soft smile before turning back to Ron with a glare.
Ron's mom, Molly Weasley, wasn't a tall woman, nor was she particularly mean-looking- but she was extremely formidable to Harry. Her sheer presence standing in the doorway reminded Harry of a mother bear he'd once seen on a muggle telly as she stood up on its hind legs.
"Er,...I'm-ah,...good?" Harry says, turning to eye a pale and shrinking Ron before turning to look at an equally shrinking Tamsyn.
"Well, that's good to hear, Harry," Mrs. Weasley says with the same soft smile and eyes before they turn hard as she looks at her son. "And you, how many times must I tell you not to run off like that, Ronald," she says with an aggravated huff as Percy, Ron's oldest brother still in Hogwarts, appears behind his mother, trying to hide an amused smile at his little brother's predicament.
"It was just up the stairs, Mum," Ron says guiltily as he looks down at his feet.
"And how would I know that, hm?" The stern woman says with a shake of her head before stepping into the room. "You were first through the floo and then off you shot to somewhere while I was stepping through without a word of where you were going," she tells her son before stopping before him; her lips pinched in disappointment. "Next time you run off, I would at least like to know where you are going, am I understood?" Mrs. Weasley says, but her anger at Ron had all but died away as she spoke; her words turning soft and stern.
"Yes, mum," Ron intones without looking at his mother as both Harry and Tamsyn look on in confusion.
"Good, now let's not be too rude and why don't you introduce me like a proper young man should?" Mrs. Weasley says while raising a brow at her youngest son.
"But you already know-" Ron begins to say before he is cut off by both his mom and Tamsyn coughing lightly. Ron's head drops as he sighs as Percy snickers behind his mother's back. "Mum, this is Harry Potter, my friend from Hogwarts. Harry, this is my Mum Molly Weasley," Ron intones dryly while motioning between Harry and his Mum. At his words, Molly comes sweeping into the room with a large smile on her face as Harry sticks out his hand to shake hers.
"Hello Ma'am, it's nic-" Harry says to Molly, only to find himself swept up in a hug from the woman.
"Oh, Harry dear, it's a pleasure," Molly says as she hugs him tightly for a moment before letting him go to step back and give him a large smile. "Look at you, I wasn't lying when I said you look just like James," she tells him with a bright smile. "But your eyes," Molly says more softly. "Those are Lilly's eyes through and through,"
Harry blinks twice in confusion. "You know my mum and dad?" Harry asks, tilting his head to the side in question.
"I did, yes," Molly confirms as she takes a step back from Harry. "Me and my husband, Arthur, didn't know them as well as Remus or...well, it doesn't matter. We met while helping Albus with something some time ago, even helped your mum with preparing for you," she informs Harry.
"Who's Remus?" Harry asks, causing Molly to be the one who looks at the other confused.
"Remus. Remus Lupin?" She supplies, watching Harry with sharp eyes. "Surely you know him? He has written to you, yes?" She asks and watches with growing indignation as Harry slowly shakes his head. "I…see," Molly says gruffly, almost in anger as a fire begins to burn behind her eyes. A sight that informed Harry why Ron was so scared of invoking his mother's wrath; something he could no longer argue against. Thankfully, the angry silence was broken as Tamsyn let out another small cough. The sound had the effect of breaking Molly out of her look of righteous rage as she turned to Tamsyn.
"Oh, dear me. Where are my manners," Molly says with a shake of her head as she steps around Harry and walks over the Tamsyn. "My apologies, dear. Molly Weasley, and you are?" She asks the black-haired girl sitting properly in the chair by the window.
"I'm Tamsyn. Tamsyn Riddle, Ma'am," Tamsyn informs Molly as she stands and does a small curtsy, but Molly isn't having it. She sweeps Tamsyn into a hug, shocking the girl as she's pulled into Molly's warm embrace. Her eyes shot wide as she looked between Harry and Ron in shock, Molly's touch causing her to flinch and stiffen, much like Harry did when Molly hugged him a moment ago.
