Listen
[1]
And now the three of them were in the headmistress' office, their wands removed and placed on the desk. Headmistress Minerva asked them if they wanted tea. None of them did, so she sipped it by herself as she waited.
For Al, waiting, even in a neutral circumstance, was a chore. It gave you too much time to think. Here, it was terrifying. All the Potter children had been paddled before, usually by their mom. It was only when they were bad, of course. They weren't like the idiots and assholes you saw in movies, where it was more about control or the person just having anger issues (much like Delphi). But being paddled gave you a certain fear of your parents, a certain hatred, especially when you felt like it wasn't really your fault. It made you want to go get a shovel and put them in the ground.
The door opened. Harry and Hermione came through together. The current Minister of Magic still had her curly, almost frizzy hair from childhood, now cut short. You didn't exactly need glasses to see all the gray in there now. Harry Potter's job was difficult but hers certainly more so, and it was probably why he only had a few gray lines here and there.
Their eyes, however, were just as fierce as before. Just as defiant. Minerva looked at them and felt a touch of what? Nostalgia? Why is it every time there's something, it's always you three? Yeah, she's said something like that once. Except Ronald Weasley wasn't with them now, looking at the floor along with Granger-Malfoy while Harry looked directly at Minerva. And as their school years went by, all of them would stare directly, understanding—and rightly so—that there were people on the planet far worse than her. And of the three of them had grown up into heroes, doing nothing but trying to serve and protect.
Looking at them, looking at their kids (of which Delphi was nearly an adult), Minerva suddenly felt old for the first time in a long time. How old would Albus Dumbledore be right now? 100? Something like that.
"Minerva, the Howler you sent to my husband came exploded very close to a dark artifact. Theo barely knocked it away in time. Problem is, he knocked it into a different dark artifact and now he and Draco are counter-charming the flood that broke out."
"I apologize for that error, Hermione. But considering the language your son used today, I needed you here fast. You're the Minister. I simply didn't believe the Howler would reach you."
"You'd be correct." Hermione stated. "We get about a hundred or so at the Ministry every day. We have a special spell for them and a special room."
"Is that so?"
"We'll listen to the one if we recognize the voice. I still remember yours after all this time."
"That's good to hear. Please have a seat."
The two parents sat down.
"I know you two are busy, so I'll dispense with the theatrics. Hermione, your son said the word shit. I heard him. He was getting knocked down when he said it, but I heard him say it."
Albus heard Hyper gulp.
"I see. Anything else?"
"Not right now." Minerva looked at Harry. "And your daughter—"
Harry held up a hand. He looked pissed. "No, no, Minerva! Let me guess. Shot in the dark. Completely random hunch. I'm probably way, way off. Delphi got into a fight again."
The upper corners of Minerva's lips twitched, which was probably her trying to suppress smile. "That's correct."
Harry threw up his hands, exasperated. Albus had to stifle a giggle.
"Mr. Potter. Please. I understand your frustration. Ms. Delphini has caused me a bit of frustration as well. Four different fights in six months. At this rate…I don't know that she'll graduate, even though it's her fifth year. All, I can say now, is that she is suspended for the rest of the year. I'm sorry."
[2]
Harry Potter had a lot of words for that. Not for Minerva, no. He honestly expected something like this would happen. Much sooner, as a matter of fact.
He had plenty of words for Delphi in that room. Plenty. He didn't just speak. He sermonized. Minerva told him to calm down. He didn't care. Hermione told him to calm down. He didn't care. Delphi was in tears at the end of it. He still didn't care. Five years he had to put up with this. At least a dozen Howlers, countless detentions, a mother of a victim threatening a civil suit, property damage to Hogwarts which naturally Harry and Ria would have to pay for, all the visits Ria and him had to pay to the headmistress' office. And now, she was going to be held back a year, in spite of her good grades. He was sick of it. He was sick of her. All of his anger issues, and he never got into fights like Delphini Potter. He didn't even think Dudley got into fights like Delphini.
Hermione finally put a cautious hand on his shoulder. He looked at her and she looked back. "That's enough, Harry."
