Neither Here Nor There: Chapter Five

[author_by_night]

Sorry, guys. I know it's been forever. I'm back. As always, follow the yellow brick tags for previous chapters!

Title: Neither Here Nor There


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.


Author's Note: If you're curious, the Friend At Hand is an actual London pub. Although it's been two and a half years since I've been (London is a little far away), so forgive me if I've gotten any details wrong.

Hestia had a history with  the Friend At Hand.

She'd discovered it with her friends - Tonks, Bill, Charlie, and Adam, one of Charlie's Quidditch teammates. It had been a Hogsmeade weekend at Hogwarts, but they'd decided to venture elsewhere. Elsewhere had taken them outside a pub, so they'd figured they may as well go there. In the end, they realized not one of them actually had any muggle money on them. So Tonks had morphed into "Grandma Dora", faked a heart attack, and they left without paying a pence. But it had left a bad taste in their mouths, so they decided if they ever went back, they'd pay extra. They ended up returning often, always paying just a bit more and refusing to accept change. Sometimes they dashed before they got any.

Of course, "often" was relative anymore. The last time they'd been was when Bill had been released from the Hogwarts Hospital Wing. That had been a year and a half ago. But it was no matter; they were back now.  Except with a few different people.

"Hestia!" Charlie called, and Hestia hurried over with Kingsley. He had almost been invited accidentally. She'd picked up the habit of taking lunches at work with him, and one afternoon, they'd apparated to Shell Cottage. There they'd gotten talking with Charlie, and next thing they knew, Kingsley had also been invited. Hestia had considered asking him to come as a plus one anyhow, but it was complicated.


Hestia didn't really know where they stood with each other; it was true that they'd spent a lot of time together lately, and Hestia definitely had feelings for him. She loved how he spoke, his speeches impressed her (she'd read many ahead of time), and when Kingsley wasn't around, Hestia was thinking about him. There had also been that dream... but she wasn't sure how he felt. She wasn't even sure if he read into their constant lunches at all.



"Happy Birthday!" Hestia said, giving him a hug before sitting.

A few people were already there; Percy was sitting to Charlie's right, and beside him was George, who looked tired but still better than when Hestia had last seen him. On Charlie's other side sat Bill and Fleur. Fleur had a strange look on her face, as though she was fighting any facial expressions whatsoever.

"Are you okay, Fleur?" Hestia asked.

"Yes," Fleur said tensely. "I don't 'ave anything to tell you."

Hestia looked at Bill, who and shrugged.

"Well, anyway," Hestia said, "I've invited a friend I wanted you to meet. Hope that's okay."

Charlie laughed. "Why does everyone keep trying to find me a girlfriend?"

"Because all you do is hang around dragons," George said loudly. Everyone laughed this time.

"Sorry I'm late!"

Audrey was bustling in; Hestia pulled her a chair.

"Everyone, this is Audrey," Hestia told them, and made introductions around the table.

Hestia was not sure quite why, but she'd gotten it in her head that Audrey and Charlie might be a good match. Charlie had seemed a little lonely lately, and Audrey had admitted she'd never dated anyone. Audrey also appeared to collect dragon figurines, which Hestia knew Charlie would approve of. So Hestia had made it her mission to introduce them - she was sure they'd hit it off straight away.

"I... zink we've met, actually," Fleur said, peering at Audrey closely. "Were you zee Ravenclaw 'oo loaned me zat Narnia book to practice my English?"

"That would be me!" Audrey said excitedly.

"The Chronicles of Narnia?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, I love those books," Audrey told him.

"Aren't they for muggle children?"

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Not all of us find amusement in reading the history of various chairs each Minister of Magic has ever sat in."

"I'll have you know there's a lot more to it to chairs. You should try it."

"You should try C.S. Lewis."

"Perhaps I will. But only if you try A History of Ministry Furniture."

"Oh, you weren't kidding," Hestia blurted.

