A/N: Ridiculously long chapter ahead, but it could not be helped. Just a few chapters away from the end now and I find myself unable to stop writing. This bodes well for you, not so much for me. Enjoy, and please review. :D
Disclaimer: Yeah, um, are you kidding? I've been on pins and needles waiting for the release of DH, I don't any of this.
*****
Chapter Eighteen
As I stepped, dizzily, out of the fireplace into the living room of the Lupin household, I was greeted by Aunt Tonks, sporting blonde-streaked cropped black hair, and a bright smile. And she barely waited for me to finish dusting the soot from my clothes before rushing over to greet me with a hug and a cheerful, "Wotcher Lillie!"
Connor, already deep in a whispered conversation with Uncle Lupin nearby, looked up at this, and Uncle Lupin said, "Hello Magnolia, are you alright?"
I nodded, just as Dad came through with my trunk and broom, saying, "I fully expect you to discipline her if she gets out of line. I know she hates rules but there are really only two I'd like her to obey, stay away from the windows and don't leave the house."
Uncle Lupin smiled, "Don't worry; I don't expect Magnolia to be much trouble. We've got an infant in the house, goodness help the poor soul who wakes her."
At this my eyes swept the living room, looking around for some sign of the baby, but Aunt Tonks replied, "She's asleep upstairs, coincidentally in the room you'll be sharing. We're going to move her into ours for the night though; unfortunately we don't have a guest room anymore."
"I don't mind," I replied, quickly.
Dad had been dragging my trunk into the middle of the living room but now stopped to look back at me, "You don't mind? And you tried to talk us out of another sibling at New Year's?"
"Well that's different, there are already three of us," I told him. "And three's a magical powerful number, why mess with that?"
"So is seven," he replied, grinning mischievously. My smile fell away and they all laughed.
Uncle Lupin spoke up eventually, turning to me and extending an arm awkwardly, "As I was saying, Magnolia, welcome to our humble abode."
Never had a word more suited a situation. The cottage, the much of it I could see from the living room, was small, but not in a cramped way, but... comfortable. Dad had once told me that it belonged to Uncle Lupin's parents, and so it was a logical step for them to move into it, considering that the Ministry regulations severely restrictions their options for something better. Mostly it was wood, with pastel colours, black and white photographs on the walls, tartan throws and the scent of pine. But then Aunt Tonks lived here so there were things that seemed to stand shockingly out, like the multicoloured plastic-bead curtain to the kitchen, the pale pink fur rug before the fireplace, the framed rock band posters on the walls, both magical and Muggle, and the entire shelf section devoted to their various records in the left-hand corner beside a large bay window that overlooked the cold, moonless night.
Above the fireplace was Uncle Lupin and Aunt Tonks' wedding photograph, which was decidedly untraditional, for though the groom wore neatly pressed dress robes, the bride in his arms wore white robes that were lined in hot pink and faded to that colour and violet at the hem. Her hair matched her dress too, and together they must have been a wonderful sight that day, considering the strangely shabby room around them. Next to that was a picture of Aunt Tonks lying on a sofa with a rather large belly, glowering at the camera. Next to this she was holding a newly born Connor, and the look on his father's face was one of intermingled pride, joy and trepidation. There was one of Connor alone, and then on the other side of the wedding photograph, was a fairly newer one of Connor holding Zoe. I'd never seen her myself but she looked like most newborns, shrivelled and purple-pink.
Dad took one look at the photograph and said, "Hey, look at that, she looks just like you did when you were born, Magnolia."
I couldn't hide the instinctive wrinkling of my nose in protest, but Uncle Lupin laughed, "She looks much better now, and because life has determined that I should have unusual children, she apparently has violet eyes."
I looked back at him, "I wish I had violet eyes."
"Well... on account of your father no one's going to tease you," said Uncle Lupin with slightly more bitterness than I expected.
"Hey! Those are your grandmother's eyes, one of the only things she left me, you know," said Dad, glaring down at me, but his tone was light and his eyes glinting with amusement.
Aunt Tonks rolled her eyes, "Yes well, Lillie knows that. And that's why we have Connor, to beat up those stupid enough to try to tease her.
Connor looked rather embarrassed, but then said, "Can I show Magnolia to her room?"
Dad gave him a wide-eyed stare, and then looked to Aunt Tonks and Uncle Lupin. Aunt Tonks nodded, and Uncle Lupin after, and finally he replied, "Okay, but that's all, and leave very quickly afterwards. She might not have an elder brother but that's why I'm here, to beat people up too."
Now it was my turn to look embarrassed, and roll my eyes, before allowing Connor to lead the way out of the room. Dad barely waited for us to be out into the hall before saying, "I'm so sorry about this, I know she's never been here before and I wish it was under better circumstances but-"
Uncle Lupin cut him off, "That's quite alright, the Ministry doesn't want me around my own children, they might be grateful to you but that would not stop them from hitting the roof if they learned I'd been near yours."