"Now, while it's a pleasure to meet you dear, I'm afraid we are on a rather tight schedule," Molly says as she steps away from Tamsyn and turns to Harry. "Are you all packed, dear, or do you need some help?" She offers Harry with a smile. Harry frowned for a moment before turning to Tamsyn. She was smiling at him, and if he was anyone else, Harry probably would have never noticed the look of pain in her eyes.
Molly notices the look between both Harry and Tamsyn. "Not to worry dear, I'm sure she can come over to The Burrow in a few days after you settle in," she tells Harry as she pays his shoulder. "I'll contact her parents in a few days to ask-" she continues, but stops as she sees the slight flinch on Harry's face before turning to Tamsyn with a frown and a raised brow.
"I- I live in a group home, Ma'am. I've never met my parents," Tamsyn tells her plainly as if she were discussing the weather and her smile never wavers.
"Oh, dear," Molly says as her lips fall into a small frown and her hand covers her heart. "I'm so sorry dear, I didn't mean- I didn't know," she says with a sigh before falling quiet for a moment, her eyes flickering between Harry and Tamsyn for a moment before her eyes take on a strange gleam. "Percy," she suddenly says, turning to her oldest child in the room. "Could you help Harry pack and get him and Ron back home by yourself? I want to make sure Tamsyn gets to a safe place," Molly asks Percy, watching as the older boy frowns a bit.
"But I thought we were going to the owl emporium?" Percy notes as he shuffles uncomfortable with something.
"I know, Percy. I know, and I promise we'll do it another time. It's just I'd rather not have you boys wandering the Alley considering…everything going on at the moment," Molly tells Percy, her eyes traveling over to Harry as she says the last part. Percy didn't look too happy with his mother's request, his lips pressing into a thin line, and he looked ready to argue with her, but after a moment, he let out a sigh, and his shoulders sagged in defeat.
"I understand, Mum. I'll make sure they get back home safe and sound," Percy tells his mother as she beams at him with a proud smile.
Harry turns to Tamsyn, who is slowly collecting her books and slipping them back into her bookbag, her false smile still placed on her face. Harry could see her dark blue eyes shining with pain, anger, and sadness, but she said nothing about how she felt; she never did around other people.
Tamsyn pulls the strap to her bag over her head before turning to Harry. "I guess this is goodbye for now," she says pleasantly, but to Harry, it rang hollow.
"Yeah," he admits with a frown, turning his eyes downward.
"I'll see you on September first in any case, just a few weeks away," Tamsyn tells him while adjusting her bag. "I'll be-"
"-in the last compartment on the left, I know," Harry interrupts her, looking up at her with a sad smile that she returns with a nod.
"Just- just be careful, okay Harry?" Tamsyn asks him, her smile faltering a bit as she speaks. "I want to see you on that train come September, so don't do anything foolish, understand me?" She tells him, but from Tamsyn, it sounded more like an order. Harry smiles at her, large and bright, and makes Tamsyn's face flush red before he decides to do something both foolish and brave.
Harry walks over to her and hugs Tamsyn.
Tamsyn freezes under Harry's arms before, very slowly, she returns the hug as she buries her face into his hair. They both squeeze one another, neither really wanting to let the other go for the longest one. For one fleeting moment, Harry is pulled back to the abandoned classroom Dumbledore found them in, where they sat alone; just the two of them finding comfort in one another.
After another moment, they broke apart. Stepping away from each other, the two of them share a small smile.
Mrs. Weasley looks moments of saying something borderline embarrassing as she calls Tamsyn over to her before. With one last look shared between both Harry and Her, they leave. Packing up Harry's things didn't take long for how little that he had in the room even with Dumbledore delivering his trunk from the Dursleys. Thankfully, Tom, The Innkeeper, was more than willing to shrink his trunk for him to carry. The next hour passed in a blur of learning how to use the floo, arriving at the Burrow with Ron and Percy, meeting the twins once more, and introducing Harry to their little sister, Ginny; who blushed and ran away from him after he said hello to her.
Ron spent the rest of the time showing him around his home -a real magical home!- "It's not much, but it's home," he had told Harry sheepishly, but Harry thought it was brilliant! As they were coming down the steps of that lead up to all the bedrooms, the floor flared once more.
