The depth of my procrastination knows no bounds. I've typed this up, aren't you all lucky people? I would like some of the ice-cream I was promised now please. I enjoyed writing this because of the final line. I thought of that first and had to find a way in which to get there!

Seven, part four, Red

Amelia stepped out of the fireplace in Lupin cottage, having dropped the children off with Ginny. Just as she did every morning, she had come back to pick up her bag and the sandwiches that Teddy had made before he left. The morning had a certain rhythm to it, a family rhythm and Amelia loved it. She loved hearing the children chatter over breakfast, watching them kissing Teddy goodbye. She loved dropping the children off with Ginny and hearing them call her Grandma, which Ginny would pretend to be annoyed by.

As she straightened up, she heard a humourless laugh. “I told you, I told you that she would be here. They think themselves safe and so they drop their guard.”

Two men were sitting in her kitchen, and as they removed their masks she saw that they were twins. They were clearly tall, thin and blonde with haggard faces that were vaguely familiar.

“You might expect her to be afraid but I don’t think she is Tyr. How arrogant.”

Tyr? She realised that they were the Eastman brothers but before she could reach for her wand, Quirinus had twitched his and Amelia crumpled to the floor.

“Oh, I am going to enjoy this dear brother.” Tyr had a manic look on his face, as though as he was barely managing to restrain some violent urge.

Quirinus smiled cruelly. “I know you are, go to work.”


*****

Emil had watched as the other agents fought valiantly in their assault on the French Ministry. At the moment when Emil could almost taste the victory, the Cub and his troop arrived. Even the famous Harry Potter had been there. Emil had launched into the fray, issuing orders to those who were loosing their wits in the face of the oncoming horde of clowns. Morgana herself entered the fight, unmasked and glorious, her hair flying, and her eyes alive with beautiful fury. He watched as she brought down men twice her size with a simple swipe of her wand. He saw her enter the most magnificent duel. Morgana was challenged by one almost equal to herself, the air shrieked with the heat of their spell work as the marble of the Grande Hall d’Entree cracked beneath their feet. He saw the challenger, who indeed was a mirror for Morgana in many ways, become wounded, a deep slash appearing across her face. His mistress laughed and in that laughter Emil saw her fatal error. Her challenger shot a jet of red light at her and Morgana fell to the floor. It was at that moment that he was glad he had ensured his own path to freedom. Emil had learned the lessons of those who had followed Grindlewald and Voldemort; look after yourself. He had studied their mistakes. Before the battle he had switched identities with a willing, dispensable fool by means of Polyjuice Potion. The stooge was to shout orders and the other Agents were to appear to follow them. He saw his stooge duelling with Potter and took his chance;

“Avada Kedavra!”

The stooge crumpled to the floor just as Morgana had and Potter looked horrified, stupid man. If he could mistake such an insipid creature for the might of Emil Nequam then he deserved to believe that the man had died at
his hand.

Emil and the Eastmans had beaten a hasty retreat. They had not been idle for a decade though. They had taken steps to rebuild The Movement, only this time they would control it. The child would be a figurehead and a puppet.


*****

Teddy saw the door open slightly as a familiar and welcome red head stepped into the room.

“You’re lying! He shouted at Quirinus, red sparks bursting from the end of his wand.

“Tell me Cub, how long has your kitchen been that sickly yellow colour?” Quirinus asked, as though wondering when Teddy planned on redecorating.

There wasn’t a second to loose and simultaneously Teddy and Keith cried “Stupefy!” each of them felling a twin of his own like a spindly silver birch tree.

“What in the name of Merlin is all this about?” Keith asked.

“Me.” The answer came from the girl now standing in the doorway. She was still not crying and both men looked at her warily.

“My name is Hermia Smith, I’ve been school both privately and at Beauxbatons, Susan Bones has been looking after me for the last six months, she collected me from France and…” She took a deep breath “and I accidentally killed the man who told me who my mother was.”

“That’ll do for now kid. Where’s your wand?”

“They took it.”

“Right, well, we’ll find it later. Till then, let’s get these two upstairs. Hang on, what happened up there Keith?”

