New Feet, Cold Feet
DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you’ve seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$
A/N: Since I seem to be writing again and have more than ten chapters beyond this and the next one, you get two again. (That and I still feel a bit sorry for not writing anything for a while…)
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE: NEW FEET, COLD FEET
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31 st , 1993
Harry Potter’s relationship with his parents was different. Then again, he would muse, what about his life was not? They had been together, such as it was, since July 31st Outside time or September 19th Inside time or three months or five-and-a-half months depending how one was counting. Together was not totally accurate as James and Lily Potter lived in the Cottage at the far end of the Mountain Valley at the southern end of the Estate and Harry and his ladies lived in his Manor some thirty-four miles to the northwest as the broom flew. Still, he had seen his parents almost every day since they recovered and before he and his girls resumed classes and every weekend since classes resumed.
Still, it was a different relationship. Harry was thirteen and in between terms at boarding school when they recovered. He was also emancipated, married four times over, betrothed on top of that, and Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. The Head of House had passed from his father to him so that meant that in House Affairs he was over his father. Still, his father was more familiar with this traditional stuff than he was so he often talked things over with his Dad and almost as often followed his Dad’s advice.
His girls had come up with the idea of the Manor Court for Sirius. His Dad had heard of that, but thought it was no longer an option and thought it brilliant when it turned out that it was. Thus far there was nothing pending of interest before the Wizengamot where his Dad would be important. Harry planned to name him as the Potter proxy. It was not that he did not trust Augusta Longbottom in the role. It was that he wanted his Dad to have some role in the affairs of House Potter and as they had learned the Fidelius Charm that protected the secret that James and Lily Potter survived the attack of October 31st, 1981 and were alive and well worked in ways few had suspected.
While James and Lily Potter spent most of their time on the Estate, they were by no means prisoners. They had been to the Quidditch Match. They had sat in the back during the Manor Court. They had been to Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade since their trip to Gringotts. No one had recognized them for who they were, not even those who had known them before and not many really had. After all there were over seventy thousand witches and wizards in Magical Britain so it was unlikely anyone knew everyone and James Potter had not been the “newsworthy” item his son had become. His marriage to Lily was no more than an ordinary announcement in the Daily Prophet without a photograph. Then again, they did not advertise their former identities either. Most of their forays into the wider world were for shopping or - on some occasions - entertainment where all most people cared about was the color of their money. In the rare instances where they were asked for more, they were James and Lily Evans who recently emigrated from New Zealand and had both magical and Muggle identification to that effect from Gringotts. His Mum had chosen New Zealand.
“ First of all,” she explained, “it’s not like there’s a load of New Zealanders running about Magical Britain. We’re probably it. There were some who undoubtedly emigrated there during the War, but Emily (Abbott) checked and no such émigrés have returned. About the only witches or wizards who’ve been there would be the ambassador and his family, and they’ve been there since before we finished school. So if we say we’re from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or whatever who’s to say otherwise? I picked New Zealand ‘cause I remember reading that of the former British colonies, it’s accent is among the least distinguishable. An expert on dialects would spot us for frauds after a few sentences, but there aren’t any such among the Wizarding population so it’s unlikely we’ll ever be called on it. On the Muggle side, it doesn’t matter that we’re who we really are so we can say we’ve been abroad if asked.”
The real “test” of the Charm had been when the Potters went down into the Chamber of Secrets. Most of those who went that day knew the Secret, but Professor Flitwick had not and he never wised up to them despite the obvious clues. He was told at the end of that little adventure and had given Hermione fifty points for the excellent charm. So long as the Charm remained active, it seemed no one could learn the truth about James and Lily Potter unless Harry let Ginny tell them.
“It’s a double-blind secret so to speak,” Hermione had explained to the Potters. “The weakness of the Charm is the free will of the Secret Keeper. If the Secret Keeper wishes to betray the trust, he can. Our system has eliminated that weakness. Ginny cannot reveal the Secret because Harry has ordered her not to and she cannot defy his orders willingly or otherwise because of a bond she shares with him and the nature of that bond is also protected by a separate Fidelius Charm. So maybe it’s really a triple-blind Secret. In the end, only Harry can decide when and whether it should be revealed and to whom. Moreover, to undo the charm the Secret Keeper must agree to do so and she can’t unless Harry allows her to. The really interesting bit is she can tell if Harry’s being forced to order the Secret revealed and retains the will to refuse that order. I won’t say that what happened in your experience is impossible, but it is as close to impossible as we can make it.”
James convinced Harry to hold off on any changed to the Potter Proxy. On the one hand, the law seemed to be clear that he could not change Proxies at all until he was seventeen. But the law was not nearly as clear as to emancipated Heads of Ancient and Noble Houses so maybe he could, but it would be challenged. Harry figured it would be and that it would force Dumbledore’s hand as Harry and his ladies were certain Dumbledore was not going to just let things go in any which way and certainly not in a way that would deny Dumbledore the control he thought he had. James agreed that in all likelihood it would force Dumbledore to lead the challenge and, perhaps, attack Harry’s emancipated status. He agreed with Harry that this should be a goal for House Potter, but said that politics was all about timing and this move was clearly political in intent and consequences. House Potter should force Dumbledore to reassert control only when the damage from doing so would be greatest for Dumbledore as it was all but absolutely certain that Dumbledore would lose. The most advantageous time to stick it to Dumbledore would be the coming summer as Harry planned to marry Ginny sometime after she attained her legal Bonding Age on June 21st. James believed that Dumbledore wanted to gain complete control over Harry in one fell swoop rather than first challenge the emancipation and have him reinstated as Harry’s magical Guardian and then later reveal the Vassalage clause in his now worthless betrothal agreement. He might move quickly, but only if he felt the betrothal was threatened which meant only if Sirius or Harry seemed to be taking action to undo the betrothal, which was not going to happen. So long as Sirius did not interfere with Dumbledore’s plan, Dumbledore might wait until he could achieve his ultimate objective all at once. So, James said, it would be best not to tickle that sleeping dragon until they could time things to unravel all the plots. Harry was somewhat impatient about things. He did not like that hanging over his head even if it would come to nothing in the end. But he soon agreed that to wait was in the best interests of House Potter and delay would be all the more damaging for Dumbledore in the end. Augusta would remain Potter House proxy. If nothing happened by the time Harry left for the Summer Holidays, then they would force matters to a head.
