Terence Campbell apparated in front of his house. The November winds were tugging at his gown. From outside, he could make out the light shining through the green curtains behind the windows in the living room on the ground floor. Apart from that, the small house lingered in nocturnal darkness.
He stormed to the front door and swung his wand, escaping the bleak weather and bearing important news. The door opened immediately, and he entered and turned right into the living room. His wife Elvina and their little daughter Felicity were sitting on the couch, Elvina having a book in her hands. It seemed like she had been reading to Felicity, but with his entrance, she stopped and looked directly at him.
“And?”, she asked him with a nervous voice. Felicity looked from the one to the other.
“It’s true”, Terence replied tersely. He approached the couch and cowered down in front of his daughter. “Hey beauty, I think it’s bedtime for you now.”
“But I’m not tired yet”, Felicity insisted. That was part of their daily evening routine, but tonight there was no time for these games.
He took a small bottle from the depths of his gown and exchanged a nod with his wife. “Not tired?”, he managed to say in a playful tone, “how about you take this sleeping draught? It tastes like cocoa.”
“Oh, really?”, Felicity asked and eagerly grabbed the bottle. Her smile faded though. “But it’s cold. Shouldn’t cocoa be warm?”
“Usually, yes”, Terence responded, “but this one tastes better when it’s cold. You’ll see.”
“Oh, ok”, Felicity answered, raised the bottle to her lips and drank the potion. “That was quite yummy”, she commented with a smile, which then turned to a slight frown and a yawn. “But now I’m feeling… so…” And with that, she fell asleep.
Terence and Elvina took her upstairs and put her into her bed, covered her with a blanket and put the cat plushie they had given her for her last birthday next to her. The potion made sure that she would sleep for several hours without waking up from any noises.
“Let’s go down”, he told Elvina after they had watched Felicity sleeping peacefully for a minute.
Back in the living room, they sat down on the couch.
“It’s really true?”, Elvina asked with a desperate tone in her voice. “The Dark Lord has fallen?”
“Yes.”
“But… How is that possible?”
“I don’t know”, Terence replied. “As far as I know, no one knows. He killed the Potters, but somehow he couldn’t kill their son and just… disappeared.” He covered his face with his hands.
Elvina gasped. She stood up and wandered around the living room for a bit. Eventually she stopped.
“What are we supposed to do now?”, she enquired.
“We have to escape”, Terence answered. “The others are… planning different things. Some want to escape too. Others want to start looking for the Dark Lord. And others haven’t even been there today. Maybe they have been captured, maybe they just surrendered themselves. With the Dark Lord gone, they might make deals to stay out of Azkaban and sell others out.”
Elvina hesitated, before asking, “Couldn’t we do that as well? It might save us …”
“No”, Terence replied determinedly. “We’ve always worn hoods, I don’t know who else is a Death Eater. Certainly not sure enough to sell them out. But maybe we have been spied on and someone is ratting us out. I’m not going to take that risk. Who knows if and when the Aurors will find us?”
He stood up and went to the wall. All along the walls of the living room, family pictures had been draped. Some more were on small tables in the room. Terence stood in front of his favourite picture, which had been taken shortly before last Christmas in Hogsmeade. It had been a very lovely day. Felicity had enjoyed the snow there a lot, which was captured in this picture, where the three of them were waving into the camera happily. Pictures like this made the small house their home.
“Before Felicity was born, I would proudly have gone to Azkaban for the Dark Lord, even would have given my life. But… I can’t… Not anymore. We can’t leave her alone and we mustn’t risk anything that would leave her alone in this world.”
Elvina nodded. “You’re right. We can’t leave her alone. We must escape.” She hesitated. “But where?”
“Anywhere”, Terence replied. “Out of the country, first, and then we just… wander around and lay low until we find a place to settle down with Felicity. Australia, maybe, or America.”
“That sounds good”, Elvina agreed.
And with that, they rummaged through the house, packing their suitcases and getting ready to escape. They started by putting together clothes in their bedroom. After that, they collected several pieces of memory, most of all pictures, from the living room and put them into a travel bag in the living room.
For years, they had led a good life, enjoying their power. They were proud to be a wizard and a witch, although technically they were both half-bloods, but the other Death Eaters did not know that. Felicity’s birth about four years ago had been the brightest moment in their lives. But the downfall of the Dark Lord was about to turn their lives upside down.
“Will you get the suitcases from upstairs?”, Terence asked his wife. “I’ll finish with filling in the provisions from the kitchen and get Felicity and then we disapparate.”
“Ok, honey”, Elvina replied and stormed off, up the wooden stair.
Terence took a backpack and hurried into the kitchen. He opened the cupboards containing their food provisions and put them into the backpack with a quick swing with his wand. Magic had its limitations – they could not summon food out of nowhere, and it was best to lay low on their journey, so stealing food was no option. They had to make sure to have plenty of food with them. Fortunately, Elvina was a great witch and had placed an undetectable extension charm on the backpack, and plenty of food could make its way into it.
The second Terence was finished and about to zip the backpack, he heard an alarmingly loud bang from the front of their house. He froze in his movements. Booted steps followed. Steps that made it into the house.
“No, no, no, no, no”, he muttered. He tightened his grip around his wand. It seemed like it was too late. Somebody must have given them away. He had not expected this to be so soon.
He pointed his wand to the kitchen door. “Colloportus!”, he whispered. The door softly fell shut and the lock clicked. Not a moment too soon.
Terence heard the door from their front room to their living room open. He got closer to the door and listened carefully. Maybe it wasn’t Aurors?
