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Twenty years from now, Janani Evans-Potter will put a not so little anymore boy on a bright red train, and wave as it pulls out of the station.
She will joke that her husband’s head would be invisible, were he to stand next to it, and the husband in question will moan and groan about it for about half an hour before shrugging it off. They will return home, vehemently ignoring the fact that their son is practically an adult now, and act like the teenagers they never quite got to be all over again.
But now isn’t twenty years from now, and Janani, not her son, is the one who has just run up the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room, a red and gold tie knotted around her neck. She nearly bowls over Sirius, who is standing at the foot of the girls’ dormitory stairs, and throws an arm around her best friend’s shoulders to steady herself.
“The stairs won’t let me up.” Sirius says, tearful, her eyes trained on a stained section of carpet. She is shaking, but trying her best not to, and Janani knows touching Sirius now will start more of a fight than it is worth. “I bet they won’t.”
“I bet they will.” Janani says, brash and confident as always. Sirius always brings out that side of her, somehow, because for all that Sirius is older, Janani has nearly always been the older sister. “Hell, you’re more of a girl than most of us, you know?”
“Thanks.” Sirius is still hesitant, lifting her eyes only slightly from the floor, and An Idea strikes Janani with the force of a hurricane. Sirius recognizes the particular light in her eyes that can only mean success or large scale property destruction, and frowns.
“Here, we’ll go up together. That way, if you get booted off, we’ll go down together.” Janani says.
“We’d have to stay on the same step. And even then…” The way to pull Sirius out of a funk is to give her something to think about, and Janani has always been incredible at that. She's been playing this same back and forth with Sirius since they were babies, after all. The idea of Janani falling down the stairs is apparently enough to be funny, because the corners of Sirius’ lips are curving upwards just slightly. “We’ll try.”
“It’ll be fun!” Janani chirps, before tugging Sirius up to the staircase. They make it all the way to their landing, Sirius shaking in fear, and Janani grins when they open the door to their dormitory. “See, I win. You should listen to me more often. All the time. Yeah!”
“Maybe.” Sirius looks closer to crying than smiling as she sees her familiar trunk sitting at the foot of the bed next to Janani’s. Janani slings an arm around her shoulders before shooting a smile at Rhea Lupin, who they’d met at the feast. Rhea smiles back, already bundled up in her bed sheets, and Janani can already tell that the three of them will get along well.
“Well, ladies”, Janani says, detaching herself from Sirius to flop down on her bed. “We’ve got seven years of hell ahead. Might as well get the last early night we can, right?”
Little does she know, this actually will be the last early night she gets for years, so it’s a good thing that she enjoyed it.
“Jen Potter?” The teacher calls, and Janani sighs before raising her hand. She feels like punching someone. Liam Evans raises his hand before the teacher is done asking the first question of the semester and her eyes narrow.
She’s going to fight him someday and she will win.
“Rhea?” Janani asks, and pulls off her invisibility cloak. She catches it neatly before it falls to the floor, rolling it up before tucking it under her arm. Rhea is half awake, and Sirius seems to have beat her to being here, as she’s snoring softly, head thrown back. Janani grabs a chair, pulling it over to Rhea’s bedside, and sits down, awkwardly twisting the corner of the bed sheet between her fingers. “Ree, you awake?”
Rhea nods slightly, and Janani swallows hard. This talk will not be easy to have, but it has been coming for a long time. If she had a choice, she wouldn’t be the one to do this. She has never been good with these kinds of talks.
“I know you probably don’t want us getting involved, but…” Janani grinds her teeth, trying to find the words to express this. There is no easy way to tell your best friend that you know she’s a werewolf. Janani has a habit of going far too still when worried and Rhea tenses when her foot stops tapping against the floor. “We know. About your… furry little problem. And we love you still. Always will. And we’re going to help. However we can.”
“Did you just equate me being a werewolf to an out of control rabbit?” Rhea raises an eyebrow, obviously trying her best to be humorous about it, and Janani grabs Rhea’s hand in hers. Her thumb rubs over Rhea’s knuckles on instinct, and she thinks this is enough to fully display her sincerity. From the way Rhea relaxes, it might be getting there.
“Specifically Al Fortescue’s rabbit.” Janani shudders. Al Fortescue, who has a dormitory entirely their own, has always had this terrifyingly large rabbit for as long as anyone can remember. The rabbit’s name was Tiny, to make things odder. “Have you seen that thing? It’s impossible!”
