Tara's POV
When we all sat down at the table again, for the first time in a long time, it was tense. We had not seen each other in far too long to immediately be able to talk again. And then I looked up and met Molly's eyes, and then Lily's, and then Tonks's and found a fire there that I hadn't seen in a long time. That fire that reminded me of when we used to fight together before. When we were practically unstoppable. When 'girl's night' almost always turned into a street fight with Death Eaters. I smirked and looked around at them again and nodded. They matched my smirk and nodded back. It was time for us to rise up again. Rise up and fight. We had been in hiding for too long.
Suddenly, there was a call from the living room. I held my hand up and shook my head, telling them I'd go and see what it was. There was a face in the fireplace.
"Albus," I said shortly.
"I trust you arrived safely, Tara?"
"I think you can figure that for yourself, Albus."
"I have a mission for you."
"Of course you do. You couldn't give me one night to reunite with everyone, could you?"
"You get your night, Tara. I promise. The mission is tomorrow at nine o'clock. I will send a parchment to you tomorrow morning with information."
I stood, refusing to wish him goodnight or anything of the sort. I got myself back under control when I was sure he was gone and walked back into the kitchen.
"Who was it?" Molly asked.
I waved her off, "It was Albus."
"And what did he want?" Lily asked.
I sighed and gritted my teeth, shaking my head, "I have a mission tomorrow night."
"That's... soon," James said.
I gave him a look.
"Any specific information?" Sirius asked from where he sat beside me.
I shook my head, "I'll get it tomorrow morning."
He looked at me, "That usually means it's gonna be bad, right?"
"In the past, yes."
"You'll tell us what happens... right?" James asked, suddenly uncertain. "Or at least, the plan for what is supposed to happen?"
I nodded, "Of course. I would no longer ever keep anything from any of you unless it were to keep you from harm."
"Good," Molly said lowly. "Good."
The rest of the dinner was even more tense. The children still appeared to be extraordinarily confused, looking from adult to adult from time to time before shaking their heads and returning to their dinner. Every few minutes, I would look around before shaking my head and going back to my food.
Then, suddenly, through all the tenseness, Tonks got annoyed and blurted, "Can we stop glaring at each other and just go back to being friends again!"
Everyone looked around, completely silent, before bursting out laughing. Suddenly, the table erupted into conversation- everyone was laughing with each other, talking. It was just like the old days. We caught up on all the things that had happened in the past years. We talked about Frank and Alice who were currently insane in the mental ward of St. Mungos.
"Do you think..." Molly started, cocking her head. "Do you think maybe you could heal them, Tara? We could use them in this war."
I hummed, and nodded a little, "I would have to talk to Augusta and their son, Neville. I want to make sure that they would want them to be back, and have time to think about it. It would change their lives, not to mention, Frank and Alice would have nearly fifteen years unaccounted for. I don't know that they would want to come back."
Molly's brows furrowed, "Well, they have to be in there somewhere, you should be able to communicate with them somehow, right?"
I shrugged, "Potentially there is some place within their minds that I could reach, but it wouldn't be easy."
"I think you should try it- after talking to Augusta and Neville, of course. Try to communicate with them and see what they want."
"Of course."
Dinner went smoothly after that and Molly served dessert and then slowly drifted toward our separate rooms.
I caught Harry by the arm as he went to walk through the living room to get to the stairs, "You know I'll go after them if you want? We all will."
He looked confused, "Who?"
"Petunia and Vernon."
He paused for a moment, thinking, before shaking his head, "I don't want them hurt because of what they've done to me."
I patted him on the shoulder, "You're a good person, Harry. But we'll be having a talk with them when we go to get all of your stuff. They were horrible to you."
He cocked his head, "How do you know?"
"I watched over you as you grew up from a distance. It took all of my willpower not to go after them when you ran from Dudley or were neglected by them. They should've loved you like you were their own."
He looked down, shifting a little, "Thank you."
I brought him in for a hug, "You've got a better family now, kid. Don't you ever think we'll abandon you."
He relaxed a little, then pulled away and went to head upstairs, but was caught by Lily and James. I smiled a little and followed Sirius up the stairs to the room he was sleeping in.
I raised my brows when we reached it, "Why do you have a hippogriff in your room?"
He shrugged, "This is Buckbeak. He was supposed to be executed a while back but Harry and his friends saved him and brought him back here."
I nodded and sat down on the bed in the corner of the room, looking at Sirius as he took his shirt off.
He looked over and smirked a bit, "Don't stare, Potter, it's rude."
I rolled my eyes, "Why would I be staring at you, Black?"
He chuckled and stretched before walking over to me, "So what happened to Tide?"
I hummed, "I told him that I needed to hide for a while and that he would be too big for that. He agreed and went elsewhere. I can't say I really know where he is right now. He would probably come if I decided to track him down and ask him if he wanted to join our cause."
Sirius turned a buried his face in the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply and kissing the skin there lightly, "Thank you for coming back."
I brought his face up so I could kiss him, "Thank you for not kicking me out."