She quickly stood up. "I'll get the drinks! What does everyone want?"

When Hestia returned, she saw a few more people had joined them, including some of Charlie's former Quidditch teammates and a young couple who appeared to be talking amongst themselves in Romanian; they'd pushed over another table to squeeze in. Hestia waved politely.

"Fleur," Kingsley was saying, "how's your younger sister? Gabrielle, was it?"

"She's doing very well. I can't wait to see her at Christmas."

"Oh, your parents are coming here again?" Charlie asked.

"No, your parents, Bill and I are going to France," Fleur said. "We decided that this morning... you are invited, of course, all of you are."

"We know it might be hard to be... home right now," Bill said quietly. "You know, memories and everything. Besides, now we have something to celebrate."

Fleur turned to Bill very quickly and glared at him.

"Oops," Bill muttered, his neck growing red.

George raised his eyebrows. "Celebrate? What's going on?"

"Nothing," Fleur said firmly.

"But Bill said-"

"-we are celebrating zat my 'usband can keep a secret for one bleeding trimester," Fleur snapped. Hestia assumed she was trying to say "bloody."

"A... trimester?" Percy said slowly. "Are you pregnant, Fleur?"

"No!"

"You're pregnant!" Hestia exclaimed. "You're drinking water!"

"I was thirsty," Fleur insisted. But her lips were twitching, and after a minute, her face lit up against her best efforts. Bill had stopped trying to conceal his joy too.

"That's great!" Hestia said excitedly, standing up to hug her friends. "I'm so happy for you!"

Kingsley shook Bill's hand firmly. "You'll make a great father."

"Does it have the Minister's blessing, then?"

"Yes, yes it does."

"I assume you'll name it George," George said.  "If it's a boy, anyway. Georgina if it's a girl."

Bill winked at his younger brother. "We'll keep it in mind."

"I already 'ave a name for a boy," Fleur admitted. "If it's a boy, I would like to name it after Viktor Krum."

"Ron'll love that," Charlie said.

"And if it's a girl?" Hestia pried.

"Probably Apolline, after my mother. But I don't know, Maman never liked 'er name..."

"It may change once she's born," Audrey said fairly. "I was originally supposed to be Eugenia."

Everyone stared.

Audrey nodded. "Exactly. So they kept it as my middle name instead."

"I sort of like it," Percy told her.

When the baby talk settled, Hestia turned to Kingsley. "I finished your father's book, you know."

"Yeah?"

"He's a wonderful writer. Do you write, too?"

"I've tried. I'm better at penning speeches... had a lot of practice at the muggle ministry."

"I'm not sure I could write a speech," Hestia mused. "I'm the sort who quietly hints at displeasure, and, if that doesn't work, start yelling. I scared Vernon Dursley half to death a number of times."

"Of course you did."

Hestia stuck her tongue out at him, then remembered why she'd dragged Audrey along.

"Charlie," Hestia said, "did Audrey tell you she also likes dragons?"

"Oh really?" Charlie looked interested. "Have you ever seen one up front?"

Audrey shivered. "Just when they were at Hogwarts... that scared me. I don't like actual dragons, just... you know, paintings and things."

Damn it.

"They're not so bad, so long as you're careful," Charlie said.

Audrey didn't look convinced. "I guess... don't you work with them?"

"Yes, actually. I used to be in Romania, but I'm at the one in Wales right now."

"Oh. Neat."

"If you're at a safe distance, they are amazing to watch," Percy said. "And the unique history of muggles and dragons is enthralling. There's so many stories of them, and it's hard to know what was muggle, what was magical-"

"-and what were dinosaur bones muggles just thought were dragons?" Audrey interrupted.

"Yes! Sometimes you don't even know what legends and epics were originally muggle or wizard, either. Such as Beowulf and Wulfric."

Audrey nodded. "Precisely. I have a copy of each, you know."

Percy looked as though Audrey had come out of a cake.

