Chapter 42

"Hey, mum where do you want these?" asked Bea as she entered the kitchen, she smiled at her mother who was chopping up vegetables and sat the carrots she had just harvested from the garden on the counter.

It was always odd coming home and tending to the garden that was a lot more involved with muggle plants and gardening more so than herbology but being able to be out with the plants and the many flowers that lined their home was always so lovely. Their garden was always brightly coloured and unknown to Bea, it was always Lyall that tended to the plants when she was at school.

She always assumed it was her mother but every day before work, Lyall would get out of bed and water every plant and tend to weeds and overgrown vines for the girl, because although he was shielding his pain by ignoring her, he still couldn't help but love his daughter.

He just had a terribly odd way of showing it.

She patted her mother's shoulder, leaning over to look into the pot she was stirring without her magic, her mother being a muggle couldn't use magic in any way and almost always made sure that neither of her children used magic growing up, though their dad did, and in some ways, they were dependant on skill, and on magic in different ways.

Of course, neither of them were old enough to use magic out of school and Bea just knew that for the year Remus could use magic and she couldn't, she would be incredibly jealous but that was a long way away.

"Do you know where Remus is, he's not in his room?" asked Bea, a frown on her lips and soon running a hand through her hair. She was always used to being with Remus most times in the few days they had returned from school, but it seemed he had gone missing before Bea tended to the garden and she couldn't seem to find him.

"I think he went for a stroll because you were in the garden, hun," Hope smiled softly, her eyes lifting from her cooking to stare at her daughter, "Oh Merlin sometimes I forget just how much you have grown."

Bea smiled, slinging one arm around her mother, "you know I will always be your little girl, mum."

"Very true," Hope nodded, eyeing the bracelet on her daughter's wrist "I see you got your present, but who are all these charms from."

"Friends," she shrugged, "and...boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?!" Hope exclaimed, stopping what she was doing and seeing Bea's cheeks suddenly heat red, "now who must this boy be and why haven't I heard of this before?!"

"Because I wanted to tell you in person and not over another letter, and you already know him," Bea mumbled shyly, though it wasn't hard to tell that the smile was evident when James popped into her head, "It's Remus' friend...you know, James?"

"James?!" Hope beamed, "Oh he was a lovely boy, he came to visit last year!" she gushed. Bea remembered James' visit last summer with the other boys because he acted completely different around her parents and the thought was able to make her laugh and her heart swell now that the memory was in her mind.

He was very respectful to her parents and she knew that now with his knowledge of her father, he wouldn't even think to be with him, but her mother wouldn't stop gushing about him or any of the other boys after they had left.

She can even remember her mother telling her what a "lovely looking boy he was," and even winking at her, so she knew that telling her that she was with James really wouldn't be a pain.

She just wondered how long it would take her to bring up hints about a wedding.

"You know I very much approve of James - oh he is such a lovely boy," she sighed, "but you are still my little baby alright? so I don't want any smaller babies running around this house!"

"Oh mum, for goodness sake!" Bea exclaimed, shaking her head with an amused laugh, "I am far too young for that, and James knows that too!"

"Yes, I know, see, so respectful!" she clasped her hand over her heart.

"Would you like me to mention to James that you fancy him in my next letter to him?" Bea teased, earning a whack from her mother's towel whilst her daughter laughed loudly, "I'm only teasing you, but I'm sure it will be a very large ego boost to know how much you adore him!"

"Oh, give me peace," Hope tutted, stirring the soup in the very large pot, "go and wind your brother up!"

"I will do...if I can find him!" Bea nodded, "does he know of this sudden adoration for James?!"

"Bea!"

"Oh, I'm only teasing mum," Bea laughed softly, "I really can't say anything because I'm usually the one going on and on about how great he is."

Hope smiled softly, "that was like me with your father. He was a great man, an incredible man. Still is."

"With certain people," Bea mumbled, though her mother heard and it really did pain her. Hope had tried countlessly for Lyall to see the truth, that her daughter was not at fault with any of this and he had to admit to his mistakes and own them.

But he was so far in deep with the pain and guilt that he brought it out on her and it was truly the worst thing to do, though as much as she already tried, she would never stop trying, Bea deserved to have a good home to enjoy, she shouldn't have to hide in her room when her father was in and Hope knew that.

"Remus should be back soon, hun," Hope smiled, "dinner won't be too long, but you have plenty of time before then anyway."

