madison spent july of 1997 everywhere.
she would travel by train, and she would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy any of it.
she made muggle friends and basically just spent that month like a muggle.
the day she knew hermione was traveling to the burrow, she apparated to the girl's bedroom, instantly plopping down on her bed.
"i've never been here before," maddy scared the bushy-haired witch.
"don't do that again," hermione sniffled, making maddy sit up.
"what's wrong?" the darker girl's hand went up, wiping away the tears.
"i-i have to alter my parents' memory to keep them safe," she mumbled, shoving a shirt into her duffel bag.
"love," maddy sighed, standing up and wrapping her arms around hermione, "do you need any help?"
"no-can you just, like wait for me outside?"
"of course," maddy sadly smiled, kissing hermione's forehead and disapparating, landing in their backyard since it was closed off and no one could see.
she snuck out through the fence door and stood against the wall, making sure neither of the granger adults could see her.
moments later, hermione walked out, tears streaming down her face.
"c'mon," maddy extended her hand.
"they're moving to australia," the brighter girl accepted the other's hand.
"everything is going to work out," madison said as she led the two to a dark alley way.
"i know-anything is possible with you by my side."
the taylor girl didn't answer-instead, she leaned in for a quick kiss before disapparating, the two appearing at the burrow, where ginny was waiting for them.
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the night they went to retrieve harry, maddy stayed back, mostly because of how nervous arthur was to leave his two girls alone.
maddy promised she would protect molly and ginny, and phoebe promised molly she would help protect her boys seeing as she accompanied them to privet drive.
"look," ginny pointed as two figures were seen in the yard, one way bigger than the other.
as soon as the other two spotted them, they ran outside to get a better look.
"harry? you are the real harry? what happened? where are the others?" molly cried.
"what d' you mean? isn't anyone else back?"
"no," maddy sighed, taking a quick glance at molly and seeing her pale face.
"the death-eaters were waiting for us. we were surrounded the moment they took off-they knew it was tonight-i don't know what happened to anyone else. four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then voldemort caught up with us-"
"thank goodness you're alright," she pulled the boy in for a hug.
"havent go' any brandy, have yeh, molly? for medicine purposes?"
the older red-head scurried off, taking maddy with her.
"it's going to be alright," molly said, but it sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "i'm glad we got you back," she sighed, kissing maddy's forehead before hurrying to where she kept the medicine and dragged the girl back outside.
"mum!" ginny shouted once more, pointing to a spot several feet away.
after a bright light appeared in the darkness, lupin and george appeared, but something was wrong.
george was unconscious and his face was full of blood.
harry ran forward and helped carry the red-head twin inside, where they set him down on the couch.
"oh god," maddy mumbled as a lamp was turned out.
one of his ears was missing.
lupin dragged harry away, and hagrid's voice could be heard.
"is he going to be okay?" ginny asked.
"yes-don't worry," molly waved her off.
a couple minutes later, ginny nudged maddy since she was biting her nails. when the darker girl got a glance outside, her eyes widened.
"mione," she whispered, apparating in front of the new pair.
hermione flung herself into maddy's arms, ignoring the fact that harry was patiently waiting for his hug.
"i was so worried."
"i'm sorry," hermione sighed.
"the last word albus dumbledore spoke to the pair of us?" kingsley raised his wand.
"harry is the best hope we have. trust him," lupin said calmly.
kingsley turned to harry but the werewolf stopped him.
"it's him, i've checked!"
maddy slightly chuckled at how awkward harry looked, so she pecked hermione's lips and let her go, and she wasted no time in wrapping her arms around harry.
"somebody betrayed us! they knew, they knew it was tonight!"
"so it seems, but apparently they did not realize that there would be eight harry's."
"small comfort! who else is back?"
"only hagrid, harry, george and me."
"phoebe?" hermione whispered, but only received an anxious look from her friend? girlfriend?
"what happened to you?"
"followed by five, injured two, might've killed one, and we saw you-know-who as well, he joined the chase halfway through, but vanished pretty quickly. remus, he can-"
"fly," harry supplied. he went to open his mouth again but kingsley started yelling.
"didn't you work for him last year? you did this, didn't you? you're the reason we got ambushed!" he threateningly trudged towards maddy, but remus stopped him.
"don't you dare lay a finger on her," he scowled.
"it wasn't her," harry and hermione both defensively stood in front of her.
"how can you three be so sure?"
"one-she's been at the burrow this whole time-"
"two-she said it herself when i accused her for dumbledore's death-she's done working for him."
"and i trust her," hermione interlocked their hands.
kingsley eyed the girl up and down, scoffing as he turned to harry.
