Chapter 59: When Fate knocks at your door

“So how was it?” Marlene inquired.

“Painful.” Rick replied to the blonde while touching the bridge of his nose with his hand. A frown on his face while sniffing loudly.

“I broke his nose.”

Lily’s sheepish and embarrassing confession was accompanied with a noticeable blush on her face. When she registered what her sister in everything but blood had said, Marlene began to laugh. She wasn’t the only one. Amelia, Andromeda, Rhianon, Sirius and Remus got a good laugh out of it too.

It wasn’t so funny for Rick nor Lily however. The birth lasted nine hours and while Rick had been present at his wife’s side every single second of it, his encouragements had pissed her off. Between the unholy pain and the rage she felt at Rick trying to calm her down she had punched him right on the nose breaking it and her hand at the same time. She didn’t even feel it, the pain of giving birth being far greater. In the end she apologized for the insults she had rained upon him and for his nose but he waved them away. He knew she didn’t mean any of it.

“I’m just glad my mother could fix it or I would have looked awful for the rest of my life.” he joked and got another round of laughter.

“Now, it’s great and all but where's my goddaughter?” Andromeda got an annoyed look from Marlene and Amelia which became worse when they noticed the smug look on her face.

“She’s sleeping.”

“For once.” Rick muttered.

“I’m so glad to not be in your shoes.” commented Sirius, still amused.

“What’s her name?”

“Ah! Finally someone asking the right question. I’m glad you accepted to be the godfather, Remus.”

“Rose Dorea Minerva Potter.” announced Lily. “It's a tradition in my family to name girls after flowers. Rick gets to name the boys.”

“Did I hear right? ‘Minerva’? As in-”

“Yes, Sirius. As our former head of house.” Lily confirmed and Rick explained why.

“When I was at the orphanage she was my magical guardian and took good care of me. Like… A distant aunt that was busy but always made sure I got everything I needed. I wanted to honor her a bit.”

The cries of a baby echoed through the manor and Rick sighed in tiredness. It was obvious to everyone he had little sleep the past few days with how dark and big the bags under his eyes were. That was on him though. Every night since the birth he had given Lily a sleeping pill so she could rest, as such he was alone in taking care of Rose. Well, not exactly, alone. His mother and Tipsy were there but he refused to delegate tasks. It was his daughter and so was the privilege and duty of taking care of her. At least during the night when both Tipsy and Dorea were asleep.

Dorea came down the stairs with Rose in her arms, or everyone thought so since all they saw was a bundle in Gryffindor’s color.

“She’s hungry.” Dorea delicately put a crying Rose in Lily’s arm, who began to open her robe to breastfeed her.

“Hey!”

“Don’t hey me, you horny mutt! As if I'll let you have a look at Lily’s breast!”

Marlene had put her hands in front of Sirius’ face blocking his sight completely. No matter what he tried he couldn’t get a glimpse of it. Of course hilarity ensued.

“I’m surprised you didn’t put a collar and a leash on him yet, Marlene.” Joked Remus.

“Oh, I do but only in the bedroom.”

“MARLENE!”

“Quiet, Sirius. You know you love it. Now be a good boy for once.” Once again the whole room laughed at the comedy happening right under their eyes.

“Oh! She’s a redhead too! Good!” a very happy Amelia remarked.

“And she got my eyes.”

“At this point I’m pretty sure that Lily just duplicated herself and I dreamed of being involved in the procreation.”

“Oh no, you were definitely involved. She loves sucking on my breast as much as you do.”

While the room was filled with laughter again, up in Hogwarts a familiar crow delivered a letter to Minerva’s McGonagall with Albus Dumbledore present. They were having tea in the former’s office and once again the latter was impressed by the impressive collection of golden snitches on a shelf. Multiple dozen of them.

“Thank you, Morrigan.” Minerva answered and called a house-elf for some bacon and water for the bird. “I wonder what this is about.”

She opened the envelope and pulled out a letter and a moving picture.

“Awwww. Look, Albus. She’s adorable.” she said, passing the picture to her mentor who took it gladly. He could observe a cute little baby dressed in a Gryffindor onesie with a tuft of dark red hair and bright green eyes. The little girl was lazing around on her back and moving her hands around. He couldn’t help but admit that yes, his former students’ baby was adorable. However a wave of sadness washed over him. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Minerva crying.

“Minerva? What’s wrong? This is a joyous occasion.”

“I-I know, it’s just… They named her after me.”

She handed him the letter and after reading it he learned the name of the little girl.

“Rose Dorea Minerva Potter.” he said out loud. “That’s very kind of them.”

“The heiress of house Gryffindor bears my name, Albus! That’s more than kind!”

“I’m happy for you, Minerva. You deserved it, I believe.”

The Transfiguration teacher gave him a smile while she dried her tears with a tissue. Immediately she began to talk about what kind of gift she could give to a family who just had a new addition. Albus couldn’t help with that much but gave his opinion on every idea his friend brought forward.

