Friday 1st January 1982

Remus and Tonks' Flat, 00:00

Fireworks exploded in the distance. Green. Silver. Red and gold. Oh, there was some blue. That had been a big one. That was smaller. And another big one. Remus scrunched up his nose as the sky continued to change colours and tried to resist the urge to cover his ears. Why did fireworks have to make that horrible whistling noise as they went up? He hated that more than the actual BOOM. High pitched whistling noises were murder on his ears. And he couldn't even use ear plugs because one, most didn't work against werewolf hearing and two, he wouldn't be able to hear Teddy if he got up in the middle of the night. And he certainly wasn't going to let Dora get up. He looked over to the bed where she was sleeping peacefully. How with all this noise? He wasn't sure. But she was sleeping and she was going to stay that way.

She'd had long shifts recently, being on the clean-up crew for Death Eater raids tended to mean your hours were long. Between making sure there were no traps left over, reversing spell damage, rounding up accomplices that weren't the major Death Eaters and logging everything and who knows what else- It was a lot. She had been too tired to even say how her days went never mind explain what she had been doing. So, there was definitely no way Remus was going to risk her waking up tonight.

A new year meant new possibilities. New hope. New start. That's what people always said, right? That's why they all looked forward to it no matter what happened the previous year. Or maybe it was more like in spite of what happened the previous year. Either one of those things Remus could get behind.

Last year had not been a good year. Which was ridiculous as the war had ended last year. Well, closer to the end of last year bit still, a major event tended to skew people's perceptions of the rest of the time. It was actually most people's best year. But not his. Oh no, not his.

How was he supposed to celebrate the war being over when they had lost people. The most important people to them. And not just by death either, he tried not to think too hard about Sirius. No. He had to stop thinking like that. Je had to be positive. Try to get at least a little bit into the spirit of the New Year. Because the new year was supposed to be hopeful and good and new and fill of possibilities.

And there were a lot of things that could be possible this coming year. He just had to remain hopeful. That was all he had to do.

Except that was really hard to do. No. No thinking like that. He wasn't going to shoot it down before it even got a chance to take off. No more thinking like that. He had been saying that a lot to himself recently but who could blame him when he had all of these thoughts swirling about his head? There were food and bad thoughts there. It was just sometimes easier to focus on the bad ones. Really easy. But no more! He was serious this time. He was going to make an active effort to think happily. Be positive. It couldn't be that hard, could it? He had thugs that he was happy about.

Like the fact that Teddy was starting to choose colours for his hair that wasn't just a reflection of the people around him. Though, that had made it easy to tell who he had been focusing on. Lime green was his current favourite when he was looking at himself in the mirror. He only really came up with his own colours when he was looking in a mirror. Which was fair enough because that was the only way he could see his little bit of hair. It still stuck up straight like he had been electrocuted. It was so funny. He and Dora loved it. And the fact that it infuriated Andromeda. The lengths she went to try and flatten Teddy's hair was hilarious. Slicking it down with hair gel did work but it was an even worse result. Somehow telling her that the Potter hair was even worse didn't make her feel better. Oh well, Remus was sure it would lie flat eventually. He wasn't a Potter, after all.

Marlene had talked to him about seeing if she could go back to work. She had only meant to be on a temporary suspension after all, while this whole Sirius thing was being sorted out. But he was in Azkaban and no further investigation had seemed to have happened. They had appeared to forget about her. So, she was going to try. That was good. He thought that work would be good for her. Take her mind off things. Hopefully that would happen quickly but he didn't know how much had to be sorted out. And unfortunately, he couldn't be much help there.

He could be a lot of help full stop now that they weren't researching laws and Azkaban and everything. It was just back to normal life for him. Which, besides his family wasn't much.

New year. New year. New year. New year. If he just said it enough time to himself maybe the positivity would come.

Monday 4th January 1982

Auror Department 10:00

Today was a new day. Today was a new day. That's what she kept on repeating to herself ever since she woke up this morning. Today was a new day. Today was a new day. It was a new day and it was going to go well. It was going to go in her favour. Maybe if she kept repeating it then it would come true. That's what she was hoping anyway.

Because she had been having a pretty crummy set of days recently. Not exactly bad days, that was a bit dramatic, but something always seemed to go wrong just enough that she couldn't classify it as a good day. Either she did something stupid or wrong or she remembered something that she really didn't want to think about or she got annoyed at someone and shouted. Sometimes it was all four but if it was all four then that normally made a crummy day a bad day, if that made sense. Whatever. All that mattered was that she wanted today to be a good day.

