The Return

Disclaimer: It's JK Rowlings... I'm jealous, but its all hers. I am just glad we get to play in the wonderland she created!





Halloween 2009




October 2009

And so it went, for the next year, they rescued the children from around the world, secured more facilities and volunteers for the care of the children. Spoke to assemblies, wrote books, kept strict notes, and continued to put off their weddings.



Other than the brief assistance with the first Orphanage, Remus, Sirius and Rowan left them alone; only joining them when summoned for emergencies, and then leaving quickly after. None of the three explained their actions. Neville was the only one who Remus consistently saw and that was during research.



The following January, Harry expected an additional 200 or more to join at the winter-term. Under the pretence of visiting Dumbledore, one of them was also visiting Hogwarts on a regular basis to check on Sarah’s progress.


It seemed that she was doing well. Sarah was now into her 5th year at Hogwarts, along with fifty eight other students from the Riddle House. As predicted, she had been sorted into Gryffindor. They found her housemates to be as loyal to her as they had been to one another.



The first evening after she was sorted into 4th year, Sarah had told her housemates, under Professor McGonagall’s watchful eye that she had a son who was almost two, and that he would visit on occasion with her guardians the Malfoys or one of the founders. The house acknowledged this secret and its importance. No one spoke ill of Sarah and when the news finally seeped out, no one allowed Sarah to face people from the other houses alone.



Surprisingly, the Slytherins also stood up for Sarah. Carrying the name Malfoy seemed to give some sense of loyalty to the new Gryffindor that had not been seen before.



~@~@~@~



The October 1st, 2009, meeting between the ‘founders’ as they were now being called was interrupted by the arrival of Remus, Sirius and Rowan. Draco and Madison had even returned from their first full year of Medical Training in New York.



Remus, Sirius and Rowan had been summoned by Harry for the meeting. The trio both entered the room and poured themselves coffee. They listened as plans were made for the group’s activities. The meeting was complete and still neither of the older people spoke.



“Hermione has once again, made a small ring with a protean charm for the upper management of the House, Hospital, ER Staff, and Law Enforcement Division. It is similar to the rings we now wear. However, it is invisible to the eye. If you look on your plate, you will find yours. Please put it on. If you are needed, for disaster or large scale rescue, your ring will heat up." He paused to show the spectators what he meant.



"When you tap it twice with your wand, you will leave your place and appear where we need you. Should, at some point in the future, you need or want to leave the service; your ring will be removed by one of us. Leave it to Hermione and Draco to find those charms.” He smiled. Everyone looked at their plates and found their rings; each put them on willingly.



At the conclusion of the meeting, Remus, Sirius and Rowan rose to leave, the three having placed rings on their fingers. The eight watched them, as they did every meeting, waiting for one of them to make some suggestion or casual statement. Sirius stepped away from the table, grasping Rowan’s hand, as she grasped Remus', all three looking sad, but resigned.



Harry turned to Sirius then to Rowan. “I think we…I… owe you an apology,” his voice was low but steady, “it’s almost been a year and you’re still here when we call you for help, but otherwise… well, you aren’t around.” The older couple stopped in mid-step, but neither said anything.



“Forgive me mom. I had… no idea what had happened. Remus, dad, tried to make me see, but I was so angry with you, that… I refused to understand, I miss you mom. I’ve never been so far away from you and it’s killing me inside. Will you ever forgive us?”



Ginny spoke, her voice weaker than she could ever remember hearing before. “Sirius, even though I understand what happened… well, the fact is that we were acting like spoiled brats. It didn’t really take long to figure it out, but you left so fast, that we didn’t have time to tell you. Then with the kids coming in… well… the time never seemed right. We kept hoping you would stay long at one of the meetings, but you were usually the first ones out. Anyway, I’m sorry.”



Sirius looked to his wife seeing in her eyes that those were the words she longed to hear every time she saw her kids. Their eyes met for a long moment when he noticed that she was not crying. He thought fleetingly about it, before looking back to the crowd. “All is forgiven. It was long before you asked. But it is nice to know that the greatest sorcerers and sorceresses in the world can admit it when they are wrong.”



Rowan could not find words at that moment, instead, let go of Remus' and Sirius’ hands to move into the embrace of her son and daughter. They talked long into the afternoon about the trips their parents had been on in the past year. They had spent last Christmas and Thanksgiving in Texas. But more than anything, they wanted to be with their children.



She had missed them more than she would admit to anyone, but with her lovers by by her side, she would be okay, not great but okay. Sirius wanted to get to know them better.



