Chapter Fifty
Danica stood at the airport trying to keep everything straight in her head, and trying to both forget and remember the tear filled goodbye with her mother that morning.
It was seven o'clock currently, it had been only just past four when Lily had gently shaken her awake feeling like she'd not slept at all.
Her dark, straight hair was now muddy blonde and wavy, only just reaching her shoulders, caught back in a bright pink bow on the top of her head. She wore a comfortable dress with white tights, and was pulling a small suitcase with a face on it behind her.
"You must be excited for your first flight!" the smiley man behind the desk said, beaming down at her, "Your mummy and daddy say you've never been on an aeroplane before!"
"No, I haven't." Danica said politely, "Neither has Teddy though so I don't feel so left out."
Tonks and Remus laughed, Tonks holding Luca a little closer.
"Teddy is only a few weeks old!" Tonks smiled, kissing the top of Danica's head, "But I don't think he's as excited as you are!"
"Well I wish you all a very happy flight. Here are your boarding passes and your luggage has gone through no worries! It'll see you in Maine!"
Remus and Tonks thanked him. Remus pulled the large rucksacks that had their things for the plane onto his shoulder while Tonks tightly gripped Danica's hand, holding Luca in the other.
They'd agreed, any problems Tonks was to take the children and apparate out of there while Remus tried to hold whoever it was off, thankfully so far there hadn't been any issues.
Remus took another swig of his polyjuice potion and flinched slightly. He looked younger than normal, mid twenties at the latest, with a shock of blond hair, neatly trimmed, and a slightly crooked nose.
Tonks was also blonde, in tight ringlets that fell to her shoulders. She looked far more 'girly girl' than she was used to, and kept fighting the urge to pull at her floaty skirt.
They grabbed themselves and Danica some sandwiches and drinks from the little shop, before making their way to security.
"Have you flown before?" a smart looking woman, with bright red lipstick and matching suit asked.
Danica shook her head, "No, this is the first time ever!"
That wasn't a lie, Danica had never even seen a plane on the ground before, let alone been on one. She'd have been very excited under different circumstances.
"Well I hope you have a brilliant flight… Danielle" the lady smiled, looking at Danica's passport, "Can you just walk through here for me? Your mummy and daddy will follow."
Danica did as she was told, pulling her hand free from Tonks's.
"So… who's this little one?" the lady asked, still smiling.
"Lewis." Tonks smiled, "And here's his fit to fly letter."
"Perfect." the lady smiled, scanning her eyes over it, "I just need to wave this over him…"
She waved a metal detector over his blankets and hat, that was hiding his colour changing hair, and then rubbed another stick, with a smooth cotton pad over the blankets as well, before inserting the cotton pad into a machine.
"And you are the legal mother to both of these children, Mrs Fey Carter?" the woman asked, checking Tonks matched her passport photo.
"Yes." Tonks nodded, "That's correct."
"On you go." the woman smiled.
Tonks hurried to Danica and gasped her hand firmly, breathing slightly easier now Danica was back holding her hand.
Remus stepped forwards and waited while his picture was checked with his passport.
"Mr Rex Cater?" the woman checked, Remus nodded, "And you are the legal father of the children?"
"I am." Remus said.
"Brilliant." the woman smiled, typing a few things into the computer at her side, "That's all sorted, you'll be given declaration cards on the plane, please fill them out carefully and feel free to ask for help if you do not understand any of the questions. Have a pleasant flight."
Tonks could feel her heartbeat slowing now they were back together. They wandered through security, having people check their bags, passports, boarding cards and visas more times than they could count.
Finally they were left in the large, open and very busy waiting area, watching the planes come in on the other side of a huge stretch of glass.
Tonks fed Luca, Remus played with Danica. They all ate their breakfast sandwiches and huddled together, trying not to show how terrified they truly were.
It wasn't long, but it felt like forever, before they were called into another line where their documents were all checked again and they were finally allowed onto the windy runway.
Tonks held tightly to Danica's hand, babbling about her not running off. It was hurting Danica's hand, being held so tightly, but she didn't care. The pain was keeping her grounded, stopping the building panic from consuming her completely.
She'd burst into tears when Lily had told her she was going away, that she would have to call Tonks and Remus her mummy and daddy, and pretend that Luca was her baby brother. There were no words to explain the pain that had ripped through her as her mother had spoken, it was worse than becoming a wolf for sure.
Even now, after Lily had spent the last few days doing little other than holding her tightly, there was a nasty voice in the back of Danica's mind wondering if Lily just wanted to get rid of her, like Severus had.
She wasn't sure she could blame them if that was the case.
She'd bitten Lily once, during one of her transformations. It was how they'd found out that Danica couldn't create further werewolves, which was something at least, but she was still an outcast and likely always would be.
Everyone in the house tried to pretend it wasn't the case but she'd caught snatches of newspapers that said she wasn't even counted as human any more, and really, who would want a child like that?
Danica shook her head and lay it against the cool glass window that she could just reach from her seat and took several deep breaths.
She was loved, her mother loved her, Harry loved her, Lucius and Nikka loved her amongst many many more. This was because of the war, plain and simple. But it's difficult to fight against your own mind and doubts.
Tonks adjusted Luca so he was feeding as the plane started its engines up, she'd read it would help stop his ears from popping.
Two smartly dressed ladies, in heels which Danica thought was very impractical for a plane, gave them a safety demonstration, telling them how to put on their seatbelts and how to escape the plane if they crashed.
"We're going to crash?!" Danica shrieked, causing a ripple of kind laughter around them.
"It's very, very unlikely." one of the ladies said kindly, "But we have to tell you what to do, just in case."
Just in case was something Danica had heard a lot lately.
She forced a smile and nodded, "Thank you." Danica said, ignoring the people around her.