James also advised Harry about the Rights of Conquest governing the proceeds to the Basilisk. When Harry learned he owned it and it was worth quite the fortune, he was seriously tempted to keep it all. After all, while he and his ladies had no clear plan for the War that was in the future, he was certain he would need loads of money for one reason or another. James agreed that to most people, a million Galleons was a lot of money. But it was less than two weeks interest income to House Potter. James had been Head of House Potter for seven months: from his twenty-first birthday on March 27th, 1981 to his “disappearance” on October 31st, 1981. It hadn’t meant all that much as he had not seen it prudent to assume the House Seat in the Wizengamot and his family was in a safe house and not on Potter lands Outside at the time. He was still training and an Auror, but he had assigned the House Proxy to Augusta Longbottom who was also exercising Proxy for House Longbottom as the then Head, Neville’s father, was fully engaged in the War as an Auror. But, even though he was not exercising the political authority of his House nor living on one of its Outside Estates, James had been receiving monthly statements from Gringotts. As he recalled, in one month the estate had earned over 2.8 Million Galleons in interest on the family accounts and this did not include his income as an Auror Trainee or the Potter farms and business interests. It was earning more today, probably.
“ But I can’t access the Family Accounts ‘til I’m twenty-one!” Harry said. “I doubt I can wait that long as I’m pretty sure the War will resume well before then.”
“ That’s not entirely true, Harry. You are emancipated now. As the emancipated Head of House you can’t access the family accounts until you’ve exhausted your Trust Accounts and the Goblins won’t allow you to spend beyond your interest earnings on what they would say are frivolities. Right now, you’re trust only allows you to spend the earned interest without penalty, plus whatever earnings you have that can be said to be derived from that source such as the farm income from your four newest trunks as you placed them in operation. Dad’s trunks earnings probably go direct to the family vaults. Still, I think you’ll find your farm income even without his will be fairly substantial but that’s beside the point. You can access your other monies if the Goblins allow it. I think they’d consider paying to fight that war as something that is not a frivolity. But you would be withdrawing with a penalty of fifteen percent meaning for every hundred Galleons you need, the Vaults would be reduced by a hundred and fifteen with the Goblins pocketing the fifteen.
“I’ve done some figuring. Your last fiscal year which ended on your birthday, your trust earned 22,828 Galleons interest. That does not include 20,000 added to your spending account because of your marriages. Your farm mangers estimate that this fiscal year your four northern farms will earn around 160,000 after expenses. Without refiguring interest for that, that’s at least 180,000 in earnings for this year. Your cut on the basilisk will add another 45,000 in interest over the first year assuming you only get a million for the whole thing. 225,000 a year is a lot of money. That’s £1,518,750 a year! That’s how much you can spend without losing a knut meaning you’ll be no poorer than you are right now and you can still spend about another 620,000 from the interest in your trust before you even need to worry about penalties. You don’t need a million Galleons, Harry, because you really don’t need a million Galleons at all.”
James then explained the specifics of the Rights of Conquest. Harry could keep half the proceeds and no questions could be asked. If he kept more, there could be other claimants to challenge him. First of all there was what was known as Squire’s Rights. This rule dated back to the middle ages and recognized that the Master had an Apprentice who invariably provided some valuable assistance during a quest and should be compensated for it as there had been instances when the Apprentice did much of the work and saw nothing of the reward. This meant if Harry stiffed Ron, Ron might challenge him about it and James felt Ron would get something if it came before the Wizengamot. Likewise, where property was threatened by a dangerous creature or it had been damaged, the property owner could assert a claim for that as well. In this case, it meant the Board of Governors could ask and expect to receive some of the proceeds. True, the fact that one of the Founders had probably placed the threat there to begin with might mean Hogwarts would get nothing; but that would have to be proven to the satisfaction of the Wizengamot. Finally, victims could ask for something provided their families had not offered a reward for their rescue. The prudent thing to do was keep half and throw the rest out to the other potential claimants in amounts they could not contest and expect to win; which was why Harry was planning to distribute the money the way he planned and as he thought about it made sense to do so. Of course, he added a provision on the amount that was going to Hogwarts that it must be used to provide scholarships for Muggle Borns and families that could not afford to send all their children to school under the existing Hardship scholarships. The rules allowed him to restrict the funds to such an extent.
