Once

[author_by_night]

I found an old fic I was working on for years this morning; I kept forgetting about it, getting it beta'd (including by the lovely lyras and kelleypen) , then letting it slip. It's actually half finished, and so I'm going to post it in parts (because it's looong, even for being 50% finished.) It may actually work in just one part...

My fic - Harry Potter, apparently the only fandom I write for -  is called "Once," and is about Alice, Frank, and the Black sisters. It takes place in the 50's and 60's and has cameos of other Order Members.

Title: Once

Fandom: Harry Potter

Author: author_by_night

Summary: Alice and Frank Longbottom's tragic fate touched many a witch and wizard, but few really know where their story began. Once explores their friendships, their traitors, and the horrible event that inspired them to join the Order.

Rating: PG-13

Characters: Alice Grayson Longbottom, Augusta Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Ted Tonks, Andromeda Black Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange

Cruciatus

December 1982

Andromeda Tonks had lost everything once.

Really, it wasn't just “once” - it was many times, over a span of several years. But it had felt like a year, a very long, cold, blurry year. In that long year, she had been disowned by her family, buried friends, watched her father and uncle's burials respectively using Alastor Moody's invisibility cloak, and watched Sirius be locked up in Azkaban when what he had clearly
needed was St. Mungo's.

Then her world had slowly but surely started to resemble something close to normalcy. Andromeda and Ted visited Greece with the Longbottoms, where Andromeda visited the rocks her divine namesake had supposedly been trapped on. “No longer,” she had declared, and the four companions and little Dora had taken off their shoes, letting the water onto their feet. The two couples also worked together on building a treehouse for Dora, which Neville was welcome to share once he was old enough.

When Alastor Moody showed up at her door that morning, saying he had bad news, Andromeda knew this normalcy, this time of joy and hope, was going to be rudely interrupted.

So now Andromeda sat by Alice and Frank, Ted next to her, holding her hand.

Frank hadn't woken up; Alice was in bed, humming to herself and trying to take off the cast on her arm.

“Alice, no,” Andromeda said softly, taking Alice's hand off her cast. “Look at me.”

Alice giggled, and Andromeda's heart sank.

The longer she stayed, the likelier the Healer's prognosis seemed: her friends were not just in shock. They had been tortured into madness.

But it could not be so. Bellatrix was a powerful witch, but Alice and Frank were stronger... were they not?

Once, Andromeda had lost everything. She did not want to lose what little she had left.

The Governess

September 1957

Augusta Longbottom was proud to be one of wizarding United Kingdom’s few Governesses.

She wasn't a traditional Governess, for her teachings were not limited to one child; rather, she operated more like a muggle school marm, or the way they had been when her grandmother (a muggleborn) had gone to muggle school.

Augusta had bid farewell to a number of her students in June; the only remaining of her original set were nine year old Edgar Bones, eight year old Amelia Bones, and her ten year old son, Frank.

Augusta was concerned for Frank; his closest friend, Gunther McKinnon, had been one of the students to go to Hogwarts. While Frank got on with Edgar and Amelia well enough, they had one another to play with. It was Gunther Frank saw the most over the summer; it was Gunther Frank always invited over when he wanted something to frolick in the snow with.

But Augusta was more concerned about her three new students.

She was less concerned about Alice Grayson; Augusta knew her parents – not well, but she had come across them at a number of social occasions, and they had been a few years ahead of her at Hogwarts. Her only concern was that Alice seemed like she might be a bit of a timid learner, something Augusta had limited patience for.

Augusta's greatest concern was that two of her new students were Bellatrix and Andromeda Black.

Druella Black had made it very clear that Augusta ought to feel honored that she had been selected to teach two of her children. They were her jewels, and although Druella knew Augusta was, as she had put it, “soft when it comes to muggles,” she also knew Augusta was intelligent. So under the condition that Augusta would not “spew simple-minded thinking”, Druella had surrendered her daughters. Augusta wondered whether or not it was also to get the Ministry of Magic off their backs.

Augusta was not scared of the girls, of course – she knew she could give them as good as they gave. The same went for their mother. What she dreaded was their bigotry showing – for instance, one of them using a terrible word, and having to explain to the parents of the other children that their little angel now knew the “M word.”

Still, Augusta also knew that anyone else could only do more harm those little girls, so even though she knew their family was not to be trusted, even though she knew Andromeda was only five (and thus a year under Augusta's normal age requirement), she had agreed to take them in. Sure, Augusta had agreed not to spew any garbage to them, but perhaps she could steer them away from the bigoted propaganda, little by little.

As soon as Augusta got her students settled, she walked down the steps, into the hallway.

Sally Grayson was waiting, her hands on the shoulders of a slightly plump girl with long black hair.

“You must be Alice,” Augusta said with a smile.

Alice nodded shyly.

“What do you say to Mrs. Longbottom, Alice?” Sally asked.

Alice took a deep breath. “Thank you for teaching me today, Mrs. Longbottom.”

“You are very welcome,” Augusta replied. “Sally, will you be collecting her at three?”

Sally nodded. “Yes.”