“Practically the size of a small dog.” Rhea snorts. “I have no idea how Al keeps it under control.”
“Al doesn’t.” Janani laughs. “That’s why it’s a furry little problem.”
Janani scoots her chair a little closer, so Rhea can lay her head on her shoulder, and that’s how Madam Pomfrey finds them in the morning.
“Hey, Ree, we’ve got a surprise!” Sirius calls out, and Rhea groans, nearly rolling off her bed. “No, no, a good one, we promise!”
“I promise.” Janani says, crossing her heart. “There. Not a weird surprise. Maybe a weird surprise.”
“On with it, then.” Rhea is pretending to be the level headed one, as usual, but they all know from years of experience that she’s just as eager to find out as they are to reveal it. Janani has no idea why more people don’t realize that Rhea is, by far, the most dangerous of them all. Sirius is nearly all talk, and she is too busy walking the walk for Sirius’ excessive promises to pose any threat of her own. Rhea, however, is free of most Sirius minding obligations, and uses that time wisely. Too wisely. “What’s going to haunt my nightmares for weeks?”
Janani and Sirius shoot each other a look and, in seconds, a stag and a large, black dog are standing where they were. Sirius, ever the adventurous one, lopes up to Rhea’s bed, nuzzling her leg, and Janani stays in the middle of the room, content with watching. Historically, she has not been very good at anything less than stumbling around right after the transformation, so she saves herself the embarrassment this once.
“You two—For me?” Rhea gapes in surprise and Sirius licks a stripe down her leg. “It’s dangerous and illegal and—For me?”
Janani rolls her eyes, because she’s pretty sure stags can’t speak English.
Sirius transforms back and flops onto Rhea’s lap, accidentally destroying the essay Rhea’s been slaving over for an hour. “Aren’t we the best mates ever?”
“I could have better.” Rhea ruffles Sirius’ hair fondly. Sirius’ hair is long enough to curl over the tops of her ears, now, and Sirius has always liked her hair being played with. The more Janani thinks about it, the more she realizes this dog thing didn’t come out of the blue at all. “But I wouldn’t trade you for the world.”
“Hey, what am I?” Janani yells, coming back to herself in a tangle of limbs. “Yesterday’s breakfast?”
“Get on over here.” Rhea shakes her head, putting her work onto her bedside table, and Janani rushes over before trying to find a spot on Rhea’s bed that isn’t currently being occupied by Sirius, who has decided that acting like a small, cuddly starfish is the way to go. “You absolute delinquents…”
“That’s us.” Sirius murmurs sleepily. Playing with Sirius’ hair, as Rhea’s been absentmindedly doing for the last ten minutes, always seems to put her right to sleep. “Your delinquents. Padfoot and Prongs.”
“What am I, then?” Rhea asks, as Janani lays her head on Rhea’s shoulder. “Werewolf doesn’t sound too catchy there.”
“Moony.” Janani says, grinning at her stroke of brilliance. “‘Cause the moon, Ree.”
“Moony, Padfoot and Prongs.” Rhea says, smiling. “Amazing.”
“Aren’t I, though?” Janani says, and gets pushed off of the bed.
She is joking, when she asks Liam Evans out right after pantsing his best friend publicly. She’s always had horrible timing, but this is a new record, even for her.
At least she thinks she was joking, in that moment, because she’d like to go out with him, maybe. She knows better to use that like a weapon, though. At least she thought she did.
She’s not quite so sure, after watching Liam’s heart break in his eyes when Snape dared to even speak to him (he said that word and Liam’s eyes went dark and she hates Snape, hates him, hates him), but she buries that thought down and ignores it.
If they don’t talk about it, maybe it will be like it never happened.
Maybe Liam will forget.
Liam doesn’t forget, though, he’s proven that over and over again through the past five and a half years they’ve known each other.
She finds him a few weeks later, sitting by himself in one of the empty corridors, and cautiously sits down beside him, setting her bag down between them. Liam is worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, as he often does when nervous, and doesn’t notice that Janani’s sat down until she speaks, when his head jerks up suddenly.
“Oh. Potter.” Liam nods sharply, trying to collect himself. “Look, I don’t know what you have to say, but I don’t want to hear it. You’re just as much as fault as he is.”