James also told his son about the tradition in wealthier families of proving their members with an annual stipend. It was always a small fraction of the family’s annual income, but a small fraction of tens of millions was still probably more than most wizards and witches earned. That small stipend had been the source of Harry’s trust and it would continue until he turned twenty-one. His sibling, after he or she was born, would have that stipend as the basis for their trust and when they turned seventeen the payments would continue. Harry could disburse up to ten percent of House Potter’s income in such stipends, but it was limited to 10,000 a year per member. In 1981, this would have provided stipends for around three hundred and forty people and 10,000 a year was almost half again more than the average income. Although James and Lily did not need the stipend as James’s own trust was now earning over 90,000 a year, it was customary to provide it and automatic unless the family member was disowned outright. Naturally, Harry had no intentions of doing that.
Aside from such matters which could not be easily researched in the Library; his conversations with his Dad centered on Quidditch, girls and being regaled with tales of the Marauders. They also spoke about golf, but that was usually when they were playing. As for girls, Harry did ask questions but more often it was his Dad teasing him about his current living arrangements.
If he had truly serious questions about girls, he learned to talk to his mother. She knew quite a bit about magic and had been considered a prodigy in Potions and Charms at school, but as a Muggle Born her knowledge as to the culture and traditions of the Wizarding World was limited. However, in most cases if he had a question about Charms or Potions he had a huge library and five very bright young ladies to help him find the answer and he enjoyed finding it more than being told it. But if he wanted to ask about girls and couldn’t ask his five ladies for some reason, his mother was the person he sought. After all, it made little sense to ask Hermione about what would be a good present for her. There were other things as well that would be embarrassing to ask his ladies. They still were embarrassing asking his mother, but it wasn’t the same in his mind.
“ I can’t tell you much about your bonding beyond what you already probably know or you or your ladies have already read,” Lily had said to him apologetically. “You want to know how a young woman thinks from a somewhat disinterested perspective, I can tell you. I knew when we got that first notice about Hermione and you that your life would be different - really different when we got the notice about Luna and you. You already have more experience with a Plural Marriage than I do. But I do have more experience as a woman than you can ever have… I should hope.”
“ I’d rather not have some of those experiences, I think,” Harry said. “From what the girls tell me, it’s not too pleasant.”
Lily chuckled. “No. But it is necessary. And I can tell you and your girls if they ask about what to expect when they’re pregnant although that can vary markedly from woman to woman. However, aside from intellectual curiosity I hope that all of you do not engage in any practical experimentation along those lines anytime soon.”
“We’re a bit young for that,” Harry said.
“ And yet you are in an intimate relationship with those five young ladies.”
“ Um… not that way, Mum. Hermione, Luna and I literally bonded on the first day we could; not that we planned it that way. It was the day that Luna and I reached our magical Bonding Age. According to the books the Flamels gave us on such things, bonding that young is… Well, we’re too young to complete the bond. We’re too young to… um… well… magically consummate the bond.”
“ So no sex?”
“ The bond is trying to stabilize and to get the three of us to the point where we can finalize it. That means we’ll reach that kind of maturity sooner than we would have otherwise. But the process… well the girls still need their girl stuff but aside from kissing and hugs and stuff that would not be improper in front of guests, the process suppresses any more… um… serious urges.”
“ So you don’t,” Lily began.
“ We’re not sexually intimate beyond what I said. I can’t be and they’re not interested that way yet. Good thing I know this otherwise I’d think I was broken or something.”
Lily chuckled at that. “I’m sure you’re not.”
“ Healer Tonks says I’m fine. It’s normal under the circumstances. She can’t say for how long, though. It could take up to a year. But when we’ve reached that point… She says there won’t be any doubt in our minds when we do. Once we reach that point, we’ll probably need a few days of alone time. Fortunately, according to what we’ve read and Healer Tonks has told us, while there must be some chance that the magical… consummation of the bond results in conception, it does not mean it must. Hermione and Luna can complete the bond without stopping their potions apparently.”
“ That’s a good thing.”
Harry nodded. “We’re not ready for that yet. We’ve all talked about that sort of stuff and agreed. None of them will get… will have a child or start one until at least they’ve gotten their OWLs and the only one considering to do it that soon is Hannah ‘cause she wants a lot of… kids for her line and even then she’s not certain she’ll start before her NEWTs. The others want their NEWTs first.”
“ And what do you want?”
Harry snorted. “I want Voldemort done with, but they’re of the opinion if we let him dictate our lives he’s won something and none of us want him or his kind to win anything if we can help it. If it were up to me alone, I don’t know. Maybe when I’m thirty? Not sure I’m ready to be a Dad yet…”
“ Harry, if you wait until you think you’re ready it may well be too late. On the other hand, you should wait ‘til you’re done with school. No one truly knows how to be a parent before they become one. While there are books about it, it’s not something you can really learn that way. It’s sort of learn as things go along, which can be scary 'cause you’re always worried about whether you’re doing it right. I think if you’re not worried about that then you’re probably doing it wrong. Your father and I worried all the time about whether what we did as your parents was the right thing. And we didn’t always agree on everything…”
“ Oh?”
“ Sirius bought you a training broom on your first birthday and your father thought it was a brilliant idea. You seemed to think so too and you were flying about before you could even walk! I, however, did not think it was such a good idea. Neither did Hermione, come to think of it.”
“ Really?”
Lily nodded. “When we were over at her house and you had that thing and flew it, she’d run after you saying ‘Hawwy NO! Hawwy NO!’ It was funny in hindsight and kind of cute.”
Harry winced at the word “cute.” “What about Luna?”
“ Luna thought the whole thing was funny.”
“ That sounds like them,” he said. “I wish that night never happened!” he added after a pause. “For as long as I can remember all I wanted was a real family. Anything but what I had might’ve been better. Every time the door rang I hoped it would be someone saying it all had been a terrible mistake and I had a real family that wanted me.”