"Brilliant! Mum must be coming back; I'm starving," Ron said with a grin right before a figure was thrown from the fireplace in a spin, causing Ron's smile to drop in horror.
For standing in his living room, looking lost and frazzled, was Tamsyn Riddle clutching her bag to her chest with wild eyes and a slightly green complexion. Both Harry and Ron were almost too busy looking at her in shock and amazement; they almost missed Ron's mother stepping from the floor next, dusting ash and soot off of herself.
Mrs. Weasley looks over to both of them with a smile and a glint of mischief in her eyes as she catches Harry's look. "It seems we'll be having one more guest for the summer," she tells them with a sweet smile.
The Burrow.
Mrs. Weasley had somehow talked the matron of Tamsyn's group home into letting her stay at the Weasley home for the rest of the summer. A fact that had both Tamsyn and himself smiling over it no matter how long it was ago. Not even Ron's dad, Arthur Weasley, was mad at the fact. He had simply returned from work at dinner time with a call to his family and a kiss on his wife's cheek before taking a seat at the table and beginning to eat with his family. It wasn't until he asked for someone to pass the salt that he finally noticed two more people sitting in his home seeing that it was Tamsyn that passed it to him.
Mr. Weasley paused as he stared at Tamsyn, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Molly love, did you have two more children when I wasn't looking?" He asked, looking down the table to his wife on the other end. Without missing a beat, Mrs. Weasley looks up from her meal to look her husband in the eye.
"Yes, I also had an affair with the milkman to have them," she told him deadpan before taking a bite of chicken.
"Ah!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed. "That would explain the darker hair," he said with a fond smile that had his wife chuckling before he turned back to Harry and Tamsyn, who were sitting next to one another. "You must be Harry Potter; Ron and the Twins have had nothing but good things to say about you," he tells Harry with a smile; Harry smiles back as Mr. Weasley turns to Tamsyn. "But I don't think I know you," he offers with a raised brow.
"Oh- yes, my name is Tamsyn Riddle, sir. Your wife offered to let me stay over the summer with Harry; I'm his friend," Tamsyn replied with a polite smile and a nod, one that Mr. Weasley returned.
"Well, the more the merrier, I suppose," he told her before taking a sip of his drink, and a look of curiosity came over his face. "Riddle, that's a muggle name isn't it?" He asked turning back to Tamsyn, his eyes lighting up.
"Yes,...sir," Tamsyn said as she fought to keep the smile on her face, Harry frowned as he could see her bunching her skirt in a fist from her own anger at the subject.
"Excellent! Maybe you could help me with a question about muggles then, tell me," Mr. Weasley says as he looks back at his plate to cut up his food. "What is the function of a rubber ducky?" He asked Tamsyn before taking a bite of his own chicken and began to chew. Harry nearly laughed at the bafflement on Tamsyn's face at the question as amusement danced in Mr. Weasley's eyes.
Tamsyn wouldn't say it, but Harry was pretty sure she hated staying with the Weasleys. Too many people and too little space, and she had to share a room with Ginny at night the soon-to-be first year had taken to Tamsyn like an older sister asking all sorts of questions- needless to say, Tamsyn hated it and for the life of Harry, he couldn't figure out why she was putting up with it. They spent most of their time outside of the Burrow as being in the countryside was a bit of an oddity for two kids who grew up in the suburbs and downtown London. When they weren't doing chores or when Harry wasn't hanging out with the Twins and Ron, he and Tamsyn spent most of their time in the apple orchard behind the property reading and enjoying the quiet together.
While the Weasley children complain about the chores, Tamsyn and Harry do them without complaint. From mundane things of feeding the chickens, to the more magical of de-gnoming the garden. Both Harry and Tamsyn agreed that helping Mrs. Weasley with the household chores where she had taught them both housekeeping charms and old family spells passed down from mother to daughter and father to son over the space of years.
When Tamsyn brought up the Law against underage magic, Mrs. Weasley brushed it aside with a weird frown on her face.