“Do you think we’re right here, John?”, a female voice was asking.
“Family Campbell”, a stern, male voice replied, “that’s here. See that bag? Seems like they were about to escape.” He raised his voice and ordered, “Spread and look for them, they must still be here. And make sure to check the basement. Use any means necessary.”
Terence had heard enough. Those were Aurors indeed and there was no way to get to Elvina and Felicity and no escape for him. “I’m sorry, Felicity”, he whispered and directed his wand on the door again. It burst open. Through the dust in the air, he could make out several figures, coughing. They would soon recover though. He raised his voice.
“Elvi, it’s Aurors”, he shouted. “Take her and get away!”
He then directed his wand at the figures in the dust. “Stupefy!” One person dropped to the floor. “Stupefy! Stu…”
“Avada Kedavra!”, a voice shouted.
A flash of green light was the last thing Terence saw. He closed his eyes and recalled Felicity’s face. He smiled.
Elvina heard the bangs and shouting from downstairs without being able to make out what exactly was happening. The only thing she had made out was Terence shouting for her to get away. But how did he imagine her to do that? They could not disapparate from their estate, they had made sure that no one could. The broomsticks were in the basement, and she could hardly take Felicity and jump out of the window from the first floor. Frankly, there was nothing she could do but surrender. She left their suitcases in their bedroom and turned off the lights in there, turning the whole floor into darkness. “Lumos”, she murmured. Her wand lighted and she went to Felicity’s bedroom. She had to gather her strength for what she was about to do.
She hurried through the corridor, past the bathroom door and to Felicity’s room at the end of the corridor. There were not many things in her room. A wardrobe whose contents were constantly changing at this age of hers, some toys scattered on the floor, a chest of drawers, and her bed, in which she was lying, sound asleep, holding her little cat plushie closely now. She remembered how happy Felicity had been about getting that plushie, how she had taken it everywhere ever since. They would have to take it with them if they actually escaped. And she looked so peaceful, all wrapped up in the blankets and holding her plushie to her face. Her black hair, which she had inherited from Elvina, spread on the pillow. Her closed eyelids covered her eyes, which were the same dark green as her father’s.
Elvina kissed Felicity’s forehead. “Mommy’s going to make it all right, sweetheart”, she whispered.
Felicity moved a bit but did not wake up. “I love you”, Elvina added with a calm voice and smiled at her daughter before she turned to leave the room.
When she got back on the floor, she heard footsteps approaching on the stairs, at the other end of the corridor. Elvina just stayed where she was, her arms just hanging down from her sides, her wand lighting the area directly in front of her. She saw light coming up the stairs, and the moment she made out the first figure on top of the stairs, she put up her hands in surrender.
The figure stopped.
“I surr…”, Elvina started, but she was interrupted.
“Avada Kedavra!”
A green flash of light approached her at a furious pace. Not the living dark green of Terence’s or Felicity’s eyes, but a bright green. A deadly green. No, Elvina thought in horror. Felicity… I’m sorry. Then, she was surrounded by darkness.
John Dawlish pawed at the dead female body on the floor with his foot.
“What, by Merlin’s beard, is wrong with you?”, Alice Longbottom enquired him. She had been behind him when they were making their way up the stairs. She had not really seen what had been going on, but she condemned Dawlish’s actions. “Just because we are allowed to kill Death Eaters doesn’t mean we have to do that!”
“The world is better off without this Death Eater scum”, Dawlish insisted. “I will not give them any chance to curse or kill me. Better them than us.”
“There’s… TONS of defensive charms you could use instead of just killing all of them!”
“But none of them could stop an Unforgivable Curse! I’ll stick to it, as long as we’re allowed to, I’ll stop each and every one of these bastards.”
Alice gave up. She had worked with Dawlish long enough to know that it would do no good. He was just too stubborn for his own good, although he was a very good wizard. But his moral compass certainly did not agree with hers.
They had got a clue about the Campbells from a captured Death Eater, who had been all too eager to sell out some of his fellow Death Eaters to avoid Azkaban. It was pure luck to capture one so cooperative so soon. That was another reason why she condemned Dawlish’s course of action. She knew Alastor Moody quite well, and he refused to kill anyone despite Crouch’s permission of completely ruthless measures. She would have to talk to him. If they just killed Death Eaters, they would all escape the country, slipping from their grasp. Maybe Mad-Eye could talk some sense into Dawlish…
For now, however, she was just looking forward to getting home. Frank was waiting for her, together with their little son Neville. She smiled when thinking of them. The two of them were giving her life so much joy. And now that You-Know-Who had fallen, they would soon have more time for each other, as soon as they had captured the remaining Death Eaters. One month, maybe two… She felt in her heart that Neville needed his parents, both of them, more than in the past time.
She was dragged out of her thoughts by Dawlish, who entered the dark room in front of which the woman had died. She followed him because she wanted to make sure he would not do another stupid thing. Or at least to hand in a detailed report with all of his misbehaviours.
Their wands lighted the floor in front of them. There was not much to be seen first, until… Was that a toy wand?
Alice raised her arm and lighted the walls of the room. A wardrobe, a chest of drawers and there… A bed.
Dawlish approached the bed cautiously, with his wand ready to strike. Alice looked from Dawlish to the bed and back when he let the light of his wand wander over the bed.
“A child”, he announced. “Must be the spawn of this scum.”
Alice approached the bed as well. A little girl with black hair was lying there, sleeping peacefully.