“Oh, well y’know, the girl upstairs isn’t a girl after all. She’s a bloke in very girly robes.”

Hermia laughed shakily.

“Someone should be here soon Ted, I sent my patronus after I stunned and bound those two upstairs. Ted, it was Jones.”

Teddy looked at Keith in disbelief but before he could reply could reply they heard voices in the hallway.

“Lupin? Moore? What in the name of all things-”

Ron stopped in what would more than likely have been a rather amusing if foul mouthed question as he opened the kitchen door. He saw Susan, unconscious and bleeding and shouted;

“We need a healer in here!”A short wizard lime green robes ran into the room and began to attend to Susan’s injuries.

“Ron, mate, I need to go, they made it sound like they had hurt Amelia.”
Ron frowned. “I haven’t seen her today. Take Moore with you, I’ll sort this out.”

Teddy and Keith ran through the house and Apparated form the step outside the front door to the end of the garden path of Lupin Cottage. Running up path they saw that the door was open. Fear had forced Teddy’s heart into his throat and it sat there pounding and suffocating him. They dashed through the parlour and into the kitchen, wands drawn. Amelia lay on the floor in a pool of blood.

“Keith, St. Mungo’s go!”

Teddy couldn’t form a sentence but he didn’t need to, his friend had already stepped into the green flames. Teddy dropped to his knees and gathered his wife up in his arms. She was languid but not cold. How long had she lain on the floor like this? He had expected her to follow him to work, she was never thirty minutes later than him but he had left before she was due to arrive. He started to heal the cuts that he could see. He could hear her shallow breathing and it gave him hope. The minutes ticked by and he wondered where Keith could be. He realised that the plot that morning had not just been about capturing Hermia. The intention had been to kill him and Amelia too.

“They failed my love, they failed because we’re still here, we’re still here.” He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes for a long moment, gently rocking his wife back and forth. When he opened them again the room was filled with a brilliantly white light. He blinked several times and the light seemed to settle over Amelia’s chest in two orbs, now pink and pale silver blue. There was a whoosh of green flames from the grate and Keith stepped out again, followed by three healers and Teddy blinked away the tears of relief that were now spilling down his cheeks. He looked back at his wife and the lights were gone.

~

After a few weeks in St. Mungo’s both Amelia and Susan both made full recoveries. Susan elected to keep her memories so that she could give evidence at the trail of Nequam, the Eastman twins and the fourth would be kidnapper, Jones. Teddy had been devastated that Rhodri Jones was the fourth kidnapper. Jones was a highly intelligent man, who Teddy himself had mentored within the Auror department. Jones had been the inside man, leaking information to Nequam. His betrayal had cut Teddy deeply; he had considered Jones a friend.

Hermia had elected to keep her memory too. Apparently, she told Harry that it didn’t matter where she had come from, what mattered was what she chose to do with her life. She was very flattered when he told her that Albus Dumbledore had said something very similar once.

Teddy and Amelia asked Hermia to live with them. She chose to go to Hogwarts, to make a fresh start. The cottage was magically enlarged to make room for everyone. Genevieve and Miranda, their daughters, were thrilled to be gaining a “cool big sister” but Remus, who was five, took a slightly different view.

“Another girl? Why do we need another girl? Daddy, three girls is too many already!”


If anyone knows the proper French term for Grand Entrance Hall, please let me know because I sort of guessed!

I had lots of fun thinking of names for Teddy's children, I got quiet carried away. They are:
Genevieve Nymphadora born in 2023, named after both Amelia and Teddy's mothers.
Miranda Andromeda born in 2024, named after two of their grandmothers.
Remus Alexander born in 2028, named after their fathers.

I almost gave them a Quidditch team of children but I reined myself in.

Chapter eight may take a while, I'm really hating it at the moment. No matter what I think of it always turns in to rubbish somewhere inbetween my brain and my fingers.


On a different note, I feel completely dense because I can't work out why I've still got the sorting hat on when I am infact a Hufflepuff! Do I need to do something? Someone help me, please!