FIC: It's Not Over (HP)
Title: It's Not Over
Category: Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13 (violence later on)
Warnings: None
Parings: Sirius/OC, James/Lily mainly (but other pairings are there, just not yet).
Summery:
Athena Malfoy has been working on a secret project for Albus Dumbledore for the past fifteen years. A project he has not shared with the other members of the order. Now he has had Remus call her back to England. She brings with her a couple of surprises, and finds a couple surprises waiting for her.
A/N: This takes place during June 1995 so it's at the end of the OoTP right before the DOM incident.. All information up to GoF is vaid. Alot of the information in OoTP is vaid, but there are some things I select not to include, mainly Harry/Ginny. After that, everything is AU. I will try to incorparate some of the stuff from HBP into this but alot of it won't happen because in this story there are several people who are no longer dead.
Background on Athena (that you'll find though my story). She's the younger sister of Lucius Malfoy, disinherited after she became pregnant with her first child, Elizara (Zara) in 1976. She went to school with the Mauraders, and was once 'engaged' to Sirius through family connections but that fell through due to his leaving his family and getting blown off the tapestry. They healed that over by Narcissia marrying Lucius so everyone was happy. After graduation she became a medi-witch. She's very good in potions, and worked with Lily on a potion-charm combo that would lessen the effects of the Kadavra curse.
Comment with any other questions you may have.
Just to warn, this is unbeta'd so if you come across a mistake I need to correct, let me know.
“Athena?”
Lily watches as her friend stares out the bay window over looking the backyard of their home. The blonde women clutched a piece of parchment in her hand tightly, in fact Lily thought it was going to rip if she continued to hold it like that. Athena did not respond to her calling. Whatever was on the parchment had her upset.
She walked over to her and took the piece out of her hand with little struggle. Before she opened the letter, she glanced up to see Athena crying silently. She opened the parchment up and realized why right away.
Thea,
The Order is reassembling. Voldemort has risen again and Dumbledore needs as much of the old order he can get. Don’t worry, Harry’s fine for now. Please come soon. We are meeting at Padfoot’s family house.
Remus
Lily sighed and sat down on the window seat. Her son was in danger. She couldn’t remember holding this baby boy of hers, couldn’t remember what he looked like or how she felt about him, but she knew he existed. She was still trying desperately to regain her life back. Fifteen years of post-kadavra therapy and she could only remember anything up to her graduation day. She remember getting together with James (although not till recently, even if she had gotten involved with him on her own again) and the life they were leading at the time, but she still was missing three years of her life. There was still hope that it would come back. Her memories were returning with greater frequency in the last couple of years, same for James.
But she remembered Voldemort. She remembered fighting him. She remembered refusing to stand aside. She just didn’t remember when that happened.
“He’s back.”
“Yes,” Athena said in a whisper. “But are we ready?”
“Can we ever be truly ready?”
“True enough. Do you feel up to going to London?”
“Yes. We may not have the memories of those last three years, but James and I have remembered everything we could about protect ourselves. Now we need to protect our son.” Their son. Why was that so hard to think of? They were taking it slowly this time, and it was still hard to think of them happily married with a child. Athena didn’t have many recent photos of Harry since she was only in regular contact with Dumbledore. Up until reading the note from Remus, They had been certain Dumbledore was the only person that knew of their location. He must have told Remus.
“Dumbledore approached me about this earlier in the year,” Athena admitted sitting beside Lily. I knew we weren’t ready then. He must have thought Remus would have a better chance now.” She sighed. “And he would be right. I’m surer now that you’re not going to relapse again. You’re almost done with anything I can do.”
Lily and Athena had come up with a charm-potion combination that gave the Kadavra spell less efficiency. Every one of the Marauders had taken it according to Athena except for Peter. Luckily for them, it worked. James and Lily hadn’t completely died. Sure, they would have if Dumbledore and Athena hadn’t gotten to them as soon as they had and began rehabilitation. The only problem is that they had never expected that amnesia would be a side effect. When she had awoken from her coma she had only remembered up to her getting the owl for Hogwarts. James had remembered even less, and although he acted his age, he really only was a five year old boy in a twenty-two old body. There had been one or two relapses in the early years, but nothing for the last five years. They were ready. There was nothing Athena could work on anymore. The rest was up to their minds to recover.
