Chapter 19
"Sera!" Harmony and Harry exclaimed, rushing to the woman and throwing their arms around her.
"Well hello there you two. Got here safely?" Sera smiled.
"We'll talk about this in the meeting." Juliane whispered to her.
"What happened?" Sera asked, looking at the group worriedly.
"We need to address the order about that." Juliane answered.
"Well the meeting's about to start. We were just waiting on you guys." Sera said, pulling Juliane into the kitchen. She settled into a chair with Bill next to her. Down the table Sirius smiled, and waved.
"Let's start by taking roll. I am curious to know whether or not people have decided to join." Dumbledore started, standing up. "Sirius and Serafina Black, Juliane Black and Bill Weasley, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Charlie Weasley and Adria Smith, Nymphadora Tonks and Alec Devlin, Remus Lupin, Ronan Thames, Kai Thames..." Dumbledore went through all of the people in the order, and only a few were missing. The meeting progressed smoothly and was incredibly boring. After the meeting, the family all gathered in the kitchen for dinner. Tonks was entertaining Ginny, Alex, and Hermione by morphing her face into different things. Adria was talking to Harmony and Harry about her dragons, and Juliane and Bill were sitting close with Hope, talking quietly about something with solemn expressions. The meal was set out magically on the table, and everyone dug in. The other order members had left a little while ago and Dumbledore had politely declined dinner. There was suddenly a knock at the door.
"I've got it." Sera said, thinking it was an order member that had forgotten one of their items. A few moments later, however, she let out a high pitched scream that echoed throughout the house and awoke a sleeping Walburga. Sirius was the first person out of his seat, with Ronan, Kai, and Remus not far behind her. Adria was forced behind Charlie, and Juliane held onto Hope's arm tightly, racing to the entrance. Sera was standing in shock, blocking the door.
"Sera, what's going on?" Sirius asked.
"I-I don't really know myself." She whispered.
"Oh stop with the dramatics and move to the side." Someone laughed from behind the two. The glass Remus was holding dropped to the ground and shattered on the floor but nobody moved to clean it up. Sirius let out what sounded like a strangled squeak, and Remus walked briskly forwards, snapping out of his daze. The rest of the group watched on, confused. Molly looked excited to see the visitors, recognizing the voice, and the joking, snappy tone.
"Is it really...?" He asked. Sera nodded, there were tears in her eyes, and one slipped down her cheek and landed on the floor. Sera slowly moved sideways and revealed two women standing behind her. They both looked tired, but were smiling. Juliane gasped and walked forwards.
"Wait... Aunt Ren?" She asked.
"Hey, well if it isn't Juliane and Bill. I heard you two got together. It makes me feel really old." Ren smiled. Ren Lupin used to babysit the Weasley children when Molly and Arthur wanted to get out of the house for a little while. Juliane lived with the Weasleys after she was removed from her home. Ren found ways to communicate with Juliane and got her a similar necklace to the one that Juliane had given Hope. It allowed the two people to talk, except this time, they just had to think of what they wanted to say. Unfortunately, Ren could only get her hands on two necklaces so Juliane still needed to learn to communicate with the other teachers and students. After Ren had left, Juliane had attempted to get in contact with her multiple times to no avail. Juliane still wore the necklace. Ren had been like a mother to Juliane when she was young. The only person other then Bill who attempted to help her talk. The others just accepted the fact that she couldn't speak and worked around it. There were also some that didn't but Juliane didn't care about those people. Remus moved to his twin in shock.
"You're here. Right now?" He asked.
"I'm here Rem Rem." She whispered. Remus wrapped her up into a hug, and then turned to the other woman. The carbon copy of James, except, well, a woman. She had messy black hair that was barely contained in a ponytail, and hazel eyes. A bowtruckle peeked out of her front pocket, and her messager bag fell to the ground with a thump as Remus pulled her in for a kiss.
"Maddie!" Sirius yelled loudly, racing forwards. "It's my 'tiny fairy from hell' sister!" He pulled her into a hug. Maddie's back made loud popping noises and Sera pulled Sirius away.
"Sirius! Leave Maddie be." She said.
"He did not just say tiny fairy from hell." Maddie growled at him. "But that did feel really good." Sirius moved to Ren and did the same thing.
"It's my little moonette!" He exclaimed.
"That really does feel good." Ren said, twisting around.
"I mean think about if he killed you. It would be a really good way to die." Sera added.
"It really would be. That's how I want to die." Maddie agreed.
"Of course! Maddie Potter, Death by hug! It would look a little weird on a gravestone, but I doubt that you would care." Sera smirked.
"Wait, did you just say Potter?" Harry asked, staring at the woman. Maddie seemed to just notice they had an audience, and her eyes zeroed in on Harry and Harmony. She felt an overwhelming sense of sadness at the sight of the twins, especially Harry. It was like a young James was standing in front of her. It made Maddie miss her twin dearly, and all the emotion that she had suppressed in the past years came flooding back. Maddie raced from the room, her hands covering her face. Harry stared after her guiltily.
"What was that?" He asked.
"Maddie was James' twin." Sera explained. "They were very close."
"She knew my dad?" Harmony asked, her voice cracking at the end. Hope pulled her to her arms.
"Better than he knew himself at times." Ren nodded, looking in the direction that Maddie had gone in.
"I'll go talk to her." Remus said, walking forwards.
"No. Let me." Hope said, walking away.
"Do you need me to come?" Juliane asked, stepping forwards. Harmony noticed that the woman had barely spared the twins a glance, while that was nice for Harmony, it was also strange that Hope was getting most of the attention. Harmony made a mental note to talk to Juliane about that later.