“ I wouldn’t have wanted that for you, Harry. You were not supposed to have anything to do with her.”
“ I have a family now, finally.”
“ Well, if it helps your father and I are very pleased with the way you’ve turned out… all other things considered.”
“ Luna thinks it was the bond.”
“ Oh?”
Harry nodded. “She thinks the time we spent together as babies did something. She doesn’t know what and of course Hermione can’t find anything about anything like that in the library. But Luna thinks that some kind of connection formed even if none of us could remember it and that connection allowed us to go through what we went through after and not… not turn into people we wouldn’t like or want to be friends with.”
“ Luna’s a smart girl,” Lily nodded.
“ They all are. I probably wouldn’t like them as much if they weren’t.”
Lily probably knew more about his time with the Dursleys than his girls did and certainly had been told more at any one time and that was also helpful in a way; although Harry wondered if it would ever be a good idea to let the two sisters meet. Then again, it might be amusing as well. After all, he doubted his Mum would kill Aunt Petunia outright and short of that he doubted she would be worse than Dobby had been.
He was still trying to figure out what his relationship with his parents was. Now there was a new wrinkle as he was now a big brother as well. He thought about this as he watched his father follow Madam Pomfrey to the stairs in the Cottage. Harry ate another sandwich.
“Lord Potter?” Madam Pomfrey’s voice sounded, “you and your ladies may head up now.”
“What?” Harry asked in surprise.
“Your parents request your presence.”
“Oh, right.”
Harry and his ladies then followed Madam Pomfrey up the stairs and to the same bedroom where he had found his parents lying in stasis back on his last birthday. As he stepped through the door, he saw his mother sitting up in bed. She was wearing some kind of robes and was tucked in beneath blankets below her waist. She held in her arms what looked like a small bundle of blankets and was looking at it with a smile. His father was seated beside her and was also looking at the bundle as he entered. His mother looked up with a large smile on her face.
“Come and meet your new sister, Harry,” she said softly.
Harry walked forward cautiously. To be honest, he had never really seen a baby before in his life; not up close at least. He did not count the ones he saw on the telly on those few occasions when he caught a glimpse of anything nor did he count the occasional prams he saw here and there in the Muggle world. All he saw of his sister at first was a head, mostly bald although there were strands of fine hair of some color he could not distinguish. There was also a very tiny fist poking out of the blankets that swaddled her. Her eyes were closed.
“She’s so small,” he said almost impulsively.
“Not too small for a newborn,” his mother said. “In fact, she’s a tiny bit bigger than you were when you came, but not enough to matter really. I’d introduce you but it seems she’s decided it’s time for a nap.”
“What’s her name?”
“Elizabeth,” Lily said. “Elizabeth Dorea Potter after both her - and your - grandmothers.”
“She was the easy one to name,” James said. “Your Mum and I were split over your name. She wanted Henry and I wanted Harold so we split the difference as it were and named you Harry.”
“I never knew your mother’s name,” Harry said to Lily.
“Like your Dad, I lost my parents before you were born,” Lily said. “In their case it was a car accident, not the Dragon Pox outbreak.”
“Aunt Petunia always told me I lost my parents in a car crash,” Harry began.
Lily nodded. “It was a lie with a grain of truth as you did lose your grandparents that way. They were hit by a drunk driver who also died in the crash.”
“Elizabeth,” Harry said after a pause. “Like the Queen.”
Lily nodded. “But not for the Queen. My Mum was born before she was the Queen. Actually, she was born before the Queen’s father was King, but not by much.”
“You need to sign the family ledger to make it all official,” James began.
“Um?”
Albert the Elder then appeared with a very old looking and very thick leather bound book.
“It is the custom that the Head of House enter the names of the new members of the extended family in the Ledger. This will allow Gringotts to transfer funds for her education and Trust, among other things. I did it for you, but I can’t do it for her as you’re the Head now. Just copy the form from your entry.”
Harry opened the book. There seemed to be hundreds of pages with handwritten entries announcing the birth of ancestors and relations, although there had been very few in the final pages. He saw the last entry:
Born to:
James Edward Potter
Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
son of Lord Charlus Potter
35th Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
and
Dorea Consuella Potter nee Black
of the Ancient and Noble House of Black
and
Lily Marie Potter nee Evans,
daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Evans:
a son of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
HARRY JAMES POTTER
This 31 st Day of July, 1980
Lord James Edward Potter
36 th Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
32 nd Earl of Hwicca
27 th Earl of Abengale
24 th Baron of Loch Sheen
17 th Earl of Hereford
6 th Earl of Finchley
Head of House
Harry then took a quill from Albert the Elder and carefully wrote a similar entry in the ledger, with some minor alterations:
Born to:
James Edward Potter
son of Lord Charlus Potter
35 th Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
and
Dorea Consuella Potter nee Black
of the Ancient and Noble House of Black
and
Lily Marie Potter nee Evans,
daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Evans
a daughter of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
ELIZABETH DOREA POTTER
This 31 st Day of October, 1993 A.D.,
The 18 th Day of March, 2 nd Year of the Estate Calendar
Lord Harry James Potter
37 th Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter
33 rd Earl of Hwicca
28 th Earl of Abengale
25 th Baron of Loch Sheen
18 th Earl of Hereford
7 th Earl of Finchley
Head of House
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3 rd 1993
“I’m not sure if I can do this, Siri,” the former Mrs. Lucius Malfoy now Mistress Narcissa Black said.