“Are you going to take Zara and Jamie?” Athena didn’t answer for awhile. Elizara and Sirius James were her two children. Lily was technically their godmother, but she felt almost as close to Zara as if it was a girl her own age. Zara had been very helpful to them. Her relationship with Jaime was that of an older sister.
Both of them were very good looking, taking almost all their features from their father. Jamie could have been a carbon copy of his father except for his personality. Zara took after their father there while Jaime was more like their mother.
“Zara would come I think, but I’m not sure if Jamie would want to leave his school and go to Hogwarts. All of his friends are here, and he’s on the quidditch team. And he’s got his OWLS coming up. It wouldn’t be fair to uproot him, but I’ll ask him.”
“He doesn’t have OWLS till next year. He’ll have plenty of time to study and he’s ahead of his classes anyway. It’s Hogwarts! Athena laughed.
“I guess your right, but I’ll leave it up to him.” She stood up. “I’ll go owl him and tell Zara. Do you want to tell James?”
“Sure.”
~*~
Elizara Black sipped her milkshake while smiling at her companion. Nicholas Allen, a fellow classmate of hers that she had been seeing the past year since their graduation. They had both excelled in potions and were studying at a local university in chemistry to better understand muggle concoctions as well. Right now they were discussing their teacher’s habit of miss pronouncing their names. However just as Zara was about to respond to Nick’s latest comment, an owl appeared at their table. Nick fed it a piece of his chicken sandwich while she retrieved the note
Hey,
I have to go to England to see Dumbeldore. Do you want to come with me, or stay here? We need to leave tonight because it was urgent that we see him. Voldemort has returned and he’s recalling the order.
-Mom.
Zara re-read it.
“What’s wrong, Zar?” Nick asked, seeing her pale.
“He’s back.” She handed him the note. He read it quickly and handed it back.
“You should go. You already took the semester off to deal with stuff.”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure I’d be any help at this point. I’m good at potions and maybe a few well placed hexes. But I’m far from spectacular.”
“You pulled the most magic-related pranks by someone not to get caught. Your better then you think. And I’ll go with you.”
“But you have class.”
“All computer this semester remember. And besides, I have family in England, my Father. I haven’t seen him since I was thirteen. It would be nice to see him again.”
“All right.” Sighing, she took a piece of notebook paper out of her purse and wrote her mom a response before burning her mothers note. There was no reason to leave someone a clue as to where they were going. Especially not when it involved Voldemort who had minions even here in western Pennsylvania.
~*~
Remus received an owl just about Dinner time, with Sirius setting across from him, and Tonk’s beside him. They both looked at him while he read Athena’s note. He wasn’t sure what to tell them. Tonk’s response was not in question, she’d be happy that her cousins were coming. Sirius on the other hand he had no idea how he’d react to the news that his girlfriend, and his two children plus three guests were arriving tomorrow by plane.
“Who’s the Owl from, Remus,” Molly Weasley asked as she brought in the final parts of the meal. Tonight it was just the four of them, everyone else was on duty or otherwise occupied.
“Athena,” he admitted reluctantly. He didn’t need to say her last name, all four occupants of the room knew who he was speaking of.
“Wonderful girl,” Molly commented. “Is she coming? I know she was part of the old order but Dumbledore sent her on something important I image, to have her all the way over there.”
“She hasn’t said anything about that, but she is coming, bringing along five others.”
“Zara?” Tonk’s asked. “I haven’t seen her in ages.” Sirius was very quiet at the moment and Remus continued to watch him, but he seemed to be ignoring the conversation all together.
“Zara, and Jamie.” That got Sirius to look up. So he wasn’t ignoring it as much as it appeared. “Plus Zara’s boyfriend Nicholas and two other guests she says she’ll explain when she gets here tomorrow although we should be prepared for quite a shock. Someone has to meet her at Heathrow tomorrow morning. She’s flying out of Pittsburgh tonight.”