“I know.” Janani nods, gritting her teeth at the thought of Snape, that bastard. “But only one of the two of us is willing to apologize, so I’d suggest you stop comparing me to Snivellus.”
“Apologize?” Liam rolls his eyes, scoffing. “Like you’ve ever apologized for anything in your life.”
“I’ve apologized for much more than you think.” Janani says, getting up from the bench. This was a mistake. She should have known better.
“You don’t know what it’s like.” Liam says, as she slings the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “Losing your friend over something you can’t change.”
“Again, Evans, you’d be surprised.” Janani fires off, and storms down the corridor.
Men don’t deserve your apologies, she remembers Amma saying, so never lower yourself to giving them. She’d argued with her mother then, saying there must be some good men around, but she’s slowly realizing that she can count the men she actually trusts on one hand.
Fuck Evans, to be honest.
He can take all his goddamn feelings and flush himself down the toilet, for all she cares.
“You’re right.” He says, a few months later, while they are working on a project for McGonagall’s class. Liam’s gotten the hang of quills, like they all have, but he always has a ballpoint pen tucked behind his ear. It’s horrible and makes him look like an absolute nerd, but that’s pretty honest to who he is. “Only one of you apologized.”
“I’m always right, Evans.” She winks smugly. “Surprised you haven’t noticed before.”
“I’ve noticed!” He protests, looking as if she’s just torn his favorite book to pieces, and she rolls her eyes as Liam starts his predictable backtracking. “Not that you’re always right, because you’re not. No one’s always right.”
“Alright, white boy, you can have your victory. Not like you won’t take it by force anyway, since you’ve absolutely got to have everything.” Janani shrugs, sticking her tongue out at him, and Liam grumbles to himself before scribbling down more notes.
“We should do this more often.” Liam says, when they’ve finished the paper off. “It’s fun.”
“Yeah.” She says. She hasn’t felt this light-hearted with anyone other than her girls in a while. “Friday, same time?”
“Friday, same time.”
“Jen—“ She has no idea when she and Liam Evans got past last name basis, but she’ll take it.
“Name’s not Jen.” She frowns, crossing her arms. “It’s easy enough. Janani.”
“Could you say it a little slower, maybe? I want to get it right.” Liam grins sheepishly and Janani stops in surprise. She is used to repeating herself, but not used to someone asking.
“Juh-nuh-nee. Go.”
Liam repeats it back, slowly and badly, but it’s a good enough start.
She should have known this was all too perfect to last, Janani thinks, as she tears down the corridor to the Shrieking Shack.
Snape is only feet ahead of her, but not for long, as she quickly tackles him to the ground. It’s too late, he’s seen Ree, and Sirius with her, but it’s something. Janani is always too damn late for the people she loves. She thinks she’s crying, but confirming it would only be more proof than she needs in her life, so she squeezes her eyes shut and tries to get them out.
Snape is easy enough to drag back out onto the grounds and he tears himself away from her as soon as they are safe. The entrance to the Whomping Willow seals itself up and Snape snarls, turning on her the minute that the danger is gone. “I don’t need your help! I can handle myself, Potter.”
“Didn’t seem like it, Snape.” She fires back. Fighting has always come naturally to her, and it’s a curse just as often as it is a blessing. She’s not quite sure which one it is right now. Anger is burning in her veins—anger at Sirius, anger at Snape, anger at herself—and she needs an outlet. And Snape has always been a convenient target. “You’d have gone straight to your death if it weren’t for me saving you.”
“If you were so intent on saving me, like the hero you’re sure you are, you could have done it earlier.” Snape sneers, advancing on her, and fear freezes her to where she’s standing. Her father warned her about boys like this, warned her to stay far away, but she never listened. She’s always been too headstrong for her own good. “Were you too busy sucking off your favorite Mudblood to at least do the job right? God knows that’s all women like you are good for.”
“Excuse me?” It’s all Janani can do to keep her voice level. The anger is back, and stronger than before, and before she knows it, she’s got a fist landing neatly between his eyes. “What the fuck are you on about?”
“You know exactly what I’m on about. He wouldn’t have chosen you over me if this were a fair fight, right, Potter?” Snape keeps goddamn talking and she wants to kill him, finish the job that Sirius started, but she runs instead, runs from all her problems just like the coward she is.