"Well if they want to know, none of them care. Mackenzie's been dying to visit since she heard about the baby and Milo's honestly heartbroken it isn't a boy. I have a feeling he wants a little brother. He gave me a book about a bloke and his two sons for Christmas...."
His voice trailed off to incoherent mumbling as we got to the top of the stairs and Connor interrupted my thoughts to ask, "Are you really alright? I know that you told Dad that you are but you were... well, you seemed so...."
I smiled, cutting him off, and nodded. "I'm fine. I just... I want this to be over really. I want to go back to school and put it all out of my mind."
He looked at me curiously. "All of it?"
Oh, you don't know the half of it, I thought, but said aloud, "Well, not everything."
He smiled, and then stopped at a door midway down the corridor, "Here are we, Zoe's... room?"
I looked at the door, someone had put up a sheet of pink Bristol board, on which both Uncle Lupin and Aunt Tonks had written: "Zoe Faye Nympha (Remus Lupin, so help me I will hex you) Andromeda (No way!!!) Selene (Isn't that Ron Weasley's daughter's middle name, Tonks?) Calypso (Calypso... I'll leave it... for now) (I'm just grateful you could not find a name meaning "wolf") (Oh but it was easy to find one meaning "fairy" or "nymph", wasn't it, don't make me remove Calypso) Lupin's Room!"
I turned to Connor, "I see they've changed her name."
"I guess so... but `Calypso'?" he said, staring at it in wonder.
"I think it's lovely," I replied. "Mum said they changed my name at least ten times after I was born. At one point I was `Alexandra Hermione Potter', and then someone said that you can't name a child after their mother when they look like them. Then I became `May Rose', `Lily Alice' and `Jamie Jean Ingrid' before Granny woke up one morning and said `Call her Magnolia, that way you can shorten it any way you like it.' Since then I've been `Lillie', `Maggie' to you, and `Nollie' to Aunt Luna."
He shrugged, "I've always been Connor, but Dad would only relent to add `Romulus' when Mum... asked nicely. I don't even want to know what she meant by that."
I stifled a snort and followed him into the baby's room. As it was a girl's room I had expected at least some concession to tradition, but as was evidenced below in the living room, this was what happened when one mixed a fun-and-rock music-loving Metamorphagus with a former childhood prankster and added an artistic genius elder brother. This room was, strangely, painted purple, with pastel pink and white decorations, mostly stuffed rabbits, and furniture, most of which were rabbit-shaped, and prominently featured a set of sketches of her parents and elder brother, each clutching or accompanied by a rabbit, along the walls. My baby room was reportedly olive green and gold, filled with the stereotypical girls' room furniture; somehow this made me insanely jealous.
I looked at Connor, "You did those."
He blushed. "Dad once said something about his condition, that your grandfather used to call it his `furry little problem' and that people used to think he had a `badly-behaved rabbit' and I just... well, Mum allowed me to choose. See, even her crib's got bunnies on it-hey look, she's still in here."
I walked over to the crib and looked down at Zoe, who now looked much more like a baby, all rosy pink and adorably chubby, dressed in a thick cotton romper and white woollen socks, and smelling strongly of lavender baby powder. She was so small, so tiny, having to depend on others for her very survival and innocent of their sometimes darker natures, that I said, "I don't think I should be in here... I mean, I know your parents are going to take her over to their room, but...."
Connor shook his head, "It's okay, no one can just walk in, she'll be fine, and so will you."
I wished I could be as confident, but knowing that protesting would be futile, I smiled at him and asked, "So, where do I sleep?"
He turned away from the crib and nodded to a large white sofa, also covered in rabbits, which had been set to a side, against the wall. "It opens out into a bed, and... well, er... I should leave you to...."
I stared at him puzzled for a moment until I realised that he meant to give me privacy to change again, but I said, "I don't think I'll be going to sleep tonight. I kind of... well, can you sleep after what happened?"
To my surprise he replied, "I think I can, Dad makes the best hot chocolate and he's probably already brewed a cup or two, guaranteed to put to sleep even the clinical insomniac."
He'd left my trunk at the door, and really I knew I wasn't going to sleep, so I said, "I think I better have s-"
I was cut off by a tiny wail that sounded, at first, like a cat's meow, but then speedily became that of a newborn human waking up, clearly unhappy about it. Connor nearly ran over to the crib, and barely came to a stop before reaching in to lift out the baby, taking care to hold up her head. Zoe stopped crying at once, and opened her eyes to stare curiously into the face of her brother before he settled her against his chest, bending his back awkwardly to accommodate her. I stood watching them as he hushed her gently, bouncing her slightly in his arms, repeating the whispered mantra, "Shh, Zoe... shhh, sorry to wake you...." And then the door opened behind me and Aunt Tonks and Uncle Lupin entered.
"Ah, you've found it then... like it?" asked Aunt Tonks, going over to relieve her son. But when she got to Connor he turned out of her grasp and said, "I've got her."
She looked to Uncle Lupin, "Make him hand her over. You had Connor, this one's mine."
Uncle Lupin folded his arms, "He's her big brother."
