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lii. FIFTY-TWO
EPILOGUE
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EVANGELINE TONKS, OR AS SHE'D DECIDED TO STICK BY - MELORA, WAS FINALLY FREE FROM THE HORRORS SHE'D BEEN FACING THROUGHOUT HER YOUNGER YEARS. There was no denying the fact she'd been through absolute hell, and now... well, it was a little bit better. She'd broken the restraints that Bellatrix had cast upon her, and though she'd always have those horrific memories, and those horrific actions tied to her name, Melora would choose to move forwards from it all.
As it had all turned out, Melora Nephele Lestrange was not who she thought she was at all. The idea of being the daughter of two Death Eaters was quite simply false, and everything that she'd valued before, such as pure-blood supremacy and the importance of family names, was essentially useless to her now. Thinking back on it all, Melora felt the need to laugh at her eleven-year-old self, and how she'd been so cold towards Dillan Medhurst, and anyone of similar status, when in fact, Melora wasn't too dissimilar herself.
No doubt, there would always be a part to Melora that valued pure-bloods just that tiny bit more than other witches and wizards, but she knew to ignore that thought now. After all, she wasn't really one herself, and to continue with her old ways would just be ridiculous and completely hypocritical.
Since finding out the truth about her heritage, Melora had made the choice to change her name. Of course, everybody (friend or not) knew her as Melora, so it felt wrong to just completely discard that name. Although it held ties to the terror from before, it was still a part of her, and she simply couldn't ask of the people who surrounded her to forget about her past personality. Put it this way - it was Melora Lestrange whom George Weasley had fallen in love with.
So. Melora had decided for her forename to remain, but her middle name and last were what were due to change. Hence, a week or so after the battle when she had felt she'd recovered as much as she could, she became Melora Evangeline Tonks. And once that was done, it meant that there was only one thing left to do...
She'd already talked to a couple of people about doing it beforehand, and she'd been given their advice on how to go ahead with things, so she felt OK. She'd been staying with Ilia and her parents, since the Malfoys didn't exactly want her comfortably waltzing their halls when she was technically a disowned family member. It wasn't that she wasn't welcome there, because she'd done nothing wrong, and Draco still wanted to talk to his cousin sometimes, but she shouldn't live there. Hence, she'd been staying with the Nyxeris family temporarily.
But now, that was all about to change.
Melora had Apparated outside of the house, and knocked politely on the door, as though she was nothing more than a harmless Muggle. She'd come alone. It was a guess of hers that it would be far better, and far more relieving, if she went ahead with this alone. So, standing on the doorstep, taking in deep, shaky breaths, Melora waited by the front door of this house as though there was nothing out of the ordinary with her visit.
When the door handle turned downwards, she felt her heart leap into her throat. If she was quick, she could just about manage to Apparate away... she could change her mind, if she really wanted to...
As the door swung backwards, and a woman moved forwards to greet her, Melora slowly looked up to meet her gaze. She was trying desperately not to cry, sniffing occasionally to try and distract herself from spilling tears, but as she eventually met eyes with the woman before her, she felt she couldn't keep it back anymore. A small smile broke out across her face, bringing colour to her cheeks.
At first, the woman looked horrified, but then hesitation crossed her face, and she paused. It happened rather suddenly, but she then broke down into tears and wrapped Melora into a tight hug. They weren't even inside the house yet, yet both of the women were simply stood there in the front yard, hugging each other and crying.
Melora smiled graciously as she cried into her true mother's shoulder. "Hi, Mum."
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"ACACIA WOOD, UNICORN tail hair, 10 ¾ inches..." the Minister for Magic said loudly at the beginning of the trial. "Am I correct in saying that this wand belongs to you, Miss Tonks?"
She nodded. "Yes."
"And is it true that this was the wand that you used to perform the murders of three wizards, a Muggle, and many other counts of torture?" he pressed on.
Melora nodded again. "Yes."
"I am sure that you are aware of the illegality of said actions, Miss Tonks. You have performed Unforgivable Curses with this wand," he said, holding up her wand in his hand as though to brandish it to the others in the room. "It has therefore been decided that your wand shall now be snapped, and hence broken, before you, and you shall not perform magic again."
Melora watched, almost heartbroken, as the Minister then placed his other hand on the end of her wand. She closed her eyes tightly, anticipating the dreaded snap.
