Prologue

[author_by_night]

So I'm going to post the prologue to a WIP that I've been working on, if having trouble getting started - I know where I'm going, it's getting there. So I think you guys are also my guinea pigs. I want complete and utter honesty.

Thanks to solochan for the input!

Title: Neither Here Nor There (working title)

Fandom: Harry Potter

Rating: PG-13

Summary: It's been six months since the war, and everyone's ready to try moving on. Lyall Lupin and Andromeda Tonks  are coming to terms with the death of their children, finding solace in one another - but will the case remain if Lyall learns about Andromeda's new alliance? Kingsley Shacklebot is trying to lead a country that has been left bitter by war, so distrustful many even doubt him. And Hestia Jones is trying to harbor all she holds dear, which is hard when there's secrets she's never had the heart to reveal. Meanwhile, people are still missing, and new threats are lurking, but nobody is sure exactly who is being threatened.

Ships: Hestia/Kingsley, the buildup of Percy/Audrey, presumed Harry/Ginny, Bill/Fleur, past Remus/Tonks, past Percy/Penny.



June 1995

Kingsley strode through the door hastily, not even saying hello to his Mum. He simply said, "Mum, get Dad. Now."

Lydia obliged, and five minutes later his father came in. Clancy was in his chair today; apparently it was not one of his better. Kingsley instantly regretted not Flooing first, even though he knew stress had nothing to do with his father's legs.

"Dad? How are you feeling?" Kingsley asked.

"I overexerted myself moving things yesterday," Clancy explained.

Kingsley shook his head. "You need to let us help you sometimes."

"If I take it easy now, I'll be better later. It's been this way long before you were born, son. Now tell me - is it true?"

Kingsley nodded. "He's back, but the Ministry is in denial."

Lydia covered her mouth; Clancy looked somber.

"Just like the muggle wars," he said softly. "I knew it would happen."

Lydia's hands were clenched on Clancy's shoulders. "What are you going to do, if Fudge doesn't believe it?"

"My duty," Kingsley replied. "Dumbledore's got people, and I'll fight with them like I did last time."

"Excuse me? Last time?" Lydia did not sound pleased. "You never said anything about fighting last time."

"Well, I joined two weeks before the war ended." This was not something Kingsley was proud of;  of course, who knew what would have happened had he joined earlier? He might not be here now. "So it's not like I really lied to you."

"The point is, he's fighting now," Clancy told Lydia. "That's what he's here to tell us."

"So wait - what do the other Aurors think?" Lydia asked. "Do they know the truth?"

"It's a mixed bag... Moody does, of course, and another work colleague's joining Dumbledore's fight, she's a recent addition. But everyone else seems pretty aligned with Fudge."

Clancy had a strange look on his face. "Are you saying you're fighting against your own Department?"

Kingsley wished his Dad hadn't said that. "That's one way of looking at it, I suppose."

 "Good."

Kingsley thought he'd misheard. "What?"

But Clancy had a proud look in his eyes. "I named you Kingsley for a reason, you know. Always reckoned you'd do great things. Besides, I never thought much of the Ministry, why do you think I've stayed tied to the muggle world?"

"Your father's right," Lydia said. "If anyone was meant to fight this, it was you. I don't like it, though, so do promise you'll be careful."

"I promise."



"Here you go," Tonks said as she put sandwiches on the table. She almost tripped, but fortunately her flatmate caught her arm just in time. Hestia knew this meant for all her friend was jovial and energetic, she was very nervous; when things were out of balance, Tonks was out of balance. The curse of being a Hufflepuff.

It had been a long time since Hestia's closest Hogwarts friends - Bill, Charlie, and Tonks - had been in the same room together all at once. It would have been far more joyous had the circumstances not been so horrible, nor so strange. Hestia had learned a lot from Tonks in the past two days, things she still couldn't quite wrap her mind around. She was supposed to like Sirius Black now, and he was old friends with her flatmate, Remus. Also, apparently some man named Peter Pettigrew was alive and dangerous. Hestia hadn't been able to process any of that, so she simply went along with it.

"You taught my sister Megan in school, didn't you?" Hestia asked Remus.

Remus smiled. "I did. She was very-"

"-oh God."

"-outspoken."