“Why doesn’t the girl use a portkey station? With Aurora right there, I’m sure there is one,” Molly commented. “Much faster.”
“She doesn’t say. Perhaps it has something to do with her guests.” Molly murmured an agreement and they ate in companionable silence for awhile.
“Athena hates planes,” Sirius said after awhile. “Remember how she complained about them after coming back from Christmas holiday.” Remus smiled.
“Yes, she had gone with Lily to Barbados or something like that and said she’d much prefer lower altitudes thank you very much. With her fear of heights I’m surprised she made it to be Slytherin’s seeker.”
“I think it was more she could control the broom she was on, but not other things that brought her up that high.”
“How did you get her to ride with you on your motorcycle then?” Tonks asked.
“Double dared her,” Sirius said with a smile. “She could never resist a dare.
“Either that or she just couldn’t resist you giving her a dare,” Remus said laughing. “You two always knew how to push the other around.”
“How you guys meet her? I’ve heard stories, but nothing for either of you.”
“James and Sirius knew her for years before I ever did,” Remus answered, knowing Sirius wouldn’t. “Athena’s parents would hold parties every year and invite the pureblood families of consequence. From what I’ve heard from James and Sirius they met her when she was seven and gave them quite a scare with one of her visions. I didn’t meet her till first year, when James introduced us. If she hadn’t been in another house, I’m sure she would have made an excellent Marauder.”
~*~
January 1976
Athena walked through the station, a book in hand. She had traveled this same route for the past six years so she didn’t need to watch where she was going more then to make sure she wasn’t running into anyone. However at this time the bulk of the students hadn’t arrived yet, leaving the platform relatively empty.
“Thea!” Sighing she paused and waited for James to catch up with her. She knew full well that Sirius and Remus were no doubt with him. Lily was probably already on the train, having an unnecessary urge to be extra early all the time and couldn’t save her from the onslaught that was the Marauder trio.
“James.” James and Sirius came to walk beside her, each taking a side and pulling her into a hug. She gave a look to Remus who stood a few feet a head of them now. He just grinned and shook his head. No help coming from him.
“So what are you reading today, Ms. Malfoy?” Sirius said as he grabbed her book. “Do we have lusting sultans today or ravishing pirates?” She tried to grab it back but being a good few inches taller then her he managed to keep it out of reach. Sighing, she gave up and let him tease her about her slight addiction to muggle romance novels. This one in particular she wished he wouldn’t see because it involved a family who had magic following through them. It got the whole thing wrong of course, but that wasn’t why she read them.
“One Magical Night.” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk. James would have laughed as well, but he had already gone to find Lily and Remus had left to get some good seats. So it was just him and her, standing by the train as he made fun of her reading tastes. “Evangeline wanted nothing to do with Jame…wait a second. There is a James. Is this saying something about your tastes? I have to tell you I doubt you can get Lily off him at this point.”
“Oh, shut up. And no, I don’t like James anymore then I like Severus.” Sirius’ eyes grew a little colder at the mention of her friend. He had never understood how she could be friends with both of him (and she’d never tell him that Severus didn’t understand either.). “My interests lay elsewhere. And it’s just a name in a book. May I have it back?” He handed it back to her and changed the subject.
“How do you feel like joining me for a prank?”
“Depends on when, who and what.”
“Your trust in me is astounding.” She raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes. “It’s not Snivelius.”
“Severus.”
“Fine, it’s not Severus.” Sirius looked like he had tasted something awful by saying his first name. And only Athena could have made him do it. “It’s on my brother. It’s a pretty easy prank but it requires two people. James is too busy with Lily, Remus will be doing prefect duties and frankly if I allow peter to do anything he’d end up hitting the wrong person and we’d be caught.”
“So nice to know that I’m your last choice.”
“You don’t like our pranks.”
“Correction. I don’t like your pranks. Remus and James usually stay for harmless, occasionally humiliating but you tend to cross the line into harmful and in one particular case it could have been deadly. Luckily James had his head on straight.”