She pushes past Liam on her way through the common room, dimly hears him asking if she is okay, but runs up to her room without answering, barricading the door before sinking onto her bed.
She doesn’t look him, nor anybody else, in the eye for days, and Sirius doesn’t spend too long banging on the dormitory door before she realizes she is no longer welcome.
Things are not okay for a long time after that.
Janani is guilty, the numbers of things she could have done settling like a weight in the pit of her stomach, and she shoves it aside to help Rhea, who’s suffering and needs her more than anyone else. She’s always been good at shutting herself out, as horrible as it sounds, and Rhea needs her. Sirius is a ghost, flitting in and out of existence at the edges of her vision, and as much as she misses her sister, she loves Rhea too much to forgive Sirius.
Liam keeps watching her, and she feels sick to her stomach whenever she dares look back, Snape’s words echoing in her head.
Is that how everyone thinks of her?
Is that how Liam thinks of her?
She doesn’t remember when he stopped being an annoyance, when she stopped wanting to tear him to pieces, but it feels like she is holding fire in her hands. Fire always hurts someone, so she tosses it aside.
For his sake, and her own, he has to become Evans again.
She tears their friendship to pieces, as much as she can, and ignores him for the rest of the year. It’s for the best, she keeps telling herself, he doesn’t need you. It’s all for the best. You’ll see.
And then, all of a sudden, Amma and Appa are gone, and the whole world is spinning out of control and she gets a bright and shiny badge in the mail.
“Head Girl, huh?” She says, turning it left and right. “Nice.”
It’s not until later, when she rereads the letter and realizes this means living with Liam Evans for a year, that she throws it against the wall hard enough to leave a mark.
“Your badge.” Liam says, when they first meet. It’s been half a year since they’ve had an actual conversation, and it shows. “It’s dented.”
“So is your head, Evans.” Janani grins and shakes him by the shoulder. She thinks she’s trying too hard, but she has wrecked a lot in her life over the last six months. Maybe she can be wrong, for once. “Don’t see me talking about that.”
“Good thing.” Liam says, shaking his head, and they settle into an easy silence. It’s charged still, with something, but it doesn’t matter.
“I’m sorry.” Liam blurts out, when they make it back to their room. Janani is shaking with barely controlled rage, and she looks about ready to tear the room apart. “I’m really sorry.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She grinds out, clenching and unclenching her fists until her heart rate slows slightly. She hasn’t been this scared in ages. “I’m used to it. I’ll be fine.”
She’s said these words to herself god knows how many times, but she’s never learned to mean them.
“You shouldn’t have to be fine.” Liam’s voice cracks on the last word, and she’s being held before she realizes it. Liam likes being close to people, when he’s upset, and she doesn’t quite understand that, sometimes. It’s what he needs, so she lets him hug her as tightly as he can. She wonders when she learned not to think of herself first, wonders when that shift happened and how it took her smile with it, and wonders if she’ll ever really get herself back. “You shouldn’t have to be just fine.”
“Liam, don’t be upset, it’s alright.” She kisses his cheek, trying her best to keep her strongest face on, and doesn’t understand why he looks so disappointed. She is trying her best to be upbeat, trying her best to carry them both, and he just looks so upset. “Liam?”
“I’ve said those things to you.” Liam is quiet, horrified, and Janani pushes down memories that threaten to rise in the back of her throat like bile. “The same things those boys did.”
“But you don’t anymore.” She says, frowning.
“But I did once.” Liam frowns back, and they are at a standstill.
“I used to be scared of you.” Janani begins, slowly. She and Liam have taken to sharing a bed these days, because the war is raging far too close to Hogwarts to be comfortable, and they both want to hold it a little further away for as long as possible. Her head is pressed up against Liam’s chest, and she can feel his heart thumping against her ear. She is still getting used to feeling safe in his arms, but she thinks she might get there someday. “But I’m not anymore.”
“Good thing, right?” Liam says, smiling. It is too early in the morning to be awake, and they have class tomorrow, but, these days, happy memories are harder to come by than sleep. Either of them could be gone in a matter of months, and Janani doesn’t even want to think of graduation, which is looming closer and closer with each passing day.
“Crybaby.” She tweaks his nose, chuckling at the fact that his eyes are almost as red as his hair.
“Toerag.” He plants a kiss on her forehead.
