Once, Part I, Sections 4-7

[author_by_night]

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

Sections 1-3

What is Easy, What is Right

November 1963

A year later, Bellatrix still could not believe that Alice was a Gryffindor. And that was not the worst of it.

Bellatrix had always known Alice was a little soft. Mr. and Mrs. Grayson had always disapproved of Druella's use of the term “Mudblood”, and Alice had been upset when Bellatrix had sneered at that muggle boy.

But youth and the need for friendship had blinded Bellatrix to the truth: they were two very different people.

Alice was nice to the muggleborns – too nice. She asked them how cars worked, how planes flew. She even admitted to Bellatrix that over the summer, she'd visited a muggleborn friend and listened to a muggle band named “The Mosquitos” or something like that.

Bellatrix didn't like it. Being a Gryffindor wasn't great, but it was acceptable apart from the rivalry.

For one reason or another, the talking to Muggleborns was what really bothered Bellatrix. It bothered her even more than it bothered her own mother. Bellatrix didn't think muggles belonged, and technically muggleborns were really muggles, right? They were freaks imitating the powers Bellatrix had inherited.

“I wouldn't put it that way,” Andromeda said as they walked down the hall, after Bellatrix voiced this opinion for the hundredth time. “You make it out like they're...”

“Like they're what?” Bellatrix asked.

“I don't know,” Andromeda said, “like they're evil or something. I mean, I guess they’re a bit strange, taking pictures that
don't move, but...”

“Who's taking pictures that don't move?” Alice asked, coming up from behind them.

“Your muggle friends,” Bellatrix said, looking at Alice in the eye.

“Bellatrix, if this is another 'you're-conspiring-with-muggleborns' talk, I'm not in the mood,” Alice said. “Didn't Mrs. Longbottom teach you anything?”

“Yeah, she always said they were okay,” Andromeda pointed out.

Bellatrix smiled, and raised her voice as though she were speaking to a five year old child. “And Alice, dear, if your friends like you so much, why do they always seem to talk to one another more? That's not very nice!”

Alice looked uncomfortable for a moment. “They're... closer with each other, I guess.”

“And can't even be bothered to include you?” Bellatrix asked. “Andy-”

“Don't call me Andy, Bella,” Andromeda interrupted.

“-and I never leave you out,” Bellatrix finished.

“It's not leaving me out, they're just – Tracy and Darla are best friends, the way the three of us are best friends,” Alice explained. “It's that simple.”

“Darla Cookworth,” Bellatrix said. “That's her last name, right? Andromeda, wasn't that the last name of a notorious witch hunter? I wonder if he's her Great-Great Grandpop?”

“Don't!” Andromeda gasped.

“Hey Darla,” Bellatrix called as Darla coincidentally passed. “Do you like fire?”

Darla raised her eyebrows. “I...”

“What do you think of burning us in it?” Bellatrix taunted.

“That's enough,” Alice said firmly.

Darla just laughed. “Us as in you? Because you know, Bellatrix, I've always wished you'd go to hell.”

“Darla, don't bother,” Alice told her friend.

“I don't mean that kind of fire,” Bellatrix said. “I mean witch hunts. I hear your ancestors liked burning us? I bet they'd burn you too, if they knew you were here...”

“ENOUGH!”

Bellatrix almost jumped as she looked at Alice.

Never in her life had she heard Alice – sweet, innocent Alice – yell that loudly. Never in her life had she seen Alice look so angry.

“You leave Darla alone,” Alice hissed. “She can't help who her family may or may not be any more than you. And I'm willing to bet someone in your most ancient and noble family was a muggleborn.”

“Oh, Alice, you really did let Mrs. Longbottom brainwash you,” Bellatrix said snidely. “Fortunately for you, it wasn’t your dunglicker parents – that’s what Mum was afraid would happen.”

“Shut. Up.” Alice's face was red, and her fists were clenched.

Bellatrix realized she knew what argument to use.

“You’re a Gryffindor. Isn't Gryffindor all about doing the dignified thing?”

For a minute, Alice didn't say anything. Finally, she smiled.

“You're right, Bellatrix,” Alice said. “It is about doing the dignified thing.”

Bellatrix sighed in relief.

“And there's nothing less dignified,” Alice continued, “than using a word like dunglickers.”

Alice locked Darla's arm into hers, and they stormed away.