“The poor worm”, she said emphatically. “Both parents dead…”
Dawlish gave her a look full of disgust. “I don’t care about the spawn of Death Eaters! But maybe you’re right… We should end her suffering…”
Thoughtfully, slowly, he raised his wand.
“What… what are you doing?”, Alice enquired, concerned and horrified at the same time.
“What needs to be done”, Dawlish replied with cold voice, directed his wand at the child and took a deep breath.
“Expelliarmus!”
Dawlish’s wand left his hand, flew through the air, and Alice caught it.
“What the fuck…”, Dawlish growled and turned toward her. “Give it back!”
“No”, she replied.
“I said, give it back!”
“No”, she insisted and directed her own wand toward him. “I will NOT let you hurt or even kill an innocent child!”
“How innocent could she possibly be, being the spawn of Death Eaters?”
“Did she make her parents join them? Could she have talked them out of it? Merlin’s beard, she probably didn’t even know anything about that!”
Dawlish looked at her, angrily but silently.
“Do you have children on your own?”, she enquired.
“No, you know that.”
“Then you can’t possibly understand”, she concluded.
“I do understand that she’ll cause trouble once she gets older”, Dawlish grunted. “You’ll see, she’ll just turn out on the dark side, just like her parents.”
“You don’t know that”, she countered him.
“What are you going to do with her, then? I thought you had your own son, want to adopt a girl in addition?”, he asked mockingly.
“Don’t need to”, she replied coolly while approaching the bed. “There is procedure. First, we look for any living family members. And if we don’t find any… Well, my sister Lisa can’t have children on her own, I’m sure she and her husband will happily adopt her.”
She bent over the bed and picked up the child. She was surprised that she still didn’t wake up, but she was clearly still breathing and her heart beating. She also found it astonishing that she was still holding her plush animal, a little grey cat. Alice took her safely in her arms.
Dawlish snorted and left the room furiously. Alice shook her head and followed him downstairs.
The other Aurors and the members of the special unit of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol who had accompanied them on their raid were rummaging through the ground floor. They were looking for any information they could use to track other Death Eaters.
“Have you found anything?”, she enquired the leader of the special unit.
“Nothing useful”, he responded. “Some family pictures, but it seems like they didn’t have any information on other Death Eaters, at least nothing we could use.”
“Have you found any information about a child, maybe? Seems like they have – or had – a daughter.” She moved her chin to the sleeping girl in her arms. She saw the couch and laid her onto it carefully.
“I’ll ask the others”, the wizard opposite her answered and turned away to talk to his colleagues.
Alice sat down on the couch, next to the girl. It had been a long day, like most days in her profession this time. She saw a travel bag next to the couch and heaved it up before she opened it and looked through the contents. There seemed to be pictures and other mementos in this bag. She was surprised that they had been going to take those with them. She looked at some of the pictures. One of them attracted her attention. There was the little girl and her parents waving. It seemed to be snowing, and the happiness the family radiated there reminded her of her own family. She sighed. She hoped this war would be over soon before more families were ripped apart…
She kept the picture of the Campbells. It might be the last thing the little girl could keep from her family.
The wizard she had spoken to before got back to her.
“We have found some cards, for birthdays, Christmas, and for giving birth. It seems like the name of their daughter was… is… Felicity”, he reported.
“Felicity Campbell”, Alice tried to speak the full name. “That is quite a lovely name. Thank you”, she said to the wizard. She stood up and stretched before taking Felicity into her arms again. “It seems like you have things here under control. I’ll disapparate to the Ministry, see if there is some family left for her.”
“Yes, madame”, the wizard replied and turned around again to investigate the house more.
Alice left the living room and exited through the front door. Dawlish was standing next to it, smoking a cigarette.
“You’re really going to do it, then?”, he addressed her.
“If what you mean with it is find a safe place for her, then yes”, she answered tiredly.
He shook his head in disapproval. “You’ll see what you’ll get out of this”, he commented.
“I assume I will.” She was not in the mood for another fruitless discussion with Dawlish. This time, she was the stubborn one, but she did not care. “Here’s your wand”, she added and threw it to Dawlish, who was not able to catch it, holding a cigarette in one hand.
“Damn you”, he cursed while she was walking away from the house.
She ignored him. She took some more steps through the dark streets in the night. Eventually she halted and looked around. There was no light in the houses around her, and the street was empty. “Time to get you to safety”, she murmured to Felicity before she took another step and disapparated, leaving behind the dark, empty street.
“… they will never regain their sanity.”
Lisa Jenkins broke down at the table, bursting out in tears. Augusta, the mother of Alice’s husband Frank, had just delivered the devastating news to her. Alice and Frank had been attacked by Death Eaters who had tortured them with the Cruciatus curse. They demanded intelligence in You-Know-Who’s whereabouts, but Alice and Frank had been unable to provide them with the information they had desired. The Death Eaters, eager to find a way to their master, continued torturing them until they eventually lost their minds. They were now at St. Mungo’s Hospital, unable to speak, unable to recognize the people around them, and unable to take care of themselves.
Vincent, Lisa’s husband, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. She gave in to her emotions. She was glad that she could do that in Vincent’s arms. He gave her the security she had always been looking for without having to speak too much. It did not matter to her that he was a muggle, unable to perform any magic.
She sobbed in his arms for a while. She was glad that Augusta did not interrupt before she got calm enough to talk again.
“Wh-what’s going to happen to their son?”