They finished the safety demonstration and checked everyone was correctly seated and strapped in, double checking Luca and the two other babies on board that had special seatbelts, allowing them to stay in their parent's arms.
Taking off hurt Danica's ears, even with the sweet she was sucking to try and stop her ears from feeling like they were going to explode.
Once they were up in the clouds though, Danica decided it was all worth it.
She undid her seatbelt when the light went off and knelt up on the seat to get a better view of the strange land she was seeing, nothing but soft, white clouds stretching on for miles and miles. Filling the sky with untouchable valleys and hills.
"There have to be fairies living up here." Danica whispered, "It's so pretty."
Tonks smiled, stroking her hair, "I think you might well be right."
Ten hours was a long flight, but it hadn't been half as bad as they'd been expecting. The ear popping mostly went away once they were up in the air, the view was ever changing and never anything less than amazing.
Danica made up enough stories to write a children's library. A nice man sitting behind them listened to the stories as well, congratulating her on the good bits and suggesting improvements.
Danica sat colouring in sheets of paper from the images in her buzzing imagination. Remus and Tonks had brought colouring pencils with them so she could draw, but the nice man behind them gave Danica a set of twenty four gel pens with glitter in them that smelt like cakes or fruit.
The food was awful, but they'd brought extra sandwiches with them so Danica wasn't hungry, and none of them were particularly hungry anyway, apart from Luca who was blissfully unaware of what was going on around him and guzzled down his milk as always.
Tonks stared fondly out of the window, "We miss so much sometimes…"
Remus pulled her close and nodded, "Oh yes. How many of 'us' do you think have ever had the wonder of seeing this?"
The sun never set up there as they were travelling, a few times they saw the edges of pink and orange as the sun started to go down behind them but they soon sped away, leaving them with the feeling of never ending daylight.
"Please prepare for landing by fastening your seatbelts, making sure all luggage is stored safely in the over head lockers or under the seat in front of you and your seat trays and seat backs are in the upright position. We shall be landing at approximately 3pm, local time. Weather is sunny with a slight breeze. We hope you have enjoyed your flight."
Tonks made sure that Danica was strapped in, which meant dragging her away from the window, before putting Luca back in his seatbelt. Going down wasn't as bad as going up, although they all felt like their stomachs were travelling slower than the rest of them were. Tonks was used to the feeling, being fond on diving around on her broom so it didn't bother her as much as it it did Remus and Danica.
Danica was sad to see her cloud world disappear from her window, promising herself she would see it again soon.
They waited until everyone else had left the plane to get off, seeing no point in pushing forward and walked down the steps onto a whole new country. There was something strangely more magical stepping off the plane than apparating somewhere.
"Stay close." Tonks said quietly to Danica, her hand gripping her wand tightly, hidden in Luca's blankets.
Danica nodded, but pulled her hand from Tonks's and skipped up to the man who'd been sitting behind her, "I wanted to give you this." she said, handing him a picture she'd drawn of very sparkly fairies living in the clouds, "As a thank you for the pens."
The man smiled kindly, "Thank you sweetheart." he said, in his American accent, "I'll put it up on my refrigerator!"
Danica beamed at him and ran back to Tonks, gripping her hand tightly.
They walked into the huge building and joined the long queue of people waiting to be checked over before they were allowed out of the airport.
Both Tonks and Remus felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end, someone was watching them.
Remus took another swig of potion and talked happy nothings to Tonks, glancing around causally as they were shepherded into another queue to have their passports stamped.
There was no doubt about it, two women, who they assumed would be witches, in long black coats were following them for sure. They both had their hair pulled back tightly into buns, and minimal make-up, their hands shoved deep in their pockets.
"I see them." Remus whispered, in answer to the look Tonks gave him, "Do we…?"
Tonks felt her blood start to rush, the way it always did when danger got close. It helped her think, there were a lot of people around here, would Death Eaters risk an attack in front of all these muggles?
She was just about to suggest they went to the bathroom, so they could apparate out, when she felt Danica's hand slip from her own, a small noise escaping Danica's mouth.
A man, also dressed in a long black coat hand hold of Danica's hand, "If you will please come with me Mr and Mrs Lupin?"
"Carter." Tonks said firmly, "You must be mistaken, our name is Carter, now please hand me my daughter and you may check our passports." sounding very English compared to the wizard who was still holding tightly to Danica's hand, even though she was twisting to try and get free.
"There will be no need for that." one of the women said, kindly but firmly, "You can try and run… but I some how doubt you'll leave Danica here. Your wands please?"
Tonks and Remus looked at one another, feeling panic growing painfully. Tonks hated herself for the split second thought she had of leaving. It wasn't that she would leave Danica or Remus, her instincts just screamed at her to protect Luca.
"Go." Remus said quickly to Tonks.
The other woman placed a hand on Tonks's arm, "Really, we must insist."
Remus and Tonks found themselves handing over their wands, unable to think of what else to do. Danica kept pulling at the hand holding her own, still getting no where other than bruising her wrist. She thought about screaming, but if these were bad people, they would hurt Luca or the nice man who gave her the pens; not to mention Tonks and Remus.
The three black coated people led them through a side door, away from the lines of people, the door vanishing into the wall behind them. They were led into a small, very white room with three seats on one side of a metal table, and one on the other.
"You are Nymphadora Lupin, nee Tonks. Remus Lupin, your son Luca Tonks-Lupin and where it gets a little more complicated, Danica Snape, who is not, in fact, your daughter." the man said, reading from a small scroll of parchment, "Is that all correct?"
"Yes." Tonks coughed, wondering how it had all managed so quickly to go so wrong, "What do you want?"
"To help." One of the women said gesturing to a chair, "We're from the Magical Congress of the United States of America, cross boarder department."