“Well,” Bellatrix said as she watched them, “that's her loss... hey, where’re you going?”

Andromeda had begun following them, slowly but surely.

“Andy, wait,” Bellatrix said, hurrying after her sister and finally grabbing her arm, so Andromeda was forced to look at her. “Where are you going?”

“You know, I don't really get muggles, or Alice’s fascination with them,” Andromeda said. “But right now, I have a lot more respect for her than I will ever have for you.”

Alice had stopped, letting Darla continue on without her; Andromeda caught up with Alice, and they locked arms just as Alice and Darla had moments before.

Bellatrix smiled wryly, and made her way in the opposite direction, ignoring the sickening feeling in her stomach.

Innocence Lost

July 1965

Part I

Alice was in a muggle town. An authentic muggle town, where nobody knew she was a witch, save Ted Tonks and his family.

She was enjoying every minute of it. Mrs. Tonks had driven her and Ted into the shopping center in a car; a car that had an
engine that moved under Alice’s feet. It wasn’t much different than flying very fast, really, except for the fact that they were much closer to the ground. Her feet had the same sensation of being pulled downward, but not too far. She was secure, intact.

Ted Tonks was Alice’s new best friend, along with Andromeda. They had met in the Slug Club, and never stopped talking. Ted was in Hufflepuff, but they still ate together and always met up on the school grounds when it was warm enough.

Andromeda hadn’t warmed up to Ted initially; Ted was uncomfortable around Andromeda at first, knowing what her family was known for. Andromeda wasn’t keen on Ted’s tendency to be overenthusiastic. But they were beginning to talk a lot more, and Ted had invited her to spend the summer with him as well. True, Alice knew it was probably because Mrs. Tonks wouldn’t have wanted only one girl visiting her son, but it was still an invitation. Alice’s parents had claimed that they were taking Andromeda with them to France.

“Look at this shop,” Alice said as they passed a store that appeared to be filled with muggle dresses. “Let’s go in.”

She quickly eyed Ted. “Kidding.”

Ted laughed. “If you two want to have a go, I’ll be at the sports store.”

“I’d rather go there,” Andromeda piped up. “Narcissa has me sick of nice clothing, even if this is different.”

The friends continued walking, Alice still in awe. Glass doors - what a brilliant idea!




 They had just begun to head into the sports shop when it burst into flames. Alice screamed in horror as she realized the entire row of shops was turning into an inferno.

“We have to do something! Andromeda, you have our wands in your bags, right?”

“Are you crazy?” Andromeda hissed. “We’re in plain view of muggles!”

Children were crying; men and women were either holding their children or scrambling, apparently looking for something to fight the fire with.

“Muggles be damned! Andromeda, where’s our-”

But the crowd was pushing Alice away from Andromeda, and Andromeda away from her. Ted, also, was nowhere in sight.

Part II.

An anonymous informant had sent a cryptic letter to the Auror office:

Death and destruction will come to Havenburgh.

From the looks of it, they had not gotten the letter in time.

Frank swallowed as he saw a little boy running out of a burning shop with his pale, stricken mother.

“Go,” he told them, pointing towards the exit. “Run.”

“Is this an air raid?” The woman asked frantically.

“Not exactly,” Frank told her honestly, “but you need to get your son out of here immediately.”

The woman ran, and Frank watched as people ran all directions screaming, coughing from the smoke, crying.

When Frank had decided to train as an Auror, he had known he would have to face terrible things. He had not expected them to be on his first day of training.

Alastor Moody, Emmaline Vance, and Amelia Bones had run to stop the flames. It was Frank and a few other trainees’ jobs to evacuate.


“ALICE! TED!”

Frank turned.

A young girl was pushing through the crowd.

His eyes widened when he realized who it was.

“Andromeda Black?” Frank asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

Andromeda turned so quickly Frank had to stop himself from jumping.

“Frank Longbottom?”

Frank nodded. “Where are your parents?”

He then got a chill down his back. Were they behind this? He knew Andromeda’s family wasn’t exactly friendly towards Muggles. His mother hadn’t been allowed to teach Narcissa Black for years because she was apparently being too “subversive” towards them. In fact, a lot of parents were pulling their children from her class, and some of the children who remained were quite nasty.

“They – they don’t know I’m here,” Andromeda said. “But my friends – have you seen my friends? Their names are Alice and Ted… this is magical, isn’t it?”