“You said you wanted to help them,” Sirius replied. He was not surprised she was reluctant. What surprised him was how long it had taken for her to express it.
“Help?” Cissy replied. “Indeed. I feel I owe it to them… to me in a way. But… but your all but asking me to be their mother!”
“Think of it more like being their Head of House at school,” Sirius smiled.
“Okay, that’s a disturbing thought. Do I look anything like Professor Slughorn?”
“I wasn’t thinking about him necessarily.”
“Or Professor McGonagall?”
“You certainly are not nearly old enough. But you must admit she is quite striking. Probably would be more so for her age if she smiled more…”
“Or Professor Sprout?”
“You are too sleek and well put together. This is about a role, not a personality or appearances, Cissy.”
“But they’re not like us!” she almost hissed.
“Oh? Aside from the fact they are females and twenty years younger than I am, I see no difference.”
“They’re Muggles! I don’t know a thing about them!”
“It’s not like I’m asking you to marry them, Cissy. Then again, is it all that different?”
“I don’t have to sleep with them!”
“That’s not what I meant. You didn’t know Lucy all that well before you were betrothed.”
“More than not at all… !”
“But not by much considering you were being asked to be his wife for the rest of your life. This is different. I am asking you to… well, to be their minder. We can’t send them back to their former lives as those are irrevocably gone. Our world caused that so it’s our job to make amends. They’re too young to be on their own so they need an adult to tend to them, help them, guide them and all that sort of stuff. I’m not even asking you to give them lessons, although you may if you feel you can provide them with something they could use later in life. I’m making arrangements for tutorials for their education. We do have some well educated Muggles who are weekly guests at the Estates…”
“They’re not witches!”
“Yet aside from that minor difference, they are teenaged girls. Surely you can relate to that.”
“It’s different for us,” Cissy groaned. “We have certain… needs at that age that they do not have…”
“Which Andi tells me is a good thing given what they’ve been through. They cannot be expected to be active that way and fortunately they do not need to be.”
“I was betrothed when I was their age! I had already been with…”
“Was that your choice, or the duty expected of you by your family and by him?”
“Um… duty first. Mostly. There were times when he was… when it was enjoyable, but that was later and it certainly has not been recently.”
“It is my understanding that is the exception at that age, not the rule. Girls may well be intimate with other girls, but not with boys.”
“That may be the case, I wouldn’t know. Slytherin House… well, by being betrothed I avoided… Girls with no family connection of note generally… are expected to do things…”
“By the boys?”
Cissy nodded. “It was not uncommon to see one of those girls providing her House Service in the common room. Third year girls who did not have… protection… would sooner or later find themselves moving into the boys' dormitory whether they wanted to or not. I needn’t tell you why.”
“Ah, the joys of Pure-blood Supremacy,” Sirius said sarcastically.
“But… I was brought up… ,” Cissy began with half hearted indignance.
“Indeed,” Sirius said, “as was I and as was your sister Andi. Now tell me honestly, of the three of us who had the better life?”
Cissy hung her head.
“Our parents' ideals destroyed how many lives? Forget the war and the suffering it caused. Of their children, how many lives were truly destroyed? It seems only Andi truly escaped ruination. I’d say I did as well as I can’t blame my time in Azkaban on our parents directly, although indirectly I can as were it not for their beliefs and the many idiots who believed as they did, I would not have been suspected of anything! My brother, Mother’s favorite, did as she bade him and became that which I despised: a Death Eater. They never have found his body, you know. And I know our side didn’t kill him. His own side did it to him for some reason. Your sister Bella is rotting away in Azkaban for the way we were brought up. And your life has hardly been a bed of roses either.”
“It’s still… ,” Cissy mumbled. “I have so little in common…”
“You’re probably right,” Sirius nodded. “You were brought up with wealth and privilege, something which cannot be said about any of those four girls, although only one was from what the muggles would truly consider a ‘poor’ family as the other three were in their middle class, whatever that means. You were raised to be the perfect, pureblood princess, as were your older sisters. That, of course, is not something that would do those girls much good seeing as they would be worthless in the Pure-blood marriage market. Then again, one might say it’s worthless period. You and your sisters are a prime example. One has since rejected it all and the other, as I said, is sitting in Azkaban drooling on herself. As for yourself, you were arranged into a marriage with a man whose only quality was that there was no crime beneath him and no depravity that repulsed him. So whatever it was that you were taught by your parents, it seems to stand you in good stead,” he added sarcastically.
“But… ,” her resistance was weakening although she still could not see past the differences. She wanted to help the girls somehow, but she had not even imagined the help she was to provide was as their adult minder or whatever Sirius imagined she would be. She thought someone more knowledgeable and quite probably in tune and sympathetic with Muggles would fill that role.
“I needn’t remind you that life as you knew it is over,” Sirius said.
“But… ,” she tried to protest.
“You’re no longer the trophy wife of a vicious, lowlife desperately in search of respectability which I’ve been assured is how much of society saw your situation; and certainly expressed their opinion of it behind your back as it were. That life ended the moment I had that sham annulled. You’re almost thirty-six years old…”
“Thirty-four!”
“You were two years ahead of me at school,” Sirius began.
“True. I was passed ahead a year, missing Second Year altogether. I was told it was for my academic prowess, although my marks were good I don’t think they were that good. I suspect my father arranged it somehow to make me more marketable. That was not long after the time Andi ran off with her husband.”