By the end of the week the news had gotten around the order along with the one from the Longbottoms who had a boy a day earlier Rose’s birth. The 30th of July. Lily and Alice were already planning play dates between their children while Frank and Rick thanked Merlin and god for not putting the idea of a marriage contract in their heads.

On the evening of August 15th, both married couples visited Dumbledore at Hogwarts on his invitation. It was quite sudden and urgent for both pairs of new parents who agreed. They apparated at the edge of the castle’s wards and Hagrid quickly got them inside their protections. When Lily asked why it was all about the keeper of the grounds and keys simply answered that he was following Dumbledore’s orders and didn’t know anything. Soon enough they were inside the Headmaster’s office and they knew something serious was about to be discussed from the expression on the old wizard’s face. Nevertheless he welcomed them  as joyfully as he could and invited them to sit down.

“Professor, what is going on? Did someone in the order… Fabian and Gideon’s funeral was three days ago.” Alice opened up the conversation, choking up a bit. The Prewetts twins had lost their lives a week earlier in a Death Eater ambush. They had been outnumbered five to one.

“No, no, Alice. No one has passed away recently.”

“Then why are we here, Professor?” Rick asked.

Albus closed his eyes and for the umpteenth time wondered for a moment if he wasn’t making a mistake. Shaking his head to chase his doubts away he committed himself to the choice he had made.

“Rick, do you remember the day I visited you after the battle at North-Hampton? You were blaming yourself for failing to defeat him and I told you couldn’t have.”

“Yes. You revealed that Moldy-short was presumably immortal. Is that what this is about? Did you-”

“No. It’s not. I only told you half the-

“Hold on! He’s immortal? Like-”

“We don’t know, Frank. But it’s possible and we’re not out of options. Which brings me to what I was saying. Please, no more interruption.” Frank gave a pensive look at Albus and nodded before leaning back on his seat. “That day, I didn’t tell you all the truth. There was another reason why you couldn’t have defeated Voldemort, Rick. And that reason is Fate.”

“... You’re kidding, right?”

“Fate as in… With a capital ‘F’?”

“Yes, Lily. Rick, I don’t think that the stray curse that made you miss was an accident.”

“You think Fate intervened? That’s…”

“Do you hear yourselves? Fate! That can’t-”

“It’s possible if a prophecy is involved.” Rick cut Frank off. “Albus…”

“There is. I witnessed it myself as it was given to me on November First last year.”

“And we’re here because we’re part of this prophecy?” Asked a worried Alice.

“Not us.” Rick answered bitterly. “If it were about us I would have been able to kill him back then. Considering the timing… It’s about either Rose or Neville?”

““WHAT?!””

“Absolutely not! Neville is a few weeks old! He has nothing to do with the war!”

“Alice, Albus may be wrong. Prophecies are often very cryptic. Most of the time we don’t know what they mean until after it happened and sometimes never. Albus may think it’s about our children but maybe it’s not." The reassurance that Rick tried to give his friend was crushed when Dumbledore spoke next.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...

And the Dark Lord will mark them as his equal, but they will have a power the Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”

Silence fell inside the Headmaster’s office. Nobody wanted to utter a word. They were too busy digesting what they had heard. Especially the part referring to ‘as the seventh month dies…’ Neville being born the 30th and Rose the 31st of July which nearly was the 1st of August, was suggesting strongly that one of them could be the child fated to fight Voldemort.

Rick put his head in his hands wanting to scream but held himself back at the last moment. Showing his face he held Lily’s hand in his.

“Okay... That’s bad but not the worst.”

“Not the worst?! Did you miss the part-”

“It’s not cut and dry, Frank! It’s not ‘the asshole will kill our children’. It’s an open prophecy, it can go both ways. It means we have plenty of chances. What I don't understand is why Lily and I are concerned? We only met him that one time.”

“Thrice he tried to get you to join him that night and thrice you refused him.” answered Albus.

“That’s…”

“Far-fetched I know, Lily but I’d rather you all be aware than not.”

“Why not tell us sooner? You heard the prophecy almost a year ago and you knew the girls were pregnant. It wasn’t difficult to do the maths as to when they would give birth.”

“Because until recently, I didn’t know Voldemort knew about the prophecy.” Albus confessed in an apologetic voice.

Horror marred the face of the four parents facing him.

“How did that happen? How do you know that in the first place?” Frank inquired.

“The day the prophecy was made, I was in the Hogshead. A private room. Aberforth caught someone eavesdropping and threw them out. It was dark and the patron was wearing a cloak so he didn’t see a face. As for how I know… One of Voldemort's inner circle defected. He came to me yesterday and revealed everything. He was the one who heard it.”

“Why turn his cloak? And who is it?” Asked Alice.

“I’m afraid that for this person's safety, I cannot answer those questions. As we speak, he’s spying for me on Voldemort. I can tell you two things however. First Voldemort only knows the first two verses of the prophecy, Aberforth having thrown out the patron before he could hear more. Second…” Here Dumbledore hesitated for a fraction of a second. “Voldemort thinks that Rose is the one.”