She rolled her eyes, and reached around Connor to take the baby from him. He let her go easily and said, "Can I at least help?"
Aunt Tonks carefully checked Zoe's pamper, before replying, poking his chest, "Got milk in there?" He looked at her puzzled, "She's hungry, so which means you can't. Why don't you and Daddy mix up some hot chocolate for Lillie and leave us girls here to chat?"
"Oh, right... er... did Uncle Harry leave already?" he asked, going to the door with Uncle Lupin.
I turned to Uncle Lupin, "Dad's left?"
"Yes, he's still making arrangements for what he has to do around your house. And he told me to keep you two apart, and to make sure that Magnolia went to sleep. I'm guessing that's redundant, but whatever..." Aunt Tonks replied and began to unbutton her top.
At this Uncle Lupin gave a girlish shriek and covered Connor's eyes, "Why must you insist on corrupting the boy?"
With a sigh and a headshake, Aunt Tonks shifted Zoe in her arms and began to breastfeed. Connor grabbed his hands and tried to push them off, but Uncle Lupin held him fast and steered him out the door. "We'll be back with that hot chocolate in a minute. Don't believe anything bad she says about me."
"I won't," I called after him and then turned back into the room where Aunt Tonks was now seated on a rocking recliner, tenderly stroking Zoe's baby fuzz and humming to herself. I stood awkwardly for a moment, looking at them, wondering if this was the way Mum had sat with Mackenzie and Milo and me, and then sat down on the sofa, and she asked, "Did anybody see who it was?"
I looked over to her sharply, at first confused, and then replied, "No, it was dark and he destroyed the Common Room so that everyone was panicking and trying to get away. Professor McGonagall said that even if anyone saw him they wouldn't remember his face."
"Good tactic," she replied, absently.
"I guess so... he used a diversion," I said, remembering the awful sound of the Common Room furniture being blasted to pieces and the terrified shout from the boys' dormitories. I shook my head, trying to ignore my thoughts and looked back up at her.
She continued to stroke Zoe's hair for a while, in silence, and then asked, "Connor wrote that he told you about the comic book, have you read it?"
I nodded, then realising that she couldn't see that, replied, "Yes. Milo's a really big fan; I'm going to enjoy not telling him."
She did not look up but I saw her smile, and then ask, "Then Camilla tells me you found out her little secret?"
"I'm not going to tell that one either, not even if Rigel confesses his feelings," I replied solemnly, and a little mischievously. He'd made me suffer for two and a half days, wavering between breaking up with Connor and not, unable to sleep for fear that my boyfriend could be getting me killed, so I didn't care.
Aunt Tonks looked up now though and quirked an eyebrow, "You're going to let him get his heart stomped on?"
"I can't tell him her secret," I explained, staring at her slightly bewildered.
"Oh I know that, but can't you two come up with a good lie? I've had my heart stomped on once, and it hurt," she replied.
I looked at her disbelieving, "Who would do that to you?"
"Your Uncle Lupin," she replied, simply. Now I was stunned, but she continued casually, "You should come up with something, let him down easy. Cousin relationships probably wouldn't faze the Malfoys one bit, and especially if they're both purebloods, but she's not and isn't interested. And I know that neither you nor Rigel would like it if someone did that to you."
I looked down at my feet, ashamed. A heavy silence descended where I could just hear the sounds of Uncle Lupin and Connor down in the kitchen preparing the hot chocolate, and Zoe's rapid breathing, and then she said, "On a lighter note, I've heard a very strange rumour about you and my son.... It seems that this person is under the mistaken impression that you and Connor have been snogging?"
My face went red-hot in an instant and I refused to look up. It didn't matter, she broke out into a hearty laugh and said, "I remember my first boyfriend... but I'll have to tell you that one when Remus and Connor are out. It requires absolutely no interruptions and a couple of hours."
I looked up at that, my curiosity piqued, but just then the door opened behind us and Connor entered bearing two steaming cups of hot chocolate and a smile.
Contrary to Dad's instructions none of us went to sleep until around five the next morning, and all of us slept in Zoe's bedroom. But I doubted he would be too bothered by that, compared to the events of earlier in the night it was a happy contrast, the peaceful homeliness of the Lupin cottage. While it lasted anyway....
*****
The next morning I was woken by Connor. Or rather I was awoken by the sound of a gentle tapping against the frosted glass of Zoe's bedroom window, and then, as I sat up to investigate, Connor entered holding Zoe, and said, "Oh, your owl is here... Good morning, Maggie."
I turned away from the window to return the greeting, the tapping stopped. "Good morning, Connor... Zoe-hello Zoe, good morning." Automatically my voice had jumped an octave and I was fluttering my fingers at her. She did not respond though, content instead to give me an unseeing violet gaze and drool into her brother's jumper sleeve.
He smiled and sat down on the sofa bed beside me, taking a moment to adjust her against his chest so that she still stared at me. "Actually it's noon, you slept half the day away. I was going to wake you but Dad says that you deserve to rest." When I yawned and blinked sleepily at this news, he laughed. "And I guess you still need to."