“Thirty-four then,” Sirius said. “Aside from your family trust and your House Black stipend, with which you could live in modest comfort for the rest of your life, you have nothing really. And as you’re aware, the trust and stipend are subject to the whims of the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black…” Sirius knew this was more or less and idle threat, but he tried to sound sincere and earnest. “I have not seen fit to offer you one of the lesser Black properties,” he added and this was true. Then again, he did not think any were fit for human occupancy. “And you have a son by another. As you know this makes you… difficult to market as a bride. It would cost a fair fortune to… well, you know. While I will not necessarily stand in the way of a future marriage, neither will I seek a match on your behalf. So your options are somewhat limited. Right now, you live in a room over the Leaky Cauldron. With your resources you can afford better, but the market for properties in our world is notoriously tight. You could probably manage to find a two room flat with a private bath, but anything more spacious and you’re hoping to be the first in the queue when its current occupant passes on. Either that, or you’d have to live amongst the Muggles. What I’m offering is not much better in terms of a social life. Then again, it’s my opinion - and not just mine, by the way - that you need a change in that regard. But my offer includes a large house on my new estate much more in keeping with what you may have been used to. All that is required in return is that you look after those four girls. And unless Andi failed to make it clear, while you’re the one who will share the house with them there will be others seeing to their needs such as education and such. Naturally, you can refuse and remain at the Leaky Cauldron.”
Sirius had expected reluctance from his cousin. After all, what he was asking was nothing less than a complete change in lifestyle, goals, expectations and to a great extent beliefs. He suspected that Cissy was thinking along such lines and may have been for quite some time. But there was a huge difference between thinking about something and doing it. Faced with actually having to cross that line, to take that irrevocable step and leave her former life behind forever, it was hardly a surprise she would express reluctance when the new reality stared her in the face. But the old reality was gone the moment she agreed to end her farce of a marriage so some new reality was in her future. Sirius merely pointed out her options: return to the full support of House Black for which she was expected to spend a few years looking after four girls whose lives were ruined by her so called husband, or take her chances on her own which was something she had never done in her entire life.
“I suppose,” she said. “I guess I can manage.”
Sirius was pleased. It was getting harder and harder to keep St. Mungos from casting the girls out on the street. That would not have happened in any event. One way or another, the girls would be looked after but he would have preferred that he and his wife not fill the role as primary guardians. After all, they were trying to have another child among other reasons. But had Cissy absolutely refused, the girls would still have a new home. He told her Andi was waiting for her at St. Mungos. He had other business to attend to in London.
Of the many reasons real and imagined that had led Cissy to express second thoughts, the major ones arose from watching the four girls as they underwent aspects of their treatment. Certainly, there were aspects of it that involved wand work and potions. There was magic that could take away some of the emotional pain and trauma behind a past experience and its memory without removing the memories themselves. There was no need for Cissy to observe those treatments, but this did not mean she was ignorant of the results. Memories had been copied for later review via a magical device called a Pensieve. A Muggle Born once described the device as something similar in appearance to the Mirror of Galadrial as described in The Lord of the Rings, except you had to stick your face into it to see the memories. That, and rather than watch them like on a screen, you fell into them and could walk about and see things from different angles in three dimensions. For whatever reason, the device not only showed what the person remembered seeing, but often things that they could not have remembered.
Through the pensieve memories, Cissy was able to watch the girls' memories of their abductions. Two of them were at home when Lucius appeared in their home. The girls clearly did not understand how, but it was clear to Cissy and the other witches and wizards who had seen the memory that Lucius had apparated into the home. There was the telltale sound of a body displacing the air.
The other two girls were not at home when they were abducted. Both had been walking along the street. Both had been walking home from school alone when Lucius appeared in front of them and that was the last they remembered of their old lives for their next memory was in one of the rooms in the subbasement of Malfoy Manor. In this, all four memories were similar. Lucius took his time. They couldn’t move. He told them they were now in his service and expected to do whatever it was he wished them to do. He then removed their clothes with a knife stating that they would not need such things any more. He left them alone for an unknown period of time as the memories did not include any real time reference. When he finally returned, he was naked himself and it was clear what his intentions were and what service was expected from them. He raped them over and over again, probably over a period of several days as the girls had clearly been placed into stasis after each assault. They apparently had been healed in the interval between rapes as was the case throughout their captivity.
For lack of a better term, the four girls had become sex slaves. At first it was brutality. It was clear that at times they were allowed to resist, but that was always when there were three or more wizards with them and it always resulted in their being forced upon by all of their “guests.” Other times were less brutal physically, but even worse emotionally. They were often under the Imperius Curse and while under it their bodies did whatever they were told. In their minds, they wanted to resist but they could not and to each and every one of their horror, their bodies betrayed them by enjoying it at times. The two who had been there the longest were under the Curse far less often as whatever will they had to resist was gone.
For Cissy, it was all too horrible to contemplate and then it got worse. Within the last week or so of the girls' memories, they had a new, frequent customer. It was her son Draco and he seemed unmoved about the plight of any of the girls. He acted as if they deserved what was happening to them and it was his right to do it to them and they should accept that as the way of things. The odd thing was he had never actually done anything other than verbally abuse them while someone else violated them. But he had also never told her about them. He allowed that to happen. In her mind, Draco was dead assuming he had ever lived. She had no son and she would object to any mention of his ever returning to House Black.