The next morning went too quickly for me. I was up early and moving about the house, leaving Sirius sleeping in bed as I got dressed and went downstairs. There, I found Molly and Lily standing in the kitchen, tea in hand. Molly handed me a cup and I leaned against the counter.
"When do you have to leave?" Molly asked.
I looked at the clock on the wall, "In about thirty minutes."
"When do you think you'll be back?"
I shrugged, "Depending on the mission... sometime tomorrow, likely late."
They nodded and Lily sipped her tea before looking at me, "You will be careful, Tara, won't you?"
I smiled, "Of course."
"Yes," Molly said, a fake looking fierce look in her eyes, "I don't want any blood."
I shook my head, chuckling softly, "That's asking for a lot, Molly, you know?"
She nodded, "We just don't want to lose you already."
"I'm not going anywhere. Not yet."
We drank our tea in silence for a while after that, until I looked up at the clock and nodded, "Time for me to go."
They both gave me a hug quickly and I Apparated out of the kitchen, appearing in Dumbledore's office not a moment later.
He looked up from what he was writing and smiled lightly, "Ah, Ms. Tara Potter. It is wonderful to have you back. As you know, I have a mission for you."
I sat down and crossed my arms, "Give me what I need and I'll get it done."
He nodded and handed me a piece of paper.
I took and read through it quickly before rolling it up and handing it back to him and nodding, "It will be done before sunset tomorrow if everything goes to plan."
"Good," he said. "Thank you."
I stared at him as I stood before shaking my head and turning away and Apparating before he could call me back to have a too long conversation. I appeared with a crack in front of a dark, grand house and rolled back my shoulders before stalking in.
The mission decidedly did not go as planned. I was lucky to have returned so soon with the amount of injuries I had. I sent everyone in the living room flying up when I appeared there, panting and holding a wound on my stomach as closed as I could.
"Molly," I said, not looking at anyone in particular. "Any idea where the rubbing alcohol might be? And the firewhiskey?"
She stood hurriedly and rushed to the kitchen as Sirius took my arm and helped me onto the floor.
"Does it hurt?" Hermione asked, looking worried.
I turned to her and raised a brow, "Does it look like it hurts?"
She nodded.
"Yeah, it does a little bit. I've had worse. Can I sit up, please?" I asked Sirius as Molly ran back into the room, shoving her way through her children.
She handed Sirius the rubbing alcohol and handed me a bottle of firewhiskey which I quickly took an awkward sip of.
He looked me in the eyes, "You ready?"
I grinned, "As ever."
"Don't bite your tongue," he said as he lifted up my hand and poured some of the rubbing alcohol on the wound in my stomach.
I arched my back a little and hissed, "That better be my homemade potion."
He shook his head, "Not quite. Had to clean it first. Ready for the good stuff."
I took another sip of the firewhiskey and set the bottle to the side, "Make the kids leave. This is gonna be interesting."
The kids were chased off by Molly. He gave me a piece of leather to bite down on and dripped a few drops into the wound. My canines lengthened and I nearly bit through the leather as I tried to remain quiet, thrashing my legs a bit on the ground.
"Any others?" he asked as I caught my breath, feeling the skin start to stitch itself back together.
"Couple on my legs, one on my shoulder blade. Two broken bones."
"Merlin, what did you go up against?" my brother asked.
"Couple of... ah... hellhounds... three hydras... fuck, that hurts... something else... don't remember. There weren't... many Death Eaters... but the ones that were... there... are dead," I said between pants.
When Sirius finally finished healing the wounds, my forehead was beaded with sweat. I gritted my teeth as he moved on to healing the bones with quick, efficient flicks of his wand. Even then, my femur was not completely healed as he snapped it back together and spots flew before my eyes briefly.
"Come on," he said. "Let's get you upstairs."
He and Remus shoved themselves under my arms by my insistence that I could walk before finally, at the stairs, I allowed myself to be swept into Sirius's arms and carried up to his room bridal-style, passing the gaping kids on our way. One of the still-sensitive wounds tore as we passed them and my arm began to bleed again. Sirius closed it back up when he set me on his bed and I closed my eyes, breathing evenly.
"Well," I said as he began to help me wipe the blood off my person, "I can't say that that's how that mission was supposed to go. No one told me about the copious amount of monsters in that house."
I flinched a little as he scrubbed particularly hard over a formerly broken bone and he apologized, "Dumbledore didn't let you know about that, then?"
I laughed, "I would've come better prepared if he had."
Sirius sighed, "There are a lot of things I'd like to say to that man."
"I've already said 'em," I muttered as I started to drift off.
He patted my cheek lightly, "You okay to go to sleep? You're gonna wake up?"
I brought him down to me to kiss him lightly, "I'm not dying Sirius. I'll be fine."
He nodded, "I just got you back. No way in Hell that I'm losing you again."
I chuckled, "C'mere. Sleep."
He tossed the damp cloth to the side and curled himself around me, as though trying to protect me from the world.
I chuckled and buried my face in his chest, "I love you."
"Love you too," he muttered into my hair.