Harry sighed. He ran a hand through his messy hair. For the first time in a long time, he felt old too. "Forget it. Let's go, Delphi."
Al finally spoke up. "Dad."
"Not now, Al."
"It's important."
"Not now."
Al stood up. "I absolutely have to tell you something."
Harry looked down at his son, Albus Potter with his very dark brown hair, and large nose (that all his kids got from Ria) and blue-gray eyes. People were fond of saying James and Harry might as well have been clones. Delphi looked like him a lot as well. Al looked more like Ria, which might explain why Harry had a strange, primal fear of him, just like he'd been afraid of Ria all those years ago...although he couldn't remember why.
Al put both hands in front of his face, like he was praying. "Please. It can't wait."
He glanced at Delphi, who was still sniffling and staring down at the floor.
Harry smiled weakly at him. "All right, kiddo. We can talk in the hall."
[3]
They were in the hall now. Minerva, Hermione and Scorpius were still in the headmistress' office. According to Al, it was the first time the Malfoy kid got sent here for any reason. Al too, shockingly enough even though Harry knew for a fact he had a vulgar mouth. James had been here quite a few times, and Delphi might as well have designated chair.
"Okay, Al. What is it that can't wait?"
Al didn't know how to start. He was terrified he would fuck all this up, just like he'd told the man in the white room. Not only would he not help his dad, he would look like a complete ass. "You got a prisoner a few days ago, right?"
"Huh?"
"A prisoner that the Equalists had." Al said. "A young man, about 25 or 26. His name is Stevenson."
Harry scratched his head. He was feeling confused now. That and afraid. "Yeah, but how did you know that?"
"I had another weird dream. In that dream was a weird man. He told me to ask you a question."
"I'm not following, Al." Harry said. "Who is this man?"
"I don't know."
Harry shook his head, and Al felt glass shards working in his throat. This wasn't working, but he had to press on. "He didn't tell me who he was, but he said he could help you with figuring out who the Witness was."
His dad still didn't look like he believed. "Who is it?"
"I don't know." Al said. "He wouldn't tell me."
"Why not?"
"I don't know."
Harry's frown deepened.
"The man just told me it would help with the investigation."
"I can't believe I'm listening to this."
Al was getting pissed. "You need to listen to me for once. These dreams mean something. You had dreams like that too."
"Yeah, when I had a piece of Wizard Stalin inside me. This isn't the same thing."
"He told me that nearly every single person you rescued from the Equalist had their memories wiped as soon as they were done with the experiments. It's fine if you can raid the building before it happens, but you obviously don't find them all in time, and their memories are lost forever."
Harry said nothing in response to that. He couldn't.
"You lie awake at night thinking about them."
"That's enough."
Al wouldn't stop. He could see his dad's temper slipping. Al didn't care. He was frustrated, pissed off, tired of people not believing him. He was only 13 and already had dark circles under his eyes, like an insomniac, even though he always slept seven hours each night. He almost always woke up covered in sweat. His fists were always clenched to the point where his nails dug into his palms, making them bleed. He'd wet his bed on an irregular basis until age fucking 10. He'd been scared to come to Hogwarts for that reason.
"You see Muggle's walking by on the street. You're afraid because they could have been taken by the Equalists and you would never know it."
"Shut up, Al." Harry said.
When either his mom or his dad said "Shut up" to him or his bro and sis, that meant they were in the weeds…and the weeds covered a minefield. Still, Al wouldn't shut up. Not anymore. "You have to ask the captured man this question: 'What was the score?'"
"What?" Harry actually smiled faintly at this. This had all been a joke and now he'd gotten the punchline. The final score was the Moose Jaw Meteorites 270 versus the Vratsa Vultures at 260. Had Maria York kicked that Quaffle into the goal just a bit faster, maybe she'd be going to the International Finals and—
Al's face was deadly serious. This wasn't a joke at all.
"'What's the score?' That's what you ask him, dad." Al said. "You'll find the answers you're looking for."
[4]
And that was all his son would say on the matter. The discussion was over, the message passed. Not so much like a torch in a marathon, but more like a grenade with the pin pulled being handed from soldier to soldier.
Al went back to class. Harry and his daughter went home to Cambridge.