“Your toerag.” Janani counters, smirking proudly.
“Your crybaby.” Liam raises an eyebrow, ready to go. Their fights are the stuff of legend, and Janani figures she’s finally found her match.
“I guess we both got the short end of this stick.” Janani sighs, and Liam chuckles.
“You certain—“
“Liam Joseph Evans, do not say it. Do not. Do not open your mouth.”
“—ly didn’t.”
“That’s it. You’re dead.”
Liam graduates at the top of their class (Janani is tied for third with Sirius and some Ravenclaw, after Rhea), and she couldn’t be more proud of him, but it brings everything too far into focus. This is their last day here.
This is their last day safe.
From tomorrow on, there’s the war.
He seems to understand, to some extent, and slips his hand into hers at the first opportunity. She is glad of it, this small comfort, especially when she can feel Severus Snape trying to burn holes into their backs from further back in the line of people waiting for the boats.
“We’ll be alright, right?” She asks, as Liam helps her into the boat. She doesn’t need his help, never has, but it’s nice to have someone there, for things like picking up trash that you can’t quite make into the trash can and letting you copy essays when you’re too tired to write them yourself.
“We’ll be together.” Liam says, after a pause, while Rhea and Sirius settle into the boat with them. They are all too big at seventeen (save for Sirius) to fit in the boat comfortably like they had at eleven. “And that’s better than nothing.”
They move in together after school ends, because they’ve learned that they make good roommates, over the past year. They complement each other nicely, as Rhea would say, but Janani thinks it’s just luck and a combination of Liam being too eager to please.
Janani does the cooking and the laundry and Liam does the rest of the cleaning. He charms an old television they find on sale to work despite the residual magic flooding their apartment, she messes with the furniture, and they cram together on the couch in the evenings.
Those are how normal days go, at least, but normal days are few and far between, for them.
More often than not, Liam is off brewing Potions at Headquarters and Janani and Sirius are on the front lines, taking evil on face to face. Liam is gone for nights on end, and so is she, and she feels this tiredness seeping into her bones that shouldn’t be there.
She’s only nineteen, she reminds herself some mornings, and laughs.
Nineteen shouldn’t feel like sixty.
Nineteen shouldn’t feel like this.
But, sooner than she anticipates, nineteen becomes a monster, and it steals her breath away in more ways than one.
She’s panicking when he finds her, sitting on the bathroom floor with her knees pulled up to the chest, and he pulls her into his arms immediately. She grabs his (ripped, bloody, where has he been) shirt in her fists, needing something to hang on to, needing Liam to hang on to, and he kisses the top of her head.
“Liam, we were so careful.” She hiccups, between sobs. Liam only holds her tighter. “How did this happen?”
Liam frowns, confused, and Janani can’t find it in herself to explain, so she casts the spell again, for the fifth time today. False positives don’t happen five times in a row. Liam is silent and it hurts because she is scared, because they are nineteen years old and fighting a war.
The mist hanging around her stomach is blue.
“We’re having a boy.” He says, after a few minutes. His voice is even and level, but if Janani has learned anything in her life, it’s that men are to be feared or fought. And she’s not sure she could fight Liam, not anymore. “You and me.”
“Me, at least.” All of those stories from her classmates about boys leaving them over this are fresh in her mind, sounding something like a film soundtrack’s Pureblood cousin.
Everything is still fresh and new with them and they’re still learning how to go about navigating this whole marriage thing. This should be happening in a few years, when the war is over and everything is back to normal. But, instead, it is happening now and she is terrified that she will be alone.
“You don’t have to… be involved. If this is too much for you.” She forces out. Her head hurts, and it feels like someone is swinging a weight around in there, knocking it against the sides of her skull.
“Janani…” She is afraid, afraid, so afraid. “I promised I’d stay, when I married you, no matter what. And this is a gift. Or we’ll learn to see it that way.”
Janani sniffles, suddenly feeling horrible for doubting Liam at all, and nods. “It’s just… I wanted to do this someday. But, just… someday later.”
“Someday way later.” Liam chuckles. “Like when we’re not being targeted by a terrorist organization.”
“We’ve never been great with timing, have we?” Janani is suddenly laughing rather than crying and Liam is grinning so wide that nearly all of his teeth are showing. “God, just when I thought you couldn’t get any whiter.”