“You need to get to safety,” Frank told her, avoiding her question. He didn’t want to scare her.

Andromeda shook her head. “No! You don’t understand – if it’s magical, they’re targeting muggles! Ted’s a muggleborn! They’ll kill him!”

Firemen were now rushing into the fray, and Frank hoped the Aurors acted quickly.

“Andromeda,” Frank began, “your friend will be okay. We’re doing everything we can. Right now, you need-”

“Andromeda!”

“Where’s Ted? He’s not with you?” Alice asked, rushing up to them.

Just then, the flames were reduced to nothing.

As was much of the shopping center.

What had probably once been beautiful stores were now black, with the exception of a few that still stood. Smoke came from all ends. Entire buildings had collapsed.

In what had to have been five minutes, an entire world had been destroyed.

When Frank had taken up a career as an Auror, he knew he’d face bad things, but now he realized that there was a certain element of grandeur to his choice. The fact that his mother would be proud of him if he were an Auror. The idea of saving people’s lives, muggles and wizards alike.

There was nothing grand about this at all.

Little Green

August 1965

Part I

The events at Havenburgh had shocked everyone.

Aodh Turpin had confessed to the crime, but refused to say why, apart from stating that “they had it coming.” He would not
name who he was working with, and had been killed in the struggle.

Druella Black couldn’t say she thought they deserved it. Her husband thought that, it was true; so did her in-laws. But although Druella wanted muggles to stay far away, she didn’t know that attempting murder upon them was necessarily right.

Bellatrix had almost seemed… well, as much as Druella hated to think it, sympathetic.

“I’m just saying,” Bellatrix stated over dinner that night, “he might have had his reasons.”

Walburga nodded approvingly. “Druella, your daughter exhibits wisdom far beyond her years.”

Andromeda was digging her fork very hard into her meat.

“Don’t play with your food, dear,” Druella cautioned her. “Bellatrix, please don’t speak so strongly in front of your sisters and cousins.”

“Didn’t a muggle boy my age almost die?” Sirius asked.

“It could have been most tragic, yes,” Bellatrix admitted. “But then again, he did run back for his bunny.”

Sirius’s eyes widened. “A bunny almost died too?”

“Stuffed bunny, stupid,” Bellatrix said.

“Bellatrix, stop it,” Cygnus said sharply.

“Mudbloods.”

Andromeda had said this with a sort of wry laugh.

“Mudbloods,” she repeated, looking at her sister. “That’s all they are to you, isn’t it?”

“I never said anything about wanting children to die,” Bellatrix replied stiffly.

“Let’s talk about something else,” Cygnus said, and Druella sighed as her husband started droning on about the raised costs of foreign potions.

She looked back at her daughters.

Bellatrix and Andromeda were not eating; they were both leaned back in their seats, their arms folded, glaring at one another.

Druella poured more wine, hoping it would dissolve the horrible feeling weaker people called fear.

Part II

Ever since that horrible day in Havensburgh, Alice had been different.

The innocent girl Sally Grayson had raised seemed to be missing; she was replaced with a girl who was persistent, who asked questions no mother was prepared to answer.

“Mum,” Alice asked one day, “did you know that things like this happened in Germany?”

“Do you mean Grindlewald?"

“No, I mean, to muggles. In the thirties and forties, the German government killed all those people because they were Jewish… they started by destroying their buildings and calling them horrible names, years before the worst happened. Supporters of Grindlewald did similar things. And now Aodh Turpin…”

“Alice, where did you hear that?” Sally demanded.

“I went to the muggle library when you were at work,” Alice replied.

“You’re too young for such horrors,” Sally said firmly. “Alice, from now on, if you have questions, ask me.”

For a moment, the face of the innocent girl returned as Alice looked at the ground.

Sally put her arm around her. “It’s true that hate has led to wars, it is true. But people do horrible things all the time.
Because there were so many deaths, this was harder to ignore. People like your father work to protect muggles all the time, because it's necessary. It doesn’t always make the Daily Prophet, but believe me, it’s there.”

“It should make the Daily Prophet, though,” Alice said, and she began to cry.

Sally hugged her daughter tightly, stroking her hair. “It’s okay… it’s okay…”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Alice said in between hiccups. “All those people were so scared, and I just stood there… Ted was there, he could have been killed and I couldn’t have done a thing about it!”