"Go to your room." Harry said to Delphi. He couldn't even look at her. "I'll let your mother deal with you."
"Okay." she said dully.
As she walked away, Delphi began to smile. Harry sat down on the couch and attempted to read the Daily Prophet.
When Ria came home from work, it was 9:17. She looked ragged, her dark brown hair done up in a pony-tail. She didn't like all the gray strands in there, but Harry honestly kind of liked seeing it. It made her look wise.
"Damn, another 12-hour go?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, it sucked." Ria cracked her back and neck. "It's the busy season. What more can I say? You wouldn't think people would need wands in the spring."
Ria sat down on the couch next to him. She liked to put her feet up and onto his lap, and she did so now. He began massaging them. His own feet tapped on the floor.
"Want a drink?" he asked.
"Shit, I'll take a firewhisky."
Harry used his wand to summon one from the liquor cabinet. He was more of a beer guy himself, and even that he didn't drink often. Hermione almost gave up on Draco twice for that shit. So Harry had a case of Dogfish Head IPA in the second fridge that he had touched only three times in the past six months. Ria said she had never met a man who could make a case of beer last a week, let alone a month, let alone six. He thought that every family on the planet had at least one or two alcoholics in it. His dad wasn't one, nor was his mom, but maybe their parents or their parents' parents. And maybe alcoholism couldn't run in the family and maybe it couldn't. Maybe it could even skip a generation or two. It started out as a crutch and ended up as a chain. He was just afraid to risk it.
"Tell me about your day." Harry said.
Ria sighed. "Not too bad as far as interviews. But Daphne and I are out of stock."
"Again? With four of you at Othello's?"
"People outside Europe are having lots of kids, Harry. They all can't come in for an interview with Harper. So they just buy a bunch and find what works best."
"I get it." Harry said, although he really didn't. You didn't pick the wand, the wand picked you. Isn't that what the late Ollivander said? Cheesy, corny, cliché, like something you'd hear in a Disney movie, but that didn't make it any less true. Buying a cartload of wands just to find one that worked was just throwing money down the drain.
"Daphne is still the only one in there that can make wands." Ria lied. "So the demand has been crazy."
"You want a back massage?"
"No."
Harry watched her closely. She was curling her hair around her index finger, and when she sipped her firewhisky (she never guzzled, only sipped) she set it down hard on the living room table.
"You're pissed off." he said. "I can tell."
"How can you tell? Because I didn't want a massage?"
"No." Harry said. She never wanted a massage from him because he sucked at it. He was good at the feet for some reason, but nothing else. Ria joked one time that he had a foot fetish.
"Then how?"
"I won't tell you because then you'll try to not do it when you're pissed off."
He leaned her head back on the couch and sighed. "Fine, Harry. You win. It's just…I misplaced something at work."
"What, like a special book for the wand-making process or something?"
"Something like that." Ria said. "It was in the basement last time I checked, but it wasn't there today. I don't know what happened to it."
"You'll find it." Harry said hopefully.
"Sure. How was your day?"
"Uh…yeah about that." Harry began.
"Oh shit, let me get comfortable."
"You'll be standing up in a second."
Ria lifted her head up from the couch arm, staring at him.
"Um…our lovely daughter is in her bedroom right now."
His wife's eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched. "Why?"
"She got into yet another fight and got suspended for the year."
Ria put both hands over her face and let out a deep sigh. "Merlin, I'm going to take that damn wand of hers and shove it up her ass sideways."
"Don't say things like that." Harry said. In truth, he said much worse things to her in Minerva's office.
"Same thing as before?" Ria asked.
"Same thing as before."
Ria sighed again.
"Where does she get this shit from?" Harry asked.
"Who knows. Is it your turn or mine?"
"Yours, I think." Harry lied.
"I sometimes don't know if it's right." Ria said. "Us paddling them."
"I know it isn't right." Harry said grimly. "We shouldn't have to. Nobody should. But it is what it is."
"Your family didn't do that to you."
"No, they just locked in a cupboard for most of my childhood with no food for days. One time, they didn't feed me for two fucking weeks. My stomach sounded like a ship breaking in two. Is that better?"