“I’m full of surprises.” Liam winks, and Janani leans forward before throwing her head back hard enough to knock him to the floor. “Okay, maybe that’s all you too.”
“There is a prophecy”, Dumbledore says, three weeks later, and Liam is suddenly the only reason she is still standing.
“Sirius.” Janani says, when he asks who the Secret Keeper should be. Liam nods. Rhea, Frankie, Al and Sirius were always the only possibilities, and Frankie and Al are going into hiding too, so that only leaves Sirius. Rhea is… Rhea’s no longer an option. Rhea’s been gone for months, undercover with Greyback’s pack, and most of Janani’s whispered prayers are for her, these days. Rhea has always been the best of them at playing with fire, but all of them are coming out of this burnt, no matter how hard they try to avoid it. “Sirius. Has to be her. She’ll do it.”
They are put under the Fidelius Charm the next day.
They are stuck together in Godric’s Hollow, for better or for worse, for the safety of their son, who still does not have a name.
Liam assures her that they’ll find something that’s right by the time he’s born, and Janani searches through the prayers she remembers from her childhood for a name that will protect him. A strong name, a good name, something that will see him through all of this.
Liam brews his potions and Janani does what she can to help him, even though she’s absolute pants at Potions and has been for years now.
“Nicholas, maybe? My grandfather’s name.” Liam says, one afternoon. He’s brewing Blood Replenishing Potions today. Janani doesn’t want to think about how many of them they’ve needed. “Means victory or something.”
Janani shrugs. Something about it doesn’t seem right. She tries thinking of her boy as Nikhil, tries calling him that in her head, and it doesn’t fit. Maybe another boy will come along, in the future, that Nikhil will fit for. “Let’s save it.”
“Worst comes to worst, we can name him after Al. Or Marty. They’d both love that.” Liam grins, and Janani reaches over to slap him upside the head. “Just a thought, babe, just a thought.”
“Elvendork.” Janani grins as Liam drops his ingredients to stare at her, mouth hanging open. “Just a thought, babe, just a thought.”
Janani is trying to keep her breathing even, muttering the words to the Vishnu Sahasranaman under her breath, because this child is just as stubborn and ridiculous as his father and she is entirely done with both of them.
She remembers her father praying on Saturday mornings, sitting by his side in front of the cabinet full of the pictures her grandparents had sent from India, and fumbling through the words with him. She remembers him being so proud of her, remembers so much, and she wants to cry so badly, but she doesn’t.
The baby moves and she realizes a second later that that’s it. That’s his name.
Hari.
“Liam, Liam, Liam”, she says, when the pain’s faded temporarily. Liam blinks, half asleep, and nods. “Harry. What do you think?”
“Harry sounds great.” He smiles, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Harry sounds amazing.”
“Harry Liam Evans.” Janani says, leaning her head back on the arm Liam has around her shoulders. “Our boy.”
“Our boy.” Liam said, a note of fondness in his voice that Janani doesn’t recognize.
And, what feels like a million hours later, Harry Evans makes his way into the world, and Janani holds him as close as she can.
“Got your eyes, babe.” She says, as Harry blinks at the bright lights.
“Yeah, and your everything else.” Liam sticks out his tongue. “Let’s call it even.”
“Let’s call it even.” Janani agrees, and Harry chooses that moment to sneeze so loudly that they can’t help but laugh.
The first time Harry calls Janani Amma, it’s breakfast time in the middle of August.
Liam is asleep, as he usually is this early in the morning, but Janani and Harry have always been horrible sleepers. They both have a tendency to fall asleep early and wake at what Liam likes to call an ungodly hour and Janani deems early enough for Liam’s god to keep his opinions to himself.
“The food in your spoon goes into your mouth, kanna…” Janani helps Harry curl his fingers around the spoon and guides it to his mouth. “Open your mouth, Hari. Aaah, umm.”
“Amma!” Harry tugs the spoon away from her, tipping the cereal onto himself. He giggles, grabbing it in his hands and squishing it. “Amma!”
“That would be me, yes.” She chuckles, ruffling his hair. It sticks straight up, just like hers does in the morning.
“Amma!” Harry’s saying it just to say it now, or at least that’s the feeling that she’s getting, so she leaves him to his mess. She’ll clean it up later, or he’ll just eat it off the table. Or Liam will.