As she hugged Alice and walked out the door, Druella apparated with two small girls.

“You two be good,” Augusta heard Druella say, “or else.”

“Or else,” the two girls recited.

They walked up the steps, and Druella disapparated.

They looked at Augusta, and curtsied.

“I'm Bellatrix,” the taller child said. “This is my baby sister, Andromeda.”

Andromeda rolled her eyes. “I'm not a baby.”

“You act like one,” Bellatrix snapped.

“Enough,” Augusta said sharply.

Both girls grew quiet.

“We are going to go upstairs, where the other children are,” Augusta said. “You three will all introduce yourselves.”

“Two,” Andromeda corrected.

“No, look,” Bellatrix said, pointing at Alice. “Who is she?”

Alice looked at her shoes.

“She's a fellow student,” Augusta said. “Follow me.”

Augusta led her students into the room, stopping them at the blackboard.

“Hello, class,” Augusta said.

“Hello Mrs. Longbottom,” Amelia and Edgar chimed.

“Today we have three new students,” Augusta told them. “Girls, why don't you introduce yourselves?”

“Up here?” Alice whispered.

“No, in the ‘loo,” Bellatrix snapped.

Alice looked terrified.

“She's just being bossy,” Andromeda assured her.

“I'll go first,” Bellatrix said. “My name is Bellatrix Black. My Daddy works at the M-M...”

Bellatrix paused, and then continued. “The Meatery of Magic.”

“Don't you mean the Ministry?” Amelia asked.

“No, the Meatery!” Bellatrix insisted.

Augusta cleared her throat. “Thank you, Bellatrix. You may choose any seat.”

Bellatrix sat down, but not before scowling at Amelia.

“Okay – Andromeda, it's your turn,” Augusta said.

Andromeda smiled. “My name is Andromeda Black. I'm Bella's sister. I also have a little sister named Narcissa. She's the cutest baby in the whole wide world. My bedroom is almost the size of this classroom. And when I grow up, I want to be a bus driver!”

“A magic bus driver,” Bellatrix emphasized.

“Yeah,” Andromeda said. “And that's all!”

Andromeda sat down next to her sister, who whispered something to her.

“Alice?” Augusta asked.

Alice took a deep breath. “I... I'm Alice Grayson. I like ponies and dragons and I want a puppy but my Mummy won't let me have one, and when I'm really nervous I talk and talk and...”

Alice's face went pink.

“That's... nice, dear,” Augusta said with a sigh she could not hold back. “You may be seated.”

“Next to me!” Andromeda announced, waving her hand in the air and pulling a chair on the other side of her.

“See? It was easy,” Bellatrix told her.

Alice smiled slightly, and Augusta looked at the three girls.

They were an odd set, to be sure, but maybe if they stayed together and learned from each other, the school year would run smoothly after all.

The Sorting

September 1962

Alice was in awe.

The ceiling looked like the night sky, covered in stars; Alice barely heard the hat's song as she gazed at it, mesmerized.

“My God,” she whispered. “Bella, isn't it lovely?”

Bellatrix sighed impatiently. “Alice, please. It's not like Mrs. Longbottom didn't already show us a picture of it.”

Alice rolled her eyes.

She wasn't sure what else she had expected; after all, following Bellatrix Black was bound to result in being made into a minion. Indeed, Bellatrix had made Alice her servant the entire train ride. Alice paid for the snacks; Alice asked the driver ten times when they'd be there, and was the one who got called, the tenth time, a “silly little girl.” Not to mention the fact that Bellatrix had sneered at the muggleborn boy asking how to get onto the platform.

Still, Bellatrix could be nice, and she was the closest thing Alice had to a sister, especially now with Andromeda, who was a little prissy but still much nicer, still at home.

“I hear Slytherin's the best house,” Bellatrix was saying. “Aunt Walburga's friends with the Head of Slytherin.”

“Right,” Alice said absently.

“Your family was also in Slytherin, right?” Bellatrix asked.

“Well, Dad was in Ravenclaw,” Alice admitted.

Bellatrix shrugged. “Better than Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, if you ask me. Gryffindor's the worst.”

“Mrs. Longbottom and Frank are Gryffindors, and they're nice,” Alice said quietly.

Bellatrix gave her a look. “Mrs. Longbottom told me the dead vulture comes back to life to scare naughty little girls when I mocked Frank for getting into Gryffindor. And was daft enough to think I'd fall for it.”

Actually, you did, Alice thought to herself.

“Black, Bellatrix!”

Bellatrix winked at Alice, and sat on the stool as though it was a throne.

The hat took a moment, and then announced “SLYTHERIN!”

“No surprise there,” Alice heard someone next to her mutter. She saw that it was the boy Bellatrix had been mean to, and wondered how he knew about the Houses already.

“Grayson, Alice!”

On her way to the stool, Alice realized her palms were sweaty. She went to wipe them, and bumped right into the stool, falling onto the floor.

The entire Great Hall burst into laughter.

“I – I'm sorry,” Alice muttered as she sat on the stool.

A boy at the Gryffindor table gave her an understanding smile.

And she knew instantly where she belonged.