“I guess I will raise him”, Augusta replied matter-of-factly. “Frank had no siblings, so unless you feel you can raise him as well, with that child you have already adopted…”
Lisa covered her face with her hands. She knew that raising two children, neither one of them her own, would be too much for her. They just did not have the space for another child in their small apartment. It had been hard enough to make do when they adopted Felicity. And she had already caused some issues in the one week she had been with them. Lisa did not blame her, of course. She was just old enough to understand what was happening, or at least to understand that something had happened. Having her parents ripped away from her at such a young age, she needed time to settle in. But was it not her family duty to adopt her sister’s son? And could she really raise the child of people who had been of the same kind as those who had damaged so much damage to her sister and her family?
Then again, Felicity did not have anything to do with that. She was in bed, sleeping right now. The one week had been problematic. She really missed her parents, but Lisa felt like things were getting slowly better and she had been willing to be patient with her. Now, could she do that to her, an innocent child? Give her away like that, only to have her having to settle in at another new place? Could she possibly live with that?
She remembered the day Alice had come by and asked her if she would like to raise a little girl. Her research at the Ministry of Magic had not provided her with any living relatives. Since Lisa and Vincent could not get any children of their own, Alice had considered this a better solution than giving Felicity to another family in this time. Many would be very reluctant to adopt a child of Death Eaters. Lisa, however, had accepted gladly, although she had known that problems might arise.
Thinking of her little sister made Lisa shed some more tears. She had such a good and kind heart. To some extent, she had always been more mature than Lisa, although she was two years younger. She was also so talented and full of joy and enthusiasm in the things she did, it was hard to imagine for Lisa that all of that was just gone like that now.
She swallowed hard and exchanged a quick glance with Vincent. He gave her a slight, nod of approval, making clear that whatever her choice, he would support her. The decision was hers to make.
She considered the options. If she raised Felicity, Neville would be raised by Augusta, who was quite an intimidating person. But Lisa knew Frank, Augusta’s son, and he had turned out a fine, young man, so how hard could it really be being raised by her? Felicity however… If Lisa would give her away, she would end up in yet another family. Maybe someone was willing to adopt her despite her heritage. But would that not be too much for a four-year-old child? Too much change, too much having to settle in a new place all over again?
What would Alice do in her situation?
Well, she knew perfectly well what Alice would do. And she should do just that to honour her memory. She wiped the tears off her face.
“You take Neville and raise him”, she said to Augusta, “we already have a child.”
Author's note: After some weird months, I present you a fanfiction from the Harry-Potter universe. The idea hit me and this part was finished in just about three days. The next months will be quite important for me, but also stressful (legal name change, writing my master's thesis etc), so I don't know when I can write anything else, but I hope I can make do at some point. Feedback is highly appreciated!!!
Cheers,
Filas
Author's Note:
After over a year, there is something new from me. I am terribly sorry for the long delay, it's been a crazy year. Got my master's degree, wrote quite a lot actually after that, but when getting unemplyoed after that, stumbled right into a depressive phase which is, among everything else, not great to revise chapters or write new ones. But yeah, with the prospect of Corona, applying for jobs is off anyway and I can spend some more time on proper writing for the time being. I hope I can put online some more chapers from this fanficition and the Walking Dead fanfiction in the next few weeks and I also hope that you enjoy this. Stay safe and take care!
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“Muuuuuuum, do I really need to wear this?”
“Come on sweetheart, it’s only every once in a while.”
“It’s at least four times a year!”
“There’s worse than that. Now hold still so I can…”
“Ouch!”
“I told you to hold still…”
Felicity tried to hold still and relax while looking into the mirror and watch her mother pluck out each hair on her head. At least that’s what it felt like to her when her mother tried to get Felicity’s hair in shape before adding a hairbow. That had been preceded by the fight over what Felicity was supposed to wear. Her mother had insisted on her wearing a frilly green dress with a red waistband that ended in a bow as well. Felicity had refused to put it on. However, as she was only eleven years old, her mother had won that fight, of course.
Felicity and her parents were having teatime with the rest of the family today. Sure, that did not happen too often really, usually for Christmas, Easter, and maybe one or two Sundays a year. However, Felicity was among the youngest members of the rather large family. Only Neville was younger than her and he was the only one around her age. But being only eight years old, it felt like he was decades younger to Felicity. So, all she could do at those family gatherings was to bear the chatter of adults and hope there was at least delicious tea and/or cake.
It didn’t make things easier that, technically, she wasn’t really related with them.
She felt a final pull at her hair. In the mirror, she saw her mother attach the red bow in her black hair.
“Done”, Felicity’s mother gave a relieved sigh.
Oh dear, Felicity thought and pulled a face. It was not like she hated dresses. She just didn’t fancy too frilly ones, especially when she was forced to wear them for a bunch of people who didn’t really accept her in the family.
Her mother patted her shoulders. “Now put on your ballerinas and get to the living room. We’re going to leave any minute.” With that, she left Felicity alone in her room.
Felicity liked her room. It wasn’t too large, but she felt like it was really her room, other than the outfit she had to wear. A small bed, a messy desk, and the cupboard with a mirror attached to it, offering enough space for her clothes. The bookshelf contained several, well, books. Felicity loved reading, even novels from muggle authors. She had to admit that when writing, some of them were actually able to plant some magic in the world – although they had some misconceptions when writing about magic. A poster of the Holyhead Harpies was draped on the wall next to her bed. The window offered a good view on the courtyard, which she preferred over a view on the street. That was all, but that was all she needed.