"Alright," Bea forced a smile, kissing her mother's cheek as she passed and exiting through the front door to wait for Remus to come back home.

-

"I am starving, honestly," Bea groaned, following behind Remus into their dining room. Lyall was helping Hope in the kitchen, making sure the soup was made perfectly and bringing out spoons and glasses for them all whilst Remus took a seat at the table.

"Bea can you come here a sec?" shouted Hope, and without a word, Bea made her way into the kitchen.

"Can you get another glass out of the cupboard please?" she asked, seeing Bea not yet sitting in the dining room, she figured it would be easier to ask her youngest. Bea nodded, pushing herself over to the cupboards, and whilst ignoring her father, she grabbed a cup from the second shelf with much struggle with her lack of height.

She stumbled on her step suddenly, eyes wide as the glass slipped from her hand and shattered beneath her on the floor in a sudden loud bang. Remus had shouted from the dining room if everything was alright but quickly came through when no one replied.

"Sorry mum, Merlin it just slipped!" Bea exclaimed, looking at Hope who was ready to wave her off with a laugh before Lyall stepped in.

"It just slipped?" he asked, eyes glaring at her, "well maybe you should stop being so bloody clumsy and actually be careful, for once in your life!"

"Dad!" Remus exclaimed eyes narrowed at the man who was fuming.

"There's always something with you, isn't there?!" Lyall exclaimed. The unnecessary anger he had for her always was coming out in loud shouts and usually, she would take it, keep her mouth closed and stand there and allow him to shout at her because she had nothing to say and she was always scared to say something.

But she wasn't scared anymore, she was just tired.

"So clumsy, breaking stuff, disrupting this household-" she shook her head, lifting up her hand and it surprisingly worked but Lyall was more caught off guard than anything else that his false wavered.

"Don't you dare," she whispered. She never had it in her before to talk back, to reply, to make her voice heard, and it showed when her voice was shaky, but she held her ground and neither Hope or Remus said a word as she stood in front of her father and stood her ground, "don't you dare talk to me like that! there is a difference between teaching me right and wrong and bullying! You are nothing but a bully, you are cruel and rude and evil and I have done nothing wrong!

It took me so long to realise I wasn't to blame for what happened to Remus, but you don't realise the full extent to what happened!-"

"Yes, I do!"

"No, you don't!" her voice was so loud, like a screech filled with pain and sadness and hurt that after it you could hear a pin drop. Hope didn't even know her daughter could shout that loud, and Lyall was in more shock than before, "You don't realise that you have neglected your daughter because I wasn't the one that got Remus bitten, it was you!

I wasn't the one to say those things about Fenrir Greyback at your job, I wasn't the one to be overheard by a monster, I wasn't the one who ignored their child for years and years and still blamed something on them because they were too coward to face their guilt.

It wasn't me, it was you!

But for me? I was the girl that got kissed and touched and held by an older man and was violated and disgusted and I didn't even realise until I was older because no one even cared enough to see how I felt. But you didn't know that because you have been so immature, you haven't even looked in my direction properly for eleven years! I am your daughter but it seems as though I am a target you bully!" her voice was sore by the end of it and when she stormed out of the kitchen, Remus followed behind her and the bowl containing soup in Hope's hand had smashed to the floor.

But Lyall didn't shout that time.

Hope's eyes welled with tears at the words her daughter spoke, because of that night all those years ago, Remus wasn't her only child that got hurt, he wasn't the only child to be ripped from their body, ripped off their happiness.

Bea had to go through years of confusion and hurt and pain because the dream she had wasn't a dream and it entered her mind time and time again but she wasn't always completely sure, she never could be completely sure that what happened to her was just a dream.

And it wasn't because to dream you had to see the faces of familiar people, you couldn't make up the people you see in a dream, and Bea remembered Fenrir Greyback's face as though it stared through the window and climbed into her nightmares time and time again.

Lyall was in a state of shock, he felt like a cruel man, he felt worse than Fenrir Greyback. He was horrid, he had let down his daughter, he had turned his back on her from when she was just a child because it was so much easier to blame her than it was to blame himself.

It was so much easier to very, very selfishly allow her to carry the horrid burden than it was for himself because deep down, he always knew he was to blame for Remus getting bitten, but the weight of that pain that Remus felt every month was too much for him to bear that he tried to give it away.

And Merlin, it had backfired, and he was truly suffering from the horrible consequences.

"Her dream," Hope choked out, tears streaming down her face and a horrible ache in her heart.

"I-it...it wasn't a dream."