Hestia turned to Charlie as Percy and Audrey continued to talk about scholarly theories of folklore. "I'm sorry... I think my matchmaking skills are off."

"Well, it was sweet of you to try," Charlie said. "But I'm happy. It's my birthday, and despite everything that happened, here I am, with my brothers and closest friends."

"As long as you really mean it," Hestia said.

"I do," Charlie promised, but Hestia couldn't help notice that he wasn't looking at her anymore.



Audrey and Percy were the first to  leave, and from the looks of it, their night was far from over; Hestia didn't think she'd seen Percy look so giddy before. Charlie's Romanian friends turned out shortly after, saying they had to be up early the next morning to go home. George left around the same time.  Then Charlie's old Quidditch friends left, at which point BIll, Fleur, Charlie, Hestia and Kingsley also made their way outside.

It was a cold December night; Hestia shivered and took Kingsley's hand, only aware of what she'd done after she had.

Kingsley squeezed it back; Hestia didn't know what that meant, except she was glad. She didn't know if her friends noticed, nor did she really care.

Charlie yawned. "Time to head back, then..."

"I'm going to stay for a minute, see you guys in a bit," Hestia told them.

She waited for her friends to leave, then turned to Kingsley. How had she not noticed her own feelings? That she'd basically had him come as her date? That she always felt warmer with him, safer with him, that she'd spent so much of her free time with him lately?

"Kingsley," Hestia began, but she was interrupted when a stag Patronus appeared out of thin air.

"Andromeda Tonks's house has been attacked by Dementors," Harry's voice said. "Please hurry."





"And that is why," Andromeda told Lyall as she watched her Knight  defeat his, "Slytherins always win a game of Chess."

"Well, that's not fair!"

Andromeda shrugged. "Sometimes it pays to be self-serving."

"You are many things, Andromeda," Lyall said fondly, "but self-serving is not one of them."

: I'm better at chess, at any rate," Andromeda contended. "Maybe you'll beat me someday."

Teddy started to fuss loudly, and Andromeda checked her watch. "Well, it's almost time for bed! I should go. Thank you for a lovely evening."

"You're very welcome. It's always a pleasure to have you over."

Andromeda paused, wondering if this was a good time to bring it up. Well, she supposed, it was as good as any.

"Listen," Andromeda said, "I don't know what you normally do for Christmas."

Lyall shrugged. "Not much of anything. When Hope died, Remus and I went on a vacation to search for Yetis. Christmas did not come up once. Before that... well, in the old days we'd go to my parents', but they always acted strangely towards Remus, so we stopped."

Andromeda winced. "Did they.. disown him?"

"In a way, it was even worse. He was almost a ghost to them; they'd treat him as though he'd d-" Lyall stopped. "They saw him as their personal tragedy, a walking could-have-been. I think in their way they loved him dearly, I know they did, but they they never quite accepted him for what he was. It was always about the lost opportunities, the future he would never have. He accepted the money they'd send, but only because it was how he could afford to eat a lot of the time. They only met one time before..." Lyall drifted off.

Andromeda picked up Teddy and held him close, even as he whined. She couldn't imagine, for one minute, feeling that way about her own Grandson. Lyall stroked Teddys' cheek, and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

"Anyway," Lyall continued, "I would sometimes have dinners, if - anyone were around. But this year..."

"Let's cut to the chase, and agree this Christmas is going to be hard," Andromeda said.  "I'm having a dinner, though."

"Okay?"

"I'm going to invite Harry, too, and his girlfriend, Ginny. It's not going to be easy, but I want things to be as... normal as possible. I'd like for you to come."

"Oh, Andy." Lyall heaved a sigh. "I don't think I can do that, not this year."

"I'm going through the same-"

"-but you want to handle things by pretending nothing's wrong. Your Dora was like that too. But it  isn't me. If I go, I'll spend the entire time thinking about who should be there, and it will be torture."