Felicity blew raspberries. She could just put on some sneakers or boots, but she knew that her mother would send her right back anyway. Maybe even use a binding spell to attach her ballerinas to her feet for several days. Nothing Felicity would enjoy. So, she stepped to her wardrobe and grabbed a pair of black ballerinas. At least they were rather plain, without any bows. She put them on and left her room, getting to the living room.
She got there quickly. After all, they were just living in a rather small apartment in Leeds, not in a big mansion. With her father being a muggle, who was working for an insurance company, the flat couldn’t look too magic in case he had colleagues or clients or friends over. Her mother had to be careful when performing magic to keep the flat clean or when cooking and had to make sure that no muggles witnessed it. To Felicity, it seemed like her mother had got quite the hang of that, at least she hadn’t noticed anything going wrong in that regard yet.
Her parents were already waiting for her in the living room in front of the fireplace. Both of them were also dressed for the occasion, her mother wearing a white dress that was decorated with flowers. Felicity wondered if she felt as bad and uncomfortable in it as she did in her outfit.
Her father was wearing a black suit. Felicity was tempted to roll her eyes. Her father’s suit looked just too plain, even to her. The wizards in the family would be wearing dress robes which looked a lot fancier. Then again, Felicity knew that her father was not ashamed of who he was and although she might never tell him, she was proud that he didn’t care about the glances he’d get from those fancy-dressed other men. And she knew that, although he wasn’t a man of many words, he really loved her. Like her mother did. It showed as they smiled at her entering the room. That was the most important thing to Felicity, after all.
Her mother looked at the clock on the wall.
“We better hurry, we’re a bit late.”
With that, she stepped to the fireplace and picked up a pot. Felicity sighed. Portkeys were too complicated to register at the ministry and apparition with three people was too much for her mother (aside from the fact that her father always threw up after apparating). Broomsticks were no option too with her father being a muggle. So, floo powder was the only reasonable way of transportation to Tibberton near Gloucester, where the family gatherings used to take place. That was where her grand-aunt Augusta lived with Neville, and they were the ones with the most space for those meetings. They were living in a rather large mansion.
Basically, Felicity didn’t fancy either of those ways of transportation. All of them were rather messy and each of them had its disadvantages. Riding on broomsticks took its time and, depending on the weather, could get quite cold eventually. The biggest issue of apparition was that splinching could occur if something went wrong, meaning that the person apparating left behind body parts. Felicity’s mother, who worked in the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, had witnessed several of those incidents. Her job was to alter the memories of muggles who had seen what had happened. She didn’t want anyone from her family to suffer from splintering. In combination with her being cautious when performing magic, that resulted in them avoiding apparition. Aside from that, Felicity hadn’t learned to control magic yet and was years away from figuring out how to apparate on her own. If it wasn’t for that danger, just appearing in one place seemed pretty cool for Felicity, but she hadn’t experienced apparating at all yet.
Felicity’s father was the first one to grab a handful of floo powder from the pot. He was the only non-magic person, and it was easier to fix anything that might go wrong with him going first. He stepped to the fireplace and tossed the floo powder into the flames which immediately turned green. He stepped into the fire which did no harm to him.
“Longbottom House, Tibberton”, he spoke very clearly, and then vanished.
“I think that went well”, Felicity’s mother said while looking into the flames which had turned red and orange again. Felicity didn’t know if she was talking to her or to herself. Her mother then turned to her.
“Well, your turn, honey pie”, she said and offered her the pot with the floo powder. Felicity grabbed a handful of the glittering powder.
“Remember, pronounce it carefully and be also careful with your elbows…”, her mother started the usual lecture about floo powder. But Felicity interrupted her.
“I know, mum, it’s not the first time I’m using floo powder.”
“Well, maybe, but that doesn’t mean that nothing could go wrong this time.”
Felicity rolled her eyes but didn’t respond. Instead, she stepped to the fireplace and tossed the floo powder into the flames. She stepped into the fire. She could feel a bit of warmth, but it was a rather pleasant temperature. Felicity had locked her jaws, knowing that getting ash in her mouth might cause problems.
“Longbottom House, Tibberton”, she said, and she was torn into the chimney. At least that was what it felt like. She spit out the ash she had got in her mouth while saying those three words. She was revolving around herself through the floo network. She pressed her arms against her body to keep them from being hurt. A roaring noise engulfed her, just like the green flames. In between, she could catch a glimpse of the other fireplaces connected to the network and the rooms beyond, for a part of a second each.
She felt a tingling in her stomach, and, knowing what it indicated, stretched out her arms a bit to make a more elegant arrival than just being spat out by the Longbottoms’ fireplace. She made a little somersault and immediately stood up and looked around. That was the Longbottoms’ house indeed. Her father had also arrived already and had made place for her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and quickly got her out of the way to make place for her mother too.
“I can move on my own, you know?”, she asked him.
“I know, honey”, her father replied absent-mindedly.
In that moment, the flames in the fireplace roared and turned green before spitting out Felicity’s mother, who landed there elegantly. She looked around quickly and got to Felicity and her father, who were standing at the wall.
“Did all go well?”, she asked and, before any of them could reply, took out her wand. “Here, you’re covered in ash”, she said and with that she moved the wand all over Felicity and her father to remove the ash off them before cleaning up herself.
After the cleaning was finished, they had a quick look around. It was a nice room. Not too large, but two armchairs were draped around next to each other in front of the fireplace. Only a small table was standing between them. Felicity knew that her grand aunt used this room for the most part as an arrival room for guests using floo powder. That way, people could get cleaned up in private and not interrupt a party, which would take place on the upper floors. Still, if you had a fireplace, it would be a waste to not have chairs in front of it.