It wasn't until lunchtime and she all but flung herself onto a chair with a plate of sausages and chips in front her (Hey, she never said that a good day meant that she was going to be healthy) that she got a chance to think. Dora wasn't sure if it was her internal chanting or all the stars aligned or what but today was turning out to be a pretty good day.

Moody was a pretty awesome person to have teaching you. Was he rough around the edges? Almost definitely. Was he blunt? Absolutely. Was the work hard? Oh yes it was. And she loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Even on the days where she had to say that to herself through gritted teeth. The days were sweat stung her eyes and every part of her ached. The days were her head throbbed and her eyes stung from trying to remember everything. Trying to learn everything. Because there was so much to learn from someone like Moody and she wasn't about to let this opportunity pass her by.

So, she worked hard. As hard as she could. She put in the practice at the duelling ring they had, it was technically the Auror Academy's ring but fully fledged Aurors also used it to keep their skills sharp. It was better than a traditional duelling ring because it mimicked street terrain and could be configured to be full of obstacles. Lile the real world was. Good Aurors, the best Aurors, were never the best a formal duelling because they were good at duelling in the streets. Which is why she was using the street terrain one. There were four of them in the Academy, one for traditional duelling, one with the training dummies so multiple Trainees could use at the same time, the third was basically and obstacle course with targets you had to hit with spells on your way round and the fourth was the one she had first described.

She was pretty familiar with the first three, it was what she had mainly used when she was a Trainee. The last one, the street terrain one, was only really used for your final set of practical exams before you became and Auror or, like she was doing now, by actual Aurors wanting to keep their skills sharp.

Not that she had seen much of that happening when she was a Trainee because, you know, there had been a war going on. Trainees weren't exactly high on the priority list for, well, much of anything if she was being honest. The Ministry nor the Auror Academy had cared how well they did on their exams, just that they passed so that they could be thrown right into things. Woefully unprepared. Seriously. Moody shook his head at some of the things she didn't know, saying that they were crucial for being an Auror. Things that she should have been taught but hadn't. And as much as everyone was starting to hate the excuse, that's what happened when there had been a war going on.

Dora wasn't sure why older Aurors were getting so exasperated with that excuse. It wasn't even an excuse; it literally was the reason why some of her education and training was spotty. The war had just ended, what, three months ago? Not even?

Good day. It was supposed to be a good day.

Thursday 7th January 1982

Longbottom Manor, 13:00

She was feeling good today. Which was weird because nothing in particular had happened to make her feel good. She just felt good. Happy even. Light. And she didn't want to waste too much time overthinking it and spoiling her day so she didn't. Alice banished all such thoughts from her mind and let her smile on her face. She felt like she ought to be whistling though she didn't know how to whistle. She did know how to sing and hum, however, so she did that instead. Simply because she felt like it.

Oh, it felt good to be like this. She couldn't help but smile. Smiling was good, even if she hadn't done much of it recently so it made her cheeks feel a bit weird. But a good sort of weird. Because she was happy.

So happy that she even started to hum. Oh, she needed to do something, anything. Alice felt like she had more energy than she'd had in ages. This was good. This was fun. It made her feel all warm inside and want to do something. Anything. She may as well since she had the energy. She wanted to do something. But what?

She looked outside, dull and grey like January was wont to be. That wasn't going to change for another month or so but even that didn't get her down. It wasn't raining or snowing or sleeting. It wasn't even breezy, so she was going outside. Fresh air, that's what she wanted.

Wrapping herself up in a warm cloak and pulling on her boots, the days were always colder after Christmas and no matter how often the Elves cleared it, the path to the greenhouses always had slippy patches, she then proceeded to do the same for Neville. He always seemed to like joining her in the greenhouses. Though, he always tried to eat something. He had the most darling, little, leather boots that she used any excuse to put on him. Frank said it was ridiculous for him to wear them in the house. He didn't understand. Baby clothes weren't supposed to be useful or sensible. They were supposed to be cute. And Neville's were incredibly cute. She beamed as she got him dressed and couldn't help but kiss him on the nose. She knew that she wasn't supposed to, cheeks and forehead were the appropriate places to kiss a baby, but she couldn't help it. His little, round nose just asked to be kissed. And he seemed to like it, scrunching up his face and giggling when she did it, so it couldn't be that bad, could it?

"Now, we're both ready," she told him, picking him up.

That got her a very grumpy face, Neville didn't exactly like to be carried right now. He wanted to walk everywhere now that he was good at it. He was very slow but, then again, he was very small.