“You’re never going to let that go, are you?”
“Not until I’m sure you’ve grown up enough not to do stupid stuff like that. What’s the prank? Your brother deserves it for trying to flirt with me at the party.” Sirius frowned at this.
“I thought you went with Lily on vacation.”
“I did. Was great, but don’t get me started on those flying devices Muggles have.”
She shuddered. “I still was home for the New Year’s party. Prank?”
“Right, here’s the plan.”
~*~
“Regulus!” Athena walked up to the boy with a warm smile. When he looked up at her he smiled. He really was an attractive boy, but she wasn’t interested in him. Unfortunately he believed that with his older brother no longer her fiancée he had a chance.
“Athena.”
“I wanted to apologize for hexing you at the party. I’d just spent a couple weeks with muggles and was irritable.”
“That’s understandable; muggles have a way of doing that. Apology accepted.”
“Thank you. And to show my regret in treating you that way, I bought you a snack.” She handed him a pumpkin pastry and a couple cauldron cakes.”
“Thanks.” He looked at her strangely, but accepted the gift anyway. “Do you want to sit with me on the train? We’ll be leaving soon.”
“Sorry, I already promised some friends of mine I’d sit with them. But thanks for the offer.” She kissed him on the check and walked away until she reached the compartment where Sirius was sitting. He grabbed her and pulled her in and the two opened the door so they could watch Regulus after he ate the snacks. Luckily he just leaned up against the wall and started to nibble. Athena let out a giggle when he started to turn orange after eating the pumpkin pastry. Sirius hushed her and leaned further in to look out at him. When he started on the cauldron cakes, smoke of a rainbow of colors started to pour out of his ears. Sirius pulled her back further into the room when they both started to laugh at his obliviousness. Unfortunately he misjudged the room and tripped bringing her down on top of him when he fell on the one bench.
This made her laugh harder and she turned to look at him but her laughter died out as she watched him. She suddenly came very aware of how close they were. And it wasn’t the kind of awareness that was usually reserved for friends, but something of a different nature. Like she wanted him that close. She moved slowly as not to hurt him so he could sit up and she could look him directly in the eye. While there was part of her surprised, there was another part of her that welcomed it when he finally leaned down and kissed her, pulling her back in close to her.
A few seconds later there was a lurch as the train begain it’s movement and the sound of their friends coming back to the compartment. The two separated and sat on either side of the room. Athena waited for the others to completely enter before she left, claiming she needed to use the restroom. Lily decided to go with her and left the four boys alone in the room.
James was the first to notice Sirius’s strange introspective look and sat down next to him.
“What’s wrong.” he said lowly, so the others wouldn’t hear.
“Ever have one of those days when even though you already knew something, it comes back and you really realize it?”
“Um..sure.”
“This has been one of those days.”
“And what have you realized that you already knew.”
“Athena’s a girl.”
“Ah.” James said nothing more, understanding what Sirius was going through. Although he did find it funny when both of them acted exactly the same for the rest of the year. Like nothing had happened. Athena dated a ravenclaw named Theodore and Sirius dated off an on with various girls. But when it came down to it, they still acted like they were just friends. And James watched for the secret looks or hidden hints that perhaps they felt differently, but he found none beyond that moment on the train.
~*~
“Mom, They just announced our flight.” Jamie finally reached Athena who seemed a little out of it. “You ok?”
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. Just remembering something.” He gave her a look, as if he expected more, but she just smiled. “You wouldn’t be interested. It involved me kissing your father.”
“Ah.” He picked up some of their carryon laugage and walked onto the ramp with her. James, Lily, Zara and Nick had already gone through and were on their way onto the plane. “Are we going to see him?”
“Your father, probably not. He’s in prison remember.”
“Yeah.” He decided not to tell her he had read the newspaper when Sirius had escaped prison. Apparently, Athena hadn’t. “I remember.” He watched as Athena handed the receiver her ticket and walked with her onto the plane.
“Have I ever mentioned how much I hate these things?”