"I don't know."
"Your mom paddled you." Harry said. "It's not like you're a psycho."
She smiled broadly, and strangely she looked like a great-white shark. "That just warms my heart, sweetie."
"I'll go out for a second." Harry said. "Pick up some food for us."
Ria breathed easy. That's exactly what she'd wanted him to say. Harry preferred to go out and get the food, rather than have it delivered. He liked to go out for trips. It helped him clear his head. It gave her the opportunity to talk to her lovely daughter alone.
[5]
He left and she waited five minutes. If he didn't come back for something he'd forgotten, and in five minutes, that meant he didn't forget anything. She locked the door with a charm anyway. When six minutes passed, she went up to her daughter's room and opened the door.
Her daughter, much like Ginny had a thing for Quidditch. Like her brother James, she played Seeker. The walls were covered with teams that Ria knew only tangently. On the dresser stood last year's photo, of Delphi side-by-side James, still in their uniforms. James had netted the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup that year, and held it up proudly. Delphi could be a sore loser about things, especially Quidditch, but not where family was concerned. She held up her silver trophy with a genuine smile, one arm around her brother.
Don't get used to it, Jimbo. I felt bad for you this year.
I feel bad for you every year.
And they were saying all this at the supper table after the school year was over, cutting but not really piercing. Harry and Ria both laughed at the display. Even Al laughed a bit. Usually only Scopius could make him laugh.
On the nightstand sat a little toy Snitch in a cup. You touch the Snitch, and it would fly around the room for a full minute before going back into the cup. As a younger girl (she was still just a baby to Ria) Delphi made a game of trying to catch it in midair before it returned to the cup. Now, she just liked to watch it fly. "It'll come back on its own." Delphi said once. "I don't want to force it back before it's ready."
Delphi sat in the middle of the room. She was snapping her fingers, muttering an incantation. She was better at magic than either James or Al, could duel better than either of them. She was also better than Al at wordless magic, but not better than James. She still hadn't learned wandless magic, and it was a source of frustration to her. Both Al and Jim could summon small things, like pencils and ink quills. Delphi had never been able to summon anything with her fingers.
"Shit." she muttered, sounding close to tears. Delphi was so focused on getting it to work that she hadn't even heard the door open.
"Delphini." Ria said.
She glanced over her shoulder, saw her mother and smiled thinly. She really did look a lot like Harry at that age. Messy black hair, fierce green eyes, the brooding expressions, slightly pained smiles. Really, the only things missing were the glasses and the scar. Whenever the whole family was out on a trip or something, and Delphi and James were walking together, people would ask Ria and Harry if they were twins. It scared Ria sometimes—the thought that there were three Harry Potters on the planet.
Delphi stood up, took a step towards her. "I know what you're going to say, but he had it—"
Ria brought her hand out in a wide arc, smacking her to the ground.
The world was deathly silent. Then Delphi broke it. Her face was wide with shock, her left cheek as red as a tomato. "Why…did…"
Then she burst into tears.
"Shut your fucking mouth." Ria ordered.
The crying became a mostly-silent sob.
"You never listen to me." Ria said. She noticed (a bit too late) that the window blinds were open. They didn't provide a view of anything, except the wall of the next building over. Nobody had a view of the inside of her daughter's bedroom. Ria went over to the blinds and shuttered them anyway, leaving them in dimness.
"How many times, how many times, have I told you, Delphi? If you want to hurt someone, do it so nobody can see! Do it so the person you're hurting can't see! All the potions you know how to make, all the wordless magic you know, and you're punching some brat out in front of a damn crowd?"
"I forgot." Delphi said quietly.
Ria actually laughed. "You forgot something I tell you all the time when we're alone? I call bullshit. You don't forget. You don't listen. You're too hotheaded, too impatient."
"I'm not." she whined.
"You are. This wasn't the same thing as that Tracie bitch and the fat, worthless cunt she calls a mother. You stopped her from bullying your friend Dayako, and you were attacked as a result, and then you attacked her. Of course McGonagall wasn't going to punish you that much for that. This brat today wasn't beating up anyone. He was just some pure-blood idiot."
