The Watchers Destiny

Chapter 30- Memorial

Here it is! The last chapter. It took me so very long to produce it and I'm very sorry about that. In a way, I've been reluctant to complete it. But here it is. 

On the day we came back, it was the anniversary of the Battle, so the plan was to go to Hogwarts as they had done every year for the last five years. Usually they would get the Hogwarts Express, but due to the special circumstances, we got the Knight Bus instead. Ginny was heavily pregnant and had been worried about traveling all day on the train the day before.

On the journey, George pulled me aside and talked to me in a soft voice where Fred couldn't over hear.

"Caramela, I know Fafnir isn't Fred's son."

I blanched and looked away.

"Ir's ok," he murmured, "shortly after you and Fred were... gone... Cheques started coming through the post, addressed to me. There was a note telling me  that t was money for the babies. I was suspicious and when I looked into it, I found that the money was being taken from the Malfoy vaults..."

I didn't say anything and the silence stretched for a moment, then George continued.

"I put two and two together quite quickly, I'm not as stupid as I appear to be. But I didn't confront Draco, as much of a scrog as he is, he was supporting the babies. Without that money things would have been very difficult, what with having to close down the joke shop for so long..."

I felt glad that Draco had helped, but I felt the shame burning in me for what I had done. And then done again some time later, with another man, Levicie. And if my guess was correct, then I was carrying again and I was fairly certain that Levicie was the father. 

"Did you ever tell anyone else?" I whispered.

He shook his head.

"It wasn't my place to."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, George," I murmured, hugging him briefly.

When we arrived I could swear that nothing had changed. The body strewn lawns, of what to me had been just last night, were no more. It felt strange, wrong in some way, that the castle was so... normal after what had happened here. The castle had been half destroyed in the Battle, but it looked unscathed. A mew of distress escaped my lips and Fred put his arm about me.

"I know," he whispered softly.

"We've missed the beginning of the dawn service in the main hall," said Molly quietly, "everyone will be heading to the memorial soon. Shall we go down there now?"

We all nodded.  I took the hands of my two beautiful children and Fawn took Fred's hand. Together we walked down to the lake's side, close to the forest, where a tall white pillar intruded upon the landscape that I knew so well. As we got closer, I could see the names. More names than I had hopped, but less than I knew there would have been.

I dropped my childrens hands and stood before the pillar, touching its cool, marble surface with my hand. I was filled with great longing and sadness. Fred put an arm about my waist and kissed my neck.

"It was just last night..." I whispered.

He kissed my neck again as the tears fell down my cheeks.

"They all died just last night and all they did was leave a pillar... So many died and this is wrong! I was wrong!"

I fell against the pillar, sobbing loudly, not caring who saw me, who knew. I roared with anguish, my soul screaming. I shouted in the Old Tongue.

"They died because I did not save them! I was supposed to save them! They died because I called upon them to fight!"

My roars reverberated around me, each one full of mourning. Eventually they petered out and I was left sobbing on my knees before the pillar. Fred was hugging me close, sobbing softly into my hair.

It shouldn't have been like this.

Several years later...

I stood on the platform nine and three quarters, my family around me. My daughter, my son and my husband. Fafnir held Bramble in his arms and was looking rather sullen. I adjusted his collar and he rolled his eyes.

"Mother," he said in his melodic voice, "how is it to look to the children if they see their DADA professor being fussed over by his mother?"

I gave him a small smile.

"I only do this because I love you so much," I told him above the bustle around us.

Fred sighed, "I wish Faun had been able to make it. It's a shame that she's caught up with her Quiditch training."

I looked down at my youngest daughter, the daughter that looked almost exactly like me. 

"Now, Laurentia, you're going to be good, aren't you?" I said to her quietly.

She nodded.

"You're not going to cause trouble for your brother, are you? No matter how much merchandise your father encouraged you to put into your luggage when he thought I couldn't see."

She looked past me and grinned hugely at her dad who gave her a big thumbs up.

"Go on, you," I said, giving her a big hug and a kiss on the forehead.

She took hold of Fred's hand and he took her to the train. Then I turned to my son and gave him a hug too, then scratched Bramble behind the ears.

"You'll take care of him, won't you?" I asked Bramble.

"You ask me this every year, Rellas," mewed Bramble, "I always do my best."

"And you always fail to remember that I understand every word you are saying," intoned Fafnir with a growling meow.

I smiled at him and a faint smile passed his lips too. I kissed his cheek.

"Take care of your sister for me," I whispered to him.

"You know I can't have favorites," said Fafnir with a smile, "but I'll do my best."

I watched him board the train and start his patrol of the corridors almost immediately. 

Fred joined me on the platform and we watched and waved as the train began to pull away from the station. We waved until we could no longer see the train.

"Come on, darling," Fred whispered to me, "we need to get going. You have a meeting with the French WereWolves at noon."

"And you have to get back to the joke shop.I'm sure the new premises in Hogsmeade will be getting an influx of orders quite soon..."

We both smiled and kissed gently.

Everything was perfect.

A/N- Because if I don't say it it will get on my nerves. Fred always knew on some level that Laurentia and Fafnir weren't his children, but he never said anything and always loved them as his own. This is because he loved Caramela and no matter who their father was, she was their mother and anything that was born of her was a part of her, so how could he not love them.