By the end of the emotional meeting, Remus, Sirius and Rowan were asked to take a more ‘hands on’ role of the Riddle house, while Harry and Ginny, Hermione and Ron left that afternoon to begin to bring home those children in danger. The three older parents, Remus, Sirius and Rowan would be ready to assist, but every one had long since learned to bring them in as a last resort to assist with the adults.



~@~@~@~



There were no other large groups of children. When the list was reviewed, it showed the largest amount of children concentrated in one location to be four. Draco and Madison returned to New York for school. Sirius requested a meeting with Inspector Maples, during which it was decided that if there were muggles in charge of them, they would decide whether to take the children or contact local authorities, depending on how bad it was.



Once the teams decided which the situation was, they would send a request for help through their rings to the teams remaining at the Riddle House. Sirius also informed the Inspector that Rowan was a very married woman and he should refrain from the continued flirtations with her, as it was making Sirius a very insane man.



Mason and Katie, at 21, were supervising the home in general. Making sure there was enough food and medical supplies, diapers, clothes, blankets, etc. Since the previous January had taken Draco and Madison away from the group as well, as they had left England for their first year of Advance Medical Training in New York. They would be the ones that retrieved the children and brought them back here. Any possessions of the children that were in storage for them would be transferred magically to Gringott’s special vaults for their future.



~@~@~@~



The original rescue trip was changed immediately for Harry and Ginny, found them in a remote village in southern England. They had planned to go to Scotland, but at the last moment, they looked to the list, another name appeared at the top, deciding that this meant someone was in worse danger, they apparated next to a tree some distance from the home of the child that was listed. An individual young witch, who was supposed to be eight, was living there with her aunt and uncle.



They watched silently for a few minutes, listening for sounds of abuse or in some way anger from the adult or cousin. They both ate their lunch and continued to wait into the afternoon. There were few sounds from the house.



Finally at 4:00 PM, two girls walked up the long dusty driveway to the home. One of them must be the girl they sought, although they did not know which. Harry and Ginny fell back into the shadows. The girls laughed and skipped toward the house. Talking about their day at school and what they would fix for dinner. They both seemed extremely happy.



Ginny watched them as they entered the door of the small thatch roof house. She turned to look at Harry when the first scream happened.



Running to the window, to peek in, they saw it: blood all over the kitchen. What was left of a body lay on the floor. The adults ran to the front of the house, kicked in the door and entered. They ran to the second room of the house to find the girls, still screaming backed up against the wall.



Something was growling. Harry changed into his animagus form of a great lion. Growling, he stood between whatever was growling and the two girls. Ginny circled to the other side of the table to see what was growling. The shock on her face could not have been knocked off with a sledge hammer. There, on the floor was a huge animal literally eating the woman.



At first, Ginny could not even tell what the animal was, but then realized it was a great three headed dog. Thoughts momentarily flashed of Fluffy and Hagrid, but quickly subsided.



The woman was dead. The girls were protected by Harry. Ginny raised her hand and said clearly “STUPEFY”. The dog fell onto the remains of the woman. Ginny tapped her ring to summon help.



Harry returned to his human form, picked up the still screaming, wide-eyed girls and took them into the sunshine. The girls finally stopped screaming and became stone silent, unblinking as Dobby, Mason, Draco, Madison, Inspector Maples, Rowan and Sirius arrived. A few moments later, Ron and Hermione came as well. Harry, both girls still in his arms, holding on to him tightly, when he tried to set them down, neither would let go.



When he looked to the others, Harry moved his head to the small house; Ginny was coming out the front door, as she stepped to into the sunshine, she wretched. Draco and Ron immediately went to help her. Mason, Madison, Hermione and Inspector Maples entered the house slowly.



In the years of service to the wizarding law enforcement, Maples had never seen the carnage that lay before him. Blood covered the kitchen, splotches and stroked on every surface. The dog was breathing as it lay stunned over the half-eaten corpse. He understood why Ginny had wretched.



He ordered them all to leave the house and regroup outside. When the younger ones left, they heard three resounding bullets being fired. They waited until the inspector came out of the house. “The dog is dead. Whatever else it was, it is now not going to hurt anyone else.” He walked around the house to the rear door and promptly lost his lunch and breakfast.



Sirius attempted to peel the girls from Harry. He looked like his adrenaline rush was over and he would fall. They girls held firmly to the man however, and without stunning them, he was not sure how he would be able to get them off of him. He stopped his efforts as Ron and Draco returned with Ginny. Inspector Maples returned from the rear of the house.