"Pretending? i'm not pretending anything! I just want to have some lamb and, yes,  not dwell on losing everything this year. It's getting steadily easier not to, and the more I just do what I normally do without looking back...  besides, it's his first Christmas, Lyall. Teddy needs a traditional first Christmas."

"With two grieving grandparents and his seventeen year old Godfather?"

"You're right," Andromeda said icily. "We should just lock ourselves up and have a good cry, because we didn't do enough of that before!"

"That's not what I meant. Look, if you'd like, we can all go away somewhere. I hear -"

"-Harry won't want to. He'll want to stay close to his friends."

"So he doesn't have to come!"

Andromeda shook her head. "You don't understand. Yes, he does. And you do, too."

"Excuse me?"

"You have to come," Andromeda said firmly. "And if you really don't want to be like your parents, you will."

Lyall stood up. "I think we'd best call it a night."

Andromeda walked outside, waved a half-hearted goodbye to Lyall, and disapparated. Once she got to her common Apparation point, she put Teddy in the pram she had magically concealed and walked the rest of the way home.

Andromeda and Lyall had never really argued until now; true, it had taken them some time to get used to one another, and accepting one another's roles had been a process, but what started as a mutual agreement and then shared pain was blossoming into something of a friendship. Andromeda loved Lyall - not in the sense that she fancied him, nor in the sense that she saw him as a brother. He was neither of those things. He was just... Lyall. The father of her son-in-law, the only father figure her Grandson would ever know, besides Harry.

And he won't even visit us on Christmas, Andromeda thought with a sniff.

Andromeda unlocked the door with a simple tap, and checked her table for owl post. There wasn't anything, not even from Narcissa, which was odd considering Draco had been attacked by a flying mop. No one was exactly sure what that had been. It was, from all accounts, funny until his nose had been broken and he'd been knocked out cold. It seemed to Andromeda that everything was funny until it wasn't. She'd always tried telling Sirius that.

Andromeda changed Teddy's clothes and rocked his cot until he fell asleep. She wasn't one for songs.  When Teddy's eyes closed, she went into her own room and laid on her bed, closing her eyes.

What felt like a minute later, Andromeda heard a strange noise. Her eyes flew open, and she realized she must have fallen asleep. Andromeda grabbed her wand and looked out the window.

Outside were dozens of Dementors about to enter her home.

Andromeda dashed down the steps, and held her wand out. She was immediately overcome with memories.

"Expecto Patronum! Andromeda screamed, trying to ignore the voices... the cries...

Her hand shaking, she pulled the mirror out of her pocket and called for Harry. He'd given her the mirror for emergencies, and she now realized he probably knew something like this would happen...

The mirror fell;  Andromeda had no idea whether or not he'd heard, if he was looking into it to see the mess. She just had to ignore everything and keep fighting them.

"Exp-"

"You've besmirched the family name..."

"Mother, please don't say that, please don't look at me that way, I love him, don't you see? Mum, don't listen to Aunt Walburga!  Mum... Mummy, please..."

"Expecto-"

"It's your fault Father died, Andromeda. He was ashamed of you. You killed him long before the duel did."

"Patronum! Expecto Patronum..."

"I'm here, Andromeda," Harry's voice said. "I've called on the others..."

Andromeda nodded, but she couldn't look away... she couldn't let them get to her...

"Sirius is dead, Mum. Bellatrix killed him."

"This is going to be hard to here, but... Dora was killed by Bellatrix."

"DAD! NO, NOT DAD!"

"Think of something happy," Andromeda told herself sharply.

But it was exceedingly difficult.


Kingsley wasted no time in running towards the Dementors. There were at least a hundred now... it was chilling for that reason alone. At  the same time as Hestia, he cried, "Expecto Patronum!"

A few others had shown up; Lyall Lupin was there, as were Ron Weasley, Daphne Greengrass and Susan Bones.

"Voldemort is back. Fudge is in denial."

"Kingsley, don't worry. Frank and I are going to be fine. Bellatrix is in hiding; why would she blow her cover now?"