"Excuse me, Minister," another voice spoke out, just as the two ends of the wand were forcefully pulled downwards. The Minister paused, and turned to the owner of the voice, looking somewhat irritated that he had been disrupted.
"Mr Weasley, this is not up for negotiation," the Minister responded quickly. "This wand was used illegally. Miss Tonks has not been sentenced to Azkaban due to the fact that she attempted to, and on some occasions did save, many people during the build up to and the event of the war. However, that does not cover up the fact that she performed parts of the Dark Arts multiple times."
Melora had wanted to stay focused ahead of her, rather than paying attention to those who had attended the trial, either in support or in spite of her. However, she found herself flicking her gaze around to find Percy Weasley there. He'd worked for the Ministry before. And despite the fact she barely knew him, he seemed determined to fight for her.
"Minister, that was precisely my point," he said clearly. "She used that wand to save many people from death. In fact, that wand performed more heroic spells than it did illegal curses. That wand was used to save my brother."
"That does not make up for the murders she committed, Mr Weasley," the Minister replied.
However, despite how she'd believed her trial to be over, and for her wand to be snatched from her and broken before her eyes, there were more protests to come. Since the death of Amelia Bones, there had been someone new appointed as the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And that person turned out to be the mother of someone that had grown to be quite significant to Melora's life.
"Forgive me, Minister, but I don't think it was only Fred Weasley whom Miss Tonks saved. The illegal actions performed with this wand were only done when she had someone breathing down her neck. Those that were done due to her own choices, were more than heroic," the woman said.
It was someone by the name of Natascha Deen, who was, in fact, Anya's mother. She was quite involved in Melora's case, mostly due to her occupation, but also due to the fact that her daughter was largely intertwined with it all. Melora watched, somehow hopeful, as the woman proceeded to explain. She was incredibly influential, to say the least.
"Miss Tonks saved Fred Weasley during the Battle of Hogwarts, and it was something she chose to risk herself for. She also helped for Dillan Medhurst to escape from Death Eaters leading up to the war, as well as protecting my daughter and her unborn baby before her people were able to find her first," she said quickly, to which the Minister paused to consider. But here was not the place for Natascha to stop. "She was in possession of a Horcrux for a few years as well as this. Whilst originally it seemed as though she was protecting it, she was actually ensuring it did get destroyed. She waited until the last moment to pass it on, so that the Death Eaters believed that they stood a chance against the Order, when in fact, they did not-"
"Deen, that does not prove her innocence," the Minister shook his head. "And may I remind you, that that we are not trying to do that. This is about the illegal use of her wand."
"I... sorry," she sighed, taking a seat once more.
The Minister cleared his throat, and placed Melora's wand before him. Her heart was in her throat again, a constant pounding that proved just how anxious she was. She couldn't think straight at all. Would they break it? She'd been so utterly ridiculous for going ahead with all of those curses during the war.
Idiot, idiot, idiot.
There came a horrible pause, in which Melora let her head drop slightly, and for her eyes to stare at the floor. She didn't dare meet the Minister's eyes - or anyone else's, for that matter - and so she focused elsewhere. That was, until she heard him cough, and so she scrunched them tightly shut.
"Wand Management for the time period of five years. No more. No less," he said clearly. "Within those years, should Miss Tonks perform anything that breaks regulations, a small action or large, then she will have her wand broken. If she does not, then she receives her wand back, and its uses shall not be monitored any longer."
Silence consumed the room, and Melora breathed out a small sigh of relief as the trial came to a close. She'd escaped an Azkaban sentence already (aside from the fact she'd had several of her rights stripped from her, too), and to stay in possession of her wand provided her with immense joy.
Melora threw her arms around George as they met outside of the trial room, and she laughed aloud. Quite frankly, he didn't care that she couldn't ever get a job, or that she wasn't permitted to use her own wand freely for five years, or that she wasn't even who he'd believed her to be for so long. They were twenty-one years old, there was no war, no evil, and no threats. Should they make it through the next five years peacefully, there would be nothing problematic left for them to face.
... Well.
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AND SO, TWO years after the war, and one year after her trials, she'd had yet another name change. It was fairly expected, even if the pair had never officially dated. It certainly went without saying that Melora would one day get married. And given that she'd gone through so much with him, it wasn't surprising to know that the last name that she'd taken was Weasley.
