Madison Potter: After the War

Chapter 16: The Plus One

"I'm sorry, what?" George asked.

I rolled off the bed and looked at him sheepishly. "Look, he's not a bad guy. And Andromeda is Narcissa's sister, and she's not that bad! She literally saved me and Harry's life!"

"You want to—"

I cut George off. "And Draco has been helping out Charlie, and he's not a bad guy! He comes with Parvati, Seamus and I after work to the pub! You know this! Do you really think I would let him come if I didn't trust him?"

George sighed and got up and wrapped his arms around me. "No, you're right. But you made the invitations with Mum, is she okay with this?"

I gave him a sheepish grin. "So, I might have made it at the kitchen table the other night. After she left. That's when I made Dudley's too. So if they come she'll be getting a big surprise."

"You've got all the spunk, don't you?"

"Well, good thing I carry yours and mine. Heaven knows you'd collapse under the weight of it all," I fleetingly said.

"You're a little minx, you know that?" George asked as he pulled me closer. I got on the tips of my toes to meet him, and our lips were millimeters apart.

"I think I've been told once or twice," I responded before closing the gap between us.

"Draco," I said on my way out of the locker room at the end of my shift at St. Mungo's, "I have something for you."

Draco, who was at his locker near the door, was getting ready for his night shift. "What is it?"

I set my bag down on the bench, and dug through it for an envelope. "This is for you and your mother. It's an invitation to my wedding."

Draco was silent, and didn't speak until I found the envelope and all but shoved it into his hands.

"You want me and my mother to come to your wedding? Are you pulling my leg?"

"No, I'm not pulling your leg. I'm being serious."

"I'm more surprised you want to invite my mother," Draco said. His face looked like he had just been told that somebody had created a dog-cat-hamster hybrid, and it was his new pet.

"Well... I don't know if you've been told— and you probably haven't been— but that night at Hogwarts... your mother saved my life, and Harry's. Without her, we'd be dead, and Voldemort probably would have won."

"What?" It was clear Draco did not know this information, which was to be expected. Very few people knew about it— from what I knew, the only people who knew about it were me, Harry, most likely Ginny, George, Narcissa and now Draco.

"Yeah. That night... Harry and I went to the forest, to give ourselves up. Your mother was sent to check on us to see if we were alive after Voldemort cast the killing curse, and she asked us if you were alive. We nodded slightly, and she told Voldemort that we were dead. She loves you so much Draco that she lied to Voldemort. And I think she also lied because I think deep down your mother is good person. Your mother saved our lives that night, and she saved a lot of other people's lives too. And also her sister Andromeda will be there, and your mother's great-nephew, Teddy will be there— he's going to be the ring-bearer."

I have Draco a minute to process what he had just heard. "You want us to come?"

"I do. I consider you a friend, Draco, and even if your mother doesn't want to come, I hope that you will. There's more details on the invitation, but be sure to RSVP on whether you're coming or not. Have a good shift," I said with a smile as I left him in the locker room.

"I heard a rumor that you invited my nephew and my sister to your wedding," Andromeda said as we sat in the living room at the Burrow a few days later.

I had Teddy on my lap, and I had been making faces at him. He was giggling and his hair kept changing colors, going from red to black to yellow to blue in a matter of seconds. I had been trying to teach him how to say Madison, or at least some variant of it, but so far all I had gotten were random m sounds. I was determined to have his first word be my name, but the likelihood of that happening was very slim.

I looked up from Teddy and met Andromeda's eyes. "How'd you find out?"

"My sister reached out to me for the first time in years. She came over for tea randomly the other day, and told me how her son had been given an invitation to a wedding that was for her as well," she said, a knowing twinkle in her eyes.

Teddy was playing with my fingers, pulling them and curling them. "Well, Draco is a friend, and I thought it would be good to invite him. And for your sister, she saved me and Harry's life that night at Hogwarts."

I proceeded to tell her about what happened that night, letting her into the exclusive club that only a handful of others were in.

"Thank you. After years of me trying to reach out to her, she has finally reached out to me," Andromeda said, giving me a smile that I hadn't seen since before Tonks' death. "Dora and Remus couldn't have asked for a better godmother for Teddy."

I smiled at her and then looked down at Teddy, who now had red hair and startling green eyes. "Mah-da."