I shook my head, "No, I'm awake... and a bit hungry...."
"Good, Dad's made breakfast. And believe me, you want Dad to make breakfast, I mean, Mum can cook but she's so clumsy something's bound to go wrong," he replied, grinning.
I folded my arms and gave him a mock-glare, "You know if she heard you...."
"I'd probably be in a lot of trouble, but what Mum doesn't know, can't hurt me," he replied.
I could not ignore the twinge of anxiety in my stomach at that statement, but I suppressed it well, to ask, "So, am I going to get a tour of this place or what?"
He looked down at Zoe, tilting his head to her face and then gently pried her mouth from his t-shirt, which she had been insistently sucking for the past few minutes. "There's not much to see... Dad can't get another place, not without a string of Ministry stipulations and on Mum's salary... well it would be really suspicious unless I confessed who I was."
Puzzled, I asked, "I thought you said you didn't care if someone found out?"
"I don't, but Dad does. And then he insists that the money's mine and not ours, so he had Uncle Dean create a trust fund in Gringotts that I can't touch until I'm of age. I only get a stipend... of about fifty Galleons every month," he replied. "But I paid for this room, as a belated Christmas gift to Zoe."
He looked so proud of that admission, (as I'd rightly suspected that he would have been) that I smiled and said, "She's one lucky little girl."
"Thank you," he replied, smiling again, and then added, "Now come on, your breakfast will get cold."
I eagerly took the hand he offered and allowed him to pull me up out of the bed.
Uncle Lupin had indeed prepared breakfast, and as we came down, greeted me with a smile, "Good morning, Magnolia... Connor didn't wake you, did he?"
"No, it was Ophelia," I replied.
His brow furrowed, "Ophelia?"
"My pet owl... that, I've just realised, I've left tapping at the window," I said, pausing on the steps and then making to go back up to let her in.
But just then Uncle Lupin reached over the table and lifted the little owl from the bread basket, "So that's who this is? I suspect she got tired of waiting for you."
I hurried down to reclaim her, apologising to them both, "I'm so sorry, I should've let her in but I got distracted and-"
"Distracted?" asked Aunt Tonks coming in from the living room, trailing the faint scent of burnt paper. "Why were you distracted?"
I reddened at once, my cheeks hot, but Connor replied for me, "We were talking, Mother. Why must you insist on reading too much into things?"
"You're Remus Lupin's son, that alone is cause for concern," she deadpanned.
I tried, but failed to suppress a snort, and then took a seat with Connor at the table. "He's not that bad, Carl, Guillame, Francois and Milo have taken up with Uncles Fred and George."
"Really?" asked Uncle Lupin.
"Yes, they call them their `Research and Development Department', everyone else calls them `The Four Terrors'," I explained. "And because of it Dad has been trying to limit repeating the things you told him. It's not worked out too well, he may not tell, but Uncle Fred and Uncle George know more than enough themselves to fill in the details, anything else, they embellish."
Instead of frowning, Uncle Lupin smiled at that, and said, "Well then, there you have it. Connor, you're a disappointment."
Aunt Tonks and Connor protested at once, "Hey!" And Aunt Tonks added, "Now who's corrupting the boy? With a father like you who needs bad influences?"
He was still smiling though, and eventually they both broke into wide grins. I looked among the three and then down at Zoe, and said, "You have the coolest family in the world."
Uncle Lupin's smile got wider, "Coming from Harry's daughter, that's the nicest thing to hear, though quite possibly untrue."
I began reaching for the toast and then asked, "Did Ophelia bring any letters... or the newspapers...?"
Aunt Tonks tipped her head back to the living room, "Just newspapers, your parents are only going to contact you by Floo."
"So where are the papers?" asked Connor.
"I tripped over the living room rug and they fell into the fire," she replied casually.
Uncle Lupin gave her a sceptical look, "You tripped?"
She glared at him, "I'm notoriously clumsy, what do you think?"
Uncle Lupin clearly did not believe her, but continued, "Well that explains the smell.... What was the headline by the way?"
"Something about `Hogwarts under Siege' and that Harry's removed Magnolia from the school. The problem is they've all set up camp outside the house in Godric's Hollow, which makes it difficult but not improbable, for your Dad to catch your attacker," she replied.
"You gleaned all of that from the headline?" he asked.
"I'm an Auror, it's my job," she said with a smile.
Connor and I would spend the rest of the day touring the cottage, which, though small, was filled with a wealth of information about the Lupin household. Having been persuaded-or rather, ordered-to let Zoe down before he spoiled her, he eagerly took up the task to show me about. And he did, everything from happy childhood pictures of his father and himself, to the bit of rug in the hallway his mother always tripped over, and on occasion while she was pregnant with him, to the boundary of their property, which more less vanished into the woods behind, which was apparently warded with anti-Apparation and other wards to protect them. (Of course this meant that we'd just broken my father's "stay away from the windows" rule.) At this point afternoon had begun to slip into evening and in the darkening blue twilight, I noticed that a fog was rolling in.