Harry looked to Ron and said “Help me,” through gritted teeth. The girls were shaking, but no words left their mouths. Ron, summoning every bit of older brother love he could, took the one on the right from Harry’s grasp.



He simply pulled on the girls until they released their hold on Harry. Draco watched as Ron turned her quickly so she could hold on to the red-head as she had held on to Harry. The maneuver was so quick that the girl only knew a moment without a tight, safe embrace. Draco copied Ron’s procedure and took the other one. When the second girl was out of his arms, Harry stepped back and was caught by Mason. He laid Harry gently onto the ground.



“Sorry, bud, I ain’t holdin’ you that way…” Mason told him with a grin that was returned.



Draco and Ron walked and held the two children as though they were infants needing comfort. Small shushing noises were to be hears as the girls started to cry. Ginny looked to the group. “Look, whatever else they are, they need to be checked out. Stephen, you contact local authorities. Tell them what we found. When they ask who you are, use your Muggle authority to bring them here. We’ll wait for you.”



“Let’s get them out of the sunshine and over under that tree.” Everyone followed the requests of the older woman.



As they walked over, Sirius held back with Hermione, “What happened in there?” Hermione related the story quietly as they walked. Sirius’s eyes were wide with curiosity, but did not push the issue. Half an hour later, the local law enforcement officers were driving up the driveway with Stephen in the front seat.



After another hour, the girls were released into the Riddle House custody. Stephen called a “clean up squad” to come out and clean the house. Griphook was summoned to have everything packed and put into storage. Anything that looked to belong to the younger ones was to be brought to the home. Several hours after being summoned to the small house, they had returned both children safe and a lot of paperwork to be done.



~@~@~@~



After a hot bath each, a sleepless dream potion and a night’s rest, the girls were brought into the conference room. They had been kept from the rest of the school so far, and did not realize that they were anywhere special. When the door opened, Alyssa brought the two girls in, both now dressed in clean clothes, but the haunted look of yesterday still fresh on their young minds.



One girl looked to Ron, stopped for a moment and ran to him. She flung herself into his arms. Although a bit shocked, he welcomed her with a tight hug. As she was doing that, the other one saw Harry and did the same.



Harry’s young charge was named Cathy Gardner. Ron’s was Devin Gardner. It was Cathy’s mother who was killed; Devin was the witch cousin who was living with them. Breakfast was brought in and set on the table. Both men extricated themselves and gave the girls their seats. They did not move far however, but just far enough where no one was on their laps.



Inspector Maples entered the room. “Hello Girls.” He said as he introduced himself.



They looked up from their pastries and nodded, but did not speak. He walked to the girls and knelt in front of them before continuing, “I’m sorry about your mother and aunt. The doctors could not save her.” Tears fell from his eyes as he told the girls that the woman that had raised them would not come home again.



They watched the large man as he talked to them; his words now falling on numb ears. The turned from him, looked at each other, and without saying a word, returned to their breakfast. Inspector Maples stayed on the floor for a few more moments before standing.



He handed Mason a large envelope of papers. “These are guardianship papers transferring the children to the care of the Riddle House. There are also birth records for both girls, official records of magic births, and special vaults in Gringott’s. I have also had the team clean the area and seal it until they reach age. The house will be protected from sight or use until they return to claim it.”



Reaching back into a bag, he drew out two small balls of flat faced fluff. “There were two small kittens in one of the bedrooms. I brought them here for the girls. I did not find their momma though.” The girls looked up at these words. He handed them and they shook their heads. He crossed his arms and they both smiled. Taking the small kittens into their arms and holding them close and purrs could be heard around the now silent room.



Devin spoke first, “Thank you sir. We’ll try to take care of ‘em.”



“Girls, you have a home here, if you wish to stay. We will look for any additional family you have, but for now, please don’t worry, you have a home. You and your kittens have a home.” Both girls nodded.



“Can we go back to our room now?” The adults nodded and they left the room with the nurse.



“This one was tough. Will they all be like this?” Harry asked. “I have never felt as responsible for a child as I did when they held on to me yesterday.” He looked distressed.



Ron and Draco both expressed their agreement. “It was really hard,” Draco said, “I haven’t been responsible for anyone like that - ever.”



Smiling, Ron said “I have. When Fred and George would pull a prank on Ginny, before she learned to use magic, she would always run to me. I was glad when I finally got old enough to actually not fall over when she would jump in my arms.”





Ginny laughed out loud at her memories. The mood was lighter after that. They were all going back out on assignments again today. Hoping and praying that they would not see any blood for a very long time.