"The law was created to protect the secret of our world dear and mainly for Muggleborns, sadly enough," Molly explained with a disappointed shake of her head. "You'll find in most magical communities that while it is illegal, it's often overlooked so long as the children have responsible supervision around," she told them as she waved her wand to set the kitchen table for supper.
"So the law mainly targets Mu-Muggleborns and their parents because the Ministry doesn't think of them as responsible?" Tamsyn asked politely, her brow raised but an angry look in her eyes.
"I'm afraid so," Molly said with a flat and angry look.
Harry had no idea why that had made Tamsyn angry. He had tried to ask but she deflected the question, anger still simmering in her blue eyes whenever he asked. But both he and Tamsyn learned a lot of useful charms from Mrs. Weasley: how to make vegetables bigger to feed more people, how to charm knives to slice and chop things, a charm to set the table, and one that would make the dishes clean themselves.
"If only I could do that at the Dursleys," Harry had thought sourly to himself when Molly was teaching them. It was a dark thought that sent him spiraling into memories of all the times he had broken a dish or burnt something only to be yelled at, hurt, and forced into the cupboard. He hated remembering these things, especially at the Burrow- a house that couldn't be more different than the Dursleys. It was these times that Harry would seek out isolation, to be alone with his thoughts and old pains but he would never be alone for long.
It was as if Tamsyn knew what he was doing or thinking at any or every moment of the day and came to find him. She would never talk or ask questions; she would just sit next to him as a silent, accepting company. Leaning on him slightly just to show Harry she was there for him and him alone, it was…comforting to him as he leaned against her as well.
It was during one of these times, a few weeks after he and Tamsyn had come to stay at the Burrow, did Mrs. Weasley came calling for Harry.
For one heart-stopping moment, Harry panicked because he thought he had done something wrong and Molly was going to send him back to the Dursleys. But instead of his dark thoughts becoming reality, all Mrs. Weasley wanted was to introduce him to someone.
He was a lanky man with sandy blond hair, small scars lining his face, and dark bags set under his eyes. He was pale, almost sickly so, with a bone-deep weariness set deep in his hunched form as he was preparing himself a cuppa. He wore a worn-down muggle tweed suit with patches sewn into his elbows and along the bottom of the blazer. His icy blue eyes looked up as Harry and Tamsyn entered the kitchen, and in them flashed so many emotions that Harry wasn't sure he caught them all. Regret, sadness, anger, surprise, were the few Harry caught flickering through the man's eyes as he looked at him.
The man suddenly coughs lightly into his hand. "Excuse me," he says before standing from his seat and walking over to Harry. "While this isn't the first time we've met, I do believe this is the first time that you would remember," the sick man says with a sad smile. "I'm Remus Lupin; I was a," he supplies before Harry cuts him off.
"Friend of my mom and dad," Harry says, looking at the man with wide eyes.
"Yes, though I was more of a friend with James if I was being honest," Remus tells him with a smile before sticking out his hand to shake Harry's. "It's nice to meet you again, Harry," he says as Harry stares at his hand. There was an awkward moment of Harry just looking at the man's hand, causing Remus to turn to Molly in confusion. It wasn't until Tamsyn gave Harry a small shove that caused him to snap out of his melancholy and take that final step forward to shake the man's hand.
Harry couldn't help it. The question slipped from his mouth before he could stop himself as he looked up at Remus' eyes.
"Where have you been all this time?" Harry asks, and watches as that same sadness for the moment Remus saw Harry return with a vengeance.
"I haven't been…well," Remus says with a face of a lifetime of regrets bubbling to the surface. "I haven't been well for almost eleven years," he tells Harry with a sad smile.
Chapter done!
Molly Weasley: "The elites don't want you to know this but the orphans at the Leaky Cauldron are free. You can take them home, I have two Orphans."
And boy howdy, it has been a month for me. Seasonal depression and burnout has been hitting me hard as well as one of my brothers passing away and having to see my family again.
(Please don't, I don't like any of them at all)
But I was able to do another chapter of pure fluff for my own soul, which has been somewhat of a balm to my spirit.
Y'all have some happy holidays.
Kingsaxcul, out!