For the first time since I arrived, I asked, "Where are we?"
Uncle Lupin, who was in the living room with us-which had unfortunately maintained the faint scent of burning from that morning-replied, "West of Croy in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, very near Antonine Wall. But this fog's been threatening for days, and it's snowing again."
I looked back out the window, watching the wispy-white trees around, and suppressed a shiver. But then I noticed something and asked, "Hey, what's that?"
I was pointing out to what looked like a stone shed near the first knot of denuded, ice-swathed trees and Connor said, softly, "That's where Dad stays when he transforms."
I felt, rather than saw, my cheeks redden, and I apologised, "Sorry...."
"What for?" asked Uncle Lupin, genuinely surprised. "It's a valid question. And a fact of my life, unless I wish to have my entire family a pack of werewolves like his Faolán does. Unfortunately this isn't Ancient Britain."
Connor was still staring out the window and said suddenly, "I think there's a hunter out there, I can see his fire."
I turned to look as well and saw the tiny flicker of yellow-white flames almost at the very fringe of the property's forest border. "In this weather?"
He shrugged, "Some of them don't care, but I think we know this one-don't we Dad? Is Mr MacFingall still around?"
"Just saw him this morning, said that he was going to trap the fox that has been getting into his garbage for weeks now. I don't have the heart to tell him it's just his cat," replied Uncle Lupin, shaking his head slightly.
I looked back out the window at the flames a moment, and then allowed Connor to distract me with another bit of information, "Would you like to see how the comic book came to be?"
His mother, on the sofa nearby, said, "Is that just a ploy to get Lillie into your room?"
I looked up at him sharply, but also for the fact that he'd just reminded me of my failed attempt to speak with him Friday afternoon about it and his other secret. He went red, and shook his head, "It just so happens that that's where my stuff is. We'll leave the door open."
She shrugged, and said, "And you better not disturb your sister-tell him not to disturb his sister and leave the door open, Wolvie."
Uncle Lupin looked slightly red in the face at the nickname, but then replied, "You heard your mother."
With a sigh, Connor stood and said, "Shall we?"
Connor's room was nothing like I'd imagined it, or at least until I saw Zoe's bedroom the night before. It was neat, that much I'd expected, but it was also painted a strange shade of grey, the walls lined with rock band posters, photographs, his sketches and comic book covers, and a set of robes of the Bulgarian Quidditch, autographed by Viktor Krum himself. It paid well to be his children's pen pal. But that was not all. In addition to the standard closet, chest-of-drawers and set of shelves containing many books, a small radio and CDs, his bed was a double-deck-like creation with the mattress above and workstation below, and near the window, like I'd daydreamed, he had another workstation that was clearly for his drawings, judging by the art set there.
"This used to be Dad's room," Connor explained. "Thankfully, the furniture's new."
I smiled, continuing to examine the room. He'd so perfectly reproduced the way he kept his bed in the Gryffindor dormitory that I found myself looking around for some sign, some hint, even the smallest clue that would indicate that this had been hastily done this morning while I slept. I didn't know why I wanted him to actually be a messy teenaged boy, like Rigel was irretrievably, but I did. Inevitably finding nothing though, I walked to the window where I could see more of their neighbour's fire burning in the distance and asked, "Does your Dad know you're learning to brew Wolfsbane?"
He came to the window and leaned on his workstation table before replying, "Yes. He doesn't really like it but Mum pointed out that I was also benefiting in class so he let it go."
This was it, I took a deep breath before asking, "Does he know what else you've been up to?"
He did not look at me, "What else...? What are you talking about?"
I turned to face him, and found that he had leaned his head against the wall, staring out the window at the fire burning amidst the trees. "You know what I'm talking about... Professor Snape's been teaching you potions, but you've been doing something else. Rigel told me."
At this he flicked his gaze over to me and stared me directly in the eyes. He made no other movement and nothing in his manner suggested malice, but for some reason it sent a chill racing down my spine. His tone was neutral though, when he asked, "What exactly did my cousin tell you?"
This was a stupid idea. I was in his house, in his room, and though the door was wide open, I didn't have my wand while his was sticking out of his back pocket. If he wanted to kill me, he could shut the door, set a Silencing Charm and do as he pleased. But I continued bravely, suppressing my thoughts as absolutely ridiculous, "He said that Professor Snape's taught you more than just potions... and that you've used what you've learned and the comic book to do something else...."
That was as much as I dared to say, not wanting to give voice, and therefore validity, to Rigel's suspicions. I would not believe that Connor was involved in the Dark Arts until he told me himself. But he would say nothing for quite a while, until I began to wonder in horror that I'd finally done us in, when he said, "I don't want to involve you. Please don't ask me to involve you in this."
Oh no. Oh no, no, no....
"Connor..." I said, unable to add more and not knowing what I could say.
"Please let it go, Maggie. Please just... just don't ask me to tell you anything. I shouldn't... I can't... please Maggie," he pleaded, not leaving his place at the window but imploring me with his eyes. "You don't want to be involved in this, you don't need to be... just don't ask me anything, please just let it go."