My eyes widened. "Andromeda, did he just try to say—"

"Do it again, Teddy!" Andromeda cooed.

"Mah-da, mah-da!" Teddy babbled, grinning and showing the teeth that were in the process of coming in.

"You're such a smart boy Teddy!" I said in a baby voice. "Can you say Madison?"

"Mah-da!"

"That's good enough," I laughed, tears brimming in my eyes. "God, I wish Remus and Tonks were here." Tears ran slowly down my face, but I kept on smiling at Teddy. "But I promise you, Teddy, Aunt Mada isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

"Can you imagine what he'll be like as a teenager?" Andromeda asked, her eyes wet and her mouth turned into a grin. "I'm betting he'll be 100% Dora."

"Well, if he's just like her he's probably going to get a lot of points taken away, but as long as it's nothing dangerous or rude, I think it's okay," I replied.

"I'm hoping you and Harry won't have to send Howler's," Andromeda replied.

"Andromeda, you know you'd be sending Howler's too," I said as Teddy began to pull on my hair.

"I'm getting old, Madison."

"Let's save that talk for another day. Right now, let's just live in the moment."

"Andromeda, Madison— dinner's ready," Arthur said as he came through the doorframe.

"Ready for dinner Teddy?" Arthur said, coming up to me and making a face at Teddy.

"Arthur, he said his first word!" I told him, my voice giddy and my face branded with a smile.

"Did he really? What did he say?" Arthur asked, squatting down so that he was eye level with Teddy.

"Mah-da!" Teddy giggled.

"I've been trying to get him to say Madison, or at least some variation of it, and he did!" I explained.

"We've got to tell everybody else. Molly, Teddy just spoke his first word!"

The rest of the night was filled with glee over Teddy's accomplishment, and while I might have had to change my shirt due to him puking on it, that didn't stop me from feeling like I was on top of the world. It was so exciting that I almost forgot about what Andromeda had implied earlier. Almost.

It was February when I decided that I just needed to bite the bullet and go and visit Dudley. According to Harry, Dudley didn't reside at Privet Drive anymore, but instead in an apartment in downtown London. I didn't really want to go alone, so I dragged Harry with me.

"This is a nice place as far as apartments in London go," I remarked as we rode the elevator to the 16th floor. The elevator had mirrors on all four walls, white tiles on the floor, and thankfully, did not play any music.

Once we reached the 16th floor and stepped out of the elevator, Harry led us down a hallway with muted blue walls and gray carpeting. The doors were oak, and there were lights on the walls. We stopped in front of a door with the number 43 on it. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. After about 15 perilous seconds, the door opened to reveal Dudley Dursley.

Dudley looked the same, but different at the same time. He was still much taller than me, but that was to be expected. He had lost some weight, and was instead a bit more muscular. His hair was still brown, and it reached just below his ears. His eyes were brown, but they were haunted. It was obvious that there had been something that went on over the past year, and I intended to find out sooner or later. He wore black sweatpants and a red sweatshirt that said University of London on it in a white collegiate font.

"Harry! Madison! Come on in!" Dudley said cheerfully.

"Hey, Dudley," I said as I walked in.

The apartment was homey, and it was very different from the house the three of us had grown up in. The walls had pictures of Dudley with his parents, and there was even one with Dudley, Harry and I in it.

"I remember that day," Dudley said when he noticed me looking at the picture.

The three of us had to be seven or so in that photo. It had been taken on a class field trip to the British Museum. Our teacher had taken photos of everybody in the class to for their parents— or in me and Harry's case, Aunt and Uncle— to have. It was remarkable that the three of us were smiling in the photo, but then again I suppose we had to listen to our teacher. Or maybe we were just so happy to be out of school for the day.

"Yeah, I remember Piers dunking Arty's head in the men's bathroom at lunch, and a chaperone doing absolutely nothing about it," Harry chuckled awkwardly.

"Chaperones never really do their jobs," I stated as we moved into the living room. Harry and I sat on the black leather loveseat across from the television, and Dudley sat in the matching black leather arm chair that was next to us.

"Erm... the reason we're here today is because I wanted to give you this," I said as I pulled a white envelope out of my purse. I handed it over to Dudley and gave him a nod, signaling that he could open it.

He opened the envelope and read over the invitation. "You're getting married?"