Her boys are horrible.
One afternoon, the first of November, in fact, they wake up from their family afternoon nap to the news that Voldemort is gone. Just… gone. Liam reads the special edition of the newspaper aloud, voice rising further and further in joy as he confirms that Frank, Alice and their son are all fine. Harry turns his cereal bowl over in celebration, soaking everything in milk and gross bits of Cheerios.
“I’ll clean up.” Liam says, grinning wide.
“You’ll clean up?” Janani raises an eyebrow. “I’ve seen what you call cleaning, babe, and it’s not too great.”
“I’ll figure something out.” Liam grins, planting a kiss on her lips. “Besides, we’ll be out of here soon enough, right? Now that everything’s over.”
“Yeah.” Janani smiles. “We will be.”
“Amma! Daddy!” Harry claps his hands, and Liam lifts him out of his high chair. Harry is dripping milk everywhere and there is going to be such a mess to clean up, but he reaches for Janani too and she can’t help but hug him too. They stand in the kitchen with Harry sandwiched between them for at least five minutes, until he starts complaining, and Janani claims bathtub duty because it’s honestly easier to keep Harry occupied than deal with cleaning Cheerios out of everything for the sixth time this week.
For reference, it’s Sunday.
Dumbledore is there by the time Harry is out of the tub, and Liam’s forgotten to clean the table off again, so they’re forced to sit their former professor down at a table covered in sticky Cheerios.
“We’re free to leave, right?” Liam asks, excitedly. Harry, who’s balanced on Janani’s hip, tugs at her ponytail. “The Fidelius Charm can be taken off?”
“We’d prefer you stay under for a few more months. Just in case.” Dumbledore says. Liam’s face falls, and Janani reaches for his hand, grabbing it tight. “Just until we’ve caught everyone.”
“Frankie and Al are okay, right?” Janani asks, bouncing Harry slightly to keep him distracted. He sucks on two of his fingers at once. She has a smart baby. “Neville too?”
“They’re under the Fidelius. The Secret Keeper is Peter Pettigrew.” Dumbledore says, looking to Liam. “He was in your class at school.”
“I remember Pete, yeah.” Liam nods. “Was scared all the time.”
“Isn’t that a bad choice for a Secret Keeper?” Janani frowned.
“Now, now, have faith in Mr. Pettigrew.” Dumbledore shook his head. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Two months later, Peter Pettigrew betrays Frank, Neville and Al’s location to the Death Eaters.
“Hari, watch yourself!” Janani yells as Harry pushes his trolley toward the train. “Careful!”
“Amma, calm down!” Harry yells back at his mother, who looks inordinately frazzled. Despite the talking to that Uncle Frank gave her yesterday, he’s still about eighty percent sure his mother will owl him daily, if not hourly. Uncle Frank compared her to his mom and that really didn’t end well. In Harry’s opinion, his mother’s well on her way to becoming twice as scary as Grandma Augusta, but he’s sure she’ll be some fun about it. “I’ll be fine!”
“You say that, but you tripped down the stairs this morning. Twice!” Janani yells, and Harry hurries onto the train to avoid acknowledging or ignoring his mother’s entirely true comment.
“He’s going to be fine, babe.” Liam puts his arm around Janani’s waist. “Don’t worry too much.”
“He’s ours. When is fine ever possible?” Janani snorts. Harry is leaning halfway out the compartment window to say bye to them properly, or possibly get Ron Weasley’s attention. If Janani’s lucky, he’ll make it to school in one piece, but there’s no telling what happens after that.
“Well, he’ll manage. We did.” Liam shrugs, waving as the train pulls out of the station. Harry is waving excitedly, face pressed up against the now thankfully closed window. “Be safe!”
“Now what do we do?” Janani asks, staring at the now empty platform. Harry won’t be back until December. That’s three whole months to themselves before he comes home, time they haven’t had since more than a decade ago.
“I’m sure we’ll figure out something.” Liam grins gleefully. “We can finally keep those goldfish crackers in the house again because nobody’s going to cry when we bite the heads off!”
“I think I love you.” Janani laughs, shoving Liam lightly.
“Good thing.” Liam nods, looking entirely serious.
“You know, you’re supposed to say that you love me too.” Janani nudges him with her elbow, and the fight that they’ve had way too many times for it to mean anything starts all over again.