"No. Let me talk to her alone. I think I can help." Hope said, making her way down the hall and to the room where Maddie was sitting in. Ronan was holding Ren in his arms, whispering things in her ear. The person that Harmony and Harry had met in third year, the quiet but wise, collected person that had showed up at their school was gone. He had tears streaming openly down his face and didn't seem to care. Ren was smiling and wiping away her own tears, delighted to be reunited with her twin and her husband. The family went back to the table, and sat down, slowly getting back to dinner. Ren ate four helpings of her meal, clearly hungry from being away from real food for so long. Maddie and Hope returned soon enough, and Hope went straight towards Juliane and Bill. That confused Harmony. Usually her sister would go straight to her siblings and not leave until she was positive they were okay. Hope had clearly changed over the summer. When the rest of the adults were in their meeting, Hope was with Fred, George, and Alex, mostly Fred though. She seemed to be spending more time with others, and it was strange to the siblings. Harmony was pulled out of her thoughts by Maddie sitting down across from them.
"Hello. My name is Madelyn, but you can call me Maddie. I'm your aunt." She said with a smile.
After dinner, Juliane and the others talked for a while before heading up to bed. The only problem was, Juliane couldn't sleep. "I'm going downstairs for a while." She whispered to Bill.
"Can't sleep either?" Bill asked.
"Too worried."
"Me too. I'll come with you." Bill sat up and followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. Juliane put on the kettle, and waited for it to boil, before making some hot chocolate.
"This is all so... Scary." She said, putting the mugs on the table.
"It's war. What's not scary about it?" Bill said thoughtfully.
"It's not just the war. I'm worried about Hope. I don't want her to get hurt. You know what the prophecy states and power or not, she may not be able-"
"Juliane, don't think of that right now. Think of going school shopping with everyone, and getting to go to Diagon alley, and visiting the shops." Bill intertwined their fingers across the table.
"I know I should but it's in my nature to worry." Juliane said, looking into her mug. Bill lifted her chin up and stared into her eyes.
"You shouldn't. We will all survive this." He said, nearing her face. They were interrupted by someone entering the kitchen.
"Harmony? It's late and you have a hearing tomorrow. I'd head to bed." Juliane said, pulling away from Bill slightly.
"That's why I'm awake right now. I'm worried about the hearing."
"Ahh. Well then, join the party, I'll get you a cup of hot chocolate. Just like my mother used to make it when I was little." Juliane announced, pouring her a mug. Harmony wrapped her hands around it.
"Little Anne, I think I'm going to head to bed." Bill yawned.
"Alright. Love you." Juliane said, leaning over to give Bill a quick kiss before he climbed slowly up the stairs. Juliane picked up his empty mug, and put it in the sink before sitting across from Harmony. "Nervous?" She asked.
"Extremely." Harmony replied.
"Don't be. Dumbledore won't let his favorite students get expelled." Juliane's voice held a slight bitterness to it as she took a sip from her mug.
"What do you mean?" Harmony asked, seemingly not picking up on the bitterness.
"You two are the only students that Dumbledore willingly meets with. You never get in trouble. He just talks with you." Juliane responded.
"Is that wrong?" Harmony wondered out loud.
"No. Just strange." Juliane answered, cupping her mug in her hands.
"Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something. It's been bothering me since we got here."
"And that is?"
"Why do you favor Hope?" Juliane snorted into her mug.
"We don't favor her. We just give her the attention she deserves." She said, and it was true. Hope rarely got any attention from anyone. Only the teachers and that was short lived.
"What are you talking about? Hope gets attention." Harmony sounded confused.
"Does she? Because I don't think that she gets the amount that she should. She's to busy worrying about you two and what trouble you'll get into next." Again, there was a tad bit of bitterness in Juliane's voice. This time it was more noticeable.
"We don't try and get into trouble, it just... Happens. When Voldemort's after you, you have no choice."
"See! There it is again." Juliane snapped her fingers.
"There what is again?"
"You somehow warped the conversation and twisted it back to you. You're problems. Then everyone comes running to you, and Hope is left in the dust. It happened to me all the time back in school. Someone took away the tiny spotlight I had." Juliane said. She sounded sort of angry, but also calm.
"We don't take the spotlight away from Hope." Harmony defended.
"It's not just Hope. Last year for example, when Cedric was picked, you two got put into the tournament. It took away all of the glory that Cedric felt. Everyone was obsessed with the Potter twins." The anger was now prominent in her voice. "You don't even realize it either. Hope never got the attention and was only known as the chosen twin's older sister. When you get to know her, you'd know she wants to open up a joke shop with Fred, Alex, and George. Or that she loves learning and is curious about everything. Or that she spent most of her summer working with dragons, or in pyramids."
"She wants to open up a joke shop?" Harmony asked. It was true, the siblings never got to talking about Hope. It was always about something else.
"You never took the chance to talk to her about it did you?" Harmony shook her head. "That's why I spend most of my time with Hope, so she actually can tell someone her stories, and not just think about you two." Juliane stood up and walked out of the kitchen. "I'm doing this all for her by the way. Because she still puts up with you two." And then she was gone. Up the stairs and in the bedroom, the door shutting quietly behind her.
The more Harmony thought about it, the more she realized that Juliane was right. As the Potters figured out who they really were, and how they got their scars, they found themselves getting into more trouble then the two wanted, and stopped talking to Hope about herself, and more about what troubles they faced that year. It was also when Harmony realized. Juliane didn't quite like the twins at that moment, and Harmony intended to change that. Starting tomorrow, she was going to talk to Hope more. She was going to be the sibling that she should have been a while ago. Starting tomorrow, everything was going to change.
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