The girls knew of the other three. When they awoke from stasis for another day of violations, the other three were on their beds “asleep.” But while they knew of the other three, they had never met the other three. There were times when two or more of them were “awake” at the same time for a “party,” but they were never allowed to communicate with each other. They did not even know the names of their roommates. Evidently, there had been three other girls there at one time. When Mary Pierce had been brought there in 1978, she “shared” the room with three different girls who had since disappeared. She never knew their names either and had no idea what had happened to them except she was certain it was not a good end.
The pensieve memories had been horrible. But Cissy had also watched a different treatment. Not being a Muggle Born, she wondered why it was so important for the girls to talk to a Healer about their ordeals. She had watched these sessions from another room and watched as the two girls who had no idea about the fate of their families were told they were alone in the world. All four had been told there had been other girls; two of whom knew this and the other thought there had been another. All four were told that those girls were all killed in the end and that had they not been rescued the same would have been their fate. Cissy wondered why they needed to know this. A couple reacted as if they expected that was the case. The “newest” one, Elizabeth Mabry, was hysterical in the end. That had been the week before.
In a way, she had unwittingly been a part of that hell on earth. She had never questioned her husband’s activities and certainly had never been curious about what secrets might lie behind the walls and beneath the floors of Malfoy Manor. She had never questioned the belief system that could lead a person to believe they had the right to do that to anyone. This as much as anything else she had said to Sirius was the reason why she had been reluctant to come here on this day.
For today she would meet those girls and they would finally meet each other. Until today, they had been in private rooms and had gone through treatment alone. Starting today, however, their new lives would begin and while Cissy had been told they would have their own bedrooms in their new house, they would interact with each other finally. It was her job to begin the process although fortunately she would not be alone. She would meet the girls with her sister and Healer Parsons.
The three older witches entered a large room. It might have been a parlour or some such place given the furnishings but aside from some couches, low tables and comfortable looking chairs there was nothing homey about the place. The walls were bare of pictures and painted white and the floor was tiled. On the far wall were windows that seemed to look across the street to the tall Muggle building beyond. It was a sterile space.
On one of the couches sat four girls all of whom were wearing what looked like bathrobes over hospital gowns and slippers. Like the room itself, their attire was practically colorless. Cissy recognized them immediately has these were the four who she had been watching for over a week although this was the first time they had ever seen her in all probability.
“Good morning, girls,” Healer Parsons said. “I’ve brought a couple of guests with me as you can see. This is Healer Tonks and with her is Mistress Black.”
“Not another mind tinker,” one of the girls seemed to moan.
“No, Miss Pierce, Healer Tonks is not a ‘mind tinker’ as you so eloquently put it.”
“I specialize in witches' - I mean women’s healthcare,” Andi said.
“You’re not going to give us one of those exams, are you?” one of the other girls said.
“No. I’m not here in that capacity.”
“Then why are you here” another of the girls asked rather rudely.
Andi ignored the tone. “Your time here at St. Mungos is nearly over,” she said. “I am here to talk about what will happen after.”
“We’re going to a home or foster care,” another said, “that’s obvious.”
“A home? It may be that and it may not. Whether it is that is up to you. In our world, it is customary for a child without any surviving family willing to take them in to be sent to the orphanage…”
“You’re not going to send us there!” one of the girls protested. “That’s medieval!”
“We’re not,” Andi agreed. “In the first case, the three of you are too old. An orphaned witch of your age resides at the school to which they are assigned or enrolled. For another, you are not witches and our orphanage would not take you.”
“So where will we go then?” the first asked.
“You are here because a wizard destroyed your lives,” Cissy said. “He did quite a thorough job of it and did it so well we can’t send you back to wherever it is you came from. That is normally what we would do, but there’s nothing for you there.”
“I could go to my friends,” one of them said hopefully.
“Could you?” Cissy asked. “You’re Mary Pierce, right?”
She nodded.
“How old are your friends?”
“My age, of course.”
“You think after all this time they’d be willing to take you in?”
“It’s only been a few months!”
“It’s November 3rd,” Cissy began.
“Okay, six months then. It was May when he took me.”
“You didn’t let me finish,” Cissy retorted. “Today is November 3rd, 1993.”
“WHAT?” all four girls said.
“We’ve been gone years?” one added.
“That’s impossible!” Mary said. “I can’t’ve been gone that long!”
“Witches,” Elizabeth Mabry, the youngest of the girls said. “We’ve been with witches and wizards. We don’t know what they can and can’t do, do we?”
“So we travelled through time?” Angela Hammer asked.
“That’s one way to look at it,” Cissy said. “Although it’s not strictly accurate. When you remember the things that happened, when you slept and dreamed since you were taken, you were not travelling through time at all. Time moved as it does and it moved for you as it does for all things. But far more often, you were frozen in time.”
“He froze us?” Jenny Stanely said.
“In a manner of speaking, although that’s not accurate as well. Those beds you saw the others in, remember?”
The four girls nodded although clearly it was not a pleasant memory.
“They had a charm on them. How that charm was placed there and how it works is not as important as what it did. While you were on those beds, you were quite literally frozen in time. The world moved forward, you aged not one second even if days, weeks or even months went by for the rest of the world.”
“You people do that a lot?” Mary asked. “Freeze others in time, that is?”
“The Charm is not generally used for that purpose, no,” Cissy replied. “But it is a commonly used one.”
“What would you possibly want to use it for, except to do something nasty?” Jenny asked.