"You can't walk outside, sweetheart," she told him, though she still wasn't really sure that babies could understand you. "It's all icy outside and you might fall."

"Uh Oh!" Neville said at the word 'fall'.

It was what she and Frank said whenever he fell. They found that it stopped him from crying if it was just shock and not an injury, he was experience.

"Yes, 'uh oh'. No falling. So, let mummy carry you."

Surprisingly, Neville didn't put up a fuss as she carried him through the house and outside. Which was rather pleasant. It was much nicer carrying a happy baby than a screaming one.

It was also much nicer carrying him in the warmth of the greenhouse. She shivered as she closed the door behind her and let the heat engulf her. Oh, it really was cold outside.

"And this is where we get Murtlap Essence from," she was soon explaining.

"Oooh," Neville cooed.

Alice looked down at him and was pleased with what she saw. Neville's chubby little cheeks were still red, though now from the humidity in the greenhouse rather than the cold outside, and his eyes were wide like he was curious. Maybe he was curious. Did babies get curious? She wasn't sure. Or did he just look like that because he'd never seen it before and was trying to see it really well? Well, she was going to take it as him being curious. It was more fun that way.

"I think you'd like to see a Devil's Snare but daddy said no," Alice cooed. "Which is silly because I wouldn't let you touch it or anything. Mummy doesn't even touch that."

"Air."

"That's right, Devil's Snare! You're so clever!"

Maybe she could sneak him in to see it. Just really quickly. It wasn't like it was just out in the open, in was in a deep pit, like it was supposed to be.

"G'een!"

She was distracted from that particular thought as Neville reached for another plant.

Tuesday 12th January 1982

Café, 12:30

"You found one!" Dora exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearly everyone in the cafe.

She wouldn't normally meet her parents in a cafe, her mother wasn't the biggest fan of them (particularly the ones that Dora liked, with lots of greasy food) but needs must. She didn't have a spare minute these days now that Moody had taken her under his wing. So, the nearest cafe outside the Ministry it was. And boy was she glad that she got away today because her mother had just given her the best news ever.

"You found one?" She repeated far more quietly, albeit with the biggest smile she had ever smiled.

Andromeda rolled her eyes but nodded, replying even quieter again, "Yes, we found one."

Dora took a moment to process things, overwhelmed with the news. She almost couldn't believe it. If it was anyone other than her mother saying it then she wouldn't have believed it.

"That was quick."

If she was being honest, Dora hadn't expected her mother to find one at all. Because, as bad as it sounded, Sirius was viewed as a guilty man. The worst kind of guilty man, a traitor. To his best friend. And people didn't care how odd the whole situation was. How that simply wasn't Sirius. No, all that mattered was the drama around the case and the fact that he was now in Azkaban.

"I have some good contacts."

Now It was Tonks' turn to roll her eyes. Of course, that's how her mum managed it.

"Do you have to sound quite so much like a Slytherin?"

"Not when it's helping."

Well, she could exactly refute that. Dora pushed her chair closer to the table.

"Fine. Tell me everything."

Friday 15th January 1982

Dursley Home, 14:00

Petunia was happy. Yes, she could actually say that she was happy today. About all of today. Which was definitely something worth noting. Something normally went wrong at some point but not today.

Those stupid brats had finally stopped that crying nonsense. Honestly, how did get even have enough water inside them to produce that many tears? Whatever. She didn't care. All that she cared about was how long it took for them to shut up. Which was far too long in her opinion. It had been longer so she supposed it was getting better. Not quick enough, in her opinion.

Finally, they were starting to understand that every little cry wouldn't get them attention. Vernon was right they were just attention seekers. Just like their no-good parents. Lily had always been like that and that Potter boy was even worse. No. It did them good to be ignored. And it worked, no more silly crying. Just some snuffling noises every now and then as they still tested her. But they would learn. They would eat and get changed when she said so.

She had her routine. And routines were good for babies, everyone knew that. And she had a very strict schedule for them. She had it down to the very minute, that way she wouldn't spend longer with them than absolutely necessary. Everything was quick and efficient and she was quite proud of it, if she said so herself. Three babies and she was managing just fine. Other mums didn't have any cause for complaint if she could do this.

A loud wail came from Duddy's room and she rushed up the stairs. That was his annoyed cry, a mother always knew. He'd probably thrown a toy out of his cot and didn't realise that meant he couldn't get it back. Well, mummy would fix that for him, wouldn't she?