"Why do you even care?" Delphi shot back. "This isn't going to hurt the group."
"The group?!" Ria said exasperated. "Fuck the group, Delphi! I'm not talking about the group. I'm talking about you: Miss Delphini Hermione Potter. Your education. Your future. Now, you're going to be held back a whole damn year. Any university, any career you want to go into is going to want to know why."
Delphi said nothing.
"What? You think this shit is going to fly in a job? Some pure-blood piece of shit starts mouthing off and you beat him into the ground in front of your boss—because he is your boss— do you think you get to keep that job, Delphi?"
Delphi said something too quietly.
"You get hit with a Langlock Curse when I wasn't looking? I asked you a damn question, Delphini."
"I said no, mom. Of course not."
"No. Of course not." Ria agreed. "You slip him a Forgetfulness Potion so he shows up to work an hour late all the time, then let his boss know. You slip him a Hate Potion, so he says that blood purity shit at the next meeting, and your coworkers file a complaint. You hurt the other person without hurting yourself."
"Okay."
"How do you think I got your grandfather's notes from Records?" Ria went on. "You think I put all those dicks in submission holds until they gave me what I wanted?"
That made Delphi chuckle a little. This was something that infuriated Ria. She use to pop Delphi a few extra times for it, then realized it was her own fault. She was laying it on too thick. The colorful expressions would only be terrifying for so long…then they would become funny.
"Are you laughing at me?" Ria asked softly, and that shut the chuckles right up.
"No, ma'am."
"Don't call me that. I've told you that too."
Ria took a deep breath. She stepped towards her daughter, who still sat on the floor. Delphi flinched away from her. Ria grabbed her shoulders.
"Look at me."
Delphi reluctantly raised her head. Such pain and sadness in her eyes. Ria understood. There were still a lot of pure-blood supremacy idiots around. They gave Ria herself a lot of pain too. Two Wizarding Wars and some people still hadn't gotten the message. People could be slow learners, and that was when they wanted to learn at all.
"Your father wants you confined to this flat for the rest of the year." Ria said. "Maybe a few visits to relatives."
"What do you want?" Delphi asked, because that was the only thing that mattered to her.
"You and I are going to take a vacation."
Her daughter's face lit up. "Really?"
Ria smiled. "Your problem is Hogwarts. You're smart for your age, smarter than both my wonderful husband and I. The work is boring you. The kids are getting on your nerves. You need some time away. You need to clear your head. It'll be good for us to be together, just the two of us. That's what I'll tell him. You love your father. I know it. He knows it. But you are your mother's daughter."
"I am." Delphi agreed, but Ria didn't like the look in her eyes when she said that. Not at all.
Ria said, "We've got a rally going on in Madrid next week."
"We haven't been to Spain yet."
Yeah, that was kind of a surprise, as liberal as the country was. "We can see the sights. They have bike tours in Barcelona, the Sagrada Familia, the Guggenheim Museum."
"I might find a cute guy there."
Now it was Ria's turn to chuckle. "Maybe. If you're good, I might even let you go out on a little date."
Ria started to stand up, but then sat back down. "Oh…and one other thing I forgot."
Delphi smiled at her. "Yeah?"
Ria stopped smiling. She took Delphi's slapped cheek in her thumb and index and pinched viciously, twisting it. Delphi let out a small cry.
"Don't ever laugh when I'm yelling at you." Ria said quietly. "That's the third thing I tell you all the time."
"Yes." Delphi's voice was pained, rushed. "Okay. I'm sorry."
"I know you are, sweetie." Ria was smiling again. She let go of the cheek and hugged her. She sometimes kissed James and Al after she punished them. James would always turn away but Al never did. Ria never kissed Delphi after she turned 10. She didn't like the look the look in her daughter's eyes when she did.
Not at all.
"Let's get you cleaned up before your father gets home. Okay?"
"Okay."
Now, the punishment was over…and again there wasn't a nicer mother in the world. Ria healed her daughter's cheek with a Healing Spell, and let her have a chocolate frog, even though she was a firm believer of no dessert before supper (Harry was more lenient with that).
Harry came back with supper, Korean takeout from a cheap place nearby.