"It seems the Longbottoms are beyond help... if they do recover, it will not be anytime soon."

Kingsley forced himself to remember the first time Alice had trained him to be an Auror. This helped.

"Sturgis Podmore has been sent to Azkaban for breaking into the Ministry."

"Hestia loves you," Kingsley reminded himself. "And you love her... you held hands tonight..."

From the front of the house, Kingsley could see Andromeda had fainted, along with a few others.  Hestia was still standing, but tears were streaming down her face.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Kingsley yelled.

He realized it was working; the Dementors were dwindling in number... but the ones who remained were still strong...

"Oh God, Kingsley, the Death Eaters - they tortured us, they held your father's wheelchair until he gave information, and he w-wouldn't..."

But his father had been fine...

"Expecto Patronum!" Kingsley repeated. This time, it was done.



Lyall levitated Andromeda to her room, and immediately sat down. He thought he might throw up, but somehow, he managed not to. Harry followed behind them.

It was hard to believe they had just been arguing; it didn't seem to really matter now. They had much to discuss, Lyall had realized there were important things Andromeda simply did not understand, but he couldn't be angry right now.

Andromeda opened her eyes, letting out a little moan.

"They're gone now," Lyall said softly.

Andromeda sat up, and Lyall handed her some chocolate. Andromeda smiled weakly.

"Is Teddy okay?"

"He's sound asleep again," Hestia responded, having poked her head in the door. "Everything's okay. Harry's going to guard the house for a bit, though, just in case."

"Thank you, Hestia."

"Are you-"

"I'm fine. Go take care of yourself, you're green."

Hestia nodded. "Take care, Andromeda."

Andromeda took Lyall's  hand, and after a minute, she said, "I'm glad you came, but I am still very cross with you."

"I'd expect nothing less. We can talk about it later. Do you want me to stay here tonight?"

Andromeda made a non-committal noise with her throat. "I would hate to trouble you."

"Very well. I'll sleep on the couch."

Lyall had a feeling this wasn't the last of their arguments. He just hoped next time, it wouldn't be resolved by something so horrible - and even then, perhaps only temporarily.



Hestia couldn't say that her first romantic dates with men typically involved Dementors.

But it was something to tell her children, at least. Their children, perhaps...

Hestia was sitting on Kingsley's couch, drinking hot cocoa. She could still hear the memories...

"It's like they're still here," Hestia said quietly.

"They take a while to leave, don't they?" Kingsley asked.

"Yeah..." Hestia shuddered, and she realized she couldn't hold it in any longer. "It's all  my fault, Kingsley."

"What?"

"I didn't save her that night." Hestia knew she was starting to cry again. "I wasn't fast enough to stop Bellatrix... I was so worried about where Megan was, I wasn't focusing enough. I didn't even argue with her when I realized she'd come, despite Remus's insistence that she stay behind. I should have made her leave."

"Did you even know the same Dora Tonks I knew?" Kingsley laughed wryly. "She wouldn't have listened. And from what I remember... Bill, Fleur and Charlie were with you, too. It's a miracle any of you survived. As for Megan, she's your little sister. Of course you were also trying to find her."

Hestia wiped her face. "I know. I know all of those things. But I just... I want my best friend back."

"Have you heard of the Longbottoms?" Kingsley asked.

"Of course, who hasn't? They practically started the Order... they were popular Aurors..."

Then it dawned on Hestia. "Did you - know them?"

"Alice trained me; she and Frank went well beyond mentors.  I still blame myself sometimes for 'letting' the Lestrange brothers and Bellatrix find them."

"Kingsley, you couldn't have-"

"-I know. But as you understand, it's hard sometimes not to wonder. And you know... Tonks was dear to me too. And Moody, Remus... a lot of people. The blame never goes away. You just have to know you did and loved your best."

Hestia leaned her head on Kingsley's shoulder, and he put his arm around her. They stared into the fire, watching the flames dance around the logs.