“Well, up and at them”, Felicity’s mother suggested and walked across the room toward the only door. Felicity and her father followed her to the corridor which led them to the stair and also the exit door. Felicity’s mother walked upstairs, with Felicity following her and her father at the rear. The wooden staircase groaned with every step they took, but the groaning soon got drowned out by the chatter from upstairs that grew louder with each step.
As they reached the first upper floor, they went left, leaving the staircase and entered through a massive wooden door, decorated with carvings showing the ancient scene of wizards and witches defending a castle against trolls. As was usual for magic pictures, the carved figures were moving and gave a quite realistic impression on how that battle was going, with the wizards and witches being smart enough to finally defeat the trolls.
Felicity didn’t have a lot of time to admire the woodcarvings though. Her mother waved her wand and the door opened easily like it was the easiest thing in the world. Felicity couldn’t wait to go to Hogwarts and learn that kind of magic for herself.
The door gave way to a large hall, almost as large as the flat of Felicity’s family. A massive table was set in the middle of it, with around twenty wizards and witches – predominantly elderly ones – sitting around it. They were – as expected – dressed in overly fancy and partially frilly robes and dresses. The table was overloaded with tons of cakes and cookies and old-fashioned teapots and cups.
On their arrival, a tall, elderly woman noticed them and stood up to welcome them. “Lisa! Vincent!”, she exclaimed and approached them. She was wearing a long, green dress and a hat with a stuffed vulture on it. She was also carrying a bright red handbag. It was a warm day in May, so she wasn’t wearing the scarf made of fox fur which she used to wear in winter. She gave both of Felicity’s parents a firm handshake.
“Hello Augusta”, they said.
“And that must be Felicity”, she added when facing toward her and held out her hand. Felicity timidly offered her hand only to find it squeezed in a firm handshake as well. She wasn’t sure if she heard her hand crack but was glad once it was released anyway. Her grand aunt did this to everyone, but Felicity actually liked her for not treating her any different than other people, unless other family members.
“My, my, haven’t you grown into a young lady”, Felicity’s grand aunt added, looking at Felicity’s dress. Felicity tended to disagree. For her, her outfit clearly was still rather childish than lady-like, but instead of verbalizing her objection, she just smiled and nodded.
“Happy birthday, Augusta”, Felicity’s mother said and offered Augusta a small package. Felicity knew it contained another hat for her grand aunt.
“Oh, thank you, Lisa, that is kind of you.” Augusta took the package but didn’t want to open it, apparently. “Neville, Neville, where are you?”, she said instead and looked around for a moment. “Oh, there you are.”
A young boy approached them. He had a round face and blonde hair, having a bit of resemblance with Felicity’s mother. In fact, he resembled her more than Felicity did.
“Oh, hello Neville”, Felicity’s mother said.
Neville seemed a bit shocked for a moment, looked at Augusta, and then at the knees of Felicity’s mother. “Hello, Aunt Lisa”, he mumbled timidly.
“Take this and put it to the other presents, will you?”, Augusta said to him and gave him the package. He took it and carried it through the room to a pile of packages. He put it there clumsily – only to have one or two other packages fall to the floor.
“Oh Neville”, Augusta sighed and went to the pile to fix it, leaving Felicity’s family on their own. Felicity just noticed that her grand aunt went for a rant at Neville and felt sorry for him. Age difference or not, Felicity had a hunch that the reason for Neville’s clumsiness and his timidity was a lack of self-confidence. But being treated the way he was, not only by his grandmother but especially from the rest of his family, wouldn’t help him gain any confidence. It also didn’t help that he hadn’t shown any sign of magic so far. Most of the family feared that he was a squib, born into a family of wizards and witches, but not being able to perform magic himself. Not like his family hadn’t tried to make Neville perform magic. Felicity had overheard her parents once talking how his grand uncle Algie had shoved him into the sea in Blackpool, almost causing him to drown. She had a feeling that Neville’s potential magic was more important to family members like Algie than the actual person Neville.
Then again, it was not really her family. They were here because Felicity’s aunt Alice, the sister of her mother, was married to Frank Longbottom. They were Neville’s parents, but they were in a hospital, as far as Felicity knew. She didn’t know why they were there, nor had she ever met them at all because her mother would go visit them on her own, leaving Felicity at home with her father. She knew that her mother was a Prewett by birth, but that family had branched out a lot. A family gathering from that side might require the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
She didn’t know a lot of people of her father’s side of the family either. She knew they were muggles and that they mustn’t find out that the magic world existed, so they weren’t really invited to their place. Felicity herself was deemed a risk there, being at such a young age and not being able to control her magic yet. That was also why she was barely ever allowed to invite friends to her place. In each case, they were invited to the Longbottom family meetings, and they usually accepted in order to get that extended-family-sense and to keep in touch with the magic community aside from Felicity’s mother’s work in the Ministry.
Felicity and her family moved around the table looking for some vacant seats, smiling and greeting the people already sitting around with nods. Eventually, they found a few seats next to each other where they took place, Felicity in between of her parents. The two of them got pulled into conversations right away. The person sitting opposite of Felicity, a woman in her middle ages, didn’t take much notice of her, so she shrugged and took some of the cake and tea.