It was not in my nature to do that though. I stepped towards him, "Connor... what have you done? What can't you tell me, what did you do?"
He suddenly stood up and side-stepped my reach, I turned to follow him and he drew his wand and shut the door the behind us. Just as I'd imagined he then locked, sealed and warded it and the room before turning back to me and said, again, "Please, don't ask me to tell you. Please don't make me do this."
My mind refused to settle upon one definitive meaning to his statement, but I insisted still, "You have to tell me Connor. I'm your girlfriend, aren't I? We're in this together now, so anything you do you have to share. You have to share it and trust me to keep it a secret, and.... And-and and I will, I'll keep it secret so you have to tell me."
He stared at me for a long while, silent, and then said with a sigh, "You might want to sit down, have a seat." He indicated the chair at his workstation, but I couldn't bring take it. It felt wrong somehow, so I shook my head, "No thanks, just tell me: what have you been doing?"
Here he hesitated again and said, "You know, you may not be my girlfriend forever. We may not always be together."
I glared at him and folded my arms. "I'm your girlfriend now, and no matter what happens I'll never tell."
He studied me for a moment, and then went back to his place at the window, staring out at the now blue-black night. He was silent for a time again, before at last saying, "No matter what you may think of me after this, just know that I've done this for my father. The only reason why I would... is because of my father."
Puzzled, I walked back to the window to listen, but said nothing.
"He tried to protect me from it when I was younger, from his condition... but I wasn't blind or stupid. If you kept getting sent to your grandparents' house or the Weasleys for three days every month around the full moon without warning or explanation and then learn that no one else's parents do that, and very much that their parents are often there when you arrive, wouldn't you start to wonder? And then that night when he nearly got into my grandparents' house... I actually stood at the window in the living room and watched my father, as a large grey wolf, looking in at me with my mother behind calling him to come away.... I asked my grandmother, and she told me the truth. `Your father's a werewolf, Connor, I know you don't know what that means but for now just stay away from the window'. The next month they had put up blinds and kept them down until I left with Mum.
"I'd done some research in that time though, had gone to the library and found books on werewolves, and everything from fantasy novels to respected encyclopaedias. I was only six, but I'd been reading on my own since I was three, and Dad always encouraged me to look up words I didn't understand in the dictionary. It didn't take me long to figure it all out, even if my knowledge was based in Muggle works that declared the existence of werewolves a fabrication. I spent those three days trying to find ways of getting around the blinds, but they'd been magically sealed, and I wasn't strong enough or old enough to control my magic. When I went home with Mum though, I confronted the both of them with what I'd learned and demanded they tell me what was going on. Dad didn't want to say anything, but Mum spoke for him, telling me everything from the facts about werewolves in the magical world to Fenrir Greyback, the one who'd bit him. She never mentioned what had happened to Greyback after he'd been captured so I'd assumed he was dead, but of course, now we know he isn't...."
The expression on his face was pained, as if he were the victim and had just learned that his attacker had gotten away with it. I wanted to reach out to him, if just to hold his hand, but I didn't, I had to, I needed to get answers.
"After I learned what my father was once a month, they'd sometimes let me stay with them longer or come back earlier. I think Dad had wanted me to be around all the while but before I knew the truth he didn't want to scare me away. I wasn't scared, not for myself anyway, so that for a while I was content with just knowing and being around him. But then I began to hear whispers of things like `Ministry regulations', `Wolfsbane Potion' and then one day Dad took me to the Ministry to `Werewolf Support Services' against his will but they'd called him in when we were out that day and he didn't have time to take me home. It wasn't long before I wondered if maybe there was a way to help him, I asked, and Mum explained why he could have been outside the house and she with him the night of a full moon."
"Because he'd taken the Wolfsbane potion," I said.
"Yes, and once I knew what it was I wanted to know everything about it... which gave Mum the idea to let me brew it. She didn't tell Dad at first, she just went ahead and asked Professor Snape the next time she checked in on him at the school. It took her nearly twelve visits to persuade him, and even then he didn't want to teach me, but then she took me to see him the last time and he agreed. I still don't know why, he hated Uncle Harry as a child but he didn't seem to-"
He was cut off by the sound of his mother screaming through the door, "Connor! CONNOR! Open the door! CONNOR, OPEN THE DOOR! Take Lillie and get out of this house! THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE! GET LILLIE OUTSIDE, NOW!"
For a moment we just stood looking at each other in shock, and then we both pushed his bedroom window open and looked downstairs to find orange-yellow flames flickering in what should be the kitchen. Then the window shattered, spraying the snow with sparkling splinters, and a thick, choking black smoke billowed out into the night. No wonder the scent of burning hadn't left the house all day after Aunt Tonks burned the newspapers when it should have bled off through the fireplace hours ago, the house had been burning all this time and we didn't realise it.
I didn't want to but I knew why, my attacker was here and he was "smoking us out".