And actually, she'd found his proposal to be particularly sentimental. When she'd lost her wand that morning, how she'd been writing things down manually due to the fact her wand was gone and George refused to give her time to look for it, and how her quill had suddenly gained a mind of its own. How it began to draw an image, and how she'd frowned, trying to figure out what the hell it was.
How she'd gaped when she'd realised that it was, in fact, a ring, and that George was on one knee, and proposing. Because, really, it was similar to how they'd first started talking to one another. She'd bewitched his quill so that he couldn't use it to write his essay for Umbridge. And now, he'd bewitched hers to draw an (oddly-shaped) ring, and to propose to her.
As the years progressed, she made to remind him just how awful his drawing skills were. Whenever she got the chance, the teasing insult was thrown. And she loved it.
When Melora made her way back to King's Cross after roughly eighteen years, with her eleven-year-old daughter, she wasn't one to remember her husband's horrific drawing skills. All that went through her mind, was that her eldest child was going to Hogwarts, and without any issues. And understandably, that was largely overwhelming.
"Mum?" Blake Weasley asked as she was about to board the train, her voice low as to not attract the attention of other people on the platform. "Am I allowed to hex people if they annoy me?"
"Blake!" Melora said quietly, giving her a warning look. She glanced over at George for support, but he simply raised his eyebrows and turned away. She looked back down at her daughter, smirking, before she whispered, "I suppose I used to."
She smiled at this. "Dad used to tell me stories of you doing that."
When Melora thought about it, she realised how dissimilar her daughter was to the classic Weasley child. For starters, hexing people because she found them annoying was more of a Melora trait than anything, although she supposed it could have come from her father, too. But what surprised her most, was that Blake (though she had the faint little freckles on her cheeks and nose that her father's family shared), had hair that was still the same deep, dark black/brown that Melora and Andromeda possessed.
Blake, after spotting her friends on the train already, decided that it was time for her to part from her parents. She reluctantly leaned into a hug from her mother, before laughing loudly as her dad ruffled her hair teasingly. She turned around, facing her grandmother this time, who'd come along as well to see off both Blake and Teddy Lupin. Andromeda picked up the girl in her arms, pretending to find her incredibly heavy, and hugged her goodbye.
Melora smiled warmly at them.
As she got onto the train, Blake spotted her cousin first, whom she was also very good friends with, and so went straight into the compartment with her. Since the two were so close, both of the parents had been spending more time together, and Melora had found herself finding a good friend within Fleur. Blake and Dominique sat down together, next to the window, so that they could each wave their families goodbye before they departed to their first Hogwarts year together.
Not long afterwards, two more students walked in, and Melora recognised them as Ilia's twins. Glancing around on the platform for her friend, she spotted her, and wrapped her in a hug. They exchanged fast conversation, before they were interrupted by another woman's arrival. Anya Deen greeted them each, before saying goodbye to her daughter as well. Since the end of the war, Melora had gotten much closer to the woman, and hence, after all of the commotion, had been named as Harriet's godmother - a title she was quite proud of.
Once the train began to pull away from the station, Blake waved - and so did the rest of the students sharing a compartment with her - and Melora and the rest of the parents watched as it began to carry them on their way to the castle. Melora raised her arm to wave them goodbye, but as her sleeve slipped, she noticed the faded black mark on her arm, and paused.
It was in the past. She wasn't in Azkaban. No - she was married to George Weasley, she had a daughter, and she was free to do whatever she liked (mostly). So, even if the mark on her arm would never fade, it didn't mean that she wanted it to stay there.
She'd just learned to move on from it.
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awww this is all so cuteee <33
obviously melora and ilia's kids are all friends bc i mean a) melora and ilia are their mums, and b) george and lee are their dads. but, when i was writing this, i just thought that dominique and blake sounded like a really good pairing, soooo there u go.
i don't know how well it came across bc there are so many names to include in this lmao but basicallyyyy: blake, the twins and dominique are the same age, and then teddy lupin and harriet medhurst are the same age and are superrr close lmao. victoire fits in somewhere inbetween <33
also, i know that the whole 'melora escaping the law' is suuuperrr unrealistic and all but i wasn't going to shove her into azkaban and just leave george on his own, was i?? hence, blake (whose fc is rose williams!!) :-))