Hestia snorted. "Brat."

"And it was a pleasure to teach her."

"Wait, so you must be that Lupin," Charlie said. "You had my siblings."

"I did. Fred and George always kept the mood light; I almost felt guilty when I had to discipline them."

"They couldn't have been any worse than your lot," Tonks said with a snort.

She looked at Hestia. "Have you spoken to your parents yet?"

Hestia shook her head. "I've been avoiding it.... I don't want to know who they'll believe. They all but held Fudge on a silver platter when he first became Minister. But they know the Diggory family very well..."

"Percy's on Fudge's side," Bill said.

"Do we have to talk about that?" Charlie hissed.

"No, but they do need to know."

Hestia gritted her teeth. She'd never thought Percy would fall for this.

"Well, nevermind him," Tonks said in a sort of forced nonchalance. "We're here, right?"

"How do we do this, though?" Charlie asked. "I don't know the next thing about fighting. It's not something I ever planned on doing."

"Did any of us? Besides Tonks," Hestia added. "And Remus, I s'pose..."

"Not the first time," Remus told her. "And of course, it was supposed to be the only time."

"You lot don't have to do this, you know," Tonks said. "Bill, nothing's stopping you from going back to Egypt, like Charlie's going back to Romania. And Hestia, you could always go with one of them-"

"-forget it," Hestia interrupted. "We're in this together."

"And I'll still be here to fight time to time," Charlie pointed out. "Romania's just a base now."

"Besides, you'd be ready to kill us if we said we weren't fighting," Bill finished.

Tonks smiled wryly; Remus looked sad; Bill and Charlie looked resolute; Hestia felt ill.

What would this actually mean?

"Well," Sirius said, turning to Andromeda, "it appears I can still get in this lovely place."

They were standing in the very large hall of Grimmauld Place; Dumbledore had asked them to ensure that they could access it. Of course, it would be a while before it could serve as proper Headquarters - until then, Sirius was to go back and forth between Andromeda and Ted's and Dora and her flatmate's. As Andromeda understood it, Remus would be moving in with Sirius, just to keep him company. This gave Andromeda some comfort.

Some.

The place looked exactly as Andromeda had remembered; elf heads along a stair case, cob webs, the stench of moss and death. Of course not everything had been there before - it had once been lovely, minus the elf heads. But Andromeda figured the house just looked closer to what it had always been.

And it gave her the worst, coldest chills.

Sirius seemed to be affected even more; his eyes were unnervingly dark, and Andromeda knew he wanted to leave, but was almost afraid to.

"We don't have to do this," she told him. "Who cares what Dumbledore says? Stay with Ted and I-"

"-no," Ted interrupted. "Andromeda, what if they try finding us? Things have changed. Sirius can't just turn into a dog."

He didn't understand. No one did; no one understood the hell that went on here. Witnessing the beheading of House Elves, every single child but one "good one" (usually Regulus or Bellatrix) receive coal for Christmas, being screamed at for accidentally speaking out of turn... the abuse was never physical, at least not towards Andromeda and her sisters (Druella would never have permitted it), but there were many emotional wounds.

"Ted, this is where Aunt Walburga threatened to kill you," Andromeda told him. Sirius made a growling noise under his breath; he remembered, of course. He'd been present. They all had.

"What?"

"She didn't know your name, but she knew I was dating a muggleborn. Bellatrix almost told her, but I had blackmailed her. I just hope she remembers
that."

"She's in Azkaban now," Ted reminded her.

Sirius laughed. "So was I. And now I'm going to another prison, the one I escaped when I was sixteen."

"I know," Ted said, "but Dumbledore thinks it's for the best, and right now, he's the one keeping all of us safe. He's keeping Dora safe, Andromeda."

"By convincing her to join the Order? I certainly didn't condone it!"

"Actually, I encouraged her to," Sirius said. "Not that she needed it. She wants to fight, and we need her, Andromeda. Dora will be fine. Remus and I have her back."

While Andromeda loved her cousin very much, even if things had been strange between them since his escape, and while she had always considered Remus a very nice man, she remembered the first war, how they had been, how their friends had been. Reckless, ridiculously noble to the point where they would endanger themselves to prevent their loved ones from getting something as mild as a paper cut...  Sirius was no different now; why should his friend be? Dora was already very much like them - she didn't need encouragement.