"Oh my..." I began to say, but Connor, more composed than I, grasped me round the shoulders and began dragging me towards the door.
"Hey!" I protested, alarmed.
"We have to get out of here, now! Do you have your wand?" he nearly yelled, now at the door and frantically trying to open it.
"No, but wait, where's your-where's your sister?" I asked, just as he got the door open, and we were treated to the unrestricted smoke and heat of the inferno below, making our eyes sting and we both coughed.
But at my statement Connor paused for a moment and then ran ahead of me down the hall to Zoe's room. When we got into it though, the room was smoke-free and silent, and of course, Zoe was long gone. Aunt Tonks must have come to warn us at the same time that she'd come up for her. Connor wasted no time locating my wand and shoving it into my hands, demanding at the same time, "Where's your Invisibility Cloak?"
"Why?" I asked, stupidly, and then did not wait for him to answer before snapping open my trunk and pulling out the cloak.
He turned to go out the door at once and said, "Stay close to me, and wear that cloak. Have you ever used a Bubble-Head Charm?"
I shook my head. He didn't hesitate to cast one over us both and then throw the cloak over my head. I grasped unto the back of his arm and allowed him to lead me down into what had just yesterday been his family's living room. The smoke was so thick that I could not see Connor in front of me, but I could still feel his hand, and the scorching heat that dried the saliva in my mouth and the moisture from our skin as fast as we perspired. Connor quickly realised that this was dangerous, and stopped and called through the smoke, "We're going to have to crawl out, Dad and Mum may be trying to get help!"
It was amazing how the smoke even obscured his air bubble-encased face. I could not nod at him, but called, back, "Okay!"
At this he took my hand and helped me down to the ground, then kneeled as well with a hand over my back and beginning to crawl towards where he knew the door should be. I hung close to him, dragging my elbows over the floor at the same time that I tightly gripped the sleeve of his jumper and struggled to keep upright while crawling in a cloak. Our movement was painstakingly slow and cumbersome, and all around us I could hear the crackle and pop of the fire raging violently through the old wooden cottage. This house was older than Uncle Lupin, and in a matter of hours, unless help came; it was going to be completely destroyed. I couldn't help the feeling that this was my fault, for surely it was, and somewhere out there my attacker was waiting for me.
I had no choice but to go to him though.
The first rush of freezing air, made refreshingly cool by the heat of the flames, announced that we had at last gotten to the door. Moments later I felt goose pimples rise all over my body as another blast swept through my clothes as if there weren't there. Connor's hand left my back to pat me on the shoulder so that I could rise to my feet, and once we were standing in the doorway he quickly removed the Bubble-Head Charms, I removed the cloak, and he cast Warming Charms over our clothes and said, "I think Mum and Dad went to Mr MacFingall's house, we'll have to meet them there."
I hesitated. "Your house... what about your house?"
He did not look back in, "That's okay. Some of the things have charms on them to stop them from burning. Everything else can be replaced."
"But it's your house!" I insisted, looking at him, my eyes burning with tears from the smoke and my guilt.
He gave me a sad half-smile, then took my arm and after casting the Light Spell and waiting for me to slip the cloak back on, firmly propelled us out of the house and into the foggy night. "We should probably wait for one of them to come back but we have no choice, we'll die if we stay here."
We were halfway across the lawn when we realised that something was wrong.
In addition to the mystery of how the fire began in the house in the first place, now that we were outside it was to discover that all was eerily silent and unnaturally calm. It was too silent and calm for a normal wintry night, and especially so with the house behind us fast becoming a flaming homing beacon. Then, though Aunt Tonks and Uncle Lupin had supposedly gone running to the neighbour's house, which was merely metres away for I could see it just to the east of their property, with Zoe, there was no sign of them. In fact, what slowed our pace was the realisation that the door was open. What stopped us cold was the dark splash in the middle of a pure white snow bank, which on closer inspection, turned out to be Aunt Tonks.
For a moment Connor was absolutely still, and then he ran, still dragging me behind him, full-tilt to her. He came to a sudden stop and dropped to his knees at her side, and I collapsed beside him just as he reached forward to check her pulse. A few tense seconds passed and then he said, "She's alive... I think she's been Stunned." Then he cast, "Ennervate!"
Nothing happened. I cast a Light Spell myself under the cloak, not sure if he could see it but supposing that he could from the way he moved, and looked up at his face, made twice-pale from the shock and cold. Determination made him attempt to wake her again, and again, and once more before he turned to me and said, "Maybe we should do it together. All you say is Ennervate and it should wake her up, right?" I ended the light spell, pulled the cloak from my shoulders and said, "On three, one, two... three, Ennervate!"
But still Aunt Tonks lay unconscious. At this I turned to him and said, "Your mother's an Auror, there's no way she was taken out by a simple Stunning Spell... and especially when she's carrying your baby sister."
This seemed to remind us both of something and he dragged my wand arm over Aunt Tonks' chest where we realised, to our horror, that she did not have the baby.
"Where's Zoe?" I asked, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the cold in my chest.