The afternoon went rather easy for a while. Felicity just overheard bits and pieces of the conservations around her. There were rumours that Millicent Bagnold, the Minister for Magic, would resign soon, being tired of the games for power in the Ministry. Felicity didn’t care a lot about that, though. Why would she care about politics?
The news that Britain had been chosen to hold the Quidditch World Cup in six years was old news, but Felicity eagerly listened to the talks about that, nonetheless. In six years, she would be 17 years old and right before her final year at Hogwarts. That might be THE opportunity to visit an event like that and she could barely wait for it.
Then of course there were talks about Harry Potter, the boy who defeated You-Know-Who. Felicity hadn’t learned a lot about that yet. That boy was about Neville’s age, as far as she knew, and almost three years younger than she was. It was hard to imagine for her that he was already so famous and had been since being an infant. But it also hit her that she’d be at Hogwarts with him for some years. Not like she had received her letter of acceptance yet, but still…
So far, Felicity had attended a school for muggles. It wouldn’t help her an awful lot, but her father had insisted she’d get some “solid school education” – for whatever that meant. He said that it’d be good for her to learn some general world knowledge and to not stay at home all day. She did like subjects like Arts and English, but in each Maths lesson she felt like her father wanted to torture her with forcing her to visit a regular school. Also, Sciences was really ridiculous to her, given how many “scientific rules” could just be mocked by any witch or wizard. Felicity would be happy to not have to deal with those subjects anymore once she was at Hogwarts.
This summer, she expected to get accepted for Hogwarts, Britain’s only school for young wizards and witches. There she’d learn to control her magic and to avoid incidents like the ones she had already caused, making her mother clean up the messes that had been created. Of course, those incidents included Felicity being very upset or in danger. Once at Hogwarts, she’d learn how to use her magic in reasonable ways and on her command.
At the gathering, Felicity stayed quiet for the most time, only talking when addressed by her parents. She had learnt that most adults didn’t like being interrupted by children. Although she didn’t consider herself a child anymore – after all, she was already eleven years old – she knew that adults had weird ideas on when someone was a child and when one was an adult. Felicity considered herself a good learner and didn’t want to cause any trouble, so she remained quiet. However, she did notice the cold looks shot in her direction every now and then…
“Mum, where is Neville?”, she asked her mother eventually. She had not seen him since their arrival and was getting a bit worried, knowing what it felt like to be treated like the family’s black sheep.
“Oh, I haven’t seen him in a while”, her mother replied. “He must be upstairs, getting a bit of a break from all these many people.” She was right, there were around 30 people in the room by now and it felt overcrowded for Felicity as well. “Why don’t you go and check in on him? I’m sure he likes that better than any old people doing so.”
Felicity smiled and nodded. She got off her chair and noticed that she felt a bit wobbly after having potentially one or two pieces of cake too many. She felt more stable after a few steps though, and so she crossed the room, exited through the door that lead to the staircase and went upstairs. On her own, she was small and light enough to not make the stairs groan.
She assumed that Neville was in his room on the second upper floor. Upon reaching it, she was about to approach the door, which was plainer than the one on the first floor. However, before she could open it, she heard voices from above.
“… I just couldn’t bear living in a house with that girl, leave alone raise her.”
“Yeah, me too, I just can’t understand them…”
Felicity hesitated. She was no fan of eavesdropping, but it seemed like those people really wanted to avoid being heard. And in her 11-year-long experience, it was worth eavesdropping on people who really didn’t want to be eavesdropped on.
She stepped away from the door and carefully took the first four steps on the stairs leading to the next floor to hear those people a bit better.
“They should have put her in an orphanage right away.”
“Yeah, I mean adopting a child is one thing. There were plenty of children up for adoption back then, but out of all those, they had to pick… HER?!”
“Who knows what her parents did to other families? Who knows if they had anything to do with what happened to Frank and Alice?”
“And then she has the guts to show up here…”
“I can’t even look her in the eyes.”
“I can’t understand why Augusta still invites them over.”
“She of all people should understand.”
“And why is Vincent even here?”
“Well, he’s not too bad a guy…”
“But he doesn’t belong to us!”
“You’re right there…”
“What is this family coming to?”
Felicity had heard enough. Forcing her emotions inside, she carefully went back to the second floor, opened the door leading to the living area there and closed it just as carefully, giving her best not to make a single sound. Once the door was closed, she leaned against it and took some deep breaths, tears running down her cheeks. From what it sounded like, it had been at least three people up there, but she was not able to tell who they were. It only was fair to assume that grand aunt Augusta was not among them, though.
She knew that she had been adopted. However, that had been so long ago, it was only natural to her to call her parents “mum” and “dad” and to just refer to them as her parents. After all, she barely remembered her biological parents. Her mother only had told her that they had been bad people and that they had been killed. Felicity could not even recall their faces. The only things she had inherited from them were her plush cat, which she was still keeping, hoping that it might help her memorize things from when she had been a little girl, and her surname – Campbell.
In any case, she had no idea what her parents and their actions had to do with her. Her parents had been her parents, but she was Felicity. She was a person on her own and had had nothing to do with whatever they had done. She had only been four, after all, when she had been adopted. Everything inside her screamed how unfair it was of those people to talk about her like that, like she was a criminal that deserved to be shunned. And even worse, they wanted to exclude her father from the family as well. What had they said? “He doesn’t belong to us”? Were they really going to exclude him just because he was no wizard? It was getting all too clear to her that she herself didn’t want to regard people like those, who just talked behind other people’s backs like that, as part of her family.
A sobbing noise from one of the rooms around her tore her out of her dark thoughts. She remembered why she had come up here in the first place.
