Surviving in Harmony

Chapter Fifty-Nine | Hester Grounds, 2020

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Hester Grounds, October 2020

A chill was in the air, and the grass was recovering from an early morning frost. Ten-year-old Maeve was running around the front yard, a long tangle of sunshine curls fanning behind her. Just a few steps behind were Andrew and Sonia, feigning inability to catch her.

"I'm getting too old for this, Mae." Andrew gasped, hands on his knees as he breathed in deeply.

"Nonsense!" bubbled Sonia. "We're barely past forty."

"Hey, Ma?" Max bounded down the steps, tugging on his jacket. "Ted and I are off on a walk, you guys okay with dinner on your own for a bit?"

Sonia waved them away. "Have fun boys."

"They're hardly boys anymore, Sunny."

"Hush, he's still my boy." Watching her son walk off, hand in hand with someone he loved, she felt suddenly very old. "Time has flown, hasn't it Andy?"

Looking down the road at his nephew and godson, Andrew had to admit she was right. Just last month he had dropped Robin off at Hogwarts - his third child only son, and the only Hufflepuff as yet. "Feels like just yesterday you were holding onto a newborn."

"He's so grown up." Sonia felt the pressure of tears, then the weight of Andrew's arm around her shoulder. Maeve studied fallen conkers a few feet away. "It's like...like one moment he was a little kid and then I blinked and...and there's this man in his place."

"Not just any young man, a good one." Andrew hugged her tightly. "You may not have been there for a while, but there is no doubt some of that goodness is from you. I see you in him all the time, and when you were gone it hurt sometimes. He does admire you, Sonia."

"Thank you." Sniffing, Sonia squeezed him tighter. "That means the world to hear you say that."

On the outskirts of Hester grounds, Max kicked the shallow layer of leaves covering the earth. He had not let go of Teddy's hand since they'd left the house, and they chatted idly about the few cottages they were looking at renting.

"You know, we could buy." Mused Max. "I like the idea of something a little more permanent, that we can settle in."

"Do you?" asked Teddy, almost bumping into Max as he leaned down to collect chestnuts.

"Yeah. We can afford something nice, a starter. Then there's no worrying that the owner will throw us out or decide they don't like us." He ran his thumb over the smooth exterior of the nut, studying his reflection in the surface.

"Max?"

"Hm."

"Look at me, please?"

"What -? Oh." Max turned around, dropping the chestnut.

Teddy was not on one knee, it was not a diamond; it was slim and silver and held in his boyfriends shaking hands. "I want to do something permanent." Teddy's voice shook. "I want us to be permanent."

"Are you asking me to marry you?" choked Max.

"Yes." Teddy beamed, tears running down his cheeks. His hair had gone a soft, nutty brown. He was happy. "Preferably permanently. Yes."

"That's my line." Max half sobbed, but mostly laughed.

Teddy crushed Max to him. "Yes?"

"Yes."

"I am so, so - overjoyed. I was worried you'd say no." Teddy breathed, pressing kisses all over Max's face.

"Funny, because -" Max pulled something out of his pocket, now crying of laughter. "I was worried, too."

Teddy gaped, staring at the ring of two threads of intertwining silver. "Are you hijacking my proposal, Maxwell Weasley?"

"Yup," Max held up the ring, grinning. "So how about it, will you marry me Ted Lupin?"

Teddy's lips crashed onto Max's; mingled with tears and October air and a cry of "Yes!"

Hester House was quiet, though the air buzzed with the days events. It was pretty full, too, with Max crowded into Teddy's old single bed, June, Mitzie and Andromeda Tonks all in separate guest rooms and Ella in the room she had shared with Hester, who was still at Hogwarts. It was the wee hours of the morning, and Sonia had gotten up from the bed in her childhood room. Charlie had insisted he was too sleepy to walk five minutes home.

Wandering her old home at night was eerie for Sonia. She had done it so frequently while living there, yet her mother had always been sleeping there, too. Now, she stood in front of Hazel's bedroom door.

"What're you doing awake?"

Sonia spun around, gasping. "Andy!"

"Can't sleep?" he asked, coming to stand beside her.

"I find it hard to sleep here, I don't know how you do it."

He shrugged. "Little kids tire you out."

They looked at the door, not even remembering the last time someone had been in. What they didn't know was that their children had entered the time capsule twelve years ago, on the hunt for treasures.

"Are you thinking about the box?" asked Andrew. "The one in the hidden panel."

"And they say we never had twin psychic powers." Muttered Sonia, running her fingers over the glass door handle.

"When did we even find it?" Andrew watched his sister for any sign she wanted to go in. He desperately missed the essence of his mother, as it had faded from the house over the years after her death.

Sonia turned the handle, but did not open it. "Max was five, Amara had just come back from recovery."

"Hey, wait a second." Putting his hand over Sonia's, Andrew pulled it off the handle. "This is too...informal."

"We've waited seventeen years, Andrew."

"We can wait a little longer. How about - I don't know - an anniversary of some sort."

Sonia thought for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, you're right." They sat in the hall, shoulders touching and staring straight ahead. "Our next birthday, that would be a good time."

"Yeah." Andrew grabbed her hand. "After we finish the year Mamma never thought she would."

"Our forty-first year." A tear slipped down her cheek, dropping onto her oversized nightshirt. "Mamma would be sixty now, isn't that insane?"

"It is. Almost sixty-one."

As hard as they tried, the twins could not picture their youthful mother at sixty. She had always appeared young and tired, and the image of her face would never fade from their minds until they, too left the earth. Who would remember Hazel Bowen then?

A/N: MY BOYS ARE ENGAGED! I'M SO HAPPY.

Question: Sonia and Andrew have a date to open Hazel's hidden box, their 41st birthday. Thoughts on that, and Teddy and Max's engagement?

(look how frequent my updates are. This will not last.)

Rose