"Dad must have her," he said, bravely. "But where's Dad?"
We both looked up from Aunt Tonks' body to the MacFingall house and its ominously open front door. I said, "We can't leave her here."
"No, come on," he said, solemnly, and standing cast, "Mobilicorpus!"
I stood just as Aunt Tonks' body floated gently off the snow, once more pulling the cloak over my head, and he conjured a stretcher, and levitated her onto it. Then he cast two Warming Charms over her clothes and the stretcher, and began walking off to the house again, with it floating quietly behind. I hurried to his side and said, trying to reassure him while convincing myself, "She was probably coming back for us when she fell or something.... Uncle Lupin should be fine; the door's just open so that we can find our way to it."
He did not look at me, but muttered anyway, "Yeah."
That illusion was abruptly dashed moments later when we heard a sharp, cat-like wail. We both stopped and looked sharply to our left. At first there was nothing, and then out of the shadows appeared a tall, wiry, scruffy-looking man dressed in tattered, dirty black robes and boots barely held together by their threads. His appearance was alarming enough-the unshaven face, the amber eyes, the matted hair-but the sight of tiny Zoe, still swathed in blankets, screaming at the top of her lungs, was worse.
I felt my heart leap into my throat, I swallowed to force it back down, and then found that it refused to work as before. Each beat seemed to be three ticks apart and shake my entire body, depriving me of much needed oxygen and the ability to run for my life.
Connor made a hastily-aborted movement to run to him and seize her, and held me back from doing the same and then hastily released my arm. I was still under the Invisibility Cloak so that unless he somehow saw my footprints in the snow behind us in the dark or had not seen me earlier, it was best not to draw attention to me. But something about the man's long, dirty fingernails must have alarmed Connor too and stopped him, and so he called, "Where's my Dad?"
The man did not respond, but simply stopped and stepped aside to reveal Uncle Lupin, fighting against invisible binds that trapped him to the snow-covered earth. Connor clenched his left hand into a tight fist at his side and stubbornly dug his feet into the snow to stop himself from running to him. His father had had the same idea too, for he called, "Run Connor! Take your sister and get out of here! Run! Get your broom and get out of here!"
My heart took a swan dive for the pit of my stomach, but I had a feeling he wasn't speaking to Connor alone. I hadn't seen a broom in Connor's room and as far as I knew he didn't have much interest in Quidditch.
The man suddenly barked though, "Hush your hollerin' werewolf! Or I'll snap the little bairn's body in half, I don't want to, I don't need to, but I'll do it!"
Connor yelled back, "Give me my sister! She's a baby; she hasn't done a thing to you!"
The man looked back at Connor and smiled, revealing many crooked, widely-spaced yellow teeth, "No she hasn't, has she? But her skrechin's gettin' on me nerves." Then he lifted her away from him above his head, still looking at Connor and said, "I wonder if magical babies bounce if you drop them?"
I couldn't take it any longer; I threw the cloak over my head and ran to him, "Don't do it! You can take me, I'm right here! Do whatever you want to me, just don't drop the baby! Please!"
He just stared at me for a moment, and then said, with unexpected cheer, "Magnolia Potter, a pleasure to meet you at last m'dear!"
I looked away from him to the baby now kicking her feet agitatedly in mid-air and screaming to wake the dead in his arms, and said, "Yes, it's nice to meet you too. You've been trying to meet me for months and now you have me. No Dad, no Aurors, no one to protect me, you can do what you like, just don't drop the baby, please give her back to Connor!"
He shook his head and gave me a toothy smile. "I don't think so m'dear, actually I think I will give her to you."
"To me?" I asked, surprised. "Why would you do that? Didn't you come here for me? You don't need the two of us, you can give her to Connor and I'll go quietly. I promise I'll go quietly, just please don't drop her."
"No trade, catch!" he yelled and suddenly flung Zoe from his arms.
I did not stop to think, I just threw myself forward bodily, calling at the same time, "Arresto Momentum!" To my surprise, it worked, and Zoe's fall was halted feet from the ground as I dropped heavily into the snow. My attacker made no attempt to come after me though, and to my surprise I was even allowed to get to my feet and snatch Zoe from the air, check her over quickly, twice, and look up to him confused, before I realised that in the meantime he had cast a Freezing Charm over Connor. He was standing petrified, mid-way through a movement to casting a hex.
I quickly shifted Zoe in my arms and attempted to disarm him, but at that moment he turned and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"
My wand was ripped from my hand and I had to hastily wrap my arms about Zoe's body as I was pitched backwards into the snow. Once again though, he allowed me to sit up before saying, "I'm going to give you a head-start, and I suggest you use it wisely. You know what I am; you know what will happen when I catch you."
I made to go for my wand, he knocked it away, further across the lawn, and growled, "Be nice, and maybe I'll spare the baby too, you've seen what I can do."
I didn't want to go, Connor and his family were trapped, but I had Zoe in my arms and there was nothing I could do unarmed. I took one last sad look to Connor and turned to the MacFingall house and took off.
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