"how did you know you-know-who could fly?"
"i saw him. he came after hagrid and me."
"so that's why he left-to follow you! i couldn't understand why he'd vanished. but what made him change targets?"
"harry behaved a little too kindly to stan shunpike."
"stan?" hermione repeated, "but i thought he was in azkaban."
"hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the ministry has hushed up. traver's hood fell off when i cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. but what happened to you, remus? where's george?"
"he lost an ear," lupin and maddy said in unison.
"lost an-" hermione repeated in a high voice that made maddy stifle a giggle.
"snape's work."
"what?" maddy tensed up.
"snape? you didn't say-"
"he lost his hood during the chase. sectumsepra was always a specialty of snape's. i wish i could say i'd paid him back in kind, but it was all i could do to keep george on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood-and maddy, don't you go and try to find him. i get he's your godfather and he won't hurt you but the people who he chooses to work with won't hesitate."
the five fell into silence as they looked up.
nothing.
maddy was starting to get worried. where was everyone? was phoebe okay? was tonks okay? was ron? fred? arthur? the others?
"harry, give us a hand!" hagrid called out.
a smile appeared on her face when she noticed the giant stuck in the door.
"who did phoebe go with?"
"sirius-he managed to disguise himself before we headed over to harry's."
"where's george!" fred and arthur choked out, scaring the four.
"inside-getting checked out."
"what happened?" fred worriedly asked.
"he lost an ear, but don't worry. he'll be okay," lupin spoke, and the two red-headed men rushed inside.
after what seemed like years, the slightest breath of wind made them all jump.
"phoebe," maddy sighed when her and sirius landed, tonks and ron not too far behind.
the twins embraced each other, ignoring the conversation and just feeling relieved.
"did ronnie protect you?"
"madison iris taylor!"
"i bet he did," hermione smiled, wrapping her arms around her best friend. "i'm glad you're alright."
"ditto," phoebe muttered.
molly and arthur came racing down the steps, ginny behind them.
"thank you-for our sons," molly switched her glance between remus and tonks.
"don't be silly, molly."
"how's george?"
"what's wrong with him?"
"he's lost-"
maddy moved over to tonks as a threstal landed, revealing an uninjured bill and fleur.
"bill! thank god, thank god-"
"thank you," maddy leaned into sirius' side.
"i should be thanking your sister," the man chuckled.
"did a seventeen year old save your life?" tonks raised an eyebrow.
"no, actually, a sixteen year old did," he smiled, referring back to what maddy did at the department of mysteries a little bit over a year ago.
"and i'm glad she did," remus patted maddy's back then retracted it and wrapped it around sirius.
"mad-eye's dead," bill caught his breath.
nobody moved.
"we saw it. it happened just after we broke out of the circle. mad-eye and dung were close by us, they were heading north too. voldemort-he can fly-went straight for them. dung panicked, i heard him cry out, mad-eye tried to stop him, but he disapparated. voldemort's curse hit mad-eye full in the face, he fell backwards off his broom, and-there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail-"
"of course you couldn't have done anything."
they all stood in silence, processing what happened.
though nobody said it, they all realized there was no point of waiting outside and followed molly and arthur inside.
"i'm sorry," maddy hugged tonks, knowing how close she was with mad-eye.
"it's alright," she sniffled, "i'm happy you two are okay. i would probably lose it if i lost either of you."
the brunette twins nodded in agreement and after a moment, tonks bid her goodbyes and headed inside.
"do you ever think about how it'd be if we were muggles?" phoebe looked up.
"all the time-but i got to live that experience this month."
"how was your vacation?"
"amazing-just what i needed."
"good," phoebe smiled.
the two stayed in silence until remus and bill headed out.
"we're going to retrieve mad-eye's body, do what you do best."
"which is?"
"keeping sirius alive," remus sadly smiled as he kissed phoebe's forehead.
"keep an eye on them," bill gestured to the burrow, kissing maddy's forehead just like remus did with the other twin.
not that long later, harry crossed the dark yard, stopping by the gate, and sirius, ron and hermione had followed him out
sirius spotted the twins and nodded inside, and they quickly understood.
"you should go to a corn field," maddy told george when they spotted him.
"don't. finish. that. joke!" fred exclaimed, causing the others to laugh.
"of course we can always count on the twins to make us laugh," molly softly smiled.
"you did a great job on raising them-and we got lucky with phoebe," tonks took a deep breath.
"i know we did," arthur wrapped an arm around molly.
word count- 1823
date written- november 13, 2020
when phoebe and maddy's biological parents suck booty so remus, tonks, molly and arthur basically adopt them 🤝