Sally kept rocking her, unsure of what else she could possibly do to make the monsters go away.

Part III

Augusta had almost lost her son twice now, and he wasn’t even an official Auror.

First in the fire. Augusta was no fool – she knew Frank could have been consumed by the flames. He wasn’t the one magically extinguishing that shopping center – he was the one evacuating everyone to safety like the brave idiot he was.

And then there was the fight with Aodh Turpin. Aodh, Alastor Moody had said, had been about to cast that spell. One curse,
and Augusta would have lost her only child.

It was an unsettling thought.

Augusta was proud of him, of course. And she had always known he would be risking his life. The trouble was, she had not
really processed the fact.

Augusta had always had a problem with being in touch with her emotions. It was part of why she had become a Governness; she thought it would help her learn to feel. It hadn’t, really, beyond the normal concerns.

When Frank had told her his career choice, she had merely thought of how noble it was. How he would be a vital part of society. Sure, it was risky, but it was a risk worth taking.

The mother bear had tried to claw her way in, it was true, but Augusta had shut the door tighter and focused on the pride she had in her son. She didn’t want to think of the bad possibilities.

Her son was invincible anyway, clearly. He had almost been murdered, yet he’d survived. If he’d survived fire and a criminal with a hateful agenda, he could get through anything.

The mother bear growled as Augusta slept, but the vulture soared high and away.

Part IV

Vanessa Tonks wished Ted would talk to her about what had happened.

He came back shaken; they all did. Ted had withdrawn to his room, and his friends withdrew to theirs. They left the next day without saying much.

Vanessa knew it was more than a fire; she’d seen her son open the news clipping that said a wizard had been arrested.

It hadn’t surprised her; it was only natural for there to be horrible wizards, as there were also horrible – well, muggles, she supposed wizards called people like her. Everybody had the potential to do terrible things.

She was a little scared at the implication that it had been done because they weren’t witches and wizards.

But she stared at the letter the owl had brought into the house, the letter without an envelope, a letter that was, perhaps, never meant to be sent.

Her son had friends who loved and protected him.

It didn’t make her worries or disturbing thoughts go away, but it did make her feel a little more assured.

Interlude: Letters

July-August 1965

Dear Frank Longbottom,

This is Alice Grayson. I’m writing to thank you for your help. You know what I mean.

Frank, bad things happened, and I’m scared. Not because it scared me, but because I couldn’t do anything. One of my best friends is a muggleborn, and that man did what he did because he hates muggles. Probably muggleborns too. Even though he’s safe, Ted still has to live with what happened to his town, and who knows what else people like that will do?

Tell me… what does one have to do to become an Auror?

Alice

Dear Alice,

You’re very bright, don’t get me wrong, but you’re still young. You don’t know it’s what you want yet.

I know what happened upset you, but being an Auror is a major decision. There’s other ways to deal with what happened.
If you want, I can meet with you and we can discuss it. Aurors are allowed to and often do meet with victims and witnesses. What you saw was horrifying, and please believe me when I say that I was as disturbed as you were.

Please do not jump to conclusions, though. You can’t know what you want to do with your life because of one bad experience.

Sincerely,

Frank

Frank,

I'm not some little girl telling you what I want to do. I'll be of age in a few years. This is about what I need to do.

Alice

Ted,

I just wanted to know how you are. I’m so sorry that someone from a family like mine did that. When we couldn’t find you I feared the worst and I don’t know what I would have done if

Andromeda stopped writing, turned the letter over, and hopped into bed. Her owl, Pan, picked the letter up and went on his way. He knew what to do when his owner was too reserved and guarded to do it herself.

Andromeda,

I’m fine. A little shaken and definitely worse for wear, but it helps to know that I have a friend who cares.

Ted

Andy

I wish I were mor like you.

Sirius

Comments

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I really like this piece :D

[solochan.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I squeaked whilst reading this, I'm loving the way you're writing Alice and Frank, even though obviously, it's not that way yet - it's great.

And how Andromeda's feelings for Ted is growing and how the war is starting to cause problems. It's fantastic to see this prequel.

I also love Augusta and Vanessa's POV and then letters at the end, they really, really did me in, because obviously, Frank's future, and though I don't know what you're going to do to Ted's parents I'm starting to worry.

And Sirius's letter killed me. Just saying.