Neville.
She wiped the tears off her face, took another deep breath and walked along the corridor. All doors were closed, and she could not recall which room was Neville’s. She held her ears against the doors to maybe make out anything that could give Neville away. And at the third door she investigated, she made out the sobbing she had heard earlier. She already had her hand on the handle but thought better and softly knocked the door. She waited for five seconds but didn’t get any response.
“Neville?”, she asked quietly, leaning closer to the door and listening closely.
After waiting another few seconds, she heard a sniff. “C-come in”, Neville’s voice said finally. Felicity pushed down the handle and opened the door.
Neville’s room was a bit larger than hers. What was most striking about it, however, was the amount of plants that Neville had put all around. Felicity knew that Neville had a thing for plants and loved caring for them.
Neville sat on the floor in front of a dragon tree. Felicity sat down next to him and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She saw that his eyes were blood-shot and assumed that he had been crying until seconds before. He avoided looking at her, however. Felicity realized how similar she actually was to him. They were both outsiders in this family, and it wasn’t just for their age. But she didn’t think it’d be a good moment to talk to him about that. After all, he was only eight years old, and a boy at that. He needed some other kind of tending, she felt.
“Those plants of yours look really good”, she said.
Neville looked at her quickly. She thought he had the slightest hint of a smile on his face.
“Thanks, I take care of all of them”, he replied.
“Wow, that’s really amazing, Neville.” She meant it: she couldn’t take proper care of plants if her life depended on it.
His smile widened a bit. Felicity felt like she should stay on that track.
“You know…”, she started.
In that second, the door burst open. Grand uncle Algie stood there. He was a huge man, about 6-foot-tall and of stocky build.
“Neville, come on, you won’t get your magic started by sitting around those plants”, his voice roared. He stormed through the room, approaching them. Intimidated by his stature, Felicity fell back from him. Algie ignored her, though. He grabbed Neville, who seemed to be in shock himself, and dragged him out of the room.
Felicity fought off the state of shock, managed to stand up and hurried after them. She followed the open doors and ended up in the living room. Algie was about to open the large window, holding Neville tightly, making sure he couldn’t escape. It took Felicity a moment to figure out what was about to happen.
“STOP IT!”, she shouted.
Algie had already managed to open the window. Felicity charged at him and tried to release Neville from his grip. “LEAVE HIM ALONE!”, she screamed.
Algie didn’t seem to care too much, though. He shoved her away. She stumbled and fell to the floor.
“Don’t worry, I’m not doing anything to Neville. Nothing that could harm a wizard, that is.”
And with that, he put Neville on the windowsill, grabbed him by his ankles and then, before Felicity could do anything, Algie was holding Neville out of the window, only his feet in his hands.
Felicity couldn’t believe what was happening. She had heard what Neville had to go through, but she had never seen it for herself.
“STOP IT! LEAVE HIM BE!”, she shouted at Algie. She didn’t dare charge at him again, however. What if that made Algie lose his grip and dropped Neville? All she could do was to make him see common sense.
“Did you do that to your children too?”, she inquired.
“Didn’t have to”, he responded. “I never had to worry about having put a squib into the world.”
“So, you don’t care about Neville but only about his magic?”
Algie didn’t respond this time, but Felicity took his silence for a ‘yes’.
“That is so stupid!”, she said.
“What is going on here?”
Some family members had made their way upstairs. Felicity could make out her mother, but also grand aunt Augusta and some others.
“Grand uncle Algie is trying to kill Neville”, Felicity exclaimed.
“Don’t be ridiculous”, Algie replied from the window. “I’m just helping his magic a bit.”
With that, he shook Neville by his ankles.
“Don’t you see how messed up this is?”, Felicity demanded of the others.
“Come on, Algie”, her mother tried. “This is going too far.”
Algie ignored her, however.
“Algie, stop it”, one of the grand aunts said. Felicity believed her name was Enid, Algie’s wife. She had even brought a plate with a piece of cake with her. She held it out to him. “Have some lemon meringue, isn’t that your favourite cake?”
“You’re right, it is”, Algie replied.
And then it happened.
He turned around to accept the piece of cake that Enid was offering to him. When doing so, he let go of Neville’s ankles. Accidentally or on purpose, Felicity couldn’t tell. She screamed and rushed to the window, shoving an absent-minded Algie out of her way. She looked out of the window, hoping there was any way she could save Neville. She forgot for a moment that even if there was a way to help him, she probably couldn’t do it.
What she saw, however, was a massive surprise. Neville was bouncing from the front garden onto the street, just like a bouncy toy ball. He seemed to be perfectly fine. It seemed like he had just performed magic.
That reminded Felicity of the story her parents had told her about when she had performed magic for the first time. She had been only five years old and had been crossing the street to pet a cat that was sitting on the other side. Felicity had not been minding the traffic, though. She had been about to be hit by a car but just appeared on the other side of the street, being perfectly safe and unharmed. Apparently, that was something that magic would do, save their lives.
A sigh of resignation next to her grabbed Felicity’s attention. She turned her head and saw that her mother and grand aunt Augusta were also looking out of the window. Augusta had tears in her eyes and looked overwhelmingly happy, glad that Neville had shown that he has magic inside of him. Felicity’s mother, however, looked less happy.
“That is going to be so much work for our department”, she groaned. Felicity followed her eyes and saw that many muggles had gathered on the street and in their front gardens. Apparently, all of them had just watched what had happened to Neville. Her mother would have a long day altering all their memories.