“It has lots of uses. Most of which are not nasty,” Cissy said. “It’s used with food all the time. You pick and apple and place it under that charm and time stops for it. Months, even years later you can remove the charm and eat the apple and it’s just as fresh as it was the moment you charmed it. Bakers use it for bread. If I buy a loaf from a magical baker, it’s under the charm. When I get home and remove the charm, it’s still warm from the oven even if hour or days have passed since it was baked.”
“I know a cook who uses it all the time,” Andi added. “He’s a very good cook, by the way. He cooks his dishes and places them under the charm until it’s time to serve them. Sometimes he cooked them days before they’re served, although you’d never know it. Healers also use it. There are times when there’s not enough real time to save the patient, so the patient is placed in stasis so the Healers can fix them whereas if they were not they would die before they could be fixed.
“Magic is magic,” she continued. “It is neither good nor evil, beneficial nor harmful. It just is. Whether it’s good or evil, beneficial or harmful is based upon the intent of the user, not the magic itself. The wizard who did those things to you was evil. He’s serving a life term in our prison and our prison is a true hell on earth. It is difficult to think of a crime he has not committed at one time or another. But he is not normal.”
“Just our luck,” Jenny said.
“Oh?”
“First wizard we meet happens to be a criminal psychopath.”
“They still don’t like us,” Elizabeth said.
“Who?” Cissy asked.
“The witches we’ve met. They all act like we’re dirty or something. Well, not all of them. Healer Parsons and another don’t. You don’t seem to. But other ones we’ve met…”
“For three hundred years, we’ve kept our world separate and secret from yours,” Cissy said. “We had reasons to do so and there are many who believe there are still reasons to do so. Those who’ve lived entirely in this world don’t understand the world you come from. People tend to react badly to things they don’t understand and people they think are different somehow.”
“Not all of us are like that,” Healer Parsons interjected. “My parents could not do magic. I didn’t learn that I was a witch until I was not much younger than you are. I grew up in your world, not this one so it doesn’t intimidate me at all. About a third of all witches and wizards were born to non-magical parents and grew up in your world. But there are some who’ve had never had contact with your world and do not understand it at all. Among that group are a few who believe they are better than anyone and a smaller few, like the man who kidnapped you, who believe they can do whatever they want.”
“There are people in your world like that as well,” Andi said. “In both worlds, society tries to keep those people in line or send them to prison when they get out of line. As we said, the man who did this to you will die in prison sooner rather than later in all likelihood. Our law enforcement is trying to identify and build cases against the other men who… who you met there. But what we need to do today is talk about your futures, not the past.”
“What’s going to happen to us?” Angela asked. “I mean, we have no place to go, really, do we?”
“I could still go with friends,” Elizabeth began.
“And how would you explain the fact that you haven’t aged?” Cissy asked. “That would raise questions and the truth in this case is not an option. No one in this room has the authority to reveal this world to your world. It’s a crime for us to do so or to allow others to do so if we could stop it. And we can’t just erase your memories…”
“That sounds like you can, or could if you wanted to,” Mary said.
“Some of us can,” Andi said.
“But in your cases it would do far more harm than good,” Healer Parsons said. “It would keep our world secret. But deep down, a part of you would remember what happened and it would eat you up. It would destroy you in time and that’s not what we hope for any of you.”
“Besides,” Andi said, “most of your neighborhood was destroyed that night, Elizabeth. There were few survivors. The official cause was a gas leak but we think it was the wizard who took you or his ‘friends’.”
“So what now?” Jenny asked.
“A group of magical families has decided to take care of all of you. They are… well… highly placed in our society which means that in your case not even our own government can question their actions. For more ordinary witches and wizards, the government might well question the ‘wisdom’ of raising four orphaned girls such as yourselves. The families who have decided to take care of you, however, control a third of the votes in our legislature. It’s complicated, but it means that no one can second guess them on this.
“You will be living in a house provided by one of those families: the House of Black. It’s head is Mistress Black’s and my cousin and he’s an Earl in our world…”
“Actually,” Cissy said, “he holds two Earldoms and a Baronetcy. His ancestors gained them from your kings of old and also lost them in your world. But in ours, they can only be lost if the line dies out and the Black line has not.”
“Mistress Black will share the house with you girls,” Andi said. “She is the head of your immediate household not unlike a parent in both your and our law. She recently lost her home, her husband and her son. Although her circumstances are not the same as yours, she is the one who can probably best relate to what you’re going through.”
“Is it a big, fancy house?” Elizabeth asked.
“I don’t know,” Cissy said. “My cousin acquired it very recently and I’ve not been there. Knowing him I can say it’s not a cottage but it won’t be a palace either.”
“The families will see to your educations,” Andi continued. “There are people like you that are under their… umbrella, as it were. There are also a fair number of witches and wizards who were raised in your world. You won’t attend a school per se, rather the families will provide you with tutors up through at least the conclusion of your secondary education. Beyond that, we’ll see when that time comes.”
“Great!” Jenny said. “I never liked school and now I have to go again.”
“It should be different,” Mary noted. “Just the four of us. Right?”
“While there are young people your age at the Estates, they are witches and wizards and attend a school for such. You’ll probably meet them, but they won’t attend classes with you.”
“Will we be allowed clothes?” Mary asked.
“Why wouldn’t you be allowed?” Cissy replied.
“He… he said we didn't…”
“We don’t have any,” Jenny added.
“You will dress as you wish within reason,” Cissy said. “Whatever that man may have told you… well, I have no reason to believe he ever told you the truth about anything.”
“We and a few other ladies will be taking you shopping in London Saturday for new wardrobes,” Andi said. “After that, we’ll head for your new home.”