"You may have her back," Andromeda replied, "but I fear you'll also be her downfall."

Ted gave her a hard nudge; a look of hurt crossed Sirius's face, and Andromeda knew she had burned yet another bridge.

"You really have to meet me for dinner when something bad has not just happened," Lyall told Remus.

They were sitting at the dining table, which Lyall very rarely used - he occasionally hosted his parents, but their visits were even more infrequent than Remus's. They had not handled their grandson's lycanthropy well, viewing it as a tragedy, Remus as almost damaged goods. When Remus began to realize he was treated much differently than his cousins, Lyall had decided to limit contact. His son came first, always had. Even now.

"I came for Christmas Dinner."

"Yes, you did," Lyall said. "But that was six months ago."

Remus looked abashed, and Lyall was glad. "I know. I've been busy. Dad, I need to tell you something."

Lyall sighed. "He's back, isn't he?"

"Yeah."

"Blasted Ministry, I knew they'd deny it." Lyall had many grievances with them, so this denial did not surprise him in the least. "I suppose Dumbledore's
fighting them, at least?"

"Yeah, he's... well, there's something else I never told you the first time."

"That you were in a resistance group?"

"How did you-"

"I'm not stupid, Remus," Lyall said. More specifically, he'd figured out when people he knew Remus had known - and Remus's dearest friends, eventually - had died that they must have been part of something. He'd even told himself that was the reason for Remus's absence, and still chose to believe it, even if Remus had maintained a stiff distance since then. But even that was understandable; how many dear ones could a man bury before he didn't want to be close to anyone again?

Of course, Lyall also knew the distance was partly his fault. Remus had taken a humorous approach to being a werewolf; Lyall had never managed it, always wanting to treat the subject seriously - if it needed to be brought up at all. In that way, he wasn't much better than his parents, except the shame was of himself, not of his own child. Did Remus know that?

Remus smiled thinly. "Well, we're starting again. I know," he said as Lyall opened his mouth, "it's risky. But don't tell me not to rejoin them. I must."

Lyall had dreaded this. "It's not safe, especially now that you're fighting both the Ministry and Death Eaters. What will they do?"

Remus shrugged. "We were really fighting both the first time. You know that. Besides, they've never liked me much anyway. Occupational hazard of-"

"-I know," Lyall said briskly. "But that's precisely why you shouldn't do this."

Remus looked Lyall in the eye. "So I should just turn my back on Dumbledore? Sirius? James and Lily? Mum? Is that honestly what you're suggesting? Because if it is, I have other places to be."

Lyall knew Remus was right; once again, his desire to shield his son had gotten the better of him. Of course Remus had to join... whatever this group was.

"You'd make your mother proud," Lyall said quietly.

"Thank you. Now would you please pass the butter?"

Avoidance. Lyall supposed he'd be a hypocrite to object, so he handed his son butter, and they spoke of other things that mattered very little in comparison to their new reality.

Comments

[germankitty]

Ooh, color me intrigued! This sounds very promising, and I'm looking forward to more!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

This looks very promising :D

[solochan.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's up. :D Sorry I've been missing in action. :D Excited to see it up and about. Loved reading it again :) Looking forward to the rest!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm getting there.

And it's okay to be MIA - that was me last month when a huge work project basically took over my life. (Of course, had I actually jumped to the project in the first place, that wouldn't have happened - I need to remember these things.) Unfortunately that's when I had the bulk of my inspiration, so I'm still trying to get it back!

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

So I am terrible and late, but I wanted to say that this really piques my interest and sounds like a great premise!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Thanks! So far it's been fun to write. I have another chapter on LJ and I'm working on a second.

[mollywheezy.livejournal.com]

I am loving this! I love the relationship you have created between Remus and Lyall, and the friendship between Tonks, Charlie, Bill, and Hestia. The Grimmauld place section was very sad and very believable. Kingsley got everything off to a good start. Great beginning! :)

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kelleypen.livejournal.com]

Excellent beginning. A couple minute errors--like a missing apostrophe, but nothing to worry about. I enjoyed this very much and look forward to reading the rest.