Lily didn’t say anything but she gripped Rick’s hand with everything she had. Before  Frank and Alice could feel relief of Neville being safe, Albus shut it down.

“He could also go after Neville just in-”

“Why?” interjected Lily. “Why does it think it’s Rose? Not that I wish for Neville to be his target but what’s the reason for choosing my daughter?”

“I nearly killed him and he’s a half-blood like Rose.” Rick's answer shocked everyone, including Albus.“Why do you think he’s a half-blood?” questioned Frank.

“Because he’s hiding behind the name Voldemort. His followers are blood purists and don’t know his real name. The only reason I can think of is because he’s not a pureblood. From the family name alone, it’s easy to know if someone is from a pureblood family or not. There is no way those bigots would follow a man whose blood is not pure. Well for most of them. There are always those that are in just for satisfying their sadistic tendencies. Purebloods are also proud of their name and lineage.

So far he only said he’s a descendant of Slytherin because he’s a parselmouth. But the last known descendants of the founder are descendants of a squib line living in America. So either he’s an illegitimate child or he isn’t a descendant of Slytherin. The former is more likely.” was the explanation Rick gave to which Lily added a bit more.

“That would explain why he wanted to recruit me when I’m a muggle-born. Also why despite advocating a pureblood agenda he also targets pureblood too. Blood purity doesn’t matter one bit to him; he just used the blood purists' prejudices for his own designs because they’re so entitled that it’s easy to manipulate them.”

“You’re correct on all accounts but it matters little. What matters now is to protect Neville and Rose. You need to go into hid-”

“No.”

Albus looked at Rick who had refused his idea in an authoritative tone that he never heard from him. Even Lily was surprised.

“Rick-”

“No. We either move to another country or stay and fight, Albus. I will not half assed it by hiding in wizarding Britain when he has eyes and ears everywhere. It’s foolish. I’m leaning more towards fighting. Since he’s specifically after Rose, I intend to set a trap for the bastard.”

“...”

“Just in case… Frank, Alice, it’s preferable if you upgrade the wards on Longbottom Manor and put a Fidelius on it. Lily and I can visit and put ours up if you want.”

“We’d appreciate it, thank you.” answered Alice genuinely, still shaken by the revelation and threat to her newborn son.

“As for us… We’ll do the same at Potter Manor, except we won’t be living there and by that I mean you and me. Rose will stay with my mother.” Rick explained further his plan to Lily.

“You want the two of you to be bait?” exclaimed a bewildered Dumbledore.

“Yes. I may not kill him and that is if I believe in the prophecy but I’m going to put so many wards that he won’t be able to escape and do anything. It’s time to attack, Albus. We have a golden opportunity to put an end to this war and we can’t let it pass by.”

“... ‘Gryffindor Forward’, hm?” remarked Albus.

“Exactly.”

“Rick, wait a minute. Why would Voldemort… won’t he think it’s a trap? We’re going to another location instead of Potter Manor which is heavily warded, he will find it suspicious.”

“Not if we leaked the fact that we’re suspecting a traitor infiltrated the order.”

“Which is the case.” interjected Frank.

“Yes but the point is the location of the manor is not well known but it is listed in the Ministry archives. It’s easy for him to have someone find the location. So we can play the traitor. Made him think we’re suspecting someone else and shared the information discreetly.”

“I can’t deny that these past few months I’ve begun to believe that we have a traitor in our midst but I never found anything. Did you?” inquired Albus.

“It’s just a gut feeling but-”

“James.” Lily cut in.

“It’s not James, Lily.” the deadpanned tone her husband gave her wasn’t to her liking and she insisted.

“He hates you! He’s an arrogant, self-centered, entitled, spoiled man-child who hates you because in his mind you took everything from him. Me, his heirship, his captain’s post, his friends, even the attention and the admiration of everyone when we were at school!”

“But he’s loyal to his ideals and friends. The odds of James joining Voldemort are too low. At least lower than Pettigrew.”

““““Pettigrew?!””””

Everyone was shocked to hear the man’s name. Peter Pettigrew was not the greatest of wizards and far from the smartest. Rather discreet and forgettable. A follower who nobody expected to amount to anything.

“The culprit is always the one you never thought about.” Rick began to explain. “He always… rubbed me the wrong way. Always following James and Sirius like a lost puppy. Agreeing to their shenanigans even when it was clear he didn’t want to. Like… He was afraid of what would happen to him or what James and Sirius would do to him if he did. And his animagus form is a rat. That enough is pretty telling in my opinion.”

“He’s an animagus?!”

“Unregistered, Frank. And don’t ask how I know, it’s better for everyone. Anyway… regardless of who we think the traitor is. I know who isn’t and he’s in the perfect spot for everyone to believe he is. Now does everyone agree with the plan?”