"Yeah, I am," I blushed. "To George Weasley."

"Isn't he the one who gave me candy that made my tongue—"

"Yes, he is. And I can promise you that none of that will happen ever again. He got yelled at so bad, and I personally will make sure that nobody does anything like that if you were to—"

"I'd love to come," Dudley interrupted me. "I'll be on summer break then, so I would love to come."

I smiled. "Really? That's great!"

"Can I bring a plus one?" Dudley asked quickly.

"I don't see why you couldn't," I said.

Harry gave his input, "As long as it's not Aunt Petunia or Aunt Marge."

"Wait... Dudley, do they—"

I was interrupted by the door opening. A female voice rang out, "Dudley, I got the mail— why are Madison and Harry Potter sitting in the living room?"

Harry, Dudley and I looked at each other and froze. I didn't know who this woman was, but I knew at the very least she had to have some connection to the magical world if she knew who Harry and I were.

"Erm... Penny, these are my cousins?" Dudley said awkwardly.

Penny came into the room. She had olive skin, dark brown waves that cascaded down her back like a waterfall, and shining chocolate eyes. She wore a sweatshirt similar to Dudley's, except the color of the shirt was blue and the font was in white.

"Wait a minute... who are you and how do you know who we are?" Harry asked, taken aback.

"I'm Penelope Adamos, but I go by Penny," Penny said. It suddenly came to me that she had a Greek accent. "And I know who you are because, well, almost everybody does."

"Not in the Muggle world," I remarked. "Wait, you're a witch, aren't you?"

I looked at Dudley to see his reaction. His eyebrows shot up, and his mouth opened, but it quickly closed. He honestly didn't seem to be all that surprised.

"Dudley, I didn't want you to find out like this..." Penny said, making her way over to hold his hand in hers.

"I had a feeling. Plus, I saw you take a stick out the other day that looked a lot like what Harry and Madison have. But it's okay, Penny. It doesn't matter," Dudley said kindly.

I glanced at Harry. What the hell had happened in the past year or so?

"Dudley, you can't tell your mother," Harry said. "You know how she'll react."

"That's a topic for another day," I said. "But, uhm, yes, feel free to bring a plus one to the wedding. If you want to come, Penny. I'm getting married in June."

Penny grinned. "I'd love too!"

"Also, where did you go to school? I don't recognize you from Hogwarts," Harry wondered aloud. He fixed his glasses awkwardly.

"I went to Hecate's School of Magic, it's in Greece. Hogwarts is only for wizards in the United Kingdom I'm afraid. I would have loved to go there, but the housing system is a bit weird."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. I completely understood what she meant by it being a bit weird.

"I mean, it's encouraging competition and division between the students."

"She's right. Well, Harry and I have to go, we have some other errands to run. It was great meeting you Penny, and Dudley, will we be seeing you for lunch next weekend? Feel free to come Penny," I hurriedly said.

"Yeah, I'll be there," Dudley said.

"Great! See you then!"

I grabbed Harry's hand and turned on the spot and landed inside the living room of my house.

"Oh my God," I said, finally letting the shock show on my face. A new thought raced into my head like a race car crossing a finish line and I felt a grin take over my face. "Can you imagine what Uncle Vernon's reaction would be if he was still alive?"

"His face would get so purple," Harry laughed.

"And Aunt Petunia, if she ever finds out she'll go absolutely mental. Either that or just faint," I snorted.

"I'd pay to see that happen."

"Me too. But more importantly, how come I've never heard of Hecate's School of Magic? I've read a lot of books at the library at Hogwarts and none of the ones I read ever mentioned anything about a school in Greece! I need to do some research. I need to owl Hermione to see if there's any books in the library about it," I rambled, heading towards the kitchen where we kept some paper and pens.

I quickly wrote down a note, addressed it to Hermione, and then realized I didn't have an owl. I was about to ask Harry if I could borrow Hedwig, but I stopped myself before I could when I remembered that Hedwig had died protecting Harry.

"You and George don't have an owl?" Harry asked as I told him we were going to the Burrow to see if we could borrow Errol.

"No. And I can't believe we didn't think of that! I usually remember everything and I made an entire list about what we would need but I forgot about the fact that we need an owl," I grumbled.

Harry laughed in response.

Suddenly, the front door opened and George walked into the house with a dog.